Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For your drooling pleasure, Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!  Guinness chocolate cake, Irish whiskey ganache filling, Bailey's buttercream frosting.  In my mind, chocolate cake is the only worthwhile use of Guinness.  I loathe the beer, but Guinness and chocolate do absolutely magical things together.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Freak Luck

Ok, Techies of the World, help a tech-clueless girl out.  Last fall I won an iPad for filling out a survey at a users' meeting I attended at ASMS in June.  I wasn't convinced right away, but now I really like having it, and I'm sure I'll love it all the more when this God-awful dissertation is done and I can stop traveling with my 238956 lb laptop, external hard drive, stacks of papers and spectra, and lab notebook.

This afternoon I won a Kindle Fire just by chatting up some instrument reps at a meeting to get my name in the drawing.  Now what though?  Is there any reason to have the Kindle if I already have (and like) the iPad?  I can buy books and such to read on my iPad, though I'm under the impression that through the Kindle I could "borrow books" from my local library?  Frankly though, I like book books.  While I appreciate that digital reading means less to carry with me when I travel, I haven't used my iPad to read, and I still carry a book or two with me when I travel.  It's not like I exactly have a ton of time for leisure reading these days, but that's also something I hope will change if I ever manage to graduate.

Anyways, is there any reason I should keep the Kindle if I already have an iPad?  Any perks I don't know about?  Not gonna lie...I'm leaning towards selling it at the moment...

Happy Pi Day!

Cranberry pear pie...used up the last of my frozen cranberries!

Pulling Teeth

Dissertation writing is hard.  It's a ton of material to organize into a coherent, well-written document.  What might be even harder though?  Getting people to read the damn thing.

My advisor has a policy that she should never be the first person to read anything.  Everything - paper drafts, dissertation chapters, posters for conferences - should be at least proof-read by another labmate before she reads it.  Fair enough, I get it, she's busy, the silly and obvious stuff, especially grammar, should be caught and fixed before it gets to her.  I've certainly done my share of reading for other people.  I also realize that my labmates have plenty of other things to do besides read drafts of my dissertation, but what is a reasonable time frame for this?  A week?  Two weeks?  Longer?

I gave two of my labmates a chapter 5 weeks ago and I haven't had any feedback from them yet.  In one labmate's defense, she explicitly asked if I was in a rush for it and said she had to get a draft of her own paper to her other advisor first.  Fair enough, but how long did she have in mind before being able to get to it?  A month?  Two months?  (Literally, this shouldn't take more than an hour, maybe 2 of their time.  It's 24 pages double spaced, 2 1/2 of which are references, and there are lots of figures.)  The other labmate has mentioned the chapter to me once or twice, but never more than, "Oh, I still have to do that..."  Gah.  If you're not going to read it please just tell me so I can give it to somebody else!  (Though frankly, I gave it to you for a reason, and other people will get certain other chapters for specific reasons as well.)

Now the question is, do I pester them, or give up and just go ahead and give the chapter to somebody else?  (Whom I'd now need to read multiple chapters...)

And if it's this hard to get my labmates to read things for me, how long is it going to take to get The Queen to read my dissertation?  My dissertation has to go to my committee 2 weeks before my defense (which is currently unscheduled), presumably The Queen also needs 2 weeks.  But frankly, hoping for your advisor to read anything within two weeks is like waiting for pigs to fly.  It never happens.  Bottom line?  I'm never going to graduate...

How to Kill Time Between Spectra Late at Night, Volume 4

Ok, not just late at night this time.  We're going back to late afternoon here.  Now that it's actually late at night, I decided it had been a while since I'd made such a list.  Which is a good thing.  And fortunately I am nearly done with such opportunities.

• Email back and forth with aunt about a million times
• Fret over grandmother's rapidly declining health
• Talk to Boyfriend on the phone, feel somewhat better because Boyfriend is awesome
• Get pizza from union before last on-campus food options close at 6 pm.  The (major, but only) downside of spring break.
• Play Bejeweled 2
• Debate pros/cons of taking the train vs renting a car (see separate lists at the bottom)
• Talk to Dad on the phone, advise how to renew little brother's license while living out of state (renew while he's home this week [2 1/2 months before it expires], unfortunately be issued another Under 21/Vertical Loser license, order replacement online after 21st birthday if desired), wonder why Dad is so concerned about this
• Facebook chat with little sister
• Read awesome and ridiculously cute story on Facebook how Ted Allen is a really nice man!
• Book train ticket from Lancaster, PA to New Haven, CT - beg aunts for rides to/from the train station
• Clean out GReader
• Buffer exchange more sample
• Gchat with Boyfriend
• Gchat with J, who apparently has much greater attention span (and budget) for Vegas than I do
• Play Words with Friends with Angie and Little Brother (not the unicorn one)
• Be reminded that Wednesday is Pi Day, ponder what sort of pie to make should I have time tomorrow night, preferably consuming the bag of cranberries in my freezer
• Make & drink tea
• Write frivolous blog post
• Check CNN for election results, realize that it is Monday, not Tuesday
• Remark that it is unfortunate that I should be on the last page of this lab notebook, and will have to get another one, with approximately 3 experiments left
• Adjust bra for zillionth time today, debate combined contributions of bra's age and stretched out-ness and losing a few pounds
• Read editorial from Analytical Chemistry
• Look at produce list for this week.  Get excited about snap peas - yay first sign of spring produce!  Be sad about MORE fennel, beets, and collard greens...
• Tidy desk.  As much as a desk in the midst of dissertation writing can be tidied.
• Flip through latest issue of JASMS, read paper on the effects of super-charging protein complexes
• Laugh ridiculously hard at this picture (if you don't find it funny, it was funny when I was tired at midnight):

Pros for renting a car:

• Ability to go wherever I want whenever I want without inconveniencing anybody else
• Slightly faster than taking the train

Pros for taking the train:

• Cheaper, before even considering the gas and tolls associated with the 600 miles of driving
• Can work on the train
• Can sleep on the train (though not while working unfortunately)
• Less susceptible to traffic jams & rush hour
• One less car on the road - yay mass transit

Vicious Cycle

For those of you in grad school of some sort, when did you know you wanted to go?  Sometime in college? When you found yourself in a dead-end job you hated?  As the eldest daughter of a PhD and an MD, I'm the weirdo who grew up thinking it was normal to go to grad school.  Seriously.  I was maybe 6 or 7 when I learned that my parents had both been in school until they were 27 (coincidentally, the age I am now, and also the age I'll be when I FINALLY graduate).  I was horrified, and told my mom that there was NO WAY I was going to stay in school that long.  She laughed, and said, "we'll see..."  Sadly she was right.  Apparently going to grad school is a vicious cycle...

A conversation I had recently with one of my college roommates (CR):

CR: I am only on page 20 of editing a 140 page publication.  It's so slow...
Me: Ick.  Fortunately I can edit a chapter at a time up to the very end.
CR: Yeah, but you're writing a dissertation.  That's scary and difficult in so many other ways.
Me: I'll just be thankful that I don't have to edit 120 pages at a shot for right now. :)
CR: Haha, small wins
Me: Pretty much.  At this point I'm mainly motivated by being able to make other people call me Dr. [Last Name] after I defend.  Although that will be weird, because in my mind Dr. [Last Name] is my mom
CR: Haha, true.  And your dad too technically.
Me: Yes, technically.  He's got at least as much claim to it as I'll have.  And technically grandpa, too.
CR: So many drs
Me: Haha yeah.  It is a bit funny.  Easy to see why I grew up thinking it was normal to go to grad school. :P
CR: True that.  It's like a drug.
Me: Or teen pregnancy.  A vicious cycle.
CR: Best example yet!

What I Won't Miss about Tucson

Finding lizards on my closet.  I HATE all things creepy crawly.  Hate them.  I asked (begged) my dad to get spiders and such out of my room until the day I left for college.  I tried to scoop this guy into my soup pot to get it outside...and wound up knocking it on the floor instead, and then it promptly crawled in my closet. :(

I almost decided not to take a shower that morning.  Seriously.  I should have just decided to be kinda dirty that day.  I never would have walked by that closet and never would have seen the lizard.  I thought about just leaving it there, but I had very little faith in it finding its way out of my house before dying or leaving lizard babies in my closet and without making a pit stop in my bed while I was sleeping.

Seeing as I now live 2700 miles from my father, I convinced my friend Cliff to walk over from campus to get the lizard OUT OF MY CLOSET.  I am NOT going to miss all the gigantic creepy crawly things in the desert.

It's been a while.

Text from my sister:

For your current school attending its university of [state] - [city]...should i say youre phd candidate or is that just assumed bc ur 27 and still in college...

Sigh.  While not quite accurate, yes, I am 27 and still in school.  If we want to be really depressing, I'm in the 21st grade.

Associations

I just got an email from my uncle telling me that Now That's What I Call Music 41 is available for a quarter from Google.  Apparently it has Toby Keith's song "Red Solo Cup" on it, and he "knows how much [I] love that song."  Actually, I think it's kinda dumb.  No offense, Toby Keith.



But really now.  That's just as bad as my labmate telling me that Carrie Underwood's song "Don't Even Know His Last Name" reminds him of me.



Or my cousin saying Katy Perry's "Waking Up in Vegas" makes her think of me.  Good grief people.



I had no idea people thought of me that way...

Wide Angle Seven Falls

The weekend before last Boyfriend and I hiked Seven Falls with his cousin and his wife.  I took my wide angle lens (10-20 mm) with me.  I had a UV filter on it, but I didn't bring the hood that came with the lens.  Many of the photos I took were blown out with lots of sun flare.  Lesson learned, take the hood.  Here are some of the better shots - all wide angle, except for a couple old shots with my point and shoot or my D90 with my regular lens (18-105 mm) for comparison at the end.  I don't have the clearest examples of it here, but it's amazing what a difference 8 mm makes.

Comparison, the rocks on the right are the same, and can help orient: 

D90, 18 mm

D90, 10 mm

Another comparison:

Point and shoot. Vertically obviously.

D90, 10 mm

D90, 10 mm

Goals & Kitchen Goals, Update 2

Ok, starting with the broader goals I made in January:

• I've got 2 1/2 chapters of my dissertation written.  This third chapter could be done within a week if all the other BS to get done would go away.  We'll see if I can muster the motivation to get this draft together anyways.
• I applied for a couple more jobs, one of which sent an auto-reply acknowledging my application from their "Talent Acquisition Team."  Oh my.  No word from anybody yet.
• Still doing a decent job on the vitamins.  I'm glad I came up with one thing I was less likely to fail at. :P

As far as kitchen goals, here's how February turned out:

• Pinto beans - total fail.  I was hoping to make another big pot of pinto beans to polish off what we've got, but it never happened.  Only used up those ones that I cooked in the last couple days of January.
• Whole wheat flour - not too bad.  I still have a bunch left, but I did use a fair amount too.  Mostly in muffins and pancakes.  This whole wheat pancake recipe is tasty - I've tried it with blueberries and with strawberries.
• Drink mixes - great!  Just a handful of EmergenC packets left!
• Sprinkles - all gone!  I used every last sprinkle I had making these cookies for Valentine's Day.

For March, I'm not going to pick any particular items to try to use up because I think I'm going to be out of town for a substantial part of it, and if I am here for recruiting, that's another 4 days of free meals (not that I'm going to do anywhere near as much driving or work!).  The goal for March is going to be to stay on top of my produce and use whatever groceries I already have rather than buying more stuff - lots of substitutions!

Related only because it's food, here's the sausage & kale tart Boyfriend and I made when he was here last weekend.  He thought you should see it.