A Day in the Life of a PhD Student Working from Home

10am: Wake up, feel bad for sleeping in so long, but decide to rest for 'just 10 more minutes'.

11am: Wake up again. Oops. Actually get up this time. Check email, look at blogs and facebook. 

11.30am: Feel bad about procrastinating so look at motivational blogs instead, think about doing some work. Instead check email, blogs and facebook again.

12pm: LUNCH! Better whip up the most elaborate thing you can think of, especially since you forgot breakfast. 

12.30pm: Notice all the things in the kitchen that need cleaning. Get started, realise this is boring and decide - should really do some work. Check email again. Hey, look at those fingernails - you should really file them (and paint...? yeh good idea).

1pm: This might be a good time to clean your desk. Also, does your computer need defragmenting, or some big virus scan that means you can't work on your computer? Better do that now. 

[Anide, this one's for you]

1.30pm: QUICK!! Something exciting might have happened on facebook! Check it now and get distracted stalking people you don't really like all that much. 

2pm: Ever wonder what happened to that celebrity who was in that thing a few years ago? Why not research that instead of PhD-related topics.  Alternative option: you should probably look up symptoms of that rare and dangerous disease you think you might be developing.

2.30pm: Is today the day to start that new exercise plan? YOU KNOW IT!!

3pm: Wait - this seems hard, and really you should be doing some work. Check email again.

3.30pm: Actually start doing work. 

4pm: Feel very accomplished for doing some work; check facebook as reward.

4.30pm: Husband returns home from work. "Why do you have to be so distracting and noisy? Can't you see I'm working very hard?!" Oh well... consider getting started on dinner?

5pm: Start making elaborate dinner. Feel a bit bad about uni work, but people need to eat don't they!

7pm: Dinner; Throw out the idea of doing any more work today - at least you did that little bit, it was like 4 hours or so wasn't it? Right? Relax for the rest of the evening with big plans for PhD work tomorrow.

P.S. Yes I am working from home today - how did you guess?! :P

Husband REFUSES to buy me a horse.

Nevermind that we live in a 4th floor apartment... I just want one! Here are a few snaps from our lovely weekend in the country for Easter. 

P.S. Today (Sat 30th) is our 6 month-aversary of being married! I can't really believe it's been that long already.
P.P.S. Many more pics on my Flickr account 

Science FAIL.

Back in my undergraduate degree I did Chemistry. I found the lectures pretty interesting for the most part but the practical lab parts a bit dull, mostly due to all the calculations. I had a fairly nice lab partner, though I decided in my head that his name didn't suit him and he seemed more like an Andrew. So I spent most of the time trying to remember his real name and not to call him Andrew. 

[pic via here]

Chemistry definitely wasn't my best subject, and I was mostly only taking it because it was a pre-requisite for some other courses. Anyway, the day came for us to do an exam in the lab. It required us doing a variety of tests to work out the mystery chemical we were given. We had to do it alone, and in silence. Well I started off OK, but five minutes into it, I realised that I had accidentally put some of the test ingredients in the original sample. This meant I had contaminated it, and had no actual way from then of working out what the mystery chemical was. Now, I am definitely not what you call an assertive person, and I was quite afraid of looking like a total goober in front of my parter and all the other people in the lab. Too scared to tell anyone, I just pottered around pretending to do tests for the rest of the time, and looking like I was deep in thought or working out calculations whenever an examiner walked past. Clearly, I should have just told someone, and although I would have looked silly for a few minutes it probably would have been better than spending the whole rest of the exam in sheer panic. Obviously I made up my answer at the end of the test. When my partner asked how I went I'm pretty sure I said: "yeah not too bad"!

I'd like to say I fluked it and got it right, but the title of this post isn't 'Science Fail' for nothing. 

Happy Easter!

[source]

I am trying this scheduling thing, hopefully it works! I have planned this post in advance because Husband and I will be away over the Easter long weekend. We are travelling to stay at a friend's farm from Sat-Mon. It's quite a few hours drive away and there is no mobile phone reception there (!). We've been there previously and it is so peaceful, relaxing and really pretty. They have alpaccas and ducks too! Also, we are heading down with some other friends who agreed to do all the driving which is lovely. 

So although I am away, I will say I hope you have a great Easter - or what they say in Greek: Χριστός ἀνέστη! = Christ is Risen (pronounced Christos Anesti)! 

P.S. In case you're wondering where the sudden Greek came from, it's because my Husband is Greek and I spent a fair bit of time last year trying to learn to speak it as a surprise at our wedding.

Crazy week - over.

So the long and super busy week I was quite worried about is finally finished. I had to give a two-hour lecture (my first lecture ever!) from 6pm - 8pm Wed night, get up much earlier than usual to go to Spit Camp the next day (today), and somehow in this week also fit time to prepare for said lecture, teach my regular tutorial classes, do experiments, work on papers, and see students anxious about a soon-to-be-due assignment. You can imagine why me thinking about all this was getting me a bit frazzled. 

ELISA

What ended up happening though, was that I gave myself permission to work only on the things that were immediately important this week. This meant no experimenting, and no paper writing. I ended up being a lot less stressed, and I have to say that it really ended up being an enjoyable week. Yes, I was nervous about the lecture, and spent a huge amount of time preparing for it, but that preparation paid off I think. Although it finished a bit early (which I doubt the students were all that sad about), I found it fun and the students said nice things about it. You end up feeling very important when everyone is listening to you and thinking you're an expert on something (if only they knew...)! My tutorials turned out to be fine, and actually quite amusing. Also, while I was not looking forward to getting up early and finding my way to a foreign university - SPIT CAMP WAS GREAT! The other attendees said it was fantastic and we all learned a lot. I felt very science-y learning this technique for my cortisol analysis - it's called Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay - how science-y does that sound (yes I do know it's actually a very commonly used technique and many people learn it in undergrad, but why must you always try to bring me down man?). Another plus of the day: morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea (caaaaake) was all catered. Free food always impresses the PhD students!

Additionally, I have to give mad-props (is that even how you say that!?) to Husband for being so understanding this week, and doing extra cooking and cleaning while I fell into an exhausted heap each night.

I know all my PhD work is waiting for me next week, but I have the Easter long weekend to look forward to before that! YAY! 

P.S. Unfortunately I gave up on my no-caffeine attempt for a couple of days... but it was justified I feel.