Yes - Jenny works at last

Today has been a good day. I started out with some productive data crunching on my computer at home then got into work and everything clicked. I wrote a whole creative page and a half of discussion for my thesis (not creative writing, just creatively described). Come to think of it, thats pretty bad really - just better than usual. Then I found a web site that had a whole bunch of data for more crunching already in the format I wanted it and I figured out how to download into the program I wanted it in. I'm hot today! Now I'm going home on a high to lie around and do nothing and bask in the feeling of achieving something for the first time in two weeks.

back into it..

After two weeks of lethargy and a distinct lack of focus, I'm going to write this morning. I have had coffee and I'm psyched. So why am I procrastinating by writing this?

biting the bullet

Today I'm going sit down and do chapter 5. I've been alternately procrastinating and nibbling at it and its becoming counter productive because I have to wrap it all round my head to write about it. So today is the day to get large amounts of discussion done. I so don't want to do this. Maybe I can find a job I want to do less so this will seem like a desirable option......no, no I can't.

I feel like I'm bludging

I don't feel like doing PhD stuff today so I'm writing that paper that I've been meaning to write for a month now...ironic that the work I can write up and get published isn't actually anything to do with my PhD but rather to do with my part time research job. Still, a paper is a paper.

On other news I have bought a bike and my brother is going to come round and chack the brakes for me before I ride it. I went swimming last night and the instructor was sick so I just went swimming - without flippers - man oh man it's hard to swim without flippers. On an up side though - I can get a lot further down the pool before I have to stop and spit up inhaled water than I could before i started lessons. happy me.

AAARRRGGHHH!

What else can they hit us with.
First it was the "as of the 6th of December, the CSIRO access to the ring road will be blocked off for road works". Since our precinct is on the CSIRO access road, we will not be able to get to our buildings from the ring road and will need to use the CSIRO road - which is chained shut after 7pm and on weekends. This building runs 24/7. After protests we have got "It'll stay open till 9pm and from 6-6 on weekends". After these hours we need to ring security and get them to come open the gates for us...this can take 1/2 an hour or so. Very inconvenient when it's midnight and you just want to go to bed.

Then this morning came the email; "As of Monday refurbishment of the virology lab will begin. Working bees will be required to move out contents prior to this. The lab will be finished some time in January"....
1. No notice whatsoever
2. Huge lab and no idea where everything will fit (or how we can move it in that short time).
3. Used for such things as cell culture and PCR 1 (clean area) which can't be contaminated by bacteria or plasmids/general DNA, so limitted places they can go
4. Contains an expensive robot which shouldn't be moved/vibrated under pain of death - will take hours to move if we can find somewhere safe for it to go

Then later this morning came the email; "work on the Tea Room ceiling will be starting shortly. They hope to have it all completed by Christmas. This work will mean that the room will be closed for the duration of the repairs (2-3 weeks).

It will therefore be necessary for the tea and coffee facilities, fridges, microwaves etc to be located elsewhere for that time."

We are going to have a christmas party in front of this room (using the fridges to store desserts/salad etc) slap bang in the middle of this time...and no idea where to put all this gear/find people to move it all while we are moving the virology lab....

Excuse me while I lie on the floor and gibber a bit.