Thursday, February 9, 2012

Things I learned in graduate school, Part II

1.  Do not forget to eat food.

2.  Do not forget to eat food and then half a cup of coffee and a handful of Pringles for lunch.

3.  Do not forget to eat food, have coffee for lunch, and then take a full dose of antispasmotic.

4.  Do not forget to eat food, have coffee for lunch, take a full dose of anti-spasmotic and then nearly fall out of your chair from being high while your PI is explaining a complicated procedure to you which you will be expected to perform for the first time on your own the following day.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Raga Conductance

Remember the graphic projection from last week, folks?  This most recent set of 24 hr bins has not been good times all around either.

My most recent week.  Plotted as the slope of Raga current over Raga driving force.

The week began with residual driving force (V) from the one before -- roughly less than 0 enthusiasms.  As the week continued and midterms were confronted one after the other, driving force increased steadily as was demanded by scheduled events through the continued failure of lab projects, the continued battle with insurance for coverage, the increasingly aching body and cognitive blips (which are new) and the return of a particular midterm grade.  Driving force, still not in positive range, saw Raga current (I) approach 0 and Raga channels all but give up.

Then, on Friday evening, a peep of hope.  I learned that my particular midterm grade was actually quite reasonable when weighted through the class as a whole.  My trouble-shooting efforts in lab were rewarded with a high-yield experimental result.  And my insurance broker called to say that the appropriate paperwork was being transferred and that it should all resolve in the next few weeks.

And with that, Raga reversal potential (ERaga) was met, and current slowly began to creep upward into functional levels.  With Raga driving force now increasing due to internal and not external factors, it's off to mini-golf and amazing food that is bad for me in honor of H.K.'s birthday, which was so cruelly ignored last week due to recruitment and midterm prep.

I could survive this, yet.