I feel as if I can feel myself coalescing slowly into a semblance of where I want to be - efficiency. I'm *never* as efficient as I want, but I do want to have a nice automated system/routine. There's this gigantic pile of mess in front of me. I will work non-stop until it's neat, orderly and makes sense and I can feel on top of things. Maybe ... that'll never be. But I'll try.
Yesterday
Daniel likes my book
Daniel told me that he picked up a copy of The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss and is liking it! I knew he would. Perfect author for him. Great book. Surpurb, poetic writing, great epic plot with really real feeling characters.
Talks yesterday
There were two talks yesterday. I was late to the first one - looked at the wrong schedule - the new one had been updated. Fixed that so it shouldn't happen again. Heard all of Dr. Gallivan. His work is fascinating - very cool ideas - very cool things about rybozymes.
Dr. Gallivan's talk
So it seems the aptamers in his bacteria bind this small molecule only when it's at a certain threshold concentration and release it afterward, which is not what I'd expect, and makes me wonder about the binding/release mechanisms in aptamers - do all of them behave like this? Why does it need the small molecule to be present for binding to continue? Something I have to look into.
Other
Got a dropbox account and backed up my data and my project files - not all of them - will look into expanding that thingy - super useful - only way I could think to use two different laptops consistently. Have to setup my new one soon at Emory.
My brother showed me that somehow I've accumulated ~1,024 journal articles segregated into 328 folders. I swear I don't have that many folders. I swear. Total space of articles + data = 1.38 gigs so far. No I have not read NEAR that many. I wish! I go on literature binges sometimes. I can't stop myself from downloading everything in sight.
I have this great idea for a literature organizing system I'm going to try. I'm sorting articles by category and by size. I plan on reading a really short article first (so I can read one a day and feel more productive - hey, it makes my head happy so don't knock it - same reason I record the articles I read up here - it makes me work harder seeing what I already read). Then, read a longer article. I setup my desk to use this new system with labels and such. It's so beautiful. I think it'll work.
Today
Today, the security guy in Peavine asked me how things were and I said I was much better and less freaked out and he cheered me on - which made me really happy - he's so nice. I always say good morning to him.
I must have told Kevin for the 5th time in two weeks that I was so happy that he was back. I literally say that because it keeps occurring to me how happy I am to see him, when I see him around and am like - oh yeah! he's back! And I keep forgetting I keep saying it. I think he's ignoring me now.
I REALLY am annoyed I missed Kevin's talk this morning. AHHHHHHH!!!! No words. Daniel recorded it for me. Must remind him to send me copy. I had registration this morning for classes and had to skip lab meeting. The class descriptions were not extensive, but I knew what I wanted to take. Was able to ask Dr. Weinert useful questions. They were all pushing taking three classes a lot harder than I expected them to be. Well. I really think that for me, two at first will be much better. It works better for me to ease myself into things. I'm a slow ball rolling in some ways and explosive in others. I don't pretend to understand it. And I could not identify an obvious useful third class. If it so happens that I can in the spring I may do it then.
The library class was SO amazingly long. My head hurt. Really hurt. I've never heard so much about the library in my life and had no idea there were so many things to know. I found out that my primary way of literature searching was all wrong (no no on to using 'article' tab in DiscoverE) and there were gazillions of things I wasn't using or aware of. I tried to listen to it all but I physically couldn't absorb it all. I'm just ignorant, I think. There's so much to know that I tend to ignore only what's immediately useful to me and the library I usually don't perceive that way as I should - it takes work to learn new systems that I haven't used before - which in many cases, I'd rather avoid - but I think learning some of these things will be really worth it.
I got a shake at Panera afterward and rested in a chair for 10 min. The lady at the counter told me about her Dragon*Con costume and asked me if I was prepared for it. I said I was just trying to survive grad school at present and organize. While sitting there, there were these two undergrads talking about their what sounded like gen chem course, which wasn't peace inducing, as I listened to them wonder if water was nonpolar or not. I wanted to do something to answer their questions, but I resisted.
Dr. Salaita gave a talk about how to succeed in grad school. He's mentioned these things before in lab meeting, but I felt as if there was other stuff he mentioned today he didn't mention earlier. I twas very useful. That kind of info is actually exactly the kind of stuff I'm always looking to discover - how to be more efficient, save time, things I should pay attention to that will pay off in the long run - so having someone conveniently give a talk on it is very nice - saves me a lot of work, time and trouble.
I think Dr. Salaita looked as if I was making too much of it. I wasn't meaning to. I take everything extremely seriously. Sometimes, I do have to remind myself to stop being serious for a minute, but right now, I'm entering full serious mode and everything is very serious to me.
I left and downloaded science podcasts for the drive home and tried a whole bunch of different ones most of which were so-so but not great. I can't believe I did that. I swore I never would (too much science - one needs to think about something else SOMEtimes). I only did it this time because I wanted to focus my mind for working when I get home. I use my drive home for many things and it all depends on the mood I'm in. But today, I wanted to make sure I was focusing and stuff. Too long to explain.
Now I must do things! Darn. This took exactly 20 minutes to write. I'll do better tomorrow. Sorry if it's boring. I've never tried to write this short before. I need practice. I'll take time. I have to learn.... 1) to write short 2) to write with a point in a short time 3) to make it interesting - heck - I need to learn that for the long stuff I write.