Keeping busy
13 March 2008 19:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enismirdalI'm getting slightly low on PhD sorts of things to do right now, owing to the fact that the main priority things all depend on someone else doing something else before I can do any further work. This is a bit frustrating but I'm coping well enough. It's allowed me to clear some old backlog that I've been procrastinating in true PhD Comics style.
I've signed up for waaay too much teaching these last two terms, mostly because there are never enough demonstrators and I hate seeing the organisers look desperate. Also, if they're shorthanded, the practical goes ahead anyway, but with fewer demonstrators, and it ends up as three hours from hell for the poor demonstrators who are there, and I wouldn't wish that on either my fellow demonstrators or the students. So I end up nodding and saying, "Go on then." This term's been less insane than the last one as I've only been doing odd days here and there, but this week was The First Big One - a 4-day-long statistics workshop. 400-450 undergraduates spread over 4 days.
It's quite fun and the undergrads are generally cool, but oh, it's so tiring! After 3 hours of explaining how to calculate a variance, it's a wonder I've only gone to the pub as soon as the practical finished on one day this week so far! Tomorrow...tomorrow there will be beer. Yep.
Hamsters doing well. Wednesday next week will be the day I will be officially able to say with 100% certainty that Sucrose is Not Pregnant. Quinine is getting to be almost tamer than Sucrose now. They sometimes have boxing matches through the cage bars, and are both generally very happy. They've both really come out of their shells since I separated them. Rubisco still loathes them both and glares at their cages whenever she hears them awake, but is dealing. However, she did manage to get into an air vent last night and had a potter around the sort of wall cavity thing. Daft moo.
There's a nature garden between me and work - a tiny little wedge of land by the railway tracks, about the size of my parents' garden. I love it, but it's in a bit of a mess and was wondering whether it would ever get fixed. Well...I did some research and found that it was owned by Network Rail but was managed by the Environment Trust, so I e-mailed them to ask what the plans were - it's currently full of rubbish, not all of which is small stuff like crisp packets, and rather overgrown with weeds, but underneath all that there are some delightful woodland plants and proper woodland trees. They replied to say that they will be doing some work with it next month - so I've volunteered to join in and help! Unfortunately, some of the big rubbish will require hiring a skip to move, and the Environment Trust is not exactly rich. Hopefully they'll be able to find one of these Corporate Challenge things to sort out that angle. If anyone knows any keen East End businesses who fancy the challenge... LOL!
In any case, I'm really looking forward to the end product, as having such a sweet little place so close to home would be fantastic. (Also perhaps good for the odd small field experiment, perhaps getting some new reflectance readings for my database!)
I'm still not at all creative. I've been writing a tiny bit - original, self-indulgent, not postable, but fun for its own sake. And reading too much, and making Blockbuster lots of money by renting endless DVD boxsets.
Also, I recently saw the Ashes to Ashes pilot episode. Could someone PLEASE reassure me that Alex Drake gets less annoying as the series progresses?
I've signed up for waaay too much teaching these last two terms, mostly because there are never enough demonstrators and I hate seeing the organisers look desperate. Also, if they're shorthanded, the practical goes ahead anyway, but with fewer demonstrators, and it ends up as three hours from hell for the poor demonstrators who are there, and I wouldn't wish that on either my fellow demonstrators or the students. So I end up nodding and saying, "Go on then." This term's been less insane than the last one as I've only been doing odd days here and there, but this week was The First Big One - a 4-day-long statistics workshop. 400-450 undergraduates spread over 4 days.
It's quite fun and the undergrads are generally cool, but oh, it's so tiring! After 3 hours of explaining how to calculate a variance, it's a wonder I've only gone to the pub as soon as the practical finished on one day this week so far! Tomorrow...tomorrow there will be beer. Yep.
Hamsters doing well. Wednesday next week will be the day I will be officially able to say with 100% certainty that Sucrose is Not Pregnant. Quinine is getting to be almost tamer than Sucrose now. They sometimes have boxing matches through the cage bars, and are both generally very happy. They've both really come out of their shells since I separated them. Rubisco still loathes them both and glares at their cages whenever she hears them awake, but is dealing. However, she did manage to get into an air vent last night and had a potter around the sort of wall cavity thing. Daft moo.
There's a nature garden between me and work - a tiny little wedge of land by the railway tracks, about the size of my parents' garden. I love it, but it's in a bit of a mess and was wondering whether it would ever get fixed. Well...I did some research and found that it was owned by Network Rail but was managed by the Environment Trust, so I e-mailed them to ask what the plans were - it's currently full of rubbish, not all of which is small stuff like crisp packets, and rather overgrown with weeds, but underneath all that there are some delightful woodland plants and proper woodland trees. They replied to say that they will be doing some work with it next month - so I've volunteered to join in and help! Unfortunately, some of the big rubbish will require hiring a skip to move, and the Environment Trust is not exactly rich. Hopefully they'll be able to find one of these Corporate Challenge things to sort out that angle. If anyone knows any keen East End businesses who fancy the challenge... LOL!
In any case, I'm really looking forward to the end product, as having such a sweet little place so close to home would be fantastic. (Also perhaps good for the odd small field experiment, perhaps getting some new reflectance readings for my database!)
I'm still not at all creative. I've been writing a tiny bit - original, self-indulgent, not postable, but fun for its own sake. And reading too much, and making Blockbuster lots of money by renting endless DVD boxsets.
Also, I recently saw the Ashes to Ashes pilot episode. Could someone PLEASE reassure me that Alex Drake gets less annoying as the series progresses?
no subject
Date: 15 Mar 2008 06:49 (UTC)Abner
no subject
Date: 15 Mar 2008 09:39 (UTC)I'd be most interested in joining you for the north part of the walk, on account of the fact that I've walked most of Victoria to Mansion House at various points in the past, but have never done, for example, Edgware Road to Liverpool Street.