I technically have this week off at the lab. Yet, I chose to work on analyzing a data set left over from 1991. I might mention it in more detail later. I'm making decent progress with it, and there's enough in there to get a published paper out of it. In my line of work, publishing papers = eventual pay hike. That and it helps with the job market. Ideally, I'll have three by the end of winter break, with a fourth coming. Not so ideally, I'll have at least one--which is still on-schedule with what my advisor wants.

I also chose to not tell my undergrads that no experiments are happening this week. Sure they say they'll come in on their scheduled days every week. But I've been an undergrad, and I know the old "but you said nothing was happening this week" trick. Fuck that noise.

So far I have seen no return on my investment in recruiting them. So this week will be getting them proficient in behavioral scoring. I never had any problems with the 20 undergrads I managed at Mt. St. University.

But somehow complications keep seeming to come up with these two. Assistant A has good excuses, I admit: work training, changing jobs and hours, etc. Assistant N has not come in on days she said she'd be in on. I understand that school applications are school applications, but she's shooting herself in the foot by focussing on just those. Today, for instance, my advisor and I talked about her request for a letter of reference. He couldn't find any reason to write anything. I half-heartedly offered a few explanations, but I agreed fully that she hasn't earned one. You need to come in, work, show some sacrifice.

In terms of the actual day, though, it went well. I got some advanced stats tutoring from our post-doc, as well as a better sense of where to go with this old survey data. It was a good hour and a half long, but I surprisingly held onto most of the stuff that she showed me. I have a fetish for stats and learning how to really use it well, so that could be factor.

I also ran across Megan at the coffee house near the lab. She's one of two grad school friends I know here, along with Bryan. Chipper and pleasantly quirky as always, she and a comp. sci. friend were burning movies on iShats and sipping on espresso things. We kibitzed for at least a good 30 minutes about recent personal stuff, figuring out some good times to have coffee some place or go to a bar to celebrate the new smoking ban--things like that. Our plan is to invade a few hole-in-the-wall places near the gov't district, investigating whether their schnapps cocktails are good and if they have a lesbian VIP room.

For her, not me.

I hadn't expected to see her, so it brightened my spirits and made my strawberry-banana smoothie break that much more bueno.

Most of the rest of today was playing with statistics, talking with Dr. C about the survey and filling out some missing gaps in my knowledge, and getting pissed off at another mistake I made in the monkey assignment forms. You don't know how many times I've had to revise one, a few or alot of these. And each one is just a single sheet of paper. I'm hoping this'll be the last problem.

Oh, and on a completely random but happy note: I went shopping yesterday, and I didn't want to kill anyone in the store! It's true. Something in my head said, "You should go shopping now". I've learned to trust this voice to save me lots of worry (which I dutifully ignore whenever a woman is involved, since I'm male like that). So I drove to Hole Foods, got a cart, and basked in the undulating sunshine dampened wonder of a store only partly full with shoppers. Oh it was glorious. I bought my usual ale, frozen pizza, two cartons of pineapple orange mango guava kiwi lime juice, and other assorted bits. I even bought cereal and milk. I haven't had cereal in years. But I figure what the fuck.

So now I have food, beverages, brew, and another night of relaxing/not paying attention to work or personal problems of others. Unless the bat phone in my head rings.

I didn't make me wonko; I just sorta showed up this way.

Ah sweet, sweet english ale, slap my liver around. That's the spot.

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