Week in review: 7-13 December

In addition to giving the tradition wrap-up from the week past, today I also have the pleasure of describing my afternoon in the lab.  With school closing for the year at the end of next week, I have a slight urgency to complete some experiments.  Particularly that data I need for the paper I hope to write over the break.  Yeah, the one from November... actually this is an excellent opportunity to share one of my two realisations from the day.  I was thinking today of the time it's taken me to work through my punch list of items for publication.  While I have been simultaneously attended to other tasks, it's been almost 2 months now.  In that time I've made tremendous progress and I am very pleased with my results, but it's taken me two months.  Back when I started it was my supervisor who pushed me to focus my energy.  Left to my own devices, I might have left this work far too long.  The fact everything takes longer than you expect is a theme of the past few months, but it looks like my supervisor was already clued in; maybe there is wisdom in experience, but don't tell him I said that.  The second thought I had today was how much I am enjoying "using" my hardware.  By that I mean the instruments, software, bells and whistles and little bits that allow me to run these experiments.  Months ago I commented that I liked the challenge of designing and building these things, but the collection of data is too mundane.  What a ridiculous sentiment.  Now if I had turn-key devices that flawlessly collected, analysed and interpreted data at the push of the button, maybe I'd have a real beef.  The truth is that there's still an enormous amount of troubleshooting in getting a prototype system to work in a real world setting, not to mention combining the machines with other experimental techniques and sample preparation.  In the past I think I may have been a bit scared or intimidated by this type of work because I lacked experience.  I am still a newbie, but now I am building confidence tackling these challenges.  I am hoping I'll have a similar revelation regarding writing.  Right now it's easy to write the task off as boring, but the real issue might be insecurity.  As I am learning, I need to charge into my preparing my thesis and publications with enthusiasm and an open mind.  Maybe in the end it won't be my favourite job in the world, but I am sure there will be puzzles, challenges and new learning opportunities involved.