Stupid blogger has been playing up, so its taken while to actually access my blog, but perseverance has paid off!

Ah, its been a while since I've waffled, I've kind of missed it. Its because of one simple rule I made when I started this blog, and that is to not blog while I'm in the lab, which is most of my life :P especially now, since my computer screen faces the corridor, where anyone walking past can see that bright pink screen...

Hmmm, been trying to focus on my PhD, mainly because my 6 month which has become a 8 month meeting is coming up. It basically involves justifying the existance and purpose of my project to 2 members of academic staff in the department. I can't avoid it anymore, and have almost organised a date to do it (why does it have to be so hard to try and get 4 people in the same room?). Have to know actually figure out what I'm doing :P That will be interesting...But lets think the present. Its been good at the moment because its mid semester break for all those other uni people - so no demonstrating, or my basic car maintenance course. Things can slow down a bit, so am all peachy. Cept for that PhD meeting of course.

But other more interesting things come up...like beautiful spring weather, catching up with friends, being with people you care about and career development seminars (!). There was one recently, which was actually really good. I was expecting the typical, "yeah, you can do all this stuff with a PhD, and this is how you actually get promoted in an academic setting" but was pleasantly surprised. I was listening to a guy who is in consulting who described the kind of people they recruit - one of them was quality assurance people who are "a bit anal who love to pay attention to detail". After hearing that, I thought, "I've just found my true career path! - screw that PhD!" Luckily, this was all in my head, and I only told Ryan and Chris during afternoon tea break in a "head is buzzing" moment. I've thought about it, and have decided that while I could do that job well, I probably would not be satisfied with it. Its also not something that is challenging and would take me out of my comfort zone to learn something new. The other cool thing about that seminar was that they were talking about a mentoring scheme that they have at Monash for women who work in academia, which I thought was a great idea, but unfortunately there isn't a similar scheme in Melbourne. If I could get my brain together, that would be something worth investigating...or a mentoring program for PhD students - get to do the whole sharing of your PhD experience thing...it would be interesting to hear what other people think.

The other thing I've found with blogging is that it comes hand in hand with reading other people's blogs. Because although I've broken my own rule of not blogging (only a couple of times)while I'm in the lab, I do not under any circumstances read anyone else's blog. Hope would be lost, and the guilt at not doing my work would be totally unbearable. Arrrgh....the guilt! the guilt! So the only chance to read them is when I'm at home when the computer is free (not as easy as it sounds). Man, only two weeks or so goes by and there's a heap of blog entries (yes, Darren, I'm talking to you!) Gotta catch up!

Where's the blogger goodness when you need it?

:P A few hours ago, I was full of blogger goodness, armed with stuff I wanted to write about, but know that I'm actually sitting at a computer with my blog in front of me, I realise that its gone.

In its place is this kind of helplessness, that I'm swept away along a tide. Things are happening, but they're not happening the way they're supposed to. Its my PhD project of course. Stupid experiments haven't been working, but at least I know why (I think) - got the wrong reagent, so now I need to get the right one (if that's possible).

Everything else not on the project front is great though. I guess you just can't have everything working the way you want it to. I've finally got an iPod after months of deliberation...woo hoo! It makes going to the gym much more fun now - I don't have to watch Sunrise anymore with annoying Kochie and Mel. It was funny this morning though -Grant Denyer was trying to be John Travolta in the movie "Greece" and failing miserably. *lol*

Ooooh, and yesterday I got a quick tour of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute at the Royal Children's Hospital. They've got a much better tea room than we've got - and with butterscotch biscuits :( Was so jealous, and they've also got the nicest view of Parkville as they're located on the 10th floor of the hospital. But that wasn't the best bit - that was seeing the Starlight Room. It was created by the Starlight Children's Foundation, and its basically a place for patients to hang out while they're getting treatment in the hospital. Despite where it is, it has such a cheerful vibe, I think I got a huge dose of it and subsequently was in a hyperactive mood for the rest of the day. The only disappointing thing was that I couldn't take one of the beanbags they had- they looked really comfortable. It would be great in the lab office I think - purple with yellow stars!

There was also a freaky occurance as I was leaving - I bumped into one of my friends, Bin, who I hadn't seen since second year! Freaky since she recognised me - obviously I haven't changed that much in three years. But I recognised her too :)

Just Friday to go, then the weekend!

I'm having the day from hell
It wasn't going so well

...

What do you do
When it all falls apart
Gotta ring my cell phone
Where do I start?
Cause I can't turn to you
When it all falls apart

...

"When It All Falls Apart" - The Veronicas

When it feels like its going to all fall apart, it happens suddenly like a tidal wave you can't control, and all I want to do is run away, as fast as I can. Probably not the world's best solution, but the only way I can face it until the tidal wave receeds and its calm waters again.

It always happens at the worst possible times. *sigh* But I like these lyrics, from The Veronicas of all people. Captures the mood perfectly.

One of the most annoying things about having a blog is that when I have a "blog" moment i.e. when I suddenly feel inspired to write something, its usually when I'm either a) well away from a computer or b) I'm busy doing something else and you lose the moment *sigh* Then later on, when you have the chance to sit down, and write, it just doesn't come out exactly the way you want it to. Hmmm, that sounds like what was happening when I was thesis writing during honours....

Anyway, the strongest blog moment I've had this week was when I had my basic car maintenance session this week. It was the first practical session i.e. where you actually use your own car rather than watch a very out of date (think 1990's) video. But it was the most educational session, as it pretty much put me "in the deep end" and forced me to think about what was being shown in that out of date video.

First panicky thought was "hmmmm, how do I open the car bonnet...." It pretty much went down hill from there. My saviour was my owner's manual, still in pristine condition in the glove box. Lo and behold, it contained a dummy's guide to the inside of the car which helpfully pointed out:
the engine (the big black thing)
the oil dipstick (which stood out as a yellow stick right next to the engine)
the other dipstick to check automatic transmission fluid (the red stick, which had a sticker on it which said "Do not remove - fluid should only be replaced by an experienced mechanic"....hmmm which is what I'm doing *lol*)
the battery (the big box with screws in the top)
the coolant for the car (which had a big yellow sticker screaming WARNING, WARNING DO NOT OPEN IF HOT! It looked very scary!).

The one part where the manual did not help was when I was looking for the plate that tells you when your car was manufactured - the origins of its birth, so to speak. Normally, its found inside somewhere under the bonnet of the car but after some frantic searching and thinking "oh great, I bought my car from an illegal, dodgy dealer..." to my great relief is was on the passenger side door.

There was a lot of other stuff, but those were the things we were focusing on - we were learning about the weekly checks you're meant to do on your car to make sure it stays healthy :P who has time to do those every week?? I can't even to manage to wash the car on a regular basis, which is also a "weekly" check.

The other funny part of that session well, there was two things. First thing was that we were doing all this stuff in the South car park at the university. If you've ever been down there, its kind of spooky and dark. So its even darker when you're trying to peer inside you car. It was funny though, watching people stare at us strangely as they picked up their cars - like some kind of car rally. Rah Rah Rah! The other funny thing was the guys in the class trying to not so subtly check out each others cars. They would try and explain all the different features of their car, but you could tell they were talking about 90% crap, 10% fact. I don't mean that in a mean way though. Obviously, they don't know much about cars else they wouldn't be doing this course. But it was funny watching them check out each other's cars. The classic had to be my neighbours car, where he had written on the back bumper of his car "Watch where you are driving you idiot" Short and sweet. It made much more sense when you saw the massive dent in that back bumper.

But I'm saving the best till last....I told someone that my car had done 100k's but when I looked again, it was actually only just above 11k's. Oops.

I'm looking foward to the next practical session though. I'll learn how to change a tire on my car. Just need to find that spare tire first....

:P Been feeling tired and under the weather over the past week, to the point where I just wanted to crawl under the bed and STAY there. Its so nice and dark, and warm...Its kind of worrying when you think like that, so I kind of took it easy over the last few days i.e. no experiments. The downside of that it will mean going in on weekends, but oh well, it was worth it.

Thursday I had a high school visit as part of the Melbourne Access Program. It was nice to get out of the lab, and it was a really nice day. It was one of those visits though where Murphy's law reined supreme - no one knew what was going on, because the teacher who had organised the visit wasn't there, and the teacher who was there had no idea what was going on. The classic thing was when we had other students not part of the program turning up. We would ask them if they were MAP students or not - the blank looks they gave you in return were classic :) Personally, I think we don't get enough time to speak to the students, but its hard to ask them to miss more than one class.

hee hee, Friday was a road trip to Geelong! A perfect solution to not working :) though it had a work related reason for it - we i.e. BAMBII were checking out the place to see if it would be good for the retreat. It helped a lot as it was a beautiful day to go on a road trip. For me, it was also a trip with a lot of "first times". That trip was the first time I'd driven to Geelong; the first time I'd driven the departmental car (which is a big station wagon type of car - totally different to the kind of car I have); the first time I'd driven a car where the controls for the radio are on the steering wheel (which gives me control of the music!) the first time I've have nearly smashed a car in the Bio21 Institute car park (it was very close, I was still getting used to the car); the first time I'd driven on CityLink; the first time I'd had to go on a road trip with Ryan and Chris...that's all I can think of at the moment.

I have to give credit to Ryan, because he's not a bad navigator - if I'm driving I need very precise instructions and we didn't really get lost - I only missed one turn off on the way, but it was ok, because we were pretty much in Geelong at that point, and we could go along the residentual streets instead of the main road. But I bet you're thinking, you're can't get lost going to Geelong - its pretty much a straight line from Melbourne! Also credit for Chris - some people are horrible back seat drivers, and thankfully, he's not one of them. It would've made driving stressful otherwise!

The verdict is that the place we had in mind is in fact very nice, although there was a moment where that wasn't the case, where we walked into the "conference room" of the motel, which was so small and would definetely not be able to fit all the people going on the retreat. But we found the right conference room, so it was ok! Its close to the pier (within walking distance), which I had been to before, as I went to the Smorgy's restuarant that is there. It was such a nice day that I didn't want to head back to Melbourne, but I had a lab meeting *sigh*

After lab meeting though - Brett, Roza and I went to have ice cream. It was good to relax/laugh/talk at the end of the week.

Saturday was Maria's birthday party - had a shock at the start when I turned up to the nearly empty bar and couldn't see Maria! Thankfully, some of her other friends were there, so at least I knew I was in the right place. The bar, 6 links, was quite nice - bigger than your typical bar, so there's plenty of space and chairs to sit. Not enough 80's music though. The thing I liked the most about it though was the fact it was non smoking - I don't have to worry about dying from passive smoking anymore! They also had these funny cards, which can be used as a way to pick up someone. You just fill it out and give it to the person of interest. Its a more effective way of being heard over the music! Roxanne got one *lol* It was great to catch up with the others, some of whom I hadn't seen for a couple of months. After the bar, we went for munchies at KFC then headed home. However, because Despina and her sister had to arrive home together because her sister was on a secret date, Despina and I had to wait for her to meet up with us. Thankfully, the Pancake Parlour near us is open 24 hours, so we could go there and wait. It was absolute torture, because we had already gone to KFC earlier for munchies, then there were all those yummy pancakes *sigh* I had to settle with a very disappointing hot chocolate :( Was getting tired though, it was way past my bedtime...hopefully the secret date had gone well.

Which in hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to go to the lab and do an experiment today. Oh well. Off to bed with me I think :)