While away (computer-free) for a three-day weekend, I did some thinking about how I use facebook and livejournal. I'm not pleased with how they tend to suck away my time. I use them to tune out of my real space life, and I don't feel quite in control. But I don't want to stop using them entirely, because they serve many good purposes ( Read more... )

1. We spent quite a long time in the garden today. We planted chard, turnips, carrots, beets, and basil, all under some old windows that were given to us, so hopefully it all stays warm enough ( Read more... )

Just like I don't tend to realize I'm sick until I get better, I don't tend to realize when I'm doing something hard until it gets easier. The past month or so, I've been wondering where my motivation for science went. I just felt like it was a struggle to get myself to focus. Then yesterday, things were easier in the lab (because the whole team ( Read more... )

For a long time now, I've been trying to overcome perfectionism. In the perfectionistic world view, a person is either good at something or bad at it. Success is something you are, not something you do. If you do well at something, it is because you were simply good at it to begin with. Pride in any accomplishment is therefore hubris, since your ( Read more... )

It's the first day of the semester ( Read more... )

"One Trick Pony" by Paul Simon ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago, I had a hard week, and I wasn't very nice to my labmate. I decided that the next week, my goal would be to have a good attitude at work. If no real progress was made in the lab, that would be fine, as long as I stayed positive while working on things for a full week ( Read more... )

I took the whole four-day weekend off, and had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Leftovers Day with family and friends, and also doing a lot of other stuff ( Read more... )

Tuesday I had a pretty unproductive day, so Wednesday I tried one of my favorite motivation tricks with good success. I decided I'd work ten hours of really working, then go home. The clock had to stop for breaks and activities like reading news sites or my e-mail. There were definitely times during the day that I would have given in to the ( Read more... )

My favorite news story on Thursday: The police in my city would like everyone to know that they found several sets of keys Tuesday night. If your keys fell out of your pocket while you were dancing in the streets, you can claim them in the evidence and property office ( Read more... )