an entry
There has been a long period of abstinence for me, but the drought is set to continue for the same reason that it has been in place for the last few weeks... work, of course, but for a change it isn't proving a repetitive cycle of stellar effort and no reward, because for once I'm getting something real to look at; oodles of data with plenty of scope for interpretation, a number of potential follow-on analyses, and best yet, what I'm observing may be significant enough to merit a paper too. The thought of getting that produced before I'm even finished here is just a little bit encouraging, whether or not it actually happens.
Still, there's a lot of number crunching to be done -- the sort of stuff that would really turn on a biostatistician [alas, no, I'm disappointingly normal] -- and while it hurts, every analysis of variance, product-moment correlation coefficient and error margin I've turned out seems to confirm that I'm finally seeing something significant that I can work with, and that's, well, really bloody cheering.
Of course, all work and no play makes Jack a tired old hermit who clearly doesn't get out enough, so I've been making an effort to keep myself busy outside of the lab, rather than just flopping onto my bed and staring at the ceiling for my evening's entertainment. And what with the amazing weather of late, that has been especially easy; no fewer than three barbecues in the last three days, a couple of trips up and down the river by canoe, punt and even sans véhicule, not to mention weekday lunches spent out in the sunshine.
Spring is springingAll this comes in the week following Frank's visit to the UK with his travelling partner; the weather was fairly mediocre for much of that time, but hosting these lovely chaps for a night in Cambridge, before heading down to London for a big walkabout, was a real pleasure and diversion. We were even joined by this one for a spell, and I think that a pretty good time was had by all, though I'm really speaking for myself here; the previous few weeks were fairly rough, so the chance to escape, and in good company, was all the more special for me.
Crud, my intent to elaborate further has been scuppered by the lateness of the hour and my own tiredness. Alas, to bed. Someone take over please?
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The possible results are sounding exciting, but working out the statistics must be a killer. Good luck!
"This one" had a good time too.
Well done on the work front; I hope it keeps on shaping up as you want. The possible pre-doctoral publication is just fuel to fire for those of us who are already convinced you're a brilliant fellow.
Also, I'd just like to say you look really hot poling that punt :)
I love analysis of variance and Pearson product-moment correlations. Give me a huge data set to analyze and I'm happy as a pig in slop. Or something like that.
"These lovely chaps" also had quite a good time; at least, this lovely chap did, and I'm pretty sure of the other one, too.
As for someone taking over (I'm assuming you meant this innocently, although you might try reading your last two sentences in tandem), I should have my much more long-winded account of our frolickings-about posted shortly. Will it include salacious details? Yes.
Thank you, all, for giving Stairs back to the masses. We missed him terribly.
It was innocent, but not as innocent as my debauchery of these chocolate digestives (yes, I was attacked by another packet). Hi, Corin, missed you too, but not as much as Mark, whose propensity for mud-wrestling is a bit-of-okay in these quarters.