[psa] aaaaaaaaaaaah

[kaberett]

• I am PICKING UP MY ROCKS from a partner institution tomorrow
  
• these are The Last Rocks Of The PhD
  
• I have 'til end-December to Measure All The Rocks
  
  • ... which is a bit stressful because What If The Very Expensive Vacuum Leak Doesn't Cooperate
    
  • which is something I can't really schedule for, which means I can't make concrete plans for how quickly I'll get through stuff
    
  • not least because I've only got enough beakers for 2x sets of (=20) ready-to-analyse samples
    
  • and while I am only picking up ~26 samples, a bunch of those I will effectively need to analyse twice, for Reasons
    
  • so I can't even go "right let's get all the chemistry done and then blitz the analysis", I gotta actually swap back and forth between them, and if the mass spec isn't behaving then I gotta keep trying mass spec before I can do more chemistry
    
  • which would be less stressful if it hadn't taken me four multi-day sessions to get any data at ALL off the last sample set I was trying to measure
  
  
• and then once I've done that I have? to finish? writing the PhD?
  
• and I'm "only" going to have five chapters (introduction, three data chapters, conclusion), which I am currently feeling Inadequate about because the thesis I'm reading as background on these rocks has eight (EIGHT!!!) (8!!!!!!) chapters
  
• and by the way I'm having a prolonged mental health crash for indeterminate reasons of therefore uncertain duration AND I'm still sleeping all the time FOR reasons that are still unclear
  
• ...
  
• so if I am being Even More Dilatory Than Usual in responses/engagement/etc, it's not that I don't care, it's just that
  
• *waves*
  
• aaaaaaaaah?
  
• oh right and weekend after next I'm going on An Holiday at which I need to be able to give Two Talks and, like, they're SKETCHED and IN MY HEAD but. um. I should probably make slides. and have a slightly clearer idea of what in the hell I want to say.

Comments

[jjhunter]

*waves pom-poms of encouragement*

You rock! with your rocks! Rock on!

Sending love your way

[jesse_the_k]

with confidence that this shit will work out, because you are a very smart bear.

[steorra]

All the best with all the everything!

[watersword]

I will never not love this icon.

[kaberett]

it is such a good icon

[madgastronomer]

Um, I don't know what the hell a random internet person in Seattle could possibly do, but, like, if I can be of some help or support, I hope you'll say so?

[kaberett]

thank you <3

[booksarelife]

You go rock on with your rocks!!!

I’m sorry you’re having a bad mental health time

[wohali]

go go go! so exciting!

[fyreharper]

Rocks!!!!!!

[rmc28]

It's not the size of the thesis, it's what you do with it.

*love* and I am sure you will be fine with your talks.

[kaberett]

<3

one of them I was all "oh wait I already pretty much wrote this several years ago!" buuuuut I appear to have deleted all copies of it, b a h; one of them is honestly the book proposal for the Alex's Life Advice Book I may or may not write once the PhD is finished, and I'm letting that intimdate me a bit...

[katzenfabrik]

Hooray for rocks! Boo for mental-health crash. I am crossing my fingers for your Expensive Vacuum Leak doing its best for this last stretch.

[oracne]

Go you!

[divulge]

<333

[ewt]

Rocks!!!

[untonuggan]

GOOD LUCK FRIEND

[niqaeli]

That is many lots aaaaaaa-worthy things, friend!

Ganbatte, and good luck. We shall still be about when you've done The Things! <3

[the_swarm]

Exciting, and good luck! PhDs do, as it turns out, eventually come to an end. It sounds like you're pretty on top of things, even if you don't feel like it.

Don't worry about how many chapters you have! Theses are all different. Do what you need to do to discuss your research and findings. That's it. I threw in a poem and some stuff to guilt-trip my supervisors so yeah, turns out no-one pulled me up for it. It's your piece of work at the end of the day.