Saturday, December 22, 2012
donuts
'Want to feel passionate about what you do? Keep learning. When learning stops, you're just making do-nuts. Or, if you're fancy, doughnuts.'
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
december part 1
saturday 01 december 2012
-went into town to go christmas shopping with ju and joel.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/tree.html
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/tree.html
sunday 02 december 2012
-went to the hub to do work for the day
-came back to join ju, joel, and lydia for dinner. we shared a bunch of dishes at a chinese place.
-went to the hub to do work for the day
-came back to join ju, joel, and lydia for dinner. we shared a bunch of dishes at a chinese place.
monday 03 december 2012
-last day on campus before going home.
-ran data analyses
-met briefly with adrian
-covered bea's desk with cobwebs as a statement that she shouldn't leave for so long
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/cobwebs.html
-hung out at ju's until ashley was kind enough to drop me at the airport
-tried to sleep a bit at the airport before checking in at 4 whatever in the morning for my flight. surprisingly more people than i'd expected at the airport. and i wasn't too excited by the lady who decided amongst all of the open places to sit that she'd sit basically right next to me during the one minute i sat up to put my jacket on thus preventing me from laying down.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/airport-tree.html
-last day on campus before going home.
-ran data analyses
-met briefly with adrian
-covered bea's desk with cobwebs as a statement that she shouldn't leave for so long
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/cobwebs.html
-hung out at ju's until ashley was kind enough to drop me at the airport
-tried to sleep a bit at the airport before checking in at 4 whatever in the morning for my flight. surprisingly more people than i'd expected at the airport. and i wasn't too excited by the lady who decided amongst all of the open places to sit that she'd sit basically right next to me during the one minute i sat up to put my jacket on thus preventing me from laying down.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/airport-tree.html
tuesday 04 december 2012
-flew from perth to dubai. 10 hours.
-got through security and got a visa to enter dubai. took the shuttle bus to the hotel. checked in, had a buffet lunch, and was wandering through the lobby when i was approached by a lady about a bus tour of the city. figuring that was an easier way to see something, she pulled me in and i was then signed up for a 2 hour bus tour to see some of the big buildings and palm tree island. did that and then decided to sleep for awhile. office space was on the tv in whatever language, but what was interesting was that the music was totally different. and it did not help the mood at all - totally different. was nice to sleep, and even nicer to take a shower. then had a late buffet 'dinner' and checked out as instructed a bit before 11. took the shuttle back to the airport and hung out. facetimed with mom and dad which was pretty cool. and walked around the shops before boarding the 2 am flight.
-flew from perth to dubai. 10 hours.
-got through security and got a visa to enter dubai. took the shuttle bus to the hotel. checked in, had a buffet lunch, and was wandering through the lobby when i was approached by a lady about a bus tour of the city. figuring that was an easier way to see something, she pulled me in and i was then signed up for a 2 hour bus tour to see some of the big buildings and palm tree island. did that and then decided to sleep for awhile. office space was on the tv in whatever language, but what was interesting was that the music was totally different. and it did not help the mood at all - totally different. was nice to sleep, and even nicer to take a shower. then had a late buffet 'dinner' and checked out as instructed a bit before 11. took the shuttle back to the airport and hung out. facetimed with mom and dad which was pretty cool. and walked around the shops before boarding the 2 am flight.
wednesday 05 december 2012
-flew from dubai to IAD. 14 hours. long.
-took the super shuttle to autumn's school. autumn took me on a quick tour and then i spent the day with the music teacher.
-taught 3 groups about music psychology, music therapy, and did some drumming rhythms. was nice to teach again. a second grader nailed the topic of my thesis right away. and they seemed to understand the point behind what i was saying.
-got annaleigh from daycare after school. went to the park, had dinner. hung out, dave came home. had some dq -mmm a blizzard. a nice evening.
-flew from dubai to IAD. 14 hours. long.
-took the super shuttle to autumn's school. autumn took me on a quick tour and then i spent the day with the music teacher.
-taught 3 groups about music psychology, music therapy, and did some drumming rhythms. was nice to teach again. a second grader nailed the topic of my thesis right away. and they seemed to understand the point behind what i was saying.
-got annaleigh from daycare after school. went to the park, had dinner. hung out, dave came home. had some dq -mmm a blizzard. a nice evening.
thursday 06 december 2012
-slept in/watched tv.
-went into dc in the afternoon. went to elephant & castle for french onion soup. mmmm, been a long time since going there. went to the top of the old post office building. went to an awesome exhibit -actually two- at the sackler gallery. met ahnna for happy hour at 14&k. took a car with her to go by the howard theatre and to meet brandi at alero. no parking at the u street alero so we went to the other one. was really nice to see ahnna and brandi for catch ups. took the metro back home. great afternoon in dc. saw lots of familiar things and had good food and saw good friends. makes me miss dc a lot.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/dc.html
-slept in/watched tv.
-went into dc in the afternoon. went to elephant & castle for french onion soup. mmmm, been a long time since going there. went to the top of the old post office building. went to an awesome exhibit -actually two- at the sackler gallery. met ahnna for happy hour at 14&k. took a car with her to go by the howard theatre and to meet brandi at alero. no parking at the u street alero so we went to the other one. was really nice to see ahnna and brandi for catch ups. took the metro back home. great afternoon in dc. saw lots of familiar things and had good food and saw good friends. makes me miss dc a lot.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/dc.html
friday 07 december 2012
-spent the morning with annaleigh and autumn. annaleigh had a fever and couldn't go to daycare so autumn had to stay home. which was sad but she wasn't bad because she was up and about playing so on the positive side, we got to spend the whole morning together before i had to go off to the airport.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/anni.html
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/anni.html
-flew back from DCA to MKE
-had dinner at murfs - so check off butter burger and frozen custard off the american food to eat list
-went shopping at kohls
saturday 08 december 2012
-fall asleep at any point really.
-went grocery shopping with mom. lots of free samples.
-went to the milwaukee brewing company brewery tour with mandi. a fantastic tour guide. good, tasty beers to try.
- had pizza at a nearby place for dinner.
-went to a farm for a party of one of mandi's masters program friends. good conversation. it was too bad i was full as there was lots to eat and drink. once they found out i was a phd student they started sending food home with us.
-went grocery shopping with mom. lots of free samples.
-went to the milwaukee brewing company brewery tour with mandi. a fantastic tour guide. good, tasty beers to try.
- had pizza at a nearby place for dinner.
-went to a farm for a party of one of mandi's masters program friends. good conversation. it was too bad i was full as there was lots to eat and drink. once they found out i was a phd student they started sending food home with us.
sunday 09 december 2012
-worked on my scrapbook.
-went to the gym.
-worked on my scrapbook.
-went to the gym.
monday 10 december 2012
-super sleepy. worked on a scrapbook for brittany. started digitizing dad's music library. attempted to fill in my timesheet and address other things. got overwhelmed.
-hung out with liz and brian.
-super sleepy. worked on a scrapbook for brittany. started digitizing dad's music library. attempted to fill in my timesheet and address other things. got overwhelmed.
-hung out with liz and brian.
tuesday 11 december 2012
-worked on digitizing dad's library further.
-did some phd work.
-went to the gym.
-worked on digitizing dad's library further.
-did some phd work.
-went to the gym.
wednesday 12 december 2012
-tried to do some phd work.
-tried to do some phd work.
-great outing to hectors. mmm delicious margaritas.
-wonderful video chat with campos. so much fun. not as much as in person, but late night video chat is pretty good.
thursday 13 december 2012
-had a manual driving lesson with dad
-family hair cut
-had mexican
-took the bus down to chicago for the weekend
-hung out with jt. went to the grocery store in search of snacks/dessert
friday 14 december 2012
-slept in (yay)
-had multiple, delicious hot dogs
-had a lazy rest of the afternoon watching episodes of sherlock
-went to a sherlock radioplay, which ended up being a part of a fundraiser. good show. really nice, slightly overbearing lady roping us into the fundraiser. interesting evening outing.
-watched more sherlock while sitting on jt's awesome new reclining couch.
saturday 15 december 2012
-gross weather
-jt woke up even more sick so he decided not to spend the day with steph and me but still drove in to pick up steph and drop us off at the restaurant for lunch
- had lunch with steph and vic. so so good to see vic. great catch up. good burger.
-gross weather ruined our plan for the day, but we trooped by the macy's windows and to the christmas market. but since the forecast said rain for the rest of the day and evening, we decided against staying out in the rain for zoo lights and took an afternoon train back to steph's
-where we watched downton abbey episodes. which was good too. although i was super sleepy.
sunday 16 december 2012
-today.
-rounded out downton abbey season one and got some froyo. spoke with steph's family and then drove up to come home. good times. so not a trip to chicago to see chicago, but it was a great weekend and awesome to see three great friends.
rounding out november
thursday 22 november 2012
--rottnest island trip.
-got up early and took the bus to ju's. from ju's we took the train to freo. then ju, joel, ashley, and beth and i took the ferry across to rotto. emily took a ferry from the north and got in shortly after us.
-we couldn't get our keys for our villa until 2, so we went just down the coast a bit and hung out on the beach. we saw a quokka and unfortunately beth hit her head on a tree from taking a picture of them. luckily the restaurant gave her some ice. nice few hours on the beach and eating lunch and seeing the quokka until the quokka was trying to get after all of our stuff.
-around two we hired bikes and rode to our villa. unfortunately you have to check in at the ferry site and so we rode back to take care of that. i went with joel but then we needed juliana so emily rode down with her. so that left beth and ashley back at the villa who were sitting outside on the ground enjoying some cider and chips when we returned.
-took a nice walk along our villa beach before working on dinner.
-couldn't get the bbq to work, so we cooked a great meal inside.
-spent the evening playing cards and hanging out. it was a great day.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rotto-1.html
friday 23 november 2012
--rotto day two.
-got up and the group made a good breakfast.
-rode back to the ferry dock to return the key and stick our stuff in a locker.
-rode to the closer lighthouse and on to a beach known as a snorkeling spot.
-tried to snorkel even though the water was freezing and the undertow very strong. i saw some fish and then gave up. took a lot of effort to get out of the water.
-a school group came and so we decided to move on to a different beach to avoid the people. ended up close to our villa and had a picnic lunch.
-then headed back to return our bikes and go have pies at the restaurant. very very tasty.
-relaxed in the grass before our ferry back.
-took the ferry back to freo. emily saw a whale from her ferry, so we missed out on that. took the train back to the city with ashley and beth. then walked through downtown and took the bus back home.
Fantastic trip. we should have stayed longer.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rotto-2.html
saturday 24 november 2012
- went to the hub to do some work
- went out with adrian and kids. tried to go to the beach but it was too windy so we ended up at a park.
sunday 25 november 2012
-got up and took the train out to ashleys.
-made sangria for thanksgiving dinner later that night.
-went wine tasting with ashley and friends in the swan valley. was a nice outing
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/swan-valley.html
-came back and made thanksgiving dishes.
- a lovely thanksgiving. good food, good people. cameron made us take a thanksgiving quiz and due to a random -5 if you're american for one question, an australian won. played some catch phrase. introduced people to candy corn and marshmallows in sweet potatoes. was a great day.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/thanksgiving.html
monday 26 november 2012
-work at the hub
-did some RA hours.
tuesday 27 november 2012
-had a meeting with supervisor lauren about my candidacy document which i did not get to turn in on time the week before.
wednesday 28 november 2012
-hub
-did some cleaning
thursday 29 november 2012
-moved out in the morning. kath was nice enough to pick me up as it was threatening rain.
-worked at the hub
-'moved' to juliana's in the evening.
-went to the grocery store as prep for the next day's cricket event.
-spent a good portion of the evening carving a helmet out of a watermelon
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/watermelon-prep.html
friday 30 november 2012
-day out at the cricket match.
-awesome outing.
-got lots of freebies, including a radio to listen to the announcers.
-wore my watermelon helmet and was interviewed for the news.
-got facepainted.
-had a great, full day.
-went to a pub in vic park post match. fun times.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/cricket.html
--rottnest island trip.
-got up early and took the bus to ju's. from ju's we took the train to freo. then ju, joel, ashley, and beth and i took the ferry across to rotto. emily took a ferry from the north and got in shortly after us.
-we couldn't get our keys for our villa until 2, so we went just down the coast a bit and hung out on the beach. we saw a quokka and unfortunately beth hit her head on a tree from taking a picture of them. luckily the restaurant gave her some ice. nice few hours on the beach and eating lunch and seeing the quokka until the quokka was trying to get after all of our stuff.
-around two we hired bikes and rode to our villa. unfortunately you have to check in at the ferry site and so we rode back to take care of that. i went with joel but then we needed juliana so emily rode down with her. so that left beth and ashley back at the villa who were sitting outside on the ground enjoying some cider and chips when we returned.
-took a nice walk along our villa beach before working on dinner.
-couldn't get the bbq to work, so we cooked a great meal inside.
-spent the evening playing cards and hanging out. it was a great day.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rotto-1.html
friday 23 november 2012
--rotto day two.
-got up and the group made a good breakfast.
-rode back to the ferry dock to return the key and stick our stuff in a locker.
-rode to the closer lighthouse and on to a beach known as a snorkeling spot.
-tried to snorkel even though the water was freezing and the undertow very strong. i saw some fish and then gave up. took a lot of effort to get out of the water.
-a school group came and so we decided to move on to a different beach to avoid the people. ended up close to our villa and had a picnic lunch.
-then headed back to return our bikes and go have pies at the restaurant. very very tasty.
-relaxed in the grass before our ferry back.
-took the ferry back to freo. emily saw a whale from her ferry, so we missed out on that. took the train back to the city with ashley and beth. then walked through downtown and took the bus back home.
Fantastic trip. we should have stayed longer.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rotto-2.html
saturday 24 november 2012
- went to the hub to do some work
- went out with adrian and kids. tried to go to the beach but it was too windy so we ended up at a park.
sunday 25 november 2012
-got up and took the train out to ashleys.
-made sangria for thanksgiving dinner later that night.
-went wine tasting with ashley and friends in the swan valley. was a nice outing
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/swan-valley.html
-came back and made thanksgiving dishes.
- a lovely thanksgiving. good food, good people. cameron made us take a thanksgiving quiz and due to a random -5 if you're american for one question, an australian won. played some catch phrase. introduced people to candy corn and marshmallows in sweet potatoes. was a great day.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/thanksgiving.html
monday 26 november 2012
-work at the hub
-did some RA hours.
tuesday 27 november 2012
-had a meeting with supervisor lauren about my candidacy document which i did not get to turn in on time the week before.
wednesday 28 november 2012
-hub
-did some cleaning
thursday 29 november 2012
-moved out in the morning. kath was nice enough to pick me up as it was threatening rain.
-worked at the hub
-'moved' to juliana's in the evening.
-went to the grocery store as prep for the next day's cricket event.
-spent a good portion of the evening carving a helmet out of a watermelon
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/watermelon-prep.html
friday 30 november 2012
-day out at the cricket match.
-awesome outing.
-got lots of freebies, including a radio to listen to the announcers.
-wore my watermelon helmet and was interviewed for the news.
-got facepainted.
-had a great, full day.
-went to a pub in vic park post match. fun times.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/12/cricket.html
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
no shirt, no shoes, no...
...problem.
i enjoy that you basically can go to the grocery store in beach wear and/or no shoes. not even sandals. just lots o' barefooted folks. seems to represent the aussie-beach culture-mindset well.
i enjoy that you basically can go to the grocery store in beach wear and/or no shoes. not even sandals. just lots o' barefooted folks. seems to represent the aussie-beach culture-mindset well.
jacaranda trees
the jacaranda trees now seem to be in full bloom and i love them
they have awesome purple flowers and since that's not one familiar to me, i think they're great.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/jacaranda.html
they have awesome purple flowers and since that's not one familiar to me, i think they're great.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/jacaranda.html
november thus far
04 november - sunday
did some work at the hub; tried to find econ variables; got very frustrated and not very far.
05 november - monday
graded a paper, went to the gym, did some work. not exciting.
06 november - tuesday
turned in my cloud+ftp paper, had a meeting, went to the gym
07 november - wednesday
turned in my esm paper, did work, went to the gym
08 november - thursday
did work, did some ra work, talked with Ashley about making sangria for thanksgiving and then we went to Subiaco in search of sangria. basically got a glass of orange juice as 'sangria' for 8 dollars. good thing that was the happy hour half price because 16 dollars for orange juice would have demanded some reaction. walked around in search of somewhere else to go and ended up having some burritos and wine. was an enjoyable evening and now i've been to subi.
09 november - friday
went to the mark liveris conference on campus in the am. heard kenny and sarah present their research. got some free lunch. tried to do work in the afternoon but didn't really get anywhere.
10 november - saturday
went to the gym. went to the grocery store and walked home. watched tv.
11 november - sunday
went to fremantle with juliana. took the train, had a nice time walking around freo. the arts centre didn't have any art which was a bummer, but the market was fun and then we walked along the jetty and saw the oldest public structure in wa (a roundhouse - prison). had a delicious sausage and donut like thing filled with chocolate from the market for lunch. took the train back and got off in town to search for australia souvenirs - not a lot of luck but was a nice day.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/freo.html
12 november - monday
had an RA meeting, did some work. got really overwhelmed with the amount of research literature i had downloaded and had not read so i skipped the gym and spent the entire evening going through what i had downloaded to reshuffle the files to figure out what i should read.
13 november - tuesday
work at the hub, read lots of journal articles; went to the gym.
14 november - wednesday
work at the hub, read lots of journal articles; went to the gym.
15 november - thursday
actually had a good meeting in the morning, worked at the hub on my candidacy document.
went to the opening of the mexican film festival. film was okay. it was in english more than spanish, but i did enjoy the dual language and mariachi music. food was not as advertised and not that great. but it was still a nice social evening out with some of the hub folks.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/mexican-film-fest.html
16 november - friday
worked at the hub on my candidacy document; went to the gym.
17 november - saturday
made cheesecake, did laundry, and vacuumed in the morning.
went to joel's for a bbq which entailed me taking the bus to juliana's, riding the train with juliana out to where vinny lives, and then going with vinny and fernanda by car to joel's. that's a lot of transport. luckily ashley was traveling south and able to drop me off after.
we ate a lot of delicious food and met max, joel's dog, and hung out. and a lot of hub people showed so that was awesome.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bbq.html
18 november - sunday
skated 5ish miles around the neighborhood.
went to manna to cook food for the homeless. possibly did more cleaning than cooking this time around. but still good. had pizza afterward.
20 november - monday
worked on my candidacy document again. went to the gym.
21 november - tuesday
had a meeting. didn't go quite as planned (had hoped to finalize the candidacy document at least to turn in) and have a bunch more work to do with the thing.
went to caversham wildlife park with ashley, beth (friend from TX), juliana, and joel. so awesome. hung out with kangaroos, got to pet a wombat and koala. saw lots of animals i don't know anything about. also we bbqed before hand in the park that surrounds the zoo like park. it was a great afternoon. not productive for the phd in the sense of writing, but probably healthy for my mind. i'd like to spend more time with those animals.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/caversham.html
22 november - today
more candidacy work. so tired of it. ugh.
did some work at the hub; tried to find econ variables; got very frustrated and not very far.
05 november - monday
graded a paper, went to the gym, did some work. not exciting.
06 november - tuesday
turned in my cloud+ftp paper, had a meeting, went to the gym
07 november - wednesday
turned in my esm paper, did work, went to the gym
08 november - thursday
did work, did some ra work, talked with Ashley about making sangria for thanksgiving and then we went to Subiaco in search of sangria. basically got a glass of orange juice as 'sangria' for 8 dollars. good thing that was the happy hour half price because 16 dollars for orange juice would have demanded some reaction. walked around in search of somewhere else to go and ended up having some burritos and wine. was an enjoyable evening and now i've been to subi.
09 november - friday
went to the mark liveris conference on campus in the am. heard kenny and sarah present their research. got some free lunch. tried to do work in the afternoon but didn't really get anywhere.
10 november - saturday
went to the gym. went to the grocery store and walked home. watched tv.
11 november - sunday
went to fremantle with juliana. took the train, had a nice time walking around freo. the arts centre didn't have any art which was a bummer, but the market was fun and then we walked along the jetty and saw the oldest public structure in wa (a roundhouse - prison). had a delicious sausage and donut like thing filled with chocolate from the market for lunch. took the train back and got off in town to search for australia souvenirs - not a lot of luck but was a nice day.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/freo.html
12 november - monday
had an RA meeting, did some work. got really overwhelmed with the amount of research literature i had downloaded and had not read so i skipped the gym and spent the entire evening going through what i had downloaded to reshuffle the files to figure out what i should read.
13 november - tuesday
work at the hub, read lots of journal articles; went to the gym.
14 november - wednesday
work at the hub, read lots of journal articles; went to the gym.
15 november - thursday
actually had a good meeting in the morning, worked at the hub on my candidacy document.
went to the opening of the mexican film festival. film was okay. it was in english more than spanish, but i did enjoy the dual language and mariachi music. food was not as advertised and not that great. but it was still a nice social evening out with some of the hub folks.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/mexican-film-fest.html
16 november - friday
worked at the hub on my candidacy document; went to the gym.
17 november - saturday
made cheesecake, did laundry, and vacuumed in the morning.
went to joel's for a bbq which entailed me taking the bus to juliana's, riding the train with juliana out to where vinny lives, and then going with vinny and fernanda by car to joel's. that's a lot of transport. luckily ashley was traveling south and able to drop me off after.
we ate a lot of delicious food and met max, joel's dog, and hung out. and a lot of hub people showed so that was awesome.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bbq.html
18 november - sunday
skated 5ish miles around the neighborhood.
went to manna to cook food for the homeless. possibly did more cleaning than cooking this time around. but still good. had pizza afterward.
20 november - monday
worked on my candidacy document again. went to the gym.
21 november - tuesday
had a meeting. didn't go quite as planned (had hoped to finalize the candidacy document at least to turn in) and have a bunch more work to do with the thing.
went to caversham wildlife park with ashley, beth (friend from TX), juliana, and joel. so awesome. hung out with kangaroos, got to pet a wombat and koala. saw lots of animals i don't know anything about. also we bbqed before hand in the park that surrounds the zoo like park. it was a great afternoon. not productive for the phd in the sense of writing, but probably healthy for my mind. i'd like to spend more time with those animals.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/caversham.html
22 november - today
more candidacy work. so tired of it. ugh.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
november 1-3
01 november thursday
marked another paper, tried to look up a little data related question for another RA, and really spent most of the day being frustrated with the CLOUD+FTP paper.
actually, at about 3 i worked on obtaining information about hiring bikes on rottnest island and then sat around planning that and a trip to watch cricket with juliana and ashley.
then backed up all my files as joel's usb corrupted itself the day before, so i took that as a good reminder to back up my stuff.
chatted with brittany about thailand possibilities.
went to the gym.
02 november friday
realized i probably can't go to thailand with brittany, which was depressing.
spent the day (again) with the CLOUD+FTP paper, although managed to get the introductions in a lot better place (in part to joel's help as another set of eyes looking at it in the afternoon).
although most of the day was spent learning how to use EndNote and beginning to create an endnote library (after all of the students basically were shocked and appalled that i wasn't using it).
went to the gym.
watched some episodes of Black Books to finish that series.
03 november saturday - today
went to the gym.
was raining so decided against trying to go to the outdoor day of the dead thing and came into the hub.
spent more time with endnote and making the changes that i needed to with the cloud+ftp introductions.
lots of time with endnote. but that'll be good moving forward, and it was something i could do that i felt i could do and actually see the progress and do it while watching some eipisodes of tv.
oh and researched some potential trip ideas for within australia for brittany and me.
marked another paper, tried to look up a little data related question for another RA, and really spent most of the day being frustrated with the CLOUD+FTP paper.
actually, at about 3 i worked on obtaining information about hiring bikes on rottnest island and then sat around planning that and a trip to watch cricket with juliana and ashley.
then backed up all my files as joel's usb corrupted itself the day before, so i took that as a good reminder to back up my stuff.
chatted with brittany about thailand possibilities.
went to the gym.
02 november friday
realized i probably can't go to thailand with brittany, which was depressing.
spent the day (again) with the CLOUD+FTP paper, although managed to get the introductions in a lot better place (in part to joel's help as another set of eyes looking at it in the afternoon).
although most of the day was spent learning how to use EndNote and beginning to create an endnote library (after all of the students basically were shocked and appalled that i wasn't using it).
went to the gym.
watched some episodes of Black Books to finish that series.
03 november saturday - today
went to the gym.
was raining so decided against trying to go to the outdoor day of the dead thing and came into the hub.
spent more time with endnote and making the changes that i needed to with the cloud+ftp introductions.
lots of time with endnote. but that'll be good moving forward, and it was something i could do that i felt i could do and actually see the progress and do it while watching some eipisodes of tv.
oh and researched some potential trip ideas for within australia for brittany and me.
october
14 october sunday
15 october monday
went to the doctor because i had been feeling so tired. had my blood drawn and it only took one try in each arm.
16 october tuesday
called emirates to confirm my passport details, and found out that i mis-interpreted my layover in dubai on the way home. so i have a hotel room booked from emirates, so i guess i have some hours in dubai. that sounds interesting.
17 october wednesday
went and watched kate do her candidacy proposal. her research is on sport and perfectionism. seems interesting and she did a good job presenting.
18 october thursday
went to the gym after having not gone for a long time. glad to go back and feel a bit better.
19 october friday
went to the post office to get my police clearance.
had a meeting about the RA project; have been put in a 'manager' type role for the other two RAs.
marked a bunch of assignments.
went to the grocery store with bea and lydia.
went to the gym.
20 october saturday
went to the gym.
finished the marking (minus tallying the totals).
went with bea to a rooftop movie downtown. was a really cool set up and lots of fun.
went to a few bars to see what northbridge has to offer.
took the train back and stayed at bea & juliana's
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rooftop-cinema.html
21 october sunday
made french toast for breakfast.
went for a lovely walk around part of the river with bea.
had lunch with bea, joel, and juliana.
went with bea, joel, and juliana to join the manna crew to cook dinner for the homeless.
made another fritada - which turned out better than last time.
helped ice a whole bunch of oddly shaped cupcakes.
went out to dinner at a bar in vic park after with a group of people.
22 october monday
went to the gym.
worked on setting up a database for the RA project.
23 october tuesday
had a supervisory meeting that was only minutes long as they could then be reading drafts of my work.
went to hoopla with some students for coffee/cakes to celebrate kenny's birthday
24 october wednesday
did a bit more marking.
went to the gym.
tried to read things in hopes i could find relevant 'control' related ideas/literature
25 october thursday
spent a lot of the day trying to go through the feedback i received on the two drafts of articles that adrian and lauren had looked at. was very overwhelming in the case of lauren's and couldn't do much with adrian's since his suggestion would involve starting over with the analyses. got very disheartened about my work.
26 october friday
joined a few students for 'disabilitea' which was a national event to raise awareness for trying to change some australian laws. ate a bunch of scones.
tried to get more reading done, but really didn't get anywhere.
went to the gym.
went to the library to grab some movies and then went to juliana's.
went to the grocery store to make nachos and then watched some movies.
27 october saturday
went with bea, juliana, and joel to floreat beach for vin's birthday.
lots of brazilians (only joel and i did not speak portuguese)
ate delicious food.
swam a bit in the freezing cold water.
played a little tennis like raquet sport on the beach.
bea and i had to leave early to go home and get ready to then go to the bamnf film festival - which was one evening of a series of short films about various extreme sports. we went with lydia; it was really cool.
stayed again at bea and juliana's since we had sunday plans as well.
28 october sunday
lounged around in the morning until the shopping trip for the stuff to make the brazilian dinner - which took us to multiple grocery stores.
made a dessert and watched some IT crowd episodes with joel.
then helped cook and hung out with a good crowd of the students and again had a delicious brazilian meal.
it was lots of fun. a really great weekend.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/brazilian-night.html
29 october monday
did phd reading and whatnot.
went to the gym.
30 october tuesday
had my supervisory meeting in which we discussed things from the feedback about the drafts. decided how to go about the re-doing of the data for the one (CLOUD + FTP) and spoke about some of lauren's comments (ESM).
was a hard meeting and one that did not leave me inspired to keep working on them or any part of the phd.
very frustrating.
re-did a bunch of the analyses to start that process.
went to the gym.
31 october wednesday
halloween at the hub.
spent time in the afternoon playing with costumes and then augmenting my pirate costume (with a parrot). but i did finish going through the draft with the new analyses and new findings.
spoke with brittany.
and then celebrated halloween (see other post) which was really a lot of fun.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/halloween.html
15 october monday
went to the doctor because i had been feeling so tired. had my blood drawn and it only took one try in each arm.
16 october tuesday
called emirates to confirm my passport details, and found out that i mis-interpreted my layover in dubai on the way home. so i have a hotel room booked from emirates, so i guess i have some hours in dubai. that sounds interesting.
17 october wednesday
went and watched kate do her candidacy proposal. her research is on sport and perfectionism. seems interesting and she did a good job presenting.
18 october thursday
went to the gym after having not gone for a long time. glad to go back and feel a bit better.
19 october friday
went to the post office to get my police clearance.
had a meeting about the RA project; have been put in a 'manager' type role for the other two RAs.
marked a bunch of assignments.
went to the grocery store with bea and lydia.
went to the gym.
20 october saturday
went to the gym.
finished the marking (minus tallying the totals).
went with bea to a rooftop movie downtown. was a really cool set up and lots of fun.
went to a few bars to see what northbridge has to offer.
took the train back and stayed at bea & juliana's
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rooftop-cinema.html
21 october sunday
made french toast for breakfast.
went for a lovely walk around part of the river with bea.
had lunch with bea, joel, and juliana.
went with bea, joel, and juliana to join the manna crew to cook dinner for the homeless.
made another fritada - which turned out better than last time.
helped ice a whole bunch of oddly shaped cupcakes.
went out to dinner at a bar in vic park after with a group of people.
22 october monday
went to the gym.
worked on setting up a database for the RA project.
23 october tuesday
had a supervisory meeting that was only minutes long as they could then be reading drafts of my work.
went to hoopla with some students for coffee/cakes to celebrate kenny's birthday
24 october wednesday
did a bit more marking.
went to the gym.
tried to read things in hopes i could find relevant 'control' related ideas/literature
25 october thursday
spent a lot of the day trying to go through the feedback i received on the two drafts of articles that adrian and lauren had looked at. was very overwhelming in the case of lauren's and couldn't do much with adrian's since his suggestion would involve starting over with the analyses. got very disheartened about my work.
26 october friday
joined a few students for 'disabilitea' which was a national event to raise awareness for trying to change some australian laws. ate a bunch of scones.
tried to get more reading done, but really didn't get anywhere.
went to the gym.
went to the library to grab some movies and then went to juliana's.
went to the grocery store to make nachos and then watched some movies.
27 october saturday
went with bea, juliana, and joel to floreat beach for vin's birthday.
lots of brazilians (only joel and i did not speak portuguese)
ate delicious food.
swam a bit in the freezing cold water.
played a little tennis like raquet sport on the beach.
bea and i had to leave early to go home and get ready to then go to the bamnf film festival - which was one evening of a series of short films about various extreme sports. we went with lydia; it was really cool.
stayed again at bea and juliana's since we had sunday plans as well.
28 october sunday
lounged around in the morning until the shopping trip for the stuff to make the brazilian dinner - which took us to multiple grocery stores.
made a dessert and watched some IT crowd episodes with joel.
then helped cook and hung out with a good crowd of the students and again had a delicious brazilian meal.
it was lots of fun. a really great weekend.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/brazilian-night.html
29 october monday
did phd reading and whatnot.
went to the gym.
30 october tuesday
had my supervisory meeting in which we discussed things from the feedback about the drafts. decided how to go about the re-doing of the data for the one (CLOUD + FTP) and spoke about some of lauren's comments (ESM).
was a hard meeting and one that did not leave me inspired to keep working on them or any part of the phd.
very frustrating.
re-did a bunch of the analyses to start that process.
went to the gym.
31 october wednesday
halloween at the hub.
spent time in the afternoon playing with costumes and then augmenting my pirate costume (with a parrot). but i did finish going through the draft with the new analyses and new findings.
spoke with brittany.
and then celebrated halloween (see other post) which was really a lot of fun.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/halloween.html
Thursday, November 1, 2012
halloween
halloween was yesterday, making today the first day of november.
that seems odd.
perhaps because it doesn't seem like it should be november, and warm weather i guess may not indicate that time is moving towards the end of the year in the same way that it would be while not in the southern hemisphere.
halloween was a lot of fun yesterday. was dressed as a pirate for half the day and had an enjoyable evening sharing how to carve pumpkins with australians who had never done so and eating candy and watching a stupid 'scary' film.
[PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/halloween.html]
spoke with brittany for a minute yesterday and spent some time this morning looking up flights to join her on an asian adventure. pretty exciting. want to really think about that because i need to figure it out, but i also really should try to accomplish some work. just not sure my brain's up for hard thinking right now.
also in randomness of having youtube play me music to listen to yesterday, i discovered the bosstones are still playing shows. missed their reunion, but that's pretty cool.
that seems odd.
perhaps because it doesn't seem like it should be november, and warm weather i guess may not indicate that time is moving towards the end of the year in the same way that it would be while not in the southern hemisphere.
halloween was a lot of fun yesterday. was dressed as a pirate for half the day and had an enjoyable evening sharing how to carve pumpkins with australians who had never done so and eating candy and watching a stupid 'scary' film.
[PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/halloween.html]
spoke with brittany for a minute yesterday and spent some time this morning looking up flights to join her on an asian adventure. pretty exciting. want to really think about that because i need to figure it out, but i also really should try to accomplish some work. just not sure my brain's up for hard thinking right now.
also in randomness of having youtube play me music to listen to yesterday, i discovered the bosstones are still playing shows. missed their reunion, but that's pretty cool.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
research in progress
enjoyable (for phd/researcher folks most likely) tumblr: http://researchinprogress.tumblr.com
think my favorite one so far is this one: http://researchinprogress.tumblr.com/post/33288624311/appealing-paper-turns-out-to-be-pseudoscience
think my favorite one so far is this one: http://researchinprogress.tumblr.com/post/33288624311/appealing-paper-turns-out-to-be-pseudoscience
Saturday, October 13, 2012
phd tips
ran across this the other day, seems like i'm working on #1 at the moment:
http://www.nextscientist.com/graduate-school-advice-series-starting-phd/
and i'm sort of on top of #7 with my academia.edu page, so that's good. but it's number one that i'm going to focus on for the next 2 months (and then after that too)!
http://www.nextscientist.com/graduate-school-advice-series-starting-phd/
and i'm sort of on top of #7 with my academia.edu page, so that's good. but it's number one that i'm going to focus on for the next 2 months (and then after that too)!
half a month
wish i had something super exciting to include in this catch up, but i don't think i really do...
October
01 Monday
Watched Juliana present her candidacy for her physio phd. She did an incredible job - especially in a second language in front of lots of staff and doctors (and us students).
To celebrate we ordered pizzas to the hub and played 'cards against humanity' which is sort of like apples to apples. it was a great evening.
02 Tuesday
Had a meeting to run through the orange juice project and do a trial run. Got it all set to start data collection on thursday.
Had a meeting about my phd.
03 Wednesday
Spent time finalizing the playlists for the orange juice study. had to buy a few 'australian' songs for it.
04 Thursday
Day one of the orange juice study data collection. 3 hours of facing people rejecting me. Haven't done that in awhile, yet the feelings were quick to return. ugh.
Went to the fedex place to pick up my inline skates.
05 Friday
Data collection for the orange juice study day two. not as many people as day one. more annoying no's.
Went to the travel agency people on campus to find out about flights home for christmas.
went to the bank to open an online savings account.
06 Saturday
Didn't do anything. mostly watched tv. did go to the library to get some dvds although that floor of the library closes early which i didn't realize and so i was 5 minutes too lare for that. stayed and used the internet though so it wasn't a complete waste.
07 Sunday
Skated a short skate around the neighborhood. went to the body balance class at the gym. went to the hub to work on my article drafts. joel came into the hub and invited me to come with him and juliana to dinner. we had delicious pizza.
08 Monday
skated to the hub. orange juice data collection day 3.
didn't feel awesome - quite tired.
09 Tuesday
Felt even more tired. went to the library before my supervisory meeting and finished the two article drafts. found out the person who was supposed to collect data with me wasn't coming so we had to deal with that for most of my meeting time. a fourth year undergrad student was able to help out and she did an awesome job. we got like 3x the amount that we did the previous day. she was great and i wish that she had been helping every day.
we discussed looking into the smpc conference for next year and about doing my candidacy before december so i could go home for christmas. we got neville to join us and the decision was made that i wouldn't have to do the whole candidacy process (which really could have been decided back when i was asking that question months ago but anyway). so that's exciting.
went along in the evening with a few students to get bubble tea. it's a really popular thing here, although i hadn't had it. i think i remember brittany talking about it. speaking of i chatted with her online and she's currently in the states getting ready for her sister's wedding. crazy. anyway i didn't get my own bubble tea but tried some of the ones they all got. there's like gummy things in it - hence the bubbles. some flavours definitely better than others. but good to consider in the future.
10 Wednesday
bought a plane ticket to go home for december. a lot of money, but i am excited to go home. i do have a grand plan of a lot of things that i want to accomplish before going home/christmas, but i think it is possible. 5 papers to submit to journals and getting my candidacy submitted. that's a lot, but i believe i can do it. and also i really think it would make me feel like i've accomplished something. so that's a lot of work.
i spoke on skype with a guy in new jersey who wants to help out with adrian's research - which by proxy means mine at the moment hopefully. which would be great. so hopefully that'll pan out.
also got a draft of another journal article emailed off to the supervisors (so that's 3 on the way to being worked on to get submitted). just have to wait for lauren (and then adrian) to go through them and then i'm sure i'll have a large job to do to improve them. but i haven't gotten feedback on this since may, so it'll be nice to get feedback and hopefully finish them off.
worked on my candidacy proposal in the afternoon - got maybe a third of it written.
11 Thursday
day 5 of data collection.
continued working on my candidacy proposal - pretty much half written as a draft. not sure about all that's in the lit review, but i figure i can get lauren and adrian's input before putting more time in on that section. so now the tough section is the bit where i have to really plan out the 2 new studies i'm proposing to do. but i definitely think i'll be able to get that done sooner than later (and definitely before christmas).
went to dinner with 5 of the phd students. we went to this popular italian place that doesnt take reservations but turns over tables pretty quick. they had been talking about how good it was. and it was very tasty. ate far too much food, but it was really good.
12 Friday
last day of orange juice data collection. yay for that. emily and joel helped get a few people - it was much more enjoyable when they were around to chat with while trying to get people to participate. definitely an indication of (like on tuesday) of having good company when getting all the rejection.
came back to the hub to some students still hanging out from lunch so that was nice.
tried to get work done after that but wasn't super focused - and felt so tired that i went home around 6 without getting too much done on my own work. but at least the orange juice data collection is done with.
13 Saturday
today.
watched some tv this morning. trying to sleep in even though that didn't really happen. went to the library to return a book and get some dvds. looks like a bit of rain for the afternoon which hopefully will stop when i walk back home from the hub. going to see if i can get a bit of work done today so i can try to wrap up another article draft (that'd be 4 of the 5) before the end of this week. we'll see - i'm not super motivated to write but maybe i'll find some good references to include.
October
01 Monday
Watched Juliana present her candidacy for her physio phd. She did an incredible job - especially in a second language in front of lots of staff and doctors (and us students).
To celebrate we ordered pizzas to the hub and played 'cards against humanity' which is sort of like apples to apples. it was a great evening.
02 Tuesday
Had a meeting to run through the orange juice project and do a trial run. Got it all set to start data collection on thursday.
Had a meeting about my phd.
03 Wednesday
Spent time finalizing the playlists for the orange juice study. had to buy a few 'australian' songs for it.
04 Thursday
Day one of the orange juice study data collection. 3 hours of facing people rejecting me. Haven't done that in awhile, yet the feelings were quick to return. ugh.
Went to the fedex place to pick up my inline skates.
05 Friday
Data collection for the orange juice study day two. not as many people as day one. more annoying no's.
Went to the travel agency people on campus to find out about flights home for christmas.
went to the bank to open an online savings account.
06 Saturday
Didn't do anything. mostly watched tv. did go to the library to get some dvds although that floor of the library closes early which i didn't realize and so i was 5 minutes too lare for that. stayed and used the internet though so it wasn't a complete waste.
07 Sunday
Skated a short skate around the neighborhood. went to the body balance class at the gym. went to the hub to work on my article drafts. joel came into the hub and invited me to come with him and juliana to dinner. we had delicious pizza.
08 Monday
skated to the hub. orange juice data collection day 3.
didn't feel awesome - quite tired.
09 Tuesday
Felt even more tired. went to the library before my supervisory meeting and finished the two article drafts. found out the person who was supposed to collect data with me wasn't coming so we had to deal with that for most of my meeting time. a fourth year undergrad student was able to help out and she did an awesome job. we got like 3x the amount that we did the previous day. she was great and i wish that she had been helping every day.
we discussed looking into the smpc conference for next year and about doing my candidacy before december so i could go home for christmas. we got neville to join us and the decision was made that i wouldn't have to do the whole candidacy process (which really could have been decided back when i was asking that question months ago but anyway). so that's exciting.
went along in the evening with a few students to get bubble tea. it's a really popular thing here, although i hadn't had it. i think i remember brittany talking about it. speaking of i chatted with her online and she's currently in the states getting ready for her sister's wedding. crazy. anyway i didn't get my own bubble tea but tried some of the ones they all got. there's like gummy things in it - hence the bubbles. some flavours definitely better than others. but good to consider in the future.
10 Wednesday
bought a plane ticket to go home for december. a lot of money, but i am excited to go home. i do have a grand plan of a lot of things that i want to accomplish before going home/christmas, but i think it is possible. 5 papers to submit to journals and getting my candidacy submitted. that's a lot, but i believe i can do it. and also i really think it would make me feel like i've accomplished something. so that's a lot of work.
i spoke on skype with a guy in new jersey who wants to help out with adrian's research - which by proxy means mine at the moment hopefully. which would be great. so hopefully that'll pan out.
also got a draft of another journal article emailed off to the supervisors (so that's 3 on the way to being worked on to get submitted). just have to wait for lauren (and then adrian) to go through them and then i'm sure i'll have a large job to do to improve them. but i haven't gotten feedback on this since may, so it'll be nice to get feedback and hopefully finish them off.
worked on my candidacy proposal in the afternoon - got maybe a third of it written.
11 Thursday
day 5 of data collection.
continued working on my candidacy proposal - pretty much half written as a draft. not sure about all that's in the lit review, but i figure i can get lauren and adrian's input before putting more time in on that section. so now the tough section is the bit where i have to really plan out the 2 new studies i'm proposing to do. but i definitely think i'll be able to get that done sooner than later (and definitely before christmas).
went to dinner with 5 of the phd students. we went to this popular italian place that doesnt take reservations but turns over tables pretty quick. they had been talking about how good it was. and it was very tasty. ate far too much food, but it was really good.
12 Friday
last day of orange juice data collection. yay for that. emily and joel helped get a few people - it was much more enjoyable when they were around to chat with while trying to get people to participate. definitely an indication of (like on tuesday) of having good company when getting all the rejection.
came back to the hub to some students still hanging out from lunch so that was nice.
tried to get work done after that but wasn't super focused - and felt so tired that i went home around 6 without getting too much done on my own work. but at least the orange juice data collection is done with.
13 Saturday
today.
watched some tv this morning. trying to sleep in even though that didn't really happen. went to the library to return a book and get some dvds. looks like a bit of rain for the afternoon which hopefully will stop when i walk back home from the hub. going to see if i can get a bit of work done today so i can try to wrap up another article draft (that'd be 4 of the 5) before the end of this week. we'll see - i'm not super motivated to write but maybe i'll find some good references to include.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
this week
23 sunday
went to the gym, did some work at the hub. nothing exciting
25 tuesday
-had a supervisory meeting. discussed some of what the results of the CLOUD study might mean, discussed how to go about some analysis for the FTP project, and sadly didn't have enough time to review the ESM study. so lots of work proposed to do in turn.
sat with a group of hubsters and had a nice chat towards the end of the day. tried to figure out what sort of meal we should have following juliana's candidacy next week which made most of us hungry. a lot of time spent discussing the possibility of italian or mexican/ burritos. the burritos talk was enough of a chat that we ended up going out to have burritos at a place in leederville. i hadn't been to that area, and there's lots of restaurants and bars in a nice grouping so it looks like a place to go back to. and the burritos were good. so that was a win. plus randomly ashley and i somehow got to talking about driving and she offered to take me to the dmv equivalent to get a license.
26 wednesday
so ashley and i ventured out to the nearest dmv place. unsure of whether they would just accept that i had a us license and give me an australian one or if i'd have to do some sort of testing, we were pleasantly surprised that they would transfer mine (providing i had a ton of identification - which i did). and we were able to take care of it with enough time for her to get back and go do her research. so that was an awesome achievement. now bouncers won't be able to say anything, joel can teach me possibly to drive a manual car, and perhaps then a car in the future. we'll see.
i spent the rest of my time at the hub marking assignments. randomly was able to pick up a bit of marking (grading) that another student wasn't able to do. so i had 28 assignments to grade. and i managed to get through them quicker than the alloted time. so that's awesome. got them all done on wednesday - think it helped that i didn't do one at a time but one question across all of them. all about the efficiency.
went to the gym.
27 thursday
had a meeting about a research project adrian and two other professors are doing. 2 others and myself are going to work on it as research assistants (RA). so that's work to pay me. which is awesome because it being one of adrian's projects, it's at least semi-related (at least broadly in the music psychology subject) to my work, or rather i'm familiar with the project completely AND i will get paid to work on it. so that was the first meeting, but it had to be a lot because the data collection has to get done in the next two weeks - so it's moving pretty quickly.
and luckily i was able to get five minutes of adrian's time to discuss an issue i quickly found when trying to accomplish my own work as set from tuesday's meeting.
went to the gym.
28 friday
had to turn in some paperwork for my TA and RA work.
chatted with adrian about the RA projects and did some work for that.
then spent time running analyses on my FTP project - getting a bit frustrated with it all.
went to the gym.
watched a random old movie on tv... can't remember right now what it was - but they certainly show odd old movies (like the bodyguard the other week).
29 saturday
walked all about going to the grceryt store and to the library (decided against the gym) and back.
and then to the bus stop and then to other bus stops on my way to juliana's and bea's.
it was the grand finals of footy (australian football - not to be confused with football/soccer or american football). so a group of us watched that. and joel (the only australian and person who actually really really cared about the match) was gracious enough to explain it (well) to me/us. so we ate lots of snacks and had a nice time.
hung out for awhile after the match with them and had a relaxing saturday afternoon. even had bea check out my foot. she did some sort of manipulation which was great, although it didn't last for today.
30 sunday (today)
went to the body balance class at the gym.
and have spent the afternoon/ early evening trying to get some work done while watching some tv at the hub.
have seen both juliana and joel come and go and now i'm headed home.
found 'cubecraft' online last week and have made the ninja turtles, moss, and the tardis (on friday) and going to maybe make some of the princess bride characters tonight maybe... also i'm hungry.
went to the gym, did some work at the hub. nothing exciting
25 tuesday
-had a supervisory meeting. discussed some of what the results of the CLOUD study might mean, discussed how to go about some analysis for the FTP project, and sadly didn't have enough time to review the ESM study. so lots of work proposed to do in turn.
sat with a group of hubsters and had a nice chat towards the end of the day. tried to figure out what sort of meal we should have following juliana's candidacy next week which made most of us hungry. a lot of time spent discussing the possibility of italian or mexican/ burritos. the burritos talk was enough of a chat that we ended up going out to have burritos at a place in leederville. i hadn't been to that area, and there's lots of restaurants and bars in a nice grouping so it looks like a place to go back to. and the burritos were good. so that was a win. plus randomly ashley and i somehow got to talking about driving and she offered to take me to the dmv equivalent to get a license.
26 wednesday
so ashley and i ventured out to the nearest dmv place. unsure of whether they would just accept that i had a us license and give me an australian one or if i'd have to do some sort of testing, we were pleasantly surprised that they would transfer mine (providing i had a ton of identification - which i did). and we were able to take care of it with enough time for her to get back and go do her research. so that was an awesome achievement. now bouncers won't be able to say anything, joel can teach me possibly to drive a manual car, and perhaps then a car in the future. we'll see.
i spent the rest of my time at the hub marking assignments. randomly was able to pick up a bit of marking (grading) that another student wasn't able to do. so i had 28 assignments to grade. and i managed to get through them quicker than the alloted time. so that's awesome. got them all done on wednesday - think it helped that i didn't do one at a time but one question across all of them. all about the efficiency.
went to the gym.
27 thursday
had a meeting about a research project adrian and two other professors are doing. 2 others and myself are going to work on it as research assistants (RA). so that's work to pay me. which is awesome because it being one of adrian's projects, it's at least semi-related (at least broadly in the music psychology subject) to my work, or rather i'm familiar with the project completely AND i will get paid to work on it. so that was the first meeting, but it had to be a lot because the data collection has to get done in the next two weeks - so it's moving pretty quickly.
and luckily i was able to get five minutes of adrian's time to discuss an issue i quickly found when trying to accomplish my own work as set from tuesday's meeting.
went to the gym.
28 friday
had to turn in some paperwork for my TA and RA work.
chatted with adrian about the RA projects and did some work for that.
then spent time running analyses on my FTP project - getting a bit frustrated with it all.
went to the gym.
watched a random old movie on tv... can't remember right now what it was - but they certainly show odd old movies (like the bodyguard the other week).
29 saturday
walked all about going to the grceryt store and to the library (decided against the gym) and back.
and then to the bus stop and then to other bus stops on my way to juliana's and bea's.
it was the grand finals of footy (australian football - not to be confused with football/soccer or american football). so a group of us watched that. and joel (the only australian and person who actually really really cared about the match) was gracious enough to explain it (well) to me/us. so we ate lots of snacks and had a nice time.
hung out for awhile after the match with them and had a relaxing saturday afternoon. even had bea check out my foot. she did some sort of manipulation which was great, although it didn't last for today.
30 sunday (today)
went to the body balance class at the gym.
and have spent the afternoon/ early evening trying to get some work done while watching some tv at the hub.
have seen both juliana and joel come and go and now i'm headed home.
found 'cubecraft' online last week and have made the ninja turtles, moss, and the tardis (on friday) and going to maybe make some of the princess bride characters tonight maybe... also i'm hungry.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
fotos
photos - 21 july - 9 august 2012 - are updated and linked into the blogs
reviewing might be easier via the photo host page, but anyway, that's my fairshare of catching up for the day
reviewing might be easier via the photo host page, but anyway, that's my fairshare of catching up for the day
shoe search
22 september 2012
today.
went with juliana this morning on an adventure to harbourtown (a mall near downtown perth) in search of shoes.
see this past monday, i got caught in bad rain walking home. again, i must protest that campus and the neighborhood are somehow in two different weather zones. but anyway, bad torrential rain and such that was flooding the ground and so my shoes were completely soaked through. and being the only pair of trainers i have here, this posed a problem for most of the week.
not because of it being cold, as i wore flipflops and that was fine. but in terms of just not having another pair of trainers and not going to the gym until the shoes were dried out.
in any case, it added a sense of urgency to my search for shoes (which had previously been entertaining the idea of buying them online but again finding that most likely that would involve buying them from the US).
so today we walked in and around the mall going in every store that had shoes. i could have bought fila running shoes - those were probably the cheapest. but since mom found asics to send me, i didn't really want a pair of chunky running shoes. i wanted a pair of everyday street shoes. (think my puma shoes of the past). and we didn't find any. in fact most stores had heels or sandals for womens shoes. very discriminated against in my search today. or i could have bought 'on sale' nike/adidas/asics for still 150 -175- 200 dollars. i definitely don't consider that 'on sale'.
so after striking out at the mall, we went through target. which had some fake keds/chucks/converse like shoes. i didn't want white ones but there were blue ones that i eventually found that were also on sale for the 'deal of the day' which truly was the deal of the day as they were kids size ones that actually fit me and ended up being only 14 dollars. so while they're not awesome or anything, they'll do.
and then we had some discount shopping adventures and burritos for lunch. it was a really nice day.
didn't get adrian's message about going to the park so i missed that this afternoon sadly but did make it to the gym and have now been blogging. so that's nice. sadly i don't have a plan for this evening but i guess i'll probably just watch a movie or something at home. i fell asleep real early last night but then woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep so i may fall asleep early again tonight. wish adrian's invite would have been for tomorrow, but i guess i can't do anything about that.
on a completely unrelated note, i've been making bbq chicken pizzas for my dinner this week and those have been really tasty. also i made chocolate cake last friday night (while watching the bodyguard because it was on tv - so i've now seen that randomly in india and australia without trying) which was decent for being from the reject shop.
threadless
my tshirts from threadless came this week which was exciting. so yay for those making it here to me from chicago.
i wore one this week that has an image of the united states with the states designated by their names written to confine the space.
anyway, it proved very useful throughout the day's conversations. definitely a good choice.
strawberry waffles
18 september 2012
tuesday was a double celebration.
ashley finished her set of psych sessions with a client and wanted to celebrate with ciders and going to mcdonalds (makkers) and it was lydia's birthday. so we went to mcdonalds (which seemed random, but was fun) and then went and had waffles.
ashley (another american, from tx) and i shared a waffle and had the strawberry syrup. which was a poor choice. and apparently was known to be avoided at all costs as a general australian rule about strawberry flavoured things. we didn't know. but now we do. so there's a lesson learned. no strawberry topping.
it was half price waffle day so that made it slightly better. an enjoyable evening out with the phd folks though regardless with lots of laughs.
pasar malam
21 september 2012
last night was pasar malam (malaysian night market) on campus. the weather was terrible all day so there was a question of whether it would happen. but it did on a smaller scale. anyway, there was lots of different asian food to choose from (or a corn dog i guess), but i had a masala dosa. dosa being one of the two delicious south indian breakfast foods that we had while with max in india. mmm dosa. it was good.
3mt
21 september 2012
so apparently there's a competition called '3 minute thesis' in which you have 3 minutes and only one powerpoint slide to explain your thesis.
petra, a psych phd student was one of the finalists for Curtin's level of competition so yesterday the rest of us went to support her doing that.
she didn't end up winning (the winner goes on to compete against all the other universities in australia), she did get the 'people's choice award' which still gave her a little bit of money. it was between her and the guy who did win in my opinion.
apparently there's also a 'dance your phd' competition in which you explain your topic through interpretive dance. the prize for that one is much better - article in science and a trip to a TED conference.
i had no idea these competitions existed.
skates
i ordered a pair of inline skates this week.
ordered them from inline warehouse from california. can't believe that they're cheaper buying them from the states than from the other side of australia. by a lot. even with the shipping.
anyway, i'm excited to get them.
manna
16 september 2012
last sunday, i helped a group prepare dinner for the homeless in perth. with two fellow phd students and a bunch of others, we prepared a meal and then served it as a part of http://www.mannainc.com.au/.
it was a really great way to spend sunday afternoon. lots of fun.
i chopped lots of potatoes for mashed potatoes, made a fritada and helped with other stuff.
this group does the meal prep once a month, and i'd like to help again.
last sunday, i helped a group prepare dinner for the homeless in perth. with two fellow phd students and a bunch of others, we prepared a meal and then served it as a part of http://www.mannainc.com.au/.
it was a really great way to spend sunday afternoon. lots of fun.
i chopped lots of potatoes for mashed potatoes, made a fritada and helped with other stuff.
this group does the meal prep once a month, and i'd like to help again.
jeanine's candidacy
12 september 2012
went with the other students to support jeanine doing her candidacy presentation. (it's the process they're making me go through even though i already started my research.) she did a fantastic job. and the professors' questions weren't bad for her at all.
only downside was that we went to the student tavern to have a celebratory drink following and the bouncer didn't allow me in. while i had my american license, we had a debate regarding it's legality. apparently it's not a legal document. i could understand him not letting me in if i hadn't had any id on me. but not having my passport seemed a bit ridiculous.
went with the other students to support jeanine doing her candidacy presentation. (it's the process they're making me go through even though i already started my research.) she did a fantastic job. and the professors' questions weren't bad for her at all.
only downside was that we went to the student tavern to have a celebratory drink following and the bouncer didn't allow me in. while i had my american license, we had a debate regarding it's legality. apparently it's not a legal document. i could understand him not letting me in if i hadn't had any id on me. but not having my passport seemed a bit ridiculous.
google hangout
14 september 2012
two fridays ago, i got to the hub early to have a group video chat with campos, beers, and grumm.
it was fantastic.
way to go google hangout - all 4 of us were on the screen and could all chat with each other at the same time.
plus you can 'wear' fun accessories so i had a pirate hat on which moved with your movements.
and it was amazing to catch up with everyone together. really really good. hopefully we'll be able to do it again next month as proposed.
a really really fun way to start the day too.
random thursday dinner
13 september 2012
went to dinner with lydia, juliana, and bea two thursdays ago. was about to leave the hub and instead we decided to grab a cheap japanese dinner (i had teriyaki chicken). it was nice to spontaneously go to dinner with friends.
living at the hub
have decided that it's almost possible to live at the hub. there's the kitchen with a fridge, toaster, and microwave for food. and a bathroom with a shower. and there are couches. so it all sounded like a good way to escape rent.
only downside i've thought of so far is laundry. but otherwise, i think it'd be doable.
also i think one student actually is...
treme
2 weekends ago i watched the first season of treme, an hbo series that is set in new orleans post katrina regarding the music community. it was fantastic. lots of great music. i'd really like to see season two, but the library only has season one.
sarah's birthday
08 september 2012
went to dinner with fellow phd students at a place where they serve your meat still cooking on a hot slab in front of you. i had lamb. and a really delicious chocolate cake desert.
we then went to sarah's house for a birthday gathering. her friends made her two awesome unicorn shaped cakes that were delicious. i also had a typical australian kid party weird treat. it's buttered bread with hundreds and thousands (sprinkles) on it. strange.
but a good evening for sure.
hMR
in the frustrating data analysis phase, i have now learned how to do hierarchical multiple regression analyses.
i'm very glad that i was able to have some of the other hub students help me out because they were able to show me what to do (which was far more helpful than just a stats book).
mtgs
had a frustrating week at uni two weeks ago with meetings that didn't really move me forward with work. basically had me start over with data analysis and things and then still confusion about my giant ESM paper and how to split it into possible articles for publication.
it's better now, although i wasn't able to have a supervisor meeting this week, but it was extremely frustrating.
backpack
another sign that perth is clearly a suburban-drive-your-car place is that within a week i had two comments about me wearing my backpack.
first while packing my groceries in my backpack - apparently it looked like i was going on a long journey...or something.
second, i was putting my notebook and book in my backpack to walk across campus for a meeting and got another odd comment.
clearly, the fact that i carry things around is weird. oh well.
catch up
australians like to use 'catch up' and it's definitely appropriate as i haven't blogged in longer than i thought. ...
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
gym appraisal
had my gym appraisal meeting yesterday (tuesday, 4 september) which went really well. i think the trainer guy, john, was a bit surprised that i came in with an actual goal as a female and not just a generic comment about wanting to use the gym. as in i had a specific idea of what i wanted to get a plan set for and that i wanted to use weights. so we talked about a training plan and then he showed me a bunch of exercises to do. we decided that i would have an 'a' and 'b' day so that i could switch off, but unfortunately we didn't get through all of the exercises. so i will have to have someone show me a bunch of them.
i didn't figure i'd actually want to have regular scheduled training sessions with a person, but he was so competent that i'd maybe consider it. not as a weekly thing, but i don't think i get another free one for like 4 months, so maybe one or two before that. i don't know. we'll see how this plan goes. he has to re-write it from his scribbled notes so hopefully i'll be able to follow and remember what to do.
i didn't figure i'd actually want to have regular scheduled training sessions with a person, but he was so competent that i'd maybe consider it. not as a weekly thing, but i don't think i get another free one for like 4 months, so maybe one or two before that. i don't know. we'll see how this plan goes. he has to re-write it from his scribbled notes so hopefully i'll be able to follow and remember what to do.
swan river
sunday, 2 september
went to the gym on sunday for a body balance class (i clearly need to work on my balance and core) and then took the bus to the victoria park bus transfer station. from there i walked along the river because it was a really nice day all the way along to south perth and to the coast where the windmill is by the freeway. it was a really nice walk. it is nicely paved, and would be even more enjoyable on skates/a bike.
after looking at the windmill quick, i noticed that there was a bus stop there which would take me across the freeway to a big bus transfer point. and since i didn't quite feel like just retracing my steps back, i decided to take the bus into the city and have a bit of a new bus adventure. so i found my transfer and had missed it by about two minutes so i had to wait for a long time, since it was sunday. but that was fine. i contemplated walking through downtown but then just decided to wait and then get off the bus in victoria park before reaching home by the grocery store. so i went to that grocery store which i hadn't been to and then got the bus back home. a really nice day and a successful adventure.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/river-walk.html
went to the gym on sunday for a body balance class (i clearly need to work on my balance and core) and then took the bus to the victoria park bus transfer station. from there i walked along the river because it was a really nice day all the way along to south perth and to the coast where the windmill is by the freeway. it was a really nice walk. it is nicely paved, and would be even more enjoyable on skates/a bike.
after looking at the windmill quick, i noticed that there was a bus stop there which would take me across the freeway to a big bus transfer point. and since i didn't quite feel like just retracing my steps back, i decided to take the bus into the city and have a bit of a new bus adventure. so i found my transfer and had missed it by about two minutes so i had to wait for a long time, since it was sunday. but that was fine. i contemplated walking through downtown but then just decided to wait and then get off the bus in victoria park before reaching home by the grocery store. so i went to that grocery store which i hadn't been to and then got the bus back home. a really nice day and a successful adventure.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/river-walk.html
Saturday, September 1, 2012
library dvds
i got really excited just to sit and watch some 'deadwood' episodes last night since the library had the complete 1st and 2nd series available. figured that'd be a good drawn out story i could watch. only the set for the first season aren't region 4 (australia). they're region 1 (us) so now that my dvd drive is set to australia, i actually can't watch. which is frustrating. and the other movie i checked out didn't work either.
so i got some new ones today (and hopefully they'll all be region 4 and function).
so i got some new ones today (and hopefully they'll all be region 4 and function).
the gym
after getting myself a two dollar (reject shop) hand towel yesterday, i was able to go to the gym with it.
so i went to the gym yesterday and today. yesterday i went on the elliptical for 45 minutes and then the bike for about 15. felt great to go back to the gym. and i was there from like 615-715 on a friday night and was shocked at the amount of people also there. i mean it wasn't packed, but i wouldn't have figured on a friday night that i'd really see anyone else there.
and did a 'body balance' class today (which let me say was incredibly hard for me - so that's going to be a challenge) but i felt good getting back to exercising. and i went on the elliptical for a bit following the class.
i'm glad to be able to exercise at a gym again. my foot's still not 100% but it only really had an impact on a few of the stretching/yoga positions.
i have an 'appraisal' appointment on tuesday so hopefully i can get some sort of basic weights plan in action too (still need to find an inline marathon that i could possibly train for and then get to (and get skates) but i really want to have a purposed plan besides just going on the elliptical).
myself from may
i spent friday morning (after walking all the way to the shops, across campus and to the hub) trying to sort through what i did last may in relation to the data from my 'CLOUD' study.
that was fun. i realized i had a few different computer documents (but not all in the same place) and had to re-orientate myself with the data on hand. and analyses i ran. but once i figured out what i had and what i had done, i got myself in a better place to move forward.
and then in the afternoon, i started preparing the data SPSS files for my 'FTP' and 'SNS' studies. There were a whole bunch of variables to recode and compute and things, so i've spent some time today on it as well, but i seem to have gotten them to a place where on tuesday with my supervisory meeting, we can discuss how to go about analysis for the 3 studies.
which will be excellent (and create a road map for how to spend a week or two).
that was fun. i realized i had a few different computer documents (but not all in the same place) and had to re-orientate myself with the data on hand. and analyses i ran. but once i figured out what i had and what i had done, i got myself in a better place to move forward.
and then in the afternoon, i started preparing the data SPSS files for my 'FTP' and 'SNS' studies. There were a whole bunch of variables to recode and compute and things, so i've spent some time today on it as well, but i seem to have gotten them to a place where on tuesday with my supervisory meeting, we can discuss how to go about analysis for the 3 studies.
which will be excellent (and create a road map for how to spend a week or two).
italian dinner
a group of 10 phd students went to an italian meal thursday night (30 august).
the place actually wasn't too far away and i'd been by it on the bus. it was really good and a whole lot of fun to go out to dinner with a group of people.
i shared two plates of pasta with emily so we even got to have two delicious meals (carbonara and vodka sauces). and it was byob wine, so that wasn't terribly expensive to have either.
we had some gelato after -which i have to say was far more delicious than - and a bigger serving for the same relative price that i paid for - the 'eh' ice cream of last weekend. i was pretty full but managed to finish my gelato (although i probably shouldn't have even gotten it...but it was good.) although unlike in miami where you could order 1 scoop and get 2 flavours, here you'd have to get 2 scoops to get the 2 flavours.
anyway, it was a really nice evening. and we threw out mexican as possibly a next meal out. and decided we want to have a hub halloween and a meal for thanksgiving. so hopefully these types of things will be more frequent.
the place actually wasn't too far away and i'd been by it on the bus. it was really good and a whole lot of fun to go out to dinner with a group of people.
i shared two plates of pasta with emily so we even got to have two delicious meals (carbonara and vodka sauces). and it was byob wine, so that wasn't terribly expensive to have either.
we had some gelato after -which i have to say was far more delicious than - and a bigger serving for the same relative price that i paid for - the 'eh' ice cream of last weekend. i was pretty full but managed to finish my gelato (although i probably shouldn't have even gotten it...but it was good.) although unlike in miami where you could order 1 scoop and get 2 flavours, here you'd have to get 2 scoops to get the 2 flavours.
anyway, it was a really nice evening. and we threw out mexican as possibly a next meal out. and decided we want to have a hub halloween and a meal for thanksgiving. so hopefully these types of things will be more frequent.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
interweb
not having interweb at home is interesting.
it points out even more just how much i do on the internet.
and like just now, i've spent the last near two hours online but not necessarily doing phd work. i sent about 4 emails - 2 of which were pretty in depth, traded emails with adrian about setting up a meeting next week, checked other emails, tried to use internations to find a social activity to meet people, have been typing blog posts, played words with friends and draw something, googled one or two things, read tweets, went on facebook, and ordered those tshirts. and now i'm going to go log in my dailymile exercise. that's a lot different activities that are daily things. i like the internet. so far i'm not too hard pressed about not using it at home (i've watched some dvds - last night a bad movie and before that the australian tv series 'the librarians') but it really is fundamental to my life as it stands.
it points out even more just how much i do on the internet.
and like just now, i've spent the last near two hours online but not necessarily doing phd work. i sent about 4 emails - 2 of which were pretty in depth, traded emails with adrian about setting up a meeting next week, checked other emails, tried to use internations to find a social activity to meet people, have been typing blog posts, played words with friends and draw something, googled one or two things, read tweets, went on facebook, and ordered those tshirts. and now i'm going to go log in my dailymile exercise. that's a lot different activities that are daily things. i like the internet. so far i'm not too hard pressed about not using it at home (i've watched some dvds - last night a bad movie and before that the australian tv series 'the librarians') but it really is fundamental to my life as it stands.
threadless
read a tweet yesterday that threadless was having a back to school sale on their tshirts. and they have some cool designs.
so i spent some time looking at 10 dollar tshirts and found they ship to australia. found a cool one for brittany's birthday and was originally going to ship it to her mom for her to collect when she goes home but the shipping price didn't change when i added tshirts to the cart and was quoting it as for delivery to australia.
so i just ordered some tshirts which is awesome. i like being able to order things online. i spent probably more time than it was worth looking at if i could order shoes for relatively cheap online, but australia doesn't appear to be up on the whole online shopping as much as i'd like to be. no amazon for one, but just no options in general for shoes. other than spending 200 dollars for something which won't happen.
did find one option - a fifty dollar pair of cool looking (machine washable possibly) shoes, but they're out of the colors for my size so i'm not totally up for getting them. i just want a pair of street shoes (so i dont wear the running shoes everyday, although eventually i'm going to want new running shoes too).
so here's hoping my tshirts make it to me in australia.
and it means that brittany has to come here to collect her birthday present. (which on a side note, we've discussed this week and it looks like it's going to happen which would be amazing.)
so i spent some time looking at 10 dollar tshirts and found they ship to australia. found a cool one for brittany's birthday and was originally going to ship it to her mom for her to collect when she goes home but the shipping price didn't change when i added tshirts to the cart and was quoting it as for delivery to australia.
so i just ordered some tshirts which is awesome. i like being able to order things online. i spent probably more time than it was worth looking at if i could order shoes for relatively cheap online, but australia doesn't appear to be up on the whole online shopping as much as i'd like to be. no amazon for one, but just no options in general for shoes. other than spending 200 dollars for something which won't happen.
did find one option - a fifty dollar pair of cool looking (machine washable possibly) shoes, but they're out of the colors for my size so i'm not totally up for getting them. i just want a pair of street shoes (so i dont wear the running shoes everyday, although eventually i'm going to want new running shoes too).
so here's hoping my tshirts make it to me in australia.
and it means that brittany has to come here to collect her birthday present. (which on a side note, we've discussed this week and it looks like it's going to happen which would be amazing.)
supervision meeting
wednesday
29 august
met with adrian yesterday. lauren, another psych staff member, joined us. she may be a second supervisor to me and my work. so that could be great. gave her a quick overview of what i want to be/ am studying.
but i had two goals for the meeting. one was to nail down specifically what i am supposed to do for candidacy (as i started the document beast on monday/tuesday). i kept getting the overview of what it entails but any answers as to how i fit into it being half way through.
so the decision was made that i would basically write it as how i see myself fitting into it. which is fine. and a plan. however, it was discovered from lauren's input that i maybe now should wait a bit before doing the whole process as it apparently does lock you into only doing what you've proposed (as opposed to adrian and i approaching it as simply the next project (not only project)).
so i have a revised plan of action as a result i guess. and kind of goes back to my original thought of getting through the analyses of my UK collected data at the beginning of being here in australia. (although i am a bit frustrated at the plan in the sense of it keeps changing because there's really no clear information about this whole candidacy thing).
second topic up for discussion was the mysterious hypothesis with missing data evidence. so it was decided that i would need to run the additional analyses. which i did today (30 august). and by doing, found out that the other 2 that are basically the same i did wrong. so while i got real frustrated that i was re-doing analyses YET AGAIN, i suppose it was good that i caught my mistake. it did change the results. which i then had to delete and re-work in the whole document, but again, i suppose it is now more correct than it was before. so i'll try to think about it that way.
so now it really is off my desk and onto lauren's (first, and then to adrian). not sure how long it'll be off my desk until i have a whole'nother round of editting and revising to do. but hopefully at this point it won't be to the degree that it was to get it to this version. and hopefully then it becomes chopping and editting to put out for publication. because that would be awesome to get underway.
speaking of publication, that becomes the new driving force behind how i will end up spending my time here at curtin. because a publishing plan is now going to be set for me in order to decide what i write for candidacy. i like the idea of the publishing strategy as that's focused on my career starting not just getting through the degree.
does require a change in the way i was planning on spending time thinking in the next weeks though.
29 august
met with adrian yesterday. lauren, another psych staff member, joined us. she may be a second supervisor to me and my work. so that could be great. gave her a quick overview of what i want to be/ am studying.
but i had two goals for the meeting. one was to nail down specifically what i am supposed to do for candidacy (as i started the document beast on monday/tuesday). i kept getting the overview of what it entails but any answers as to how i fit into it being half way through.
so the decision was made that i would basically write it as how i see myself fitting into it. which is fine. and a plan. however, it was discovered from lauren's input that i maybe now should wait a bit before doing the whole process as it apparently does lock you into only doing what you've proposed (as opposed to adrian and i approaching it as simply the next project (not only project)).
so i have a revised plan of action as a result i guess. and kind of goes back to my original thought of getting through the analyses of my UK collected data at the beginning of being here in australia. (although i am a bit frustrated at the plan in the sense of it keeps changing because there's really no clear information about this whole candidacy thing).
second topic up for discussion was the mysterious hypothesis with missing data evidence. so it was decided that i would need to run the additional analyses. which i did today (30 august). and by doing, found out that the other 2 that are basically the same i did wrong. so while i got real frustrated that i was re-doing analyses YET AGAIN, i suppose it was good that i caught my mistake. it did change the results. which i then had to delete and re-work in the whole document, but again, i suppose it is now more correct than it was before. so i'll try to think about it that way.
so now it really is off my desk and onto lauren's (first, and then to adrian). not sure how long it'll be off my desk until i have a whole'nother round of editting and revising to do. but hopefully at this point it won't be to the degree that it was to get it to this version. and hopefully then it becomes chopping and editting to put out for publication. because that would be awesome to get underway.
speaking of publication, that becomes the new driving force behind how i will end up spending my time here at curtin. because a publishing plan is now going to be set for me in order to decide what i write for candidacy. i like the idea of the publishing strategy as that's focused on my career starting not just getting through the degree.
does require a change in the way i was planning on spending time thinking in the next weeks though.
ESM draft
while i meant to read over my ESM draft at the weekend, i just really didn't feel like it so i left it to monday (27 august). monday morning, i spent the entire morning reading through it and did make a few edits and managed to email it off to adrian.
so i count that as meeting my deadline. felt really really good to get it off my desk and on to his for awihle.
an accomplishment.
so i count that as meeting my deadline. felt really really good to get it off my desk and on to his for awihle.
an accomplishment.
pool outing
saturday 25 august
one of the other phd students invited me to come along with her and a large group of friends for dinner and to play pool. they were going to bowl but that was already booked. two other phd students went to so it was a nice social evening.
the group ended up being very large -- too large to talk to or meet most of them. but it was nice to talk to a few new folks, and mainly hang around the other two phd peoples.
we had some japanese - i had teriyaki chicken which was tasty. pool was fun - we played in pairs as teams. although usually i can hit a few shots. i don't think i contributed more than one or two sunk balls. very poor showing. made me think of wanting (still) to play shuffleboard at a bar. i wonder if they have that here. there were no darts in the pool hall either (my mind had that as a possibility once i realized there was no hope for my pool abilities that evening).
anyway after that, we went to northbridge (an area downtown) for some ice cream. it was alright ice cream. and they walked me around the block to point things out to me (and while we were driving) which was very nice of them to do.
very fun.
one of the other phd students invited me to come along with her and a large group of friends for dinner and to play pool. they were going to bowl but that was already booked. two other phd students went to so it was a nice social evening.
the group ended up being very large -- too large to talk to or meet most of them. but it was nice to talk to a few new folks, and mainly hang around the other two phd peoples.
we had some japanese - i had teriyaki chicken which was tasty. pool was fun - we played in pairs as teams. although usually i can hit a few shots. i don't think i contributed more than one or two sunk balls. very poor showing. made me think of wanting (still) to play shuffleboard at a bar. i wonder if they have that here. there were no darts in the pool hall either (my mind had that as a possibility once i realized there was no hope for my pool abilities that evening).
anyway after that, we went to northbridge (an area downtown) for some ice cream. it was alright ice cream. and they walked me around the block to point things out to me (and while we were driving) which was very nice of them to do.
very fun.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
art inspiration
also i came across this: http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/piracy_project_exposes_the_cd_underbelly_of_music_theft_23249.asp
yesterday;
and i think i want to do some sort art project like that.
yesterday;
and i think i want to do some sort art project like that.
esm draft
the dreaded giagantic beast of a thing.
i'm quite happy that i was able to overcome the paralyzing fear of needing to deal with it this week. it was partly due from all of the work that needed to go into it. i mean even after fixing the grammar and a heap of adrian's comments in may/june. i still had so many comments and issues to deal with.
however, i have perservered this week. i think i only have one comment left (which i don't know how to address). so that's awesome.
the hypotheses have theory and they have been discussed one by one in a general discussion and the conclusion seems to still be okay.
i somehow managed to create a hypothesis that wasn't addressed in the bazillion analyses (still can't believe that), but barring that issue, i think it might be ready to go back to adrian. i had wanted to finish it yesterday, which did pretty much happen. but i've left it to be re-read today. which i still have left to do. it's just so long. i mean it was already longer than my masters dissertation, but now it's even longer. it will, like adrian proposed, make a nice sound when printed it out on paper and dropped on a table. and it will be the longest chapter in my thesis.
speaking of chapters of my thesis, adrian brought up my chapter one (the introduction) the other day and last week. while i have a draft of that (written 1+ ish years ago), i have a very strong feeling that it's going to need a done of work/revision/addition... and i suppose i migh face a bit of paralyzing fear with that one now. or i'll just put that off, although i might need to pull from it for my candidacy report.
a report, by the way, that has to be 35 pages (double spaced so maybe like 18 single) but still. that's a hefty document which goes to the faculty. and then you have to reduce it to 10. this seems like a lot of work. but i'm hoping to get some more information on it next week. and hopefully if i can pull from my intro chapter and my esm chapter for the background bits, it'll be something to compose part of the 35 pages not entirely from scratch. also apparently there needs to be a budget, so that'll be something to deal with too. totally a different system (perhaps simply in that it is a system) than heriot watt.
i'm quite happy that i was able to overcome the paralyzing fear of needing to deal with it this week. it was partly due from all of the work that needed to go into it. i mean even after fixing the grammar and a heap of adrian's comments in may/june. i still had so many comments and issues to deal with.
however, i have perservered this week. i think i only have one comment left (which i don't know how to address). so that's awesome.
the hypotheses have theory and they have been discussed one by one in a general discussion and the conclusion seems to still be okay.
i somehow managed to create a hypothesis that wasn't addressed in the bazillion analyses (still can't believe that), but barring that issue, i think it might be ready to go back to adrian. i had wanted to finish it yesterday, which did pretty much happen. but i've left it to be re-read today. which i still have left to do. it's just so long. i mean it was already longer than my masters dissertation, but now it's even longer. it will, like adrian proposed, make a nice sound when printed it out on paper and dropped on a table. and it will be the longest chapter in my thesis.
speaking of chapters of my thesis, adrian brought up my chapter one (the introduction) the other day and last week. while i have a draft of that (written 1+ ish years ago), i have a very strong feeling that it's going to need a done of work/revision/addition... and i suppose i migh face a bit of paralyzing fear with that one now. or i'll just put that off, although i might need to pull from it for my candidacy report.
a report, by the way, that has to be 35 pages (double spaced so maybe like 18 single) but still. that's a hefty document which goes to the faculty. and then you have to reduce it to 10. this seems like a lot of work. but i'm hoping to get some more information on it next week. and hopefully if i can pull from my intro chapter and my esm chapter for the background bits, it'll be something to compose part of the 35 pages not entirely from scratch. also apparently there needs to be a budget, so that'll be something to deal with too. totally a different system (perhaps simply in that it is a system) than heriot watt.
hoopla
one of the other phd students, alicia, organized a 'hub catch up' at hoopla, a little coffee cafe close to campus on thursday (23 august). it was really nice to socialize with some of the students. i think there were about 10 of us and i did have a super delicious chocolate brownie. it was a really nice way to start the work day too. alicia seems open to trying to get people together (she figured they could introduce me to hoopla as i hadnt been - it's not walking distance from campus though) which i appreciate.
interweb
so apparently my landlord does not pay a monthly fee for unlimited access. it's a crazy small tiny download amount and so i racked up a rather large internet bill.
now i don't really think i can be fully blamed as i didn't know that was the case.
but it also means that i need to drastically change my internet habits. (case in point, i'm sitting at the library on campus right now - although i had tried to go to my office but my swipe card didn't grant me access for some unknown reason.) i've gotten really used to living my life on the internet by living abroad and i do most of my work for school on the internet too so this will be interesting.
but i've figured i'll just spend a bit more time at my office and use uni's internet. it's just going to require a huge shift in that i won't be able to watch movies, tv, upload pictures, blog, etc at home as i would normally.
i did discover that the campus library has some dvds though, so barring an issue with regions, i might be able to watch some movies (or rewatch all of six feet under because they have a few random tv series).
now i don't really think i can be fully blamed as i didn't know that was the case.
but it also means that i need to drastically change my internet habits. (case in point, i'm sitting at the library on campus right now - although i had tried to go to my office but my swipe card didn't grant me access for some unknown reason.) i've gotten really used to living my life on the internet by living abroad and i do most of my work for school on the internet too so this will be interesting.
but i've figured i'll just spend a bit more time at my office and use uni's internet. it's just going to require a huge shift in that i won't be able to watch movies, tv, upload pictures, blog, etc at home as i would normally.
i did discover that the campus library has some dvds though, so barring an issue with regions, i might be able to watch some movies (or rewatch all of six feet under because they have a few random tv series).
gym membership
i found out that the gym membership costs drastically different amounts depending on paying for half or a full year and whether it's paid for up front or in fortnightly installments.
so sadly, i have yet to join the gym. but in about a week, that should be alright to join. i'd really like to be exercising again. and i'm excited to try some of the classes. i haven't been able to do a class like the stretching one i really liked while training for my marathon in about a year so that would be really nice to do again.
sadly, also i'm struggling to figure out how to get a pair of inline skates. still not sure what to do about that. gotta spend some more time googling i think.
so sadly, i have yet to join the gym. but in about a week, that should be alright to join. i'd really like to be exercising again. and i'm excited to try some of the classes. i haven't been able to do a class like the stretching one i really liked while training for my marathon in about a year so that would be really nice to do again.
sadly, also i'm struggling to figure out how to get a pair of inline skates. still not sure what to do about that. gotta spend some more time googling i think.
new studies
on sunday, while reviewing some notes, i came across an idea that sparked my interest and contemplation about what i might be able to do as my next study.
and on tuesday (21 august) when i met with adrian, he was on board with it. since control seemed to be such a huge factor to the findings from my esm study, i want to explore that a bit further. and i think i might be able to do it in a novel way. of course it's going to take a lot of work to actually conceptualize the idea and then read relevant literature and figure out exactly how to measure it, but at least it's a plan as to where to go next.
plus, i figured that it would work for what i need to write for my candidacy, which although adrian originally said i shouldn't worry about just yet, he came around to more of the plan that i had in mind. which is to finish the esm draft (and then get it re-worked to be published) and then do the candidacy because you have to propose your research for ethical approval within that (so that's where the new study comes in) and then while waiting on approval from that, i can work on things that i already have the data from the uk.
so our meeting was good and productive. which is always nice.
it's just too bad that i got nearly soaked, caught in intermittent rain while walking to and from the meeting.
and on tuesday (21 august) when i met with adrian, he was on board with it. since control seemed to be such a huge factor to the findings from my esm study, i want to explore that a bit further. and i think i might be able to do it in a novel way. of course it's going to take a lot of work to actually conceptualize the idea and then read relevant literature and figure out exactly how to measure it, but at least it's a plan as to where to go next.
plus, i figured that it would work for what i need to write for my candidacy, which although adrian originally said i shouldn't worry about just yet, he came around to more of the plan that i had in mind. which is to finish the esm draft (and then get it re-worked to be published) and then do the candidacy because you have to propose your research for ethical approval within that (so that's where the new study comes in) and then while waiting on approval from that, i can work on things that i already have the data from the uk.
so our meeting was good and productive. which is always nice.
it's just too bad that i got nearly soaked, caught in intermittent rain while walking to and from the meeting.
esm hypotheses
on monday, (20 august) i managed to finish writing up all of the theory behind what became 18 hypotheses for my ESM study. this was a huge accomplishment. it had been the goal to try to get the ESM draft done within a few days of getting to curtin but that had been a gross miscalculation of the time needed to deal with them. but in any case, i managed to get them done on monday and felt good about achieving that.
last weekend
last friday i tried taking the bus from the hub to the grocery store and then riding the bus around to most of the way home. that seemed to work just fine which is nice (although later this afternoon i plan on walking so we'll see).
on saturday, i rode a bus into the city centre and went in search of the discount shops and then to the Western Australia museum. I managed to find a cheap enough plate, cup, fork and spoon to take to the office for lunch. I saw a nice photography exhibit at the museum and walked through some of the other exhibits including one about the old jail of perth and freemantle. Then i walked across town to look at the bell tower (was too late to go in) which is also where the ferry goes across the river. i thought about walking along the river but decided that since my foot still didn't feel awesome that a further, long walk might not be the best idea.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/perth-cbd.html
on sunday i was so bored that i walked to my office and did a few hours of work. which was helpful i suppose as i gathered all of my notes together to keep working on my hypotheses. but doesn't make for a terribly exciting day.
on saturday, i rode a bus into the city centre and went in search of the discount shops and then to the Western Australia museum. I managed to find a cheap enough plate, cup, fork and spoon to take to the office for lunch. I saw a nice photography exhibit at the museum and walked through some of the other exhibits including one about the old jail of perth and freemantle. Then i walked across town to look at the bell tower (was too late to go in) which is also where the ferry goes across the river. i thought about walking along the river but decided that since my foot still didn't feel awesome that a further, long walk might not be the best idea.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/perth-cbd.html
on sunday i was so bored that i walked to my office and did a few hours of work. which was helpful i suppose as i gathered all of my notes together to keep working on my hypotheses. but doesn't make for a terribly exciting day.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
communicae
also, i spent a bit of time gchatting with danny today and then facetimed this evening with becky. both of these were awesome. really glad to catch up with both and have to thank el interweb for allowing me to talk with a friend in buenos aires and one in glasgow and then just now with mom at home. so worldly.
the hub-day 2
day 2 at the hub today. managed to re-read all of my notes on control and well being and feel set enough to go back to my draft and work that into the intro and hypotheses. too bad i had a searing sense of fear and overwhelming concern when i opened up that document. of course, mind you, i managed to not have it on the usb drive (way to not be prepared) but pulled it off the dropbox cloud. but really, instantly upon opening the bloody document i was arrested by negative emotions. even though i've spent the past week+ preparing to delve back into it. it wasn't a good sign. and trying to write an additional paragraph was doing my head in. even after deleting adrian's comments, which i thought maybe were the culprit, i still felt anxiety towards the whole thing. but i think maybe i started to get something added into it regarding control and well-being. at this point, i'd take poor grammar and repetitiveness if at least the ideas were in there.
and there's still the emotion/mood, time, and effect/reasoning to go. i fear for tomorrow.
so that's where the actual work stands. still not with much progress and still instilling fear and anxiety in me. and it's my own document.
mind you i also opened that up right after reading through the candidacy nonsense which is going to be a huge hurdle. 35 page document plus presentation and another document alongside a hefty form. no thanks. i mean i know i have to, but i'm already halfway done that it seems a bit silly to have to do.
on a positive, different note, i took a long lunch break to sit with some of the other students. they've been nice yesterday and today. went along with 3 of them to a lecture this evening. about sports psychology and perfectionism. was interesting although i had hoped the sports psych would talk not in general about basic idea behind it but how to get someone back at it after a catastrophic failure/injury. because that was sort of in his introduction and i would find that extremely interesting on a personal note. also interesting that the other students have mentioned adrian's resemblance to NPH (or barney as they said) without any prompting*. pretty funny actually; brittany would enjoy that. and i've now been dared to say 'challenge accepted' at some point in the near future in reference to my phd in a supervisor meeting. i'm somewhat surprised that i probably haven't already.
[* photo comparison task if this is a new concept: NPH v. ACN]
and there's still the emotion/mood, time, and effect/reasoning to go. i fear for tomorrow.
so that's where the actual work stands. still not with much progress and still instilling fear and anxiety in me. and it's my own document.
mind you i also opened that up right after reading through the candidacy nonsense which is going to be a huge hurdle. 35 page document plus presentation and another document alongside a hefty form. no thanks. i mean i know i have to, but i'm already halfway done that it seems a bit silly to have to do.
on a positive, different note, i took a long lunch break to sit with some of the other students. they've been nice yesterday and today. went along with 3 of them to a lecture this evening. about sports psychology and perfectionism. was interesting although i had hoped the sports psych would talk not in general about basic idea behind it but how to get someone back at it after a catastrophic failure/injury. because that was sort of in his introduction and i would find that extremely interesting on a personal note. also interesting that the other students have mentioned adrian's resemblance to NPH (or barney as they said) without any prompting*. pretty funny actually; brittany would enjoy that. and i've now been dared to say 'challenge accepted' at some point in the near future in reference to my phd in a supervisor meeting. i'm somewhat surprised that i probably haven't already.
[* photo comparison task if this is a new concept: NPH v. ACN]
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
mac v. pc
i haven't had to use a pc in a long time for work. that was nice--something i didn't realize until today.
the seemingly trivial becomes less so when a lot of postgrads are in a room together each with a computer.
the downside to us having dell pcs (readily relevant and noticeable without having been here for more than a few hours)
-the keyboards are incredibly loud. with everyone typing, it's a crazy forest of tapping
-the mouse movements on a desk are obnoxious
and a purely selfish reason for missing the mac today: editting/notetaking with pdfs is way more complex and having to switch back and forth with a word document is really annoying.
the seemingly trivial becomes less so when a lot of postgrads are in a room together each with a computer.
the downside to us having dell pcs (readily relevant and noticeable without having been here for more than a few hours)
-the keyboards are incredibly loud. with everyone typing, it's a crazy forest of tapping
-the mouse movements on a desk are obnoxious
and a purely selfish reason for missing the mac today: editting/notetaking with pdfs is way more complex and having to switch back and forth with a word document is really annoying.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
foot
so besides being unable to rouse myself from sleep this morning, my foot also hurt much more than it did last night. so icing that led to a much delayed start to the day. i did, eventually, walk to campus. which probably maybe wasn't the best. i did only go to 401 though. 1. because i didn't want to walk further to 603 and 2. because i didnt know if i would be able to log in at my desk in 603 which could have led to more walking.
so i read more articles. found maybe a few quotes, but it's not inspiring me. i need to find something to spark me into action.
also i'm just disappointed in my foot. i've been waiting to be here for 2 weeks to have some money to then join the gym and regularly work out. and just on the cusp of being able to do that, i've gone and somehow managed to injure my foot (while not even doing some fun sport or something).
on a positive note, i've found there are like 2 more tv channels than i thought that we get which actually maybe show something i can handle watching. that's not mash, or the brady bunch or whatever else that i don't want to sit and watch.
so i read more articles. found maybe a few quotes, but it's not inspiring me. i need to find something to spark me into action.
also i'm just disappointed in my foot. i've been waiting to be here for 2 weeks to have some money to then join the gym and regularly work out. and just on the cusp of being able to do that, i've gone and somehow managed to injure my foot (while not even doing some fun sport or something).
on a positive note, i've found there are like 2 more tv channels than i thought that we get which actually maybe show something i can handle watching. that's not mash, or the brady bunch or whatever else that i don't want to sit and watch.
snails
to file under things i've learned about living in WA:
you have to collect the mail from the mailbox fairly quickly otherwise the snails eat it. yup, the snails like to devour the mail. there was no need to open one of my envelopes this morning, as the snails managed in a day to do some serious damage to it. least they didn't eat the actual debit card.
PHOTO: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/snail-mail.html
you have to collect the mail from the mailbox fairly quickly otherwise the snails eat it. yup, the snails like to devour the mail. there was no need to open one of my envelopes this morning, as the snails managed in a day to do some serious damage to it. least they didn't eat the actual debit card.
PHOTO: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/snail-mail.html
603
went to building 603 in the technology park where the health sciences postgrads reside yesterday (monday 13 august). it's where i'm moving to, which will be nice to be around other students even though it's farther away and isolated. however, i was unable to log onto my (non mac) computer over there. so after trying to log onto multiple computers without success and then having to deal with it and oasis losing the entire morning, i spent the afternoon back on my mac in building 401.
upon walking home, i managed to really twist and hurt my foot. unfortunately. did go to the grocery store and come out with a bunch of items instead of the one i went for. i blame it on injuring my foot.
upon walking home, i managed to really twist and hurt my foot. unfortunately. did go to the grocery store and come out with a bunch of items instead of the one i went for. i blame it on injuring my foot.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
into the second week
tried to get a lot of reading of articles done, but it was extremely hard to focus.
on thursday (09 august), i didn't go to campus. couldn't manage to wake myself up. talked to mom on the video chat and then went with lorraine and the kids to the park at the foreshore. was quite a nice view across the river of downtown perth. went on the swings, had some ice cream, built a moat around a sand castle, and hung out as the sun set. adrian joined us after work and we had dinner back at their house. it was a lovely afternoon.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/south-perth-foreshore.html
got my loan paperwork sorted out on friday (10 august) and hopefully that was then faxed on friday back to the states. going to have to make a phone call to verify that and the possibility that heriot watt may have actually (finally) taken a payment to finalize that whole nonsense. also spoke with the guy about me moving over to 'the hub' where all the postgrads are. it's farther away, but i would like to be with other students. although it's looking pretty likely that my nice new computer won't be coming with me either. boo.
went with adrian and the kids to meet lorraine at bradford beach saturday (11 august) afternoon. found some nice little shells on the beach. a bunch of people out on surf boards. i'd like to try surfing - found that i can get a block of lessons at a beach that doesn't seem to be too far from curtin's campus so that may be promising later on. apparently, they teach the kids in primary school - being in the ocean is such a part of their life that they teach the kids how to be safe and how to surf. i think that's pretty cool.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/2nd-beach-trip.html
otherwise spent a lot of the weekend organizing and going through what articles i have as files on my computer. and making sure that the usb drives and laptop have the same files. now i'll be able to read through the abstracts and pick out ones to read now (vs. later) as there's no way i can go through them all. was hoping to go outside and enjoy today, but it rained almost all of the day so that didn't happen. sadly. been staring at the computer screen for far too long. was just trying to fix up the files of my itunes library, but have possibly made it worse - hoping not. we'll see i guess. but i think that's definitely another clue to be done with the computer files for now!
on thursday (09 august), i didn't go to campus. couldn't manage to wake myself up. talked to mom on the video chat and then went with lorraine and the kids to the park at the foreshore. was quite a nice view across the river of downtown perth. went on the swings, had some ice cream, built a moat around a sand castle, and hung out as the sun set. adrian joined us after work and we had dinner back at their house. it was a lovely afternoon.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/south-perth-foreshore.html
got my loan paperwork sorted out on friday (10 august) and hopefully that was then faxed on friday back to the states. going to have to make a phone call to verify that and the possibility that heriot watt may have actually (finally) taken a payment to finalize that whole nonsense. also spoke with the guy about me moving over to 'the hub' where all the postgrads are. it's farther away, but i would like to be with other students. although it's looking pretty likely that my nice new computer won't be coming with me either. boo.
went with adrian and the kids to meet lorraine at bradford beach saturday (11 august) afternoon. found some nice little shells on the beach. a bunch of people out on surf boards. i'd like to try surfing - found that i can get a block of lessons at a beach that doesn't seem to be too far from curtin's campus so that may be promising later on. apparently, they teach the kids in primary school - being in the ocean is such a part of their life that they teach the kids how to be safe and how to surf. i think that's pretty cool.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/2nd-beach-trip.html
otherwise spent a lot of the weekend organizing and going through what articles i have as files on my computer. and making sure that the usb drives and laptop have the same files. now i'll be able to read through the abstracts and pick out ones to read now (vs. later) as there's no way i can go through them all. was hoping to go outside and enjoy today, but it rained almost all of the day so that didn't happen. sadly. been staring at the computer screen for far too long. was just trying to fix up the files of my itunes library, but have possibly made it worse - hoping not. we'll see i guess. but i think that's definitely another clue to be done with the computer files for now!
Monday, August 6, 2012
06 august
monday.
today i spent the day on campus at my computer reading news artricles/ research articles (and downloading additional ones to read).
and while i had the plan to walk to the farther side of campus grocery store at the end of the day, it began downpouring in the afternoon. so i figured i'd take advantage of a quiet break in the rain to make it home rather than trek across the campus and back. so that'll have to happen tomorrow.
this evening, i did a load of laundry and watched some olympics. being here, they cut back and forth between australian competitors but at least i'm able to watch some of it.
i've also spent a good few hours working on these blogs, looking up inline skating information for australia, and where a dollar-store type store might be in perth. exciting. or not really.
today i spent the day on campus at my computer reading news artricles/ research articles (and downloading additional ones to read).
and while i had the plan to walk to the farther side of campus grocery store at the end of the day, it began downpouring in the afternoon. so i figured i'd take advantage of a quiet break in the rain to make it home rather than trek across the campus and back. so that'll have to happen tomorrow.
this evening, i did a load of laundry and watched some olympics. being here, they cut back and forth between australian competitors but at least i'm able to watch some of it.
i've also spent a good few hours working on these blogs, looking up inline skating information for australia, and where a dollar-store type store might be in perth. exciting. or not really.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
art museum
sunday 05 august
slept in again. because i had no where else i needed to be. that was nice.
then i found a bus i could take to go downtown to target. the bus went through victoria park across one of the two causeways and into downtown and only took 20 minutes. so i'm really not that far. also it showed me that there is life (target, grocery store, restaurants...) not that far away from me on that bus route in victoria park. so that's nice.
stopped in the tourist information centre where i got off the bus and found out that the art museum and museum of WA are free to visit. also got a map of the river area where there are nice paved exercise paths.
went into target which was not quite as target-like as i had hoped. and price wise decided i should find out if there's a dollar store/poundland equivalent out here before buying things. did get a tupperware container to take lunch to campus in though as it was on sale for 2 dollars rather than 8 or 9 or whatever crazy price they normally are.
walked into the movie theatre to see how much that would cost. 14 dollars for a student (but 10 on tuesdays) so i figured maybe that would be a tuesday option.
so i went to the art museum - mainly because i happened to walk to that one before the museum.
the art gallery of western australia - didn't go to the paid exhibit but walked around most of the rest of it. part of it being housed in the old court of perth. and they have a lock up cell and the courtroom still in tact, which was neat. some some cool things.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/perth-city-centre.html
and even managed to get back to where the bus would take me back and managed to get off the bus at the right stop. the bus stops are numbered at the stop so people with smartphones can get information. but there are no names or information regarding stops on the bus. also the bus journey one way cost me like 26 cents which is awesome. i like that student discount - a lot.
watched the olympic female marathon on tv this evening. caught the end of the women's triathalon and assorted things last night. got nostalgic for london seeing them run through the city. also encourages me more to train for another skating one. the multiple bike paths here appear to be paved and look to go up and down the river, which is promising if i order some skates. so that's something i'll have to look into.
slept in again. because i had no where else i needed to be. that was nice.
then i found a bus i could take to go downtown to target. the bus went through victoria park across one of the two causeways and into downtown and only took 20 minutes. so i'm really not that far. also it showed me that there is life (target, grocery store, restaurants...) not that far away from me on that bus route in victoria park. so that's nice.
stopped in the tourist information centre where i got off the bus and found out that the art museum and museum of WA are free to visit. also got a map of the river area where there are nice paved exercise paths.
went into target which was not quite as target-like as i had hoped. and price wise decided i should find out if there's a dollar store/poundland equivalent out here before buying things. did get a tupperware container to take lunch to campus in though as it was on sale for 2 dollars rather than 8 or 9 or whatever crazy price they normally are.
walked into the movie theatre to see how much that would cost. 14 dollars for a student (but 10 on tuesdays) so i figured maybe that would be a tuesday option.
so i went to the art museum - mainly because i happened to walk to that one before the museum.
the art gallery of western australia - didn't go to the paid exhibit but walked around most of the rest of it. part of it being housed in the old court of perth. and they have a lock up cell and the courtroom still in tact, which was neat. some some cool things.
PHOTOS: http://blogographannex.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/perth-city-centre.html
and even managed to get back to where the bus would take me back and managed to get off the bus at the right stop. the bus stops are numbered at the stop so people with smartphones can get information. but there are no names or information regarding stops on the bus. also the bus journey one way cost me like 26 cents which is awesome. i like that student discount - a lot.
watched the olympic female marathon on tv this evening. caught the end of the women's triathalon and assorted things last night. got nostalgic for london seeing them run through the city. also encourages me more to train for another skating one. the multiple bike paths here appear to be paved and look to go up and down the river, which is promising if i order some skates. so that's something i'll have to look into.
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