KKPW explained and Flux...

Okay, Jeno, you asked...
Since I can't sing it for you, I'll write down the words and you'll have to try to find a buddy that had this song sung to them ad nauseum. It was a personal fav of mine.

(And, actually, I think it's called 'This Old Man')

Vs. 1:
This old man, he played ONE, he played knick knack on my thumb
With a knick knack paddy wack give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

Vs 2:
This old man, he played TWO, he played knick knack on my shoe
With a knick knack paddy wack give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home

(You see where this is going, I'm sure...)

Vs. 3: THREE; tree
Vs. 4: FOUR; door (or floor)
Vs. 5: FIVE; hive (although that always sounds dangerous, so I try to come up with something else during that lap.)
Vs. 6: SIX; with some sticks
Vs. 7: SEVEN; up to heaven
Vs. 8: EIGHT; on the gate
Vs. 9: NINE; on a dime OR all the time
Vs. 10: TEN; with a hen

I can usually get to 12 (which is what I need for a long set of 600 in a 25 yd pool). Just have to get creative with 11 and 12 (shelves works for 12... and 11 is much like 7). Hope that helps!

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

Updates:

Swimming - Swam 3 times this past week, mainly because of the rain. Felt good to get back to it!

Biking - Biked once (and once more tomorrow). Because of stinking rain.

Running - Ran not at all. Because of bruised heels (yes both of them) sustained in triathlon. I think things are back to normal (after lots of icing). Might give it a go tomorrow after bike ride.

Giving Blood - Once. Yesterday. Freaking filled the bag, and then almost passed out. Probably due to the fact that my BP was 106/66 *before* donating. Nurse Betsy was a little nervous, and I was feeling funky for the next couple of hours. Drank a TON of water last night.

Killing Ants - 100s. My apartment seems to be a bit infested. And, let's just say that the Rookie - gu incident didn't help matters AT ALL! GAH!

Organizing - Lots and lots. I go through these phases where I feel like my life contains too much entropy (that's chaos for you non-science peeps) and I go into super anal mode. I'm there now.

Losing things - 5 times. I've lost my school keys twice (the second time led to the organizing frenzy), my car keys once. Also lost were my swim cap (found that tucked in my flipper) and my nice timex lap watch. That's still lost :(

So, the organizing apparently wasn't that successful because I'm very scatter brained. This happens sometimes too, and it's usually when I have a lot on my mind. Right now it's school. I want to get out of here, so I'm trying to organize my time (day, week, month) so that that can happen in a most efficient manner. The thing is that I'm working on a project that has almost nothing to do with my thesis. This is a huge problem.

I brought it up to my advisor this past week, saying that while I'm interested in this project, I'd like some sort of assurance that it will go in my thesis (i.e. not time wasted). His response was pretty fair, but it was the first time I ever felt used. He said to do another week's worth of experiments and then see where we are. Ummmm, okay. See, I'm at the point where I can get a week's worth of work finished in a day or two. And also figure out what the heck it all means while coming up with new experiments to do tomorrow. This means (I know) that I've matured into a thinking, breathing scientist. While I like this transformation, I'd also like to get the hell out of here.

One more week. And then my patience runs out. And, no more of this global "let's see where we are" crap. I want DATES, DETAILS, and CONCRETE PLANS, dammit! Probably one of the smartest things I ever did while I was here was to take a class on teaching at the undergraduate level (yes, they actually teach how to teach! How amazing - On my final evaluation of the class, I said that ALL professors on this campus should have to take this course.). We learned a lot, but the most helpful for my situation right now is that my advisor and I have VASTLY different learning styles. I am almost 100% linear-sequential and auditory. Guess what he is? Yup, global and visual.

Soooo, I ask a question with a fairly straightforward answer (yes or no, for example) and get.....

"Well, um, yeah, well, let's see... If we define the peak as blah blah blah, we can surmise that blah blah blah and then if we scratch our butts and pick our noses we can think some more and come up with something that isn't really anything at all."

Which leads me to ask the question... again. Before, it usually took 2 or 3 iterations of this until I get frustrated and then just say, "Is it YES or NO?"

So, now I know the problem. Not sure of a solution per se, but it definitely makes me smile when this happens now. :) Unless we're talking about my future.