Doneskis

I handed in my thesis 3 weeks ago today. It was a great afternoon, sitting at the Unibar with some good friends and not having a care in the world. Of course, it only lasted that afternoon, but I enjoyed it immensely. And drunkenly. 

Now I am am focussing on the move to Melbourne. I finish up work April 3rd (48 days), and start at Monash April 28th (73 days). In that time, I have to have done enough lab work to write a paper, written up to 5 papers (ha!), found a house, gotten a removalist and started to learn an entirely new area of research. Fun stuff. I also have to have said goodbye (or so long) to my family and friends, which I think is going to be far harder. 

But at least my thesis is done :D

First Day on the Job

Today was the first day of the rest of my life. Meaning my first day of paid slavery :P I am now a full time worker, albeit in the fairly flexible world of academic research. I am going to be working on inducing differentiation of muscle cells grown on conducting polymers with electrical stimulation. It's probably an OK project, although it definitely puts me in the firing line of some pretty dubious characters (pretty much the science version of a sleazy bad guy in a blazer in a Caddyshack movie). I will survive! And I already started some lab work today, so I should have a good supply of pretty cell pictures soon. Or in February, when the microscope gets fixed - whatever.

New Years Resolutions

I know that I'm not going to be sticking to any vague "be a better person" or "lose weight" types of New Years Resolutions, so this year I made myself a "To Do Before I leave Wollongong" list. That means that I have about 3 months to do some of this stuff. It's basically some ways to spend some time with people I like, doing things that I think they like.

• Play Halo with Adrian
• Drink a bottle of wine with Meg
• Listen to Shannon play guitar
• See the Fratellis with Grace
• Bake something with Claire
• Play Phantom of the Opera with Ads
• Singalong with Fletch
• Fancy dinner and cocktails with Aaron and Corey
• Singstar with Cros
• Lawn bowls with DJ
• LAN with nerds (yeah, they get lumped as one)
• Swim with Elise at 6am on a Monday
• Brew some beer with Dad
• Time in Berry with Lovey
• Photo Day with Kaylene
• Snorkelling with Mum

Any further suggestions are also welcome, but I suspect this may take up every weekend between here and April. Pretty enjoyable looking To Do list, isn't it?

So this is Christmas

It's almost New Years, and it's been a long time since I've updated. I've been in limbo since the last update, not having too much to do while I wait for my supervisors to read my work, and get their comments, changes and approval back to me. One supervisor has been great, and got everything back to me a while ago. The other has been much, much slower. I am supposed to get my stuff back from him on Jan 5th (the same day that I start my new job), but I am not holding my breath. This limbo state has been very boring and frustrating, and accordingly I haven't had much to write about. These same people are chasing me up during my holidays to do unpaid work for them. I think they can get stuffed until they have done their jobs, and my thesis is back in my hands.

But it's almost over! I'll go back to being a normal person working normal 9-5 (or more accurately 8-6, then finish your writing after dinner). I am still not sure what project I am working on, but I apparently have 3 months to whip together something publishable. Blah. I am keen to get back into some cell culture, though - I have missed growing up cells. I have 100% surety that they will see me in there at midnight on weekends again, but at least I have a car to get myself there these days.

I have had a nice and relaxing Christmas break with family and friends, and after Christmas I bought a bird. I bought it yesterday, actually. It's a cockatiel (or Quarrion) called Choco (pronounced like "Choko" the vegetable, because the other way seemed vaguely racist in an old person way). The name is a reference to the real similarity between baby cockatiels and chocobo - the birds from the Final Fantasy series. This similarity is sillustrated in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1. Illustration of similarity of baby cockatiel (left) and chocobo (right), justifying the moniker "Choco" for our new birdie.

So yeah, a new bird for us! And to finish this post, a picture of the lovely little thing. He's full of personality and has started bonding with us even after 1 day of company and me stuffing things up a few times. He's already eating out of our hands, climbing onto our fingers with the "up" command, asking for head scratches and rubbing up against our cheeks for hugs. We intend on teaching him a wide range of Mario and Zelda themes, as well as an R2D2 whistle. Then... YOUTUBE DOMINATION!

Figure 2. The newest resident of Unit 6 - Choco.

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I am going to print of the entire first draft of my thesis to give to my supervisors. WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

Move, interrupted

So the much-anticipated move, that was supposed to be in approximately one month, is going to be put off by about three months now. I'm a little frustrated by this, as it is a situation beyond my control, but I am OK with the outcome. I will be working where I have been for a few more months (on a new and different project I hope) and GETTING PAID! This idea excites me quite a lot, as does having a few more months with my nearest and dearest. So it is all working out for the best but it has still been a process which has pissed me off a fair amount. A lack of communication from my future boss makes me increasingly apprehensive about the move. However, some of the other people I will be working with impress me more and more with each time I talk to them.

Anyway, it looks like I will be calling NSW home until early April. Woohoo? Now I just have to find a way to broach the subject of "how bloody much money do I get paid, and what is my contract like, and how does this whole job thing work?" with either my current boss guy or the new one. Hints, tips or suggestions?

Mo Bro

My brother, Fletcher, is mo-ing it up for Movember. He has decided on a Mexican-style stache this year. You can keep up-to-date with his progress via twitter, and his MoSpace.