Graduate Student-0==Distinguished Professor-Infinity

Yep, the adviser won the argument again. The fact is that I think he’s pretty meager I just have a bad time arguing my point because I’m not 100% confident that I’m correct, and my adviser makes such good points.

Me: I’d really like to graduate soon
Him: No need to rush, no one is going to care how long it took you, and how long have you been here?
Me: Almost 6 years
Him: Well it takes most students 7 years when they get their masters along the way

I know think I set him up to make up an arbitrary number after he heard how long I’ve been here

Me: I think the paper is ready to resubmit
Him: I think it needs more figures
Me: The reviews said we had too many figures and tables
Him:Well we can’t sacrifice the good of the paper for an arbitrary figure number, besides most people just glance through the paper and look at the figures. Even if someone decides they don’t like your model you have so much data here, more than most (any) other manuscripts on this nature. The papers good for that, so focus on that more.
Me: True

Me: I’m loosing my motivation and feel like nothing has been accomplished this past year
Him: What are you talking about? You collected all that marvelous data that professor at other university said was great and you got the almost invited talk at big conference and instead of submitting a short communication coauthor said WOW this is great data make a full publication
Me: Yeah, I guess
Me: I want to graduate
Him: These things take time don’t rush we are making fine wine here
Me: Well maybe you have time for fine wine but I’m happy with cheap wine. I’m not trying to be hasty or lazy I would just like to graduate
Him:In good time, in good time. . . .

We also discussed the weather, the holiday party I missed, my talk for big conference (he won’t be there) and my next visit back to dissertation town.

My adviser said he was happy with my progress and my writing is getting better (I asked him about it). He loves to tell examples of really famous people who get crappy reviews and students who complain about how long things are taking but then get big awards for papers.

I feel like I got my point across, and that my point is wrong. But I’m happy I got it off my chest. My hopes for a May graduation are down the drain yet I’m still going to keep trucking along and see how things go.

I’m happy my adviser had actually read the paper before the meeting. I should have said that to him. We will meet online again after the big conference next week and I foresee the paper resubmitted this year. He said he’d like to see it again before I resubmit but finals are the week of the 17^th so hopefully now that he’s heard my side of the story he’ll be efficient and give me feedback quickly.

GOAL: E-mail adviser revised version of manuscript by Dec9th before I fly to conference state. I think this is a reasonable goal, 3 or so days.

Writing

So it's obvious I won't make my InaDrWriMo goal and I'm ok with that. I'm at 8% now, I'm aiming for 50% by Nov. 30th. Although resubmit should be um, resubmitted by then-see below.

I just got off my internet meeting with adviser and he said if I give him a draft of our resubmit tomorrow night he will read it over the week-end. I had to ask this but I'm glad he said yes. We told the journal it should be completed by the end of the month. I am also happy with the analysis of our newest data. Initially I was upset and hated our model and thought new data didn't fit, and it doesn't give us the same exact result but a similar one and still has an interesting conclusion. I also feel so much better now that I've propagated error for these crazy model equations with eight variables each. Some of the errors are pretty big but some are not. So I've revised the intro and lengthly methods and deleted the results section to just start fresh. I guess I could count these words as part of my progress, and I might, but it's hard to asses written words on a revise. This resubmit wasn't even included in my goals, so I've spent a lot of time this month not working on InaDrWriMo.

I'm still waiting for data on manuscript "1"
Still haven't gotten back manuscript "2"
And as previously mentioned I didn't analyze all samples needed for manuscript "3" and I just heard that lab tech won't likely analyze forgotten samples by conference time. They may just have to wait until I go back to dissertation town in January. Poor forgotten samples :(
Although I'd like to have my completed data set for manuscript "3" there is def. more I can still write while I'm waiting for these samples. It's a very big manuscript with two to three sub stories.

Oh and I wanted to comment about how amazing my home made salad just was. Spring mix, raisins, walnuts, hummus, cooked red potato and balsamic vinegar/olive oil/garlic homemade dressing. Yummy, I may go make some more.