10.04.2009

back to blogging

So, it has been a while hasn't it. My absence was much longer than planned but I think I am ready to get back.

When I left, I had just returned from a conference. There was a big focus on my new work there and I didn't feel like I kept up or fit in or was well received whenever I tried to get my foot in the door or talk to bigwigs about my project. On top of that, I was in this competition and my talk didn't go very well. It was important for me to talk to some of the judges about my new work and I couldn't shake the feeling that they were judging me about everything. Because they were! Personally, it was a wonderful time catching up with good friends but professionally, eh.

Upon returning, I went into the field. It was a productive trip with a lot of pressure. It was on a new system that Rt-H hadn't worked on before. New places to work, with a different combination of students. There was one major blowout, which was due to my own leadership failings. 10 hours in the field + 7 hours driving + no food = unhappy Albatross. I got pissed at the actions of one student and the other had a compete breakdown. We worked through things and moved on with the trip and the work once we returned, but one of the students is still harboring some resentment about it all which makes it hard to learn from our mistakes and move forward.

After that trip (in July), with the students working away in the lab on our side project, I was supposed to visit to a lab for training related to the next portion of my project. This fell through and after a bit of floundering, I finally visited a different lab this past week to do the training. Things are starting to get back on track, some unbloggable situations have resolved themselves and life is becoming a bit more manageable again.

While catching up on my 1000+ posts in my reader, please feel free to let me know major happenings that I've missed in the comments. If anyone is still here reading, that is!

7 comments:

Seeking Solace said...

So glad you are back.

My big news is that I got a job and I start Monday. :)

comebacknikki said...

So glad to see you're back! :)

Let's see... I hit my 5 year blogiversary & am about to finish the first fall term. That's about the extent of the excitement for now. :)

Karina said...

Yay! I'm glad you're blogging again. To catch you up on my blog, I'm back from my first field season and having a mid-Ph.D. crisis. I look forward to reading more posts from you this fall!

Sneks said...

Welcome back!

Albatross said...

thanks everybody!

SS- A HUGE congrats! Can't wait to read about how it is going!

CBN- 5 years! Wow! Happy Bloggiversary!

Karina-Welcome back! I hope the crisis isn't due to a bad field season. Will have to work through your back-logged posts next.

Sneks- thanks! And for the encouragement to get back here =)

chall said...

happy you are back.

I'm finishing up my post doc and moving to a more "regular" job with no weekend work :)

hope you get back in the (new) research without too much hassle.

ScienceGirl said...

Glad to have you back, hope the new research direction gets easier for you soon!

I think you disappeared around the time I moved to finish my phd at a large research lab remotely from grad school town; so far that has been working pretty well.