Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Back on the chain gang

So here I am back after an extended Christmas holiday of visiting relatives and excessive eating. Had a very calorific christmas, in fact if I was a goose, I would be a prime candidate for pate production. Anyway my resolution to actually spend some time in the lab and less time on the computer, is already looking foolish. Somehow in my post grant euphoria (and aided by Christmas ale) I agreed to become a guest editor for a journal. Now in the cold light of the new year, I realise how much work this will actually entail and as Graham Taylor once said "I do not like that". This was compounded by the appearance of a medic who wanted me to read her MD thesis by the end of the week. She had been let down by her supervisor. Since I was feeling charitable (had just given to Tsunami fund), I agreed to help her out. My second resolution to spend more time watching rubbish TV (so that I could join in the tea room banter and become socially acceptable) is now also looking dodgy.

There was an interesting article on the BBC website about the pitfalls of work related blogs (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4115073.stm), together with a helpful list of rules. It seems that I break most of the rules, but the point of this blog is give a realistic view of a scientist's work day. For a few heady years it was all about exciting hypotheses and performing groundbreaking experiments, but now it is mostly about shuffling paper. Like other professions we deal with people and bureaucracy. We have similar levels of frustration and career disatisfaction too. Hopefully readers will find a few laughs (thanks Pogo for nice comments) among all the whingeing comments. For me it's cheaper than getting a therapist. Happy new year!

2 Comments:

Blogger Chromatin said...

Hello there. Given my background (NHS scientist) I'd say you are doing what you're aiming to. Same here on the cheap therapy.
Like the blog.

6 January 2005 at 20:55  
Blogger Professor Xavier said...

Hello Chromatin, thanks for the comments. From reading your blog, it seems the same sorts of people populate NHS and University research labs! It is ironic that the people in power are the ones who have the problems with communication. Anyway keep up the good work.

9 January 2005 at 22:30  

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