Saturday, April 19, 2008

A week in office

Based on this blog you might think that nothing really significant has happened in the first months of this year. Well, I can tell you the truth: nothing really significant has happened. People are mostly just sitting in their offices doing whatever small things are part of their research work. But maybe even the ordinary can be worth reporting - once.

Monday. Rain and snow. I spent the morning making figures for the next manuscript. In the afternoon I browsed through one biometrics book wondering if I need to include some kind of statistical test to confirm that my results are what they look like. Rest of the day was mainly putting the results to paper, one page more was finished. Highlight of the day: final program of the physense-seminar was announced.

Tuesday. The proofs of a recently accepted laser manuscript (codename: motolaser) arrived for checking and final corrections. Most of the day was spent in this job. I also managed to add a few more paragraphs to the yesterdays work before leaving to the sunny spring day outside. Highlight of the day: hopefully this really was the end of the motolaser project, something that started already in fall 2006 and has required a remarkable amount of time and patience since then – while being really funny at times.

Wednesday. Continuing with the manuscript. I decided that one of the figures needs more points, which meant a significant workload for my computer during the morning. In the afternoon I continued writing, and managed to finish early versions of both results and discussion sections. Highlight of the day: an interesting discussion about one particular pine tree growing more than 200 km away.

Thursday. Wrote abstract to the article and spent rest of the day reading once again those same old, vague articles to confirm that I had cited them correctly. Highlight of the day: lunch break.

Friday. Another sunny but quite boring day. More checking of references and clarifying the unclear parts of the manuscript. Happily all this was finished by the end of the day so the paper was more or less ready to move forward. Highlight of the day: closing the pc for weekend.