Venting Thread- Vent about anything.

[1Q84]

One of my colleagues drives me up the wall with how much paper she wastes. She'll just print out 10 articles of 20 pages each, use up all the paper and not refill it. Then she'll just dump half of it in the trash (which is right beside the recycling bin, by the way). Or she'll print out 50 pages and then walk off to class and come back, "Oh... wait I printed that? Oh well. Guess I don't need it." 

 

I can't stand it. It makes me want to scream! I've been grabbing all her paper and printing my articles and drafts on the back just to make myself feel better.

 

Why the waste?! WHY?!

 

[shadowclaw]

I am sick of my own inconstancy and inability to work at a regular rate. I'm an irredeemable binge-worker. I crank out massive output then spend weeks laying around on the couch. At my most apologetic, I say I'm letting the ideas "incubate" or "percolate." It's like I need someone watching me to get off my ass and get into gear.

This. You must be my personality twin. I don't know if it's a motivation issue or if I have some disorder where I become obsessive with a project for a short period of time, but I have periods where I crank out a lot of good work. I basically sit in my room for a week or two, spend all of my time working on my project, and produce a bunch of quality work. Then I immediately find something that I can lazily consume for a little while, like binge-watching episodes of a Sci-fi show or binge-reading a series of books. When I've conquered that, I often find a creative project to focus on (like writing, painting, cake decorating) and then return to a burst of scientific productivity.

Maybe there is a binge personality type. We binge on various activities and rotate through them.

[VulpesZerda]

This. You must be my personality twin. I don't know if it's a motivation issue or if I have some disorder where I become obsessive with a project for a short period of time, but I have periods where I crank out a lot of good work. I basically sit in my room for a week or two, spend all of my time working on my project, and produce a bunch of quality work. Then I immediately find something that I can lazily consume for a little while, like binge-watching episodes of a Sci-fi show or binge-reading a series of books. When I've conquered that, I often find a creative project to focus on (like writing, painting, cake decorating) and then return to a burst of scientific productivity.

Maybe there is a binge personality type. We binge on various activities and rotate through them.

I'm the same way. I tend to be a highly motivated and productive person but only in random bursts. Oh well, it's gotten me this far...

[grad_wannabe]

I am sick of my own inconstancy and inability to work at a regular rate. I'm an irredeemable binge-worker. I crank out massive output then spend weeks laying around on the couch. At my most apologetic, I say I'm letting the ideas "incubate" or "percolate." It's like I need someone watching me to get off my ass and get into gear. 

 

AAH I'm the EXACT same way.

 

I'll lay in bed staring at Work Project, berating myself for being unable to start it, wondering what the hell is wrong with me, sure I'm going to get fired any second. Then usually just before the deadline I'll get that final mental push of motivation, sit down and crank out work for 15 straight hours. 

 

Next project, rinse and repeat...

 

I'm really started to wonder if I have some kind of problem. Everyone keeps saying "oh you're working too hard!" and I want to say "but you weren't there when I was laying in bed loathing myself for three straight days..."

[busybeinganxious]

As I'm watching email and my phone like a hawk no less than five numbers, with area codes I'm not familiar with, call me within 18 hours.  1 telemarketer, 2 hang-ups, and 2 weird clicky beepy ones. 

 

I don't know what I did to deserve this, but I apologize to the universe.

[dr. t]

I just posted elsewhere that I missed a call from a Chicago area code (I'm applying to UChicago), and it was a telemarketer. My heartrate still hasn't come down.

[Schizo-Neuro enthusiast]

Six rejections so far. 8 more schools to go. I am feeling  desperate.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Schizo-Neuro enthusiast

[Mattie Roh]

One of my colleagues drives me up the wall with how much paper she wastes. She'll just print out 10 articles of 20 pages each, use up all the paper and not refill it. Then she'll just dump half of it in the trash (which is right beside the recycling bin, by the way). Or she'll print out 50 pages and then walk off to class and come back, "Oh... wait I printed that? Oh well. Guess I don't need it." 

 

I can't stand it. It makes me want to scream! I've been grabbing all her paper and printing my articles and drafts on the back just to make myself feel better.

 

Why the waste?! WHY?!

 

 

 

Gah. I work with tree haters, too. I'm constantly pulling stuff out of the trash to reuse/put in the recycling bin. Seriously, folks!

[shadowclaw]

My last course for my masters program is a stat course. I never was very interested in the course, as I've been learning the stats I need for research either from my professors or books, and to be honest, the class isn't likely to transfer into a PhD program and I'll have to take a few other stat classes anyway. My graduate coordinator told me I didn't have to take it, but really pushed me to. It's a required course but due to scheduling conflicts, no one in the bio department was able to take it last spring and he let us off the hook in case there was a scheduling problem this spring. However, since there isn't a conflict this time, he's been pressuring us to take it anyway.

R is really big with ecologists, and several of my POI's indicated that they wanted a student with R experience. I don't know how to use it, but indicated to them that I would be taking this course and learning some R. Several students and professors said that the course heavily used R. I got to class on Tuesday, and found out that the professor will be focusing on SAS, because evidently we won't get jobs in the biomedical sciences without knowing it. Maybe it's a valid argument, but only 2 students are pursuing that track. The other 8 of us are ecologists.

I am annoyed. Not only am I taking a class that I'm really not interested in, but I won't even get the experience in the stat program I need.

[dr. t]

R is literally Hitler, so that may be a blessing in disguise.

[shadowclaw]

I've tried dabbling in R, but I generally get frustrated after a few hours of nothing working right, and then turn to SPSS, Primer, or JMP. Which takes a few minutes once the data is typed in.

I've said this before to people, but this isn't the 1980's. I shouldn't have to use a command prompt to do stats. GUI's were developed for a reason. One of my committee members said R was made so computer programmers can pretend to be ecologists. Maybe it's true.

[Gvh]

I've tried dabbling in R, but I generally get frustrated after a few hours of nothing working right, and then turn to SPSS, Primer, or JMP. Which takes a few minutes once the data is typed in.

I've said this before to people, but this isn't the 1980's. I shouldn't have to use a command prompt to do stats. GUI's were developed for a reason. One of my committee members said R was made so computer programmers can pretend to be ecologists. Maybe it's true.

 

On the upside R has pretty solid documentation - yeah the output can be a little messy but once you get used to it it really isn't too bad. 

[C10H12N2O]

On the upside R has pretty solid documentation - yeah the output can be a little messy but once you get used to it it really isn't too bad. 

I agree! The good thing about R is that you can perform IRT analysis. Sadly, SPSS lacks the capability to do this!

[dr. t]

Like everything else you have to use, it's the worst solution except for all the others.

[FoggyAnhinga]

My biggest vent is that SO MANY SCIENCE FACULTY do NOT understand the strict eligibility policy that NSFGRFP has. NSFGRFP is an outstanding fellowship without a doubt, but they have this ridiculous rule which states that only the applicants with less than 12 months of graduate education are eligible (as many of you science folks will know). This 12-month includes ANY graduate education, including non-degree seeking, part-time, etc (furthermore, they explicitly state that if you have a master's degree that took over 12 months to complete and are currently applying or pursuing PhD program, you are not eligible, unless you took at least two years off after your master's, which is not what I did). It is so frustrating when I email prospective POIs with my CV (which clearly state I have a master's degree that took two years to complete) and so many of them reply back to me saying "you should definitely apply for NSFGRFP" or "why didn't you apply for NSF?" I wonder why so many of them are completely unaware about this eligibility issue? When I replied back to one of the POIs about this (I'm no longer interested in this POI thank goodness haha), his response was "are you sure about that...?" *Sigh...*

[mandarin.orange]

R is literally Hitler, so that may be a blessing in disguise.

 

I've just been learning/using R for the last few months, and I feel like an absolute wizard. I knew there was life beyond clumsy MS Excel, and I keep thinking I have found it at last! Granted, perhaps the functions I've been using are quite basic compared to long-term users, or folks with a background rooted in actual stats and theory (not me!).

 

 

One of my committee members said R was made so computer programmers can pretend to be ecologists. Maybe it's true.

 

This is actually quite funny. My sense is ecologists are INSANE for R (and will deride anyone who tosses off an Excel-generated plot in a poster or presentation). 

Edited January 23, 2015 by mandarin.orange

[shadowclaw]

This is actually quite funny. My sense is ecologists are INSANE for R (and will deride anyone who tosses off an Excel-generated plot in a poster or presentation).

Haha I think you're right. Most papers I read use R, and R is a desired qualification for potential grad students. This particular professor hates R with every fiber of her being and tries to use other software whenever possible.

[Pitangus]

I've just been learning/using R for the last few months, and I feel like an absolute wizard. I knew there was life beyond clumsy MS Excel, and I keep thinking I have found it at last! Granted, perhaps the functions I've been using are quite basic compared to long-term users, or folks with a background rooted in actual stats and theory (not me!).

 

 

 

This is actually quite funny. My sense is ecologists are INSANE for R (and will deride anyone who tosses off an Excel-generated plot in a poster or presentation). 

 

R works well for ecologists because it's so flexible for modeling. And many ecologists who use modern techniques (e.g. Bayesian statistics with MCMC methods) use R. 

Plus R is open source, which has its pros and cons, but I find the pros to be pretty persuasive (e.g. it's free and there are lots of useful and well-regarded user-generated extension packages). 

 

SPSS is often the first statistical program people use because its menu-based point-and-click interface is user friendly, and many people stick with it because it is what they are used to.  Same goes for older researchers/faculty who have used SPSS throughout their career and have no interest in learning a new program. 

 

I started with SPSS in undergrad, but I am glad I started using R in my current program (my stats courses here have all used R or SAS). There is definitely a learning curve with the coding, but R is really useful for the kinds of modeling I do. I have heard of people running R syntax with SPSS so that they can still use the menu-based interface, but even that requires messing around with SPSS's syntax to accomplish, so the coding can't be entirely avoided if you want that flexibility. But since starting with R I haven't felt the need to use SPSS again. I like how writing R code or even just editing existing scripts forces me to really understand the statistical techniques I'm using. 

[mandarin.orange]

Haha I think you're right. Most papers I read use R, and R is a desired qualification for potential grad students. This particular professor hates R with every fiber of her being and tries to use other software whenever possible.

 

No one among my advisor, committee members nor collaborators at the professor level use R. So in my (anecdotal) experience, the "old guard" can't be bothered with it. My advisor, in a moment of magnanimity, gave me a box with SigmaPlot software and told me to install it. I approached our dept's IT person for help with the installation, who just laughed and said it was over 10 years old.  

 

My rudimentary hacking away with R has already resulted in an offer to co-author a paper.

I like this "Adventures with R" paper that came out last month -- cool figure, at least, of how much R has been/is being used in the last few years of publications, by discipline. It was comforting for me to know that even long-term users Google around for help and code. 

 

SPSS is often the first statistical program people use because its menu-based point-and-click interface is user friendly, and many people stick with it because it is what they are used to.  Same goes for older researchers/faculty who have used SPSS throughout their career and have no interest in learning a new program. 

 

Point-and-click interfaces (e.g. ArcMap sans Python) were slowly killing me, esp. for things that need to be repeated, automated, and frequently redone. The denizens of our GIS lab (grads who code in Python and use ArcMap extensively for their research) call that method of doing things "the gooey way."   

[juiceboxrampage]

I hate how my partner and I have such conflicting interests right now. I want to go to grad school in California. He wants to move to the east coast. If I get into my dream schools, he's stuck living in an area he hates. If I don't get in anywhere, he gets to pick where we live and we get to follow his dream. My worst case scenerio is his best case scenerio, and vice versa.

 

I can feel him trying to be oversupportive when I talk about my dream schools. And he can tell that I'm trying to cushion the blow of being potentially rejected by reaffirming that it's better for him. We're just in this weird phase where we're both like, "No, sweetie, let's do the thing YOU want to do. I'm so stoked for you even though it sucks for me. No, really, this isn't my own personal hell on earth, because I'm just so selfless and happy for you."

 

I feel like me going to grad school might end in us splitting up, which would be a real bummer. And I feel overdramatic talking about it, because it's not like at age 22 I think I'm going to marry this guy I've been dating for only a year, but it still sucks.

[VulpesZerda]

I hate how my partner and I have such conflicting interests right now. I want to go to grad school in California. He wants to move to the east coast. If I get into my dream schools, he's stuck living in an area he hates. If I don't get in anywhere, he gets to pick where we live and we get to follow his dream. My worst case scenerio is his best case scenerio, and vice versa.

I can feel him trying to be oversupportive when I talk about my dream schools. And he can tell that I'm trying to cushion the blow of being potentially rejected by reaffirming that it's better for him. We're just in this weird phase where we're both like, "No, sweetie, let's do the thing YOU want to do. I'm so stoked for you even though it sucks for me. No, really, this isn't my own personal hell on earth, because I'm just so selfless and happy for you."

I feel like me going to grad school might end in us splitting up, which would be a real bummer. And I feel overdramatic talking about it, because it's not like at age 22 I think I'm going to marry this guy I've been dating for only a year, but it still sucks.

I know what you mean. An uncertain future is putting a strain on my relationship. We've been together since junior year of high school, and I get the feeling that people assume we will break up because we're so young, but we've always been mature individuals and I just don't see it that way. I hope this works out for you! The east coast and CA are probably the only two places I'd want to live, personally - maybe one of you will have a change of heart! I'm totally biased on that, though...

[Pitangus]

I know what you mean. An uncertain future is putting a strain on my relationship. We've been together since junior year of high school, and I get the feeling that people assume we will break up because we're so young, but we've always been mature individuals and I just don't see it that way. I hope this works out for you! The east coast and CA are probably the only two places I'd want to live, personally - maybe one of you will have a change of heart! I'm totally biased on that, though...

 

My boyfriend and I have been together since high school, and I moved to the midwest for grad school, while he is working in our home state in New England. Two and a half years in and we're still doing ok. It is a bit weird because most of my lab mates are married and living with their spouses, but it hasn't discouraged me.

 

I think LDRs are doable when the right sort of relationship and individual personalities are involved. It does help to have a reunion goal though. I want to move back to New England once I finish my Ph.D. anyways, so that is my plan unless my boyfriend is interested in moving elsewhere. I plan to be flexible with my career choices to make it work. 

[shadowclaw]

I hate how my partner and I have such conflicting interests right now. I want to go to grad school in California. He wants to move to the east coast. If I get into my dream schools, he's stuck living in an area he hates. If I don't get in anywhere, he gets to pick where we live and we get to follow his dream. My worst case scenerio is his best case scenerio, and vice versa.

My situation is similar to this. Before we got married, my husband told me he'd go anywhere I was accepted. At the time, I was applying to schools in places he didn't mind much. Two years and (almost) a masters degree later, my research interests have changed a bit and every year a different set of POIs are looking for students. Of the 7 places that I applied to, he is only interested in one. It's near the top of my list, but it isn't my first choice. He periodically reminds me that he doesn't want to live in Tennessee or North Carolina. So pretty much of I get accepted to my dream school, it will be his personal hell. On the other hand, he hasn't been to any of these places except North Carolina, and even that was limited exposure when he was in the marines. So he really has no idea if he'll like or dislike anywhere.

[VulpesZerda]

My boyfriend and I have been together since high school, and I moved to the midwest for grad school, while he is working in our home state in New England. Two and a half years in and we're still doing ok. It is a bit weird because most of my lab mates are married and living with their spouses, but it hasn't discouraged me.

I think LDRs are doable when the right sort of relationship and individual personalities are involved. It does help to have a reunion goal though. I want to move back to New England once I finish my Ph.D. anyways, so that is my plan unless my boyfriend is interested in moving elsewhere. I plan to be flexible with my career choices to make it work.

That's great to hear honestly. I'm from New England as well and that's where we both want to end up living. I'm more interested in industry/government research than TT anyway, so I hope that ups my chances of making this happen. It would hurt him a lot if I made him compromise on grad school and the first job. He loves where we live now, and well, so do I haha.

[dr. t]

If these issues are coming up now, what's going to happen when you're on the job market?