Back to Your Normally Scheduled Programming

I've got a horrible case of the Mondays. Today has been rough. I had a totally shiny and productive week at boot camp followed a wonderful weekend with family and my other family (Clo's family). And now it's Monday, and I was back at my normal desk, trying to get work done.

The bad thing about boot camp was the fact that it showed me that I can actually be productive, and, as such, I've set the bar higher than normal. Pre-boot camp me was happy if I could get a good model of my data in one day-- "a" being one. Today, I got plausible models of three data sets. And made a handful (40) of samples for my next trip to run instrumentation. This would have been logged under the spectacular day category two weeks ago. Post-boot camp me is not pleased. Today it just feels "meh".

Don't drink the Kool Aid. No really, don't drink it. It's not Kool Aid.

So what's the solution (haha. see I'm punny)? Keep setting the bar this high (i.e. new criteria for spectacular day classification?) or lower my expectations? And please don't remind me that December is 9 months away. I realize in 9 months, I need to have finished all my research, written my dissertation, defended, and at least have multiple papers submitted-- draft form at the absolute least. Oh yeah, and have a job/post-doc lined up. It looks a lot scarier on paper a computer screen than in my head (it's pretty scary in my head too).

So now that I have sufficiently transcribed my displeasure and freaked my self out, I will leave you with this picture that is completely unrelated but science-y. Check out all those crystals. I made those. These were made on a day that was likely not even classified as mediocre, but they're still pretty. So if beautiful things come out of not-quite-mediocre days, then maybe today WAS actually spectacular. Perhaps I should give myself more credit.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

An Irishman's Philosophy:

In life, there are only two things to worry about—

Either you are well or you are sick.

If you are well, there is nothing to worry about,

But if you are sick, there are only two things to worry about—

Either you will get well or you will die.

If you get well, there is nothing to worry about,

But if you die, there are only two things to worry about—

Either you will go to heaven or hell.

If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.

And if you go to hell, you’ll be so busy shaking hands with all your friends

You won’t have time to worry!