Category Archives: My news

Greece

(Click on image for full size)Tomorrow, the Microscope is leaving for a week and going right into ground zero of the economic crisis: Athens.

Sadly, this won’t be like a month ago, when I was in Spain. That’s a nice way of saying that I haven’t prepared any comics in advance (due to various reasons) and the blog’s traffic will plummet like the global market (too soon?).

So, I hope to be back next Friday, and will put up some new comics soon. Meanwhile, why don’t you feast upon the Comic Archives? It’ll cure what ails you – if what ails you is a postdoc, academia, lab monkeys, research funding, or just an old man yelling at you for using a multichannel pipette.

You can also follow me on Twitter, which is where everything happens these days. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to tweet from Greece.

Announcement: BioData comics

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I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be drawing a weekly cartoon strip for the BioData blog, and the first one is up today.

BioData are THE go-to company for lab/research management software (they’ve recently also acquired another amazing company, LabLife) and the Microscope is all emotional and misty for getting to draw for them.

In Newcastle

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The Other Newsletter is on forced hiatus for two reasons: 1) I moved to Newcastle and started a post doc that’s eating up my time and 2) I don’t have Internet at home.

But mostly, my free time is going to studying the Highway Code and writing a research paper for publication.

In more important news, the Lord has blessed me with a wonderful Church here in Newcastle and I’m very excited about what He has in store for the time I’ll be there. It’s good to finally go to a healthy (not perfect – no-one is!) fellowship where I don’t feel vexed in my spirit after the service. Yes, it’s a Reformed Evangelical church.

Hope to be back on soon, but connecting us at home is going slower than a research project. Zing.

Dr!

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So it is.

As of yesterday, October 23, 2007, I have been accepted into the ranks of Biology as a Doctor (of Philosophy), following a three-and-a-half hour grilling on my thesis. As per tradition, I have some minor corrections to do on the document (I couldn’t believe some mistakes I made) and then it’s print-out and hard binding (some six copies!). Oh – and I’m also graduating on December 5, when I get to wear a saffron-red-black gown complete with a squashed hat straight out of 14th-century Italy.

It’s been a long ride, with many ups and even more downs, but God can work miracles. I thank Him because these last days He has graced me with a particularly strong sense of His presence, and that was an enormously calming factor as I walked into the dragon’s den today.

Also, I want to thank all of you who have been praying for me and have been encouraging me along. The names are many and valuable.

And now I look forward to what God has in store for the future – with excitement and anticipation.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

The Thesis redemption

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It’s done.

But more importantly, it’s gone.

Today, after three months of toil, I sent off my 217-page thesis to my two examiners, one internal with the University and one external, in Germany. It’s out of my hands now, and all I have to do is prepare for my viva in late October. It is, as they say, the point of no return.

It’s good to be free.

I could write a novel on my thesis adventures alone, but I’m afraid it would be too intense. So instead, I give you dates:

  • Began writing thesis full-time: July 3
  • First deadline for submission: August 15
  • Realised that first deadline is a joke: August 14
  • Second deadline for submission: September 12
  • Armageddonic realisation that statistics are wrong: September 10
  • Really worried about statistics: September 14
  • Realised that second deadline is just not going to happen: September 15
  • Third deadline for submission: September 20
  • Realised that third deadline falls on a Sunday: September 18
  • Fourth deadline for submission: September 23
  • Gave up on hope of ever graduating: September 18
  • Adopted tearful “I don’t care any more” attitude: September 19
  • Fifth deadline for submission: September 28
  • Print Shop rage: September 26
  • Registry Office comes to the rescue: September 27
  • Submission of thesis under “Hallelujah” chorus: September 28

***ADDITION ***

  • Thesis reaches Germany and gets lost in post: September 29
  • Notified of situation: October 11
  • Thesis finally emailed to examiner as PDF: October 12
  • Second (and last) hard copy of thesis sent to external examiner’s home: October 15

Ain’t no business like a PhD business.