Driving Week of 3.25.24

What’s Driving Me This Week

This is a periodic feature that I told myself I was going to start doing to force myself to 1) use this damned blog and 2) help myself focus for the week starting on Mondays. So yesterday (Monday) I wrote a draft and planned to put it into the computer and onto the internet after lunch and then I absolutely forgot all about doing that. So the series is going really well already, you could say.

The title might change, but this is the best I could think of right now, and I’m trying to get away from the perfectionist tendency to wait to share something until it’s ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. By “What’s Driving Me” I essentially mean what are the projects, what am I thinking about going into this week, what do I want to do this week. Professionally, personally, whatever. It’s an exercise, or something.

1. Spring is coming (again)

I am a plant breeder, which means I have been planning for spring since last fall. In the Midwest buds are starting to fatten and gradually peel themselves open, and I’m waiting for the warmth to stay for real so that my (later-blooming) crops will give me some flowers to play with. It’s also warm enough and close enough to spring that I can justify going to actually look at some trees, which always makes me happy.

2. Manuscript hanging over my head (less a drive and more a drag)

This is PhD work that needs to be done, and I know it needs to be done, but the manuscript is so biiggggg and there are so many edits to doooo but I know I will feel so much better if I get it done and submitted. And it’s interesting work, I still love the work I did. I just hate dry formal scientific writing.

3. Strong body rahhh!!!

I’ve actually managed to maintain some level of Physical Activity the last few weeks, and I’m finally starting to feel strong again, which is a great feeling. Exercising to lose weight is a scam designed by people who want to carry you away and murder you (allegedly). You should exercise to get strong so you can hit hard and lift heavy things.

4. I would like to get my space more in order

We’re just finishing up a move, and my office space is a sea of boxes, and our dining area is a sea of boxes, and our basement is a sea of boxes and unassembled shelves, and what if I actually did something about that? Worth considering.

5. The realization that I can do whatever I want, forever (professionally speaking)

Post-PhD I’ve had a lot of Thinky Thoughts and Insecurities about what it means to be a Working Professional Person (no longer an academic) and how I present myself as a Working Professional Person. I’ve written two versions of a blog post about this, and I still don’t really know where I’m going with it, but I have had some meaningful personal realizations in the course of writing and re-writing it, which has been nice for me.

Watching/Reading/Listening this week

  • We just started watching Mrs. Davis last night, on Peacock, and I really like it so far.
  • I started re-reading Slaughterhouse 5 over the weekend, because it’s been a long time since I last read it and I miss Kurt Vonnegut’s writing.
  • Last week’s Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff podcast was about the Luddites, and I enjoyed learning about them. Last night I started listening to the Well There’s Your Problem podcast, which is about engineering disasters, and I liked it more than I thought I would! Excited to get further into their catalog.

Have a good week, friends.