Infinitely writing...

I suppose this is primarily my fault for pushing everything off. So what have I been doing?

I submitted two abstracts for the upcoming MS&T 2014 conference. One oral presentation and another poster. After the pressure of preparing two presentations last time, I decided I didn't enjoy the experience so much. Although what I've also come to realize though is that presenting any research project for the first time is typically a lot of pressure of how receptive the audience will be. That is to say, last MS&T I presented on both the nano-Ni abnormal grain growth features and the information from the 3D nf-HEDM dataset for the first time ever and was already incredibly nervous for each one individually, and compounding the two did not help.

On the other hand, I was certainly nervous when we had to present our GBE results the first time at the 5th Recrystallization and Grain Growth conference, but when I presented on our next study at TMS 2014, I found myself comfortable with the overall situation. I suppose after giving one presentation, I felt I had validation of my work (as nobody from the audience ridiculed or challenged me) and secondly, and maybe more importantly, I had ownership to the work. The second time presenting it then is essentially watching the growth or next step of the research project. The topics for this upcoming MS&T 2014 involve one on the 3D dataset, and a second (poster) on some of the computational homology studies we've performed. The first should be extremely interesting (although it'll more or a less a repeat of the upcoming 3DMS talk), while the second is again, another side project.

Aside from that, I've been writing my drafts for my papers I keep putting off. I finally felt one was in more of a complete form that I should send off to my collaborator (but not my advisors just yet), and mixing in a second one with additional data now. In addition to the papers are my overview document, which I've begun making more of an effort thanks to my roommate, who had to turn her's in today. Her deadline essentially made mine more real, and forced me to sit down realize what needed to be done.

As a result, this weekend has almost been nothing but writing (and of course procrastinating like in this picture shown...)