Introduction DONE!

So three hours since my last post, I've finally finished the damned introduction. I was right -- it really did take a long time to write this out. I think it's because you're outlining the main idea in detail in the introduction and thus, you're trying to get it perfect whereas your abstract is outlining your whole paper in much more vague terms so it makes it easier (although, I remember that abstract taking me a while to finish as well).

I'm hoping to god the body will much easier to write as I have three nice questions to answer as part of my outline and thus, I have some idea of what I want to say in each of them. If the body is supposed to be at least six pages long, then it'll be about two pages devoted to each question. Six more pages will get me onto page ten and with one more page devoted to the conclusion and future directions, I'll have me a solid 11 page paper. Add in a couple of figures/tables and I'm bound to reach the required limit. ^^ That'll be tomorrow's work though.

Okay, I'm off to explain how naked DNA might not necessarily degrade in a soil environment by binding to clay and despite that, still retain enough activity to transform bacterial cells. Sounds interesting, right? I swear, when I picked interkingdom HGT as my topic, it seemed a lot more fun. I guess finding out that it has a fat chance in hell of actually happening at any meaningful levels kinda takes the steam out of things...

First part of main body finished...

That took me three hours?! Gah... I have two more questions to answer as part of the main body and I'm seriously doubting whether or not I'll be finished before dawn... Should I go to sleep and finish it up later? I really don't know. I think I'm going to try and get through my data for the next two questions (the bulk of what I have) and see what I have, try to seperate it by integration of DNA and expression, although they're really highly linked so I might just do a really big section with the two of them together...

I'm starting to get tired... I think in two more hours, I'll be pretty much dead so I think I'll quit around then, call Safe Ride and get them to take me back to Water Street and to bed. Gah, this totally sucks. I can't wait until Monday is over and I'll have this out of the way for good.

Well, second part of main body finished...

That took me how long? Four hours? Okay, I'm seeing a marked decline and I feel like I'm going to collapse so I'm going to go home and put myself to bed. I still have to finish up talking about Ralstonia solanacearum (at this point, I have no idea why it's even special or relevant to my paper) and to conclude it with future directions. I'm assuming that will be easier because I already know what more needs to be done and obviously, recapitulating what I've already written will also be pretty easy... The figures, I'm not so sure about... At this point, I have about eight and half pages with five pages devoted to the main body. I need at least six so I'm hoping that I'll get at least another page with the next section, possibly more since I'm planning on covering three papers. Plus, I have slip one more paper in to the first section since I didn't realize I had more recent data that shows actual transformation of soil bacteria in their natural environment which is definitely a big deal since that's what everyone is so afraid of. Got to do that tomorrow... Okay, I'm going to guess that it'll take me about an hour to get home so about 8 AM-ish... Gah, an all nighter... I can probably manage with only six hours of sleep so about two or three o'clock to wake up and to finally finish this damn thing? It's only two more pages and considering it took me what? 12 hours to write eight pages? I should be able to manage it in time... I still have part of Monday if I really need but I wanted to do my computer assignment during that time so I hope I won't have to go that far.

Okay, I'm going to leave. I can barely type at this point... Thankfully it's day so I shouldn't get jumped walking to the subway...

Snow...and other stuff...

I was happy to see the snow after walking out of 3rd North, I was pissed at the snow after walking in it and having it blown into my eyes...

I was thankful to get back to my dorm, to finally get to bed. And I got really, really, really scared when my laptop wouldn't respond to me. And then I become absolutely bat-shit freaked out when it wouldn't start up at all after restarting it. And that's when I knew it -- it's that hard drive failure that I convinced myself that it wouldn't happen... I probably should have paid more attention to those weird clicking noises...

So, after deciding to just turn it off and hope it'll be better after I get some sleep and wake up, I try and sleep. But I really couldn't, not with something this horrible happening... I mean I didn't back up my computer assignment that's due Monday! I spent days on that, making the graphics, tweaking the layout so it looks just right, playing with colors so it's all color-coded... Not to mention the video that I made for it... There's no way I could have made it as awesome as I had it in the space of a day. Not even since I have classes and work. I try to console myself that I could skip work, spend time from noon on working on it, trying to at least get all the technical elements in so I would get credit for assignment but it was no use. I couldn't fall asleep.

So I tried again and it was the same reaction -- it just wouldn't start up. It kept saying "Invalid Partition Table" and I had no idea what it meant... So I tried back to falling asleep. Still couldn't do it. I got back up and hoped against hope that it would start up again. It didn't. So I gave up, tried sleeping once more and of course, I couldn't fall asleep. I mean I was freaking out. Everything lost, just like that. My homework! 25 points, the largest assignment we've had and probably will have! I wanted to cry but I couldn't...

Eventually, I got up again, tried turning it on and I get the warning that my hard drive is going to fail soon (it used the words eminent failure) but since this was different I was happy. And it started to boot up, something it hasn't done for a while. Thank god. It took longer than it should have but I was glad that it worked. First thing I did was to copy my computer assignment. Next, back up my files and write Masha. So now my external hard drive is a mess but at least I've got my homework, ready for me to work on it later today.

Gah, is it really noon? I haven't even slept yet... I'm so gonna be dead. And I have to finish my essay too... I don't know how I'm going to manage this at all... Okay, sleep first. Gotta get some hours in or else I'm no good at all... Then back to campus for more work. Yay. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I might not go to work... I don't want it to be for nothing and if it's going to ruin me more than anything, I can't see it being any good to me by going...

I'm going to hope I can fall asleep now... Please, let me fall asleep...

So tired...

I am absolutely exhausted. I managed to get to sleep some time around 1 PM (a total first for me) and I slept for about four hours... I got up, made myself the best omelette I've ever made before and then I came back there, to the 3rd North ITS Computer Lab to finish up my report. I really didn't want to come... It was late, it was dark, it's cold and they're predicting sleet and freezing rain for tonight... Not fun at all. But when I started up my computer, it was still pretty sluggish and not all together right so foreseeing a horrible failure right in the middle of finishing my paper, I decided to come. And here I am. It's been about an hour and a half, I've written practically nothing because going through the papers to write it is taking me a long time. I'm so close though, I can feel it... I think I might finish it tomorrow though... Maybe. Gah, this sucks overall...

Okay, I've got until 11:20 to finish this. Last bus to NYU is at 11:45 and I'm determined to be on it, no matter how far I'm done with my paper.