If I Had Known Then What I Know Now

It turns out that there's a lot of writing involved in science. Like, massive amounts. A dissertation is freaking long. It might have been nice had someone warned me about that back in the day. I might have opted for a career in underwater basketweaving instead.

I enjoy the research aspect of science. I like asking questions and setting up experiments (or observations, as is the case in astrophysics). I like hunting down and fixing problems when things have gone awry. I like analyzing data. I like thinking about what it all means, how it fits into the big scientific picture, what new questions an experiment leads me to ask....

I do not like writing about it. In fact, I despise it. On a list of things I'd like to be doing right now, "multiple root canals" and "sharp stick in the eye" both appear slightly above "writing". And when I decided to go to graduate school oh so many years ago, it truly didn't occur to me exactly how much writing is involved in an academic career. Sadly, the science is only part of it.

So here I sit. Staring at my dissertation file. Wishing that the barrel of monkeys I have acquired to write it for me would get off their bums and finish the job. I'm on a timeline here. And I have root canals to schedule and sharp sticks to find.

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In other news, you should check out the picture of Pigs's new baby, Piglet. He's a cutie. :)