Still not working...
It rained more or less all day today. We caught the northernmost edge of a westbound tropical storm. No wind or lightning, or anything exciting like that though. This would have been a perfect day to make more notes on the technical lit i've read. However, i spent all of 30 minutes today dealing with it because, frankly, it's boring. It feels too much like busywork, and in a way it kind of is. I think i'm still unemployed (though the paperwork is now moving through the process), so that's all i have to work on right now. But it's not technically due so my motivation to work on it is limited. Unfortunately, i generally need deadlines to work efficiently.
That's the status of the main project. As for the other job i have, i'm even more in the dark. All i know is that i'm supposed to help two students (Robert and Lisa, for future reference) catch crustaceans in a bay on the south end of the island that may be harboring WSSV. Haven't been told details yet, and apparently, they don't know much more than i do. Robert and Lisa came by my apartment today wanting to know when i wanted to start on the project. They also thought they were the ones helping me on the project, not the other way around. News to me. I told them that i thought i was helping them, though had i been thinking, i should have ran with the me-as-boss scenario. I have a bad habit of not speaking strategically, of laying all my cards on the table.
I'm stuck in neutral on work right now, but that's not to say i've been completely inactive the last few days. Over the weekend, I hung out with Jeff and his family (mostly watching movies and tagging along on shopping errands), and yesterday i went with Dr. Brown and his family to Cocos Island, an afterthought of a landmass off the southern coast of Guam. It bills itself as a resort, but i think that's a lack-of-a-better-word description; there's not much to it, though they certainly charge big-time resort prices for activities and concessions. So we stuck to the free activities; the Browns mostly stayed by the pool, and i walked around (almost literally) the island, exploring the jungle areas. I got to see the local species of monitor lizard, which is black with bright green spots and skittish around humans. On the way down to Cocos, Dr. Brown pointed out a couple of the shrimp farms that are included in my study. If the operators keep their books anything like they take care of the facilities, i'll be lucky to get any data at all.
Tomorrow, i'll go to campus and try to get some more details on both projects, but specifically the one with Robert and Lisa. I hope it quits raining by then, since some of the roads here get slippery when they get wet.
That's the status of the main project. As for the other job i have, i'm even more in the dark. All i know is that i'm supposed to help two students (Robert and Lisa, for future reference) catch crustaceans in a bay on the south end of the island that may be harboring WSSV. Haven't been told details yet, and apparently, they don't know much more than i do. Robert and Lisa came by my apartment today wanting to know when i wanted to start on the project. They also thought they were the ones helping me on the project, not the other way around. News to me. I told them that i thought i was helping them, though had i been thinking, i should have ran with the me-as-boss scenario. I have a bad habit of not speaking strategically, of laying all my cards on the table.
I'm stuck in neutral on work right now, but that's not to say i've been completely inactive the last few days. Over the weekend, I hung out with Jeff and his family (mostly watching movies and tagging along on shopping errands), and yesterday i went with Dr. Brown and his family to Cocos Island, an afterthought of a landmass off the southern coast of Guam. It bills itself as a resort, but i think that's a lack-of-a-better-word description; there's not much to it, though they certainly charge big-time resort prices for activities and concessions. So we stuck to the free activities; the Browns mostly stayed by the pool, and i walked around (almost literally) the island, exploring the jungle areas. I got to see the local species of monitor lizard, which is black with bright green spots and skittish around humans. On the way down to Cocos, Dr. Brown pointed out a couple of the shrimp farms that are included in my study. If the operators keep their books anything like they take care of the facilities, i'll be lucky to get any data at all.
Tomorrow, i'll go to campus and try to get some more details on both projects, but specifically the one with Robert and Lisa. I hope it quits raining by then, since some of the roads here get slippery when they get wet.