rebeccmeister (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rebeccmeister) wrote2009-08-26 01:57 pm
rebeccmeister) wrote2009-08-26 01:57 pm
Blast. Retracing my steps. [research]
Now that I am no longer in intensive data-collection mode, I've been getting back into measurement and analysis mode. I have a list of five major projects that need to move forward, so there's no shortage of things to do. The only drawback to this switcheroo is that now I have to go through and piece together what things I still have and what things I lost in the Black Hole Era (the period from March 3, 2009 through June, when my laptop Ruby was stolen).
Generally, this is a disheartening venture, although there are occasional semi-uplifting moments when I discover things aren't as bad as I thought they would be. For example, I spent a lot of time and energy reorganizing some critical data files (Excel spreadsheets), summarizing a lengthy experimental timeline, and developing a new naming system for worksheets within those files. I was afraid I'd lost all of that effort, and would have to reinvent it and relocate a bunch of paper records, but then I discovered a couple of things I'd e-mailed to myself and was able to reconstruct everything in an hour's time instead.
I am also about two-thirds of the way through a project from that era that involved measuring fungus areas. Tedious business. At least it's getting done again, and I am more cautious now, so I won't lose this batch of about 30 hours' worth of work.
But every once and a while, I remember/discover something else that no longer exists. The thing I'm remembering now is a particularly hairy mess of data that may need to be re-entered from another set of cryptic paper records (I was a pretty inexperienced scientist when I started the project, back in August of 2005, and my notes are quite spotty and disorganized). This time through, I will probably be smarter about re-entering the data, though, and won't re-enter the stuff that I won't end up using anyway. So I have learned at least something.
Generally, this is a disheartening venture, although there are occasional semi-uplifting moments when I discover things aren't as bad as I thought they would be. For example, I spent a lot of time and energy reorganizing some critical data files (Excel spreadsheets), summarizing a lengthy experimental timeline, and developing a new naming system for worksheets within those files. I was afraid I'd lost all of that effort, and would have to reinvent it and relocate a bunch of paper records, but then I discovered a couple of things I'd e-mailed to myself and was able to reconstruct everything in an hour's time instead.
I am also about two-thirds of the way through a project from that era that involved measuring fungus areas. Tedious business. At least it's getting done again, and I am more cautious now, so I won't lose this batch of about 30 hours' worth of work.
But every once and a while, I remember/discover something else that no longer exists. The thing I'm remembering now is a particularly hairy mess of data that may need to be re-entered from another set of cryptic paper records (I was a pretty inexperienced scientist when I started the project, back in August of 2005, and my notes are quite spotty and disorganized). This time through, I will probably be smarter about re-entering the data, though, and won't re-enter the stuff that I won't end up using anyway. So I have learned at least something.