my life, my pace

Do you remember that old childhood song about the old lady who swallowed a fly and then proceeded to swallow bigger and bigger organisms to try to catch the fly?

Well, it seems that my husband has done the same.  Not literally, of course.  So the computers here at my lab are ancient.  So ancient that I use my own laptop here to do my work.  Only problem is one of the programs that I use to analyze my data only exists on one of the lab’s old computers, which is really slow and aggravating to use.  So my husband decides to save the day by installing the necessary things on my laptop so that I can run this program on my laptop.

All we needed was an external personal video recorder (PVR) to connect my laptop to a VCR so that I could record video sequences from videotapes onto my laptop.  Sounded simple enough.  I requested one from my major professor and waited for it to come.  It came and I set everything up only to have it not work.  After a week of attempts on three different laptops, my husband decided that these newer PVRs are not compatible with my capture program.

The only way I could get it to work was to get an internal TV card and use a desktop, which I don’t have at the lab.  How to solve that problem?  Well, he decided that I would take my desktop from home to lab and replace my home desktop with a Macbook since I was itching to convert to Mac anyway.

So $1200 later, my desktop was now at the lab with the internal TV card.  I set about my analysis, thinking everything was just dandy now, but ended up getting really inconsistent results.  The problem ended up being that this card was capturing the video sequences at low resolution, which was doing a number on my analysis program.  And we couldn’t change the resolution, even after a week of troubleshooting.  At this point, my absolutely brilliant husband decides that in order for me to have the exact setup as the one that exists on the slow computer in my lab, we would have to get the exact same video card as is in that computer.  I’m sorry, but who’s the IT person here?  I had thought of this very thing way in the beginning, but kept my mouth shut because I assumed that he didn’t choose to do this very thing because the video card wasn’t available anymore.  Oh how wrong I was because finally, today I installed said video card and everything is working like a dream.

So in order to fix the problem of “swallowing a fly” (i.e., buying a PVR that didn’t work), my husband swallowed a Macbook ($1200), an internal TV card ($50), and a new video card ($100).  We could have spent $100 of my major professor’s money, but instead we spent $150 of his money and $1350 of our own money and a whole lot of frustration and wasted time because my husband made certain assumptions instead of actually doing some research into how to achieve my setup.

I keep telling myself that this time will be the last time I defer to my husband when it comes to technology issues because it seems that being in IT doesn’t make him any better at figuring the things I need out than I am.

Of course, now that everything works, I’ve lost my motivation to do the tedious analysis since I fell back into my lazy routine while waiting for everything to finally work.

Related posts:

1. procrastinators unite! I’ve always been a procrastinator. And it’s always worked for me. Here’s why. Forget studying for that test! I need to clean the desk/study/house! Besides, the test is still a whole two days away. Don’t I need to turn in that progress report? Well, it’s not due till June so I’ll clean up my desk here at lab first. Then I’ll make that table for my experiment tomorrow. Since I need it by tomorrow, after all. My major professor is on my case about making sure our new data analysis program works but I really need to organize my laptop desktop first. Why? Because I have no need of this program until I actually get some data from my experiments. Until then, why bother? And then there’s the whole studying for the qualifying exam thing. Important? Yes. Big and scary? Yes. Am I studying for it now? No. Why? Because I have a million other things I need to do first, like brushing the dog, cleaning the house, writing in my blog. Blogging is this procrastinator’s dream—there’s always another post I have to write right when I need to get to some annoying task or other. Ah…to be completely unproductive yet productive at the same time—I’m truly living my life at my pace. :)...
2. stop the presses!This is unbelievable!  I am actually doing data analysis right now, as I sit here at home and not at lab.  I've always been one to never take my work home with me, but here I am, doing actual work at home instead of vegging out and watching anime or playing video games.  Why the sudden change?  Well, because my husband is still on his little premed adventure and is busy writing a paper.  Bottom line is: he can't distract me.  He's such a bad influence.  I've never been lazier in my life than I am now that I'm with him.  The sad thing is that I'm way more productive at home than at lab where I've been vegging out despite my best efforts.  See, at home, I can get up and grab a snack and eat while I work whereas at lab, I inevitably crave something that I failed to bring with me so I end up just sitting around wishing I had brought that particular snack with me.  Not to mention the fact that I equate lab with prison, which is just not conducive to my getting any work done since my morale and motivation are always at dreadfully low levels.  So if you'll excuse me now, I'm going to get as much work done as I can before my motivation dries up (i.e., my husband finishes his paper)....
3. as the (lab) world turns (episode 9)Super Bored Grad Student actually has something to do for once and is intently working on it when, of course, Dr. Grumpy Old Major Professor interrupts to try to toot his own horn to her.  Too bad he's an idiot. Dr. Grumpy Old Major Professor: They really screwed up the Super Special Undergrad Research Internship program this year.  The director lady doesn't want to accept one of the junior interns as a full-fledged intern even though it was promised to him because she didn't like how he did last summer. Super Bored Grad Student (to self): No shit.  Who would like a guy who sits there all day playing computer games?  Not only that, but he's a socially inept freak.  And he thinks that he doesn't have to actually earn anything himself because someone else will do the work for him. Super Bored Grad Student barely acknowledges having heard what he said, but that doesn't stop Dr. Grumpy Old Major Professor from continuing. Dr. Grumpy Old Major Professor: But Dr. Kooky Old Lady said that we have to take him because it was promised to him.  So, since no one wants him in their lab, I said I would take him.  (pretends to regret it) I guess I shouldn't have. Super Bored Grad Student (who is shocked and appalled): You're not serious, right? Dr. Grumpy Old Major Professor: Why? Then he realizes that he tried to toot his own horn about this situation to the wrong person.  Because this freeloading...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.