I can't believe how quickly time has flown... nor how much work remains to be done in my last week and a bit. Wowsers!
Best get on with it so!
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Monday, April 4, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
It always comes down to who you know, not what you know...
I'm so happy that nepotism is alive and well in Utah.
Really, I am; because without it, I wouldn't have had one of the most interesting mornings since I got here.
I have been struggling with some access issues where I am based. Very specific issues, with specific people, who insist on setting themselves up as gatekeepers and then withhold access to the places they've been promising to bring me for (six) months. Frustrating as hell. To be fair, I have had some great access to other parts of the organisation - it's just this one specific area (and one particular person) who's proving to be problematic.
Anyway, I was talking about nepotism. A woman that I've become friendly with here brought me to a St Patrick's Day party (the irony of being the only Irish person in the house at a St Patrick's party!) and introduced me to another of her friends who works at a fairly prestigious research hospital. We were talking shop for a little while and she offered to show me around the facility so that I could see how things are done in other places apart from where I am. Yeay! A bit of rounding out.
So this morning, I met her at 7. (Yes, 7. In the morning. In order to get to the hospital on time, I had to get the Trax at 6:30, but the first bus past my road isn't until 6:40, which meant I had to walk twelve blocks (about 3km), which meant I had to leave my house this morning before 6!!!) She brought me to a treatment planning conference and then brought me on a full tour of the facility - hospital and research institute - and introduced me to heaps of people. She spent 3 hours with me this morning, showing me everything and talking me though a lot of the specifics that I was seeing. Fantastic.
And what did I have to do to get this amazing treatment? Apply for a Fellowship? Request special permissions? No. All I needed to do was serendipitously meet the right person at the right party. Proving yet again that it's rarely about what you know, and more often about who you know. And for once, at least, I'm very pleased about that. :) Happy day!
Really, I am; because without it, I wouldn't have had one of the most interesting mornings since I got here.
I have been struggling with some access issues where I am based. Very specific issues, with specific people, who insist on setting themselves up as gatekeepers and then withhold access to the places they've been promising to bring me for (six) months. Frustrating as hell. To be fair, I have had some great access to other parts of the organisation - it's just this one specific area (and one particular person) who's proving to be problematic.
Anyway, I was talking about nepotism. A woman that I've become friendly with here brought me to a St Patrick's Day party (the irony of being the only Irish person in the house at a St Patrick's party!) and introduced me to another of her friends who works at a fairly prestigious research hospital. We were talking shop for a little while and she offered to show me around the facility so that I could see how things are done in other places apart from where I am. Yeay! A bit of rounding out.
So this morning, I met her at 7. (Yes, 7. In the morning. In order to get to the hospital on time, I had to get the Trax at 6:30, but the first bus past my road isn't until 6:40, which meant I had to walk twelve blocks (about 3km), which meant I had to leave my house this morning before 6!!!) She brought me to a treatment planning conference and then brought me on a full tour of the facility - hospital and research institute - and introduced me to heaps of people. She spent 3 hours with me this morning, showing me everything and talking me though a lot of the specifics that I was seeing. Fantastic.
And what did I have to do to get this amazing treatment? Apply for a Fellowship? Request special permissions? No. All I needed to do was serendipitously meet the right person at the right party. Proving yet again that it's rarely about what you know, and more often about who you know. And for once, at least, I'm very pleased about that. :) Happy day!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Eat the Cabbage
I used to blog fairly regularly and then I fell out of the habit. So now I have decided that it is time to start again.
'Researcher in Exile' is where I will keep some sort of open field journal relating to my research and my life. (In fact, I have lately found myself wondering if the two are actually different. The jury's still out on that one.) My exile is a strange and multi-faceted thing: self-imposed; a reward; a burden; physical; mental; conceptual; theoretical; practical; hypothetical; emotional; material.
I knew that I would face homesickness and that I would miss my family (and sometimes, being so far away causes me physical pain). What I did not expect to miss the people in my research network so much! At home, I would often go several weeks without physically seeing one of them, but we would be in regular contact by phone, skype or IM. I've still got that regular electronic contact with them. But now, I find myself surrounded by people who understand the world from a very different perspective to mine.
On the surface, there are only superficial differences between here and home. In fact, I quite like it here. On a conceptual level, however, I feel like I am marooned on an island with a village full of vegetarians, and I'm the cabbage! I want the cabbage to grow; they want to eat the cabbage.
'Researcher in Exile' is where I will keep some sort of open field journal relating to my research and my life. (In fact, I have lately found myself wondering if the two are actually different. The jury's still out on that one.) My exile is a strange and multi-faceted thing: self-imposed; a reward; a burden; physical; mental; conceptual; theoretical; practical; hypothetical; emotional; material.
I knew that I would face homesickness and that I would miss my family (and sometimes, being so far away causes me physical pain). What I did not expect to miss the people in my research network so much! At home, I would often go several weeks without physically seeing one of them, but we would be in regular contact by phone, skype or IM. I've still got that regular electronic contact with them. But now, I find myself surrounded by people who understand the world from a very different perspective to mine.
On the surface, there are only superficial differences between here and home. In fact, I quite like it here. On a conceptual level, however, I feel like I am marooned on an island with a village full of vegetarians, and I'm the cabbage! I want the cabbage to grow; they want to eat the cabbage.
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