2014 ho!

I last posted in October.  I'd feel guilty if I haven't been so busy. 

A quick run-down:
-4 classes, taken and passed, including Stat 641, the behemoth, the unknowable, the sapper of non-stat-PhD-students' wills and hopes.  I received the gentleman's AB (read: You're really bad at this, but you tried hard, came to every class, and you're a graduate student).  No complaints.
-Gave my first talk MSTP seminar talk.  It's not a huge occasion, but I was still pleased nonetheless.
-Cried in front of my P.I.  Whoops.  Only once, it was under duress, and it was more of a "tears silently sliding down the face with an occasional snuffle" than a "BAAAAAAAAAW WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO" affair, if you tend to classify these things, as I do.
-Increasingly diminished the vagueness surrounding my actual thesis project.
-Made Christmas cookies and sent them out to distant friends and family prior to Christmas. 
-Completed my first semester of once-a-week physician shadowing in infectious disease.  It was pretty damn fun.

And now, we stand on the cusp of 2014.  Resolutions are a relatively big deal in my family.  I'm not sure how the tradition came about--we DO tend toward a chipper and easily irritating "every day in every way I'm getting better and better" mentality, I suppose--but it happens.  We'd sit down to a meal of gougères and black bean pastries, look through a book containing the resolutions of years past, and make our own.  And then we'd force ourselves to stay up until midnight despite the fact that none of us are night owls.  And here I am to carry on the tradition.

My resolutions:
Let's start with the one I know I will fail.
1) Complete the 365 book challenge, and record progress herein.  An anthology of short stories counts as one book.  Conversely, so does one graphic novel.  All books count.
It's basically impossible.  So why?  Because I used to love to read, and did it voraciously.  Because now my evenings are full of mindless redditing while watching Netflix.  Because I'm not sure if it's my age or my internet addiction, but I'm finding it harder to focus on reading as I read.  Because if you read a lot, you'll be a better writer, and god knows I could use some grant money.
2) No zero days when it comes to research.
One of my biggest accomplishments in the last month is nailing down a time frame for the academic hurdles in the near future.  I'll be submitting an NRSA in April, so I need to have my prelim in March in order to have any hope at incorporating feedback.  This means I need a project proposal written up and submitted to my committee at the beginning of January, because I'd like to meet with everyone individually before starting to write it in earnest.  Every day, I will make some measurable progress, even if that just means editing a few pages or reading a paper or two.
3) Run more than I did in 2013
A knee something or other, I don't know, it really hurt, man, kept me from the 2013 Madison Marathon.  I'd like to make it to the 2014 marathon, but I don't want to set myself up for disappointment by making it a Resolution.  So I will run more, and I will run often.
4) Complete a feat of strength or endurance that is new to me
A triathalon.  A Tough Mudder.  Maybe a marathon.  Something to make myself feel good about myself that doesn't revolve around graduate school, because god knows, graduate school never delivers.
5) Be nicer to people.
Smile more.  Offer to help.  Listen.  Send thank-you-notes more promptly.  All that good stuff.
6) Meditate, and meditate regularly.
It can be done.  It will help.