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I picked a good one
Jul. 23rd, 2011 07:22 pmThursday night, Lindsey did a really beautiful thing.
So, I've been working on this project, which I'll explain to you at length if you're interested. It's related to translation, something about figuring out how to pick the best word for a translation, using information from the source language. I cranked really hard on it Spring semester, intending to get it polished up for a conference deadline. But it wasn't ready. And then I started my internship and put it on the back burner for a while, because I've been working on, uh, some bigger software.
But the deadline for the Student Workshop of that same conference was coming up, so I started working on it again! A few days ago, though, I hit this weird roadblock, and emailed my advisor Mike to ask if my approach was totally wrong-headed, but he assured me it was sensible given the circumstances. Although I convinced myself that he was right, I only had a day left, and I was tired and thinking of giving up and letting the paper slip to the next conference.
Then Lindsey suggests: hey, why don't you skip work on Friday and work on your paper instead? Just tell your manager you're trying to hit a paper deadline and go in on the weekend. Everybody will understand: you work with a bunch of research scientists [0]. (she was right: my manager replied to my email with simply "OK, sounds good!")
Perfect, perfect suggestion. So I cranked on the paper with renewed vigor, pretty much continuously until it was no longer the 22nd anywhere in the world: 4am here-time. Maybe they'll accept it at the conference and I'll go to Bulgaria to present; I think it turned out alright.
And y'know what? I'm usually pretty productive when I go in on a Sunday :)
[0] Many of whom were going on a GResearch river-rafting trip on Friday anyway.
So, I've been working on this project, which I'll explain to you at length if you're interested. It's related to translation, something about figuring out how to pick the best word for a translation, using information from the source language. I cranked really hard on it Spring semester, intending to get it polished up for a conference deadline. But it wasn't ready. And then I started my internship and put it on the back burner for a while, because I've been working on, uh, some bigger software.
But the deadline for the Student Workshop of that same conference was coming up, so I started working on it again! A few days ago, though, I hit this weird roadblock, and emailed my advisor Mike to ask if my approach was totally wrong-headed, but he assured me it was sensible given the circumstances. Although I convinced myself that he was right, I only had a day left, and I was tired and thinking of giving up and letting the paper slip to the next conference.
Then Lindsey suggests: hey, why don't you skip work on Friday and work on your paper instead? Just tell your manager you're trying to hit a paper deadline and go in on the weekend. Everybody will understand: you work with a bunch of research scientists [0]. (she was right: my manager replied to my email with simply "OK, sounds good!")
Perfect, perfect suggestion. So I cranked on the paper with renewed vigor, pretty much continuously until it was no longer the 22nd anywhere in the world: 4am here-time. Maybe they'll accept it at the conference and I'll go to Bulgaria to present; I think it turned out alright.
And y'know what? I'm usually pretty productive when I go in on a Sunday :)
[0] Many of whom were going on a GResearch river-rafting trip on Friday anyway.
