This is something very elementary, but because I don't really know Photoshop (CS2) much, I cannot get it work...

I have a black and white tiff file, and I need to rotate one part of the picture 180 degrees. I'd imagine I just select the part, make it a new layer and rotate it. But all the options concerning layers are greyed out, e.g. if I right-click the selection, or try to do something with the background layer in the layers-windows. Also the whole layers-menu is greyed out! Nothing can be done...

Maybe there's some simple option to turn this kind of editing on? Please help!

Today received email from an editor, stating that the last of three manuscripts I have submitted lately is accepted, with relatively minor revision! The main thing to do is to do an additional phylogenetic analysis with a model-based method (e.g. bayesian inference), which should be a snap.

Things are starting to look pretty good!

Just an hour ago I received the editorial decision for another paper for my thesis, and it was accepted with minor criticism. Yay!

Actually, I wasn't too worried about this paper, because it's a simple, mostly descriptive work revising 4 species previously assigned to 3 genera and transferring them to another genus (reflecting the results of molecular phylogenetic study of mine). But still, it's reassuring to see that only few small changes are needed, and the paper will be printed this year!

This piece of work was mostly done four years ago (I started my phd with this paper), and then left on the self to wait for the phylogenetic results. It's great to see it finally getting published!

I'll celebrate with an afternoon nap.

The show goes on, and luckily with some progress. It's actually possible to finish it during March. The original deadline was 19th March, and some might think I lack the moral backbone when I'm already now thinking about extension of week or so. But there are some limits in productivity and efficiency.

Although generally I'm not complaining too much, the 'work all days and nights' attitude is mostly working, and in fact I feel _less_ anxious about the schedules and deadlines than year or two ago. Maybe I'm just too busy and/or too tired to get anxious?

I have still been doing climbing and yoga once a week. Yesterday's climbing was refreshing, although after few routes I just felt totally exhausted. Decided then to take this saturday off!

This morning a long-waited email arrived: the main article of my phd has been accepted for publication! Yay! Double Yay!

Some changes are of course required, but they were considered to be "relatively minor", I think it's a maximum work of couple of days.

It looks like I might actually finish my thesis in time!

[as batched analyses are running in the background, I'll give myself a permission to post on LJ during the working hours]

In December, I promised to hand over my phd thesis for examination on 19th of March. So, couple of weeks ago I decided it's time to heavily prioritize the things in my life meet this goal. There's still terrifying amount of work to do:

-finish the phylogenetic analyses and write the last paper (to be added to the thesis as an unpublished manuscript). This paper I'm doing in close co-operation with S (another phd student); this fact hopefully speeds things up (or not!). The analyses are almost done, so that leaves one month to write the paper. It seems awfully little, but I'm quite ready to write something relatively simple and end up with something that can't be described as the cream-of-my-thesis. This is partly because the data doesn't really tell very much (and gathering more data is definitely out of question).

-write the general introduction and conclusions, 3 weeks. In many Dutch thesis these are quite short chapters, and I have the basic ideas for the introduction in my mind. So I'm not too concerned about these chapters.

-incorporate the reviewers' comments from three already submitted articles. There will be possibly _lot_ of work, possibly almost none.

To achieve all this, I try to be strict about my working schedule: work _must_ go on during the weekday evenings and weekends. But I also try to realistic: sometimes your body tells you it's time to take an evening off, and probably respecting your needs will increase the productivity in the long run?

Of course a schedule like this will restrict my freetime activities a lot. But I try (at least in this stage) still to have some sort of social life, and do yoga and climbing (once a week each).

The main pitfall now, I think, are the feelings of work-related anxiety. Either because I feel I haven't worked hard enough, or because I feel the thesis is not good enough. For example, this week I have been quite ill (some sort of flu with muscle pain etc.), and at some point I just had no power to continue working at that evening. Objectively thinking this behavior is quite reasonable, but part of me felt just guilty because I failed my plan...

I still think it's possible to make it in time (although the doubts about it are definitely there, as I have almost always missed my phd related deadline..).

For day or two, I have been making these weird movements with my head muscles...

...and today I realized I have spontaneously gained the skill to move my ears!

I guess this should be interpreted as a good sign for the new year.

Dear gentle ladies and men,

This is it. The opening entry of my LJ, the entry you all (well, at least Doseybat) have been waiting for.

So.

It's christmas. It's also my first christmas away from family, my first christmas abroad and the first christmas I'm spending alone.

It's actually not too bad (read: hardly any added value to the daily suffering of existence). My strategy has mostly been to ignore the whole happening (although I had to be polite and open the presents from my parents...) and carry on with everyday life. I managed even to do some science (but, alas, not to clean the toilet)!

There are some helping factors. Firstly, it seems that Dutch don't make too much fuss about christmas in general. After all, they already had their Sinterklaas few weeks ago. And, the weather (+10C) and green grass-fields would trick even reindeers and gnomes to believe it's no christmas.

Today there was several hours of sunshine from clear sky. That's something quite exceptional! Cycled to the beach at Katwijk and had a walk at the dunes. Enjoyed the nature with all senses and saw a fox.

Tomorrow I'll tackle the toilet. Also social interaction planned!!