Third year slam

So, I'm in my third year now and I have no classes, no teaching, and no major grant deadlines rapidly approaching. Given all of that, why oh why am I not getting more done. The most surprising thing about the life of a grad student is how little time we actually get to devote to our research. An astounding amount of time is consumed by meetings for various committees or groups we're involved in, writing permit amendments, putting together talks about our research, ordering supplies for our research, reading papers by others that is associated with our research etc etc etc.
That may be why the field is so alluring. For months on end I do nothing but research. Who knows when I'll actually get to analyze it, but at least I'd be collecting it.
But for the next few months I am focused on the flurry of activity that precludes field work. Namely, determining what I learned last year.

Conference recovery

I've just returned from a major national conference and am in the process of recovering, converting the matter between my ears from mush back into grey stuff. All in all it was good, though exhausting. It's a little nerve wracking to get up in front of a bunch of people who have forgotten more than you currently know about the subject you are presenting on. However, I got some excellent feedback and met, or re-met, the major players in my field. Hopefully that will help down the road when I start applying for post-doc positions. Who knew that biological research was so like politics, but then, it is a human endeavor so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.