Back...

I deleted my blog awhile back, I'm not sure why, I just did it.
I have been reading all the blogs that I used to, I just didn't want to post anything myself.

I suddenly wanted to start blogging again, so I'm back.

Maybe it's because of the stress thats all bottled up and I need a place to put it all before my head explodes.

So, If you are still out there...Hello!

I guess I can start with a few updates on life in general:

J and I are enjoying our new home, but theres not many developments or homes in our neighbourhood right now so it's pretty exposed. We get lots of wind. It howls like crazy at night, sometimes it's hard to sleep and the dogs hate it. They are pretty happy being indoor dogs and really only like going outside when it's nice out. The wind blows their long floppy ears all about and its enough to make both pups stop dead in their tracks on the front step.

I have not really done any wedding planning at all. J and I have decided to try to keep it casual and instead of a formal dinner dance, we are going to have a lunch reception and no dance (no one ever dances anyways). I've thought about some places and I think I'm going to check out the front runner early this summer.

Things have been crazy busy with school, like it always is this time of year. When I'm still teaching, and am trying to organize a million things, and collect data for all the up coming conferences. Needless to say, I'm stressed and my knotted back is proof.

I'm having lots of days were I'm feeling so overwhelmed that I don't know what to do with myself, and other days were I'm feeling alright with everything, like I've got a good handle on things. I don't understand how I can go from one extreme to another in 24 hours.

Today I think I'm doing ok.

I got the reviews back from my first first authored paper, last week. They were split. One reviewer was generally positive with some areas of concern which we can address with out too much difficulty. The other reviewer pretty much thought it everything we did was shit and recommended rejection (it was kinda harsh). My supervisor isn't too concerned and thinks that with a couple of quick controls we'll be able to complete the revisions in no time. This is the first time I really had to come to face really negative comments on my work. It was clear though the not so nice reviewer didn't really understand the technique that we use. It's been around for I dunno 35 years and there's lots of groups that use it, so I'm not sure why this reviewer can't accept that yes, it works.

So yea, Supervisor sent me the comments as a "skin thickening" exercise. I think I handled it ok, it did keep up the first night, thinking about the paper. But now I think that with the new controls I did, we can refute some of the reviewers comments (the mean one) and we can discuss a little bit more on some things for the other reviewer (the nice one) and hopefully things will swing our way in the end.

How do you get used to bad reviews? It seems so harsh. Do you think people are more candid and harsh because it's annoymonus?