#pigeons programing problem

[radioactivepigeons]

I want to finish my code because I know that as soon as its out and workable, people will use it.

But right now, its not behaving nicely and I haven't quite figured everything I need to have an accompanying citation and I'd like to get credit for the work. Which might be shitty, but like, maybe people can wait an extra month while I get this shit sorted out? Like, the publication is basically so i can get citations for the tool. And hopefully answer a major question in the field.

And just, ugh. Once again, if you create a "tool" it must function as a tool. Being a tool means people can (1) install it, (2) run it on your data and (3) run it on thier own data. Otherwise, it just an algorithm.

[radioactivepigeons]

Today was A. Day.

The Good

Even though @dabblingandbabbling had a shit morning, she texted me tonight. I miss my baby sister

Im really happy with the Sencha I bought a couple of weeks ago. Its nice and a little smoky and as its rainy adn Im getting sick, I really like a cup of a strong green tea. 

@thelittleredheadedmusician sent me the best pictures. I might actually have to go buy pigeon socks now. 

  The Bad

Got tooth paste on my red dress. Shit. The dress is cotton, machine washable, and one of my favorites so hopefully it didnt bleach anything and will just come out in the next wash.

The line for the bus was legit 30-40 people long (like a full block), so I walked to work in the rain.

More than likely unrealted to the walking, but now I have a blister on the sole of my foot underneath my big toe and it kinda hurts?

THe Ugly

I went to put on a blazer this morning to discover that I'd spilled something on it last time I wore it. So, I had to wear something else.

It was raining and I was very excited to get a seat on the subway early on. (I was also wearing high heeled boots so all the better to havea seat.) The man who got on across from me shook out his umbrella and basically sprayed water all over me. He was very apologetic, and kinda watched me to see if I was going to laugh or cry. I laughed because WTF else am I supposed to do.

Life pro tip: If you're writing code for other people to use because you're publishing a method, you should probably document it with something better than % build the M-maxtrix. Because holy fucking hell. Why won't my known input give the expected output? Oh, right, because the assumptions are poorly documented and described.

[radioactivepigeons]

Today

The good

I got my hair cut 3 weeks ago and Im still totally in love with it. Like, its short and fluffy and a bit wild and super cute. Ahhh. So much better than waht I had before.

F and I made lunch plans tomorrow, we're getting pancakes?

I was invited to guest lecture for a class. It would be a fair bit of preperation, so I need to think about it, but I'm flattered

I started drinking good tea today and oh my god, it makes such a difference. Its so smooth and fragrant, and, just... Im not sure why I let myself drink bad tea?

The Bad

Blood sugar roller coaster! WHOOO! And accompanying CGM misbehaving

I tried to use a folded piece of paper as a ruler for something and just ended up smuding ink all over the page, the "ruler", and my hand. (I missed my shirt, though!)

Running back and forth between labs twice because I forgot my keys to open my cabinet

The Ugly

I found a mistake in the analysis for the paper draft Im supposed to send over tomorrow. Like, not a small, easy to solve mistake, either. A mistake that requires managing time varying data with inconsisent interal lengths and weird behavior. I was like 90% of the way there before I went cross eyed and had to leave. But, I have to work at the other lab tomorrow.

For the life of me, I cant figure out how to adhere to the other lab's standards and get what I need. Like, I rarely use a vanilla python distrubtion, so now I need to look at how to do a set up for the vanilla container and make it clear that has to be run first. Which... ugh. Like, there's a way to do reproducible reserach taht involves freezing enviroments, why can't we just do that? Because it would be too flexible?

The window guys are coming tomorro wto start doing work and they show up at 7 am to start doing stuff in the apartment. Which probably means being up at 6 to make sure Im not meeting them without a bra. Because yeah, no, Im too old and too well endowed to have conversations with strangers without some sort of titty sling. ...And the ugly part isnt the bra (they're basic and supportive and they look smooth under clothes and thats really all I want. Also, I have new ones and they fit, so YAY functional bras), its the 7 am thing. ANd hte stranger thing. And the fact that everything ahst o be covered in sheets thing. Yeah, so, that will be fun.

...At least my hair is cute and soft and springly

[radioactivepigeons]

@dabblingandbabbling texted me today to complain that her online Intro to R class had too many numbers and not enough letters.

On the one hand, Im super glad that dabbling has decided to graduate from Excel to something that will make her life easier. Plus, I think she’ll be good at programing. On the other hand, Im questioning my wisdom in recommending that she learn R, since I just remembered how much less I like R than python.

In a completely unrelated turn of events, I somehow managed to chain like 8 actions creating a run-on python command of ridiculous proportion. But, I also programed my self out of n nested for-loops, so thats a win.

[radioactivepigeons]

I am having one of those days where I wish reviewers and/or journals were required to determine if “open source” code is runnable and/or if there is actually sufficient documentation to run the program. Verses some hacked together thing that only runs for the tutorial set, has ridiculous and poorly documented rules and/or requires proprietary software?

[radioactivepigeons]

Sometimes, Im too far up into the middle of swearing at my job to remember how awesome it should be.

Like, the 5000 ft view of my job is that I get to ask questions about people's health using these unique data resources and then I also get to use lasers and robotos and supercomputers to look at how poo makes you sick or healthy. Which is... really cool.

Except that day to day, it feels like my job involves making mistakes, finding my mistakes, finding other people's mistakes, swearing, and screwing around on pubmed finding papers. Oh, and trying to write code that will probably have a mistake in it. ... Which sounds way less sexy than my actual job.

But, like, then I think about how many jobs are actually like this.

[radioactivepigeons]

If you’re wondering, I might be enough of a nerd that I just added a microscope 🔬 emoji to my bash prompt. I used to have a programmer emoji, 👩🏻‍💻, but it screwed up my spacing too much.

I’m debating adding something to my Linux terminal. Suggestions?

[radioactivepigeons]

My IT department basically suckered me into doing free admin and help work by offering me the title, "Super User"

Given my experience, I will take it, as long as they acknoweldge that while Im not a computer programer professionally, Im damn good at the things I know how to do.

Which... I will do many things for respect and reproducible data.