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Mar. 11th, 2009 03:05 pmGood news: I'm now offically enrolled as a full-time PhD student at the University of Canterbury.
Bad news: I'm still waiting on income for three months of summer research work, and because my enrolment went through a couple of days after the start of the month, they can't pay my scholarship disbursement out until maybe as late as the 24th. This makes my finances tight, to say the least - I've currently eaten through about $1,500 of my savings over the last few months where I should be a good four figures into the black. My list of short- and medium-term expenses for when the money comes in is mounting up slowly, including:
( some fings wot I need to spend money on )
That'll probably eat up a grand or two easily, but I should be able to cope. And looking at income (once it comes in) versus expenses, I should still be in a good state for saving up money for travel later in the year. Speaking of which...
Other good news: Met a potential co-supervisor today to discuss research. He's going to be sending me through a bunch of current research material so that I can potentially incorporate that into ideas for my thesis research proposal. He also seems to be happy to look out for funding opportunities so I can visit the U.S. and attend research conferences (and "coincidentally" visit my fiancée, too), so it's looking like I'm well-blessed in terms of academic support.
Other not-so-good news: It looks like I chose the right time to be making a concerted effort to look after myself health-wise. Given a family history of heart disease (a father with a triple heart bypass) I had a cholesterol test done during my start-of-year medical. I've got moderately high levels of cholesterol, and the ratio is distinctly in favour of the more dangerous low-density lipoproteins (LDL cholesterol).
Luckily, though, the remedy for this is pretty much what I was intending to do anyway. Getting more exercise - for example the 10km round trip from university to home and doing a bit more sword work (read: screwing around with bokken) to improve my upper body fitness. Eating more legumes: falafels count, especially if cooked with grapeseed oil (some studies show cholesterol-lowering properties, and you generally need to use less than cooking with other oils). More fruit and vegetables (currently tasty mesclun salad and cherry tomatoes with a light vinaigrette, and high-pulp blackcurrant/raspberry juice). I've also found that rolled oats have either no or minimal gluten content (so I can eat it without the ill effects I seem to suffer on a high-wheat diet) and cholesterol-lowering properties.
I think an important part there is not making the changes too extreme all at once - severe diet and exercise changes tend to make the body revolt, but making little changes to your everyday routine makes things a whole lot more manageable.
Of course, there's a thing on at 5pm over in Engineering where they're offering free pizza, and we all know that free food is important for a balanced student diet, right? :-)
[Edit:] Actually, strike that. The advertised date of "Wednesday, 12th March" on shiny full-colour posters in CompSci seems to have been replaced with black and white prints in Engineering with the date of "Thursday, 12th March". Smooth move, IET. Instead, I had a rather nice Bombay Aloo. Unintentional vegetarian day!
Bad news: I'm still waiting on income for three months of summer research work, and because my enrolment went through a couple of days after the start of the month, they can't pay my scholarship disbursement out until maybe as late as the 24th. This makes my finances tight, to say the least - I've currently eaten through about $1,500 of my savings over the last few months where I should be a good four figures into the black. My list of short- and medium-term expenses for when the money comes in is mounting up slowly, including:
( some fings wot I need to spend money on )
That'll probably eat up a grand or two easily, but I should be able to cope. And looking at income (once it comes in) versus expenses, I should still be in a good state for saving up money for travel later in the year. Speaking of which...
Other good news: Met a potential co-supervisor today to discuss research. He's going to be sending me through a bunch of current research material so that I can potentially incorporate that into ideas for my thesis research proposal. He also seems to be happy to look out for funding opportunities so I can visit the U.S. and attend research conferences (and "coincidentally" visit my fiancée, too), so it's looking like I'm well-blessed in terms of academic support.
Other not-so-good news: It looks like I chose the right time to be making a concerted effort to look after myself health-wise. Given a family history of heart disease (a father with a triple heart bypass) I had a cholesterol test done during my start-of-year medical. I've got moderately high levels of cholesterol, and the ratio is distinctly in favour of the more dangerous low-density lipoproteins (LDL cholesterol).
Luckily, though, the remedy for this is pretty much what I was intending to do anyway. Getting more exercise - for example the 10km round trip from university to home and doing a bit more sword work (read: screwing around with bokken) to improve my upper body fitness. Eating more legumes: falafels count, especially if cooked with grapeseed oil (some studies show cholesterol-lowering properties, and you generally need to use less than cooking with other oils). More fruit and vegetables (currently tasty mesclun salad and cherry tomatoes with a light vinaigrette, and high-pulp blackcurrant/raspberry juice). I've also found that rolled oats have either no or minimal gluten content (so I can eat it without the ill effects I seem to suffer on a high-wheat diet) and cholesterol-lowering properties.
I think an important part there is not making the changes too extreme all at once - severe diet and exercise changes tend to make the body revolt, but making little changes to your everyday routine makes things a whole lot more manageable.
Of course, there's a thing on at 5pm over in Engineering where they're offering free pizza, and we all know that free food is important for a balanced student diet, right? :-)
[Edit:] Actually, strike that. The advertised date of "Wednesday, 12th March" on shiny full-colour posters in CompSci seems to have been replaced with black and white prints in Engineering with the date of "Thursday, 12th March". Smooth move, IET. Instead, I had a rather nice Bombay Aloo. Unintentional vegetarian day!
