More data needed...

O.k., so next week I'll be doing some more characterization of my samples. My paper to the Journal of Materials Chemistry got rejected for "not being scientifically interesting enough." So rather than write a separate paper for my last experiment, we'll be including those results in this paper, plus some tensile data, pH values, and maybe transmittance. One thing I really don't understand about my supervisor is his philosophy of taking all sorts of measurements for samples without any particular rhyme or reason. For example, transmittance might be useful if the paper focused on applications where light was important. However, my paper discusses the potential of using my printed materials as implants inside the body...where light doesn't shine. I doubt I will ever understand the idea of just taking lots of measurements then throwing them all together to see what sticks. I like to approach research from the perspective of solving a problem, not just random measuring.

Once I get those new characterizations done, I have to do some minor restructuring of my thesis. Many book conclusions involve a solid discussion to wrap up the book, and I was planning to write a 35-40 page conclusion chapter for my thesis. My supervisor knew about this all along, and was reminded on numerous occasions. Yet, only last week in casual conversation did he tell me bluntly that a thesis conclusion is only supposed to be about 3-4 pages in length. The good news is that the 35 pages I've already written can become a results chapter, because it includes a substantial number of extra results that were not sufficient on their own for a dedicated chapter.

I'm still in a position of having only about 30 pages left to write, but I am SO ready for this thesis to be done!

Regarding our move to Canada, we had to change the shipment of our stuff over to Michelle's name, since she's a Canadian citizen and I'm not. That was a bit of a paperwork challenge this week. We were quoted for 4 cubic meters of stuff, and from the pile it looks like that's exactly what we have. If we had known when we started how much of a pain it is to immigrate to Australia, we would have shipped and accumulated much less.

I also booked our airline tickets this week, and it's a good thing I did. The baggage rules have changed yet again. It used to be that for international flights that passengers were allowed 2 suitcases, a carry-on, and a laptop bag. Now, only 1 suitcase is allowed. Because our shipment of stuff won't be picked up until tomorrow, we had a day to reduce our clothing by half, and we'll be adding 2 extra suitcases full of clothes to the boat shipment.

We have also been lucky and have managed to sell all our furniture and nearly everything else we had. The only outstanding items are our washer and dryer, but I'm confident those will get sold soon. The last thing I'll sell will be our car, but since we'll need it for moving back into our old apartment, I'm considering waiting until mid-September for that.

We fly to Canada on the 25th of September, and that's where we will settle down for good. International moves are a real pain, so we don't plan to ever do this again.

What a change one month can make...

I finally got some good results from a last experiment, and now that thesis chapter is written. Currently, I'm writing the last 4-6 pages of my conclusion chapter, then on to deal with some revisions and the final 30 pages of the thesis. I'm in a very good position to have my thesis ready to submit by mid-September.

A month ago, I still had hopes things would work out for us to be able to stay in Australia. What I found, though, was that funding seems to be getting increasingly tight here. Since you can count all of Australia's major universities on two hands, that means any prospects at all for a new PhD graduate without 15 publications is slim to none. When I submit my thesis, I get a new student visa that lets me stay until graduation, but without a job, there's no money to live on. We technically could have lived off Michelle's income while I spent time job hunting, but if I came up empty-handed after several months, that would be a waste of time and money. I need to get on with my new career.

So after the bittersweet moment when we came to the realization that we would have to leave Australia, we started making plans to move to Canada. The plan is to live with Michelle's parents for perhaps a year while I look for a job and we build up our savings. This arrangement takes a great deal of financial pressure off me, so I can take my time finding the right opportunity and not "just a job" because I need a paycheck. With further reflection, I know this is the right decision. The research group I'm in is starting to become micromanaged in the same manner as the I.T. jobs I hated, and I know I would not thrive in such a stifled environment. Additionally, post-doc salaries here have dropped from around $70K to $50K. It's hard enough living in Australia on student-level funding, but without full residency benefits, trying to support a young family on $50K is unrealistic.

Yesterday we had a garage sale and got rid of many of our things. Some furniture and appliances didn't sell, so those are on ebay now. This coming Friday, a freight forwarder will be picking up about 4 cubic meters of stuff to ship to Canada. Then a couple days later, we move out of our apartment into some temporary housing. (Short story: shitty construction; owners sued and won; now repairs are being done.) The temporary place is going to be a serviced apartment somewhere in Wollongong proper. Due to the timing of my thesis submission and the termination of my student funding on 15 September, we won't be going back to our old apartment. We will be arriving in Canada sometime in late September.