Eff February

As many of you know, I hate the month of February. And this one is living up to its reputation.

1) I got reviews back for my paper. They were 2 weak accepts and 1 reject. The reject was very strong, and basically said my paper was done all wrong. We tried to rebut, since our methods had been used in another published paper. But, the decision came down and the paper was rejected. We're working to turn the paper around and submit it to another, upcoming conference. However, we wanted some further clarification from the reviewer who rejected our paper. I sent a note to the PC chair to send the note to the reviewer, and the PC chair at first responded snarkily. I was upset and forwarded the message to my advisor. My advisor called the dude an a**hole (which made me feel better) and responded somehow, and the PC chair finally sent the note along. The reviewer basically thought there was no way to redeem the paper without completely changing the methods - basically starting over. The reviewer is clearly biased against the infrastructure I used, and he has publicly denigrated it. So my advisor is doing something, trying to get our paper a fair review and another chance.

2) I woke up at 4:30am yesterday to the sound of my cat yakking. I cleaned up the mess some, but was woken 2 hours later from the same cause. I again cleaned it up and went back to bed. She didn't wake me up at the usual time. When I woke up, I found she had vomited in a few other places. I decided to stay home and watch her. 10:30 she yakked again and I decided to take her to the vet. The vet was worried by the vomiting, especially since she does it periodically, and this time was worse. And she's lost 3lbs since Sep, though I have changed her food. I was at the vet for over an hour, though she was there for longer. They did some fancy stool tests and blood tests and gave her some liquids. Her liver and kidney function is fine, so that's good. We're waiting on the thyroid test. In the meantime, she's on anti-vomiting, anti-nausea and appetite-stimulating meds and a special bland diet. Though she still has diarrhea. And I'm out $500.

At least my younger brother's fiancee has picked out a good bridesmaid's dress.

Hillary vs Obama

I was at a party and the primaries came up. I mentioned to an Obama supporter that I was still undecided. His response was basically that because I was a woman, I might want to vote for Hillary. I responded that, no, it was because I preferred Hillary's domestic policies, but didn't like that she was so hawkish, and vice versa for Obama. He agreed that Hillary was indeed hawkish. Maybe I'm being overly-sensitize, but it annoyed me that he assumed that the only reason I'd want to vote for Hillary is because she is another vagina owning-American. It must be nice to be a white man.