Bunny

A new distraction has hopped my way. A very cute bunny was discovered by our dog hiding under a car on Sat. I've always told my kids if they caught a rabbit they could keep it. This offer was made knowing full well they had little hope of catching the wild rabbits. It appears this rabbit is not wild - it was friendly and very fat. So we now have a new pet rabbit until someone claims the little fella. The chances are slim as I gather people dump unwanted rabbits at the uni. The environmentalist in me should know better as rabbits are a pest in Australia. We joked on facebook about making rabbit pie, alas the kids have become instantly fond of the cute fury little fella. So another excuse to procrastinate away from finishing my PhD.

A fabulous mum friend has nearly finished her PhD. Its been a long ten years for her and light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. I'm still dabbling in statistics so the light keeps fading away. By the time I've finished I think a paper on the limitations of statistics needs to be written. I'm off to Perth to another conference next week. I'm using the conference as a writing retreat away from the kids to get this crazy thing finished. Back to statistics today.

  

Program download

My brain has been downloading. I'm trying to learn the statistic R program. I'm feeling rather like Trinity looked in the matrix when she downloaded how to fly a helicopter. I'm referring to the mental appearance- not the physical. Need to work on that side. How I wish it was as easy as the matrix. I'm up to computer program number 6 to learn in the interest of obtaining this PhD. 

I'm using http://www.twotorials.com/  to quickly learn R using quick tutorials. It's working. The strange computer language thrown my way by a fabulous friend last week is starting to make sense. R is an amazing program. The two minute tutorial author Anthony Joseph Damico makes me laugh whilst learning computer programming and statistics. He goes so quick there is no time to be bored. The great thing about a screen cast is I can rewind when I get lost. Trust me - I get lost when applying the stuff time and time again.

Milestones

Once again the PhD is so like a developing baby. When my boys were just about to crawl they were so frustrated. Objects were just within reach yet the effort seemed too much and a grizzle was so much easier. As the parent I noticed time and time again just before they reached a milestone they were horrid, then when the milestone was reached peace and harmony was restored. Such milestones included crawling, teething, talking and walking. Well my PhD is so similar. Today I had a win with an equation featuring the letter “e”. Binary logistic regression and probability for those statistically and mathematically inclined. My maths is not really at this level so it’s been a huge milestone to reach with much grumbling and cursing by me. Today I felt alive with happiness at reaching this huge milestone. I ran along the beach at lunch unable to wipe away my smile. My poor family might finally have a dancing happy Mum again. Who would think the letter “e” could bring such delight.  

Normality

What's normal?

Is my life normal?  is my extended family normal?  is my thought process normal?

Most definiately NOT.

I've spent all of today trying to make my data normal. You know what, it just isn't NORMAL. I've tried the log, the square root, the unthinkables such as Arsine (it caused SPSS to go into warning mode) and made Q-Q plots and Lilliefors Significance Corrections only to reassure me that my data and my existence is not normal. So rather than conform to the straight line I'm accepting non-parametric analysis into my stats and chilling out about the lack of normality in my home life.  

The big red circle is almost a straight line but the outliers destroy the significance of the normality. So be it, life is not normal, neither is erosion.

Procrastination

Source: PhD Comics

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1388

I'm ment to be handing in a draft paper at the end of this week to my supervisor. Geez it woud be great to hit the due date. Its close yet still so far. Evil statistics I'll blame, then again maybe its just procrastination.  

Statistics

http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat//outlier.jpg

Riveting day spent learning statistics. Why didn’t I get the maths nerd genes like my brothers…The PhD data outliers are the most interesting part of the data but of course analysis is much simpler if they get ditched. All these buzz words like mixed linear regression is just doing my head in. To R or to SPSS that is the question. I guess this blog will need an acronym list. Maybe I’ll just settle for mothering now the kids are home from school and make some awfully yummy honey ice-cream.