A snail in a spinning vortex

May 30, 2012

Sigh. Phenomenally frustrating day at work. I thought as of yesterday we had everything sorted out with the project. However, as of today everything is up in the air again. Scrap the IRB (Rob and Alex: again, not "I Rake Buffalo") proposal I've worked on for days. The plan now is to do a sexual health survey with some family planning, some STD/STI questions, and then some Intimate Partner Violence/Sexual Violence questions. I really don't know but we have to get this sorted out and moving soon. Still waiting on the NISVS questions from the CDC. Just frustrating.

In the meanwhile I'm working on a database for the Domestic Violence Fatality Review. I spent the day trying to learn enough about Microsoft Access and SPSS (a statistics program) to learn how to export a big Access database into SPSS. At the end of the day i finally got it figured out and working. However, Ann and I looked at the data and it is such a mess that we decided it would be better to just set up the SPSS database from scratch and enter the data ourselves. There are only 40 case studies to enter. Again, FRUSTRATING. A whole day of work swirling down the toilet. On the other hand, I learned a bit about Access and I am going to learn a LOT about SPSS which is certainly good for me to know.

Trying to stay positive about the project but it is hard when I've been working on this for almost 2 weeks and it just changes drastically so all the work so far has been pretty useless. The Domestic Violence Fatality Review (DVFR) is a great thing to work on, especially with setting up the SPSS database and learning all that. I just am not sure if that'll fulfill the terms of my internship since it is a different project. I'm going to give it to the end of this week and see if we get these issues resolved. I'll be meeting with Ann in the morning to go over all these issues on my project, plus set up the codebook for defining the database variables for the DVFR.

After work I was very frustrated and spent some time talking to the ladies at work about local restaurants and things to do,  then meandered a bit on my way home to enjoy the scenery. It was a good way to try to mellow myself a bit. It rained, but it took me 2 blocks to figure out it was rain and not a sprinkler or something that the wind blew an occasional water droplet on me. I took some pictures of some plants along the way. Even frustrated I was thinking of everyone back home and wanted to share some of the beauty around here. I enjoy the beds of little cactus (cacti?) that people use as almost a ground cover here. The second has lovely red and purple coloring which is very vibrant. The bottom makes me smile. A lot of yards have these and to me they always look like little patches of tentacles. Baby Cthulu plants or something!

Yesterday evening I made the black bean soup and rice. I took it for lunch today and ate half and brought the other half home. For dinner I finished that and had some toasted multigrain bread with some of my yummy fresh butter with Hawaiian sea salt.

Also, here is a picture of the entrance to my house. The second picture is two leaf patterns that were pressed into the cement when it was poured to make that decorative pattern. It is pleasant to see when you walk in and out. The third is a plant that is at the entrance. We have three of them in pots there and it is just a little bit of lovely color to greet us as we enter and leave.

I watched a old movie tonight from 1960 called "Under Ten Flags" about a German ship that sank Allied ships during WWII. Then for something completely different I started watching "Frances", a biography about the life of Frances Farmer. I won't finish it tonight, I'm pretty tired. Send hopeful thoughts that we get th project straightened out tomorrow. I suppose I'm learning how government works - in its own time reality at the speed of a snail in a swirling vortex. It seems like every step forward is caught up in that swirling mess and you never know if you'll be a step ahead or three behind. Goodnight my friends and family, time for sleep.

Me ka aloha pumehana, (With kindest regards, warm aloha)
~Melissa