Here’s the gist of why I hate life sometimes… or at least why I hate my working life as a research assistant. For your reference, I make polymers then try to modify them to change their behavior.
Initially, about 2 years ago, the process was this: make the polymer, put it in a machine, and you’re done. Well that process sucked.
Then we tried another process and it sucked, even though it shouldn’t have.
Now we’ve added another process.
So, in order to run through all the processes and get one set of experimental data, here’s a rough schedule of events, which I am currently in the middle of.
Friday: Spend 30 minutes in the lab mixing the polymer. Let it sit for 30 minutes, revisit it and let it cure overnight. This step is no big deal, and usually I can skip this step since I can make relatively large batches of polymer for later use.
Saturday: Once goals of the test are outlined, spend about 1 to 2 hours doing prep work for the first big process, a chemical extraction. Then spend the next 10 hours waiting to change solutions every 1 or 3 hours, depending on the solvent. Spend about 30 minutes cleaning everything up. This is a pretty farking good way to kill a Saturday, and Saturday night
Sunday: Remove the samples from the oven where they were drying. Spend another hour doing prep work for the 2nd process. Run the first phase of process unsupervised for 3 hours. Spend about 30 minutes cleaning up the messes made by the process. Also begin the 24 hour cleaning phase. During the cleaning phase, the cleaning solution–water in this case–should be changed roughly every 3 hours.
Monday: Having probably slept intermittently in my office, the cleaning process finishes 1 day after having started. Then the samples need several hours of drying. Once dry, tests must be run. The tests may take up to 1 hour to complete. Then the data analysis may take another hour. At this point its probably Monday night, about 72 hours after everything started. I will have spent most of those hours on campus. If I’m lucky the results are good and I learn something. Most of the time something I don’t yet understand screws everything up. And I did all this over the weekend so that I would have something for a Wednesday meeting
Now for the odds & ends
My lease ends at the end of the month, so of course I’ll be moving (or homeless). Some things to note:
- I’m moving to a small house with 2 other mechanical engineers: one guy and one girl. So it will be just like 3’s Company, except that it will be 2 guys instead of 2 girls, and we don’t have a wacky landlord played by Don Knott’s (RIP), and none of us will be pretending to be gay, which makes it not like 3’s Company at all, aside from the 3 part.
- The size of the house had me looking for storage lockers. 50 square feet will cost me $90/month. In other words, storage will cost me more per square foot than the apartment I’m moving out of because it was getting too expensive. Screw that. I’ll be better off throwing my stuff away and buying new things later. So, sorry, Sam, at Shurgard Self Storage, you aren’t getting my business.
- Instead of renting a spot, I’m thinking I may have to make a really sweet loft for my room. If nothing else, it will be a project that gives me something to do, and a reason to use my tools.
- I think I’ve updated my address with the important places. I need to do a mail forwarding thing with the USPS. And I’ll probably have to send an email to y’all that know me.
- And for y’all that know me, expect the JDGA server to be down through the next week or so. Expect downloads to be slower as well: no more T1 line for me. So sorry.
The move will also end my apartment gardening experiment. The gardening part of course won’t be changed, just the apartment part. With about 4 months elapsed since I started the project, here’s where things stand:
- I’ve got 2 tomato plants growing, and they are huge. The combination pretty much takes up my entire patio which is about 3′x6′. There are a couple dozen green tomatoes of various sizes. I haven’t gotten anything edible yet. Those plants need a whole lot of water; I think I should have put them in much larger containers than the 18 Qt pots they’re in.
- I’ve got 3 pepper plants, each in its own 18 quart pot. I was worried about these plants since they seemed to be developing slowly. Well worry no more because each has at least 5 little bell peppers developing. I’m hoping to harvest the first one in a week or two. I’m very excited about having fresh peppers.
- The key lime tree flowered, but it doesn’t seem to have formed any little limes: a major disappointment. It’s had some good foliage growth though, and there are a few flowers, too. I’ll keep the fingers crossed.
- The first of my meyer lemon trees is doing well, after I thought it had died a couple times. It looks to have a few flowers, but no fruit that can be seen. I’m not sure that I could see it if it were there because it’s hard to see the tree due to the tomato plants.
- The other meyer lemon tree is much smaller, but doing quite well. It’s on its 2nd flowering cycle of the summer. It now has 3 moderately developed lemons, and it’s looking like this flowering cycle is going to produce several more.
Look at me! I’m not killing my plants!
Speaking of not killing things, my fish Boris is still alive and well. We’ll see how well he handles the move in a few days. If he’s still alive in a few weeks, I think it will be time for me to put some other fish in the tank with him. The poor guy just looks lonely.
That’s about it for me. Now I only have 2 1/2 more hours to kill tonight. Woohoo.
