Norah Jones is soothing my soul.
My eyes hurt, my mind is racing, and my heart aches for my friends...
I stayed at work until late last night. When I work, that seems to be all I think about. Right now, thats good for me. I worked most of today. The project that I had ear-marked for today should not have taken as long as it did, I had to wait on the boys for a bit. It was a matter of timing things properly. I got a bit distracted in the middle of pumping down the vacuum system with my samples in it and almost fried the diffusion pump. That would have side-lined my research and Matt's research for months. I must be more careful. Tomorrow, I'm going to put a dummy label on the pump to remind myself to turn the water on (which cools the pump) when I turn the pump on. I'll find out in a few days if I have ruined this batch of samples or not.
The good school news of the day... I had a long talk with my prof today about how my classes are going. He knows I am upset about Quantum but told me to pretty much "suck it up, soldier" and do as I am told. I am after the grade and I can't do anything about the way the prof teaches until the end of the semester when I have an opportunity to rip him a new asshole in the teaching evaluations. The good news arose out of my prof making me go talk to my Materials professor about the paper and presentation I have to do towards the end of the semester for that class. It has been stated numerous times that we are not allowed to present or write a paper on the current research we are doing for the class assignment. So I had a meeting with my Materials prof because I honestly think that it will do me a great deal of good to do my research paper and presentation on the topic that I am currently doing research in. I have the synthesis down pat. I can make perfect samples which makes me nothing more than a glorified baker. I want to learn more about the theory behind my research and this will give me the opportunity to do that background theory work for real. My prof wants me to do all of that background research on the side of all of my other work anyway. So I am trying to kill two (if not three) birds with one stone. My Materials prof agreed. He stated that the policy should change because the background theory research could be really helpful for first year students but not so much for third year students. He said he would take each student on a case by case basis. If a student wants to do the paper on his or her current research, my Materials prof will ask the student's advisor if the student will benefit from the research. If the student will benefit, he or she can do that research. So I get to do my background theory research on Type II Clathrates for myself, for my prof, for my Materials class, and hopefully for my Quantum class as well. I should know these clathrates inside and out by the time I am done. The last bit of school news is kind of fun. I am the General Physics 2 with Calculus help desk wench. I have been sitting in the help desk for my scheduled hours for a couple of weeks with no visitors. The students can generally figure out how to do the work on their own by the time they are in physics 2. I had two girls come in tonight. It was so fun to break things down for them and appearing to be so brilliant (I looked over all of their assigned problems last week) while I watched them struggle until the light of comprehension flickered on above their heads. I love breaking down the problems. I forgot how basic general physics can be. You really have to be able to understand what the problem is asking, you have to be able to draw or diagram out what the problem states. You have to understand the concepts, the math is elementary at that level, the concepts are what you spend the most time trying to get the student to understand. I am so far above and beyond that now that its fun to go back. Its fun to go back to where my passion for physics first ignited.
It seems I have been on the phone constantly for the past week. I tried turning the ringer off on my phone on Friday but received so many voicemails that I spent all of Saturday returning calls. Quite a few of my friends are going through personal crises. I have been the faithful friend with the listening ear. Between my neighbor, my best friend in Tampa, and a wonderful woman in Atlanta, and others... my heart aches for them. I don't know what to say or do, so I listen. I finally had a chance to talk to Amy tonight. my Amy... Hearing her voice soothes me. She knows what I need to hear and she knows how to help me.
I just want a little peace and quiet.
My eyes hurt, my mind is racing, and my heart aches for my friends...
I stayed at work until late last night. When I work, that seems to be all I think about. Right now, thats good for me. I worked most of today. The project that I had ear-marked for today should not have taken as long as it did, I had to wait on the boys for a bit. It was a matter of timing things properly. I got a bit distracted in the middle of pumping down the vacuum system with my samples in it and almost fried the diffusion pump. That would have side-lined my research and Matt's research for months. I must be more careful. Tomorrow, I'm going to put a dummy label on the pump to remind myself to turn the water on (which cools the pump) when I turn the pump on. I'll find out in a few days if I have ruined this batch of samples or not.
The good school news of the day... I had a long talk with my prof today about how my classes are going. He knows I am upset about Quantum but told me to pretty much "suck it up, soldier" and do as I am told. I am after the grade and I can't do anything about the way the prof teaches until the end of the semester when I have an opportunity to rip him a new asshole in the teaching evaluations. The good news arose out of my prof making me go talk to my Materials professor about the paper and presentation I have to do towards the end of the semester for that class. It has been stated numerous times that we are not allowed to present or write a paper on the current research we are doing for the class assignment. So I had a meeting with my Materials prof because I honestly think that it will do me a great deal of good to do my research paper and presentation on the topic that I am currently doing research in. I have the synthesis down pat. I can make perfect samples which makes me nothing more than a glorified baker. I want to learn more about the theory behind my research and this will give me the opportunity to do that background theory work for real. My prof wants me to do all of that background research on the side of all of my other work anyway. So I am trying to kill two (if not three) birds with one stone. My Materials prof agreed. He stated that the policy should change because the background theory research could be really helpful for first year students but not so much for third year students. He said he would take each student on a case by case basis. If a student wants to do the paper on his or her current research, my Materials prof will ask the student's advisor if the student will benefit from the research. If the student will benefit, he or she can do that research. So I get to do my background theory research on Type II Clathrates for myself, for my prof, for my Materials class, and hopefully for my Quantum class as well. I should know these clathrates inside and out by the time I am done. The last bit of school news is kind of fun. I am the General Physics 2 with Calculus help desk wench. I have been sitting in the help desk for my scheduled hours for a couple of weeks with no visitors. The students can generally figure out how to do the work on their own by the time they are in physics 2. I had two girls come in tonight. It was so fun to break things down for them and appearing to be so brilliant (I looked over all of their assigned problems last week) while I watched them struggle until the light of comprehension flickered on above their heads. I love breaking down the problems. I forgot how basic general physics can be. You really have to be able to understand what the problem is asking, you have to be able to draw or diagram out what the problem states. You have to understand the concepts, the math is elementary at that level, the concepts are what you spend the most time trying to get the student to understand. I am so far above and beyond that now that its fun to go back. Its fun to go back to where my passion for physics first ignited.
It seems I have been on the phone constantly for the past week. I tried turning the ringer off on my phone on Friday but received so many voicemails that I spent all of Saturday returning calls. Quite a few of my friends are going through personal crises. I have been the faithful friend with the listening ear. Between my neighbor, my best friend in Tampa, and a wonderful woman in Atlanta, and others... my heart aches for them. I don't know what to say or do, so I listen. I finally had a chance to talk to Amy tonight. my Amy... Hearing her voice soothes me. She knows what I need to hear and she knows how to help me.
I just want a little peace and quiet.
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