Murphy's Law on steroids
And I thought that my research couldn't go worse than it did in Ghana...
I'm taking a long break from work right now and thought I should update my blog. I've been working at the UofA for just over 1 week now and there have been so many setbacks and delays. Right now, I'm waiting for the two bomb calorimeters (to measure total energy) to get fixed so I can actually do work.
It seems that technology really doesn't like me. I worked (and finished) the nitrogen analysis in Week 1 and for the most part the machine cooperated with me. I had 1 day where the thing just committed suicide and needed some pretty extensive repairs. The good news is that I worked like a dog (10+ hours a day, everyday) to get all 500 samples analyzed!
Week 2 is definitely off to a bad start. Everything that can go wrong with the bomb calorimeter has gone wrong. I'm considering moving onto a different analysis because I really don't have time to waste sitting around waiting for machines to miraculously cure themselves. The poor techs have been working on the machines all morning and it's still not solved. Ick...
The highlight of my stay in Edmonton so far has to be this weekend. I thought I would be in for a boring weekend of data entry but my awesome boyfriend decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to Edmonton to surprise me. He told me he was going shopping and then 3 or so hours later, he showed up in Edmonton to pick me up from the lab. I was so unbelievably happy to see him! We spent my 1 day off (Sunday) walking on Whyte Ave. eating gelatto and window shopping. Ah, the joys of normal life!
I'm taking a long break from work right now and thought I should update my blog. I've been working at the UofA for just over 1 week now and there have been so many setbacks and delays. Right now, I'm waiting for the two bomb calorimeters (to measure total energy) to get fixed so I can actually do work.
It seems that technology really doesn't like me. I worked (and finished) the nitrogen analysis in Week 1 and for the most part the machine cooperated with me. I had 1 day where the thing just committed suicide and needed some pretty extensive repairs. The good news is that I worked like a dog (10+ hours a day, everyday) to get all 500 samples analyzed!
Week 2 is definitely off to a bad start. Everything that can go wrong with the bomb calorimeter has gone wrong. I'm considering moving onto a different analysis because I really don't have time to waste sitting around waiting for machines to miraculously cure themselves. The poor techs have been working on the machines all morning and it's still not solved. Ick...
The highlight of my stay in Edmonton so far has to be this weekend. I thought I would be in for a boring weekend of data entry but my awesome boyfriend decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to Edmonton to surprise me. He told me he was going shopping and then 3 or so hours later, he showed up in Edmonton to pick me up from the lab. I was so unbelievably happy to see him! We spent my 1 day off (Sunday) walking on Whyte Ave. eating gelatto and window shopping. Ah, the joys of normal life!
posted by Avatamsaka Monastery Choir at 11:53 AM
3 Comments:
You know if there's one thing that cheers me up when I'm down...
... is that when life sucks now, it tends to give me a surprise hiding somewhere nearby around a corner which makes all the misery pale in comparison.
Don't worry, Ev! I'm sure that once they get those silly machines up and running, the rest of it will go relatively smoothly. At least until you move on to the next thing! I'm just happy that you can work on the fat analysis at the same time!
The usual problems... too much calorimeter, not enough bomb.
http://winn.com/bs/atombomb.html
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