should have been more specific when booking that apt.

When I booked my microprobe time for today's session, I was feeling lazy, so I simply forwarded the note from my advisor suggesting I re-analyze this sample because the results I had the first time were unexpected. The microprobe operator read the request as "need to look at one of the minerals again", rather than the "need to completely re-do this sample" that I had planned to do. So he replied that if it is a short session, rather than booking the evening shift (as I usually do), it is probably better to give me the afternoon. Now, I used to do three samples at a time, so doing only one sounded like a "short" session to me, so I said ok,without really thinking about just how short of a time block the afternoon really is. Oops. I should have replied with something along the lines of, "are you sure, I need to do __, ___, and ___, will that be enough time?" But I didn't. As a result I took most of the time I had available today selecting the points I wish to analyze, taking photos of them, printing the photos, drawing the spots anlayzed on the printouts, and then checking the focus in the Z direction (which requires the use of the optical camera rather than a back-scatter electron image like the rest of the steps, which is why it is done separately). By this time both the probe operator and I had figured out our miss communication, so we came up with a Plan B: I finish setting the probe up and pus "run", it goes for the half an hour to an hour till the next guy gets there, then he stops the session and Monday I return, set it back up (much faster the second time, when I am simply checking to be certain that the spots marked still point to where I think they do (remember those photos?)) and finish the session. Around the time we worked this plan out and I was on the final stages of checking the focus before pushing "run", I received a text message from mushroom_maiden asking if we could re-schedule our meeting to another day. Being somewhat tired from that long on the microprobe, without water, as I'd forgotten my camel-back in my office, I was quick to agree with clovis_t suggested that if we weren't meeting her then we should just go home and relax till time for the evening dance class. While I do feel bad wasting the petrol on two trips into town in one day, it turned out to be a very good thing to head home. I got better food than what I'd packed that morning to take with me, and I got some much needed time to simply relax and read e-mail/lj/facebook/etc. and then took the time to start aligning the x-y data for the points I'd selected with those photos. Just before it was time to head to dance I received an e-mail from the microprobe operator saying that the person who had been scheduled on after me had agreed to reschedule, so he was going to leave my samples running, and I don't have to go back on Monday to finish the process. Yay! I immediately sent back a thank you note and asked him to pass on my sincere thanks to the other person. To celebrate I completed the task of aligning the photos with the x-y data when we got home from dance class (which was fun, I might add). This means that when he gives me the results (hopefully tomorrow) it will take only seconds to align those points with the ones I've already entered, and it will be very, very easy for me to compare the data with the photos to determine which mineral is which.

Today's primary goal of doing the microprobe stuff was met. Didn't make time for any other uni work, but didn't really expect to either.
Tomorrow's goals: If the results arrive, process them and do the calculations and write up the results. If not continue the work I've been doing on chapter three. If I finish either or both of those tasks (depending on if both are options) return to the monazite results I got back the other day and finish processing them.

(I'm liking this specific goal stuff--it is really helping my progress!) Now it is time for yoga, followed by reading my 1000 words of literature a day (today will be the 82nd day in a row since the last time I forgot), and get some sleep!

should have been more specific when booking that apt.

When I booked my microprobe time for today's session, I was feeling lazy, so I simply forwarded the note from my advisor suggesting I re-analyze this sample because the results I had the first time were unexpected. The microprobe operator read the request as "need to look at one of the minerals again", rather than the "need to completely re-do this sample" that I had planned to do. So he replied that if it is a short session, rather than booking the evening shift (as I usually do), it is probably better to give me the afternoon. Now, I used to do three samples at a time, so doing only one sounded like a "short" session to me, so I said ok,without really thinking about just how short of a time block the afternoon really is. Oops. I should have replied with something along the lines of, "are you sure, I need to do __, ___, and ___, will that be enough time?" But I didn't. As a result I took most of the time I had available today selecting the points I wish to analyze, taking photos of them, printing the photos, drawing the spots anlayzed on the printouts, and then checking the focus in the Z direction (which requires the use of the optical camera rather than a back-scatter electron image like the rest of the steps, which is why it is done separately). By this time both the probe operator and I had figured out our miss communication, so we came up with a Plan B: I finish setting the probe up and pus "run", it goes for the half an hour to an hour till the next guy gets there, then he stops the session and Monday I return, set it back up (much faster the second time, when I am simply checking to be certain that the spots marked still point to where I think they do (remember those photos?)) and finish the session. Around the time we worked this plan out and I was on the final stages of checking the focus before pushing "run", I received a text message from mushroom_maiden asking if we could re-schedule our meeting to another day. Being somewhat tired from that long on the microprobe, without water, as I'd forgotten my camel-back in my office, I was quick to agree with clovis_t suggested that if we weren't meeting her then we should just go home and relax till time for the evening dance class. While I do feel bad wasting the petrol on two trips into town in one day, it turned out to be a very good thing to head home. I got better food than what I'd packed that morning to take with me, and I got some much needed time to simply relax and read e-mail/lj/facebook/etc. and then took the time to start aligning the x-y data for the points I'd selected with those photos. Just before it was time to head to dance I received an e-mail from the microprobe operator saying that the person who had been scheduled on after me had agreed to reschedule, so he was going to leave my samples running, and I don't have to go back on Monday to finish the process. Yay! I immediately sent back a thank you note and asked him to pass on my sincere thanks to the other person. To celebrate I completed the task of aligning the photos with the x-y data when we got home from dance class (which was fun, I might add). This means that when he gives me the results (hopefully tomorrow) it will take only seconds to align those points with the ones I've already entered, and it will be very, very easy for me to compare the data with the photos to determine which mineral is which.

Today's primary goal of doing the microprobe stuff was met. Didn't make time for any other uni work, but didn't really expect to either.
Tomorrow's goals: If the results arrive, process them and do the calculations and write up the results. If not continue the work I've been doing on chapter three. If I finish either or both of those tasks (depending on if both are options) return to the monazite results I got back the other day and finish processing them.

(I'm liking this specific goal stuff--it is really helping my progress!) Now it is time for yoga, followed by reading my 1000 words of literature a day (today will be the 82nd day in a row since the last time I forgot), and get some sleep!