monazite is cool

Since I didn't really work much yesterday, this morning I woke up early and jumped pretty much straight into uni work. Switched back to looking at the monazite results--this time created a figure showing each monazite grain analysed and what ages each spot on the grain turned out to be. Some of the grains show old cores and younger rims (while others are all one age). I then sent a pdf showing this to S., who will be doing a paper on this with me, as soon as I finish my thesis. He agrees that several of the grains look promising, and sometime in the near future we will try doing maps of those grains to see if we can work out if the 700-800 Ma ages on the rims represent a unique episode of metamorphism, or if they are just the result of the 500 Ma metamorphism overprinting the 1300 Ma core. That took about three hours of the morning, then I needed a nap, having gotten up somewhat too early. I sat back down to the computer after my nap intending to work, but no sooner than I sat down and I had a call via Skype from my lovely sister and wonderful mother. I enjoyed visiting with them very much (though we couldn't use our web cams--my dodgy internet connection couldn't handle it--we could see one another, but couldn't hear words, but without the cams we could hear just fine). Not too long after speaking with them clovis_t and I went into town for the special fighter training session that is happening in conjunction with a visit from the Kingdom Earl Marshal. I very much enjoyed the training session, and the conversation afterwards. Then home, intending to do more work. However, I had an e-mail replying to an query I'd made about a European post-doc position which sounded interesting, stating that this particular position is limited to "early career" researchers, which I wouldn't be if one counts from when I completed my Master's degree. However having done no research whatsoever between that degree and starting this one, I do count, but they'd want documentation showing that I wasn't engaged in research during that time. This reminded me of a letter I'd sent on 18 Feb. asking about definitions of "early career researchers" for the purposes of scholarships for a cool sounding seminar on metamorphism & subduction zones. I never received a reply to that letter (and, a first, thought that today's letter was in reply to that one, but it wasn't). As it turns out, the deadline for that seminar has been and gone whilst I was waiting for a reply from them, so I decided what the heck, and just sent in an application anyway, a few days late, explaining that I'd been waiting to hear back from them, but since I just received an answer to my question from another source,I will apply now hoping that they use the same definitions, and provided them a list of the various jobs I've held during the time I wasn't doing research between degrees. I may not get that scholarship, the deadline having passed, but then again, I might, and I won't know if I don't ask!

Tomorrow I have no non-uni plans, so I hope to make major progress on finishing up the writing associated with both the monazite and the other recent microprobe sessions. Once that is done then I just need to check to see if there is any other data I've not yet summarized in my results section of the thesis, and if not I'll be able to start the discussion and conclusions section. My, that would be nice...

monazite is cool

Since I didn't really work much yesterday, this morning I woke up early and jumped pretty much straight into uni work. Switched back to looking at the monazite results--this time created a figure showing each monazite grain analysed and what ages each spot on the grain turned out to be. Some of the grains show old cores and younger rims (while others are all one age). I then sent a pdf showing this to S., who will be doing a paper on this with me, as soon as I finish my thesis. He agrees that several of the grains look promising, and sometime in the near future we will try doing maps of those grains to see if we can work out if the 700-800 Ma ages on the rims represent a unique episode of metamorphism, or if they are just the result of the 500 Ma metamorphism overprinting the 1300 Ma core. That took about three hours of the morning, then I needed a nap, having gotten up somewhat too early. I sat back down to the computer after my nap intending to work, but no sooner than I sat down and I had a call via Skype from my lovely sister and wonderful mother. I enjoyed visiting with them very much (though we couldn't use our web cams--my dodgy internet connection couldn't handle it--we could see one another, but couldn't hear words, but without the cams we could hear just fine). Not too long after speaking with them clovis_t and I went into town for the special fighter training session that is happening in conjunction with a visit from the Kingdom Earl Marshal. I very much enjoyed the training session, and the conversation afterwards. Then home, intending to do more work. However, I had an e-mail replying to an query I'd made about a European post-doc position which sounded interesting, stating that this particular position is limited to "early career" researchers, which I wouldn't be if one counts from when I completed my Master's degree. However having done no research whatsoever between that degree and starting this one, I do count, but they'd want documentation showing that I wasn't engaged in research during that time. This reminded me of a letter I'd sent on 18 Feb. asking about definitions of "early career researchers" for the purposes of scholarships for a cool sounding seminar on metamorphism & subduction zones. I never received a reply to that letter (and, a first, thought that today's letter was in reply to that one, but it wasn't). As it turns out, the deadline for that seminar has been and gone whilst I was waiting for a reply from them, so I decided what the heck, and just sent in an application anyway, a few days late, explaining that I'd been waiting to hear back from them, but since I just received an answer to my question from another source,I will apply now hoping that they use the same definitions, and provided them a list of the various jobs I've held during the time I wasn't doing research between degrees. I may not get that scholarship, the deadline having passed, but then again, I might, and I won't know if I don't ask!

Tomorrow I have no non-uni plans, so I hope to make major progress on finishing up the writing associated with both the monazite and the other recent microprobe sessions. Once that is done then I just need to check to see if there is any other data I've not yet summarized in my results section of the thesis, and if not I'll be able to start the discussion and conclusions section. My, that would be nice...