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Sep. 24th, 2010 08:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaIt has been a week and a half since I returned to Milan from my 3.5 weeks of back-to-back conferences and short courses. Therefore I decided to go look at the to-do list I created when I got home and report on my progress (and/or lack thereof):
* hang up the clothes that are being washed as I type Not only did that washing get done, dried, and put away, I've done two other loads since then.
* turn in capsules from the last the experiment to be set in epoxy Done, and they've been polished till I was just barely past the first layer of gold, more epoxy added (to ensure the contents didn't come out in subsequent polishing), and then it was polished down till the experimental charge is exposed and smooth and ready to be analyzed next time the microprobe is available.
* get to the natural food store and purchase ingredients for more muesli and a variety of other foods that had run low before leaving town
* get to the huge supermarket that carries the cheese I like best and bring some home (both stores are a 30 minute walk away--in opposite directions!)
* finish unpacking everything from the last trip and put it away
* get the guest bedding and towels washed and ready for the next guest (Hi mom!)
* get the Mathmatica mass balance calculations working and compare the % of each phase in my experiments with the calculated % from Perple_X
This one is half done--we managed to get mathmatica working again up to the point of calculating how much of each mineral must be there given the composition of the starting powder and the compositions of the minerals present. However, sometimes the calculations wind up with a negative value for one or more phases. One way around that is to tell it Phase #3 is exactly 5% of the total, and then have it re-calculate. Alas, we are still getting error messages when we try this. With luck my boss will be able solve this issue soon. I can't really help--not only do I not really know how to set up programs in mathmatica, these programs are written in an odd mix of Italian and English + mathmatica coding.
* get two new capsules filled and ready for the next experiment ASAP
Alas, I still need to do this. When I went to do it someone had taken away the microscope, which is an essential tool for the job. However, I noticed this evening when I was putting away the keys to the lapidary room that the microscope is back, so hopefully I will get to this next week. Fortunately, my boss agrees that it makes sense to not start the next experiment till we see the results of the last, so I've got an unspecified amount of time, since I don't yet have an appointment to do the analysis of the last experiment.
* discuss with my boss which conditions that experiment should run at--does he agree with my thinking on the topic?Yes, he does! But until we see the results of last one we won't make the final decision.
* update all of my logs in the computer for yesterday and today from my notes
* update personal finances
* figure out finances for all of the uni-related conferences and turn in receipts for reimbursement
* look up all occurrences of Talc in real metapelites and/or metagreywackes and compile list of their compositions and associated phases and compare them with our data
I started a spreadsheet, and entered in all of the titles of the papers that come up when one searches Scopus for "talc" and "metapelite", and have downloaded those I don't have yet. However, I still need to actually extract the relevant data from those that have it, and make a note of which ones aren't useful.
* sand the various wooden objects that followed me home from Budapest
I've started this, but there are lots of them, and they were much in need of sanding. It will take a while longer...
* finish up the various nalbinding projects that are nearly done and get photos
Been too busy to do this.
* get photos off of my camera from the trip and post them to Facebook
* Type up adventures for both my geo-blog and LJ and include some photos with each (ok, I may not have typed up and shared photos on all trips, but on many of them)
* catch up on e-mail and livejournal (no hope of catching up on Facebook--Know too many people there--if you said anything there important in the past week or two that I should know about, please let me know
* apply to the teaching positions that have application deadlines this month and get ready to apply for the ones that have deadlines in October, November, and December Three have been submitted, another three are due soon, but now that I've got the others to use as a template...
* back up computer files though, of course, this could use doing, again.
* take down old poster and hang up one with most current results
* make table of predicted compositions of minerals from Perple_X to compare with our results
* mend black skirt
oops. Forgot about this one. Fortunately, I haven't washed it yet, either.
* book tickets to Cairo for Mom and I
Well, I booked them to Finland, does that count? She arrives tomorrow morning, and we will decide if we are doing Ciaro too, or other adventures closer to home on the other weekend she has available.
Well, considering that I hadn't looked at the list after typing it till tonight, I am reasonably pleased with how much of it has been accomplished. My routine since coming home has been to get up around 9 or 10, head in to uni, catch up on reading LJ and e-mail over breakfast, do some uni work, head home for a nap and a meal and return to uni around 16:30 or 17:30, then settle in to work and socializeing with friends over instant messaging till way too late at night (except for the nights I went shopping first), followed by yoga, reading my 1000, and then some fiction till 02:00 or 03:00. However, I don't think I'll keep this schedule while mom is here--I bet she'd like to actually spend time with me in the evenings, having flown all the way here!
* get the Mathmatica mass balance calculations working and compare the % of each phase in my experiments with the calculated % from Perple_X
This one is half done--we managed to get mathmatica working again up to the point of calculating how much of each mineral must be there given the composition of the starting powder and the compositions of the minerals present. However, sometimes the calculations wind up with a negative value for one or more phases. One way around that is to tell it Phase #3 is exactly 5% of the total, and then have it re-calculate. Alas, we are still getting error messages when we try this. With luck my boss will be able solve this issue soon. I can't really help--not only do I not really know how to set up programs in mathmatica, these programs are written in an odd mix of Italian and English + mathmatica coding.
* get two new capsules filled and ready for the next experiment ASAP
Alas, I still need to do this. When I went to do it someone had taken away the microscope, which is an essential tool for the job. However, I noticed this evening when I was putting away the keys to the lapidary room that the microscope is back, so hopefully I will get to this next week. Fortunately, my boss agrees that it makes sense to not start the next experiment till we see the results of the last, so I've got an unspecified amount of time, since I don't yet have an appointment to do the analysis of the last experiment.
* look up all occurrences of Talc in real metapelites and/or metagreywackes and compile list of their compositions and associated phases and compare them with our data
I started a spreadsheet, and entered in all of the titles of the papers that come up when one searches Scopus for "talc" and "metapelite", and have downloaded those I don't have yet. However, I still need to actually extract the relevant data from those that have it, and make a note of which ones aren't useful.
* sand the various wooden objects that followed me home from Budapest
I've started this, but there are lots of them, and they were much in need of sanding. It will take a while longer...
* finish up the various nalbinding projects that are nearly done and get photos
Been too busy to do this.
* mend black skirt
oops. Forgot about this one. Fortunately, I haven't washed it yet, either.
* book tickets to Cairo for Mom and I
Well, I booked them to Finland, does that count? She arrives tomorrow morning, and we will decide if we are doing Ciaro too, or other adventures closer to home on the other weekend she has available.
Well, considering that I hadn't looked at the list after typing it till tonight, I am reasonably pleased with how much of it has been accomplished. My routine since coming home has been to get up around 9 or 10, head in to uni, catch up on reading LJ and e-mail over breakfast, do some uni work, head home for a nap and a meal and return to uni around 16:30 or 17:30, then settle in to work and socializeing with friends over instant messaging till way too late at night (except for the nights I went shopping first), followed by yoga, reading my 1000, and then some fiction till 02:00 or 03:00. However, I don't think I'll keep this schedule while mom is here--I bet she'd like to actually spend time with me in the evenings, having flown all the way here!
