Happiness is an empty in-box
Sep. 21st, 2009 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaThere was a time in my life when I replied to e-mail so consistantly promptly that my personal in-box was emptied on a daily basis. Then I started the PhD project, and, periodically, I'd get behind on my mail, and then devote some days to clearing it out again, keep it clear for a while, and then get behind again. Then I came down to the final push to finish writing my thesis. Sometime around December of 2008 e-mail became something I'd read each day, and if it were *vital* I reply straight away, I probably would, and if a new message happened to hit the in-box just as I happened to have the correct sort of energy to want to reply just then, it would get a reply, but the vast majority of messages sent to me were things which were set aside to answer "later". This state of affairs continued for months. Once I submitted the thesis in June and boarded that plane I got a bit better about replying to many new messages reasonably promptly, but not all of them due to the random nature of one's internet connection whilst traveling. One side effect of not replying to e-mail, and switching more and more to connecting with people only via LiveJournal and Facebook is that there were fewer new messages in my in-box, and still the backlog didn't really dwindle much, though I'd try to get to one or three old messages a week. Finally, after returning to Milan from my most recent travels I've spent a couple three sessions going through those old messages, sending long over-due replies to many of them, filing the ones that didn't seem to need replies (and, in a couple of cases, sending a reply even though that message didn't need one, just because I wanted the person to know that seeing their name in my in-box made me smile). Today I am delighted to announce that my personal in-box (SCA e-mail address) is empty, for the first time this calendar year! If you think I owe you a letter and you didn't see a reply from me, please re-send, it has been officially lost.
Other bits of good news for the day: It worked! I have successfully welded one end each of three tiny gold capsules (2 mm diameter, just over 6 mm long). The helpful bit of advice I got today was "don't actually try to touch the graphite tip to the gold, just getting it quite close will cause an arc". Tomorrow I can try filling the capsules, and the do the harder weld. It is harder because the contents of the capsule changes the voltage required, *and* it is vital that all of the powder we put into the capsule be cleaned away from the rim before we try to seal it--even a couple of grains caught between the bits of gold will keep it from welding together, which would mean starting over from the beginning (which is why I made three of them today, since I need two full one for the first experiment--well that and there happened to be a 20.5 mm long segment of tubing left, and the capsules are made from ~7mm long bits, so I just divided that part into thirds and put them all to use straight away).
Last night before sleep I started reading my copy of the Deryni Archives Magazine #20, which arrived in the mail last week. The story I was up to was _Vision of a King_ by Linda Epstein. Wow, was that a good story. Had me in tears almost straight way, and I alternated between crying and laughing throughout. It so moved me I put the magazine down thereafter, not wanting to spoil the mood with some other story. I strongly recommend this story to anyone who loved the Kelson-era Deryni books (and there would be no point in reading this story if you haven't read all of the books from that time period--the power of the tale is the way it builds upon what the reader already knows of those people).
Other bits of good news for the day: It worked! I have successfully welded one end each of three tiny gold capsules (2 mm diameter, just over 6 mm long). The helpful bit of advice I got today was "don't actually try to touch the graphite tip to the gold, just getting it quite close will cause an arc". Tomorrow I can try filling the capsules, and the do the harder weld. It is harder because the contents of the capsule changes the voltage required, *and* it is vital that all of the powder we put into the capsule be cleaned away from the rim before we try to seal it--even a couple of grains caught between the bits of gold will keep it from welding together, which would mean starting over from the beginning (which is why I made three of them today, since I need two full one for the first experiment--well that and there happened to be a 20.5 mm long segment of tubing left, and the capsules are made from ~7mm long bits, so I just divided that part into thirds and put them all to use straight away).
Last night before sleep I started reading my copy of the Deryni Archives Magazine #20, which arrived in the mail last week. The story I was up to was _Vision of a King_ by Linda Epstein. Wow, was that a good story. Had me in tears almost straight way, and I alternated between crying and laughing throughout. It so moved me I put the magazine down thereafter, not wanting to spoil the mood with some other story. I strongly recommend this story to anyone who loved the Kelson-era Deryni books (and there would be no point in reading this story if you haven't read all of the books from that time period--the power of the tale is the way it builds upon what the reader already knows of those people).
