I love my job
Mar. 29th, 2018 01:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareina This week T, a Master's Student from Oulu, booked time in my laser lab for Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. The original plan was to do three half-days of analyses. Tuesday evening I was talking with O about travel plans to the SCA event in Finland this weekend (he and his lady are riding with me), and he said that he wanted to be on the road by noon on Thursday, so that we could get there around the time site opens. I liked this idea, but to make that possible it means that we would need to either finish T's analyses on Wednesday, or at least have them so close to done that Thursday morning would be enough. So I asked T what he thought this morning, and he liked the idea of just finishing everything up today so that he could do data processing on Thursday.
Yesterday morning he and I worked together, he consulted the photos on his computer, we compared them to the image of the sample on the lab computer screen, and I would place the spot on the location he selected. As the day progressed I handed over the lab computer's mouse to him more and more often so that he could drive to the correct location for the spot. Yesterday's session was a full eight hours, and we only managed to get through four of his twenty samples (the holder can take three samples at a time). However, with this sort of project it gets faster as one goes and gets used to the work flow (and to the differences between his photos and what shows on our screen).
This morning I met him at the lab at 08:00 and we set to work. We worked together on the set up for the first set, and as soon as it was running (which took just over an hour), I went up to my office to be useful with other tasks that need doing, and he started looking at his data from yesterday. After that we fell into a rhythm--I would come down stairs, change the samples and copy the data from the last run onto the department server, then he would select the points for the next run while I went back upstairs to work, and he would call when he was ready. Then I would return downstairs, double check that everything was ready and start the experiment running, and return to my office to work some more while it ran. Repeat. Repeat... etc.
I had hoped to go to Parkour practice at 16:00, but we weren't done yet. At 20:30 when my friend Linda called I was just about to tell the computer to start yet another run, so I did so, and then enjoyed chatting with her for half an hour (she will be visiting here for a few days next month) before going right back to work. At 22:30 I finally reached a reasonable breaking point in my work in my office, and started closing programs. About then he called too say that he was ready to start the final run of the evening, so I finished shutting everything down and went back to the lab, started the experiment, and then just relaxed there for 40 minutes it took to run. While it was running he checked the bus schedule, to discover that the last bus of the evening would be going in only 15 minutes--no way was he going to make it. Luckily, I had driven to the office this morning, so I told him I could get him back to the hotel.
Doing all the after-experiment tasks didn't take that long, and I was able to drop him downtown just at midnight, getting home about ten minutes after the hour. This may be one of the longest work days I have ever put in, yet I enjoyed all of it. It helped that T. has a pleasant, cheerful disposition and was interesting to chat with during the times I was in the lab. But the work I was doing in my office was fun, too. I have now created index cards in Scrivener for all of the different experiment types we have run in the lab, and which element/isotopes we analyzed for, including links to the experiments that used that type of analysis, in the cases where one type replaced another a description of how they were different, and why, and notes about why that list was chosen in the first place. Basically all of the information that would be useful to know, in a nice, organized, easy to understand place.
Then I came home to very good news! Mom is feeling well enough that they let her get up and take a short walk around the hospital ward. When that went well and she didn't suffer any ill effects they agreed to take the breathing tube out of her mouth/throat and let her graduate to a little in-nose oxygen introduction system. This means that she can once again talk! So, of course, I celebrated by doing a quick video call with her. She is looking great. Apparently the doctor who resuscitated her yesterday is definitely surprised by how well she's doing. Even better, my sister Amber just told us "Just had a good chat with the main doctor, he’s thrilled with her progress. Still no real theory about why all this happened but the good news is that Norma asked if she would be home for Easter Sunday and the doctor says he’s pretty confident that she will be. That totally surprised us!"
Yesterday morning he and I worked together, he consulted the photos on his computer, we compared them to the image of the sample on the lab computer screen, and I would place the spot on the location he selected. As the day progressed I handed over the lab computer's mouse to him more and more often so that he could drive to the correct location for the spot. Yesterday's session was a full eight hours, and we only managed to get through four of his twenty samples (the holder can take three samples at a time). However, with this sort of project it gets faster as one goes and gets used to the work flow (and to the differences between his photos and what shows on our screen).
This morning I met him at the lab at 08:00 and we set to work. We worked together on the set up for the first set, and as soon as it was running (which took just over an hour), I went up to my office to be useful with other tasks that need doing, and he started looking at his data from yesterday. After that we fell into a rhythm--I would come down stairs, change the samples and copy the data from the last run onto the department server, then he would select the points for the next run while I went back upstairs to work, and he would call when he was ready. Then I would return downstairs, double check that everything was ready and start the experiment running, and return to my office to work some more while it ran. Repeat. Repeat... etc.
I had hoped to go to Parkour practice at 16:00, but we weren't done yet. At 20:30 when my friend Linda called I was just about to tell the computer to start yet another run, so I did so, and then enjoyed chatting with her for half an hour (she will be visiting here for a few days next month) before going right back to work. At 22:30 I finally reached a reasonable breaking point in my work in my office, and started closing programs. About then he called too say that he was ready to start the final run of the evening, so I finished shutting everything down and went back to the lab, started the experiment, and then just relaxed there for 40 minutes it took to run. While it was running he checked the bus schedule, to discover that the last bus of the evening would be going in only 15 minutes--no way was he going to make it. Luckily, I had driven to the office this morning, so I told him I could get him back to the hotel.
Doing all the after-experiment tasks didn't take that long, and I was able to drop him downtown just at midnight, getting home about ten minutes after the hour. This may be one of the longest work days I have ever put in, yet I enjoyed all of it. It helped that T. has a pleasant, cheerful disposition and was interesting to chat with during the times I was in the lab. But the work I was doing in my office was fun, too. I have now created index cards in Scrivener for all of the different experiment types we have run in the lab, and which element/isotopes we analyzed for, including links to the experiments that used that type of analysis, in the cases where one type replaced another a description of how they were different, and why, and notes about why that list was chosen in the first place. Basically all of the information that would be useful to know, in a nice, organized, easy to understand place.
Then I came home to very good news! Mom is feeling well enough that they let her get up and take a short walk around the hospital ward. When that went well and she didn't suffer any ill effects they agreed to take the breathing tube out of her mouth/throat and let her graduate to a little in-nose oxygen introduction system. This means that she can once again talk! So, of course, I celebrated by doing a quick video call with her. She is looking great. Apparently the doctor who resuscitated her yesterday is definitely surprised by how well she's doing. Even better, my sister Amber just told us "Just had a good chat with the main doctor, he’s thrilled with her progress. Still no real theory about why all this happened but the good news is that Norma asked if she would be home for Easter Sunday and the doctor says he’s pretty confident that she will be. That totally surprised us!"
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-29 04:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-30 08:49 pm (UTC)