![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a lovely, productive day at work
Aug. 31st, 2016 04:57 pmAs I think I mentioned yesterday, my energy levels at work were kinda low and I didn't get much accomplished on my first day back from vacation other than cleaning the junk out of my in-box. After last night's choir I foolishly sat up at the computer till after midnight, and then finally got around to yoga, and headed to bed around 01:00, fully expecting to be tired today, too. This morning, however, I woke up early thinking of an email from my Russian colleague, which inspired me as to a direction one of my Master's students might go in her research, so I sent her a quick email during morning situps, did my workout (which I didn't do yesterday), and triked into the office before 08:00. That was good, as it gave me time to refresh my memory on where we were on that grant application we started last spring before my 09:00 meeting with one of my colleagues to discuss it. That meeting went well, and I returned to my office inspired as to how to fill in the last few missing sections and trim down some of the earlier sections to get us closer to our page limit.
That part of the application, which describes the research project, the post-doc we want to hire for it, and our department, explaining to the evaluation committee why the project is important, why she is the perfect person to do the project, and why ours is the perfect location for the research, can't be more than 10 pages. By 14:00 today I had managed to fill in some text in every section, and shorten the long bits enough that instead of the 12 pages I started the day with, I had only 10 pages plus three extra lines of text. Satisfied with this result, I sent it off to the grants office (who had been warned it would be coming, and who are still willing to give me feedback on it), with questions as to which bit of the "gender dimension" section that I wrote are actually relevant to the evaluation committee, what else, if anything needs cutting, and have we left off any information that would make it better?
I thought to go home at that point, but just then the guy in IT who had been helping me by writing a script to merge a grid of photos from the laser into a single image called, and wondered if it would be a good time to show me how to access and use the script. It was, so we did, and it turns out to be very easy. Now I just need to find the time to take a new set of photos, with a closer spacing this time, so that we can crop off the outermost edge, where the photos get darker as the edge of the field of view on the laser is further from the light source. Then, when I know how much to crop, he will write the next half of the script, so I can crop and stitch with the typing of one simple command.
Just as I finished up that one of my colleagues, who is a structural geologist, stopped by the office with a question. He wanted to know what kinds of depths equate to 1 kb of pressure. My first answer was "not bloody much", and I reached for my copy of the bible of metamorphic petrology and quickly flipped to a diagram like this one, which shows both pressure and depth, one on each side of the diagram. He was quite pleased to hear this, since he has been trying to understand the rocks in his field area, which are very folded, yet lack any clues indicating high pressure. Another of our colleagues had done some P-T work on rocks from that area, and calculated pressures of about 1 kb, which is really low, but temperatures high enough to permit a rock undergo ductile deformation. Apparently there is also brittle deformation in the fold hinges in that area, which also makes sense in a high heat-low pressure area, as the deformation concentrated there could use up enough of the heat to permit the transition to brittle.
I also managed to talk with my other colleague about my idea for the one master's student to work with the samples from Russia, and she likes the idea. Now if the student only likes it, too. Then, just as I was leaving my office to head home, my other Master's student dropped by to make an appointment for tomorrow morning to discuss what she wants to do for her project.
On a normal work day I sit alone in my office and never see or hear anyone. Today I spoke with five different people in the line of duty, and enjoyed it.
To celebrate I came home and made some home made noodles with veg and nuts and seeds. I have the house to myself the next couple of days while![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lord_kjar and C. are up north visiting one of her friends from uni, who is working at the Naturum Visitor Centre in Laponia, the World Heritage part of Swedish Lappland. I have never been up there, so I would have loved to have joined them, but with the grant proposal mentioned above due on 14 September, I really can't spare the time. Besides, it might be easier for them to look like a normal couple, rather than a triple when visiting a friend from school.
Look, mom, since I have been home I have been good about posting pretty much every day, so you will have something to read. However, now that they are letting you out of the hospital early since you have had such a rapid recovery from your stroke, I don't know if you will have time to keep checking this daily.
That part of the application, which describes the research project, the post-doc we want to hire for it, and our department, explaining to the evaluation committee why the project is important, why she is the perfect person to do the project, and why ours is the perfect location for the research, can't be more than 10 pages. By 14:00 today I had managed to fill in some text in every section, and shorten the long bits enough that instead of the 12 pages I started the day with, I had only 10 pages plus three extra lines of text. Satisfied with this result, I sent it off to the grants office (who had been warned it would be coming, and who are still willing to give me feedback on it), with questions as to which bit of the "gender dimension" section that I wrote are actually relevant to the evaluation committee, what else, if anything needs cutting, and have we left off any information that would make it better?
I thought to go home at that point, but just then the guy in IT who had been helping me by writing a script to merge a grid of photos from the laser into a single image called, and wondered if it would be a good time to show me how to access and use the script. It was, so we did, and it turns out to be very easy. Now I just need to find the time to take a new set of photos, with a closer spacing this time, so that we can crop off the outermost edge, where the photos get darker as the edge of the field of view on the laser is further from the light source. Then, when I know how much to crop, he will write the next half of the script, so I can crop and stitch with the typing of one simple command.
Just as I finished up that one of my colleagues, who is a structural geologist, stopped by the office with a question. He wanted to know what kinds of depths equate to 1 kb of pressure. My first answer was "not bloody much", and I reached for my copy of the bible of metamorphic petrology and quickly flipped to a diagram like this one, which shows both pressure and depth, one on each side of the diagram. He was quite pleased to hear this, since he has been trying to understand the rocks in his field area, which are very folded, yet lack any clues indicating high pressure. Another of our colleagues had done some P-T work on rocks from that area, and calculated pressures of about 1 kb, which is really low, but temperatures high enough to permit a rock undergo ductile deformation. Apparently there is also brittle deformation in the fold hinges in that area, which also makes sense in a high heat-low pressure area, as the deformation concentrated there could use up enough of the heat to permit the transition to brittle.
I also managed to talk with my other colleague about my idea for the one master's student to work with the samples from Russia, and she likes the idea. Now if the student only likes it, too. Then, just as I was leaving my office to head home, my other Master's student dropped by to make an appointment for tomorrow morning to discuss what she wants to do for her project.
On a normal work day I sit alone in my office and never see or hear anyone. Today I spoke with five different people in the line of duty, and enjoyed it.
To celebrate I came home and made some home made noodles with veg and nuts and seeds. I have the house to myself the next couple of days while
lord_kjar and C. are up north visiting one of her friends from uni, who is working at the Naturum Visitor Centre in Laponia, the World Heritage part of Swedish Lappland. I have never been up there, so I would have loved to have joined them, but with the grant proposal mentioned above due on 14 September, I really can't spare the time. Besides, it might be easier for them to look like a normal couple, rather than a triple when visiting a friend from school.Look, mom, since I have been home I have been good about posting pretty much every day, so you will have something to read. However, now that they are letting you out of the hospital early since you have had such a rapid recovery from your stroke, I don't know if you will have time to keep checking this daily.
