Keys in hand

So after writing last night about my expectations for the LIBS lab research I was to do today, something interesting happened. Right after Geochemistry, I headed to ask for keys and my adviser and Dr. M must have become tired of the requests because she asked Lee to sign out some keys to me. I can now work just about whenever I want on my research!

The downside of this moment was that Dr. M reminded me that we wouldn't be having Optical Mineralogy on Monday or Wednesday. I think despite the early (to me) lecture time of 9:30 AM, I'm going to be sad to miss out on that class as my first of the day. It will be nice to sleep in though, depending on the way the weekend turns out.

Right now though, I am trying to occupy myself on my now empty Thursday afternoon. With the slow, cold rain coming down my options are limited to indoor activities. I think I'll bone up on my Geology fundamentals by finally reading my intro Geology book. I can't tell if it's the weather or just finding out that J.D. Salinger died yesterday, but I'm feeling apathetic.

Photo Credit
Bram_app. "Yale Keys". http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramapp/106561520/

Full Sample of Classes

So after a week without labs, I've finally been to every class I signed up for this semester.  This is also the first time that I feel I have a context for how long the semester is going to last.  I mean the semester is always around 3 months long, but this is the first time that the long term has been more in focus than the week to week way I've handled past semesters.  I think part of the reason I've been treating things this way is because I don't have any math classes or truly heavy midterms to worry over.

I finally have a Geochemistry book for class tomorrow, which is nice.  I still can't fathom how a paperback textbook of its size costs over $130, but that's another issue from what I'd care to discuss.  After asking at the desk for online textbook orders if the Geochemistry books were in, I was informed my order was canceled and the books weren't there.  After checking my e-mail however, I discovered that not only were the books in, but they were ready to be collected.  Needless to say I've lost nearly all respect for the bookstore here. Where I used to excuse their inconsistencies and poor service with the transitional stage of the Barnes & Noble buyout, I now think the staff is just generally inept.

Tomorrow brings another session of LIBS work and this time I will actually try to collect some usable data!  I wish I had some keys to actually get into the labs, but I guess my requests for keys helps the department gauge my progress and commitment.  Let's go with that...

In more long range news, I've signed up for a poster topic to accompany me on the end of the semester Colorado Plateau field trip.  During the eight days of geologic goodness in the trip I will be giving a brief presentation on the Late Cretaceous (Andean mountains and an inland sea).

I'm not entirely sure what I have committed myself to, but I do know that my poster will not cover the Laramide orogeny and doesn't encompass the K-T boundary (some other lucky peer will have that famous sliver of time).  This class is already the most intimidating and instructive course I have taken in college, but I know I will gain immeasurably from it.  My only qualm with it is that it is only scheduled once a week!

Basic synopsis is that context has been established for my current semester, time will be flying by, courses are heavy but lightened by their fascinating content, and I have a considerable amount of learning ahead of me.  Still living one day at a time though, and tomorrow is Geochem and a session with the LIBS lab...

Photo Credit

USGS. "Waterpocket Fold - Looking south from the Strike Valley Overlook".  http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov

The dizzying heights of Optical Mineralogy

Well I thought I would be immune to the nausea-inducing peculiarities of the petrographic microscopes we were warned about in Optical Mineralogy, but I was mistaken.  Trying to discover the different scale each objective displays at, I was moving the focus and stage at the same time.  I noticed right away that my body was displeased with what my eyes were telling it but tried to work quickly through it and ended up compounding the feeling.  I don't think it is like sea sickness, not that I've ever felt those effects, but it is its own sensation.  I'm still nauseous, and I've definitely learned my lesson.  One thing at a time on the microscope, which follows nicely with the scientific principle of only modifying one variable at a time in an experiment.

I find it oddly coincidental that on the day of my first foray with the colorful thin sections I was introduced to the fluorescence of scorpion exoskeletons.  Apparently, when an adult scorpions' cuticle is exposed to UV light, it produces a fluorescent glow due to the beta-Carboline in that casing.  This only occurs in adult scorpions, and when they molt their new casing takes time to produce the fluorescent effect again, and their shed casing continues to glow.



The two theories I find credible as to why this occurs are to lure in prey and/or as a form of sun protection when scorpions were more diurnal.

My main point in these two topics is that the properties of light have been a huge impact in my studies lately, and when even my Entomology class brings up the properties of light, I feel like science is both deeper and more interconnected than ever.  I may feel slightly different when I go a couple days without talking about photons, spectroscopy, or similar topics but right now things are oddly in harmony.


Photo Credit
skinheaddave. "Leiurus quinquestriatus, freshly moulted under UV light." http://www.arachnoboards.com

All thumbs and lasers lately

Today has been a strange day.  I woke up and went to Geochemistry, where in a start-the-morning quiz I somehow forgot how to explain that when an atom is unstable it undergoes decay.  This "foreign" word apparently escapes me at nine in the morning, where I was grasping at straws before Dr. R gave me the elusive phrase I'd been struggling for.  Then in an intense fit of overcompensation I try to educate my optical mineralogy TA when she forgets that the temperatures in stars ionize any atoms within them.  Needless to say, my shoe tastes like rubber and cloth when I put it (and my foot) in my mouth.

Heading out from that class I got started on my undergrad research.  Essentially I am the third person attempting to use LIBS analysis to differentiate between different crude oils.  I prepped some samples, taking extra care to get a feel for the materials I was working with after a long break from them, and put them in a plastic bag to walk them over to the LIBS lab in another building.  After getting everything all set up I wasted a good hour or so tweaking every setting I could remember to try and get a signal beyond the Na and Ar spikes I somehow managed to receive.  Then an older undergrad researcher and classmate (my predecessor on this project) came in to work on his project and showed me that I didn't un-kink the fiber optic cables running my light to the spectrometer.  Feeling like a first class fool I thanked him and he generously gave me the LIBS start up walk-through he wrote (with screenshots!) and the macro I need to process the data into an understandable Excel format.  We talked a bit more, sharing that we have doubts about the oil project specifically and LIBS analysis in general due to flaky equipment, which really improved my mood.  It's good to know that people have your back even when you didn't know they were there.

After that I had awkward talk with my undergrad research adviser.  I think she's been under a lot of stress from preparing the new hall the department will move into, but I'd picked up on her negative energy and naturally (for me) taken it personally.  I think I finally get where she's coming from now that we've shared more than some passing words, but she had me worried for a while.  I think we have reached a stage in our association where I've passed the curious undergrad level in her eyes and so she has become more a patron to me.  I hope this is the case, and I am excited to keep working and learning in Optical.

Essentially, I'm saying that this week needs to end as soon as possible but the future looks brighter than I've seen it in a long while.

A proper start to the school year

After the short two day nonsense of the official "first days of classes", school is now actually getting underway tomorrow.  So far I have had my Geochemistry, Chemistry, and Entomology classes.  Chemistry is business as usual (except I'm only at that lecture on Fridays) and I am glad we were spared from reading the syllabus again.  The Entomology class I am warily excited about because it seems like it won't be an intensive course by any means, but it will actually instruct me.  I think my main cause for pause is the professor's personality reminds me of the disappointing physics professor I had last semester.  I'll have to try to give him a fair shot and pay attention to separating the two instructors' merits.

As far a geology classes are concerned, I know most of the department (at least in some measure) and the subjects are deceptively familiar as well.  My Geochemistry text is bringing no end of anxiety to me lately, as my first attempt to order it online was aborted when the seller gave me a refund.  Needless to say I was pretty irate at that turn of events, and now I have to wait until the 23rd (according to the university bookstore) before I will have a text in hand.  I am very excited to see how my Geology of the Colorado Plateau class will turn out, and it comes highly endorsed (at least by Dr. M, Tristan, and Evan).  Optical Mineralogy however I am worried about for the eyestrain induced headaches to come.  As exciting as it will be to toy around with polarized light and thin-sections, I am worried the subtleties of rotating and reading into minute details of slivers of minerals may lose its novelty and simplicity fast.

In unrelated matters, I broke up with my girlfriend Donna today.  After nearly a year and three months together I felt like it was time to move on.  I think that she handled it well, but it doesn't feel very real to me yet.  I told her that neither of us seemed very happy with our relationship the past month, and that I felt like things were getting away from me in my life (which was my main fear).  I told her that I still cared about her and that we could be friends but not to expect much one-on-one time together until a long way off.  I feel like it was the right thing for me to do, but she still really seems to love me and I am not sure how I feel about that.  I'll have to wait and see how well she actually copes with it, and how our friends will grow to treat us now that we have broken up after most of our friendships consisting of mutual friends.

Shortly after the breakup conversation I went for a hike up Tortugas Mountain to try to refresh my mind and get everything together.  It was nice to hike alone, and the mountain was pretty vacant with the exception of a pair of runners and a few stray hikers coming down.  It was nice to have the peak to myself, and I took some pictures before my camera died to make a panorama (after the NMGS one I wanted to make another).  For once the cold wind felt more refreshing than cutting, and I think winter should be over soon both seasonally and for my mood...

Introduction

Well after a great deal of thought and with the best of intentions I have decided to create a Blogging account. My main purpose in this is to have a place to mentally vent and to sustain my writing abilities now that the majority of my school work is data and result based and requires very little creative writing. I am going to make an effort to find a balance between trying to write "profound" thoughts and feelings and throwing down mundane thoughts. The result, I hope, will be a thoughtful and meditative collection of thoughts and sensations. In another way, this journal/blog will serve as an outlet for conversation that I feel I have partially lost now that I am at an agriculturally based school. With so many of my friends scattered around the state and the country, it is harder to open up to relative strangers here in Las Cruces and so I hope that this journal will serve as a means of conversational exercise until I have the opportunity to find people I can truly share my thoughts with.

I surmise that the fear of the eyes of prying friends or overly "empathetic" readers I had when writing blogs and journal entries on social networking sites will be relieved with the relative anonymity I have on this account. I also hope that I will write on this account with some regularity and with valuable introspection. This being said, I will leave the rest of this journal to actualizing my hopes and needs of communication and contemplation. Wish me luck...