More crystallography and research

I've gotten done the stuff I wanted to get done for my research report today so I might as well write a bit. I still have ways to go on the report but I'm hopeful I'll get it "done" before the end of next week since I have to sort of since I am then off to Ireland for a week to see family.

Loads of (or at least a few) people from my my department have been to Germany to visit this research group that does crystallography to learn from them. It has been a few years since anyone went but I've talked about their time there and it sounded sort of nice so I asked my professor whether it would be possible for me to go. This was some time last week. And now it seems I'll be going there for the whole of March next year. There is like a student apartment booked for me and everything. I'm way excited about going. I mean why would I not be since solving crystal structures is my favorite thing to do at work and there I'll get to do just that for a whole month. Besides, it seems like I'll have no project (that the university will get like something out of) till maybe/hopefully April so what better time to go. On my way back I can maybe swing by the old workplace in Germany to get started on the project and I'll then have work for the whole of next summer. I'll most likely not have much vacation next summer since I'm planning to take two weeks in February or around that time to go see my sister in Connecticut and go skiing in the Rockies. And I think I'll have enough to do with my ongoing investigations till the beginning of March so the year is all set, so too say.

Having like a deadline on stuff gives me more will to do things. Now I have two deadlines with one being in a week or so before going off to Ireland and the other the trip to Germany in March. March of course seems like a long way away but the fall will go by really fast I'm sure and I do have like two lines of investigation going on at the moment. I just need to get this old project out of the way and I can focus on the continuing stuff. I think I'm not that good at doing tons of things at the same time so having just simple goals is better. The thing of course is that in the type of research I'm doing there's a lot of sidetracks available and one could get totally lost investigating them all. But at least there is an almost limitless possibility for results. I don't see there being dead ends one could not get out of so in that manner it's loads better than some stuff other people research.

But I'm off now for some rest & relaxation or cooking & cleaning at home.

Just recent stuffs

I rode on the back of a motorcycle for the first time in my life today. One of my friends has just bought one. We went climbing on it so it wasn't just like a ride for the sake of riding. I probably would not have gone had it been. I was kind of scared since I'd ridden on the back of a scooter and that was already sort of scary. But it was quite fun really. I can see why people like it so much and get hooked. We even went on the motorway and I was seeing pictures of us falling and how my clothes would break and expose my skin and so on. But in actuality I was quite calm. I did hold on to the back of the bike quite tightly. Gladly I have strong fingers from climbing. :)

The bnd has been away on business this whole week. In the end it hasn't really bothered me since I've had tons to do. I've been going to summer school social activities and today I had the climbing and soon I'll go to this meeting (kvat). Tomorrow is the goodbye party of the summer school. It should be fun. The only thing is that the bnd is coming back tomorrow and I'll most likely see him in the afternoon but then I have to leave for the party. See I have been missing him so it's kind of weird just seeing for like maybe an hour and them me going off to a party he can't attend and then coming home most likely late and a bit tipsy. It also seems kind of a rude thing to do but there's no helping it. But we'll be able to hang out the whole rest of the weekend so no problem.

I've been writing a big report for the last two weeks at work and I'm getting sort of sick of it really. Or at least my biggest muscles are. It's hard work just sitting at my desk all day. I have been making some progress on writing it so it's fine but I need to get it finished asap. There's just so much of the results but it's all like here and there and there's really not much like good results (ie. results I was hoping for) and all of it is just other interesting findings. It's kind of hard to classify those. And I'm figuring out things I should have done like all the time so that isn't helping at all. "If I could just do the whole thing again it would be so much better..." But there's no point in doing things again or better since no-one is paying me for it. I guess it's just been a learning experience. Now I've got the apparatuses I need to do most the work and a method to do stuff. I just need a new project to work on. I hope I get one but it will be the spring of next year before there's a chance of that. But luckily I have some plans so I'll most likely have enough to do till then.

Summer Schooling

I've been attending summer school all week. I've had classes on crystallography, surprisingly, from eight to twelve (or in reality more like one) every day this week. We didn't really have any breaks in between and I missed my morning coffee on most days and I was starving by the time I got to eat. Then after lunch I continued the exercises on most days. So I've been busy. It was kind of a hard week also because I've had to get up earlier than usual in the morning. But I've learned a great deal and I've loved solving the problems the teachers gave us to do. It's like I've gotten to do my favorite work activity all week and I'm now better at doing it. Excellent.

We had this sort of test today where we had to solve this one structure that had a few problems. Everyone else worked in pairs but I was somehow left without a pair to do the problems with all week so I worked alone. The fun part was that I think I got really lucky and I was most likely the first the solve the problem. I was wondering what the other people were having problems with since I thought it was easy. The magic was that I'd chosen the right atoms to try the structure with and had I chosen the wrong ones it would not have solved correctly. Lucky me. So I was done and hour before most people and had time to have my morning coffee today. Plus I felt really accomplished having solved the problem so fast. It seems I've chosen the right job for myself.

I've been going to some of the social activities of the summer school and that has also been fun. Yesterday I was on a cruise on the lake Päijänne. I had never been so it was really nice. One of my friends was there for company so that was great and we even met some other fun people. Luckily the weather was also good for the cruise. It was sunny almost the whole time with no rain. The weather has been very unpredictable and rainy all week and it's looking like there is no end to it. But the weekend is here and I plan to enjoy it. Right now I think I'll head home and clean my aquariums.