I've been feeling un-bloggy lately, so that's all you get.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Chewy
Sorry the picture is so small, but I had to share it, because my dog totally looks like Chewbacca.
I've been feeling un-bloggy lately, so that's all you get.
I've been feeling un-bloggy lately, so that's all you get.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
What If...?
A few posts ago I asked what I should write about, and Scott asked:
"If you were not married how do you think your life would differ from how it is now?"
It made me start thinking about my life's path...
I'm happy where I am. Interestingly enough, though, if several years ago, like at the beginning of college, I had been able to see into the future, to see what my life is now, I don't think I would have thought it was going in the right direction, that is, the direction that would make me happiest.
My freshman year one of my chemistry professors had us all write down some goals we had for his class, the year, college, and life in general. I was only half joking when I said, "Graduate from BYU without getting married!" For those of you that aren't in the know, BYU's students tend to get married a lot more than students at other campuses. My thoughts? They really, really want to move past making out, and they're not allowed to unless they're married (not only will they get kicked out of BYU, but they'll go to hell as well). Just a theory.* Anyway, having observed nothing but bad marriages my whole life, I didn't want any part of it. Why would I want to bind myself to someone, just to have them ruin my life? And why would I want to marry someone just to make babies? I just didn't want it. So I dated, because dating's fun, and let's face it, so is making out.
I never thought I would meet someone like Scott. I never even thought someone like Scott could exist. The dating pool at BYU seemed severely limited. I found guys who were good people but had different ideas and values than I did, but nobody was ever good enough. Everyone was too...vanilla. I tried dating a lot of people, but it just didn't stick. It didn't help that guys generally don't like to date girls who are smarter than they are, so a lot of the guys who I would have liked to date weren't even remotely interested in me if they knew that I was a chemistry major.
So marriage wasn't even in my plans.
Academically, I was never quite sure where I would go. My plan was basically to get my degree, and sometime my senior year decide whether I wanted to go to grad school, medical school, or just find a job. Two things basically made this decision for me: figuring out I was bipolar and falling in love with Scott. Figuring out I was bipolar, and FINALLY understanding why I was so sick all the time, made me realize that further schooling just wasn't wise unless it were the only thing I were doing. It wouldn't have been the only thing, either, because I wanted to be with Scott, and I didn't want to half-ass my marriage. I wanted to be there 100%, and I knew that if I continued school, things would just get too busy for us to be working on our marriage constantly, like we are now. It looks like that turned out pretty well, don't you think?
So...back to the original question. If I weren't married, I probably wouldn't have met anyone that I could have married, so I would have continued school. If I had chosen grad school, I probably would have tried to stay at BYU, since I absolutely adored the chemistry department there. I loved the classes, the professors, my jobs, just everything about that building made me feel more like myself than any other place I had been before. If I had stayed there, I would have had to keep going to church to stay enrolled...I'm honestly not sure how that would have gone. For all I know I might have just decided it wasn't worth it and transferred to another university. In that case, it would probably have been a college somewhere in the midwest, since that still felt like home at the time.
If I had chosen medical school, I have absolutely no idea where I would have gone or what I would have specialized in, but I would still be there today, and so I would probably be too busy to do much of anything else.
Either way, I would still be in school.
My life is now something I never thought it would be, but let me tell you, this marriage thing is awesome.
As long as you have the right person.
Which I do.
*Just FYI, I have nothing but respect for the students at BYU who actually follow the Honor Code. I certainly didn't.
"If you were not married how do you think your life would differ from how it is now?"
It made me start thinking about my life's path...
I'm happy where I am. Interestingly enough, though, if several years ago, like at the beginning of college, I had been able to see into the future, to see what my life is now, I don't think I would have thought it was going in the right direction, that is, the direction that would make me happiest.
My freshman year one of my chemistry professors had us all write down some goals we had for his class, the year, college, and life in general. I was only half joking when I said, "Graduate from BYU without getting married!" For those of you that aren't in the know, BYU's students tend to get married a lot more than students at other campuses. My thoughts? They really, really want to move past making out, and they're not allowed to unless they're married (not only will they get kicked out of BYU, but they'll go to hell as well). Just a theory.* Anyway, having observed nothing but bad marriages my whole life, I didn't want any part of it. Why would I want to bind myself to someone, just to have them ruin my life? And why would I want to marry someone just to make babies? I just didn't want it. So I dated, because dating's fun, and let's face it, so is making out.
I never thought I would meet someone like Scott. I never even thought someone like Scott could exist. The dating pool at BYU seemed severely limited. I found guys who were good people but had different ideas and values than I did, but nobody was ever good enough. Everyone was too...vanilla. I tried dating a lot of people, but it just didn't stick. It didn't help that guys generally don't like to date girls who are smarter than they are, so a lot of the guys who I would have liked to date weren't even remotely interested in me if they knew that I was a chemistry major.
So marriage wasn't even in my plans.
Academically, I was never quite sure where I would go. My plan was basically to get my degree, and sometime my senior year decide whether I wanted to go to grad school, medical school, or just find a job. Two things basically made this decision for me: figuring out I was bipolar and falling in love with Scott. Figuring out I was bipolar, and FINALLY understanding why I was so sick all the time, made me realize that further schooling just wasn't wise unless it were the only thing I were doing. It wouldn't have been the only thing, either, because I wanted to be with Scott, and I didn't want to half-ass my marriage. I wanted to be there 100%, and I knew that if I continued school, things would just get too busy for us to be working on our marriage constantly, like we are now. It looks like that turned out pretty well, don't you think?
So...back to the original question. If I weren't married, I probably wouldn't have met anyone that I could have married, so I would have continued school. If I had chosen grad school, I probably would have tried to stay at BYU, since I absolutely adored the chemistry department there. I loved the classes, the professors, my jobs, just everything about that building made me feel more like myself than any other place I had been before. If I had stayed there, I would have had to keep going to church to stay enrolled...I'm honestly not sure how that would have gone. For all I know I might have just decided it wasn't worth it and transferred to another university. In that case, it would probably have been a college somewhere in the midwest, since that still felt like home at the time.
If I had chosen medical school, I have absolutely no idea where I would have gone or what I would have specialized in, but I would still be there today, and so I would probably be too busy to do much of anything else.
Either way, I would still be in school.
My life is now something I never thought it would be, but let me tell you, this marriage thing is awesome.
As long as you have the right person.
Which I do.
*Just FYI, I have nothing but respect for the students at BYU who actually follow the Honor Code. I certainly didn't.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Hg Trouble
So Friday (July 30) I was running my DMA (mercury analyzer) when BAM. It just stopped working with no warning. I tried to start it back up again and it was like, "No, you suck, therefore I'm taking the rest of the day off." So I did a shutdown and restart of both the instrument and the computer, and tried again...nope. I e-mailed Johan, my service technician, and he e-mailed me back right away, which was AWESOME because it was 4:30 on a Friday where he was and I had assumed he was going to leave my e-mail until Monday. Anyway, he said he would have someone give me a call and give me some things to try to get it working again.
Arshad called me almost immediately (Milestone, you're building up major brownie points here) and gave me a shortcut so I could get some samples run (a temporary fix), and then he was going to e-mail me instructions to clean the cuvette.
So the temporary fix was so easy...as soon as I had the service password. I got in, unchecked a box, and went on my merry way. He had me run five samples of dilute acid and then five blanks, and at that point we would see if the cuvette were clean or not. I was done with everything else at this point, so I just set the instrument to run these ten samples over the weekend.
I came back in on Monday (August 2) and the voltage was back to where it should have been, so I re-calibrated and started running some samples. I got several done before it decided not to read any more (but at least it was still running at this point). So when I came in Tuesday morning, I started taking it apart to clean the cuvette. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I had to call Arshad again to try to figure out why I couldn't get the cuvette out to clean it, and doing things like this over the phone is always hard, and apparently it's harder if you have the new model of the instrument and he's trying to give instructions for the old instrument. But, we got it all sorted, and I got the whole thing put back together again.
Next I loaded up standard samples and began a calibration...and it started being a jerk again. After lots of e-mails back and forth between me and two different people at Milestone, we came to the conclusion that I needed a new catalyst tube...so I ordered one. And waited. When I ordered one, they had said it would be here by Monday (August 9) at the latest, but then, after they had already shipped it, they sent me tracking information that said I wouldn't get it until Tuesday. Jerks.
I did get it Tuesday, but not until 11:00, so I had a lot to do in a few short hours. When I install a new catalyst, I need to run a reconditioning procedure (80 minutes) and a stability test (40 minutes, but this time it took HOURS because it wouldn't work the way it was supposed to...) and a calibration (64 minutes). Needless to say, after I had been here 9 hours I said "Screw this!" and went home, letting the calibration finish overnight.
I got here this morning and ran a QC and it was perfect (I can hear the heavenly choir singing) and so I am so happy today I can't even tell you. Too bad my other instrument is now broken. I'll tell you that story another day.
Now here's the super fun part: This time, it's actually my fault. I very rarely make any mistakes at work, so when I do I'm really hard on myself. This, however, isn't me just being hard on myself. This is me costing the company like $700 for new parts. I ran a sample of fish oil, and I put too much in there, and I should have known better. When it combusted, it not only covered the cuvette with nast, it also fractured the end cap on the catalyst. I should have put less in there. I'm furious with myself.
Arshad called me almost immediately (Milestone, you're building up major brownie points here) and gave me a shortcut so I could get some samples run (a temporary fix), and then he was going to e-mail me instructions to clean the cuvette.
So the temporary fix was so easy...as soon as I had the service password. I got in, unchecked a box, and went on my merry way. He had me run five samples of dilute acid and then five blanks, and at that point we would see if the cuvette were clean or not. I was done with everything else at this point, so I just set the instrument to run these ten samples over the weekend.
I came back in on Monday (August 2) and the voltage was back to where it should have been, so I re-calibrated and started running some samples. I got several done before it decided not to read any more (but at least it was still running at this point). So when I came in Tuesday morning, I started taking it apart to clean the cuvette. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. I had to call Arshad again to try to figure out why I couldn't get the cuvette out to clean it, and doing things like this over the phone is always hard, and apparently it's harder if you have the new model of the instrument and he's trying to give instructions for the old instrument. But, we got it all sorted, and I got the whole thing put back together again.
Next I loaded up standard samples and began a calibration...and it started being a jerk again. After lots of e-mails back and forth between me and two different people at Milestone, we came to the conclusion that I needed a new catalyst tube...so I ordered one. And waited. When I ordered one, they had said it would be here by Monday (August 9) at the latest, but then, after they had already shipped it, they sent me tracking information that said I wouldn't get it until Tuesday. Jerks.
I did get it Tuesday, but not until 11:00, so I had a lot to do in a few short hours. When I install a new catalyst, I need to run a reconditioning procedure (80 minutes) and a stability test (40 minutes, but this time it took HOURS because it wouldn't work the way it was supposed to...) and a calibration (64 minutes). Needless to say, after I had been here 9 hours I said "Screw this!" and went home, letting the calibration finish overnight.
I got here this morning and ran a QC and it was perfect (I can hear the heavenly choir singing) and so I am so happy today I can't even tell you. Too bad my other instrument is now broken. I'll tell you that story another day.
Now here's the super fun part: This time, it's actually my fault. I very rarely make any mistakes at work, so when I do I'm really hard on myself. This, however, isn't me just being hard on myself. This is me costing the company like $700 for new parts. I ran a sample of fish oil, and I put too much in there, and I should have known better. When it combusted, it not only covered the cuvette with nast, it also fractured the end cap on the catalyst. I should have put less in there. I'm furious with myself.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Brown Thumb
When we moved into our house there was a little bed in the corner of the back yard where a few rose bushes were planted. They were very ugly rose bushes, so eventually we got around to taking them out. We were left with a bare corner, and we hadn't decided what to do with it, so we just left it there. It became overgrown by weeds. Then, one day I was at Home Depot and I saw a bag of wildflower seeds, and I thought "What a great idea!", so I bought them and came home and planted them in the corner and then waited.
This is what I got:
Do you see any flowers there? Yeah, me neither. Just weeds.
So Scott and I weeded the corner and decided to try something else.
This is what I got:
Do you see any flowers there? Yeah, me neither. Just weeds.
So Scott and I weeded the corner and decided to try something else.
We went to Home Depot and bougth several potted plants that were suited for our climate:
And then we came home and planted them. They looked pretty good!
We watered them and said nice things to them and took very good care of them, but apparently I suck at growing plants because this is what we have now:
At least one kind of plant is still alive...
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Chemistry Can Also Be Ridiculous
And, some more!
- 10:15 am Saturday: My reaction tipped over :(! Nooooo...
- I rotovaped (is that a word?)
- I added bromine to phenol in DMSO. What a smelly mess. I am sick of all of it. Solid into NMR tube (maybe it worked)...nope.
- Mixture #6 smells like dead cats
- I QUIT the column. I have a better idea!
- Solid unknown is water soluble! Yay! It's also basic to pH paper...ooh.
- Smells nice.
- Smells terrible.
- WOW. This is harder than it looks, let me tell you.
- One last conclusion: Vigreux columns are expensive. Don't break one.
- Refraction=really cool
- Title: Nasty Dynamics Lab
- Eight a.m....yuck.
- File names: "StrongBadIsAwesome", StrongSad", "AnnaSilly", "ErikTheWeird", "LifeIsSilly", "SweaterSong", TenOnEverything", "KirkTheJerk"
- Starting some crap over again
- Refocused MUCH BETTER NOT GARBAGE
So, anyway...this is probably why I am not a research chemist. I am incapable of being serious.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Chemistry Can Be Funny
I was looking through some old lab notebooks from college, and I was noticing that I logged my experiments with...flair. I thought it would be amusing to share with you some of the gems I wrote in there! Keep in mind that this is exactly like I wrote it originally in the lab books...smiley faces, exclamation points, and all.
- My percent yield is going to be dismal. A few crystals are forming, but for the most part it isn't working out so well. Nothing came out when I hirsched it! :( Starting over...
- The reaction mixture is a nice color this time.
- I removed the aqueous layer. For some reason this layer was on the bottom...weird.
- I keep washing and washing and washing with methylene chloride...
- I have product! Plenty of product!
- I know my product was pretty darn pure because my melting point was great!
- It looked white. Really white.
- Meso-stilbene dibromide! :)
- Lo and behold, it decomposed!
- It looked pure. No weird colors, etc. The end!
- 0.023 g product. DISMAL.
- (A messed up reaction mechanism) This is what I get for writing in pen...The REAL one: (the right reaction mechanism) I win!
- My alternate procedure yielded brown junk. I suspect failure...
- I made diphenylacetylene! Here's how I know:...It tastes like diphenylacetylene (just kidding!)
- I could have recrystallized it, but I am lazy.
I'll post more later!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Help Please
I'm gonna take a leaf out of Kim's book and ask...what sorts of things do you all want to know about me? What are some things you think I should post about?
I'm a little bit stuck at the moment, but I've made myself a goal: at least 20 posts a month.
Stupid writer's block.
I'm a little bit stuck at the moment, but I've made myself a goal: at least 20 posts a month.
Stupid writer's block.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Nyah's Blessing
Nyah had her baby blessing this past Sunday (for you non-Mormons out there, that's a blessing each baby receives at about 6 weeks, blessing the baby with a good life, health, happiness, etc.), so I had to go to church again...and I'm glad I left right after the blessing because according to Kwiddens, it was a really weird meeting after that.
Anyway, so after church was over everyone met up at Kwiddens's house for a luncheon, and I got some pictures. Nyah was being a little brat though and kept looking away and rolling over and I only got two good shots of her in her blessing gown, so here's one:
The dress was Nyah's grandma's (on Isaac's side), so it was really old and fragile, so once pictures were taken the dress went back into storage for safe keeping, and Nyah got to hang out in her onesie for the rest of the party. Mim was holding her and it was a perfect photo opportunity, but, once again, Nyah was being fussy and wouldn't look at the camera, and that was taking Mim's attention away from the camera, so this is all I got:
Anyway, so after church was over everyone met up at Kwiddens's house for a luncheon, and I got some pictures. Nyah was being a little brat though and kept looking away and rolling over and I only got two good shots of her in her blessing gown, so here's one:
The dress was Nyah's grandma's (on Isaac's side), so it was really old and fragile, so once pictures were taken the dress went back into storage for safe keeping, and Nyah got to hang out in her onesie for the rest of the party. Mim was holding her and it was a perfect photo opportunity, but, once again, Nyah was being fussy and wouldn't look at the camera, and that was taking Mim's attention away from the camera, so this is all I got:
Even fussy, she's still cute.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
R.I.P.
Rest in peace, my pretty pink socks. You lasted a long time, with frequent use and lots of love, and you will be missed.
Giant holes in the heels...a product of the washing machine...even the delicate cycle was too much, they were so worn out.
Giant holes in the heels...a product of the washing machine...even the delicate cycle was too much, they were so worn out.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Meme: Because I Can
1. How much would you have to be paid to eat a human cadaver's finger?
I don't think so. Just...no.
2. Describe the worst physical fight you've ever been in.
When Kwiddens and I lived in Idaho (I think) she pushed me down and walked all over me and gave me a black eye and a bloody nose. I don't think I fought back though.
3. Name one song that if you never heard it ever again, you'd be thrilled.
That "According To You" song is so obnoxious and repetitive I wish they would just stop playing it a million times a day.
4. Describe the "drunkest" situation you've ever been.
Ok, this one is interesting...one time in high school my friend had a birthday, so we all went to this restaurant and had dinner, and I ordered drinks but specified that I was underage so DON'T ADD ALCOHOL PLEASE and what do you know, they actually did put alcohol in it (by accident, I assume)(I hope), and I was so sleepy I just went home and slept very soundly all night. Then I woke up and had to go to church in the morning and OH BOY did I have a headache.
5. What's your biggest regret?
I have so many that it would make me sad and angry at myself to try to single one out so I'm just not going to think about it. For now. Because I'll probably obsess over it sometime soon.
I don't think so. Just...no.
2. Describe the worst physical fight you've ever been in.
When Kwiddens and I lived in Idaho (I think) she pushed me down and walked all over me and gave me a black eye and a bloody nose. I don't think I fought back though.
3. Name one song that if you never heard it ever again, you'd be thrilled.
That "According To You" song is so obnoxious and repetitive I wish they would just stop playing it a million times a day.
4. Describe the "drunkest" situation you've ever been.
Ok, this one is interesting...one time in high school my friend had a birthday, so we all went to this restaurant and had dinner, and I ordered drinks but specified that I was underage so DON'T ADD ALCOHOL PLEASE and what do you know, they actually did put alcohol in it (by accident, I assume)(I hope), and I was so sleepy I just went home and slept very soundly all night. Then I woke up and had to go to church in the morning and OH BOY did I have a headache.
5. What's your biggest regret?
I have so many that it would make me sad and angry at myself to try to single one out so I'm just not going to think about it. For now. Because I'll probably obsess over it sometime soon.
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