Intro
Class today
Library course and other things about class
I also wanted to work on my orgo TA stuff, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow. In the afternoon, Keon was calling me about class, because he had to miss out since he was working on his taxes.
Oh YEAH! That's right. Dr. Conticello wants us to do a whole hour presentation ... that sounds horrifying! I said so immediately. That's scary. I don't want to do that. Our other option is two half presentations. Well. After thinking about it, maybe I could do an hour. I'll just have to pick one of my 18-page articles to talk about. Or maybe five of the five page articles. Or two 18-page ones. *strokes nonexistent beard and laughs maniacally* Yeeessss. Maybe then I'll survive. I asked Dr. Conticello what if we don't make the time limit. And he gave me this completely unexpected and extraordinarily incredulous look and said he did NOT think that would happen. Well. I'm glad HE has confidence in such things. HA! Maybe he's right. I'll probably prepare enough for two hours, just in case. Or then, maybe I'd talk twice as fast like a mouse without breathing to get it all in. *laughs at self* Mannnnn, good grief, I'm just ridiculous. I can't stand presentations! Unless it's about cool science where people don't care how awful I'm talking. Then, it's better.
Keon is funny
Coaxing crystals to dissolve
Anyhow, I found out, in the course of trying to do this, that Christian has this wildly complicated and interesting magnetic stir bar / heater thing. You have to set the temperature on the device hotter than you actually want it and set the temperature on this temperature PROBE to the temperature you want and insert that into your solution. Because, really, the flask's glass will insulate your sample, so the real device has to be hotter than the temperature you want to heat the solution to that temperature. And he talked to me about temperature gradients and stuff.
I thought that was fascinating! I never had to think about THAT before. How cool! I should have realized that but that was just totally interesting to me, for some reason. Rolando says I get fascinated by anything anyone says, even if someone was talking about ... a stapler ... I don't know. I guess he's mostly right. But it was really cool, I tell you! NOW, I'm waiting for my crystals to heat. *steeples fingers*
Dr. Scarborough noticed my purple mess
It's quite strange. There's some tetraphenyl phosphonium complex, but not much. There's a lot of free ligand and some potassium ligand as well. Dr. Scarborough said he'd seen that happen before. He's so nice. He seemed happy to listen to me tell him about this bitty data, even though it was nothing much, and made it sound important.
John's Valentine's Day present idea - I like it a lot
I told him, well, great! But I want JAMES to build it! And John said, of course! When James heard about this, I'm told he was VERY excited! I told him I'd get him to build me a computer if I ever wanted one and here it is sooner than I thought! It's so nice of John to offer one to me. So sweet of him. We'll go looking around for parts this weekend with James. So, it turns out, I can watch James build a computer after all! This makes me exceedingly happy.
Other things John and I are planning: watching Olympics, Hunt for Red October and the Princess Bride
AND, John and I started watching Hunt for Red October last night. OH MAN. I LOVE that movie. I love defector stories, and Sean Connery, and submarines, and everything about it is great, pretty much. I've watched it so many times, but I don't mind. John wants to watch the Princess Bride this weekend. He just finished the book. It's one of his favorite movies ever. He quotes from it all the time.