School (or 30 days to get everything done)
As usual I had grand plans (always grand plans - never teeny tiny plans that are actually accomplishable - no, always big bold plans that never come up to snuff). Grand plans to blog about Halifax every day - or every other day. Ha ha ha.
Then reality hit in the form of School. It is the 7th of November, in exactly one month I write my first exam. In between I have to hand in two labs, a term paper, and a water treatment design project, not to mention various other assignments. Oh and do my CMHC work and try to be there for the kids so they don't forget what I look like. Who thought this was a good idea?
Last night I had one of those dreams - you know the type where you have to fill out tables and charts and graphs. If you've never had those dreams count yourself lucky. I remember exactly when I first started having them - it was in grade 12 when I was taking a grade 13 chemistry class and in way over my head. Oddly enough that's when the insomnia started too...
Aside - The window in my little coffee shop is closed for the season and now the fireplace has a nice roaring fire in it - too cute!
I visited Mahone Bay the other day - for school stuff. Mahone Bay is looking to upgrade their water treatment plant and so there are three membrane systems being tested to see how well they perform. It is up to my office mate Stephanie to keep them running and take samples each day. I'm going to use some of this water for my term paper so I thought I'd go check it out. Its funny - when you read a text book they say simple things like "membrane systems are easy to operate" - hmmm... the authors obviously haven't visited Mahone Bay. Almost every day one of the systems is down - and Stephanie has to check everything to see where the problem is.
As for the lab work - without Mark my other office mate, we'd all be toast. He essentially runs the labs and we just take our cues from him.
I used to think that lab work was an exact science. Maybe in Germany (where all the high end monitoring equipment seems to come from) but in good ol Dal. it is more of an art shall we say. some of the equipment is slightly broken, meters are slightly off, important glassware that is not supposed to have any scratches on it do. then there are the procedures - was I supposed to shake that water before testing? or was this the test where it is supposed to settle out first? yeesh. No wonder repeatability is so important in this line of work.
Anyways Mike is off to his second interview and I am off to "digest" aluminum.
Then reality hit in the form of School. It is the 7th of November, in exactly one month I write my first exam. In between I have to hand in two labs, a term paper, and a water treatment design project, not to mention various other assignments. Oh and do my CMHC work and try to be there for the kids so they don't forget what I look like. Who thought this was a good idea?
Last night I had one of those dreams - you know the type where you have to fill out tables and charts and graphs. If you've never had those dreams count yourself lucky. I remember exactly when I first started having them - it was in grade 12 when I was taking a grade 13 chemistry class and in way over my head. Oddly enough that's when the insomnia started too...
Aside - The window in my little coffee shop is closed for the season and now the fireplace has a nice roaring fire in it - too cute!
I visited Mahone Bay the other day - for school stuff. Mahone Bay is looking to upgrade their water treatment plant and so there are three membrane systems being tested to see how well they perform. It is up to my office mate Stephanie to keep them running and take samples each day. I'm going to use some of this water for my term paper so I thought I'd go check it out. Its funny - when you read a text book they say simple things like "membrane systems are easy to operate" - hmmm... the authors obviously haven't visited Mahone Bay. Almost every day one of the systems is down - and Stephanie has to check everything to see where the problem is.
As for the lab work - without Mark my other office mate, we'd all be toast. He essentially runs the labs and we just take our cues from him.
I used to think that lab work was an exact science. Maybe in Germany (where all the high end monitoring equipment seems to come from) but in good ol Dal. it is more of an art shall we say. some of the equipment is slightly broken, meters are slightly off, important glassware that is not supposed to have any scratches on it do. then there are the procedures - was I supposed to shake that water before testing? or was this the test where it is supposed to settle out first? yeesh. No wonder repeatability is so important in this line of work.
Anyways Mike is off to his second interview and I am off to "digest" aluminum.
posted by ayearinhalifax | 5:54 AM
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