Well, the last few days haven't really had much to say so I thought I'd just all lump it together.
Monday, I had a meeting for the Goro project, where two people from Goro came along to discuss the results that we had for them so far. What we did have was pretty confusing to them as it was to us, in the sense that our perfect condition joints made in the lab were full of voids, similarly to those we have deliberately sabotaged. It was quite surprising really to see, and even they were stumped at why this was.
At the end of the meeting, they asked for a preliminary report, and I spent the afternoon after lunch going through a draft report to check the details. I also did a mini-experiment by wrapping some brand new insulation tape around my spoon in the office, pulling it off the handle and putting it into the oven for an hour before cutting it open. Lo and behold, there were voids in it already....
Lunch on Monday was interesting because I had it at Hoochie Mama, the cafe at Sydney Uni Village. A friend of mine shouted lunch to say thanks for me helping them move into SUV from the two locations they had stuff stored at, and so I had a breakfast (for lunch of course) while they had a pasta. It's been practically a year since I ate there, but it doesn't seem like anything has changed in the twelve months of absence.
Tuesday wasn't anything spectacular, nothing really happened as far as I recall.
Today, I got in and didn't do too much either. I had a chat with two of my students, and then talked with another student who was having some problems with their academic supervisor. I gave them as much advice as I possibly could, and had to sort of leave it at that. Later on in the day though when I had a chance to talk to my own supervisor, I mentioned the issue and he was aware of it and we had a small discussion regarding it. One potential solution to the situation, if it comes to it, would be for me to take on the other student as an Associate Supervisor and help the communications process and guidance along.
Another interesting thing that came from the discussion was that one of our academics had a suspected heart attack today and was taken off to hospital, which means more administrative issues and workload for my supervisor since he is head of department. Academics and stress eh...
I did some journal article searching on simulations and modelling of crystallisation in material sciences, along with looking up academics at universities/colleges in New York in preparation for my trip. I found a Professor Tardos at one particular university and his work seems quite related to mine and my supervisor told me that he knew of him and had met him once and he certainly would be a person of interest to talk to if possible.
Besides that, nothing else has really happened. I'm currently getting a Japanese drama series called Bengoshi no Kuzu (twelve episodes) which is the Drama of the Week on DramaAddicts website. It's apparently an interesting one about a lawyer who is a scumbag but he is machiavellian in his approaches to win his cases because the Law is all about Justice.
I've also been looking around in regards to trying to get a laptop for my trip as for communications purposes, it is either buying pre-paid mobile services (about $40 USD for 60minutes worth....) or using the laptop and Skype for calls using VOIP at $9.95/month subscription with no contract..... There is wireless at the place I am staying, its just an issue of having a machine that will allow me to do that and what else I want on it. I even looked at MacBooks today LOL, but either I will have to settle for something of lower specs and higher age, or bump my investment dollar value up. I guess argument wise, spending a little more on an investment item may be worth it, unless I get something as a 'toy' with a throwaway purpose in mind.... Of course there is the argument that I could get something once I touch down in the US, which is all well and good, but warrenty wise (if it even has it) is an issue, and then there is also particular software I'd like to put onto it to take across such as my camera downloader (which is faster than using a card reader).
At least I still have some time to sort it all out.
Monday, I had a meeting for the Goro project, where two people from Goro came along to discuss the results that we had for them so far. What we did have was pretty confusing to them as it was to us, in the sense that our perfect condition joints made in the lab were full of voids, similarly to those we have deliberately sabotaged. It was quite surprising really to see, and even they were stumped at why this was.
At the end of the meeting, they asked for a preliminary report, and I spent the afternoon after lunch going through a draft report to check the details. I also did a mini-experiment by wrapping some brand new insulation tape around my spoon in the office, pulling it off the handle and putting it into the oven for an hour before cutting it open. Lo and behold, there were voids in it already....
Lunch on Monday was interesting because I had it at Hoochie Mama, the cafe at Sydney Uni Village. A friend of mine shouted lunch to say thanks for me helping them move into SUV from the two locations they had stuff stored at, and so I had a breakfast (for lunch of course) while they had a pasta. It's been practically a year since I ate there, but it doesn't seem like anything has changed in the twelve months of absence.
Tuesday wasn't anything spectacular, nothing really happened as far as I recall.
Today, I got in and didn't do too much either. I had a chat with two of my students, and then talked with another student who was having some problems with their academic supervisor. I gave them as much advice as I possibly could, and had to sort of leave it at that. Later on in the day though when I had a chance to talk to my own supervisor, I mentioned the issue and he was aware of it and we had a small discussion regarding it. One potential solution to the situation, if it comes to it, would be for me to take on the other student as an Associate Supervisor and help the communications process and guidance along.
Another interesting thing that came from the discussion was that one of our academics had a suspected heart attack today and was taken off to hospital, which means more administrative issues and workload for my supervisor since he is head of department. Academics and stress eh...
I did some journal article searching on simulations and modelling of crystallisation in material sciences, along with looking up academics at universities/colleges in New York in preparation for my trip. I found a Professor Tardos at one particular university and his work seems quite related to mine and my supervisor told me that he knew of him and had met him once and he certainly would be a person of interest to talk to if possible.
Besides that, nothing else has really happened. I'm currently getting a Japanese drama series called Bengoshi no Kuzu (twelve episodes) which is the Drama of the Week on DramaAddicts website. It's apparently an interesting one about a lawyer who is a scumbag but he is machiavellian in his approaches to win his cases because the Law is all about Justice.
I've also been looking around in regards to trying to get a laptop for my trip as for communications purposes, it is either buying pre-paid mobile services (about $40 USD for 60minutes worth....) or using the laptop and Skype for calls using VOIP at $9.95/month subscription with no contract..... There is wireless at the place I am staying, its just an issue of having a machine that will allow me to do that and what else I want on it. I even looked at MacBooks today LOL, but either I will have to settle for something of lower specs and higher age, or bump my investment dollar value up. I guess argument wise, spending a little more on an investment item may be worth it, unless I get something as a 'toy' with a throwaway purpose in mind.... Of course there is the argument that I could get something once I touch down in the US, which is all well and good, but warrenty wise (if it even has it) is an issue, and then there is also particular software I'd like to put onto it to take across such as my camera downloader (which is faster than using a card reader).
At least I still have some time to sort it all out.
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