Lab Work

Look at that! I just sort of dropped out of blogging for a little bit.
So where have I been? Learning things.

First thing I'm learning about is loans. I've been talking my money situation over with my dad lately. He and Mum are helping me as much as they can, but my rent for my apartment is getting more difficult to pay. And I'm not finding any paying work around (and by now it's pretty much too late for anything). So the next thing is a loan. By God's grace, I have been awarded several student loans. So now I am learning about how to take care of loans and interest and other stuff like that.

The second thing is about lab work.
When I first started working in a lab on Fridays, I thought I was just doing work for a professor. It was rather impersonal. But as I was talking with my dad, he said I should pray to God to bless my work and to bless the professor. It may seem strange, but that had never occurred to me before. I realized that the work I was doing was really my work which I should be doing for the glory of God. And the work has become more interesting to me now, and I am more interested in the success or failure of the research I am doing.

So I have been learning things lately.

Nothing To Do This Fine Summer Day

I have found nothing in the job search, but I was pleased to remember that I am now counted as one of the "unemployed" and a part of the "labor force" because I have been looking for a job in the past weeks and months.

My mother is not a part of the labor force because motherhood is not considered a "job" nor is one payed in wages. And she is not even unemployed because she is not looking for a job.

The labor force is composed of only the employed and the unemployed.
The employed are all those people who are working.
The unemployed are all those people who are not working but are searching for jobs.

Everyone else is not part of the labor force.
That includes my mum, my sisters and my grandparents.

Anyways, now I will work on some projects which I have time to do seeing as how I have no job.

Hum... I've been tagged for the first time that I am aware of.
It's quite interesting actually because I've often thought about what I would say if I ever was tagged, but I never was so I never was able to say all those things.
And now I can't remember what they were.
So I suppose I shall have to think of totally new things to say.

Seven Random Facts About Me That You Might Not Know (interesting name for a tag, isn't it?):

1. Hmm...I dislike touching my socks when they are on my feet because I feel that they have been all over the place and are probably disgusting. I always wash my hands if I touch them.

2. I found a funny little book called the Revised U.S. Edition of the Official Royal Canadian Air Force Exercise Plans For Physical Fitness (copyrighted 1962) in the basement.

3. I started writing my own language and constructing my own world long before I realized it was a popular thing to do among young people. My language's chief goal is to be easily pronounceable. There's nothing I dislike more than somebody's made-up names in a book that only the person who made them up can properly pronounce. And I don't like having to keep checking the glossary while reading.

4. I think woods are lovely. I live near some woods and I love to watch all its different moods through the seasons. They are dark and gloomy today. I do not wish to be in the darkest places of it at the moment, but the wind is blowing the branches of the trees and that is beautiful.

5. I have just written five reasons each of which begin with the word I. I wonder if I can write the last two using a different word.

6. Root beer is tastier when you drink it from a glass bottle than from a cup or can. At least it is more fun.

7. The color pink is getting on my nerves. That is probably because I was working with pink clay yesterday afternoon and this afternoon. After a bit, any color gets rather tiring.

Hurrah! There are seven random facts about me. None of them are ones I planned on putting down, but if they were, they wouldn't be random any more, would they?

Of The Deadly Perils of Minesweeper

Minesweeper.
The name sends thrills through your spine right down to your finger tips.
This fatal game, a mind trap, a chewer of time!

You have a paper due, and of course you must take some time to think about it.
But it is no good staring at a blank Word Document.
NO.
You must stare at a little box full of squares.
Carefully you make your first click on a square, hoping desperately for a number of the squares to clear with it. But it might not. It might be a mine and explode the whole box on you.
Or, even worse, show a single clear square with a number in it.
Then you are forced to click around it till you have enough numbered squares that you can start marking the mines.
But where were we again?
Oh yes.
There was a paper due.
But we might actually find all the mines this time and thus win the game...

Twenty minutes later...
You realize you also had some calculus homework to work on, besides that paper.
You haven't one a game yet, but squares are beginning to dance before your eyes.
So you leave the computer to take a break.

And the paper isn't written until eleven in the night.

That is only one of the possible consequences of this perilous game.


Um, right, what was I writing about again? I got sort of distracted, playing games and stuff, you know.
Oh yes! The deadly perils of minesweeper.
Besides wasting your time, you might get carpel tunnel or break the buttons on your mouse.
I am really not kidding! My aunt got the carpel tunnel and a friend broke his mouse.
Both from playing minesweeper.
So...
stay away from this horrible game, this brain drain, this robber of sleep, minesweeper!

Still Job Hunting

It is almost fun hunting for jobs. Everyone finds one they think you will be interested in, but of course you aren't, or they tell you they wish they could help but they know of no openings. Then you yourself look out for signs on stores and in stores and in newspapers. And it is amazing how many places are looking for people to hire. But actually finding a good job is a little more difficult.

However, I am set for Fridays. I am working for a professor on Fridays. There are three other students in his lab on Fridays. One is tall and quiet. I do not know what he is working on. I think he would prefer to work alone but that is impossible in such a tiny crowded lab. Another is pioneering in some study of nanoparticles. He has been working on his project for at least two summers now. He likes to talk and patronizes the two newcomers, myself and a short round guy. The short round guy is working on a similar project as myself, so we share many of the same materials and give each other advice. We work with some nasty chemicals which ought to be used under a fume hood except there isn't enough room for us there.
My mum got slightly worried after I described this situation, so I think she is glad I go there only once a week.

Perhaps you are wondering what a fume hood is? It is a tall box thing in a lab that has counter on which you put things and a great big hood over the top of it like a cabinet that is hollow and opens underneath. There are ventilation holes all around it and I believe it pulls the fumes up and out. There is a picture of a fume hood on Wikipedia.