I'm Back . . . For Now.

Don't pay enough attention to this thing. Probably a chicken and egg problem in which I don't have many readers so I don't make a habit of updating, which means I don't have many readers, which leads to . . .

You get the point.

Been a busy summer. Bought a hybrid bike, went to Wisconsin, learned building was condemned, found I LOVE road biking, blasted up to the Cabin, moved my office 3 times (shouldn't have to move again), did field work in Colorado, started processing a substantial number of my samples, nearly re-fractured my hand as a result of biking, pulled at least one major social gaffe, actually went to the movie theatre SEVERAL times, was maid of honor at a close friend's wedding, registered and submitted an abstract to a national conference, spent too much money on upgrades to the bike (but will save plenty thanks to the find of Dad's old clipless pedals in the garage), upgraded, cleaned, and tuned the bike, and undoubtedly a few other random things. Heading up to the Cabin this Saturday as soon as I take care of a doctor's appointment in Detroit. After that, I get to move into my apartment (FINALLY!!) and attempt to get my trombonesmanship up to par enough to land a spot in one of the university bands.

Whew. School is going to be somewhat of a vacation from this summer.

Oh yes, and the class thing. That starts again, and am thoroughly looking forward to it. Taking a methods class and an isotopes class. Scientific writing is only made easy through lots of practice and good feedback (really, though, what isn't?), and I requested that we do a bit of that if possible in the methods class. I doubt I'd be the only one in that class who would benefit from said practice. There are certain advantages to having your advisor as a professor!

Past that, I could probably bore what people actually do stop by to read this thing occasionally with what I've learned about cycling this summer. The important part is that I've set a goal of doing a century ride (100 miles) next spring. Haven't picked out the event yet - that will probably happen early in 2011. Based on the light base training I've done so far, my knees should hold up okay, and with the new equipment I shouldn't have anywhere near as much trouble with my hands. I've already had one "expert" tell me that a century on a hybrid isn't possible, but everything I've read so far points to the fitness of the rider rather than the superiority of the equipment (but it does help to have a decent setup).

So that's my summer in a nutshell.

Been A While : P

I suppose I should resurrect this thing!

What I've been doing since the last update:
-Research
-Finishing up classes and attempting to keep my head above the proverbial waterline
-Research
-A couple of small, random band functions
-Research
-Final exams
-Research
-Moving out
-Research
-Graduating
-Research
-More moving out
-MORE research
-Commuting between GB and EL to tie up the big loose ends in my research, create my AGU poster, a vector map of my study area, and find what is apparently the ONE garnet in all of my thin section samples.
-Sleeping
-AGU
-Photomicrographs and petrography and discussion of metasomatism, oh my. Woo.
-Caffeine detox
-Pathetic attempts at packing

And tomorrow: MOVING to Champaign! This should be interesting.

Here's what a photomicrograph looks like, for the curious:

The scale bar is 100 micrometers long, and this is a shot of zircons embedded in alkali feldspar, quartz, and suspected "amphibole" (we're not sure yet; might specifically be actinolite) crystals. The zircons are the small, brightly-colored, semi-rectangular crystals. The "amphiboles" are the green/brown, furry-looking crystals; the alkali feldspars are the black-and-white crystals with the jagged lineations; and the quartz is the amorphous white stuff. There's a strange reaction rim around the zircons embedded in the amphibole that we need to look at a bit more, so don't ask me about that.

Seeing those in the thin sections means that we can extract zircons from the kilogram of aplite I have crushed up and sitting in a bag, once we process the sample a bit more. With the extracted zircons, we can mount them on a disc and zap 'em with a laser, creating a small cloud of melted zircon, containing such elements as Zr, U, Th, Pb, and Si, among other things. The relative proportions of the radioactive/radiogenic elements will allow us to extract an approximate age from the zircons that is hopefully representative of the age of crystallization of the rock.

Cool stuff. This is what I'm doing with my summer vacation - exactly what I was doing during the year, without the whole going to class business.