Friday 3 December 2010

It's lunchtime somewhere,

so shutit.

Another load of hours skimmed by me, grabbed a few by the shoulders and shook some good work out of them, but I need to get my snatch and grab technique down if I really want to feel like I've been more than just a wonderful procrastinator.
Feeling chesty from all the snow, went for a run with no coat yesterday, not the kind of run you do for fun, the kind when you forgot what time it was and needed to get your house key off your girlfriend. So a mix of that and a walk to the RDS to sell cheese (read sell as eat). Wonderful day yesterday. Today less wonderful, working from home which is nice, no cold weather to deal with, but I hear the snow is dieing.

I have to get my transfer report started properly, so far it's just scrawled mumbles on many torn pages and snippets of half baked thoughts in the back of my old log book (I love my log books, they are amazing, want to get a Ton of thing A4 leather bound Moleskins for my next few log books, but that would just be a waste of money). I think the plan has to be, focus on getting report on current experiment written up and work out a theory section for it which summarised the work (as well as identify all the questions I have about the data), buy Christmas presents and do the whole Christmas thing and then forget about New Years to get some work done, enjoy New Years in a flash and back to work with around 3 months to get a kick ass transfer report done.

Christmas presents, yeah, those things. Going to have to do some major shopping, will do a 9am mad dash, hit as many shops in as little time and do some thinking. Next day another 9am run around and get one of everything for everyone. Hey they're worth it.
I really want to organise and get all my friends addresses, without them knowing. Want to send everyone Christmas cards, not for the holiday itself, just so they know I think about them, I do care alot about my friends, well some of them hah.

I can't seem to write proper fludge posts at all at all, have to eat now anyhow, boiled spuds, diced cherry tomatoes and rocket with some vegetable pesto/pâté. Will be tasty.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Half a million hours

.. and counting, sorry I haven't fludged in a so long.
I have a good few stories, many fun things have happened and many things that were not so fun. Working hard for example, lots of that (well I say working hard but by normal standards I think it is just called working). A few late evenings in the office now and then, one night working in the lab until 1am getting data before heading off to pick up Odette from a club. Lots of stories.
And my picture collection has grown in massive leaps, I will never be able to find the pictures I want to put in the fludge posts now.
But it's the thought that counts, so I want you to think of one cool picture that makes you think “Wow, look at that, don’t see that every day” or “Wish I had a view like that from my bathroom” and one picture of a dog looking funny, like wearing a suit and tie with a pipe in mouth and the phrase "Working hard or hardly working" above it.
My work here is done.

Friday 10 September 2010

I want to

I really do,
but watching Dilbert on my lunch break seemed so much more fun than blogging, and now I have things to do, I honestly do want to blog about NY, I have my pictures all sorted and all.
But later, soon, hopefully.

Friday 3 September 2010

Ohreally.

Well I wanted to post a blog about my trip to NY, but I haven't been able to find the cable for my camera, so I have no pictures and so I don't want to blog about it. So instead I will complain about stupid lab equipment which wont work for me regardless of how many hours I spend trying to get it to play nice.
Only, I'm sick of complaining. Really I just want to go home, I don't even want this bowl of Crunchy Nut, I just want to go to bed. I nearly had it, I could see both continuum, not focused properly exactly but I could see them, but the intensity was too low, and then it seemed like the light from the setup was coming out much lower than it had been, as if I had to lower the periscope. So I tried to do this delicately, so as not to change the distances too much, but the slightest change threw the focus a mile off, and now I can't find the original position. And not only that but I'm thinking it isn't the right height, which means I have to go do the calculations again and put the setup together differently for the millionth time. On top of that it seems like the laser beam is coming out at an angle again even though I had fixed that months ago and haven't changed anything. All in all I need someone to do this for me, because clearly I am totally incapable of getting any optical alignment correct.

The experiments are supposed to be the fun part.

(pictures keep me sane)





Wednesday 4 August 2010

Yeah sure, whynot?

Many fine books have been written in prison.

All of my nice pictures are on a hard drive in the apt. ohdear. Can't blog without images! That would surely be madness! Still have yet to get the handwritten blogs up and running, Jimmy Carr would be proud, taking technology back a step and all that. I will call my new invention the hard copy blogging medium. Once I get it working properly I'm sure I will blog more often, just because I like hand writting things a lot more than I do typing them.

I was talking to a group of people at a book launch recently and the topic of typing came up, the discussion centred around the lack of trained typists now, that back 20 years ago you were shown the proper way to type and trained to be quick, but now because everyone is "proficient" with computers there is no need to look for a secretary who has taken typing courses. I explained the method I used to teach myself to touch type (paint your keyboard keys, remember you don't know how to touch type, don't have money to buy a new keyboard, learn) and they all were both impressed and worried about the types of people colleges were employing to do research. But I do think touch typing is an important skill, I was talking to a friend about their work the other day and they were expressing their hatred of the system in place and of the underskilled managerial staff they had to work for. Computers are a part of life now, weither you like it or not, so if you want to make things work you have to learn. It's not like I know anything really, but people still say "oh how did you know to do that", but it really is just a matter of JFGI in the end of the day, even a lot of computer repair proffesionals fall back to that.
Even my grandad is learning computer repair, albiet through trial and error and the constant upgrading of his machine, but it's still learning, that's how I did it.

I just wish more people took an interest in the things around them really, although I'm guilty of enjoying blissfull ignorance of things around me (everyone is I'm sure) but pride in knowlege and learning should be in everyone, why else do we live year to year then to grow? Well, and to have fun, and sometimes kids. But all of that is about growing too. I think I do want to teach, there is a part of me that just knows I do, but I don't think I will be able to lecture, I doubt I can get my CV to look That good. Maybe a H.Dip. and a few years teaching second level physics would be good? Maybe a few years Post Doc. somewhere in Europe and then teach?
I would love to see myself in DIT lecturing physics in 10 years time, that would be really nice (esp. if the new campus is finished, haha). So scary to think what the next 10 years could bring.
One of the best lectuers, teachers, college-friends I had (if he even thinks of me as a good student I am happy) really inspires me to want to teach, he was so good at it, clearly loves seeing people learn. He went to Kenya to teach, always thought that was cool, don't think I would do the same though. Although my mam has always said I should do something like that. 3 years to figure out where I am going and what I am doing.

Well, that was an odd train, hopefully I will figure out where those tracks want to lead.

Friday 30 July 2010

Again?

Hello all, another Friday lunchtime, looking forward to my weekend, looking forward even more to my holiday, tomorrow 3 weeks I will be flying off to New Jersey! Woop woop!



Things are going well though, so I'm not just moving blindly into the future. Went home last night and got a big hug from my baby sister (Alannah), although the first thing she said to me was "Where's Joshua", but I wont take insult, haha. Feeling like I'm settling back into life alright, things are panning out in their own way in most respective parts of my life. Got a new hamster, meant to get a boy but the pet shop seems to have given us a girl, but she is great.



Nuvola, named because she looks like a little fluffy cloud. You can see I've upped security on the cage too, although she is much smaller than Bear was, and it was probably me leaving the cage a jar rather than Bear breaking out (although, with a name like Bear being a jailbird doesn't seem far fetched). She's also much more nervous, we think it's because the petshop hadn't really handled her, so we're trying to spend time playing every day, to get her used to us. Odette says girls get more mean too as they grow up, so fingers crossed Nu plays nice and likes us.

Experiment is going well too, got a ton of data this morning, filled a floppy! (yes, I have to use floppy disks every day, it's amazing) 43 files of signal data to analyse before I get back down to the lab, although I might just get a few more signals with a slightly different setup before the day is out, I can always analyse the data on the laptop over the weekend. I do enjoy my work, it's just that most of the time I don't get to do it, I just have to fix things and that gets dull (as I'm sure this fludge is getting!)



I've been cooking lots recently too, I want to take pictures of things I cook, because I like how they look (that and I feel like I don't use my camera enough...) it's not that I cook anything spectacularly unusual or difficult, but damned if it isn't tasty. I'm thinking about having people over for a mock-dinner party, be nice to cook for a crowd (cooking with Odette is always the best, because she has a good pace, I'm a bundle of chaos cooking).




Also, another star spotted from my window! Matt Berry (of The IT Crowd, among other things) was at The Duckworth Lewis Method on Wednesday evening, saw him smoking after the gig outside the stage door and the crowd of them were all hanging in and about the stage door till 1am (really should have just went and asked him for an autograph [and if he wanted a cup of tea or a beer in the apt. haha]).




So that was most of my week really, it was a good week and I'm hoping the weekend will round it off nicely!

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Yes yes, I know.

You don't need to tell Me you know, I'm the one who Lives here.

July is an odd month, I've decided, it's just not normal, not the sort you'd invite over to have Flones and tea. But none the less I have tried to enjoy this month, it has had high and low points like every good iteration. I am still left floundering in my experiment, but I am so close to the wide open sea that I can smell it (physics smells like spicy tomato and lentil soup today, damn tasty). But I'm not to complain, anyone who knows me knows that I do that too much.

I went to see The Terminator last night in The Screen with Oswald Coblepot, Stephen K., Garry W., and City Talker? Yeah, those guys. It was good fun, such an amazing, awful movie. Ferris Bueller Day Off is out there 7th August and they are taking suggestions for more 80's movies to show, I suggested They Live, because it is a great movie and would be great to see on the big screen, but there are so many 80's gems that should be let out more often (I just wish Cineworld would do more of this type of thing, as I already have my unlimited card there).



I try to be happy all the time, I really do, keep the laughter rolling on, but I must say, there's been a lot of just looking into space this last 2 weeks, thinking and trying not be sad. And there is something about a head cold that just makes me feel defeated, like I shouldn't bother, just stay in bed. My knee isn't helping either, I'm limping as bad as the Terminator was. I got a beautiful little baby Syrian hamster, we called him Bear, on the 12th of July. He was great, such a cute little thing and very good, and then the following Sunday night, not a week from getting him, he got out of his cage (I guess I didn't close the cage door properly, it's the only explanation really). Poor little guy, haven't seen sight nor sound of him since Sunday morning when I fed him, I felt so awful, still do, I feel awful when I kill a plant, let alone a cute little hamster...



But yeah, positive, yeah, things going well, experiments yielding useful results, gaining understandings, getting organised and geared up for the big bad transfer report. Apartment is getting clean, slowly, lots more to do, still have to get a routine, don't enjoy chaos that much, though it does keep you on your toes, nice to feel busy, always good to get to tick things off the To Do list, even if the list seems never ending (and quite probably isn't, but that's not for now).

Anyway, I'm going in circles and my soup is long finished, time to return to the lab and work.

Thursday 8 July 2010

So what I didn't

You can't make me anyway,
I'd like to see you try,
You and your whole army.
Yeah.

So on Wednesday I was an archer in Camelot, the king, Uther Pendragon, had just died and Merlin and Morgana had came to pay their respective respects. This made all us castle guards very uneasy, it's not every day that the castle has such powerful visitors. Morgana arrived on horseback (despite her clear lack of horse riding ability) and Merlin arrived at strong pace, on foot. Needless to say I never get told anything, but my battle wound was at me all day in that breeze. We were given very fancy "longbows" for the day too, didn't think we'd come up with anything like that for a thousand years

Me as a 6th century archer!

So yeah, I'm either going to be on TV or I'm insane, maybe both. But at least I did something fun eh? Not that physics isn't fun. But I never get to do physics, because nothing ever bloody works does it. I am reluctant to post this because I want to write a proper blog post, but I just haven't got the time to spend. I might go grab some lunch and try post something proper, lots has happened in the past month and so for once I have good things to write about! (I really need to get my camera cable, I wish I knew where it was!)

My last blog was about nothing, so this blog really should be the same, but instead I'm going to try to sum up the last month. On the night before my last blog post Odette's grandad died in hospital, he was a really lovely man and his funeral was touching, hearing the love that he and his wife shared for over 50 years and seeing how they were still madly in love up to the last minutes.
The following week I made an effort to see as many people as I could and went to an open casting in Liberty Hall for Camelot. On a whim I wrote I had gun licences and was "proficient with ranged weapons" and then being the twit I am, seconds before handing it in remembered archery would be a good thing to mention.
The following week I again continued to try see as many friends as I could during my free time, and during my not-so-free-time I was making the poster and preparing the paper for the EPS Plasma Physics Conference in DCU. I also came down with gastroenteritis during that week, on the Wednesday evening, which was great fun I can tell you. That managed to last right through the conference and it was only on the following Saturday, after 10 days of hell that I was able to eat properly again. Great way to lose weight though, I went down to 10.5 stone.
The conference went well, I was a volunteer at it as well as presenting at it (which meant minimal work and lots of free food, if I could have eaten it) and on the Thursday the Gala Event was held in the Guinness Storehouse which was great craic, tons of free and gallons on free drink. The Gravity Bar is great too, love the view, got a beautiful sunset that night. I then spent the weekend dog and house sitting for Odette's family while they were in London which was also good fun, pretty much just watched movies and cleaned but it was fun!
During the last few days of June then I went to view an apartment in Temple Bar with Kevin, it was really very nice, big, secure and quite well kept if a little grubby. So we took it! Signed the lease 2 days after seeing it and started moving stuff in pretty much straight away. Now that leaves this past week, well that has just flown by, on Wednesday I was in Camelot, as mentioned above, which was great fun. Saw Eva Green on horseback (she's not a horse person I'm guessing) and saw Joseph Fiennes doing his level best to run uphill at the castle we were guarding and look mysterious.

Oh also, Snoop Dogg played the Olympia on Tuesday night and we saw him out the window of the apartment, will quickly rack up the famous faces I've seen eh!


Tuesday 6 July 2010

More than a month?

The fuck happened there? A whole month plus change, flown by. Wow.
Well, much has changed really, for once I have things to write about, and no time to write about them! But I will fludge it up ASAP, might try hand writing one tonight, type it up tomorrow. Have to get the scribble pad working, so ya'll can deal with my handwriting.

Friday 4 June 2010

Rankings

So I am getting much easier to find it seems, Google Isaac Tobin TCD and you get loads of info. about me and even my address if you try to find it. I'm not the type to worry about my personal security or the security of my information, I probably should but yeah, don't. But what surprised me today was that Google-ing Isaac Tobin now gives a link to me in 3rd rank. More than that, simply put in Tobin and up I come. Kind of scary, it's probably just for Irish searches, it seems maybe Tobin is just for my searches maybe? That whole knowing what you're looking for thing. But Isaac Tobin is me and it comes up high. (this post should help hah)

But yes, the point of this post, can't just harp on. I must do two things; 1- don't express opinions in the manner of facts, and if I do then never name names. 2- update Preab because it's depressing to look at. Number 2 might never happen, but the intent is there!



Lunchtime is a funny time, whether it's 12pm on 4am lunch has a feeling to it, a half-way-there moment when you know it can't really be all bad, because you've gotten through half okay. Like the time just after Christmas break in college/school term, only for each day. Wish I got presents at lunchtime. But I do think lunchtimes should be shared, a communal experience, so everyone can let that sigh out all at once, the day won’t last too much longer, giving way in the evening to the all enjoyable night. (or if you work nights, giving way to the sunny mornings) The magic of sunset/sunrise really is amazing, not always but sometimes it really can just make a time and place stand out, then and in our memories after. Beautiful sunset last night, all reds and oranges, pinks and then the whites and blues drifting onto it as it vanishes.



Ohyeah, was thinking, a disclaimer is probably important for this blog, not that it would save me too much, but my photographic thievery is ... well, maybe borrower-ery really, I never claim they are my pictures, some of them have been, mostly of lunch, but yeah, sorry to anyone who takes offence to my using their pictures without permission, I will remove them if asked of course. But it's all in the spirit of showing the artistic understanding of a picture. You may think the picture says one thing, to me it says another, that's why they say a picture is worth 1000 words. And besides, it shows that I love the picture, so it's an endorsement of your work. So anyway, yeah, sorry if you don't like people using your images.

Monday 31 May 2010

No Blog?!

Damn, missed another blog day. This time I honestly was madly busy, was out in UCD testing a photodiode. I will have to go back out again, hopefully will get to soon and will get the data I need to have a good idea of the scale of voltages to expect for a certain amount of transmitted light.



Last week flew by, as all the bloody weeks of 2010 have been, hard to believe I am very nearly a year in TCD, I really hope I am bright enough to get through this, not feeling like a postgraduate student I must say, a laser physicist, a plasma researcher... I still take ages tying my shoe laces, how can I be a physicist of any sort?! One of the reason I want people to ask me about my research (thanks for all the feedback by the way! Glad to see nobody shies away from commenting) is so that I have a good excuse to learn more. Because I am one of those people who needs motivation, very much so. I think one of my major problems at the moment is that I am going from group meeting to group meeting doing Things but not really learning things, I mean I can read papers from dawn till dusk but the fundamental theory behind alot of the things I'm doing has still escaped me, it's more just that I've not thought of the question myself to go answer it than I've been too lazy to find it out. I know I am lazy, but I really do want to know this stuff, because I do enjoy it immensely.



So I am going to NJ in August, and now possibly going to Austria in July, which should be pretty cool. I would like to try squeeze in a trip to Italy before NJ, but I don't know if that will work out. I think maybe it should be a choice between moving out this summer or more holidays and moving out after.
Then again, moving out in Sept. will be tougher, lots more people looking for places. It's not like a trip to Italy would cost a huge amount anyway. Oh how I would love to have proper college summer holidays again. It's scary to think how quick 3 months goes by though, and then 3 years too. Terrifying.



Also, something for everyone to note: now that it is summer I want to hang out with everyone. Lots. In the sun. So let’s organise for Iveagh Gardens, or the beach, anywhere, everywhere. Sunshine is fleeting, in this country anyway, so let’s try capture it! (I need to try balance out all the time in basements on computers and doing experiments). Anyway, lunchtime has to be short today, lots to do. Will try post before Friday again.

Friday 21 May 2010

Talking Monkey.

I am going to cheat today, and post a blog I didn't write today, or even this week really, but in the past 7 days, so it still counts. Shudup.

"Blogs are a funny animal, not quite as alive as once maybe, or maybe just split onto a new evolutionary chain with the need to feed driving it away from once under populated fields to beyond maybe into a next generation format?
I know for one, when I’m looking to buy online I seek out detailed reviews, often from bloggers I know & trust, because that’s always what we want, nobody wants to be the sucker who wasted their money when “everyone” knows to go to X Y & Z.
So maybe I should be putting effort in yeah? Maybe it’s time to find my place? My bit to add to... well it’s going to be Web 3.0 is it? Yeah? Or 2.5.1.2.7.9 whatever. I don’t know, I use dates to label things myself when I’m programming or modelling, that & names which have meaning. Scientists huh? All mad, the lot of them.



I would like more feedback though! Felling a bit like a lone nut talking to a conference crowd with my mouth in a mug or whispering at a roaring engine. Not that that wasn’t how I started this or how I thought it would continue, talking & making it difficult for people to really hear, but I’m just wanting to cut in on this dance my friends have been enjoying with Mrs. Internet, maybe try to get a spin or a dip out of her before I forget why I write things.
Why do I like to write then? It’s not like I’m particularly good at it, I sure can go on and on but that doesn’t make much more than a good bureaucrat which isn’t an aspiration of mine, quel surprise says you.
Or maybe an Energiser ad, should see if they’ll sponsor the blog “he just goes on and on and on....”
But part of my place could be writing this out by hand (as this blog was before being posted) I have the gadgetry, just need to get it set up and I could just post PDF or images, I have horrible writing, but I like it and I think you will too. The problem with handwritten blogs is there’s no spellcheck though, to fix my many mishaps. But as Jimmy Car would put it, I’ve invented a hard copy, handmade blog format!



I want to organise myself better & spend more time with my friends, again something I repeat often, but that doesn’t make it any less the case, I value very highly the fact that I know people who like to spend time with me, for whatever reason they’d like to do that. But that’s another reason I’m moving out & wanting town as the location. I love the idea of having a few people over for food & movies, lots of hanging out, eating, cooking, all the fun, social things I like to do.
I spent the weekend in my mam’s with Odette & went hiking Sunday, it was really lovely, got rained on a bit but mostly warm and pleasant, some lovely views & lots of sheep bones."
Circa last weekend, written not typed, dictated to Mr Tobin's secretary, no responsibility is held for any injuries sustained while reading this blog.

Friday 14 May 2010

So many things

Not quite as late as "last week's" post, but here we go once more, on a Friday afternoon!
This week flew by, as they all seem to, but I got a good amount of things done, hope to get a lot more done next week though, really get some results and put together a time scale and plan for experiments. That way I can hopefully plan out my summer! I can't wait to go on holiday, get some proper time off! It's not like I really work That hard I guess, it's more just that you know everyday you have to get up and do something, like a job, and I don't like jobs. Especially ones that make you deal with mornings, I hate them.
But holiday! Can't wait.



And I'd like to go away with Odette again, which is one of the reasons I worry about moving out, but on the other hand I really want to just move out and get started out on my own, find somewhere nice and get to start making it nicer! Heard very little back from the places I contacted during this week, and if I'd have had more time I would have tried more to get in touch with them, we'll see if I can't get into a habit of contacting people during mid-mornings or some such and that will get us on the road. But another holiday plan would be nice, I think maybe something in early July, nice and horribly expensive. Yeah. Sure we will see, and you never know, I could win the Euromillions between this and then and just buy somewhere to stay abroad. And possibly a plane to take us there.



Yeah, that's the plan. In the mean time I want to try watch more movies off my HDs, there are so many I haven't watched yet! And so many I've seen a million times but want to see a million more. That is one thing I really look forward to about moving out, setting up to have people over more often, no worries then about having to be quiet or whether I'm stepping on anyone's toes by inviting people over. Not that I live in a prison or anything, it'll just be nice to have people over more often.



I'm heading up to my mam's with Odette this weekend which will be fun, hope that the weather is better than it has been, though I'm not holding out much hope. I am so happy that me and Odette are still together, I wake up sometimes surprised that we are still together, it all seems to have been too nice, like a weird dream. There were so many times I messed things up and so many ways I thought I would ruin the relationship, and yet here we are 4 years on together. I hope that we can move out together in the future and get to spend more time together, because as it is we're both stuck working opposing times.



I do like the fact that I can pick my own hours to an extent, but I don't like not being able to take days off easily, that's one thing I miss about undergrad, knowing all you needed to do was get some photocopies. But I can't say I wouldn't miss the office in town, like having a giant locker with a fridge, kettle and microwave inside. And I like being able to meet friends for lunch or dinner after college, that is the reason I wanted to stay in town afterall. Anyway, today’s blog was a ramble over things I've already said and I'm sure whoever reads this is sick to death of hearing it, I just hope the pictures make up for my lack of interesting things to say.

Will think of something for next week, have a good weekend!

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Isaac Tobin At Weeks End and Beyond

This is the story of a man who missed his fludging day and then lost his weekend and finally realised it was Tuesday evening before getting back to writing it.

Words from Saturday:
"If you want to enjoy life, learn to love food, because damn I love food and damn I enjoy my life! Those two may seem quite unrelated to some of you, but those people who know what they like will know that a whole week can be made shiny by that one meal, that one, first, wonderful, bite. Mmmmm. This week has been a foody week for me, full of not eating for hours and then enjoying something delicious. Anticipation after a long hard day. Cooking is a great art, I enjoy it, and like all art I try my hand at I rarely plan anything, I just jump in and go with what sounds right (which can occasionally make an awful mess, but that's the fun!)



So this week flew by, I guess we did start it one day short. I viewed some apartments, I ran into some old friends, I met up with and chatted to others and worked on this and that in my office mostly. Trying very hard to think how to make the next setup, before I've even started my experiments with this one! But that's because my mind is still in disbelief that it is May and I haven't fired shot one at my new setup! I thought I'd be half done by the start of March!"

I was in a different mood then than I am now, today has been a Long day, and I haven't gotten half of what I wanted to done, as is always the story it seems. For once this isn't because of things breaking, it's completely due to the limit of hours in a working day (not that mine is going to be over until much later).

But yes, on to other things, I want to know, would anyone like me to answer questions for them? Because I can't talk directly about what I'm doing until after I've published something on it, is there anything else you'd like me to try explain? It will both give me something to think about and give me an excuse to learn stuff as I go. So if anyone has questions related to my work in laser produced plasmas or general physics related stuff feel free! Email me or comment on this and I will try my best to answer it in a fludge post!



My moving out plans are progressing slowly, I'm not giving out though, I'm in no real rush, and I'd like to find somewhere that me and Kev can both settle into well, and somewhere that Odette will like spending time because I really don't like bringing people back to my house now so I am constantly imposing on Odette's family.
I'd love to get somewhere amazing, just win the Euromillions and rent some amazing apartment in town until I'm finished the PhD, then go buy some huge, incredible place, and spend 10 years designing rooms and gardens and doing research in my spare time, in the lab I built underground beside my mansion.





Sorry, got a little distracted, really want to live somewhere green. Sorry if you read this before I change the image host to my server, I can't access it from the college computers easily and the only host I ever seem to remember has weird load times. I should really just find another host, anyone know one they like?

I've book flights to NJ for August, I'm going to my mam's this weekend, I'm minding Odette's house in June, I hope to go to Italy again before September and all this when I decide to move out. SMRT. But it will be a great summer anyway, hopefully be full of successful experiments, well written reports, intelligent conversation and many, many fun times too.

I'm off down to the lab now to test out my setup, see if I can align everything alright and see if the discharge works and if the setup can be used. Fingers crossed!

Friday 30 April 2010

And round again

It's Friday lunchtime again in Ireland (and lots of other places, I wonder whats popular for lunch in Morocco) and you know what that means! Food! (and another blog post from myself it seems).

This week has been unexpected in many ways, it seems I am moving out in the next month or so, with Kevin, which will be really cool, and scary too. I've been talking about it and planning to for around 2 years now, been occasionally looking at places online and such. But only viewing a place for the first time this evening. I didn't go and ask anyones advice about it at all really, mostly because I'm not 100% if this is going to happen really. Feeling a bit deflated this morning, so I wont probably post as much as I should.



Prof. Lunney is back now, had a group meeting on Tuesday morning. Went pretty well, getting sick of saying that I'm waiting on stuff to be built. I'm just going nowhere, fast. I just need to get a proper tooling system setup at home and I can do half the jobs I need during the evening. I'm not saying I don't appriciate having people around who have expertise in things I have only passing experience with but when things aren't thought out right it leaves me having to start the work they said they would do, only 2+ weeks later. But I guess these things happen and everyone makes mistakes. I just want to get started on the experiment already, I thought I'd be started mid-February, not mid-May! The experiment itself is going to be full of challanges, with allignment, energy optimisation and then ensuring my measurement tools are seeing the full picture.. it's going to take a long time to get it properly running. And I would like to be in full analysis mode before August so that come September I have an idea of what my transfer report is going to say. Not to mention the fact that I'm presenting a poster in June and have very little of my own work to show. I wish I could put the drawings of my setup up here or go into more detail but I think it compromises my IP in terms of the research aswell as my publishing if it comes to it.



Other than that I have started to seriously put together summer plans, which makes me feel happier to think about. This summer should be fun, with moving out, holidays and hopefully experiments, I should be all smiles. Lets hope eh? This coming month is bringing a very important day too, I will have been with Odette for 4 years on Monday. I'm still really happy and in love with Odette, so I don't really find it hard to believe in that sense, but then again I've spent nearly as long with Odette as I have "with physics" lets say, so that's pretty crazy I think (not only the fact that I think I'm an item with "physics").



For my birthday off my dad and everyone in the house I got a 1:24 model of a de Havilland Mosquito (a wing span on the model of nearly 69cm), it will be an experience to build such a big model. Need to buy paints now though, will buy them off the Airfix site though, cheaper, and might buy a 1:72 model of the TBF Avenger too, sure why not eh?

Also I got my gun licences approved, so €160 quid total for both and I've got it sorted for the next 3 years. Pretty glad to have it approved, want to go shooting with Dave in the club he joined. Be nice to get some practice in while the evenings are bright. Always nice to know you can shoot straight.

Friday 23 April 2010

Walking Toast City

The grass is always Different on the other side, it isn't necessarily always greener. Sometimes greener is boring anyway, sometimes it's the white flecks or the yellowy stalks that make you want it, that's what makes it interesting. Or maybe it's the feel of it under your feet, it might be just as green but very soft and springy, now that's what I'd be looking for.

My camera collection growing well, not that I really planned it, or sought to expand it, cameras just keep finding me. I really have to get a load of film for them all and buy a dark room lamp and some chemicals, I'm sure I could develop the images in the lab myself and it'd be a nice new skill to have. Will have to talk to Stephen K. about it.



I feel that I've been eating well lately, perhaps a little more than I usually had been, the Saturday market food is fantastic in Temple Bar, I love the cheeses and the different pesto, olives, hummus and such. So damn tasty.



But things like that are making my time fun, which makes it go by too quickly, and then deadlines are approached with little to show! OhDear. This was the last week before magnetism questions due up (Monday @10am) fingers crossed I get lots of 'em done quick, I still have a lot to go and I wouldn't like to have to spend my whole weekend stressing. But I definitely want to get as many done as possible! Don't know how good failing a second postgrad. course would go down... But I wont fail, I'm sure I wont >.>

In other news the vacuum chamber works! New base plate in place on the bottom with the pump attached and pumped down to 5E-6 mbar in an hour on the first try. So that's one good thing to report. I still have to get some of my stuff from the workshop so experiments aren't on the go ahead quite yet, but soon!



"Physicists - making it up as they go along" I am a horrible example of this, I hate to say it, but I don't know everything... I just pretend to. Please, don't hate me, I tried, I know you all only love me because I'm so cleaver, and bright, not forgetting witty and breathtakingly handsome. Hah, yeah so anyway, I really have to stop making up answers based on educated guesses, just because they're educated doesn't mean they aren't guesses Isaac. Gotit?! haha, go tit...

So last night was Jane's going away party, another friend vamoosing. And Arann is heading off too, didn't manage to see him since my birthday and didn't really get to talk to him then. It's weird to think of not having these people only a phone call, bus ride or train journey away.



I really do hope to go visit them over there. I'd like to see Canada and it'd be great to hang out in foregin lands with friends! Haven't done that! I'd also get to see Kelly which would be fun! Yeah, I think I will have to go to Canada, to many parts of Canada. And drink milk from a bag. Hah.

So yeah, it's another Friday lunch time, and I've just had a bowl of muesli (damn tasty stuff, still haven't tried it with cranberry juice instead of milk). I saw Odette a good amount this week, do want to move out with her, be great, and be nice to see if after a month we are killing each other at all, doubt we would be, but be interesting to see. Be hard to manage pizza with Kevin though, will have to go to his house, or make sure Odette goes out. Unless Odette likes the crusts on Mizzonis'.. hmmmm could work out. But in the short term I think I'm going to move out this summer with Josh, be weird but I'd enjoy it. I'm also thinking about going to NJ to stay with my aunt and uncle, Odette would be coming with me which would be fun, we've both been to NY but never together. Just have to arrange all that. Lots to think about!

Either way it should be a good summer, will have some of the college things that have been weighting me down finished and will hopefully be in experimental mode which would be nice. Sick of having all these little things standing in the way!

Thursday 15 April 2010

Another week flying

*NOTE*
For the first time in a long time I put thought into a blog post, I hope this is okay and doesn't scare anyone, I'm not dying (any faster than usual). This post was written between two days, the 14th and 15th so that I could get all the ideas I wanted to out into the world.
*/NOTE*

I think I'm coming to terms with who I am, at least a little, or a little more than I had done before, although I guess I wasn’t the Me I am now then anyway.
Now I don't mean what I'm about to say as a statement of how I always am, anyone who says they always are anything (other than alive) is either lying or very consistently on a heavy cocktail of drugs.
I think that I am a cheery, I won’t say happy because that's more internal than external, and I think that I'm more outwardly, conversationally happy than I am happy by the look in my eyes or the feeling inside.
So, I am a cheery, mild-mannered (that is to say push over, in most senses), annoying (in a passive way, I hope), unobservant (except about pointless mundane things like insects, animal tracks or other such banal, useless things to notice), argumentative (in a conversational way, at least that's my aim, mostly I think I come across just as an obstacle to Fact), a lazy person (and a bastard of one apparently, thanks Enda), a clean person (I clean when bored, irritated or otherwise full of undirected energy), completely not self-style-conscious (not that I need to tell anyone that)... I’m losing steam on this one, and I think it sounds stupid and pointless. Nobody needs to hear what I think I am because they all know what They think I am anyway.
[I was also told once, by most of my closest friends, in one sitting, that I was the most passive aggressive person they knew. That my social habits showed malice and thirst for vengeance and that I should sort this out... That surprised me, as I didn't know I was being so obvious about it.. Hah. No, really I didn't think I was but I guess they'd know!]



I've become conscious of the people who are reading this, people beyond the one or two I thought might and beyond the few I thought might happen upon it now and again (the best thing about writing things like that, knowing some of the people who might read it, is getting to try to guess which one of the groups they will assume I meant them to be in). So I will probably be adding clause upon clause to my statements to ensure that I am not taken too seriously and that people don’t think worse of me for anything I say.



Another big thing is that Enrique, the guy whose work I am in essence fallowing on from, has finished his thesis, viva, and corrections and is leaving for the states tomorrow morning to begin a 9-5 job. I really am going to be a long way from all my answers this time tomorrow. He was one of the nicest people I've met in a long time, he was always good for a chat, always had at least part of the answer I was looking for and I must say I envy his certainty in God, a lot.

I am always being brought down these days, I just can't seem to find my meaning, and I'm not asking for help, after all it is My meaning. And I firmly believe in everyone's own meaning, I think that organised religion can only show you a path and be a guide. Once it becomes The path itself then the message is lost and you become subject to another man, and that isn't the point of the whole religious sphere, at least not in the true sense. It should be about learning, never about control.

Heavy stuff for a Wednesday night, but I guess once the mind starts running it reaches its own momentum without consulting its surrounds. Other than being brought down and staying down with a loss of faith as an ankle weight, I am down about life. It's nothing new to this blog for me to complain about work or family or friends, but it all comes back to my idea of where I am going and I have to say, that idea isn't what I thought it was. Not one bit. I mostly just want to enjoy my time, whether that means staying home and playing some stupid game or looking through hundreds of pictures to find ones I like for no reason other than collecting them, or whether it’s going to spend time with Odette watching crap TV and talking nonsense.



Anyway, enough of that talk, social dynamics are of great interest to me, lots of things are of great interest to me though, but where people think they belong in social pyramids and how people locate others is something very telling. I also really like to see how families develop, and how children of certain ages begin to bring home new social traits and challenge the way things are done in a house because of these new methods they've learned. I think the patterns people make around themselves, the groups of friends and the statistical averages which people so easily fall in to so often. Not that I’d ever want to study these things professionally, that would bore me to tears.

I really love still being a student, staying safe in the knowledge I have 3 more years without Real things to think about, just lots of physics to do. I’ve oh so many projects I would like to take on aswell though, but they would take too much time to undertake properly, so for now they all will just stay as dreams.



I thought I would post more, but I really did run out of steam, but I’d say if I made it any longer nobody would want to reach the end, if there is anyone who wanted to even get this far. Thanks for reading, as always opinions are welcome and requested. I do miss a lot of my friends, but I never know what social scenario I should try arrange for seeing them (/you).

N.B. I really hope anyone who does read this doesn't think I'm thinking I'm too big for my boots, I'm not thinking anything of the sort. I know where I stand in most of the levels of intellect, I just like throwing my hand in at fields of thought far beyond my level, it helps take away from the stupid, unanswerable questions I develop about things I'm wrapped up in day to day in my life.
It may not be the best way, as it will clearly take away from my ability to solve the problems at hand, but I really don't like the problems at hand unless they are almost fixed already and I get the credit for the fix.