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.

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.

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!

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!