(Lack of an) Online Presence

Blogs and forums have always been first on my list for preferred methods of web-based communication and especially outreach/information sharing. It's often hard to keep track of though, and can require quite a large amount of effort. Afterall, a 140 character tweet can be drafted, proofed, and published before you have boiled the kettle. I can only imagine the quantities of tea/coffee that content creators like Kurtzegast, Smarter Every Day, and Periodic Videos go through for each video.

Being fair to myself and the lack of effort I have put into blogging (or the various online projects I have initiated and never followed through on) I have had my hands tied by PhD work. The good news there being that I am submitted, viva voce-d, and to graduate any day now.

I would really like to get involved in science web content, it has been a desire in the back of my mind for a long time. The work with the Physics Society DIT, lab demonstrating, teaching hours, tutorials, talks, posters, conference dinners, discussions over tea, general academic life, all of this does really help grow a broad perspective. I've been very lucky to sit on tables with experts and attend talks by award winners, it's nice to share that for anyone who is interested. I realise there are plenty of staffers out there who do this, but there's always room for one more eh?

I wanted to put up a five minute blurb as a getting-back-to-it. As usual if you read this and want to comment I'd love to hear from you, but for the time being this is for myself I suppose.

#WhatDidScienceDoToday

Nearly finished with September 2012 already

Isn't the world ending soon? I really do never get enough time to finish what I start..
I never even get a chance to start half the things I want to start really.

College term is beginning again, final year of my PhD, the start of my 21st year in education, my 8th year of graduate physics and coming up on my quarter of a century.
More than this, much more than this.. (hur hur) one brother is starting his leaving cert courses (5th year), another has moved to San Diego for his PhD in UCSD, one sister is starting schooling (5 years old) and another is going to be moving to England to continue her graduate level architecture. Really crazy to think, I find it hard enough to believe that little Alannah is 5, let alone that Josh isn't going to be living in Ireland for at least the next 5 years. Feels very odd indeed.

Listening to Interpol on my headphone in the office, just G and myself in the office at the moment, I like Interpol sometimes. What do you like to listen to when you're working? Do you not get to listen to music when you work? I hate it when that happens, I never work right without music. I remember my first job, it was just a summer job in a primary school (1st level of education) near where I was living. I had just finished my leaving cert and my dad sorted me out with a few weeks repairing and upgrading the computers he had sold them years before. I spent about the bulk of it just formatting machines, fresh install of the latest Windows and all that.
I would walk down to the school each morning, stop off in the shop and buy an Irn-Bru and a pack of Crispy M&Ms. I had brought a set of PC speakers (the same set I have in my office now, had them for about a decade [harman/kardon HK195]) and was blasting Eagles of Death Metal while I worked alone in the computer room. The school was basically empty except for me and the odd teacher who was dropping by to grab this or that from their rooms. Just me, spinning on office chairs and checking the HDDs, dusting out machines and replacing power supplies that had lived their lifetime. Was a fun couple of weeks considering I was getting paid to do it.
I like that memory.

My brother is gone D:

    All the way to San Diego, 8363.86 km away (give or take). I really hope he is settling in well over there, in those 40 degree highs and 20 degree lows. With the sunshine, and the sandy beaches. Getting paid to be a student, doing maths (well, he likes that.. that wouldn't be for me). That bastard.

Recent (iPhone) photograph, taken in Blackwater, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (Aug 2012).
My two brothers, Daniel and Josh (L-R) scoping the fields ahead for dinner.

    But I really miss him, even if we didn't see each other every day it's hard to think he's not even remotely close by. I mean, it's nearly the other side of the world (well New Zeland is really the other side of the world to Dublin [nearest land mass anyway]). But I'm really happy he has found somewhere which will look great on his academic CV and also give him a great chance to explore and grow as travel only can (not to mention give me another handy holiday destination for the next 5 years).

    As for everything else in life I will sit down and finish blog posts and organise images eventually. I enjoy writing blogs because it feels like having a journal you can access everywhere (or a log book, draft blog posts allow more control than draft emails for sure). It's nice to collect moments in time and to have somewhere to share things as everyone who writes personal blogs knows.

Childhood photograph, taken in Blackwater, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.
From left to right are my nana, Shauna, Josh, myself and my grandad, rest his soul.

Back to work with me now, preparing a poster for the 2012 International Workshop on EUV and Soft X-ray Sources and getting a general talk ready for the postgraduate seminar I have to give in October.

Listening to Ben Prunty Music's songs from the game FTL (which is an epic game btw, worth well more than the $9).

A lack of blogging

So, this is where I left you off, nearly a year ago and the beginning of a huge experimental investigation of our Laser Triggered Vacuum Arc lamp (LAVA-lamp). I haven't as yet published any papers on this work but have presented a couple posters. Here's one poster, presented at the 2011 International Workshop on EUV & Soft X-Ray Sources, 7-9 Nov, UCD (N.B. font went a bit bonkers, save the page and open pdf to see it properly). I won best poster for it actually (modest as ever I am), was absolutely chuffed.
But yes, the experiment went really well, gathered a huge amount of data, was wonderful to work alongside Larissa on it. That work finished up in late October due to other deadlines and the analysis is ongoing (due to the volume of data and other engagements). Over all I have to say the last 3 years of PhD have flown by, it's a little shocking really, but I have loved it. I'd recommend any physics student who enjoys working on interesting and challenging projects to get out there, contact groups who's work you find interesting. There's always an intern position somewhere and it's such a great way to learn what research is like (and earn a bit of money sometimes too).

One more year left myself now, the big thesis write up to do and a whole pile of papers and theory to brush up on. Practise makes perfect but re-reading is Always a bonus, you'll never keep exactly the right time without checking back every now and then. It's scary but it's fun and I'm so lucky to have fallen into such a good group and such an interesting project. Plasmas are all around us you know, every day, most of the universe is in a plasma state, everything came from plasma too in the very beginning. Without our local massive globe of plasma our planet wouldn't support life. It's nice to be able to try grasp these things sometimes, forget any real physics and just think about what we are. Those immortal heart wrenching words We are star stuff. You have to admit it's fun to think about that, and if you don't think so then I'm sorry you can't see the wonder in the things around you. Wonderment is the most important thing in life, without it what's the point.

Anyway this is getting ranty and that wasn't my point for this post. I just wanted to write something because life is flying by! So it's good to have a record of where I once stood and what the air was like, how were the natives, what was the view like. The biggest news I have in life is I've been living with my lovely Odette for just over a month now in a pretty little cottage. Really loving it, it's going to be a fun year full of adventure I'm sure. I hope everyone else is well out there, lots of hardships but I hope there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Until nextime I guess.

View off Killiney hill, looking south towards Bray head.

Blackrock baths looking north west towards Dublin city centre.

Hanko finishing stamps for one of Ze Frank's missions.

So what you're saying is...

Rightso, back to blogging?
Do you think I can do it? Do I think I can do it?

The biggest problem is the whole day to day idea I was trying to keep, it has meant that I now have a massive half empty blog post of days that have gone by and clues for myself to fill in the events of the past... months.

I can cut all that down to this I think:
lots has happened, I didn't fail my continuation Thing (ergo I get to stay in TCD to finish my PhD short of anything awful), still love Odette to bits, hamster still epicly cute, still listen to massive amounts of music, still working in lab/office & forgetting to eat, still cooking things and adding far too much chilli so you can't taste anything properly and still failing to get out of bed after my alarm goes off and missing the real morning hours.

Also still being crap at family-keep-up (a game I've realised I've been failing at for a long time). Although I have to say, was good on Easter Sunday, went back to my dad's and hung out for the evening, was bullied by Alannah (3) and went to see my nana which was all great. Also saw my mam a few weekends ago on a Saturday evening, we had a few glasses of wine and tapas in a place in Ranelagh while she was in Dublin teaching. So haven't been As bad. But still haven't seen my nana&grandad since they had their 50th wedding aniversary... which was ages ago. I know, I suck.

I've no pictures of my own to add to this (in college) but this is my current college PC background: