Spent the entire night at the lab again... I can't wait for this to be over. Unfortunately working through the night today was not too fruitful as I noticed that one of the acids I was using dissolved some nanoparticles I wanted to deposit on some silicon tips. I got hold a chemical chart today and confirmed that it is true that iron nanoparticles don't hold up against HF acid. Of an interesting note, everytime I mention what I research to girls in Japan, they immediately ask me if I know about nanoparticles in makeup. Supposedly, they have some positive effect and makeup with nano particles are really expensive (I might be on to something here!)
The submission date is Friday at 23:59 Hawaiian time, the last time zone before the dateline. I have until 18:59 Japan time to make the submission. I have one last shot, but it's going to be a bit of a pull to make it. There is one other material I can use but I have no experimental data on it. Meaning it's going to be a crapshoot.
Well, I won't be put off it too much if I don't make it to the conference in the end, it might actually be better if I didn't since the device isn't fully complete and there is plenty of informational gaps I will need to fill along the way. I am not sure if it will be working by then either. One of my friends at lab has mentioned to me that he's done something like this before but wasn't able to get his device working in the end, which wasn't too good for the conference. There will be other conferences I can present at... but still, it *is* France, and I've never been to Europe.
One way or another, I am going to take a few days off after the end of this mad work schedule. 12~16 hours/day at lab isn't a healthy lifestyle and I should be doing other things rather than just working; people become boring if they work too hard anyways. I'd rather be out doing other things for variety.
That wish will likely be granted as my schedule for December is looking quite full:
-There will be a meeting of Japanese people and foreigners tomorrow for some kind of international relations building event.
-I will be organizing a hot-pot event with lab members at home.
-I will be planning a large scale Christmas party and will be roasting some turkeys.
-A friend from Mito will be coming out to visit me for 6 days and a ski trip is in the works.
-I've located a social group online for Sendai that will be hosing an event in a few weeks, which I will be attending.
-A Christmas party is being organized by a friend of mine.
There will be, of course, more events popping up throughout December. I won't know exactly when but I can already forecast a lab party fitting into the picture somewhere and probably more events along the way that I'll end up being roped into. December will be a busy month for me indeed.
Work hard, play hard!
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