According to my logs, my posting rate has gone down significantly for the past month. I'm probably down to a post once a week which is quite slow for my posting pace.
Lab life for the past few months have been quite busy, but it's more of a self imposed kind of busy. March was spring break where students at the University graduate and there is a month lull before the new students come in. During this time, I have free reign over all the silicon wafer processing equipment. It was great, I was up to the point where I was running several machines in parallel all at once while doing multiple experiments.
The electron beam microscope was available about 90% of the time and I'd even just pop in on a whim to take some pictures of new samples. Usually I'd have to put reservations in 1~2 days in advance to take data! What a difference in turn around time.
Unfortunately, all that hard work comes at a cost and I think I'm facing sort of a mild burn out. I've been pulling 8~12 hours at the lab and working in the clean room doing experiments straight. We also have weekend meetings on Saturdays from 9 am to 4 pm usually. As of this moment, I have fairly little motivation to do experiments. A chance of pace would be nice, and I will be having a chance of pace happening in the next few months!
If things go well, I might be able to head to Denmark for a few days to do a research presentation at a conference. I am crossing my fingers that I will get accepted (because the trip will be all expenses paid by the lab :)
Aside from that, I will be taking up a new hobby in my spare time, a little something called "Poi" which a New Zealand art were you spin tethered balls to strings. I saw a demonstration a few days back and it was pretty cool. Looking forward to picking up some gear in the near future.
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