Training myself on Autocad for the third time this year. First time was with my once-advisor, who I'm not quite ready to get into yet since he still makes my blood boil. Unfortunately he wiped the computer I was using of all my designs/ autocad 2006 when he left for industry in the middle of the semester. But a lab near home nicely let me redesign during my break! So I speedily learned autocad 2004.
Now I'm back at school, helping my postdoc with a nice little side project. That requires autocad. The good news is that I managed to shanghai a student copy of autocad 2011 (mac) from the architecture department. However the interface is, again, completely different from the past two versions.
Oh well, gives me something to do (no, my Important Chemicals have not yet arrived). And this copy is on MY computer, so no rogue advisors are going to get to this one.
I am also in the process of collecting all of my research related materials and backing them up (in four places). Is that paranoid?
Monday, June 13, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The safety people really have a purpose
It's been a while. The summer research dash has just started, and I'm trying to get as much as physically possible done while I can give it my full attention - which is made difficult by the fact that my Important Chemicals seem to be hitch hiking their way to my lab from Alaska.
Because I have nothing better to do, I have been clearing myself my own bench space in the neighboring lab. Professor S hasn't done lab work in about 5 years, is a complete pack rat, and also very territorial. This is not a good combination.
I put the half full bottles of highly flammable chemicals sitting on the bench under the hood. I tried to clean up the questionable, mostly crystalized chemical spill in the hood with EtOH, IPA, acetone, windex (I haven't been able to wipe it up yet). I put the safety hazard slips that were scattered among the layers of crap in a neat pile, ordering them from oldest to newest (the oldest: October 2003). I gave the unopened (unfrozen) "freeze on arrival" box (date: July, 2008) to our waste manager. I collected the unlabeled beakers and tubes of liquid and put them in a corner of the hood.
And after I had finally cleared off the bench, I began scrubbing it down, promptly cutting myself on a shattered beaker that I had not seen because in was hidden by a quarter inch of grime that coated the entire bench.
So the summer hasn't started well - but at least I'm not going to be bumping elbows with my lab mates anymore. To all you PIs out there - just... don't let it get there.
Because I have nothing better to do, I have been clearing myself my own bench space in the neighboring lab. Professor S hasn't done lab work in about 5 years, is a complete pack rat, and also very territorial. This is not a good combination.
I put the half full bottles of highly flammable chemicals sitting on the bench under the hood. I tried to clean up the questionable, mostly crystalized chemical spill in the hood with EtOH, IPA, acetone, windex (I haven't been able to wipe it up yet). I put the safety hazard slips that were scattered among the layers of crap in a neat pile, ordering them from oldest to newest (the oldest: October 2003). I gave the unopened (unfrozen) "freeze on arrival" box (date: July, 2008) to our waste manager. I collected the unlabeled beakers and tubes of liquid and put them in a corner of the hood.
And after I had finally cleared off the bench, I began scrubbing it down, promptly cutting myself on a shattered beaker that I had not seen because in was hidden by a quarter inch of grime that coated the entire bench.
So the summer hasn't started well - but at least I'm not going to be bumping elbows with my lab mates anymore. To all you PIs out there - just... don't let it get there.
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