Ahhh, it feels so good to slip into my PJ’s and plop down on my couch with a beer and bucket of Ramen. Sure 4am may seem like a strange time for dinner but in case you haven’t guessed, this week has been ridiculous for those who are trying to get data in time for Monday’s deadline. Holy christ, I destroyed and rebuilt the ass end of that thruster so many times this week I’ve actually lost count though I know I did it at least twice today. Honestly though, the business end of that thing (where the blue light comes from) has become so robust that I don’t even run electrical or thermal checks on it before pumping down. Today’s second test shut down at about 2:30 this morning and I was in the tank by 3:20 doing the autopsy. I have to admit, I’m a bit puzzled by how exactly I managed to burn a pretty significant size hole through one of the stainless steel feed lines.
I took a great video that was apparently taken when the hole was being created. Check it out. What is going on there is the magnetic field is being varied causing god to work out a bunch of math and move the plasma discharge around. We’re still not all that sure why it happens to begin with, but this particular case looks pretty neat.
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The thruster is sooooo close to working perfectly I need a clear mind for tomorrow so I’m going to crawl into bed and die for a little while.
Update 9-28-05 3:05am
Don’t let the smile fool you, moving the thrust stand from one vacuum chamber to the other is a collossal pain in the ass (plus it is pretty heavy too).
Game face on . . . time to see what I’m really made of this week. The manuscript deadline for the IEPC is next Monday so everyone in the lab stepping all over each other. Out of everyone though, I probably have the most amount of work to do this week. For instance, yesterday I put 18 hours in on a thruster test that ended in a scorched segment of wiring and iron being vaporized and deposited on the thrust stand. Although it was a quick fix, since I’m running in the tank with cryogenic pumps, the turnaround time is around 11 hours plus fix time. So I ran again today and got everything I was looking for plus some bonus information. However, in a perfect example of how crazy stuff is going to get, I’m just about to take a nap for a little while and head back in so I can bolt into the other tank (which is currently in use at the moment). After that, it is bismuth testing all the way.
Update: 9-22-05
Same story, just different day. I moved the window on the vacuum chamber though to get a better view of the thruster sitting in the inky blackness of the vacuum chamber. The thing on the right is Alex’s ExB probe that is actually kind of sort of working right now.
Just a quick pick of the thruster firing. Ran it three times so far today.
I’ve been running this really boring thrust test several times over the last several days. It basically amounts to me generating a plasma for Alex but at the same time taking thermal and performance characteristics of my thruster as well. I take data points manually every two minutes after things settle down a bit (every minute early on). This means that I really can’t do anything that requires any sort of concentration otherwise I’ll get distracted and forget to take like a half hour of data points. Basically then I have about 50-75% of the time where I’m not doing anything but holding down my chair. I mean, what do you do with one spare minute? So I’ll walk you through the typical sequence:
Step one:laugh like an idiot because you’ve at this too long
Step two: Take data point
Step three: Place head on desk until it is time for step one again
And so it continues . . .
With testing ramping up over the last few weeks, Brad sort of circulated this guide to avoid burnout. Seems to be working since it is 7:43 pm and I’m still in the lab and will be for the next several hours.
STOP DENYING. Listen to the wisdom of your body. Begin to freely admit the stresses and pressures which have manifested
physically, mentally, or emotionally.
BRAD’S VIEW: Work until the physical pain forces you into unconsciousness. Beer can extend this limit.
AVOID ISOLATION. Don’t do everything alone! Develop or renew intimacies with friends and loved ones. Closeness not only brings new insights, but also is anathema to agitation and depression.
BRAD’S VIEW: Shut your office door and lock it from the inside so no one will distract you. They’re just trying to hurt your
productivity.
CHANGE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES. If your job, your relationship, a situation, or a person is dragging you under, try to alter your circumstance, or if necessary, leave.
BRAD’S VIEW: If you feel something is dragging you down, suppress these thoughts. This is a weakness. Drink more coffee.
Research=Life.
DIMINISH INTENSITY IN YOUR LIFE. Pinpoint those areas or aspects which summon up the most concentrated intensity and work toward alleviating that pressure.
BRAD’S VIEW: Increase intensity. Maximum intensity = maximum productivity. If you find yourself relaxed and with your mind wandering, you are probably wasting your life.
STOP OVERNURTURING. If you routinely take on other people’s problems and responsibilities, learn to gracefully disengage. Try to get some nurturing for yourself.
BRAD’S VIEW: Always attempt to do everything. You ARE responsible for it all. Perhaps you haven’t thoroughly read your job description.
LEARN TO SAY "NO". You’ll help diminish intensity by speaking up for yourself. This means refusing additional requests or demands on your time or emotions.
BRAD’S VIEW: Never say no to anything. It shows weakness, and lowers the research volume. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do at midnight. There are six hours between midnight and 6am when you just lay there doing nothing. Use those hours productively.
BEGIN TO BACK OFF AND DETACH. Learn to delegate, not only at work, but also at home and with friends. In this case, detachment means rescuing yourself for yourself.
BRAD’S VIEW: Delegating is a sign of weakness. If you want it done right, do it yourself (see #5).
REASSESS YOUR VALUES. Try to sort out the meaningful values from the temporary and fleeting, the essential from the nonessential. You’ll conserve energy and time, and begin to feel more centered.
BRAD’S VIEW: Stop thinking about your own problems. This is selfish. If your values change, I will make an announcement at the lab group meeting. Until then, your values are to remain the same as mine.
LEARN TO PACE YOURSELF. Try to take life in
moderation. You only have so much energy available. Ascertain what is wanted and needed in your life, then begin to balance work with love, pleasure, and relaxation.
BRAD’S VIEW: A balanced life is a myth perpetuated by liberal arts schools. Don’t be a fool: the only thing that matters is work and productivity.
TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY. Don’t skip meals, abuse yourself with rigid diets, disregard your need for sleep, or break doctor
appointments. Take care of yourself nutritionally.
BRAD’S VIEW: Your body serves your mind, your mind serves the Lab. Push the mind and the body will follow. Drink Mountain Dew.
DIMINISH WORRY AND ANXIETY. Try to keep superstitious worrying to a minimum - it changes nothing. You’ll have a better grip on your situation if you spend less time worrying and more time taking care of your real needs.
BRAD’S VIEW: If you’re not worrying about work, you must not be very committed to it. We’ll find someone who is. You’re not being paid to take care of your own needs.
KEEP YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR. Begin to bring happy moments into your job. Very few people suffer burnout when they’re having fun.
BRAD’S VIEW: So, you think your work is funny? We’ll discuss this at our next lab group meeting.
In a bizarre twist of events that never happens around the house . . . something got finished.
Well, the third floor is now completely ready for carpet. I spent a ridiculous amount of time getting it to be so. Sometime before the weekend the installation should commence. It is going to look amazing once the trim gets installed! In fact, everyone that rounds the staircase comments on how this floor will look like a “real person’s home”.
Update: 9/8/05 8:30am Nothing like being rousted out of bed by a middle age carpet installer. None the less, it is going to be finished by the time I get home from work today. Hell yeah.
I was out tearing around on the Tech trails yesterday (a brief stop over on my Houghton bike tour) and I hit a tree with on of the antler like protrusions on my handlebars. Although I’ve heard conflicting reports what those are really for, they certainly prevented from my hand getting crushed to oblivion. Anyway, I’m a pretty aggressive rider so I smoked that tree pretty good. Fortunately it wasn’t much bigger then a 2-3 inch diameter so it flexed when I hit it. What really set me off laughing was while I was getting clipped back in and the leaves I had apparently knocked loose started to fall all around me. The only thing I could think is that there has to be a more effective way to remove leaves from trees.
My plans for Labor Day? Labor. The balance of the carpet for the thirds floor is scheduled to be installed on Wednesday so I want to get that floor all smoothed out. I worked on it for a couple hours yesterday and probably have 3-4 more to go today. I almost had a new injury to post yesterday (it has been a while). While the belt sander was going full tilt with 50 grit I hit my knee with it. I lost a fair amount of skin, but no perceptible blood. Today you can certainly see the mark but another tree I hit on the Tech trails left a far more impressive rash on my arm so I’d be selling out if the sander injury made it onto the injuries page.
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"Well, I think we have enough rope, beer and chainsaws to get the job done"
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