So that's how you hold a pipette!

In a month (or perhaps a few days), I'm going to think myself pretty crazy. Yesterday I met Xia, and when I got to try to prepare a sample, I discovered that you shouldn't hold a glass pipette by the detachable bulb. No tragedies occurred, but I had zero control! That'll get better.

I found out a lot more about what it is we're looking for yesterday, and I hope it sticks. I had the opportunity to remember some important stuff, and I promptly forgot it. I believe I also caused one of the machines to "blip" when it was running. There were two small disturbances on the graph, and since I have nowhere else to go during an experiment at this point, I believe they were my fault. Boo.

Speaking of instruments, I did some looking after I finished up the tutorials yesterday. I will probably work with 4 machines (though two are exactly the same). They are:

• Dynamic Mechanic Analyzer (DMA): super sensitive - this is the one I caused to "blip"
• Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC): There are two of these, and one is much fancier than the other
• Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA): supposedly I must find the thermal decomposition of the polymer before I heat and stress it.
  

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Reflection: On a more personal note, I fulfilled a lifelong dream yesterday. I got a labcoat. :) Work already seems pretty independent, so I hope I understand enough to start trying some of these things on my own soon. Otherwise I sit around wondering who I can bother. (Not cool).

Starting at 9 in the morning stinks. I'm no longer tired at that point, but if I eat lunch, I have to stay after 5 to get in 8 hours. Yesterday I got home at 6, finished cleaning up dinner at 7, and ended up falling asleep at 10:30. There wasn't a lot of time in there for "fun." Oh well. Another day starts in 2 hours, so I'd better get ready for it.