1/3/24: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day putzing around in the back yard. It was the calm before a winter storm, so I decided to enjoy the mediocre weather before it turned worse. The primary project of the day was dealing with a lead melting furnace that was not working properly. I will comment more about it on my outdoors blog early next week. I also did a lot of work straightening and organizing things in my reloading shed.

In the afternoon, I sent an article to a client and am now waiting for new ones. It’s always a bit of a lull around the holidays, but it will soon kick into high gear again.

In the evening, we ate some of the roast I made. I did a little reading before going to bed.

Thank you for reading my post.

5/26/20: Daily Post

Yesterday, I started out the day with another 1.25 mile run. It wasn’t pretty, but it was still under 10:30 a mile, so that’s a victory. I will update my running page soon. I also found out I won 4th place in the “virtual” NMT running contest I entered. There were only five contestants, but I beat one of my students.

I spent a good part of the day chatting with JoAnna about politics, religion, education, and philosophy, so that was fun.

In the evening, I did some metal casting, or rather attempted to do some metal casting. My lead has zinc mixed in it, and so it became too sticky to flow from the bottom of the melting pot. I’ll have to figure out what to do next.

Thank you for reading my post.

11/22/19: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day working at NMT.  I started out by doing some lead casting in the reloading shop.  I will talk more about this on Monday on my Outdoors blog.

In the afternoon, I spent some time moving equipment out of Jones Hall.  I also worked on a glove box system, but I’ve misplaced a few of the parts I ordered.  I received them, and then put them somewhere, thinking “this will be so I don’t lose them.” And yet, now they are lost.

In the afternoon, I had a department meeting.

In the evening, I added over 3000 words to my NaNoWriMo project.  When I returned home, I did a few housekeeping projects and called it an early night.

Thank you for reading my post.

3/23/17: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the morning and early afternoon with the students from Magdalena, giving them a tour of New Mexico Tech.  There was an official tour, but then I also gave them a tour of my lab, and brought over a few of my students to show them what we do.

In the late afternoon, I went with a bunch of civil engineers to the Boys and Girls Ranches. The civil engineers had prepared a bunch of activities for the students, including building stools out of newspaper and tape.

In the evening, there was going to be a foundry club meeting, but it was moved to Monday of next week.  Instead, I had Taco Thursday at my brother’s house and went to bed a little early.

Thank you for reading my post.

 

2/20/17: Daily Post

Yesterday, I drove to Socorro, as the Socorro/Belen shuttle was not running.  NMT was open today, but  Magdalena was closed for President’s Day.

At NMT, I worked on several projects. I did some work setting up for tomorrow’s lecture in the instrumetation class, and also reserved a flight for the AIChE regional conference in North Dakota.

I helped several groups in Junior Design in the afternoon.  We were able to get the spin coater connected to a nitrogen tank, and so we are alomst ready to make coatings.

In the evening, I shot during air rifle practice. In fact, one of my targets was as good as I have I shot in a long time.  I was pleased with my scores this evening.

I also attended the “What The Foundry” club meeting for our metalcasting club.  We are building charcoal furnaces in the next few weeks, so I am looking forward to testing those against our propane furnace.

Thank you for reading my post.

1/24/17: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day working at the NMT Club Fair, recruiting students for the Metal Casting Club and the Tech Amateur Radio Association.  It was good to walk around and recruit students, and maybe find a few that are really interested in trying something new.

In the afternoon, I taught my first section of instrumentation lab.  I only have six students in it this semester, and I did a poor job of teaching it.  It was really unexciting, and my example was confusing and uninteresting.  I will have to improve this for next year.

In the evening, I commuted home on the buses and trains.  I wrote two articles for the school newspaper and had an otherwise uneventful night.

I did look up Myers-Briggs tests, and those things  always depress me.  I absolutely hate my personality type, and yet, it is accurate…  I always show up as an ENFP, which is probably the worst personality type if you wanted to be an engineer or a scientist.  I wanted to be the Professor, but ended up as Gilligan.   Anyway, I went to bed instead of reading more of what I already know.

Thank you for reading my post.

12/8/16: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the entire day working at Magdalena.  It was good to get in a few hours there, as I have been out for quite a few days over the past few weeks.

In the evening, I met with one of the professors about a new class I hope to offer in the fall.  We’ll see if I can get that rolling.  It will be a metal casting class for the freshmen, and I’m hoping it will go well.

Also, we had our last Tech Amateur Radio Association meeting of the semester.  We discussed plans for the upcoming semester and had pizza and watched a video on a new satellite that may be launched in 2017 that will have some amateur radio equipment on board.

Thank you for reading my post.

12/2/16: Daily Post

Yesterday was a good day.  I spent the day working with students on various projects all day.  I ran around and got the final approval for the chem-e-car competition location, and assisted three or four groups.  I also worked with the instrumentation class and their group project.  I also met with the metal casting group and checked the casting we had done a few days earlier.

In the evening, I took the train home.  The train was delayed quite a bit, so I missed the connecting bus in Albuquerque.  Then, once the next bus showed up, I missed another connecting bus, as it was late.  Finally, I got to my car, somewhere around 11.  I did get to spend some of that time reading, writing and catching up my amateur radio logs, so it was still a productive time.

Thank you for reading my post.

12/1/16: Daily Post

Yesterday was a long day, but not nearly as long as other days I’ve had in recent history.   The semester is starting to wind down, for better or for worse.

I started out by taking the buses and trains and then my truck to Magdalena for tutoring.  We had a boy’s basketball game and an assembly in the middle of the day, and I attended both of those.  Magdalena won, like 96 to 11, so it wasn’t even close.  They played well.

After Magdalena, I commuted back to Socorro, and then went with a group of students to the Boys and Girls Ranches for tutoring and an end-of-the-year party.  We’ll start up the tutoring program again in January.

We returned to campus, and I went to the last Bible Study group of the year as well.  We will resume that again in January as well.

Finally, I went to my lab and cast metal with some freshmen, as well as my two loyal metal casting seniors.  We are forming a casting group, and our tag line is “Pain in the Cast” and we have a sketched “face” that appeared in the aluminum one day, that we call “Angry Al” who will be our unofficial mascot.

At first, we started the furnace with a bang.  As it turns out, leaving the lid on the furnace will cause it to bang loudly when the propane ignites.  After that, we let the furnace run for a while, only to run out of propane when the aluminum was around 460 C.  We ran out and got another tank of propane, and finished the casting.  Kachina poured perfectly, and we’ll bust open the mold today with the freshmen to see if the mold actually worked.  I will post pictures and perhaps video another time.

I went to my brother’s house for the evening, but fell asleep on their couch soon after dinner.

Thank you for reading my post.

 

11/8/16: Daily Post

Yesterday, I commuted to New Mexico Tech. I decided to get a few things done around the department, rather than go to Magdalena, so I stayed in Socorro.  I prepared and delivered a Materials Science lecture for the freshman Chemical Engineering students, and then I also delivered my own instrumentation lecture, the final one of the semester.

After that, we celebrated my brother’s birthday and watched the election results.

I’ve slept-in late today, so I am behind and need to get working on other projects.

Thank you for reading my post.