Catching Up 12/1/23

I have not posted for several days. I returned from Savannah on Monday night, went into work on Tuesday and ran the annual chemical engineering Chem-E car competition. I drove home, and then went to the Lindsey Stirling concert in Rio Rancho, which was great fun.

Wednesday and Thursday consisted of a mix of working at NMT, watching final presentations for classes, and trying to get ready for my trip to North Carolina next week. I have a little over half of my content prepared, but am developing the rest of it pretty quickly, and it should not be a problem.

I also submitted several Upwork things over the past few days as well. That faucet is still running, regardless of whatever else I have happening.

We had to have some plumbing work done today, and so that is hopefully finished for a while.

It’s been stressful and tough, but looking up.

Thank you for reading my post.

11/29/22: Daily Post

Yesterday morning, I woke up and I could not walk at all. It took me over 10 minutes to limp from my office to the bathroom, which is next door. When I was finally able to move a little, I pushed a rolling chair in front of me and limped out to my car. I drove to Walmart and got some Aleve and a pair of crutches. Both helped, and by lunch time, I didn’t need the crutches anymore.

In the afternoon, I ran this year’s chemical engineering “Chem-E Car” Competition. All teams had a working car, so it was a success. I was able to stand outside and walk around a bit, limping, but without crutches, so that was good.

In the evening, I hosted a Varsity Tutoring session and then went over to my brother’s house for the night.

Thank you for reading my post.

11/16/21: Daily Post

Yesterday was a busy day. I woke up late (by design), but then rushed off to set up the Chem-E Car competition.

Overall, the competition went off without a hitch. There’s a few things I’d do different for next year, but overall, it went alright. I did the minimal cleanup I could for now, as some of the supplies will be stored in a new place, but I will worry about that when I get back to NMT after Thanksgiving. I cleaned up what needed to be cleaned up.

In the afternoon, I took a nap, and then worked on getting ready for travel to the east coast again.

Thank you for reading my post.

11/3/21: Daily Post

Yesterday, I commuted to Magdalena and tutored there in the morning and early afternoon.

In the afternoon, I worked in the Unit Operations lab. It was all without incident. I also met with a few of the students about our upcoming travel to the AIChE conference in Boston.

In the evening, I did some writing. I finished one article, got responses on a few other job-related items, and started a second article.

I also helped one of the chem car teams with some of their chemical testing. They are doing the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, which always makes me a bit nervous, but they did great.

Thank you for reading my post.

10/26/21: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day at NMT knocking out projects left and right. It was an incredibly productive day. I finished up some gas cylinder swaps and inventory, tested all of the safety showers, updated our safety manual and so on.

In the afternoon, I taught the Freshman Design Lab, where I gave my annual talk on Materials Engineering. I was not as successful this time at delivering the lecture, but it went okay.

In the evening, I advised a chem-e car team on how to test their electric motor. I think they will build a regulator circuit to step down the voltage from the fuel cell to match that required of the motor.

I also finished another article for a client and caught up on a few of my blog posts.

Thank you for reading my post.

10/12/20, 10/13/20: Daily Post

I forgot to post yesterday and so today’s post will be aout two days instead.

Monday was busy. I started out a little later than Ihad intended and I didn’t get to the gym in the morning. I hosted office hours for tutoring Magdalena students. When the office hours ended, I went to the gym, did a bunch of housework and then worked on the RV. I replaced the starter, but didn’t get a chance to test it yet.

In the evening, I hosted three sessions of tutoring for Varsity Tutors, and then finally got a little sleep.

Yesterday, I started out the day by going to he gym. I misread my calendar and missed my morning tutoring session, which started at 8, not 8:30. After that, I did a little work for Magdalena instead, and then drove to Socorro. Normally, I attend a meeting on Google along the way, but due to the massive Verizon outage, I did not.

Once I arrived at NMT, I taught freshman design lab, where I gave a lecture on pumps, and then assisted a group with their chemmical engineering car.

In the evening, Ihad another tutoring session that got butchered, but this time, it wasn’t my fault. The student did not get the link and we couldn’t make the system understand there was a session running We gave up, and tech support gave me advice for the next time that happens.

I hosted office hours for instrumentation lab and made at least one leture ofr it. Then, around 8, I went over to the Unit Operations lab and repaired the absorption column.

Thank you for reading my post.

11/26/19: Daily Post

Yesterday was a busy and stressful day that ended peacefully and relaxing, somehow.

I started out the day with the major focus of running the Chemical Engineering car competition.  It is an annual event for our department, and I run a good part of the event.  This year was challenging as it was super windy and so setup was difficult.  The students had to be quick with weighing chemicals and such, so that they didn’t blow away.

The contest ran successfully, in spite of the wind.  I then moved the bulk of the remaining equipment from Jones Hall.  I still have a few things left there, but some of them may stay there until after the renovation, as we have nowhere to put them, and no immediate use for them.

With these things out of the way, the evening was a little less hectic.

Thank you for reading my post.

10/8/19: Daily Post

Yesterday was long, but less frustrating than Monday.  I talked with a former student about the batch reactor and they had some good suggestions.  I did some research on the batch reactor and ordered a few new parts for it.  I also came up with a few ideas on how to improve the procedure.

I tutored at Magdalena, helped with Chem Car at NMT, and then led another section of instrumentation lab.

In the evening, I was able to get the vacuum furnace running.  I have been putting that one off, but it was time to just get it running.

Thank you for reading my post.

9/24/19: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day working my normal Tuesday routine.  I started out by tutoring at Magdalena until after lunch.

I returned to NMT and helped out with the freshman design lab.  They are just beginning their chem-e car project and are still developing their initial ideas.  Many of the mentors were there to help guide them through this process, so it was a good time.

After design lab, I moved some books from my old office to my new office.  I then taught instrumentation lab, then returned to moving more stuff between offices.

I went to my brother’s house late at night and watched parts of several episodes of Blacklist, though I kept falling asleep during them, so I never saw a full episode.

Thank you for reading my post.

9/14/19: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the morning at St. Mary’s Catholic School for their STEM day.  Each year, they put on an event where scientists can do demos for the kids at the school.  I always help the Chem-E Car team with their demo.

In the afternoon, one of the Chem-E car students and I had lunch in Los Lunas, where another one of the students works.  She got to take her lunch break soon after we arrived, so we all got to hang out and chat.

In the evening, we lost power for an hour, thanks to the nearby thunderstorms.  Those storms produced a lot of lightning, but remained below severe limits.  There was a Flash Flood Warning issued for Albuquerque; it was the only weather-related warning in the United States at that time.

Thank you for reading my post.