10/31/23: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day at NMT, working on a few different projects. I taught the freshman design class and gave my infamous materials engineering lecture. After that, we had lab, where the freshmen learned how to use ChemCAD.

I knocked out two projects for clients. I also have several new Upwork tasks that have shown up in the past few days. I’m trying to keep it all organized.

In the evening, I went to the gym and ran 4.15 miles. I also did some lifting. I am pleased with the running; several times this month, I have run for 55 straight minutes. I could probably go for 60, but the treadmill cuts off at 60 minutes; by the time I walk for five to warm up, that’s about as good as it gets.

Thank you for reading my post.

12/3/19: Daily Post

Yesterday was busy and frustrating.  I skipped going to Magdalena to get caught up on some other projects.  I made some progress, but did not catch up.

I also stuck around NMT all day because I taught a section of freshman design.  I give a lecture each year called, “Introduction to Materials Engineering”, which is typically a popular event.

In the evening, I continued desperately to catch up.  Instead, I feel like I fell farther behind.  In fact, I noticed that I actually LOST content from one of my projects.  Stupid Excel crashes from time to time and I lost one section’s worth of test questions.  Instead of taking things off my to do list, I ended up having to add things to it.  Not new things, mind you, things I’ve already done.

Thank you for reading my post.

9/25/18: Daily Post

Yesterday was a busy day.  I spent the early part of it trying to get to Magdalena, but ended up sitting in traffic by the construction for a really long time.  Eventually,  I did get to Magdalena and was able to tutor one and a half classes.

I returned from Magdalena and taught an Introduction to Materials Engineering lecture to the Intro to Chemical Engineering students.  It’s a tradition we have, where  I teach my area of “research” just like the other professors.

I left that class and taught instrumentation lab.  This week, we began using the Stamp II microcontroller.

In the evening, I had two sessions for Varsity Tutors.  Unfortunately, the second student didn’t show up, and I had to bill him anyhow.

Thank you for reading my post.

11/7/17: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the morning in Magdalena tutoring.

I did a guest lecture in the freshman chemical engineering class, and I think it went well. I talked about materials engineering, and had quite a few things to pass around as demonstration pieces.  I do this lecture once a year, and it seems to be popular.

In the afternoon, I helped several of the chem car groups get set up.  Then, I taught two sections of instrumentation lab.  This week’s lab, we spent touring the Unit Operations Lab and learning about the safety and instrumentation that was present there.

In the evening, I drove to my brother’s house and fell asleep 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.

11/7/16: Daily Post

Yesterday was a productive day.  I debated staying home and buying ammo instead of going to work, as I know the price will increase after the election, probably more so than what I would make by going to work.  Even so, I chose to go to work.

I tutored at Magdalena in the morning, standard Monday classes:  Algebra II, Physical Science and AVID.  I talked to Dad on the ride up, and made a bunch of phone calls on the way back, ordering some meds, and checking on the Taurus Settlement.

In the afternoon, I ran the unit operations lab.  This week was the introductory session, so the students come and see the equipment without running experiments.  They get a feel for what they have control over and what is out of their control.

Then, I planned out my lecture and homework for class today, as well as refined my guest lecture today for the freshman class.

On the commute home, I worked on my NaNoWriMo project.  I’m still on track to finish that, as I am a few words ahead of where I need to be.  However, I have some travel and three major projects due soon, all of which will slow down my writing.

Thank you for reading my post.

11/18/11

What a busy week this has been! I started off by working really hard making a “What is Materials Engineering?” lecture for the chemical engineering freshmen. I spent all night practicing it, and then made even more changes the next morning.

Tuesday was Joey’s birthday. It just so happened that the Trans Siberian Orchestra was playing in Las Cruces, so we drove down to see them. They put on a decent show, though not quite of the caliber of their Cleveland show. Their non-Christmas music was better than usual, however.

Wednesday was an all day property training course. I have a lot of work to do at NMT to make sure we meet these requirements.

Today, the chimney people come by to work on our woodstove. It will be nice to get that up and running.