8/7/19: Daily Post

Yesterday was a busy day.  I spent the morning moving computers out of one lab and put them in another.  I’m freeing up space in one of our labs and making another room a computer lab.  I think computer labs are a thing of the past, and will soon fade away.  Almost nobody uses the computers in this lab, so I moved them out of the way.

In the afternoon, I had a Varsity Tutors session and wrote up a few Standard Operating Procedures for lab equipment.   I also developed a really good instrumentation lab that will hopefully be educational and fun.

Overall, it was a relatively productive day.  I finished everything on my To Do list for the day, but I think my To Do list was a little light.

Thank you for reading my post.

8/6/19: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day in Socorro and Magdalena.  I started out the day by turning in some paperwork to Magdalena.

When I returned to Socorro, I decided to get an oil change.  While the car was on the lift, I noticed the front tires were worn badly, and the mechanic noticed the rear differential was leaking.  He replaced the seal and the front tires.

In the afternoon, I did a bunch of work in the chemical engineering department, as well as towards the dynamo project.

In the evening, I walked home from Walmart and the bus stop, after having a great conversation about Buicks with the bus driver.  I did a little housework  and went to bed.

Thank you for reading my post.

3/14/19: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the bulk of the day in Magdalena tutoring.  Actually, that’s not quite true, I spent the morning at NMT, working on a few projects, and then returned there in the evening as well to do the same.  The middle of the day was spent at Magdalena tutoring and running the Storm Chase Club meeting.

I also had a Varsity Tutors session in the afternoon.  It was a materials science lesson.  I haven’t done materials in ages, but the student sent me her work ahead of time so that I could review.

For whatever reason, I also decided to take part of a practice ACT.  I did about half of it, and was not super impressed with my results.  I did crappy on the SAT, too.

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11/26/18: Daily Post

Yesterday was a busy, yet uneventful day.  The bulk of yesterday was spent moving stuff from my old office in Workman West 159 to my new office in Jones 264.  My old office is now empty, and all I have left to move is in the lab.  I still need to get set up in the new office.

I met with the dynamo group and backed up the software yesterday.

I didn’t do any NaNoWriMo writing yesterday.  I had almost caught up this weekend, but now I’m two days behind again.  I’ll have to work on that this evening.  I did write an article for Paydirt, though I don’t know if they will publish it, as I was behind schedule.

In the evening, I updated some of my amateur radio logs.  I fell asleep soon after I got home yesterday evening.  I think I was in bed by 9 PM.  No good!

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3/5/18: Daily Post

Happy Birthday to Mom! (Today!!!)

Yesterday, I spent the morning tutoring at Magdalena. This week is all messed up as they are going to the state basketball tournament, and school will be letting out early a bunch of days this week so that people can go to the game.

After Magdalena, I watched a bunch of Junior Design presentations. I have some work to do for them to get them ready for finals, though most groups have a good plan to get there.

I did two Varsity Tutors sessions last night as well. I picked up a new student who is taking a Materials Engineering class, and she will occasionally want help before quizzes and tests. I also met online with one of my new regulars. That’s five sessions in less than 24 hours.

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3/1/18: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the morning and afternoon tutoring at Magdalena High. We spent most of chemistry class trying to solder a tiny chip to a board using solder paste and a heat gun. I don’t think I have a fine enough syringe to actually apply the appropriate amount of paste. Also, the chip is small enough that it wants to move around with the heat gun’s air.

In the afternoon, I missed my ride to the Boys and Girls Ranches, so I instead turned my attention to the Unit Operations lab. I spent the evening rearranging quite a few things in there. I have a checklist of things still to do by next semester, but I’m off to a good start.

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2/21/18: Daily Post

Yesterday was largely uneventful. Wednesday is my “meetings” day, where I spend most of my time bouncing between different meetings.

My first meeting was with the Physics department. I finally signed paperwork to get paid for this semester, and also got a little more direction on what still needs to be done on this project. I think things are coming along nicely.

My second meeting was with the Dynamo group. I picked up the latest version of the software and then discussed different debugging techniques with the programmer.

My third meeting was with the chemical engineering department, as it was our weekly meeting. There was not much worth mentioning on here.

After those meetings, I helped a professor move some shelves and then went and taught a section of instrumentation lab. This section was the first lecture on microcontrollers, and I think the students had a good time.

After class, I commuted home. Along the commute, I did a little writing, finishing another chapter in my fiction book.

After my commute, I went home, filled out a few QSL cards and watched two episodes of Justified with Joey.

Overall, it was a good day.

Thank you for reading my post.

1/24/18: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the day at NMT. I started out by going to an interview for becoming an Explora Fellow. This wasn’t a placement interview, but it was an interview to get the preliminary work done for my project. The interviewer and I had a great time talking about the weather.

I had two meetings get cancelled, but ended up sucked into other projects. I spent a good part of yesterday mid-day working on the computer lab, updating software. I also had a department meeting sandwiched in there as well.

In the afternoon, I taught my first section of instrumentation lab this semester. I have only two students, so the lab goes by very quickly. I spent the remainder of the afternoon working on the computers and then meeting with another student to practice using the plastic welder. I had to leave before it got up to temperature, but we will try again later.

On my commute home, I worked on my storm chasing book. I added about 400 words to it. I have a ways to go, but I told the publisher I would have the table of contents and the first chapter by February, and I am on schedule to do that.

In the evening, Joey and I watched an episode of Justified. We are almost done the second season. I also updated my amateur radio logbooks.

Thank you for reading my post.

1/16/18: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the morning in Magdalena, tutoring AVID and Math Analysis.  After that, I went to several tutoring meetings to develop a schedule for this semester.  I think we are settled on one at this point.

After the tutoring meetings, I met with the Physics Department about work that needs to be done there this semester.  I am excited to continue doing LabVIEW work with those folks.

In the afternoon, I drove to St. Mary’s Catholic school in Belen and started working with the 4th-8th graders on robotics.  They are using the VEX system, so I am learning that as well.  I had a lot of fun working with these students and am looking forward to next Tuesday.

In the evening, I did spent some time going through the NI Forums and downloading NI Vision, and will play with that program soon.  I also started cleaning up my lecture notes and classwork for instrumentation lab.

Thank you for reading my post.

12/13/17: Daily Post

Yesterday, I spent the morning at Magdalena, tutoring.  I did my normal Wednesday line up of AVID, Math Analysis and Chemistry, though all of the classes are in review for their semester final exams next week.

In the afternoon, I met with the architects that are going to renovate Old Jones Hall, which will become our “new” space.  I don’t know how that will go, and I am nervous, because Old Jones is awful.  I don’t know how one dresses it up to make it tolerable.

In the evening, I went to Flying Star, had a nice plate of Sweet and Spicy Mac and Cheese, and finished my grading for the semester.  I had several homework assignments left, and I was able to crank through those and post final grades.

I went home and started preparing a few more things for our upcoming road trip.

Thank you for reading my post.