while many of my friends were enjoying Thanksgiving meals
I was happily at work in my office. I woke up this morning thinking that my boss might wander through, and I was correct. We've solved all of the problems we were having with the chloritoid analyses and it was time to face the question about why the talc in the metagreywackes is so much lower in its ratio of Mg/Fe than is the talc in the metapelites. In playing with graphs looking at their composition we noticed that not only are the metagreywacks low Mg/Fe, they also contain a noticeable contamination of Ca and K, neither of which should be present in a talc. Plotting different elements againsts one another made it clear that there were two distinct populations, one which is present only in the metagrewackes, save for a single analysis in one of the metapelites (and which I'd previously asked him about since it was so different from the other talc in that sample, both in how it looks, and its composition), the other of which is present only in metagreywackes. Conclusion at the end of the day--we don't actually have talc in the metagreywackes at all, it is something else. One guess is anthophyllite, an amphibole mineral I'd never had anything to do with before today, but which my boss tells me was shown by experiments in the 1960's to me a metastable product of talc breakdown. This is actually comforting news, because we'd been wondering why we were getting both biotite and talc in some of the lower pressure experiments, but it turns out that bitote is only present with this new phase, not talc at all.
Of course this all means that additional microprobe time is required, to double check all of these experiments with talc and the not-talc, see if any others actually contain both phases besides the one high-P run (and see if we can get more analyses of the not-talc in that sample). He consulted the calender, and my birthday present this year is microprobe time! I get to use the probe on my birthday, and then again the week before Christmas. Then I have till the end of the year to process all of the data, incorporate it with my other results, interpret it all, and get a write up ready to submit for publication. Oh, and pack and be out of my apartment, too. It is, perhaps, a good thing I never developed a local social life!
In other news, I failed to read my 1000 words of geologic literature last night. The past several nights I've been reading it before yoga (instead of after yoga in bed like I had been doing), but when I got home last night I decided that I'd better finish attaching the new improved lacing to my bliaut that I will be wearing this weekend, and I recall thinking as I sat down to sew, around 22:45, that I would do my 1000 either after sewing or after yoga, depending on how I felt. I completed the lacing, and then, realizing that I am heading to Stockholm this weekend, and might want to actually button my coat (which has been in progress for well over a year, but has been more or less wearable for a full year now). Therefore I also took the time to add button holes for the top three buttons (6 of the 11 or 12 buttons the coat will have were attached to the coat a month or more ago). By the time I was done it was well after midnight, so I did my yoga, some meditation, and then crawled into bed, picked up a good book and read fiction for about 30 minutes, and then turned off the light and went to sleep, without ever thinking about reading 1000.
Darn! Prior to yesterday I'd remembered for 321 days in a row, and was highly motivated to keep it up. I'd been wondering if I wanted to bring a text book or a print out of some papers with me on the Stockholm trip, since I am not planning on bringing the computer. However, now that I've messed up the run, I now have the temptation to bring nothing at all (thus cutting down on the weight, since I'm flying carry-on-only), and start my new count later. Perhaps even after year-end. Funny how easy it is to contemplate tossing out a good habit which has proven its worth time and time again. I'll report back later if I chose to keep the habit, or to take the vacation.
I ran into a frustrating computer moment tonight. Realizing that it would be nice to have a map to get to where I'm going in Stockholm, I went to google maps, entered in the addresses, created a pdf. Did it again using Firefox instead of GoogleChrome, since the latter prints pdf with a huge white square in the middle of the map, and went down the hall with the file on usb to print it on the computer outside of my bosses office like I normally do. However, today it had no monitor. No worries, this has happened before, I know the solution: I got the monitor from the next room (which was sitting there without a computer attached, since the computer had been taken home with him), and plugged it in. And it said no signal. So I looked at the computer itself, and it wasn't on (they never turn it off, it contains the server for the dept web page), so I pushed the on button, and nothing happened. Tried again. Nothing. Ok, well, I suppose I could just go get my computer and introduce it to the printer.
Tired that. Plugged in the printer, and my computer said "failed to install your device". Fine. Google the printer make and model (HP LaserJet 4050N), found a driver, downloaded it, tried to install. Computer said that the location didn't have an appropriate driver. Google again, specifying for Window's 7 this time. Find a useful-looking web page on the official HP page with very clear, easy to follow, instructions about how to get drivers for their products on a Window's 7 machine. Followed step one, which involved going to a different page and typing in the name of the printer. It then said that it needed to install something on my computer that would let it automatically detect any HP device I might have. So I let it. After a bit of time it finished the installation, and then announced that it couldn't find any HP device, and would I be so kind as to provide them feedback about what I thought about their wonderful page and how easy it is to use. Why, yes, yes I would. I explained to them that I was not happy with their system, and that rather than designing fancy detector tricks that don't even work they should simply have a page that would let us access a driver when we know what the product is. Then I gave up, returned to my office, and in much less time than I'd wasted trying to print, used pen and paper to get enough of a map to find where I'm going tomorrow.
In just five and a half hours I have to depart for my trip to the airport. I should probably take a nap before I do. I wonder if I will? I am not bringing my computer, so I don't expect to be back on line till after I'm back in Milan on Sunday afternoon.
Of course this all means that additional microprobe time is required, to double check all of these experiments with talc and the not-talc, see if any others actually contain both phases besides the one high-P run (and see if we can get more analyses of the not-talc in that sample). He consulted the calender, and my birthday present this year is microprobe time! I get to use the probe on my birthday, and then again the week before Christmas. Then I have till the end of the year to process all of the data, incorporate it with my other results, interpret it all, and get a write up ready to submit for publication. Oh, and pack and be out of my apartment, too. It is, perhaps, a good thing I never developed a local social life!
In other news, I failed to read my 1000 words of geologic literature last night. The past several nights I've been reading it before yoga (instead of after yoga in bed like I had been doing), but when I got home last night I decided that I'd better finish attaching the new improved lacing to my bliaut that I will be wearing this weekend, and I recall thinking as I sat down to sew, around 22:45, that I would do my 1000 either after sewing or after yoga, depending on how I felt. I completed the lacing, and then, realizing that I am heading to Stockholm this weekend, and might want to actually button my coat (which has been in progress for well over a year, but has been more or less wearable for a full year now). Therefore I also took the time to add button holes for the top three buttons (6 of the 11 or 12 buttons the coat will have were attached to the coat a month or more ago). By the time I was done it was well after midnight, so I did my yoga, some meditation, and then crawled into bed, picked up a good book and read fiction for about 30 minutes, and then turned off the light and went to sleep, without ever thinking about reading 1000.
Darn! Prior to yesterday I'd remembered for 321 days in a row, and was highly motivated to keep it up. I'd been wondering if I wanted to bring a text book or a print out of some papers with me on the Stockholm trip, since I am not planning on bringing the computer. However, now that I've messed up the run, I now have the temptation to bring nothing at all (thus cutting down on the weight, since I'm flying carry-on-only), and start my new count later. Perhaps even after year-end. Funny how easy it is to contemplate tossing out a good habit which has proven its worth time and time again. I'll report back later if I chose to keep the habit, or to take the vacation.
I ran into a frustrating computer moment tonight. Realizing that it would be nice to have a map to get to where I'm going in Stockholm, I went to google maps, entered in the addresses, created a pdf. Did it again using Firefox instead of GoogleChrome, since the latter prints pdf with a huge white square in the middle of the map, and went down the hall with the file on usb to print it on the computer outside of my bosses office like I normally do. However, today it had no monitor. No worries, this has happened before, I know the solution: I got the monitor from the next room (which was sitting there without a computer attached, since the computer had been taken home with him), and plugged it in. And it said no signal. So I looked at the computer itself, and it wasn't on (they never turn it off, it contains the server for the dept web page), so I pushed the on button, and nothing happened. Tried again. Nothing. Ok, well, I suppose I could just go get my computer and introduce it to the printer.
Tired that. Plugged in the printer, and my computer said "failed to install your device". Fine. Google the printer make and model (HP LaserJet 4050N), found a driver, downloaded it, tried to install. Computer said that the location didn't have an appropriate driver. Google again, specifying for Window's 7 this time. Find a useful-looking web page on the official HP page with very clear, easy to follow, instructions about how to get drivers for their products on a Window's 7 machine. Followed step one, which involved going to a different page and typing in the name of the printer. It then said that it needed to install something on my computer that would let it automatically detect any HP device I might have. So I let it. After a bit of time it finished the installation, and then announced that it couldn't find any HP device, and would I be so kind as to provide them feedback about what I thought about their wonderful page and how easy it is to use. Why, yes, yes I would. I explained to them that I was not happy with their system, and that rather than designing fancy detector tricks that don't even work they should simply have a page that would let us access a driver when we know what the product is. Then I gave up, returned to my office, and in much less time than I'd wasted trying to print, used pen and paper to get enough of a map to find where I'm going tomorrow.
In just five and a half hours I have to depart for my trip to the airport. I should probably take a nap before I do. I wonder if I will? I am not bringing my computer, so I don't expect to be back on line till after I'm back in Milan on Sunday afternoon.