Trials and Tribulations

Normally, I would like to post more interesting topics about science or technology, but of late my distractions have poured out for all to see and read about here at sensory output. Alas, I have not really come across much that piqued my interest in the last week, so there you go.

This coming week should be interesting as I formulate a syllabus for my general chemistry TA(teaching assistant) position that I was bestowed by my department. Making the leap from learning chemistry to teaching it should be interesting. Add in the safety precautions, twenty some eighteen year olds, some chemicals and you have a powerful mixture for either great potential to learn or disaster. I will use my knowledge to the best of my ability and convey that to my students to ensure a good lab experience in this freshmen chemistry lab. I look forward to the experience.

In addition, I am also a member of the anatomy dissection team, whose duties include dissection of two cadavers for use in teaching the lab portion of the Anatomy and Physiology course, dissection of cats, and aiding the TAs of the labs with instruction of students on models and learning the anatomical factoids we have deemed interesting and valid for this level of study. This, too, should present a similar challenge because the students will be looking to me for assistance and my knowledge of the material to aid them in getting good grades. Fun stuff.

My chemistry research has restarted, and I am learning to create PDMS molds through a soft lithography technique using a polyurethane intermediate and etched silicon wafer primary template. I need to look at some of the primary literature out there that uses PDMS and micropumps to deliver solutions to the PDMS stamps; hopefully, I can learn enough to create a technique for use with our research.

Work outside schools is chaotic and random, projects spilling out all over the place varying from construction to web design jobs. Weird, huh? I need to sort this out and get my act together, as I fear I have been neglecting some of my clients. I need to get some work done so I might get paid: I want to replace my iPod ASAP!

I have been piddling with sensory output a bit lately, as well, performing minor alterations on the About, RideStat and SpamStat pages. More work is definitely in order to clean things up on non-Safari browsers. Also, I am displeased with the calendar rollover functionality, as it has proven slow and highly incompatible with last-generation browsers (like IE 5.x). Maybe I will try to revert to a table output instead of several div containers, which would also create a more readable text-only version of this page. I’ll keep you updated.

Have a fun weekend.