DSA, 12/8/2009
ø
Ben
Progress on Deliverables
- Confocal prep—nope.
- Mesozoic rads—looked at it, but was uninspiring. The parameters Ben measured for his MSc work (size, shell thickness and porosity) – Ben can get at size from these pictures, but not shell thickness. Some measure of porosity possible. Pics are quite low res, though. Question is then, does this help? Not clear on whether the silica use matters so much. Basically only way to proceed is to weigh the sample. But probably will not continue with this line of attack.
- Started working on Zoe’s e-mail, but got confused about an isotope issue. Never sent it.
- Nope. Force majeur
It’s been a rough week, but at the very least Ben now has one less thing to worry about! We are sick of milestones – they make us feel small and miserable. Ben wants a real job that has milestones and achievements, but things really just aren’t like that. But that’s just not how it works. It’s not a 9-5 job, and forcing it into this form just backfires. Makes Ben feel stupid – feels like he reaches for goals that are never reached. Every time he leaves work, he feels like he’s not making progress. Only way to make progress is to immerse oneself in it. Making plans and schedules is a pointless exercise. Need to just get ‘r done. Pretending things are other than they are does not get them done.
Deliverables
- Complete training on FIB.
- Continue with R, replicating Rabosky’s results.
- Send e-mail to Zoe.
- E-mail Dave about ODP stuff.
Beaudry
Progress on Deliverables
100% of last week’s deliverables perfectly accomplished! Congratulations.
Deliverables
- Fix diversions issue—that’s a major task. Diversions should be within 10% of historic values.
Other Thoughts
WQTM section has been debugged, but hasn’t checked to see whether results are reasonable. Need to invest 3-5 days to check whether that’s the case. Should be able to finish this before the year’s out. Also would like to get Travis’ feedback on progress—his PhD project was a similarly large and complex model. Also wants to meet with Mike. Ben suggests focusing the conversation on what he needs to see in order to OK for June graduation, motivated by the need to organize immigration/visa status and money issues. Also wanted to ask about how much time he thinks is necessary for draft iterations of the thesis.
