Say it with Song

This song describes my pump:
Up Down by Shinee (enough English lyrics for you to get the idea)


This is how I feel right now:
I'm So Tired by the Beatles


So, this is what I'm listening to:
Wherever You Are by One Ok Rock (yep, it's in English, mostly)


And:
Notes 'N Words by One Ok Rock (they're my happy place, what can I say?)

Yesterday and Today

Pump would not start.

Called in electrician -- found a breaker flipped and flipped it back.  

Removed questionable gate valve to make system more vacuum tight.  

Went to turn on pump.  It sparked and smoked.  

It didn't start.  

Found I had pinched and grounded a wire. I hung my head in shame.  

Called back in electricians -- fixed the wire and found a broken fuse.  Replace broken fuse.  

Started pump.  

All systems go.  

Turned on liquid nitrogen.  

I left the room.

I came back and the pumps were off.

"There was a pop! and a flash of light!"  

Pumps would not start.  

I checked fuse box -- found broken fuse and replaced it.  

Started pump.  

All systems go.

Pressures started rising.  

Turned off pumps.  

Did a leak check -- found two large leaks that have been there since I first started in the lab.  

Fixed the leaks.  

Started pump.

All systems go.  

Glorious, oh, glorious success.  

Running low on oil.  

Turned off pumps.  

Started pump.

All systems go.

Turned on liquid nitrogen.  

Did not leave the room. 

Heard a pop and a large spark fly across the room.

Turned off the pumps.

Went to turn on pump.

It didn't start.

I checked the fuse box -- found a broken fuse and replaced it.  

On our last fuse.  

Do we try again?  

Turn of Phrase

Yesterday at our Uke Jam, it got to my turn to choose a song and I looked at my friend for a suggestion and so we went with Edelweiss.

Everyone smiled, "Oh, another waltz?  Why do we keep choosing waltzes tonight?"

My friend and I looked at each other and started laughing.  "We should do Waltzing Matilda!"

When it got around to the lady who had heard our conversation, she chose just that song.

Did you know?  Waltzing Matilda is not even a waltz.  And it has nothing to do with dancing either.

But no matter, we were in a mood to laugh and we played it.  As I strummed through the chords (or tried to) and sang along, I would throw horrified glances towards my friend.  "They're going to arrest this guy?"

I suddenly realized, I had no idea what this song was really about.

So, I looked up the lyrics.

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled:
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me?"

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

definitions:

swagman: an itinerant Australian laborer who carries his personal belongings in a bundle as he travels around in search of work.

billabong: A branch of a river forming a backwater or stagnant pool.

coolibah tree: a type of Australian eucalyptus tree

billy: a camping pot used for boiling water

waltzing: to travel while working as a craftsman

Matilda: a term for the swagman's bundle

Essentially, it's a song about a man who travels around looking for work who is cooking himself some food by a river. In the rest of this song, the man kills a sheep to eat it and is approached by policeman who want to arrest him for stealing property from a squatter (side note: who is technically stealing property from someone else). The man refuses to be taken in and kills himself instead and his ghosts haunts the area.

English baffles me.  English baffles me.  English baffles me.  

I only knew the definitions of half of the words in that song.  How did I figure out what I did in that song?  

How do people ever learn this language as a second language?  

And why, oh why, oh why, do Australian people sing this at sporting events?  

Challenge Accepted

I think my lab thinks she's being hilarious.  Hilarious in the way that children think it's funny to run away from their parents in the mall and hide when said parent is exhausted and in a hurry to leave.

I guess in this analogy, I'm the parent and my lab is my child.  It might be an apt description - I do blame my lab for my grey hair and for taking the prime years of my life.

 Last week, a coupling failed.  This coupling was kind of a mess to begin with.  Some previous students had taken some rubber material and wrapped it around the two joining pipes and taped the seams with electrical tape and then threw a few metal clamps around the whole thing and called it good.  It baffles me that it didn't fail before.  It baffles me that it was sufficient to hold any portion of a vacuum.  But it held.

Thanks to this custom part, I had to go through two different couplings to find something that somewhat worked.  Even then, it wasn't perfect but I'm beyond the point of hoping for perfection.  While waiting for the parts, I opened up the coupling and cleaned out the system from oil and iodine.  As I struggled to squeeze myself in and out of that tight spot and maneuver around wires and piping and equipment, I was struck by the fact that this was something I had never opened up before.  As I cleaned and worked, I thought about my fingerprints which covered almost every inch of my lab and I marveled.

I smiled and told my colleague, "I think it's official: I have now fixed or maintained everything in this lab."  And then I knocked on wood just to be safe.

I think this is where my lab thought it would be extra hilarious to do something.  It was like she thought I was issuing a challenge.  Everything?! Just you wait.  I'll show you.

Today, I was planning on running my experiment.  I turned on my laser and started working through the laser few things I needed to do.  But there was a loud noise coming from the iodine pit so I went down to investigate the new leak in the pneumatic valve system (fittings spring leaks every few months there).  Except it wasn't a leak.  It was the regulator spouting mist all over the iodine pit.  I hung my head and went to go find the lab tech for some help in figuring out what was even going on.  

After opening it up and cleaning it out with no success, we decided the regulator was officially broken and needed to be replaced.

Hahaha, I get it.  A new something to break.  I spoke too soon.  Joke's on me.  Very funny, lab.  You're so clever.

But remember?  In the analogy, I'm the tired parent who really just wants to leave in peace.  This isn't really funny anymore, right?  Well, kids never seem to pick up on the "The joke is beyond old" sentiment.  And my lab doesn't seem to get the hint either.

Ok, lab.  Well, keep running around.  You may think you're running me down but I promise you're wearing yourself out.  Nap time is coming.

He who laughs last...

Lab Art

Here are some pictures of the equipment that hangs out behind my lab.  (i.e. the stuff outside my window)

Just from a different perspective.

Doesn't it all look impressive?   

Nostalgia

A decade of Julys:

Years in the Past |  Location | Occupation | interesting events

10 | Zhongli, Taiwan | Missionary | I experienced my first ghost month in Taiwan which included biking through the streets one evening with the air filled with smoke from burning incense and paper money.  Sparks even flew onto my clothes and burned little holes in the fabric, a constant reminder the rest of my mission about the experience.  
  9 | Neihu, Taiwan | Missionary | The water purifier in my apartment broke and I determined I would fix it myself so I spent my days planning appointments around stores where I could possibly pick up the parts I needed while my companion and I tried to ward off dehydration and heat exhaustion in the summer heat by buying our water or filling up every water bottle we owned at the church's water fountain.  One night's highlight was winning free water from our local 7-11.
  8 | Moon Apartment 7 and 12, Provo, UT | BYU Baseball Park Custodian | That summer, I experienced my first dating experiences since my mission, my first pretend summer romance and my first real heartbreak (er... three of them).  I learned the joy of photography and long bike rides in the mountains.
  7 | Moon House, Provo, UT | BYU Grounds Crew - Pruner | I spent eight hours a day learning about plants and how to take care of them while chatting with my newest friends and spent my evenings on walks worrying about graduate school and money.  I remember making a lot of bread and eating a lot of soup.
  6 | Montebello Apt, Charlottesville, VA | Graduate Student | I spent July in my first relationship which was a long distance one and required a lot of travel and planning and I served as ward activities chair so I remember feeling exhausted and busy all the time but I also felt very happy.
  5 | Montebello Apt, Charlottesville, VA | Graduate Student | The summer before I moved into the Shamrock house, a few of my roommates and I met up in Norfolk, VA for a very fun vacation that went exactly opposite of our plans.  I never did get to see the Great Dismal Swamp.
  4 | in the process of moving from the Shamrock House to the Bennington Place, Charlottesville, VA | I had just returned from Taiwan and so spent my time trying to catch up on the culture of Taiwan so I listened to a lot of Jay Chou, Wang Leehom, and of course, Mayday.
  3 | Bennington Place, Charlottesville, VA | Graduate Student | I think I spent this entire month moving people into and out of my ward and moving myself into a new apartment.  It was exhausting work.  I also spent that summer worrying a lot about my family and friends.  I paced the parking lot of my new apartment.
 2 | Mormon Row, Charlottesville, VA | Graduate Student | I spent the day with my sister and Baby and spent the evening with my roommates.  Even though it was wet, we went to watch fireworks and had a lot of fun.  I don't remember much from the rest of that month at all.
 1 | Sendai, Japan | A few days after the 4th holiday, I boarded a plane for Japan which ended up being more humid than I could imagine.  I spent my days acting as the intern and my evenings watching Japanese TV.  I tried teaching myself Japanese during this month and started running every day which I even started to admit was a "hobby" by the end of the summer.

Passing Through

Me: <cleaning out part of my sister's car> Baby!  You have tap shoes!  You take tap?  You do tap and ballet?
Baby: <nods and then sees a package of cookies in a bag> Yep!  And  there are these cookies here.

Me: <trying again> No, really, what have you learned in tap class?
Baby: ??
Me: Have you learned the shuffle/step?  <I demonstrate>
<Baby laughs at me>
Baby: No! Not the shuffle!  I learned how to stomp my feet!
Me: Really?  Like, just to make noise?
Baby: Yes.

(Her sister told me later that Baby has never worn tap shoes or attended tap class yet.  She made it all up)

Sister: Baby, do you know where we are going?
Baby: Sarah and Marc's?
Sister: Nope, not there.  Think about it.  I told you.  Where are we going?
Baby: <whispers> Cinderella's Castle.