Transitioning from Work to School

Now that I am comfortably ensconced on campus (well, as comfortable as student life gets), without the burden of work or lectures for the rest of the week, I have the time to procrastinate shamelessly blog once again.

The last day of work was very strange; I was acutely aware that in all likelihood, I will never see again the lab in which I have worked for the past few months. And it was, all in all, a very nice lab. Everybody else knew about my impending departure, too - coworkers often took the time to cover all the pleasantries that people should say on a student's last day (e.g. "all the best" and "we'll miss you"). Being the ingrate I am, I still wonder whether they actually meant what they said. Especially since I believe that one of my coworkers was/is mad at me.

Another awkwardness occured when my supervisor took me out for lunch (as is traditional, I was told). Perhaps it is just me, but I find it nervewracking to eat in front of a superior, what with my lack of gregariousness and properly snooty etiquette. The lunch took nearly two hours, too! Oh, the number of samples I could have analysed in those two hours. I missed them, those analyses, even if they were rather repetitive.

Some amusing events did occur, however.

As a gesture of thanks and affection, I bought chocolates for my coworkers. Of course, there was a problem: No Food is Permitted In the Lab. I figured that people would take the chocolates to a (nearby, and relatively empty) cafeteria. Well, no, they didn't. The irony did not fail me when I said "No food in the lab!" to two of my coworkers later on in the day, when they were consuming the said chocolates. Did I mention that both of them were officially above me in the company hierarchy? Heh.

I also handed out thank-you cards to three people, with the stipulation that they should not open them until I disappeared from their lives. The first was not at work that day, so I did not get a measure of that person's reaction. The second accepted it normally enough. The third person's response was, on the other hand, different: "Why did you give me that? What if it is a bomb? Is that why you want to be away when I open it?". In the light that this third person happens to be my trainer and mentor, well...I claimed, rather impudently, that I was tempted.

In retrospect, I honestly do not know whether I'll take similar jobs again - the life of a technician is often repetitive and dull. It was a positive experience overall, however, and I did learn alot, especially in the first few weeks. Beats debugging CS code any day, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, there are resumes to update, new jobs to look for, notes to review, rusty skills to re-sharpen (or "reduce to metallic state"?), professors to chase, rehearsals to go to, books to buy, and where'd my summer go? Ahhh, I need to re-adjust myself to student life.

(Did I mention that I have a digital piano now? Gorgeous but souless - the touch is still not right - it needs a name. Ideas?)

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A Moronic Moment

Poor, neglected blog. I need to post more often, don't I? Unfortunately, life remains somewhat hectic right now, so a meaningful post will probably not appear for quite some time.

Anyway...I got found out for doing something incredibly stupid today.

I believe I have mentioned my project report (the nontrivial one) once or twice before. As it happens, the project depends crucially upon the composition of a solution in a particular tank. Unfortunately (or so I thought), it is extremely difficult to obtain a sample from that tank. So I relied heavily upon stoichiometric calculations that should, in theory, give me the composition of the tank, and wrote my report based on those calculations.

Well, guess what? My supervisor showed me the sample valve today. After he evaluated my report.

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A Schedule

My report is due in a week, exactly. No, I am not done. *Insert panic here*. So...a schedule to help me finish the report.

Required to finish: summary, subsections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, conclusion, references, appendices A, B, C, D, E

• Tonight: appendices A, B, C, D, E (edit: appendices cut to just A, B, C...yay?)
  
• Saturday: subsections 3, 4, 5
  
• Sunday: no planned goals due to little things like overtime at work
  
• Monday: subsection 1, 2
  
• Tuesday: conclusion, references, summary
  
• Wednesday: editing and proofreading
  
• Thursday: binding
  
• Friday: hand-in

If I really have to, I can hand it in on Monday (in which case, binding occurs on Saturday, and all the section-writing gets a bit more room), but I really want to give my employer two full weeks to evaluate it before I disappear from his life. *Sigh*...we'll see.

[Later]
Appendices: mostly done, just need to include pictures.
Subsections 4, 5, done!
Subsection 3, a few more sentences to go.
Subsection 1, 2, hoping to finish tonight.

Not quite on schedule, but not bad.
(Must thank LyX for doing the formatting automatically; if I was using Word I'd be doomed.)

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Why am I Not Posting More Spectroscopy

The picture speaks for itself:


Don't I just love my data.

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Lab Technique Gone Haywire

A post that's not related to spectroscopy. Basically: I have a problem.

At work, there is a certain set of analyses that I do essentially every single day, five days a week. Since this has been going on for the past two months, I am rather familiar with them (or I ought to be, at any rate).

A particularly involved (in terms of time, not difficulty) analysis consists of two extractions with ethyl acetate, a back-extraction with sulfuric acid, and titration of the acidic aqueous layer with ceric sulfate and ferroin indicator. Pretty straightforward, as reactions go.

Today, something weird happened.

Setup: I have two (different) samples which require the same analysis as briefly described above. Since these analyses are routine, there are certain values that are expected, say 6.5 mL ("reasonable" range: 6.3 - 6.7) ceric sulfate for the first sample and 14.0 mL ("reasonable" range: 13.5 - 14.5) for the second one. (For the record, yes, burettes are supposed to be read to two decimal places, but apparently, not at work.)

Same person, doing the same analysis. Results:
For the first sample - 7.8 mL (this is a crazy value, in case I haven't emphasized that yet. Absolutely impossible.)
For the second sample - 14.3 mL (which is reasonable).

Of course, the first thing I do is to re-do the analysis for the first sample. Three times in all, actually. Same value (+/- 1 drop or so) each time.

Second thing done: maybe the sample wasn't representative of what was in the actual system that I was analysing. Got a second sample. Analysed it. Same crazy value.

Third thing done: ask a more experienced co-worker to do the analysis. He, on the other hand, got 6.4 mL (a reasonable value). So what's wrong?

1. It can't be the chemicals involved, because both my co-worker and I used the same reagents.
2. It can't be equipment contamination, because I washed everything. Albeit with tap water.
3. It can't be my lab technique, because my second sample had a reasonable result. And the samples that I analysed for the past month also had reasonable results. In addition, sloppy technique tends to cause loss of sample (smaller titrant volume). Accidentally adding too much titrant isn't something that is consistently reproducible, and it tends to be obvious to the person who did the analysis (as in "ohh crap, added too much!").

On the other hand, I do have a weird tendency to get higher values than everybody else. But it has never been this crazy before. Any ideas?

Other sad things that happened at work involve broken glassware. Lots of broken glassware. It's heartwrenching, how much stuff I broke...let's just say that I should never be allowed near a Schlenk line setup. *Sigh*.

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An Equilibrium Problem

Just posting a problem here (and assorted random thoughts potentially related to the problem) so I won't forget it later. Reader input (e.g. "You are an idiot for being stuck on this problem!") is welcome, too.

Story:
At work, it is routine to measure the pH of a sample. However, the pH meters are all calibrated to accept samples at 25 ^oC, while the samples themselves can be at various temperatures; rarely are they exactly at 25 ^oC.
Now, we have a water bath (set to 25^oC) for storing buffers, so some people put the sample in the bath and wait until it reaches 25 ^oC before measuring its pH, checking with a thermometer occasionally. On the other hand, other people just take the pH of the sample directly, claiming that the difference in pH due to temperature is negligible and that waiting for so long before taking the pH is a waste of time. As my supervisor happens to be of the latter persuasion, I am pretty much obligated to take the pH of the sample directly. However...how off will my value be from the true pH value, assuming that my pH meter is perfectly accurate?

Problem:
Suppose the pH of a solution is 11.60 at 25 ^oC. What is the pH of the solution at say, 30 ^oC?

Obviously, there isn't enough information to solve the problem. So, let's say we are given a CRC handbook, and a second-year thermodynamics textbook. But using thermodynamics equations leads to new problems, e.g. do we use the linear or polynomial approximation(s)?

Also - do we need to know all the relevant species and their concentrations in the system? In real life, the solution is some complicated mixture containing many species, including amines with lots of functional groups, dyes of unknown constitution, sodium carbonate, hydrated transition metal cations, sodium sulfite, and so on. Of course, I can simplify matters and claim that the mixture is simply a carbonate-bicarbonate buffer, with equal concentrations of each species before dissociation (say, 0.18 M). But that'd be cheating.

Of course, the easiest way out is to just measure the solution's pH at two temperatures. But that isn't nearly as fun. More to the point, in real life the pH meter has a tendency to drift, so the result is definitely not perfectly accurate.

Something to think about at work, I guess...along with some other stuff. Like trying to avoid being toasted at work for not noticing certain trends (yep, got toasted this morning, kind of like failing a pop-midterm. That wasn't fun.). One thing is certain, though: we never see interesting tidbits like this on a first-year chemistry final. Sad, isn't it?

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Procrastination Sets In

It is sad how a few weeks without school can turn me into such a slacker, to the point that I don't even really have anything to say on this blog these days. Arghh.

Maybe making a list of what I need/ought to do will make me more industrious:

• Spectroscopy, organic chemistry review


• Calculus and algebra (linear and abstract) review


• Work on that silly online writing course that everybody who took it hates (generalizing a bit, but in my experience thus far, the statement is true)


• Write down some of the procedures that I have learnt at work


• Think of a project that "will make the company more efficient"


• Group theory! !! !!!


• Statistics review. Much as I hate to say it. Ick, statistics.

The fun of dashing around in the lab all day hasn't paled yet, though. Even if most of the procedures are just titrations. Must be due to all the colour changes.

Incidentally, why does everyone make night shift sound so scary? My colleagues keep telling me how no other student has ever done it before. Now it seems as though night shift work is some spectre keen to strike down any unsuspecting student. Oh well. At least I ought to have a chance to play with the UV-vis at night, woot! (Yes, UV-vis isn't as hot as the AA, but I haven't done colorimetry for awhile...)

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A Ramble of The Lab

Internet is back! So, I suppose I am, also. Since I am far too unenthusiastic about my current online course (related to business/analytical writing, what fun) to finish my assignment for the week at the moment, I thought I might write about my job so far before I get to work. Oh, and before reading Clayden (the organic text), too. There's always more Clayden to read. Must get back to group theory, too, really must. Anyway.

The job is at a processing facility involving quite a bit of chemicals (in both variety and quantity). Tasks are actually fairly routine: analyse various samples collected from various machines, and make adjustments based upon the results. (Vague, I know, but sufficient for future ramblings.) A basic analytical techie job, essentially. Well, it is a student position.

Naturally, there are lots of transfer pipettes (from 1 mL to 100 mL!) and pH meters. Also, as I have mentioned previously, there's a beautiful AA, and an (albeit antiquated) autotitrator. There's also an UV-Vis spectrophotometer, but I didn't have a chance to use that yet (looking forward to it, although the previous colorimeters I have used are kind of um, "senile"). Other cool gadgets include self-zeroing burettes (which are gorgeous, but they tend to "pop" in a most disturbing way), an automatic shaker for (plastic) separatory funnels, and a micropipette. There are also enormously huge (and clean) fume hoods. An incredibly nice change from first-year labs!

The analytical chemicals themselves are nothing exceptional, but they are all interesting in their own ways. There's the ususal acids and bases, iodometry reagents, a tidbit of organic (ethyl acetate, and formaldehyde solution), indicators (phenolphthalein, ferroin, and starch), acetylene (ok, "ethyne") for the AA, and (best of all) cerium (IV) sulfate. Our buffers are colour-coded with pastel shades. Yes, we have very colourful spills (ok, I have very colourful spills). The chemicals used for processing the company's products aren't too odd, either. However, it's awesome (literally) to see reagents available at such a large scale. (Metric) tons of mixtures, 25 kg sacks of inorganic salts, jugs of NaOH, drums of organic reagents covered with stickers and signs. Especially interesting is the tank of 93% sulfuric acid, complete with its very own dike.

The oddest thing about the lab is that, although it is analytical in nature, speed is more important than precision. For example, most people are taught to read burettes to 2 decimal places. We only read to one, and we don't do partial drops, either. Going a bit over the mark of a volumetric flask is considered acceptable. Simply rinsing pipettes in the sink is considered sufficient cleaning (versus actually pipetting water into the pipette). These methods are wreaking havoc with my precision, but it suits the lazy part of me just fine. On the other hand, we are expected to run multiple reactions simultaneously, and remember to watch over them all.

The people at the lab are very nice. Sure, there's the ever-present making fun of the newbie, but overall it's a nice place to work at. Everybody is helpful. Competent and efficient, also. However, nobody is particularly passionate about what they do (which is understandable).

Worst part of the job: waking up before the sun rises to get to work. Argh.

Oddest sight thus far: seeing my supervisor climb up a ladder to the top of a tank, and dump roughly 2 L of NaOH into it. Crude, but apparently effective. That's not the usual way to make an adjustment, by the way.

While the job is currently quite exciting for me (it's fun to see how fast and accurately can I complete a series of procedures, and to guess at the adjustments made to troubleshoot deviating results), I suspect that it will be anything but for someone who has worked in the lab for years - the excitement associated with the procedures pale after awhile. Oh well, it's a taste of what chemistry in industry is like for a entry-level worker, anyway.

Now, a reminder to self - take pictures! I keep forgetting, and sometimes things are a bit too busy for me to take pictures. Especially when reactions are running and colours are changing.

Note: I keep changing between "I" and "We". While that is not grammatically correct, I do it alot, and will continue to do so.

Onto my assignments...must not let my math and chemistry deteriorate!

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Drop-in

Just a quick note to say that I am not dead yet, heh.

With the start of a job and lots of moving in and out, life is pretty busy lately...work is quite interesting though.

Random up-side: I love the AA in the lab (Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer...). Gotta love the flames! And the autotitrator Is indeed a very nice thing to have (even if burettes are still very much a part of my life).

Down-side: I now know how it feels to be a complete, utter newbie at something (even though I did actually have some previous experience at the tasks).

I'll post something more substantial when I have:
1. regular internet access that isn't "borrowed" from distant relations
2. spare time
3. no need to wake up insanely early in the morning to get to work due to very slow transit

*Sigh* I miss school.

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