Queen of the Bench

It’s always interesting to pick up specialized, esoteric terminology from experienced scientists and engineers.  The language you hear on the job is very different than what you learned in lecture halls!

For example, in school, you might learn how to calculate that 4.6 GHz radio waves have a wavelength of 6.51 centimeters.  On the job, the RF engineer will tell you that once you get to wavelengths much below 10 cm, radio tends to “wiggle through” unexpected gaps and “leak everywhere,” where it becomes a “huge pain in the ass.”

In school, you might learn that many metals will reflect neutron radiation.  On the job, the plasma physicist will tell you that neutrons tend to “rattle around” inside steel coaxial cables and use them as channels to fly out into the building, where they will “ruin your day” and “piss off the nuclear safety people” if you don’t shield them right.

In school, you might learn that tungsten is an extremely dense material that makes for very good thermal shielding in extreme environments, but it can be challenging to machine.  On the job, the mechanical engineer will tell you that working with tungsten is “the fucking worst” and if they have to build “an entire god damn wall of shielding tiles” out of it, they will “seriously pitch a fit.”

Enter: “fun books”

My “fun books” are anything that are easy for me to pick up and put down, don’t require me reading in hidden meanings/themes or taking notes about characters or plots to remember what the hell is happening. My “fun books” are generally young adult books, romance novels, dystopian futures, or  sci-fi/fantasy adventures (because that’s just the kind of nerd I am)...anything that I can fall into and become immersed without much effort, because, can’t something in this world be easy? 

I started with “Twilight”, which I had never read before and knew was not a literary masterpiece, but still was so intrigued to read. It worked guys. I read the whole weekend and finished the book in 3 days. Is that an accomplishment for a piece of fluff? No, not really. But it got me back into reading and was the first time in a long time I spaced out while reading and had the hours fly by. I’ve only read a few books since then so far, but more often now, I find myself wanting to pick up a book at the end of the day before I go to sleep. It’s nice! 

I’m at the point in my life now where I don’t really care about stigma or feel the need to be super productive/smart/deep all the time, and I think having that realization is what has gotten me back on the pleasure-reading bandwagon. Sometimes your brain needs a break! You just need to figure out what “fun books” are to you and go find some :)

P.s. Suggestions on books/series welcome! 

There’s no secret or magic solution to your mental health. Some days will be rough even when you’re doing your best and practicing all the coping techniques you can. Don’t despair, it happens! Things will get better again soon. ♡

My husband is all music no lyrics. Still loves to sing along but with completely made up words. 

If you like ambient white noise (rain/creaking houses/fire places, nature) and beautiful, moody artwork, check out The Guild of Ambience on Youtube. 

Goldfinches are usually mostly absent for me in the summer. They are the latest nesters, I have heard, and they seem to spend some fun time out in the wild before they start building families. Right now, I see one or the other return, here a male in his glorious summer “clothes”. I have some shelled sunflower seeds out that they seem to like a lot.

Do not worry about your contradictions - Persephone is both floral maiden and queen of death. You, too, can be both.

These are the 2 sides of my office at home! I like both the “light” aesthetic as well as the “dark” aesthetic so in the wise words of the quote above and Tulio and Miguel: “both. both is good.”

Bonus: my dog always chills under whichever desk I’m not using atm

I will be moving at the end of this month and have the opportunity to revamp my work space at home! In addition, my data generating and collecting days are slowly coming to an end for my current project, so I’m expecting a lot of evenings where I will be doing data analysis and writing at home. I do have a second monitor at work for when I’m doing data analysis and making presentations in lab, but I wonder if it’s worth it to get a monitor for when I do data analysis and writing from home. It’s not necessary, but it is a bit nicer and more convenient. 

Currently, I have a small Micke desk from IKEA, and I’m fairly happy with it. I’m considering getting a monitor at home, possibly a monitor stand (the laptop can go underneath), a wireless keyboard, and a wireless mouse. Or maybe just a monitor to be used as a second screen? I’m interested in seeing my fellow gradblrs’ work spaces at home for more inspiration on how to set mine up more efficiently.

My desk looks hideous next to this, but I’ll just describe a few setups that I have!

My computers:

Mac laptop (personal, for work and home)

Windows desktop + 2 PC monitors (at home for gaming/whatever else!)

iMac (Work computer)

I have a macbook laptop that I bring back and forth to the lab and do a fair bit of things on, but I always like to have at least 1 bigger monitor for data analysis. Mainly because for my work, I have a bunch of image processing to do and it’s SO much easier to open up all of my movies side by side to give them some thought before diving into the quantifcation. Sometimes you miss things you can see easily by eye! The other reason I love a second monitor is that you can have spreadsheets or code in one window and then writing/powerpoint/whatever else on the other. Less flipping back and forth. Makes figure making a lot nicer as well :) 

Since it’s pandemic times, I was able to bring my work computer home, which is an old iMac I scavenged with 1 fairly large screen. I am doing well with it because it’s pretty giant and I don’t really need a second monitor, but before this I used to just plug my laptop into one of the PC monitors at home and it was great! I still do use the laptop/PC monitor combo if I’m presenting virtually (then you can see your presenter notes!), or if I need the power of my laptop (it’s a lot newer than the imac).

Do you think if you’ll be working from home primarily on writing, that you could bring the work monitor with you for a bit? Could save some $ instead of buying another one! 

My keyboard is a logitech K375s which is wireless and can switch via bluetooth between 3 devices. This is super cool if you have a separate laptop and desktop (like me) but want just 1 keyboard to rule them all! >:D

My mouse is a logitech M510 I believe? Also wireless and can be paired with the same little USB receiver as the keyboard, meaning 1 less USB port taken up on my computer (win)!

So I work primarily on the iMac now that I’m in pandemic mode, but the PC monitor can be connected to the actual PC or to my laptop if I want to use it that way. I never said it was beautiful, people! 

I will be moving at the end of this month and have the opportunity to revamp my work space at home! In addition, my data generating and collecting days are slowly coming to an end for my current project, so I’m expecting a lot of evenings where I will be doing data analysis and writing at home. I do have a second monitor at work for when I’m doing data analysis and making presentations in lab, but I wonder if it’s worth it to get a monitor for when I do data analysis and writing from home. It’s not necessary, but it is a bit nicer and more convenient. 

Currently, I have a small Micke desk from IKEA, and I’m fairly happy with it. I’m considering getting a monitor at home, possibly a monitor stand (the laptop can go underneath), a wireless keyboard, and a wireless mouse. Or maybe just a monitor to be used as a second screen? I’m interested in seeing my fellow gradblrs’ work spaces at home for more inspiration on how to set mine up more efficiently.

My desk looks hideous next to this, but I’ll just describe a few setups that I have!

My computers:

Mac laptop (personal, for work and home)

Windows desktop + 2 PC monitors (at home for gaming/whatever else!)

iMac (Work computer)

I have a macbook laptop that I bring back and forth to the lab and do a fair bit of things on, but I always like to have at least 1 bigger monitor for data analysis. Mainly because for my work, I have a bunch of image processing to do and it’s SO much easier to open up all of my movies side by side to give them some thought before diving into the quantifcation. Sometimes you miss things you can see easily by eye! The other reason I love a second monitor is that you can have spreadsheets or code in one window and then writing/powerpoint/whatever else on the other. Less flipping back and forth. Makes figure making a lot nicer as well :) 

Since it’s pandemic times, I was able to bring my work computer home, which is an old iMac I scavenged with 1 fairly large screen. I am doing well with it because it’s pretty giant and I don’t really need a second monitor, but before this I used to just plug my laptop into one of the PC monitors at home and it was great! I still do use the laptop/PC monitor combo if I’m presenting virtually (then you can see your presenter notes!), or if I need the power of my laptop (it’s a lot newer than the imac).

Do you think if you’ll be working from home primarily on writing, that you could bring the work monitor with you for a bit? Could save some $ instead of buying another one! 

My keyboard is a logitech K375s which is wireless and can switch via bluetooth between 3 devices. This is super cool if you have a separate laptop and desktop (like me) but want just 1 keyboard to rule them all! >:D

My mouse is a logitech M510 I believe? Also wireless and can be paired with the same little USB receiver as the keyboard, meaning 1 less USB port taken up on my computer (win)!