The Job

Sunday started out pretty normal. There is a church not far from my house that I went and checked out. They're not affiliated with CBM but their service seemed pretty similar to what I am used to. They seem a little more conservative, however. There were no women visible in the lineup of communion servers and all of the music was the of the more traditional and hotly-debated hymn style. I actually found myself quite enjoying the more traditional service. I almost wonder if an entire congregtion singing older songs with passion and in unison isn't better than more contemporary material sung by 1/3 of a congregation.

I met two of the pastors. They have a student-type group that goes out sunday nights after their evening service. I went with them last night to see spiderman 3. It was pretty good. Although I warn you now, don't go see it with comic book junkies. They will just complain about how the movie was nothing like the comics. I never read the comics. The movie was fine. Comic books are for dorks...says the chemist.... The church also has a student bible study tuesday nights that I might check out.

I started work today. I have been assigned to work with a graduate student on her research. I have my own project within her work and I will be trying to make a certain group of molecules and then string them into chains. For any chemistry types out there I am making aryl-phosphine compounds with various alkyl substituents and then trying to polymerize them. All my materials are air and water sensitive so I have to do all my work under a nitrogen atmosphere in a glovebox or on the Schlenk line.

I like the word "schlenk". Say it five times fast to yourself and see if you aren't smiling. See you can't do it. I told you so. If anyone wants an in-depth explanation of my research feel free to email me. Don't all overload my inbox now.

My research group seems really good and the girl I am working with is a really good teacher and very nice. She will be going on vacation in two weeks and then I will be left alone for a month to carry on the work by myself. It's kind of cool to be able to work more independently than the other summer students but also more intimidating because I will have nobody to ask questions of who is current on my material. I will really be on my own. I don't see Thorsten or Andreas much. They each have their own "supevisor" that they work with. Although it's not like I can copy their papers anyway.

Everything else is fine. One of my housemates really likes to have political discussions.

I noticed Jonny and Julie are the only non-Gibsons to have left comments. If you are reading this blog even semi-regularly please drop me a comment just so I have a feel for how popular I am.

No, seriously, I am curious if anyone else besides my family is paying any attention. Although I suppose even if only Jon and Julie read it, the blog is worth writing. Like I said, I just want to quantify my popularity.

Somehow I bet words like "quantify" don't exactly help me much.