Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button.

Transition:
Oct 14, 2012

I'm in the process of trying to get ready for going to a new different school.

(13 replies, Latest reply: 5 Weeks Ago)

School.
Sep 3, 2012

It's going badly. They want to throw me out of the program... not because of anything I actually ever did but because my petty academic advisor who is always convinced I am too stupid to be able to do or understand anything and my dad got into a fight awhile back because he didn't like we got his boss the chair to sign a form he de facto refused to sign by not being available for any meetings or his office hours since the deadline was looming closer and if we'd waited til he got back to us it would have been too late. So he's been retaliating at me ever since because lacking the maturity of most common adults he can't get over being made wrong or proven wrong. So the latest was he called me insane and was gleeful that now, just now, right toward the tail end of my degree I failed a course then retook it but still had low marks (in that course). He got to get in my face and yell at me about how dangerous and unsafe I must be (it was a lecture I'd failed, not a lab), and go on about how much of a screwup he thought I was (at everything, not just the course I'd failed but in general for being mediocre instead of Straight A's) for refusing to just give up and not listening to his 'advice' each semester to never take anything hard, that he thinks everything is too difficult for me, and why haven't I changed majors yet?
I really, really should have gotten a different advisor earlier but it reminded me a bit much of how my father treated me so I put up with it for far longer than I should have.

(8 replies, Latest reply: Oct 14, 2012)

Nerve wracking:
Jul 11, 2012

As my key research project gets closer to completion I pause to reflect on the good and bad times I had during working on it.

I had a number of my relatives give me unsolicited 'advice' they thought it was stupid and silly and so was my field of study in their opinion and furthermore why didn't I just start over completely from square one and study something else.

I had my research professor and a few other people who weren't my relatives encourage me and tell me the writing in my drafts was a good start and to keep going.

I had my father throw a weird tantrum that he didn't like I was given research projects and even more disliked the idea I may stand an okay chance at getting published in a respectable trade journal once it's finished.

I found that the reference librarians can be extremely helpful and the automated databases to be a necessary evil (every so often the formatting and interface designs would get revamped so you have to keep reteaching yourself how to use them).

(15 replies, Latest reply: Jul 23, 2012)

retrogaming: Atari 2600:
Mar 13, 2012

I went to a convention and purchased a used atari 2600 console with some controllers and a library of 37 compatible games from some fellow for a sizable discount. I noticed on unpacking it though that the machine did not come with an RF modulator and am going to go to RadioShack to buy the parts to make a new one as a DIY project. It will be hard to tell if the machine works or not without being able to connect it to a television or a vcr. This little refurbishing project a friend of mine and I are going to undertake has set me back so far about $30 (USD) and will hopefully not require an expensive RF Demodulator ($100-110 USD). If I just buy an adapter ($3-5) and a 300-75 Ohm transformer ($3-5?) and a game/television switcher with either coaxial switching or duplex/multiplexing ($3-7) perhaps we can use that to bring the machine back to life without having to do too much taking apart and soldering.

Unfortunately my VCR appears to only have component video instead of composite so I'm just hoping if I and he noodle with the set-up just right we can get the audio and video signals to separate or at least transmit coherently, without having to buy a big expensive demodulator box to attach a modulator to which feels like going around in a big loop/circle.

(9 replies, Latest reply: May 4, 2012)

25th
Mar 7, 2012

So Today is my birthday.

I can't say being 25 feels that much different from being 24, so far yet. I think I understand people a bit better than I did when I was 21...

(6 replies, Latest reply: Mar 13, 2012)