Post #39: Another long hiatus

Today is May 24, 2019, my last post was on June 1, 2018. It has been almost a year.

Erie Canal Half (5/19/19)

At one point I was pretty good about blogging fairly regularly. There is a part of me that wants to get back to that. Not for any useful reason, but I think blogging about my running, my makeup, and my career can be interesting to random people, or my future self.

Updates since my last post, using the last post as an outline:

I said I would try to be more consistent at blogging. Since it has been 8 days short of one year since I last posted I am gonna say that I failed miserably at that. Maybe I will do better this year.

Step Count

I did not make it to 100 days in a row with hitting my 10,000 steps per day. I made it over 50 days, but then failed. For the year of 2019, I have hit my 10,000 steps per day everyday except for (pause for counting) 16 days. That is 16 days out of 143 days I did NOT hit 10,000+ steps. I am pretty proud of myself for that.

Houston Half (1/20/19)

Running

I have also been running a lot more. I ran the Boilermaker 15k last July. I did the Houston Half Marathon in January. I did the Marine Corps 17.75k in March. Just this past Sunday I ran the Erie Canal Half Marathon. I run daily and actually feel pretty terrible when I don't run. I am training for the Marine Corp Marathon (Oct 27). I expect the majority of posts over the next 5 months will be about my marathon training.

Fitness/Health

I am also 40 pounds lighter than I was when I last posted. My last weigh in was at 147 pounds. For those of you doing the math, I am officially a healthy BMI. I am loving it, and I have lost enough weight where I have actually had to do a wardrobe refresh. I have spent over $200 in the past month or so on new clothes.

Wardrobe Refresh

Makeup

I stopped tracking my makeup use up and purchases last year, but I have been doing it this year. As of today I have used up (pause to check spreadsheet) $623.98 worth of product, that is 124 items. I have only purchased $137.65 worth of beauty products (44 items - 18 of which are eyeshadows in a palette), this includes face wash and hair care items too. I was able to resist the temptation of the Sephora VIB sale.

 Work/Career

The Boyfriend and Me at a baseball game

I am still trudging through the life that is Graduate School. More on that as information becomes available.

Other

Now for something completely different: I have a boyfriend, he is wonderful!

Well, back to writing and working on a presentation for my next conference. 

Post #19 gearing up for AGU 2017 Fall Meeting: New Orleans

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting is in New Orleans, Louisiana this December. This is a change because typically it is in San Francisco, California. The Moscone Center (the conference complex that holds the 25,000 scientists for the meeting) is under construction, so AGU had to find somewhere else.

This December we are in NOLA, and next year we are in Washington, DC. AGU has had meetings in NOLA before, but after so many years at the Moscone Center in San Fran, it will be interesting to see how, and if, the conference has a different feeling in NOLA.

What is good about all the destinations for AGU is that I have been to all of them in a non-conference capability, albeit had been 5 years between my first time in San Fran to my first Fall Meeting in San Fran. I went to NOLA for Easter 2016, so I am familiar with the area. Washington, DC has been my home for the past 5 years at this point, so it's safe to say I know where I am going.

Enough about the past and future meetings, this is about gearing up for #AGU17. Abstracts were due on August 2nd, I got mine in before then, but there is a lot of work to get done before December.

My topic is generally the topic I have been focused on since early last year, see Post #3 and others scattered. More FTE analysis and more cold ion analysis. I can't share too much on this topic, but I will post a more comprehensive post on AGU after it happens.

Post #15 Making up for lost time

Updates!

Sewing

I have still been doing a bit of trial and error when it comes to getting better at sewing. Since my last sewing post I made another circle skirt and a simple dress, both in the same fabric. The fabric I used is a black and white, tribal print pattern. I saw it at Joann's and I wanted it. It is a thick, knit fabric, aka it is stretchy, but not prone to runs like the navy blue knit fabric I used for my first dress (post #11). The circle skirt was only one piece, so a true circle skirt, that all I had to do was add the elastic waist band and secure the hem. I am pretty pleased with it. and it is one of three skirts I wear on a regular basis. (I have only worn my first skirt once). The dress is also a big hit, I am consistently getting complements on it.

Day 32 Lorac Alter Ego Celebrity and the dress I made

Makeup Artistry

I have not done any movie makeup looks since my Alien/Sea creature, but I did start a Pan Project on June 28th (Post #16). That is gonna be a big improvement because I was able to declutter some makeup that was dried up and was a waste of space. I also found that I have some darker foundations and powders that will look better with my summer skin (I managed to get a tan somehow). I am also currently partaking in a 100 days of lipstick (Post #17), which I will post about once it is all over, I am 30 days away. If you haven't seen pictures, you must not be following me on Instagram (neon8919). It is on Instagram that I am keeping track of what I look like in each lipstick. I am also writing down all the lipsticks in a little notebook, which is a helpful way to keep my life organized. 

Running

I restarted the Marathon Trainer for a third time, I am on week number 4, GEM kind of derailed my progress, but the hope is that I will be able to keep it up and get to a point where I can run without the Trainer. As I have said before, and I will say again, I am not intending to run a marathon any time soon, but I would like to be able to run a 10k (~6 miles), that would be awesome. 

Physics

June was a month of travel: the 2nd MMS community workshop (in Boulder, CO) at the beginning of the month, and then GEM 2017 (in Portsmouth, VA) the third week. I am one of the GEM Student Representatives so that kept me busy leading up to, and into, the meeting. 

This summer I have two things that need to get done:

(1) My paper - which I have been working on, but it is not in a completed stage yet...

(2) My thesis proposal - I will be turning it in at the beginning of the Fall semester, so as soon as my paper is done my efforts will be turned to coming up with my title. The title cannot be changed from the one I submit in the Fall, this means it has to be broad enough, because I don't know what results I might get, and it must be narrow enough to still be a PhD title. 

Post #14 *blows off dust* May

I've been MIA. Things got disorganized.

Tomorrow is a fresh start, albeit it is not the first of a month, and it is not the start of a week, but I know I have been slacking with stuff I want to make happen in my life. One good night sleep, followed by an early morning tomorrow.

Eleven days before I leave for Boulder (I have a MMS meeting there). I want to take care of a few things before leaving. I'm going to get through 11 more days of the Marathon Trainer. I am going to read a bunch of relevant papers, I am going to come to a conclusion about my research so I can finish writing my paper and send it to coauthors, I am going to use Memorial Day weekend to see a dress or two and do a makeup look or two. All these things just to kickstart myself back to productivity in all aspects of my life.

Post #13 February Summary - March Goals

Straight from my January Summary:

Stuff I am hoping to finish in February:

1. Sew my first dress (will also be in the February sewing blog)
2. An alien makeup inspired by a deep sea creature

3. Chapter 2 of Gurnett and Bhattacharjee

4. Submit my first first-author paper

5. Have my thesis proposal mostly done.
6. Finish the C210k Trainer

I did complete my first dress as you have seen in post #11.

Also, I did attempt to create an alien inspired by an angler fish, post #12, albeit nearly a week late.

I have been slacking on the plasma textbook. I only completed up to the section I posted on earlier this months: post #10.

I have not submitted my paper yet...

I still have no real thought on my thesis proposal...

Technically, I have not finished the C210k Trainer, instead I have started the marathon trainer by Zen Labs. I am not doing this because I aspire to run a marathon, I am running off the adage "Go big or go home," pun intended. I ran outside during the beautiful weather we had last week, and failed miserably, so instead of trying to continue with the free version of C210k, I would just do the one time payment of the marathon trainer and be good to go until I can run on my own for any distance. So who knows, six months from now, maybe I will be capable of running 26.2 miles. (Don't worry if you laughed, I am laughing, and anyone who knows me would laugh. I am not a marathon runner, I like pizza entirely too much. Though if I do make it, this whole section will be fun to read, and make a great part of my Success Story.)

So 2 out of 6 goals completed... eh. Here's to a successful March:

Stuff I am hoping to finish in March:

1. Sew a vest, some beach apparel, and my Tea Party dress

2. An angel/devil makeup inspired by a good/bad personality trait

3. Chapter 2 of Gurnett and Bhattacharjee

4. Submit my first first-author paper

5. Have my thesis proposal done.

6. Finish weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Marathon Trainer

Post #10 "It is a relatively simple matter to show that..." (Physics post)

From Gurnett and Bhattacharjee (hereafter known as G&B): "It is a relatively simple matter to show that..."

This is a fairly common phrase in physics textbooks, and most of the time a student reads that phrase and immediately laughs because usually it is not 'simple' to show whatever it is they want to be shown. It could be simple if a couple key notes were added in the text, I am going to use the above example from G&B.

"It is a relatively simple matter to show that the root-mean-square velocity is given by (root 3) times (C sub s), where C sub s equals (root (kappa times T sub s) divided by m sub s)." I will include a screen shot of my LaTex file, so don't worry so much about the "math into words" I have decided to add:

First things first, root-mean-square velocity. For this problem it is:

Also from an earlier 'easy to show' in chapter 2 of G&B, we know that the denominator is equal to the density of a particular species of particle, n sub s. So the above equation becomes:

The distribution function, f(v), in this case is the following:

So now you can plug it in to the numerator and solve for the root-mean-square velocity. But wait, there is more math that is not for the faint of heart, (feint of heart?). Cue the Google-ing of "definite integral of exponential." Thank you Wikipedia. Skip to this one:

Where n = 4, and alpha equals m sub s divided by (2 kappa T sub s), and don't forget to carry the constants in front of the v and exponential:

To get a cleaner version of the integral in the general form I direct you to a blog post by a friend and colleague: Conrad's blog, and a YouTube video that I found very helpful.
So plugging stuff into this:

You get this:

and after canceling out and putting it back in the numerator of the root-mean-square velocity equation:

you see "It is a relatively simple matter to show that..."

Ta-Da.

Hope this post was sufficiently physics-y and look forward to next weeks post on my sewing projects, including my first circle skirt, and my first dress. Also, two weeks from now I will have my special effects makeup post, featuring my take on an alien inspired by a deep sea creature.

Post #9 January Summary - February Goals

Motivation

I was sick at the beginning of January, and unfortunately had to take a number of days away from the office. In my recovery I popped a number of Halls cough drops (they are my favorite cough drop). Recently, Halls has included 'a pep talk in every drop' on the wrappers of each drop, so I would like to write out a couple here:

1. Turn "can do" into "can did!"

2. You got it in you.

3. Don't wait to get started.

4. Tough is your middle name. 

Stuff I finished this month:

1. A circle skirt (to be revealed in the February sewing blog)

2. Three makeup looks (Post #8)

3. Chapter 1 in Gurnett and Bhattacharjee

4. A first & second working draft of my first first-author paper

5. A first working draft of my thesis proposal

6. Weeks 9 and 10 in the C210k Trainer = 34.15 miles

Stuff I am hoping to finish in February:

1. Sew my first dress (will also be in the February sewing blog)
2. An alien makeup inspired by a deep sea creature

3. Chapter 2 of Gurnett and Bhattacharjee

4. Submit my first first-author paper

5. Have my thesis proposal mostly done.
6. Finish the C210k Trainer

Overall January was pretty productive, there is room for improvement, as always. February might be a short month but I am going to make it a good one. (I even rearranged my 6 goals for February to match the categories of stuff I finished in January, yay organization!!)

Post #4 Well... At least I am writing something

Fact: I am procrastinating.

GT: I have plenty of material to write my first first-author paper. No more discovery necessary.

I was about to Google "tricks to sit down and write". I would predict that the first tip would be:

#1 Get off the internet and start writing!

I am not going to search for that list though. I am going to write here and hope that just the act of writing something, anything, gets me motivated to work on my paper. I have started it. I wrote up a very rough draft of the previous work. That was written over a month ago though. My outline looks great (Fig. 1). I have even listed the authors and written up some of the reference I know I will be citing. 

Fig. 1 My outline

So looking at the list, I know I know all of it. I've gone as far as to think that I should use voice to text, just so I can get it out of my head and on to paper. Once I do that all that is left is editing, albeit A LOT of editing, but hey, that is what my coauthors are for.

Fact: This isn't helping.

PTM: I will get this done, and by this time next week I will laugh at myself and this blog, because I will have successfully written a working draft of my first first-author paper. 

GT: The weather has continued to be fall like, which is AWESOME!! 

I have been not only making good progress (at least research and education related progress) at work, I am nearly finished with my Halloween costume. Seeing as it took me >2 weeks to write this post after Post #3, Post #5 will include a picture of me in my costume. I am excited about it, and I have high hopes that people are going to like it (Fig. 2). 

Fig. 2 Not Telling

I suppose I should also put in a follow up to my follow up from Post #3: At this point, 13:31 EDT 10-14-16, I have completed the runs up to, and including, Week 7 Day 1 of C25K by Zen Labs. Wednesday's run was a 5-min warm up walk, followed by 25 minutes of running, no walking!! I had moments of doubt before and during, but I did it. I am also 5 runs away from completing the 8 week program. So...

PTM: Post #5 will also include a follow up to this follow up, saying that I graduated the Couch to 5k running program. 

Fact: I run for health, not weightloss, to be clear, this isn't a physical transformation blog.

FPI is still wowing the scientists as we progress through Phase 1B. I haven't picked any new data yet, but it is still early. I won't get nervous until mid-November. Though, even if I do get nervous, you won't read it. This is a positive thinking blog! 

Positivity in, Positivity out.

Post #3 You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Fact: I am smart.

Yes, it may not be grammatically correct (though that could be said for some of my blog posts) but it is certainly a good message. For those of you who don't know, the title is from the book The Help. It is a good quote to recall when I am feeling down. Here I am, four years into my graduate school career, thinking how I got here. 

Fig. 1 Al had it right.

PTM: I got here because I am smart! 

I was eating lunch with a classmate and we both agreed that in physics graduate school you shouldn't waste time thinking you are not smart. I should not waste time thinking I am not smart, I got this far. I passed my comprehensive exams. I am smart! 

I have to work a bit harder because my plasma knowledge was non existent a year and a half ago; plus I am not as math savvy as some of my peers. I am working though.

PTM: I will get there. 

Fig. 2

In other news, in roughly three hours the MMS team will be able to look at the first FPI data for Phase 1B. I am excited about it because I am on the hunt for more events that are like the ones I have already been working on, but better and actually get them down off the spacecraft in burst mode. Below (Fig. 3) is an example of one of my events. 

Fact: I am only a year and four months into my research.

SubFact: I have only been doing active research since January.

So far I know that these cooler ion beams that you can see clearly on the left and right sides of the bottom plot are not often looked at. As of now they don't appear to be located near a reconnection site, or at least not near enough for the majority of plasma scientists to care. I care. I care because these ions are looking to have origins at the earth. A couple questions arise with this, 1) How did they end up out near the magnetopause if they are from the earth's upper atmosphere? 2) Once out at the magnetopause are they effecting their surroundings? There are more questions but these two are a good start.

Fig. 3 Fast (4.5 s) vs. Burst (150 ms) data from MMS

GT: It appears to be officially Fall in the DC metro area (Fig. 4). As a follow up to last post's GT, I am done with Week 4 of c25k and will be starting Week 5 tonight! 

Fig. 4 Temperature-wise anyway

Post #2 Direction: Moving Forward

Fact: I have just begun my fifth year of Graduate School.

Graduate school implies that I am working on my dissertation. Until this week I hadn't really given it serious thought. I always believed I wouldn't have control over the research I was doing (Fig. 1). This comic was released during my senior year of undergrad, maybe this was it that gave me the idea.

Fig. 1 #truth

Now I have started a working list of research questions I want to answer. With MMS, I am working the presence of lower energy ions that once were located in the Earth's upper atmosphere, but by one mechanism or another made their was to the magnetopause. My interests have been varied since I started my research career, but something that has been consistently dangled in front of my nose, but I have not taken part in, Space Weather research.

PTM: I have my chance, with my research questions.

Fig. 2 Less Dramatic

Do ionospheric ions effect space weather? (and, if so) How?

PTM: I will be able to answer these questions.

GT: Work was on the productive side last week.

1) Caught up on September's Housekeeping.

2) Actually had a meeting with my Advisor [two actually!!]. 

3) Made a plan for what to work on, moving forward.

GT: I have been working through a Couch to 5k app, I just finished week three, and I am about to start week four (Fig. 2).

PTM: 5 weeks from now I will be able to run a 5k without stopping.

This point of all research is so exciting. The literature search; where each paper brings you closer and closer to the answer. Now the question... the question is one of two. One - "Who has the answer?" The literature search may prove that my research questions have already been answered. OR Two- "Will I have to answer the question?" It may be my turn to learn something new and write a paper on it.

Fig. 3 Research Thoughts

Post #1 Start positive. Stay positive.

Fact: I am in LA this week for the first public Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission Science Working Team (SWT) meeting.

This meeting is a chance for those working on the teams to interact with scientists that are using the MMS data, which went public back on March 1st. 6 months people have been working with the Phase 1a data. (Phase 1a was MMS's first dayside past of the Earth's magnetopause [Fig. 1]. Phase 1b, MMS's second pass of the dayside, starts on September 26th)

Fig. 1 MMS orbit plot for Dec. 1, 2015. The Sun is to the left,.

Fact: I gave a 12 minute presentation on the cold ions that appeared on the leading and trailing edge of an apparent flux transfer event (FTE).

This was my first talk given in a public setting. I have given talks to the greater Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) team via telecon. This was for sure different. I was nervous, as per usual, but I wasn't ripped to shreds. Then again, I wasn't even poked. No questions or comments from the peanut gallery.

Positive Thinking Moment (PTM): They were stunned silent by my awesome presenting skills, [Fig. 2].

Fig. 2 This might be a bit dramatic

I have found that in the course of my graduate school career I have had moments of absolute dread. The moments where it is hard to believe that I am going to make it out alive.

Fact: The goal of this blog is to focus on the good things and keep my mindset positive [Fig. 3].

Good Thing (GT): LA really does have beautiful weather.
It has been the mid to upper 70s all week, with sunny skies. I wouldn't say this trip is making me a "LA Devotee" but I am enjoying the break from East Coast humidity.

Fig. 3 Idea courtesy of my friend, Lo.