O.k., so next week I'll be doing some more characterization of my samples. My paper to the Journal of Materials Chemistry got rejected for "not being scientifically interesting enough." So rather than write a separate paper for my last experiment, we'll be including those results in this paper, plus some tensile data, pH values, and maybe transmittance. One thing I really don't understand about my supervisor is his philosophy of taking all sorts of measurements for samples without any particular rhyme or reason. For example, transmittance might be useful if the paper focused on applications where light was important. However, my paper discusses the potential of using my printed materials as implants inside the body...where light doesn't shine. I doubt I will ever understand the idea of just taking lots of measurements then throwing them all together to see what sticks. I like to approach research from the perspective of solving a problem, not just random measuring.
Once I get those new characterizations done, I have to do some minor restructuring of my thesis. Many book conclusions involve a solid discussion to wrap up the book, and I was planning to write a 35-40 page conclusion chapter for my thesis. My supervisor knew about this all along, and was reminded on numerous occasions. Yet, only last week in casual conversation did he tell me bluntly that a thesis conclusion is only supposed to be about 3-4 pages in length. The good news is that the 35 pages I've already written can become a results chapter, because it includes a substantial number of extra results that were not sufficient on their own for a dedicated chapter.
I'm still in a position of having only about 30 pages left to write, but I am SO ready for this thesis to be done!
Regarding our move to Canada, we had to change the shipment of our stuff over to Michelle's name, since she's a Canadian citizen and I'm not. That was a bit of a paperwork challenge this week. We were quoted for 4 cubic meters of stuff, and from the pile it looks like that's exactly what we have. If we had known when we started how much of a pain it is to immigrate to Australia, we would have shipped and accumulated much less.
I also booked our airline tickets this week, and it's a good thing I did. The baggage rules have changed yet again. It used to be that for international flights that passengers were allowed 2 suitcases, a carry-on, and a laptop bag. Now, only 1 suitcase is allowed. Because our shipment of stuff won't be picked up until tomorrow, we had a day to reduce our clothing by half, and we'll be adding 2 extra suitcases full of clothes to the boat shipment.
We have also been lucky and have managed to sell all our furniture and nearly everything else we had. The only outstanding items are our washer and dryer, but I'm confident those will get sold soon. The last thing I'll sell will be our car, but since we'll need it for moving back into our old apartment, I'm considering waiting until mid-September for that.
We fly to Canada on the 25th of September, and that's where we will settle down for good. International moves are a real pain, so we don't plan to ever do this again.
No comments:
Post a Comment