How to do lab and not die
I should totally become a theoretical physicist.
A cascade of things has happened at exactly the wrong time: my lab partner has been sick, I have a zillion deadlines, my copy of MATLAB doesn't work as revenge for me pirating it, scilab is being wholly uncooperative, and best of all, I don't understand second year lab! Truly, I am a genius!
Anyway, I was happily sitting around playing with radioactive material (as you do) when the head of second year lab came up to us. We'd forgotten to arrange an interview, since they're not automatically assigned, and unless we did it today we'd be slapped with a huge penalty for lateness.
You know, today. When I hadn't finished any of my analysis because I couldn't work scilab properly.
Shit.
My lab partner had to calm me down and help me do data analysis, since I was on the verge of an anxiety attack. Perfectly normal thing that happens on a Friday afternoon, you know. (And we still entered the errors wrong. Fuck.) Oh, yeah, and we also got kicked out of the nuclear labs because unsupervised undergraduates plus radioactive substances equals a bad time. So we lost an hour to analyse data.
In retrospect, that probably didn't matter so much because we managed to analyse it all and do some interview prep fairly quickly - I even calmed down! Not that I stopped shaking or anything, mind.
The appointed hour came and I was scared shitless. I usually actually put effort into those things rather than winging it, so I was trembling up and down the length of my body. Hell, I nearly ate my lab book out of fear.
Well, my shaking was clearly visible and that probably bumped my mark up, since I would have marked myself far more harshly. I also made an impassioned speech on behalf of my lab partner and she stuck up for me, because clearly we're in a melodramatic anime. (I think it worked.)
All in all, our marks were miraculously high and my self-care consisted of my favourite pink tea and curling up in my fluffiest pyjamas, which is generally a good day. And I didn't die. That counts, right?
A cascade of things has happened at exactly the wrong time: my lab partner has been sick, I have a zillion deadlines, my copy of MATLAB doesn't work as revenge for me pirating it, scilab is being wholly uncooperative, and best of all, I don't understand second year lab! Truly, I am a genius!
Anyway, I was happily sitting around playing with radioactive material (as you do) when the head of second year lab came up to us. We'd forgotten to arrange an interview, since they're not automatically assigned, and unless we did it today we'd be slapped with a huge penalty for lateness.
You know, today. When I hadn't finished any of my analysis because I couldn't work scilab properly.
Shit.
My lab partner had to calm me down and help me do data analysis, since I was on the verge of an anxiety attack. Perfectly normal thing that happens on a Friday afternoon, you know. (And we still entered the errors wrong. Fuck.) Oh, yeah, and we also got kicked out of the nuclear labs because unsupervised undergraduates plus radioactive substances equals a bad time. So we lost an hour to analyse data.
In retrospect, that probably didn't matter so much because we managed to analyse it all and do some interview prep fairly quickly - I even calmed down! Not that I stopped shaking or anything, mind.
The appointed hour came and I was scared shitless. I usually actually put effort into those things rather than winging it, so I was trembling up and down the length of my body. Hell, I nearly ate my lab book out of fear.
Well, my shaking was clearly visible and that probably bumped my mark up, since I would have marked myself far more harshly. I also made an impassioned speech on behalf of my lab partner and she stuck up for me, because clearly we're in a melodramatic anime. (I think it worked.)
All in all, our marks were miraculously high and my self-care consisted of my favourite pink tea and curling up in my fluffiest pyjamas, which is generally a good day. And I didn't die. That counts, right?
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