Wow, seriously, the internet is so frustrating up here. I guess I’m not well-versed in patience with computers anymore because I’ve finally trashed that old ThinkPad from high school and bought this new laptop, which runs like a dream (although, one could extrapolate that any new laptop would run like a dream when compared with the old laptop). But I thought I’d look up a paper, almost just for the heck of it, and I can’t get onto SciFinder because I need an internet connection.
I brought raspberries today, in a little Tupperware container, and in general, I just feel quite pleased with myself. I was getting a little stressed at the end of last week, but I haven’t broken the GC and I even know how to use it now, so basically I just get done whatever FX tells me to do, and when I’m not doing that, I’m trying to restore some order to this long-abandoned lab. Or possibly I’m blogging. Oops.
FX has gone for a run, he told me, and I’m to read this paper and get a GC and set up the UV lamp and get an NMR. So far I’ve done almost three of the four things… I haven’t finished the paper, and I hate to go downstairs and fiddle with the NMR if I can’t find Kiemle. I should get back on the paper. The NMR is not necessarily of the utmost importance, but if he asks for it, I try to get it done. Usually that technique works pretty well. Maybe I’ll run back downstairs and see if I can find Kiemle (or, you know, even get into the ICP lab and the NMR… sub-lab?).
I finished reading the paper, and it told me absolutely nothing, because its starting point was our desired ending point. You can’t always get what you want? But I’m going to ask FX if he happens to have a different article from the same journal, listed in the references. Hopefully the answer will be yes, and even more hopefully the paper will actually help with whatever it is I’m supposed to be finding. Actually, I’m really not sure why exactly I’m looking for this particular paper. I’ll have to look back at the old one and figure out what hole was there that he wanted filled.
I ran back down to the NMR lab just now… and had absolutely no luck whatsoever. I think it’s locked, maybe, or else I’m an idiot, because I couldn’t open the door. It would push partway in, and then something caught, I think, and I didn’t really force it. So I guess I’ll have to wait on that. I should run a GC on the toluene, then, because at least I’ll have something to show FX upon his return. I’m not really in a hurry. Today is very relaxed. I’m going to check… maybe today in the afternoon? But definitely tomorrow morning, to see if my chemicals are in for step 2. Which, by the way, I’m terrified of doing because this is a procedure that I’ve honestly never even come close to attempting, and it involves many dangerous things. Hey, maybe it’ll be fun. Acid doesn’t scare me anymore (disclaimer: that does not mean I’m not careful. I don’t like the idea of acid burns).
Okay, the toluene is now officially on the GC… so I have about half an hour to wait until it gets done. Today I at least remembered my mp3 player, which I did not remember on Friday, but I forgot my headphones so it doesn’t do me as much good as it could. I do, however, have it for the car, which we really shouldn’t discount.
Oh ho! My chemicals are in! Of course, I still have no idea how to do the next step of the procedure, but I will probably be doing it, oh, tomorrow.
Hahahaha okay I’m typing in gloves now. They’re pretty cute. They’re purple. I’m running samples on the GC and also a photochemical reaction that I knew nothing about until possibly Friday, mostly today. Of course, these things that I’m running are running themselves, in essence, so I’m just sitting around for another hour and fifteen minutes, occasionally changing whatever’s running on the GC.
It always gets difficult when I run things on the GC and I have more than one thing to run. Time management is of the essence, or something. But I think it’ll be okay… as long as this next sample I’m running actually shows what I need it to show. For the GC, I basically want a 0.1% solution, or 1 gram per liter. My original has 2 grams per liter, so I do a 2:1 dilution in the GC solvent (pentane). This means that the toluene peak is going to be huge, but it should also mean that I get a “regular” sized ionone peak. Here’s hoping.
FX is so cute sometimes. Today he informed me that beta-ionone is actually the smell of violets and was the original perfume in Elizabethan times. Then he was helping me set up the photochemical reactor (which consists of a couple of really cool glass pieces and a UV lamp and tons of aluminum foil) and he went to turn on the UV lamp to see if it worked. Prior to this, he had informed me that this lamp embodies the “don’t look directly at the sun” thing about three hundred times over. It will photolyze my retinas. Since I like my retinas, I’m being pretty careful. So he goes to turn it on, hesitates, looks at me and goes, “Don’t look… turn around.” He informed me when I could turn back around. For some reason I thought that was pretty adorable.
Then, when the whole reaction was actually set up and ready to go (I taped foil all over the glass paneling that covers the hood), he let me know that we could tell that the UV lamp was on and working because we could see a little glow around the edges of the tin foil. “You should be okay,” he says, “as long as you don’t sit here and stare at it.” The best part is that he really was not even joking at all. I can’t help it. I think it’s hysterical.
So anyway, my sample is off of the GC now and it’s cooling down so that I can insert my next sample; it should be ready in ten minutes or so. I’m praying that this one works, because if it doesn’t, I’m screwed. Because I… well, I guess I could always just make up some more starting solution. I have a ton of toluene and of beta-ionone, and this actually doesn’t smell (well, I guess the toluene does, so that’s not strictly true). But I won’t really have time to run it again. FX wants me to call him around 5 or so. It’ll probably be a little later… 5:15 or 5:30, because it will take a couple of minutes to prepare the sample. I don’t mind staying a little lateish. It’s nice to have a whole lab to myself. It’s nicer than last summer!
I just put my corrected dilution onto the GC, and here’s me praying my brains out (my soul out?) that it works, because I don’t have any more of the original sample. But, like I said, no real reason to freak out. Except that I’m supposed to call FX. But other than that. Oh man. I guess you could say I’m a little antsy about this, but I have to find something else to occupy myself with because sitting there, glued to the GC is not going to do wonderful things for my nerves. And sitting here, talking about how I’m avoiding it for that reason is kind of circumnavigating the entire point, because it’s stressing me out. And I was doing so well with not stressing today, too.
My chemicals came from Aldrich today! Christina texted me and told me some packages were here, so I moseyed on down and took a look, and they were, indeed, mine. So that was pretty exciting. I have some chemicals. They’re sitting on the counter, because FX says that I don’t need to refrigerate them overnight. I wonder if that means I’m going to be using them tomorrow? Because we really haven’t discussed what’s happening tomorrow in any detail, except that the hood that I would be using is currently filled with deadly, blinding UV light. It sounds way more exciting than it actually is, I promise. I’m actually in absolutely no danger at all, and I’m sitting here with Rhapsody on shuffle, which is only minutely less cool than having my mp3 player on shuffle. But I guess since Brendan is usually in Donaghy’s lab these days, it’s basically the same as keeping my music to myself.
Ugh I’m so nervous about this sample on the GC. The numbers work. I just have to keep telling myself that. The numbers work. THE NUMBERS WORK. Ugh. I have to stop thinking about it but I don’t really know what to do instead. I just peeked. It looks very toluene-y. I haven’t seen any beta-ionone come out yet, so I’m not really sure… but it’s not time for it to come out quite yet, anyway. Also I’m nervous to call FX, because I am weird. And hate phones.
MAHAHAHAHAH YES. I may be going completely insane and laughing maniacally, but my solution worked. Eat it, you old GC (I’m laughing again now, because that’s kind of what the GC does, after all). I can make you work by sheer pigheadedness, and then laugh about it afterwards! And anyway, I wasn’t all that sane to begin with.
Okay, seriously? If EvergreenX asks me for information in order to connect one more time and doesn’t connect, I’m going to… well, there’s actually not much I can threaten. I don’t know where exactly to go to find a router to smash, or at least reboot. AUGH. STOP. It’s the most obnoxious bubble. I just print-screened it so that I can embed it in this entry, if I remember to. Hopefully that is, indeed, the case. Mahahaha. I’m still chuckling about my victory.
Heh heh. This was always here. Of course I didn't forget.
Made up that last sample, stopped the irradiation, it’s in the GC… I’m almost done. Woohoo!
DONE AND HOME. WHADDUP.
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