Thursday, October 27, 2011

A Day in the Life

Today, since it seems like a reasonably average day, I'm going to "Tweet" throughout the day!

7:15
Phone alarm goes off. Don't want to get out of bed, so I hit snooze for 10 more minutes.

8:10
Breakfast in kitchen consisting of a maple pecan croissant thing, some Tropicana Orange + Raspberry juice, and a yogurt.

8:20
Leave my dorm. It's the first proper dank, drizzly morning since I've been in England.

8:24
Arrive at my desk, in the building across the street. I'm the first one in. After checking e-mail, I turn to MATLAB, a mathematical programming software, where I continue my attempts to model a pedestrian's shifting center of mass:

y= u+(yo-u+A*sin(wb*(to-tau)))*cosh(OMp*(t-to)) + (vo/OMp + (wb/OMp)*A*cos(wb*(to-tau)))*sinh(OMp*(t-to)) - A*sin(wb*(t-tau))

where A=P/(1+(OMp/wb)^2)  (MacDonald, 2008)

...it's going to be a long day.

8:50
The second person arrives, and we discuss the overcast skies. 

10:00
Bathroom break! This is mainly to blow the massive amounts of snot out of my nose. Today is the first day that I can definitively say I'm not sick any more, thank goodness. Eight days was quite enough. Now I'm just in that awkward period where I experience diminishing (but annoying) residual drainage and the occasional cough.

10:30
Tea time!

11:30
Discuss research topics (and life in New Zealand) with a couple other students

12:00
Lunch time at Taylor's Deli & Sandwich Co with the Houston girl who just finished her DPhil in structural dynamics.

13:00
Presentation by the Laing O'Rourke construction firm about the Leadenhall building (i.e. the Cheesegrater) soon to be built in London.

14:10
Return to lab, only to realize that my wireless network VPN software has corrupted. Time to reinstall...

14:35
Success! Now back to MATLAB!

15:45
....still working on MATLAB.... convincing myself to stay focused... anyone know how to find vo??

16:15
Taking a lap around the inside of the lab to clear my head. Talking to other students about the infamous cello problem.

16:35
Only 25 minutes until freedom, but I'm getting back to work for the moment. Kind of skeptical that inspiration will strike in time.

17:00
Sure enough, it never came to me. In fact, I realized that my time steps are wrong too. Looks like vo and to will have to wait for tomorrow.

17:05
Back in my dorm.

17:30
Laundry in; debating dinner

18:05
Laundry moved; dinner (salad w/ hard boiled egg, feta, etc) underway

18:30
Leaving dorm, in the drizzling rain, for Latin dance practice.

18:55
Arrive at dance practice (yes, it's a really long way away, esp. by foot.)

19:00
Dance practice! 2 hours of cha cha, an hour of jive, and some exercises!

22:15
Dance lets out, I walk back towards the MCR.

22:40
Arrive at the MCR for a mojito. Most of the grads had been there for over an hour and were on the way out to a pub or somewhere. I chose to head back to the dorm with a small group.

23:00
Tea and biscuits in the dorm kitchen after taking my laundry out of the dryer!

00:00
Back to my room to fold laundry and catch the latest news online.

1:00
In bed, going to sleep. (Usually I go to bed between 23:30 and 00:30, but laundry didn't help)

Well, that was fun! Time to rest up so I can do it all again tomorrow.

WORD OF THE DAY: mate n. Someone's close friend of either gender. e.g. The other day I went out to grab a sandwich with my best mate, Joe. It was really great seeing him again after we went to (upper) school together.

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