Long time no see, everyone!
I sincerely apologize for the lapse of activity in this blog.
On the professional side of things , I am proud to reveal that I’ve made it to my 50th day of service as a Quality Control Laboratory Technician in Gowan Milling this month. It’s been quite the journey, and I still have much to learn, but I think it’s quite safe to say that I have achieved a passable level of proficiency in my role…or at least leagues beyond from when I started (I certainly hope so!). I still aspire to not just execute my duties well, but to master them.
Professional Development
A lot of
factors stayed my writing hand, but if any one can be considered the dominant
impediment, it would be readjusting between day and night shifts. Definitely
not something I am used to, but I am starting to get the hang of it, and
hopefully, I can adhere to my dedicated posting schedule of once per two weeks.
So without further adieu, let’s cut straight to the chase of what’s happening
for me on October.
And my path of mastery lies in hitting the books with courses from Agilent Technologies! HPLC and Gas Chromatography are heavily involved in my line of work, and while I am not certainly expected to interact with the equipment beyond basic operations and troubleshooting, learning more of the ins-and-outs will be a huge bonus to my value in my professional aspirations….present and future. Knowledge is power, after all!
On the side, I am also studying up on the computer programming language Python. I’ve recently purchased a set of e-books off of a Humble Bundle deal, and I find these books from No Starch Press to be quite helpful in facilitating my mastery. Still a novice in the grand scheme of things (I just learned about ‘for’ and ‘while’ loops), but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know? Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and whatnot.
Language Learning
I’ve also made substantial progress in learning Vietnamese and Japanese.
My vocabulary mastery is starting to take off. It turns out the strategy of writing the words down instead of just mindlessly clicking through flashcards and then reviewing them sometime later in the day is a rather effective way to increase retention.
I’ve also added Duolingo as part as my routine. Not as valued as I see it as more of an educational supplement than a primary learning method, but it has its benefits of reviewing whenever I happen to have free time.
I also achieved quite a bit with WaniKani to learn Kanji as I’ve hit Level 5 this month. I definitely feel that I’ve made leaps in mastering Japanese since I’ve started, and while the primary focus is to learn Kanji, I’ve also learned a few words here and there as well which is a nice complement in my vocabulary study. I reckon by next year, I should be able to pass the JLPT N5…perhaps N4 as well?
Chemistry Exploration
Of course, I am a chemist, and naturally it would behoove me to stay updated on what’s going on in the Chemistry World. As aforementioned, learning from the Agilent Technologies courses will help me out in the technical side of things, but as for exploring what’s out there, I decided to actually finally read these magazines I’ve received from my ACS subscriptions, and I say, there’s some good stuff in there.
Metabolomics perk my interest, and it may be something I would like to study up on. That being said, it would be a mistake to tunnel-vision for one field without surveying what other topics are out there….or at least work through my backlog of magazines.
In addition to reading the occasional news articles from C&EN, I’m happy to have very recently discovered on-demand webinars at the C&EN website. I’ve yet to watch them, but I am confident that they’ll greatly enhance my immersion to the chemistry world…
Leisure
On a lighter note, if you care to learn what I do in my leisure time, I’ve decided to try out Runescape again…mainly because my laptop is showing its age and became unable to reliably play my usual favorite game Warframe. It’s good to step back into the nostalgia, even for only about 2 or 3 months before I buy a dedicated gaming computer.
I’ll post an article later on my impressions on returning to Runescape, but I am happy to say that I’ve made a few achievements, namely earning 99 Mining and the Defense Pet!
Personal Projects
Other than that, I’ve had the pleasure of updating my ‘Do It Now’ app (an app that ‘gamifies’ your life to make it more fun, more to add in another post) and hanging out with some friends at a Halloween event.
That’s quite a lot to swallow, but I suppose that’s what happens when you are MIA for a while. If you think that is a bunch to digest, imagine me being the one to write all this!
See you later in the next time!