31s yesterday and today!!! My goodness. This was a hoot and a half!.

and you find out that the nice gentleman is the Chemistry Nobel Laureate of 1981 (the year I was born). 1.2/2.

When you're talking about detectors with @David_A_Muller and a nice, very pleasant gentleman walks by, and you (me) make yourself scarce because David looks like he wants to talk science . 1/2.

Thankful for the coworkers (PIs, staff, and trainees) who keep me sane, test my knowledge and boundaries (grain and otherwise, ha!), and are available for all sorts of questions, day or night.

RT @tofayel_ahmed1: The deadline is approaching soon. Apply by Nov 15.

Hey all: not necessarily leaving, but perhaps lowering my engagement here. I have the same handle over at the blue space. If I don't follow you there yet, I'll check my follows and add you.

Pretty. But still not on zone axis.

Yes!!!!.

and darn it, sometimes it becomes a bit complicated. But I find it fascinating (you should also witness some of the hilariously creative questions I ask the FSEs). In their defense, I do get them pumps and bellows, and have spanners and beta wipes.

And I know I probably overwhelm some of our trainees from the bio or chem realm, when I start describing what the energy filter does in TEM vs STEM. Or the prism, or the deflectors, or even the pumps.

and felt so normal and natural. And it fills me with a sense of wonder how tangible it is. It's insanely cool.

I am, by no means, a biologist (exclusively). I'm certainly not a chemist. I can hack some stuff in the engineering realm . but having applied physics right there, in front of my eyes and hands . that has been so comforting.

when I saw, learned, and did fix equipment, however simple (and even complicated stuff) . that's how and when it became possible to entertain the possibility that I could have a place in physics.

that's when I *really* felt like I had a place, however peripheral, within physics. When I saw Lena, and how she made microscopes with PVC pipes and glass or plastic disks (which she took to Puerto Rico!) as part of her science outreach.

when I applied for my current job, and I met PIs in the Applied Physics department, and capable, wonderful, craft staff who were not just passionate about the science, but genuinely had FUN explaining things and making them accessible.

even though my grad school department was Mol. Physiology and Biophysics, and we were closer with cryoEM to the biophysics end of things, I still didn't feel good enough, let alone smart enough to be able to understand physics.

anywho, because of that D in physics 2, even though I got either a B+ or A- on the second try, that D defined me (along with the creep prof of physics 1) as someone not destined to be decent in physics.

the other two (decided to repeat physics too as I'd gotten a D on the first try), were very good teachers (even the one whose class I got a D on.

I was fascinated. But that was the extent of my appreciation for physics. It wasn't until college, and then grad school, where I would see physics again, but one of the profs was a creep.

iirc, she went to the nearest campus of UPR (UPR-Mayagüez, my wonderful alma mater), and borrowed the long, clear tube, with one side connected to a pump (and a valve) and end caps to seal the tube and did the demo.

See, I didn't really enjoy physics (except in 8th grade where the teacher was SUPER amazing and showed us how in decent vacuum, a penny and a feather would fall down at similar speeds in a tube.