Thesis Update

In exactly 2 months (March 28) I have to turn in a defendable copy of my thesis to the grad school, if I plan on graduating this May. So how's it going?

Negative stuff first. Using the HPLC machine to determine the amount of chloride in hemocyanin is not as simple as I hoped. I have to hunt down and buy a column first. Not sure how much that will cost, or if Brad will even want to pay for it. Also, apparently you have to futz around with the column and do the test over and over again until you get it working perfectly. Insert sighs and groans here. Also, I had hoped to get a stats program last week, but couldn't get it until today, so that slowed me down a bit.

On the positive side, I pretty much have my methods section done (except for one or two additions I'll have to make), and I got the stats program today, so I've done most of my basic analysis on it. I made myself some personal deadlines at the beginning of the semester. Deadline 1: Have my results section written up by this Saturday, February 2. I think I can make this deadline. I won't have the chloride content results, but I plan to do other analyses this week, and to make up my charts and graphs. My next deadline is February 16, when I want to have the first section/half of my discussion done. February 16 is also when Brad gets back in town, so while he's reading through that stuff and making it bleed with buckets of red ink, I can work on the other part of the discussion. Also, while I've been waiting for the stats program, I've looked up more info on OMLs for my introduction. So I'm making progress, albeit a bit more slowly than I had hoped.

I don't really have any other news, since I've mostly been working on thesis stuff until I go home to eat dinner, watch a couple hours of T.V. and fall into bed. Oh, the Jane Austen Season on Masterpiece Theatre is very good, so I hope all my Austen loving friends are catching it!