Monday 9 October 2017

Aug & Sept Update

Hello Everyone,

I have been gone for a couple of months from the blog world but I have been stitching. I don't really have a good reason for being gone so long, I have been very busy (but not satisfyingly so) at work and I think that has really been the issue, more on that below.

Stitching:
I have been working on the Coastal view and the Dryad mostly. A quarter is now down on the Coastal view and the whole side of the Dryad is finished minus a couple of ninja stitches as Alicia calls them. I am stitching using the parking method, unless a colour is only used once in the nearby blocks and then I am marking it and going back at the end. There is a lot of confetti in these last few pages and so this keeps me from hunting for where to park the thread and going back later takes about a day/ day and a half.

Coastal View



Dryad


Finished Pieces:










Life Update/ Rant:
I have been watching flosstube while I stitch unless I am listening to an audiobook and I enjoy other peoples personal updates and so I am going to try adding this portion to my blog.

I have mentioned before that I am taking my Masters of Science (MSc) in welding engineering which entails taking four courses and writing a thesis. I am working on phase transformations in steels and in particular, I am focusing on predicting what phases will form and therefore how likely a welded piece of metal will crack. For those who are unfamiliar with steel phases imagine ice forming in the winter. Some of the ice is brittle and forms sheets that you can easily shatter completely, and other ice forms an intertwined structure that is much more bendable (think of ice dipping down under your weight on a pond but not breaking). Steel is very similar and I am working on improving prediction techniques so that we can always form the bendable steel and the piece will not critically fail when it is used.

My work has taken a lot of my time recently, more in frustration-allotment than in actual time. There are many nice aspects working in the university however here it is like have 100 different little companies without managers and so it is inefficient and puts people in roles that they are not well suited for. My supervisor is a very intelligent person, but is not a good manager and is not well organized. What that means for me is that work can be madness without a need. And it turns out I am not the type of person who can work under constant panic, especially if we could have just done some basic planning to avoid the problem. So needless to say, I was returning home as a ball of annoyance and just could not write a happy blog post to save my life.

I have also been feeling so helpless with the almost weekly cases of tragedy somewhere in the world. Definitely there are moments of brightness, especially close to home (Payette as the GG in Canada, mission to end homelessness in 10 years in my city) but the horror and frustration has been all consuming. I have been feeling like some days I wake up mad and go to bed mad and although I have a very strong home life and am connected to my technical and local community I have the feeling of being swallowed by the frustration of world events. With the recent horror in Las Vegas and the attack in my own city that injured five I want to offer my condolences to everyone and anyone touched by the senseless violence and disregard for human life. I also want to reach out to those battling and rebuilding after hurricanes, flooding and other weather events.

I am planning to check in much more these next few weeks even if it is just a life update and a few pictures.

xxoo,
Bekah

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful update on both projects. What neat little crosses!

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  2. Oh my, I am so sorry to hear that your current thesis situation is so frustrating! I know exactly how that feel, I wrote my master thesis in mathematics and my supervisor was not as organized (or at least he didn't share his plans with me) as I would have liked him to be. I am that kind of person who does good work at a constant rate (like a long runner) and if you have a supervisor who is very spontaneous and comes up with new ideas all the time and needs to get everything done at once, it can be very demanding and exhausting (would be easier to be a short distance runner). I pressing my thumps for you, that it will get better and you can get the thesis done soon =) I think your topic sounds very interesting and the best thing might be to concentrate on that. All the work will be worth it and once you can hand the damn thing in, you will feel amazing and can treat yourself with a big bunch of stitchy stuff =) You can do it!

    Ah and great work on both your projects =) Just remember to stitch enough so you can relax from all the stress =)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Johanna, I remember your happiness when you handed in your thesis and am definitely looking forward to the feeling. I totally agree with the long distance runner person as this constant moving from thought to thought and always having to put out fires is certainly draining. I have drawn up a plan of everything that needs to be done for me to be able to graduate by next Sept and I am going to stick to that as long as my supervisor's mind doesn't change (ahh! would be so unimpressed haha).

      Thanks for the encouragement, I hope the PhD is going well for you! You should tell me what area of mathematics you focused on.

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