WTF #16: Things I Didn’t Know About My Father
As I prepare to make my final move to China to take up my new post, I needed a place to store of all the junk my family has collected in the basement over the past decade or so we’ve live in the house. What better place than to use my parents’ basement for the job. But before I could move my stuff there, I first needed to help my parents clear out all the junk they have collected over the past several decades. As I was rifling through this and that, I came upon a stack of notebooks. What’s this? US Navy documents? Hmm… And then the next notebook. And the next… And so on. Surface Warfare Officers School Command? This has certainly piqued my interest. For most of my father’s career in the private sector, he was a marine engineer, helping to build huge seafaring cargo vessels. Sometimes,…
Keeping Track of Work – Lab Notebooks
Just today I turned over the first fresh page in my brand new lab notebook, having filled up my last one. This is lab notebook number four for me, in my four years so far in grad school. It’s a fantastic feeling when you have accomplished enough (or, at least WRITTEN enough) to fill another notebook. In my undergrad Intro to Engineering class, I remember we spent an entire class period on documentation and proper lab notebook protocol. At the time, I mostly assumed that keeping good notes was important so that a) YOU could remember what you were doing, and b) so OTHER people could figure out what you did after the fact. Then in grad school, I took a product design class, and we again spent an entire class on lab notebooks. Now, though, the reasons were different. It’s imperative to document well so that a) if you invent…