I've fallen off the net a bit for the past few weeks...

For the last 3 weeks of July I was TA'ing a course on "Software Carpentry", which is a fancy way of saying I've been helping to build good programming and development principles in graduate students from other departments (largely chemistry, physics, and engineering), who do a little bit of programming in the course of their research, but haven't had the formal exposure to things like unit-testing, revision control, and modular code that a Computing Scientist takes for granted. It was a really rewarding experience, especially since it was a 7-hour a day program where you could see a lot of material get appreciated at a fast pace. By and large I think all the students found areas they could improve on, and have more motivation to continue learning more in the subject, which is always my first goal as a Teaching Assistant.

As well as that went, I've been somewhat further from 100% healthy than I'd like, and the timing lined up perfectly with my TA'ing schedule. I've picked up a virus and a bacterial infection, and it knocked me on my back quite soundly. I'm about 3 days into a prescription of an anti-inflammatory, an anti-biotic, a steriod, and Tylenol-3. That's returned me quite quickly to a regular sleep schedule, and nearly full energy, se I'm actually looking at getting back into the grind of research (gradually).

Between the course and the illness, my focus on research has been pretty much lost, so I'm making a push to get back into that mindspace asap. (See my other friends-only blog posting for more details on that)

Head's up for anyone reading this tag. These entries are locked and private to people I've approved for access to them. If you're interested, let me know. They have to do with my Masters research.

If you're approved but still can't read this, you probably need to log in to your livejournal account.