phew....

im sorry i've been incommunicado, as the days are getting busier and busier.
i've been pretty much immersed with work for the past few weeks, to the point where i wonder if i should change "daily escapades" to "bimonthly escapades" although the latter lacks umph to it.

so since last week, we started up with our independent projects. prior to these, we've pretty much were drone for various projects proposed by our professors and TA's. although they required lots of time and effort, they eventually provided us the foundation needed to work on our own projects, which have no intervention from the professors.

i wont really bore you with the topic of my research, as i doubt most of you will be fascinated by algae, but to say the least, the work has been anything but being a breeze. To start off, our allotted outdoor tank's (more like a big blue round tub) water was supplied by a faulty system which gave us undistributed flow. One tank (not ours) filled up faster than the other (ours). In an effort to fix this, we tried hooking up other hoses and ended up with very wet and drenching consequences.
To make the situtation even more devastating/humorous (depending on your flavor), another group had set up their experiment in one of the tanks (the one that wasnt ours). Initially, everything had worked out fine, as both tanks were beginning to flow out evenly. We then proceeded to work on other things, but taking one more look at our setup, we saw the other groups experiments being sloshed around in their tank.
Sorry to go on a tangent but i guess i have to explain the set up first. The pipe that distributes the seawater hangs overhead, and a tube is attached to it. The tube itself is attached to a valve, which attaches to another tube, which attaches to a t-valve, which supplies both tanks with water. Got that? hahaha.....
So what happened, was the the hose going to our tank became disconnected from the t-valve, and produced extra current in the other tank, effectively destroying the other group's experiment. In an effort to make wrong things right, we devoted the remainder of the day to resetting and redoing their experiment. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake, we decided to fiddle around with the water system before placing the experiments back into the tank. Fiddling around with it, we somehow disconnected the tube that was attached to the pipe, allowing full flow/unvalved seawater splashing all over the place (remember, the tube connects the pipe to the valve), including the tank we previously wrecked. Good thing we didn't place in the experiments yet! We decided to fix the pipe/tube problem with duct tape. And for the remainder of the day, we fixed and placed the other team's project into the tank and things went well.

the next morning, we were setting up and getting ready for our experiments when we spied The Maltese Falcon [link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(yacht)] coming in the bay. It's an amazing ship that is completely motorized by computer that an 12 year old can manage it. In admiring this magnificent ship in the bay, we looked over to the water tank area, and lo and behold, what should we see, but a cascading waterfall pouring into the other tank, and most certainly destroyed the other group's experiment. Upon inspection, we realized that the tube connecting the pipe and valve required some sort of clamping in order to stay. So again, we spent the entire day trying to fix the jankey (my new favorite word) water system.

the next day, things went pretty smoothly for us and we were back on schedule. too bad the weather decided to disagree! as our experiment was weather dependent, our results for it were pretty sub-optimal and nothing like we've predicted. hopefully, the weather will clear up and things will look better as we begin our second trial.

one thing i've been reminded through this is the sovereignty of God, and how we may plan our ways but He is the one that determines our steps. it's been keeping my attitude and perspective in check. oh and a funny thing! good news: i went to church! bad news: it was a catholic one....
good news: it was in french! bad news: it was in french. hahaha....

God Bless, and sorry for such a long delay and failing to keep you updated as much as i wanted to.