Another list!

[qp_archive]

1. I've been working on getting LaTeX to work with my thesis and have been moderately successful so far. Apparently *some* chemists use it, since a number of journals accept LaTeX submissions, but as far as I can tell no one in the department does. I've been using it enough that I started with a \lj-cut command at first.

2. Since the middle of the weekend I've been feeling really good after one of the worst weeks I've had in awhile. None of the work has gone away, but I'm feeling like I can tackle it and like it might be (gasp!) interesting. Feeling normally functional is a very, very nice change.

3. On an almost-certainly-related note, I've been going to the LAC to work out for the last week or so. Mostly weights for the arms and shoulders with some amount of situps and time on the rowing machine, which I've found to be a pretty good place to either turn my brain off or distract myself by running bits of memorized verse through my head. I like feeling like my body is useful and capable. I also want to get some strength in my arms before archery next semester.

4. I'm not thinking about jobs at the moment. It's possibly a bad idea, but I think I'm putting off the heavy searching until after finals week. I may email a few people before then.

5. If things keep looking like they are right now, I'll probably have proctor events happening next weekend. Probably a game night/afternoon and contra dancing.

6. Thesis intro sure is coming along, if slowly. I need to make figures for it and I badly need to revise what I have and write the bits that refer to my concrete plans, but it's coming along and I have a solid 2-3 pages of writing so far (no graphics, eventually up to 10 pages or so).

7. Everything will be done, one way or another, in just under two weeks. At the moment, that thought's reassuring.

8. This guy has some of the most on-crack songs I've heard for awhile.

eta 9. Got a new power supply for my computer. No luck on solving the problem (though I've discovered that if the plug's pointing one way it works and if it's rotated 180 deg it doesn't). Still confused.

Comments

[camlost.livejournal.com]

Heh. I wrote my (HMC chemistry) thesis in LaTeX.

[quartzpebble.livejournal.com]

Hm. The department doesn't have any secret resources for that, does it?

And out of curiosity, were there any others who did, or is it an East/math thing?

[camlost.livejournal.com]

I had recently become enamoured of it, so I wrote it in that. As for departmental resources, none that I recall. What LaTeX excels at is equation writing (IMO), though I think if you're skilled with Word, it's about the same. It's also good at referencing stuff, etc., but again all stuff a skilled person can do in Word. However, it's not WISIWYG, which is probably better for my productivity. LaTeX is pretty commonly used in Math circles, certainly.