Sunday, June 27, 2021
By:
“I’ve got a jar of dirt!” - Captain Jack Sparrow
Not only have I got a jar of dirt, I’ve got all sorts of materials for demos. From 2 yards of spandex and a handful of marbles to wire and circuitry, I’ve certainly got my hands full of materials to juggle around. Despite all the stuff I have to keep track of, this week has felt like a productive and effective week. I;ve made a lot of great progress with my 4 demo write-ups and I just have one more round of revisions to go and I need to record some videos and then they’re ready to go up on the internet! It finally feels like I’ve made some real progress. Nearing completion of these demos also makes me feel more free to explore new demo ideas that I have and to really delve into developing the SOCK for this year.
I had a really great meeting with Casey, the NIST intern, about outreach and how to effectively reach students of all ages. It was super awesome to see how our internships collided and I was really honored and humbled that she reached out to me as a reliable voice on science communication and outreach. We also met with John Mather, a Nobel Prize Laureate for discovering the CMB, this week which was so awesome. I never would have expected to meet John Mather in my lifetime, let alone to have him tell me the question I asked was a good one. I’m sure a lot of the other interns felt the same way.
In regards to hardships this week, Wednesday was a doozy. I woke up with a terrible headache and it was a struggle to get any good work done that day. I always try my best to do my best work, but Wednesday was just really difficult to be productive. We all have those days, and luckily I didn’t have any meetings or deadlines but nonetheless it was still the low point of my week.
But on a happier note, I’m feeling great. I finally feel at home in the working environment, I have a lot of great tools and techniques to help me write, edit, and create awesome demos, and I just know this week is gonna be a good one. I’m gonna have the chance to make a lot of demo videos and start work on new demos! I’m feeling good, I’m feeling optimistic, and I’ll see you next week. Until then!
Tchüss!
Noah Johnson