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Apr 24, 2008

Rushed Delivery, or What a Difference Four Weeks Make

In this age of “guaranteed next-day shipping”, a person might take for granted that his or her order will hit the road almost immediately after making the mouse-click or phone call that initiated the purchase. But not every company works like Amazon or Barnes and Noble or NetFlix.

Now, when my colleague put in the order for my YSZ (that’s yttria-stabilized zirconia – cubic zirconia stabilized at room temperature by yttria, and yes, that is cubic zirconia like all the fake ice you see the popular grad. students wearing) substrates, I knew I was cutting it close. Only a little over a month to fabricate the electrodes and run the experiments. But what do I know? Let’s try, right?

Wrong. Because “rushed shipping” from a California μ-high-tech. means your product will be shipped in four weeks instead of five. So now, instead of staying in my lab for a few days to get the experiments done in time for my May 9th thesis deadline, I will not turn in my thesis, and wait another semester.

Is this my first experience with the UPS blues? No, not really. Way back when in undergrad. (read 2.5 years ago), I had the occasion to order several stainless steel plates from a manufacturer somewhere out in the Midwest. Half were to make their way directly to ye olde CommuniTute (that’s RPI for the uninitiated); the other half were to make a detour in California to get electroplated. Eventually, the first half of plain stock arrived. No one quite knows what happened to the electroplated pieces. Was there embarrassment and forced last-minute improvising? Yes, spades.

So could this latest fiasco have been avoided? Evidently not, because it seems both my fore- and hindsight need strong correction (I’m thinking of getting contacts – it’ll be more stylish, non?).

My point is: plan ahead for these things. This is why it takes six years to get a Ph.D. degree. Oh, and write your thesis while things are shipping (this I did do, and it really helps!).

Otherwise: this week happens to contain both Passover and the Orthodox Easter Holy Week. So happy holidays to those readers who are celebrating.

The author has filed this entry under the "Musings on Grad. Life" category.

4 Responses To This Entry:

    Not to worry, Ted, plenty of people turn in their SM theses a semester (or two!) late. We should form a club.

    Posted by: ndilello on April 24th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    TED!!!!
    You look like Borat!
    How goes things?
    Send me an email: joshua.karpoff@ogs.state.ny.us

    Posted by: Josh Karpoff on May 10th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    Yak shemash, Josh!

    Posted by: tgolfinopoulos on May 20th, 2008 at 9:19 am

    An extra semester would drive me stark, raving, almost-mad. But yu’ll survive.

    Posted by: BigHead on October 5th, 2008 at 4:04 am

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