Getting over a hump

Whew! We’ve had some recent reports from the approaching finals fronts, and I feel like I’m on similar turf. Between what I’m seeing on the board and the travails I’m hearing of from the two grad students who work for us who are fast approaching their theses defenses, I think I can relate.

Today I brought to culmination a tough piece of work. It’s a project that began about three years ago. The problem solving is done, and it’s worked out. Funny how I spent days at a time pondering the problem over the last few years, making nearly zero measurable progress at times, and then the final resolution came in rapid fashion.

While there are gobs of presentation materials yet to be produced, I’ve got a solidly defensible hypothesis, with accompanying models and demonstrative maps on many levels. And I’ve exhausted all plausible alternative models. I’m letting Occam’s Razor rule the roost.

FTR, and I’ll express it as briefly as possible so y’alls’ eyes don’t glaze over, the problem involved developing a description of a depositional history spanning a few million years that accurately accounts for a marked discrepancy between newly recorded 3D seismic data and known subsurface points that can only be resolved by use of a dramatic velocity model whose rate of change over a small period goes far beyond what is commonly experienced.

And I can defend it until dawn, and then after that.

So, anyone else knock down something that’s been hanging over you, for awhile, lately?

So what’s causing the drastic velocity change? Or do we have to wait for your paper in AAPG Bulletin? :wink:

I wish I could say I’m over a hump, myself, but I figure within the next 3-6 months I’ll finally make start making some progress. It’s not so much a matter of having to crack a particularly tough nut, but rather that my day job and some other issues have been getting in the way of the little projects and papers I’ve been planning on the side. However, all that guff is finally starting to clear away, and I’m really looking forward to cranking on some fun stuff (Neoproterozoic climate!) again. Work’s been dragging too much lately otherwise.

WTF? All I know about this is that someone is feeling sorry for themselves. Sorry, but on the other hand get over it. :mad:

Huh? Ringo sounds pleased to be past a difficult issue; I said I’m looking forward to having the chance to do the same. Whos’ feeling sorry for themselves, here? And why on Earth are you angry? :confused:

That made my eyes glaze over, anyway. That was the Cliff’s Notes version? I’d hate to see the full version. :smiley:

kniz what’s up? :confused:

I still need to get over one hump, that’s been sitting in my mom’s garage. I took over a friend’s car (he’d blown the head gasket) and I was in the process of fixing it when I got pregnant. I didn’t want to risk fixing it when I was pregnant so I let it sit there. The bad part is that he had another car so I let it go. Now I just had another baby and there the car sits, yet. It’s at my mom’s house and she is :mad: . I need some motivation. The worst part is that it is almost all together! I actually just need about three hours of solid work to finish it, and it can run again.

A much more minor hump, but I finally got a job, after 3+ months of sitting around at home! I am no longer the " poor unemployed university graduate" but rather a " poor, employed university graduate!" And soon, I hope to be not-so-poor anymore, since they will be paying me! YAY!!

Next in line, I suppose, is my SO getting a job for the summer and/or getting into grad school (if he doesnt get in, he’ll need a full time job). Lots of changes going on for us right now! We also have to go through all the paperwork of transfering our residency to Ontario, officially buy the car off my dad, and just get a few other things out of the way.

Getting into the Real World is scary business!

Are we both in the same thread kniz?

Since you asked sunfish, the targets of investigation are middle to lower Eocene at depths of burial ranging from 11,000 to 17,000 feet. A significant portion, but not all, of the subject area lies in the shadow of a regional expansion fault system that has remained active to the present. What this means is that the overlying strat column changes dramatically as you traverse the area, with average velocities to target dropping by almost 1000 ft. s[sup]-1[/sup] where the column has several thousand feet of much younger rock. I had the model in mind years ago, but I couldn’t demonstrate it until my geologist (who’s an excellent wheedler) recently wheedled a velocity survey out of the offset operator.

With that I was able to demonstrate the velocity gradient as per my model, move a couple of thousand feet up to map at a level where I recently made a discovery on trend and show the same gradient, thus buttressing my argument that the youngest sediments above are responsible for the change and, finally, attach credibility to my paleostructure maps that, being based on isochron series, were suspect when velocity was known to be uncontrolled and hugely variable.

Gah! Run-on sentence, anyone?

It all seems so simple once you’ve figured it out.

I did a similar thing once LolaBaby. A '63 Fairlane, totaled but with a built 289, became available. I really wanted to stick that 289 in my ‘61 Falcon, but I was just leaving on a journey of a few months, so I bought it and had it towed to my folks’ place. When I came back life seemd to keep intervening with more pressing needs until I finally realized, about a year and a half later, that I needed to sell it for parts. Sometimes it’s good to get rid of stuff.

And 'grats to you mnemosyne - it sounds like your life tectonics are moving along. It can seem to be an awfully slow process at times; well, until you look back, anyway.

Ringo, I only WISH I could get rid of that car. It’s still my friend’s car.

I won’t even go into the '69 Camaro I have rotting on the other side of my mom’s garage (that is why she is :mad: )

Now let me go back and re-read what you are working on, without having my eyes cross involuntarily.

Heh. Late arriving news. After I think I’ve thought this problem through to a successful resolution, we show it to a long-time reliable investor, who says he’ll take the deal at the table (fairly rare occurence), but asks a technical question at the end that I largely dismiss as a concern.

We showed it to him before going through the hell of preparing presentation packages because ho does make a lot happen.

We all went home last weekend thinking it’s probably a done deal.

Nope. He contacted one of his other techno ranters, who told him that we lacked a vital element. It’s not a vital element (seismic amplitude anomaly), but now I have to go back and address this non-issue. So be it, that’s now done. Last nail hammered.