Fourth of July

Well, it's the week of the fourth of July! To me this means that summer is about half way over, and my time with RJ Lee Group is going by way too fast. This week has been a lot of the same things that need to get done. The main project I have been working is with coal dust. This project consists of a some-what uninteresting procedure but is very important because of the consistency of the number of projects that come into the company, and the fact that this test help to save the lives of miners by making sure that the walls of the mines they are working in are coated with enough CaCO3 so that a small spark does not ignite the coal. There was apparently some sort of accident in a mine where this happened and mines must have this test done from scrapings taken from the mine walls. There are hundreds of samples that get processed each week and is one of those projects that just always needs to get done, even though it is not really anyone's favorite thing to do.
My favorite thing so far that I've learned or been able to experience at RJ Lee was the short amount of time I got to spend looking at asbestos fibers under a optical microscope. At Juniata, the optical mineralogy parts of my geology classes has been on of my favorite subjects to learn about. In these classes we learned to identify amphiboles which are also types of asbestos. So it was interesting for me to be able to identify these minerals in a different setting other then a test type of environment. Actually, most of the interesting things I have done at RJ Lee also incorporate using knowledge I have learned at Juniata. I guess it makes me feel good that I can actually use my college education in a none academic setting because there are those people that still tell you that you will never use any of the things you learn in college. I like proving them wrong. 
I know that there are many things that I still have left to learn, but this experience has definitely got me thinking about all my options for after graduation, besides grad school.