23/5/12

I got off to a good start with coursework this morning.  Powered through a question and a half (I say "powered" it did take over 3 hours but that was quicker than yesterday), so I went for a celebratory walk to Sainsbury's along the canal just so I could enjoy the sun and have a bit of a break.

Lots of canal boats were about.  It was a nice walk :-)

I got back to the house and decided to get on with more coursework while I was on a role.  The next 4 and a half of hours of my day pretty much sums up why I enjoy organic chemistry, but at the same time what I don't like about it!

Going through various synthesis problems is often a real challenge, and can take a lot of work to solve them.  I enjoy solving problems.  Today however, I have spent 4 and a half hours pushing arrows, reading in text books and searching the web and have made almost no progress.

Most people, I assume, would have given up long before me but I couldn't let it go.  I tried to do some revision on another subject but couldn't focus on it, my brain kept wandering back to the "big conundrum".  I know how much better I'll feel when I have the answer so I can't leave it unfinished.  At least until I have exhausted *all* possibilities for finding it.  There are some scenarios in which I could give up, but this isn't one of them.  The particular step I'm struggling with is worth 1 or 2 marks out of 85, and it's not even the marked bit that I can't do, I want the mechanism which wasn't actually asked for so it's not even about that marks, but because it's been set on a piece of coursework I assume that there must be a solution, so the hunt for it isn't futile!  

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, but everything I've tried so far has lead to a dead end.  I'm having to update this from my floor because work has taken over my bed, where I normally sit and work. Lecture notes, tutorial questions, textbooks and many scribblings.

This will be worth the effort...I will find the answer...