:The language in this entry was once much stronger.  I have since calmed down and have decided to tone it down:

..DAMN!

I don't know what the appropriate way to report this information is. But anyone who is going to see me or talk to me in the next week at least needs to know this.

At 11:20am today I came a roll of the dice away from severe injury ( Read more... )

Experience, please?

The Pavillon des Jardins puts Parkside to shame in terms of international-ness (even if Parkside puts it to shame in just about every other imaginable way . . .). Here's the official head-count on my floor, plus a few people who are honorary floor members because they hang out here so much (I just got a .pdf of the list from an ambitious floormate ( Read more... )

Today I saved an old lady from a local cemetery in which she had become trapped for almost an hour. I could elaborate, but there's really not much more to say. After I couldn't get her out using a garbage can as a stool to hop the gate, I managed to get the attention of a nearby couple who let us borrow their ladder.

I feel like I've finally been a ( Read more... )

Top ten greatest things about Cachan and the ENS ( Read more... )

Whew! Finally got a reaction to get going today that I've been working on for the better part of a week. As I may or may not have mentioned, the project I'm working on was broadly introduced as "synthesis and coating of metal nanoparticles". Now that I've technically done both of those things, we're working on some modifications that might ( Read more... )

Ça fait déjà deux semaines ( Read more... )

How poor of a professor is my (now former) Inorganic Chemistry Professor, Dr. Periana? Consider the following review of a USC professor in the Economics department (Chowdhury). This is my all-time-favorite student evaluation of a prof I've ever read ( Read more... )

Came across this entity today and thought its name so bizarre that I had to share it ( Read more... )

I was reminded today of how essential a car can be, depending on your location. I was presenting my research at Westmont College in Santa Barbara (they were hosting the SoCal ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium). Lacking a car, my only options to get there were Greyhound and Amtrak. Amtrak could not get me there in time for the 8am check-in, so ( Read more... )