Last week, classes finally came to an end. It is summer, which for me means more time in the lab. But this summer, I want it to mean more than that ( Read more... )

 At the moment, I'm spending my Friday night running a measurement. I finally got the system working Wednesday, and I need to use up the liquid helium before it boils away. How do I pass the time on a Friday night in my early 20's?


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For those who care:

I have been following this election as closely as I can given my insanely busy workload. In fact, politics is about the only thing I do outside of physics these days. Last week some of my friends were discussing the candidates, so I thought I'd throw in my thoughts here.

Sadly, I'm already on my second choice. My first choice was ( Read more... )

Thursday I start doing Hall measurements with a 12 Tesla superconducting magnet. What does that mean, you ask? It means all my time will be devoted to keeping this system running, and my personal life is going to be taken out back and shot ( Read more... )

Tomorrow, February 14th, is of course Valentine’s Day. A day where love is celebrated through the consumption of material goods, greeting cards, and Hallmark’s profit margin. But what does Valentine’s Day really mean to us? Hallmark didn’t invent the holiday out of the blue, so where did it come from?

You might be thinking of the story of St. ( Read more... )

So. Birthday today. Big 2-4. Whee, hooray, etc ( Read more... )

 I realize it's been a while since I posted anything here. In fact, my online presence of late has been non-exsistant. However, as part of my resolution to not let grad school completely overshadow everything else, I figured a good way to start was to get back in the habit of posting. Last week was an exception, preparing for my third and hopefully ( Read more... )

I'm sitting here in my lab, as I have been for the past month or so. Currently, I'm waiting for the varnish I applied to a sample holder to finally dry, so I can start the measurements I was hoping to finish up yesterday. Such is my life, or lack thereof. While I'm here, essentially watching paint dry, I thought I might mention my neighbor Justin's ( Read more... )

Whew, been meaning to post for a while, but delayed by a million distractions. I passed my qualifier though, so at least that's out of the way for good. Just one more qualifier, Mechanics, to be taken in January. After that is the oral exam and then the long drawn-out process of writing a thesis, unless I just bug out with the Masters first. Still  ( Read more... )

Sorry I haven't been around lately. My shoulder's fine now, and my project is (so very close to being) complete. However, I have been distracted, because tomorrow I take my PhD qualifying exam in electromagnetism. Which happens to be my worst subject.

Earlier in the afternoon I got so sick of studying that my brain went on strike, and have spent ( Read more... )