Yesterday morning I was working in the lab, filling a dewar full of liquid nitrogen. Another grad student showed me how to handle a liquid nitrogen transfer, something I was very nervous about.

---------
Me: What's that hiss?

Him: Oh, that's normal. These tanks always hiss when the pressure changes.

Me: What about that hiss?

Him: That's fine. Sometimes ( Read more... )

I have not seen much of my advisor this summer, as he's a very busy man who's wife just had a baby. However, every once in a while he'll meet up with me to discuss my progress. These talks are a lot like oral exams, oral exams that I always fail. Basically, I'll start by telling him the two things I've accomplished, and then he'll ask me about the ( Read more... )

Last week, I came home to find a letter from my landlords under my door. It reminded me of a clause in the rent agreement that stated the added power use of a window air-conditioner raised the electricity bill, and as such the new AC unit in my apartment would add an extra $40 to my rent every month. This note surprised me, especially since I had ( Read more... )

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence
( Read more... )

"Hungry is the man who finds salvation in a cookie."

This afternoon I forced myself to the gym, as I've been trying to do since summer began with varying degrees of success. About halfway through weight-lifting, my right tricep decided it was done, and started to cramp up every time I tried to flex it. As a result, I ended up leaving the gym early, and kept my right elbow bent for the rest of the ( Read more... )

The following is an awesome PSA about illegal music downloading:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXR4T8xVFdw

It reminds us, among other things, that it's not legal.

Last weekend I returned to Houston for my cousin's wedding. I was thankful to see those of you that I could, hopefully I'll catch those that I missed later. I'm actually considering a third trip back to Houston this summer just to see friends (the second trip being my sister's wedding in a month).

I got in Thursday, after another trip through " ( Read more... )

Thank you for all the support I received over Lars. It still sucks, but I'm heavily distracted by my first week of actual research.

Some good news, though--I passed my quantum mechanics qualifier. That just leaves the electromagnetism and classical mechanics exams to go. And from what I hear, they're ironically more difficult.

And to those of you ( Read more... )

No, it's not about the test I took Friday. I'm pretty sure I passed it. If I didn't pass, I'll be very surprised, and rather homicidal.

My parents called yesterday, and told me that my dog, Lars, died.

For years my family couldn't get a dog, due to my overabundance of allergies. If it purred, barked, or mewed, it made me sneeze, cough and wheeze. My ( Read more... )