I have to admit, 23.5 hours without sleep, after cruising into the situation on 4 hours is a bit interesting. I rose for Wednesday?s (have to refer by day since I?m not really sure what to call it) test at 1:30am Wednesday and was all settled in to the lab underway by 3am. Unfortunately, the test didn?t go as planned (aka it was a steaming pile of worthless shit) it must be repeated with the problems solved. And by repeated, I mean the vampire shift commences again in 2.25 hours.

<begin stupid, frustrated rant&gt So, in case you can?t tell (and some concerned statements by my parents this evening), I?m getting pretty close to being burned out. 18 hours I spent in the basement of the MEEM today; I didn?t even see the sun. In an idealistic sense, I?d like to say it was worth it, but I?m not so sure. I?m sitting here, writing this with my jacket on both because I?m leaving for the lab soon, and because my room is not so warm since I haven?t had the time to insulate it. I wonder where to draw the line then ? and more importantly, how to draw it. As essentially the sole experimentalist of the research group, my work is a bit of black magic in itself. No one else is willing to sign their name to the finished product, being at least semi-confident that EVERYTHING is correct as a mistake costs a lot of money and a significant amount of time.

However, what really makes me angry is when people who are piggy backing upon the test are not prepared. I didn?t spend over 100 hours prepping so I could wait while other problems that should have been solved months ago are worked out. The crappy thing is, all of these failed tests don?t get me the data that I?m after but yet I?m still responsible for making sure stuff works.

In other words, when the shit hits the fan, my back is always the first against the wall. Why should I be the go to guy for thruster operating parameters? Wasn?t anyone else there? The funny this is, about 50% time, I was alone. Sure my successful thruster test record is about 40%. But what is everyone else?s? Last I checked, the only other test conducted that was not under my watch was the SEDS Baby 5 which I would call a success (it ran for a while before it blew up). An excellent example of that was demonstrated earlier today but in the interest of prudence, I?ll omit it. The great part is when I can?t instantly recall operating points from memory and it comes off as me not knowing what the hell is going on. Off the record (as if that?s possible on my own website ? heh) not once have I ever received any kind of vindication/encouragement/approval from the Powers That Be on anything I work on. There is always something that could have been done but wasn?t because I missed it. Well, mark my word, I can tolerate exactly one and a half years of this crap. After that, I?m out. It just isn?t worth killing yourself to get ahead when in fact you may not be ahead after all. I?m beginning to wonder if drive has any place in grad school.</rant&gt

A friend of mine sent me this link to an aerial photo of my house, which I shameless stole with some ALT-Print Screen action and a healthy dose of Photoshop. So anyway, the picture that you no doubt have already been looking at is an aerial photo of the house. If the arrow isn?t enough, it is one with red roof, left center. Pretty cool picture though. To ease my guilty conscious though, I should probably link to the place that took the photo (plus they have lots of other pictures of the area). Skypixs.com is the place.

As I mentioned a few days ago, the waterfall spilling fourth from the kitchen ceiling was not really all that appealing (especially since it was coming from the toilet drain - use your imagination).

Unfortunately, there was no easy fix. In the picture above, it is pretty evident why. Flat out ancient nasty plumbing that was pretty much shot. Remember, this isn?t my first battle with the second floor plumbing. Back in last October I had a battle that would set the stage for utter destruction.

So the story goes like this, after an unsuccessful thruster test on Friday (lasted about 30 seconds before a bad plasma discharge shut us down) I came home around 6. Jason and Zak were already sizing the problem up and it was becoming clearer by the second that we were going to have to some major hurt on the bathroom to get the problem solved. And by major hurt, I mean throw most of it in the front yard. Friday night ushered in a furry of destruction. After some cuts and prying and some sluts and lying (ok I made that last part up) and the sub floor was exposed, as was the problem.

Jason was able to lift that top piece of the pipe off with his finger. Nice. Meanwhile, I was so tired from being up since 3:30am I?m enjoying the insanity of it all. I started grinding away on some pipes but by 10 pm, work was beginning to slow down; thirst was taking over.

The next day we continued to wrestle out the old pipes. I had what could be called a nightmare about busting up the horizontal length of pipe heading over to where the toilet was before it was evacuated. By some bizarre stroke of luck, it actually came out easy. No one died and it didn?t drop through the floor and crush the stove in the kitchen. The vertical lengths were a bit more work, but they too yielded and are currently enjoying the fresh air outside.

With the old out of the way, it was time for the new. However, it was also time for me to follow through on a weekend camping trip I?d been planning since Tuesday. I realized I hadn?t left the immediate Houghton/Hancock area for over a MONTH so it was time to go; house be dammed. Jason and Zak stayed back and continued to work while I was walking peacefully down the beach up north (I?m such an asshole I know, but I was getting beyond stir crazy and was about to totally toss my cookies). When I returned the following day, the new plumbing (copper and PVC) were all installed. It looked something like this.

Damn nice work if I do say so myself. Lucky you guys though, copious amounts of pictures were taken during the whole operation so you can see it go down play by play.

So I bring to you:The 2nd Floor Bathroom Mess. All told there are some 46 pictures including a choice one of me using a saw left handed. So enjoy, because we most certainly didn’t.

Finally, the day has arrived - testing day. Today we’re testing our thruster again and it has been a long time coming. From equipment breaking to assembly delays, these last two weeks have been the longest of my graduate career thus far. It all came to a head yesterday during out lab meeting where I was a little bit more forceful pushing the test through then I should have been. Brad wanted us to hold off until next week if we couldn’t get the tank closed by 5pm. I just told him this week has been murder and I want my life back and I don’t want a pending thruster test hanging over my head all weekend. The house has damn near fallen into disrepair, I still don’t have a new phone yet and this 5 hours of sleep a night crap is getting a bit old.

Anyway, so I discovered the one thing missing from my vampire shift exploits: a subwolfer. I borrowed a nice stereo system from a housemate and it is much more enjoyable hearing Beastie Boys with some bass rather then through some crappy computer speakers. It almost drowns out the cryopump. Almost. I can still hear it saying things to me, just not a loud. Also in the creature comfort department, this lab is always in the upper 80’s so I opted for two methods of dress today. The usual tee shirt and stuff, plus I brought along a tank top to white trash the place up a bit. Now I can show my huge biceps off to all the campus tours that walk through during the day. In othernews, MTU enrollment sees sharp drop off.

For whatever reason, the house opted to throw me a curve ball this evening and allow water to spew forth from what should be a contiguous drain pipe. As shocking as it may seem, the water actually managed to weasel its way through not only the cast iron pipe, but the 18 coats of paint laid upon it as well. After sizing up the situation, I pretty sure the only solution is to completely remove the cast iron from the basement all the way through the roof and replace it with PVC. As if I didn?t have enough on my plate this week I?m fortunate enough to get to break open some nasty plumbing, and hopefully not get crushed in the interim.

As fall begins its inevitable decent upon the northern hemisphere, a sense of urgency is beginning to develop. In other words, its ass cold in the morning and unless I want frost on my face some serious drywall action is needed. That is focus of today ? plug ridge vents and keep on drywall?n.

As for my phone, earlier in the week I reported having lost, then found it. I lost it again mere hours after finding it and I fear that this time it is for good (like it fell out of my truck and landed in the lake good). What was liberating I?m finding quite debilitating. I can?t call or be called by anyone so I?m feeling a bit cut off from the world. Anyway, to work.

I think that’s how you spell it. Sounds like Chelsea (as in Clinton) except a short ‘a’ sound instead of the long ‘e’. Anyway, here’s the pic.

I figured it was about time to misspend some time at work so I popped opened a word processor (to keep me safe from the spelling Nazi) and here we are. A camera guy spent about two hours in the lab this morning. That was rather entertaining. As one might expect, most of the pictures were posed and Brad was out in the laughing at us. Revenge came swiftly though when he had to sit down for his solo picture and the guy told him to cross his legs. He looked really funny so I said ?Ok, now Brad, try to make that look slightly less gay? right before he snapped the picture. It was a super nice digital camera so we could see the results right away. Instantly, the camera guy was offered beer for life from Brad to delete the picture, and from Mack and I to show it to the world. Brad won though.

Let’s see . . . I found my phone this morning (dammit) while looking for something else I lost (sanity perhaps). In essence, it was crushed in the bowels of my truck. Still works though, but the battery is in the ICU. I guess it is a good thing that it was in my truck because I was beginning to wonder if I didn’t leave it out at the 500 foot marker out at the Breakers when I was writing. It would surely met a different fate were that the case. Special thanks to the 79 people who called me over the last 5 days.

Yesterday I tossed my butt back on to the treadmill. Why you ask? I’m trying to get out and get some more exercise since it seems to keep me from going 100% crazy (plus I just lifted on Monday). Putting in 8 to 12 hours in the lab plus classes tends to grate against one’s existence. I put in a good 2 miles before I accidentally pulled off the emergency stop magnet. Just go on record ? oh yeah, it works. I just about flew over the top of the damn thing. Also, another lesson learned: when floating on your back in the pool, don’t do one of those deep breaths in, deep breaths out because when it comes to out part you’ll sink. Damn negative buoyancy.

Crap, time for class. As I’ve mentioned several times before, I really hate Advanced Fluids.

Update: 3:02pm I managed to get $59,560 playing DrugWars for 10 minutes during class. For those of you who don’t know, DrugWars is a text based game that goes on TI85/86/89 graphing calculators that was all the rage back when I was in high school. You go around buying and selling drugs trying to take advantage of “market conditions”. Good times.

Today Jake brought back a dog that his mom bought him for his birthday - which means the house is now heavy one dog. I think its a small beagle or something but I know as much about dogs as I know about carpentry ? just enough to be dangerous and look like a dumbass. Hopefully it will work out well.

In other news, my cell phone has gone missing, perhaps for good this time. I feel somewhat liberated but at the same time, I missed a birthday call I really shouldn?t have (happy birthday Amy Wegner). Maybe it will turn up, maybe it won?t. The up side is that maybe I?ll get a new, less crappy phone out of the deal. One can only hope.

I?ve been a bit too busy lately between lab work and school work to adequately express my creativity. Yes, that?s right, I need a creative outlet and bending metal tubing just isn?t doing it. So in my infinite wisdom, rather then paying attention during class, I blazed a trail into the dense undergrowth that is class-room games. While the prof in Advanced Fluids was talking about control volume rotations, I was putting the finishing touches on Notebook Archery.

The game is easy. First, grab some piece of paper that you probably shouldn?t use and use it anyway. I chose one of the homework problems that was due this afternoon (and I scrawled the solution in the left margin for those who can?t stand not solving problems). If you?re like me and are surrounded by Mechanical Engineers, then ask around for a compass to draw the circles. ME?s are dorks so they?re be at least one with some drafting tools on them. That beats the hell out of trying to free hand it. So use your new buddy?s tools to draw up as many circles as you feel like and place arbitrary scores in each circle.

Pro Tip ? keep some other important looking papers on your desk to avoid a shake-down by the professor.

The rules are quite simple, keep your elbow on the desk and attempt to drop your pencil (we were lucky enough to have a sharpie) and score the most points. Its really more like a discrete game of darts then archery, but archery sounded better. Unfortunately, I was sitting in the second row so we we?re only able to get in three rounds before The Man started to grow wise to our musing. So after 3 rounds, I was in the lead 135 to 120 to 120. Although there is currently an appeal on the table since Mack said ?But I always win?. Not today my friend, not today.