With Tech officially going out of session yesterday, I thought the town would be dead. I could not have been more wrong. People are coming out of the woodwork around here. I went to Walmart to get an optical wireless mouse for my laptop and that place was crazy. Speaking of Walmart, I?m flat out shocked at how big this one is becoming. They started making it into a Super-Walmart in the dead of winter but I?m quite certain you?ll be able to see the curvature of the earth inside once it is completed. Anyway, I?m off to a senior barrel to seal the deal on my renovation crew.

Well, I wrote this ealier today when I was bored out of my mind.

So I?m sitting here in the basement of Fisher filling liquid nitrogen and I wonder where this is all heading . . . . not the liquid nitrogen (that is headed into a tank hopefully) but all this technology and stuff. At any given moment, between my cell phone, mp3 player and my camera (when that gets fixed) I have the better part of a gig of digital storage on me. And now I have this laptop which by realistic standards is tremendously powerful. As a side note, this is the hard part about writing, I have some relatively complicated point I?m trying to get across but I just can?t put down in words very well.

Anyway, since I have nothing but time here (like 1.5 hours of sitting listening to nitrogen boil off and you can only play so much freecell), I?ll address these points separately. First up is the now nearly ubiquitous cell phone. I can?t imagine my life without it. Well, actually I can since if you remember during the fall when I lost my phone for about two weeks. That really sucked. I didn?t realize how integrated it had become in my life. It wouldn?t have been so bad if I had made a backup of my numbers but still I felt completely disconnected from the outside world. But backing up a bit further, I remember someone saying that we?re only one step away from the whole Star Trek communicator thing and I first I thought they were full of shit. Then a year or two passed and in a bulk sense I now call people not places (and you may have heard me say ?Let me try to raise them on subspace? rather then, ?I?ll call them?). In fact, it is really strange to have to ask if someone who I am speaking to because when I call Jason, I just expect it to be Jason . . . not some random who happened to be walking by the phone. To illustrate how un-wired I?ve become, I forgot to pull wire for regular telephones in the house. I never had any intention of getting a landline in the house, but sort of neglected to think that subsequent owners may. At the same time though, they may not. What is the point? Sure you get a nifty entry in the phone book but chances are if I am talking to you on the phone it is because I know you. Who knows, maybe phone books will grow in length as the cell number of everyone at that address will be listed or maybe phone books will just go away. I hope not soon though, because they are handy for starting fires in the fireplace.

Moving on to the mp3 player. Now these are interesting in a bit more subtle of a way. On campus about 20%+ of the people walk around with headphones on. I do it all the time. I sort of like having a soundtrack to my life. The trick is though, I?m basically off limits for verbal communication; in essence, I may as well be alone. So you have these huge groups of people, why maybe physically standing next to each other but are mentally isolated. Sure there are limits to that statement, I mean I do stop and talk to people and stuff but I control my aural ambience. The funny thing is, I enjoy listening to music so I?m gaining some amount of pleasure whenever I have my headphones on which insofar as the ?human condition? goes I would consider this a good thing. Heh, so maybe all my little toys are turning me into a self-serving bastard. So from the looks of it, the cell phone serves to connect whereas the mp3 players serve to isolate.

And now this laptop. What an interesting mix of vices and virtues this is. I already spend way too much time in front of computers as it is, but now the things can follow me around. With wireless to, I can reach out and harass the internet/World at will (no service in the LN2 filling room though). Between reading, chatting and even this blog, I become intellectually connected with people that there is a good chance I?ll never even meet. In fact, I sat down one day and thought about the differences between the ?e-me? and the ?in real life me?. More importantly, I thought about which one is now influencing the other. Since you can?t see the forest from the trees though, I?ll have to get back to that in a couple of years. For instance, when I meet people for the first time that have read my blog it is always sort of strange because they only know what is written here and so without the chance to actually watch me or see the stuff I write about it happen it always creates a disconnect between their concept of me and just plain me. At the same time, if some who knows me reads this huge body of crap on here, it likely induces some significant changes in how they see me. I?d like to think it adds some depth to my character but more likely it just makes them afraid because if they piss me off I?m going to tell the whole world about it (naw, I don?t do that too often and I usually regret it when I do). So I?m not sure what this laptop is going to do to me. Hopefully make me more productive and stuff since that is why I bought it but the side effects of its presence should be interesting.

Look at all this armchair philosophy only because the human race has figured out how to control the flow of current through a semi-conductor and I got stuck filling two LN2 tanks instead of one.

At 10:32 this morning, I finished my TEM final so I am done for the semester. I have no idea how it went but it was much harder then I expected. The reason I have no idea how it went is because I?m not really sure about anything. I managed to get only about 3-4 hours of sleep last night. Why so little? Because at 4am Jason woke me up and said we needed to find the rest of Chris since he left a nice trail of blood in the hall. So lesson to be learned here: don?t pound on someone?s door if they have a nail sticking out of it.

So that aside, it is nice to finally be done. The real question now is if I can get off of academic probation which I am now on because my grades sucked so bad last semester (I still think I got railroaded). So I made a new poll to that effect. Anyway in a perfect world I would be done taking classes all together forever, but I still have 3 more to go. But that is August?s problem.

Let?s talk about June?s problem. So there of my friends are getting married this summer. Great, awesome, whatever. But somehow, the scheduling department managed to schedule all three of them ON THE SAME GODDAMN DAY!!! I mean really what are the odds? Unless I can get a helicopter or something I?m going to have to miss at least two of them. Any ideas?

My laptop showed up yesterday too. Random fact of the day: there are three wireless networks available in the house thanks to my neighbors. Better yet, at least one of them is totally unsecured so I can get internet access in the dining room without even turning on my access point. Anyway, I’m slowly moving into laptop but I still don?t think it will take over as my primary computer. Only time will tell though.

So I can?t sleep right now . . . my hair is still burning from chewing on math from Dante?s 7th level of hell all day ? that and the hour long sauna I took in the house. Numerical modeling techniques for determining the surface energy of metals was NOT the right topic to pick for my Materials paper.

But what actually brought me back to the keyboard was some random dormant cluster of neurons firing. What was all the rage in my skull at 3:15 in the morning? This:

I?m betting most everyone will recall having seen Max there at one point or another in the book ?Where the Wild Things Are”? by Maurice Sendak. I must have read that book a thousand times (between that and the guilt inducing ?Giving Tree?) when I was a kid. I have no idea what prompted that book to just pop into my head like that . . . I mean I just looked at my pillow and poof! there it was in all its synaptic glory. Anyway, back to bed. God only knows what else waiting for me in the depths of cranium.

It?s been a big week for me on the research front. Without even really understanding the gravity of the situation, I submitted my final drawings the machinist for the bismuth hall thruster yesterday. Finally, after two years of work the plans are done. Unfortunately though, the machinist is swamped with other work so it will be at least two weeks before I get it back although it is going to take about that long to get the control loop written so it doesn?t explode 10 seconds after I turn it on. The really funny thing is, the material (a foot long piece of 4? stainless steel rod) that the thruster anode will be made of is our current door stop in the lab. I think I?ve already made one anode out of that rod and after this one, I?m not sure if it will be heavy enough to hold the door open anymore. Just an interesting fate though for a door stop ? to get turned into a hall thruster bit by bit.

I also took apart my current thruster just to do some forensics to see where the next place it is likely to fail is and luckily, everything looks pretty solid. Total part count 27 (not counting screws and stuff). That number really surprised me since I thought I was much simpler then that.

After work yesterday Mack, Brad and I went out for a beer and I was sort of joking around and said ?You know Brad, since I submitted the drawings for the last part of my thesis and Alex is going to be done in December can be done then instead??. And he gave me the strangest look, I don?t even know what to call it ? confused, concerned. I mean he did say if hand him a functioning bismuth hall thruster, he?ll hand me my PhD the next day. Brad is also all stoked about an idea I came up with to solve one of the most critical problems with using bismuth and sort of wants me to patent it. Too bad I threw away the original bar napkin I drew it on (actually I?m sure I shredded it into a million pieces like I always do with napkins). Oh the things I do at the KBC.

All that aside, I still have to do this bitch of a paper for one of my classes. I figure I have about 20 hours left on and it is going to be pure hell. On the bright side though, it due by Tuesday so I won?t have it hanging over my head much longer. Ok, I?m stalling, my coffee?s done, I need to get to work on it.

Well, I?ve been up to the usual (work, beer, work, beer) and that tradition will continue tomorrow I?m sure. I ordered a laptop this morning from Dell. I ended up going with the Inspiron 6000. Where the hell did they come up with the name ?Inspiron? anyway? It is scheduled to arrive on May 5th and I have to admit, I?m counting down the days. Why the motivation? Well, I think it will be really nice to always have my entire life at my disposal (literally). But in reality, I think since it will enable me to work outside on my research, I just bought a really expensive sun tan.

Tomorrow I?m scheduled for a couple of hours on the TEM in order to practice for my lab practical. So if anyone wants to see a 12 foot tall microscope in use, stop on by (or if you?re just bored). I?ll be in room 633 of the graduate side of the M&M Building from 10am to noon or a bit longer (the sign says High Resolution Transmission Microscope). However, if you do stop by, make sure you mostly close the outer door before you open the inner door so I don?t go blind (you have to work more or less in the dark). The first 30 minutes will probably be the most interesting as I?ll be aligning the electromagnetic optics (lots of button pushing and moving things). After that though, it will be ridiculous magnifications and eradicating Boron Carbide crystals with electrons.

So the new pope . . . well, I?ll tell you what I think . . . I know religion is important to a lot of people and that many look to the pope for guidance and stuff. I think Benedict XVI is going to alienate a lot of people. He seems to be an ultra-conservative hardliner which is not at all what the Catholic Church needs now. (I mean really, still opposing birth control?) Rather, it needs someone what can bring the church into the 21st century or at least the 20th rather then clinging to archaic traditions of questionable value. I?m quite certain that he won?t wildly popular in the much more liberal religious sects in the US. I dunno though, what do you guys think?

Update: 12:50 am
Ok, well I?ve been trying this new ‘mature Dean’ on the site and I sort of hate it. So, back to business as usual. Separated at birth and reunited in the Vatican?

And yes, I’m going to hell on a rocket sled now.

Man is time flying by. It seems like just yesterday I composed the post looking at the week ahead and yet I sit here now, that week having elapsed and well into the following week. Since the only thing of any sort of dynamic interest is (of course) my research, I?ll talk about that.

Mack and I did some pretty crazy stuff in the bismuth vacuum chamber last night. There?s this theory in the lab that the amount of things working within the research remains constant. Well, Brad came down and ?accused? us of ensuring that his laptop will never work again (it died last Friday). Anyway, what we did was run my thruster and Mack?s new cathode in the bismuth tank. I wasn?t even sure if it would run owing to the more robust but vastly slower pumps. But it did, and quite well in fact. Brad wants me to leave the set up so we can play show and tell with the Industrial Advisory Board tomorrow morning. It is great though since from the time the go button is hit on the pumps to when the thruster is on is only an hour. Which when compared to the 8 hours it takes in the other tank with the Aerojet cathode is quite the improvement.

Ummm yeah, so after fixing a couple of problems on the thruster, I?m back at it again this morning. I would be further along, but I ran into a problem that set me back by two and a half hours and it turned out it wasn?t a problem at all. Brain not work so good at 1am. Anyway, I went home last night and crashed at like 6:30pm but the insomniac in me couldn?t stay in bed past midnight. So I came into the lab and got a jump on the test. I sure hope it is done by 4pm because that is when the rest of the lab group is going out for beer. I told them that if I?m still testing, they better be lining up the pints for when I finish. However, by that time I?ll likely be so stinking tired, I?ll probably pass out after my first one. But that is for later . . . for now I have to write an abstract for the 2005 International Electric Propulsion Conference.

Update: 9:25 am
So far so good. The thruster lit with little issue and has been running for 21 minutes 46 seconds. Yay! Another 20 or so minutes of warm up time and I’m ready to get some numba’s.

Update: 11:05 am
Passed the two hour mark. Already have enough data to choke a horse but I have more then one horse to choke.

Update: 3:30 pm
Just shut it down after 6 hours of sucessful operation. So far as I can tell, I got all the data I was after plus some bonus stuff. Now I just have to babysit the pumps for a bit longer while stuff cools down and then I’m going to enjoy an evening on the town (until I fall asleep that is).