3rd degree burns on about 5% of my face from an air pocket exploing which shot 400+ C (750+ F) bismuth into my “confort zone”. Thank god I had on a bandana for the first time in my life or it would have been much worse. However, nothing all that serious (as in it will heal fine) but I’ve been reminded how much burns suck.

I’ve decided to address the update issue in response to the latest comments, namely how I used to update more frequently but now the site seems to have fallen by the wayside. Well, I’ve considered pulling the plug on the whole deal a few times but in the end I decided that infrequent posts are better then none at all. I don’t think I’ve gone a week without writing. However, that isn’t really the issue at hand though. The question remains . . . why don’t I write more often? Plenty of interesting thing happen to me on any given week. For instance:

• Last week I was able to crawl out my 3rd floor bedroom window since the scaffolding was up that high. Not gonna lie, I found it ironic that I was climbing 35 feet of scaffolding with my bike helmet and backpack on (like the helmet is going to help). I don’t like heights all that much.
• I went sailing (like real sailing) for the first time on Sunday. Cut the crap out of one of my hands, but I’ve never had more fun being yelled at for 3 hours. We did two races, won one, took second in the other. Then we were pummeled by a couple of rain squalls.
• Tuesday’s Pirate Party at Mack’s kicked ass
• I went to work on Wednesday dressed like a pirate and proceeded to shoot liquid metal all over the vacuum chamber (though that happened on Monday as well)
• Today’s thruster test session was amazing. It has been determined that my ions are actually being accelerated rather then just hanging out playing florescent light bulb.

As it turns out though, I’m now on like day 40 of a very intense testing schedule that will draw to a close next Wednesday evening. By that time, I may have a significant portion of my thesis data but the current push doesn’t have much to do with that. I won’t get into it other then to say it is of pivotal importance much larger then me or this site.

So that is reason for the lack of updates lately. God knows I’ve had plenty to write about, but my research journal has been taking the front seat lately – I’m already about 20 pages into my new book despite my being behind in writing in that as well. Some may say “you have time to party, why not update the site too?”. Well, I don’t have a real strong defense for that other then that I were to always stay home, I’d only be writing about how bored I am and at the moment, I would kill to be bored.

All that aside, apparently the painters showed up again today after nearly a week’s hiatus. The lead paint czar is apparently under the impression that I’m avoiding him but all BS aside, when they’re not here he is pretty easy to avoid. Either way though, there is now another sky scraper worth of scaffolding up on the west side of the house. I would take a picture but a) my camera is broken necessarily precluding the possibility of that and b) I didn’t get home until after dark c) it really isn’t all that interesting – just imagine a yellow skeleton creeping up the side of the house.

Anyway, I have a bunch of thruster data to crunch down into something more palatable – those nice graphs everyone always see don’t just fall out of the sky, so I’m going to fix a drink and get to work.

[00:17:00] contumacious: hrmm….freshly ionized air, pouring down rain, fertilized plants…
[00:17:04] contumacious: fuck…its comin down….
[00:17:21] ShiftyEyesMI: yeah
[00:17:27] ShiftyEyesMI: guess the storm is back for seconds
[00:17:47] contumacious: ok…neighbor’s roof made it sound worse than it was
[00:18:13] ShiftyEyesMI: the winds are pretty stong here though
[00:18:21] ShiftyEyesMI: although my bedroom is half way to space

Funny thing . . . the task that dominates most of my life is the one I talk the least about (recently anyway). That is probably a defense mechanism as I’ve been basically living in the lab beating my head against the wall. But like Brad said “Why do you hit yourself in the head with a hammer? Because it feels so good when you stop”. Well, I’m getting pretty close to that point now. Not quitting of course, oh hell no, this bastard project from hell is not about to win but rather I’m about to. There are problems to be solved of course but nothing like there was before. For instance, lets compare a few pictures:

This is a picture from the first time the bismuth thruster ran:

Looks sort of dicey and not really all that healthy. This is what it looks like now:

It actually has a plume structure and (gasp!) I can use my parts more then once. I can’t help to reflect though on what a torturous path it has been to get to this point. I always joke that I torture condensed matter for a living but man, that crap can hit back. In fact I often wonder if I’m just in some sort of epic battle with the laws of physics; as in whose more stubborn. If you’re reading this Thruster . . . I will win you bastard!

Reaching back into antiquity, I’ll repost one of my favorite pictures. That of course is the the thruster shitting the bed while I have diagnostics running. The really funny part though is that the left side tranquility extends about 10 more feet then is visible but wow did stuff go wrong. To refresh some memories, the metal to ceramic seal failed on my propellant isolator back in the days when I used xenon.

I roped Marc into snapping some pictures of the outside of the house thus enabling me to prove to the powers that be that yes, in fact, there is work being done on the joint. Hahahah, just kidding, but I finally gave in to the harassment and posted some pictures. Not that anyone is reading this since you’ve already scrolled down and looked at what I’m describing.

The best part is the enormous suck sponge that is being wiped on the front of the house. The only bad part is that I get to wake up every morning now to a middle aged painter smiling down at me.

Wrapped up another volume of my research journal this evening. I now have 320 pages of notes to myself on top of the spreadsheets from 130+ thruster tests. Sort of makes me wonder when it is all going to end. Perhaps more importantly, how I’m going to distill it down into a single coherent story. Ohhhh man . . . .

You know, I ran around the house taking pictures of the freshly completed north and east side and wouldn’t you know it, my digital camera bought the farm yet again. Dammit. I’m going to try and have someone else take them tomorrow then so I can post how friggen awesome the place is looking.

So the world is mourning the loss of Steve Irwin . . . . I say, he died like a hero, why be sad? I wish to all hell that I will die doing something amazing. How many of us will ever swim on the Great Barrier Reef? Much less get stabbed through the heart by a sting ray. Don’t get me wrong, I lament the demise of a person with a passion for they did, and did well however, I very much doubt he would enjoy grief on his behalf. On that note, I’d like to say, when I finally buy it, throw a big party. Celebrate life, not death.

To sort of celebrate the conclusion of Summer 2006, In Dispute, Anarkinda, and The Neverland Rancheros playing live at the house tonight! Show starts around 10pm. Drop on by.