I just ran out to Walmart to get my usual fix of malt vinegar, tonic water and Lunchables and I couldn’t help but think that it smelled like fall rather then spring outside. I’m really hoping I didn’t loose track of that much time.

I gave my presentation to Brad the other day. Meh. We spent about an hour and a half building a laundry list of changes and man are there a lot. I was completely lacking any mathematical formalism which I usually omit since no one really likes equations during presentations. However, this time is different since this is quite a different audience than usual. So, I’ve been trying to include the math in there without chalking up the talk. The last half of the week though has been marked by constant distraction and I’ve been quite easily distracted. Alas though, I have a solution: Brad asked me to watch his army of Malamutes this weekend which means I get to stay in his and Karen’s beautiful place on Lake Superior. It is going to be a like mini vacation where I take in nature and “find myself”. Ok so really it will be me unplugged from the world with nothing but 4 walls and my laptop. Maybe I’ll even sabotage my truck so I can’t leave until I finish. But anyway back to how great the place is . . . if I were ever going to write a book, that is certainly where I would do it. I’ll take some pictures. Unless of course I end up as puppy chow for the dogs.

Next up: this crazy picture:

It is the crater left after a 5 year old boy fell 9 stories and lived. Wow. Story is here.

Next: religion. So, the pope, back by extensive evidence, has decided that hell is actually real and if you don’t stop screwing up, you’re going to burn for all eternity. What a tool. Does anyone really believe this crap anymore? (not the god thing, but eternal damnation - I’ll leave god alone tonight [your night off tonight god, but I'm sure we'll get back to hating each other tomorrow]). The whole statement just smacks of thinly vialed desperation. Garr you’re going to HELL for not selling your daughter into slavery sort of thing. This isn’t the Dark Ages anymore and people are probably far too cynical for the fire and brimstone lectures. Oddly enough, Pope John Paul II thought quite differently on the subject.

Next up: Hello Moto.
My old Nokia finally called it quits when I was in Chicago. Well, that would make it sound like it just gave out. Naw, I dropped it on the sidewalk for what had to have been the 1000th time and the screen quit working. All told, I imagine that phone traveled at least one vertical mile if you add up all the times I’ve dropped it, thrown it or lost it and accidently shot it across the room while whipping sheets flat (that was funny - bounced off the TV in a hotel room). So I replaced that relic that berely understood the concept of color much less the whole internet thing with a top of the line Motorola SLVR. It won me over when I can found out it recharges itself via USB. Not only that, but it has about a half of gig of storage that shows up as a hard drive on my laptop. Yeah, I backed up my presentation to my cell phone. What a world.

I swear someone has shaved at least 3 hours off of every day. It seems I never have enough time for anything. I’ll write more but here’s what the most immediate fire I’m tending is:

I have to give a presentation to my PhD committee next week where I lay out my entire Master Plan for them. Brad wanted a 95% complete draft of this in like 8 hours but I just don’t think I can do 95%. Editing the graphics is taking forever and after working on this monster for about 13 hours today, I’m ready to shoot it and anything that walks through my door. Oh well, I know I’ll have it done for Wednesday.

I got a haircut this morning at the Mirror (right next to the Dog downtown).   The only reason I keep going back besides the stellar melon sculpting is that they vacuum your head when they finish cutting your hair.  It is great.  Sort of makes me want to just sit back with beer and vacuum my skull for a few hours.   It is really a shame the suck-cut didn’t catch on more.

In three short hours I will be leaving Houghton and heading down to Chicago for St. Patrick’s day.  I’m really excited to see three lanes of traffic heading in the same direction . . . it has been a while.  Not only that, it will be nice to meet up with all of my friends living down there who have joined The Real World.  Most importantly though, I get to see the Chicago River dyed green.

Yeah it is my birthday today and holy shit am I getting old.  But thank you to everyone for the warm wishes and sarcastic comments, I enjoy them both.  This year will certainly be one of change for me.  I will be forced to transition from a lowly graduate student which is only slightly above slave labor to a full blown real person with a real job.  I’ve spent eight years now in college and though I don’t fear the change, I’m certain it will take some adjustment.  I mean I could have accidentally killed someone (manslaughter) and been out of jail by now.  Yes I could wax prophetic all day but there is much work to be done.

Thus far it has been a great birthday since I was received some very unexpected results from what I thought was a failed test on Friday.  As it turned out, it was vastly better then I had hoped for.  In fact, it was quite near perfect.  Without going into great detail, I’ve been trying to press and sinter (take a powder and turn it into a solid piece) over the last few weeks.  I’ve been slowly creeping up my sintering temperature to get good strength as well as keeping things porous.  Anyway, here’s the picture of the latest result.  You can see that it certainly is not a powder and in fact is quite well bonded yet there are still large voids that permeate into the bulk of it.  Nifty nifty nifty.

MTU canceled classes today due to weather. The End Days is upon us, expect the Four Horsemen any second now. Hopefully they’ll bring some beer. Luckily work is still moving forward in the ISP Lab so perhaps there’s hope yet.