Orals today. I finished the talks and answered all their questions, and now I'm waiting for their decision.

Here's a good quote from the Onion in their review of Anything Else.

"Who would have thought that starring in a Woody Allen movie would prove an artistic demotion from pastry-fucking in a teen-sex comedy? Yet [Jason] Biggs' anxious, flop-sweat-drenched performance as a divorced 21-year-old comedy writer makes his performance in the American Pie movies look sublime and restrained by comparison."

I had mocks today. Tough but informative. I also got an email from Tom about another EELS guy at ASU who got a hold of my proposal and is making comments about it to my committee members. Not good comments either. I don't know if I need to talk to this guy or not. I'm tired and stressed. Leave me alone.

Session 2 pics are online! I tried to experiment with long exposures, so a lot of pictures came out fuzzy. I also screwed up the distance setting a few times as well. Oh, and the developer screwed up some pictures as well, giving them a red tint. Oh well. Live and learn. Your assignment is to find Beth. Check out the two-headed dog! And the creepy Ring-esqe pictures.

Even Italians love anime!

I just turned in my two proposals for orals...and may God have mercy on my soul.

Strange things are afoot on the 6th floor. Today I discovered a mysterious token in my mailbox. Whover could have done such a thing? The game is afoot!

My brain is mush. I left my copy card at Noble library twice today!

They're having an 80% off sale at the cell phone shop! I got my $30 car charger for $6!

In other news, sorry for not blogging much, or reading other people's blogs, but I'm swamped with proposals for my oral exam. Both proposals are due monday, and I haven't even started writing my second one (I spent the past two days reading papers). Fortunately, I finished my revised draft of my first proposal, so that one is basically done.

So I'm back from the synchrotron. I was working from 8AM till after midnight, nonstop. It's one of those things where you have to keep working as long as the microscope is working, becuase you never know when things will fuck up. It was also mind-numbingly boring. It was basically click and wait the whole time. Each image takes a few minutes to record, so it takes forever to set up things the way you want them to look. Then you set up a "stack" which is a series of images at different energies (about 200 images) and let that run for 6 - 10 hours (depending on how you set things up). That's the time you get to sleep. Of course, if you run a stack during the day, you have to sit and talk with the guy working with you for that whole time, just waiting for something to go wrong.

The ironic thing is, for all that time I spent, I don't have any data! I didn't realize that there is extra data processing to be done. So the technician for the microscope is supposed to analyze my data and send it to me in a week or two. But I don't have time to worry about that...I have proposals to write for my Ph.D. exam!

Are you kidding me? CNN.com - HK store's Nazi theme sparks fury - Aug. 10, 2003

Hey, if you have the Google Toolbar you can add a Blog button so you can blog anytime you want just from your web browser!

DORK ALERT: Today I saw on campus a guy wearing bright red baggy shorts, a bright red t-shirt, and tall, spiky hair dyed bright red. He also had on soap shoes (the kind people slide around on). He looked like a walking troll doll.

I also saw a cute, white Grand Vitara, and I got all excited. Silly me.

I forgot to mention yesterday that this past weekend, Kelly and I went camping. On Sunday we went to Box Canyon in the Field Camp area, and it was cool. We decided to hike down the canyon as far as we could go. It was fun wading through deep water, and swimming through even deeper pools. It wasn't always easy, and the water level was high (since it had rained recently). We got as far as the bend in the canyon when we ran into a 30 ft cliff and waterfall. That was a really nice, romantic spot. In order to go farther, you'd have to climb up the side of the canyon, walk downstream a ways, then climb back down to the creek. It's doable, but we thought we should head back instead. I can't believe how much fun Kelly and I have together.

In other news, it rained this morning...hard. On my way to school, I skidded when I made a right turn. Now I always wondered how I would react in a serious skid. Would I panic, or would I remember to turn into the skid. Well, I guess it's pretty much instinctual with me. I felt myself sliding, and without even thinking I was rolling the steering wheel the other way. Then I started sliding to the other side, so I compensated for that, turning the wheel less. I slid back to the first side again before I got the car straightened out. It was a little scary, but also fun because I kicked ass so much. I felt like a stunt driver. Kelly's probably pissed at me about this, so I'll be very careful when making turns from now on.

I had to get gas this morning, and I've never had to wait before. There was a six car line at the station I went to. Luckily, it moved quickly. Apparently, it was much worse yesterday. Arizona gets all its gasoline from California and Texas, and a few weeks ago, the pipeline from Tucson to Phoenix burst. So since then they've been trucking gas in from Tucson. That means gas stations have been getting fewer shipments, and they haven't been able to keep up with demand. More demand than supply. Well, yesterday demand finally exceeded supply. Until they get that pipeline fixed (no thanks to the government and their inefficient regulatory process) there might be a slight gas shortage.

I think I've caught Kelly's cold.

I was going to do TEM this morning, but I couldn't logon to the microscope. Even though I've gotten a new code, it hasn't been put in the access computer yet, so I can't use any of the TEMs. On top of that, all the TEM staff are out of town this week for a conference. I don't know if the guy who's here can even access the access computer! I sent him an email, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I may just have to wait until next week to get anything done.

The only good that can come out of this is if this guy can enter my new code into the computer. Since all the staff is out of town, almost nobody has signed up for time on the microscopes. That means if I am able to, I can get on the TEM whenever I want. Plus, I can save money by only being charged for the time I use instead of a whole block of time (which happens when you sign up).

I just found out Tom's astrobiology account is overdrawn. Everyone is scrambling to find money to pay for everything, like all the lab supplies I just ordered, travel reimbursements, and most importantly, my salary. Tom says I can still RA in the fall, but I still might not get my paycheck today unless they find some money elsewhere.

Why does the X-ray technician have to show up while I'm on the TEM? I got kicked off the microscope 2/3 of the way through my session, and I only got half the data I wanted. The good thing is that I figured out the parameters to use, so from now on I can just get on and measure spectra without having to adjust too many things. But come on! Talk about bad timing.

My garage got broken into this weekend. All my dad's powertools are gone, as well as three internal frame backpacks to carry them. All I lost was my toolbox, which was about $200 total worth of stuff. The total loss is around $2000. As soon as the insurance check gets here, I should be able to replace everything I need, since I had a whole set of standard sockets that didn't even fit my car. That socket set and an imaginary $60 torque wrench should be enough to offset any deductible that gets taken out of my $200. Maybe I can even get some new tools that I didn't have before, like a real torque wrench.

I also want to mention that Kelly was wonderfully supportive through all this. I really appreciate her efforts to make my day easier for me. I love her so much.