Welcome back, Professor!

Dear Diary,

Kieron came back from his epic summer quest.   We're all ecstatic!

Today we are all Vinnie Barbarino.  But we're keeping up the hard* work.  Unfortunately, this morning, I had a meeting, and then another meeting, and then another meeting with some meetings in between.  Tomorrow, I'll do some physics.  But it looks like I'm prime position to carry over some momentum from getting so much done last week that this could be a productive few days too!

Whew, it's been a bit hot in here recently.

*-(ly)

President Pro Tempore

Dear Diary,

Every so often in a tyrants life, a vacation is taken because no one can tell them not to.  In my case, the best vacation I could get was a grueling 2-week boot camp in French Canada where I'll be tested and pitted against the nation's best young physicists.  Yikes!  I might need a vacation from this vacation!

So, I'll be missing two group meeting.  Raphael will have to run them in my stead.  I've given him full reign over what we plans including just working through massive derivations that he doesn't have time to show people regularly.  Since we only get 30 minutes of meeting time with Kieron, these group meetings are a nice chance to update everyone and show Kieron exactly what we've been doing.

...well, if we don't have anything better to do.

Graduate Students are Meant to be Seen and Not Heard

Dear Diary,

A memory comes to mind this evening.  Please, sit with me and remember.

Back in my younger days, I was taking a laboratory class that involved messing with radioactive material.  At some point in the school's history, a student (not me) believed that the radiation badges they had you wear couldn't possibly ever be checked.  So, they stuck the badge in a very dangerous place where it was assured of registering a severe health risk.

When they checked the badges a few days later, the student was pulled out of class and given a full medical exam after which they confessed they hadn't actually been exposed.

When the teacher explained this to us on the first day of my class, and then said that if some huge radiation leak occurred this story would definitely mean we'd hear about it, I blurted out, "Party at my place if that happens."

And no one was amused.  Have a happy Memorial Day.

Working Hard(ly)

Dear Diary,

It's vacation time, and I've taken the unusual step of not checking my email during the first few days.  You know, all 500 of them (!).  I've decided to postpone a little longer because, and this is true, most of the things that people are reminding me that I forgot are totally my fault and actually necessary but I can't do any of them.

As it would just so happen, the graduate student luck has followed me back to Pennsylvania where, and this is also true, if you get up early enough in the morning, your nose dribblies will freeze as you breathe in.  This is not an occurance greeted warmly!  My parents' computer from 13 years ago is now so old that I have convinced them that an update from Windows to Linux is in their best interest.  It's right up my alley to install it with my unix know-how!  The problem is not that the computer can not handle it; rather, I've run into a bunch of tiny snags!

At first, I made them a live USB, but the computer wouldn't boot from it.  Then I tried using a CD, but we didn't have a writeable CD over 700MB.  Then I tried doing a minimal Live CD, but it wouldn't detect the wireless connection and the ethernet cable was about one meter too short.  I had it stretched all the way from the basement!  The whole thing has felt like how research goes: get a good idea and watch it fail--repeatedly...now, I'm thinking we should just spend $60 on Ebay or work on something else (just like research!).

To make matters worse, Kieron wanted some pictures I made, but lacking any access to a computer with a unix terminal, it might have to wait until the 29th when I go through my (new tally:) 514 emails.  There is a program made just for these circumstances called Putty which works on Windows machines, but I can't log into the modeling facility.  Maybe they block every IP address from outside a 500 mile radius or my computer can detect that I'm a graduate student doing things at the last minute and wants to mess with me or (most likely) it's crashed and I'll have to manually reboot it.  I wouldn't be surprised if my computer has gained artificial intelligence is playing jokes.  I also can't remember anybody else's computer name, so that's on me.

Anyway, the break is welcome. I've been so relaxed I can't do basic math or spell very well any more.  It's my first real break in a hard eight months, and I'm totally exhausted.  Hopefully, I can get some of my focus, patience, and creativity back if I take it easy.  It's hard to stay away, though, and I might read some things tomorrow.  Anyway, happy Kweznus, Diary!

[Editor's note: "Kwenus" is actually spelled C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s]

More 1984

Dear Diary,

I'm back!  I have to get going on all my chores, research, and ABC of DFT duties.  Professor Burke asked me to set up a dropbox system on the university's EEE online websharing something something.

To do this, I logged onto EEE, saw that the boss had added me as an administrator and got to work.  To make a drop box, you just need to

1)  click on the course you're administrating under 'MyEEE'
2)  click on 'Dropbox'
3)  since we wanted one dropbox for each assignment, I clicked 'create a new dropbox' and followed the instructions

I even made three groups for each subsection:  Weenie DFT (the first few chapters of the ABCs), Tweenie DFT (the next few chapters of DFT...and Twilight fanfiction?!), and Advanced DFT (hard-core, 1999 mode physics).  I'm in the first two because I wanted to review the first few chapters from this last spring.  Now that I've got my feet wet, it might be good to take a fresh look at everything.  Li is joining me too, and Justin is teaching.

After adding everyone into groups, I apportioned the dropboxes and set a Wednesday (Tweenie)/Thursday (Weenie, Advanced) at 7am deadline. Students can upload their assignments by logging onto EEE after clicking on 'Dropbox.'  It should show right up with an intimidating message about the due date!

For now, I'll let students upload late homeworks but they'll be marked late.  They thought of everything--even shame!  The instructors (Justin, Raphael, and Professor Burke) can modify that if they want...well, except for me.  I couldn't simultaneously be an administrator and add myself as a student, so apparently mixing those roles together makes me a tyrannical hypocrite.  It appears our computer software is forcing me to make a power grab!

Back in the saddle again

Good Morning, Diary!

I'm back from a refreshing vacation and my head is totally clear.  I have so much work to do, though!  I'd better get moving on finishing up a few loose ends.

Vacation

Dear Diary,

I'm taking a small vacation to British Colombia for a break now that the quarter has ended.  I'm looking to recharge my batteries after a taxing quarter but also really want to keep working on the research.  I know that I'll be motivated when I get back and hopefully I can get things done today that I've let slide during the quarter.

Namely, I hope to organize my notes and calculate a few things for Miles and Lucas.

Professor Burke allows three weeks of vacation not including Christmas.  These can not roll over into the next academic year. Luckily, I was prodigious enough to write up all my notes and make some pretty graphs before leaving today, so I won't feel too guilty about taking some of that time now.  I haven't felt like myself recently, so maybe a vacation will help me get into a good researching mode in the summer.

I'll be back when physics is fun again.