Science Under the Influence of Fun

7:13pm
After 13 hours of data collection and 25 total at the synchrotron, I got 4 hours of sleep this afternoon. As I woke up and prepared to resume the madness, I realized that his post has lost all coherence. Dammit.

8:32am

In my sleep-deprived delirium, I just decided that it would be a good idea to go into the hutch to manually realign the ruby system (my sample was a bit out of focus). This idea was akin to deciding to spontaneously perform open heart surgery with a hammer. Good thing grad student Joe is quite competent. I may get to work the midnight shift again tonight. I can't wait. Yay for sleeping during the day!

3:20am

Kanani (confused about our temperature measurements): "How hot is the cell?"
Joe (touches 250C metal housing): "hot. really hot"
(Joe catches on fire. Pointer finger burns for hours.)

1:36am

Alright, so we arrived at the synchrotron at 9am. We then spent 12 FREAKING HOURS aligning and calibrating various equipment on the beamline. Seriously, I can't believe I was messing with electronics for that long. Now, I'm finally starting my experiment. Initial results are quite good, although it's going to be a long slog. Grad student Joe returns at about 4am, after which I will work another 6 hour shift and then die. Hopefully, while I'm dead, I'll find some AA batteries for my camera so that I can upload some siiick pics.

Edit:

Hey, world. Part of my experiment has a webcam, woah. Point the internet at http://www.hpcat.ciw.edu/webcams and click on BM-D to view the madness. (It's a shot of the interior of the x-ray hutch, where you can see my cell and some associated electronics that we have spent the last 8 hours configuring). Who's going to be up all night collecting data? This guy.

Friends, I'm losing my grip on consciousness. What else is there to do besides write about science? If this post bores you, just scroll down and stare at me in a bra. And then finish reading, m'kay?

And then, GET OFF MY PHONE!

Anywho, as week 12 of my 10 week fellowship draws to a close, the madness is just beginning. I rolled into lab at 3:40am today to catch an early flight to Chicago. Now, I'm chillin in the Argonne National Laboratory guest house, where I'll live for the weekend when I'm not in the Advanced Photon Source conducting x-ray diffraction studies to determine the melting temperature of potassium at high pressures. Grand fun! I miss BHouse...

Of course, I didn't escape the Have without a requisite dose of epic. Last night, I had an amazing time watching DCI Quarterfinals - all 5 hours of amazing performances. I was especially impressed with the Blue Stars' meteoric ascent, Vanguard's untouchable musicality, and Crown's newfound domination. YCB peps should mos def check out Crown's arrangement featuring Sensemaya and Slalom. It was legenDAIRY. I planned on getting about 2.5 hours of sleep afterward, but SOME PEOPLE decided to come and harass me until it was time to pound down some Cinnamon Toast Crunch and evacuate. So, I pulled my third all-nighter in New Haven and slept through the entirety of my plane ride even though I <3 planes.

Expect this post to be updated throughout the weekend with pictures, etc - especially if my data acquisition goes well. w00t.

Finally, BHouse will start to significantly empty out in a week :( I hope that some of the maddness carries over into the school year (sorry, everyone else). The fruit flies can die, though. DIE!!!!