put your back into it!

WOW I've been busy.

There are more cool things about the Physics Department here that I would like to share. Both of these happened last Friday.

1. I ordered some parts from a supply company, to the tune of about $15. The parts themselves were pretty small, maybe pen-sized.

On Friday my package arrived, and it was huge, the size of a shoebox. What could possibly be in here?, I wondered. The supply company sent a 'snack pack', which was pretty amazing. I think the food they sent me was almost more expensive than the parts I ordered.

I asked the Stockroom Manager if the food came with the parts? Or was I just confused? "They're not allowed to send those," he said, "but we don't tell them that."

2. ALSO on Friday was the Fourth Annual Physics Department Tug-of-War. I didn't know we did that, but apparently it's something the grad students have organized for the entire duration of my undergraduate career. They had planned competitions between different grad years, between library staff vs. machine shop guys, faculty vs. staff, and different research groups. None were planned for the undergrads, but since the tugging-of-war occurred in front of the main entrance to the building, we knew it was going on.

So a few spontaneous competitions were arranged as well. Somehow I managed to get roped in to competing in the undergrads vs. 2nd & 3rd year grads, AND the undergrad girls vs. grad girls. For the latter, there were two on each side.

I thought the Tug-of-War would be short-lived, and then the grad students would go back to work. Nope. It went on for an hour.

You know they're serious when the experienced competitors wear cleats.


I took pictures, but well... those will be up eventually.

Life Skills

A week or so ago I posted that I like soldering. A lot.

I remembered another possible-life skill today, meaning it is a skill I may possibly need/use for the duration of my career.
Technical drawings.

I love technical drawings. I don't know if I'm any good at them, but it's amazing to me that I can imagine something in my head, sketch it out in 3-D form and as a combination of 2-D components, and then a few days later hold the exact embodiment of what I imagined. It is amazing.

Hopefully that will work out for the adapter piece I drew today, because I have a cylinder that needs to fit inside and be held securely. If my measurements were off, or my drawings unclear...

Who says that labwork isn't suspenseful?

Lear

I like that fall weather has rolled in. The downside is that I've discovered the window unit in my bedroom cannot be closed off from outside, so I wake up extremely chilly, but maybe I can work out a clever solution for that.

We have about two weeks before our show goes up, so I've been working on fun publicity things like designing and ordering t-shirts and copying massive numbers of flyers. It's fun and lets me be creative, but of course it is also time-consuming.

I'm going to try to upload some of the flyers here soon, so look out for those.

The Crimson War

One of our academic and athletic rival schools is fellow ACC member UMD (University of Maryland). Every fall, the week preceeding the football game between our two schools is the Crimson War. Each school has a blood drive, and the school with the most donors wins! I think they do it by sheer numbers, not percentages, which puts our school at a slight disadvantage.

So that's this week. Fortunately, I became eligible to donate on Saturday, just in time to participate. I was 'done' for the day at 2 and decided to go to one of the blood drive centers. There was a long line, as I knew there would be, but I also knew it would be pretty much my only chance all week to donate.

It took about 45 minutes before I was in the bloodmobile in those weirdly-reclined seats, we had to register, then pass the short physical screening, then answer all those questions about our habits and histories. Before each station was another queue. During my wait I worked on a physics take-home midterm.

So there I am, sitting on the floor, scribbling some equations relating to the intensity of light, when suddenly it's my turn for the short 'physical'. I stand up, sit down, and immediately that blood pressure cuff goes around my arm.
They pulse they measured was the lowest I'd ever seen for a blood donation screening. The machine even beeped to alert the screener.

Apparently doing physics makes me very relaxed?


This was the fourth time I donated this year, and all of them were in Virginia. Which means I get a spiffy "Friends 4 Life" shirt from the Virginia Blood Services group! I think I'll try for #5 this December.