A Century of Quantum Mechanics
2 months ago
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Hunt of the Laptop
My computer has been dying for the past three months or so. I've needed a new one desperately, but was never motivated to do anything about it. I hoped that it would hold together until the end of the semester, which it did, though I didn't trust the little machine to hold my files. I relied solely on my little flashdrive to get me through the semester and spent many hours in the UVA computer labs to write my lab reports.
I don't know what finally motivated me to get a new one, I guess I was done with being frustrated every time I started my computer (a process that took about 45 minutes) or opened a file (requiring about three minutes, ridiculous for opening a word document), or any other process. Everything took a long time. Worse, I couldn't trust it to save my documents and be able to open them later. When I realized that my laptop would not last for another full semester, I knew it was time to buy a new one.
I did some research online. A lot of research. So I knew what I was looking for, and I knew about how much I could expect to pay for it. Monday night I went on a little survey of the local stores that sell laptops, to check my top choices for picture quality, keyboard lay out and feel, weight, so on. I fell in love with one I saw at Best Buy, a little 14.1" HP. I planned to come back and buy it online direct, but it was actually cheaper at Best Buy.
It was tough to wait a full day once I knew what I wanted, but I managed to hold off until last night to buy my little guy. She is fast, light, beautiful.
It will be some time before I'm finally "moved in" to this laptop, but an external harddrive holds all the important things from the old laptop. Slowly but surely, I'll reorganize this computer. A fresh start will be nice.
I don't know what finally motivated me to get a new one, I guess I was done with being frustrated every time I started my computer (a process that took about 45 minutes) or opened a file (requiring about three minutes, ridiculous for opening a word document), or any other process. Everything took a long time. Worse, I couldn't trust it to save my documents and be able to open them later. When I realized that my laptop would not last for another full semester, I knew it was time to buy a new one.
I did some research online. A lot of research. So I knew what I was looking for, and I knew about how much I could expect to pay for it. Monday night I went on a little survey of the local stores that sell laptops, to check my top choices for picture quality, keyboard lay out and feel, weight, so on. I fell in love with one I saw at Best Buy, a little 14.1" HP. I planned to come back and buy it online direct, but it was actually cheaper at Best Buy.
It was tough to wait a full day once I knew what I wanted, but I managed to hold off until last night to buy my little guy. She is fast, light, beautiful.
It will be some time before I'm finally "moved in" to this laptop, but an external harddrive holds all the important things from the old laptop. Slowly but surely, I'll reorganize this computer. A fresh start will be nice.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Hunt of the Haggis
There are no British specialty stores anywhere near Charlottesville, that I can tell, but there are a few in NOVA. When leaving home this weekend I remembered that I had set myself with a mission. I needed to find some haggis.
There is a place called the British Pantry out past the airport, in Aldie. They have British biscuits, chocolate, meat, and other products in one room and a tearoom in the other. I could tell I was at the right place because they had a British-style telephone booth in the front. The other cars parked there had license plates like "UKGIRL" and "CYMRU", my little Scottish flag sticker fit right in.
I bought 1.77 lbs of haggis for $15.71. It will probably not be worth it, but that's okay. It's haggis.
It wasn't too far out of my way, though the roads back there were little two-laners with passing zones and lots of hills. It probably only added about 30-45 minutes to my total drive time. I'm going to try and find someplace closer to Cville that doesn't mark up quite as much. First stop should be the Foods of All Nations just down the street, then we'll see.
Pictures should be coming soon, as well as stories of a third (and final?) Hunt.
There is a place called the British Pantry out past the airport, in Aldie. They have British biscuits, chocolate, meat, and other products in one room and a tearoom in the other. I could tell I was at the right place because they had a British-style telephone booth in the front. The other cars parked there had license plates like "UKGIRL" and "CYMRU", my little Scottish flag sticker fit right in.
I bought 1.77 lbs of haggis for $15.71. It will probably not be worth it, but that's okay. It's haggis.
It wasn't too far out of my way, though the roads back there were little two-laners with passing zones and lots of hills. It probably only added about 30-45 minutes to my total drive time. I'm going to try and find someplace closer to Cville that doesn't mark up quite as much. First stop should be the Foods of All Nations just down the street, then we'll see.
Pictures should be coming soon, as well as stories of a third (and final?) Hunt.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Hunt of the Muffin
Last Sunday I decided I really wanted a muffin before church.
I spent about 45 minutes on Google, trying to determine what Charlottesville bakeries/cafes were open on a Sunday, and then finding one open at 10 AM was a tough job indeed. Luckily the church I was going to was downtown, and there are a lot of cafes in that general direction.
The first one was a cafe I'd been wanting to try out anyway, though apparently it moved about two blocks down the street from when I'd last seen it, this past summer.
It was in fact open. That was good.
So I go inside, and I look confused. When I asked the one employee if he had any muffins, he said no, they only get their muffins in on Mondays through Saturdays (wait, they don't bake them themselves? Hmmm, dodgy...) and sometimes leftover ones are half-price, but there are none today.
Employee started picking up the wrapped items on the counter. "But, we have a croissant, some... umm... carrot cake, paninis.... Cupcakes! Those are muffin-shaped!"
Poor boy.
I found my muffins on the third try. They were okay, the cinnamon-swirl one would have been amazing but the outside was a little stale. It definitely satisfied my muffin craving though, and the blueberry was spectacular.
I found a new church that I like a lot better and I think I'll keep going to. It's a bit smaller, of the two narrow sets of pews variety, but I liked the pastor and the atmosphere, so perhaps it's worth the drive downtown every Sunday.
I spent about 45 minutes on Google, trying to determine what Charlottesville bakeries/cafes were open on a Sunday, and then finding one open at 10 AM was a tough job indeed. Luckily the church I was going to was downtown, and there are a lot of cafes in that general direction.
The first one was a cafe I'd been wanting to try out anyway, though apparently it moved about two blocks down the street from when I'd last seen it, this past summer.
It was in fact open. That was good.
So I go inside, and I look confused. When I asked the one employee if he had any muffins, he said no, they only get their muffins in on Mondays through Saturdays (wait, they don't bake them themselves? Hmmm, dodgy...) and sometimes leftover ones are half-price, but there are none today.
Employee started picking up the wrapped items on the counter. "But, we have a croissant, some... umm... carrot cake, paninis.... Cupcakes! Those are muffin-shaped!"
Poor boy.
I found my muffins on the third try. They were okay, the cinnamon-swirl one would have been amazing but the outside was a little stale. It definitely satisfied my muffin craving though, and the blueberry was spectacular.
I found a new church that I like a lot better and I think I'll keep going to. It's a bit smaller, of the two narrow sets of pews variety, but I liked the pastor and the atmosphere, so perhaps it's worth the drive downtown every Sunday.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
walking to work this morning...
..I was reminded of one of those sights you see only on college campuses. Older, male professor-types riding bicycles to work, dressed in wool suits and dress shoes, with a reflective band around the right ankle and a briefcase bungee-corded over the back tire. Incredible.
Yesterday was the last day of exams and now the Grounds are empty, devoid of human life. It's kind of peaceful, kind of creepy.
Yesterday was the last day of exams and now the Grounds are empty, devoid of human life. It's kind of peaceful, kind of creepy.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Ten minutes ago I handed in my take-home exam. That was the last item for the winter exam period. So my penultimate undergraduate semester is now over!
It's funny, though I didn't have any "real" exams--no three-hour closed-book, in-class exam--this was probably one of the tougher exam periods I've had. A lot of writing to do. Yuck. But I got it all done, and now it is Winter Break time!
Between semesters, I'm going to keep doing research for Stefan. I wasn't able to actually collect much data during the semester in my independent study, and there are other things we'd like to know, so I'm getting paid for a few weeks this winter. It should be nice, keep myself busy during the days, and yet also relaxing.
It's funny, though I didn't have any "real" exams--no three-hour closed-book, in-class exam--this was probably one of the tougher exam periods I've had. A lot of writing to do. Yuck. But I got it all done, and now it is Winter Break time!
Between semesters, I'm going to keep doing research for Stefan. I wasn't able to actually collect much data during the semester in my independent study, and there are other things we'd like to know, so I'm getting paid for a few weeks this winter. It should be nice, keep myself busy during the days, and yet also relaxing.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Woes of Paper-Writing...
1. I just paid $1.45 for a 20-oz soda from the vending machines. I find that objectionable!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Dedication.
Oh wow, it's December.
Yup.
This week was the last week of classes for the fall semester! That's almost equally crazy. So today I had a presentation for my lab class, which was in lieu of a lab report for one of five physics labs this semester. My partner and I talked about a nuclear lab we did, in which radiation spectra were taken of a few different sources. But since it was the one required lab for everyone, we wanted to focus less on rehashing every single experiment and instead we focused on the practical side of the experiment. Namely, how do you decide what detector is appropriate for an experiment? So for a lot of our presentation we contrasted the main types of detectors.
Okay. So there's this class of detectors called scintillators, which means that the detector absorbs a high energy and emits a lower energy. The first scintillators used were in about 1906, way before technology caught up to the science they were trying to do. So they had materials that emitted visible light when hit by radiation. They would actually take a piece of the material under a microscope and count the flashes of light as it was hit by radiation.
Wow. That's some dedication to science.
Yup.
This week was the last week of classes for the fall semester! That's almost equally crazy. So today I had a presentation for my lab class, which was in lieu of a lab report for one of five physics labs this semester. My partner and I talked about a nuclear lab we did, in which radiation spectra were taken of a few different sources. But since it was the one required lab for everyone, we wanted to focus less on rehashing every single experiment and instead we focused on the practical side of the experiment. Namely, how do you decide what detector is appropriate for an experiment? So for a lot of our presentation we contrasted the main types of detectors.
Okay. So there's this class of detectors called scintillators, which means that the detector absorbs a high energy and emits a lower energy. The first scintillators used were in about 1906, way before technology caught up to the science they were trying to do. So they had materials that emitted visible light when hit by radiation. They would actually take a piece of the material under a microscope and count the flashes of light as it was hit by radiation.
Wow. That's some dedication to science.
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