I’ve been wanting to post something recently, but have been extremely busy with preparing for the Solid State Lighting and Display Center (SSLDC) research review that concluded today. When I have had free time, it was spent relaxing watching some TV or playing Xbox. I think the review went pretty well. We’ve been struggling to make a respectable device out of these nanopillars, but we finally made some progress that at least gave us a non-embarrassing IV curve (a plot of current vs. voltage for all you uncool people out there). Here’s a picture of the poster, with a link to a larger version on my Flickr page:

Now that the review is over, I’m planning on doing a little traveling. First, I’m leaving for Denver tomorrow to meet up with my parents and Howard. We’re doing the usual dinner on Saturday night at Morton’s. On Sunday morning, we’re driving up out to Vail to check out the development Howard has been working on. We’ll have a lesiurely brunch and walk around the village to get a feel for the village since none of us have been there before. Then it will be back to Denver Sunday night to watch the Broncos play the Chargers. I’ve been slowly becoming a Broncos fan over the years, but still love watching the Chargers thanks to LT. In other words, I really don’t know who I’m going to be cheering for.

I get back into Santa Barbara on Monday afternoon, only to turn around and fly to Texas on Tuesday. I’ll be in Denton from Tuesday night through Saturday afternoon. I have no plans as of yet, other that watching UT crush the worthless aggies and eating a lot of food. The following weekend I’m flying up to Minnesota with my parents for my birthday weekend and to see a couple of Christmas conerts. I’ll be back in Santa Barbara for a couple weeks before flying back home to Denton on December 20. Hopefully, the next long update will include some pictures and amusing stories.

I’ve wanted to write something, anything really, but have been way to busy with work. We have a pretty important review coming up on November 16 and 17, so I don’t plan on having much of a life until after that. I went on a hike with the Excursion Club this past weekend up to Tangerine Falls. There are some pictures from the hike up on Facebook or on my Flickr site, so take a look. I’m planning on going to Denver for part of this weekend to see the Broncos play the Colts. It will probably be the biggest game of the weekend, so I hope I can go. I haven’t talked to Howard about any concrete plans, so as I write this I don’t have a plane ticket. Hopefully that will change tomorrow. Since I want to keep this quick, I’m just going to post this music video by DragonForce. If you haven’t heard of them, you’re missing out. There music can best be summed up as ridiculous. They play the guitars about as fast as I’ve heard, and the lead singer sounds like he should be in a hair metal band. Edit: I wanted to embed the video, but apparently WordPress doesn’t like that. Here’s the YouTube link.

My life as a grad student may have peaked last night. I’m not sure how many people that read this have heard of a website called Woot. It’s a site that posts a deal each night at midnight central time. Products range from toasters to 61″ DLP HDTVs. Occasionally they have a “Woot Off,” where there are many sales throughout the day. Even more rarely, they feature a bag of crap as the Woot item. You can buy up to 3 pieces of crap for a dollar each that are put in a bag and shipped to you at the low cost of $5. Surpringly, the bags of crap are some of the most popular items, and generally sell out in a matter of minutes. Ever since Alex showed me this website, we have sworn to get a bag of crap before we graduate. Last night was my night.

I happenned to sit down at my computer just at 10 o’clock. Since I’m always curious to see what Woot is offering, I go to the site and low and behold a bag of crap is for sale. Normally, the “I want it” button has been changed to “Sold Out,” but not last night. I giddily clicked the button and ordered myself 3 craps. The great thing about a bag of crap is that they’re some of the most random things, but you have no idea what you’re getting until it arrives. Panda Express pandas, corn on the cob holders, and defective hard drives have all been found in previous craps. I of course will be posting pictures of my crap the day it arrives so you can share in my excitement.

On another Woot note, they’ve started a wine version. I bought the Foley Merlot trio on Sunday. Foley has a pretty good reputation, and since it’s a local winery I thought I’d give it a try.

I've been playing some Xbox 360 noticed that it felt warm in the apartment.  I've opened up some windows, but it didn't cool down the apartment.  I just took some garbage out to the dumpster and it was actually a little warm outside.  Normally at night it cools down to the mid 60's at least, if not dip into the 50's.  I come back inside and check weather.com and find out it's 82 fucking degrees!  This may not seem like a big deal, but remember, we don't have air conditioning.  A lot of people out here don't because we don't need it, at least most of the time.  The forecast for tomorrow says 72, but I'm sure that's going to be way off.