« cold cold water surrounds me now / and all i've got is your hand | Main | so it is like a »
November 4, 2003
there’s still a little bit of your taste in my mouth
11:15 am
here i am in baltimore at the american vacuum society conference. yes laugh. people always laugh. i laugh. it is amusing. this is the first time i've had my laptop out and about with me (as i present today). i am really enjoying the laptop. little did i know how necessary it is for conferences. they aren't good like school and have computers in every room, but do have projectors - overhead and computer. it is actually the conference center that provides them i think. i am fairly impressed with baltimore's conference center. they also have water things in each room and lasar pointers. it is also huge. this conference is also huge (people, event, talk, etc wise), so it should be. it is amazing how many different talks on different things are being given. of course, i have been living so far in the thin films room, and will for the rest of the afternoon. this is my last day that is full of talks. tomorrow there is few things that interest me. actually, i should rephrase that. there are lots of things that interest me, but at this point it is all my energy and concentration to sit through the presentations that are at least kinda applicable to my research. i just don't have any to spare for the stuff that kinda interests me. and i'll have a little adventure in the ventor exhibit tomorrow as i have been assigned to find out how much it will cost us to outfit my dual cathode chamber with an partial pressure oxide control instead of flow control, which is what i use now for the oxide films. my advisor amuses me so much as he is like try to get them to do it as cheaply as possible - like ~ 20,000. but it might not be possible to get it cheaper than $50,000. we have the 20,000, we might could get the 50,000.
dude that is a lot of money. and i think the bill for this week is a lot. it amazes me how much money we spend on stuff. and i try to not spend extraneously on random stuff.
though i did make it to the nanotechonology + policy presentation yesterday from the white house office of science and technology policy. it was my PRy and a complete waste of my time. i don't know what i expected, but something a little less stupid than we got.
the weather has absolutely been amazing. yesterday it was a record high of 83. i think it is suppose to be repeated today. the conference center is right next to the inner harbor, baltimore very touristy tourist attraction. it has be absolutely beautiful the past two days to spend lunch break sitting by the water eating, people watching, and listening to the music drifting up from the walkway. and yesterday at noon they shot a cannon. it was very random (and completely took me by surprise). i am totally enjoying the warm, especially since ben tells me that it is cold and rainy in chicago. paurve ben. ha ha ha.
i got to hang out with Jahn last night. we had yummy shusi (what is starting to become the food we get when we get together) and then ice cream. i love his sweet tooth that matches mine. i also love that he also worries about the amount of white flour and sugar he consumes. but not as much as i love how he was a vegetarian (well, starchatarian) for 4 years (including the time we were dating) and then one day he went to dinner at outback and just broke down and got a rack of ribs. ha ha ha. he also has the cutest cat. well, more like a crackhead cat (that is what he calls her). she is sooooo skinning. i bet that she is 2/5 the size of izzy. (who is doing spectacular i hear from my amazing catsitter, who made fun of me on the phone last night cuz physics today came in my mail. i tried to explain that i don't actually read it, it just comes with my AVS membership. i don't think he believed me. (though it is true, i've never read it.) i told him he could break up with me, but he declined as he is still recovering from our thirty second break up friday night when at the party we were out, the random guy had this mix on the stereo and we were dancing. he wanted to see the power of the mix to bring people together, so he made us break up during margaritaville so that here comes the sun could bring us back together. it was quite random, and v. amusing to a not quite sober ben and christina. la la la. i think it might have also been this party that i was telling people that ben was just some guy i met that night and that we'd probably hook up. ha ha ha. i amuse myself so much.)
anyway, as usual i get lost in the parentheses. i totally should be practicing my talk, but i've practiced and am bored of practicing. plus, i'm not worried. i'm hoping not a lot of people are going to be there, and dr. chung will definitely be to help me answer questions as i am presenting kitty's research and not my own. la la la. i am off to the student lunch on job opportunitites - ie acedemia, industry, national labs and something else. i'm sure i'll write more later.
1:45 PM
i just had a very amusing conversation the moderator of my session. during lunch he bought some redskins hats from a random street vendor. he is an english guy and v. amusing.
6:30 pm
so my oxide talk went well. it was on the shortside, but i knew it would be. i probably could have talked slower. i only got two questions and could answer them both (with a form of yeah, we didn't do that). my advisor gave me a good job. i am quite happy. i also ate way too much for dinner. i feel so gross. today was the last day of all day lectures. the first talk i am interested in isn't until 10 tomorrow, so i hope to get up an run tomorrow. for the first time in weeks. though it is hilly here. i forgot what hills were. ;-) '
i love the color of the sky at dusk. i love looking up and see the lights of the buildings against the soft purple sky.
life is fabulous. though i miss my boy very much. 5 days.
--------
Posted by christina at November 4, 2003 6:45 PM