CroBlog

There is this one really old instrument in the lab that really has some character to it. It is a voltmeter capable of measuring voltages on the nano scale (i.e. 10^-9, i.e. one billionth of a volt). It is the bottom-most instrument in this picture. As you can see, the readout is a little old-fashioned. When the numbers change, the source of illumination that makes the number visible changes in position, moving farther and closer to the front of the instrument. It's impossible to take a picture of or a movie of since I don't have stereoscopic equipment (i.e. two apertures, so that you can see distance - Don't believe me? Cover one eye and reach out to touch something somewhat far away from you and experience a moment of "wait, I should have touched it already..." - I know I totally just tried it and suddenly realized my water bottle and I are not as close as I thought - ohhh, the loss).

Anyways it gets really funny after measuring for 3 hours. Like sand on beaches gets funny after the 5th month of being stranded on a deserted island funny. Ha. Ha ha ha. Ha. ~.~
Last night I had a dream (or a nightmare, if you will) that consisted merely of seeing a bunch of red numbers coming towards me and moving away from me. Then it moved on to something else or whatever - the point is woah I've been doing this for a while and now I really know it.

Yesterday was a holiday (I found out there are something like 15 Croatian National Holidays during which most people don't work, which I thought nifty) so I went into town and a park and took another ridiculous amount of pictures, including my 1,000th picture with this camera. You'll never guess the epic battle I captured with it. I'll post them relatively soon, probably tomorrow after measurements using liquid helium.

Ochko wants me to do this crazy little project that I really don't care about involving making a different sample holder (which would involve soldering a bunch of REALLY thin wires that - you guessed - BREAK really easily) and confirming the resistivity of one of the samples with it, all by my lonesome. On the one hand I am excited because he gave over an entire task to me; however, it is a task involving a lot of time over a weekend that I just might rather spend running around Croatia, particularly the coast, maybe swimming from island to island, surviving several shark attacks, discovering Atlantis by tripping over a column buried in sand, etc etc. Physics is great and interesting, but that on the edge-discovering-doing-new-things feeling at this lab has worn out as I've seen Ochko more and more feel like something is really wrong and witness his grad student's loose interpretation of things Ochko has said regarding measurement procedures (yeah, I can get perfectionistic at times, and the student's a nice guy who is smart - but it's just as easy to make mistakes no matter how smart you get). That said I have no idea where I would be without Djelko (the student) - probably lonely beyond belief and clueless about this country - and respect him immensly. I began feeling a little burned out last week, and my enthusiasm has only continued to die a slow death. But it'll keep fighting, like a pack of rabid beavers protecting a dam.

I've started watching anime while I'm measuring because it is such a routine and easy to do - current series I've discovered are Yakitake Japan, about a baker trying to make the ultimate bread that can be identified as the bread of Japan (it is waaay over dramatic and full of puns, thus really funny, and the characters are just so gut-bustingly funny i.e. the word for bread in Japanese is "pan" so the bread of Japan will be called Japan - har har har omg roflmao!!1!!!), Honey and Clover, which has official beaten Haibane Renmei for cutest anime ever and just makes me tear up and sigh as the ending theme starts playing for every episode (it is set at an art college and one of the characters is soooooooooo like me and its painful/heartwarming every time I see it, and it's so real but funny - and there are some ridiculous characters, but they are all deep and go beyond the typical stereotypes), Speed Grapher (a great anime about wealth, war, the future, a photographer, and a girl who has never known real freedom - warning for mature content but it is not tasteless for an anime that seriously looks at such things - and the title song - Girls on Film by Duran Duran is just the most perfect title song for an anime I've ever seen. I've come to realize more and more that the show is, in a large part, a tragedy about the main character, the photographer, which really interestingly shows the flip side of acquiring new, deadly powers. Watching the first episode, the great animation, and amazing raw story-telling - it definitely had one of the best openings I've ever seen - I can't stop checking for new episodes and recommend anyone that enjoys serious anime to check it out - especially if you liked Gungrave, Akira, or Ghost in the Shell, i.e. ALL OF YOU FRIENDS THAT WATCH ANIME), Tsubasa Chronicle (music done by the people who did music for Noir, story is alright but the music gives it its soul so I'm still watching), and my usual Bleach, Monster, and Naruto (which is sadly degenerating - it always was a battle heavy series, but it started out with real soul - I'm starting to get tired of the characters and the story...). I've also been watching Trinity Blood, which is a lot like Hellsing but more than 13 episodes (ahhh, if only Hellsing had been a whole series *sigh*) but the releases are coming out really slowly.

So instead of pushing myself to get more out of watching the little scatter plots while measuring or reading while I wait, I've been absorbing LCD-born radiation and pressure waves while pushing the buttons. So, the measuring has been going faster than usual (in the first-person sense), so measuring has failed to become a horrible chore after my enthusiasm for it has shriveled up like a drying flower.

Aikido is going alright. I am now sure that I have acquired (or reacquired) a bunch of bad habits, but practicing here will probably end up being for the better. At least my weapons work has improved. It was fun practicing a little differently, if only to appreciate how lucky I am to have such a great dojo in D.C.

I am getting excited about going back to the US of A and seeing friends. I've been making a list of things that might weird me out when I get back / omg, I missed that so much (at the top of the food/"let's keep Greg from becoming gaunt and scaring small children" section is milk, staple of my diet in the US, unable to stomach the ivory blasphemy they misname here). I'll be posting it once it gets too big to look at without getting all teary-eyed over - which probably won't be too long; in contrast with this post, which is w-a-y too long. It started out with an "I'm sleepy but want to let everyone know I breathe and will update" and mutated into this "sandy-red-decimal-dream-about-bread-cameras-measure-measure-raaah-aikido-boldness-sighing-bleary-eyed-oh muse!" lump of 1's and 0's.

My apologies to the 24 parentheses I abused and their 6 angry relatives, along with the countless dashes which needlessly were sacrificed today in a fit of post-midnight keyboard dancing. If you got this far and would like some little shiny Croat thing, leave a comment and I will be your souvenir matchmaker.