Let There Be Nanowires

Since my last entry, I have been making Ni nanowires.  Today, I went to the imaging center to use the SEM with a post-doc who works with my professor.  Only one of the four samples showed nanowires; the current scapegoat is a poor gold/palladium back coating (and thankfully not my handiwork).  I made two of the solutions for alloy nanowires, which I will test tomorrow.  Overall, the lab work should soon be in full swing, assuming that subsequent nanowire samples do not fail like samples 2-4 did.  I am cautious.  I am optimistic.

Today there was some kind of film crew hippie pizza gathering outside of my lab.  I wish I’d had more of a chance to interact with them, but I doubt there will be a second day of shooting tomorrow.  Note that there was an acoustic guitar, and they made a film in the neighboring lab (plot unknown).

Dorm life is becoming more settled, though it is not quite in equilibrium.  The lack of kitchen facilities is disturbing.  Current provisions include:  off-brand low-fat Cheez-It knockoffs, off-brand low quality Cheerios knockoffs, quick grits, quick oats, brown sugar, 39 cent wheat bread, reprocessed turkey, provolone, 11 cent hot dogs, and of course JIF brand peanut butter.  Also, tea.  Without tea, Carbondale would be but a haze.

I am doing laundry tonight.  Ordinarily I probably would have passed out by now, though last night I was up rather late playing Left4Dead and watching Diggnation.  The laundry machines are very similar to the ones from Truman, but there are no quarter slots.  You have to pay with your ID.  Two of the washers were malfunctioning in some fashion to allow free washing.  It seemed like a great idea at the time, but I believe there was some kind of tissue in the bottom of the drier hidden so as to cover my socks in lint.  I also acknowledge the possibility that this was my fault.  I am hoping that the drier will take care of this, but I fear the problem will be exacerbated.  I must now go to the laundry room to retrieve my clothes.