Firsts of 2007

Computer problem

Two weeks back, a colleague handed me down his PIII 650 Mhz CPU. Reason being, he had acquired him self something faster but still a PIII from Surplus. Then there was the project deadline and then came the holiday. I didn't try to install it until yesterday. The BIOS upgrading part completely escape my mind, so the 650 couldn't even reboot. I switched back to the old 450, lo and behold, the nightmarish "strike F1 to retry reboot, F2 for setup utility" popped up. After several combination of utility setting, it still didn't work, I decided to look for wiggling cables. It turned out, the hard drive wires were loosen. At the end, the 650 is still lying dusty and all on my desk.

Library trip

What others than Chesterton's, Five Types and Come to Think of It, and a book on job interview. I found out that Engineering Career Fair is on January 22-23. I need to come up with a plan for the the advisor about the possibility and timing for graduation, so maybe I can start finding jobs this soon.

Movie at the Movies

For me, a good movie is the one that is capable to pull you into the story, makes you sympathize with it, and if possible put you as one of the characters. And then there is how real the setting is. For instance, if it's a story about a war in the jungle, it has to be rough, dirty, and gory. Blood Diamond is definitely one of those.

Projects

Well, the main thing is that I'm continuing what I left of last year: fabricating the counterpart of the usual device. I have several other projects going on, fabricating the conventional device on some kind of a flexible substrate, getting that one paper published for real, analyzing the data from radiation part and the erasing with light part.

Heartbreak

Right on January 1st. It's when you have the preconceived idea that you should develop a certain romantic notion about someone because of his/her certain attributes, but deep in your heart you know you just couldn't. Nevertheless when you find out he/she is getting out of your reach, your heart breaks. I was thinking about this sort of thing while driving back from NM. It splitted my attention from the icy road and then I got a phone call with a happiest top of the lung "Happy New Year". My response..."heh heh" followed by the interogatory, "what did you do last night?" I was about to tell him all about it, but I have three other people in the back, saved for NY, that didn't have any clue about my pseudo-love life.

All I can say, it's just about the right amount of things going on this early 2007.