1. Housekeeping
So the blog is eight years old, having survived August 18 2012 with that silly French thing I wrote. I do write less now not because there is less time but because I spend my free time doing something else, namely being prisoner to the Internet. This must not continue.
Does anyone read what I write? Maybe, but I have no way to know because I have turned comments off. I have turned comments off because of spammers. I happen to know that spambots visit my page because more people from the United States visit this place than is absolutely plausible.
Am I going to keep writing? Well yes. But you readers will have to bear with lower-quality stuff for the first couple of months. Now excuse me while I try to redirect my smartmouthing habits away from Facebook.
2. Not Housekeeping
The UROP (Undergrad Research) project is finished. The project is about (and I have had in the Real World to explain it many times) Transmission Electron Microscopy. So the idea is:
1. There is a sample of something.
2. You shoot electrons through it though a beam
3. You focus the electron beam on the other side in some way
At this juncture (3), depending on how you focus, you may get:
4a. An image of the thing, magnified
4b. A modern-art pattern
At this juncture (4b), depending on whether you converge the beam, you may get
4bi. Dotsies arranged in a way that reflects the symmetry (if a crystal)
4bii. Bright circles.
At this juncture (4bii) dark lines appear in the circles and we call it HOLZ lines
HOLZ lines do not make any sense, unless the computer happens to know which crystallographic plane it arises from. So I spend time in the Professor's office because his computer is the only one in the whole wide school with the software installed, without managing to touch the actual microscope, which is only for experts.
Well as I have said I have finished the project, and as I type my junior Nengduo has enrolled in UROP also and working under the same Prof. Tearfully I say to you, my junior friend, do us undergrads proud! (Disclaimer: Nengduo probably doesn't read the blog)
The VIP (Vacation Internship) report was also completed recently, but not so recently in a way I can write about it in too much detail. It was about the Density Functional Theory in solids, because electron density is very importen'.
3. Assorted stuff
My UROP prof also teaches Dielectric and Magnetic materials. He is very thorough but wreaks sleepy havoc on the students. Actualnuh, I can not complain because there was another prof to whom I almost turned violent at for not being thorough enough, and for always using fluffy language 90 percent of the time.
The prof teaching Materials Design and Selection (read. Realpolitik for Nerds) actually encourages us to use fluffiness in the same spirit as Business Management students, but at least he is truthful in saying it.
The prof who teaches Ceramics is full of off-colour comparisons and wisdom. Under his inspiration, I am now running at least once a week with friends.
The prof who teaches Corrosion is often too soft to be heard
The prof teaching Metals stutters quite badly
I am supposed to be studying and stuff. I should go home and spend time with my sisters. And then sleep.
