Friday, June 20, 2003
First things first, not that it will affect you because I put an automatic refresh in, but I changed the URL of my blog because I was never really happy with the first one. After reading an e-mail from my buddy Josh Auzins, I decided that the URL should be muddysan.blogspot.com I hope that this doesn't cause too much of a problem for you, but if it does, what are you going to do about it? Yeah, that's right.
Today, I got bored at Meikei. I think it's the early mornings doing it to me. They are taking their toll on me after almost a full year with very few breaks to catch up on sleep. Then I do stupid things with my free time like maintain this mindless drivel for you to read. I don't know if anyone besides Josh and Stephanie have even given it a second thought so far. As a matter of fact, they may be dumber after actually reading it. I have been trying to get one of those nifty hit counters, but I haven't been able to get it put in yet because of automatically generated e-mail promises that never come true. And the hit counter web site told me it loved me!! If it loved me, it'd at least send me an e-mail after everything we did together.
Back on topic, after I left Meikei, I went to the lab at NIMS to see what my buddy Nathan was up to. He and Masa (a Tsukuba University grad student) had the plasma chamber lit up where they do their diamond CVD (chemical vapor deposition). I don't know much about plasma but I am sure I have seen it before. The sun, fluorescent light bulbs, expensive TVs (sort of, I think), Earthworm Jim, probably a few others I can't think of. This plasma did look much cooler than any of those. But not in a temperature sort of way. The optical pyrometer showed a temperature of about 1400 K. Smokin'!!
On to something I find to be both a blessing and a curse about Japan. Portion sizes at grocery stores. Pretty much everything is packaged individually in these small little servings, sort of like those variety packs of Kellogg's cereal that we all loved to get as kids. I guess it helps people monitor their eating habits or makes things seem cheaper. I don't know, I like buying in bulk. Mostly because I like to eat a lot. Well, soy sauce comes in bulk. Have you ever seen a 2-liter bottle of soy sauce? I hadn't until today. I guess for when you're really, REALLY thirsty... Speaking of which, I have yet to find a large enough glass for me to use at home. I'm sorry, the 6-oz glass that came with the apartment just doesn't work for me. I don't want to stand around the sink for 12 minutes filling up the glass each time I down a whole glass in one swallow just to get a decent amount of water in my system.
The temperature outside today was 32. I was burning up on my bike. The big guy exchange student from Argentina, Jose, was just pouring sweat this morning while riding his bike to school becuase it was so hot. You're probably saying, 32 is hot?!? Well, it is on the Celcius scale, buddy. These guys have it right with their metric system. Probably one of the reasons their students are typically smarter than ours. You don't think so?? Quickly, tell me how many feet are in a yard. Easy? Now how many yards in a mile? Now how many rods are in a furlong? Harder? Now how many meters are in a kilometer? If you can't answer the last one, it's not your fault. It's the government's. Now the Japanese just need to grasp the concept of volume, as stated in the previous paragraph.
I am sure I could write more, but I am growing weary and I need to go and fill up that glass a few hundred more times.
Muddy-san
Today, I got bored at Meikei. I think it's the early mornings doing it to me. They are taking their toll on me after almost a full year with very few breaks to catch up on sleep. Then I do stupid things with my free time like maintain this mindless drivel for you to read. I don't know if anyone besides Josh and Stephanie have even given it a second thought so far. As a matter of fact, they may be dumber after actually reading it. I have been trying to get one of those nifty hit counters, but I haven't been able to get it put in yet because of automatically generated e-mail promises that never come true. And the hit counter web site told me it loved me!! If it loved me, it'd at least send me an e-mail after everything we did together.
Back on topic, after I left Meikei, I went to the lab at NIMS to see what my buddy Nathan was up to. He and Masa (a Tsukuba University grad student) had the plasma chamber lit up where they do their diamond CVD (chemical vapor deposition). I don't know much about plasma but I am sure I have seen it before. The sun, fluorescent light bulbs, expensive TVs (sort of, I think), Earthworm Jim, probably a few others I can't think of. This plasma did look much cooler than any of those. But not in a temperature sort of way. The optical pyrometer showed a temperature of about 1400 K. Smokin'!!
On to something I find to be both a blessing and a curse about Japan. Portion sizes at grocery stores. Pretty much everything is packaged individually in these small little servings, sort of like those variety packs of Kellogg's cereal that we all loved to get as kids. I guess it helps people monitor their eating habits or makes things seem cheaper. I don't know, I like buying in bulk. Mostly because I like to eat a lot. Well, soy sauce comes in bulk. Have you ever seen a 2-liter bottle of soy sauce? I hadn't until today. I guess for when you're really, REALLY thirsty... Speaking of which, I have yet to find a large enough glass for me to use at home. I'm sorry, the 6-oz glass that came with the apartment just doesn't work for me. I don't want to stand around the sink for 12 minutes filling up the glass each time I down a whole glass in one swallow just to get a decent amount of water in my system.
The temperature outside today was 32. I was burning up on my bike. The big guy exchange student from Argentina, Jose, was just pouring sweat this morning while riding his bike to school becuase it was so hot. You're probably saying, 32 is hot?!? Well, it is on the Celcius scale, buddy. These guys have it right with their metric system. Probably one of the reasons their students are typically smarter than ours. You don't think so?? Quickly, tell me how many feet are in a yard. Easy? Now how many yards in a mile? Now how many rods are in a furlong? Harder? Now how many meters are in a kilometer? If you can't answer the last one, it's not your fault. It's the government's. Now the Japanese just need to grasp the concept of volume, as stated in the previous paragraph.
I am sure I could write more, but I am growing weary and I need to go and fill up that glass a few hundred more times.
Muddy-san
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