Ode to Serotonin

Tripped you up there, didn't I? I'm exercising my auditory and visual receptors. Gaze forth and be amazed.

I know this is going to sound nuts, but I really need like a good 6-7 hour block of a day, any day, in which to get some quality time alone with my homework. No, for reals. I've had so much shit to do each day this week that there has not been the kind of time I really need to do some stuff I might otherwise consider totally wicked. I'm halfway excited so far because my three lab classes all seem like interesting crap when it's working properly. I could lock myself in the lab for hours with nothing but simulations and in-circuit debuggers to keep me company. This, somehow, sounds like nirvana.

I am but two days from Guy Fawkes. Hip hip.

I had the usual schedule today: work, lab, lab. What wasn't so usual was the Greek Leadership Banquet at the end of the day where we honor our best and brightest. I know it slips your mind from time to time but I did in fact join a fraternity, and in said fraternity, I infiltrated the executive council. All things considered, I believe it enriches my life. It is enriched.

My big, boastful accomplishment of the day appears in the form of the little USB-flash drive pictured to the left. Sorry for the haze there, but my phone doesn't snap good pictures from five inches away. I went to use my usual USB-flash drive today and when I pulled it out of the port, what can only be described as the guts and soul of the drive remained stuck in the port as I peeled away its mortal flesh. I knew I had to transport the precious contents into a more suitable container if I was to continue use of this thirty-dollar trinket. So, being the "engineer" that I am, I went sifting through the contents of my desk looking for a home for the flash-memory module that is in reality only as big as a USB plug itself. After thirty minutes of tinkering and polishing, I developed what you see there. The plastic case is actually a contained the mechanical pencil led comes in. I broke the top off and smoothed down the edges wit the file on my fingernail clippers. The memory fits reasonably snug in there, assisted only by two or three thin rubber bands I wound part of the board it to make it a tighter fit. Then I ran some wire through the existing hole in the bottom of the case and tied the sharp ends of the wire off with electrical tape. Voila. It's amazing, and allows me to make full use of the green LED on the module. It's my best engineering feat to-date.

I could go on, but I've got some HC12 programming to attend to (I'm still not a programmer, ass) so lab tomorrow doesn't take a year and a day. I found out that one of my classes on Monday is cancelled which means I get to go to this press conference thing at the hospital where there's some big announcement. I think an Indiana senator is going to be there. Maybe I'll get to shake his hand and feign interest. Sweet.

I was secretly hoping that one of us might die