The room is officially yellow. I painted my bedroom "Sun God" yellow. Ra! [so to speak].

Painting a room with a 13' ceiling is an enormous pain in the arse. And my arms are killing me. But the room is basically done and ready to be moved into. There is the small question of carpeting but I think I'm so excited to actually have a functioning room that I'm just going to move my furniture and stuff into it now and maybe put a throw rug down later.

While going to Home Depot to get spackle for use in the painting effort on Saturday, the ninja crashed her car into the median. The front left tire had a 3" gash in it and was way flat, but there was no other damage and we were fine. We had to flag down a tow-truck to change the tire because there was no jack or tire iron in the car. [NB: it turns out the jack and iron were present, but hidden in a secret hidden compartment where no one would ever look.]

As a result, I missed the Chinese New Year banquet which I was all excited about going to.

It's a busy weekend. Aside from the aforementioned painting of the room, there is a lot going on in the rocketry arena. First, the Rocket Team is moving to a permanent lab space [and being evicted from our current space in building 24 by the LNS]. This, unfortunately, has to be done on Friday. We have a ton [literally] of stuff and moving it in one afternoon won't be any fun. Nor will the doctor's appointment that immediately preceedes this.

But on Sunday, at last, I am launching the Nerd Magnet! I am going to attempt to obtain my NAR Level 1 High Power Certification. This will be the maiden flight of the nerd magnet, and the first time I've flown a rocket that I designed myself. It will also be the largest rocket and motor I've ever flown. Should be fun.

I've got a fan club coming along to watch. They will either get to see me succeed and get certified, or there will be some sort of exciting rocket failure that will be equally fun.

The process of renormalization continues. I'm getting back in touch with all the people I've ignored for the last month, etc.

Oh and Dan tells me I have a reservation in Hell. So that's a relief, I hate it when they get overbooked.

Alex and I performed a low-frequency sweep of Cruftlabs with his 12" powered sub, my 120W amp, and a signal generator. Strangely, almost all of the things that rattle and vibrate were located in Greddy's room. My room is nearly complete! All of the drywall is up. Albert and I finished his HVAC duct [which runs through my room]. I just need to put up one more outlet box and run my own HVAC.

Once this is done, there will no longer be any sources of major dust in my room. This will be a serious stepping stone on the road to completeness. The Ninja and I went to Home Depot to pick out paint. She insisted that I spackle and paint the room, and that she be allowed to help. I figure if she's going to do some of the work then I'll consent to having it done. And besides, it means I get a yellow room, which I've always wanted. Yeah, so the paint is called "Sun God." It's very deep yellow. We also got some metallic shiny blue paint for stenciling random shit on the walls and some blue satin and sheer fabrics to cover up the icky ceilings with.

Next Saturday we begin the painting process. Whee! I just hope it doesn't come out looking like the Swedish National Room or something.

I went to the exam room to find it locked. Professor Yip and the fusion research guy I didn't know showed up and we talked for awhile, waiting for Molvig to shop up. Yip decides to tell me some things he'd like to hear me talk about (that weren't currently in my talk) which I had to incorporate on the fly as I was giving my presentation, which sucked hard and made my talk a lot less tight than it was.

The exam itself was so frustrating. I was really expecting conceptual questions. Molvig hadn't given me any advice on what sorts of questions to prepare for, so I talked to other students that had taken it before and everyone said "concepts, not derivations." And that's what I prepped for. And of course, I got all derivations, proofs, etc.

Immediately threw me off and put me in a very uncomfortable position. I wasn't prepared to answer most of the simplest questions they gave me. As soon as it became clear to me that I was not performing well, then I lost my nerve and started making mistakes on stuff I knew. It was a total disaster. Molvig looked pissed the whole time and was clearly giving me hints and throwing me softballs and I was just screwing it all up.

The worst part was that they asked questions in a manner which made it unclear what it was they were looking for. I spent a lot of time stumbling around trying to figure out what it was they were actually asking. And then to boot they threw a particle methods question in there - something I have never done ever. Not sure what they were expecting me to be able to do on that one.

The two hours flew by so fast and I actually wanted the exam to continue because I felt that I had just cocked everything up and needed to redeem myself. I left the room completely humiliated and I could hear Molvig already trying to make excuses for me as I walked away.

The rest of yesterday and all of last night and today sucked. I have just been sitting here being mad at myself for being such a moron, and mad at Molvig for not giving me the advice he promised. I sat here all weekend when he said he would come in, and he didn't. Didn't even come in on Monday.

I went to the post-generals party in the lounge and got my food before going to face my doom because I wasn't expecting to pass. Molvig has a great poker face. The fucker passed me. He said I wasn't even borderline, which blows my mind.

How bad do you have to cock this one up to fail?

I don't understand how my performance constitutes a passing grade, and I'm still very upset with myself and Molvig, but I passed. I am a doctoral candidate, only a thesis stands in the way of my being Dr. Mouser.

Now I'm going to go home, where I haven't been in a month (save three trips to drop off dirty laundry and pick up fresh stuff). Sleep. At last.

It has been a weird couple of weeks. I'm currently in that post-study, pre-exam zone where my mind is racing and I have trouble thinking of anything but computational physics but I'm not doing anything but answering email and listening to music.

In three and a half hours I get my ass kicked by four of the toughest professors in the department. I do not feel prepared at all. In general, the oral component of the qualifying exam is much easier to pass than the written, so I wouldn't worry. But Karen brought up a good point which is that they passed almost everyone on the written this year which means that perhaps they are transitioning over to a new policy, in which case I could be screwed.

Believe me, I have no trouble envisioning nightmare scenarios right now of crashing, burning, and then getting struck by a rogue meteor. This won't be pretty, the question is will it be enough.

In related news, my friends rock. I've basically been living out of my office since 6.270, studying all day long. Various people have brought me cookies, brownies, cold medicine, tea, a grapefruit [??], gnutella, hugs, and encouragement. Thanks to all of you.

Ninjas are totally sweet. And they come in pairs, sometimes in threes. Beware.

I'm not dead, I'm just studying for my orals like mad.

6.270 went off without a hitch. It was the longest night in the contest's 15-year history at four and a half hours, but the crowd stayed for the whole thing. I think the video announcers went mildly insane trying to come up with things to talk about. My reading of the intro story went better than I expected, with people actually laughing and whatnot. And I seem to have acquired a cheering section.

Mikkel, Bean, and The Ninja all showed up and I hung out with them for a bit after the contest. The Ninja and I went to the Assguard for some drinks afterwards. I was so exhausted; when I finally got to bed, I fell asleep instantly and slept until 2pm today.

Which, of course, made me late for lab cleanup. This took forever, but we managed to get all the fungle off the floors and the 6.111 lab looking ship-shape. Feels great to finally be done with it all. Aaah

I got my ATM card. All my Fleet Bank problems have been resolved as of today. They started on December 3rd. That's how long it took. I have severe dislike for Fleet. As soon as I have time, I am switching banks.

I also got a cool SGI Indigo that had been discarded in a nearby hallway. Needs a keyboard, but I smell Mousercam Server...