Dust Bunnies Galore

In a foolish endeavour to prepare for the impending New Year, and as part of a time honoured procrastination strategy, I have been attempting to restore some order to my room. I have only just surfaced from the piles of junk that were released from my cupboards.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day means one thing - Cricket test match at the MCG. Australia vs Pakistan. At stumps, Pakistan were 6-318. If the Pakistanis keep their fight, this match might come closer to the full 5 days than the previous test match, which Australia wrapped up in about half that time.
See SMH for a full report of the day's play.

Happy Christmas

Well another Christmas has been and gone, and despite the best of intensions, I ate an elephant's sufficiency. Mum is a bit of a food pusher. I think her rationale is that if she fattens everyone else up, then she will be slimmer by comparison.
Christmas 2004 was marked by the lack of Christmas tree and decorations; harrowing family photo sessions; and Jason's admission to the family folk that he has a girlfriend.

Pudding Preparations

Mum's first attempt at a boiled Christmas pudding.

Catching up

Catching up with a small fraction of everyone's year mich me deb dom

Newton's Laws of Graduation

1. First Law: A grad student in procastination tends to stay in procastination unless an external force is applied to it.
2. Second Law: The age, a, of a doctoral process is directly proportional to the flexibility, f, given by the advisor and inversely proportional to the student’s motivation m.
3. Third Law: For every action towards graduation there is an equal and opposite distraction.

From PhD Comics

ICA Christmas Party

Tonight was Innovation Capital's christmas party. It always makes for a charged room when you mix investors,inventors and VCs. Although I was bilssfully unaware at the time, I was reliably informed that the floor was littered with the corpses of those being stabbed in the back. An interesting evening by all accounts.
On the plus side, I got to catch up with Jane who kept me sane last year while we were putting together our business plan.

Family - It's a Beautiful Thing

There are others genetically doomed with the same peculiarities as you. Mum's brothers and their wifes were over for dinner tonight, and after a number of glasses of wine my aunt started detailing one of my uncle's more unusual quirks. This sounded rather familiar to me, and I directed an accusatory finger and glare in Mum's direction. My other aunt completed the trifecta - "Tony too". Hilarious after a little wine. Hopefully for me, Ben and Jason are quirk free.

Dad's Birthday

Today is Dad's birthday. He's 21 again, but apparently it's OK because he's turned 21 more times than I have. That's one of Mum's famous chocolate-mint mud cakes.

Dad Retires

Dad's colleagues took him out to lunch today to celebrate his retirement from the ACCC. One of the conditions on his retirement is that he cleans out his office. Given Dad's meticulous filing system, that can only be described as chronological, this retirement party may have been premature.

Graduation Day

Its a big day for the Kepert group. Xina graduated, Greg submitted a JACS paper and Suzanne handed in a large volume commonly referred to as a PhD thesis. I wish I could download my brain onto paper and hand in now too. Anyway, any momentous event needs to be celebrated, preferably with Kuletos happy hour cocktails.

Sulfur Crested Cockatoo

This sulfur crested cockatoo was kind enough to sit still and pose, while I snuck close enough to get a reasonable photo with my 3x zoom camera. That translates to ~1m.

Neutrons @ Work

Today was the 4th AINSE Symposium on Neutron Scattering held at ANSTO, Lucas Heights where they are building the replacement research (nuclear) reactor. There were a couple of dull talks including a particularly poor one by some chick on Negative Thermal something boring. I almost dozed off.

Sandra & Stephen in Oz

You'd almost think I was back in Chicago, running into Sandra, Stephen and Bernt. But no, I'm in Canberra for a symposium at ANU where Sandra and Stephen are the guests of honour. Yesterday evening Po Po and I took them up the top of Mt Ainslie to look over the sights of Canberra.

Johanna say's Hi

Hello this is Johanna. I'm Karena's cousin. I live in Canberra. I am 8 years old I have a older sister and a younger brother. Today Karena came to visit and I had lunch with her. Karena is my second oldest cousin. I have been to lots of places with her like Selywn snow fields. My sister's name is Vanessa. She is 12 years old and my brother Jonathan and he is nearly 5. I also forgot to meantion that my birthiday is 10 days before my brothers so I am nearly 9. My mum and dad both come from Malaysia.

Karena, Johanna & Vanessa

CJK Group BBQ

Yesterday evening was the Kepert group BBQ at Cameron's place. We were all huddled under tarps for the first rain in Sydney since I left 3 months ago. Typical.
A regular feature of CJK BBQs is the highly competitive, post-dessert game of Pictionary complete with critique of artistic talent and compulsary distraction of opposing teams.

37 Hours in Transit

Mmmm.... jet lag.

Qantas Club in LA

I'm about half way through my 37 hour journey home which included a 7 hour tour of New York's JFK airport. Now I've made it to LA and the Qantas club lounge. Any second now they are going to buzz me to let me know a shower is free. Of course they've disabled telnet facilities so I can't check email. I suppose that just leaves blogging.

Beware! Live grasshoppers.

Here are some experimental samples with a difference. I think they are destined for phase contrast imaging, which the clever folks at Sector 1 are using to make movies of bugs breathing etc. On a nearby bench was a large cardboard with the following caution on the lid: "Beware! Live grasshoppers. Do not open"

Farewell Luncheon

It's my last day here is Chicago so the folks at Sector 1 took me out to lunch at Emmett's (guess who chose the venue). Our waitress was not the most competent photographer but this is my best opportunity to introduce the cast of characters. From left to right we have: Brian, who is not really from Sector 1 so he only half made it to the photo; Jon Almer, who recently completed the Chicago marathon in some phenomenal time; Marcus, a PhD candidate with a Texan drawl; Kamel Fezzaa; Sarvjit Shastri, an optics maestro; Ulrich Lienert, a source of local swimming and cycling information; Jan Ilavsky, the 1-BM guy; Karena, departing ASRP intern; Dean Haeffner, the boss of Sector 1; and Bob Von Dreele, Mr GSAS.

Sector 1 Pub Meeting

Science types are the same the world over - always gravitating towards the nearest pub. The first Monday of the month is the Sector 1 pub night at the local, the "Kerry Piper", a nice little Irish pub. It was appropriately decorated for the holiday season complete with dancing santa.

Emmett's Ale House

If you are ever in the vicinity of the APS, and looking for a refreshing beverage, head out to Emmett's ale house in Downers Grove. They brew on site with selected imported beers on tap. I recommend their Victory Pale Ale - it's multi-award winning so it must be good.

APS News

While killing time at the beamline I found this puff piece from the Consul General's visit. Exciting stuff. There's even photographic evidence of me looking respectable in a suit.

Late Night at the Beamline

The (one) nice thing about working at the beamline through the night is the stunning sunrise that greets you as you stumble back to your room for a few hours rest.

Sad Farewells

Our time here in Chicago is nearly over. Bernt is flying home tomorrow and I'm off next Wednesday.

New ipod for me

As of ~12.30pm I am the proud owner of a brand new 40Gb Apple ipod. I ordered it online at www.ecost.com, and after a couple of weeks and demands of proof of id and credit card statements, they finally decided to send it to me. Mmmm... new toy.

Scientific Publishing Tricks

Apparently, physics is an extremely cut-throat field where toes are constantly being stamped on and so special precautions are required. When the breakthrough work on the YBaCuO superconductors was being prepared for publication and sent out to confidential review, the authors referred to the compound as YbBaCuO not YBaCuO. All of a sudden people started to try duplicating experiments on YbBaCuO, with no success - surprise, surprise. Then, once the final proofs were sent for approval, they said "Oops. Typo." Devious.