Road Trip: Pause

Paht 1

We went on a road trip to Ohio to visit my dad's summer research stint at the Air Force Base. 

Western Pennsylvania has mountains, cornfields, farms, and ... grass. (Oxford comma.)

The rest stops were probably the most interesting parts of the drive. 

Just kidding, there were some awesome tunnels and the bridges next to Pittsburgh were beautiful. It was fun being weird and rambunctious and creating embarrassing moments with my siblings again.

Here's some randos taken on the daddy-o's DSLR:

in the middle of singing another ad lib song to entertain.

I hope those videos never get out into the public.

we got bored. i guess.

oh, sorry: Western PA has trees too. my bad.

 my brother has huge ears. gosh.

Hope you have at least one dysfunctional road trip this summer too :)

It's good for the soul.

Big Window, Big View

the power of windows.

all from A D

A Tribeca penthouse by Lee F. Mindel and Peter L. Shelton

found in Live Your Style blog

I know having too many windows in your house just makes it a huge greenhouse and it becomes hot as hell. But can you blame me if I blast my A/C to accommodate these beauties?
My guilt just lifts away.

Goals: A Process

An earring from an earring pair I made as part of my Metals course senior year of high school.

Probably one of my proudest achievements -- it makes me so happy :)

On another note: today was my first day in the lab, and it was very exciting.

 I may not be grad student material, but I can see the appeal in losing yourself and time to your lab work because there's many enjoyable aspects. 

This is obviously all from my naive prospective, but what's so wrong with that?

Dreamy

Nice neutrals that make you float on.

Home Klondike

Carvers' Guild

Poggen Pohl

So today I was walking down the Infinite, and I saw two young (10ish?) brothers skipping down the hall and playing a small game by avoiding certain spots on the floor. The floor was speckled but there wasn't really a pattern to it. I watched them for a while since I was just walking down the hall anyways,  but I couldn't figure out what their game was. 

I started thinking about how when I was a kid, I made up a game for everything. Everything. Everything existed to test my mind. But now I wasn't having the same kind of fun these kids were having. Maybe the point was that it was random. I don't know. 

But this world is definitely a playground, and I should will have fun.

Just float on.

Simple Days

I like the summer a lot.

 I hate the heat, but I like the breeze.

The lifestyle of summer is so simple and sweet. 

Today I woke up at 8am and ate plain, nonfat yogurt with cereal bits and a whole grain sandwich with bananas for breakfast. (I don't eat like that often. Think greasy leftovers - the shame...)

Then I grabbed my bike to go play some pick-up field hockey in the dry heat.

Well, maybe not dry, since we were all drenched in sweat. But it was simple. I didn't have to think or worry at all. I just used my vision, stayed strong, and played hockey. It was all friendly competition and we had some good laughs. I even met an MIT alum.

Then I hopped on my bike back along the Esplanade back home. I passed lines of people on their morning jog and we all seemed to have the same understanding and simple joy amidst the heaving of thick hot air and trickling of sweat into our eyes. 

The pace is natural, innate within all of us.

The value of simplicity is great. 

Nerd Derp

This was my first week at my research job.

It was exciting because the ONE (organic and nanostructured electronics) Lab is somewhere I wrote about in my application for MIT. I'm working in the quantum dot solar cell group. My project explores different sputtering processes to see which way of applying the ZnO layer on the quantum dot solar cells will maximize its efficiency. Most of the projects so far have really been focusing on adjusting the bandgap of the QDs, so it'll be interesting to look at the metal layer instead.

This week has mostly been reading scientific articles and trying to get a hang on all the QDPV research that's been published so far. I've asked some silly questions and been awkwardly clueless very frequently but I think it's all part of the process (I hope).

The reception of the research lifestyle by the grad students here (who come from all over the world) is very interesting. They all miss undergraduate life (and the intertwined community) a lot, and there's a lot of self-declared 10, 12+ hour workdays. There's ups and downs in their research but this lab in particular is pretty close-knit and get along together and collaborate frequently which is not always guaranteed within a lab. 

via Drexel U

Harbor Arbor

My metals class brainchild from senior year of high school:

I scoured the internet for all types of jewelry stands as inspiration and weighed out how difficult it'd be to create one with the limited tools and one month's time we had in school.

I had little mementos on each corner.

The bird on the top is supposed to resemble one of those rooster weather vanes and symbolize a moral compass for the more independent times ahead. 

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. 

You can steer yourself any direction you choose. 

You're on your own. And you know what you know.

 And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” 

“You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. 

You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. "

"And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! 

(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you'll move mountains.” 

~ Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!