gross negligence

back from minnesota. the conference was great. i learned a ton about molecular dynamics and solvent boxes with periodic boundaries. i also had a nice talk with one of their computational chemists (don truhlar) about some of his current photodissociation work.

came back to a week off of experimental work though, and that means the chance to wrestle with a misbehaving diode laser... today we painstakingly charted wavenumber v. applied voltage over a range just large enough to tell us our laser "mode hops", or occassionally - but not always mind you - decides to output a different wavelength of light than we expect. we're likely going to have to hotwire in some other equipment that will give us wavelength readings at all times during normal work, a pain, but not impossible. this way, we can monitor the laser and plan for some way to compensate. the joys of measuring isotope ratios in carbon dioxide.

finally started reading the harry potter series. i never realized how engrossing those stories are. i was impressed, and couldn't put the book down. but i couldn't get my hands on book number two, so i'm currently reading harlan ellison's troublemakers, and about to start (because i'll finish the other one tonight) stephen king's the gunslinger. yay for books