Massive Summer Update

Too busy doing awesome stuff (and playing Starcraft 2) to blog this summer, so here is a short rundown.

In one day (July 24th), I sent my flip camera up on a kite, I took a sweet video of quarter shrinking, and lost my northpaw (which reminds me I need to order a new one).

I'm working with frit now in my fulgurite experiments, and getting pretty close to making fulgurites in arbitrary colors.

I've got all the parts to make a cloud chamber, and a budding radioactive collection. I just need to get off my ass and put it together.

I had so much fun taking and posting the previous microscope pictures, I decided to upgrade my microscope. Browsing ebay, I found some dusty, old, bio-lab-quality microscope someone found in a garage. It seemed worth at least $50 when I put in my bid. I won at $35 ($44 with shipping). I didn't check what it really was until I had received the win-notification. Its a Swift M1000-D, it seems to be from the late 70's, and seem to be priced at $400-$800 these days for a refurb. I love it. And I love ebay.

My other major equipment purchase recently was a big dewar I picked up at the UW Surplus Auction. It holds 35 Liters of liquid nitrogen. I got about 15 L worth and brought it down to Hackerbot Labs a few weekends ago. Much fun was had by many. I've received no small amount of shit for putting "a minor" (who shall remain unnamed) "in danger". I fully reject this attitude. I warned him that shit was VERY cold, and told him not to hurt himself. Any pain and/or suffering he may or may not have experienced was trivial and equivalent to scraped-knees learning to ride a bike. Besides, this is the "kid" who talked me into dunking my hand in liquid nitrogen the last time someone filled Dan's dewar and brought it to lab.

In other news, I've also just rearranged my work space, so my soldering station is out of Monica's room, and into my primary living area. With luck, this will lead to less procrastination... like maybe I'll finally put that cloud chamber together.

Hokay, pictures have been uploaded, so I'll make a couple separate picture posts.