I generally think of graduate study as a steady plod towards your goal.  You hit some obstacles, and you figure out how to get over / around them - no big deal.  But sometimes, you get those weeks when just nothing goes right.  Last week was one of those weeks.

I had been rushing to get some wafers sent out to have an expensive process done to them before a round of funding ran out.  I was working hard, and cutting corners and paying for it, but I got them out in time.  Then they came back.  I went to clean them, as I normally do, but this time things just went wrong.  Now, instead of cleaning off the debris that I wanted, I ended up actually undoing a few weeks worth of work.  Not only that, but I have still been unable to remove the crud that I have been trying to remove.  So that means that not only did I move about a month backward, but I added a week or two on while I was at it, if I didn’t ruin the wafers entirely…

But, I learned some good lessons, have some ideas how to fix the problems, and may even be able to save a few wafers.  So I can still go into lab with a sense of purpose, and will come out with a better process to show for it. 

I think graduate school has made me an optimist…

Wired had an interesting article two months ago.  It is on HAARP (High frequench Active Auroral Research Program).  I actually went there several years ago, as an undergraduate, helping with a grad student in the Plasma Science and Fusion Center’s thesis.

Apparently people believe that it is being used for mind control.  It seems to me that it just makes your hair grow longer.  (Yes I am the tall guy with the long hair in those pictures)Me at HAARP, Group at HAARP.  But anyway, it is always neat to see somewhere that you have worked treated with such interest…