randi(26, 516)

So, I had an interesting weekend. On the 29^th, I watched Inglorious Basterds with a few friends. It’s one of my favorite movies. It’s about a group of Jewish Americans in German occupied France during World War II. Christoph Waltz played a fantastic Hans Landa. On a similar note, there are a lot of movies where the characters try to fake Italian. The fact the language has such a reputation is rather amusing. Even Richard Feynman faked speaking Italian. It was in real life though, not a movie.

My birthday was on the 30^th, and my mother sent me a cake. I’ve been eating a slice of cake each day, but alas, it’s a lot of cake. I went to the aquarium with one of my friends on the 30^th, and we looked at the many different kinds of fish, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, birds, and cephalopods. The center of the aquarium has a helical staircase that winds up the outside of a three-story coral reef. One can get off on each floor to explore the many nooks and crannies which contain fish and other sea creatures from all around the world. We got to see cuttlefish, which are one of my favorite animals. They also have an area where visitors can touch stingrays and sharks. Most of the stingrays were moving around, but the sharks stayed in the back, not wanting to be touched. While we were at the aquarium, I was able to confirm my suspicion that human children are strange, demonic, rage-filled bundles of disease. The hatred that fills their very being was seen as it radiated in the form of screams, wails, and the constant, undying smacking of the glass enclosures. Believe it or not, I don’t actually hate kids. I just find it fascinating that upon seeing an animal, a kid’s first instinct is to yell at it or smack the glass, trying to get it to move. Is there anything like that that adults do? After the aquarium, we walked around the harbor on what is known as the “harbor walk.” It was really windy, but we got to see some cool sculptures that are around that area.

I didn’t notice much for April Fool’s this year. I guess I didn’t expect much, but still.

I volunteer at a research lab in Dana, and after a few weeks without meeting, since the super expensive probe broke, we started doing some more work. I am going to be helping with the design of micro antennas, since we are trying to match the impedance so that the least amount of power is reflected. I was able to receive some software that I will be able to use, so I’m pretty excited. Apparently they spend months designing different masks until they get the right layout with all the different variables being accounted for. After that, they get the chip fabricated, each chip having a few hundred micro antennas. So far, they have been testing antennas from their generation 2, but I will be able to help with the design of generation 3.

Cheers,

Adrian