SEPTEMBER 2024

I'm not about to attempt to catch up on the stuff I've done since last year in a lot of detail.... in broad strokes, I worked on my senior thesis where I tried to build a two faced HPGe detector system with some new tech additions from the company I worked for. I graduated and got my bachelor's in physics!! I got accepted into two phd programs, and decided to go to the "less prestigious" school because the other one would have me working way too close to defense with a research advisor I don't think I would get along with. My advisor and group here are really cool, and honestly working on some stuff that I think can really make waves if we play our cards right >:D

I moved away from everything I know and love about three weeks ago, and started working on research stuff a week after that. I'm currently putting most of my effort into one project, which is working on a LARGER HPGe detector system in order to understand the exact process of fission from start to end. Which still isn't fully understood!! Right now it's mainly a lot of simulation work, as we plan on training a computer to be able to determine what the original isotope was based off the fragments it detects. The other project sounds super super cool but is also currently very confidential lol

I start school in a few weeks, and I'm a little nervous to see how I do in graduate classes. I did pretty good in my last year of undergrad, but I know I'm not the best in classes and I have to get at least a B or I lose my fellowship D: Please wish me luck in this. I'll try to update this blog more often too!!!

This morning I got an email from a professor at my dream school saying he was hiring students to work on nuclear fuels and wants to set up a meeting to talk to me. The problem is.....I just started a program at another grad school???? I let him know but still agreed to the meeting with him, but I'm unsure if he'll still want to talk to me now. I also feel a little shitty for immediately being so willing to drop my current school and advisor but also. This is my dream fucking school. I would cut off an arm and a leg to get to go there. And considering how prestigous the place is, my current advisor might understand if I tell him I would be leaving for there. I'm stuck in a lot of contracts right now so I would definitely have to finish my first year here first before I jump ship but that's fine with me. I just don't know if that would be fine with this professor. If it doesn't work out, I think I will reach levels of frustration heretofore unknown by mankid.

So bad news about the dream school guy when I heard that I'm another program he canceled the meeting but said to "keep in touch" so whatever. In recent news, my coworker and I made a list of our goals for the fall quarter and it's going to involve writing two whole papers by the end of the year. So I have a lot of work to do WHILE I start working on grad classes for the first time. I'm a little nervous about how this might go, but I really want it to work out because I feel like immediately slamming out some papers in my first quarter of grad school is a major flex and I might actually be able to establish myself as a person capable of getting shit done. All it takes is a little major code and simulation development, blowing up some poptart wrappers, and figuring out how to record what happens when you put radioactive stuff in a modified salad bowl. It's going to be a time.