Interesting...
So today was a bit of a trip. We broke the thing that cools the laser. While fixing that, we broke the thermometer which tells us if the things that cools the laser is actually cooling the laser. Once the thermometer was replaced, we discovered that the thing that cools the laser still wasn't cooling the laser. While fixing that a second time, I knocked the optics for the laser out of alignment. We then gave up and decided to deal with the optics tomorrow. Please keep in mind that all of these components are rather tiny (the thermometer is approximately a centimeter long for example) and thus highly frustrating to deal with.
Having packed up and started biking home, I run into a crowded street. It's only two lanes and the traffic is doing an agonized crawl in both directions. A city bus pulls through the intersection I'm waiting at and parks since there isn't any room for it on the other side. I wait and then notice that the light has changed and I've got a green. So I bike down along the bus (still taking up half the intersection) and cross behind it. Then BAM! Space has opened up going the other direction so the car in the middle of the intersection on that side has decided to pull through and the front of her car and my bike run neatly into each other. We both block the intersection for another minute or so apologizing, making us very popular with all the other drivers who no doubt think we're both idiots anyway. Which we are. Or at least me. But the only casualty was the front wheel of my bike, which had broken earlier in the week and received repairs of dubious value from me. So it was due for a trip to the shop anyway.
Now I have safely made it home with a nice bar of very good chocolate, so hopefully that will be the extent of my excitement for the day.
On a completely new note, I saw Mountain Patrol: Kekexili the other day. It was so brutal I'm having a hard time deciding if it was a good movie or not. I'm not really sure why the film was made (i.e. what was the main point?) because all the people who were trying to do a good thing (stop poachers) end up doing terrible things themselves and don't really seem to achieve their goal. But National Geographic was involved in it, so maybe the movie was just to show what the men on the patrol had to live through. You might go see it, if you can deal with the violence. The film "Elizabeth" from a few years back probably has comparable amounts and degrees of disturbing images in it.
Having packed up and started biking home, I run into a crowded street. It's only two lanes and the traffic is doing an agonized crawl in both directions. A city bus pulls through the intersection I'm waiting at and parks since there isn't any room for it on the other side. I wait and then notice that the light has changed and I've got a green. So I bike down along the bus (still taking up half the intersection) and cross behind it. Then BAM! Space has opened up going the other direction so the car in the middle of the intersection on that side has decided to pull through and the front of her car and my bike run neatly into each other. We both block the intersection for another minute or so apologizing, making us very popular with all the other drivers who no doubt think we're both idiots anyway. Which we are. Or at least me. But the only casualty was the front wheel of my bike, which had broken earlier in the week and received repairs of dubious value from me. So it was due for a trip to the shop anyway.
Now I have safely made it home with a nice bar of very good chocolate, so hopefully that will be the extent of my excitement for the day.
On a completely new note, I saw Mountain Patrol: Kekexili the other day. It was so brutal I'm having a hard time deciding if it was a good movie or not. I'm not really sure why the film was made (i.e. what was the main point?) because all the people who were trying to do a good thing (stop poachers) end up doing terrible things themselves and don't really seem to achieve their goal. But National Geographic was involved in it, so maybe the movie was just to show what the men on the patrol had to live through. You might go see it, if you can deal with the violence. The film "Elizabeth" from a few years back probably has comparable amounts and degrees of disturbing images in it.