Happy Haloween!

And I almost forgot!

U2, Texans 1st win, weekend update

Friday night's U2 concert was fantastic, just as expected. B. got free tickets from a business associate throwing a shindig in a party suite. That meant great seats, free beer and wine, and free food - all of it really good. My favorite was the 1/2 lb hotdog. Not only was it enormous, but probably the best hot dog ever! And we got really pimp parking, to boot - right across the street in spots that typically go for $40. U2 did a lot of their popular stuff, so I was singing my head off most of the concert, not that I could even hear myself. Afterwards we met a couple of B's friends at The Harp, where I think I embarrased them (or myself) with my knowledge of Vanilla Ice and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (I bet you didn't know that James Avery, known as Judge Philip Banks on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, was the voice of Shredder in the animated TMNT series. Weird, huh.)

Saturday was a pretty low-key day, including some shoe shopping at DSW. B. was steamed that I got some shoes and she didn't. But then again, I really am a shoe whore. Later in the evening we hit a couple low-key places, including Marfreless. Sunday saw a bunch of football nonsense. The Texans actually beat the Browns for their first win of the season, and the Eagles lost to the Broncos, for their third of the season. I couldn't watch the whole game, even in HD, and had to go to Texadelphia for a consolation cheesesteak. In all it was a good weekend, though a Philadelphia win would have been a good end note.

U2 at the Toyota Center tonight!

Yeah. The title pretty much tells the whole story. I'm going with B. Comped tickets. Sweet!

That 2nd X chromosome

is responsible for keeping me up nights recently, one way or another. A long-ex-girlfriend (T.) recently told me I was the love of her life, and all I could muster was "Wow. that really makes me feel good." Umm... what else was I supposed to say? I owe her a phone call that I'm sort of avoiding.

I've also been thinking a lot about the next ex (K.) who's in quite the happy state with her current serious boyfriend - the guy she started seeing after I broke up with her in ways that still make me feel like a schmuck. I talked with her recently, and was reminded what a great person she is, but also what drove me nuts about her. Still, there's a small part of me that entertains the remotest of possibilities of getting back together with her if the opportunity ever arose.

Then there's the most recent ex (E.) that I broke up with six weeks ago. In some ways it seems like yesterday, and I still can't believe that she's not a part of my life. In other ways it feels like a million years ago, and that the trip to New Mexico and everything else didn't really happen. I miss her most when I'm lying in bed at night, rethinking just what happened that night we broke up, still wondering if I did the right thing. I suppose it's a moot point, but I can't get myself to let it go yet. I find myself thinking of excuses to call her, but know that it wouldn't change anything, except make me feel worse for longer. Of course, I also don't really know what I'd do if she called me, wanting to talk. I don't think I have to worry about that one, though, due to why we broke up in the first place.

It's over for the Astros

... but it was one hell of a ride. They didn't play to their potential against the White Sox, and didn't deserve to win, especially after having so many missed opportunities in each of the four games. Ah well. Time to focus on the Eagles and the NFL. The Texans are a lost cause, after all.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today would be my dad's 59th birthday. I find myself often missing him, wanting to ask him something, and wondering how things would be different if he were still around. Everybody has to go at some point, but I wish he could have stuck around a bit longer so I could have gotten to know him better. I think I was just getting to the point 5 years ago where he started becoming more of a person to know in my perception, and not just "dad." So here's to you, dad, and all your positive influences that helped shape who I've become.

Nanocars

More and more places keep publishing stories on my nanocar research. The list so far:

C & E News: Nanocar Rolls Into Action

Slashdot: The World’s Smallest Car

New York Times: Scientists build tiny vehicles for molecular passengers

MIT Technology Review (www.technologyreview.com): coming soon

PhysOrg.com: Scientists build world's first single-molecule car

CNET (news.com.com): Here come the nanocars, Hot wheels

Instapundit.com: Nanotechnology update

Popular Mechanics: World’s Smallest Car

PC Magazine: Researcher Develops World's Smallest Car

Nature: Nanocar takes a test drive

Science Daily: Rice Scientists Build World's First Single-molecule Car

Science News (www.sciencenews.org): coming soon

E4: The Engineer Online: Motoring on molecules

Scenta (UK): World’s first nanocar

KHOU 11News Blog: Rice scientist’s build world’s first single-molecule car

Foresight Nanotech Institute: Light-driven motorized nanocar built at Rice

Live Science: The World's Smallest Car

Small Times (www.smalltimes.com): Inside Rice, A Tiny Car

The Engineer (De Ingenieur, Netherlands): coming soon

Platinum Today: Palladium catalyst launches first nanocar

C2W (Royal Netherlands Chemical Society): Nanomobiel

Nanotechnology Now: Rice Scientists Build World's First Single-molecule Car

Eureka Alert: Rice scientists build world's first single-molecule car

United Press International: Scientists build a single molecule nanocar

Monsters & Critics: Scientists build a single molecule nanocar

AZoNano: Single Molecule "Nanocar"-Chassis, Axles and Four Buckyball Wheels

Betterhumans: Nanocar built from a single molecule

Red Herring: The Buckymobile is Born

WebIndia: Now, a nanocar 20000 times smaller than a human hair!

NewKerala: Now, a nanocar 20000 times smaller than a human hair!

Doctor Fun (Nanotruck cartoon): Battle of the Monster Nano Trucks

LoneStarTimes: Rice researchers build ‘nanocar’

BoingBoing: Nanocar

Zoo Magazine (UK): coming soon

JKM Media (Germany): coming soon

ZietWissen Magazine (Germany): coming soon

Spiegel Online (Germany): coming soon

Space Ref: Rice scientists build world's first single-molecule car

MSNBC: The World’s Smallest Car

P2Pnet: World’s Smallest Car

ExtremeNano: Researcher develops world’s smallest car

All Headline News: World’s Smallest Car Revealed

Environment News Service: World’s Smallest Car Built from a Single Molecule

Digg: Scientists build world’s first nanocar

AutoBlog: Nanocar redines ‘subcompact’

Dvorak Uncensored: Great for driving short distances

ExtremeTech: Researcher develops world’s smallest car (link to PC Magazine story)

What’s Next in Science and Technology: Scientists build world’s first single-molecule car

ABC News: Researcher develops world’s smallest car (copy of PC Magazine story)

Technology News Daily: Single-molecule car, Nanocar

The Washington Times: Scientists build a single molecule nanocar (UPI feed)

Science Blog: Scientists build first single-molecule car

Chemlin (Germany): Nanocar with Buckyball wheels paves way for other molecular machines

Scienceticker.info (Germany): Erstes Nanoauto vorgestellt

AMA TechTel: Scientists build a single molecule nanocar

TruckBlog: Scientists build world’s first single-molecule truck

Red Nova: Scientists build world’s first single-molecule car

NanoApex: World’s first molecular car zips about on fullerene wheels

Softpedia: The World's First Single-Molecule Car

icWales: Nanocar takes 'Mini' to a new dimension

Virgin.net: Nanocar takes 'mini' to new level

LinuxElectrons: Rice Scientists Build World's First Single-Molecule Car

I4U: Nanotechnology – World’s smallest car

Times Online (UK): The car that really is a mini

opening line: “It looks like a pair of dumb-bells...” (Are they talking about the car or the PI’s?)

Multimedia:

Texas State Radio Network: Interview with Jim Tour

ScienCentral: TV interview with Jim and Kevin (this week or next?)

NPR: mentioned in broadcast

Top Twenty Insights about the Nanocar (adopted from Slashdot.com discussions):

1) Sorry I'm late coming home, honey. I lost the car again.

2) Only 4 nanometers across and yet it still holds 10 clowns! Go figure.

3) A nanocar is no problem; the hard part is making a really small Midas muffler shop.

4) You feel like a giant because you can easily hold millions of them in the palm of your hand.

5) But you feel a little silly because you have no idea how to change a tire.

6) Oh great! Now half the parking lot will be marked off for nanocar parking. Had enough trouble parking the hummer in the compact car spots now I have to jocky it into half a billion nanocar spots.

7) Finally, the perfect solution for men that have really large reproductive organs.

8) We’ve finally figured out what to use Buckyballs for...We’re living the dream folks.

9) It’s not ready to be the new Bluesmobile, until you add a cigarette lighter.

10) It’s not the size of the car, but how you use it.

11) The biggest problem driving it around Texas, ground clearance sucks.

12) If your nanocar is broken, you’ll have to send it to a quantum mechanic!

13) Oops, made the same mistake as Ford and we only offered it in black.

14) It is so typical that when developing the industrial nano-cities of the future they chose to develop nano-cars instead of a sensible atomic mass transit system. If this policy continues the consumption of nano-gas will raise nano-oil prices so high that soon we will have to invade nano-arabia. I for one will continue to endorse nano-carpooling and the use of nano-bikes whenever possible...

15) Great, a new oxymoron for the English language: Nano-SUV.

16) Well sir, the car you just purchased has no doors, no airbags, nothing to use as a seat, no radio, and a horrible AC package... but I got good news. You just saved a fortune by switching to Geico!

17) Beginner drivers will still have trouble parallel parking it.

18) The Rice Univ. Police Department “booted” it using an ion.

19) You can pimp your nanocar by adding radioactive atoms to give it a nice green glow.

20) A little tricky for the science team when they have to ask for funding...

Funding Agency: What's the problem?

Scientists: Well, we need to be able to move atoms and molecules around in precise ways.

Funding Agency: How can we help?

Scientists: We need some funding to build little, tiny trucks to carry them around in.

[long pause]

Funding Agency: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! No really guys, what did you need?

Revelry

Another night and another few bars. It's funny how locals here all look like I should know them. If I saw any of the people in the last bar last night in a bar in houston, I'd feel compelled to go up and start talking like I knew them. There's just a certain style and type that is specific to this area that you can't really distinguish till you've been somewhere completely different for a few years. Houston certainly fits that bill.

East Coast in the House!

Yeah, or rather, I'm in a house on the east coast. My mother's house, to be exact. I got in a bit early last night and was picked up at the airport by my bro and mom. Bro M. and I went out to Kildaires for a few hours, and met up with sister E. on her way back from Syracuse. I realized that I haven't seen her since Christmas, which is way too long. I haven't seen my brother since I went out to LA in March, either. This is a disturbing trend in my life that I have to try to reverse. Family and friends are important, and it's a shame when money and a busy schedule can keep you from seeing people who you care about. It's an unfortunate excuse that I don't want to fall back on any more.

In other news, my research is being picked up by a bunch of news outlets this week and next. Here's the current list:

Rice scientists build world's first single-molecule car:

'Nanocar' with buckyball wheels paves way for other molecular machines

C & E News: Nanocar Rolls Into Action

Platinum Today: Palladium catalyst launches first nanocar - 19th October 2005

C2W (Royal Netherlands Chemical Society): Nanomobiel

Nanotechnology Now: Rice Scientists Build World's First Single-molecule Car

Eureka Alert: Rice scientists build world's first single-molecule car

Live Science: The World's Smallest Car

Small Times (www.smalltimes.com): coming soon

MIT Technology Review (www.technologyreview.com): coming soon

PhysOrg.com (www.physorg.com): coming soon

Science News (www.sciencenews.org): coming soon

The Engineer ( De Ingenieur): coming soon

CNET (news.com.com): coming soon

New York Times (www.nytimes.com): coming soon

And may I just say...

To hell with all the doubters. They made it to the World series, and now they're gonna win. Go Astros! (Anyone wanna give me some world series tickets?)

Ready to go

My boarding pass is printed and my bags are packed for Philadelphia. My flight leaves Bush Intercontinental at 5:30, and I should be getting in around 9:45. I can't wait! A short day of work and I'm off!

Research

Chemical Engineering News has an article about my research, and everyone involved seems to think it will be news elsewhere as well. Rumor has it that the New York Times and the MIT Technology review have expresed interest.

Sleep and follow up appointments

I met with the surgeon yesterday for my follow-up appointment, and the nurse took off the visible part of my stitches. The inner parts will eventually dissolve, and for the next week I've got some steril strips glued on to keep the tiny incisions closed tightly. I got to see my surgery pics and he explained what I was looking at - they're hard to interpret as you'll see when I can scan and post them. I also got a perscription for ultracet since the vicodin wasn't really helping, and a week's worth of ambien so I can finally get some decent sleep. Even though I still woke up a few times, last night was the first good night's sleep I've had in about a week, and I feel so much better today it's amazing. A few more nights like that and I'll be back to normal, save for the sling.

Back at work

I woke up this morning in a ton of pain, and so far the vicodin hasn't really touched it. The usual long hot shower did nothing but get me clean, and there's a persistent low-level dizzyness and nausea that makes reading a chore. I think Saturday was the best day so far, though it's nice to try to get back into the routine of things. Nothing much I can do at work, really, but I'll try to catch up on the journals. Follow-up appointment at 1:30 with Dr. Labbe, then I'll probably go home to try to sleep. I think much of how I feel has to do with the few hours of poor sleep I've been getting every night. It's all compounding now such that overall I feel worse than just my shoulder alone. Grrr. It's gonna be a long day.

Birthdays!

Happiest of birthday wishes go out today to two of the coolest people I know. First, my biggest of brothers is 29 today, and partying it up on the east coast with family and friends. I'm excited that I'll get to join him next weekend for more festivities. Happy birthday, Bro! Also my cousin Jar-head Silverware turns 26 today. It's been far too long since we've seen each other - I wish we could party today. Happy birthday, you old fart!

3 Stitches

That's all folks. Only three stitches. Two in front and one in back. I've been trying to post these since yesterday, but blogger's been annoying. I'm still sore, especially in the mornings, but vicodin's keeping things managable. Sleeping's still a chore, and I'm trying to nap in the middle of the day to keep alert, though it's a losing battle with the drugs. Still, I've been so bored I'm actually ready to get back to work.

Progress

About noon today my nerve block pump started beeping at me, telling me it was empty. Argh! About damn time! That tape on my neck was about to drive me certfiably nuts, and the nerve block was acting a lot like the Texan's offensive line. The tape itself must be one of 3M's proudest acheivements, because that crap just wouldn't let go. After about ten minutes of cautious pulling I was nearly resigned to losing some skin, but persistence prevailed there, as with the rest of the dressings. Pulling the catheter out of my neck was a bit strange, but could have been a lot worse, considering a good 3 to 4 inches was stuck under the skin. It's pretty thin, though, as you can see in the first picture.
The gauze was a bit more gorey than I expected, but not too bad, either.

Distractions

It's hard to find time-consuming distractions when you've got a ton of vicodin running through your system. Reading isn't really an option since I can't concentrate, and TV makes me nauseous after a short time. Today's been a really long day, and as much as I want to sleep, I'm not looking forward to turning off the lights. I think the nerve block's going to run out in the middle of the night, and even though it's not as effective as it seemed to be yesterday, I'm going to miss it for sure. Yeesh. It's going to be a long couple of days.

SORE!

My soreness is getting worse as the day goes on. A push of the nerve block button and a vicodin are helping a bit, but it's certainly worse than yesterday.


This is the nerve block pump. A bit bigger than I thought it would be. Gives me 5ml an hour of whatever chemical it is - not enough today.


Here's my attempt at wearing a shirt without the ice-water pack. A bit better, but still not exactly presentable.


Here's my dressing. The bandages are a sort of rubbery sticky plastic. Strange but effective. My neck tape is driving me nuts today. Hopefully some more vicodin will help me not care as much.

Bionic man

Click on the pics for larger versions. The blue part is just a big ice-water pack, and the red part on my neck is where the nerve-block catheter goes in. The most annoying thing now is the tape on my neck won't let me straighten it all the way.

They amputated my right arm

Not really, but it got your attention, eh? everything went just fine, though they did have to try twice to get the nerve-block catheter into the right place. It involves running a small plastic tube in through my neck and stimulating the nerves witha series of small electrical impluses. My right arm was spasming like rhythmic fish on a hook. The funny thing is that the nerve path for the diaphram is very close - less than a millimeter - from all those arm & shoulder nerves, so they'd hit those occasionally, too. Weirdest thing I've ever felt, for sure. I've been trying to post some pictures, but Blogger keeps crashing Firefox every time it seems to be done, so you'll have to wait.

All in all I feel fine, but still slightly woozy and a bit sore. I'll try geting some pics up soon, but one-handed typing is slow.

Surgery Tomorrow

Getting up at 5:15 to get to surgery by 6:30 so the doc can begin the slicing by 8. Should be done by around noon. I'll update again as soon as I'm lucid enough to write.

Sports Overload

This weekend, thanks to B, my weekend was a complete sports overload - but in an entirely good way. Saturday she got comped tickets through work to the first Astros home game against the Braves. They kicked some serious ass, too. A great game to go to. Sunday I got up insanely early to go tailgate at 8am when the parking lots at reliant opened. Steak and potatoes and cookies for breakfast, not to mention screwdrivers and beer. mmm... steak. The Texans played absolutely horrendously, even though they got their season's high score, and lost to the Titans who they were supposed to beat by 3. Sad. By the end of the game the only cheers were heard when they updated the Astros-Braves game 4 score.

Now that was the game to have seen. In game 4, Astros up 2-1 in the best of 5 series, both teams had grand slams, and the Astros had a single home run in the bottom of the ninth to tie it up at 6. Then no one scored for the next EIGHT and a half innings. In the bottom of the 18th inning, breaking the record for longest post season game ever played, with Roger Clemens in as relief and no one else in the bullpen, Burke had a walk-off homer to end what was possibly one fo the best baseball games ever played.

Oy. I'm tired. Some great baseball, some really horrible football - the Eagles decided to suck this weekend against the cowboys - and I'm suffering from sports overload.

Blarg...

I can't figure out just why I had such an intense stomache ache last night, but it kept me up through most of it. It's getting slowly better as the day goes on, but I only came into lab at about 1, and plan to go home again soon. I really feel like crap. A much less severe bout hit me Monday night, but it was gone by the time I got to work. If this is a trend then I fully expect to have an alien burst through my stomache tonight - or implode. I can't figure out which.

On another note, Advisor boss-man left today for a short trip, which I totally forgot about till I saw his email at home at about 9:30 this AM. He wanted another copy some work I've been doing - stuff that I already gave him on USB-key and hard copy, just to be sure. But no. So somehow he's cranky with me because he managed to misplace both a real and electronic copy of my work. WTF? Would three copies and an engraved master die have done the trick? No. Simply because I wasn't at work at my normal time this morning (about an hour and a half earlier than everyone else, usually) he was determined to need something from me. If not that, then something else. That's just how these things work. And today of all days, when he hasn't said 2 words to me in nearly a week. Jyearsh. Let me just have this alien baby already.

Experimental Decorating

Went to Target yesterday after work looking for an area rug and maybe some curtains. Both were a gamble, but the curtains still have incredible suck potential. I haven't made up my mind yet, except for the fact that they need some sort of holdback hooks to bunch them in about mid-window. I'll re-evaluate after i get those up, but it doesn't look promising. I'll probably be taking them back pretty soon. The curtains look a lot darker in my place, but it's really the pattern I'm not too sure about.

The rug I like a lot better. It's a 5x8 that nicely covers up the worn rug under the coffee table in front of the sofa. This one I'llalmost certainly keep, at least till I move. Click on either picture for a larger view.

Friday Shenanigans

Got to see mom briefly yesterday at the airport on her way to south Padre Island for a long weekend. It was only a 2 hour layover, but long enough that we could grab a bite to eat at the Marriot's restaurant and chat for a while. Even though I headed up there during rush hour on a Friday, the HOV lane and my motorcycle were the perfect way to go. It was a bit strange riding around the airport on a motorcycle, not laden down with bags and worrying about missing a flight.

Saw A History of Violence with B. last night. It had potential, but seemed to miss something again and again in the key moments. It had some of the most graphic violence and sex I've ever seen in a movie, and neither really was necessary. It wasn't so bad, but at key moments, instead of being caught up in the story, I was thinking - did they really just do that? did that just happen on screen? are they serious?

Had fun with B. as well. Went to the Volcano for a little bit then back to her place where I'd left my bike. I think today will be low key with maybe some reading by the pool and maybe a nap. But first, I've got to get me some grub.