Shot Glass

Ha! You thought this post would be about alcoholic beverages or maybe even the glasses they are poured into. Think again.

Just about two hours ago I fired a shot that I had be working on for the past week. My experiment consisted of some pieces of soda-lime glass (cheap glass) that I put under pressure (3.0 GPa) to see how the index of refraction changed. The pressure was generated by shooting one piece of glass at 420 m/s (almost 1000 mph for you non-scientists) into a glass target. Get it? I shot some glass. Man, I crack myself up.

Anyway, this was the first experiment I did mostly by myself and everything worked! I got good data, the index of refraction I calculated makes sense and all looks to be well. I'm hoping to get another shot off before classes start and unless something goes terribly wrong with my next shot, I think I can make it.

If I feel motivated I'll post some before and after pictures of my experiment, but for now I will whet your hunger with this: Pictures of the 2.5 inch bore gas gun which I fired a shot on two weeks ago. If you look carefully, you can see my target in the second picture.

Bounteous Bounty

With my dinner this evening I ate the first fruits from my own garden. Tomatoes! Grown all by me-self.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to my mom for the tomato seedling, the planter, the potting soil, the fertilizer and just about everything else. And the sun helped with the photosynthesis. Guess I don't deserve much credit.

Planning to fire a shot tomorrow. Hopefully all will go well. Maybe I'll post something about it. Gotta keep ya interested.


Tasty tomatoes with the source in the background.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

This summer has been the beginning of my entry into the real world. A real job with real responsibilities. I'm doing research for my degree which keeps me from me from having long weekends and extended vacations. I really enjoy my work, but its frustrating not being able to go home to see my family and friends for more than just a weekend. But its not so bad. I'm thankful that I still live in Washington, so it is still possible for me to go home when I have time.

This weekend one of my friends was going to Seattle and offered to give me a ride home. Since having to drive so Seattle by myself is a such a drag, I couldn't pass up the offer to carpool. So I went home and spent the weekend with my parents. In typical Lang fashion, we did some yardwork, which consisted primarily of moving bark, watched some movies and some Stargate. Speaking of which, the last Stargate episode was really terrible. It was really great to be home. Got to relax and get a new perspective on life. I also got to see my grandparents and show them what I've been working on. I can't believe how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family.

Now that I'm back in Pullman I'm concentrating on firing two more shots before classes start. I can't believe that summer is almost over; I'm going to have to buckle down if I want to finish. And then classes can start again. Yay.

Best get some sleep so I can get a full days work in tomorrow.

My Friends are Amazing

Wow. Only a month of summer left and this will be my second blog post. This isn't looking so good.

I am truly blessed. For the last three weekends I've been able to hang out with friends from my undergraduate years. God is good, they came right when I needed them, right when I needed Godly men to talk with. I have friends here in Pullman, but none of them can compare to my friends from back home.

Josh came out an visited me the weekend of the Fourth. I sent out a plea to my Seattle friends for visitors and he was the only one who said "Are you sure you'll be able to put up with me for a whole weekend?" Maybe those weren't his exact words, but you get the idea.

Next came Tim. Now truthfully he didn't come to Pullman to see me; his sister (younger this time) was getting married and being a good brother (or bother) he came to see her get hitched. In spite of all the wedding preparation, Tim found time to hang out. He's a great guy and showed up just in time to get me through another emotional slump. And the wedding was beautiful, the second Marston wedding of the year. I know he must be sick of hearing this, oh well. Now that Tim's sisters have been married off, now it's Tim's turn. No pressure dude.

Now for the big surprise of July, Jon Bay visited me last weekend. He said he would when I sent out my plea at the end of June, but I figured something would come up and he wouldn't make it. But friends follow through. He sent me an email last week, saying something along the lines of "so, umm, you going to send me directions to your place?" I was floored. And excited.

So its been a good month. Got to hang out with some amazing friends, finished an experiment (hopefully another post with pictures will come soon) and generally felt better about my life. Hopefully I'll be able to survive another month of summer and be ready for classes to start in mid-August.

As a teaser of what may come in a future post, two pictures of my summer.

Fun in the Snake River:


Green Lasers Make Everything Better: