What I’m Listening To…

I’ve been listening to “Dirty Talk” by Wynter Gordon. I first heard the song in spinning, and I have been listening to it this week, along with a bunch of David Guetta. ^_^

We Will Become Silhouettes

Heres what I’m listening to today.

I love the Postal Service version, but I came across this version today on GrooveShark and I’m a really big fan.  :)

Inspiration

I was inspired by my buddy AJ Ke to write a blog post today. His was very clever and genuine, but it was also not too long. I always struggle with the idea of spending too much time on a post or not wanting to start because of my perception that it will take a long time. I even think I have blogged about it before. Either way, I am going to give it a try.

This weekend some of my friends got into a debate about all kinds of topics, mostly politics, and rather than worry about all of these things that I perceive to be out of my control (whether they are or aren’t is a different story), it really just made me think about all the things in our lives that we should be thankful for. First and foremost, we should be thankful that we live in a society where we can openly have these debates about politics without fear of repercussions. We should be thankful that our houses and everything we own wasn’t swept away or burned to the ground like the incomprehensible amount of people that have been victims of the incredible natural disasters in China, Russia, and Pakistan in the past few months. I am so thankful that I don’t have to wonder where I am going to sleep each night, and I know I have a bed in a safe home waiting for me. I could go on for days about all of the things that I have to be thankful for, because I am so incredibly lucky, but instead, I want you to be conscious of the things around you. Conscious of the things that are ok in your life, and be thankful. Be positive. Take a minute to know that things will be ok and that you too are lucky.

pretty dress

I bought a beautiful orange prom dress today. I have no idea where Im going to wear it, but it was only $19, originally $109, and once I tried it on I just had to get it. : )

Abstract.

I submitted this abstract yesterday. It is about the research I did over the summer and I am continuing to do now. If all goes according to plan, I will be presenting a poster about it in Virginia at the NSF conference at the end of January.

Cubic oxide semiconductors for deep ultra-violet applications

Ultraviolet and Deep ultraviolet (DUV) optoelectronic devices may be realizable using wide bandgap cubic oxide compounds.  Important applications of such technologies include missile plume detection, water purification, dermatological treatment and non-line of sight ultraviolet communication.  Our work focuses on Zn_xMg_1-xO and Ni_xMg_1-xO thin films grown on lattice-matched MgO (100) substrates using oxygen-plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). We show these compounds to exhibit bandgap tunability in the ultraviolet region directly related to the varying Mg concentration and comprise a mutually compatible, complementary materials family.

Investigation into fabrication and photoresponse techniques for both types of films will be presented. Various metals were scrutinized for use as contacts for Hall measurements as well as transmission line measurement (TLM). Following examination of the metals, MSM sizing and fabrication techniques were characterized. This process involved an annealing experiment to further solidify the contacts. Initial findings from the spectral photoresponse testing will be discussed. Overall the response was encouraging, and demonstrates favorable results without external filters.

1000 Hits

So! My blog has reached 1000 hits today. I don’t really know why or if that is significant, but I just wanted to point it out because I noticed it. LOL

So far today, I have taken a Statics test and gone to work in the lab for a few hours, Im about to attend the SPECS meeting, then meet with my sister to help her study, then class, then a SWE meeting tonight. So busy! I haven’t started freaking out about my physics test on Monday yet, but I probably should. Starting tonight, all of my free time is going to studying for that…

Sushi & Halloween

Ok. So I was glancing through some of my old posts, and I saw that I said that I didn’t really like sushi. Well, I have an update for you… I like sushi. Here is a picture of me and my friends at a sushi restaurant for our birthdays this summer… yum!!

There you have it. Proof. I will admit that I am not a sushi expert by any means, I have not tried too many different types of rolls, but lately I really like spicy rolls. The other day at school for lunch I had combo spicy rolls with brown rice… very good, especially because I was starving.

Now that we have gotten that cleared up, I thought I would post a picture from Halloween. You can’t see my whole outfit, but I like this picture so here it is…

Brooke, Lindsay, Farah, Sarah, and Me! I made my outfit out of two IKEA bags. It is two parts, a halter top and a skirt. I really didn’t know exactly what I was doing when I started, but it was two days before our costume party, and so instead of just sitting there looking at the bags, I started cutting. Luckily it all turned out great! I had an awesome Halloween this year, which was my goal. Last year I didn’t do anything but this year I went to a few different parties and got to see lots of friends, definitely had a good time. Ok, I found a picture of Sarah and I where you can see the whole outfit… I hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween! : )

Salad. Dressing.

Last night I made my family’s famous caesar salad dressing again… it came out ok. Its still good, but certainly not as good as when my dad makes it! Its the best. But I want to keep practicing it until I don’t need the recipe any more. I am having a salad with it right now. I got some organic romaine and organic baby spinach and put some feta cheese on it with the dressing. It reminds me of being home and having dinner with my family. I miss that. I miss the food and the family, haha. I miss my sister and my dad and my mom and my dog and my cat. I feel like I haven’t been home in forever, and even when I am its not like it used to be. But I enjoy where and who I live with now, and I am excited about where my life is going. I am also excited about making christmas cookies soon… another family recipe. Why are grandmas so good at food?! I want to be a grandma that makes delicious meals one day… haha, and I don’t want to have short hair! So many older women have short hair, I guess they just don’t want to maintain it, but I plan to never do that. I will not get a mans haircut just because Im lazy, its really not that difficult to have long hair. Two things I just said reminded me of a flight of the conchords song, so here it is…

Me.

This is one of my favorite pictures from California. We were in downtown Long Beach, so there really wasn’t much grass anywhere, and I feel like this shot that my friend Alyssa took in this little park really represents that. My friend Sarah photoshopped the color and I think she did a great job! : )

Blog or Not

So. As I mentioned, I went to California for conference two weeks ago, and it was so much fun. I had a really great time and took a million pictures. When I got back and I was on my computer I saw my bookmark for my blog and I thought, I could blog alllll about Long Beach and everything I did and put up lots of pictures, but then I also thought, I don’t have time for all that, so I never blogged at all. I started thinking about it, and I think the trouble I have had with maintaining a blog is that I feel like I have to either go all out, or not do it at all. I get so absolutely busy and instead of just taking 5 minutes to make a post, I think that it has to be this big long production and so I don’t do it because I don’t have time. My goal is to kind of get over that, and accept less than perfect, because as far as blogs go… having a crappy blog would be better than not doing it at all, at least when the overarching goal is to simply have one.

So speaking of conference and pictures… I finally ordered a bunch of prints so I can scrapbook. I have not done any scrapbooking for a long time but I really enjoy it and I feel like I am pretty good at it too, I am usually pretty proud of the end result. So I went ahead and ordered 300 pictures a few minutes ago. Initially I was going to order them from Walmart.com but I ended up going with SnapFish because you get 50 free prints for new members, and I was able to get free shipping too (order over $20) so I ended up spending about half as much as I would have at Walmart. I cant wait to get them in the mail! There are about 150 from conference and 150 from a bunch of random events over the past year that I wanted to scrapbook as well. Unfortunately I am already and I am anticipating being super busy in the next few weeks so I am skeptical of how much scrapbooking will actually get done, if nothing else, It will happen over winter break, which is actually fast approaching. We only have about 5 weeks of school left, I cant believe it, I have so much to do between now and then… oh well!

I am really looking forward to this holiday season. I am going to my grandparent’s for Thanksgiving and I am just really looking forward to seeing family then and over winter break. I don’t know why I am more excited this year than other years about the holiday season, but I am. I already heard some Christmas music at Einstein Bagels on Tuesday… I love it! : )

Now I am going to go get ready for a costume party! Wearing my IKEA outfit again. haha ; )