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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| ThorLabs is officially the coolest company ever...I think I'll make a sincere effort to order as many things as possible from them. My order arrived today, and look what they sent with it!
There's a Quaker chewy granola bar and tootsie pop inside (I actually wasn't sure if it was food until I opened it). Wonder what I'd get with a bigger order, haha.
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| Less than 6 weeks ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since then, things have been pretty chaotic on my dad's side of the family. My parents have been back and forth to Miami twice (my mom from Ottawa and my dad from China), and my sisters and I have also been doing a bit of traveling. I was in Miami this weekend for the second time in two months, potentially the last time I'll see my grandmother in a fairly alert state. She has always been a person of dignity, integrity, and immense strength...even though she thanked me and my sisters when we left, I don't feel that the care we gave her even measures up to the encouragement I've gotten from just being around her.
Situations like these always seem to bring out inter-family drama, but the dynamic within my own family (parents and sisters) has changed a lot too, and for the better. I can't help but think about how the timing of this situation--seemingly inconvenient, based on how much international travel my parents have done within a few weeks (other things happened with my mom in between the Miami visits)-- could not have been more perfect. My parents and Ang/Dave had already planned a visit to Miami in July, so they were able to be with my grandmother before her surgery. Jul was in ATL for a conference that same week, so we both booked tickets to Miami after the surgery and ended up spending that weekend helping my grandmother recover and also just being there with our uncles and grandfather who had to break the news to her that she couldn't be cured. This weekend, I managed to make it down with my other sisters (Jul will be there throughout this week with my parents) and though my dad encountered a lot of conflicts trying to change his work/meeting schedule, he managed to postpone his return to China long enough for one of his brothers to come back to Miami to help my grandfather. I'm not trying to downplay the sadness of the whole situation (there is much more to it than what I wrote), but I'm thankful for so many things that I've learned from this experience and that I even had the chance to grow up knowing four wonderful grandparents. When my grandfather in Ottawa (mom's side) passed away four years ago, I was more removed from everything that was going on with him during his final days. In retrospect, I know I wouldn't have been prepared to deal with it the way that I've coped with my grandmother's illness without completely breaking down.
Today I finished reading this book that I bought at Passion '07, titled (ironically) "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven but Nobody Wants To Die." It was pretty hilarious and thought-provoking. I believe it was written around the same time that David Crowder Band released the album "A Collision", which also talks about death and grieving. Think I'll have to go back and listen to it all the way through. DCB are excellent musicians and writers.
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| Maybe one of the most engineering-y things I've done for my research (ignore all the tubing in the back, the important stuff is closer to the edge of the table). Glad we still had the old lab phone...it provided some convenient connections for measurement (hooked right up to the yellow thing).
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| Today I had my last two final exams EVER (well, for classes...still have a proposal and defense somewhere down the road).
Now, to get back into research mode...
Slightly related: where are you when your best ideas happen? My labmates have said "I came up with my MS thesis idea while swimming", "I just thought of this idea in the bathroom" (is that a guy thing?).... I'm not sure about my prime location yet, but hopefully I'll find it.
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