Of prelims and music, of socks and orange chicken, of things to do, RDCs to compute.

Yes, I pretty much talked about whatever I have been doing in the very immediate past in the title of this blog. I passed my prelim. Not that I had expected to flunk, but somewhat bitter experience has taught that lightening up on myself leads to mediocrity. As my colleague, the Real Shim Shady puts it, you pass an exam three odd weeks before it, not on the day of the exam. Good point. So the committee proved to me that I do not know any physics whatsoever. And as I am already aware that my knowledge of biology and chemistry is, well, non existent, that leaves me at a very comfortable zero. There is such an abundance of frighteningly elegant physics behind any form of spectroscopy, that a lifetime will prove insufficient to do anything more than perhaps scratch the surface.

A lot of people helped me to prepare for the prelim. Starting from the many useful discussions I had with my labmates to people from the fluorescence spectroscopy groups to my batchmates, every bit of insight was useful. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to all these people. UM is a fantabulous place to study and do science.

I woke up yesterday with the feeling that I need to buy socks. I am sure that you, gentle reader will know what I am talking about: there comes a point in everyone's life where you just have to buy socks. Also right after my prelim, I felt the urgent need to sample some Chinese Orange Chicken. Both of which have been done. Nice!

I also have a bunch of RDCs to compute. In the words of Eminem, its 'back to the lab again'. There is SO much to study.

I finished reading the book 'A Glorious Way to Die', by Russell Spurr. This book talks about the last Kamikaze (suicide) mission launched by the Imperial Japanese Navy in April 1945. Operation 'Ten-Go' called for the flagship Yamato, escorted by the cruiser Yahagi and a squadron of destroyers to breach the Okinawa blockade and throw the invading Allied forces back into the Pacific. Yamato was the greatest battleship to ever set sail. Mightier than any dreadnought to ever be built by a Western power, cloaked in the heaviest armour ever milled, bristling with the most powerful naval artillery ever seen, she was considered unsinkable. Close to 900 planes from Task Force 58, the fast carrier attack group commanded by Admiral Mitschener struck her. She went down with more than 3000 hands. The first time I had ever read of her was some sixteen years ago in a Reader's Digest condensed version. This was a great opportunity to read about a story that the West has largely forgotten.

Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian singer. Lots of elegant influences. I am listening to a CD with her famous song 'Mummer's dream'. Try to listen to it.