First created September 8, 1999

Friday, September 10, 1999
12:03 am

It's a coincidence I'm writing this at the same time as I wrote the last entry.  Okay, I forgot Thursday's entry, but I was busy then with writing a "journal entry" (actually, it was longer than that) to LW.  I won't put that one online.  I took my dad and his friend from Ohio on a tour of the Duke campus yesterday afternoon.  We went to Duke Gardens, walked inside the Duke Chapel, and went shopping at the Bryan Center store.  We also walked inside the Physics Building and I took them downstairs in the subbasement where all the neat physics stuff is done.  They came over at 2:30, and left at 5:30, and after that, I felt so good after walking all day that I walked over to NCSSM to visit a few people there.  I got the chance to tell everyone how well my classes were going, and how I was supposed to begin physics research on Monday.  I'm building Duke's first optical coherence tomography (OCT) system (more on that later, perhaps in the Research section of this website), a project that uses physics for applications that are mostly biological.  The Duke Medical Center is really interested in having me work on this project, and I'm quite interested too.  This afternoon (seeing that it's past 12:00 already--it was just Thursday!), I'll be leaving to go to Chapel Hill for a Reggie Howard retreat.  Last year I earned a four-year scholarship that pays 75% tuition this year and full tuition for the other three at Duke, and the rest of my financial need gets funded by grants, not loans.  I guess Duke really wants me to do physics here.  I won't disappoint them.  I came here to learn and to do research when I get the chance, and that's what I plan on doing for the next four years.  I can't imagine being anywhere else right now--over 90% of the people I know and really care about live in Durham, and Duke is such a beautiful and wonderful place to go to college at. 

Wednesday, September 8, 1999
12:03 am

I've just finished putting up this online journal.  It's not on Cautagen yet; it's still here on Melphysica.  I think I'll put it on Cautagen tomorrow, but I'll have to add a few more things first.  Before I finished this, I finished writing an e-mail draft in response to one I received from LW.  I'll send the e-mail out tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow I have to meet Dr. Guenther at 9 am to discuss plans for the physics research I'm starting.  Today has been a really great day.  We had our first physics lab today, launching water balloons off the roof of the Physics building.  Our group had yellow balloons, and I had a really beautiful launch.  The balloon soared up into the air and disappeared from view since I wasn't standing near the edge of the roof.  However, everyone agreed that it was beautiful too.  I have to get some sleep this evening, since last night I went to bed really late.  I had to stay up to do math and an English paper (freshman English is called UWC here at Duke).  The night before, I had to do my laundry, and the only time I was assured there would be machines empty was at 1:00 am.  It takes 30 minutes to wash, and two hours to dry.  I went to bed after I set my clothes to dry the second time.  It makes no sense to have to stay up that late because of laundry.  Therefore, I'm going to bed as soon as I can after writing this.