"The solvent of choice is nitromethane. Still readily available as a stock car fuel, it should be handled carefully." The USA-ness of this device manual amuses me. Also, that's more of a top-fuel dragster than a stock-car thing, but I'm no expert. *does a burnout in his gasser*

After getting that 1.1mil in funding for a new magnet cryostat system, the main question is: Where to put it? Can't put it here; there's sensitive equipment next door! Can't put it there; there's sensitive equipment one floor below! There's sensitive equipment everywhere... Fucking stray fields. x_x

It always irritates me so much when I see where our campus is headed in the distant future, with us eventually being evicted from our building complex, to be squished into a renovated 70s tower, but the architects go on about the "master plan" and the "overarching concept" or the entireity of it...

My semi-retired semi-predecessor is back from vacation, and instead of reading a book, all he did was watch videos about AI, usually the ones claiming that the super-hyper-uber AI is just around the corner and will soon overpower us because it's so smart. And he kept talking my ear off. Ugh.

I sometimes wonder whether motorcyclists who ride those idiotically loud bikes are also like that in other parts of life. Do they scream at the top of their lungs when standing in line at the cashier? Wear tap shoes everywhere? Always have a trumpet up their ass to fart as loudly as possible?

I saw this handsome yeen and immediately had to buy him. v.v *is impulsive when it comes to art*

Been misgendered so many times when communicating only via e-mail due to my first name that I finally added he/him to my signature. Should have done that years ago. But it's kinda fun when people expect an Indian lady and are then faced with a Hungarian guy, complete with mean mug and shaved head.

This thing is from 1977 but has a half-life of 90 years. And while the initial activity of 11 GBq may sound like a lot, it only produces low-energy betas and even lower-energy gammas (and very few of those, but those are the ones we want.

Is it strong? No. Is it detectable? Yes. Is it supposed to be here? No. Hell no. Who put it there? Why was it not in the storage cabinet? Why wasn't it disposed of safely like the dozens of sources that came before and after it? This is an incredible lapse in organization and responsibility.

Not that I care about the ball kicking business, but after some rich swine did some mutual ass lickery, I can't help being rather amused when I heard the outcome this morning.

I guess that's the sound of "I'm eating my tip seals." and "Please do a maintenance."

My sentiment at the moment.

A while ago, @firewulf.bsky.social gifted me an ancient set of collector cards that were once sold by Furrystyle back in 2004. I liked this one, depicting artwork by Ayame Emaya, so much that it's now in a frame. x)

*pulsed laser deposition noises* Just a leisurely three and a half hours, because platinum isn't keen on being ablated. And then hematite for just three minutes.

Millemillemille. Just doing normal asparagus things with @takiwuff.bsky.social

At least mom had the presence of mind not to do anything foolish and ask me what to do instead...

I'm having a really shit day and wanted to write about it without an endless number of posts. So... Have a picture, I guess? Mom's computer is infected with a tech support scam, and I find out that both live and neutral have power going to the printer's power chord. What the fucking fuck.

Off to @furciety.de on Wednesday! The con theme is a Greek "Duel of the Gods". Kinda fitting that I'm sending the protagonists of our room through the Olymp(ia). Featuring @lumisnep.bsky.social, @sasa-paws.bsky.social, @takiwuff.bsky.social, and me. Thanks to @sanssouci.bsky.social for the arts!

I guess it was inevitable... It's frivolous spending, but also so cool to be able to get such stuff.

Activities I dislike a lot: Trying to thread tiny sensors onto tiny pieces of copper that are glued onto a sample, so that tightening the tiny screw becomes a game of "Too loose and the weekend-long measurement might fail, too tight and I might tear the glue off." Joy. USB for scale.

Tiny things that bring me joy: Getting tiny funnels made by our workshop that fit exactly onto my VSM powder capsules. Trying to tip powders into a 2.5mm-diameter hole from folded paper became really tedious, really fast. I used funnels stolen from press dies, but this is the first purposeful one.

Switched from chunky snow shoes to smooth summer sneakers. Driving my own car again after zipping around in mom's S-Line A1 always feels like I'm driving an oil tanker. And why does the steering feel like it's set in concrete? Is my car so ashamed of having power steering?

A blocked spout. This would normally mean a very tedious disassembly that I'm in no mood for. As always, I'll just consult my box of questionable hoses to find the perfect one to blow into the spout and successfully break up the blockage, followed by a round of flushing with cleaning agent.

It also amuses me to no end that the person choosing the banner image for the movie on Amazon also went, "Who cares about the protagonist? This is what you're really here for, right?"

Finally, more than 30 years after its release and before my stricken body rattled to 40, I watched Balto in its entirety. I now feel less self-conscious about all my recent commishes by the amazing @mithmeoi.bsky.social And while Steele may be very one-dimensional, he has such a damn sexy voice...

Funner fact: The second 1997 iteration had child-appropriate songs like Verpiss' Dich ("Piss off!") and Oh Shit-Frau Schmidt, which is about a guy failing abysmally in school, then getting caught by his teacher (Mrs. Schmidt) while having sex with her daughter. Oh, 90s, you crazy time you.

Fun fact: Because this song was on the first Tigerenten Club CD in 1996, it ingrained itself in my brain so deeply that it became the "right" version of Lemon Tree to me. I was always disappointed that radio stations would only play the "wrong", slow, sad version. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoOY...

While I was in Budapest, my garlic apparently decided that its time had now come.

Driving for twelve hours straight, powered by questionable liquids. Then switching cars so mom can have the summer tires put on mine while I head onwards to my own place in her car. After a quick pit stop at Burger King. I'm knackered. x_x But also back home.

Today was the last day of roaming around and judgmentally staring at parliament over pancakes and coffee. Packing my stuff for another leisurely 11-12 hour drive back to DANGEROUS Germany full of migrants. Let's hope I'll survive leaving behind all this SAFETY that Hungary is so full of...