Return of the prodigal poster (possibly)

It seems I am not much of a blogger, not from lack of ideas to post... but rather by the time I sit down to post about something it seems no longer relevant or someone else said it much better! Still there have been some interesting science related things going on in my life, that I thought I'd document if only in a quick bullet point list:

• This summer I had a chance to visit Boulder, Colorado and their physics department. I am quite interested in working with the T2K group so it was quite nice to be able to meet with two of the professors heading the group. Neutrinos are strange little critters, I would be more than content to while away my life trying to figure out their mysteries and their place in the greater scheme of things.
• Speaking of neutrinos, I am sure most people have heard of the OPERA groups discovery that they appear to be going faster than light. I recently joined one of the groups who will be double checking these measurements. There is a lot of work to be done so no results in the immediate future, but excited to be part of it all.
• More history of science than science itself... but I will be on a poster presented at the AAS conference in Austin on the history of UW's Manastash Ridge Observatory. MRO is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2012. (interestingly UW itself is celebrating its 150th). It has been interesting interviewing people and digging through all the old records.
• The PGRE (physics general exam for grad school) has been occupying a fair deal of my free time lately. I'll be taking it in a week. Here is hoping my usual test anxiety does not rear its ugly head and leave me with a migraine or such! Test anxiety is really the bane of my academic existence, I am not sure when it developed as I actually liked taking test in high school. I am mentally trying to convince myself that the PGRE is just a physics version of some puzzle game, since I tend to enjoy and do well on those.
• Finally watched "Wonders of the Solar System" presented by Brian Cox. Quite enjoyed it. Should probably post a full on review of it soon.

All for now and hopefully there won't be quite such a gap until my next post!