Sunday, July 3, 2022
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This week has been very exciting, with lots of outings and experiences! At NIST, I finally made a lot of progress, finishing up the interface for the electrometer and the power source! After fixing a lot of problems, I figured out how to get them to work simultaneously, and it acts like a source measurement unit! I even added in support for a second power source to assist with transistor measurements. As for the PEEM project, I have gone through a couple rounds of revision with my design, and I think we are at a place where I can start brainstorming about the various connections and functionality of the sample holder. I am not sure if I will be present for actual testing of this sample holder since we are already halfway through, and the machine shop can take a while to make the necessary modifications.
I had a great time outside of work as well. On Monday, I went on a long shopping trip across three grocery stores in the area, looking for some ingredients. They were surprisingly hard to find, but I spent the rest of the night preparing my dish for the potluck on Tuesday. The potluck was really nice, and it was fun to try things that everyone had made! I think we’re doing another one next week, so I’m looking forward to that. A few of us went down to the Potomac after the potluck and got some great views of the river along with some great conversation!
Wednesday was also exciting, as I ended up playing my first full game of Magic: The Gathering with the NIST interns and Anthony. This was really fun for me as someone who likes tabletop games, and I definitely want to play another game soon (even though it took almost 3 hours). In keeping with the theme, we also had our first session of DnD scheduled on Thursday. I enjoyed the session a quite a bit but was a bit lost on what I should do with my character. I hope to have more things figured out by our next session. I also went to a Peruvian restaurant with the NIST interns on Valeria’s recommendation, and it was some of the best food I’ve had in the last month. I would highly recommend it if you haven’t tried it before!
We had a happy hour on Friday, as usual, and we went to a new restaurant this time. It was in Georgetown, and while the company was great, I missed the enormous portion sizes we were used to at Quigley’s. We also went to Georgetown Cupcakes on Justin’s recommendation, and I had one of the best cupcakes I’ve had in a bit. This comes from someone without much of a sweet tooth. I spent most of my Saturday inside, just relaxing and doing some light work, which was much needed. I did go to watch Marcel the Shell with Shoes On in the evening, and it was really heartwarming and funny.
I was able to go the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Sunday morning (thanks to Lucy’s tickets!), and really enjoyed the experience. I also went to National Museum of American History right after, which was also quite nice. Both collectively took up over 6 hours of the day, so I didn’t do too much more that day.
It was a packed week, and I am now looking forward to the Independence Day Celebrations in D.C. on Monday!
Divyansh Chamria