And btw, as near as I can tell, second semester quantum is concepts (which I mostly got the first time through), some sticky math (which I probably got about 50% of the first time through), and doing integrals like a machine. I can't say I was bad at that originally, but at this point I'm very patient and remember way more trig identities, and so it seems like the problems really aren't so bad once the integrals become clear.

It's a shame that experimental physics only occasionally draws on my mad skillz in math. I'll need some sort of math-related hobby. Any suggestions?

I gave my talk to the CCD meeting on Monday, and that went very well. I was much less nervous than last week when I gave it to Natalie and Kyle, and it felt much better reasoned and smoother. It also certainly had fewer errors; Natalie's editing session was a great help. I got a lot of nice comments on it, which was surprising and nice. Natalie came up to me in the hall today (she was on travel yesterday, so didn't see my talk), and said she'd heard I had a 'great practice run', and was similarly effusive about my beam size measurements and the velocity saturation stuff that I've been doing with Don. Natalie's a very kind boss, but she isn't overly generous with praise, so that meant a lot to me. Another cool thing was that this guy, Henry, was at my talk yesterday, and he's one of the managers on a more general level for SNAP (as opposed to just managing the CCD project). I was a little nervous to have him in the audience, because sometimes he nitpicks very stubbornly at meetings, but then it looked like he fell asleep during my talk, and he didn't ask any questions. Phew. But then today in the hallway, he tells me how he didn't know I was an undergrad, and thought I was a grad student, and how my talk was really great and he knows it'll go really well. Wow!

And then today I got my midterm back, the one that I took on my birthday, and got the fifth highest score on it (out of 26 people). There are two ways to look at it, the first being that probably no one else has taken the course before and I should be the top scorer, not #5. But the second way is that this class kicked my ass and eventually contributed heavily to keeping me out of grad school, and I OWNED it. Ha. There's still a second midterm and a final to go, but that first midterm score makes me very happy. :)

To update on the third aspect of 'improvements I will make to get into graduate school', I missed the November physics GRE registration deadline, because I'm a freaking idiot, so I'll try testing standby in November but may not be able to actually test until December. I signed up for the December date. This isn't a disaster, but it's bad, because it takes so long to get your scores once you test. I'm going to bring my practice tests to PR with me, mostly for the long flights but also for some studying during the week.

Btw, I never mentioned it but I finished KOTOR, and it was fantastic. Best game ever. I played it the first time as a light side Soldier/Consular, but then nearly completed it again as a dark side Scoundrel/Guardian. When I was almost to the end the second time, something corrupted my game, and suddenly I was unable to do anything other than attack people, and thus couldn't move the plot through to the end. Grrrrrr. But I may do it again as a DS character, someday. Ben got me KOTOR2 for our anniversary, and it is similarly fantastic. The characters are much less black and white than they were in KOTOR, and the ethics of the game are a lot more subtle. There are also more options in terms of battle, items, etc., which I love but could have been confusing if I weren't already familir with KOTOR gameplay. I won't ever be a gamer, but I do love my Star Wars.