Adventures of an Urban Jungleboy

We just finished publishing stage one of our new SpinAps website.

IBM-Stanford Spintronic Science and Applications Center

There will be a couple more sections added in the very near future, detailing our research projects and references to our significant publications.
(I can hardly wait to publish the former, because I wrote the code that drives the dynamic content :-) )

And this is just in time, because in 2 weeks we're hosting a Spin Currents Workshop, and I can expect traffic at the site to spike now that the invitations have gone out.

Today I dropped off the Forester at Carlsen Subaru to have the bad CV boot replaced. (It cracked enroute home from Gallifrey and has been spitting grease onto the catalytic convertor, which, as you might imagine, happily burns it off as horrible choking fumes).

So the extended service agreement I coughed up cash for has probably just paid for itself: $100 deductible and free car rental from Enterprise.

But.

I seem to have this bad carma [sic] with the Redwood City Enterprise office. They never have anything small to rent me.

Like today.

I'm now piloting a 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab pickup truck.
A white Dodge Ram 1500 pickup.

This is soooo not me.

(alas, the cute BMW Z4 in the parking lot was on their sales lot, not part of their rental fleet.)


Fortunately, I learned to drive in a 1976 Chevy Suburban (and passed my driving test the first time in same, thankyouverymuch), so I can cope with something this big.

But.

So not me.

The Forester is all done.

I'm off to return the Behemoth and get my car back.

Hurrah!

I got home from picking up the car and the phone rang.

It was the American Red Cross, who are concerned about a significant shortage in the local blood supply, and they were calling to book specific personal appointments for donations.

I explained politely to the nice woman that regrettably, they wouldn't accept my blood because I was a sexually active gay man, and until they changed their rules I would not be allowed to donate blood even though willing.

She said she would make a note of that for future campaigns.

Maybe one of thesed days they'll get around to updating their blood donation protocols.