I have become, understandably, cautious when exiting the APS. Tonight was no exception. I made lots of noise on my way out to my car and looked very carefully for my attacker from the previous night. Yet there was no sign of him and I made it to the car... However, as I pulled out of the parking lot, there he sat on the path I had just walked. He waited a second, watching me (as I stared in horror). He then turned and hopped off back into the grass.

In all likelihood the little guy has probably taken up residence in one of the drain pipe holes or somewhere around that exit to the building. Perhaps being a bit nocturnal he comes out to investigate and chase off anyone that ventures too close to his new lair.

One benefit of being at the beamline by myself is getting to listen to music. At the moment I seem to be leaning towards Kenny Burrell, in particular the album Midnight Blue.


Coming from Texas there’s a ready connection to how I first managed to get introduced to Burrell’s music (through this particular album). Stevie Ray Vaughn made a great recording of “Chitlins con Carne” that I listened to quite often as a kid. It’s a great song to play by yourself too. You can add the melody and the 8th notes from the bass line together, toss in a couple of chords in places and you get a really smooth stream of notes out; Melody, rhythm, and harmony all together. It was only one step from the liner notes of that album to Burrell’s music. This has got to be one of the best blues-jazz albums ever. Good stuff.

We’ve seen some interesting features with Zinc oxide, but it’s way too early to tell if they’re meaningful or not. We’ve had a small issue with some of the ZnO samples and while those are being reprepared we’ll switch back to Au for a bit longer. There’s hope that maybe we can get something from it. I wish I could be more descriptive about what’s going on, but I’m more than just a little tired at the moment.