Chamonix Summary -- Dipole Training

I've been talking about the Chamonix workshop for the past few posts, and will spend a few more on it, mostly because I find the accelerator side interesting. Plus, ATLAS kind of depends on those protons eventually colliding ;)

Yesterday afternoon, we got a 3-hour summary of the workshop (agenda and slides), so I thought I would share some of the more interesting items. The information (and accelerator acronyms) flew by pretty quickly, so this comes with the usual disclaimer that any mistakes are mine.

The first topic is "training" the dipole magnets... For magnets, training is accomplished by gradually increasing the current through the magnet (which increases the magnetic field) until the magnet quenches. Then the current is increased again, hopefully past the previous quench point, until the magnet quenches again at a higher current and magnetic field. The magnet "remembers" how high the current got, so the next time you turn it on (days or weeks later), it should be happy with any current below the highest quench point. And by the way, the currents that we are talking about are ~10000 A (compared to your wall plug of 15-20 A).

The LHC accelerator physicists talk in terms of "number of quenches"—how many times they have to repeat this current increase to quench cycle in order to reach a given magnetic field and therefore energy. The design energy of the LHC is proton collisions at 14 TeV, which means that every magnet in the ring must be trained up to 1/2 of that energy, or 7 TeV. This fall, we are going to run at 10 TeV, so the magnets must be trained up to 5 TeV (which they are, except for the repaired magnets in the sector that had the incident last September). They would like to reach the LHC's design energy for the run in 2011.

At Chamonix, they tried to estimate how many quenches it would take to reach given energies in the magnets... keep in mind that they can train magnets in the 8 sectors in parallel, but can only do ~3 quenches per day. Their estimates are that it would take 11 quenches to reach the equivalent current for 6 TeV in each magnet, 84 quenches to reach 6.5 TeV, and nearly 1000 quenches to reach 7 TeV (design energy). 1000 quenches means training magnets for 2 months!

So you can see, it gets a lot harder to make that last step from 13 TeV to 14 TeV. Which is why 13 TeV might be the maximum center-of-mass energy reached by the LHC. But I have 2 conclusions: 1) I wouldn't be disappointed with 13 TeV and 2) I'm not going to count these accelerator physicists out just yet...

A bientôt!

Latest details about the ongoing LHC repairs

We've heard the big news about the LHC schedule that was decided in Chamonix a few weeks ago, so I was not expecting anything too exciting from a talk this morning at our ATLAS collaboration meeting. What did strike me (again) was the size and scale of the task facing the physicists and engineers getting the accelerator back up and ready to go.

For example, they had to take basically a giant Q-tip dipped in alcohol to clean the soot from the inside of nearly 2 miles of beam pipe (the soot being from the incident last September). Another number is 150 miles -- the additional length of cable that needs to be installed for the enhanced quench protection system. And how about $10 million? Compared to the stimulus package it might be peanuts, but it's the additional cost of electricity for running the LHC through next winter (electricity is more expensive in winter than summer here, which is why we would usually shut down in winter). And finally, 104 -- the number of places around the ring where they will reinforce those red blocks that anchor the magnets to the concrete tunnel floor (see the CERN bulletin).

I'm trying to keep these numbers in mind, because otherwise it can be pretty discouraging to scan back through my blog posts to see how the schedule has slipped from September 08 to April 09 to May to June to ... September? October? All because of some missing solder:



(The bad magnet connection. As I understand it, the connection on the left is "bad" because the half-circle is copper-colored, rather than coated with the silver-colored solder that you can see on the connection on the right.)

The bottom line is that I need to be patient, because they still have a ton to do to fix the machine and we have months to go before there are protons in the LHC. Good thing there are plenty of photos from fashion week to keep me occupied ;)

A bientôt!

Tom Hanks at CERN!

So, you may have seen in Symmetry Breaking that Entertainment Tonight is broadcasting from CERN, highlighting the upcoming movie release of Angels and Demons. I read the book (CERN has an FAQ page about it) and found it pretty entertaining, even though it's definitely fiction.

Well, we were at the CERN store after lunch today and noticed a large group of reporters gathering across the street at the Globe...



and guess who came out?! Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, and Ron Howard!!!





How cool is that! Ayelet Zurer looked really pretty, Ron Howard was wearing a CERN hat, and I just got to see Tom Hanks!

A bientôt!

LHC Schedule, Part 2

Hot off the presses, here's the promised update:

Expected beams in the LHC at the end of September, collisions late October. This is a 6-week delay compared to the previous schedule...

The cause of this delay is due to several factors such as implementation of a new enhanced protection system for the busbar and magnet splices, installation of new pressure relief valves to reduce the collateral damage in case of a repeat incident, application of more stringent safety constraints, and scheduling constraints associated with helium transfer and storage.

In Chamonix there was consensus among all the technical specialists that the new schedule is tight but realistic.

The new pressure relief valves will be installed in the 4 warmed-up sectors this year, and they will be installed in the cold sectors in 2010.

A bientôt!

LHC Schedule, Part 1

As soon as DG Heuer (DG = Director General of CERN) got back from a workshop in Chamonix (see map) last week,


View Larger Map

he sent CERN users and staff an email along with a Press Release. The contents: a recommendation for running the LHC through the winter of 2009-10 all the way to autumn of 2010, at an energy of 10 TeV (compare this to the "design" energy of 14 TeV, and the proton-antiproton energy of 1.96 TeV at Fermilab's Tevatron). This should give the experiments enough data to get our physics on :)

At this workshop (which was mostly for the Accelerator division, as I understand it only a few representatives from the experiments were invited) they also discussed the cause of September 19th incident and what they've done to detect similar potential problem spots in the machine:

Among the topics discussed in Chamonix was the underlying cause of the incident that brought the LHC to a standstill on 19 September last year. The incident was traced to a faulty electrical connection between segments of the LHC's superconducting cable. Since the incident, enormous progress has been made in developing techniques to detect any small anomaly. These will be used in order to get a complete picture of the resistance in the splices of all magnets installed in the machine. This will allow improved early warning of any additional suspicious splices during operation. The early warning systems will be in place and fully tested before restarting the LHC.

Following the incident, a further two suspect connections have been identified. One of these has now been investigated, revealing that the splice between cables had not been correctly carried out. As a result the magnet containing the second will also be removed from the tunnel for repair. Since resistance tests can only be conducted in cold magnets, three of the LHC's eight sectors remain to be tested: sector 3-4 where the original incident occurred and the sectors on either side. Within sector 3-4, the 53 magnets that are being replaced in the tunnel will all be tested before cool down, and the sectors either side will be cooled down early enough to intervene if necessary with no impact on the schedule. This leaves around 100 dipole magnets that cannot be tested until September, and a correspondingly small chance that repairs may run into currently scheduled running time.

So there's the latest dish on the machine. The "Part 1" in the title of this post refers to the caveat that the schedule recommendation needs to be approved by CERN management in a meeting today. I'll post again when we get word on the decisions that were made in that meeting, which I hope will give us a more detailed restart schedule for this year.

A bientôt!

Super Bowling

I guess I finally miss the US a bit. I don't think it was just a coincidence that this weekend turned into an homage to the US of A. So far, I've been really trying to embrace the pace, culture, and way of life in France/Switzerland. But you start to miss some things, like being able to stop by and pick up food on the way home without it turning into a 2-hour (and $$$) experience. And being able to pay $1 for a pitcher of beer while wearing rented shoes ... aka bowling ;) And watching football. So it's good to inject some bits of home here and there when you can...

On Friday we called and ordered Domino's pizza. Delivery wasn't possible to France, but we went and picked it up, saving 40% on delivery charges! It still wasn't cheap compared to Domino's in the US, but hey, we were in the mood to splurge. And later that evening, we went bowling! Granted there were no $1 (or even 1€) pitchers, but it felt like the real deal:


And on Sunday night we gathered with a bunch of other football fans to watch the Super Bowl at Pickwick's in Geneva, complete with Madden commentary (although no US commercials). The game started around midnight, and we didn't get home until 5am, but man am I glad we stayed until the end. What a game!

To finish it off with some physics, there was also an LHC update this weekend. It's pretty jargon-y, but the basic gist is that they can now identify the problem that caused the incident in September, and they found and are going to fix another magnet with the same problem (in Sector 6-7). They've also made more progress replacing the damaged magnets in Sector 3-4 (where the incident occurred).

A bientôt!

Geek Chic Boogie

Everyone at CERN seemed to be glued to the footage of the Obama inauguration on Tuesday. It was covered fully on French TV, and I personally streamed it live from my laptop in my office. It seems like everyone is putting their own spin on how the Obama administration will affect them, so of course I had to point you all to an article in the NY Times science section called "In ‘Geek Chic’ and Obama, New Hope for Lifting Women in Science". How cool is that?! The article makes some interesting points:

In a new survey of 19,000 doctoral students at the University of California, Dr. Mason and her colleagues found that while two-thirds of the respondents either had or planned to have children, 84 percent of the women and 74 percent of the men expressed worry about the family-unfriendliness of their intended profession, and many had changed their plans accordingly.

It makes me wonder why scientists do this to themselves. If most men and women worry about the family-unfriendliness of scientific careers, why don't we do something to change it? People assume that this is a women's issue, but I would argue that in the modern family, it's a men's issue too. It seems to me that by improving the situation, we would not only attract more women to scientific careers, but also help retain men and make everyone happier. So I was pleased to read this part as well:

Dr. Mason and other legal experts suggest that President Obama might be able to change things significantly for young women in science — and young men — by signing an executive order that would provide added family leave and parental benefits to the recipients of federal grants, a huge pool of people that includes many research scientists.

The rest of the article talks about the importance of making 'Geek Chic', and I'm all for it! In a recent Google blog post about involving young girls in a robotics competition, a girl named Tal said that she originally thought technology was "just for geeks", but given the chance to tinker around, she got hooked. So thanks to Tal for doing her part to make geek chic. Between Tal and a scientist blogger named Dr. Isis who continually posts pictures of fabulous shoes, I'm convinced that Geek Chic will be the new trend :)

So put on your dancing shoes and get your boogie on (Nick, this one's for you!):



A bientôt!

"The latest from the LHC"

I will just copy and paste from the CERN Bulletin ...

As promised by the Director-General, we will start a series of regular updates detailing the status of the LHC repairs, consolidation and commissioning.

As of last week all magnets in the damaged area of sector 3-4 have been removed and raised to the surface. In total 39 dipoles and 14 short straight sections are now on the surface. Four replacement magnets have been lowered and installed, and by the end of this week this figure should total seven. Cold testing replacement magnets in SM18 has resumed after the Christmas shutdown. The civil engineering work to repair the slight damage to the concrete has been completed. Outside the damaged area the Vacuum Group are cleaning some of the beam screens in situ.

Both sector 1-2 and sector 5-6 are also now at room temperature and accessible. As well as routine maintenance in these sectors, one magnet from sector 1-2 which was found to have high resistance (approximately 100 nano-ohms, two orders of magnitude higher than the specified resistance) has been removed and is on the surface ready to be opened and investigated.

Already, I am much happier about the information flow.

There is also a really cool set of photos documenting the transport of one of these magnets from the tunnel to the surface to be repaired. If you go to this CERN Document Server page and click on the first photo, you can see a nice slideshow. Sorry you only get a teaser pic here:



A bientôt!

Happy 2009!

I hope you all had a nice break for the holidays. I went back to the US (I spent a week at BNL, and then went home to Chicago) and enjoyed some much-needed down time, and even managed to disconnect completely for a few days in there. I didn't manage to see everyone I wanted to, so sorry to the people I missed!

I'm back at CERN, and it's cold and snowy here. Perfect hot chocolate weather. There's a nice thick layer of ice on the streets and sidewalks, so it's rather treacherous, but it looks pretty. Here's the view from my office window:



So, we have a new year, a new CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer, and hopefully the first LHC collisions this summer*! (*caveat: this is my tempered optimism, and summer continues until Sept 22nd...)

A bientôt!

Scientists to Invade Washington in January

This week, our president-elect announced his pick for science advisor (John Holdren). There's a nice article in Physics Today about Dr. Holdren. And, the president-elect's weekly address is all about science:



This is my favorite part:

"Whether it’s the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs—today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It is time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology.

Right now, in labs, classrooms and companies across America, our leading minds are hard at work chasing the next big idea, on the cusp of breakthroughs that could revolutionize our lives. But history tells us that they cannot do it alone. From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier because we had leaders who paved the way: leaders like President Kennedy, who inspired us to push the boundaries of the known world and achieve the impossible; leaders who not only invested in our scientists, but who respected the integrity of the scientific process.

Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources—it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient—especially when it’s inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as President of the United States—and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work."

It makes me want to jump up and down saying "Yes, our president-elect gets it!".

He also appointed Harold Varmus and Eric Lander to his advisory council, and Jane Lubchenco to be the head of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). So along with Steve Chu, there are going to be a lot of smart sciencey-types in D.C. come January 20th. I'm (cautiously) thrilled!

A bientôt!

Obama's Energy Secretary

A few news-worthy items have cropped up in the past couple days. The first is the official CERN press release confirming that the LHC will start up again in 2009 (phew!). I know a lot of people were relieved to hear that, because the rumors had been swirling. However, for some graduate students, it might be too late... I have heard of a few who can't wait. They are switching over to one of the experiments at Fermilab's Tevatron because their grad school clock is running out, and they need some actual data for their Ph.D. theses. It's rough though ... moving from X grad school to CERN and then to Fermilab (outside of Chicago) in the span of a few years takes its toll.

The second is the news reports naming President-Elect Obama's new Energy Secretary, current Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory director and Nobel laureate, Steven Chu. I think Energy Secretary is an amazingly difficult position right now, because not only do you have to deal with the major issue of oil and moving toward alternative fuels, you can't lose track of the Office of Science (the DOE Office of Science is the largest source of funding for basic scientific research in the U.S.). To me, this choice indicates a strong commitment to basic scientific research over the next four years... I hope!

It's also pretty exciting from a personal perspective, because merely 6 years ago I was sitting in Steve Chu's grad quantum mechanics class my first quarter at Stanford! (Actually, in December 2002 I was probably sweating it out over our last problem set and final exam...) So congratulations and good luck to him! He has a really tough job to do.

A bientôt!

Hard at work on repairs...

A cool photo of someone hard at work on the first replacement magnet for sector 3-4 (the damaged sector).

A bientôt!

Photos of LHC Damage

Finally, some photos of the damage to the LHC from the September 19th incident have been released. These are from a talk given by the CERN Director-General on Friday (agenda):




The first photo looks like a magnet that moved off of its mount (the red boxes) that secured it to the concrete floor. The second photo is of a region between two magnets that was crushed when the magnets moved after the helium was released. It's amazing to actually see a visual ... I have a lot of respect for the accelerator physicists and engineers who are working to not only fix the damaged components, but also to prevent this type of incident from occurring again.

I'd like to echo the sentiments of US/LHC Blogger Seth Zenz (who posted the link to Director Aymar's talk) ... thanks for the information and photos! Looking forward to the LHC being back online next year.

A bientôt!

Still Alive

I realize it's been a while since I posted last! I've been busy, working hard and taking advantage of my proximity to some amazing cities ... I visited Paris and Vienna over the past two weekends :) You can be jealous now, because the crepes and strudel, respectively, were fantastic!

We got some news on the LHC over the past few days -- well, news from the press, not CERN, which I still think is a little backwards. According to various news sites (e.g., the Associated Press), the LHC won't come back online until June at the earliest. They also report that the repairs will cost $21 million, no small chunk of change. As winter is arriving, the days are getting shorter, and the date of first collisions gets farther away, it's a challenge to stay positive about our elusive goal: data!

However, we find small morsels of inspiration where we can. Today it's a photo from the LIFE Magazine archives. Taken in 1955, the photo is of Albert Einstein's messy desk at Princeton:



It definitely makes me feel better about my own messy desk :)

A bientôt!

Don't forget to Vote!!

Go out and vote today! No excuses! All the cool kids are doing it ;) You can find out your polling place with the Google Voter Info Site. And bring a friend or co-worker along with you.

We'll be watching from here ... after work I'm heading to a sold-out all-night election party in Geneva. It seems like the whole world is watching the U.S. today, so make us proud!

A bientôt!

Acceptance

As I mentioned in a previous post, my thesis was on an experiment called BaBar... as things go in particle physics, just because you're "done" with your previous job/experiment doesn't mean all of the loose ends are completely wrapped up. My loose end was a 15-page journal article on my thesis research, and I'm now happy to say that it was accepted to a journal called Physical Review D and will be published shortly:

Dear Dr. Majewski:

The manuscript "Measurements of B(B⁰ → Λ_c⁺ p) and B(B^- → Λ_c⁺ p π^-) and studies of Λ_c⁺π^- resonances" by Aubert, B. et al. is being accepted for publication in Physical Review D...

Sincerely,

Urs M. Heller
Associate Editor
Physical Review D

It's a little sad, because it marks the formal end of my time on BaBar, but it feels pretty good to have the paper finished and accepted. (Plus, even a year later it's still pretty cool to be addressed as "Dr. Majewski"...) Time to celebrate!

A bientôt!

Sticky tape

The observant among you might notice that my monitor counter is gone. That's because it's here! 50 days and a 70 euro tax later..... (grumble, grumble).

However, a couple people emailed/pointed out this Nature article about how peeling sticky tape generates x-rays. Although it's not really related to the LHC, it's pretty cool, and they have a video! Here's the short version:



My attempt to embed the long version failed, so here's the link:
http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/x-rays/

The long version is a lot better!

A bientôt!

LHC Incident Report Released

The report from the September 19th incident has been released by CERN (see my previous post on the LHC Delay). Here are links to the press release and to the full technical report. In case you're too lazy to click ;) I'll give you a brief version by quoting the "good" parts:

On 19 September 2008, during powering tests of the main dipole circuit in Sector 3-4 of the LHC, a fault occurred in the electrical bus connection in the region between a dipole and a quadrupole, resulting in mechanical damage and release of helium from the magnet cold mass into the tunnel. Proper safety procedures were in force, the safety systems performed as expected, and no-one was put at risk....

During the ramping-up of current in the main dipole circuit at the nominal rate of 10 A/s, a resistive zone developed leading in less than one second to a resistive voltage of 1 V at 9 kA. The power supply, unable to maintain the current ramp, tripped off and the energy discharge switch opened, inserting dump resistors into the circuit to produce a fast current decrease.... Within one second, an electrical arc developed, puncturing the helium enclosure and leading to a release of helium into the insulation vacuum of the cryostat.... The spring-loaded relief discs on the vacuum enclosure opened when the pressure exceeded atmospheric, thus releasing helium into the tunnel...

At the bottom of the press release, they define the term cold mass:

The magnets, equipped with their helium vessel and end covers, constitute the "cold masses".... The weight of the cold mass is transmitted to the vacuum enclosure via cold support posts and is further transmitted to the tunnel floor by adjustable support jacks, anchored in the concrete.

Here is an illustration of the electrical connection between the two magnets where the resistance developed:



The press release goes on to itemize the damage, which I've arranged into a list:

• "contamination by soot-like dust which propagated over some distance in the beam pipes"
  


• "damage to the multilayer insulation blankets of the cryostats" (the magnet "sleeves")


• "the cryostats housing [the] quadrupoles broke their anchors in the concrete floor of the tunnel and were moved away from their original positions"


• "the electric and fluid connections pull[ed] the dipole cold masses in the subsector from the cold internal supports inside their undisplaced cryostats"
  


• "the displacement of the quadrupoles cryostats damaged "jumper" connections to the cryogenic distribution line, but without rupturing its insulation vacuum"
  

The bottom line is that "at most 5 quadrupoles and 24 dipoles" [magnets] need to be fixed, and they need to be brought out of the tunnel and up to the surface for that to happen. They also say that more magnets might need to be cleaned (from that "soot-like dust") and get new "multilayer insulation" (new "sleeves"); these might need to come up to the surface, or they are considering trying to clean the magnets in place in the tunnel. The good news is that "Spare magnets and spare components appear to be available in adequate types and sufficient quantities to allow replacement of the damaged ones..." So let's be optimistic that everything will be fixed in time to start up again next spring!

A bientôt!

The Candidates talk about Women in Science

So, since I'm a chick, and a physicist, the whole "women in science" issue is important to me. Basically, I think we need more of them :) And recently I have been consumed by election fever (watching the debates, filling out my foreign absentee ballot), as I'm sure many of you have been. So I thought it was particularly interesting that over the summer, the Association for Women in Science asked each candidate a bunch of questions about women in science ... and, this week the candidates responded (which I thought was amazing, frankly). Here's an excerpt from the full questions and responses:

In a September 2006 report, Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering, the National Academies stated that, in order to maintain scientific and engineering leadership amid increasing economic and educational globalization, the United States must aggressively pursue the innovative capacity of all people, regardless of sex. Although women make up almost half of the U.S. workforce, they continue to be underrepresented in STEM professions, particularly in the higher academic faculty ranks and leadership positions. As President of the United States, how do you plan to address the need for more women in STEM?

Sen. Barack Obama:

Joe Biden and I agree with the conclusion of the National Academies’ Bias and Barriers report that the United States must aggressively pursue the innovative capacity of all people. In a globalized world, our prosperity and national security depend on our ability to lead the world in innovation. Other nations are now challenging that leadership, and in responding we must call upon talent and creativity of all of our people. We will need to significantly increase our STEM workforce, and to do that we will need to engage not just women and minorities but also persons with disabilities, English language learners, and students from low income families.

Women are significantly underrepresented in the STEM workforce, and especially in the leadership positions in research and academia. We need women in leadership roles both for their contribution and for the message of encouragement and opportunity that their presence sends to our daughters. We support a range of proactive measures that will open opportunities in science to women, such as requiring minority and female representation on government panels developing innovation and competitiveness strategies, and establishing mentoring programs to support women and underrepresented groups in STEM education programs ­- two measures that I helped pass as part of the America COMPETES Act. We also support improved educational opportunities for all students, increased responsibilities and accountability for those receiving federal research funding, equitable enforcement of existing laws such as Title IX, continuation and strengthening of programs aimed at broader engagement in the STEM disciplines, full funding for the America COMPETES Act, and increased funding for the National Institutes of Health.

Sen. John McCain:

I am committed to ensuring a diverse workforce. Discrimination on the basis of sex is abhorrent, and my administration will vigorously enforce federal anti­-discrimination laws. All people should have the opportunity to reach their potential based on merit and hard work.

It is also important that we strengthen our public education system’s focus on math, science, and engineering to spark children’s interest in those important fields. That is why I have proposed a dramatic overhaul of Title II of No Child Left Behind to provide funding for incentive bonuses for teachers who choose to teach those subjects. I also support providing funding for low­-income students to hire tutors and for local districts to expand online educational opportunities—initiatives that will ensure that learning continues outside of the classroom.

Happy voting, everyone! (I'm mailing in my ballot tomorrow.)

A bientôt!

All Quiet

It's been a while since I've posted last, and I guess that's mostly because things have quieted down quite a bit. Physics is kind of same-o, same-o. I've finally settled into a bit of a routine, getting used to not having a car (and successfully getting a monthly bus pass), appropriately caffeinating myself throughout the day (too many cups of strong European coffee makes you feel all jittery and unstable...), and figuring out when on earth to get groceries. Actually, I'm still not used to that part yet ... grocery stores here are only open until 7:30pm (for the close one) or 9pm (for the farther one) during the week, all day on Saturday, and they are mostly closed on Sunday. None of this 24-hour, get it whenever you want it culture. I did finally find a small store that's open on Sunday for those emergency purchases. I guess Sunday is really supposed to be a chill day, so this past one we tried to embrace that by cramming a gaggle of physicists into our living room for brunch... almost 3 loaves of brioche later, we successfully stuffed ourselves with "french toast", mimosas, and good conversation. Even the french toast was a challenge, because we had to trek all the way to Geneva to the American Market for brown sugar (and splurged on some authentic Mrs. Butterworth).

My biggest outstanding complaint is that my own personal 2-year-old computer monitor that I shipped to myself on September 4th still hasn't arrived. Apparently it's been in French Customs since September 10th! From various google searches, this sort of delay is completely normal, and they'll probably eventually send me a letter asking for so many € to claim it. So I thought I'd start a little counter on the left to keep track of how long it's been since I mailed it... at this point, it's so ridiculous it's humorous.

A bientôt!