October is one of my favorite months of the year – every year on a personal basis I “celebrate” the very first day I came to Tsukuba (October 3, 1999). Why? It’s because so many wonderful things happened to my life ever since I came to Tsukuba. I love it here. I can’t imagine living elsewhere (except for my beloved Pinas, of course). Seven years whizzed by so quickly. This is home.

Anyway, almost one month of no blog…where have I been hiding lately? Right here at my desk, with piles of paperwork and data crunching work, while juggling experiments in such frenzied pace. Just gave a presentation early this afternoon – and now my mind’s just blank and simply refuses to churn. I need to blog to let off some steam.

Our turbopump’s wheezing like an asthmatic, and the manufacturer has already cautioned us not to put off overhauling any longer. Considering that I’ve been getting really damn good results lately, this is really, really bad news. The overhaul itself will take about 1.5 to 2 months – imagine, they have to send the pump all the way to Germany! Why can’t they do that here in Japan?!! That’s too long a period to spend idly while I’m in the middle of something “hot.” Sometimes filmmaking is really akin to black magic – sometimes it works almost amazingly, you wonder what exactly happened to the concoction of plasma, ablated species, hot temperature and all that oxygen gas you put together to make a wonder film. I wish I could have more of these moments. Heaven knows I’ve been pounding on that PLD system for 5 long years now; I get nice results once in a while, but never have I been on an experimental “high” for an extended period of time. Not like this!!! Why can’t I have more results like this!

Other concerns: patent (oh yeah baby!); papers; conferences (there’s one at the end of this month). Aya’s sportsfest. Aya needs new clothes because she’s outgrown most of her autumn-season clothes. Baggy’s upcoming move to a new work (don’t leave meeee!).

On top of it all, I want a freakin’ new hairdo!