(c) 2004 Kansas State University Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

Whee! I had a most fun day with both my research group and with a couple of friends from out of town.

Around 10:30 I came in to prepare for the first of istari_ala's orientation tours. I was also planning an informal presentation that zengeneral and masaga, who came in soon after, were to make at 13:30 to Jeff Head, a professor in the College of Architecture. We were joined for lunch by istari_ala and silpan, who is moving to a group in EECE, so it was a bit of a send-off for him. masaga coined the phrase "teunce like a monkey on CHOKLIT", to much approval.

Just as we finished up at Pizza Hut, phawkwood and deire wheeled into town, and I took them around to show them a few little points of interest on campus. First up was the College of Architecture, which has an Elumens (1.5-meter) VisionStation and a 3-meter VisionDome (almost a full hemisphere). They also have an 8-meter heliodon that they have been planning for about 4 years to convert to use as a quarter-spherical projection surface.

Second, we went over to the Engineering College and were greeted by a student ambassador who took us around to Keith Hohn's nanotech lab, the Undergraduate Chemical Reaction Laboratory (which has a couple of two-story distillation columns), the IMSE department, one of the Civil Engineering department's pavement labs, a materials testing lab in the Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering department, and finally piece de resistance: the nuclear reactor in Ward Hall. I'm sure you'll all agree that any tour is better with a little teeny tad bit of Jedi ghost-blue Cherenkov radiation, and the tags only registered 0.8 microrads, so I might just go back and get a few photos some time. Our student demonstrator showed us the reactor and even ran a SCRAM for us. We were much amused by his story that one visitor actually tried to teunce over the railing after hearing the ominous "click".

After this, we went to lunch¹, got a little ice cream², took in the Beach Museum³, and then went back to have a little tronkie fun with everybody's computers.

Anyhow, thanks to all in my group for a great (and productive) day, and it was great to see you again, phawkwood and deire!

¹ Note to self: the K-State Union food court is closed by 15:30. Bha.
² Would you all believe I've never been to the Coldstone Creamery in Aggieville?
³ As masaga and our visitors noted, It's not a recreational paradise, either. (Gasp! Horrors!)

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Banazir