PhD in Applied Nuclear and Particle Physics. I enjoy gardening, basketball (go Nuggets!), D&D, science, and hifi audio equipment.

Migrated here due to ongoing issues on kbin:
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Joined 8 months ago
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Cake day: March 7th, 2024

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  • My school gave up on printing/binding theses, so they also gave up on thesis formatting requirements. As long as your advisor approved the thesis and the title page had all the relevant info, it could be formatted however you wanted.

    After finishing my dissertation, I spent maybe 20 minutes emailing the library staff about dissertation edits (date format/placement on title page mainly) and otherwise was told any other requested changes were optional so long as my advisor signed off. I have to get my dissertation printed and bound myself, but that is a small price to pay compared to the nightmare that is univeristy thesis format compliance.



  • As a newly minted doctor, I prefer Dr. Drail because of the work I put in. I have seen three common name/title presentations though:

    Dr. Drail

    Dr. Drail, Ph.D.

    Mr. Drail, Ph.D.

    The last one obviously preserves a gendered title if desired. I tend to include my pronouns where applicable, as it makes clear my gender identity while allowing me to use the least cumbersome combo (Dr. Drail) without confusion. I haven’t ever met someone who double stacks their honorifics (ie Dr. Mr. Drail), but if you want to make clear your gender, there aren’t any rules against it, and it is common in some non-english speaking cultures.

    Ultimately, it is your title, your honorific, so you get to decide how to present it. I prefer to just go by my name 90% of the time, but while applying for jobs or introducing myself in a profesional capacity, Dr. Drail (he/him/his) is a really easy way to get all the info across succinctly.


  • I gave my PhD dissertation defense on Friday, so I am looking forward to not having anything specific to look forward to.

    I haven’t played a video game for any length of time since Elden Ring first came out, so I might play Shadow of the Erdtree. Or maybe BG3. Or maybe I will just do some dnd planning. I want to get some home repairs done, so some of that. Maybe just go chill with some friends. All the little things that I haven’t had the time/energy/bandwidth to do for so long.

    I want to enjoy not being consantly anxious about my research and not just be distracting myself from said anxiety, but to truly relax, just for a week or two before I move and have to start job hunting.



  • I am a physicist. I am good at math, okay at programming, and not the best at using programming to accomplish the math. Using AI to help turn the math in my brain into functional code is a godsend in terms of speed, as it will usually save me a ton of time even if the code it returns isn’t 100% correct on the first attempt. I can usually take it the rest of the way after the basis is created. It is also great when used to check spelling/punctuation/grammar (so using it like the glorified spellcheck it is) and formatting markup languages like LaTeX.

    I just wish everyone would use it to make their lives easier, not make other people’s lives harder, which seems to be the way it is heading.




  • Former chain of vegan subs out of SoCal named Subvegan had some of the best sandwhiches I have ever tasted, vegan or otherwise. Vegan deli meat and vegan cheese quality vary, but this place had the hookup for the best of both. A 9in sub was $12, loaded so fat it barely closed and was two meals worth for any normal person.

    Their italian sub, the Godfather, had (vegan) turkey, ham, salami, provalone, cheddar, pepperoncini peppers, tomato, arugula, olives, onions, mayo, and italian dressing. The bread was always the perfect ratio of crunch to fluffy, their sauce portion was always on point, and their veggies were fresh as fuck. I salivate even just typing it out.

    My fiancee and I would order in advance to have a sub waiting for us whenever we visited her family in Anaheim. It was the best. We started making plans in June to move out there so she could live near her parents and they closed their doors in July. Good vegan subs are a rarity, let alone vegan subs that stand out in quality against their non-veg counterparts. I am still in mourning.



  • I had a bad flea infestation after taking in a stray puppy for all of 1 day before I got it to a rescue. I went from noticing one flea to noticing a couple to seeing them everywhere in a manner of days, about a month after the puppy left us our present. It was a pain in the ass and made me hyper paranoid, so I learned how to handle it the proper way.

    I agree with what others have said as a first step: Flea Bath and/or nitenpyram to remove the fleas on the kitty, flea preventative to keep them off. Wash all the fabrics and surfaces, especially near your cat’s hangout spots, and dry on high heat.

    Vacuuming daily is a triple threat at reducing the numbers: Sucks up the eggs/larvare/pupae/adults, the vibration and warmth tricks pupae to emerge (they can be dormant for up to 6 months and their shell acts like velcro, making them hard to remove) which speeds up the cycle and reduces the risk of reinfestation, and cleans up the grime that the larvae feed on before pupating. Just make sure you use a bagged vacuum or seal the vacuum waste somehow before tossing it. If the infestation is minor, keeping up to date on the preventative and regular vacuuming should be enough.

    If you find more, especially down the road a few months, it probably means an infestation started under your nose. If you can afford it, a pest control pro is the best solution. If you can’t, the best flea killer spray for whole home infestations is Precor 2625. It is a whole home premise spray that kills the fleas at all stages, both on contact and by disrupting their reproductive cycle. You’ll want to either kennel your kitty for a day to apply it, as the contact kill chemical can make cats sick, or at the very least quarantine them and do the spray over a couple days away from them. Get a coverall suit, N95 mask, and spray all low surfaces, all fabrics that can’t be dried on high heat, under couch cushions, all corners and crevices around the floor and your bed, literally everywhere below knee height and anywhere your cat might like to climb or hide.

    The preventative is supposed to last 7 months, slightly longer than the longest normal pupae duration, so that multiple flea generations will be affected. I do recommend a second spray 1 month later, just to be safe, and continue daily vacuuming over the entire premise for at least that first month to expedite the lifecycle as much as possible.


  • I work on a 0nuBB search doing detector R&D, this is spot on, but has 2 extra components. The three elements needed for explaining the asymmetry are:

    1. CP Violation
    2. Lepton or Baryon Number violation
    3. Interactions out of thermal equilibrium

    These are the Sakharov conditions for Baryogenesis/Leptogenesis. #1 has been observed via the weak interaction but not in large enough quantities and is not observed via strong interactions, #2 is what proton decay and 0nuBB searches look for, and #3 can be, at least partially, explained by the expansion of the universe as a non-equilibrium interaction.

    To get from leptogenesis to baryogenesis requires theretical physics I only barely understand using particles call sphaelerons that convert leptons to baryons.



  • Twice, both related to my Crohn’s Disease.

    The first was in preparation for my first colonoscopy, where I was told that I was only allowed clear broth, clear soda, coffee, and water for 24hr before taking the colon prep solution. I didn’t think the diet would give a mile-long headstart before the prep solution, so I enjoyed copius amounts of clear broth and coffee, which ran through me like a river, resulting in the mishap. The bathroom was only 10ft away from me, but it was still too far given the rapid pressure buildup.

    The second was during an insurance conflict about my Crohn’s Medication, resulting in a flareup and multiple weeks of gut agony and loose stool. It got to the point where no flatulence was trustworthy, and I took a gamble because I was so tired of getting up to run to the restroom every time I felt something bubbling (10+ restroom visits a day, each at the slightest sign of stomach rumbling will do that to a motherfucker).

    It is always humiliating, even when I am home alone, and I am hyper concious about the possibility, even when in remission. It fucking bites.