Drilling, time with friends, consulate booking

1) Drilled some holes in my PCB for PRJ. It was pretty cool actually – the drill’s like a little laser; you tap the foot pedal and a fraction of a second later you’ve got a hole somewhere on your board. It’s a pity that somewhere isn’t entirely predictable, but, it’s something nonetheless. :)

This is one of those things where I just like getting the experience, in electronics. My practical experience is still far too limited, in my mind, for someone of my age and years within my Electronics Engineering course. I don’t want to graduate still not knowing the first things about practical electronics.

Or at least how not to blow things up…. although then again Tony’s been at it for years, and he still does that. :)

2) Spent some good time with Damien & Anton. Just chatting, having a laugh. All good. Damien came shopping with me – just to try and get “The Nightmare Before Christmas” from the video store – which was cool; he makes much better company when shopping than Laura.

I know it’s a bad time to rediscover basic social skills, thesis due next week and all, but it’s immensely useful stress relief. And I’d like to get some decent time in with my friends before I leave for summer.

3) Got myself a booking at the U.S. consulate, for my VISA application. Not that I have an offer letter yet, but given the waiting times experienced, I don’t think I’ll get in before I do get the letter – which hopefully isn’t more than two weeks away now.

It was annoying to do though – the U.S. consulate’s phone booking demands your credit card number as soon as you connect, and charges through the roof no doubt – while online booking is nearly as bad, requiring Internet Explorer 6 on Windows, with VBScript enabled. Gross. There’s no excuse for this kind of thing, especially given that IE 6 is a depreciated and EOL’d product, which should no longer be targeted by developers. sigh

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