I started collaborating with one of the doctoral students on a research project. We talked about our respective works over the last few weeks and noticed a few non-trivial similarities. At least we have hopes they aren't trivial. Right now we are going through the archives to check if it's indeed something new. I don't want to give away too many details as of yet, but he works on edge currents and junction effects in graphene whereas my work is about optical properties of 'bulk' graphene-BN structures.

Who knows, perhaps I'll be soliciting publishing advice sometime next year?

Chess:

I won. 8.5 out of 10 - a new personal best with only one match left.

Books:

I've finished reading Durant vol. 3. Was it a lot of work? Not really, the secret seems to be pacing. So far it's ~2270 pages in 103 days which averages to about 22 pages per day. Assuming this rate as constant, I am now thirteen months away from finishing the series. And that's a lot of work. :P

Health:

Ever since I got my pair of glasses, the migraines passed. At least the worst parts of them. It's astounding how uncorrected astigmatism can influence your well-being.

Heart stuff isn't going as well, unfortunately. I'm quite anxious about my upcoming checkup. Hypotension is getting worse, 85/60 as of this morning. Standing for too long has become rather uncomfortable. I can still run like crazy, but simply standing for longer than 40 minutes is tiring. Don't ask me how it works, I don't get it either.

Sciencing:

I got my hands on some caesium carbonate! It's not much, but it should work for my needs. What do I want to do? I'm going to check if I can cause saponification of (trace) esters in mineral oil. It shouldn't (and frankly didn't) happen anywhere near the standard conditions and with sodium or potassium hydroxide, but caesium hydroxide I plan on making might just be reactive enough to work.