All things in their place

The many photon analysis is coming along swimmingly. The categories and channels for this search are fairly well defined now. The four photon part of the analysis is basically split between mass symmetric and asymmetric categories. Within each of these categories we are dividing events into bins of either well-reconstructed four photon events, and those we suspect of having at least misfired photon. The events with a misfire photon will be getting lumped into a three photon channel that will also be included in the analysis

For the four-photon symmetric category I will soon have basically everything that would be needed for preapproval, I’m just waiting on the last of the Run 3 simulation to wrap up. The mass asymmetry category will take some additional time, but is moving along along well. I’ve submitted the signal requeset for that. Once I have sufficient samples from the mass asymmetric cateogry I can begin checking out best cuts for different parts of that phase space. Once I have full preliminary limits for everything, we will finally get this “show on the road” so to speak. Within a month or so I expect the symmetric channel to be ready, with the asymmetric following not too far behind. The three photon stuff needs some work admittedly.

There isn’t much to share in terms of the thesis project progress though.

Scouting the Organization

As many of you should know by now, I recently visited CERN for the first time. If it’s not clear, I’ve been engaging in particle physics research as part of a research group in the CMS Collaboration, which is based at CERN (Yes, the same CERN that the conCERNès post disingenuous shorts/reels about). I was sponsored by my advisor to attend CMS Week and that was pretty cool.

This was a very new experience for me as it was my first time flying and my first time being outside the US. Ironically, while I have historically had some issues with heights in the past, this was never a source of anxiety for me during the trip. In fact as part of my CMS Week and vacation related travels I flew on 7 planes without incident.

The main source of anxiety was honestly just the navigation of large international airports, hoping to not miss my flight. The return trip in particular was stressful because of being forced to figure out checking my carry-on due to flights being full. Passport control in Amsterdam is also a bit of a wild time that I wish on no one to deal with.

Most of my time overseas I was lodging at Apparthotels in France. For CMS Week I was staying in a place in Saint-Genis-Pouilly, which is about 2 miles out from the main CERN campus in Meyrin. Apparthotels are basically like an intersection of furnished apartments and hotels, coming with complete kitchens with an oven, cook/tableware and utensils.

Checking into these places was a bit strange for me, as the process is basically all automated. You can just walk up to a lockbox, input the passcode emailed to you when you bought the room, and go straight up without checking in with a human being. I was fairly satisfied with my room for the most part though at the end of it all.

The first day of CMS Week was kind of a shitshow for me. For whatever reason I had to renew my CERN association to get fully badged for CMS Week. No one back at campus warned me of this, so much of that Monday was running around the Meyrin campus like a chicken with its head cut off.

After being referred to the Users Office, I was asked who my Team Leader is, for which I had no idea what the answer was. When I asked for clarification they said it should be my on-site contact. The only on-site person I knew was the postdoc in my research group.

So I set off to get in touch with her and/or find her in person. After getting no response from her for nearly an hour, I went about looking up her office in the CERN directory and walked over to the building it listed. The entrance to the building looked a bit forboding, so I walked back to the Users Office to clarify I was allowed to pass through. After verifying that, I walked all the way back and checked the office the directory listed to find no one there. After being stumped for several minutes I finally get a response from her, wherein I find her office isn’t even over here.

After meeting up for lunch we got to work on getting my paperwork figured out while attending opening plenaries. Understandably, not much was retained but we got the badging figured out by Tuesday.

Wednesday was a pretty cool time all around. I got to visit the CMS site and see all kinds of cool stuff in progress right as we were crossing the verge of the LHC Long Shutdown. Conveniently, on the way to the detector site I ran into another faculty at my university who offered to pay me at least a few months to work on the ECAL (Electromagnetic Calorimeter, detects photons/electrons). I also attended the CMS Summer Event afterwords.

The rest of the week I enjoyed some talks, and even saw mention of the thesis project in one of them. It was a really cool time all in all.

Long Term Plans?

Prior to my trip to CERN, any plans for being stationed at CERN longer term were very much in the air. The funding situation in the US is tough in the sciences right, especially for newer faculty hires (i.e. my advisor). After I returned to the US, I brought up the prospect of working on ECAL to my advisor (who in turn talked with the other faculty member). Within the week we basically confirmed me being able to go for up to two years.

So I’ve now gone from ‘Am I going?’ to ‘When do I want to go?’. The answer to this question is clearly, as soon as reasonably possible. In my case this is early 2027 (Jan/Feb), as I have a scientific writing class this Fall, as well as candidacy to clear up. However, this is very exciting news as it puts me in the position to do all the things I wanted to do as part of my PhD!

For those who are curious about a little more details on what’s going on. At present my experimental/hardware contribution to the CMS Experiment has been in the Outer Tracker upgrade (i.e. the detector that tracks charged particles). However, this has been a very slow moving project. The project onsite at CERN will be for the CMS ECAL. Essentially, following through with moving to CERN is basically moving me from OT work to ECAL (at least for the time being).

Life Moving FAST

Vacation in Europe

Following CMS Week, Lily flew out to Geneva, and from there we engaged in our first real vacation abroad. Due to reservation issues at the room I had been staying in, we reserved a room in Prévessin. This was a bit closer to the country side, but the secondary CERN site was right next door.

The first day of our vacation (Sunday), was spent touring downtown Geneva. It was easy enough busing in. We spent all day walking around taking in the sights, such as the Jet d’Eau and the Grand Theatre. While exploring we noticed a pretty heavy police presence in one of the parks. Apparently, we inadvertently scheduled our vacation during the week of the G7 summit and a huge protest had either just happened or was about to happen. We never saw any protesters really, just armored vehicles and police walking the streets with machine guns.

For lunch we dropped by this little spot called “Demi Lune Cafe”. It was a really chill little spot, and had great burgers. After lunch we continued exploring. I had gotten a recommendation for a possible dinner spot (Pasta People), however due to G7 it was one of many venues boarded up in anticipation of riots. During this time I also booked a flight and hotel for our next stop.

We eventually settled on a ramen shop called Umamido for dinner. The ramen was pretty good, although they did have this weird gimmick with customers getting bibs. After dinner we were ready to get going back to our room, so we started walking towards a bus stop. After awhile of waiting we eventually discover that due to potential G7 protests, all the buses into and out of town were getting cancelled. After a couple of hours of frantically trying to figure out how to get out we eventually got an Uber and got out of there. It was a good day overall, but being more aware of G7 would’ve been fruitful.

At the start of our second day (Monday) of vacation we bused back into Geneva, but directly to the airport this time for a flight to Nice, France. The plan was for us to get some time in at a beach, while also checking out Monaco. I was able to get a flight and a four-star hotel booking at a really good price. We boarded the flight just fine, but got a bit delayed due to all the world leaders landing in Geneva for G7.

After about an hour flight we landed in Nice. However, since this was way more inland in France we once again had to figure out the public transit systems. After figuring that out, we rode a bus up to where our hotel was for the day. The dinner and views there were immaculate. If not for our flight delay, we may have gotten some time in the pool before it closed, but it was a good day nonetheless.

Our third day (Tuesday) we started by going out to the beach. We found out pretty quickly that the on-beach restrooms were to pay to enter in physical local currency, so we had to find a public restroom to change. That was an experience, as the public restrooms were self-cleaning. By this I mean that after some timer expires, the lights shut off temporarily and the floors jet water across to clean the floors. After we got changed we then went and got some sandals and towels for the beach, as the beaches in Nice are rocky. From there we spent the next few hours enjoying the beach. Swimming, taking in the sights, basking in the sun. The cultures of Nice and Monaco are interesting in that they sit at an interesting edge, almost an interface of several countries, (France, Spain, and Italy) and you can see it in the architecture.

After we had our fill, we got an Uber and rode over to Monaco. Monaco, much like Nice is a sight to see. Conveniently, we had a really nice Uber driver who made effort to take us to all the good spots on the way out. You could tell he was a man who really loved his hometown, and I really respected that. Also, for those that don’t know, Monaco is home to the Monte Carlo casino (namesake for the simulation technique we use in Physics), and an open-track city. There was a race in early June, so the city was very much in the process of tearing down the race-track.

Once we got there, the first thing we did was start walking along where the track. There was a lot of deconstruction, so some stuff was blocked off. It appeared the elevator that would have taken us up to the Monte Carlo was blocked off, so we had to take a LONG walk up. We eventually made it and got lots of really cool pictures on the way up. By the time we came back down we were hungry. Although my morbid curiosity was slightly curious as to why there was a Steak and Shake in Monaco, we ultimately settled on a sushi place. We made the horrible decision to try ‘Frenchie Californian Roll’, and I’ll be the first to tell you that maybe cheese does not belong on a sushi roll.

Then came the time for us to find our way back to Nice. Our flight back to Geneva was coming up. We came to find there was only one bus going back to Nice and we waited for well over an hour. During this time the bus did eventually come by and it said COMPLET. This appears to have meant that it was full, but it did not stop this heavier set (Spanish?) lady from trying to force her way on board. However, when a more petite lady walked in front of her, she took direct offense to it. She opened her water bottle and unleashed, soaking the small woman (and a little getting on Lily). Then she proceeded to push her and started yelling profanities. Things calmed down eventually and another bus came, but it was taking members only.

So, we gave up on the bus and decided to find an Uber or taxi. However, Monaco does not support Uber so we had to trek up some 20 flights of stairs and cross the border back into France on-foot. I had ordered an Uber but a taxi showed up first. After the taxi ride, we made it back to the airport on time. Once in Geneva, we hopped on the bus and rushed back to our hotel room in Prévessin. On the way we did see a nice little kitty though.

Wednesday was Lily’s last full day of Vacation, so we spent it getting sweets and then checking out the souvenir shops at CERN. As we were finishing up at CERN, I proposed using a model of the CMS detector (the experiment I work on) as the ring box. I had always planned on proposing at CERN if possible, and I managed to make it possible. I had tried to see if I could make it happen in the caverns at the CMS site, but the shutdown was at such a state that it was not possible. It however, had gotten very hot that day so we went back to the hotel room to escape the borderline heat stroke temperatures.

Thursday was rather simple in form, after dropping Lily off at the airport I went back and hung out CERN for a bit. After which I went out to dinner with all the ND affiliated students and postdocs. Friday was my last full day, I spent it playing some more Magic the Gathering with people at CERN and went out to a music festival in downtown Geneva. Unfortunately this meant now getting back to my hotel room until well past 2 am.

After maybe 4 hours of sleep I woke up to a text saying that my plane was full and I was going to have to check my carry-on and my long flight would have no Wi-Fi. This being my first time overseas, meant that this was also my first time figuring out how to deal with checking baggage. However, nothing went awry and I got my stuff back just fine. I made it home safe and sound. The Uber ride back to my apartment was pretty decent too. It’s always nice when a conversation about your job does not derail into conspiracy theories about your work.

All in all the vacation was a great time, I very much look forward to spending more time exploring Europe. The lack of pictures in this blog post I feel is more than made up for in them being posted everywhere on my social media, and the length of this blog post in general.

Vibe Check

The day I went back to work, as I stated I started negotiation on getting stationed at CERN. However, not even a few hours after that I was hit with the crushing reality that I had developed a kidney stone. It had started only a couple hours after I had met with my advisor. I had started getting waves of flank pain, I initially dismissed it as having ate something bad. However, when it returned way worse I realized something was really wrong. The university health center pointed me towards the ER, where I quickly found out I in fact had a kidneystone. They prescribed me some meds and I was out the door eventually.

For a few weeks, by and large I was fine. I would on a rare occasion get some flashes of pain for an hour or so, but nothing much. Conveniently I never got pain spikes during my long drives for lab work or visiting family. However almost exactly three weeks later the pain skyrocketed to its peak a couple hours from returning from the lab. I had to go back to the ER because I had developed bladder spasms. The week after that trip sucked. The kidneystone had progressed quite substantially at that point, so the only thing to do was just drink comical amounts of water until it was out. I was basically locked at home until it was out of me. It did eventually pass and we’re clear though. The worst part of it was definitely when I got the bladder spasms though.

Anniversary and Birthday

The kidneystone really put a damper on many things for nearly all of July. We postponed our anniversary date night, due to it and I had very little capacity to plan for my 30th birthday celebrations over it. However, we did eventually do something for both of these.

For our anniversary, Lily and I went out to Corndance Davern (out here in Mishawaka). That place was very nice. It has a nice vibe and great food. They have dry aged steaks, and locally source all of their own ingredients. They also own a local brewery, which is reflected in their drink selection. I look forward to going back some time with more people to try their specialty, ‘The Sword of John Adams’. From what I’ve seen online it looks a bit much for just Lily and I.

For my birthday, it was much more relaxed this year. We just had some cake and a couple people over to play some games and watch Steins;Gate (it’s the right time for a rewatch, I think).

Wedding Ceremony when?

During our vacation, Lily and I got engaged. After everything else got out of the way, naturally we returned to the question of when do we get married. Looking at all the requirements for moving overseas, we quickly came to the conclusion that it likely needs to happen before moving overseas. Lily needs to be medically insured, and getting her associated with my CERN affiliation would make everything involved with moving there much easier.

So we decided it had to happen now. We went back to Ohio and do a courthouse wedding with a few family members. However, we both acknowledge that we will hold an actual ceremony later when we have the actual time and resources to do so. This will likely happen when we come back from CERN. I wouldn’t expect us to have a wedding (or technically renewing of the vows) next year, but perhaps the year after or a little later.

Whew. A lot has happend, I know.

Reviews and Such

The Bard’s Tale (A2)

On one hand, one may feel this is skipping ahead in the progression of CRPGs a tad. On the other, I just felt like fully playing it.

For the uninitiated, The Bard’s Tale, is a CRPG about as classic as it gets. It is your classic 6-person party on a quest to defeat an evil sorcerer jaunt. However, while it does have a rough early game, it does iterate on much of what I found lacking in the earlier Ultima and Wizardry games.

To begin, the class selection offered is more in line with what Ultima 3 had offered, making it have more build variety than Wizardry. Most classes are meaningfully different from each other, and I can’t think of any that are outright unviable on an individual basis. Although you might not want a party of 6 thieves. While, a possible sore point is that completion of this game does require at least some use of a bard. That should be expected given the game’s namesake though.

Combat execution is roughly in line with what you would expect at the time. It essentially operates on a for loop, where one must wait for damage to be dished out to each target individually. This is not normally a problem, unless you’re farming fights with 400 Berserkers (30 minutes is a while to wait).

Perhaps one of the biggest boons in BT’s favor is the much more reasonable progression system, compared to its compatriots. Ultima’s flat curve is easily cheesed, making for a rather short experience earlier on. Wizardry’s exponentially increasing curve, makes leveling past L13 nigh unobtainable. However, Bard’s Tale actually has a viable route past L13, while also having reasonable experience curves.

Another boon for this game is its implementation of Armor Class and a Spell Resistance stat. In earlier CRPGs, while high AC did help reduce your chance of being hit it didn’t really matter nearly as much as it should have. You can have the best AC attainable in Wizardry and still get hit and die very easily. AC is much more reasonable here. The additional of a Spell Resistance stat also helps mitigate getting hit with statuses and death. I only wish it were more readily communicated.

Possibly the more interesting aspect of BT is that statuses can be worse than death. While death at late game is readily curable, statuses like STONE and OLD do not have associated spells to cure. You must trek all the way out to a Temple. It’s certainly a choice.

Healing and Leveling are a bit strange in this game. By any convention, one would expect resting at an inn would restore your HP and/or Spell Points. However, no such system exists here. Only temples, spells, or songs can heal you. Spell Points are restored either passively when in town or with specific gear. Otherwise you are expected to go pay for them to be restored, which is the preferable option late game. To level you are required to go to a Review Board that judges you. I feel like this is some sort of joke about corporate.

The actual map and dungeon design I quite appreciate. This is a game that expects the player to fully engage with it and respects the player’s intelligence. Exploring this game to its fullest felt rewarding. My only gripe here is that it could have used more NPCs, as its storytelling and worldbuilding are almost exclusively through exploration of the dungeons and town.

I was also quite appreciative of the art direction in this game. The picteresque nature of the dungeons and animated sprites really add a character to this game. While Ultima 3 started pushing in the direction of 3D rendered dungeons, I felt Bard’s Tale was still a step up in these terms.

One of the few gripes I do have though is that often times bosses in this game, such as Mangar, are massive pushovers compared to regular encounters.

All in all though, I feel like this is where you can begin seeing the genre fleshing itself out as viable. This may have been an archaic experience devoid of some aspects I prefer to see in an RPG, but still worth experiencing. I’m giving this a 5.8/10. My understanding of the genre will certainly be more complete by the time I’ve completed Ultima IV and Might and Magic 1, so I will likely return to a conversation about these games.

Wild Arms (PS1)

As I have alluded to in previous posts, this was one of those games that accidently flew under my radar. Now that I’ve finished it, I can say that I did enjoy my time with it.

Wild Arms is a JRPG set in a near apocalypse, following a trio of three characters fighting to save what’s left from being exterminated by demons. The premise itself is quite novel, the gameplay is pretty standard.

In terms of how this game played, I could say it plays slightly above average. This is a classic turn-based RPG, with most battles you can just mash through without much thought. That being said some strategy is required for specific bosses. In fact, there’s a plethora of hidden/optional challenge bosses to choose from should you seek them out.

World exploration leaves a bit to be desired. While you do get a ship and eventually an airship as well, the map itself is a bit confusing. There being no labels on the map you can access only makes matters worse, given how much back and forth you must do.

With the exception of the last dungeon, most dungeons are short jaunts. This game employs the use of mazes, and tool-based puzzle solving. While playing this I found myself reminded of more recent titles like Sea of Stars. Color me shocked when this game makes reference to a ‘Sea of Stars’ by the end. That said, this game suffers from the same issue of many dungeons being forgettable due to being short little jaunts. While this game also has reused bosses, it is largely offset by the large number of bosses that aren’t.

While I was worried about character progression around the midpoint, these concerns were alleviated. There is a solid proportion of this game where your skills and spells peak, with no progression in sight for awhile. However, this eventually remedied with you get access to all of the advanced spells and abilities in the late game. The balance in the end-game however can feel a bit hand-fisted.

One aspect of this game in terms of both gameplay and artistry I felt was underexplored was the 3-character split. The initial impression this game gave was that it wasn’t necessarily a 3-character party JRPG, but a 3 protagonist title. While this is sort of true, 90% of its runtime it is in fact a 3-character JRPG. While they developed the mechanics to split the party up more often, they underutilize this in both the narrative and game mechanics. Better execution of this mechanic beyond just puzzle solving would have elevated the game.

Speaking of characters, let’s think about the writing. The playable cast, while appearing simple at first are quite well written. I found them quite enjoyable even. The supporting cast are good as well. Sometimes this game even nails its interpretation of a desolate, hopeless wasteland of a world. Unfortunately, this is hampered by the cartoon cutouts the demons are at times. Not all are written equally, some have depth while others are just comically evil. Oftentimes, this game comes off more as a Saturday Morning Cartoon, wherein the playable cast is just fighting off their villain off the week. After which, they will get away proclaming, “I’ll get you next time!”. Sometimes this is a bit too cliche for its own good.

Of course, as is tradition and base requirement for any JRPG, the artistry counts where it counts. The art direction is good and honestly a bit unique. The sprites are endearing and I quite like them, they sort of remind me of some of Quartet’s work. The music is also pretty solid, doing a good job of selling the Western vibe they’re trying to give.

I would say this was a pretty good game, but doesn’t quite match up to what later came out on the PS1. I’m giving it, a 7.5/10.

Ultima III: Exodus (A2 and NES)

While I have not quite beaten this yet, I believe I’ve played enough to get the jist. The early Ultimas thus far have been really rough jaunts. However, this one is definitely the best out of the original trilogy.

The basic premise of Ultima III follows the first two. Mondain and Minax created a spawn (Does this count as a Title IX violation? /s) of evil called Exodus, who is the new evil terrorizing Sosaria. The four heroes of Ultima III are essentially setting out on a quest to take Exodus out.

The first major difference is that this is now a multiple character quest, like Wizardry and Bard’s Tale. This game has 4 characters you control rather than 6, not unlike what Final Fantasy did later on. With this expanded selection comes expanded responsibility. That’s more food to manage, and more levels and money to grind out.

This game also has a completely revamped combat system, which is basically all about positioning. The PC version essentially plays like perhaps the earliest version of Real-Time With Pause (RTMP), where the pause can be executed by bringing up the stats menu (at the expense of that character’s turn). The NES version by comparison plays as a traditional turn-based RPG.

The quality of world exploration is roughly the same as the prior two games. You still need to fight pirates for a boat to travel the world. The NPCs have the same depth as in Ultima 2.

Levelling in this game functions roughly the same it always has, except that to level past L5 you must engage in dungeon exploration to get marks. Increasing your stats however is much improved over Ultima 2. You just have to go to Ambrosia, and pay at the Shrine dedicated to the stat you want to increase. This fixes issues I had with the first two games. You’re not going to completely arbitrary waypoints to cheese stats for free, and you’re not wasting money to fail to level the stats you want to increase at a random hotel.

Dungeons have also been greatly improved. This may be one of the first games with dungeons with fully rendered geometry. Dungeons in this game are also fully handcrafted. They are also a little necessary to beating the game, fixing one of my major gripes with Ultima 2. One aspect I do miss from Ultima 1 though is the existence of additional side quests. However, the NES version at least adds one with th e flower collection.

Perhaps one of the biggest boons is that this game sheds some of the worst game design and exuction from the first two games. The very poorly executed space travel in the first two games is nowhere to be seen thankfully. There is also no more an expection that you need to randomly know to kill jesters and guards to beat the game. In fact this game gives you all the information you need to beat it, just by talking to all the characters in its world.

Overall, I would consider Ultima III a massive improvement over the first two. In fact, I really feel like it is starting to come into its own here. It’s just not quite there yet. Somewhere between Ultima III/IV and Bard’s Tale Is where a well realized rendition of tabletop on PC came to be for sure. I’m giving this one a 5.5/10.

P.S. To be frank, the NES version is a mixed bag. The encounter rate is nice early on, but quickly drags the game down. It is a valid port sure, but the game balance is giving a more 4/10 experience. Personally, my recommendation has to be whichever PC version is most convenient for you.

First Impressions

Shining in the Darkness

Another game from my secondary backlog. Lily picked the Shining series (as in Shining Force, not the Spielberg flick). I had expected this to be of the quality I’ve come to expect from Shining Force or Golden Sun, but from what I experienced I was pleasantly suprised.

This game plays fundamentaly difference from much of their other games as it is actually a dungeon crawler! This game has character and has cute art. I look forward to coming back to this after I finish Ultima III and Grandia.