At the Lab, Texas Sucession From the United States, and Back to Japan

Well, not much going on these days outside of school. Finals are approaching...so I guess that means I will be busy puting off reseach for a week or two when they get closer. I'm not sure how my grades will turn out this semester. Well, actually I will get an A for the research hours I am taking...however I do not know what I will get in Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics. I will either get an A or B (of course I'm hoping for an A).
My douchebag roommate moved out after another arguement about nothing (he was actually trying to kick my other roommate and myself out of the house...so I don't feel bad about anything). So, I have a new roommate and I still have my other cool roommate. Unfortunately, my cool roommate is moving out of state for graduate school (he's going to LSU). The lease is up at my house in May and I don't know what I am going to do yet. I guess I will either renew or move into an apartment (either way, no big deal).
As for what I'm doing recently, I'm just in the lab a lot. I have an experiment tomorrow where I will do TRPL of ZnO...I'm actually going to do more experiments on it soon and publish a paper on it...but the paper is a couple months away. I'm going to have to learn the femptosecond laser lab stuff really soon too (it will give me something else to do).
Anyways, I was looking at the news from the other day and saw an article where the governer of Texas was talking about Texas suceeding from the union. I guess it wouldn't be the first time that has happend, but I doubt in modern day there would be enough support for that. Besides, I remember what happend last time Texas suceeded from the union (during the civil war). When Texas joined the union, they were under the mistaken impression that they could suceed from it anytime they wanted...however, that was not in the agreement. Still, it didn't stop them from trying at one point. It's kind of amazing that the spirit that Texas is still its own country, in a way, lives on...even after more than 100 years of statehood. I've even heard people make serious jokes that Texas should suceed from the United States. Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas (when Texas was its own country) said to congress (before the civil war, but after Texas had joined the union) that Texas could survive without the United States, but the United States could not, without great difficulty, survive without Texas. Well, he may have been right...but I think that Texas probably needs the US as much as it needs us (notice the play on words). I'm pretty sure that any talk about sucession is just talk. Texas has no army of its own to stand against the US (which would definitely do everything to keep Texas a state...including force) and there is not enough support for it (even in Texas...seeing as how most people in Texas arn't actually from Texas). It would, however, be rather ironic if Texas broke away from the US, became it's own state and then was taken over by Mexico (a complete reversal of history)! It's kind of fun to think about though. Well, I obviously have too much time at the moment if I'm thinking about those things.
Anyways, I'm headed back to Japan over the summer for 9 days (May 16- May 25). Can't wait to see all my friends.
Update: I'm building a solar power car...however I will have to make the body over the summer. I pretty much have all the components outside of the frame (the engine, power source, DC engine speed controller, etc.... I originally was going to run it off of solar panels only, but I decided to use batteries and continuously have them charging with the solar panels (of course...I have a voltage regulator to prevent overcharging...but with the type of batteries that I have it doesn't really matter if you overcharge them). I'll have to post something over that when I finish building the car.