Actually, I'd like to go into negative points, but that's just being petty. : )
While I'll admit that Keith Olbermann is often over the top on how he adresses certain issues, I generally agree with his sentiments. Here is a clip from his 8/30/06 show in response to Rumsfeld's abhorrent speech to the American Legion that everyone should watch, again and again, if necessary.
8.31.2006
8.29.2006
Mexico!
I can hardly contain my excitement. In less than a week, April and I are leaving for her parent's place outside Guadalajara! Not counting the tourist destination of Cozumel, I've never been to Mexico before. It's going to be a nice, relaxing trip, from what I can gather, which is absolutely perfect. It will be especially nice to just veg with April since grad school usually keeps us pretty busy. While I do like activity-centered trips, I'm really in need of a good block of unstructured, unrestricted, unhurried time. And it's a fantastic bonus that it's going to be in Mexico. As an added super-bonus, April's dad has some dual-sports that we're planning to ride in the mountains around Lake Chapala. While I'm really looking forward to it, it will be my first time going off road on two wheels so I'm a little wary of doing something stupid and dumping the bike. Not really worried - but it has crossed my mind. Gotta go down to lab now. More later.
8.25.2006
Mandatory and Useless Update #27
Nothing much to post about, but once again, it's been so long that I feel compelled to write something, no matter how banal and pointless. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend of parties, movies, and maybe some relaxing in there somewhere. Oh yeah, and sleep. Lots of sleep. Maybe I'll hit the pool for a while, in an attempt to get rid of this grad-student pallor that smacks of cave-dweller. Oh yeah, and I recently had to update my personal profile for this blog - noting that I'm no longer a fourth year grad student. Scary. All the first years have been arriving this week - classes start Monday, not that it matters to me anymore - which really drives home that I've already been here a full four years. Even scarrier is that I have to plan on graduating in less than a year, and I have no clue what do do with myself afterwards. I'm open to suggestion! Here I am, in my 5th year of graduate school, without the slightest clue what I want to do after graduation. I mean, I've been in school continuously for 22 years, if you count nursery school. (Hey, it's got "school" in the name. It's got to count!) So really, I'd love to hear some suggestions. Based on the number of readers I have, I'll probably end up with 2 more ideas of what to do with my life than I have at the moment. Hey. Better than nothing. And if anyone suggests "tree" I'll still take it into consideration. Well, maybe. This isn't a halloween costume, after all.
8.17.2006
Nothing, really
Nothing much to report, though it's been so long since I've updated I'm feeling the urge. Research is going along slowly, as usual. Actually, there hasn't been any real progress in a while, so I guess "slowly" is just a euphamism for "nowhere." Yeah, that's more to the point. Research is going nowhere, just as usual.
It seems to have gotten really really hot here the past few days. Now, I know it's kinda hot in Houston to begin with, but it seems that this summer had lost a lot of its bite save for a few days here and there. And then this week came in and kicked me in the gut with size 13 combat boots. I nearly hurled. Just walking 100 yards to Valhalla to get lunch gets me all nasty and sweaty in a ways I don't really want to describe to the public. Of course, the fact that I ride a black big-twin sportbike in jeans, a black (but well-ventilated) synthetic and leather jacket, big fat helmet, and gloves to boot (but no boots) kinda makes it worse. But I'd rather sweat than leave a lot of my skin on the road in case of a wreck. I've definitely got the sweating part down these last few days. I'd started to wonder if I've just gotten used to Houston summers at last, but then I realized that this isn't the kind of heat and humidity (it really is the humidity) that you can "get used to," anymore than you can get used to breathing sea water.
It seems to have gotten really really hot here the past few days. Now, I know it's kinda hot in Houston to begin with, but it seems that this summer had lost a lot of its bite save for a few days here and there. And then this week came in and kicked me in the gut with size 13 combat boots. I nearly hurled. Just walking 100 yards to Valhalla to get lunch gets me all nasty and sweaty in a ways I don't really want to describe to the public. Of course, the fact that I ride a black big-twin sportbike in jeans, a black (but well-ventilated) synthetic and leather jacket, big fat helmet, and gloves to boot (but no boots) kinda makes it worse. But I'd rather sweat than leave a lot of my skin on the road in case of a wreck. I've definitely got the sweating part down these last few days. I'd started to wonder if I've just gotten used to Houston summers at last, but then I realized that this isn't the kind of heat and humidity (it really is the humidity) that you can "get used to," anymore than you can get used to breathing sea water.
8.08.2006
Zion National Park
So I've finally posted some pictures on my silly little googlepage under the recent events part. Honestly, my brother's pictures are much better, so if you want to see good pics, go to his blog.
k... so it won't let me upload any pics to this post at the moment. grr.
k... so it won't let me upload any pics to this post at the moment. grr.
8.05.2006
Mini-Vacation
Last week I took off Friday for LA, where my mom was visiting my brother and sister. After getting to the bitchin house in the Hollywood Hills around 11, we headed to Zuma beach for the rest of the afternoon. Awesome. Matt and I (and even mom a little) hit the near-perfect waves for hours of body-surfing and a good deal of sun.
Saturday morning we left for Las Vegas with mom, Matt, and Casey. Though we hadn't reserved rooms in advance, it worked out for the best in the end, and we got to see a lot of cool hotels while we looked. I didn't gamble much, and we spent most of our time in New York, New York that night. Earlier in the day the three of us (sans mom) went up to the top of the Stratosphere, where Casey and I rode the Big Shot, the worlds highest thrill ride. I've forgotten how much I love that adrenaline rush. Fantastic!
Sunday started with still more traveling, this time out of Nevada, through a corner of Arizona, and all the way to South-Western Utah and Zion National Park. I can't say enough about the grandiosity of Zion, and the pictures, while pretty good, don't nearly do it justice. Let me just say that if you've never been there, you need to go. Hell, I need to go again, and it wasn't even a week ago that I left.
We three kiddies got there around noon and got a good hotel - the Bumbleberry just outside the park entrance. After we shuttled in, we went on a 5+ hour walk / wade through the somewhat swollen Virgin river and the Narrows at the end of the canyon. With 500-800 foot cliffs on both sides, often only a few yards apart, every corner brought about another breathtaking view. The thunder shortly after we'd turned around, just shy of 3 hours into the narrows, had me worrying about flash floods nearly the whole trip back, but luckily the rain wasn't heavy enough to worry about. At least till after we were out of the narrows. The next day, after a few wonderful nighttime thunderstorms, the already muddy river looked like chocolate milk, and the narrows were closed. We chose a good order, it seems.
Monday morning after a nice breakfast at the Bumbleberry restaurant, we did a two-mile, 1500+ foot climb (and descent, duh) to Angel's landing. Again, words won't suffice, and pictures can't quite do it justice, but at least the pictures are quick. The last climb was the best, with chains attached to the rock face so we wouldn't go tumbling down the 1000 foot cliffs on either side of the "trail." At one point there was only about 4 feet between vertical cliffs on both sides - basically a path between certain and unavoidable death.
After a quick bite to eat, and with already tired legs, we hiked up to the emerald pools in the short time we had before we had to leave for LA - 6.5 hours away. We didn't get to see the lower pool, and the upper was definately cooler than the middle. We got rained on again on the way back, but it really wasn't too bad after a long, hot day hiking in the sun. After meeting up with mom again in Vegas, we got back to LA after midnight and had a good sleep. Tuesday was all about Emily's birthday - my little sister's 23! holy crap! We saw Miami Vice (better than I thought it'd be) and generally just hung out. Unfortunately I had to come back to Houston on Wednesday, but a short trip was much better than none at all. And many thanks to mom who made it all possible. It was great seeing my family - something I've been lucky enough to do twice so far this year. Of course, it made me realize how much I love, and how much I really want more vacation time soon. If only money grew on trees!
Saturday morning we left for Las Vegas with mom, Matt, and Casey. Though we hadn't reserved rooms in advance, it worked out for the best in the end, and we got to see a lot of cool hotels while we looked. I didn't gamble much, and we spent most of our time in New York, New York that night. Earlier in the day the three of us (sans mom) went up to the top of the Stratosphere, where Casey and I rode the Big Shot, the worlds highest thrill ride. I've forgotten how much I love that adrenaline rush. Fantastic!
Sunday started with still more traveling, this time out of Nevada, through a corner of Arizona, and all the way to South-Western Utah and Zion National Park. I can't say enough about the grandiosity of Zion, and the pictures, while pretty good, don't nearly do it justice. Let me just say that if you've never been there, you need to go. Hell, I need to go again, and it wasn't even a week ago that I left.
We three kiddies got there around noon and got a good hotel - the Bumbleberry just outside the park entrance. After we shuttled in, we went on a 5+ hour walk / wade through the somewhat swollen Virgin river and the Narrows at the end of the canyon. With 500-800 foot cliffs on both sides, often only a few yards apart, every corner brought about another breathtaking view. The thunder shortly after we'd turned around, just shy of 3 hours into the narrows, had me worrying about flash floods nearly the whole trip back, but luckily the rain wasn't heavy enough to worry about. At least till after we were out of the narrows. The next day, after a few wonderful nighttime thunderstorms, the already muddy river looked like chocolate milk, and the narrows were closed. We chose a good order, it seems.
Monday morning after a nice breakfast at the Bumbleberry restaurant, we did a two-mile, 1500+ foot climb (and descent, duh) to Angel's landing. Again, words won't suffice, and pictures can't quite do it justice, but at least the pictures are quick. The last climb was the best, with chains attached to the rock face so we wouldn't go tumbling down the 1000 foot cliffs on either side of the "trail." At one point there was only about 4 feet between vertical cliffs on both sides - basically a path between certain and unavoidable death.
After a quick bite to eat, and with already tired legs, we hiked up to the emerald pools in the short time we had before we had to leave for LA - 6.5 hours away. We didn't get to see the lower pool, and the upper was definately cooler than the middle. We got rained on again on the way back, but it really wasn't too bad after a long, hot day hiking in the sun. After meeting up with mom again in Vegas, we got back to LA after midnight and had a good sleep. Tuesday was all about Emily's birthday - my little sister's 23! holy crap! We saw Miami Vice (better than I thought it'd be) and generally just hung out. Unfortunately I had to come back to Houston on Wednesday, but a short trip was much better than none at all. And many thanks to mom who made it all possible. It was great seeing my family - something I've been lucky enough to do twice so far this year. Of course, it made me realize how much I love, and how much I really want more vacation time soon. If only money grew on trees!
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