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!

Irksome

Two news-items I just couldn't pass up this morning:

BBC news says that Kazaa will become a legal music downloading service, and has also agreed to pay an over $100m compensation to the record industry. First of all, I always thought that kazaa and other p2p services were legal downloading services. The entire claim that they're responsible for piracy is ridiculous. Sure, they help it, but why not go after the companies that make recordable media, too? Or even hard drives? It's all just a big, frantic money-grab by an archaic industry run by a bunch of lazy, rich, innovation-allergic men frightened into paralysis of potential change.

Secondly, this article is so incredibly shallow that the extent of the details about the >$100m payoff is that it's going to the "record industry." Come on, BBC. Where are the important questions? Instead of following the money trail, the article just illustrates just how far up the establishment's ass the authors nose really is. I can practically smell the stench of digested musicians through my computer.

A bit of googling shows that the payoff goes to Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group Plc and Warner Music Group in Los Angeles and Australia.

The second news item would be that a court has upheld the long-time practice of invasive searches without suspicion at US borders, applying in this case to your hard drive. The 9th circuit court of appeals has ruled that border control agents can search through your computer at any time and for any reason. Actually, border control agents can search anyone or anything without any evidence or suspicion of wrongdoing. This, surprisingly enough to me, upholds a supreme court ruling that effectively ignores the heart of the fourth amendment at US borders. Apparently our country doesn't really start until you're some arbitrary distance inside it that isn't deemed a part of the border.

In other, more personal news, I'm off to LA tomorrow morning for a few days with the fam. I'm really excited about the whole thing. Not only are we all going to be in one place at one time, for a few days, at least, but we're going to Las Vegas and probably Zion National Park, too! It looks to be a lot of fun, as long as I get my paycheck when I'm supposed to. I have to say that I've got enough bills at the moment that I really shouldn't be going on this trip, (no, really) but I'm also in desperate need for a break from Houston and my research crap. When things don't work for day after day, and week after week proceeding into months on end, the stress level really starts to get to me. Anyway, LA, here I come!

Epitome of Awesomeness

I just have to say how awesome it is that my mom - former nursery-school teacher mom who has sung "Wake up Little Pilgrims" every Thanksgiving I can remember and still insists that "jackass" isn't foul language - has a motorcycle. I mean, effin A, man. My mom rocks hard like that. Way to go Mom!! I think next she's getting some tattoo of like a killer bald eagle with sharp talons fighting a wolverine or something. Or maybe a Liger. That would be totally sweet. Now, just to make sure that my mom isn't more hardcore than me (it might be a futile attempt, seeing as I am a physics geek - I'm wearing a Penny Arcade shirt today, for god's sake) I'm going to have to pick up a nasty drug habit and, like, kill somebody or something. Don't make me kill someone, mom! Please!

Good Dog

I'll miss Tera. She was a great companion and friend - more than just a pet. I'm sorry I wasn't there when she had to go. I'm not very good at these things, and my brother says it better.

Talk about Ridiculous

An advertising executive has been jailed because his company produced an ad for an online gambling site - a site that is perfectly legal in its own country, but is apparently of the type that the US government is trying very hard to crack down on. Wow. Good thing we're being protected from all those scary advertising executives. Thanks, uncle Sam - now I can sleep better at night.

Manic Mechanic

My car's in bad shape. A year ago I replaced the entire air conditioning system. Before that the brake lines (all of them) and master cylinder were replaced. A few months ago I had to recharge the coolant because most of it had leaked out. Two weeks ago I had to replace the alternator. This weekend a friend was borrowing the car to carry heavy wood flooring and had a massive blowout on 610. The tire, rim, and hubcap are completely trashed. The wrecker driver who had to get him out of the left emergency lane was apparently incompetent and smashed up the rear quarterpanel.

I finally got my bike back. After seven (7!) weeks. It looks like it should. I'm still waiting for about $300 from the insurance company. I've got to pay for the remaining $500 after that, some of which is for stuff that needed to be done anyway, e.g. brake pads. Total cost for all the cosmetic damage and repairs? Keep in mind that the bike never even fell completely over.

$2300.

I feel like I'm in a horrible mastercard commercial:

Gas for the trip to Austin: $35
Helmet, Gloves, and Riding Jacket: $700
Dairy Queen sundae on the way: $4
Watching your motorcycle being mangled in the parking lot: Priceless (but really $2300 and seven weeks - not exactly free.)

Or... it could go something like this for the past nine weeks:

Medical bills that your insurance doesn't feel like paying anymore: $530
Semester fees and premium for said crappy insurance: $850
Bike repairs that the other insurance doesn't feel like paying: $200
Motorcycle insurance: $200
Car repairs while your bike is in the shop: $600
Car insurance: $500
Previous medical bills over the past seven months: $3000+


Getting your Ph.D. and getting the hell out of Grad School to make real money: ...

I have no idea, actually. Sure would be nice.

Christ, I need to start dealing crack or something. I mean, find a legal source of additional income.

San Francisco de Asis

Apparently I didn't feel like doing much work today, so here's another photoshop project. This is an authentic adobe church, San Francisco de Asis, a little way outside Taos, NM. For the few people who may have read this blog from its inception, you may remember the original picture from my posts about my summer vaction around Santa Fe.

Again check out my googlepage for the before and after comparison.

Name that Place

While this may be incredibly easy for some people I know, I doubt anyone else will be able to figure it out. It's getting to be about that time of year, so I thought it would be appropriate to post a pic. The first person to get it right wins absolutely nothing!!!

Route 66 Junker

No rants today, I promise. Instead, here's my latest photoshop project. As always, click on the pic for the full version.

To see a before and after, go to my googlepage.

Money Grubbing

F*(|{ the FCC.

If you've read this blog before, then you know how much I love the FCC, especially with Washington's renewed puritanical obsession over broadcast indecency standards. Keep in mind that there's no actual list of forbidden words or phrases, acts or images. Nothing is specifically forbidden, but it doesn't need to be when we'll willingly over-censor ourselves to avoid the increasingly obscene fines that the FCC now has the power to levy. Part of free speech is the freedom to push the limits of decency so that new ideas can find their way into the public discourse more readily.

Granted, requesting previously aired tapes of sporting events isn't exactly restricting the flow of new ideas, but who can tell the effect it will have when there is no more live television? What really gets me, though, is the fact that they're combing tapes long after they've aired. After the tenfold increase in indecency fines our friends in Washington just pushed through, it's going to be extremely hard to convince me that this isn't just a money-grabbing scheme. I'd be interested to learn where these fines go, as well; I mean where the money actually goes, too. I won't accept the official word any more.

On the opposite side of the censorship argument, I'm actually in support of the plug being pulled on high school valedictorian Brittany McComb's graduation speech on account of excessive religious content. The graduation and therefore the speech was sponsored by a public school, as such the school is obliged to adhere to the separation of church and state and cannot endorse religious proselytizing. I mean, really - the girl's speech was already edited and approved by the school before graduation, like any graduation speech, and she chose to deviate from her approved script. I happen to think that excessive religious references are obscene. Let's broadcast the speech and get the FCC involved!!

The reason that I bring this up now, and not earlier, is that I read comics every day as a part of my lunch break, and came across Mallard Fillmore this week, which I often enjoy. I say often because I think that Bruce Tinsley really missed this one.

It's really a clear-cut case of a public school knowing that it can't legally sponsor religious speech, and enforcing the rule that McComb tried to dodge. I guess if you call yourself a conservative, though, you're obliged to hate the ACLU and everything it does. Ah, I love independent thinkers.

New York, New York

In another sad day for equality and basic human rights, New York's highest court yesterday ruled that gay marriage is illegal in that state. Also yesterday, Georgia reinstated a gay-marriage ban. Now among the more than forty states that have specific laws restricting marriage to only a man and a woman, New York and Georgia are only further evidence of the backsliding of equality and basic rights in this country that has been accelerating since 2001. While New York's ruling didn't instate any new laws, it was only an official interpretation of the language of that state's constitution, the effect is similar. Now the debate will be carried to the state's lawmakers, where little hope resides for a new bill that actually equalizes marriage rights for all people.

Highlighted by the language of the majority's ruling, however, is the only marginally defensible facade for those opposed to real equality in marriage. While the idea of gay marriage seems to make most people uncomfortable, those who actively oppose it tend to enshroud their true motivations in the insubstantial fabric of nobility and morality in the face of an overwhelming onslaught against their way of life. Face it, stemming from the same roots as xenophobia, racism, misoneism, and miscegenation laws, the deep-seated reasons most people oppose gay marriage are fear and ignorance - a powerful combination that helped our anscestors stay alive and propogate the species through so many dangerous milennia. But we don't have those types of dangers anymore, and until a completely unknown alien species lands on our planet, that type of animalistic instinct to immediately mistrust that with which we're unfamiliar only serves to stagnate the progress of the human race. For the lazy religious argument - god says it's a sin, so I don't have to make up my own mind - it's also a sin to let your god-given intelligence and rationality to be overwhelmed by the animalistic side of human nature. Our ability to control animalistic impulses or instincts like lust, violence, hatred and fear, is what keeps us from sinning - or in my definition, what actually separates us from animals. And while there are plenty of people who are convinced that gay marriage is actually a threat, and have used their faculties to come to and defend this position, I'm convinced that it's all still born of the instinctual fear of change. I know how easy it is to convince myself of something I want to believe, and how hard it is to accept that I'm wrong. It's even harder still to re-evaluate long-held beliefs that we want to uphold, but it's also extremely important to be able to do so. If it's not difficult, it's probably not worth doing.

While I understand and sympathize with those who've convinced themselves that forbidding gay marriage is truly in the best interest of our society - they're completely wrong, but I know how hard it is to re-evaluate arguments that prevent an uncomfortable self-realization - I find it absolutely hilarious when people call the movement for gay marriage rights an attack or onslaught against their way of life. Dear god, arm yourselves! Here come the gays to kill your children and redecorate your livingroom! Protecting family values sounds so noble, so irrefutably right, that basically all you need to do is spout that line in a debate, and all your problems are solved. You don't hate families, do you? (You probably hate America, too!) But really, how much of an effect will legalizing gay marriage have on the average Joe Republican with his W bumper sticker still adorning the back of his Ford? Does Joe even know a gay couple? Has he ever had the nerve to have a real conversation with someone with a different sexual orientation? Like the magic eight-ball, my sources say no. So how the hell is a minority element of the population (2-10% in most estimates) going to wage war on the values and beliefs of the other 90+% of the American public? Not good odds, if you really want to start something. On top of that, all this assumes that the values of the average modern American family are something worth protecting. Let's take a brief look at some numbers.

Nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce. While that's arguable based on statistical nuance, a conservative number is 41%. The latest US provisional estimate from the National Center for Health Statistics has the per capita divorce rate at 0.38%. Since divorces have to involve 2 people, the reality is that 76 of every 1000 people in 2003 got divorced. That's everyone - not just those who were married. That's not including California, Colorado, Indiana, or Louisana.

According to the US Census Bureau, 23.2% of women who gave birth in 2000-2003 were below the poverty level. The rates of married women versus single women was 12.2% versus 50%. That means that nearly one in four children in America starts life at or below the poverty level. Additionally, 29% of the women who gave birth in 2000-2003 were unmarried.

In 2004, 11.9 of every 1000 children were reported and documented victims of abuse or neglect according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. Also that year, 1,490 children died from abuse or neglect.

These types of family values seem to be the types of things we should be waging war against - not protecting. While an estimated 1 in 10 people are gay, nearly 1 in 4 children are born into poverty. For anyone who can count, that's obviously a much higher percent (especially if you take into account that children - 0-18 years - make up a much smaller percentage of the population than those who are aware of their sexual orientation, lets say 18-76 years.) If anyone actually believes that gay marriage is more threatening to America's children and strong family values, I wonder if they can count.

So in reality, are people really that worried about gay marriage eroding family values and changing their way of life? Maybe, but they wouldn't be if they stopped to think about it. More likely, gay marriage opponents simply haven't taken the time to really evaluate the reasons they don't support true equality, and instead hide behind the arguments set up for them by a small and vocal minority of self-deceiving thinkers. It's so much easier to spout unoriginal rhetoric than to come up with your own ideas. It's much more comfortable. After all, change isn't always comfortable, and it almost always leads to the unknown. We've evolved to fear and fight the unknown, but now it's keeping us from evolving further. Equlality is only a theory until it's truly put into practice.

You want customer service? Go f*#& yourself. How's that?

First let me start by saying that flicman's post helped spark today's rant.

Telecoms, car insurance companies, and potentially worst of all, health insurance companies - these businesses hide behind their size in order to make it nearly impossible to speak to anyone with any sort of accountability. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "I'm sorry sir, there's nothing I can do" followed up by some sort of line about company policy. That, and it's complete bullshit. They're not sorry at all. And neither are their supervisors, or their supervisors' supervisors. They want you to think that no one short of the god-damned CEO can make any sort of real decisions, and even then not without approval of the board and majority stock holders. Bullshit. My health insurance company has decided to throw back hundreds of dollars of physical therapy bills to me that they decided not to pay - and this is after I've already paid my share - but no one, not a single useless person I've talked to, has any helpful information to give me about why this is, or how I can go about arguing these additional charges. But as useless as these customer service reps are, it's not necessarily their fault. Most times the companies are structured that way to intentionally make it nearly impossible to argue or change anything the consumer disagrees with.

I recently talked with AT&T (formerly SBC) about an incomprehensible phone and internet bill that had miraculously nearly doubled last month, and while the rep was very friendly and helpful, informed me that he has a much more complete version of my bill, and that customers aren't allowed to get a copy of that easy-to-understand summary. Is that not one of the more devious and screwed up things in customer service? I mean, I'm a phucking physicist and I couldn't make sense of a goddamn telephone and internet bill, even once the charges were explained to me. Without talking to the rep with the complete bill and account history, there was no way I could be sure about the reason certain charges were included in the bill, or even what months they were for, in some cases. Intentional obfuscation in billing and customer service pisses me off to no end.

Unfortunately, it's not just large companies that manage to make a joke out of customer service. I have had my motorcycle at a mechanic's shop - arguably the best motorcycle mechanic in Houston - for nearly four weeks for minor repairs and paint, and have yet to receive a single call from them. I've initiated every instance of contact, often days after I was promised a call or some sort of information about cost, delays, and paint colors. Obviously when someone who's working for your money promises to call back, it seems that it would be a good business practice to actually do it. But what the hell, once someone has information on you and can threaten your credit or withhold your property, basic manners and good business practices go out the window. And for years, in companies big and small, I've seen no evidence to disprove that customer service is dead.

...Eternally Wars

Like the signature on an apocalyptic love letter, the message that the Bush administration has been driving into the psyche of the American public is that the "War on Terror" is an ongoing battle that justifies any government action deemed necessary to guarantee the safety of American citizens around the globe. Don't do anything that could possibly compromise any of those "protective" measures, either - and of course don't question them - or you're personally threatening American lives. I see so many inherent problems in this line of thinking that I just don't know where to start. Fear-inciting governments? Gross abuses of power? Multiple intelligence leaks? Irresponsible blame-shifting? The devaluation of non-American lives? So I'll start with what incited today's rant, instead.

Friday's New York Times story (similarly in the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal) disclosed a secret CIA program operating since shortly after 9/11/2001 that collects confidential financial records and data maintained by a Belgian cooperative said to be a nerve center for international banking. Needless to say, Bush and other supporters of Big Brother government are righteously pissed, with Representative King (R-NY) calling for criminal investigations of the NY and LA Times as well as the WSJ. While of course the administration claims that everything that they're doing is simply for the good of the American public and entirely legal, you have to question why, exactly, officials directly involved in the exposed programs would have strong enough discomfort about the programs' legality and oversight to take such risks as talking with the media. I know that mainstream media is all about generating hype and controversy, but there's got to be a lot of truth in this story for everyone to be so upset about it.

This brings me to the first point that everyone's talking about, so I'll just touch on it briefly. What constitutes irresponsible reporting, and how does the public's right to know - a basic tenet of democracy and effectively freedom of speech - measure up to the government's power's and responsibility to defend the public from threats? All I'm going to say is that in my opinion, a public isn't worth defending that would gladly forefit it's rights of information to support that safety. While I'd rather be the farmer than the sheep, I'd rather still we all were famers with no sheep to sheer, and full knowledge of all the wolves and other threats that surround and infuse us. That's a bit corny, but you get the idea.

On to the appropriately-placed second point. This Swift story is the second exposure of questionable (to put it euphemistically) practices by intelligence and security agencies under the auspices of finding and tracking terrorists and their organizations. Of course these methods aren't going to work as well if everyone knows about them, but I highly doubt that they then become entirely useless. More importantly, what was viewed by many of the nearly 20 unnamed officials to speak with the NY Times as an initially necessary yet temporary measure after 9/11 has turned into a permanent practice, even though its implementation was based partly on the president's emergency economic powers. Is the U.S. still in a time of emergency? I don’t think so. You must have a strange definition of the word if you think we are. Are we still under threat? Of course. Have there been two years since the inception of our nation that there hasn’t been a threat of some sort or another? No.

The question is, then, how much of a threat is the country under, and does it warrant the kind of sugar-coated gross abuses of power that the government sells as doctrine every chance it gets? The culture of fear that has been shoved down our throats since 9/11 has now just become a part of our daily diet. Yes, yes, of course there’s a horrible omnipresent terrorist threat that will kill us all if our big brother government doesn’t use all it’s available powers (and some formerly illegal ones, but he said they’re legal now so it’s okay) to protect us – but only if we’re supportive American citizens. We’ve heard it all a million times before. Now shut up and let me get back to watching American Idol. Do whatever you need to do – just don’t interrupt me.

(The whole Ameri-centric-ness-ocity-ism-ness of the majority of public statements also really bugs me, but as I’ve already tried to cram about 5 essays worth of topics into one increasingly lengthy rant, I’ll have to get to it later.)

So, before I prematurely wrap up this unfortunately long rant, let me find my way back to the title. All this fear-based governance has been with us so long already, that it’s becoming a bore. While that usually spells the end of a movement for the increasingly ADHD American public, it seems that the practices will continue, unfortunately. All that’s going to change is the fervor and frequency of the fear-based battle cry of justification. What has me thinking about all this is the number of times you hear the President and his administration saying that we’re at war. Most of the time, the topic is terrorism, but the war they reference is in Iraq. The “War on Terror” is a war just as much as the “War on Drugs” is a war. Calling it a war is almost comically arrogant. Which one is deadlier? Illegal drugs have killed so many more people than terrorists, yet no president has ever even asked for emergency powers during that war. Based on the Bush administration, Reagan should have been exercising emergency executive privileges in order to protect American lives from the unprecedented threat of illegal drugs. Is this “war” on terror that much different? It’s just as futile, just as unending, and is being approached in a manner that is just as stupid as the “war” on drugs. It’s not going to end, especially if the current administration and the prevailing right-wing power base have anything to say about it. War is good for those in power, and as long as we continue to sit on our butts and accept everything we’re fed, It’ll be

Eternally Wars,
AJ

U.S. Decency Standards - What the F@&!!

In a blatant attempt to boost waning support from the religious and conservative right, the Bush administration has taken another big step down the increasingly steep slope to decidedly undemocratic media censorship. Welcome to Iran, ladies and gentlemen. While increasing fines for indecent material on the few completely regulated sections of the media spectrum might not seem like such a big deal - and it may not be at the moment - it portends a scary future where comedy sketches about Jesus killing Santa Clause are fined into oblivion. This is a post that I started last week, but never had the time to finish. You get the general, though incomplete, idea, and I've got many, many other things to rant about.

Another Photoshop Project

While this one doesn't look as drastically different as the first two, (see a comparison) it was certainly a lot more complicated. It seems I'm learning a thing or two, as well, though I'd still call it a hack job by some standards.

Beginning Photoshop

So like most of you, I'm sure, I have a bunch of pictures that I've taken that didn't turn out exactly the way I'd planned for one reason or another. Maybe the colors didn't come out as vibrantly as they seemed originally, or the background is way too dark or the foreground is washed out. Things like this seem to ruin a good portion of my pictures - granted, I use my little 2MP ghetto digicam - and I'm always a little disappointed when a picture I've set up and actually thought about before snapping comes out looking like crap. So, you get the idea. Here are a couple of my first quick attempts at photoshop-alterations to my crappy little digicam pics. More to follow, I hope, with improvements.

Gay Marriage

I tend to disagree with most things Lou Dobbs says - he can really be a pompous windbag - but at least the main idea of this cnn article gets it right, even if he never even mentions that the idea itself is just a bad one. I mean, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is horrible in even the best of times - it doesn't take other, more "important" issues to make it wrong. It just is. Period. The mere idea of writing fear- and ignorance-based discrimination into our Constitution is insulting to the ideals and individuals that have driven progress over the last two hundred thirty years, and changed our country from a slave-holding colony run by rich male landowners, to a nominally equality-based democracy with the power to change the world. I, for one, am against letting elected officials use that power to undo over two hundred years of social and idealogical progress for their own archaic, personal belief - be it in morality dictated by a higher power or the innate right of those with power to impose their will on the world.

To give credit to Dobbs, though, the main idea of his article is that any wedge issue, gay marriage in this case, is just insulting to the american public when there's so much more going on that might actually be resolved. Wedge issues, even important ones like this, are basically only ever used as tools of political maneuvering. I mean, no one expects this to get the 2/3 vote. No one. Forget that it's a bad idea to begin with, it's just a huge waste of time.

Obligatory Post

Now, I'm fully aware of just how arbitrary our current calendar system is, but it's still kinda cool to point out that today is 6/6/6. I mean, just because some dead guy decided to graduate the passage of the sun around the earth (everything was geocentric back then) into more than five months guarantees that we'll have 6/6/6 at least once a century. But what if a month was 73 days long instead? Arbitrary choice? Yes! But at least each month has the same number of days. Also, there'd never be a sixth month, and so we'd never get to glibly note the passage of 6/6/6, no matter what century. Gotta love arbitrary gradations.

200+ horsepower on 2 wheels

... seems a little out of my league. Okay, a lot out of my league. I hardly ever put the 120+ horsepower of my bike to use, and it's a hell of lot heavier than this Ducati. With a US MSRP of $65,000, I don't think I'll have to worry about that any time soon, though. Egads, that makes me want to go to a track day.

Really want to rant

... but I'm too tired at the moment. In the meantime, get a taste of some similar feelings by reading this wonderful rant. Those who are easily offended, fiercely southern, extremely right wing, or have no sense of humor (funny how those tend to go together) should probably abstain. Or sod off. I don't really care.

Sailing, camping, riding, and broken bikes - Austin

An event-filled weekend road-trip started Friday with a 180 mile ride up 290 with Chris (proud owner of a sweet Ducati 750 Monster) to Lake Travis just outside Austin. April and her dad had a two-day sailing race from the Austin Yacht Club, and a whole group of people went along and made it a fun two days of camping and hanging out on the lake. About 30 miles from Austin, though, the weekend took a decidedly bad turn before it even got started when a guy in a pickup knocked my bike over in a Dairy Queen parking lot. I have no idea how he did't see it, but at least he was helpful and nice, and paid for the minimum repairs it needed to be road-worthy so I could at least finish the trip to Austin. Even though the damage doesn't show up so well in the pics, it'll probably be about a grand in repairs when I can get it into a shop, so he gave me his insurance information and a sincere apology. It certainly made me feel better - what would I have done if he were a complete jerk, or just simply left the scene? The left turn signal was ripped off, front air intake broken, fairing bent and cracked, windscreen support bent, windscreen split, mirrors bent, and one sticking straight up in the air. I could have ridden it, but pieces were literally falling off. It's nice he paid for the immediate repairs and was so helpful about everything. Still, my bike was (and still is) all kinds of messed up and it's just going to be a headache getting the insurance crap all sorted out.

But back to the weekend. Friday night was too hot to get much sleep (at least for an insomniac like me) and left me too tired Saturday to get down to Devil's backbone (about halfway to San Antonio - not insignificant on my quite-uncomfortable sportbike seat) where the roads seem custom made for motorcycles. So Chris and I explored some of the roads between Friday's and Saturday's camp grounds, and found that Lime Creek road is one fo the best in the area. Take a close look at the local map to get an idea of just how insanely winding that road is, with its multiple 15mph curves and fantastic hills. Egads, I want to live in Austin!

Saturday night brought a pretty good storm, soaking a bunch of stuff in the tents thanks to the crazy changes in the wind's direction. At one point I thought the stakes weren't going to hold the wind was so strong. So after another near-sleepless night in the tent and looking at nearly 200 miles back to Houston that evening, the day's ride was a modest 60 mile round-trip to marble falls along 1431 - another great road if there's no traffic. All in all, the weekend was a good time, and I'd do it again, though with a couple of key changes. April and her dad came in 2nd both days, so there's a good chance that they won the overall race, though we're not sure. I'll be sure to update about getting my bike fixed, and post some pics of the weekend soon.

Social and Science Update

Egads, it's been another long while since I've updated this thing. At least it's not completely defunct yet, I suppose. So this weekend was just about completely full of fun. I actually don't know if the laws of phunsics allows for a higher concentration of joviality. The highlights were a 250 mile ride up past Navasota with Chris on Saturday, a bar-hopping night out that evening for Christina's birthday with a bunch of BioEs, and a big 'ol grill and chill event around the pool with many of the same people (and many other people as well) as the previous evening. Sunday's grilling event saw nearly 25 burgers, pounds of chicken and other meats, various veggies, and two or so cases of beer consumed in the four plus hours that people mingled. The grilling and chilling groups pretty much stayed by their respective areas, with the un-heated jacuzzi providing a base for most with bathing suits, except for the rare emergence prompted by the sultry scents wafting off the grills. (We actually had 2 going simultaneously by the end.) It was a complete success, if I do say so myself, though I'll probably do things a little differently next time - and not for another month or so I'd wager.

In other news, this month's issue of National Geographic Magazine has a decent-sized article on nanotechnology. This is pretty cool since it's what I study, but made even better (for me, at least) by the fact that it focuses a lot of attention to work done here at Rice University. There are a bunch of faculty and a few grad students mentioned, and my work on nanocars is even mentioned briefly, with one of my images appearing thumbnail-sized in a little blurb. So please allow me a moment to be excited that my name even appears in print in National Geographic - albeit as a photo-credit in really tiny print at the bottom of the page - before pointing out that no one ever reads those names. Next step - getting my name in full-sized text.

Research Update

Things are going so incredibly slowly in my research efforts, mainly due to my dosing valve. Basically I have to get some rather fragile (can't sublimate) molecules onto a surface from a solution, but I want to keep the surface as clean as possible in the meantime. For this, I want to deposit the molecules in a high vacuum environment. What I've been doing up to this point is to use a valve with a tiny orifice that is electronically actuated and capable of fully opening and closing in fewer than 5 miliseconds. This has succeeded so far in keeping my substrate much cleaner than when depositing in air. The problem now is that the valve isn't closing properly after I dose the solution. What this means is two-fold. First, the pressure in the prep chamber is much higher than is should be, getting the surface dirty and basically negating the benefits of using the valve in the first place. Second, if the pressure doesn't get back down to low enough pressures, I can't put my sample back into the UHV chamber to scan, meaning I have a brand new sample that I can't get to the microscope. AAARGH!! Like a steering wheel in a pirate's pants, it's drivin' me nuts. Pretty soon I'm going to have to go back to depositing in air and looking for a cleaner solvent. Of course, we've ordered a new valve that won't get here for another 5 weeks, but if it's not working now, why should a new one work any longer than this one did? Basically I have to devise a completely new way of depositing these molecules (nanocars, dimers, and a ton of other molecules the Tour lab has synthesized) in a high vacuum environment. It would be helpful to have a proper prep chamber, but we're talking over a hundred grand, easily, and probably a month's work to attach an entirely new section to the UHV chamber. All this means I'm getting really skeptical about my ability to get enough quality data to graduate in a year. Horseshit. I'm just going to have to work my ass off.

Emily's Graduated!

Congratulations to my little sister, who, I must add, is finished with school at least an entire year before her big brother!

It was great to see everyone this weekend - Mom, Joel, sister, bro and his girlfriend - for a family get-together in Syracuse, albeit a very short one. There was lots of driving and little sleeping, but it was all for the best, since I haven't seen everyone since December, and don't know when I'll see everyone together again, at least till next December (I hope.) I can't believe that my little baby sister is all grown up, going out into the real world to find her place of prominence. I know she'll do fantastically at whatever she decides to do, but I'm not without a little brotherly concern for all the changes and challenges she's about to come up against. Knowing her, though, she'll breeze through them all and make my worries look absolutely silly in hindsight. Congratulations, Emily, and good luck in LA!

I miss you, Dad. Same today as every day, just more pronounced. Six years seems like a day, sometimes.

Another day older

Heck, another year older, if you think people only age when their birthdays come around. No specific milestone this year, no nice, convenient numbers involved, (last year I turned 25 (5*5) on 5/5/5 - how cool is that) but it sure was nice weather this morning. Nothing out of the ordinary today, just a normal work day, but I'll probably go out with a few friends tonight - starting at Valhalla around 8 and probably moving to Volcano and maybe Brian O'neal's after that. If that's anywhere near you, come on out and help me celebrate another year in the life of me!

Weekend Ride

I finally got out of the city for a decent weekend ride again. I don't think I've done that in over a year! Even though it was only about 200 miles, it was still a good time. I really need to do that more often.

Jonah and I didn't start til nearly noon, so I was worried about the heat. Luckily, it was incredibly comfortable riding weather till the last half of the ride back, when even 80mph winds couldn't keep me cool. The map shows our approximate route, since at that scale the smaller roads aren't visible on the map. Green is for gas stops and blue is where we had lunch in Montgomery. I can't believe the difference that highway driving makes for my gas mileage. Even with the last fifteen miles being in the city, I got about 50% better mileage out of the last half of the ride than I normally do in day-to-day riding.

We detoured along a new road to test it out, but it ended up about 8 miles of gravel after the first half mile of pavement. Bad news for bikes. Even so, it was fun, if a little nerve-wracking, and we made it the entire day without any incidents.

As usual, click on the pics for larger versions.

Not dead yet

Though yesterday I thought I would come close. I had some sort of flu or virus and ended up losing six pounds over 24 hours. For those who know me, that's a pretty big deal. I mean, I'm worried about lost brain matter at the moment, because I really don't have many other places to lose the weight. Chop off a foot, maybe, because that's about an equivalent amount.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better today, but still really weak and annoyed. I hate being sick, and Houston seems to have made it a much more regular occurrence than anywhere else I've lived. Damn dirty city and it's abhorrent air quality.

Haven't updated in a week

... and I don't know why, really. Lots has been going on, but I'm not really in a mood to recap. Let me just make this a promise to blog about the new things that are happening, then. And a recommendation to go see Thank You for Smoking. It was really good - entertaining and still made you think - and while I'm just about as anti-big tobacco as you can get, I can honestly say I don't think it was over the top in either direction.

So I'll try to blog about some more interesting stuff from now on. Lots is happening, though I'm beginning to wonder what to share and what to keep to myself, since I probably know most of the readers here, and certainly most of the regular readers. Site Meter is good for that, though it's still a guessing game.

Plaques for ridiculous things

This morning I got to read a letter originally sent to the principle investigator of my research project (Nanocars,(.pdf) as I've mentioned before) from the publishers of my first paper, the American Chemical Society, or just ACS. Among more than thirty other journals, they also publish the journal Nano Letters, where we submitted our paper in October. Apparently that article was downloaded more times in the two months it was available in 2005 than any other article in any other ACS publication for that entire year! Now that's just ridiculous. And so is the fact that I got a plaque because of that. Still, it's kindof cool, partly because I haven't gotten a plaque for anything in yearly 4 years, and partly because now there's something to hang on the walls in my office. Click on the pic for a higher-resolution image.

Good Weekend

Sunday was a great day. Went to an Aeros game with a bunch of people from BioE. The game itself was really great - down to the last 16 seconds in sudden death overtime and the home team won! It's obviously minor-league (not that I could even stay upright on ice-skates) but still a bunch of fun, especially with a rowdy crowd insulting the other team. I hope the goalie couldn't hear everything, or else has developed a very thick skin to that sort of thing, which he undoubtedly has. Still - funny as hell. A bit of pizza afterwards at Two Rows was a good time, as well.

Yesterday and today involves writing and revising a rough draft of another paper I'm putting together for publication. I'll get back in the lab eventually, I swear.

Lazy Saturday

Not much going on today. I sat out by the pool reading for about an hour - probably 15 minutes too long, judging by the pink hue of my chest. Still, it was perfect weather, so it was hard to come in. The TV's gone kaput - can't even call for a repair till Monday - so I'm doing more than just watching the tube all day, which is good. It's way too easy to just get sucked into a video game or show and throw away a perfectly good weekend.

There's a party tonight that roomie and I will probably go to, and it seems like it will be populated by a bunch of the people we saw out last night. Fun night all in all, but apparently I dodged a bullet since 3 or 4 people have come down with a stomache virus and been out of commission all day. Hooray for not being sick!

100th Post!!!

Throw me a party! Not that this is any great milestone, so I'm putting up something completely random from my early days online (1996, actually) just to show that the irrelevance of my postings hasn't changed in ten years.

An old man once stopped me on the street and asked where I thought I was going. After getting over the initial shock of this total stranger asking such a random and accusatory question, I replied "Home." He looked me straight in the eye and said,"Well, aren't we all?"

That's just something I wrote for an old, old webpage of mine in high school. I googled my pseudonym and found a bunch of this old crap. Gosh, I was a weird kid.

Hooray for the irrelevant 100th post!

Science and Intelligent Design, 1st Attempt

I have no problems with people who think the entire universe was created by some omnipotent being of extreme intelligence in his own image, as a big joke, or in any other way that we mere mortals can't possibly comprehend. It's a theory, and as a theory is just as valid as any other. It doesn't have nearly the supporting evidence or solid grounding in logic as other theories, including the theory of evolution, the theory of the big bang, or many other scientific theories, but then again its like calling a horse a man and trying to make it wear your pants. Okay, maybe not. But it is trying to get a belief-based theory to fit into the lexicon and framework of the scientific method - which is the exact antithesis of a belief-based system.

Beliefs have no place in a process that was specifically designed to eliminate them in favor of factual evidence. That's just the way it is - by definition. There is no inherent value-judgment placed on the scientific method, it was simply designed to do a specific thing for a specific goal, and it does so, by design, without allowance for different methods of interpretation. It is, itself, a strict method of interpreting and learning about the world we live in within a single, rigid framework. I happen to think about most of my world within that framework. I like the idea of being able to make predictions based on gathered data, evidence, and proven hypotheses, as it helps keep me healthy and alive better than any other framework I've considered.


What I do have a problem with is people like Johnny Hart, creator and author of the wildly popular and widely-syndicated comic B.C. While this comic is hardly the most annoying thing for a scientist to come across in the realm of the God vs. Science debates, (an issue that itself is annoyingly narrow-minded, but more on that later) it is yet another seemingly willful attempt to obfuscate and dilute the actual definition and meaning of science in favor of completely non-scientific views - an action that is aggravating not because it tries to undermine my own personal view of the universe, but because it seems to be based in the ignorant and intellectually lazy assumption that the scientific framework erodes the validity of any faith-based system. (Ask anyone who knows me. Almost nothing bugs me more than willfully ignorant people who don't think for themselves.) My main problem with the entire intelligent design push is that it tries to claim itself a position in scientific discourse, particularly in public schools. While its intellectual and philosophical merits may be debated, and I think they should be, it simply doesn't fit within the framework rigidly designed by the scientific method, and by the definition of such, the theory of intelligent design is not science.

A few summarizing points:

1. There is absolutely no need for Science and Belief to be mutually exclusive.
2. Things that have their foundations based completely on faith cannot be called science, simply by the definition of the terms.
3. Varying frameworks for the interpretation and understanding of reality can be logically argued against each other for their effectiveness in a particular task (e.g. the survival of the species,) but theories from varying frameworks can't. It's like trying to argue in two completely different languages, and is equally pointless. (This is the major problem that arises by trying to claim that one religion is the "right" religion.)

Unfortunately, while everyone that I know uses the basic world-view framework of the scientific method, even the most religious of my friends, the illogical and unpredictable aspects of human nature will always throw a monkey wrench in any attempts to live strictly by the scientific method, so the above three points are, themselves, effectively hopeless. That doesn't mean, however, that we shouldn't try to at least understand them.

Hump day

And it's not a bad one, all told. The weather's gorgeous, I've got a great sandwich leftover from yesterday for lunch (which means I won't be spending any money, too) and my boss is out of town. How could it get any better? Hmm... I'll work on it and let you know. In case you don't really know me, by far the greatest of the three things here is the boss being out of town. Hip-hip...

Delay is gone!

Thank God the man has finally stepped down. Delay is representative of the worst kind of poltician, and it's nice to know that sometimes things can be corrected even when they seem so far gone as to be nearly hopeless.

Weekend Update, Archibald Style

So Atlanta was a great time, albeit a bit too short. The CNN center on Saturday was a really neat experience. The tour shows you the actual news-room floors, and the live broadcasts going on below. It's definately a touristy approach, but is still lots of fun. Chris, Marley and I went through for the hour, as Aunt Sue wasn't up to the 8 floors of stairs we had to cover. She's doing a lot better than only a month ago, according to Chris, which is good to know, since she's still having a bit of discomfort with too much walking due to her bulging disks in her lower back. Oiy. The Georgia Aquarium was also a great time - my favorite part was the huge open-ocean tank at the end, with the absolutely gigantic (I'd guess about 100ft wide by 50ft high) clear acrylic viewing wall giving a fantastic panorama of the thousands of fish, and even the two whale-sharks. Awe-inspiring. Sunday was a lazy day reading and chilling by the hot-tub before I had to go pack and leave for the plane. A huge thanks to Chris for flying me out and back in business class - probably saving me at least an hour in the Atlanta airport and untold stress and leg-fatigue. Extra room on a flight is simply devine, especially for my 6'6" frame.

In Atlanta!

I got in yetsteday around 2 and went with Chris from the airport to grab a late lunch at Houston's. Ironic, or just good food? He then had some work to finish up so I got to see the his office and meet a bunch of coworkers, as well as get a quick tour of some of the radio and TV studio space. Pretty cool if you ask me. All I could think was that Emily would really appreciate a bunch of the stuff I saw, and even know what the hell most of it was. After that we headed home through some pretty bad traffic. Chris and Angela's house is fantastic. I've got the run of the basement "man cave," which is bigger than my entire place in Houston. Today we're planning on going to the aquarium, so that should be fun. Aunt Sue's doing much better, Marley's huge, and Chris and Angela both look and seem to be doing great. I don't want to be too antisocial so that's all for now.

Atlanta Tomorrow

... and I'm not even packed yet. Maybe I'll get up early and try to get everything done before Jonah picks me up at 9. I'm excited to see Chris, Angela, and Marley tomorrow, with the added bonus of Aunt Sue as well! Updates to follow, I'm sure.

Stupid humor between brothers

20:58:21) Flicman: you got hacked!
(20:58:41) Flicman: jealous ex girlfriend!
(20:58:50) archibaldq: heh. wouldn't that suck. hacked for like 5 emails.
(20:59:19) archibaldq: hmm... ex girlfriends
(21:00:01) archibaldq: about as far from hackers as you can get, without being a retarded inuit left on an iceflow
(21:00:34) Flicman: well, didn't you date one of those too?
(21:01:06) archibaldq: yeah. but only for a day. albeit an arctic day.
(21:01:23) Flicman: i heard it was a torrid affair.
(21:02:00) archibaldq: it was a torroidal affair. she really liked donuts.
(21:02:17) Flicman: heeheehee
(21:02:21) Flicman: you have a PROBLEM.
(21:02:25) Flicman: honestly
(21:02:38) archibaldq: a fat, retarded eskimo problem, apparently

$200

That's how much my speeding ticket last Monday was for. Fortunately (or unfortunately) that's actually much less than I was expecting. Now all I have to do is pay off my Visa bill, which accounts for about 90% of the week's expenditures in both Baltimore and NYC, and I'm golden. Actually, If I were golden, like physically made out of gold, the idea of costing an arm and a leg would pretty well fit the situation. Hmm... well, maybe only an arm.

New Lid!

Picture it with a smoke-black visor and a breath guard, and that's my new helmet. All of it, of course, paid for by Nana and Papa's generous Christmas present - Thank you both so much! Now my head will not only be much safer than in my old helmet, but is so much more comfortable while riding that I can't even compare this to my old helmet. And, note, it even matches my jacket, so I'm both safe and stylish.

Pics at last...

Dharmpal, Jun, Raj, and Albert in front of the Constellation in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.












My Dodge Charger rental on the way up to Josh's in NJ.












Julie and I in Manhattan.













Josh, Jaime, and Julie after the show Saturday Night.

No pictures yet

For some reason Blogger isn't letting me upload any pictures - today or yesterday. I guess you'll have to wait till things start working properly again.

A la Jim Anchower...

I know it's been a while since I last rapped at ya, but things have been pretty damn busy for the D-man. The APS meeting in Baltimore was overall a sucess - getting my nanocar talk out of the way Monday was probably my favorite part (as apposed to a Friday talk last year), though there were some good talks to attend as well. Veeco (a company that makes AFMs) had a good free dinner for its users on Tuesday. Wednesday had a free lunch with (a very nice) Dr. Krim of N.C. State and a good group dinner in little Italy, followed by a good deal of drinking with some labbies and other friends. Thursday, while the morning was about attending promising talks that only disappointed, will primarily be remembered for the Baltimore Aquarium and its fire alarm that vacated the building after we'd been inside only a few minutes. Things ended early at APS on Friday, and I trained back down to BWI to pick up my rental car. I caved, and for only $5 extra a day rented a Dodge Charger.

I then went up to see my college roomate Josh and his wife Jaime in NJ, where we went out for dinner before Josh and I trained in to Manhattan to meet up with Julie and see a Cyro Baptista show. It completely rocked, but the best explanation I can offer is that with the 8-10 extra percussionists on stage with him, it was like a high-energy stomp show with lots of household and random objects as percussion instruments. Really really cool.

Saturday was all about a lazy morning with Dunkin Donuts before going back into the city to meet up with Julie again and just wander around. The farmer's market and various parks were fun, as was making fun of the dogs in the dog park, and the entire day was permeated by more donuts. We then met up with a cool friend of Julie's in a middle-eastern restaurant / hookah lounge before catching up with Jaime and eating sushi before seeing Josh's show. It's really cool to see my college roomate with an off-Broadway show he composed. Called "I Love You Because" it was really funny and all around just a fantastic show. I really like knowing smart, successful, talented people. How lucky am I?

After some tasty chocolate cake in a bakery on Bleeker St, and Josh and Jaime went their separate ways, Julie and I met up with her friend Matt and went to a Complacency party called I (heart) danger. In a Brooklyn warehouse, it was fantastically cool, filled with great people and relatively good dancing music. I didn't make it to bed before 5. Now that's a sign of a good night. Sunday was mostly just lazy, including some Wallace and Gromit, shopping, and more eating of good food (a common theme throughout the week.)

All in all the weekend was awesome, but Monday sucked donkey balls. The short version follows:

/rant on
I woke up at 5:45 in Manhattan to walk 20 blocks in 28 degree windy weather to catch an hour-long train to Josh's house in NJ and my rental car so i could leave by 8. (had to return the car by 12 at BWI to save $40.) I made good time but got a ticket on the NJTurnpike for speeding - trying to pass dangerous assholes who had been messing with me for the past 8-10 miles. I returned my car by 11:30, tried to get 2 early flights, but both were overbooked, so i ended up wasting 6 hours in the airport. I gave up my extra legroom bulkhead seat for a stupid mother who can't plan ahead enough to get seats with her 2 small children, and got shafted with a middle seat that didn't recline between a fat angry man and an insanely talkative pregnant woman, behind a beligerant gold-toothed mother who kept smashing her seat into my knees (even after i yelled at her to stop) and whose stupid kids, when they weren't crying, were reaching their hands through the seat gaps to grab at whatever was on my tray. And to top it all off, after the flight from hell, I didn't get home till 11 because Continental lost my luggage.
/rant off

I'm glad it's not Monday any more.

I did get my luggage back, so that's good, but I still don't know how much my ticket's going to be for. NJ doesn't put the amount on the actual citation, and the website listed doesn't have the info yet.

I've been writing this intermittently while doing some data analysis for a paper I'm writing (hopefully for PRL) so I apologize for it's insane length and potential disjointedness. I'll try to include some links and pics in a little while, but for now all you get is the text. HA!

APS next week

That means polishing up and practicing the talks, trying to prepare for the tough questions I hope I don't get, and generally wondering where all the time disappeared to. Baltimore doesn't at first glance seem like a great convention city, but with days filled with physics lectures almost anywhere would seem wild and crazy in comparison. I know there will be plenty to do, but I suppose I should start planning things out now, because once the weekend hits, crunch-time takes over.

APS is little more than a week away, which means working on the talk, pouring through data, staying late every day, and working on Saturday. Also, this has been the week of faculty candidates, which means people visiting lab every day. All this means, of course, coupled with other, completely unrelated events, that it's the week of beer. Lots and lots of beer. In case anyone was wondering, I've done an exceedingly illogical and seemingly stupid thing - breaking up with B. - that I've posted cryptically about this week. I hope I've made right decision, because it really doesn't seem worth it all at the moment. How about some more beer? Valhala here I come.

Things and more things

Some Coldplay from B.

My song is love
Love to the loveless, shown
And it goes up
You don't have to be alone

Your heavy heart
Is made of stone
And it's so hard to see you clearly
You don't have to be on your own
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
Well I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
And I get that message home

My song is love
My song is love, unknown
And I'm on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
But I'm nothing on my own
Got to get that message home

And I'm not gonna stand and wait
Not gonna leave it until it's much too late
On a platform I'm gonna stand and say
That I'm nothing on my own
And I love you, please come home

My song is love, is love unknown
And I've got to get that message home


I suck at this.

You'd think I'd learn...

after screwing up so many times. But I don't. Does it mean that since I haven't really learned yet, after years of trying, that I'm doomed to repeat the same pattern of failure and live the rest of my life like this - that I'll continue to throw away in harsh and unforgivable ways the good things in my life? The masochistic pattern seems to be emerging that I don't consciously desire, but the similarities of past experiences are just screaming to be noticed - albeit only understood after the fact - like glaring neon warning signs on a deteriorating highway. But can I really blame a lack of foresight, or am I just too lazy and already ingrained in my ways to do the hard work it takes to change? At 25, I'd hope that i'm just being pessimistic. However, even now, the full reality of what I've just done hasn't even yet sunk in through my thick skull. It's more of a fear of that realization that I'm dealing with now, in my pathetic, fear-hobbled mind. So what other beer-soaked thoughts will I be spewing into the void once the reality's gotten all the way through? Yeah. Like anyone really cares.

Same old...

Nothing new to report, but I'm posting anyway. Lab work is frustratingly slow, and every step forward encounters another obstacle or two. About par for the course, I suppose. I am working under a deadline, however, and the lack of usefull progress is getting more nerve-wracking all the time. I've got less than a month to produce new and interesting data for a national conference, and it's probably not even going to be so interesting, even when I get it. Well, maybe someone will find it interesting, but after working on the same stuff for 3 years, I've certainly lost some of my sense of wonder. Ah well. Gotta keep trying.

Rockets Tonight

With B, her sister and brother and law. Seattle's going down. I'm having a beer.

Caffeine-based stimulants

Caffeine-based stimulants and mood - an observational study.

I'm not usually one to sing the praises of caffeine. I usually try to keep my consumption of soda to the weekends, and don't drink coffee at all, and only the occasional tea - usually of the iced and sweetened variety. In the past few days, however, I've taken to a jolt of caffeine in the afternoons, and found that work becomes much more bearable when i'm buzzing around with my artificial energy. On top of that, I find myself in a much better mood, as well. Now, I know that mid afternoon tends to bring on an energy low in most people's daily cycles, but the usually recommended high-energy snack has never quite helped the mood-portion of my afternoon slumps. Caffeine, on the otherhand - Mountain Dew, specifically - seems to have an affect. Not that I'm always in a funk come the P.M., but there's usually nothing in particular to be happy about. Today, however, it doesn't matter that there's nothing in particular, and I'm going to attribute my happiness despite that fact to the effects of caffeine. Not very scientific, I know, but this is just an observational study. What more do you want?

Edit:

Typical brewed tea contains 70 mg per 6-ounce cup.

Typical colas (Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc.) contain 50 mg per 12-ounce can. Things like Jolt contain 70 mg per 12-ounce can.

Typical milk chocolate contains 6 mg per ounce.

Anacin contains 32 mg per tablet. No-doz contains 100 mg per tablet. Vivarin and Dexatrim contain 200 mg per tablet.

Caffeine also affects dopamine levels, according to How Stuff Works, so it's no wonder i'm in a better mood, eh?

I guess I'll keep blogging

I guess people actually read this thing after all. I know, because recently a few people have asked me when I'm going to update this silly little blog. The answer: right now, biotches! I started the whole blogging thing when research was slow, and pounding out a stupid paragraph or two was just another thing to fill the gaps that are inherent in UHV work. Now research has really picked up. I've got 15 samples in a freezer now (as of last week) that I've been waiting for since October, but the setup isn't quite ready for them yet. A $1300 single-crystal piece of gold needs much more cleaning than I'd originally thought, and there are still some small issues left over from venting the chamber and repairing a number of nagging issues. Of course, some of those repairs have created nagging issues of their own, but I hope to be able to overcome them quickly so I can get on to actual research.

I'll try to keep up with this blog thing more regularly from now on - even if only a short, pointless entry like this one.

Penn State Week

I got here on Monday afternoon and was immediately wisked from the airport to the labs for a 3 minute introduction to everyone and everything before Paul (a.k.a. Dr. Weiss, the ride-giver and lab-leader-boss-man) disappeared never to be seen again. So I piddled around for a while, generally getting in people's ways and asking a bunch of questions about their STM setups, electronics, and software - all very interesting for an STM geek like myself. My next main goal consisted of altering some Matlab programs to work for my specific file formats - much harder and more time consuming than it sounds, let me assure you. I only today succeeded in the first project that I started Monday afternoon, and only shortly before that realized that it didn't do everything that I originally thought. Now part two of my Matlab goals looms much more ominously before me, since I understand it to be significantly more difficult and complex than the first. Also, to call part one a complete success, I have to create added functionality to an already complex system. Of course there are the requisite bugs that are a part of any programming endeavor, but mine are small, like the simple typo that killed most of today's progress. I have to say, though - at least I'm finally learning Matlab.

The visit as a whole is slightly better than mediocre, I'd say. Aside from dinner with some people on Monday, and brief lunches yesterday and today, it doesn't seem anyone's too anxious to be social. I suppose I understand since they probably get a lot of research visitors - they have someone coming next week as well - but even leaving lab at 6:30 leaves too much day left with nothing to do. I'm not a big fan of eating and going to bars by myself, but I suppose I could make the effort to meet random people. I'm guessing that by tomorrow night I'll be bored enough to actually do it. We'll see.

Weekend work

I'm at work today getting ready for my trip to Penn State. I learned only yesterday that I've been asked to give a talk at the Weiss group meeting - only about 20-30 people, but that's pretty big for a single lab, and they're all experts in my field, so I've got to be very precise and exact. It could be as early as Monday. I'm also working to get all my data collected and organized, brush up on my pathetic matlab skills, and learn a bunch of new stuff about image processing drift correction and feature tracking. Sounds like fun, no? Still, it should be a good trip as long as I manage not to make too much of a fool of myself.

First update of 2006

Big freakin' deal. I should have titled this post "First post in WEEKS!"

I'm not going to attempt an update on all that has happened since I posted last, but rather a brief overview for everyone who doesn't care.

Went to moms in Philly. Saw Bro and Sis. Saw extended family for Christmas and Christmas 2. Cousin J. came down from Boston, but not Uncle R., Aunt K., or Cousin N. because Uncle R.s cancer seems to be winning this round. My thoughts are with you guys. Hung out with Bro and Sis a lot and closed a couple bars - cool. Ate way too much food, including mom's incredible Christmas cookies. Now I'm fat.

There. That about sums it up. New years eve was a quiet, yet satisfying and fun evening with B. Work has started again and once again I'm sort of directionless. Well, not exactly directionless, but completely unmotivated to more in the directions I could be. I leave for a week at Penn State next Monday, so I've been doing prep work for that, but probably not enough. I'm sort of apprehensive about going, because there's not really any specific project or solid goal for the trip. Aside from "learn their method for post-acquisition image drift correction in matlab," I'm supposed to eye the lab for post-doc potential. hmmm.... I'm not sure I even want to do a post-doc. What the hell do I want to do?

Blarg

not blog. blarg. my stomach is keeping me at home this morning, and kept me up for much of last night. if it's food poisoning it's not too severe, but it's not getting better as quickly as i'd expect, either. i'm guessing that it's some sort of bug, since it came on slowly during the day yesterday, and still hasn't let go as of noon today. interesting, isn't it? just what people want to read about on a random blog, i'm sure.

I went to the Texans game yesterday with B, her brother in law M, and his friend and Houston radio personality Maria Todd. I don't really listen to the radio, but I'm sure to now. The Texans actually won against the Cardinals, too! Not a bad day, all in all. Now I just have to get over this stupid bug and get the week started.

So much to do...

... So little time. Actually, I'm more nervous about things I've ordered online getting here on time. I still haven't heard about a specific package yet, and it's making me very nervous that it hasn't even shipped yet. Ah well. All I can do is wait at the moment. Work calls. Short post.

I almost forgot

... to mention that I got my TLS back. Woot! It handles and rides better than when I first bought it from its previous owner. Andy at Metric suggests a different brake pad compound, but I'll save that for when I actually have money. (seemingly never, at this rate.) That's all. I've been riding it to school and back, but not much further. My shoulder still aches when I ride, and I don't think long rides are possible as of yet. I'm using that as a mark of being 100% healed from surgery. I'll know I'm better when I can ride for a few hours without noticing my shoulder.

Christmas is coming

Doing: writing emails, prepping samples and experimental setup
Listening to: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Thinking: I need some more traditional Christmas music, too
Feeling: pretty good, for a Monday

It's nearly seventy today. Less than a week ago the high was in the low forties. What the hell?

I got a haircut this weekend. I also shaved for the first time in a week. I'm so freaking clean-cut! I'm also much more aerodynamic.

I still don't have a present for B. grrr... I'm really bad at this this year.

I wish I remembered all the French I've learned and since forgotten over the years. Then I could converse with the people in the Croissant Brioche like the real French who eat there. That would be fun. Plus girls would think I was cool.

Brrr

It's cold today. Brilliant observation, I know, but below freezing is really cold for Houston. It usually goes near freezing about 4 times a year, and at Rice the high today has only hit 37, with a low of 31. At least I've got a real winter coat down here, unlike a lot of Houstonians. I only get to wear it a couple times a year, but when I do, I really appreciate it. Now if it would only snow, and some mountains would magically grow about an hour away, then I could go snowboarding again! Of course I'd have to win the lottery, too, since I'm so broke. Hooray for self-induced poverty! Nobody forced me to be a grad student.

64 years ago today

...2,390 people lost their lives at Pearl Harbor. Let's not forget.

I saw an old man yesterday wearing USS Arizona hat, and suddenly came down with a heavy feeling of inadequacy. I hope that I can live my life in ways worthy of the incredible sacrifices that these, and many other people have made in the course of defending our country and the things it stands for. In that vein, I also hope to have the courage and conviction to do what's right and necessary to guarantee that our country continues to embody all those ideas and ideals that these people died for. Let's not slip into complacency in the face of national moral and ideological quandaries, but let days like today remind us that we need to be constantly vigilant, both internally and externally, against that which would threaten the basic tenants of our country.

Free Tickets

... to see the Rockets take on the Celtics at the Toyota Center tonight. Sweet. Free parking again, too. Man, B. has the hookups, and I'm getting spoiled. It's not in a party suite this time, so no free food and beer, but I guess I'll get by somehow.

Aside from that, nothing really new. Of course, I'm getting about $600-$700 worth of work done on my TL in trade for my broken Bandit. Seems like a good deal to me, since Andy said it's probably only worth about $500 to him, cash. Of course, with some elbow grease I could probably part it out on Ebay for a good deal more, but it's such a hassle that the trade-off seems worth it. Who knows. Maybe I'll kick myself later, but it will be good to have my TL back in better shape than even when I bought it.

edit: section C107, row 7, seat 7. face value of tickets: $185 per.

Bartering Bandits, Being Broke, and Burgers

I finally bit the bullet and got rid of the bandit. My first motorcycle, a 1992 suzuki Bandit 400 (GSF 400,) just wouldn't stay running for me, no matter how much money I poured into it. It was a fun little bike, but I hadn't ridden it in months, mostly due to its unreliable nature. I didn't want to get stranded on the side of I-45 again. So, seeing as my everyday commuter, the bigger, badder, and generally more useful and fun motorcycle, the Suzuki TL1000s had started having electrical problems, I decided it was just stupid to have two broken bikes. So in a deal with Andy at Metric Motorcycles (a good guy who owns a local bike garage) I've bartered my bandit for his services fixing and tuning up the TL. That required a Uhaul rental, two trips across Houston, and many hours out of the day, but it was worth it. I even stopped for a Bubbas burger with B. for lunch. mmm... Bubbas.

Really, I had no other choice. Seeing as the problem with the TL is electrical, and I have no way of accurately diagnosing, much less fixing the problem on my own, added to the fact that I'm broke, have almost $3k in medical bills (not counting physical therapy bills which haven't even come in yet) and a poorly-aging car, I can't afford to pay for the repairs, and really can't afford not to have my TL working. So there it is. It's been fun, little Bandit. I'm sure Andy will take much better care of you than I have.

Yesterday was a slow day with a bunch of Half-Life-2 on the X-box. It's a great 1st person shooter, with a story as much fun as I remember the first Half-Life to be. Later in the evening, I went with B. to her parents house up 290 in Fairfield for some burgers her dad cooked on the grill. I'm such a sucker for cheeseburgers. Her family is really nice, and Fairfield reminded me of parts of Delaware. It was cold and rainy most of the evening, with a low in the low forties last night. Nice contrast to the 84 degrees we hit on Saturday, when I was lugging bikes in and out of the uhaul motorcycle trailor. Yeesh. I wish it'd just stay cold already.

Friday at last

Doing: Reading and writing emails
Listening to: Jurassic 5 / Daft Punk
Feeling: Full - I just finished eating a breakfast taco. mmmm.... eggy-licious.
Thinking: Is scanning today really going to accomplish anything? (no.)

Physical therapy again today. Hopefully it won't hurt as much as last time. For some reason I was more sore than usual after last session. Then it's the weekend! It looks like I'll be taking my bike to get fixed tomorrow if I get my act together and get a u-haul bike trailor. Maybe some bartering will be an order, too. I was invited to go to B's parent's house on Sunday, too, for some burgers and family fun. mmm... burgers. I can't resist.

And just for fun, here are some pictures I took on the train back from Manhattan to Philadelphia last weekend. Using my little ghetto-digy (2Mp point and shoot, less than $100 over a year ago from Target) the pictures didn't come out so bad.


Who wants to go to Secaucus!!?!?

I liked these lamp posts, for some reason.

I don't think that there was a right side of the tracks around here.