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?