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