Hello World

My Summer Vacation

2006-09-26T21:29:00.000-05:00

What I did for my summer vacation:

Visited the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Stayed in a cabin in the woods for two weeks in Flagstaff, AZ

Went on a 13.5 mile round trip hike down into the Grand Canyon

Took a boat ride on Lake Mead

Visited Hoover Dam

Lost money in Las Vegas

Went observing in Hawaii

Saw flying saucers (actually, lenticular clouds) in Hawaii

Took a beautiful ferry ride from Vancouver to Victoria

Attended a 4-day summer school in Victoria, CA

Moved into a house and had a party with massive amounts of intoxicants

Got boarded by Darth Vader on a monorail in Seattle

Went up the Space Needle at sunset

Kayaked among the San Juan Islands

Went cliff-jumping in Bellingham, Washington

Had another party

Went observing in Hawaii (again)

Watched a beautiful sunset from the summit of Mauna Kea

Stood on the southern-most piece of land in the United States (South Point, Hawaii)

Saw sea turtles on a Hawaiian black sand beach

I also did other touristy things in Hawaii, including going to the Volcanoes National Park and seeing a steam plume from lava flowing into the ocean, snorkeling on a beautiful, nearly-deserted, hidden beach, and hiking down into the jungle on a mud path to see an impressive waterfall. I just decided there are enough pictures on here already, so I'm not posting anymore.

The picture of Las Vegas was taken by my brother, since his came out better than any of mine. The picture of the kayaks on a beach in the San Juan Island chain was taken by Miranda, since I haven't actually gotten mine developed yet. All others were taken by me.

Whoever called me a lazy bastard in the last entry - yeah, so what?

Until next time (which, knowing me, might be tomorrow, or it might be in 2007 sometime).

p.s. I lied. The picture of me throwing myself off a cliff was also taken by Miranda.

Still Alive

2006-09-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

Contrary to popular belief, I have not died. I keep saying to myself "I should update my blog," and I really should because I have had a lot of fun trips and other things happen since I last updated. A real update will be coming "soon..."

The Last Team Meeting

2006-05-26T18:10:00.000-05:00

I'm in Flagstaff now (that's in Arizona in case you didn't know). I've actually been here for the last two weeks, I just haven't gotten around to updating this blog recently enough to tell all of you that sooner (by "all of you" I mean the 0.2 people that I think actually read this thing). I've been here the last two weeks for a Team Meeting for the research group that I'm a part of. Basically, it's the same thing I went to Leiden for last year - this year it's in Flagstaff. This is the last year the project is funded, so it's our last team meeting. There will be groups in the future that I'll be a part of, but who knows if they'll have large enough budgets to send me on trips all over the country (and occasionally the world). I hope so.

Anyway, today is the last day of the meeting. It's been a weird meeting: the first week most of the group was here, so it was like you might expect a meeting among a bunch of astronomers to be like, but the second week only a few of us stayed in order to work on writing papers and such. Each day there were less and less of us here as people left throughout the week, so that by today (Friday, the last day of the meeting) there are only three of us left. The whole dwindling number of people as the week progressed thing really made it feel like the project was ending. The three of us (me, Neal [that would be my advisor in case you were wondering], and a grad student from CalTech) are kind of like the last hold-outs. Or something like that.

Last week a few of us went on a 13 mile hike in the Grand Canyon. 4.5 miles down into the canyon over a vertical change of about 3000 feet, 4.5 miles across a plateau halfway down the canyon, and then 4.5 miles back up the same vertical change of 3000 feet. It was almost definitely the most difficult hike I've ever done. I think there's two reasons for that: (1) I'm hopelessly out of shape thanks to working too much over the last several months, and (2) We had a time limit because we had to be out of the canyon by about 4:30 pm in order to make it to a banquet. I'm really glad I did it, the hike was an incredible experience... but I do NOT want to do something like that again anytime soon. At least, not without getting in better shape first. The last mile or two up damn near killed me!

I have tons of pictures from my day at the Grand Canyon. But I'm staying next week for a vacation with my parents, brother, and grandparents - half the week at the Grand Canyon and then the other half of the week in Las Vegas. So I'll post pictures some other time when I have more to post (basically, I'm just to lazy to post them now).

Ok, I'm done.

Prophetic Words

2006-04-30T03:01:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I fly back to Austin, and so begins my four months of absolute hell. Between finishing the paper I am writing, finishing the other paper I am co-writing, writing a fellowship proposal, writing quite a few telescope time proposals, leading a new "working group" within the large research group I am part of, taking the last class I will ever take, and, above all else, preparing for my Second Year Defense on April 7th, these are probably going to be the most stressful four months of my life.

- "Holy Shit!" blog entry
January 15, 2006

Little did I know back in January just how prophetic those words would turn out to be. I posted that entry while attending a meeting in Maryland, and after returning, I mostly just ignored how much work I had for a few more weeks and didn't do much of it. But by the end of January I couldn't really ignore it anymore.

The end of January is also the last time I posted a new entry, and that's not a coincidence. Once I really got to work on everything I had to do these past few months, there was not enough time to sleep, let alone write blog entires. I predicted these would be the most stressful months of my life, and I was more right than I could have ever imagined when I wrote that. My life pretty much consisted of: Wake up, go to work, come home for dinner for an hour or two, go back to work, come home obscenely late (2 AM? 3 AM? some nights even 5 Am), get a few hours of sleep, and then do it all over again. For most of the last few months I was on a seven day work schedule - weekends didn't really mean anything, they were just more days to work.

Thankfully, as of a few weeks ago, my work schedule is now back to normal. I passed my Second Year Defense on April 7th, and am now officially considered a PhD candidate student. I still have tons of work to do, but it's not as crazy as it was. Now it's just back to normal grad-school craziness.

If one thing has come out of these past few months, it's been an examination of my future. Do I really want to work in astronomy in an academic setting for the rest of my life? Honestly, I'm not really sure anymore, and now I'm not even sure I ever really was. I'll stick it out long enough to get my PhD (which will still take a few years), but what about after that? Life in academics is not easy - the hours are long, you are mostly your own boss so, in order to accomplish anything, you have to have a very strong work ethic. The pay is usually pretty crappy. You rarely get much recognition for your work. And, perhaps most damning of all, there is no job security until you are able to "establish yourself," which doesn't usually happen for most people until they are in their mid-30s or older. The only way to survive in this sort of setting is to absolutely love without question what you do. I like astronomy and truly enjoy what I do, but do I like it enough for it to make everything else worth it? I don't really know.

Anyway, enough late-night ramblings.

Moment of Zen

2006-01-29T22:50:00.000-06:00

Have you ever had one of those moments where some little thing suddenly made you stop and appreciate just how much beauty there is in the world? I did today.

I needed to get work done this weekend, but spent most of the weekend being rather lazy. I finally decided to drive into work around 6pm tonight to get something done. When driving anywhere from my apartment, as soon as you turn off of my street onto the one that takes you to the highway, you come around a corner and get a pretty nice view of downtown Austin about a mile away. Since I left my apartment near sunset, as I made the turn and came around the corner this evening, I was treated to a view of the setting sun reflecting off of the Austin skyline.

I don't consider Austin to have a terribly remarkable or beautiful skyline, certainly nothing along the lines of Seattle, Sydney, or, in its own way, Manhatten. However, seeing the entire skyline lit up in a brilliant shade of orange against the backdrop of a darkening sky literally took my breath away. I wasn't expecting it, and to suddenly see something like that was an amazing sight. It really made me stop and appreciate the beauty one can find in everyday objects, even when you least expect it.

I think this is especially relevant in the light of my last two blog entries. They have been rather political, and, for lack of a better word, angry. I admit I'm not happy with the state of this Nation, and I'm certainly not happy with the current government, and I think I've been letting that make me angry lately. Not at anybody in particular, just at "America" and "the Government" in general. I think it's important not to let those sorts of things overwhelm you, and what I saw this evening reminded me of how much good there is to see in the world in addition to the bad, if you're only willing to look for it.

It really was a nice moment, and I'm glad I got to see it.

I know I'm supposed to be uploading a piture per blog entry, otherwise I'll never catch up with all the pictures I want to show. I'm too lazy to do it now though. Maybe next time.

O Canada

2006-01-24T23:50:00.000-06:00

In a result that was quite expected, Conservative Stephen Harper was elected as Canada's next Prime Minister. After all the scandal and corruption that plagued Paul Martin's Liberal Party recently, it really wasn't much of a surprise that the Liberals were voted out. I am a bit frightened by the fact that even Canada is showing a trend towards Conservatism, but it is at least a small victory that, while Harper was elected Prime Minister, the Conservatives didn't win a majority. So he'll have to rely on building alliances with more liberal sections of the government. It will actually be quite interesting to watch how Harper runs the government - how conservative, exactly, are Canadian conservatives?

In respone to Harper's election, the following quote appeared in an article on CNN.com [article]:

"We are glad to see that Canadians have values-voters too," said Bob Morrison of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based group opposed to abortion and gay marriage.

Values-voters? I have gone on tirades about this concept before, but this quote pissed me off so much that I feel I must go on another one. What exactly is it about the Americans who voted for Bush and the Republicans in general that have them so convinced they voted for the party with moral values? They voted for a man who supports discrimination, because what else do you call Bush's stance on gay marraige? It is not hurting you in any way, shape, or form if gays want to marry. Your entire argument is based on religious reasons - well, guess what, this country is not run by the Church. The laws we pass are supposed to be separate from religion.

To continue, let's see what other values Bush stands for. He stands for bullying the weak and rewarding the strong, as his wonderful tax policies have shown. Need more evidence for bullying the weak? How about the fact that the US Armed Forces, under his administration, actively target low-income, under-educated minorities in their recruitment drives? How about the fact that his new medicare plan denies prescription drugs to countless senior citizens who need them to survive? Don't believe me? Then pick up a newspaper and read account after account of state governments being forced to step in and pick up the tab for senior citizens that are now denied the medicine they would die without. Still not enough? Well then let's consider that, under his watch, funding for VA hospitals has continued to decrease, to the point where we are no longer able to even take care of the brave men and women who have fought to defend our way of life in past wars.

And in all of this, I haven't even touched upon the war in Iraq. Values? Do those values include lying to the American people about weapons of mass destruction and failing to provide the equipment and support services necessary for our troops (stories of soldiers creating their own makeshift bullet-proof plates on Hummers and other vehicles because the Pentagon did not supply them with the proper equipment were quite prevalent for awhile before the short attention span of the American people moved on to other things)? Do these values include entering a war for which we had absolutely no planned exit strategy, thus compromising the safety and health of our men and women in uniform?

And what about ruining the life of a woman by leaking her status as an undercover CIA agent simply because her husband happened to publicly disagree with his administration? Or ignoring intelligence that plainly stated that a major attack on US soil was planned and that terrorists were in the US learning how to fly planes?

And don't even get me started on Tom Delay.

Values-voters? Apparently Americans have some pretty questionable values if our last round of elections were decided on values.

No Pride

2006-01-21T23:37:00.000-06:00

According to a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallop poll, 50% of Americans believe it is OK for the government to forgo warrants when ordering electronic surveillance of American citizens. According to a story in the Washington Post, the FBI has opened preliminary terrorist investigations on several groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Greenpeace, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Yes, you read that right. Preliminary terrorist investiations into PETA and the ACLU. Even more recently, the US government has requested information from several internet search companies, information that is most definitely in the grey area between public and private information. All of the companies have complied except for Google, who plans to bring the request to court in an attempt to fight it.

Of everything that I said in the above paragraph, you know what bothers me the most? The first sentence - 50% of Americans believe it is OK for the government to forgo warrants when ordering electronic surveillance of American citizens. No! No, damn it, no! There is a reason we have a a bill of rights. It isn't there to look pretty, it serves a very real, very important purpose - the protection of US citizens from unfair treatment by the government. I realize there is a fine line between safety and privacy, but wiretapping without a court order? That is absolutely unacceptable! Why can't they get a court order? If there is a justifiable reason a person or organization should be monitored, then it is a simple matter to get a court order. The only reasons I can see for the government doing what it is doing is: (i) They don't have a justifiable reason, or (ii) They are lazy. If it is the latter, then that is the worst damn reason I have ever heard. And if it is the former, which I suspect it is, then I am disgusted. Absolutely disgusted.

Maybe some of the people they are monitoring without court orders are actually terrorists that they just don't have enough evidence against. That is certainly possible. But the added benefit of possibly stopping some sort of terrorist attack is not at all worth the cost of loss of freedom and privacy. I don't care if it is me that dies in the attack that wasn't stopped because there was no court order, if it was my family, or if it was every friend I've ever had. That would be a terrible tragedy, but giving up our freedom and privacy to an overbearing, all-seeing, and all-knowing government the likes of which a certain book with a certain title that sounds something like 1984 wrote about is an even greater tragedy. Americans love to preach about their love of freedom and their duty to spread freedom and democracy to the rest of the world, but we are apparently blind to the fact that we are giving up those very freedoms more and more every day to an administration that, in Hillary Clinton's words, is one of the worst we have ever had.

As each month passes, I find myself less and less proud to be an American than the month before. I take no pride in our supposed democracy, because we do not have a democracy, we have some weird combination of an oligarcy and an aristocracy. I take no pride in the illegal and unjust war we have waged these past few years. I take no pride in our disgusting consumption of the world's resources. I take no pride in our blatant disregard for the enviroment. I take no pride in our apathy towards those that are unable to afford their own health care.

Never has my desire to leave America and never come back been stronger.

And now to switch gears, here is the picture-of-the-entry. Something different this time, I'm taking a break from Hawaii pictures. This is my parents' house, all lit up for Christmas and surrounded by the void of night.

Old Friends

2006-01-18T22:03:00.000-06:00

For some strange reason I decided to IM an old high school friend of mine that I hadn't talked to or seen in several years. Actually, he wasn't really a "high scool friend," he was more of a "childhood friend." I've known him since we were in 3rd grade, and by the time we were in 4th grade we were best friends. We stayed that way all the way up until about 11th grade. We started to drift apart a bit the last two years of high school, but we were still very good friends.

And then we both graduated, went off to college, and that was that. I talked to him a bit that first semester, but probably a total of 5 times after that. And not at all in the last three years (possibly even longer, I'm not exactly sure). Our conversation tonight was not very deep - we talked for a little while, I found out he still lives in the area we grew up, he found out I live in Austin, and that was about it.

Why am I so bad at staying in touch with people? Even by my second year of college there were only three people from high school that I stayed in touch with, and now there are only two. There are about 5 people from Rochester I have had any communication with since I graduated. There are barely two people from the summer research program I did between sophomore and junior years in Rochester [if we use 'staying in touch with' in a very liberal sense], and there is about 1/2 a person I stay in touch with from the summer research program I did in Seattle between Junior and Senior year. There are zero people I still talk to from the three weeks I spent in Australia and New Zealand way back in whatever year that was, despite the fact that I formed some really close friendships with a few people.

Is it that I am bad at staying in touch with people, or is it that I am bad at getting close to people to begin with? And if it's the latter, which I suspect it is, why is that? It would be easy to blame it all on something like what happened with Sarah or what happened in Rochester, but I think that's a cop-out. Because if I can trace this all the way back to Australia and New Zealand, clearly the problem existed long before either of the messes I made of things with the only two girls I ever really felt something more than a passing interest in.

So if I can't blame it on that, what can I blame it on? How about Leprechauns. I always did think they were evil little things.

(Apparently, my introspective mood continues. This marks several weeks now of feeling very introspective and questioning "what is wrong with me?" Again, I blame Leprechauns. Evil bastards).

And now for the picture of the entry: a waterfall just outside of Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. I haven't been to the other islands, and I suspect at least a few of them are full of annoying tourists and Starbucks on every corner and all that, but I really love the Big Island. Very beautiful place.

Deep thinking... and a volcano.

2006-01-18T00:38:00.000-06:00

After my last post, I managed to stay awake for a few more hours and then left for the airport. I then flew from Maryland back to Austin and got home around noon. This was Sunday afternoon. At that point my recent sleep schedule was as follows:

Saturday night: 0.0 hours of sleep
Friday night: 6.5 hours of sleep
Thursday night: 3.5 hours of sleep

So... yeah. In the previous three nights I had gotten a total of 10 hours of sleep. Guess what? I was tired. No, that is an understatement. I was perhaps more tired than ever before. I felt drunk. I felt more than drunk. At one point Sunday afternoon I was convinced there was a rainbow on my wall. I did laundry and spent about five minutes trying to figure out why the machine wouldn't turn on (it tends to work better if you close the lid). I was so tired, so exhausted, that I was just completely stupid.

But something very odd happened. I started to do a lot of deep thinking. And I mean really deep, contemplative, soul-searching, no-holds-barred thinking. It was about life and everything that comes with it. I was so tired I couldn't even go to sleep, so instead I thought. And thought. And thought. I thought about anything and everything, but mostly I thought about my own life and the last couple of years.

I don't know why, but I ended up spending a lot of time analyzing my life over the past few years. What has happened in that time? I graduated from Rochester, took a summer off from work, moved to Austin, started graduate school, found a profession and a field within that profession that I love working in. I've traveled to Hawaii three times. I spent a month in Europe. I've traveled to quite a few places within the country. I've made contacts in cities all over the country, and to a lesser extent, the world. I've discovered a great deal about myself, about my interests, my likes and dislikes, and about what makes me tick.

And yet have I been happy? Not really. Why not? That was what I spent so long thinking about while staring at the imaginary rainbow and trying to make the washing machine with the lid up work. I have some ideas about why not, and some ideas about what I need to do to improve myself in the future. I'd share them with you, but just as I was on the edge of a major breakthrough in all this deep thinking...

I fell asleep.

And I slept for 16 hours.

And I only woke up because I had set an alarm just in case I fell asleep and slept for a long time.

So maybe I'll stay awake for a few days again to see what happens. I was so close to finding the answer to everything. So close!

I've decided to end every blog entry with a picture. It's the only way I'll ever post all the pictures I've taken and want to show. Today's picture is of lava entering the ocean at Hawaii Volcano National Park. I took it about an hour after sunset. Most amazing place I've ever been, without a doubt. There is something incredibly awe-inspring about knowing that you are standing on land that didn't even exist two years earlier, and only now exists because lava spewed forth from the ground and entered the ocean and cooled, building new land. Very cool.

Ignore the little red dot in the upper half of the picture. My camera has a bad pixel and I am far too lazy to photoshop it out. Just deal with it.

Holy Shit!

2006-01-15T02:14:00.000-06:00

Holy Shit! I'm actually updating my blog?!?! And only a week after the last time I wrote a blog entry? I know, I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. But it's currently 3 AM and I have to force myself to stay awake for two and a half more hours, so I need something to pass the time. You see, I'm in Maryland for a meeting and leave early tomorrow morning (actually, early this morning). I was going to try to go to bed fairly early to actually get some sleep for once, but ended up going out instead (which is way more fun than sleep anyway) and getting back late enough where, by the time I got my stuff together it wasn't worth going to sleep. But yeah, I need something to distract myself, because that bed on the other side of my hotel room looks pretty nice right now. So, I will share some pictures from Hawaii. All of these are from my most recent trip last October/November, when I was there for a week-long astronomy conference followed by a week-long observing run (with a few days vacation in Hawaii in the middle).

The first picture is just a picture of the beautiful coastline that is typical of the side of the Big Island of Hawaii the conference was on. It's a mix of black volcanic rock and white coral, and while it isn't very comfortable if you're looking for nice, sandy beaches, I really like the look of the coast here. It's just very different from the normal, boring beach you see everywhere else. The second picture is a sunset I took from only a few steps away from my hotel room, and the third is a sunset a few days later I took while standing on my balcony. Yeah, that was the view from my balcony, the balcony of a hotel room I did not have to pay for on a trip I did not have to pay for. Sure there was a lot of working to take up a lot of the time, but still, this was a really awesome trip made even better by the fact that it didn't cost me anything. The last picture was taken on a black sand beach over on the other side of the island (the rainy, cloudy side) that is also a protected home of Green Sea Turtles. I thought that one was dead at first, but it did eventually move its head a little bit. Very cool.

I have a LOT more pictures to share from this trip, not to mention my other two Hawaii trips and the three weeks I spent in the Netherlands. But I'll post those some other day. Well, maybe I will, I'm still not convinced my third attempt at blogging is going to be any more successful than the first two.

Tomorrow I fly back to Austin, and so begins my four months of absolute hell. Between finishing the paper I am writing, finishing the other paper I am co-writing, writing a fellowship proposal, writing quite a few telescope time proposals, leading a new "working group" within the large research group I am part of, taking the last class I will ever take, and, above all else, preparing for my Second Year Defense on April 7th, these are probably going to be the most stressful four months of my life. What fun.

I was going to wear my sweatshirt on the plane tomorrow, but it smells like food from the restaurant I was at tonight. That makes me sad. It is comfortable.

Revisiting " Why do I suck at writing blog entries?"

2006-01-06T14:32:00.000-06:00

Five months later, and still the same question. Why do I suck at writing blog entries? This has probably been one of the least updated, least interesting, least informative blogs in the history of blogging. What is it about me that gives me that dubious honor?

Believe it or not, I actually spent some time thinking about that question. It was while trying to fight off boredom while sitting on a plane, and while I have no idea why that is how my mind decided to occupy itself, the question of why blogging and I never really got along very well kept coming to me.

I think part of it is because very few people read it. I don't really publicize it beyond a link in my AIM profile, so only a very small number of people ever knew it existed. And what's the point of writing blog entries if somewhere between zero and two people will read it, and those two people that do probably don't care anyway.

But if that were really it, then why didn't I publicize it more? I say I didn't write because nobody read it, but do I really want everybody I've ever met (and people I've never met) reading it? Not really. And the fact that I don't know exactly who might stumble onto this someday tends to cause me to censor what I say, since I'm not really interested in random people reading my more private thoughts.

So, in conclusion, I don't write much because nobody reads it, but I don't really want anybody to read it, and just in case they do, I don't really say anything too private anyway.

Why do I have a blog again?

I've been asked to update it with pictures and such from some of the trips I've taken and will take this year, since one of the only perks of being a grad student is that I get to travel a fair amount. So I'll give it a try and see what happens. Maybe I'll update soon with stuff about my last Hawaii trip. Maybe I'll update soon with stuff about a trip to Maryland I have next week.

And maybe I won't. Because, after all, I do suck at writing blog entries.

Why do I suck at writing blog entries?

2005-08-08T16:11:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Texas now. Actually, I've been back over a week already, but I seem to suck at writing blog entries. Why is that? Does anybody have any ideas?

So... final thoughts on my time in Europe. It was really nice. I really didn't want to come back. It wasn't just one thing, it was the combination of a lot of little things that all added up to a really nice time. First and foremost is Leiden itself - I really love that town. It's big enough where there are a lot of things to do, restaurants to go to, pubs to spend an evening in, etc., but that annoying "always-on-the-go" attitude that you always find in big cities (more so in the US, but at least to some extent in big cities everywhere) is completely absent. It's just a really nice place to live. Of course, I was there in the good time of the year - it's probably quite depressing to be there in the winter, where they have about 6 hours of daylight a day. Could you imagine going outside at 9am and having the sun just starting to rise? Or leaving work early and coming home at 4 and having it already be completely dark out? That would suck!

But anyway, I wasn't there for that, so it's all good. Anyway, besides Leiden, there was the weather. 70-ish every day, which is SO nice compared to the hellish summers here in Austin. And the general European lifestyle, which is more laid back and not as pushy and annoying as the American lifestyle. And finally, there was just the all-around coolness of being in Europe for a month. I'm telling you, I didn't want to come back.

I should stop procrastinating and get back to work.

Leiden, Day 13

2005-07-18T14:22:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently I still suck at updating my blog. I meant to update at least once every few days, but obviously that isn't happening. Oh well.

I'll give a quick summary of what I've been up to since I last posted. Besides working, I've spent a lot of time wandering around and exploring Leiden. I took a bike ride along with most of the rest of the group out to the North Sea for a barbeque on the beach one night. I went on a 30 km bike ride with several other people out in the countryside. I'm probably going to go to Amsterdam this weekend. I was going to try and get to Paris while I'm here, but it's almost definitely not going to happen - it's just too expensive.

I have pictures I could post, thoughts I could express about my time here in the Netherlands, and comments I could make about current events. But I don't feel like it right now. Maybe tomorrow...

Leiden, Weekend 1 (Days 4 and 5)

2005-07-10T11:58:00.000-05:00

I wanted to try hard to keep this blog from becoming a "Today I did this, then I did that, then I saw this, and my life is so much cooler than yours because I'm in Europe basically for free and you're not." But I have a feeling I am going to fail in my attempts to prevent that from happening, especially since I am now going to tell you what I did this weekend.

I actually spent most of Saturday at work, but I did go go into the center of town for lunch and then again for dinner. [Side Note - if that statement confuses you, remember, I'm not on vacation. I, along with all the other participants in this workshop/conference, have offices to work in. And we are expected to work, one of the main goals of this thing is to bring the entire research group together to get work done that would be hard to get done while we're all at our various institutions and not together in one place. So while I will do my fair share of playing tourist, I'll be working most of the time I'm here. Not that I'm complaning, don't get me wrong. Not at all. But I just wanted to set the record straight.]

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Leiden. I went into town for lunch and dinner on Saturday, and what I saw was nice, but I didn't see that much. Today was my real exploration - I spent most of the day aimlessly wandering around the streets of Leiden, enjoying the unusually warm and sunny weather (by unusually warm, I mean that it was almost 80, still a wonderful break from Austin weather).

Leiden really is exactly what you would picture the perfect little European city to look like. Narrow, crowded streets with small, one and two story buildings crammed together. Cars, bikes, and pedestrians flowing through streets in a jumbled mess that might make sense to the locals but looks like a free-for-all to me. And, since this is Holland, of course there are random windmills scattered about here and there. And canals - lots of narrow canals randomly wandering through the city.

The one thing that struck me over and over was that you just never know what you'll find next. One minute I'm wandering down this narrow alley and suddenly I turn the corner and there's ... A HILL! Then you read the sign and see that it's man-made, but still, a hill! In Holland! Atop the hill sits a "castle" (the locals call it a castle, but it's more like a small circular thing made out of stone). You can climb up it and walk around the edge to get a nice overlook of the city, which I did. It was nice.

I also randomly stumbled on an outdoor street market. It hit home just how much of a non-tourist city this was when I saw that all the vendors were selling household items (there was a guy selling silverware) as opposed to tourist trinkets that you buy just to put on a shelf and look at. I actually kind of like that - I feel like I'm seeing a real slice of Europe, not a tourism-ized one. Just a short walk from the market was my favorite surprise of the day - a Mini Cooper competition! There were dozens, if not hundreds, of mini-coopers lined up along the sides of the street. I assume it was some sort of competition because a few had ribbons attached to them with people standing next to them with proud looks on their faces. But I'm only assuming, because I have no idea what any of the signs said or what anybody was saying. Some might find it daunting wandering around (and sometimes getting lost) in a place where you can't speak the language - I find it to add to the fun. And, of course, everybody hear knows English. So if I really got into trouble I could just ask and I'd find somebody who spoke English in about 5 seconds.

Overall it was a really nice day. I split my time equally between aimlessly wandering around, sitting in outdoor cafes people-watching, and lounging around in the shade surrounding the "castle" and reading for awhile. And I still haven't seen all of the center of the town yet, I just couldn't do anymore today because I was too tired. And we're also only about a half hour bike ride away from the North Sea, so I'll probably try and get there at some point. Plus, I can't spend three and a half weeks in the Netherlands and not visit Amsterdam, so I'll have to take a day trip there at some point. And wasn't I the one going on about how much work I'm supposed to get done while I'm here?

Anyway, to end this thing, here are a few random pictures taken around Leiden. I took quite a few more than these, but I don't feel like uploading too many of them.

Leiden, Day 4

2005-07-09T03:16:00.000-05:00

Just a short entry today, I'll write more some other time. The other day I mentioned there isn't much around the hotel I'm staying at besides a highway and farm animals. Well, I wasn't kidding about the farm animals. I took this picture out my hotel room window when I got up this morning:

Leiden, Day 2

2005-07-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

My apologies in advance for the rambing, possibly incoherent nature of this post. I am tired. Very tired.

The hotel's internet has started working again. Yay!

Today was the first day of the two-day Oort Workshop on protostellar disks. It was interesting, but sitting through a full day of scientific presentations is quite tiring. I was fading fast by the time we got to the last few presentations, I think my brain was on overload. Luckilly the presentations only went until 3:30, if they had gone until 5 or 6 I seriously doubt I would have stayed awake.

Anyway, they ended at 3:30 because we went to The Hague today ("we" refers to the other workshop participants). For those of you that don't know what that is, The Hague is the seat of the government of The Netherlands. No, it's not the capital - that's Amsterdam. Confused? Yeah, I was too. Apparently Holland is one of only a few nations in the world where the government isn't actually located in the capital city. That's kind of odd.

We went to an art museum first, where we spent about 45 minutes. It was ok - the art was quite nice and all, but I think I'm just not an "art person." I respect the talent that goes into creating artwork worthy of being placed in a museum, but I just don't get much enjoyment out of walking around a museum looking at it all. I just don't think it's for me. Oh well.

After that we walked around for a bit and ended up at an outdoor cafe, where we all spent an hour just sitting and drinking beer to kill time until dinner. Dinner was at an Indonesian restaurant - it was nice. The food was pretty good, but nothing to get all that excited about.

I'm including two pictures I took while in The Hague. They were both taken while sitting at the cafe, looking in different directions.

Let's see... other random comments. It's weird being this far north. It's about 10 pm right now, and it's still quite light out. If I had to guess without any knowledge of the time, I would guess it was about 8 at the latest. It's so nice being here after the heat in Austin right now - the high is only about 70. It's perfect! I rented a bike today, so it's now much easier to get around. I'll probably do some serious Leiden-exploring this weekend. If it's not raining, that is. I think that's all.

Leiden, Day 1

2005-07-07T21:47:00.000-05:00

**Originally written at about 5 pm on July 6, 2005**

I’m in Leiden now, but I can’t actually upload this because the hotel I’m staying at that is supposed to have free wireless internet does in fact have it, but it’s currently “down for repairs.” So I’m writing this offline and I’ll upload it whenever I get a chance to get my laptop connected to the internet.

So... Leiden. I haven’t seen much of it so far, so I can’t really give a fair assessment of it. The hotel I’m staying at is outside of the center of the town, so there isn’t really much to look at in the vicinity of the hotel except for a highway and some farm animals. It’s technically within walking distance of the center of town, but it would be a long walk, and I’m too tired from the flight to attempt that. I’ll get a bike tomorrow (it’s very flat here, and thus everybody travels by bike) so that will aid in my ability to explore the area.

The Lorentz Center (where the conference is at) is within walking distance also, and I did walk to that today just to see where it was, so that I can find it tomorrow morning. It’s a nice walk, a bit remote though. And I did also see a bit of what the “center of town” looks like when I took a taxi from the train station in town out to the hotel. From what I could tell, it seems like a nice, quaint village/city of sorts. And I wasn’t kidding, people really do travel by bike here. Sure, there are lots of cars, but biking is such a popular mode of transportation that there are separate “bike roads.” They even have their own traffic lights!

I don’t think I have much else to say. It’s almost 5pm here, I’ve been at here since around 10 this morning. I am soooooooooooooooooo tired, it’s been a struggle to stay awake all day. I’ll give it a few more hours and then let myself fall asleep, I’m tired enough where I can probably sleep straight through until tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for further updates once I explore the area a bit more.

Did you miss me?

2005-06-27T23:09:00.000-05:00

For some unexplained reason I have decided to resurrect this little blog of mine. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. I'm sure I've managed to lose all of my readers - all three of you - in the five months that have passed since I last informed you of the exciting events of my life. But, here I am.

So, where to begin? I know. I will tell you all of the wonderful and exciting things that have happened between the last time I updated and now. I finished classes for the semester, continued working on research in astronomy, slept pretty much every day, ate pretty much every day, and ... well, I guess that's about it.

Actually, that's not true. I've gotten free trips to Hawaii twice in the last few months due to observing runs on Mauna Kea (that's a bigass mountain on the big island of Hawaii, in case you didn't know). So I guess I can't say nothing interesting has happened, because those were certainly interesting trips. The first trip I didn't get to spend any time in what most people think of Hawaii, I spent five nights up on the mountain and then had to get back to Austin for classes. But the second trip was just last week, in the summer when there are no classes, so this time I got to stay an extra few days. It was nice. Here are a few pictures. I'd give you a link to where you can find them all online, but since I am super-lazy and haven't actually put them online yet, I can't. Anyway...

The first two are images from the trip in March, showing what it's like at the summit of Mauna Kea. It's a really cool place - you're 14,000 feet up, so it's very dry and (usually!) above the clouds. There's no vegetation or anything, just ancient volcanic rock. It's like Mars with a blue sky. But regarding the "above the clouds" comments, as you can see from the second picture, that's not always the case. Sometimes the clouds get up high enough to cover the summit. That night was not a good night for observing!

The next three are from the June trip. The first is a picture I took of the two Keck telescopes and the Subaru telescope just minutes after sunset. The second is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip - Hilo Bay waves crashing into black volcanic rocks. The third is a picture of steam from a distant lava flow 3 miles up the coast entering the sea.

Oh, and one other thing. I'm leaving this a week from tomorrow for a three and a half week trip to Europe! I'll be spending a few weeks in Leiden, Netherlands for a conference and research group meeting. That should be pretty cool.

Failed Experiment

2005-02-05T13:26:00.000-06:00

I think this experiment in blogging can be called a failure. I suck at remembering to update this. Plus, it's not like I have that much in the way of interesting things to say. And there are about four of you that read this. So I think I'm going to put my blogging days behind me. I'll just leave this up until my account gets deleted due to inactivity.

Hawaii (No ? This Time)

2005-01-22T15:46:00.000-06:00

I haven't written anything in about a week, so I'm sure you're all dying to know what has been going on in my oh-so-exciting life. Classes started this week, so between them and research I've been kept pretty busy working all the time. I know, that's not very exciting. Sorry.

I did find out that I'm definitely going to Hawaii, so that should be really cool. I've noticed that whenever I tell somebody I am going to observing in Hawaii they get this mental picture of me going to a warm place with beautiful beaches during the day, and going to a telescope at night. I don't think people are really grasping the fact that I am going to be spending all night, every night, on top of a 14,000 foot mountain, and that during the day I will be sleeping at a lodge approximately 10,000 feet up the mountain. So in an attempt to further convince people I am not going on a nice, all-expense paid vacation, I provide you with the following link:

http://mkwc.ifa.hawaii.edu/index.cgi

Take a good look at that picture at the top of the page. See all that white stuff? That's called snow. That's usually what is up on the mountain in the winter, and March does qualify as winter. It probably won't be that bad since it should be starting to warm up by then, but maybe that picture will finally convince people that I'm not going to spend my time lounging on beaches and drinking martinis. Not that I'm complaining, not at all! A free trip to anywhere is awesome, especially since I love traveling so much. But I just wanted to get that straight.

BUT... now that I've gone on and on in an attempt to convince you I'm not going on vacation, I need to admit I left something out. The week before I go is my spring break, and I've been told that grad students can spend extra time there if they want. The flight will still be paid for, I'd just have to take care of my own expenses while I was there. So I'm thinking about flying to Hilo (the largest city on the Big Island, which is where Mauna Kea is) a few days early and finding a cheap place to stay. If I do that, then I will in fact be spending a few days in a tropical location, probably going to beaches. Weather.com tells me the average high there in March is 79 (compared to Austin's March average high of 73). Of course it's also one of the rainiest months there. But who cares! I don't know if I'm going to do that yet though, partly because I don't know if I can afford it. I need to figure that out soon so I can buy my plane tickets.

So... what else? Classes are a lot of work. Research is a lot of work. I have been lazy and kind of let my running die off, but hopefully I can get back into that again next week. I think I ran out of things to say.

Very Tired

2005-01-13T19:17:00.000-06:00

Last night sucked. I was going to get up around 7 or 7:30 this morning to go running, so I went to bed around 11 last night. I was pretty tired so I didn't have any trouble falling asleep, but for some reason I woke up at 12:30 and could NOT get back to sleep. I ended up not falling asleep until somewhere between 4:30 and 5. I don't know what that was all about, but it pretty much ruined any chance of me waking up early to go running. I finally dragged myself out of bed around 10 to go into school, but I was exhausted all day.

You know, I don't feel like writing anymore. I was going to go on about the meetings I had today with Neal and with the research group, but I don't feel like it. I'm way too tired to put together something coherent.

Hawaii?

2005-01-11T19:25:00.000-06:00

Wow, two entries in one day? This blog thing can get rather addictive.

Neal (my advisor) sent an e-mail out to the entire research group talking about observing time he has in March on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) in Hawaii. He mentioned to me when we talked in December that having me learn how to use the CSO might be something he and I should consider. In the e-mail today he told us all the two people in the group who are going there in March, and also mentioned that it might be "interesting for Mike Dunham to go as well." So, in case you haven't connected the dots yet, that means I might get to take a free trip to Hawaii in March!

Of course it wouldn't be a vacation, I probably wouldn't be doing anything except observing at the telescope at night and sleeping during the day. And I haven't talked to Neal about it yet (I'm meeting with him on Thursday, I'm sure we'll talk then). But that would be really cool if I got to go.

Up At the Butt-Crack of Dawn

2005-01-11T08:15:00.000-06:00

Today I started my new running schedule - getting up early and running before I go to work/school. I got up at 7 this morning and went running. Now, for those of you that know me, you know how big of a deal that is. Me, up at 7 AM willingly? I am a night-owl, if I were free to choose whatever sleep schedule I wanted I would probably still be awake at 7 AM most nights/mornings, or just going to bed. But if I'm seriously going to make this new working out thing actually work, I think this is the only way to do it. I'm just way too tired by the time I get home every night to do anything except sit around for a few hours and fall asleep, so it's going to have to be in the morning.

Of course, since I decided today would be the first day I would get up early, I couldn't fall asleep last night. I think I fell asleep somewhere betwee 2:30 and 3:00 this morning. I still made myself get up at 7 and go running, but I'm already really tired, and the day hasn't even started yet. I think somebody should just pay me to sleep. That's a job I would like.

Watching TV All Day Long

2005-01-09T22:15:00.000-06:00

As promised, here is my opinion on the season premiere of 24. Just pretend you care. All in all it was a pretty good two hour premiere. I think this season has more potential to be good than last season ever did, but I've also noticed that, in just the first two hours, the show is falling into some of it's same old cliches that it has fallen into in earlier seasons. I really hope this season manages to find a way to be fresh and original while still keeping true to the original tone of the show, otherwise 24 will probably be off the air after this year. I could probably go on and on for an hour about the show, but I'll just stop talking about it now because I'm sure I'm boring you.

In other news, this weekend officially sucked for the sports fan part of me. There were four NFL playoff games between yesterday and today: St. Louis @ Seattle, NY Jets @ San Diego, Denver @ Indianapolis, and Minnesota @ Green Bay. The four teams I wanted to win were Seattle, San Diego, Denver, and Green Bay. So guess which four won? St. Louis, NY Jets, Indianapolis, and Minnesota. Not even one of the four games went my way. That made for a crappy weekend.

If you can't tell by the above two paragraphs, I did basically nothing today except watch TV. How very productive of me.

Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow Ow OW...

2005-01-08T19:32:00.000-06:00

That's what I say everytime I take a step. I am so sore from going running yesterday. I figured I would be somewhat sore, and I spent extra time stretching out yesterday, but it is definitely worse than I expected. It's a good thing I don't plan on running everyday, at least not yet - I don't think there's any way I could have ran today. Walking was painful enough.

The 4th season of 24 premieres tomorrow night. I mentioned yesterday that I'm starting to get excited about that, but I don't think I'm excited as I should be. I don't watch many current television shows, I think most of them suck. But I have been a diehard 24 fan since the first episode aired back in 2001. During the first two seasons, watching 24 for me was probably as close as I will ever get to having a religious experience. From 9 to 10 pm on Tuesday nights, me and my college roommate were dead to the world. The door was closed and locked, the phone was unplugged, no interruptions were allowed. It was 24 time. I have never been that fanatical about a TV show before, and I doubt I ever will be again, but for those first two years watching 24 was one of the highlights of my week.

But last season wasn't nearly as good, and I think that's what ruined my excitement for this season. They're promising a whole bunch of changes that are supposed to reinvigorate the show, and I'm looking forward to it, but I'm just not that excited. I wonder if my love of the show is gone, or if I just need for the writers to convince me they're still capable of writing excellent episdoes. I'll let you know tomorrow.

What if I can't think of a title?

2005-01-07T20:19:00.000-06:00

I went running today.

Everyone still with me? I didn't give anyone a heart attack or anything, did I? Yes, me... Mr. "I don't feel like going to the store because it takes too much effort so I'll just have some leftover lettuce I found in the back of the fridge for dinner" ... I went running today. I decided a month or two ago that I would work out more once I came back from break. Not really for appearance reasons, I don't really care how I look, but just for general health reasons. It can't be good for me to constantly get basically no exercise. I didn't make it that far before I got tired, but I guess that's to be expected. It will take time to build up some stamina.

I got an e-mail yesterday from Neal (my advisor/boss) calling a meeting for yesterday afternoon for whoever was in town. I'm glad I didn't check my e-mail until today, I'm not ready to face him yet. Out of those 250+ pages I was supposed to read, I've read about 40 so far. There's no way I'm going to get through everything by next week, so this weekend I'll just pick out the most important things and read them. Hopefully that will be enough. I probably should have done more over break, but I just didn't feel like it. I needed the break.

24 premieres Sunday. I'm starting to get excited about that!

2004

2005-01-07T01:41:00.000-06:00

I don't really have anything interesting to talk about tonight, but I still feel like writing about something. So I'll tell you about something I saw on TV. I was watching CNN earlier and they aired a commercial for themselves, boasting about their news coverage. Anyway, most of the commercial was a fast-paced series of clips about some of the news-worthy events of 2004. It made me realize - a lot happened in the year 2004! Some examples, in no particular order:

The US election saga, which at times felt like it would never end (and now I wish it hadn't because now I can't hold out hope Bush would lose)
Death of Yasser Arafat (something which the US media really didn't pay much attention to. Stupid US)
The Bombings in Madrid
The Red Sox
Lance Armstrong winning his 9 billionth consecutive Tour de France
The parade of Hurricanes in Florida
Elections in Afghanistan
Death of Ronald Reagan
The Kobe Bryant Sex Scandal crap that refused to go away
The Laci Peterson murder trial that refused to go away
Martha Stewart going to jail (Hooray!)
Capture of Saddam Hussein
The Mars Rovers (at least I think they landed in 2004, but that might have been the end of 2003)
Summer Olympics

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. It just seems like there was an unusually high number of really newsworthy events this past year. Maybe not, maybe it just seems like that to me for some reason.

Vacation's Almost Over

2005-01-03T15:26:00.000-06:00

I'm still in New York, but I go back to Austin on Wednesday. It's been a really nice break, and in some ways I'm not ready to go back. It was nice seeing my family (even if they can get annoying). It was nice seeing some of my extended family on Christmas Day (but not seeing all of them, I would have preferred some of them had just stayed home). It was nice catching up with the few friends I still have in this area. It was nice seeing my dog, who is getting and will probably die soon. And it was really nice sleeping 10 hours a night, every night, catching up on all the lost sleep since last August. So in that respect, I'm not ready to go back.

But it sucked going outside and having to wear a coat (remember, I live in Texas now, so I'm spoiled - winter means you have to put on a sweatshirt, not a heavy coat and gloves). It's annoying living with other family members (especially parents) once you live on your own. So in some ways I am ready to go back also. I guess overall the break was pretty good, but it's time to get back to work.

The earthquake/tsunami death toll seems to get larger every single time I check cnn.com. It's up over 150,000 right now, and expected to get even higher. Things like this really put into perspective what happened on 9/11 - that was tragic, yes, but many Americans seem to regard it as one of the worst days ever. We see it as such a horrible loss of life because over 3000 Americans died. But when you compare 3000+ to 150,000+, you realize just how "spoiled," for lack of a better word, Americans are. We never have to deal with death on such a massive scale, so 3000 dead seems like such a huge amount to us. But it really isn't.

The Buffalo Bills lost on Sunday. That makes me very sad. I've been a Bills fan all my life, and I've had to deal with one heartbreak after another. Who can ever forget "wide right" in 1990? Damn you, Scott Norwood! That game was ours to win! And then there were the three following Superbowl loses. Then we had to endure the loss of Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, and Marv Levy. Man I miss those guys. And of course there was the Music City Miracle several years ago. And then came this year. They started out 0-4 and I all but gave up on the season. Then they went 1-1, to put their record at 1-5. The season was pretty much over. But wait! Suddenly they went 8-1, including a stretch of winning 5 games in a row, and going into the final game they were 9-6. All they had to do was win their last game, and either the Jets or Broncos had to lose, and they were in the playoffs! And they were playing a team (Steelers) which was already in the playoffs and resting all their starters, so they were basically playing a team of backups. I was excited, it really looked like the Bills were going to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999. And the Jets did their part (they lost). But those damn Bills couldn't do their part, and they lost 29-24. I guess there's always next year (I seem to say that quite often with the Bills).

I am a Tree-Killer

2004-12-11T16:34:00.000-06:00

I've had a couple of meetings with Neal (my research advisor) in the last few days, and I'm really excited about getting into research. We've talked about some of the details about what I might get involved in next semester (I won't bore you with the details), but I finally feel like I am a real graduate student and not just a pretend-grad-student who doesn't even know what sort of research he wants to do. But it's also kind of scary, because I am realizing just how much I have to learn. I feel like the more I try to learn about the research he does, the more I realize I don't know. It's supposed to go the other way, damn it! You're supposed to feel smarter as you learn, not dumber!

Anyway, that brings me to the reason for the title of this entry. He gave me a whole bunch of papers I need to start reading over the holiday break so that I can start getting caught up with what he does. He gave me 4 review papers, each approximately 50 pages long! Acadmic papers aren't like reading a book, reading a 10 page academic paper can take a week or two to fully read and understand, and he gave me 200 pages of reading! Plus he gave me a few shorter papers he wants me to read also. All in all, I have about 300 pages of scientific papers to read over the next three weeks. There is no way in HELL I will get through all of that! I felt so bad printing them all out, I felt like such a tree-killer.

I'm going back up to New York starting on Wednesday, and I'll be there for January 5th. I have mixed feelings about that - it will be nice to go home and rest for a few weeks, but I am so not looking forward to the weather. After four years in Rochester I feel like I paid my debt to society, and am now free to pursue happiness in warm locations. Right now it is 71 degrees outside, and tomorrow it's going to be 80! That's crazy, there are days in June, July, and August that don't hit 80 up in New York, and it's going to be 80 here tomorrow. In only the few months that I've lived here I've already gotten accustomed to the weather, my cold tolerance has been completely obliterated. I'm not sure if I'm going to survive a few weeks of daytime highs that might not get out of the 20s. The one time so far that it dropped below freezing while I was here I was REALLY COLD. I have accepted that I am now a cold wuss, and as such I really don't want to face 3 weeks of upstate New York winters.

Anyway, I should get back to work. I'm in the middle of trying to get through the first of these massive papers I've been given. It's fairly interesting, because I really do think this stuff is cool (star formation, in case you were wondering what sort of research I'm interested in), but it's so hard to stay focused also. There probably won't be another entry until sometime in January, I don't plan to be on the computer much at all while I'm in New York, and I'll probably be pretty busy between now and Wednesday. So, for the 2 or 3 people that actually read this thing, Merry Christmas!

Random 3 AM Thoughts

2004-12-08T03:03:00.000-06:00

I'm going to be extremely vague in this post, if you don't like it ... well, too bad. Besides I now have confirmation that a grand total of one of you read this anyway. Thanks Matt. (All you other lame people that read this but never leave me a comment, shame on you!)

Anyway, something happened today which reminded me of something from my past. It's weird, because this something was both a really good memory and a really bad memory. I'm not sure how that's possible but apparently it is. I look back now and see it in both lights - both as something that really made me happy and something that most definitely did not make me happy. I guess thinking about this has put me into something of a pensive mood.

Not much else is going on. Classes are over, I'm just killing time until I go home for a few weeks for Christmas. I'm meeting with Neal tomorrow to talk possible reseach projects some more. I'm looking forward to talking to him again, I really want to feel like I have some direction in my life. Being able to really get started on some sort of research would definitely help with that.

What's For Dinner?

2004-12-05T23:52:00.000-06:00

I think I need to learn how to cook more things. Sandwiches, pasta, and Campbells soup is starting to get old. Or I need to make more money and just order take out every night.

Untitled

2004-12-05T01:26:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted anything in a really long time. Classes ended on Friday and this whole past week was spent catching up on a semester's worth of procrastination. I'm not sure I've ever done so much work in a one-week span before. But I'll spare you all the details, mostly because I don't think anybody actually ever reads this. Does anybody read this? Anybody? I'm kind of guessing the answer is no.

I officially have a research advisor. I'm going to be working with Neal Evans starting next semester. Neal works in the infrared and millimeter wavelengths, and spends most of his time on star formation. He's the PI (Principal Investigator) on one of the Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy Projects, so that should be cool. I don't know exactly what I'm going to be going yet, we're going to work that out next semester. It's so nice to finally have an advisor though, I feel like I can finally start doing something productive other than sit through boring classes and do even more boring homework sets. He has enough money to pay me next semester so I don't have to TA anymore, either. That is definitely really cool.

I don't really have much else to say. It was just a really uneventful, busy week full of a lot of work.

Belated Thanksgiving Dinner

2004-11-27T19:54:00.000-06:00

Today I went to a (belated) Thanksgiving dinner hosted by the Graduate Coordinator (sort of a cross between a secretary and an advisor) for the astronomy department. There were about 10 grad students there, a few faculty members, and a few members of her family. She lives in Marble Falls, which is about an hour away from Austin out in the middle of nowhere, and I had a pretty good time.

First of all, it was so nice to really get out of this city for awhile. I sort of did the other day, but I never left my car. This was the first time in quite awhile I wasn't surrounded by a stiffling crush of people, buildings, and cars. She has a house overlooking a lake (a dammed up river, actually), and from her back porch there was a really nice view of the lake and surrounding area. It was really quite beautiful, helped out by the Weather. I am used to Thanksgiving being a time for Winter coats and, in some years, snow shovels. Today it was in the mid 60s, maybe close to 70, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Simply beautiful.

After dinner (which was really good! I need to learn how to cook more things!) a few of us walked down to the lake and hung out down there for awhile. I didn't want to leave and come back because I was enjoying being out of the city so much. Don't get me wrong, I really like Austin, it's a nice city - but I didn't realize until I left it just how much I need to get away from it all and spend time in rural areas every once in awhile.

All in all, I had a good time. Good food, good company, and a good setting. Today was a good day. Tomorrow I have to catch up on work that I put off all break. That sucks, but I don't want to think about it right now.

Thanksgiving Day Thoughts

2004-11-25T16:52:00.000-06:00

I'm going to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by the astronomy department graduate coordinator on Saturday, but I don't have any plans for today, Thanksgiving Day. After sitting around here for an hour or two doing absolutely nothing, I felt like I had to get out of here. It's such a beautiful day outside so I went for a drive.

I ended up at Zilker Park, the biggest park in Austin. I drove around for awhile but got bored, so I left the park and just started driving again. I didn't have any destination in mind, I was just driving. I ended up on I-35 headed South, not paying any attention to where I was going as I was enjoying the beautiful weather, my radio, and driving fast. I ended up driving almost all of the way to San Antonio before deciding to turn around! I didn't really mean to go that far, but it's not like I had anything better to do today.

I turned around and drove back to Austin, paying more attention to my surroundings this time. I came to the conclusion that this area of Texas is quite pretty, in its own unique way. I miss tall trees like you can't even imagine, but the gently rolling hills and small trees that occupy this part of the State made for a nice drive. As I entered the city limits I realized this was the first time I'd been out of Austin since September. I've been so busy with grad school I haven't had any time to explore my new state, or even the areas around my new city. I haven't even had time to explore most of my new city itself yet. I need to make more time for that.

When I came back I was waiting at a traffic light and I saw a homeless man sitting there with a sign that said "Happy Thanksgiving, please help me out!" Austin is a very friendly towards the homeless - there is a sort of unofficial 'code' here. As long as they don't become a nuisance or commit crimes, the police will leave them alone and people will be quite generous to them. It's not uncommon to see them in busy intersections hoping for some help. I usually don't give anything because I just don't have any spare money, being a poor graduate student. But I saw this guy sitting there, he was sitting on his milk crate holding a sign and looking quite sad, and I felt really bad for him. I'd been spending the last few hours kind of down because I have nowhere to go this Thanksgiving, yet here this guy is, not only with nowhere to go, but no home. At least I have a car to drive around in, an apartment to live in (even if the damn roof does leak sometimes), and enough money to live a basic (yet comfortable) life. Who am I to feel depressed that my Thanksgiving is crappy when there are people in his situation, or worse?

So I gave him a ten dollar bill. Like I said, I don't usually ever do that, but I just really wanted to. Watching his face light up as I handed it to him was worth giving up ten dollars I can't really spare. To think that I probably made his day just by handing him a ten dollar bill... in many ways, it made my day too.

Tossing and Turning All Night

2004-11-25T04:49:00.000-06:00

It's almost 5 a.m. and I'm still awake. I took a nap starting around 4 this afternoon, a nap that was supposed to last an hour or two. The next thing I knew it was about 9 p.m. Oops. The sleep was nice, but I didn't really want to sleep that long, because now I can't fall asleep. At the rate I'm going I think I'm going to see the sunrise.

Insomnia sucks.

The Flood Departs...

2004-11-23T22:37:00.000-06:00

Over the past week, most of Central Texas has seen record amounts of rainfall. I don't think I've ever seen so much rain in such a short period of time before. And we're not just talking about a week of steady, moderate rainfall. For a significant portion of the last week, we're talking about some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen. Rain that makes you afraid to drive because you can't see more than 10 feet in front of you.

Further examples of the horrible week of rain/terror that we have had:

Austin set a record for rainfall in the last several days, almost 5 inches of rain! (and keep in mind, this is in a dry climate where the ground is just not equipped to handle large amounts of water)
One town down near the Gulf Coast got 15 inches of rain in a span of about 4 hours! I saw pictures on the news, the place looked like a dam had burst. One poor guy on the news had his house flooded. He looked like he was about to cry.
Waller Creek, the creek which runs through the UT-Austin campus, was about 2 feet above flood stage at one point over the weekend. It flooded over the top of a bridge, causing signifcant water damage to a few buildings on campus. It also carried away 3 cars parked nearby.
The UT residential halls sent an e-mail to all of their residents informing them they were aware of the multiple leaks which have been discovered due to the heavy rain and strong winds. (This was in the local paper)
We have made national headlines almost every night for the last week as dozens and dozens of "dramatic rescues" have been caught on tape (mostly rescues involving saving people who were too stupid to realize they shouldn't drive their car through an intersection which has 4 feet of water running through it).

And as readers of my last several entries will know, for me this also meant floods inside my apartment. Twice they claimed to fix the leaks, only for me to discover yet more water dripping from the roof. This latest time it got really bad. Small pieces of the ceiling have collapsed, so that I can look up and see the insulation that is supposed to be hidden behind sheetrock. There is pretty significant water damage, including a scary-looking sag in one part of the ceiling, and a few cracks down one of the walls. They're aware of all the problems, and claim they will be fixed, but if they don't get the leaks fixed this time I'm going to be pretty pissed off. Once was annoying, twice was really annoying, but three times was ridiculous. If there is a fourth, it might be time to threaten legal action. And I would hate to do that because they are really nice here. But I feel like I have to stand up for myself at some point.

Anyway, it all ended tonight. It rained hard again today, cleared up a little this afternoon (I even saw the sun for a few minutes!), and then a really horribly nasty line of thundestorms moved through around 7 this evening. They must have been really bad, because on the bus ride home not long after they ended I saw a huge number of accidents. I think it was sort of like the grand finale of one of the worst weeks Austin has ever seen. After all the bad weather, it had to go out with one last bang. And it did. But now the sky is clear, I can see the moon and a few stars, and the forecast looks really good for the next week. Hooray!

* * * * *

Moving on to something else, I noticed a funny article while reading The Daily Texan this moring. It was about a national survey which recently concluded that college professors in the United States have, in general, a liberal bias (Article). I had one thought while reading the article:

Well, duh. They needed a study to figure that out?

The rest of the article kind of pissed me off, because it had quotes from conservatives going on and on about how liberal professors push their views on impressionable young students. I do not agree, I think most professors go out of their way to make sure to remain neutral in anything political, at least in front of their students. I feel like some of the claims made by conservatives in the article are nothing more than unsubstantiated rhetoric designed to get them quoted, to get their names in a newspaper. But I won't go into that any further. Read the article to see what I mean.

A Productive Meeting

2004-11-22T22:21:00.000-06:00

Today I met with Paul Harvey, one of the two professors in the UT Astronomy department I'm seriously considering working with. The other is Neal Evans. They both work on star formation, and they both are involved in a project involving a Space Observatory called the Spitzer Space Telescope that I really want to become a part of.

The meeting went well. It was short, but also informative. It was really the first chance I've had to talk to him, and some of what he was describing to me sounded really interesting. I think sometime this weekend I'm going to sit down and make up a list of pros and cons for working with each professor. It might help me decide which one to select as my advisor.

My roof still leaks. I am not very happy about that. I will give them one more chance to fix it while staying nice to them. If they don't fix it this time, the niceness will have to end. I'd like to think "Nice Guys Finish Last" isn't always true, but I'm starting to think the only way my roof is going to be fixed is by me being mean and nasty to the people that work in the apartment office.

Kill JFK in a Video Game

2004-11-21T21:17:00.000-06:00

I was surfing CNN earlier today and came across this article. For those to lazy to click on the link, it's an article talking about a video game in which players can recreate the assassination of President Kennedy. The purpose of the game, according to its creators, is to prove that one lone gunman can precisely recreate the events of the assassination.

I am disgusted by this. The creators state that they have nothing but respect for the Kennedy family, and that they're only doing this to prove all the conspiracy theories are wrong. And I freely admit that I have had fun in the past playing games like Grand Theft Auto, where most of the game consists of stealing cars and shooting people. But this really does disgust me. From the article:

Points are awarded or subtracted based on how accurately the shots match the official version of events as documented by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy's assassination.

Shooting the image of Kennedy in the right spots in the right sequence adds to the score, while "errors" like shooting first lady Jacqueline Kennedy lead to deductions.
Each shot can be replayed in slow motion, and the bullets can be tracked as they travel and pass through Kennedy's digitally recreated body. Players can choose to see blood by pressing a "blood effects" option.

There is a line that shouldn't be crossed with video games. People disagree on whether games such as Grand Theft Auto cross that line. But I really don't think there should be any disagreement about where this game falls. It is over that line.

Puffy Shirt

2004-11-20T15:00:00.000-06:00

Seinfeld's Puffy Shirt is going into the Smithsonian (Story)!

The puffy shift episode wasn't as good as some of the other classics, like the soup nazi episode or the bubble boy episode, but it was still one of the best. I think I have to make a trip to the Smithsonian American History Museum now!

The Most Important Decision

2004-11-20T01:02:00.000-06:00

Last April I made what I considered to be the most important decision of my life to date - which grad school to go to. I applied to 11 schools and was accepted to 8. I visited 7 schools, and by the time the visits were over I had managed to narrow it down to 3 schools: The University of Virginia, UCLA, and the University of Texas. And then I was stuck.

I agonized over this decision right up until the very last minute. I ended up picking Texas not because I felt this was the best place, but because I managed to eliminate the other two. Virginia because I didn't feel there was anybody there I really wanted to work with, and UCLA because I really hated the thought of living in LA. But I really did agonize over the decision, to the point of losing sleep over it, before I finally decided on Texas right before the deadline for my decision.

And now I'm in a similar situation again. Here in the UT astronomy department I am required to pick an advisor by the end of my first semester, which means I only have a few weeks left. I thought picking which school was the most important decision of my life, but I think this is actually more important. What ultimately affects my future success won't be which school I got a PhD from, but who I worked with. And with only a few weeks left to make the decision, I'm really stuck.

I've managed to narrow it down to 2 and a half people (the half is because I've sort of got it down to 2, but still haven't fully eliminated a 3rd). I'm talking with one of them on Monday, while I've already had pretty extensive conversations with the other two. They all work in the same general field of star formation, something I really want to be involved in, but I just don't know which one to pick. I'm a notoriously indecisive person - my grad school decision was made at the last minute, and I had to overnight mail my decision to go to the University of Rochester as an undergrad because I waited so long to make that decision. And now it's happening yet again.

I've been stressing out about a test and a presentation I had this week, but now that both are over I'm really starting to stress out about picking an advisor. I wish I could just pick somebody and be done with it. But it's such an important decision, plus I'm so indecisive anyway and second guess myself whenever I think I've picked somebody.

Life was so much easier when the most important decision was whether to play with my army men or with my matchbox cars.

Mr. Slacker

2004-11-18T13:41:00.000-06:00

I have a test tomorrow.

I think I'll go home early, make dinner, watch TV, and go to bed.

That sounds nice.

Distrust

2004-11-17T21:27:00.000-06:00

Today while walking around campus I overheard a conversation between two girls that were walking behind me. One of them apparently read about doing this in a magazine so decided to try it.

She registered a new AIM screenname and then logged on and IMed her boyfriend. She pretended to be some random girl who found his profile online and wanted to get to know him better. She tried to come on to him a little bit in order to test what he would do. She was pleased - and it sounded like she was also a little surprised - that he immediatley told her he had a girlfriend and that he was completely in love with her. She also said she planned to do it again after they have a fight, to see what he has to say then.

What is wrong with humanity? I'm serious, why have we created a society in which we all distrust each other so much? Don't talk to strangers. Don't pick up hitchhikers. Anybody who looks different is "crazy." If somebody asks you a question they really want something else and are just trying to trick you into not noticing what they are really after. The list goes on and on, all these are things we have drilled into us at an early age. Sometimes by hearing people saying them, and sometimes through experience.

Why does it have to be this way? Why can't we create a society where we all trust each other? I know, I sound really naive. But I really wonder what is wrong with people - because there really must be something wrong for us to create a society in which we assume everybody else is bad and out to get us. What a depressing way to go through life.

In other news, they supposedly fixed the leak on my roof today. They're supposed to fix the water damage on the ceiling tomorrow. We'll see about that, the damage is pretty extensive. Also, it's supposed to rain again next week. I wonder how good of a job they did fixing the leak. I guess I'll find out.

Water World

2004-11-17T01:30:00.000-06:00

What a shitty night.

I didn't leave school until a little before midnight as I have a LOT of work to do (see previous post). The drive home was absolutely horrible - it has been raining really hard all evening, and since this is a semi-arid climate the land just isn't capable of handling large amounts of water. There was water everywhere. The standing water on all of the roads was about half an inch deep, my shoes and ankles were completely soaked by the time I got to my car. The half inch of water made driving damn near impossible, plus the puddles were even worse. It took me about 5 times the normal amount of time to get home because I had to keep turning around and looking for different ways - a lot of the intersections were just completely flooded out.

So I finally get home, ready to go right to sleep. And what do I find? The roof has apparently spent the last several hours leaking. Luckily there was nothing important - or electronic - underneath the leaks, but what a goddamn mess! The biggest leak is directly over my couch. It's so bad that a small piece of the ceiling (about the size of a half dollar coin) collapsed. The couch is completley soaked, along with some of the floor. I've got the kitchen garbage underneath that collecting water at the moment.

There's another leak in the middle of the living room, over nothing. I've got a bowl underneath that one. Then there's another one in the bedroom. Not over my bed, luckily. I've got another garbage can underneath that one. What really worries me is that I can see a noticeable sag in part of the living room ceiling.

I have no idea what to do. I have no emergency maintenance number to call. All I can do is wait until morning. I'm afraid to go to bed, because new leaks might appear and my water collectors might overflow. And the forecast looks like it is going to get worse overnight, and even worse tomorrow. And I can't be here all day to make sure new leaks don't occur, and things don't overflow. I have no idea what to do, except wait until the apartment office opens tomorrow morning.

What a shitty night. I am so fucking pissed off right now.

What to do with all my free time?

2004-11-16T18:13:00.000-06:00

I have so much to do!

Revise and practice presentation for High Energy class. Write paper for High Energy class. Work on presentation for Gas Dynamics class. Work on presentation for Radiative Processes class. Study for test on Friday. Do homework. Help the whining undergraduates in the class I TA for who have a test on Friday. Figure out who I want for an advisor.

I need a beer.

Productivity, Part II

2004-11-14T23:02:00.000-06:00

I guess I used up all of my weekend productivity on Friday night. Yesterday I spent the day running errands and then sitting around relaxing. Today was going to be my day to work on a big presentation I have to give in a class on Thursday. But instead I sat around and watched TV all day.

I feel a little guilty about that, but not as much as I should. It just felt so nice to do absolutely nothing for an entire 24 hour time span. It means my week is going to be even worse than before now that I have to make up for doing nothing today, but that's ok. I think I needed today.

Productivity!

2004-11-13T00:48:00.000-06:00

Around 8 this evening I was laying on the couch watching TV and slowly falling asleep when I decided I needed to do something. The thought of going to sleep that early on a Friday night just wasn't very appealing.

So I decided to clean the bathroom. Not very exciting, but it's something that I've really needed to do for awhile. And while I was doing that I figured that I might as well clean the entire apartment. So I cleaned the kitchen and vacummed the living room. And while I was moving the coffee table to vaccuum I decided I might as well just go ahead and rearrange my living room furniture, something I've wanted to for a few weeks. And then after I finished that I did laundry.

I have no idea where this burst of productivity came from. But it felt really good. Lately it seems like all I'm doing is working or sleeping, so doing something productive that wasn't one of the two was really nice. It was kind of weird to be so productive all of the sudden. But I love my new living room arrangment. So it was cool too.

Stay here; start making babies

2004-11-12T16:16:00.000-06:00

This morning while reading The Daily Texan (the UT-Austin daily student newspaper) I came across a humor/opinion piece titled Stay here; start making babies. It really amused me, so I wanted to share some of it with you.

The article was about all the ways in which Republicans insure their survival by promoting procreation (against teaching about contraception in health classes, against abortion, etc.) It then went on to show that while Democrats do have some natural disadvantages (pro-choice, for teaching contraception, support women in the workplace as opposed to women in the kitchen, etc.), that we Democrats also have a track record at being successful. So, the article encouraages, instead of fleeing the country Democrats should stay here and have babies. Here are some quotes from the article:

First, we're better looking. Much of the Republican elite - like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz - look like Depends spokesmen rejects while we're the young and attractive party of John Edwards and Barak Obama.

Of course, Hillary Clinton kind of throws that argument right out of the window. But we can just ignore her.

Second, we've got the greater collective libido. For anyone who actually wants to debate this, let me present Exhibit A: The Clinton years and Exhibit B: The Kennedy years.

The only prominent Republican that seems to be into freaking as much as he is into legislating is Bob Dole. And, honestly, who would have sex with Bob Dole?

...

This isn't to say all Republicans won't knock boots with all of these groups. In fact, many young Republicans would probably just be happy to meet a real girl, but the Democratic party traditionally has more of an open-fly policy.

...

Though we may not out-campaign, outspend or outfox the competition, I'm sure we can always out-hump them.

And it's not only patriotic, its fun, too.

Anyway, the article amused me. And since I detest mornings, anything that makes me laugh in the morning improves my day.

Hello World

2004-11-11T22:25:00.000-06:00

Hi. I've always wanted to have one of these things but never got around to making one. That's partly because of laziness, and partly because I am not very interesting. So I will probably disappoint lots of people who come here looking for something interesting to read. Although that assumes lots of people will come here to begin with, perhaps that's a pretty big assumption to be making.

Anyway, I just spent about a half hour fiddling around with the settings getting everything set up. So I don't feel like writing anymore tonight.