then it snowed all night and now we have around 27-31 inches of snow on the ground in reno!
so here are some pictures from this morning.
31.12.04
Glorious Snow!
yesterday it was snowing and we got back from a movie and dinner to shovel a little of the snow while it was still falling. here's keith after the shoveling when he was coming inside.
then it snowed all night and now we have around 27-31 inches of snow on the ground in reno!
so here are some pictures from this morning.
then it snowed all night and now we have around 27-31 inches of snow on the ground in reno!
so here are some pictures from this morning.
29.12.04
I can do it, can you?
dennis can.
can you touch your tongue to your nose?
(i can if i nudge it just a little bit.)
(i can if i nudge it just a little bit.)
Sobering
(this could possibly be considered as a comment to a post by sarah at somethingepic.com on spiritual warfare, but opted to put it as a totally new entry on my blog because i thought of it before reading her entry and i am not certain that it is of completely the same vein. on the other hand her thoughts help shape some of my questions, so you should read her post first.)
these are some quick numbers i came across. if someone has better information, please share.
afghanistan up to nearly 1000 dead and new deaths rarely get any news time anymore.
9-11 killed just shy of 3,000 (including wtc, all the planes hijacked, and the pentagon).
in iraq there are just over 1,300 american's part of the armed forces killed but over approx. 15,000 civilians dead.
yet all these numbers pale in comparison to the death toll estimate of 100,000 (that's right five zeros) for the tsunami.
what kills people more man's greed (for power, money, or whatever) or nature (which i was always told is God's second book)? what does that say about God? what does that say about what the mission of the church is?
these are some quick numbers i came across. if someone has better information, please share.
afghanistan up to nearly 1000 dead and new deaths rarely get any news time anymore.
9-11 killed just shy of 3,000 (including wtc, all the planes hijacked, and the pentagon).
in iraq there are just over 1,300 american's part of the armed forces killed but over approx. 15,000 civilians dead.
yet all these numbers pale in comparison to the death toll estimate of 100,000 (that's right five zeros) for the tsunami.
what kills people more man's greed (for power, money, or whatever) or nature (which i was always told is God's second book)? what does that say about God? what does that say about what the mission of the church is?
18.12.04
random blog reading
so i read a random blog and found a pretty good story about how stupid people are.
check out more than my luggage and read the entry titled foot(notes) in mouth.
i can't believe that someone was really that stupid.
check out more than my luggage and read the entry titled foot(notes) in mouth.
i can't believe that someone was really that stupid.
16.12.04
Helmets
yay for helmets! i love safety equipment becuase it means i can do things i love with a smaller probability of getting hurt.
keith brought home a christmas gift for me today and now i have four helmets (in order of appearance in my life).
1. dirt motorcycle helmet
2. climbing helmet
3. street motorcycle helmet
4. skiing helmet
i used to have a bicycle helmet but since i don't like bicycling that disappeared somewhere when my dad moved to hawaii.
keith brought home a christmas gift for me today and now i have four helmets (in order of appearance in my life).
1. dirt motorcycle helmet
2. climbing helmet
3. street motorcycle helmet
4. skiing helmet
i used to have a bicycle helmet but since i don't like bicycling that disappeared somewhere when my dad moved to hawaii.
14.12.04
painful meetings
i thought this dilbert was great.
then i started thinking about it and (janell will vouch for this i am sure) this is the exact process that we thesis/dissertation defenders are asked to go through. we are asked to explain things that everyone else (well except the outside person who is there to make sure things are fair) knows way better.
then i started thinking about it and (janell will vouch for this i am sure) this is the exact process that we thesis/dissertation defenders are asked to go through. we are asked to explain things that everyone else (well except the outside person who is there to make sure things are fair) knows way better.
7.12.04
Rose of Sharon
so while we were cutting our tree i picked up some branches, from a previous cutter, to make a wreath or two. i was thinking about the different names we give God and specifically Jesus. one that came to mind is the rose of sharon, but i have never known why. apparently the bible never uses that term to talk about Jesus but since it is in the poetic song of solomon somehow it was just transferred on over to Jesus. also according to that site the hebrew really says something more akin to the meadow saffron.
5.12.04
Christmas Tree
sunday morning we went up and cut ourselves a christmas tree. we originally planned on 3-4 ft... well none of the trees that height looked that great so we got one that was a bit taller. we got it home and put it in the awesome l.l. bean stand that my dad gave us and it just barely fit. so now we have a beautiful tree that will smell good for the few weeks 'till christmas. i think we'll put some lights on it, but not sure if anything else.
3.12.04
20 yr anniversary...
today is the 20 yr anniversary of the chemical accident in bhopal, india. there was an article by C&E News (American Chemicial Society's weekly mag) about this accident and the regulations that grew from it. This has led me to think about a couple of things.
first off, of course the chemistry industry accidents we hear about, they have results that are either immediate or traceable. a bunch of circuit boards fall off a train and nobody cares; of course most people don't think about the fact that without the chemical industry those circuit boards couldn't be made. some people are calling for the chemistry industry to cut immediately to "green" processes (that is, go to using things that can't harm people if they do get released).
second off, i was thinking about the call for outside regulation of the chemical industry's safety. people assume that outside regulation results in better regulation. today we have what are called MSDS (material safety data sheets) which OSHA requires workplaces to have. Good idea, crappy information. if you compare methyl isocyanate (the stuff released in bhopal) with say sodium fluoride (a low sodium salt substitute sold at the grocery store) you wouldn't really be able to tell that one will almost always hurt you while the other will almost always not. the msds also points out another interesting thing in that methyl isocyanate reacts violently with water (forming a variety of gasses) but the msds still calls for washing with lots of water if you spill it on yourself...
finally, i thought about what training are chemists given to react ethically? two weeks ago i was sitting in on a 1st yr graduate level o. chem class and the teacher was talking about how a particular substances reacted with dna (thus destroying the dna and could kill people. she then used the phrase "make things to help people not kill people." and everyone laughed, like that was obvious, people don't kill people. but i don't think that it is that obvious. chemists are asked to make weapons more effective by doing things like making tracer bullets or more powerful explosives (plastic explosives for instance) but are told not to make chemical weapons. what is a non-chemical weapon? i guess an energy weapon could be non-chemical but in order for humans to handle it it has to be made of something which is a chemical. we also synthesize things to kill insects and pathogens. back to chemical spills, we are told to follow certain safety procedures, but in reality many people skip over them, as shown by many accidents. in bhopal safety measures weren't running properly but people continued to run the plant. there is a general attitude of make do with what you have in chemistry and that extends to safety as well.
i think i missed out in not taking an ethics class while in undergrad.
first off, of course the chemistry industry accidents we hear about, they have results that are either immediate or traceable. a bunch of circuit boards fall off a train and nobody cares; of course most people don't think about the fact that without the chemical industry those circuit boards couldn't be made. some people are calling for the chemistry industry to cut immediately to "green" processes (that is, go to using things that can't harm people if they do get released).
second off, i was thinking about the call for outside regulation of the chemical industry's safety. people assume that outside regulation results in better regulation. today we have what are called MSDS (material safety data sheets) which OSHA requires workplaces to have. Good idea, crappy information. if you compare methyl isocyanate (the stuff released in bhopal) with say sodium fluoride (a low sodium salt substitute sold at the grocery store) you wouldn't really be able to tell that one will almost always hurt you while the other will almost always not. the msds also points out another interesting thing in that methyl isocyanate reacts violently with water (forming a variety of gasses) but the msds still calls for washing with lots of water if you spill it on yourself...
finally, i thought about what training are chemists given to react ethically? two weeks ago i was sitting in on a 1st yr graduate level o. chem class and the teacher was talking about how a particular substances reacted with dna (thus destroying the dna and could kill people. she then used the phrase "make things to help people not kill people." and everyone laughed, like that was obvious, people don't kill people. but i don't think that it is that obvious. chemists are asked to make weapons more effective by doing things like making tracer bullets or more powerful explosives (plastic explosives for instance) but are told not to make chemical weapons. what is a non-chemical weapon? i guess an energy weapon could be non-chemical but in order for humans to handle it it has to be made of something which is a chemical. we also synthesize things to kill insects and pathogens. back to chemical spills, we are told to follow certain safety procedures, but in reality many people skip over them, as shown by many accidents. in bhopal safety measures weren't running properly but people continued to run the plant. there is a general attitude of make do with what you have in chemistry and that extends to safety as well.
i think i missed out in not taking an ethics class while in undergrad.
1.12.04
Camel Infestation
it seems that australia has born the brunt of the problems with animal infestations. there was the introduction of the rabbit, which injured the ecosystem and prompted the building of a very long fence. now they have a camel problem. i wonder if they are going to build a large fence for that.
30.11.04
Way to (Mis)-Point the Finger
So it is reasonably well heard that the tryptophan in the turkey sends the thanksgiving eater into a bit of a napping mood. Ha! it appears that it doesn't =). Ya the tryptophan can make you sleepy, but this author conjectures that it isn't the source of the whole sleepiness.
Oh ya, don't forget to get the chemical free turkey or chicken or whatever, then you won't have to worry about this whole tryptophan thing ahahahhahaha!!!!
Oh ya, don't forget to get the chemical free turkey or chicken or whatever, then you won't have to worry about this whole tryptophan thing ahahahhahaha!!!!
24.11.04
Just in Case you Thought about Sleeping
last night i made two pumpkin pies and a maple nut pie. the maple nut pie was the last to bake and so i put it on time bake and went to bed since it was a little after 10pm. later that night the smoke alarm goes off in our bedroom with three very load and very annoying beeps. my first thought was that the time bake didn't work and i had burnt the pie to a crisp. i checked the kitchen and everything was fine. but we keep our house pretty cold at night 50 something if i remember correctly so i scurried back to bed and thought maybe the detector just hit a weird patch of air or something. then, i think it was an hour later, i had just gotten back to sleep (i was worried about finding my gps) and the alarm went off again. this time i knew everything in the kitchen was fine so i didn't move. it didn't smell like a fire or anything. so i started to go back to sleep and not two minutes later it went off again with its three beeps. i told keith, "i don't know what that is but it is very annoying." so he got up and unscrewed it from its base and took its battery out. then he claimed that my statement was a good ploy... ahhha... i didn't have to get out of bed. but in truth i can't reach the smoke detector.
i wonder what its real problem is... don't say battery going dead because it only does one beep at a time when that is happening =).
i wonder what its real problem is... don't say battery going dead because it only does one beep at a time when that is happening =).
18.11.04
good thing i'm not social
so there is a crappy newsletter that gets delivered to one of my e-mails (via a forward from another e-mail). sometimes it has interesting information but most of the time it just reminds me why i am not "active" in the gsa (that's graduate student association to those who are uneducated).
this week the news included the announcement that there is a two day event about water .
This just makes me want to go to the meeting and be outside the door...with a sign and a clipboard with a petition. something along the lines of "ban dihydrogen monoxide, it kills" and see how many takers i get. it has a website afterall, so it must be true, right?
this week the news included the announcement that there is a two day event about water .
This just makes me want to go to the meeting and be outside the door...with a sign and a clipboard with a petition. something along the lines of "ban dihydrogen monoxide, it kills" and see how many takers i get. it has a website afterall, so it must be true, right?
16.11.04
same page, how about at least same book
situation
• chem. dept. is hiring a new organic professor (or whatever it is called when they first enter the realm of academia)
• candidates go to lunch with three grad students on second of two days here
• school pays for lunch
complications
• there are several (rumor eight) people interviewing
• the same grad students should go to lunch with all candidates to give feedback
• i was not told of previous complication until i agreed to go on the first lunch last week
• group meeting is on tuesday during lunch
• my advisor gets a schedule of today's candidate but apparently neither knows item two or actually connects my name being on the schedule with me actually going
result
• people show up to group meeting today expecting me to give my final presentation this semester
• my advisor gets mad at me because i didn't tell her i was going to lunch
• i wonder if she'll actually read and understand the crappy research report i write for this semester since she can't read and understand a simple schedule
• i wonder why i bother with anything at all related to social things
• chem. dept. is hiring a new organic professor (or whatever it is called when they first enter the realm of academia)
• candidates go to lunch with three grad students on second of two days here
• school pays for lunch
complications
• there are several (rumor eight) people interviewing
• the same grad students should go to lunch with all candidates to give feedback
• i was not told of previous complication until i agreed to go on the first lunch last week
• group meeting is on tuesday during lunch
• my advisor gets a schedule of today's candidate but apparently neither knows item two or actually connects my name being on the schedule with me actually going
result
• people show up to group meeting today expecting me to give my final presentation this semester
• my advisor gets mad at me because i didn't tell her i was going to lunch
• i wonder if she'll actually read and understand the crappy research report i write for this semester since she can't read and understand a simple schedule
• i wonder why i bother with anything at all related to social things
13.11.04
my dream
last night/early this morning i had a dream i actually remember, sort of.
it is a weird one! i was sitting at a large table with my mom, keith, neal and a couple of other people and we were waiting for neal's jennifer to join us. this table was in a bar, dark and somewhat weird lighting. and we were all drinking, and it was normal. keith and neal were drinking a beer, keith out of the bottle and neal had a glass. my mom had something that you only drank in small quantities, but out of a regular sized glass. i had some peach frozen looking thing. it seemed to be a regular get together.
analyze that freud. =)
it is a weird one! i was sitting at a large table with my mom, keith, neal and a couple of other people and we were waiting for neal's jennifer to join us. this table was in a bar, dark and somewhat weird lighting. and we were all drinking, and it was normal. keith and neal were drinking a beer, keith out of the bottle and neal had a glass. my mom had something that you only drank in small quantities, but out of a regular sized glass. i had some peach frozen looking thing. it seemed to be a regular get together.
analyze that freud. =)
8.11.04
Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize
Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize These are prizes for people who do real research but it is not remotely worthy of a Nobel Prize. My two favorites this year are the awards for Chemistry and Biology.
Chemistry went to Coca-Cola of Great Britain. They used "advanced" technology to make tap water into the "super pure" Dasani which they had to pull from the market shelves because in fact they made it contain a cancer causing chemical.
Biology went to several people from Canada and Europe who shoed that herrings (no neccessarily red ones, but i think it includes those) communicate by farting. Yup, its real research.
Apparently they get real Nobel Prize winners to hand out the prizes so I think tonight I'll try to watch the ceremony, could be funny.
Chemistry went to Coca-Cola of Great Britain. They used "advanced" technology to make tap water into the "super pure" Dasani which they had to pull from the market shelves because in fact they made it contain a cancer causing chemical.
Biology went to several people from Canada and Europe who shoed that herrings (no neccessarily red ones, but i think it includes those) communicate by farting. Yup, its real research.
Apparently they get real Nobel Prize winners to hand out the prizes so I think tonight I'll try to watch the ceremony, could be funny.
6.11.04
I almost started a FIRE
okay so my weird take on life (currently) is that if you feel guilty about something you need to confess. or if you do something that is wrong you should confess (even if it isn't the typically sin thing). I get this from the old testament where people offered sacrifices for sinning unknowingly (see for instance Leviticus 4)
if i did something that resulted in an error (even if unintentionally) and i don't acknowledge that then i am lying to myself and others. and bearing false witness (saying everything went fine) is against the commandments, even if i did the whole thing unintentionally. so here's my public confession.
yesterday i was curing my plastic which involves letting it sit under a UV lamp for an hour or two. this lamp is set up in another lab for reasons that are long but not neccesary to know. when i first started doing this i would sit down there with the stuff for the hour since i didn't know if things were going to go wrong and the lamp gets pretty hot. recently i have been not staying down there because nothing had been going wrong. yesterday the lamp fell out of its clamp and squarely on top of my stuff so it formed this little dome of heat over my sample on the table. when i got down there, it smelled bad, the dish i had my sample in had melted and the table was really hot. i kinda smelled like burnt particle board for a few hours. so from now on, even though it seems stupid, i'll sit down with my stuff for hours.
if i did something that resulted in an error (even if unintentionally) and i don't acknowledge that then i am lying to myself and others. and bearing false witness (saying everything went fine) is against the commandments, even if i did the whole thing unintentionally. so here's my public confession.
yesterday i was curing my plastic which involves letting it sit under a UV lamp for an hour or two. this lamp is set up in another lab for reasons that are long but not neccesary to know. when i first started doing this i would sit down there with the stuff for the hour since i didn't know if things were going to go wrong and the lamp gets pretty hot. recently i have been not staying down there because nothing had been going wrong. yesterday the lamp fell out of its clamp and squarely on top of my stuff so it formed this little dome of heat over my sample on the table. when i got down there, it smelled bad, the dish i had my sample in had melted and the table was really hot. i kinda smelled like burnt particle board for a few hours. so from now on, even though it seems stupid, i'll sit down with my stuff for hours.
3.11.04
It's Snowing
i love watching the snow so much that i have to announce every time it snows here, sorry (well not really sorry, if i was really sorry i wouldn't do it).
they are nice big flakes. i don't see any collection yet, but i bet i'll have to drive slowly on my way home after lab tonight
they are nice big flakes. i don't see any collection yet, but i bet i'll have to drive slowly on my way home after lab tonight
2.11.04
nanowrimo
well i'll probably have few posts this month on this blog because i am doing nanowrimo again. hurrah for horrible but voluminous writing. =). you can read my "composition" at watered down words.
i was sitting down to do 15 minutes of writing as part of my "lunch" break (we actually had group meeting during lunch today so i am taking my free time later), when i decided to see if there was a difference between word and word perfect in word count. (yes there is: for yesterday's chapter wp: 1807 word: 1802). but more importantly i found the coolest thing in word perfect. there is a thing that will analyze your writing for sentence lengths and such and also compare it to other writings. there is hemingway short story, the gettysburg address, and the 1040EZ instructions to compare to or you can load in your own document to compare. so cool. i am more complex than hemingway (probably less readable) and about on par with the gettysburg address (i am probably way less interesting). check it out:
anyways, happy reading and i shall have happy writing =).
i was sitting down to do 15 minutes of writing as part of my "lunch" break (we actually had group meeting during lunch today so i am taking my free time later), when i decided to see if there was a difference between word and word perfect in word count. (yes there is: for yesterday's chapter wp: 1807 word: 1802). but more importantly i found the coolest thing in word perfect. there is a thing that will analyze your writing for sentence lengths and such and also compare it to other writings. there is hemingway short story, the gettysburg address, and the 1040EZ instructions to compare to or you can load in your own document to compare. so cool. i am more complex than hemingway (probably less readable) and about on par with the gettysburg address (i am probably way less interesting). check it out:
anyways, happy reading and i shall have happy writing =).
29.10.04
bank candy
so i remember when i was little-ish going to the bank and getting candy (jolly rancher or lolly pop). my current "local" bank for checking is bank of america. i needed to deposit a couple of checks today, so after work i headed over there. as i pulled into the lot i was worried for half a second that they were closed (since today is nevada day for all you non-nevadans). but they were open. i went in and filled out my deposit slips and then went to a teller to make the deposit. i know you can do this using an atm, but that would mean i don't get a chance to get candy. see, i know this bank makes a lot of money off of me since they give me some crappy interest rate like 0.03% (yes that is right). so i figure part of the perks of being part of this bank is the candy. so on the way out i didn't see the basket with the lolly pops on the counter of thier welcome desk. but i did spy it in the work area of the welcome person so i casually walked by and swiped myself a lemon lolly pop. mmm tasty. okay not the best candy ever, but it makes me feel a bit less ripped off.
28.10.04
birthday....sigh
most people don't like b-days because they are getting older. me i don't care about that; most of the time i can't remember how old i am, though i think i am 26 now. what i do care about is awkward social situations. i don't like parties. fortunately keith isn't good at organizing such things. although we did go out to eat with his parents last night which was good. but it was bad because i think it was his mom, told the waiters to do their birthday singing thing. i just stared at the table. tried to say thank you at the end, but ughhh i hate that. just let me be non-important. don't make me try to be socially graceful. i know they were trying to be nice and say how much they love me, that is the only reason i endure things. just makes me wonder what i don't do for them that they wish i did for them or didn't do...
27.10.04
peer review
i read this loose parts comic and it reminded me of the debate regarding peer reviewed publishing and grant approval. the comic i think is true peer review, just great!
now apparently some people argue the current publishing system is out of date. right now, if you want your work to be taken seriously, you send in a manuscript to a journal. they briefly look at it and decide if they are going to take the time to send it out for peer reivew. if it does get sent out, your manuscript goes to about three other respected people who work in about the same field and they read the manuscript and send back comments. these comments are combined and sent back to you so you can make changes (these can be simple like add more background or complicated like do more experiments or explain these results more definatively). then you send the reworked manuscript back to the journal and they edit it, type set etc. and finally it comes out in print. that takes like ohhh 6 months i think (shorter or longer depending on journal). most of that time is occupied by the peer review. see the reviewers have other things to do than read your stupid paper so they put it off for a while. hence the debate that we should just publish things to the web, with a few controls. then people can trash on it there. it is immediately available and more widely available and cheaper than print journals.
another place that gets interest in terms of peer review is the awarding of government grants. again you submit your grant and it goes out for peer review (with all the indentifying info stripped from it). and basically other people in the field vote on if they think that idea is worth funding. i guess some people in the government want to just be able to fund ideas without that. it would be faster and then you could play favorites.
peer review is good. although one paper my name is on was rejected initially (currently be resubmitted to another journal) because the peer reviewer didn't read very carefully and just claimed that the research was too similar to what was already published; in fact, we had published something with a similar compound but it was a completely different application and showed dramatically different behavior. so the review process is only as good as the peers. and there are a lot of lazy people out there. plus the peer review process doesn't take advantage of the quickness of the internet that we now know and love. ACS (american chemical society) is trying to speed things up by using an on-line system they have named paragon to do the submitting, peer reviewing, and revising of drafts. not too bad, but a lot of people (my advisor included) don't really understand what they are doing and so the system isn't quite bullet-proof enough for them. the problem of reviewers taking forever to read the paper is also not solved by this system. part of the reason i think is that the process hasn't been given the excitement that say blogging has. your comments are immediately posted and you get to dialog back and forth, kind of. something needs to poke these slow people into moving at the speed of internet when they do their reviews!
now apparently some people argue the current publishing system is out of date. right now, if you want your work to be taken seriously, you send in a manuscript to a journal. they briefly look at it and decide if they are going to take the time to send it out for peer reivew. if it does get sent out, your manuscript goes to about three other respected people who work in about the same field and they read the manuscript and send back comments. these comments are combined and sent back to you so you can make changes (these can be simple like add more background or complicated like do more experiments or explain these results more definatively). then you send the reworked manuscript back to the journal and they edit it, type set etc. and finally it comes out in print. that takes like ohhh 6 months i think (shorter or longer depending on journal). most of that time is occupied by the peer review. see the reviewers have other things to do than read your stupid paper so they put it off for a while. hence the debate that we should just publish things to the web, with a few controls. then people can trash on it there. it is immediately available and more widely available and cheaper than print journals.
another place that gets interest in terms of peer review is the awarding of government grants. again you submit your grant and it goes out for peer review (with all the indentifying info stripped from it). and basically other people in the field vote on if they think that idea is worth funding. i guess some people in the government want to just be able to fund ideas without that. it would be faster and then you could play favorites.
peer review is good. although one paper my name is on was rejected initially (currently be resubmitted to another journal) because the peer reviewer didn't read very carefully and just claimed that the research was too similar to what was already published; in fact, we had published something with a similar compound but it was a completely different application and showed dramatically different behavior. so the review process is only as good as the peers. and there are a lot of lazy people out there. plus the peer review process doesn't take advantage of the quickness of the internet that we now know and love. ACS (american chemical society) is trying to speed things up by using an on-line system they have named paragon to do the submitting, peer reviewing, and revising of drafts. not too bad, but a lot of people (my advisor included) don't really understand what they are doing and so the system isn't quite bullet-proof enough for them. the problem of reviewers taking forever to read the paper is also not solved by this system. part of the reason i think is that the process hasn't been given the excitement that say blogging has. your comments are immediately posted and you get to dialog back and forth, kind of. something needs to poke these slow people into moving at the speed of internet when they do their reviews!
"new" computer
so i took over keith's laptop after he sucessfully recovered my documents from my other laptop. so far it is working out. just have to remember what programs i was using and where i put the install disks. some of the installers i had on my old laptop and were transferred over, so that was easy. i'm just glad to have my files back. now i should burn a couple cd's of the really important stuff.
26.10.04
slightly better
okay fixed the whole network using keith's laptop thing
turns out that someone stole my ip! grr. i have a guess who that is too. if the printer required an ip, kyle may have fished until he found one open. oh ya, kyle the little prick was the one that set up the printer. i guess he just decided he was the one that should set it up and so he did, couldn't really gather from talking with him if suk-wah said to do so or not. in any case that just means that i am completely justified in not wanting admin rights on that computer.
finally, there are good people in the world. i called up computer support (had the wrong extension written down for my usual support guy). the poor guy finally figured out that some other computer was using my ip (like i said i think it was kyle). so they had to enter the help ticket into the computer etc. ge may make you go to canada for computer support, but here it is all on campus. not that it helps anything because his official statement was to give 24 working hours (3 days). stupid. so i asked for bill's extension, the guy who actually supports chem and phys buildings. he had given me his extension but i wrote it down wrong. the computer support kid couldn't give me his extension but could transfer me and if bill wanted to give away his extension he could. so talked to bill. he gave me his extension and a new ip. beautiful. gotta love cool people like that. just goes to show it is who you know.
and my half a stamp didn't kill itself when i compressed it this time, and survived for an hour while i cured my mold. (i even survived dropping the hot bulb to the UV lamp and it still works.)
finally, my loving k2h told me we'd get stuff working. i hope my laptop recovers...i think in the future i'll avoid windows update since sp2 may have been the cause of the whole toasting.
turns out that someone stole my ip! grr. i have a guess who that is too. if the printer required an ip, kyle may have fished until he found one open. oh ya, kyle the little prick was the one that set up the printer. i guess he just decided he was the one that should set it up and so he did, couldn't really gather from talking with him if suk-wah said to do so or not. in any case that just means that i am completely justified in not wanting admin rights on that computer.
finally, there are good people in the world. i called up computer support (had the wrong extension written down for my usual support guy). the poor guy finally figured out that some other computer was using my ip (like i said i think it was kyle). so they had to enter the help ticket into the computer etc. ge may make you go to canada for computer support, but here it is all on campus. not that it helps anything because his official statement was to give 24 working hours (3 days). stupid. so i asked for bill's extension, the guy who actually supports chem and phys buildings. he had given me his extension but i wrote it down wrong. the computer support kid couldn't give me his extension but could transfer me and if bill wanted to give away his extension he could. so talked to bill. he gave me his extension and a new ip. beautiful. gotta love cool people like that. just goes to show it is who you know.
and my half a stamp didn't kill itself when i compressed it this time, and survived for an hour while i cured my mold. (i even survived dropping the hot bulb to the UV lamp and it still works.)
finally, my loving k2h told me we'd get stuff working. i hope my laptop recovers...i think in the future i'll avoid windows update since sp2 may have been the cause of the whole toasting.
Life Stinks
my laptop doesn't work.
i am a moron and can't figure out the network settings (even though i wrote them down) to make keith's laptop work at school.
suk-wah was all nice yesterday and asked me to set up the new printer and i said sure. today i am using the "group" computer to post this and someone set up the new printer. pretty sure it was suk-wah. way to make me feel like i am totally not needed.
earlier i decided to take my admin privledges off this computer so i couldn't be responsible for anything and now i can't compare the network settings.
my stamp for research killed itself so i had to cut half of it off.
just remembered i didn't change my patch this morning.
i am a moron and can't figure out the network settings (even though i wrote them down) to make keith's laptop work at school.
suk-wah was all nice yesterday and asked me to set up the new printer and i said sure. today i am using the "group" computer to post this and someone set up the new printer. pretty sure it was suk-wah. way to make me feel like i am totally not needed.
earlier i decided to take my admin privledges off this computer so i couldn't be responsible for anything and now i can't compare the network settings.
my stamp for research killed itself so i had to cut half of it off.
just remembered i didn't change my patch this morning.
25.10.04
That Moment
there is a moment when things break. one moment it works and suddenly it doesn't. tragically, i observed this moment with my laptop. i pressed the on switch when i got into work this morning and it got to my log-in screen. i realized i had hibernated it last and so its hardware profile was for home. so i went to turn off computer and did restart. sadly it has not ever fulfilled that promise. i have done multiple things like unplugging peripherials, power, battery; booted to safe mode unsucessfully, etc. so hopefully when i get home and boot to cd, it will be able to fix itself.
it is just so tragic to see the moment of break and know that you could have avoided it. i could've just run under my home hardware profile...but i didn't choose to. somehow, having something break when you don't see it or are not involved is so much better. less stressful because i don't go, "what if?"
well, i am recovering. hopefully my computer will tonight.
it is just so tragic to see the moment of break and know that you could have avoided it. i could've just run under my home hardware profile...but i didn't choose to. somehow, having something break when you don't see it or are not involved is so much better. less stressful because i don't go, "what if?"
well, i am recovering. hopefully my computer will tonight.
23.10.04
tigers, bees, and rivers oh my
just a few pics that i took while we were in b.c. canada
tiger lily, right?
a bee on a flower...i wish they were nice for petting.
a river that we saw salmon in, i think
tiger lily, right?
a bee on a flower...i wish they were nice for petting.
a river that we saw salmon in, i think
Dowsing in the Snow
today we went on a hike with two of our friends. one is a concrete worker and the other is a retired contractor; both are good christian friends who i would love to have around me during any trial sent my way. both can dowse, for water, i'll not be speaking of any of the other dowsing. we hiked up to a spot that was short of our goal, but good enough for us in terms of we had a good time and didn't want to take a big chance with the weather. on the way back down, the contractor showed us how you can find water using a willow branch with a y. i have been skeptical and so has keith about this practice. let me explain what we observed, then i'll tell you what i think after reading a few things on the internet.
at one spot, our friend was able to demonstrate the technique to us. he held the y with one hand at each end palms up, with the joint pretty much straight up. similar to this. oh ya, there is snow all around, around 6 inches deep, in other words water everywhere since it is starting to be a warmish day and there are some rivulets of water running under the snow. he started off with a somewhat whimpy stick that broke. now if you look at the picture, i don't know about you, but i can't figure out how someone can break a stick by twisting it while holding it like that. and i did see it break by being twisted. we then switched to a more substantial stick that keith trimmed. keith and i couldn't do it. a little later on the trail, keith and i just couldn't stand it, we had to do some experiments. we had this guy walk backwards, forwards, sideways with the stick in front, back, to the side, held with hands straight crossed and paired with keith. we observed the following. if the stick was held to the side of the body (the joint was off center but the stick was parallel to the body) the effect was not observed; if the spot where the stick previously bent was stood over and the stick gradually brought to be centered on the body it would bend down. no matter if the person approached the spot with the stick in front or in back (going forwards or backwards) it always bent away from the person's body.
getting back, i read the internet a bit. there is a lot out there saying it is by witchcraft type of stuff or by subliminally thinking it should work etc. and that scientific testing, when done right, shows it doesn't work... now obviously it isn't detecting water since the snow covered the ground and the stick didn't bend (even when over the running water rivulets). and i don't think the people were bending the stickes themselves, consiously or unconsiously since i just can't see how it would break in the way it did if it was only them. i don't think it is evil, these people are genuine christians who want to follow Jesus. some sites point out that the water would run to a low point if you drill so perhaps the striking water when drilling is a side event that distracts from what is really going on. i wish i knew what was going on. it is kinda cool. and i love to have things that scientists don't explain because they can't and so they just brush it off as something that can't be. this reminds me that we still do not know a lot about this world, as much as we pretend to know by talking about things like relativity, the strong force, quarks, electrons, electromagnetic waves, etc. there is still much to know, learn, discover.
at one spot, our friend was able to demonstrate the technique to us. he held the y with one hand at each end palms up, with the joint pretty much straight up. similar to this. oh ya, there is snow all around, around 6 inches deep, in other words water everywhere since it is starting to be a warmish day and there are some rivulets of water running under the snow. he started off with a somewhat whimpy stick that broke. now if you look at the picture, i don't know about you, but i can't figure out how someone can break a stick by twisting it while holding it like that. and i did see it break by being twisted. we then switched to a more substantial stick that keith trimmed. keith and i couldn't do it. a little later on the trail, keith and i just couldn't stand it, we had to do some experiments. we had this guy walk backwards, forwards, sideways with the stick in front, back, to the side, held with hands straight crossed and paired with keith. we observed the following. if the stick was held to the side of the body (the joint was off center but the stick was parallel to the body) the effect was not observed; if the spot where the stick previously bent was stood over and the stick gradually brought to be centered on the body it would bend down. no matter if the person approached the spot with the stick in front or in back (going forwards or backwards) it always bent away from the person's body.
getting back, i read the internet a bit. there is a lot out there saying it is by witchcraft type of stuff or by subliminally thinking it should work etc. and that scientific testing, when done right, shows it doesn't work... now obviously it isn't detecting water since the snow covered the ground and the stick didn't bend (even when over the running water rivulets). and i don't think the people were bending the stickes themselves, consiously or unconsiously since i just can't see how it would break in the way it did if it was only them. i don't think it is evil, these people are genuine christians who want to follow Jesus. some sites point out that the water would run to a low point if you drill so perhaps the striking water when drilling is a side event that distracts from what is really going on. i wish i knew what was going on. it is kinda cool. and i love to have things that scientists don't explain because they can't and so they just brush it off as something that can't be. this reminds me that we still do not know a lot about this world, as much as we pretend to know by talking about things like relativity, the strong force, quarks, electrons, electromagnetic waves, etc. there is still much to know, learn, discover.
22.10.04
National Chemistry Week
this week was/is national chemistry week with tomorrow being national mole day. (think about that one, remember avogadro's constant is ~6.02 x 10^23 mol^-1 and the date tomorrow is? think month day format).
the theme this year is health and wellness. this a particularly good theme for chemistry as most people associate chemistry with bad things like accidents, rather than good things like healthy living. yes, bad chemical accidents have happened but how does one measure the bad against the good. chemical manufacturing plants make things that are used later to make medicinal drugs, vitamins, food preservatives, fertilizers, protective materials, etc. and how many lives have been saved by things that we synthesize i do not know. is chemistry worth the cost? i think so.
one of the things that i find interesting to observe is the belief in natural medicines. there are many points i could make about these, but i would like to make just one point with the help of a specific example. if it were not for synthetic chemistry there would not be enough medicines to treat everyone that needs it, or if there was enough it would be gained at the expense of large ecological impact.
the specific example taxol. for those of you who don't know, taxol is a drug used to sucessfully treat many types of cancer. this can be considered a natural product in that it does occur naturally in the yew tree. however, if you go strip the bark of a yew tree and just crunch on that the effect is not good. the bark has several other constituents that are harmful and chemistry came to the rescue to purify the taxol to a form that is usable in patients. but that was the only hurdle that chemistry overcame. it is one thing to strip bark of several trees and obtain small amounts of drug for trials and quite another to obtain enough to treat the world's cancer patients. so chemistry found a way to use a chemical that occurs in higher quantities in the yew tree to synthesize taxol. instead of just using the bark off trees, now they can use much more of the tree and treat more poeple using renewable methods to obtain the drug. many people are alive (and living full lives) today because of this drug. we just wouldn't get that without chemistry and "not natural" products.
the theme this year is health and wellness. this a particularly good theme for chemistry as most people associate chemistry with bad things like accidents, rather than good things like healthy living. yes, bad chemical accidents have happened but how does one measure the bad against the good. chemical manufacturing plants make things that are used later to make medicinal drugs, vitamins, food preservatives, fertilizers, protective materials, etc. and how many lives have been saved by things that we synthesize i do not know. is chemistry worth the cost? i think so.
one of the things that i find interesting to observe is the belief in natural medicines. there are many points i could make about these, but i would like to make just one point with the help of a specific example. if it were not for synthetic chemistry there would not be enough medicines to treat everyone that needs it, or if there was enough it would be gained at the expense of large ecological impact.
the specific example taxol. for those of you who don't know, taxol is a drug used to sucessfully treat many types of cancer. this can be considered a natural product in that it does occur naturally in the yew tree. however, if you go strip the bark of a yew tree and just crunch on that the effect is not good. the bark has several other constituents that are harmful and chemistry came to the rescue to purify the taxol to a form that is usable in patients. but that was the only hurdle that chemistry overcame. it is one thing to strip bark of several trees and obtain small amounts of drug for trials and quite another to obtain enough to treat the world's cancer patients. so chemistry found a way to use a chemical that occurs in higher quantities in the yew tree to synthesize taxol. instead of just using the bark off trees, now they can use much more of the tree and treat more poeple using renewable methods to obtain the drug. many people are alive (and living full lives) today because of this drug. we just wouldn't get that without chemistry and "not natural" products.
21.10.04
parking pass day 8
well that's the end! i got my friendly reminder ticket at about 2pm (according to the time stamp) wednesday. since the blue lot is fairly close to the parking office (relative to the rest of campus) they probably figured since the weather stopped dumping water yesterday afternoon they should go give some tickets. so i put my parking pass back on my mirror and say well maybe those people who park just outside the lot aren't that stupid.
20.10.04
more like nv
okay the rain turned to snow. big flakes. i hope they salt the sidewalks.
definately used to snow and not rain here.
hey sarah, has it snowed/will it snow at all before thanksgiving in your neck of the woods? perhaps snowshoeing at thanksgiving?
definately used to snow and not rain here.
hey sarah, has it snowed/will it snow at all before thanksgiving in your neck of the woods? perhaps snowshoeing at thanksgiving?
ascii
okay so i was talking/arguing with keith last night regarding ascii codes.
he was correct technically, but not practically.
i searched long and hard (when i should have been doing other things, probably but my hands are cold so i am staying by the warm, power-sucking personal electric heater), and finally found the table(s) that i printed a couple years ago. they can be found here. these set of tables are the best i have found for practicle use.
now, keith was correct in saying that ascii values are ascii values, regardless of os. that would be the whole point of having a standard.
i am correct in saying that entering them is a different matter. you will note that i used a spiffy degrees symbol in my post "parking pass day 7". this is thanks to the tables telling me how to enter it for html. if you look at the table for the pc, you will note a column for dos and one for windows. i am not totally sure on the reasons why these columns are labeled the way they are but if you follow the directions you do get the desired results. so these means you can either memorize the short cut for degrees in regular text as alt+0176 or alt+167 (ahhh that could get confusing). just be sure to use the number pad in both cases...the regular number keys just don't send the right code, tragically.
so next time you need a weird something for your document or post, you'll know where to look.
even for those mac people you can find the odd short cut keys.
he was correct technically, but not practically.
i searched long and hard (when i should have been doing other things, probably but my hands are cold so i am staying by the warm, power-sucking personal electric heater), and finally found the table(s) that i printed a couple years ago. they can be found here. these set of tables are the best i have found for practicle use.
now, keith was correct in saying that ascii values are ascii values, regardless of os. that would be the whole point of having a standard.
i am correct in saying that entering them is a different matter. you will note that i used a spiffy degrees symbol in my post "parking pass day 7". this is thanks to the tables telling me how to enter it for html. if you look at the table for the pc, you will note a column for dos and one for windows. i am not totally sure on the reasons why these columns are labeled the way they are but if you follow the directions you do get the desired results. so these means you can either memorize the short cut for degrees in regular text as alt+0176 or alt+167 (ahhh that could get confusing). just be sure to use the number pad in both cases...the regular number keys just don't send the right code, tragically.
so next time you need a weird something for your document or post, you'll know where to look.
even for those mac people you can find the odd short cut keys.
parking pass day 7
no ticket on the car... although not entirely surprising. it is raining. now this isn't an event for say, seattle, but for reno it is unusual. on average our relative humidity is around 70% in the morning but drops to 30% or 10% in the afternoon, today and yesterday it is 100%. (do you use the present or past tense verb there?) and it is cold... in fact right now it is 53 ° C in the lab. yes cold indoors, the heat doesn't seem to ever work right in this building. and all this rain reminds me of the opening lines of flood by jars of clay (keeping with the citing of lyics theme started by k2h). but my point ultimately is that the ticket would probably dissolve if anyone were to get one so the parking monitors are probably sipping coffee watching tv.
19.10.04
parking pass day 6
switch in reporting... i'll report for the previous day. yesterday (day 6 without a permit properly displayed) i got no ticket.
although it appears that they are using a sizable portion of blue (this section regularly empty) for storing and distributing construction materials for the parking garage which was supposed to be done in september, or was it august. from my friend mike, i learned that the construction company is paying heavy fines. the construction company in turn is charging penalties to the iron workers sub they hired, who apparently were slower than dirt becuase they didn't have enough people working on the job.
now i wonder how much of the garage is being "paid" for by these late fees and if this will have any impact on the parking permit fees... ha! it will probably make them go up for some reason like the increase in administration to process the late fees.
although it appears that they are using a sizable portion of blue (this section regularly empty) for storing and distributing construction materials for the parking garage which was supposed to be done in september, or was it august. from my friend mike, i learned that the construction company is paying heavy fines. the construction company in turn is charging penalties to the iron workers sub they hired, who apparently were slower than dirt becuase they didn't have enough people working on the job.
now i wonder how much of the garage is being "paid" for by these late fees and if this will have any impact on the parking permit fees... ha! it will probably make them go up for some reason like the increase in administration to process the late fees.
15.10.04
never work for NASA
if i were an engineer i don't think i would ever work for NASA. they have done some amazing feats, such as put men on the moon and send landable craft to mars. however when they screw up, it gets a wider audience. i love the screw up with genesis. this is a craft that was supposed to collect stuff from around the sun and then bring it back. the landing was most interesting. it was supposed to float down using a parachute and then a helicopter would come grab it out of the sky. unfortunately in plunged to the earth without its parachute and made a large dent in utah's soil. turns out that the initial investigation leaks are showing it was because a drawing was backwards, yes backwards. you think someone would have noticed... i guess this just goes to show that we shouldn't make things that are only subtly not symmetric. either be symmetric or be obvious you aren't.
parking pass day 5
still no ticket. if i don't get one today, that is one week thus far.
it is interesting to see the huddle of cars parked on the road just outside blue parking. around most of the university, the neighborhoods have parking permits (free to the residents) so that students and others don't park in driveways etc... but around blue parking there isn't much of anything and this one little road happens to have dirt on either side suitable for parking. based on my experiment thus far, it wouldn't hurt these people to just park in blue parking, even without a permit.
it is interesting to see the huddle of cars parked on the road just outside blue parking. around most of the university, the neighborhoods have parking permits (free to the residents) so that students and others don't park in driveways etc... but around blue parking there isn't much of anything and this one little road happens to have dirt on either side suitable for parking. based on my experiment thus far, it wouldn't hurt these people to just park in blue parking, even without a permit.
14.10.04
parking pass day 4
no ticket yesterday! and today is another job fair (yesterday engineering & science today general) so could've probably parked in green for free again. or i could pretend i am part of the board of regents, they have a meeting today and it looked like they were getting silver parking!
13.10.04
parking pass day 3
no ticket yesterday.
today there is a job fair on campus... perhaps i'll go check it out later just to see if there are any potential employers around here. but back to the parking. on my way in this morning i noticed a sign saying that the employers at the fair could park in green parking (better than my blue parking by a few feet to several more feet). i wonder if i could have parked in green with no retribution today.
today there is a job fair on campus... perhaps i'll go check it out later just to see if there are any potential employers around here. but back to the parking. on my way in this morning i noticed a sign saying that the employers at the fair could park in green parking (better than my blue parking by a few feet to several more feet). i wonder if i could have parked in green with no retribution today.
12.10.04
dave barry and my brother-in-law
so as some light reading i picked up "Boogers are My Beat" at the library. funny, inane, space filling blabber; a good light read. a couple things in this book reminded me of my brother-in-law, kevin. these were reminders of why it is a good thing i don't see kevin often. he's funny, but his non-stop yammering would definately get to me after a while. (no offense to his wife! who i think is a saint for loving that guy.)
in the introduction to the book, "... I'm at home, sitting in front of my computer in my underwear, trying to decide which animal name is funnier, 'hamster or gerbil.'1 1. Answer: 'weasel.'" now weasel sounds like kevin. in fact if i were to choose a log-in icon for kevin it would be a weasel that probably looked something like this not because i think kevin is a weasel, but because i think he would find so many things funny about weasels.
in a chapter about computers barry is talking about rebooting and says, "While my computer is busy, I scan my wart. I have a wart on my right leg. It has been there for many years. I call it Buddy." kevin would name a wart if he had one. further, kevin would talk about his wart to miscellaneous people and give them a full run down of its appearance (this would take roughly 5 hours) , if he could.
hurrah for kevin and his wacko random stories that are fully analyzed until the actual story disappears.
hey kev, what do you have cookin' for this thanksgiving's round of super stories?
in the introduction to the book, "... I'm at home, sitting in front of my computer in my underwear, trying to decide which animal name is funnier, 'hamster or gerbil.'1 1. Answer: 'weasel.'" now weasel sounds like kevin. in fact if i were to choose a log-in icon for kevin it would be a weasel that probably looked something like this not because i think kevin is a weasel, but because i think he would find so many things funny about weasels.
in a chapter about computers barry is talking about rebooting and says, "While my computer is busy, I scan my wart. I have a wart on my right leg. It has been there for many years. I call it Buddy." kevin would name a wart if he had one. further, kevin would talk about his wart to miscellaneous people and give them a full run down of its appearance (this would take roughly 5 hours) , if he could.
hurrah for kevin and his wacko random stories that are fully analyzed until the actual story disappears.
hey kev, what do you have cookin' for this thanksgiving's round of super stories?
parking pass day 2
no ticket yesterday. no huge surprise there... i have no idea how many parking spaces there are on campus but parking services estimates that there are 19,551 people (students, faculty, staff) here this year. that's a lot of people and a lot of cars; checking all parking permits every day isn't going to happen. but the mean time to failure (how long you can park in blue and not get caught) is my main question.
today i parked with the stall in front of me occupied by a ford explorer that has no permit. it has no permit because it is an exempt vehicle owned by the university. now i am not against them doing so or even parking in spaces. but i am against them using perfectly nice parking spaces in blue to store vehicles. i know this vehicle is stored in blue because it has a newspaper type flyer on its windshield that was passed out about two weeks ago. and its passenger side front tire is fairly flat. this is stupid to store a car here. it gets used almost never i would say and yet it occupies a spot in the lot that i would consider "prime parking" for blue.
today i parked with the stall in front of me occupied by a ford explorer that has no permit. it has no permit because it is an exempt vehicle owned by the university. now i am not against them doing so or even parking in spaces. but i am against them using perfectly nice parking spaces in blue to store vehicles. i know this vehicle is stored in blue because it has a newspaper type flyer on its windshield that was passed out about two weeks ago. and its passenger side front tire is fairly flat. this is stupid to store a car here. it gets used almost never i would say and yet it occupies a spot in the lot that i would consider "prime parking" for blue.
11.10.04
parking pass
day 1 of my parking pass experiment.
the situation: i park probably 1/2 mi to 3/4 mi from the building i work/teach in and pay $60 a year for this privilege. last year i paid $150 to park 1/8 mi to 1/4 mi from "my" building, this year that amount of money would get me a parking spot 500 ft away from the current $60 parking. since i am parking in the boondocks (with several vehicles that seemed to be stored by the university like a boat that never moves) i am curious if i even needed to pay the $60.
the test: instead of properly displaying my permit (hanging it on my rearview mirror) i am just tucking it in my dash face down. i know that if any parking lot ticket person comes by they will give me a gentle ticket of "please display your permit properly" and not a real ticket. then i will know how often parking people actually check the "blue" lot.
the theory: i don't think anyone actually cares who parks in blue parking and i am betting i won't get a reminder for the rest of the semester.
the situation: i park probably 1/2 mi to 3/4 mi from the building i work/teach in and pay $60 a year for this privilege. last year i paid $150 to park 1/8 mi to 1/4 mi from "my" building, this year that amount of money would get me a parking spot 500 ft away from the current $60 parking. since i am parking in the boondocks (with several vehicles that seemed to be stored by the university like a boat that never moves) i am curious if i even needed to pay the $60.
the test: instead of properly displaying my permit (hanging it on my rearview mirror) i am just tucking it in my dash face down. i know that if any parking lot ticket person comes by they will give me a gentle ticket of "please display your permit properly" and not a real ticket. then i will know how often parking people actually check the "blue" lot.
the theory: i don't think anyone actually cares who parks in blue parking and i am betting i won't get a reminder for the rest of the semester.
5.10.04
Fall
many people have said much about seasons and fall has not been ignored, but i feel inspired by the season.
for long i have resisted saying i enjoyed a particular season more than another. partly because i felt it was so cliche to have a favorite season, partially because i enjoy all season so much, and partially because i like fall and it seemed even more of a cliche to pick the season that my birthday is in. but alas, yesterday i came to the definate conclusion that fall is my favorite season.
first let me say that my fall of favor falls between the vernal equinox and ends at the winter solstice. this is apparently an american version of the seasons. although i used to think that we were quite stupid for these cycle dates (i mean really fall in the grade school sense ends at the first good snow not in the middle of december), but since i have grown and finally settled on fall as a favorite, the dates coincide quite nicely with the time i find most enjoyable.
yesterday the leaves gently blew across the lawn and concrete of the "lower quad," which may in fact be the upper quad but i don't really pay attention to the naming system around here. the gentle crunch and squish of partly dried leaves starting to decay reached my nose and made me wonder why fall leaves wasn't a perfume. naturally it wouldn't be since most women want to smell appalingly like a bunch of silk flowers (no offense to those scent formulators out there), the gentle smells of fall would be shunned like old books in a dusty corner of a library. but if people who loved, absorbed, enchanted in fall had their way, fall leaves would be a perfume. we would also frequently go around in the morning with a snug sweater, eat lunch in short sleeves with a gentle slant of sunshine warming our backs, and enjoy a mug of hot chocolate curled up on a chair playing a game.
there are many things fall is for me, but most of all it reminds me of things i love about my childhood--new pencils and paper, soup and bread, apple pie, warm shirts, hugs, thanksgiving, family, skiing, reading, crisp air, yellow and red trees sharply contrasted by evergreens, learning. it is possible bad things happen in fall (in fact i am certain they do), but today i choose to remember love.
for long i have resisted saying i enjoyed a particular season more than another. partly because i felt it was so cliche to have a favorite season, partially because i enjoy all season so much, and partially because i like fall and it seemed even more of a cliche to pick the season that my birthday is in. but alas, yesterday i came to the definate conclusion that fall is my favorite season.
first let me say that my fall of favor falls between the vernal equinox and ends at the winter solstice. this is apparently an american version of the seasons. although i used to think that we were quite stupid for these cycle dates (i mean really fall in the grade school sense ends at the first good snow not in the middle of december), but since i have grown and finally settled on fall as a favorite, the dates coincide quite nicely with the time i find most enjoyable.
yesterday the leaves gently blew across the lawn and concrete of the "lower quad," which may in fact be the upper quad but i don't really pay attention to the naming system around here. the gentle crunch and squish of partly dried leaves starting to decay reached my nose and made me wonder why fall leaves wasn't a perfume. naturally it wouldn't be since most women want to smell appalingly like a bunch of silk flowers (no offense to those scent formulators out there), the gentle smells of fall would be shunned like old books in a dusty corner of a library. but if people who loved, absorbed, enchanted in fall had their way, fall leaves would be a perfume. we would also frequently go around in the morning with a snug sweater, eat lunch in short sleeves with a gentle slant of sunshine warming our backs, and enjoy a mug of hot chocolate curled up on a chair playing a game.
there are many things fall is for me, but most of all it reminds me of things i love about my childhood--new pencils and paper, soup and bread, apple pie, warm shirts, hugs, thanksgiving, family, skiing, reading, crisp air, yellow and red trees sharply contrasted by evergreens, learning. it is possible bad things happen in fall (in fact i am certain they do), but today i choose to remember love.
23.9.04
Nano... sorta
okay so i finally accomplished something at work/school. sadly it is just duplicating someone else's work. of course it is George Whitesides who probably spends more money every month in grants than i'll pay over my lifetime in taxes... but still just a repeat.
i managed to get into the nano-scale (note the magic prefix nano, that means funded) today. technically it is still in the micrometer (0.6 um) but hey that is 600 nm! basically i went from something 2um to something 600nm and all without using any expensive chemicals or a clean room (in fact i used a vise strewn with metal shavings in a room with multiple piles of stuff and several pumps that leak a little pump oil).
now i just have to do something new with it!
on the way to confirming that i did make it to the nano-scale realm, i decided i wanted a better image mangement program than just using XP's default viewer. i have previously tried source forge for a open source viewer, but that fell kersplat since none of the programs worked like well acdsee. so then i contemplated just using the trial version of acdsee classic (perhaps upgrading later), but alas for some reason the trial version just wasn't working for me. in despiration i typed "image viewer" into google and it came up with irfanview. thus far i am totally impressed! very awesome program, that is free (which actually makes me want to donate to the guy since he doesn't make me)
i managed to get into the nano-scale (note the magic prefix nano, that means funded) today. technically it is still in the micrometer (0.6 um) but hey that is 600 nm! basically i went from something 2um to something 600nm and all without using any expensive chemicals or a clean room (in fact i used a vise strewn with metal shavings in a room with multiple piles of stuff and several pumps that leak a little pump oil).
now i just have to do something new with it!
on the way to confirming that i did make it to the nano-scale realm, i decided i wanted a better image mangement program than just using XP's default viewer. i have previously tried source forge for a open source viewer, but that fell kersplat since none of the programs worked like well acdsee. so then i contemplated just using the trial version of acdsee classic (perhaps upgrading later), but alas for some reason the trial version just wasn't working for me. in despiration i typed "image viewer" into google and it came up with irfanview. thus far i am totally impressed! very awesome program, that is free (which actually makes me want to donate to the guy since he doesn't make me)
into the middle of things
okay i debated on several things inside my head:
subjects of posts, frequency of posts, where i should start...
here's what i thought about/came up with
keith suggested that i put my dissertation up, he said he'd actually read it and edit it during his lunch time. this would be a major plus to me becuase then someone would actually give me some feedback in a written form (my advisor is big on talking, which i hate); since a lot of the stuff in the thesis hasn't been published yet, that might make posting it a little tricky.
so i thought about doing a spiritual type of postings, where i put up stuff i thought about in relation to God, religion, and such things; this means that i would be limiting myself in some ways.
what i came up with was random. yup, if i feel like posting something i will. if i deem it of interest i'll post some parts of my dissertation like the introduction which would have no likely conflicts; another day i might be provoked by a spiritual thought; or another day i just might think of something totally off topic from any other post. i know that my randomness may make my blog less readable to random people interested in specific things, but i don't feel like being thematic right now, so there!
frequency... sarah was doing so awesome providing distraction (although meaningful and helpful, it was still technically distraction since i read it at work) when she posted stuff everyday at her somethingepic.com blog but alas once a day is quite frequent and i am definately not up to being that disciplined. so i thought perhaps once a week i should try to get something up so at least i keep some sort of readership, if only my mom; yet even that feels like what if i have nothing to say? i am tempted to go random, but i know that will dwindle into thin to nothing. so i will try to do at least one post a week. if i have nothing from my life, i shall start with a sentence from a book and see where it will go for at least a paragraph.
finally i wondered what i should do about background and all that. well, its just too bad. people will have to pick up stuff from context, because i am too lazy to give background! =)
happy reading to any who do.
subjects of posts, frequency of posts, where i should start...
here's what i thought about/came up with
keith suggested that i put my dissertation up, he said he'd actually read it and edit it during his lunch time. this would be a major plus to me becuase then someone would actually give me some feedback in a written form (my advisor is big on talking, which i hate); since a lot of the stuff in the thesis hasn't been published yet, that might make posting it a little tricky.
so i thought about doing a spiritual type of postings, where i put up stuff i thought about in relation to God, religion, and such things; this means that i would be limiting myself in some ways.
what i came up with was random. yup, if i feel like posting something i will. if i deem it of interest i'll post some parts of my dissertation like the introduction which would have no likely conflicts; another day i might be provoked by a spiritual thought; or another day i just might think of something totally off topic from any other post. i know that my randomness may make my blog less readable to random people interested in specific things, but i don't feel like being thematic right now, so there!
frequency... sarah was doing so awesome providing distraction (although meaningful and helpful, it was still technically distraction since i read it at work) when she posted stuff everyday at her somethingepic.com blog but alas once a day is quite frequent and i am definately not up to being that disciplined. so i thought perhaps once a week i should try to get something up so at least i keep some sort of readership, if only my mom; yet even that feels like what if i have nothing to say? i am tempted to go random, but i know that will dwindle into thin to nothing. so i will try to do at least one post a week. if i have nothing from my life, i shall start with a sentence from a book and see where it will go for at least a paragraph.
finally i wondered what i should do about background and all that. well, its just too bad. people will have to pick up stuff from context, because i am too lazy to give background! =)
happy reading to any who do.
15.9.04
Testing 1, 2, 3...
Okay just testing to see how this all looks when I actually do post.
Now I guess I'll have to start thinking of things to post =).
Now I guess I'll have to start thinking of things to post =).
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