wordpress

For the time being, please see my new blog at wordpress:

http://justings.wordpress.com/

It supports math, which I need.

This blog will remain in perpetuity.

Thanks!

that other blog

I have posted a new article on my wordpress blog.  I can use latex formatting (and hence put nice math) on there.  There are only a few math characters this time, no formulas.  I think I prefer the wordpress one quite a bit, the editor is very nice, and did I mention is supports math?

green lakes

Last weekend (is it already time for this weekend?) I went to Green Lakes State Park with two of my friends here.  It was Labor Day Weekend, so the place was quite busy near the parking lot.  As soon as we got away from the parking lot though the crowds disappeared.  I didn't take any photos, so you'll have to rely on my words alone.  I did take my gps, so you can see the walk we took: map.

The lake is in a low valley, the hills on either side rise about 45 meters above the lake surface.  The lake was a beautiful clear blue color and very transparent.  Despite the lakes not being particularly wide, about 600 meters, it is quite deep 55m.  After some research on the wikipedia article, I found out that the bedrock is about 45 more meters beneath the bottom of the lake.  It is covered by sediments.  From the top of the hills to the bottom of the lake is over 150 meters!  I have oven wondered what carves out such deep lakes in places like this (admittedly there aren't all that many of them).  This was a topic of conversation during our walk.  We couldn't come up with an explanation.  The above article suggests that they are the bottoms of waterfalls, and the gorge they are in is similar to the Niagara river gorge.

Also seen on the trek: tiny frogs, about the size of my thumbnail, several different types of mushroom, a few fish, easter white cedar trees.  There is apparently an old growth stand to the south of Round Lake, but I didn't notice it while I was there.  I would like to visit that next time I go.

I really am noticing that the wild life is much more accessible and varied here than back home.  Maybe I just wasn't noticing it quite as much there because I was taking it for granted.  The frogs really surprise me, and the varieties of mushrooms.  I don't know why those in particular stick out.  I have also seen different insects, a fuzzy caterpiller with brushes on his forehead, and a millipede, which I had never seen before.  And of course the fire flies I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

first week of classes

Well, the first week of classes is over.  I've got one problem set due on Tuesday morning, another on Thursday morning.  About half of the problems are done for Classical Mechanics (due on Tuesday), and I think the ones on Thursday for Quantum Mechanics should be pretty straight forward, I'll get them taken care of on Monday also.

I've moved to my final office, right next to my old office.  I'm sharing it with Collin and Larne.

Not too much else to write about.  Got my first paycheck, have been cooking regularly, really like my cast iron pan and dutch oven.  Made a couple of breads and a couple of soups, and some beans.

where was frogger invented?

Last night it rained and thundered. And the frogs came out to cross the road. Being from the west, where frogs aren't quite as common apperantly, I had never seen this before. I always thought frogger was an odd game. Well, I propose that it was invented near Syracuse, NY. It was pretty sad to see them hopping across the highway, with their weak mode of locomotion. Hopping just doesn't look very graceful.

my apartment

I figured somebody back there would want to see where I live.  Here are some more crappy cell phone pictures:

apartment in Syracuse.

Maybe someday I'll have a better camera.

It's a pretty big actually. for just one person.  Or maybe it just seems that way because I don't have any furniture yet.

ice cream and baseball

Earlier this week I made good on the results of the poll: I had some soft ice cream.  While it wasn't the first thing I did, it was pretty tasty.  It's like the ordinary soft-serve ice cream you can get at a lot of soft serve joints, but a lot better.  The texture is smoother and the flavor is more rich.  I would recommend it to anyone.  Also, you can get twists of a lot more flavors than just vanilla and chocolate.  Delicious!

Last night was a one of the last baseball games of the season for the Syracuse Chiefs.  This is triple-a ball, just one level below the majors.  To contrast, the Tri-City Dust Devils are single-a minor league baseball.  The difference is pretty obvious, the level of skill is much higher, but there are still gaffs and goofs.  At last nights game, there were a few, but the best one was at dusk.  The ball was about the same brightness as the sky, and the batter hit a towering fly ball(!), which I lost in the lights.  It seems that everyone else lost it too, including three or four fielders and and a couple of base  runners.  Luckily it didn't hit anyone, but did comedown just outside the infield between first and second base.  I think the batter got a double.  No error for that play.

Thats all for now!

which host?

You will see at right a poll about which blog host to use.  This blog will remain for posterity regardless.

Wordpress blog link.

driving summary

I've added photos to some of the later days of the trip.  I'll link to all the entries, but in chronological order, instead of all backwards like they appear in the blog.

August 9, day 1 - left home :(
August 10, day 2*- Yellowstone national park and the Big Horns
August 11, day 3*- Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands
August 12, day 4*- SD, MN, WI
August 13, day 5*- Chicago, day 1
August 14, day 6*- Chicago, day 2
August 15, day 7*- five states
August 16, day 8 - Chenango Blues Festival
August 17, day 9 - we made it!

* indicates crappy phone pictures are included.

Also, there is the driving statistics page.

driving stats

Here are some stats from the trip

total miles driven: 3249
number of concerts attended: 3
road kills: 0
speeding tickets: 0
thunderstorms: 7
national parks visited: 2
faces on mountains seen: 4
nights camped: 1
most states in one day: 5
rivers I wish I'd fished: 6
most miles in one day: 580
total hours moving: ???
maximum altitude: 9430 feet
age of oldest rocks seen: 2.5 billion years
accidents seen: 3
most expensive hotel: $160/night
cheapest hotel: $42/night
total days in transit: 9

official

It's official folks: I'm a grad student! I registered for classes today, got my keys and found my office. It's on the second floor of the physics building. There is a really nice map of the campus here. Tomorrow I'll fill you in on some statistics of my trip across the country.

See if you can find my picture on the grad student web page!

bonus late breaking news

A first for me: I saw fireflies tonight.  We went for a walk at Beaver Lake, a little too late for the route that we chose.  As it was getting dark, we spotted what looked like blinking eyes in the distance, but when we got closer we realized that they were fireflies.  It was a very nice welcome!

day 9, the last day; the end.

More visiting in the morning, then we headed out for Syracuse around 10 am.  We expected to get here in time to see the Michelangelo exhibit at the SUart gallery for a couple of hours and drop my dad off at the airport around 3:30.  That worked out perfectly.  The exhibit is really nice.  Much smaller than either of the other two museums of the trip, but something that can be appreciated many times- the skill that is involved with even the sketches is quite impressive.  I expect it might be part of my lunch time routine, until it is gone in October.

After that, I went to my friend and colleagues house.  He and his wife had generously offered to let me spend the night in their spare bedroom until I could move into my apartment on Monday.

Our route:

View Larger Map

And now the journey is over, and the new one is beginning.

day 8, the music festival

The trip is almost done, but there is one more thing to do. My dad really wanted to go to the Chenango Blues Festival, it's near Syracuse. Well, relatively near, it's actually about 1.5 hours from Syracuse, about 4.5 hours from Buffalo, and about 2.5 hours from where we're going to spend the night, at another cousin's house in Corning, NY.


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The festival was nice, but I was tired, and left early with my cousins. My dad and other cousin stayed 'til the end. I really enjoyed two shows, although I only heard Cephas and Wiggins live. Samual James I heard after my dad got there and brought the cd he bought.

I had beef on white (?) for the first time, a simple sandwich that is roast beef, in au jus, on a kaiser roll with pumpernickel and salt. Also horseradish if you like it.

We whiled away the evening with stories and jokes. I was invading a girls night a little bit, but they didn't seem to mind too much. It was a very nice visit.

Another comfortable nights rest.

day 7, or five states in a day!

Our main goal for the day was to get to my cousins outside of Buffalo, NY.  We succeeded, but a bit later than we thought we would be.  We had a very nice visit, and a very comfortable nights rest.

This is our route:

View Larger Map

Here is a picture:


travel day 2008 August 15.

day 6, Chicago part 2

I'll be even more brief, now that I have actually arrived in Syracuse.

Very little linear progress was made Thursday as we spent all of it in Chicago.  Some of the things we saw were: Buddy Guy's Legends and Lurrie Bell, Jazz Record Mart, the Chicago History Museum, several Chicago neighborhoods, House of Blues Chicago and Deana Bogart.

We walked about 5 miles (or so it seemed) and all the while the Blue Angels were practicing for the air show on Friday.  It was jaw dropping to see the blue jets roaring around over head, seemingly darting between the tall building of the Chicago skyline.  That went on for about four or five hours, all afternoon, while we walked from our parking near the Trump International Tower, to Buddy Guy's Legends club.  The club wasn't crowded at all, which made for very intimate setting with Lurrie Bell, and a very enjoyable set of Blues standards.

Then we walked to where I written down that the House of Blues was (hob), but I'd gotten a North written as a South (or maybe it was the magazine I had transcribed it from that got it wrong).  It didn't actually make that much of a difference for our route anyway.  We walked up State Street with all the business people, made dinner reservations, then headed over to Jazz Record Mart.  I bought two cd's, Out of the Cool by Gil Evans because it was playing in the store and sounded so great, and The Clown by Charles Mingus, because I wanted to expand my Mingus collection (to two cd's).  They're both really great.

Now the great treck up to the Chicago History Museum, which was open until 8 pm on Thursday nights.  It took about 45 minutes of wandering the hard Chicago pavement to get there.  A long walk, but it was really nice to see more than just the office buildings of downtown.  We passed many brownstones (I guess), and a neighborhood that seemed to be entirely restaurants.  Finally, our destination was in sight.  While not as impressive as the Field museum, it was still really cool to see all the Chicago history.  I had forgotten what an important city it is!

The food at HOB wasn't particularly inspired, but the atmosphere was fantastic, as was the entertainment.  We couldn't stay for the whole show, but I really enjoyed Deanna's performance.  I'll be looking for some of her cd's in the future.

Our trip out of Chicago was mostly uneventful.  We ran into some traffic, so out speedy escape wasn't so speedy, but still we did get to a hotel out of town.  It also started out 5 state day, but that is the next story.

Here are some pictures:

road trippin' 2008 August 14

driving, day 5 - not much driving

Today we only had to go from Racine, WI to Chicago, IL.  We did that, parked at the north end of Grant Park and walked down to The Field Museum.  I really enjoyed this museum, and am very glad that I visited it.  It is waaay too big to see the whole thing in one day, or even appreciate very well in a week.  Well, maybe in a week you'd be pretty comfortable with it.

We saw only a fraction of their collections: ancient peoples of the Americas, native poeple of the northwest coast, ancient Egypt, Tibet, Reptiles, Gems and Meteorites, and inside Natural Disasters.  We paid for three temporary exhibits, on top of just regular admission, for a total of $33.  We only had time for one of the temporary exhibits, and could have easily just gone with the regular admission of $15, had we known there was so much to see.  Next time, I think I'll just get the $15 rate, and stick with that.

I truly enjoyed both the ancient Americas and Egypt collections.  It rekindled my interest in Egypt and reminded me of the amazing things that the Native Americans did.  Both of these collections had hundreds of actual artifacts, and not many replicas.

I could go on and on about all this stuff, but I'll just leave it with this: I'm looking for a haida art poster/print and something Egyptian (probably a replica of something I can hang on the wall).

After leaving the museum, we walked back to the car, paid our $20 for parking, and headed for U.S. Cellular Field to catch a White Sox game.  Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, the game sold out just a couple of minutes before we got to the ticket window.  Oh well.

So, we headed for dinner.  We got lost in the concrete canyons of downtown Chicago.  Eventually we found our way to Solerno's, which was actually a good place for being just a random pick with no guidance.  Better than the place in Madison.

That's all for now.

Here are some pictures:

road trippin' 2008 August 13

driving, day 4

I'll be brief, I think.

We covered the rest of South Dakota, all of Minnesota, and much of Wisconsin, currently we are in Racine, WI.

There were a couple of exciting things we saw today, but they weren't the scenery.  We saw our first accident: a semi was laying on it's side on the other side of I-90.  Nothing obvious about why, just laying there, taking a nap maybe.  Actually, it looked like the shoulder had a steep, uh, bicep, and the truck had pulled a little too far over onto it.  Later, after crossing the Mississippi River, a biker's helmet fell off the back of their bike and bounced across the lanes right in front of us.  Nobody panicked, and the biker didn't even notice.

We stopped for dinner in Madison, WI, like we knew where we were going.  We got off I-90 onto highway 30, followed it until it ended, made a left on the first busy street, and a right into Cafe La Bellitalia's parking lot.  I was hoping for something similar to Amalfi's, and this had a good look for it.  I was a little disappointed, maybe because of the Midwest spin on the Italian food.  I could definitely see it being a winner if I was a local.

That's about it.  Oh, and we're about a day ahead of where I thought we would be by now.  I think we'll take some extra time in Chicago.

Here is our route:

View Larger Map

Here are some pictures:

road trippin' 2008 August 12

driving, day 3

Sorry for the lame post about day 2- it was late and I was tired.  This one will be a little better.

Yesterday we got up at 6 am, which I think was 5 am back at home, the timezone I'm still in.  It was early for the road too, we only saw a few cars over the next hour.  Plenty of animals though: moose (10's of them), a few mule deer, maybe an elk or two, a herd of cows, a pen of horses and later in the day some antelope.  These were all on top of the Big Horn Mountains, around 9000 ft.  It was pretty flat, so the edges of the mountains are the really interesting parts.

Soon we headed down the side, and saw few more of those ancient stones that make these mountains so interesting to me.  See a picture down below.

We headed for Mt. Rushmore, stopping in Gillette, WY for breakfast at Lula Belle's Cafe.  When we got to Mt. Rushmore, I wasn't too excited about it.  We had passed through Keystone, the biggest tourist trap we'd seen yet.  On top of that, the people were doing there tourist thing at Mt. Rushmore, and jingoistic things kind of put me in a foul mood.  It was really crowded too.  Soon it was threatening rain- we heard thunder overhead.  The crowds disappeared once the first drops fell.  At first the rain was light, which was okay, but when it really picked up, we sought shelter in the sculptors studio.  I started to notice more of an openness in the crowd- they weren't all aloof.  I didn't really think about it then.

The rain let up and we continued back toward the car.  Soon it picked up again and were forced to seek shelter in the information center.  It was really coming down!  Hail and cats and dogs!  We waited it out for about half an hour before getting impatient.  "Just five more minutes, and then we make a break for it" we said.  It didn't let up, so we ran.  We got soaked!  I felt one of the pea sized hails smack my thumb. We dried out eventually.

The rest of the day, briefly: Badlands and South Dakota Prairie.

Here is our route for Monday:

View Larger Map

Here are some pictures:

road trippin' 2008 August 11

driving, day 2

After our extravagent stay at the Livingston Motor Inn, we decided to eat on the cheap today. We stopped at Albertson's on the way out of town an picked up a few things, then headed for Yellowstone!

What we saw during the day: Devil's slide, Mammoth Hotsprings, Mammoth, Norris Geyser Basin, Veteran Geyser eruption, upper Yellowstone falls, bison in the road (see photos below), mud volano, North Fork of the Shoshone River canyon, Cody WY, Big Horn Mountains, Pre-Cambrian Granite (2.5 GYr old!!).

We spent the night at 7700 feet (2350 meters) at the Cabin Creek Meadows primitive campground.

We only saw Wyoming today. But it sure was cool!

Here is our route:

View Larger Map

Some crappy cell-phone pictures of the trip:

road trippin' 2008 August 10

driving, day 1

Last night was a blast: we had a few people over for wine and a good send off. I think it was the right thing to do. I'm very pleased that the that my Château Margaux (1978) and and my wifes Clos Du Val (Zinfandel, 1977) were both excellent!

The next morning we went to breakfast, loaded the car, had a tearful departure, and got out of town only about 30 minutes late.

The drive itself was mostly uneventful. We did see a few thing though: coulees, scabland, forest, mining, beautiful Montana fly fishing rivers, bubble mammatus clouds, purple rocks, lighting and a little rain quite heavy rain actually, twice, open pit mines, a complete rainbow with a little double at either end, and another thunder storm.

With all that list, I must say that the most interesting things to me were the geology and stones exposed along the roadside, and the lightning storms. We don't get those too often in the pacific northwest.

Also, leaving home was not that easy, but I think the really great send off party lastnight really helped show that we have plenty of great friends that will sticking around in with Stephanie.

Here is our route so far:

View Larger Map

phone info

For those interested parties, our home phone service has been canceled.  If you need to reach either of us, use our cell phones.  Those numbers haven't changed, and won't for a long time.  If you need them, send me an email.

poll: what to do first in Syracuse

At least one person noticed that I put a poll up.  Things I thought about putting on the poll, but didn't, were:

• work on my pronunciation of Syracuse
• call my wife (I'm going to do that really first, no matter what you guys pick)
• work on LIGO a bit
• catch up on my inter-web reading

Happy voting!

two last rides

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Seeing that the time draws near for departure, it is only natural that some loose ends be tied up.  One of them was to get in a farewell ride with as many of the mad cows that remain.  Norm and I rode on Wednesday, early in the morning.  I was quite impressed with my own riding- I hadn't used the bike in a couple of months.  Many of the other riders have new positions at work, and we've lost our critical mass when a couple of people moved away.  Anyway, I managed to stay on the bike the whole time, albiet pretty slow at times.  Especially cool was clearing Fred & John's, a twisty trail with a couple of sections of moon dust.  We finished up in about an hour and a half.

There was apperantly some confusion as to when the ride was going to be, so a follow up ride on Thursday was required for some of the other riders.  We had really hoped that the weather would stay comfortable, in the 80's.  Not today, it was a hot day, in the low 90's, so we rode under the beating sun.  Still did pretty well, but was ready to call it quits after two loops.

It was really nice to get a little more riding in, and I am currently reconsidering my biking situation out in New York.  We'll see.

oh noes! The Starbucks is closing!

The Starbucks I frequented during my April trip to Syracuse is closing!  It's a good thing I won't be staying at that hotel nearby when I move out there in a month.

Final Fly Fishing in Washington

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This is where Corey and I went fishing one last time before I take off for grad school.  We both really like the place marked "Iron Horse Park Access", it was very scenic, the flow was slower, and it was very wadable.  I would definitely come back here.

Pretty much everything below the Cle Elum River was very hard to wade in.  We spent some time near a park, marked "South Cle Elum", had two very hairy wades (out and back), but that was were the fish were.  I caught one nice 9-10" cutthroat trout in a pool at the west end of the light blue track (zoom way in!).

We also stopped at Teanaway River, where there is a nice pool with some smaller fish.  The river was very low by this date, so There wasn't much fishing to be done.  It really reminded me of the first stream I fished on: Canyon Creek.  The stream bed was the same kind of large river rocks and the water was pure-clear.

There were no more fishing places, but we looked at a couple of the other spots.  Stopped at Umtanum bridge, but the river was very high.  Also at the last corner.  In the upper canyon, between Cle Elum and Ellensburg, we looked near Swak Creek, and at the Thorp Bridge.  But again, too high.  No where to wade.  At this rate, a boat is in our future.

While at Teanaway River, we rested and smoked a cigar each, CAO Brazilia.  The cigar man had made it sound like I wouldn't enjoy this smoke, but I found it to be very pleasant.  Not too heavy or strong.  So, I don't know what he was talking about.

To sum up, a very nice drive with some fishing.  The Iron Horse Park area has a denser forest feel, and will be on our repeat list.  Driving the Yakima Canyon is always a beautiful experience.  The craggy rocks and golden hillsides (nice way to describe "dessert") are very easy on the eyes.  Those stones are heart warming to me, and since I wasn't driving I really got to take a good look.

Coffee review: Daily Grind

a simple boring brew that will be drinkable by the most people.

specific review info:
Not much going on, but it isn't bitter at all. Also, pretty watery- not really in a bad way though. I wouldn't want to drink it regularly, but it's kind of nostalgiac, even though I don't have a lot of coffee history to reach back on.

specific brew info:
had it with breakfast at the sandstone cafe, added some sugar and little creamer stuff.

coffee review: Peet's Major Dickason's roast

Summary Comment: smooth, rich tast, almost chocolaty. This is my most favorite roast yet!

Specific review info:
The good flavors happen all the way through the mouthful- from beginning to end. No aftertaste that need rationalizing. Some subtle flavors in there that I'm not sure what to call yet.

Specific brew info:
This is my daily brew, 3.5 scoops (7 tablespoons), to 13 oz water, with a couple of teaspoons of sugar and enough milk to bring it to 16 oz.

coffee review: Pike's Place Roast

Summary Comment: a little more burnt taste than I like, but drinkable.

Specific review info:
While the flavor is pretty clear, it lacks a body. Most of the flavor is punctuated at the end, by the (not necessarily bad) burnt taste.

Specific brew info:
This was a commercially brewed cup from Starbuck's at the corner of 395 and Clearwater in Kennewick. I added two sugars (maybe one too many) and a bit of whole milk.

Palouse Falls

20080511_palouse_falls

We had a very nice trip to Palouse Falls last weekend. The above picture links to my picasa album of photos from there. It was very beautiful, kind of windy, and a little cold that day. But, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.

Coffee Review: Tully's House Blend

Summary Comment: a little weak, but not too bad.

Specific review info:

At one point I thought I tasted brandy, and no, I hadn't added any myself.  So, there are some interesting flavors in there, but the general body is pretty mild.

Specific brew info:

This was a commercially brewed cup bought at the Kennewick Fred Meyer Tully stand.  I added one packet of Sugar in the Raw, and a few tablespoons of whole milk.

Opening Day, Farmers Market

We bought 5 pounds of Asparagus for $10.  Not much else there for produce, but one booth had silantro for sale.

new cook book!

I check out this book from the library about two weeks ago:

and all the recipes we've tried have been excellent.  So excellent in fact, we bought it!  I highly recommend the onion soup, the cheese spread ideas, the rice pudding.  We've had a few others, and they've been good too.  To boot, the recipes have all been quite quick and easy, simple, with a few ingredients.

I'll be expecting a check for my advertising work, Mr. Bittman.

ISI cam

I've got a web cam grabbing images once a minute and making them available for public consumption:

You can find the current image here, and a bunch of old image here.  Eventually I'll make a movie out of them.

Briefly, what that big metal shiny thing at the right is:

1. active (like with actuators and stuff) seismic isolation platform
2. made out of aluminum
3. weighs about 5000 pounds
4. contains more than 1000 helicoils, all put in by hand (a couple of hundred by yours truly).
   what that means is that all the little holes you see are tapped into the aluminum, but then a small hard steel insert is wound in.  This is what the screw or bolt will bite into, instead of damaging the soft aluminum body.
5. will support some optics inside the vacuum system soon.

MdDS is gone

It went on Saturday, but I wasn't totally sure until today.  Yay!

smirking, a lot

I've found myself laughing to myself several times over the last three days about this.  Warning: juvenile humor and some foul language.  Also, it helps if you know what Twitter is.

MDDS: Mal de Debarquement Syndrome

Apparently I have Mal de Debarquement Syndrom (MDDS).  This is self-limiting, which means the dizziness should go away on it's own after some time (days to months).  I'm hoping for the former, and to encourage that, I have some exercises to do: mostly looking around quickly, or tracking things.  I'll keep you posted.

am I on a boat?

I feel like I'm on a boat.

Since getting back yesterday, I have a slight, subtle, wobbly feeling.  Every few steps, the floor won't be quite in the right place.  Or, after a while sitting in front of the computer, I feel like my head is turn a little all by itself.  If I were a cartoon, I would probably have little circles around my head.

If it keeps up tomorrow, I'm calling my doctor.

Onion Soup

I made onion soup from Mark Bittman's How to Cook everything Vegetarian last night.  It was good last night, I had never made or had onion soup before.  The soup was even better after sitting in the fridge overnight and re-warmed for lunch today!  It's like a revelation- really good!  The hardest part was slicing the onions.  If you need to make a soup that is easy and full of flavor, make this one!  Unfortunately I don't have a link to the actual recipe.  I checked this book out from my local library though.

coffee review compendium

Note: this entry will be updated. This list is ordered from best to worst.

The Best

1. Pete's: Major Dickason's Blend: very good
2. Starbucks: Ubora Blend: very good
3. Raven's Brew: Three Peckered Billy Goat: good.

Middle Grounds

1. Starbucks: Espresso blend: okay.
2. Starbucks: Pike's Place Roast: a little bitter.
3. Daily Grind: plain, but nostalgiac.
   
4. Tully's: House Blend: weak.
5. McDonalds Premium Roast: watery.

The Rest

coffee review: McDonald's Premium Roast

Summary Comment: watered down.

Specific review info:
really weak in the flavor department. Not too hot, so I could drink it right away. It was not overly bitter which was nice, just not much flavor.

Specific brew info:
This was a commercially brewed cup bought in Hood River, Oregon. Additions included one packet of plain white sugar and one tub of "coffee cream".

last day and trip home (bonus day!)

Sunday was our last day in Syracuse. Our flight left at 3:30 in the afternoon, so we pretty much had a full day to mess around. Lunch and coffee with Eiichi, we really had to drive around to find a place open on Sunday morning! That was kind of a surprise.

Now, some highlights from the return voyage:

• due to a canceled flight prior flight, we were selected to change travel arrangements. In the end it didn't mean much- we flew to JFK instead of Atlanta, and then nonstop to Portland.
• The Delta Connections pilot from SYR to JFK was kind of a "race car driver"- taking the corners (on the ground) kind of fast compared to other pilots, and accelerating out of the turn at take off. Not scary, just unusual.
• Departing from JFK we experienced some "congestion", there were quite a number of planes queued up to leave the terminal. So many in fact that we couldn't back up. While taxiing around the airport I could see about 6 planes in front of us at one point. Later the pilot announced that we were number eight in line for departure! In the end we were only 20 minutes late (the really flew to get us home) from our original landing time. This would have been over an hour from our earlier itinerary, except that plane was delayed too and arrived at the same time as we did!
• Our checked bag took the Atlanta route.
• When we landed in Portland it felt like 2 AM!
• We got in the car at about 6:30 AM pacific time, which felt like 9:30 AM, but we still only got about 5 hours of sleep.
• On I-84, we saw two interesting things: an entire box car (for rail) laying on its side on a flat bed truck; a pickup truck with the bed full of wagon wheels, some of them looking really old!
• It took us almost two days to get all the way home. Still, I find it utterly amazing: we flew across the entire country!

Forgot to mention above: we were upgraded to Business class (first class? we were in row 1) for the 6 hour flight from JFK to PDX. This got us dinner (good for a plane, I would say) and complimentary movies/games on the in flight monitors. I watched two movies which I'll sum up:

1. There will be blood: gruesome. It was very well composed, but due to the subject matter, I'm not sure I enjoyed it.
2. National Treasure 2: dumbest plot ever. I expected this. The first one was better, but it was okay- if your stuck on a plane for six hours.
   

heading home

we're in Syracuse airport waiting to board delta flight 4371 at 3:30 eastern bound for Atlanta. Our flight to PDX is delta 669, but we aren't seated on it yet- I'll update you on that after we check in. Presumably we'll be on it.

Syracuse, Day 4

Most of today was spent looking at a couple of apartments. See the map. We did manage to get a little lost this time. We missed the turn to the airport off I-90. We were trying to check in for our flight, but you can only do the 24-hours-a-head-of-time-thing on line.

The three apartments we saw:

1. labeled B, Grant Village Apartments. It's in a run down neighborhood. Heat is included though.
2. labeled D, Covered Bridge Apartments, because it has a covered bridge. The 1 room apartments are down stairs with the windows buried under snow in winter. Also, it has a sliding door in the shower.
3. labeled E, Grenadier Village, located on the Seneca River. Very nice and also the most expensive of the three we saw.
   

We ate at The Retreat in Liverpool, labeled C. It was nice, and we beat the rush, just barely! The food was good, and the service pretty prompt.

mobile blogging

I'm such a nerd... I can blog from my mobile phone.

Syracuse, Day 3

I'll try to keep it a little shorter than yesterday's summary. A few bullets:

• attended the Syracuse GWG meeting this morning, which lasted about 2 1/2 hours.
  a couple of things I found out aboout:
  - the Einstein@Home home team, SUGWG has moved up 2,000 spots in the rankings since adding the SUGAR cluster.
  - how to estimate the coincident rate for glitches from a couple of channels (bad sentence summary).
  - global warming is going to be very bad, a summary statement from the APS meeting this week in St. Louis.
  - of course, more stuff.
• had lunch with that group. Stephanie really got along well with Peter! That made me happpy.
• A road tour around Onandoga Lake to see what the neighborhoods were like (thanks Josh!).
  - I found out what New Yorks obsession is with the word "Empire": when people first moved here, they stated that the area that would become the state of New York had everything necessary for an empire.

After that, Stephanie and I headed off to find some quiet time at the hotel.

Also, I determined that the right bank is probably HSBC, it has branches both here and in back home. If anyone knows anything about this bank, please let me know!

about

This blog is going to serve a couple of purposes.

1. update the family on what I am doing, since we don't live too close together, and I'm about to move even further away.
2. an outlet for some of my nerdy tendencies that should be public. I've been putting some of this stuff on my lab blog, but it really ought to be shared.
   

A few things will be avoided, mostly because they tend to make me want to not write. One is context. I find putting in the back story for a post usually kills it, so I won't be doing that. If you need context, post a comment or shoot an email.

Similarly, I'll try mainly to just write stuff that I think you'll find interesting and that I find interesting. I might not do the best with grammar, punctuation and spelling, but I will use the spell checker. You will essentially be reading the rough draft.

two photos

The first picture is of the Quad. As you can see, they have rolled in the special weather for visiting students. The sky is blue, there is no snow, and there are a lot of people on the grass. Aparently we are 20 degrees F above average today.

The second pictures is inside the geology building (I know, random) which has an interesting piece of art on the wall, and several casts of fossils along the right. It also has some very large windows, which the physics building does not have.

Syracuse, Day 2

This was the first full day. It started off quite early by pacific time standards but didn't feel that way. I dropped Steph off at the Carousel Center, a giant mall. They happen to be working on it right now so there was a lot of construction going on.

I found my way to campus by feel, after reading how to get to my final destination, the Quad 4 VIP parking. Getting to the lot went pretty smoothly. I walked passed the Quad (which was filling up with people) and headed for the Physics building. Inside I didn't immediately find the people I was looking for because the floor plan was a little odd. On the first floor there is a lecture hall, but on the second floor there is another hall way and more offices- it is hidden behind the free standing wall with the stairs and the elevator.

Once in there I chatted with the people I knew, and was introduced to a few new faces. Then I got a piece of good news. I've been upgraded from a TA to a RA! I'm pretty excited about this because it means I'll be able to keep working on LIGO from the start. I'm not sure how hard exactly, because I need to get the classes taken care of too.

After this I had a 'grad student's lunch'. Six of us, grad students only, went to King David's restaurant. It was an okay place, I think you just have to know what to order.

Next up was a little bit of work- the post-doc and I took the eLIGO telecon. Then it was back to the Carousel Center to pick up Steph and head back to the hotel for some down time.

Dinner is at 6:45 with two professors, the post-doc, and a friend of mine, one of the senior grad students.

getting "lost" in NY

We tried our hardest, but didn't actually get lost. Navigating by intuition, we did this:

View Larger Map

We'll try harder tomorrow, adding destinations, splitting up, etc.

writing from Syracuse

We made it!  The trip was mostly uneventful.  Some high lights:

1. landing at Atlanta was the "droppy-est" that either of us had ever experienced.
2. barely had time to get any food after landing and before boarding the hopper to SYR.
3. Although the Syracuse airport is much larger than our native Pasco, about 4 times, I would say, it is just a sleepy.
4. The necessary toll to get from the airport to the hotel was 20¢!
5. This place is very flat.

There are a couple other things, but I'll save them for later.  Gotta make sure I have something write about!

boarding planes to Atlanta

I'm so glad PDX has free wi-fi.  One hiccup at the security gate: I forgot to unpack my leatherman.  The nice man helped me mail it to myself.  Very friendly guy.  No other problems so far.

boarding planes to Atlanta

I'm so glad PDX has free wi-fi. One hiccup at the security gate: I forgot to unpack my leatherman. The nice man helped me mail it to myself. Very friendly guy. No other problems so far.

looming departure

We'll be getting on the road in about 30 minutes, I hope. This is about an hour behind schedule, if you ask me, which I find frustrating. I would like to be in Portland by 9, but that isn't possible now. Even getting there by 10pm is unlikely.

two friends

two friends are moving to Logan, UT later this week. I don't think it will be the last we'll see of them. M has gotten a job at Space Dynamics Laboratory, which is cool. J is going to be a mommy, which is exciting. They will be missed.

Mail Trends

Have you ever wondered about your email habits? I have, but not enough to do anything about it. Well, the boys of Google solved that little problem with Mail Trends. It's a python script that will analyze your mail data, as long as you have access to it via IMAP. I was able to install it (and the one other package that it depends on) very easily. Cool.

I was pleased to learn that I do, in fact, email my number 1 the most!

coffee review: Starbucks Espresso Roast

Overall Comment: not great, a little tangy.

Specific review info:

1. a little weak in the flavor department- I'll try 4 scoops tomorrow.
2. after taste is tangy/acidic. Not unpleasent, but not what I'm looking for either.
3. at least it doesn't taste burnt.
   

Specific brew info info:

• Water temp was just below boiling- right after bubble stop.
• ground with whack-a-bean for a 10 count.
• 3.5 scoops for 14 oz filtered tap water.
• paper cone filter.
  
• additions: 2 t sugar, 2 oz 2% milk.
• allowed to cool for approximately 1 hour in Starbucks thermal mug #2.

UPDATE: much better with four scoops. 20080422.

the latest

On Tuesday we drive to Portland to catch a plane to Syracuse, NY. We'll be there for about 3 1/2 days, which isn't much time. I hoping to see a couple of apartments, see the campus, get a road tour of the area, meet my new colleagues, and find out where good coffee and food is. We'll see how it goes.

another SP ride

(maps.google link). After three rides, the trail system is really starting to fill in!

two days and two rides at State Patrol

Last week, on Tuesday and Wednesday I too two excellent rides at SP. You can find the details by clicking on the image below.

we shall call it ADVENTURE riding

We went out for some easy riding, "a rest day" for James. Normal riding for me (being as out of shape as I am). James wanted to see some new stuff at Finley, and area he wasn't too familiar with, and I obliged.

d"et's:
who: James and I
where: Finley Hills lowlands
when: leap day 2008
weather: no wind, some sun, a little clouds, 50F
time: 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm

click to view in google maps, with pictures at the little flags:


see also: this other post about riding at finley.

geocaches this week

for the week of 2/24 - 3/1 2008

Harley and I went out a few times this week to find geocaches...

2/25 : didn't find GC13351

2/26 : found GCWNXC, but didn't find GCWNXP

promises, promises

Hi All,

I'm going to try the blogging thing again, at least until this fall. There are some things that I think I can expect to write about with some regularity:

  - gps related topics: mtb tracks and geocaching
  - maybe some gaming stuff, but then maybe not
  - a little about grad school updates
  - some photos, or links to photos
  - food

Thats more than I can hope to do, honestly. I have the bad habit not keeping up with my writing.

biking at Finley Hills

Mike and I went biking at Finley hills. It was a very nice ride, though a bit chilly. The grass was very green. As a bonus, we saw a herd of 9 deer and one coyote.

Time: 3:45pm to 5:00pm on 2/19/2008
Temp: 45F
Attire: shorts and jacket (and MTB)
Weather: clear and calm
Ground: damp in places, still snow in deep shadows, but very grippy generally. Still no weeds.

KMZ file (view in google maps).