Disappointing final

Today was the final game of the Euro Cup 2008...Spain vs Germany. As you could probably surmise from my title, Germany lost. To be honest, they didn't deserve to win given how they played.
It also turned out to be gay pride weekend in San Francisco, and given that it's San Francisco, is quite the party. I wasn't really in a partying mood and didn't stick around.
I was also going to impress you all with a quote from Mark Twain: "The coldest winter I ever experienced was summer in San Francisco." Well it turns out that he never actually said it, but it's a good quote none the less. In fact summer here is absurdly cold. I'm happy if I can sit outside comfortably without a jacket. Actually I'm happy if I can sit inside without a jacket.
Work's going well. I fly back to Iowa in three weeks.

A few things

Today Germany made it into the finals of the Euro Cup 2008 by beating Turkey 3-2. I really, really wish I could be in Germany to experience all the celebration and fun.

Also, this blew my mind:

Revolving skyscraper

Next T-Shirt

So it turns out that not only is Ithaca gorges...it's also cosmic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Chasma

Golden Gate

Yesterday I biked across the Golden Gate Bridge and up into the hills on the north side. Here are a couple of my favorite photos:

The bridge from the San Francisco (south) side:



View from the north side:



A scenic road though the hills on the north side of the bridge and the Pacific Ocean of course:

Berkeley: Weekend Two

Work this past week was dominated with frustration, punctuated with a couple small successes. This week is starting off about the same.
But, fortunately for us, there are weekends. This past Saturday I went to San Fransisco for the first time. It turned into a pier tour. The first stop was a large market at the Ferry Building. There I ate a sausage while watching the waves and the Bay Bridge.



Next was Pier 39, a mostly kitschy tourist trap that is also home to a large number of Sea Lions.



And of course the Golden Gate bridge complete with paragliders.



And last, but not least, a Powell-Hyde cable car on the turntable they use at the end of the line to turn the car around (by hand). Riding the cable car up the hilly San Fransisco streets was quite fun actually.



Sunday I went for a long bike ride into the Berkeley hills. Other than the sunburn it was a great ride.

Berkeley: Week One

I've been in Berkeley for almost a week now, and what a week it's been.
Tuesday evening I arrived in San Fransisco and took the BART (Bay Area subway) up to Berkeley (on the East Bay). While in the tunnel under the Bay, the conductor told us over the PA that there had been a magnitude 3.9 earthquake in the area and the trains were running at reduced speeds while they checked the status of the tracks. Everythings was of course ok, but it's not what you want to hear while under an enormous body of water.
Wednesday was my first day at work. We met to talk about my project. I met the SETI at home people. The sun was shining, and it was 75 degrees. Thursday there were more meetings. People here like meetings.
My major goal this weekend was to find a bike. As I'm riding three days of RAGBRAI in July, I need something to ride from Ames to Tipton and something to train on in the meantime. So I went to three different bike shops and tried 5 different bikes. Today I bought one and loaded it up with accessories. This afternoon I went on an inaugural ride along the Bay. It was sunny and 75 like it is every day here. Here's my bike and the Bay.



There's San Fransisco covered in its usual fog:




In other news... Clinton has suspended her campaign!! And Germany won its first game of the European Cup against Poland.

Next Chapter

As the caption to my blog says, my life is a journey that's guided by the stars; quite literally. Tomorrow begins a new period of adventure as I move out to Berkeley for two months. I feel sort of like one of those Russian dolls with my packing and preparing within packing within preparing. Namely I packed for my end-of-July trip to Iowa while packing for my California trip while packing to move to my new Ithaca apartment.
But there's nothing like moving to make one feel introspective. All in all this move will lead to only good things. Out in California I'll finally make some real progress on my thesis project. This is something that I really need. With the end of my second year of classes came a sense of unaccomplishment. In the last two years I've learned a lot about astrophysics, but I've done relatively little research. But things are really starting to pick up with this trip and things are happening here as well.
Also I'm looking forward to spending some time in California, and I love getting to know new places. When I return I get to settle into a new apartment on the edge of town in my favorite biking territory. As much as it pains me to have to leave Ithaca during the summer, I'm quite ready to get on with it.
I'll update once I've arrived and settled in a bit.