Voyages of a Starstruck Iowan

Grand Canyon prelude

2009-06-15T22:00:00.003-04:00

About a month ago I hiked 28 miles in the Grand Canyon with two friends from Cornell. I've promised people to do a full blog on the whole experience, but as usual, am having difficulty actually doing it. In the mean time here are some panoramas I just stitched together.

This was taken from the Hermit Trail on our first day:

This is the view from the Tonto Trail near the junction with Bright Angel Trail:

More later.

338

2008-11-05T00:58:00.003-05:00

As of 1 a.m. EST President-elect Barack Hussein Obama and and Vice President elect Joe Biden have 338 of 538 electoral votes; more than twice what John McCain and Sarah Palin have. Way more than the 270 needed to win in the electoral college. Five states remain but are too close to call. Iowa went for Obama at %54; New York at %62. (I voted in NY.)

Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the USA. Michelle Obama will be the next First Lady. The news was broken to me by John Stewart.

This is more than I ever hoped for.

My fellow Americans and I just elected the first African-American to the be President of the United States of America; a man whose middle name is Hussein.

It's been a long journey (especially for those of us who are from Iowa), and the it's hard to believe it's over/just started.

What else can I say....

Yes we can!

AND DID!!!

Planetary concert

2008-10-16T14:03:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday the Cornell Symphony Orchestra and Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra joined forces to perform a new piece named "Anillos" and Holst's "The Planets".
The occasion was the American Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Scientists concert. Since May I've been working with an astronomy professor and several grad students and post docs in my department to put together videos of images and animations to play along with the music. I posted a link to the two videos I made in an earlier post but here it is again. (I recommend the smallest versions for web viewing.)
First let me say a little about "Anillos". It's a piece written by Roberto Sierra, a Cornell music professor, and was inspired by images from the Cassini spacecraft. We premiered it what I call the "DPS concert".

The concert and new work received a lot of press around town, as well as the other public events associated with the conference. Here's an article from the Cornell Chronicle.

The concert was a huge success. The orchestras played well. Dynamically playing the videos in real time went off without any problems. And not only did we sell out the hall, which seats about 1300, there was a line of hundreds of people trying to get into the concert. Needless to say, I was thrilled. We even made it in a blog for the scientific journal Nature.

It's so exciting to see something that I worked so hard on come off as such a success.

Bluring reality

2008-09-21T11:07:00.002-04:00

For the last couple weeks I've been making my way through season 7 of West Wing, and often been amused at the parallels between the election on the show and the current presidential election. So when I read this editorial in the NYTimes, I smiled a little inside:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html?em

Oh and while I'm at it:

Truthiness Stages a Comeback

A little of everything

2008-09-13T20:42:00.003-04:00

So a lot has happened in the last 6 weeks through the world and in American politics and relatively little has happened in my little sphere of the world.
But I'll start with me since it's easier. The semester has started up again, and I've decided not to take any classes in order to focus my attention on research. It still blows me away that inside of three months I've gone from having a project which is largely hypothetical to having a laundry list of things to do. And I'm happy to be able to write that I really enjoy what I'm working on. Although I do miss Berkeley a bit, more the people I worked with than the city itself, it's good to be back in Ithaca.
Last weekend I went backpacking in southern PA on the Laurel Highlands Ridge Trail with Marcy and Shane and sprained my ankle on what was going to be mile 4 of 25 over two days. Me being somewhat stubborn when it comes to turning back on trails, popped some ibuprofen and pressed on (with my fellow hikers carrying most of my stuff). In retrospect not the best idea. In part because having the extra load tired M&S out quickly, and I rolled my ankle a second time close to the shelters. After 14 long miles we made it to the shelters on the last light from sunset. The strong north wind blew right into our lean-to (I hate wind), Shane got sick from tainted well water, and I knew there was no way I could hike the 11 miles to the car the next day. So I fell asleep dreading the thought of having to spend 7 or so hours alone with nothing to do in a windy shelter while I waited for the others to get the car and pick me up followed by a 6 hour drive back to Ithaca, mostly in the dark.
And then we awoke to a beautiful sunny day and view through the trees of the valley and parallel ridges. Two local guys came to our rescue and drove the three of us back to Marcy and Shane's car. They have no idea how much the ride helped us out. We finished the trip by having a huge breakfast in Ruthie's, the local diner. I love local diners by the way, and this was a good one. Next time I'm going to let them plan the trip. My ankle is still recovering but the swelling is going down.
So the side project which is consuming a lot of time is an interesting confluence of astronomy and music. In October the Division of Planetary Science is holding a meeting in Ithaca, and as part of the convention, the Cornell Symphony is going to play Holst's "The Planets" as well as a new piece being written for the conference. We also decided to put together a movie of images and videos that will be shown while the orchestra is playing. I'm in charge of organizing the grad students and post docs to put the movies together. I've really enjoyed it, but it's also been time consuming. I have the movies I made (for Mercury and Jupiter) on my astro website if you're interested in checking them out:

www.astro.cornell.edu/~lspitler

So....the world. There was the Olympics. And the whole Georgia thing. Don't have much to say there. Let's move on to politics shall we?
The major political news has been conventions and naming of VP's. Biden, ok, no problem. Palin.....WTF!?!?
In short, Palin frustrates and terrifies me. I feel this way anytime some evangelical bible-thumper has too much power. The frustration arises around the social issues mainly. Same-sex marriage, pro-life (anti-choice or anti-freedom if you'd like the me to spin it in language that conservatives can understand), abstinence-only education and all those other "values" (I really dislike that term). But my frustration level is elevated even higher in light of her daughter. (Yes, I'm going down that road. I think the situation, but not the individual is fair game.) First off, all I have to say is "Thank God for abstinence only education", because clearly it's working wonders on teenagers. Here's what gets me. All of the social conservative, "values voters" are so pleased that her daugher is *choosing* to do the right thing, have the baby and marrying the father. Great. Who wants to be that three years down the line they're not still married? So much for family values.
But here's the thing that really gets me. A decade from now, Sarah Palin will still be marching on the crusade against teaching anything but the utter absurdity that is abstinence-only sex education even after seeing how becoming a mother at 17 has hindered her daughter's potential in life.
Now on the the reasons I'm terrified. Basically she's grossly under-qualified. But I'm not going to go into that. There are plenty of people more well-versed in this that can articulate the reasons better than I.
There is one thing in particular I do want to address, and that's the ramifications of a president who doesn't believe in evolution. This is a disaster for American scientific achievement, and the ability for us to stay at the forefront of scientific and technological development. I'm sorry, but the economy is not driven by bible-thumping. As someone who is training to become a scientist by trade, this has real ramifications for me. Astronomy in this country is largely funded by the National Science Foundation. The NSF's budget is set in the Federal Budget. Having an anti-science president in office for another four (eight?!) years is very, very bad for my future.
Now I will conclude on a few exciting things I discovered today. One is iTunes finally have all of Apocalyptica's albums online, so I could finally get the most recent one. I also downloaded a couple exciting applications to my iPod touch. The most exciting of which is an ssh terminal. sshing into my workstation from my iPod blew my mind.

Long six weeks

2008-08-18T21:14:00.008-04:00

So it's been quite a month and a half. I rode three days of RAGBRAI, hiked 20 miles in Point Rayes National Seashore, worked my tail off, attended a workshop, went to the ATA and moved back to Ithaca.
RAGBRAI turned out to be a huge amount of fun. I mean where else would hear "banana on the left" and then have a guy in a banana costume pass by you.
Here are some photos:

Beach in Point Reyes complete with horses. I've never been in a park with so many horses:

On to RAGBRAI...

Waiting for pancakes outside the Nevada Fire Department on our first morning.

Cyclists

Breakfast in Vinning. Breakfast was the best part of the day, and Vinning won our vote for best breakfast of the ride.

Me on the campus of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon.

There's more. But I'll post these photos for now.

Disappointing final

2008-06-29T22:17:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-25T22:41:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-24T00:50:00.002-04:00

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

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

Golden Gate

2008-06-22T23:32:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-16T23:55:00.005-04:00

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

2008-06-09T01:12:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-03T00:20:00.002-04:00

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.

The Phoenix has landed

2008-05-25T20:26:00.003-04:00

About 30 minutes ago NASA Phoenix satellite landed at the north pole of Mars. The preliminary transmissions suggest that everything went according to plan.
My department opened up its doors for a public viewing of the video feed from JPL, so I watched it along with close to 100 others, most of which were general public.
Seeing the anticipation in the faces in the mission control turn to excitement as each phase of the landing passed successfully made me look forward to putting my first instrument on a telescope taking the first spectum. I won't be doing anything quite as complicated as landing something on another planet, but at least I'll be able to see and tweak my toy.
I also felt like I was living a Schrödinger's cat Gedankenexperiment. The light travel time from Mars to Earth is 15 minutes. So while we were hearing that "Phoenix has just entered the atmosphere" or "at an altitude of 30 meters above the surface", it all happened 15 minutes ago. There's something about realizing that while you anxiously wait to hear the results of the parachute deployment, the spacecraft has either already landed successfully or crashed.

In other news I biked 26 miles today, nine of them were hill climbing. The moral of today is that I have a lot of work to do before riding three days of RAGBRAI. And most of that work will be done in the Bay Area. I'm leaving next Tuesday (June 3) and returning August 7th. I'm starting to get excited about it.

Oh my, oh my, oh May

2008-05-20T20:08:00.002-04:00

It has been a long five or so weeks since my last post.
Spring arrived, Aaron visited for a long weekend, spring decided that it in fact came too soon, the end of the semester approached, then the end of the semester arrived, and then drug on for weeks. Andy graduated and then Katie graduated.
As of yesterday morning I'm officially done with the semester and into Summer. And of course it's complicated. There's a Berkeley grad student who wants to help me build my...err...a new spectrometer for Arecibo. I'll spare you all the details, but the consequence of this is I get/have to spend the summer in Berkeley. Get to because a summer in Berkeley would be fun and we'd together make more progress than I would alone. Have to because if I don't move out there soon, they'll build my...I mean the spectrometer without me and I don't get to spend the summer in Ithaca. This prospect is painful since the beautiful summers are what gets us through Ithaca winters (that and the amazing Fall colors). Summers in the Bay Area are probably nice too, though a bit chilly. At least I'll get some real summer while in Iowa at the end of July.
I'll post again once I know exactly when I head west.

Six degrees of seperation: Coctail dress to Sark

2008-04-13T22:43:00.003-04:00

Now that I'm finally finished telling the Spring Break Adventure, I can go back to my regularly scheduled life stories.
No big news on my end. The semester ends in a about a month, so of course, I should be working on homework or projects instead of writing uninteresting things into my blog. Whatever. It's Sunday evening.
On the upside the weather's been warm. I'm not completely convinced spring has sprung, but it looks good so far. ::Knock on wood:: Grad ball was a couple weeks ago. Entirely unlike me, I wore a black cocktail dress. Season 4 of Battlestar has started. I'm not sure how I feel about some of the plot developments. Baltar a Jesus-figure? Really?
Taxes..grr. Aaron's coming to visit this week...ya!.

A good friend of mine has been doing the world a service by posting all Obama's failings. I thought I'd be my part and let the NYTimes editorialist Frank Rich explain why, even if Clinton wins the nomination, I'm still going to grind my teach and vote for her over McCain.

Tet Happened, and No One Cared

I also went to Wikipedia to look up something, which I have long forgotten because I was distracted by Sark. Sark is a Channel Island (as in the English Channel), has an area of about 2.5 miles, and a population of 600. There are no cars on the island (my kind of place), and it is one of the last places in Europe to abolish feudalism. Let's set aside of one moment the fact that it's "one of the last", implying here are others that haven't, and ponder that there exists places in Europe that are still governed by the feudal system. This whole life thing never ceases to astonish me.
And on that note, I'm calling it a night.

Desert Spring Break - Thursday and Friday

2008-04-13T11:26:00.004-04:00

Finally we have reached the last day of this adventure. Thursday morning we wake refreshed, grab omelets from a cute diner in downtown Flagstaff, and hit the road for the Grand Canyon.
We stop at two places of interest along the way. The first is Sunset crater, which is one of many volcanic craters in this area. The reader may find it surprising that there are extinct volcanoes in northern Arizona, but in fact there are many along the edge of the Colorado Plateau. Sunset crater last erupted fairly recently (~1100 AD) and is still surrounded by hardened lava. All in all really interesting. Here's a picture of the San Francisco Mountains, also volcanic, with a lava flow from Sunset Crater in the foreground.

Next we stopped at Wupatki National Monument. It's the ruins (somewhat reconstructed) of ancient Pueblo people. It's a complex and beautifully built structure. I'm not sure how I feel about it being partially reconstructed.

Finally we were off to the Grand Canyon, which is indeed quite grand. It is actually quite surreal. The shear size of it completely defies comprehension. Your brain simply can not grasp it. I can't tell you how many times I stared into it and thought, "I'm looking a mile into the Earth." Then, being the physicist that I am, I started to calculate how long it would take for a rock to hit the bottom. It was something like 30 seconds to a minute. I mean really. That's damn big hole. The colors are also astounding. The first photo taken at Desert View, and the river at the bottom is the Colorado.

And just for fun, here I am squinting into the Sun.

My forehead's about as red as the Redwall rock.

Eventually it was time to head back to Vegas to catch a redeye back East. We ended up cutting it pretty close driving back. This was rather unpleasant part of the trip, so I'm just going to say that we made our flight in time, I managed to sleep on the plane (gasp), and the drive back to Ithaca from Rochester was uneventful until....
we got a call from a certain former roommate saying that she and her boyfriend *finally* got engaged. Yah! Congrats!

Das Ende

Desert Spring Break - Wednesday

2008-04-11T18:20:00.006-04:00

Wednesday morning was our last morning in Joshua Tree. Although the weather had finally turned nice and the Joshua Trees had grown on me, I was ready to stop sleeping on the ground and looking forward to staying in a motel later that night. But there are a lot of miles we had to cover before we got to that point. Here's our backcountry campsite:

After eating breakfast we struck camp, filled up our packs and hiked back to the trail head. Back at the cars we sorted out our stuff, repacked the cars and said departed from Mel and Briony for Andy, Ginger and I were off to Flagstaff, AZ. We drove back north through the park, fill up the gas tank, and headed east on highway 29, again passing by the random, one-room abodes made of cinder blocks whose existence again creeped me out.
Highway 29 renormalized my definition of "middle-of-no where". Here's a photo taken through the windshield:

That is until we ran across a random biker off on the side of the road. We decided to pull off to make sure that he was ok. He was. Except for the part where he had only brought one standard bike water bottle full of water for the 30-something mile trip through the middle of no where in the desert, where there is, of course, no water. Californians are nice people but a bit crazy.
Eventually we reached the Arizona border and stopped at a diner in Palmer, AZ (Population maybe 200). The place embodied all that is lacking from chain restaurants: character. They also served iced tea in the *biggest* cups I've ever seen, which at that point, was exactly what I wanted.
Continuing on from Palmer we headed up north along the AZ-CA border until around sunset when we met I-40. Then it was straight east and up (we climbed several thousand feet). This brought us back into cold and snow, but that's how it goes.
Finally we reached Flagstaff and checked into a hotel with Wifi and a shower. It was my first shower in about six days, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Even more though, I enjoyed sleeping in a bed inside where there's heat and no wind.

Desert Spring Break - Tuesday

2008-04-06T23:21:00.004-04:00

Tuesday turned into our "back country" day. Our goal for the day was Lost Palms Oasis. We loaded up a night's food, our tents and sleeping bags and lots of water into our backpacks and headed out. All of the day-trippers from LA looked at us like we were crazy.
Tuesday was warm. I'd even go so far as to say hot. Especially when you're carrying 20 pounds on your back. About three miles in we found an area with enough flat space to put up our tents. Had lunch. Applied more sunscreen and continued on to the Palm Oasis.
After so many days in the desert it's odd to see water effectively coming out of rocks, but it in fact happens. Here's a Palm Tree I sat under:

I also apparently take fewer picture when I'm carrying a lot on my back.
After we finished relaxing under the Palm Trees, Mel and I decided to try and find Victory Palms, reported to be about a mile beyond Lost Palms Oasis. By this point though the trail turned rocky, and there was some scrambling over rocks. In the end the impending sunset kept us from actually finding the second oasis, but it was a fun little adventure.
We returned to camp and cooked by moon and flashlight. Chatted about life the universe and everything and fell asleep.

Desert Spring Break - Monday

2008-04-02T16:12:00.005-04:00

Monday turned into do-a-bunch of short hikes day.
We started off the morning, like every morning out in the desert, with the best oatmeal ever cooked over a campfire.
The first hike of the day took us up Ryan Mountain. Those of you who know me well know that hiking up mountains is one of my favorite activities and hiking up desert mountains in particular. I like that there's an obvious goal. I like being able to see big-picture vistas unhindered by things like trees. Here's a picture from the summit looking to the west to the San Bernardino mountains.

After descending from the mountain, we found a nice spot for lunch next to a large rock perfectly shaped for basking in the sun. Monday was the first day we could actually call warm, and this was the first time I could sit around in a tank top and soak in the warmth. It was, let me tell you, very exciting. I could feel myself burning, but that's ok. That was exactly why flew to the Southwest.

We occupied our afternoon visiting several of the mines and mills that litter this area. Back in the day, that is to say the first half of the 20th century, people flocked to the area in search of gold. Personally, I didn't really care about mines or mills, but these particular trails ended up have some of the prettiest Joshua Trees we came across. This is a tree we found on our way to the Wall Street mill.

Here's an old piece of machinery we found while exploring Desert Queen mine:

Finally we drove up to Key's View, which offers a fantastic view of the West.

From here you can actually see the San Andreas Fault, but it's not particularly clear in this picture.

Dinner was awesome. The wind was calm. All was good.

Desert Spring Break - Sunday

2008-03-30T00:32:00.005-04:00

So where were we...ah yes. Cold.

Sunday morning we decided to head South. Generally going south results in warmer temperature. It certainly couldn't hurt.
Before heading in search of warmer, less windy areas, we stopped at a visitor center to check the weather. The good news is each day would be progressively warmer. The bad news was we still have to reckon with wind for several more days. The drive south to the Cottonwood campground took us through the entire park, and we decided to stop at various features along the way.
The first top was Jumbo Rocks. An area with lots of big rocks.
Moving on we found the Cholla cactus garden.

Here I am in front of a Cholla cactus:

An interesting aspect of Joshua Tree National Park is that it actually contains two different types of deserts (yes, there are different types). The Northern half of the park is Mojave desert. This is where the Joshua Trees live. The Southern half of the park is Sonoran. Here the plants are entirely different. The Chollas are typical of the Sonoran desert.
Around lunchtime we set up camp and had lunch of pitas, cheese, sausage and runny peanut butter. Then we went on a hike to Mastadon Peak. On the way was an oasis with Eukaliptys and California Fan Palms. Fan palms are super cool trees and will this will not be the last encounter on the trip.

Then I found the prettiest wildflowers in the park, and one of the coolest flower I've ever seen. They're a beautiful iridescent peach color. On the lower left of this picture you can see my second favorite JT flower. These goofy little purple balls with spikes from which tiny light purple flowers bloom out of. I really love desert plants. They have so much character.

All in all a very pleasant hike. Here's a picture of our campsite where we spent two evenings:

That evening the most amazing thing happened. The wind was still and the skies cleared off. Unfortunately our trip occurred during the third quarter to full moon phase, so there were only a couple hour is the very early morning that were moon-less. It was a bit of a tease because it was obvious that the skies would be amazing if the Moon would just set.
The evening was still chilly but at least quiet...at least until about 1 pm when the wind returned with a vengeance. Anyway...enough for now.

Desert Spring Break - Friday and Saturday

2008-03-23T22:37:00.005-04:00

So I'm going to adopt Andy's method and post the spring break adventure in parts. Mostly because if I have it in my head that I'll write it all at once, it'll never happen.

It all began with a two-hour drive to the Rochester airport at about 2 am. The moral of this story: 6 am flights from an airport 2 hours away are a *bad* idea. But we made it, I tried to sleep, we arrived in Atlanta, caught the next flight, tried to sleep some more. Eventually we arrive in Las Vegas, gather our belongings and Ginger and went to get the car.
First bit of excitement...it was sunny and warm in Vegas. There I stood, basking in the Sun's warm for the first time in...oh...let's say 5 months! Next bit of excitement...Thrifty didn't have any mid-sized cars available immediately, but I could take a mid-sized convertible if I wanted. Me being my non-spontaneous, practical self stood around and waited for a normal car for a couple minutes. Then the thought of a convertible sunk in, but the top folded up takes up most of the trunk. Sort of a problem when you're going camping with stuff. Anyho! Eventually after conferring with my fellow trekers, I grabbed a blue convertible, and we were off.
Before hitting the desert we had to make a run to REI and grab food for our first night. (We weren't meeting Briony and Mel until the next day.) Finally we headed South out of Vegas through the deserts of southern Nevada. The destination our first night was Mojave National Preserve, just inside the California boarder. We camped in an off-road campsite, i.e. in the middle of the desert, off a dirt road, where people have camped before so they figure it wouldn't hurt if some more people also did so. In other words there's no water and sure as heck no toilets.
We arrived at the site toward the end of sunset and quickly realized that it was quite windy. But we set up the tents, failed at cooking thanks to the wind, and had a dinner of apples, corn flakes and wine. About half way though the bottle, several large vans and SUVs pulled up and out poured 20 some boy scouts. Yes...there we were in the middle of no where. Not even in an offical campground, and our bit o' desert was invaded by a troop of boy scouts.
I got some sleep that night but not much between the wind, cold, and rowdy boys. As we will learn, this is not the last time I reference "wind" in this account.
The best part about camping is crawling out of the tent in the morning to a freshly risen sun and crisp air. It generally makes the discomfort of sleeping on the group worth. On this particular morning I was not only greeted by a sun rising behind a mountain, but desert wild flowers and a enormous sand dune. Here's our campsite:

I had chosen this particular site because of its proximity to the Kelso Dune field, one of the largest in North America. I have a mild obsession with sand dunes thanks to a project I did last year on dunes on Venus, but that's neither here nor there.
After breakfast we set out across a sand field to climb the up the dune. Here's a photo of Andy and Ginger hiking. The peak directly in front of them rises about 600 feet above where we camped, and we eventually managed to climb to the peak.

Here's the crest and slipface. For scale the little black specks are the boy scouts sledding of all things.

The view from the peak as beautiful and windy. In strong gusts sand would fly over crest, and the surface would dance as the sand saltated. Our footprints were quickly erased. From my researches of sand dunes, I learned that some dunes will make a booming noise. The origin of this is not entirely understood. Sure enough, as we ran/jumped down the steep slope from the summit, our jumping created vibrations in the dune and a sound that resembled a low tone of a pipe organ. That made my day.
After eating lunch and striking camp we drove another couple hours south to Joshua Tree National Park. This trip through the desert of southern California also proved interesting. We discovered a jerky stand and a volcanic crater along Route-66. The highway near 29 Palms (the last resemblance of civilization before entering the park) passed through a desert littered with old, run-down, one-room shacks, whose purpose continues to baffle me.
This evening we spent at the Black Rock campground in the Northwest corner of the park. Here we also met Mel and Briony who came baring food and wine.
Here's a photo of our campsite sans tents (the blue tent in the background belonged to our neighbors). The tree in the middle is a Joshua Tree in bloom. They really are amazing cool trees.

This evening was by far the most unpleasant of the trip. To say it was windy does not do the experience justice. We had steady 20 mph winds, frequent gusts upwards of 40 mph (my estimation) and temperature in the mid-40's. Plus there was a five minute period where it sleeted on us. After flying several thousand miles to escape the never-ending winter in upstate NY, we get sleeted on in Southern California. For the sake of optimism, I will not dwell on this evening.

Escaping winter

2008-03-14T00:28:00.004-04:00

So tonight I head out for Southern California to escape winter for a week. I'll be back in NY next Friday. There will be photos upon my return.
I had some things running through my head this week. Yesterday I read an opinion article in Newsweek written by a "twenty something" on the Democratic race. She described how Obama is not only the "cool" candidate but how it's also cool to be an Obama supporter. On the other hand Clinton supporters are often reserved about their candidate for fear of being some how "uncool". Now this sort of annoyed me. How often do "adults" complain how the "twenty somethings" never vote and are not politically engaged? Suddenly we all start coming out in droves to vote for the first genuinely exciting candidate of our lives, and it's trivialized, albeit by one of our own, as the result of some fad. That said, maybe it's true. Maybe Obama has a better Facebook page. I don't know.
There were other blog posts I had written in my head, but now I don't remember them. It happens.

Finally, finally

2008-03-07T22:45:00.002-05:00

Yah...I know. It's been a while. Every weekend for the last month I've been telling myself that I need carve out time to update, and it just hasn't happened. So here's the laundry list of things I've been doing since returning to Ithaca after break:
1) Classes. This semester I'm taking two. Astrophysical processes and cosmology. The former is something of a methods class, and interesting, but only in so far as it illuminates all of the crazy things that happen in astrophysical sources. Cosmology is, on the other hand, interesting and intense. Also, I'm TAing a class called "Life in the Universe", which is turning out to be really interesting as well. It combines astronomy and biology/ecology to discuss the prospects of the ubiquity of life in the universe.
2) Work. I'm currently in an optimistic phase regarding work. The fact that I'm quickly coming up on my second summer and have no real results is driving me to pester my advisor a little more frequently, which in turn, may yield concrete results. We'll see how the next couple weeks go.
3) Spring break. Newest life lesson: Life is so much better when you have something to look forward to. That said Andy, a law school friend of his and two of my friends from astro are flying out to Joshua Tree National Park next week for Spring Break. Joshua Tree is in southern California, more or less directly east of LA. It's named after the Joshua Tree cactus that grows in the park (and yes, is also the origin of the U2 album). We are super excited to escape the perpetual gray, wintery mix that is Ithaca in March. New T-shirt motto: Ithaca is slush.
4) Weather. Let's not even go here. All I can say is "wintery mix".
5) Everything else. I'm moving again this summer. Don't really know where I'm moving to yet. Need to find a place. Politics...yah. I don't have anything to add that hasn't been said by some one somewhere. It would've been nice if Obama had simply won Texas and Ohio, so this race would have in effect be over, but no. That would be too easy. Lately I've been listening to lectures I found on iTunes University. For those of you who are unaware, iTunes University is a part of iTunes in which various universities post (for free!) lectures/videos from classes as well as talks given by guest speakers. Here are some of my favorite from the past couple months:

Yale University - Bob Woodward - "Media's Impact on Politics: Focus on Richard Nixon and George W. Bush"
Stanford Univeristy - Al Gore - "The Earth in Balance"
American Public Media - Michael Pollen - "Where does your food come from?"
- George Ellis - "Cosmology, Science and Hope"
- David Kennedy - "Can America Still Afford to be a Nation of Immigrants?"

In particular the first and last talks in this list were really interesting. In fact I've found American Public Media to be a reliable source of good, informative talks.
Alright. That's all I've got for tonight.

Leap frog across the country

2008-01-18T21:23:00.000-05:00

So this is about a week late, but that's life.
On my way back to Ithaca from Des Moines I stopped in Iowa City and Chicago.
Being in Iowa City was great as usual. I caught up with many friends and several professors. Lounged around coffee shops. The only downside was the New Hampshire primary...::shakes fist in the northernly direction::.
Thursday I arrived in Chicago and met up with Genna. That night we went to a Chicago Symphony Concert. On the program was an Overture and Piano Concerto No. 1 by Beethoven and Symphony No. 4 by Tchaikovsky. The piano soloist was very good. Expressive but also very clean and precise. The orchestra itself was also, of course, great. Especially the brass. Their reputation is well deserved. On parts of the Tchaikovsky they gave me goosebumps.
Friday I spent the afternoon walking around the Art Institute. It was really great. I was in the right mood to enjoy art, and the works there are first class. They have the original American Gothic! Not to mention at least a dozen paintings from Monet and many other great Impressionists.
Saturday was going to be Field Museum day, but by the time we managed to get up and miss the bus, we had little time and ended up going to the Science and Industry museum. This one's a mixed bag. Several displays were old and somewhat out of date, but the newer displays were well done. Afterwards we spent a couple hours wandering around Michigan Ave. Chicago at night is so beautiful.
In fact the whole trip reminded me how much I like Chicago. Personally I'm torn between an attachment to big cities and rural areas. There's something about the feel of cities that I enjoy. Walking by row houses and riding trains makes me feel like part of something larger. But it can also be expensive, loud and unsafe. On the other hand open land is quieter and lets me feel more connected with nature. But then I don't get to walk and bus places. Maybe that's why I like Ithaca so much. It's impossible to escape from nature and open spaces are just a couple miles away, but at the same time I can travel by bus and walk to the dairy or store. If only it were a little warmer.

Below the belt

2008-01-07T14:39:00.001-05:00

I kept my mind open. I defended her against what I saw as irrational dislike (even though this polarizing attribute of her campaign is what kept me from considering her). I was told that I was just too young to understand.
But now I'm one of them:

The Caucus Blog

I don't like hypocrites and like even less pissy candidates taking pot shots at my state.

The silver lining is that all this frustration from the campaign stems from this:

CBS News called back New Hampshire voters first interviewed by The Times and CBS News in November to measure the impact of the results from Iowa.

Senator Barack Obama now leads Senator Hillary Clinton, with 35 percent. Mrs. Clinton is now supported by 28 percent and John Edwards has 19 percent. In November, among these same voters, Mr. Obama trailed Mrs. Clinton by 20 percentage points.

Here is the entire article from the New York Times.

While we're at it...let's compare shall we? (Numbers from US Census Bureau and Wikipedia and rounded to two significant figures in most cases.)

Iowa
Population: 2.9 million
Demographics (2006): 95% white
2008 Democratic caucus goers: 220,000

New Hampshire
Population: 1.2 - 1.3 million
Demographics (2006): 96% white
Number of people who voted in the 2004 Democratic primary: ~220,000
(That said there may be a surge in voters like we saw in Iowa.)

Any attempts to paint Iowa as small and unrepresentative applies to New Hampshire as well. How does she think this will help her? What's she going to say when she loses South Carolina?

Post caucus blog

2008-01-06T21:57:00.000-05:00

So I guess I haven't written since the caucus.
In short, it was a good night. A record number of caucus-goers turned out. This point was brought home today as I was wandering through the "Caucus" exhibit at the Iowa Historical Museum today. For each year of the Iowa caucuses, which has played a major role in choosing the presidential candidates since 1972 according to Wikipedia, the number of participants and number of delegates/votes for each candidate was listed. In the early Democratic caucuses around 50,000 people participated. Also a large number of viable "uncommitted" delegates were sent to the national convention. In some years the number of uncommitted delegates was greater than the number for any particular candidate. I found this rather surprising, because until last Thursday, I didn't even know that uncommitted was a viable option.
But over the last three decades the number of participants in the Democratic caucuses has increased. I remember the media ranting about the record turn outs for the Democratic caucus in 2004 (my first caucus), and indeed they were the first to break 100,000 voters. The most common figure for turnout in 2004 is usually around 120,000. This year the estimated turnout was around 220,000.
This huge surge was quite evident at my precinct. Last year the number of caucus-goers was something like 360. This year it was 554. Everyone I talked to had similar stories about their caucus experience.
My precinct was one of the largest in the state. We were alloted 9 delegates to go to the county convention. And because there were 554 people crammed into a middle school gym, the process took a good hour and a half.
First we had to count ourselves so we knew how many people we were, and how many people a candidate had to have to reach viability (15%). Then we broke into preference groups. I took the easy road. I walked in, found the Obama group, and planted myself until it was over. It was clear from the beginning that the Obama section was strong. In fact after the first round of counting, he already had around 40% of the votes.
It was also clear that none of the top three candidates were close to the eighty-something required to be viable. Some groups gave up easily and moved to their second choice. Others, i.e. Biden, were more stubborn and planned on using the entirety of the thirty minutes alloted to try and recruit people, and the other groups were happy to do their best to sway them to come to their candidate.
The Obama group leaders were the first to start recruiting. Probably in part because they were the closest. Here's a photo of the two groups going head to head.

But it didn't take long for the Clinton and Edwards groups to start chiming in. Meanwhile most of people were getting tired of waiting and just wanted to get to the final vote.
Eventually the Biden supporters had to give up and go to their second choice. We counted ourselves for the third time. I guess I didn't mention that counting meant everyone in the room sounded off to be counted one-by-one. A process that takes a bit of time when there's over 500 people.
In the end both Edwards and Clinton received two delegates and Obama received five. It was a good night. I was happy.

Even years are better

2008-01-01T17:35:00.000-05:00

So today's the start of a new year. My sister's wisdom is that even years are better than odd ones. She may be right. I was born in an even year.
Christmas was nice. Got to see the family and drink wine. I made German bread dumplings (Semmelknödeln), which inspired song and merriment. Last night I rang in the New Year's with friend I hadn't seen since the last New Year's eve.
Otherwise my break has been pretty quiet. Except for all the politics of course. As you may know, the Iowa Caucuses are in two days. The phones have been ringing off the hook, and brave Edwards supports have been knocking on the door, setting the crazy dog off on a fit of barking.
I've been taking advantage of all this free time to get out and see the candidates. So far I've seen Gov. Richardson twice and Senators Obama and Edwards once and shook all three of their hands. I don't usually get political in my blog, but here are my thoughts on the Democratic race.
For the last several months my favorites have been Gov. Richardson and Senator Obama. Richardson caught my attention because he has, by far, the most impressive resume and most experience of any of the democratic candidates. I also like his policies. But he looses points with me when I see him speak, and in particular answer questions. I feel a person's ability to answer questions well shows that they are intelligent and can think on their feet. Richardson seems to have his spiel, and if he gets a new question, he simply gives which ever spiel is most closely related.
So in the end Senator Obama is my first choice (though I have two days to change my mind). In short, because I feel he is the most rational and articulate candidate. When explaining his position on an issue, he does so using reason and facts. Often first enumerating what's wrong than then explaining what he intends to do to solve the problem. And no other candidate is as deft at public speaking as he is (although Edwards comes close). As someone who values intelligence and learning, he appeals to my often overly-rational mind.
So what about the other two? I have admittedly not given Senator Clinton due research, but I can see that she is a polarizing candidate. I think she's qualified, and if she does win the nomination I'll vote for her, but she will have a difficult time bringing Republicans to the table. Edwards is my third choice and probably the safest candidate. But he turned me off when I saw him speak because of his reliance on emotional appeal. Where Obama uses facts and reason supported by rhetoric of vision and change, Edwards pulls out the "my father worked in the mill" and "companies are evil" card. It's all very moving, but I am not going to vote based off which candidate brings me closest to tears.
Caucus and election years are also even years. I am really looking forward to caucusing. As ridiculous as the system may be, it is a lot of fun. Hopefully this political year will go well.
My resolution: pronounce "nuclear" properly... :-)
Happy New Year everyone.

Time for a breather

2007-12-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

So I see it's been almost a month since my last post. And what a month it was.
This semester ended in quite the marathon with a big final project for one class and a take home exam for the other. The first law of class work says that projects will always fill the time alloted to them, and this one was no different. I've been done with the all out sprint for about two weeks now and then jogged for another week. Now I get a bit of a breather.
I've even made it back to Iowa. I spent the better part of two days driving across flat, snowy land. Last night when passed a semi with the words "Pork Plasma Only. Inedible. Not for human consumption" written on the side, I knew I was back in Iowa. It is good to be back. Much to everyone's relief, the dog still remembers me (which is important when that dog's a Doberman). The cat showed that he still remembers me by spending the whole night purring 6 inches from my face, and finally when he was ignored long enough, started biting me on the nose. Isn't that cute?
My butt is starting to go numb from sitting on the floor up against the dresser in my room, so I'm going to end this now.

Christmas Tree Rant

2007-11-25T18:32:00.000-05:00

So let me tell you that it's a sad state of affairs. I'm loosing faith in humanity. Why you ask. Because it's next to impossible to find an artifical Christmas tree WITHOUT lights already attached to the branches. Are we really sooooo very busy that we can't take a few minutes and put the lights on ourselves? Is that not in fact the best part of putting up a Christmas tree? Plugging in the lights, untangling the glowing chain of color, and then wrapping the tree with them? Now I suppose finding that one unlit light which darkens the whole string is quite annoying but come now people.
But after going to 8 different stores (all of which likely had the same 10 kinds of fake xmas trees), I finally caved and bought a "prelit" tree. As you will see from the photo, since it came with clear lights, I had to add my own colored ones but quite frankly, an all white tree is dull. The kind of thing that one sees in a store but not at home. Ok. Quite enough of that rant.

But really, life is good. I have a pretty tree. Thanksgiving was really nice. I spent it with two of my professors and their families, which turned out to be a lot of fun. I had the tastiest baked Turkey I've ever eaten. (Sorry Mom.)
And on that note, it's time to eat a bit more.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T12:58:00.001-05:00

So just to update things, I took my oral Q-exam last Friday. It ended up being less fun than I'd hoped, but I survived. My committee gave me some constructive advice, so all-in-all I think it was a useful experience.
Otherwise I'll be in Ithaca for Thanksgiving. It'll be nice to have a travel-lite holiday. I hope you all have a happy Turkey Day, and a safe trip for those of you who are traveling.

Let's all take a moment...

2007-11-13T21:11:00.001-05:00

"C" is for cookie, it's good enough for me...

Blodablblblbdabldadlbdladlbladlblblblbl....

I've got five minutes to kill...

2007-11-12T18:07:00.000-05:00

So what's occupying my life you ask? Well grad school of course.
It seems that after much back and forth, I may in fact do my oral Q-exam this Friday. "The Q" as we call it, is trial by academic firing squad. It's more or less impossible to prepare for, and probably the most scary and intimidating rite of passage for us astro grads. And it may in four days time be over.
Otherwise there is a little under three weeks of classes left, two weeks of finals/projects, and then I get to go back to Iowa!!!

2007-10-28T23:10:00.000-04:00

So it's been a while. I know.
But I've been quite busy the last couple weeks. Let me see how I recall since my last post.
So there was the month of September. I have no idea what happened during September, but I'd bet there was a lot of quantum homework.
And now we're almost through October, which is a fact that I can't entirely comprehend, but that's the way it goes. So Fall Break was in early October. I drove down to Columbus to visit two good friends. It was a lovely, relaxing long weekend. It was also absurdly hot for October.
The third week of October I spent out in Berkeley meeting with my collaborators. (I have collaborators! It makes me sound like a real scientist.) I was there trying to come up with a plan for my project. I will say little about the project for fear of jinxing it, but it will be cool. I'm excited.
While I was in sort-of sunny California, the trees in upstate NY exploded. (In the chromatic sense, not the thermodynamic.) My first day back in town turned out to be the most beautiful day of Fall, and I couldn't in good conscience just sit indoors fruitlessly trying to get work done, so I jumped on my bike and soaked up the colors, being very glad that I live where I do. This feeling will abate with the onset of winter.

Since then I've been stuck in Q-exam scheduling purgatory. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find two hours where four professors can be in the same room at the same time. I had hoped to have this trial by academic firing squad over with before Thanksgiving, but it doesn't look like that's possible. Oh well.
And now it's yet another Sunday evening, and we're under our first freeze warning of the year. In a few hours I have to face a Monday having gotten nothing done over the weekend. Never my favorite thing.

Facebook post

2007-09-01T22:02:00.000-04:00

Laura is...

happy that she has friends that can cook and like sharing.

loving the beautiful, sunny weather this weekend.

still full from fried NY State Fair food.

annoyed with her quantum homework.

glad that Iowa won today.

The unexpected

2007-08-26T00:41:00.000-04:00

I am a creature of habit. I have a routine. I'm generally not spontaneous and don't like surprises. I feel this life style allows me to have control and predict life, avoiding unpleasant situations.
That said, a surprise now and then is healthy. Evolutionarily species that can adapt are more likely to survive. The unusual also makes one think outside the box. A property of modern art that I've come to appreciate in recent years.
So with that in mind let's imagine the Ithaca Commons on a Saturday evening. A surprise is near certain.
Here I am, sitting outside Madeline's with three friends enjoying a Cappuccino Martini and Tiramisu. Tiramisu always makes me think of Germany, but that's routine. Looking over our shoulder's we see a guy with a small table pleasantly lit with a shaded table lamp, two boxes of pizza and a cooler with Californian lime juice. Now a couple guys with pizza may not be so surprising. Maybe they're just trying real people in and save them with the Good Book. But it's really the table lamp that makes this whole operation a surprise. That lamp exists way outside of the box. We discussed what they're motivation is. What do they want. I commented that it is depressing, that we are suspicious of possible random acts of kindness.
After we finished, we ventured over. They in fact just wanted to brighten some people's night. That's right. This is Ithaca. 10 square miles surrounded by reality. Tonight it's true.
Next I walked by a guy talking to someone invisible while playing with his ferret.
Don't forget to stop and look around at the roses.

Something else along these lines. I was reading the text to a song by my favorite German band. This is for my German-speaking friends.
Das Lied heisst "Stiller" von Wir sind Helden.
Schau mal den Text an:

http://www.wirsindhelden.com/txt_soundso11.php?lang=en

Hier ist meine Übersetzung, aber ich bin mich nicht sicher mit einigen Sätze. Was meint ihr? Würdet ihr etwas anders schreiben?

------
Daily I dictate my life to myself
by stops on the subway schedule
from above without grounding
without keeping quiet
disquiet, never helpless
never speechless
the words don't come to me

I try to explain the world to myself
as though there were lines between the points
as though the words divide the world into stripes
I grab, but I can't understand

What good are my hands
when what they touch disappears
just like the things that, when the words find them, disappear
fall silent and unwind

I am not silent
the words just don't come to me
I am not silent
the words just don't hit their target
I am not silent
I would love to keep quiet
and silent, more silent
just show everything and be silent
silent and dazzling

I try to explain myself to the world
as thought there were lines between the sparks
as though the words could only graze
to what I reach and I can not understand

What good do these nice thoughts do
that are bogged down by all the others
because the heart of all thoughts is made out of lead
because everything they find is gone

New place

2007-08-25T21:49:00.000-04:00

So I finally managed to take some photos of my new place.
Here I am in my room. Notice the short(er) hair.

Here's another corner of the my room showing off my cool window.

And here is part of the living room and hallway:

The last closed book exam of my life

2007-08-22T23:52:00.000-04:00

So it's over. The written Q. I'm now a veteran of academic hazing. And as the procter said while collecting the exams, it may be the last closed book exam of my life. Though I do have at least two, if not four, semesters of class left to live thorough.
Actually the exam went ok. I won't now for sure until the results of course, but I don't feel so bad about it. That probably means I did worse than I thought.
Tomorrow classes start. It will also be my first day as a TA. Tomorrow I meet my class. I'm TAing an observational astronomy class for non-majors. It's a hands-on, lab-based course, which I'm pretty excited about. We'll see how it goes I guess.
Otherwise now that the Q-exam is over I have to get on all those things I've been putting off because of the exam. Such is life.
Sweet dreams everyone!

Night before

2007-08-20T23:28:00.000-04:00

Oh have things been busy lately.
Number 1 thing on my mind right now is the qualifying exam, or Q-exam for short. Tomorrow's finally the day. Three hours. No notes. Just me, the questions and my pencil. We now second-years have been studying all summer for this exam, and I am ready for it to be over.
But no worries! I haven't been studying myself into the ground. I've made time for other things. Last Thursday I donated 10 inches of my hair. Now it's about a foot shorter, which brings it to the middle of my back or so.
Saturday I made a trip to Corning, NY to the Museum of Glass. A very interesting museum. Also a beautiful day for a short drive.
The undergrads have returned to campus. Suddenly there are people all over the place. It's ridiculous. The semester really, really is just around the corner.
I'd best be getting to bed. The brain needs to be well rested for tomorrow.

Good night Gracie!

2007-08-19T23:48:00.000-04:00

Hmmm.... Tired.... Only one more day before Q exam.... So much left to study.... So little time...... Also need to practice... Not prepared enough for the audition on Wednesday..... Eh. Should sleep..... La la..... Dark office corner. Move or not?... Too much to do...... Didn't get that picture taken for Mom. Er. Too dark now....
This chapter in life is ending. Next one is about to open. I can feel it. I'm in a sentimental phase. School divides life into such clear cut divisions. It would be strange to live without those divisions.

Fantastic voyage

2007-08-13T17:35:00.000-04:00

This weekend I embarked on a fantastic voyage to the windy city. At 2 am on Saturday morning two physics grads and two astro grads piled into a Subaru Outback and headed west. Eleven hours later after braving thick fog, sweater-wearing reindeer and many cups of coffee later, we arrived in Chicago.
Now the whole motivation for this fantastic voyage was to surprise a former Cornell astronomer who recently started grad school at the University of Chicago. We had to be devious and cleaver to avoid spoiling the surprise. And in the end we were successful. She was quite shocked when the four of us walked around the corner in the pizza place. After eating way too much Chicago stuffed pizza and finishing off two bottles of wine, we headed to Millennium Park via Starbuck's. In Millennium Park we found a giant, metallic bean. It was pretty awesome. Especially in our half-delirious states brought on by wine and too little sleep.

Saturday involved a trip to the Shedd Aquarium. Always, always entertaining. Dinner was a massive meal at a Mediterranean place with the world's best hummus.
At around 10 pm we piled back in the car, and headed east.
A breakfast stop in the Corning historic district turned out to be both delicious and entertaining beyond all expectations thanks to a small-town diner run by an energetic woman named Donna. It helped that we were all exhausted and just about anything was funny. Even Lake Michigan.
Finally we returned to Ithaca and the end of the fantastic voyage. It was the vacation that I'd been needing for weeks. Now it's time to focus. The Q-exam is in one week and classes start in 10 days or so. Where or where has the summer gone?

Moving Day 2, 3 & 4

2007-08-10T23:03:00.000-04:00

Moving Day 2 - Hauled the heavy stuff. Only the mattress fit in the (ex) room mate's mini van. Need a new plan for the box spring. But desk and book shelf went up without a problem.
Two friends from the department checked the place out. It is apparently "dope". Which is a good thing I think. Otherwise the place has a working nickname...Gryffindor. Thanks to our yellow and magenta stained glass windows and crazy sloped ceilings.

Moving Day 3 - Lots of cleaning of old place. Cleaning is no fun. Tied box springs top of friend's car and some how managed to get it up the stairs.

Moving Day 4 - Finished cleaning. First pass on organization of room. Things are coming together. Now it's time to figure out how to take a shower and make coffee without hitting my head on the the "dope" ceilings. In about half an hour I'll be completely free of the old place. ::Sign of relief::

This weekend...crazy adventure. Stay tuned.

Moving: Day 1

2007-08-07T20:24:00.000-04:00

Today I picked up the keys to my new apartment and moved three car loads of stuff in. Morals of the day...
1) I have too much stuff. I am a pathologic pack rat. I blame it on genetics.
2) Moving into an apartment on anything other than the ground floor is a pain in the rear, legs, back, arms...
But the new place is awesome. Even better than I remember. The windows are great. (I have a thing for windows.) The ceiling is all slanty at fun and exciting angles, which right now gives it great character, but after I hit my head on it for the umpteenth time, it'll probably get old. It has a gas stove, and I'm allowed to hang stuff on the wall.
In other news one of the oldest grad students (Dauerdoctorant) gave his B-exam today. By oldest I mean he's been here for nine years. Yes, nine. One of my professional goals: not to be the new Dauerdoctorant. But in all seriousness he will be sorely missed when he leaves Ithaca.

Backlog

2007-07-31T13:46:00.000-04:00

As I'm a bit behind on posting, I'm going to do posts within a post.

Sunday, July 22
At the close...

Tonight I finished the final Harry Potter book. I will not comment on the end for those who are still reading but will simply say that the book is good. Right now I'm sad that the series is over. There will be no more new books to read. I know it's just a book, but these are also the only books I've ever bought the day they came out. Even going to the midnight releases three times. But at least she tied up the loose ends, so that I can think about the characters and be satisfied.

Wednesday, July 25

Post-softball game party on the lake. Living on a lake is a great thing. Late night swims in the lake are nice Running into a patch of seaweed in the dark not so nice.

Thursday, July 26

More Q-exam review.

Friday-Sunday

Great weekend. Had sandgria, got my house plants repotted, met my new roommate's family, had cocktails and wine, biked 25+ miles, began packing for the upcoming move.
The past couple weeks have got me addicted to biking. It helps that upstate NY is a beautiful place to bike. There's enough elevation for spectaular views of valleys and Cayuga of course, but also flat enough for corn fields. The corn's getting pretty tall around here.

Today

Going to be a hot week. One week from today I move into my new apartment. Looking forward to the new place.
Otherwise work has been driving me absolutely mad the past week or so. I'm stuck and everthing I try to do to figure out what I'm doing wrong brings me farther from results that makes sense. Good thing there's no window in my little lab, or something would go flying.

Harry Potter weekend

2007-07-21T16:32:00.001-04:00

Friday 11:00 pm - Arrive at Barnes & Noble. Become one of the excited people mulling around the store.
Friday 11:50 pm - While reading a book about the Harry Potter world I realize that "Sirius Black" means "Black Dog". Feel embarassed that as an astronomer I hadn't made that connection before. There's a reason I didn't become an English major.
Friday 11:59 pm - Count down to midnight...20, 19, 18....3, 2, 1. Something like New Years in July but with fewer kisses and no champaign.
Saturday 12:40 am - Became the 286th happy owner of Harry Potter 7 to walk out of the book store.
Saturday 4:36 pm - About 200 pages into it. 500 some-odd more to go. :-)

Round and round

2007-07-10T17:37:00.000-04:00

Here I sit waiting for my program to finish synthesizing. My designs are now getting large enough that it takes a good 20 minutes for it to complete. During which I manage to waste all sorts of time. Perhaps I should use these 30 minute breaks to study for my Q-exam that's coming up in August. Hmmmmmmm. It's too bad I don't have a window.
So life's been ok this past week. The 4th sucked. It rained all day long, and I couldn't find sparklers. As far as I'm concerned a 4th without sparklers is no 4th at all. Sparklers are key to my 4th. For one because that was one of the few things we could have in Iowa as far as fireworks went, so they were there every year as far back as I remember. This was reinforced while spending the 4th in Germany (twice) because it was the only connection to normal 4th of July traditions I could find there. (Though last year they came out after a rather depressing soccer game that shall not be named!) In addition to all this sappy, sentimental stuff, they're just cool. Wrigint my name in smoke or pretending to conduct Ode to Joy really never gets old. Not to say that I tried particularly hard to find them in NY, but in Iowa they're pretty much everywhere and didn't anticipate it being complicated.
This weekend on the other hand was much better. I met up with Marcy and Shane for a long weekend of camping in Allegany State Park. Allegany is out in western NY and NY's largest state park. Large it was and quite beautiful. We wore ourselves out exploring many of the nice hiking trails and staying up way to late waiting for the bread or stew to bake in the dutch oven. But really there's nothing better than spending hours staring at a campfire. The only downside to the whole weekend were the noisy neighboors at some of the other sites. One in particular got a kick out of loudly yelling Ohio (after seeing Marcy's licence plates) and making rapter noises. Thankfully we had the park almost to ourselves on Sunday night. Well us, the porcupine and one very brave racoon.

Waiting in SFO

2007-07-01T14:23:00.000-04:00

So by the time I get this posted I should be back home and out of airport purgatory. The day took a sudden change for the worse when I walked up to the US Airways ticket counter to an excruciatingly long line. After lots of confusion and switching lines, I end up passing the check-in time limit and getting an additional 9 hours in the San Fransisco airport. The whole experience is rather frustrating considering it all would've been avoided if I'd just jumped line to one of the open self-check in Kiosks. The moral of this trip. Don't be so damn nice. Cut in line if it means making your flight as long as it doesn't screw up someone else.
Anyho! Otherwise I'm still very pleased about how the workshop went. I now have two good ideas for projects that both interest me and result in me building (really designing and slogging through the FPGA programming) an instrument and collaborations with people all over. The perfect recipe for a PhD thesis. If nothing else I've made a lot of interesting people.
Just for fun here a few of the photos I took in Berkeley. Here's a photo of the bay from the roof of Berkeley's astronomy department. It's pretty hard to see through the haze, but you could actually make out the golden gate bridge.

This is a parking sign on campus. The "NL" stands for Nobel Lauriates. Apparently if you win a Nobel Prize, there's a parking spot on campus for you. Though not a single one was filled when I walked by. I don't know if that means once you get your prize you stop showing up to work. In any case I found it rather amusing.

Greetings from Berkeley

2007-06-28T01:19:00.001-04:00

Hi from sunny, cool Berkeley, CA.
I'm here for five days at a radio astronomy signal processing conference. The goal of this group is to develop reconfigurable, scalable, multi-purpose hardware for radio telescopes. The conference is relatively small, maybe 40 attendees, from observatories all over the world. I'm learning a lot and making some great connections. Importantly for me, I may have a lead on a project. Now I need to take it back home and see what my adviser says.
I haven't seen much of Berkeley, but it seems like a nice place. The weather is pretty much sunny and 65 degrees all year round, which right now actually makes it a little chilly for me. It's a pretty town. Really green and all. Today we went up to the top of a large building where we could see the Bay and the Golden Gate bridge.
Tomorrow's the last day of the conference, and then I head back East. But for now it's time to head back to the hotel and think about something other than FFT's, latency and block RAM.

Thoughts on airports

2007-06-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

Airports are curious places existing simultaneously in static and dynamic states. The same numbered counters greet passengers day to day. The same generic chairs stay forever fixed as travelers sit, pass by and leave. Time has a curiously static quality as well. Some how unconnected with the real world, time only has meaning as numbers slowly increasing to the particular set that allows you to finally come out of stasis and join the flow of people whose trajectories happen to cross at this particular moment.
But within this static world is highly dynamic core. Human particles comprise an anthropomorphic fluid that flows to and from, left and right, and ultimately, up and down.
This superposition of complimentary states conspire to create excellent people watching. Here musing over my fellow traveling particles bounce around with the randomness of my mind.

The family that was playing cards in the food court.

(Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...)

A guy picking his teeth with a $10 bill.

(Wish my laptop battery lasted longer.)

Little girl in a cute gypsy costume.

(Will Leah really stay with Dee? Who are the last five?)

Guy in blue cap with an iPod. :-)

(Workshop begins tomorrow. Am I over my head?)

Time to board.

Trip to DC

2007-06-19T15:18:00.000-04:00

So I took a long weekend and drove down to visit Andy in DC.
After work on Thursday I grabbed an iced tea and sub, jumped in the car and headed south. It was a beautiful sunny, summer, which in my opinion are the best days for long car trips. I think Pennsylvania has become one of my favorite states to drive through because it's just hilly and curvy enough to make it interesting but not so hilly and curvy that I get motion sick as I speed along with traffic. Maryland on the other hand is not my favorite state to drive in. The drivers are rude, and I seem to miss a lot of turnoffs in what not.
Friday Andy had to work, so I was on my own until he got off work. I began at the National Museum of American Indians, which is a new museum on the Mall. First off the building is beautiful:

The museum is divided into three permanent galleries and one for traveling exhibits. For the permanent galleries the museum curators worked directly with several tribes to create the displays. That means the information came from the tribe directly and not through some anthropologist. This was particularly successful in the section on tribal religions and world view.
Next I went to the Air and Space museum. Some how I just wouldn't feel right about spending four days in DC without seeing the A&S museum. The hightlights for me here were seeing objects from the Apollo missions and looking at things which have been to the moon and back. The other thing which blew me away was seeing a model of the Hubble Space telescope. The thing is huge:

Maybe I'm just not used to large optical telescopes, but the thing is as tall as the huge gallery. There was also a gallery set up with items from the American History museum, which is currently closed for renovation. There were some pretty amazing items displayed such as the hat Lincoln wore when he was shot, one of Einstein's pipes and Louis Armstrong's cornet. Craziness.
After seeing most of the air and space stuff, I met up with Andy for dinner at a sushi place.
In the evening we took a long walking tour of the monuments and memorials on the mall. We started at the Washington monument and then went to the World War II memorial, Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln, Korean War, FDR and finally Jefferson. It was a lot of walking, and a lot of tourists.
Saturday began by visiting the National Cathedral. The cathedral is an interesting mix of religion and national pride. The cathedral's patriotic components are both tasteful and respectful and is largely represented in the beautiful stained glass windows. One window commemorates Lewis and Clark and the natural beauty of the country:

In this window you can see pine trees, mountains, lakes, fish and tepees. Several other windows commemorate prominent people in US history as well as veterans of several wars. The most famous window, and my favorite, is the so called "space window" which honors the Apollo 11 mission and apparently even contains a moon rock.
Here's a photo taken from the rear of the cathedral looking toward the front:

After exploring the cathedral we went to the National Zoo. We were lucky to see see the newest panda bear out wondering and eating:

After a brief visit at the zoo it was time to head to dinner, which ended up being something of a public transportation adventure. But in the end there was tasty beer, so we were satsified.
Sunday was another museum day. We decided to go to the Natural History Museum, which was swamped because of Father's Day. The place is of course huge and something of a sensory overload after a couple hours. But I did learn some interesting things and saw some really big gemstones and meteorites.
After dinner we took a short stroll around the White House. Considering what my favorite non-sci fi show is, I couldn't go to DC without seeing the White House up close. Or at least as close as one can with the huge fence around.

And just for fun, a photo of the capital looking down Pennsylvania Ave:

Time flies when you're having fun

2007-06-13T12:15:00.000-04:00

So it's hard to believe that I'm already into week four of summer. But as they say, time flies when you're having fun. I think one side affect of living somewhere with a cold, gray, depressing winter is the summer feels just that much better.
So I've been keeping myself pretty busy. Work's been basically a continuation of what I was doing in Germany. I spent the better part of half a week fighting with Linux while trying to get everything set up. Now I'm happily programming my little FPGA with some success.
The highlight of the non-working activities was a camping trip to the Adirondack's last weekend with three of my fellow astro grads. Saturday night we camped at Forked Lake on our own island. That's right. We had our very own island, which we traveled to by canoe. I was very excited. Here's a photo of the lake:

On Sunday morning we climbed straight up (as in now switchbacks) to the top of Blue Mountain. It was only a 2 mile hike, and the view from the top was amazing:

The excitement continues. Tomorrow I head to Washington DC for a long weekend to visit Andy. The last weekend in June I'm going to a workshop in Berkeley, which I'm really excited about.
That's all for now.
Cheers!

Las Vegas

2007-05-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

In recognition of my sister's 21st birthday, my family (minus the youngest sister and pets of course) took a trip to Las Vegas, the city of sin. Here is my story.

Day 1 - Evening flight out of Syracuse. Met a bunch of young people heading to Marine boot camp. (Good luck to them!) Couple hours in Newark. Then 5 hours across the country. Boy do we have a big country. Landed in Vegas at 11:30 pm, taxied to the MGM Grand (the largest and perhaps grandest hotel in the world! or so they'd like you to think.) Found the parents and crashed.

Day 2 - Hit the middle part of "The Strip". Caesar's Place, The Venetian and The Mirage. All fancy and fake. But there's still something about these places. In the afternoon my sister and I hit the pool. Now that hit the spot. I hadn't been swimming in a good two years, and just playing around in the cool water under the warm sun was great. In the evening we went to downtown Las Vegas, which is where it all started. The casinos were smaller and somewhat seedy, but hey, they also sold us 99 cent Margaritas, so who can complain. The best part of downtown was the huge LED screen that covered the entire pedestrian area. Every 15 minutes a movie was shown on the screen. It really make the geek in me happy. Here's a photo:

Day 3 - Today was poker tournament day for the guys and shopping for us gals. Sadly it seems like there are fewer stores in the hotels than the last time we were in Vegas. In the afternoon I went to the river pool, which is a long, winding pool with a mild current that you float down. This is a truly brilliant idea. For one thing you get to see new things and pass under water falls, jets and palm trees. I'd alternate a float with a little reading. Ahhhh. In the evening we walked along The Strip, which is really the best time to do it. For one it's not so freaking hot, and secondly, and more importantly, the lights. The goal of this little meander was to watch the fountains of Bellagio. They are by far the best free thing in this town and probably beat out many of the not-so-free things. Every 15 minutes water fountains rise out of the pond in front of the hotel and shoot out water which is choreographed to music. Absolutely amazing. It appeals both to the physicist and musician in me.

Day 3 - Everyone else has a flight out at 8 am, and my flight doesn't leave until 11 pm, so I decided to take a little trip to Red Rock Canyon. Red Rock is a about 20 miles west of Las Vegas and absolutely beautiful! There's a 13 mile driving loop with several places to pull off with trail heads. There are almost 20 trails throughout the region of various difficulties, lengths and things to see.
First off, Red Rock Canyon is well named:

This is Calico Hills. They are petrified sand dunes from a time when Red Rock Canyon was a huge, Sahara-like desert. They're red because of the iron oxide in the rocks. Basically the rocks rusted.

This is the mountain range the forms the western border of the area.

More red rock:

View from the Keystone Thrust trail. Somewhere in this picture is the Keystone Thrust Fault, which slide above younger rock to produce inverted strata. Where exactly this is, I'm not sure.

Petroglyphs from the Anasazi or Paiute Indians. I have no doubt that I spelled those wrong. They're in the lower center of the image. (Sorry...photo's on its side.)

One last picture after 8 hours of hiking/driving:

I then headed to the airport sweaty and dirty for my red-eye out of town. Tried to sleep on the plane with little success. Finally got back to Ithaca completely exhausted but happy.

T + 5 minutes

2007-05-17T16:51:00.000-04:00

I AM DONE, FINSIHED, FERTIG, FINE....

Wahooo!

T - 48 hours

2007-05-15T15:21:00.000-04:00

In 48 hours (give or take) I'm done for the semester. I've got two papers written and 7/8ths of my final problem set finished. The last problem may or may not get done. All that's left is studying for my final on Thursday, which will require all the will-power that I can muster. I can feel that I've crested the hill of work and am beginning the coast down to the bottom.
In seven days I'll be in Vegas. The high temp's are supposed to be in the upper 90's. That will be quite the shock to my system, but I think I can deal.
Ok. Time for the afternoon caffeine.

11 days and counting

2007-05-07T16:46:00.000-04:00

Hi all!
So eleven days before I am done for the semester, and I have to admit, this is the first time in my academic career that I've reached this stage in the semester without constantly saying to myself, "I can't wait until the semester's over!". (Germany not included.) This semester has been actually fairly enjoyable. For the past week or so I've been focusing on final projects (which I started early!) and have really enjoyed digging into a subject and becoming a mini-expert on it. This bodes well for when I actually start doing research. (Don't ask about the summer situation. That's still up in the air.) On the other hand actually sitting down and writing the paper is somewhat mind-numbing, and I can already see that the actual writing of the thesis may not be much fun. But that's still a LONG way off.
Otherwise classes ended last Friday in a bang with the famous "Slope Day" event. Basically the long-standing tradition of students spending the last day of spring semester hanging out on "The Slope" (a large hill just down from the 'Art's Quad' on campus) and drinking has morphed into a Cornell-sponsored party/concert on the slope that's regulated so things don't get out of hand. There's a stage with bands that play in the afternoon, and a beer tent where you have to show your ID about 12 times to get your hand on cheep, crappy beer. We were fortunate this year to have *perfect*, and I mean PERFECT, weather. It made an afternoon of sitting outside listening to good(?) music an ideal end to the semester. Here's a photo of the masses:

Hope everything's going well with you all! Cheers!

Ok, ok. I'll do it too.

2007-04-26T16:53:00.000-04:00

[MEME]If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.[/MEME]

A manic week

2007-04-22T15:37:00.000-04:00

So it's been a rather crazy week here in Ithaca.
Let's begin on Monday. As I walked to the bus stop in the morning I had to walk through about 2 inches (5 cm) of snow. I think to myself..."Funny. And I thought it was April". Actually what went through my head was "Ach du Scheisse!! I hate Ithaca." (By the way, German is a fantastic language to curse in. It's so very satisfying.)
As the day progressed the snow continued. As the temperature was just at freezing, the snow was rather wet and stuck to everything. That had the upside of making the trees pretty but the downside of making all the sidewalks slushy. By the end of the evening campus had about 9 inches or so (25 cm). Though there was enough of a temperature difference between campus (up on the hill) and downtown that at lake-level there was no snow. Just rain. And places higher up got even more than Cornell did. So weird living in a place with elevation.
Now fast forward to Friday. Sunny with temps approaching 70 (21 C). This weekend has been amazing. Clear blue skies, temps in the mid-70s (24 C). All that's left of the snow are the ever shrinking piles created by plowing of large parking lots.
So all in all it's been a great weekend. The sandals came out yesterday making it one of the best 10 days of the year. Last night I met up with some other astro ladies for a bit of shopping and fantastic BBQ. Tonight I should get my first grilled (Foreman, not fire) brat of the year. And by the end of the afternoon my first sunburn. Ah the little things in life.
As far as the rest of life goes, I've got nothing new. Still no summer plans. Two weeks of classes and A LOT of work to get done in the next four weeks.
Oh! And tomorrow's Moogie's birthday. Happy Birthday! Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag! Boldog Szuletesnapot Kivanok! (Hungarian) Janamdin mubarak ho! (Hindi)

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T16:04:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter everyone!
Just a few half-way interesting things to report.
Thursday my little spectrometer arrived from Bonn. This spectrometer is what my work there was leading up to when I ran out of time. I hope to continue to play around with it and connect it to the radio telescope on the roof of SSB just for fun. We're not going to any ground breaking research with it, but I just want the experience of hooking it up to something.
Friday evening I went to the Fuertes Observatory on campus, which is run by the astronomy club, for a very interesting lecture on the Jantar Mantar, giant sun-dial observatories in India. Here's a website about them:

www.jantarmantar.org

Last night I finally saw "The Lives of Others" ("Das Leben der Anderen"). It's a movie out of Germany about the East German secret police spying on its citizens. It's good and even won the foreign film Oscar this year. It's not a happy, uplifting film, but it's a German movie, what do you expect? (Just joking!)
Otherwise after several days of beautiful weather, winter decided to return for one last roar. (Or at least I hope.) We've been below freezing most of the time with flurries on and off. Ah Ithaca. 10 square km surrounded by reality eh? (A popular bumper sticker around here. Just behind "Ithaca is Gorges", "Ithaca is Cold", and "Ithaca is not George's". The other day I even say one the read "Ithaca is bumper stickers". Had to laugh.) I'm not convinced.
Anyho! That's all for now.

Random thoughts on a Friday evening

2007-03-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! Are you all as tired as I am? It was a rather long week. Not having done any work over spring break meant that there was an over load of work to do this week, sadly with no end in sight. So here are some random things from my overworked and tired brain.
If you like sci-fi and haven't seen Battlestar Galactica, you should. It's really quite good. It's a very plot-centered show, meaning if you really want to start watching, you have to start from the beginning. But the show also has some great characters and now and again even has a point.
If you like cute things, you need to check out Knut, a baby ice bear that was born in the Berlin zoo a couple months ago. Here's a link to a website for a German news channel that covers a lot about the bear. It's in German, but you non-German speakers can still look at the pictures.

www.rbb-online.de/knut

On CNN today there's an article about catholics expressing outrage over a display of Jesus made out of chocolate. The article said the statue was life-sized and "anatomically correct", which is one of those lovely double-speak words for "his penis is showing". So this baffles me. Are they mad because it's made out of chocolate? I mean modern art does do some pretty weird things, so I can't say I'm particularly surprised or really even impressed. Or are they made because his dick is showing? And if so...why? Jesus was a man right? And men have dicks. So using basic logic, it goes without saying that Jesus had one too. Why they're outraged that an artist might show it, I just don't get. I know that there are several catholics who read my blog. Could one of you explain this to me?
Ok. I went on a little too long on that.
Speaking of articles and perhaps even tangentially the quality of articles. Here's an article that one of my fellow 1st years pointed out to me. It's about science in the news and really how it's not in the news at all.

http://www.thestar.com/article/190998

So I guess that's all that I have for now.
Have a good weekend all!

New York, New York

2007-03-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

Over spring break Marcy and I decided to travel to NYC. Neither us had been there and given that I've been living in New York for 5 months now, I figured it was about time to go see "The City". Just to warn you, this is a bit long.
The adventure began not-so-bright and early on Monday morning. We jumped on the 7:20 bus out of Ithaca full of sleepy college students. For four hours we napped and watched rural New York pass us by. Eventually we enter a long, dark tunnel, and after a couple of minutes, pop out into the middle of Manhattan just like that.
Upon arriving at the Port Authority bus terminal, we make a beeline to the subway and head of up north to our hostel. We find it without issue. It's a small building. Not particularly attractive and certainly doesn't compare to hostels in Europe. But it will certainly do fine for a couple days.
Our hostel was a couple blocks from Central Park, so we decided to stroll a bit and eat our lunch. We decided to cut down on food costs by bringing rolls, PB&J and fruit with us. It turned out to be an excellent idea both because of costs and convenience.
Anyho! Our main goal for the afternoon was getting in line for tickets to a filming of The Daily Show. We arrived at the studio two hours before they opened the doors and ended up being the 156th and 157th person in line. I have no idea how long people 1 and 2 had been there. We passed the time working on Monday's crossword puzzle and actually reading the paper. Eventually we were give our tickets and let in the door and under a sign that read "Abandon all news, ye who enter here". We then had to go through what would not be our last trip through a security check point and metal detector but what would be the most thorough. I suppose New Yorkers have good reason to be paranoid, but I do feel that the bad guys have won just a little because of it. Anyho! I digress.
So the first thing that struck us about The Daily Show studio was how small it is. Somehow things always look bigger on TV. The stage part of studio was maybe 20 feet wide and about as deep, his desk is maybe only 4 feet wide and there are about 250 seats in the audience. After a brief wait and pep talk Jon Stewart himself came out and answered our questions for about 5 minutes in true stand-up-comedian style. I wonder if he does this to get himself ready for the actual taping or if his background is stand-up or what. But in any case it was hilarious, and he ended up using it in the taping. Those of you who watched on Monday night may remember references to students participating in the model UN. He learned that while talking with us and decided to use it in the opening of the show.
Part of my reason for wanting to go to a taping was to see the behind-the-scenes stuff. It turns out that he pretty much runs through the show in real-time. No retakes and I think they even alloted time for commercials. We all watched the "investigative report" just like we would have on TV, and it seemed like Jon Stewart was watching it, at least in its final form, for the first time with us. At some point he even started jumping up in down in his seat because he was so excited.
All in all it was a really great experience and well worth the two-hour wait.
After the taping we headed over to Time's Square. It had some of the flashiness of Vegas but concentrated on advertising. It was quite the shock to the senses. For dinner we jumped into a random pizza joint and for dinner sat in one of the four Starbuck's and people watched. So ended Day 1.
Tuesday turned out to be the marathon day. In the morning we swung by St. John's Cathedral, which is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. I was certainly not expecting to find a gothic-style (obviously not as old as true gothic cathedrals) church on par with those in Europe. Sadly it's not finished and most of the central nave was under construction and totally hidden from us. But we were able to go around the choir and see the little chapels. In recognition of NYC as the entry for most European immigrants to the US, each chapel was named after a saint from a different European country.
Next on the list was the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. By 10 am it was already too late to receive a time card to go into the statue, but we were able to go to the island and walk around her. Here's a photo from the ferry of lady liberty and Manhattan skyline.

As exciting as it was to see the statue of liberty, I was far more interested to go to Ellis Island, which is the second stop on the ferry. Ellis Island is one of those things that's interested me since high school, and I was not at all disappointed by the museum. The museum itself is actually the original main building of the immigration service, which was converted into a museum a couple decades ago after Ellis Island itself closed. Here's a photo of the Registry room.

Upon arrival in Ellis Island, immigrants ascended the stairs from the baggage room and entered this room. Here they underwent the quick medical exam during which received the chalk mark on their coats designating any medical conditions for further check-out and were registered in the big book. Legend says that names were "anglicized" if they were too complicated, but according to the official history, this is not true.
After a full afternoon walking around the museum we returned to mainland and walked over to the ground zero site. It's current state is construction zone. If you didn't know better, you wouldn't know that two huge skyscrapers had once stood there. (Except for maybe all of the fire system hookups and sewage pipe in the wall of the foundation.) Standing there it struck me how small the space really was considering the ramifications of what happened there.
After the WTC site we went to Grand Central station and grabbed tea at Starbuck's. Then we got lost twice (the only time we got lost in fact) trying to find Rockefellar Center. After a few minutes of watching the ice skaters, we finally learned the location of "curry row", a block of really good indian restaurants. It was definitely the most amazing indian food I've ever had. After a long day of walking it really hit the spot, and I was rather giddy. (I think the mango lassie cocktail also contributed to this state of mind.)
Finally we swung by Times Square again, this time armed with cameras. Times Square is hard to photograph, but here's my best effort:

End Day 1. Begin Day 2.
Day 2 is a little easier. Namely we spent 7 hours walking around the Metropolitan Museum of Art and by no means saw the entire thing. It was everything from mummies and sarcophagi to Picasso to medieval armor to Tiffany glass and a reconstructed room from a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
After ingesting enough fine culture for an entire working day, we took a stroll past the UN building. Not much to see but at least I can say that I saw it. Dinner was at the South Side seaport. More than anything my feet were happy for the rest. Full, happy and tired we headed back to the hostel for our last night.
Thursday was another early morning, but we were on the bus by 8 am and back in Ithaca by 1 pm. So ended our adventure in NYC. Quite successful if you ask me.
The rest of the week was spent sleeping, being generally lazy and trying to get myself to get myself back in the work mode.

Almost spring

2007-03-14T11:12:00.000-04:00

Happy Wednesday!
I always find it hard to decided how to start an entry. Any other blog-writers out there have that problem?
Anyho! So it's been about a month now since our big snow storm, and winter's been stubborn in leaving. But today is one of those days that makes you realize spring will eventually arrive. Warm and rainy.
Things have been busy around here. Lots of homework. I just now took a midterm. It was long and didn't go particularly well, but that was the sentiment of the whole class.
I've also been trying to figure out what I'm going to be doing this summer for research. My goal is radio astronomy instrumentation and there are several people here who are really enthusiastic about me doing that, but no one has active projects so it's a little unclear what kind of project will eventually materialize. Right now I'm still confident that something will work out and haven't started panicing yet.
More importantly next week is Spring Break! Instead of joining the mass exodus of students to the south (Arizona, Florida, etc.), I'm taking a trip to sunny NYC. Marcy and I will be there for a couple days doing to touristy thing. Statue of Liberty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Times Square, etc. I'm really excited.
I guess that's all the news from my corner of the world.
Bis später!

White Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T11:49:00.000-05:00

Hi all!
So from Tuesday night to Wednesday night Ithaca received 19-20 inches of snow. Here are some photos:

Here's the view looking out from my apartment. This is at around 3 pm, and it continued to snow for another 6 hours after this photo was taken. My poor car is on the far right.

Here's a view out my bedroom window look towards the hotel.

This is what my car looked like Thursday evening when I went to dig it out. What you can't see is the foot and a half of snow between the drivers-side of my car and the car next to me. It was a sore reminder of what I hate most about winter.

Zu meinen deutchen Freunde...Schöne Weiberfastnacht!

Snow Day!

2007-02-08T18:24:00.000-05:00

Hi all!
So not much is getting accomplished here thanks to the SNOW DAY! It's my first snow day in 5 years, so I'm excited. Over night we received about a foot of snow, and it's supposed to keep falling until later tonight.
Otherwise things are going well. Classes are interesting. So my favorite class is probably "Physics of Black Holes, Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs". Hard to imagine why I might like that one. I'm also taking a class on optical, infrared and submilimeter instrumentation. My third class is a planetary science class on planetary surface processes. I'm somewhat out of place in this one as I'm not a planetary scientist, but I find it really interesting. My justification is that it will make me more well rounded, but really I just think it's cool. In addition to my classes (as though that wasn't enough work), I hope to get back to work on the spectrometer I worked on while in Bonn. And I'm playing in the orchestra again. So I'm just a little bit busy.

Let's see...non-academic highlights from the semester. Several weeks ago I saw the movie "Children of Men". Very, very good. Not an easy film to watch, you may need to watch a Disney movie afterward, but excellent. Last weekend I volunteered at a Space Day event at a aeronautics museum, and really enjoyed it. It's nice to get out to events like this and remind myself why it is that I do astronomy in the first place.
Ok...this list is too short. I clearly am working too much.

Here's something I discovered while working on a project for my surfaces class.
Google Mars: www.google.com/mars

I guess that's all for now.

Last night of freedom

2007-01-21T19:16:00.000-05:00

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig
So I've made it back to Ithaca and have myself more or less settled back in. But allow me to back up a week or so.
My last couple days in Des Moines were spent in last minute visits with friends. Shame on me for not contacting people sooner. In particular I had a wonderful long visit with Tony. He introduced me to a great irish pub in downtown that actually has Strongbow on tap. I just wish that I'd known about it sooner.
Saturday morning, in the sleet and cold, Andy and I headed east. Fortunately the temperature rose the farther we drove, and the sleet turned to rain. After one last dose of familiarity (lunch in Iowa City), we continued through eastern Iowa and into the entirely unremarkable state that is central Illinois. But then a miracle occured...

yes...it's true. We found gas under two dollars a gallon.
Eventually we escaped Illinois and entered Indiana. Now the only thing Indiana has going for it that Illinois doesn't, is that it's narrow and takes almost no time to cross it. Oh and the amateur race car drivers in Indianapolis.
Finally at 11 pm we arrive in Columbus. Ya!
Sunday we explored Columbus. Marcy introduced us to her lab at a big group lunch. Afterwards we went to the Franklin Park Conservatory. Here are some familiar faces under some orchids.

After eating a huge breakfast (ok, more like lunch) it was time for us to continue up north. The trip was dark and rainy and not even remotely exciting.
The last week has been spent unpacking and spending altogether too much money. Sleeping, reading, watching DVD's. For those of you keeping track of such things, I finally found shoes.

It's hard to believe that this is my last night of freedom. On one hand I'm looking forward to classes starting, so that I'm not quite so bored, but on the other hand, I know this will be my last chance to be bored for four months. Tis the way of things and what I get paid for.
Rereading this I realize how cynical I'm being. I have not lost touch with the fact that I am being supported to do nothing other than learn cool stuff, and we all know that I do enjoy, ever so slightly, working myself to the bone.
And on that note, I'm off!

New Year's Greetings

2007-01-09T18:55:00.000-05:00

Guten Abend meine Damen und Herren! How is everyone this evening? Good? Good.
Things here in Des Moines are good. Been keeping myself busy with sleeping, reading, watching movies, watching football, playing with the pets, some traveling.
I've been working my way through the Dune series over break. I highly recommend it if you like sci-fi. The first book is "Dune" by Frank Herbert. The next two are "Dune Messiah" and "Children of Dune".
The highlights among the movies have been "Cars", one of the new animated films from Pixar, and "V for Vendetta". Both of these have been out for a while, but I'm kind of behind as far as movies go. "Cars" is cute. It's no "Finding Nemo", but if you laugh when someone says "Git er Done!" or are a fan of auto racing, then you will like this movie. All I have to say is tractor tipping. "V for Vendetta" is a bit more serious, ok, a lot more serious, but if you're in the mood to think then I recommend it. I'm a huge fan of the end. Not only from the point of view of the plot but also the cinematography.
Last night the college football season ended in an upset. All in all most of the bowl games did not go in my favor. First off there was (unranked) Iowa's two point loss to Texas (18). Given Iowa's piss-pour record this year, I'm proud and not really all that disappointed by the game. Their hard work during the downtime payed off. They played really well and surprised most of the talking heads who were expecting a slaughter. Now a team which could have probably used their downtime between the regular season and bowl game better, was Ohio State. Given how unstoppable they were all season, to be walked all over by Florida (Florida! Arg!) is just embarrassing. I mean they couldn't stop Florida's offense at all. I've never seen a team, especially in the championship game, throw so many consecutive 1st downs. Oh! And don't forget Michigan and USC! The later being one of my least favorite teams (second only to Italy's national soccer team ::shaking fist::). The excuse (reason, whatever) that always comes up is the fact that the Big10 schools' seasons tend to end sooner because up here in the North it gets cold, where as those schools in the south can play more games because they don't know what snow is. Furthermore, the bowl games are usually in the south where it's warm and sunny and by the time the end of December, our northerly teams are acclimated to temps at or below freezing. Clearly we can't do much about the temperature difference. (Although with this warm-winter trend that may change. Global warming? What global warming?) But maybe something should be done about evening out the number of games each conference plays. Or maybe the northernly conferences should strive to play more games. Perhaps another argument for playoffs. I don't know. In the end it's just football, but just now and again I'd like the Midwest to not be humiliated by California and Florida. Ok. End rant.
Let's see. Last weekend Andy and I headed over to Iowa City for a couple days. I really love Iowa City. Even with most of the students gone, Iowa City has a vibrancy that I haven't felt in Ithaca. (Though when it comes to natural beauty, Ithaca blows Iowa City away.) Don't forget the coffee shops! How Ithaca has no classic, college-town coffee shop I really don't understand. Where are all these aspiring world leaders supposed to meet to discuss life, the universe, and everything while playing scrabble and drinking organic, fair-trade coffee? I mean really. Anyho!
Saturday night we went to a Wylde Nept concert (Shlego!). It was fantastic to see them play again after two years or so. The next day and a half was spent seeing people, places, and trying to eat at as many of our favorite restaurants as possible. Sadly I didn't get to see everyone as much as I would have liked and didn't make it all of my favorite places.
Now I'm back in Des Moines for a couple days before heading back to New York via a short stop in Columbus, OH. I have several more people to see, things to pack and what not. And then in a little less than two weeks, classes start up again. Aaaah! Es kann aber nicht wahr sein!
Mach's gut!

My Christmas Adventure

2006-12-25T12:23:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!
Frohe Weihnachten!

8:45 - Woken up by mom (Yes "woken" is an English word)
9:00 - Begin opening presents. (My loot: books, coffee maker, compass)
10:15 - Get relish tray ready
11:20 - My aunt A and uncle T go to the neighbors house rather than ours. Ok...so the houses do look similar, but we've also lived here for almost 15 years now. This is the same uncle who's cooking the turkey in a huge vat of hot oil. This could be an interesting day.
11:34 - Turkey goes into to cooker.
12:30 - Rest of relatives arrive.
13:24 - Remembrance of grandparents/parents/siblings/uncles no longer with us
13:30 - Time to eat! (Mahlzeit!)
14:10 - Everyone stuffed. Two bottles of wine gone.
14:15 - Play with little second cousins.
15:53 - More presents
16:12 - Dessert
16:30 - More playing with little second cousins.
17:15 - Everyone leaves.
17:47 - Visit Aunt and Cousin that weren't able to come.
19:05 - Watch movie. ("Cars", very cute)
Now - Very sleepy.

Here's a photo of my sisters and I in our new t-shirts:

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

In Iowa

2006-12-22T22:34:00.000-05:00

Guten Abend meine Damen und Herren.
So I'm back in Iowa. Made it back into Des Moines last night.
We had an eventful trip across New York and the Midwest. It was either dark or foggy the whole way.
Just checked my grades. I got the lowest GPA that I've ever had in my life. Grad school's hard. It's becoming a humbling experience. I think I may have to realize that cliche phrase "work better not harder". The trick is now to figure out how to work better instead of just harder.
That's all I got tonight.

Finally done

2006-12-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

Hallo all!
So I've now survived my first semester of grad school, celebrated, and recovered from the celebration.
Thursday night I took what was by far the hardest exam of my life and did by far the worst that I've ever done on an exam in my life. But I still managed to pass the class and am now officially done with Jackson.
Friday was the celebratory potluck and partying. It was a good time. And let's just say I'm glad it's now Sunday.
Now I'm just enjoying the abundance of free time and unbelievably warm weather. (It's in the mid-50's today. 57 in the middle of December?! So what's everyone's beef with global warming? (Just joking) )
Next Wednesday I'm leaving for Iowa and if all goes well, will be arriving in Des Moines late on Thursday. Everybody think thoughts of good weather on Wednesday and Thursday, so I don't get stranded somewhere on the Indiana turnpike.
Safe travels everyone!

Getting closer!

2006-12-04T16:45:00.000-05:00

Today I turned in my last Jackson homework and had my last class.
The semester really, really is almost over! Yaaaaaaaaaaahh!

Rest of my exciting Thanksgiving Adventure

2006-11-27T17:42:00.000-05:00

Hello World! (I've spent way too much time programming.)
Went back to the grind today after a lovely long weekend in Columbus. The adventure didn't stop with cooking and eating.
The highlight of Friday was going to the Columbus science museum. Like Des Moines, they also recently moved into a new building. (The parallels with Des Moines don't stop there. Columbus seems to be a scaled-up version of Des Moines in many ways.) I'm such a geek, but I feel like a kid in a candy store when I go to science museums. We watched a movie on the Extreme Screen! about the history of the cowboy culture. Apparently it all goes back to Morocco, went to Spain, was brought to the "New World" by the Spanish and evolved in several different ways throughout South America. The American version actually has its roots in Mexico. That job certainly makes my sit-in-front-of-a -computer-all-day research job pretty dull.
Saturday Marcy showed me a really neat park in Columbus. A great way to enjoy the amazing weather we had over the weekend. Afterwards I experienced my first tea shop. Something like a coffee shop (not the Amsterdam kind) but with tea. I was able to have my first bubble tea. Basically it's sweetened tea with big tapioca balls in the bottom. Different but neat. Afterwards we grabbed dinner and then rented a movie. We saw "What the Bleep Do We Know". It's a documentary that tries to tie psychology, noetics, and quantum physics. It had some wild claims but makes you think. Worth watching if you're into that sort of thing.
Now I find myself at the beginning of "Hell Week", the last week of class before finals. On one hand there's a lot to do, but on the other there exists a light at the end of the tunnel!
Have a good week all!

Marcy and Laura's Excellent Thanksgiving Adventure

2006-11-23T00:23:00.000-05:00

As this is the first Thanksgiving that both Marcy and I have ever prepared on our own (my apple pie in Germany last year not withstanding), we decided to document this learning experience for future grad students.

(Times given are in Eastern Standard Time and are approximate.)
10:30 pm (night before) - Finish grocery shopping. (Go late to avoid crowds.) Check.
12:15 am - Check to see that we have enough pans. We do. Check.
10:44 am - Begin cooking

Menu:
Green Bean Casserole
Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes
Dressing
Creamed cornbread
Sweet potatoes
Wheat rolls
Jello
Pumpkin pie
(No turkeys were harmed in the making of this meal.)

Watch Macy's parade.

11:17 am - Melt butter before adding it to corn bread mix
11:33 am - Forgot sour cream in corn bread. Note: Remember all ingredients
11:42 am - Forgot pepper in green bean casserole. See above note.
12:05 am - Corn bread, green bean cassorle (hereafter called GBC), sour cream mashed potatoes ready to go in oven.

1:00 pm - GBC and sour cream potatoes go into oven
1:15 pm - First bottle of wine is opened. It is a German Riesling from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region. Very tasty.
1:20 pm - Clean up a bit.
1:22 pm - Everything else goes into oven.

2:00 pm - Dig in!

2:44 pm - Put leftover away, pour rest of wine
3:05 pm - Start movie
5:26 pm - Eat pumpkin pie
Rest of evening - lie around and be lazy.

http://www.bluemountain.com/view.pd?i=153000353&m=9689&rr=z&source=bma999

We wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving. :-)

Still alive

2006-11-18T15:17:00.000-05:00

Greetings all you faithful readers of my way exciting blog! (Ha ha right?) I know it's been a while, but what can I say, as a budding astronomer I'm a very busy person. (Are you all laughing yet?)
Honestly my lack of posts is more directly correlated with the fact that my life is pretty uneventful.
So what have an been up too? Let's see. Last Wednesday the Moscow State Symphony played a concert at Cornell. Last Saturday I saw the movie "Borat". It had its amusing moments, but not something I need to see a second time. I'm more amused by all of the legal trouble the actor's getting himself into. Yesterday we had a exhibit of photography from people who work in Space Sciences. I displayed some of my photos from Germany and Rome, but they were pretty amateur compared to what other people in the department do. It was pretty impressive.
I'm really excited about Thanksgiving break and really, really excited about going back to Iowa over winter break. I've decided not to fly to Germany over break, so I have more time in the Midwest. I'll miss not seeing my Germany people, but I've actually seen more of them in the last year and a half than most of my Iowa people. Plus January isn't the nicest time of year to go to Germany.
So the "game of the century", as my Michigan-alum friends like to call it, starts momentarely. It is certainly the game of the season, maybe the game of the last couple seasons, whatever that means. Michigan vs. Ohio State. Oh right. Iowa lost again today. Don't really know what happened this season. My roommate assured me this morning that next season will be Iowa's.
Ok. I guess that's all I have.
Time to try and get some something done.

What a day!

2006-11-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

What a day! The Dem's have control of the House and Senate. Rumsfeld is gone! (Who killed the wicked witch, the wicked witch...) And at 22:30 I am done with my Jackson homework. Ya me.
Otherwise I've been good. Busy. But good.
It looks like I'll be going to Columbus to spend Thanksgiving with Marcy. I'm really looking forward to going back to Iowa over winter break. And I may just make a little side trip to Germany on my way back to New York.
More later. Time to go catch the bus.
Good night!

Random stuff

2006-10-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday-before-Halloween,
How are you all? I'm ok. A bit worn-out but otherwise ok.
It's kind of sad when I think back to what I've done since the last time I posted, and all I can think of is work.
Last night we had a first-year grad potluck. Since there's not one class that all of us are taking, we can't bond over mutual hatred of the homework, so instead we're left bonding over food and Ghostbusters. (Back off. I'm a scientist.) Probably better anyway.
Today I went to Ithaca's mall and saw that Christmas stuff is starting to emerge. That's pretty exciting. It's a bit early. I still abide by the rule-of-thumb that Christmas stuff isn't allowed to be displayed until Thanksgiving is over. Now they're pushing Halloween.
Now it's time to bitch about the weather. Here in not-so-sunny and not-so-warm Ithaca we're having highs in the lower 40's. This week in Germany it was the mid-70's. Granted this is not usual, it does make me wonder why it was that I left. Oh right. Grad school. You go where the money is right?
So here are some random interesting things that I heard/learned this week:

+The impedence of free space is 376.7 Ohms.

+This week a construction worker working on the German interstate system was digging and ran into a bomb from WWII that no one knew was there. It exploded killing him, sending debris flying over a third of a mile, and leaving a rather large hole. There were also several other reports of found bombs being safely defused. It amazes me that sixty years later they're still finding live bombs scattered throughout the country. The moral of this story: war sucks.

+For those of you who are mathmatically inclined, check out he Buckingham-Pi theorem.

Anyho! That's all folks!

Procrastinating

2006-10-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

So the entire point of this post is to procrastinate. I should be working on my homework but really, really don't want to.
Last night I had the E&M exam from hell. Ok. So it could've been worse. It was only from the first ring of hell. Not the seventh. Or whatever. I didn't do so well. Pretty sure I got the lowest grade in the class. That's what happens when I'm competing with all of these Cornell physics grads. Funny how they're really good at physics. Whatever. Life goes on. And so does the homework apparently. Which I also can't do.
Otherwise things are good. I've got a couple concerts in the next couple days. I'm taking a day off this weekend and am really excited about that.

Hmmmmmm.....
Interesting thoughts fail me at the moment. As usual.

Ok...caffeine is kicking in. Back to work.

So ein Mist!

2006-10-14T15:44:00.000-04:00

As they say in Germany..."So ein Mist!"
Iowa just lost to Indiana at Indiana. Indiana?! ::slaps forehead::
In addition it's Saturday. I've been doing homework and studying for the last six days. Tuesday is an exam from Hell, a.k.a. E&M, so I'll be spending the rest of my weekend working on that. Plus next week I have a couple extra rehearsals, a concert on Thursday, and a concert on Saturday, a project abstract due, and am getting a "particularly long" assignment for my stars class, guaranteeing that I'm getting no break in the foreseeable future. At least not until Thanksgiving rolls around, or more likely when the semester ends.
Oh. Did I mention it's cold? At least Ithaca didn't get hit by the huge snowstorm that buried western New York. Winter is coming. Run away!!!!

Ok. Enough of my bitching.
I hope you all are doing well.

Niagra Falls

2006-10-08T16:51:00.000-04:00

Hallo!
So Andy and I made it back from Niagra Falls. The Falls are, of course, amazing. Something everyone should see at least once.
It was also the perfect weekend. The weather was warm and sunny and the trees were in their full fall colors.

Andy already has some photos up:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiashrub/

Here are a couple of mine:

America Falls in foreground, Horseshoe Falls and Niagra Falls, Ontario in background.

Horseshoe Falls at night. (Viewed from Canada.)

Horseshoe Falls by day.

Ahhhhh...

2006-10-05T11:52:00.000-04:00

So I've finally reached it. Fall break. After a week of hellish homeworks, I can relax a bit. And the sun's even shining.
But amidst the clouds, rain, and evil problem sets, there were sunny parts to the week. The sunniest of which was a surprise visit from a friend and colleague from Germany. It was so great seeing her and her husband.
Tomorrow Andy and I are going to visit Niagra Falls, which should be very cool. The rest of the break I'll spend frantically trying to get myself ahead on work. I'm sure it won't happen, but I can hope.

As usual I have nothing terribly interesting to say. Sorry.

" 'Till the walls and rafters sing..."

2006-09-30T12:37:00.000-04:00

GO HAWKS!

Thank god we've reached another weekend. It's one of the few days in the when I'm guaranteed not to be assigned any more work. And as many of you know, this is an important weekend for Iowa football fans. Namely, the Iowa/Ohio State game. Iowa will probably fold under pressure, but you never know. They may surprise us. I can have some hope.
Tomorrow is my first orchestra concert in a little over three years. I hope it goes well. The conductor decided today to cut half the orchestra out of half of one of our songs, so suddenly I have a bunch of exposed parts I didn't know I had. Not something I would've done 27 hours before a concert on one run-through. Kind of makes me wish I'd practiced a bit more than I have, but we'll see how it goes.
Ok. Time to stop procrastinating.

A year ago today...

2006-09-26T15:25:00.000-04:00

One year ago I today I walked on a plane headed for Germany. It's crazy when I look back at all that I did and learned in the last year.
I really hope to have the chance to live in Germany again.
But for now, back to Jackson. Biergartens are so much better. Oh well.
Cheers!

Light and heavy thoughts on a Saturday evening

2006-09-23T18:39:00.000-04:00

Hi all!
It's been a while. I know. I've been busy with homework. Anyone surprised? Not that I have a right to compain. It is what I signed up for.
I'll start with the light thoughts. Not much has happened in the last week or so. Iowa won both of its games. Last weekend against ISU (and they even came back in the end to win! I'm so proud!), and today against Illinois. The big showdown will be next week's game against Ohio State.
Otherwise I discovered a really great park in the southern edge of Ithaca that's great for a little bit of afternoon hiking. Tonight I finally went to the new Pirates movie. It certainly has its moments. A bit ridiculous at times but also amusing.

Now for some heavy thoughts. I'm really behind on this topic, but still wanted to comment on it. I'm sure most of you know that a couple weeks ago during his visit to Germany, the pope quoted a Kaiser from the middle ages who made a pointed question to a Islamic scholar about the use of violence as a tool for spreading religion. This quotation sparked major cry in the Islam world for no other reason than they are apparently incapable of understanding, or more likely caring, what the context in which this quote was used. When I first read about it in the German news, I was also shocked that the pope would say something like this. But the second thought which closely followed the first was, what was the context? I couldn't imagine that this was supposed to be a representation of what the pope's own beliefs are. I was then frustrated that none of the news sources that I read felt that it was important to post, or explain, the context of his quote. This is pretty bad journalistic practice in my opinion. Rather than just saying "obviously this is not what he ment", perhaps someone should have explained what he was trying to say.
So with a little help from Andy, I managed to track down a transcript of the speech itself. Here's are links in English and German for those of you who are interested.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_ge.html

In his speech he discussed the place of reason in the study of religion. Ideas of those silly Greek philosophers still haven't died I guess. At the beginning of the speech he mentions a text he recently read that delt with the conversation between the bysantinish emperor and islamic scholar and used a quote from this converation to illuminate what he wished to discuss. I'm sure this is some sort of rhetoric device. Anyway. That was it. Nothing ment to insult the validaty of Islam. Simply to juxtapose Christianity and the study of Reason. His conclusion is even that because Christianity has developed within a culture which glorifies Reason (Vernuft), or more exactly "logos", that it only furthers what God expects (In the beginning there was "logos") by maintaining a dialogue between the cultures.
This is in any case my interpretation of what he was saying. I admit that I did not read every word and did not understand all that I did read. I encourage you to read it for yourself. It is in any case an interesting, well-written essay.
As far as the outcry goes, I, sitting here in my highly educated college town in my very Christian country, find it ridiculous. But attempting to put myself in their shoes, I can see how the Islamic world could feel that the Christian West, which is where the world's power (i.e. money) is currently concentrated, is out to get them. How does the world solve this? I don't know. I'm no genius, but as long as the Islamic world feels like there's a gross imbalance of power, they're going to be protest-happy.
Anyho! Enough for a Saturday evening. Later!

Me 4: Jackson 2

2006-09-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

Yet another battle against the evils of E&M has come to a close. And it's not even midnight yet. The assignment is "done", where "done" means I've reached the point where I'm cutting my losses. Any further advances aren't going to be worth the loss in sleep.
More later. Time to go home.

One more week down

2006-09-14T13:18:00.000-04:00

Another week down. Ok. So it's only Thursday early afternoon, but all of my problem sets for the week are turned in. Now I get to begin those for next week. I most definitely did not miss the endless cycle of homework that takes hours to complete and whatever satisfaction you receive when you finish it (assuming you're actually able to finish it) is quickly overwritten with the knowledge that there's a new one following close on it's tail. It makes you understand why the American Indians viewed time as a loop and not an arrow like the Europeans. Plus now that I'm in grad school the homework is harder and longer. Funny how that works. Sigh.
Time for the recap. The week (by my definition) began when Marcy came to town for the weekend (or beginning depending on your reference frame. Can you find the Lorentz transformation that moves me back into a time that the rest of the world lives in?). Friday evening Marcy, Andy, and I went to contradance on campus, and I instantly fell in love with it. I would try to describe it, but I'll let those of you who actually care to google it. My favorite description was something to the effect that "contradancing is an amusmentpark ride that you make for yourself".
Anyho! Saturday was the Iowa/Syracuse game. We headed up to Syracuse, tailgated, met some crazy Iowa fans who actually drove the 16 hours from Iowa to watch it. As most of you know, the game turned out to be much closer than anyone'd expected. In the end Iowa only won after double overtime after holding Syracuse at the 1 yard line for something like six consecutive downs. Not bad. In short it was a really long game (made me miss Fussball in that respect) but fun. We took a train from the parking lot to the stadium, so I got a small train fix. We also met some very nice Syracuse fans on the train reconferming my impression that people in upstate NY are amazingly friendly and helpful.

Sunday we took Marcy up to Tauganick (spelled wrong) Falls to show her a bit of New York's natural beauty. I took photos. Here's one:

Anyho! Monday morning she had to return to Ohio, and I was sad. Partly because I will miss Marcy; partly because I was no longer able to ignore my E&M homework.
The formula for the rest of the week:
Monday = E&M
Tuesday = recovering from Monday, Stellar Structures
Wednesday = Stellar Structures
Thursday = today

I guess that's about it. The weather this coming weekend (or weekbeginning) is supposed to actually be warm and sunny. I hope to spend sometime outdoors. It'd be a pleasant change from my office and apartment.
Have a good weekend!

Deutschand gegen San Marino...13:0

2006-09-06T16:51:00.000-04:00

For those of you who follow such things, Germany beat city-state San Marino in the European Cup (2008 in Austria and Switzerland) qualification game 13:0. Not bad.
Otherwise things are good. Not doing anything terribly exciting. Studying. Homework. Same old. Same old.

Labor Day

2006-09-04T14:46:00.000-04:00

Happy Labor Day everyone!
Cornell decideds to observe this holiday by making students go to class. Though not like if it were a holiday I would be doing anything different if I didn't have class, namely working on my E&M homework. In fact I spent most of the weekend (with breaks to buy running shoes and then get said running shoes dirty playing soccer on wet/muddy grass) working on homework. As a result I did something rather uncharacteristic of me. I recognized when I am in over my head and decided that I will do three instead of four classes this semester. This has the additional bonus of allowing me to do a bit of research on the side and keeping me sane and happier.
Otherwise I was saddened to read that Steve Irwin, otherwise known as the crocodile hunter, was killed by a sting ray this weekend. I thought he was an awesome person and did great things for animal appreciation. Not to mention proliferated words like "Kricky" (or however one spells it).
Anyho! It is now time for me to run off to class.

No...potatoes come from Idaho

2006-09-02T23:57:00.000-04:00

You have 91% Iowa in you!

Wow! You're almost all Iowa. No wonder you're such a likeable person. Isn't it great being so close to the greatest state in the country!

Do you have Iowa in you?

I should be well qualified to know that potatoes don't come from Iowa since I'm 91% Iowan. I guess the other 9% is German. Oder?

Friday afternoon thoughts

2006-09-01T16:24:00.000-04:00

If QM == my quantum mechanics homework...

/Q|m|Q\= banging head against desk
\M|e|M/

Favorite German word for the day: bodenständig = down-to-earth

Have a good long weekend everyone.
Schönes Wochenende!

Fair, end of the first week

2006-08-30T14:49:00.000-04:00

Hi all,
So I've almost reached the end of my first week as a grad student (since classes began on Thurday for whatever random reason). I can already see it's going to be a hard semester.
But first some of the fun stuff. Last Saturday Andy and I checked out the Great NY State Fair. It was much smaller than Iowa's but had more emphasis on teaching stuff than Iowa's. Also the food at ours is better. Anyho!
Monday night was my first orchestra rehearsal in about three years. It was a bit frustrating to be so rusty, especially since I made section principal. I just need some time to get back in the swing of it.
Another thing I need to get back into the swing of is homework. Arg. Right now I'm planning on taking four classes. We'll see how long that lasts.
Otherwise I have no news.

Ok. Jetzt auf Deutsch.
Ich habe fast das Ende von meiner ersten Woche als eine Doktorantin erreicht. Es ist mir schon klar, dass dieses Semester sehr lang sein wird.
Aber zuerst schreibe ich über meine Freizeit. Letzten Samstag sind Andy und ich zu der Great NY State Fair gegangen. Der NY Fair ist viel kleiner als Iowas aber war mehr pädagogisch. Das Essen bei Iowas ist auch besser.
Montag Abend war meine erste Orchesterprobe seit drei Jahre. Ich habe mich geärgert, dass ich so "out of practice" bin. Ich brauche nur einbisschen Zeit.
Was ich auch seit lange nicht gemacht habe ist Hausaufgabe. Arg. Jetzt habe ich vor, vier Kurse zu belegen. Schauen wir mal, wie lange das geht.
Sonst habe ich keine andere Nachrichten.

First day of class

2006-08-24T14:45:00.000-04:00

So I guess I haven't really posted for awhile.
Things are going well. I'm mostly settled into my apartment. Still some small things to do, but the big stuff is out of the way.
Now I just need to get settled into academic life. The program here is really flexible and allows you a lot of freedom to decide what you want to do. I am going the physics-heavy route and planning on doing E&M, Quantum, Stellar Structures, and Signal Processing. Most people are telling me four classes is one too many, but we'll see how it goes for a while.
Otherwise I auditioned for the orchestra last night and solidly made it in. It was a small ego boost, I'll admit.
Otherwise my parents visited at the beginning of the week. It was nice to show them around Ithaca a bit.
Some how I have nothing more to say.

Here are some photos of Ithaca just for fun.

This is one of my favorite views from campus.

This is one of the gorges that boarder campus.

Now to do Kris's thing:

Six Weird Things

The Rules: Once you are tagged, you must post six things about yourself that are either unusual, weird, habitual, or just plain fun to hear about (and true). Once you post these things about yourself, you must also tag someone else, who then, in the spirit of not wussing out, must read words like these and follow the same rules as you did.

1) When I'm thinking of a decision I will sometimes wiggle my lips back and forth.

2) When I listen to music I will sometimes conduct the beats with my big toe.

3) I hate turning off a song in the middle. I have to wait for it to end.

4) When I drive over a bridge I will sometimes raise up my toes.

5) I always spell "Hello" "Hallo" with an "A" like German and have been since I started learning German in high school.

6) I'm really bad at coming up with things like this...which is just my lazy way of coming up with a sixth thing because I'd rather go eat ice cream.

I tag James.

First day in Ithaca

2006-08-13T19:15:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Ithaca!
I've been in my new home for almost one day now, and things are going well. Let me start at the beginning.
Thursday evening I finally ate the Hessen Haus in Des Moines. It's a German restaurant in Des Moines. It was tasty, but sadly not authentic. (Aber es gab Bitburger!!) But they did have Bitburger. I was very excited.
Friday morning I loaded up my car and hit the road. Other than the chaos near Chicago, it was a rather pleasant drive. I spent the first night out somewhere in western Ohio. Yesterday's drive was pretty boring until I reached eastern Pennsylvania. As I was going up a huge hill, I happened to look off to the left to see the sky drop off into a big dark blue pit, and I thought to myself "Boy that's erie...wait. That is Erie!". So I got a couple glimpses of Lake Erie. Then I finally reached New York and became instantly excited. Upstate NY is beautiful. It was a great, although long, drive. Little traffic and amazing scenery. It reminded me alot of Germany (Die Eifel) actually, which of course made me more excited. Around 8 pm I rolled into Ithaca (which is gorgous of course) and managed to find my apartment. I'm really happy with it. It's on the east edge of town next to some fields and a shopping center. The apartment itself is also nice. Hung out with my roommates a bit. They seem cool enough.
Today I met Andy for a tour of the Ithaca farmer's market. Very hippie. Otherwise I've just been doing some unpacking, which I probably should get back to.

Rückkehr in Iowa City/Return to Iowa City

2006-08-09T23:13:00.000-04:00

Hi all!
So Monday and Tuesday I made a trek out to Iowa City to visit those I know who are still there. Of course, being the geek that I am, I made a bee line to the physics building. I think I single-handedly decreased productivity on the seventh floor on Monday afternoon.
Mostly things had stayed the same. The most exciting thing was seeing the correlator I built last summer for the SRT actually connected to the telescope and collecting some data. It's not yet running perfectly, but it was neat so see something I'd built actually in use. Too bad that I wasn't there to work on getting it integrated, but I was off in Europe working on things way more fun and exciting.
The city had changed a bit over the last year. The huge apartment complex next to the Sheridan is finished. New buildings had materialized or are in the process of materializing on Gilbert St. I saw some of the tornado damage from this spring.
One very nice change was that the Old Capitol has reopened. I took a quick tour of the building. It's looking good and really interesting. I recommend it for anyone who hasn't been in there since the renovations.
The highlight of course was seeing friends again. Catching up on department gossip, eating a good piece of corn-fed Iowa cow, trying out IC-brewed beer (can't compete with German Bier). I'm sad to be leaving you all so quickly again.
Just for fun here's a photo I took from the Grinell rest stop.

A bit of this and that

2006-08-06T17:49:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone!
It looks like another week has gone by with no one asking me first. Silly time.
Wednesday my sister Katie, her boyfriend, and I made the yearly trek to the Omaha Zoo. Good times like always. It was also a good chance to get some miles on the new car.
Friday Marcy and I went on a very pleasant bike ride. Yesterday we grilled with some of the Urbandale peoples. Got to throw a frisbee around a lot and make a bunch of guys look bad. Always fun.
Yesterday I also got a new cell phone. It's a flippy phone with camera, color screen, and bluetooth. I've now finally joined the rest of the world as far as cell phone technology goes. Not that I'll probably use half of it but whatever. Since I decided to go with Cingular I also have a SIM card just like in Europe. :-) (Yes, I am such a geek.)
Tomorrow I head out to Iowa City for two days to visit people. I'm really excited about that. Then it looks like I'll be heading out to New York on Friday. Kind of hard to believe actually.
I guess that's all I have at the moment.

New Car

2006-07-29T23:14:00.000-04:00

So I've now been back in Iowa for almost exactly three days. I'm slowly getting readjusted to the US. First off it's so unbelievably humid here. Blah.
I'm have a ton of fun playing with the new dog. I'm now definitely integrated into the pack. Lili doesn't bark at me anymore when I come down the stairs or into the house. She even lets me sit on her couch with her and will even sit on my lap to get petted. It's adorable. I'm also glad to report the cat is not ignoring me either.
So as far as things which are now weird, one of the big ones is hearing the people on the radio talking in English (sorry...American) and the large number of commericals. I spend altogether way to much time flipping through stations just trying to find one playing music. In Bonn the commerical breaks were short (10 min or so) and so infrequenty that when there was one, I'd say to myself "komisch, Werbungen" ("weird, commericals"). It's also odd to be speaking Iowan again rather than my European Englsih. When I listen to myself I begin to realize maybe my accent is stronger than I thought. Or maybe I'm just way lazy and have my own accent. I don't really know. Anyho!
Last night I met Marcy, Shane, and Aaron for dinner. We had a great time talking about everything under the sun. There was also another "woah, how weird" moment when I went to pay. Between the funny American money, calculating a tip, and not just paying the waiter directly, it was a bit unusual.
But my biggest news at the moment is that today I bought a car. It's a 2006 Toyota Matrix. It's a station wagon with good gas milage and lots of niffty cargo room (yes, not only cargo room, but niffty cargo room). It's also an automatic (ja, ja, Ich weiß. Ein Schaltwagon wäre mehr Spaß, aber Ithaca ist bergisch und ich bin ein Weichei). The color is "phantom gray". I'm still waiting for some inspiration on a name. Speaking of the name. Here's a question for the English buffs out there. Would two Matrix cars collectively called Matrixes or Matricies? Here's a photo with me and the car. Cute huh? :-)

By the way, now that I have a few readers of my blog in Germany, I may be writing a bit more in German. Sorry. Those of you who don't know it will just have to deal with it. I promise what's written will not be important and is likely connected to some inside joke or another.

The Trip Home

2006-07-27T10:14:00.000-04:00

Hallo from Iowa!
I made it back into Iowa last night after a very long day.
Two of my friends from Wuppertal came and picked me up in Bonn and drove me to the airport. Like a good American I was ridiculously early. Eventually it was time to get on the plane. To pass the time I decided to listen to a bit of music. Entirely by chance my mp3 player started with the song "Geile Zeit" by the singer Juli. It was from a CD of good German music that one of my five favorite German colleagues had made for me, and also a song I heard frequently on the radio. But I think it was the first time I'd really ever listened to the lyrics...

Ja ich weiß, es war 'ne geile Zeit,
uns war kein Weg zu weit.
Du fehlst hier.
Ja ich weiß, es war 'ne geile Zeit,
hey, es tut mir Leid,
es ist vorbei.

(Ya I know, it was a great time,
no path was to far for us.
You're missing.
Ya I know, it was a great time,
hey, I'm sorry,
it's over.)

At this point I finally had to break out the Kleenex. The plane took off. From the window I got one last glimpse of Bonn and the Siebengebirge through the haze. Fortunetly two World Cup songs were placed at the end of the CD, which put me back into better mood.
I managed to make my connection in Heathrow and arrive just in time to board the plane. The long trip was actually rather confortable, though I never did manage to fall asleep.
My first experience back in the US was of course Customs and Immigration in Chicago. It's amazing that people come into the US at all. What an irritating process. I got to stand in a long lines and haul my luggage around just to be asked if I have any tulip bulbs. Arg. Then there was of course another security check, a couple gate changes, and a delay while they replaced some part on the plane. Gotta love O'Hare.
Finally I arrived in Des Moines. My parents, one of my sisters, and a good friend picked me up. Upon arriving home it was time to start acclimating our new dog to me. In October my parents got a dog that's half doberman, and the half-guard dog in her shows. Right now everytime she sees me she parks and grows. Then after a few minutes she'll calm down, I'll give her a treat, and that seems to pacify her until the next time I come downstairs. Appartly once she likes you the labrador half of her comes out. The good news is my cat is not ignoring me. He's even being halfway friendly.
Now it's time to do some unpacking.

Last day....Letzter Tag

2006-07-25T07:27:00.000-04:00

So today's my last day in Bonn, and like every last-day I'm busy wrapping stuff up.
My board won't be finished, so it'll have to be sent to me. My stuff is packed. I've ran the Laufzettelweg (for those of you not in Bonn, don't ask). Now it's a matter of a few good-bye's, which is always the hardest part of the whole thing.
Right now I'm in a state of half-excitement/half-panic. It'll take a few days to get through the transplant shock once I'm back in Iowa, but with enough sweet corn, iced tea, and cinnamon rolls, I'll make it through.
When all goes well (which it will), I should be back in Des Moines at about 9 pm Iowa-time. I'll pop up a quick post to let you know I made it before falling into bed.

By the way

2006-07-20T10:06:00.000-04:00

So I'm sitting here at work with nothing much to do since my board hasn't arrived yet and decided to look at CNN to see if anything Earth shattering has happened. I read the following two headlines:

Python eats electric blanket

Jellyfish attack nuclear plant

What a silly world we live in.
Otherwise six days and counting.
I have nothing more profound to say. In fact I have nothing more to say at all.

Roman Holiday

2006-07-17T16:30:00.000-04:00

Hallo!
I'm back from my trip to Roma. Rome is really amazing. For being a city full of old ruins, it's still extremely alive, even a bit overwhelming after a while. Though I'm sure the unbelievable number of tourists who are always around when you're trying to be a tourist doesn't help. Anyho! Here is my adventure...
I arrived Friday early evening. It was too late at this point to do much, so I just wondered around the area near my hostel. For a good half hour or so I sat next to a fountain in the middle of a roundabout and watched the Italian traffic. At first it seemed completely chaotic. There were no real lanes to speak of and definitely no clean lane changes with signalling like you see in the US or Germany. But then I started to realize that the system, whatever that maybe, seems to work, because I never once saw an accident.
Saturday was Vatican City day. When I arrived at the Pope's house in the morning there was already a really long line to get into the Vatican Museum, which includes the Sistine Chapel. After waiting in line for two hours, I finally made it in and rode the wave of tourists towards the Sistine Chapel. I quickly learned that to get the Sistine Chapel you have to go through a series of at least ten or so other chapels and rooms, all of which were actually very interesting, but sadly 90% of the tourists simply looked for the sign that pointed to the Sistine Chapel and kept on going. Finally I arrived in THE chapel and was slightly disappointed. There I was in a mob of hundreds of people taking photographs and talking even though there are signs everywhere saying photography is vorbidden and to maintain silence. The mood of the chapel was completely destroyed. Plus the light wasn't very good. It was just a dark, rectangular room. Ok, so the painting on the celing is one of the most famous paintings in the world, and it was neat, just a little hard to appreciate.
Afternoonish I headed to St. Peter's Cathedral. Here's a photo of it from the outside.

The cathedral is amazing of course. The walls are covered in marble of various colors. The size of the inner room is astounding. Many of the side wings had little cupolas with holes in the middle through which beams of light shined. After walking around the inside I entered the Tomb of the Popes. The most popular of the tombs was of course from John Paul II. Next I got in line to accend to the top of the Cupola. From there you have an amazing view of Rome. Here's one of the photos:

Directly in front is St. Peter's Square. To the left is part of the Vatican complex. The Pantheon is in the middle of the concentration of city off to the right, and the Roman Forum and Coloseum are off the right edge of the photo. The green patch on the left is a big park that I went to after getting my fill of the Pope's city. I then went back to the hostel and rested my feet.
Sunday was ruin day. I headed to the Coloseum first thing in the morning. The Coloseum is as impressive as people make it out to be. First you marvel at the size of it and wonder how in the world did they build it without modern luxuries like cranes. Then you start to ponder the details. Where did the people sit? How did they get into the stands? Where did the people fight and how did they get onto the stage? It's interesting that the basic form is the same as today's sport stadiums. Here's a photo from the inside:

After leaving the Coloseum I headed to the Roman Forum, which at one point was the center of the city. Today there's largely just the foundations of temples, buildings, and churches.

In the background is the coloseum, and off on the right hand side on the hill is the Palatine. It was midday, and as you can probably tell, rather hot. What saves you from the heat are the water spouts placed around the touristy areas. There's a decent chance that you're not actually supposed to drink this water, but I figured if it wasn't drinkable, there'd be a sign.
At this point I headed to the Pantheon. The Pantheon's fame is also well deserved. From the outside it doesn't seem too spectacular, but inside it's amazing. It was originally a pagan temple that was converted to a church. The walls are again convered with marble, paintings, and statues. But what makes the Pantheon truely astounding is the Cupola. It's as wide as it is tall. Where as most Cupolas are decorated with paintings, this one has only a relatively simple geometric relief, and of course a hole in the middle through which a wide beam of light shines.
Now I headed back over to the Roman Forum and entered the Palatine. From what I gathered the Palatine was once the residency for some very important romans. I only wish that I'd had a better travel guide, so I had a better idea of what everything was.
At this point I was tired, sunburned, and dirty and decided to return to the hostel.
Monday I only had a half-day and decided to see a couple smaller churches. First was Santa Maria del Popolo and then San Clemente. Though they were smaller, the mood was much better because they were not completely full of tourists. After buying one last ice cream cone, it was time to head to the airport and return to Germany.
Now I'm starting to get into "going home" mode. I fly back in exactly one week (and a couple hours). Things will be a little tight as far as work goes. My circuit board isn't coming until Thursday, so that doesn't give me much time to get it soldered and tested. And on that note, I'm going to get back to work.

Hi from Roma

2006-07-14T14:22:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are keeping tabs on such things, Im currently in Roma, Italia. The trip was pleasantly uneventful. I dont really have anything to report since I just got here.
More later.
Ciao!

Stuttgart ist viel besser als Berlin!

2006-07-10T11:25:00.000-04:00

So today is the first day after the World Cup and amazingly enough, life goes on.
Saturday night was the last showing of the German team in the game for 3rd place against Portugal in Stuttgart. The mood of the fans can best be described with the spontaniously created song: "Stuttgart is much better than Berlin!". Basically from the way the fans were celebrating, especially in the stadium, it may as well have been the final game. In the end Germany won 3-1. It was exciting.
Sunday was of course the final. I wasn't really all that enthused. For me the "WM" ended Saturday, but I figured I'd followed it this long, I probably should watch the final. Like most of the German fans, I was rooting for France since Italy knocked Germany out. Sadly Italy won by one penatly kick after normal play and the 30 minute extension.
After this game I like Italian football even less. I further believe that they play dirty and don't have a level of sportsmanship that one would expect from a bunch of professionals at the biggest sporting event on the planet. But in the end we don't live in a Hollywood-style movie, and sometimes the good guy doesn't win. And as someone likes to remind me, it's only football.
Otherwise things are good. This weekend was great. I grilled twice and got to see a couple friends who I hadn't seen in weeks. Friday I fly to Rome for a long weekend. That should be fun.
Have a good week everyone!

Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach...Stuttgart

2006-07-06T07:38:00.000-04:00

So until Tuesday the favorite soccer chant was "Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach Berlin!", or in English "Berlin! Berlin! We're going to Berlin!" to proclaim that the German soccer team will make to the final game, which is in Berlin. Sadly that dream died in the 119th minute during the semifinal game against Italy when Italy managed to score. And then it really, really died when they scored a second one in the 121st minute. As the official game time ended at minute 120, there really wasn't time for Germany to counter.
Obviously everyone's disappointed, but noone is blaming the loss on the team. The "Jungs" played very well, and Italy just got lucky and played a little dirty. After the win against Argentina I mentioned that there was a short fight, but nobody cared because they were too excited about winning. Nobody except the Italians, who found photos which showed a German player punching one of the Argentina players, and plastered them all over their newspapers. So after FIFA decided that no action would be taken against German players, they changed their mind in light of the new evidence from a clearly unbiased source. In the end one of the best German defenders was banned from the game. I personally found this to be a totally sleezy, childish thing to do, and that the FIFA believed the evidence from a country which is currently seeping in soccer scandels is ridiculous. But I must admit my opinion's somewhat biased.
Then my love for Italian football decreased even more during the game. Everytime one the Italian players fell down, which occured at a much higher rate than the Germans, they'd make a pained face and roll around hoping a yellow card would come out. I'm sure some of the cases were real, but it happened way to frequently for it to believable everytime. At the same time my respect for the German team grew. When two opposing players crashed together, the German was always the first one up, offering to help their Italian counterpart who's reeling on the ground "hurt".
Ok. I've said my peace.
Like I said, the spirit here has died down a bit. There are already fewer flags even though there's still one game left. Saturday Germany and Portugal play for third place. I just hope the team's back in the fighting spirit by then. Most reports say the players are really depressed, as to be expected, but the German Soccer Association received over 2000 emails from fans with well wishes within one day after the game. Even though they lost, everyone is proud and supportive, and I really hope the Fan Miles are full of German fans on Saturday.
Oh ya...and France beat Portugal last night 1:0, so the final is a matchup between Italy and France.
Don't worry. Soon my posts will be about things other than soccer.
I'm doing well. Work's going well. In one week I'm flying to Rome. And in three weeks I'll be back in Iowa. Craziness.

Here are some pic's from the game:

Here I am dressed up with as a German soccer fan with my American flag.

Here's a photo from the pub. This was during half time, so the people were still in a good mood.