Sadly Temporary

New Home Videos

2011-09-06T22:30:00.006-04:00

Here are a couple vids of CMB (and me) playing in the new house. I think he likes the fact that we have enough room to run through this house...

Old Photos

2011-08-27T19:23:00.005-04:00

So now that j, cmb, and I are settling into the new house, my Mom decided it would be a good time to drop off a bunch of crap I still had at their house. One of those things was a bag of photos (back when you had to develop rolls of film, if you don't know what that is, ask your parents). Most of the good ones I had already picked out and put in photo albums over the years, but I didn't remember some, and thought I would post a few that I found interesting:

j and I are looking very young in this photo. I'm wearing a Buffalo Tom shirt.

I'm playing with the new fisheye lens I bought for my camera circa 2001

j is such a cutey.

t and I playing volleyball at OVVC. He hates doing it, but I thought he was a perfect right side hitter. Look at him in the first photo.

Evidence that the terrorists have won. Kids today will never enjoy meeting someone at the end of the tarmac. We used to have some much fun running around the terminal waiting for friends to arrive. Here are some photos of j and t right after they got off the plane.

Mixing up numerator and denominator...

2011-05-21T00:24:00.003-04:00

tends to give whole new meaning to what you are trying to say.

I seriously doubt that Pujols is averaging 11.57 home runs per at bat, even against the Royals. That would have to be some type of record.

Sorry about the long gap between posts (if you even bother to check). But this weekend is the first weekend that I'll be home in a long time. On consecutive weekends, I've been in St Louis, Louisville, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Never thought I would be so glad to stay in Memphis for a while. I have a few things I want to post about, so hopefully, I can get to some of those things soon.

Run CMB Run... No wait, please walk

2011-03-01T22:57:00.004-05:00

So a lot has happened since I last blogged. J and I went to a conference and San Diego, meaning we had to leave CMB with his grandparents (it's nice that both sets are in the same city). We determined that it was the first time that at least one of us was not with him overnight. And we were separated for a week. It's okay, it was harder on us than him.

Some other news is that CMB is sick of walking, he's now running (for lack of a better word, he mostly falls forward quickly and his legs sometimes keep up). It made for an interesting trip to an Italian restaurant on Saturday. It was a new restaurant, so the kitchen and the wait staff was a little slow. After the appetizers, we took him out of his high chair because he was getting restless. He then used the restaurant to run laps for the next 20 minutes. When we tried to settle him down, we had a mini-meltdown. This might mark CMBs last trip to a decent restaurant for a while.

Moving faster now means you fall harder. Today, CMB was running in his classroom, tripped, and hit his eye on a table. I had to leave work to check on him. He was okay but he did have a split at the corner of his left eye.

This is my attempt to put some ice on it when it started to swell. I think it's pretty clear that j is the health care provider...

Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles

2011-01-22T22:46:00.003-05:00

One of the nice things about my new job, is that I will still have a chance to stay involved in the academic world. Last week, I went to the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) annual meeting in Long Beach, CA. Aside from the great weather, it was fun to see a lot of friends from Penn. I also got to know some of my coworkers a little better.

Most importantly, some of us went out for dinner at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. Yes it is exactly what it says it is...

Also as someone who doesn't drink, I always appreciate places that have interesting nonalcoholic drink options. This one is called the eclipse and was a mixture of lemonade, orange juice, and fruit punch. It was delicious (I didn't have a good camera, so the picture is a little off, I tried to enhance, there should be 3 distinct layers).

CMB Fashion Show Continues

2011-01-22T22:28:00.002-05:00

So we finally had some rain earlier this week, so CMB got to wear his new rain jacket...

CMB Classes Up the Joint

2011-01-21T23:03:00.003-05:00

For Christmas, we wanted something for CMB to wear when we took him swimming at the YMCA next door. Luckily, aunt j had just the thing.

This snow is following me.

2011-01-09T23:33:00.006-05:00

After last year's snowy winter in Philly, it takes a lot of snow to really get my attention.

But it is our first experience with Memphis and snow. The snow started late afternoon... they're already freaking out. It looks like Memphis will get 2-4 inches, but it may be a little bit more of a mix of snow and ice, which I think is a little more dangerous. Plus they don't have the facilities to deal with the snow. Parts of Northern Mississippi are actually expected to get more than 6 inches.

I've already received notice that we can work from home tomorrow if we are uncomfortable with the driving conditions or something like that. My problem is cmb's day care might be closed, and I will be uncomfortable with every body else's driving in these conditions... Nice that I have the option and the IT to do a lot of my work from home.

I'm also annoyed that I'm getting any snow this year AT ALL after the horribly hot summer we had. I was hoping that there was the understanding that the brutal summer meant a very mild winter. I was wrong. Oh well, I'm leaving for San Diego on Wednesday anyway.

I love it when Colbert goes a little over the top...

2011-01-07T23:07:00.001-05:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Bill O'Reilly Proves God's Existence - Neil deGrasse Tyson

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Video Archive

Colbert sums up O'Reilly's reasoning as "There must be a god, because I don't know how things work."

Nice

And they said it would never happen...

2010-11-12T11:30:00.004-05:00

On the day after my 33rd birthday, I agreed to a job offer with for a R&D Engineer with a medical equipment company. Despite all my best efforts, I'm actually going to have a real job. I start after Thanksgiving.

CMB Likes Chocolate Cake

2010-11-07T22:53:00.002-05:00

Continuing my theme of more cmb and less me, here he is at his birthday party.

All Hallows' Eve

2010-11-03T14:48:00.002-04:00

Technically, this is c's 2nd Halloween, but this is the first time we could dress him up and go trick or treating. So we drove out to the suburbs and met one of j's attendings to go down a block with about 10 kids between 1 and 4 years old. Needless to say, c makes an extremely cute giraffe.

You say it's your birthday...

2010-11-02T14:50:00.005-04:00

Wow, I can't believe it has been a year already. c keeps growing like a weed. He's now 30 inches long (50th percentile, which is good for any child of mine) and 25 lbs (75 percentile). And now he's starting to walk, it's really cute.

c turned 1 last week. Rather than throw something here in Memphis, we decided to go up to Louisville to celebrate with the whole family (luckily my brother e's family came down from Chicago) and some friends. We were able to make it a dual celebration with c's cousin n.

c seemed overwhelmed (and confused) with the presents, but since we've gotten home he's taken to them quite well. But he certainly enjoyed the chocolate cake and all the other kids that were around (6 cousins plus the 2 daughters of our friends, since my family is intrigued that babies come in female form).

Enjoy the pics:

The Bucket...

2010-11-02T14:20:00.006-04:00

So about a week ago, we made it in to Louisville for some fun, celebration, and a little bit of business. One of things we were able to do is catch the UL Red-White scrimmage in the new fancy downtown arena (officially dubbed the 'KFC Yum! Center', but will heretofore be referred to as 'The Bucket').

My parents, eldest brother's family, and our family all went and while the play was sloppy and didn't mean anything, it was fun to get in the mood for basketball. This was also c's first basketball game (having now become a fixture at baseball and football venues we have visited during his first year).

The arena was impressive. We did a lap along the lower level, with the East side providing an all glass view of the surrounding downtown, the North side had a balcony overlooking I64 and the river, and the West side had a fairly blank wall. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. (The Southside was the main entrance which looked to be quite well done).

The seating that we had was in the lower level corner, about 20 rows up, provided nice site lines and a decent view of the arena signs and jumbotrons. Things I noticed: (1) no banners for the previous championships or Final Four seasons, (2) some complained that the white-on-red stat jumbotron was hard to read since there wasn't enough contrast (my problem with it was that the had the teams reversed on the stat boards than they were on the scoreboard), (3) there was obviously an attempt to maximize luxury seating (2 rows of suites, club boxes in the endzones, etc...), and (4) those seats at the top of the upper level look pretty high up.

Still, the arena is impressive, even if I suspect that paying for the arena will be a continued problem in the upcoming years (just not enough home games for the primary tenant of UL Men's BB, and the women's team doesn't play Tennessee and UConn every week).

Back to the back of the line...

2010-09-03T09:16:00.003-04:00

Another town, another effort to show I can officiate football.

I am entering my 8th season officiating football. Unfortunately, it is in my 4th city, and each time I move, I have to start the process all over again of establishing my abilities on the field. This time is a little more frustrating because if I had stayed in Philly, I was in line to make a college crew (The picture above is from a Div III NCAA game I worked last season). Now I'm just trying to get on a supplemental list for next season. I understood that this would happen, you can't move into a new area and get plum assignments, nobody knows you or what you can do. So I've been working many scrimmages, working positions that I haven't worked in years, just trying to show people that I know what I'm doing, even if I'm trying to do it from the LJ position (I haven't worked wings since moving to Philly).

Bike Ride

2010-08-26T00:24:00.003-04:00

Before we moved from Philly, a neighbor gave us a child bike seat that they said they weren't going to use. Before we moved to Memphis, I mounted it on my bike (regretfully I had to get rid of the milk carton basket that was on the back of my bike) and thought that it would be nice to try it out once we settled in. Little did I know that the weather in Memphis would not cooperate with record heat, and we really haven't left the apartment much to walk down the street, let alone ride a bike.

So today, a cold front was approaching, so we tried it out. CMB was rather nonchalant about the entire ordeal. He wasn't excited to be riding, but he wasn't upset. We might ride to the zoo tomorrow, we'll see how we're feeling. Anyway, here he is with his new cool helmet...

License to Kill

2010-08-12T17:08:00.004-04:00

Well, in the spirit of the possible demise of Mr Bond. I was going to bring up my own double-0 status.

This is my ID from Penn. Aside from many of the other names, numbers, and identifiers, is the number "00" which represents the number of duplicates you had to make. In my case, 00, means that I never had to make a duplicate (or I lost a hundred, I guess). So for 5 years, I was able to hold on to the same ID (I saw at least one individual with double digits), and in the end I was declaring this my 'double-0 status,' which gave me the license to kill. Which I took advantage of by shouting new lab members with my fully automatic Nerf dart gun...

Staying in shape

2010-08-09T10:46:00.003-04:00

Trying to stay in shape is hard with a baby and the fact that it's always over 100 degrees outside. So, I've had to improvise by lifting things around the house...

The word of the day is: HOT

2010-08-04T10:39:00.004-04:00

So we have pretty much moved in here in Memphis. It's been tough, trying to cram all of our junk into a smaller 2 BR apartment, but I'm hoping it will help prevent us from hoarding so much crap in the future. And maybe, I'll actually throw out some things we don't need. On the plus side, our new kitchen is really open to the Family Room/Dining Area, so I was finally able to hang my pot rack again. That helped open up more space in the cabinets, and I love the aesthetics of a pot rack.

It has been crazy hot since we've moved into Memphis (it might be normal for them). I think that every day that we've been here, the temperature has been well into the 90s with a heat index in the 105-113 range. So we've mostly stayed in air conditioned areas or by hanging out in the pool, which we've taken CMB to almost everyday that we've been in town. The good thing is, we've gone enough that he is not afraid of the water. The bad thing is, he's not afraid of the water. We believe that he thinks he can swim. But as long as we're with him, he has a blast.

After hunting through some of storage, we have now accounted for all of CMB's toys, which he likes to bury himself in...

Update

2010-07-07T13:34:00.003-04:00

Update for anyone that cares.

1. I defended my thesis about a month ago. Passed, so now I guess I have a PhD (I guess officially it will be at the end of the summer semester in August for me to get the diploma). It went well, a lot of nervous energy followed by me trying to clean up 5 years of junk in my lab. Now I guess I need to find a job...

2. j has her boards tomorrow. She's been studying like mad, while I've been trying not to bother her.

3. j, cmb, and I are moving to Memphis is a couple weeks. j starts her fellowhip in August. I have been floating my resume/cv around looking for a job, but nothing yet. Until then, cmb and I will be hanging out.

4. Speaking of young cmb, apparently he likes saag paneer.

He's already a less picky eater than I am.

PS with nothing else to do, I hope to post more often in the coming weeks.

Baby Laughter

2010-05-19T12:25:00.003-04:00

CMB has discovered the cat, and he thinks he's hysterical.

Sorry about the heavy mouth-breathing, I'm trying not to laugh myself.

Snowed in...

2009-12-19T21:28:00.005-05:00

Well, we were planning on going up to NYC this weekend, but there was the threat of snow. After talking about it, we decided that it was best not to travel on the roads. As of 9pm tonight, here's my back porch:

From the kitchen window, here is the table again. It looks like it's about 18 inches (that's what she said...).

Anyway, we probably made the right decision by staying in Philly. We'll have to make a special trip to NYC during Christmas time sometime in the future. We will definitely take more pics with CMB tomorrow in the snow, but I'll leave you with a picture of CMB and me at j's work Holiday Party.

Benefits...

2009-12-17T12:46:00.005-05:00

As with any job, sometimes you can benefit from the hobbies of your coworkers. Someone in the lab the floor below ours likes to bake. So when I returned from lunch today, she had left this on my desk:

I don't know if I'm more excited about the cupcake, or the fact that it says 'Science!' on it. I will let my belly have the final say. Yes, I am a nerd.

Sleeping through the night...

2009-12-03T15:58:00.002-05:00

So, I've always the problem with newborns are that they don't sleep through the night. Therefore, you don't sleep through the night. And that's why Mom and Dad walk like drones through the day because of lack of sleep.

Well, I'll have to say that cmb has been pretty easy on us. He usually only wakes up once around 2:30ish to eat, then doesn't wake up again until close to 6, when we are getting up for work anyway. We've been pretty fortunate this way.

The other night, he slept (or at least didn't cry) from 11-5:30, beating his previous record by 2.5 hours. The thing is, Jen woke up at 3 to pump, and then I woke up about every half hour after expecting him to cry and hoping to hear him breathing. I even got up once to make sure he was okay. Felt pretty paranoid. Maybe that's parenthood.

Anyway, last night, he woke up 3 times... so much for sleeping through the night.

4 week update...

2009-11-23T09:59:00.003-05:00

So CMB turned 4 weeks yesterday. He's been more than fair to us so far. Largely sleeping for 3-4 hours at a time at night and agreeable most of the time that he's awake. He's starting to smirk a little (not quite a full smile yet) and he'll follow toys with his head and eyes. I claimed that he was playing with some toy keys, just because I put them on him like a bracelet. He was playing rather he knew it or not...

Big day today. j went back to work this morning, so her parents are watching him this (short) week. First time home alone without the Mom and Dad. Then his aunts and his cousin, i, are coming in for Thanksgiving. Should be lots of fun.

Just Pics

2009-10-27T17:35:00.004-04:00

I've shrunk these for convenience, higher quality is available if you want. Just email me.

My Special Project...

2009-10-27T15:41:00.004-04:00

So when j and I were thinking about what we wanted to with the upcoming baby, we decided that we should each make something for the baby. Obvious with the name we had chosen, I had actually been keeping an eye for a stuffed tiger for quite a while. But nothing I saw really captured the simple essence of Hobbes in the comic strip. While surfing on the web I found this message board post:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=210826.0%3Ball

and thought, I could do that.

Now realize that my arts and crafts experience amounted to construction paper and hand-shaped thanksgiving turkeys, so this was actually quite ambitious of me. And through my life, I was thinking about the number of things that I had sewn, and I came up with this list:

…
…
…

Yeah, that about covers it.

So to say the least, this was a brand new undertaking, and likely a bit of a stretch for my skill set. I really wasn’t even sure where I would find everything I was looking for, and given the surreptitious nature of the project (if people found out, they would likely figure out the name, which was top secret), I needed to find out without asking leading questions. So I asked a person in my program that actually sews some of her own clothes and accessories (in engineering school, this is rare that it is done, even rarer when it is done so well). And she told me to go to Joann’s in NJ. I asked for pointers about sewing a stuffed animal, she had never done and neither had iee’s wife s, so I was sort of on my own.

Wow was I out of place. Ummm, where can I find tiger print and fur material? I got pointers on sewing stuffed animals from some internet videos on expert village, and off I went.

Never having done this before, it was really weird to make the planned shapes and then to make the actual cuts. But, I have enough material to make 5 of these things.

The basic design was simply a series of tubes for the tail, legs, and torso.

I hand sewed the whole thing in the end. Was pretty easy, just a little time consuming, and I could hide most of the seams by connecting everything inside out, so the seams were on the inside.

This worked pretty well until I had to stuff him and close the final seam. The head is a little misshapened and part of the seam on the back is obvious, but I made it and I’m happy with it.

Hopefully Calvin enjoys it as well…

Son

2009-10-25T18:06:00.004-04:00

Please welcome CMB to the world

If you can't figure out the name, the M is my middle name, and this picture will help on the C.

If that doesn't help.

More pictures and posts to follow.

News and Notes

2009-08-27T18:06:00.002-04:00

So it's been a long time since I blogged. Here's what has been going on...

1. j is still pregnant. We're now in the 3rd trimester. Fixing up the house. I had an arts and crafts project that I completed this week for the baby. More on this after the little guy arrives. Should start parenting classes soon.

2. t and the TD maker decided, without my knowledge, that we would start a daily email list on articles/concerns of the day. This has lead to some funny trolling of the internet and interest (sometime heated) discussions on politics.

3. We dropped cable, and I erected an antenna large enough to get signals from the moon on my roof. We actually have great reception of the local channels and I'm looking forward to joining NetFlix to watch streaming on our Tivo.

4. Football season is starting. I've been assigned some college games (mostly JVs), so I'm excited with that opportunity.

5. After vehemently opposing the scoring system in a fantasy football with high school friends and (somewhat successfully) lobbying for a change, I somehow failed to re-register for the new season in time for the draft, and now I am not playing in any fantasy leagues. That's fine by me. I don't have a lot of time this year, and other than trash talk, don't really care for fantasy sports in general.

6. PhD studies are obviously occupying most of my time. Been busy starting new aspects of my project and writing a paper.

3 months away from fatherhood, and looking forward to it.

What happened to Disney?

2009-07-12T20:55:00.002-04:00

The company that brought you such classics as Pinocchio, Cinderella, Dumbo, hell even Aladdin, and Lion King; is now advertising this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GaEZ2e9Ijs
Really? No wonder Pixar has to save your ass and actually produce movies that tell an interesting story. Give me a break.

The indestructable Y-chromosome

2009-07-01T11:09:00.003-04:00

I have 2 older brothers, no sisters. My oldest bro has 3 boys, no daughters. The middle brother has 2 boys, no daughters. We just had our ultrasound, and once again, it's a boy. Does my family not even carry an x-chromosome?

I'm happy because everything appeared fine from what we can tell. Eventually I like the idea of having a daughter, but that just might be impossible...

Delay...

2009-06-23T23:46:00.005-04:00

So if you didn't see j's blog, our ultrasound has been delayed to next week due to insurance issues. So we'll find the sex out then (as if we didn't already know). Getting a little anxious now, j did find a doppler ultrasound at work and checked the heartbeat. Everything still sounds great. We'll know more next week.

In other news, just got back form Lake Tahoe on Sunday, where I attended the ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference. Kinda took me back to my roots in Mechanical Engineering, although I insist that they would revoke my degree if they tested my ME knowledge now. My talk apparently went well, but I'm a terrible judge of that myself.

The best part of this conference was that pretty much everyday only had about 6-7 hours of conference meetings and the rest was open for free time. On Thursday, we were done around 2, so we went to a ropes course. While this mostly reminded me how out of shape/weak I am, it was still fun. Did one that pretty much zapped my arms in my 2nd and a half run (I did one as an example run, but they didn't let me finish). So I didn't try anything too difficult after that. Cindy of course made us all look stupid she climbed everything attempted.

Looking up at Cindy

Looking down from the top

On Friday, we rented kayaks and went out into Lake Tahoe for an hour. Then returned to the Squaw Creek Village to watch BEDrock play (a cover band comprised of professors from the BioEngineering Division of ASME). I had to bail to practice for my talk, which was in the final session of the weekend. Saturday night ended with some swimming as I finally went to bed at midnight, only to have to catch a shuttle to the airport at 4am. I took the earliest flight I could so I could be at home with my wife. It was a fun conference, but I was happy to return.

In other news, I suddenly suck in softball (1/3 1r 2rbi, 1 error + 2 plays I could have made if I could track a line drive). Hopefully this ends soon, I play again on Thursday. Strangely, I'll probably be best served sticking to SS, never thought I would say that. j has her triathlon coming up on Saturday, and t should be coming in this weekend. Looking forward to it.

My Buddy Max

2009-06-06T12:08:00.005-04:00

When I was a kid, I remember on occasion asking for a dog. My Mom told me that I could get a dog when I had my own house. Therefore, a week after returning from our honeymoon, j and I adopted Max from the KY Humane Society. We were down between Max and a border collie, but Max was so chill and cute that we had to have him.

We soon learned that Max was probably given up at 5 years old because of some anxiety issues (thunderstorms, diesel trucks, his shadow...). So after some destroyed furniture and carpet, we learned how to manage him a little better. And while we thought him as pretty chill, he did show some lightning fast reflexes in the first couple weeks that we had him, to the shock of both of us and some baby bunnies.

Having such a cute dog led to me getting hit on by guys in Chicago, yet many people on the streets of Philly have actively sought the opposite sidewalk when seeing me with him. I guess they didn't know that he was a Chowerd (They told us he was Chow and German Shepherd).

Sadly, over the last 6 months, Max's strength and weight have rapidly diminished. Since last year, his weight was down about a third. We ran some tests and tried some different medicines, but nothing seemed to help. So today, j and I had to say goodbye to Max, 17 days before the 7 year anniversary of his adoption. I will greatly miss my buddy, our morning and evening walks, and his companionship, especially on nights when j is on call. He was a very good boy.

There's no more to Holden Caulfield.

2009-06-03T18:39:00.002-04:00

I listened to a Podcast recently (of 'This American Life' if my memory serves me well) where a director was complaining about having to do DVD commentaries and explain the entire movie, all the camera angles, etc.. His argument was that a little bit a of work by the viewer or a little bit of ambiguity was good for art. That way you can get different interpretation and someone else might discern a different lesson.

Today, news has it the JD Salinger has filed a suit to prevent publication of an up-coming book on Holden Caufield 60 years later. I don't really believe in restricting speech, but I do get his sense that someone's interpretation of his work of art can sully the original. And I don't believe that you should really profit on someone else's idea without bringing anything new to the table. I haven't read the book in question, and never plan to. I do really like the line attributed to Salinger though:

"There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there," the court filing quotes Salinger as saying in 1980. "Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time."

I think he's right. Maybe I will read it again.

Brilliant

2009-05-12T13:10:00.001-04:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Wanda Sykes' Jokes

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

Lost Innocence

2009-05-07T22:28:00.003-04:00

There is a regular feature on NPR’s morning edition called “This I Believe.” In it, they get different people, some random off the street, some famous people, to discuss their core beliefs and governing philosophies. Inevitably, these essays have ranged from insightful, overly sentimental, to loads of crap. I often just can’t stand to listen to it and turn it off. I think that you can claim an overarching theme to your beliefs, but often believe that we are all too often rather ambiguous to these and go against them often. Given time and the lack of monitoring, we would probably all disappoint. But in the end, I guess that I do have a core belief in the protection of innocence.

I believe that there is nothing more tragic than the loss of innocence. In particular, we hear stories of child soldiers in Africa, children raised in poverty that have to work at a young age and drop out of school, children who lose parents to war or drugs and are forced to take on new responsibilities themselves. We also see parents putting lots of pressure on their kids and give them very structured schedules to prepare them for the future, while not allowing kids to just be kids. I find this all very sad, and that we should do our all within our power to avoid these situations.

There is hope though. One of the things that I loved about the Harry Potter books was to see children across the world engrossed in these stories. They believed in magic. Even in parts of the world where this must be difficult. Is there really anything as sad (not including deaths) as the day that a child no longer believes in magic? In Santa Claus? I find that this often leads to the hastened disbelief in the goodness of mankind as well.

I have lived a very sheltered and charmed life in many ways. I feel like I was allowed to grow up without any direct knowledge of the harshness of life. We weren’t rich, we weren’t poor. I remember that my Dad had to leave town as a kid to find work, but he was always home on the weekends, and I believe that he ended up coaching me in every sport that I ever played, save football. My Mom was a school teacher, which meant our schedules often overlapped, but she also encouraged me to read. She must have some of this belief as well, because after reading Bridge to Terabithia, we started to screen my books. I was so upset at the end of that book because I felt this deep emotional bond with the characters, and to kill one off was incomprehensible to me.

I am perfectly willing to read a book or watch a movie and allow their fantasies to become mine. Because of this, I’m really a poor critic of movies as I’m watching. I rarely actively participate, but rather go along for the right trying to immerse myself in the world created in front of me. It’s probably why I love the Pixar movies so much.

The movie ‘Finding Neverland’ is one of my favorite modern movies. If you haven’t seen it (stop watching and rent it now, heck buy it now) Johnny Depp plays J. M. Barrie, the writer/creator of Peter Pan. The movie centers around Barrie’s relationship with a local widower (Ms Davies) and her five sons. His stories and efforts to create a magical world full of adventure with the children (especially the overly serious Peter) then inspire his writing of ‘Peter Pan.’ In one scene, as the mother is dying but refusing to discuss her illness with Barrie or the children, the eldest son (George) confront Barrie looking for help. As the scene develops Barrie recognizes “Look, the boy is gone. Somewhere during the last 30 seconds you became a grown-up.” As it is clear that George will be the one that must confront his mother to seek treatment. It is at once empowering, and sad.

In the end, Barrie tells the after party that Peter Pan is in fact the 3^rd son Peter Davies, to which the boy points out the obvious, “But I’m not Peter Pan, he is” nodding towards Barrie.

This has all been on my mind a lot lately. In 6 months, it will be my responsibility to protect the innocence of a child.

Busy week

2009-04-28T23:16:00.001-04:00

Sorry, you probably won't hear from me for the next week or so. I propose my thesis work to my committee on Thursday, Derby party on Saturday, and I take the NCAA test on Tuesday. I promise better posts in the not too distant future.

PhD Comics Explains the Problem of the "Cure" for Cancer

2009-04-22T10:04:00.004-04:00

PhD Comics is a comic strip that's really popular amongst people in graduate school (particulaly the sciences) because it finds the humor in our lives, and the way people perceive them. The writer is actually has his PhD and started to pursue an career in academic research before he determined this to be a profitable endeavor. Interestingly, the prestigious journal Science recently did a profile of Piled Higher and Deeper (actual name) where I found out more about the author.

I appreciated the comic strip below because I often get frustrated when I hear people talking about finding a 'cure' for cancer. It leads me to believe that people lack proper understanding of cancer specifically and medicine/science in general. For reasons better than I can explain, the comic sums up why a 'cure' is a false goal.

If you get a chance, also look at this one here, making fun of how TV bastardizes what science can actually accomplish (and how fast). I feel this whenever I watch Bones and see them take a piece of tissue under the microscope and what appears is a perfect sectioned and stained tissue sample that would take me a minimum of 3 days to recreate (much more if I have to decalcify the bone)...

Back in my Off-Roading Days

2009-04-12T21:11:00.002-04:00

t called me up today on info about the car I drove in high school and the modifications that were made.

Yeah, that's right, I assumed possession of my Mom's '87 Dodge Aries (k car). During high school I was the lead card in a 3 car accident (car rear ended car behind mine, who hit me), rendering the rear passenger side door unusable. While working at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant, I procured some 4x4 Off Road decals from their F250 and F350 lineups because I thought it would be funny. And yes, several people asked me if it was really 4x4 (no, it wasn't). By the end, it was getting more miles to the gallon of gas than quart of oil.

When I was a freshman in college, my oldest brother bought a new truck, gave me his old car (a '90 Cavalier) and traded in the Aries. He told the salesman "I have a 1987 3-door, 4x4 off road Dodge Aries." Apparently, the salesman didn't blink and asked "How many miles does it have?" I think we got like $100 for it...

Here's to you, the only 4x4 Off Road Aries Ever!!!

What to do in New Zealand when you're a geek...

2009-04-04T20:07:00.000-04:00

Samsung Extreme Sheep LED Art
by sertanarig

Still love this commercial

2009-04-03T11:49:00.002-04:00

Was going through my iTunes and came across Nick Drake's Pink Moon...

This would be me in high school, minus the beautiful ladies and the convertible... Why would anyone choose the drunken party?

Hopefully, he got the digits as well as the ball...

2009-04-02T16:00:00.001-04:00

Skip to about 1:10ish.

If the neighborhood is too run down to sell houses...

2009-04-01T21:10:00.008-04:00

...pay actors to play like everything is okay. j and I heard this story today on NPR's Marketplace.

Apparently large developments are paying actors to mow the lawns, run into the interested party playing the parts of 'lawyer with children' or whatever. My personal favorite is "They might invite their future neighbors to a Little League game. The teams are borrowed from another town..."

Borrowed from another town! That's great. I don't know how pissed I would be if I found out the truth later.

______________

Story #2: j and I went to a party this past weekend. The theme: 90s.

j's costume involved shoe polish and silk pajamas...

It is...

wait for it....

That's right, Left Eye from TLC (may she rest in peace). And yes, I realize that my Kris Kross shout out would be funnier had I had an Andre Rison jersey. "That D guy looks dangerous"

We also had a tournament bracket of 90's songs, set up as regions of Alternative, Rap/R&B, Dance, and Pop. If you can make it out, predictably "Smells Like Teen Spitit" won. I was trying to vote against it if the matchup was right but it never had a worthy adversary. More disturbing is that BBD's Poison was beat out by friggin Brittany Spears. I think it shows the age of the other people involved. There's no way anything BS ever said can compete with the advice "Never trust a big butt and a smile." What do these kids know anyway?

Yeah, what she said...

2009-03-15T19:59:00.002-04:00

http://much-ado-about-noting.blogspot.com

MarioKart Has Infected My Brain

2009-03-12T15:48:00.005-04:00

You know it's a problem when you ride your bike to school in the morning and see this:

And you're shocked when you don't get a boost in speed after running over the arrow.

DAMNIT!!! Can I at least have a red shell for that stupid car in the bike lane!?!

I'm pathetic

2009-03-11T21:19:00.002-04:00

My laptop died over the weekend. I took it to the repair shop on Monday, they said they will have a diagnosis (not fixed, just a diagnosis) by Friday. While it is entirely frustrating to wait that long, I'm more concerned with the fact that I can't function without my laptop anymore. At school, I've been using a general lab computer, and it sucks because I'm not at my desk and I'm in the middle of a heavy traffic area. At home, I had to unhook my desktop from my television, to an old school monitor so I can actually get some work done. I'm helpless.

Colbert Report: Herpes and Beer Pong

2009-03-04T11:17:00.002-05:00

Wow. I remember once in grade school, I had to do a little reenactment of some Aztec sacrifice in front of the class with some classmates. It was really stupid, we didn't know what we were doing, and I couldn't keep a straight face during a supposedly serious ritual. That's why I can always tell the really good actors on SNL by the ones who don't break character no matter how ridiculous their characters are (see Walken and Farrell vs Fallon and Sans in the famous More Cowbell sketch). That's one of the reasons that Steve Carell is so good as Michael in 'The Office,' even to the point that it becomes painful. 4 nights a week though, you see it in Steven Colbert's performance in the Colbert Report. No better example than last night.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Beer Pong Herpes Outbreak

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
Joke of the Day

In case you missed it...

2009-02-26T21:02:00.001-05:00

for you '30 Rock' fans like me.

Back from Jamaica, Regrettably

2009-02-24T21:25:00.010-05:00

j and I just came back from vacation on Saturday after spending a week in the Caribbean sun. The break was great, as we calculated the last time that we went on a full blown vacation with just the two of us alone was almost 6 years ago, when we still lived in Louisville. I don't advise this type of delay, it can strain your sanity and your marriage.

1. The week

We were up before 4am to catch our flight at 5:35am. After a layover in Houston, going through customs, and a 1.5hr tour bus trip to Runaway Bay, we were checking in to the Royal Decameron All-Inclusive by 4:30. The number one reason we chose this place was because of the availability of individual cottages as opposed to a standard hotel layout. Naturally, these were overbooked, and we got bumped to a 'Court Yard Rooms,' which amounted to a normal motel like layout around a garden in the back of the resort. A cottage would be available on Tuesday.

While this was frustrating, we weren't going to let this ruin our vacation. So we dropped off our stuff and wandered the resort landscape, ate dinner, and we were in bed before 10pm. Unfortunately, the 'Court Yard Rooms' included on the second floor the residence of the resort entertainment staff, so we awoke a few times that night to the sounds of a party on the second floor, but we were so tired we prompty fell back asleep.

On Monday, we were comp'd a trip to Dunn's River Falls (due to the cottage problem). This is a national park in Jamaica and, in the list of things that you would not be allowed to do in the US due to litigation, they let you start at the beach and hike up the falls. We started with a group, but that was pretty slow so we mostly forged our own more interesting paths. A couple pictures from that trip are below.

We went on a resort guided bike tour off of resort grounds. We went to a public beach and stuck like bright orange thumbs. On the way back we were allowed to stroll through the remains (once again, probably not encouraged in the states) of a bar and grill that was wrecked by Hurricane Gilbert. I was able to get a couple pictures of the wreckage as well as j's picture with a ocean cruiser over her shoulder.

We also went scuba diving. There was another couple (he was Polish, not sure where she was from) that did the first dive with us. We went about 60' to see the wreckage of about a 100' long boat and 2 ganja planes (drug running planes that crashed into the bay). There was a 3rd plane with no explanation, so I think they were on too much ganja to count the correct number of planes. After that dive, the couple we were with apparently partied hard the night before, and were too sick for the second dive. The second dive was only 30' deep and the visibility was down, but it was good to get some bottom time since we hadn't dove in 3 years.

We were finally moved to a cottage on Thursday (naturally), but as some compensation, we were given a cottage on the beach, actually next to our favorite pier on the resort (complete with a large 'sofa' on the end). Like I said, we were annoyed by the delay in the move, but we weren't going to let it ruin our time. We spent most of our time being lazy and reading (I actually read 2 and a half books over the week, j read like 5) or using the sporting facilities and boats of the resort. All-inclusive means I ate like a fat man all week.

On our final night, we had a comp'd taxi ride to the city of Ocho Rios to eat at an Indian restaurant. I have declared this a tradition whenever we go the Caribbean after we did the same on the last day of our honeymoon. The food was good, and I think I more there than I did at all of the buffets we had eaten the whole week. We were dressed up and j look beautiful, so it was fun night.

We flew home on Saturday, got our luggage at 11:20 and our cabbie reached 90mph to get us to our house and Max by 11:30.

2. Sociopolitical Implications of the Trip

This is related to t's post on his recent trip to Jamaica.

It's hard not to feel at least a little guilty living this way in Jamaica. When you fly into Montego Bay Airport, you board a tour bus on your way to your resort, the first thing we saw was a significantly large shanty-town on a nearby hill. On our nearly 1.5 hr trip, I saw several incomplete houses and signs of poverty on one side, and huge resorts and gated communities of mansions on the other. Once on resort property, there was a gate with a guard, and you weren't really encouraged to wander off the property (unless with a representative of the staff).

Other than those trips mentioned above, I only went off of the resort once to look at what was behind the resort (a 3rd fllor sports bar and a general store). I was approach by several people as I went towards the store for a taxi drive at a fairer rate (possibly true, but I wasn't very likely to hop in an unmarked car with my wife to go joy riding across Jamaica). I was also asked if I was looking for anything 'special,' which I took to mean pot.

Also, I was able to avoid the tourist trap souvenir shops except when we went to Dunn's River Falls, which put a market between you and the exit. My problem with these places is that the shopkeepers have apparently been taught the hard sell, and not that many Americans enjoy browsing at their own pace to find something of interest. They were like sales associates at a Victoria's Secret the way the accost you as soon as you walk by their booth (on a side note, I looked all over for an article I read years ago online from a guy that threaten his wife that the next associate that approached them was going to be greeted with him present the 2 nearest thongs asking "Which of these will get me harder?" if he wasn't allowed to exit immediately. I can't help but laugh every time I uncomfortably enter a Victoria's Secret and am instantly confronted by a worker. Leave me alone!).

All of this makes me feel very uneasy with the general public of Jamaica, which I think is a bad strategy. The resort setup makes you feel unsafe when your off the resort, which I'm sure most of Jamaican's will be more than pleasant people to interact with. When everyone accosts you, it makes you not want to go all the way up to the 3rd floor sports bar to see if they have ESPN2 so you can watch the Louisville-Providence game. I liked that there was almost always 'Jamaican' style food available at our buffets and one of the sit-down restaurants on the campus. I would be curious how much of the food is actually imported, I would imagine most of it, which also doesn't benefit the general Jamaican public. It just seems like there are better ways to benefit from vacationers without setting up small fiefdoms where tourists don't feel very comfortable leaving.

3. Usain Bolt's High School

We past Usain Bolt's high school on the way to our resort, complete with a grass track. I don't know how much of a start he got there but it's interesting to see the facilities that spawned such a great talent, while high schools in the states have composite track surfaces for much slower athletes.

It was a fun trip, nice to get away for a while. Unfortunately, now it's back to work.

I'm still alive, and plan to post soon

2009-02-24T10:12:00.002-05:00

But until then, listening to Appetite for Destruction in lab today reminded me of this, remember when autoreverse was one of the greatest inventions for audio devices? You could finally listen to your favorite tapes without flipping at the end of side A. I think I wore out my brother's copy of AfD listening to it while playing video games back in the day.

This is my friend d, he quotes movies...

2009-02-12T13:04:00.002-05:00

This is how t used to introduce me to his friends when we first started hanging out in college. He will still use it occasionally in a disapproving tone when he feels that I am quoting movies too much.

Well, I was in rare form today at lunch. Ranting from how bad the subplots were in 24 (to the point where I stop watching) to the fact that HAN SHOT FIRST! Yeah, I know, I need to use my brain for the powers of good.

Math is a difference of opinion...

2009-02-07T07:50:00.003-05:00

This is unbelievable. I can feel his frustration with the fact that these people are idiots and there's nothing he can do...

UPDATE:
So apparently this from a few years ago. You can follow the sequence of events here. With perhaps the best reply here from xkcd.

Sports Perfection Can't Last Forever

2009-02-04T00:13:00.005-05:00

So, my the great run of my favorite sports teams had to end at some point, and that was yesterday when UConn beat the crap out of Louisville. More on that in a minute.

1) Steelers win the Super Bowl!

So I went to a CHEGA (Chem Eng Grad Assoc) Super Bowl party decked out in my 1980's Steelers knit cap (complete with poof ball on top), Greg Lloyd jersey, and Starter Steelers windbreaker (the last two from my high school days). j and I were the only ones with team colors and an active cheering interest in the game at the party but it was lots of fun.

I don't know about the greatest Super Bowl ever, but it was a great 4th quarter and the return by Harrison has definitely the best defensive play I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. It was great to see Roethlisberger lead the Steelers back in the 4th quarter as he had several times this year (just ask the Ravens, Cowboys, and Chargers). It was also nice to see him pick a secondary apart in that drive as much as he did my Louisville Cardinals in the 2003 GMAC Bowl.

2) The Kurt Warner Fumble

I was surprise during the game that the play wasn't reviewed on the field, but I thought it was a fumble. I just figured they'd take a look in order to make it look good. They didn't, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are now all these conspiracy theories on how the NFL phoned it in for the Steelers.

First of all, if they had phoned it in for the Steelers, then the first TD would not have been called back and they would not have called a holding penalty in the endzone. Secondly, it was reviewed in the booth, by a veteran (retired on-field NFL official) official, whom I have met several times, during a long break between the plays due to the change of possession and the administering of the celebration penalty, he just determined that it was a fumble and didn't buzz the on-field crew. Nothing wrong with that, just would have looked better if they had look at it on the field to confirm.

Then I come home to this shit:

It was obvious even at full speed that his arm was going forward. I hate to be the “NO ONE CAN DISPUTE THIS!” guy, but honestly, no one can dispute this.

It is very easy to dispute. The VP of NFL Officiating, Mark Pereira, actually does a great job discussing that play and several others (like explaining how the officials missed the celebration using the ball as a prop). Basically, you see the ball shift in his hand when Woodley hits Warner. Even though his arm moves forward and the ball goes in the same direction, doesn't mean he has control anymore. More like a basketball pass (at least for me since I can't palm a ball).

It should have been reviewed, but the call would not have changed.

3) Louisville finally lost again last night to a UConn team that was way better. It was TWill and 4 guys playing like I would against a 7'3" center, clueless. I read some fans complaining about the discrepancy in fouls, but when you settle for forced, fadeaway, outside jumpers instead of attacking the rim, you are not going to get fouled. Louisville is still a flawed team, since we can't shoot all that well, and we're relying on so much youth in the post.

I'd like Scott Padgett to teach Samardo Samuals his jump hook while leaning into the shot blocker to take away the space that a shot blocker needs to operate. Padgett was only 2 inches taller than SamSam, but had far superior footwork and post moves. Then again, Padgett was raised by a basketball coach and Samardo has been playing organized ball about 5 years.

TWill still looks great. Clark still looks like he's trying to discover what he does best. I had hoped he figured it out during the NCAA Tournament run he had last year, but he still needs work. He had one really good drop step move yesterday, didn't finish, mostly he settled for long range jump shots.

Oh well, enough for now. I'm going to bed.

Iconic Photos in Louisville Sports

2009-01-27T22:31:00.005-05:00

I've kind of had the goal of making a tribute poster/display of the quintessential Louisville athletes. It would include these. I'm open to suggestions.

Ali (Clay at the time)-Liston

Best sports picture of all time. If you ever see the video, his arm is only in that position for an instant as he's yelling at Liston to get up. The picture caught Ali as both the amazing physical being and the world's greatest trash talker.

Secretariat at the Belmont

I don't know what I like more, the jockey taking a peak at the splits on the clock to see if he is going to take the record (he did) or the announcer's "...he is moving like a tremendous machine." line.

Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson

The importance of just being human. Continuing with one of the themes that I had last week on not having the time/what would I have done, Pee Wee Reese took a bold step during a game at Cincinnati early in Jackie Robinson's career. The fans were harassing (to put it mildly) Jackie in every way possible, and Pee Wee (a Southerner) simply went out and put his around Jackie like it was no big deal. This simple act was the beginning of the acceptance of Jackie in major league baseball, but Pee Wee always insisted he was just trying to be human. The world should follow his example.

Mary T Meagher Butterfly Mid-Stroke

While the photo isn't iconic, Mary T is. She will always be the "Madame Butterfly" to me. Her records in the 100m and 200m butterfly set a standard so high that they would not be broken for nearly 20 years (which is ridiculous in speed events). I haven't been able to find the article, but I remember reading in 1996 that when she carried the torch en route the Atlanta Olympics (where she now lives), her neighbors didn't realize that she was a gold medal athlete and (at the time) still held world records. I appreciate that type of modesty, but I must say the neighbors did ask her if she was interested in coaching the neighborhood swim team after that.

Darrell Griffith 1980 Championship

I was thinking that I should probably have a picture of Dr. Dunkenstein dunking the ball, but really this picture (I wish it was larger) is really what it's all about. Can you imagine, leading your home town team, to it's first ever national championship, being the star player? The feeling must be somewhere beyond elation around perfect (although, 2 others were close if Bush could have stayed healthy with Brohm in 2006).

From Fun Vampires via Geekadelphia: "Star Wars: Retold By Someone Who Hasn’t Seen It"

2009-01-23T14:52:00.001-05:00

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Wow. That's great.

UPDATE: I don't know if I like the Keep the Faith reference or Hans Solo the best.

I'm Confused by Regulators...

2009-01-22T10:54:00.002-05:00

So the same people that couldn't figure out if Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme and failed entirely to deal with the subprime mortgage market are going to investigate the way Apple disclosed Steve Jobs' illness. Am I the only one that is a little confused by this. Do I really want regulators to go into someone's medical records? I used to have faith that they have some knowledge in accounting (apparently they don't), but I know they don't know dick about medicine.

Will I always "too busy"?

2009-01-19T21:15:00.005-05:00

Of the long list of rather arbitrary national holidays, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Patriot Day, President's Day, etc; I don't really care that much for them or care about their origins and only mildly about their purpose. While Memorial Day is supposed to be in remembrance of soldiers that have died in battle, it's mostly seen as the beginning of Summer. Likewise, Labor Day is more of a celebration of the end of summer. The one national holiday that I was always a big fan of was MLK, Jr Day.

As a suburban white kid from Louisville that grew up in the 80s, I have no real connection to King. But I've always appreciated the way that he, and many others in the civil rights movement, practiced nonviolent, civil disobedience. His talent as an orator, both brilliant and lyrical, will still bring tears to my eyes. During college and while we still lived in Louisville, I would often use MLK Day to read some of his speeches and essays online. I would often ask myself what I would have done during that time. I definitely think a lot of white America has a very sanitized memory of King. The peace loving preacher with a dream, not the boat rocking rabble-rouser that spoke out vehemently against prejudice, the Vietnam War, and Labor rights.

Since moving from Louisville, my experience on MLK day has been different. While at Northwestern, it was not a holiday. They did suspend classes from 10-2 and had Yolanda King (his daughter) speak, but I found it strange that school was still on. In Philly, it is a holiday at school, but I have found that I'm constantly busy with research, and have not been able to dedicate time and energy to thinking about these issues and ideas.

I like the new focus of MLK Jr Day. Now declared to be "a day of service" in remembrance of King. Now this is definitely a more worthy cause than the cookouts that I would celebrate on Memorial and Labor Days (not that those weren't fun, Word up Dupree Park!). But I find that I've been too busy to participate. Today, I had to finish a paper and maintain my cells I have growing for my experiments. In the 60s, would I have stood up for what was right, or would I have been too busy?

Or is too busy just an excuse?

The end of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's prophetic last speech from the day before he died:

R.I.P. Khan

2009-01-14T17:44:00.004-05:00

In the pitch arguments of Star Wars fans and Trekkies, I was always on the side of Star Wars. During my youth, I always loved the Star Wars trilogy. By far more entertaining, the toys rocked, and who didn't make believe about their own light saber battles (that's why this commercial is so frustratingly off target, they start off so close to my childhood, it isn't a magic screen, their graphics are a lot closer to my childhood dreams, a handheld device in which a blade of light extends about 1 meter).

I was just never into the Star Trek franchise. Growing up with the special effects of Star Wars, the TV series from the late 60s just couldn't do it for me. I tried to watch the movies (although never really the Next Generation), but the action lacked the thrill I got from the Star Wars scenes. The first movie was kind of cheesy in it's premise of the Voyager spacecraft returning. Don't even get me started on installments 3-5.

The one exception was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The villain was cooler, not a race belligerent aliens, but a genetically engineered human. The stakes were high (Spock's "needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, or the one"), and who doesn't love Shatner's furious "KHAN!!!" (heard at the end of the trailer here)? I remember being paranoid about bugs crawling into my ears for years after this movie.

I bring this up for two reasons. Today, Ricardo Montalban, the actor that played Kahn, passed away at age 88. I also remember him fondly as the villain from the first Naked Gun movie. And secondly, I am now looking forward to the release of the new Star Trek movie and think that everything coming out of the Skywalker Ranch nowadays is complete crap. Go figure.

Best quote from last night's game

2009-01-13T10:56:00.004-05:00

"Somebody needs to call a timeout now. Not strategically. I wanna see that replay, Earl Clark dunking on the whole building." -Jay Bilas

You can witness it here:

The quote is around 1:05. More importantly, the replays start at 2:20. It prompted 2 phone calls from my brother e and to t. And I got Ris's claws in my legs when he jumped off my lap in a panic from my yelling.

Go Cards! After 2 tough games, you now have #1 Pitt on Saturday...

I'm not dead yet.

2009-01-12T17:55:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I haven't had time to blog much lately. I hope to have some real original content soon. Until then just some quick notes.

1. I hate being in a situations in which I have to be the dick neighbor.

2. Big East basketball is going to give me a heart attack watching the Cards this season. Was at the Nova-UL game on Saturday (Thank you RC from College Park for the ticket) and I felt like a thief on my way out. (if you missed it, UL held on by one weathering 2 missed FT and 2 missed shots <2 ft from the basket) Whew, got one there, now we just have #12 Notre Dame and #1 Pitt this week.

3. I still hate writing, I hid myself in the Fine Arts Library today to get some work done. It worked for a while until I think they turned the heat off.

Go Cards! Go Steelers!

Blogs to come: Why I don't want to join Facebook and Why I have to be a dick neighbor (possibly, unless I can avoid it).

To 10 years with a faithful companion

2009-01-02T16:44:00.004-05:00

Since 1998, I have had my red hoodie as my old standby clothing of choice. j gave it to me for our first Christmas, and hoodies were always a a staple of my wardrobe. I liked the simplicity of the "LOUISVILLE" over a negative image "1798" (these were made for the bicentennial celebration of the founding of the University of Louisville) embroidered on the left breast.

It has served me well in many different adventures, from San Francisco...

...to the falls near Lake Bled in Slovenia.

I was glad a couple years ago when I was in Boston meeting t and his brother d for lunch at Quincy Market, the first reaction I got from d after not seeing him for about 2 years was a deep belly laugh and "The red hoodie." Not being 6'5" with red hair, it was the only way to find me in a crowd.

So here's to you red Louisville hoodie, for the many years (and some memorable UL victories). Hopefully there are many more in your future (I've looked for similar replacements, and current choices lack the minimalism of its design).

Merry Christmas to all...

2008-12-25T14:29:00.004-05:00

and if you get cold, be sure you get your Snuggie...

I know I hate it when my arms get "trapped" in my blanket. I love infomercials during Christmas day programming.

Flashbacks or Flashforwards?

2008-12-16T09:58:00.003-05:00

I would say I followed pro football most religiously during my high school years. By far my favorite player to watch was Barry Sanders, simply because he could make a 1 yd loss look like the best football play ever and he was always a threat to break it for TD. I was very disappointed when he retired early, but there's hope yet. Here are some clips of the Oklahoma AA State Football Championship game. The first one is vintage Barry Sanders... perhaps because it's Barry Sanders Jr, a freshman.

Insult to Injury

2008-12-10T22:33:00.002-05:00

They cancel Pushing Daisies, but they can find a place for f#&@ing Homeland Security USA. Screw you ABC.

Long week...

2008-12-05T09:34:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving was lots of fun. I seemed to spend it playing with nephews or friend's sons and/or hanging out with people who are expecting. Unfortunately I did not get to see Luis LaMachina and his daughter, but hopefully during Xmas.

I was finally able to catch my (then) #3 ranked Louisville Cardinals play basketball on Sunday. First time this year since they don't broadcast games in Philly for some reason, and the first time I got to see the Freshman Phenom, Samardo Samuels. Needless to say, just my luck, they would lay an egg and look absolutely horrible (shooting 27% from the field including 6-30 from 3pt). Samuels was decent when he got the ball, but absolutely posterized trying to dunk when he was blocked. Here's an idea, if you can't hit a 3, try something new. Damnit basketball, you were supposed to be my outlet!

Flew back on Monday to Philly, which meant we were delayed. Had to take j to the airport for a course in Orlando on Tuesday afternoon, which means my insomnia has been with me ever since (I'm pathetic). Have been working on a paper so I've been reading multiple papers that are now a mismatch of random sentences in my head now. Finally sat down to relax last night to witness the absolute shellacking of Louisville football (0-49 at the half!). Ended up watching 'The Right Stuff' on AMC. Made me feel a little better.

Thoughts before heading home for Thanksgiving...

2008-11-26T22:46:00.002-05:00

1. If you have a spare hour to waste, try reading this. The author found some of the people who actually saw the markets for what they were, and were probably able to make a boatload of money betting against the market. Interesting how even though they couldn't figure everything out beforehand, they were able to piece together enough details by (a) paying attention to who was getting these loans (i.e. people who can never afford to pay these loans) and (b) talking to some of the people that were actually making the sausage (especially the people that were chopping up junk mortgages and able to sell them as AAA bonds). The information was out there, few were willing to look for it. Very telling to me is Eisman's quote:

“That Wall Street has gone down because of this is justice. They fucked people. They built a castle to rip people off. Not once in all these years have I come across a person inside a big Wall Street firm who was having a crisis of conscience.”

2. The way they are currently structured, I realize that a bailout of the auto industry doesn't make sense. They definitely need some new leadership and a change in the corporate philosophy. But isn't it weird how everyone is up in arms about a $25B loan, when we seem to be shoveling that much out a week for the financial sector. At least with the auto makers I can see the results (workers employed, products manufactured).

3. I figure j will blog about it eventually, but we are both disappointed in the cancellation of "Pushing Daisies." I guess there's not enough demand for whimsy in the world. That's sad.

4. I'm looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving. It's been one of longer stretches without going home since moving to Philly. I have too many young nephews to be gone this long. They're going to forget who I am.

5. Is it just me, or is Obama dipping a little too much from the Clinton era cronies? Pretty much the entire economic team is from the Clinton team, but not from the Robert Reich side.

6. Thank goodness for basketball season. I don't think I can stand much more U of L football.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Executive Culture at GM

2008-11-23T09:59:00.002-05:00

Last week, Mitt Romney made an appeal for bankruptcy for the Big 3 was the only way to allow them to survive.

This blog will make you feel even more unsure that even that will help without a change in the executive culture, at least for GM.

I'll admit I'm not sure what the answer is, but it most definitely should not involve the current leadership of these companies (or their private jets).

Why don't I watch the Mayne Street videos?

2008-11-21T15:46:00.003-05:00

I like Kenny Mayne's weird sense of humor. I like to watch Sportscenter and most the games that ESPN covers. I get infuriated when I go to ESPN.com and the main page is covered with Mayne Street video stuff.

Why can't they just talk about sports? Why is this front and center? Why can't I bring myself to even watch one video?

I love Liz Lemon...

2008-11-20T22:45:00.005-05:00

Liz Lemon from 30 Rock about the relationship she's looking for:

"I just wish I could really start a relationship about 12 years in.
You really don’t have to try anymore.
And you can just sit around together and goof on TV shows.
And then go to bed without anyone trying any funny business."

She says this as j and I sit on the couch together, goofing on the Office and 30 Rock, and j is now going to bed as I stay up to watch The Daily Show.

PostScript j and I made it in 10 years.

Colbert Report

2008-11-15T19:39:00.001-05:00

He really gets going 2/3 of the way through, but this was pretty brilliant.

Pop Quiz...

2008-11-12T15:47:00.004-05:00

The above map is:

A) The Presidential map of Election map.
B) The TV ratings for the 2007 World Series
C) The percentage of state population above 30 BMI in 2006.

(The answer is C)

You can really breakdown the scary epidemic of obesity through the last 20 years here at the CDC website.

Compare that map to this map:

What does it mean?

Election day nearing and other thoughts...

2008-11-03T17:36:00.005-05:00

Election day is tomorrow, and if you are like me, you're starting to get nervous because Obama is predicted to win and you just know it's too good to be true. My own thoughts are that he should win, if it's close, we'll have to sit through weeks of tit for tat, so I'm hoping a fairly convincing win. Either way, whoever wins, it's not really the best environment to be elected because you promised a lot of things and the economy is just not set up for those programs to go through. So some quick thoughts:

1) For me the election is about whether you think that the country needs to make a fundamental change of direction. If this is the case, then you should be for Obama. If you think it's going the right direction but there have been just a few bad actors, vote for McCain. While I think Obama will largely bring symbolic change, but only incremental actual change (he's largely consensus building and risk averse), I think (hope) it will signal an end (lessening more likely) of the culture wars of the 60s. I'm sick of fighting the same battles as my parents and think that younger voters are looking for a different model of government.

2) Part of my annoyance with the Republican party is that I feel like they lambast science and evidenced based research, and therefore me. The bashing of intellectualism has also been lamented by David Brooks, conservative columnist for the NY Times. Christopher Landing has been harsh on the McCain-Palin campaign, particularly Palin, for this, and two articles ago unleashed a torrid final paragraph that makes me feel a release but also fear that it has a little too much smugness in itself and risks the same ignorance of the opposing viewpoints, particularly if is not considered "intellectual" enough. There can still be validity in populist ideas, even if they are more conservative.

Final paragraph of Palin's War on Science:

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.

3) Charges of Obama being a socialist are way overblown. t gives a good rant on the idoicy of this argument.

4) At long last, have you no shame? Have you know decency? Where your tax dollars are going... socialism for the rich.

5) Rick Pitino had some interesting comments on what kills potential.

"There are four things that are killers of potential," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "One is drugs. Two is alcohol. Three is disrespecting women, and four is a lack of humility. You will never reach your potential if you think you've arrived before you have."

Should it be xRick Pitinox?

6) Some interesting detective work on the web for the origin of:

Rosa sat so Martin could walk.
Martin walked, so Obama could run.
Obama is running so our children can fly.

Peace. Go Obama.

My brother sent me this

2008-10-31T15:07:00.003-04:00

My brother, e, sent me this. Even Leo knows that Cards are going to be good this year.

Our Leader...

2008-10-30T18:12:00.001-04:00

Mayor Nutter about the celebrations for Phillies fans:

"You can be joyous. You can't be a jackass."

I knew I liked this guy for a reason.

Did it really have to be in Kentucky?

2008-10-29T14:47:00.002-04:00

Seriously, as in Raiders of the Lost Ark:

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

Kentucky. Why did it have to be Kentucky?

Wassup? Revisited.

2008-10-25T09:28:00.003-04:00

Saw this on the NY Times Caucus Blog. If you remember a few years ago:

Now there is an update with the same actors:

Funny, yet strangely effective.

Just under a month...

2008-10-14T19:01:00.004-04:00

Sorry, I've been really busy between school/research, football, and the fact that t and the td maker came in last weekend with their significant others. Some brief notes:

1. I still haven't gone all the way through the Science debate answers from the previous post (full disclosure I'm a strong Obama supporter). So far, I would have to say that in question 1 (innovation) I feel like Obama gives more detail about his view while McCain gives more of a generalized bullet list of ideas that left me wanting to know his exact commitment. Most imporatnatly I liked what Obama talked about (1) attracting more people to Science/Engineering and (2) increasing funding for younger faculty/researchers. I find the latter point to be crucial as I work for a younger faculty member and have a brother that fits that profile as well. Funding for research has been very tight for as long as they've been writing grants, often receiving good scores, but not high enough to qualify for the tight pool of available grant money. This will likely have the effect of driving young faculty away from jobs where we need them to develop young scientists and technology. There are some opporunities in the private sector, but a lot of the basic science and technology breakthroughs have been developed at the academic or government intitutional level until they are able to exist in the marketplace.

On Question 2, they were both pretty close with similar plans and goals for a cap-and-trade system to control the release of greenhouse gases, but I still feel that the philosophy of "Drill baby, drill!" (which may have come after these answers) counteracts McCain's argument. The more you profess that drilling is a solution to energy, the more you demonstrate your unwillingness to catagorically change this nation's reliance on greenhouse emitting technologies.

Question 3 mentions the energy question directly. A lot of long range plans (and strangely, not a peep from McCain on Off-shore drilling) but I'm not convinced there is much you can do immediately other than change people's attitude towards driving everywhere. The only way that has worked is to have $4 gas, and neither one of these two are going to increase gas taxes to guarantee high prices at the pump. In the end, they're both hoping for technology to come up with a magic bullet that will allow us to not change our lifestyle and consume 80% less energy while doing it.

2. Found this article on Slate today, and I must say I've often felt the same way about most baseball commentary. I guess it's hard to compare because football lends itself to film breakdown so much, and baseball doesn't really have many plays (and when they do, things like hit-and-run are pretty self explanatory). Basketball can be pretty similar as well. Just putting some former players up there isn't really enough for me to feel like they are experts. Most don't have the skills (at least not for the first couple years) required to hold cognant thoughts on live television (as I would assume I would not). Breaking down film is common for football players starting in high school, so that part is pretty natural, and the communication of that is the only limitation. But it's not like they have to explain physics here, it's football and it's pretty straight forward. Baseball appears to want to just put anybody on who used to play and they can say whatever they. A weird exception for me is Rob Dibble when he used to be on the Dan Patrick show. I enjoyed his self-deprecating descriptions of life as a relief pitcher and being asked to come in just to hit an opposing player. Gave me better insight on a lot of the grandstanding and tit-for-tat in baseball.

3. It was fun having some old friends in this past weekend. t, came down from Boston with his gf k, keeps you on your toes at all times and is great for striking up conversations with random strangers. He was able to get us some unique perspective of the early congress from a park ranger at the Independence Hall here in Philly (and maybe it was even true). Apparently, people were allowed to be on the floor with the reps in the old days, but they (being Philadelphians) were a little to in your face and opinionated (and they probably booed everything; the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, syphilis) so they had to put the visitors in a gallery just to get work done. Having lived here for over 3 years now, it's not entirely surprising. I'm impressed with the ease at which k deals with t. Always good to see him get as good as he gives.

The td maker and wife were impressively able to keep up with us city folk (from the suburbs of St Louis) as we made them do a decent amount of walking and, at least once, standing while waiting to eat at Sabrina's Cafe. Unfortunately, Mrs td maker was not able to coexist with Ris (j's cat, I don't claim him) so they had to stay at a hotel, but the rest of the time was a lot of fun. Some national history and lots of good food (Reading Terminal Market, the Italian Market, and Pat's King of Steaks were raided). Here's a photo that t had a stranger walking by take...

All-in-all a fun weekend, but now I need to recover.

Science Debate 2008

2008-09-15T22:26:00.005-04:00

I recently became aware of this website from Talk of the Nation: Science Friday (if you like science, you're already listening, if you're not, shame on you). They were pushing to get the presidential candidates to discuss issues of science. They were not able to get an actual debate, but they were able to get the candidates to reply to a 14 question survey (you can read the complete answers on the website, or the NY Times gives an overview here). I want to read all the answers before really commenting (unfortunately, I have my own science to worry about now), but I would like to hear other peoples opinions of their answers.

On a side note, someone in the lab played the song below and it reminded me that 2 of my first 3 cars had bench seating, and my Dad always had a full size truck, so I've always been kind of anti-bucket seat.

"I need you here with me, not way over in bucket seat"
(oh yeah, if you can't tell, j's out of town...)

Taking Umbrage

2008-09-09T23:54:00.005-04:00

(Once again written without j's edits)

A few months ago, the Slate Political Gabfest had an abbreviated discussion how campaigning nowadays seemed to be two rival camps fighting over who could take umbrage with what the other was saying. And you scored more points by whoever was dealt the bigger slight. Today, Obama, talking about the McCain repackaging themselves as the change campaign, compared it to putting lipstick on pig (it's still a pig). The McCain campaign came out demanding an apology to Gov. Palen, obviously this is a slight on her due to her pit bull/lipstick comment. Well, come to find out, he wasn't discussing Palin at all, and McCain had already said the exact same thing when discussing Hillary's health care plan. Oops.

On a side note, how do other people feel about all the knocks on community organizers that came out during the RNC? During the Palin speech, I sent the following text to t "I feel like the community organizer is important to black communities. Are the shots at it latent racism?" I have since discussed it with my bro e, and read this article here from the conservative point of view. I wasn't totally convinced that it wasn't.

It's seems to me that 'community organizer' as a (job) title, is more of an urban/minority phenomenon. Their purpose is to work with the community to better its people working with people in power whether they be private or public, so that meant working with landlords, businesses, state and local government. In some ways, I agree that (similar to the article) it is similar to a lobbyist, but isn't it inherently more noble to be a lobbyist for the poor than for for large corporations? They also took exception to his taking a job and declaring himself a C.O. rather than the community selecting him. But that was the jobwe was hired to do by (according to Wikipedia) Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland. So churches pooled together to hire someone who the thought would be most effective for better their members/community, nothing inherently wrong with that (I don't think there is inherently anything wrong with lobbyists, until they get disproportional amounts of power/access and actually start writing law).

Finally, I'm not sold on their argument that we see a racial tone to it just because our preconceived notion of the C.O. is that of an African American, that was just the fault of our own experience. They are declaring that the Chicken definitely came before the egg, hopign that we will not delve deaper into the origins of the chicken. I would argue that they had to same prejudice, and by invoking it knew they were pushing some racial buttons. But maybe I'm just taking umbrage...

Forgotten weekend madness...

2008-09-08T18:18:00.002-04:00

So recently my laptop started having some issues. First the power cord started to fray right at the plug into the computer and a crack propagated along the right hinge. Naturally this was exactly one month after the warranty/service plan ran out from Dell, so to replace it was going to be pretty expensive. It's also been running progressively slower, as everything that runs Windows seems to do with time. So after talking with Dell, it was apparent that they don't even make the back of the displays that I would have to buy in order to repair the problem. So I started researching buying a new one, although I didn't want to spend $1100-1500 for the prepackaged computers from Penn, especially since Dell and Lenovo are both releasing new versions of their platforms.

So I looked on some message boards and found a site that had some surplus Dell parts, and found my 'backsplash' (what we called the electronics part on the back of Washers/Dryers at GE). While researching how to replace the display cover, I discovered I'd be exposing my RAM as well. So I found the RAM I needed to be dirt cheap now, so I ordered 4x my current RAM and a new external hard drive to also quadruple my current capacity.

After ordering all the parts, Saturday morning, I got up early, took apart my computer, install the new components and now my laptop is fixed and running faster, and hopefully I bought 2-3 more years for it. It's amazing how good you feel when you do something not really that difficult (I am an engineer for Pete's sake) but it saves you around $1000 and it's a little out of your normal comfort zone.

Weekend madness...

2008-09-07T23:01:00.007-04:00

So a few thoughts from this weekend. (warning, j usually proofreads, and she's asleep, please forgive my stream of consciousness writing)

1. Yesterday, j and I went up to our old neighborhood, Manayunk, to watch the Red Bull Soapbox Race. Now you might have seen their commercials where people construct creative soapboxes and race them down hills or fly off a ramp (and come crashing into water). Well, I don't know about the hills they use in those commercial, but this one is known as "The Wall," a 17% grade at parts, and I've seen estimates of 10-14% for the ~1/2 mile hill. Plus, you need to factor in the remnants of hurricane Hannah, which made the event (and the spectating) that much more adventurous. There were several interesting designs, you can find pictures here (not ours, we didn't take many trying not to ruin our camera); but our favorites included:

Great Scott!: Doc Brown going down in the Delorean after filling up "Mr Fushion" with Red Bull

The Whack-a-Mole-bile: Had a fun little act before they ran down the hill.

Cheesesteak Chariot: A cheesesteak with a bucket-o-fries trailer.

There were some scary looking tumbles (a Jacko running off with a baby carriage went down at breakneck speed and went head over heels after finishing with the best time at that point), we were completely soaked, but a good time was had by all.

2. We've recently been hooked on Mad Men. It's very differently paced (ie kind of slow/deliberate) than most shows I watch, but the main character has kind of a George Clooney appeal to him. Since we've started watching, we've been exposed to different commercials, but this is by far the best thing I never knew existed:

I never knew that General Hospital Night Shift existed, but this is great in a terrible type of way. As j said, "I thought that was called Grey's Anatomy."

3. The Louisville Cardinals can still score, if they play a team as bad as Tennessee Tech. The verdict is still out for this team, but the Big East is really down this year. So we might still have a chance to compete. The St Louis Cardinals finally started to crack (actually about 3 weeks ago, they actually won two this weekend) after a season where they've exceeded expectations. Since the All Star break, even Pujol's .375/.467/.716 can't carry this bullpen or a rotation that just missed Wainwright for too long and never really got Carpenter back. Here's hoping for both of them to come back healthy next season, where I think we can really compete again.

Have a busy week coming up, but have many thoughts about the campaign and my first campaign donation of my life I hope to blog on this week...

Careful what you pray for...

2008-09-01T12:19:00.002-04:00

After suggesting that they pray for rain for Obama's nomination speech, and getting perfect weather, it makes you wonder what the hurricane means for the GOP? By his own logic, if it had rained during Obama, as God deemed proper, then it would be good. Then the fact that the weather was perfect and now a hurricane is interrupting the Republican Convention, I guess God must want him to vote for Obama. I'll be holding my breath.

Side note...

2008-09-01T07:44:00.002-04:00

After hearing several times about Palin's choice not too abort a baby with Down Syndrome, I was really curious how common this was. Found this referenced in wikipedia that reviewed literature that found 90-93% of pregnancies are terminated after diagnosis of Down Syndrome. I must admit that I was shocked it was that high. Not exactly sure how I feel about that.

In search of the center?

2008-08-31T11:49:00.007-04:00

I'm constantly on the lookout for truly unbiased reporting and political coverage. I am currently screening about 15 political podcasts, visiting various political blogs, and many mass media websites looking for anything that consistently delivers news and commentary not from talking points. I understand that people observe things from a point of view so they are naturally going to be predisposed towards one way of thinking. But it just gets old and I get tired of watching it, especially if it seems centralized where everyone is saying the same crap. Current things on my mind to illustrate this. (full disclosure, I am pro-Obama, but this race would be a lot more interesting if he ran against 2000 McCain, whom I found a far superior candidate than 2008 McCain)

Obama's nomination speech
It was a good speech. The visual of an African American being nominated as the presidential candidate with a legit shot was incredible. But I'm not sure that there will be much text from the actual speech that will be remembered. It served two purposes: (1) to give details to Obama's policies he'd like to enact and (2) to try an paint the two sides of this election as they would want us to see it (basically McCain = Bush and Obama = change). While I thought it was fairly effective in that manor, I don't believe that there was the oratory that accompanied it that we will remember for generations (nor do I think it needed to, the above subjects do not lend themselves to lines that withstand the tests of time, they are written for the moment).

Most of the initial commentaries about the speech were favorable, even from some of the Right hosts. But now there seems to be camps were Left writers are declaring its greatness (although most are just happy to see Obama showing he's willing to fight McCain) or Right columnists decrying it for not being as good as MLK's "I have a dream speech" or for not overtly referencing it (one of my podcasts, can't remember which on or I'd link it). I personally appreciated the subtle subtext as not to beat you over the head with the obvious.

In the end the speech was effective, it was good, now I'm interested to see more.

Sarah Palin's Nomination

I'll admit freely, that my first reaction to this, even though I was at least familiar with the name due to all the aforementioned podcasting, was "that was a mistake." I've been trying to find information about her, but I really don't get it. I think she helps a lot with the Republican/Evangelical base, but I'm not sold that she will help with Hillary supporters. As the Daily Show noted, she is in every way Hillary's ideological opposite (other than "internal plumbing"). I think the best McCain can hope is that they don't vote/organize for Obama.

But it's really interesting once again how ideology determines what one is willing to legitimize for someone you support vs someone that you oppose. I call this the "What if Bill Clinton had done (fill in Bush mistake/overreach here)?" You see this all the time with scandals, where it's okay/not as bad when my side does it and it is the end of the world/you sleep with the devil if the other side does it. It all wears me out.

Now I believe that it is fair to criticize Obama on experience because he is so new, and pert of his task is to convince voters that his judgment trumps his lack of experience. As little experience as Obama has, I would say it is more relevant on the national/international stage than Palin's. When they first made the announcement, I literally heard a supporter point to her (1) governorship (fine) (2) mayoral experience (still fine) and (3) her PTA experience (what?!? really?),

I went to one Right political blog and found this "Tale of the tape" between Barack and Palin. Come on, this is just ridiculous. First of all, there's just problems with math (mayor 1996-2002, then the next item declares mayor for 10 years). Then there's omissions (ignore's Obama's first job in private sector with Business International Corp; gives Palin credit for going to Kuwait to visit National Guard troops, but not Obama who spent a week going through all of these same places, visiting soldiers, draining 3s, and then got himself stuck in a damned if he did, damned if he didn't pickle on visiting the soldiers (for future reference, always err on the side of visiting soldiers); downplays work in Senate). I'm going to stop, but it just illustrates how people are willing/desire to only hear the views that already appeal to their own biases.

In the end, reading about Palin, I still think that it is a long shot. It totally takes away the experience line of attack. She genuinely seems to be a reformer and quite effective. Unfortunately, it appears that she took over a corrupt system with a constituency and other newly elected officials that were open to these changes. It is noted that she works well in bipartisan manners. Somehow I believe working with Dems from Alaska probably more like Governor of Montana (although I hope she's this entertaining), less like Dems from California or the northeast.

Interestingly, she gets credit for killing the bridge to nowhere, but I seem to remember the Federal government cut the funding first, leading to much hilarity. Evidence indicates that it was really more a lack of funds thing that killed it, not because it was a waste of money.

On an aside, on Left Right and Center on Friday, the Left wing rep compared her fight for Alaskan oil rights and more cash for residents to socialism. Actually, how is not socialism, someone explain this to me (I'm looking for the business major here, t).

Are you ready for some football?

2008-08-28T17:24:00.004-04:00

Well it's about that time again. For those of you who don't know, I have a second profession (seen in the background below). Have two games every weekend from now until the end of October, should be fun. The last two years I've had a week off in the middle for a wedding out of town, but this year I don't get any breaks. Be interesting to see if it gets tedious. Applied for college last year, I'll get observed this year and we'll see if I get invited to move up for next season. Maybe one of these days I'll work with my brother in a college game...

On a related note, UL opens their season on Sunday vs UK. All I have to say, there are some many questions on both sides of the ball for both teams that this game is impossible to call, and may be the sloppiest game ever. Weren't we in the Orange Bowl 2 years ago?

Go Cards!

This looks very disturbing...

2008-08-25T21:48:00.003-04:00

So I was at the store today, and saw this:

Chocolate Skittles. I have no idea on how this can possibly be good, and I have no intention of trying it. Really?!? Who's the marketing genius behind this one? The thing that works the best for Skittles is the fruity flavor with the chewiness (spelling?). I cannot think of any imaginable way that the experience with a chocolate flavor can be even swallowable (just making up words now).

On a related note, it did remind me of this linked post from thesupernicety. Probably one of my favorite non-t blogs ever.

Daily Show vs Colbert Report

2008-08-21T21:48:00.007-04:00

I'm absolutely amazed that these shows are as funny as they so consistently. I think that John Stewart does an amazing job delivering punchlines that you sometimes would almost rather cry about. The NY Times had a great article about the show last week. Worth the read if you missed it. It made me dig up the old episode from which he is obviously trying to suppress his rage with the subject at hand (Cheney) but still manages to do a better interview than most professional journalists that I hear on a daily basis.

The past week has seen this gem... "Oh war, you're just God's way of teaching Americans geography."

I love The Colbert Report for the fact that Colbert stays in character no matter how absurd. It's amazing. This Threatdown was great, by Number 3, j and I were in tears.

Check out my poll, and vote for your favorite.

I love the interweb...

2008-08-17T17:59:00.003-04:00

Although you do make me waste too much time...

I found this while on the NYTimes website the other day. The most recent article about renouncing his Star Wars fanhood is pretty spot on. But I then became somewhat addicted to the site as I read some previous articles because the guy has some fairly similar tastes in movies, I relate to being on the East Coast after growing up in the South/Midwest city that is Louisville (he's from St Louis), and he is a huge St Louis Cardinals fan.

I would like to point out that I do have to disagree slightly on The Phantom Menace in that the fight scene at the end between Darth Maul and Obi-wan and Qui-Gon saved the movie during the immediate aftermath because it remained the best fight scene in all 6 movies.

He writes for a website, and I've read a couple of his blogs. This one in particular is interesting because I largely had the same experience with "Rocky III" and "Tron;" and I rarely find anyone who references "The Last Starfighter." I will argue that "the Great Muppet Caper" has withstood the test of time for me. Maybe it's because my love for the simple humor of the Muppets (similar to my love for Homer Simpson), but I still love this movie.

Finally, I found this post from the first month of his blog with is absolutely hysterical if you go all the way to the end (and you are a St Louis fan)...

A few things on my mind...

2008-07-31T21:59:00.003-04:00

1. Well, I know I'm a nerd that works in a lab all day doing science. But this is funny:

Funny thing, I'm not using epMotion, but have been using automated pipetting devices lately, and they are wonderful.

2. Further proof that I am a nerd (as if you need more), this is a pretty great article too. I particularly like the line "Slower falling objects yielded comparatively piddly explosions."

3. What happens when the phrase 'jump the shark' well, you know, jumps the shark?

4. God help me, I live in a city that truly believes that Bon Jovi actually rocks. And now that the Philadelphia Soul (which he co-owns with Ron Jaworski) won the Arena Bowl, him and his music have been everywhere.

5. This is a never ending problem of mine. If you cook burgers and hot dogs over on a grill, THIS IS NOT A BARBEQUE!!! (It's a cookout, or I'll even accept that you are grilling out) Stupid Northeasterners.

6. I know I've mentioned this before, but I love my RSS feed from Geedadelphia. They keep me updated on cool things that people do with LEGOS, and of important things like the Bacon Alarm Clock (WAKE n' BACON).

7. Finally, I miss friends like The TD Maker and t because they keep my witty banter sharp and fresh. I feel like I've worn out my best material with people at work, and they don't seem to enjoy the verbal jousting.

Day/Night Doubleheader

2008-07-26T18:05:00.011-04:00

So, I love the fact that j is a sports fan who indulges me on my strange whims, even if I couldn't talk her in to the ultimate day-night doubleheader wedding with my friend since grade school, K and his wife A (instead we had weddings on successive days). Earlier this year, with all the talk about this being the last year of Yankee Stadium, I decided that we should make an effort to go up there before it happens (the same for Shea, but who really cares). I figured the best thing to do was to try and go up for a game during the week, because tickets on the weekend would be very expensive. Part of my scheme involved looking for dates in which both the Mets and Yankees were in town, so we could try and get them done in one shot. Then we just had to make sure j was post-call one of those days.

Wednesday, j got off of work and we drove up to New York to catch the Yankees-Twins game and then the Mets-Phillies game. It was supposed to rain, so I grabbed an umbrella, as we parked in Queens (for free) and took the subway to Yankee Stadium (number 7 to number 4)...

So here we are at Yankee Stadium
View from our seats

Attempted stitched panorama shot (poorly done)

Not that I'm a Yankees fan, but you really can't beat their history. Unfortunately we were never able to actually go down there to see everything, but here is Memorial Park from our seats.
Final score and the view of the fencing and All-Star Game logo.

We were able to see Rivera come in and pitch the final out, so that was pretty cool.
After the game, we hung out, took some more pictures, tried to stowaway onto a tour to see Monument Park, but they then denied us all because it was closed (?). Once the game ended, the stadium PA (btw, their announcer was as dynamic as the guy that does the Tom Shane jewelry commercials) played New York, New York on a continuous loop. By the third time, we were ready to run as far away as possible so I think it had its intended effect.

We took the 4 back to Grand Central Station, where we wandered around and got some dinner. I almost lost my surefire anti-rain device (having an umbrella on me keeps the rain away, without it it will rain), but a nice gentleman caught me as we were leaving. Then we took the number 7 to Shea for the nightcap. Shea was interesting, not as cool/historic as Yankee. Comes from the same mold as Veterans/Riverbend/Busch/3 Rivers. The lower part of each level is set up to be box seating, so that kind of reminded me of Churchill Downs (except with normal seats and not folding chairs).

Shea from the outside (actually on the way out)
Another poor attempt at a panorama shot.

Here we are in Shea.
Above the scoreboard in Shea, cool neon sign.

Thought this was a funny stat line after the first inning due to 4 walks and a fielder's choice, we had the rare 2 runs with no hits, no errors. Couldn't have happened to more of a wife beating douchebag, Brett Myers.
We left a little early (after Jose Reyes hit his decisive 3-run blast). On our way out, Mr Met says goodbye to j.

The rain held off all day until the ride home (even though the hour-by-hour forecast on weather.com was up to an 80% chance of rain by late afternoon). Got back late, but not unreasonably. It was a fun trip, but then again, I wasn't the one who had to be up around 5:30 the next morning. Thanks for going on these adventures with me j.

Funny how your opinions change according to your politics...

2008-06-27T07:53:00.003-04:00

Scalia, arguing against granting the writ of habeas corpus argued that this decision:

"...will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."
and
“The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today.”

While when you're talking about the DC gun ban, there doesn't seem to be a problem with striking down a popular law (which will also almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed). I just think that Scalia wrote the previous statement to be inflammatory and so that he could rub that in others' faces when an inevitable attack comes; and act he was so smart to predict and if we had done what he wanted, we could have prevented it. Basically I think Scalia is an egomaniacal twit; who, like every other person out there, has an opinion and is able to pick and choose the evidence to support his belief. All the while ignoring evidence (case law and crime statistics), that points to the contrary.

On a side note, I'm not a constitutional scholar/lawyer, I don't care for guns, and never plan to own a gun; but I certainly see where you can end up with the conclusion that there is an individual write to bear arms. My personal favorite logic, which is revolutionary in nature, is that if the people are armed they can rise up to overthrow a government that oppresses the people. Any government with a constitution that incorporates the mechanism for which its people can subvert itself is outstanding in my book. I don't think this is the original intent (most likely has to do with a regulated militia for defense against foreign enemies), but I enjoy that interpretation conceptually. Let's hope that one will never have to be put into action.

Fun with Google Maps Street View...

2008-06-20T17:44:00.004-04:00

I don't know about everyone else, but a few months ago, the Street Maps option on Google Maps started to include many streets in Philadelphia. While I do think it is a little helpful for some confusing intersections, I have been frustrated more with it's strangely addictive nature. The other day, I saw this on a website:

and I thought moving away from Louisville would cure my urban cowboy problem.

Also, interestingly, I found this at my neighbor's house:

Nothing funny about that, right? Well, that scooter was stolen sometime last summer, at night, when everyone had their windows open. No one heard a thing. So we have an idea on when this picture was taken.

Anyway, I'm going explore Route 66.

...Obama's refusal of Public Financing

2008-06-20T08:16:00.003-04:00

So yesterday, Obama decided to forgo public financing for the general election. The first time ever for a president. Basically, by doing so he's saying he thinks he can easily and less restrictively raise more than the roughly $85M that the government would provide.

Conceptually, I'm pretty annoyed by this. I largely believe that all the money involved politics is part of the problem and this just feeds into that. I know that many (somewhere over 1M donors) and giving less than than $250 a piece. So it's not necessarily a smaller group of politically connected corporations and individuals, but more of an upper middle class grass-roots movement that are more true believers. But still, this will just further damage public financing, although the possible positive outcome it might lead to actual reforms to improve the system. Ideally a bill that actually forces broadcast stations free airtime to candidates (preferably for even minor party candidates, but that will never happen).

In the end, it's not a deal breaker for me (not with the importance of supreme court appointments being so prominent in the recent habeas corpus case that was narrowly, and correctly, decided by a 5-4 margin (Suck it Scalia!)), but it's disappointing. Especially if there are no positive changes as a result.

If only all newspaper reading was like this...

2008-05-29T06:22:00.003-04:00

Recently the Washington Post offered buyouts to a lot of their longtime writers, some of which were accepted by such household names as David Broder and Tony Kornheiser. Peter Carlson also took the buyout and wrote his final article here on a column that reviews magazines. I never read the column, but if the old ones offered lines as funny as the quote below from this final column, then he will be sorely missed...

"In the last 12 years, there have been many changes in magazines, but some things never change. For instance, Cosmopolitan and Glamour keep running sex tips and discovering hitherto unknown sex acts pretty much every month. For all those years, I have assiduously studied approximately 2,638,419 sex advice articles, and I believe I can now boil down all their wisdom into two simple rules:

1) Insert tab A into slot B.

2) Season to taste."

“We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard…”

2008-05-25T18:25:00.004-04:00

(warning, this is a stream of consciousness rant composed while on the train to Boston on Wednesday. I also constantly reference 'my generation' mostly meaning people roughly 25-35, I do not claim ownership, and realize that speaking in generalities is pointless)

I will admit to being an Obama supporter ever since I lived in Chicago during his Senate bid in 2004. I like they way he speaks, I like that he is post-baby boomer, and I like his candidacy forces us to address some issues that make us a little uncomfortable. I think Hillary is very capable, and her views are very similar to those of Obama’s which are, admittedly, just left of center. While their small differences in health care have been covered exhaustively, I think that neither of them seems willing to really stand up and start the discussion that John Edwards and Kucinich were driving towards. Which is probably the politically prudent thing to do. But while I have been thinking long about looking for a transcendent leader to challenge my generation to action to solve the hard problems of global warming, inequalities, terrorism; maybe I should be asking my politicians to really discuss the tough questions of the day with the people they represent. All too often we are willing to hear canned, unmeaning answers to placate us rather that demand frank discussion of what our vision truly is for the country and the ever-shrinking world.

The quote at the top I believe is from JFK’s inaugural address. And while it was discussing the race to the moon against the Soviets, I constantly ask that my politicians ask this from me. In many ways, the people in charge of the government for my ‘adult’ life have been largely uninspiring or have often had a combative view towards government in general. Those more active or self-starting have found ways on their own to volunteer their time, money, and skills towards changing their immediate surroundings. While this is reassuring and many ways, very immediately gratifying, it is a lot harder to drive societal change one neighborhood at a time, while government appears to be made for this (albeit somewhat inefficiently if not carefully monitored).

But, in turn we should ask this of our politicians. They seem to treat us as if we can’t handle or shouldn’t be troubled with details or the truth. How come we can only get government officials to speak truthifully to anonymous sources to newspaper officials? Should that be the least of what we expect from our government? How can we ask one segment of the population to risk life and limb in war and give another segment a tax break, while we all go further into debt which my generation and our children will have to deal with. We need to discuss what is the function of government? What should be provided? Who should provide it? How do we control costs to make it feasible? We’ve pretty much determined through our history that there is a right to education, which is why there are free public schools available. Is healthcare a right? I think the popular consensus is yes for children (even if somehow Republicans can find a way to protest SCHIP). Don’t we already have national healthcare in the form of emergency care, and wouldn’t it be cheaper to treat these things before they have irrevocably progressed? What is the roll of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? How can these prices be controlled? There is some evidence that Medicare and Medicaid do a great job at making sure that most of the money goes to patient care and treatment (something like 98-95%) while private insurance has an overhead of 18-30% (Google search, not very scientific). While Obama speech on race was to start of national discussion of race, it isn’t clear that the general public has been willing to continue it.

Politicians must be willing to discuss this with us and the media that covers it should discuss this in a grown up way (although it looks impossible nowadays). You can disagree without being disagreeable. To do a national healthcare program would be expensive, would have many vested interests (doctors, nurses, pharmaceuticals, hospitals), and that could lead to a boondoggle disaster such as the farm bill. But it also needs to compensate enough to attract the best people and spur the innovation that we expect from out doctors and medical industry, but at the same time, can we really afford to redistribute 16% of our GDP that does little or nothing as far as building wealth (ie export to the world)? I hope to discuss such issues with Tony this weekend since my knowledge of macroeconomics is minimal at best.

These things are hard, and I ask that my government challenges me and my colleagues to work towards solving these issues frankly. Failure to do so may be comforting now, but what will it do to our future?

*This might spawn more mini-rants on things that are hard that need to be solved…

Good food, really slow

2008-04-29T14:31:00.004-04:00

For those of you not familiar to Philly or many cities along the East Coast, I've that most of our work day meals come from food trucks/carts. These are mobile, miniature kitchens that usually have gas grills, steam heaters, ice boxes on the outside for drinks, they're really quite amazing in their own right. They can offer all sorts of food (on or around campus there are carts that do breakfast sandwiches, cheesesteaks, Mexican food, Chinese Food, on sushi truck, Mediterranean, Indian), usually make it fresh in front of you, and are usually quite quick. The food is usually cheap, moderate quality, but sometimes the carts can look a little sketchy/dirty. My favorites include Frieda's which is right across the street from my building, La Comadre which no longer exist but had an amazing potato and pepper burrito, and the Drexel cart that serves the Big Fat Jimmy (Fried chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, French fries, with marinara sauce, all in a hoagie roll).

Early this semester, Cindy and I tried a new a crepes carts (there are a few of those around). Now when I say this was a new cart, I mean fresh off the assembly line new (which is rare). We came a little before the lunch rush and had lunch crepes (I believe I ordered a sausage and egg crepe and Cindy had something that was spinach and chicken). He started to fix mine, and it was clear that this guy was new, he was very deliberate (aka slow), almost frustratingly so. But he was new, i was sure he'd figure it out with time. He started putting things together, and they were all fresh ingredients, usually mark organic. He couldn't multitask to work on Cindy's while mine was cooking and he had a hard time with someone who just want to buy a drink. After 10 minutes he was done with mine and started on Cindy's. While we were waiting, a line grew and shrank, we read the other options (the dessert crepes looked amazing), he had Cindy sample some of the sauces (which were amazing), I think I grew a beard, we tried to make small talk but his heavy accent made it difficult (I thought he said he used to be in finance), and at least 20 minutes from when we made our initial order, we got our food.

Our food was great, best polish sausage I've had since leaving Chicago. Cindy said her's was good, even though the chicken was a little cartilagey. But before we could try those decadent dessert crepes, he was gone. I was worried he already gave up. This weekend while reading the paper, j asked if this article was talking about the same cart. After reading the third paragraph, I knew it was him, although I was slightly off when I thought I heard him say he was in finance. That's close to jewelry designer/sculptor, right? So apparently he moved 3 blocks north and I had no idea. Anyway, I'm looking forward to finally getting those dessert crepes, though now that he's famous, he might be REALLY slow... maybe I can order a day in advance.

I'm a sucker...

2008-04-28T11:30:00.003-04:00

First of all, Jen and I were doing some work with the TV on last night, watching "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (EMHE) and I come away with these facts:

It's not a 'makeover,' they knock down a house and build a new one, roughly in the same spot. I guess they didn't want to use the title "We Knock Down a House and Build a New One in 1 Week."
You NEVER want to qualify for the new house in EMHE, you have lived through some serious crap if you do. I've seen families with a dead or dying parent, parents of kids with extreme diseases, people's whose houses are rotting death traps, etc. If you qualify, you've been through some rough times.
The houses they build are ridiculously huge and probably consume copious amount of resources to heat and cool. Not everyone needs the huge professional range (though I admit it is aesthetically pleasing). Even when they built an "environmentally friendly" house (with some solar panels), it was still huge (I mean all of these look like they are at least 4000 sq ft of living space).
Despite my philosophical problems with this show from a sustainability and false concept of the 'makeover' (I assume actually making over the house has to be more energy efficient), I'm a total sucker for this show. I'm amazed at all they do, as quickly as they do, and the stories are so poignant. I usually can't help but getting a little teary-eyed.

So there you have it, one of my guilty pleasures...

Voting Weirdness

2008-04-22T16:54:00.003-04:00

So today is finally the PA primary election. The last 6 weeks have been somewhat annoying, but since I don't really listen to radio other than NPR, my only exposure to the advertisement deluge has been while I watched way too much TV (hey, I've been sick the last 4 days). It hasn't been too bad, got to see Chelsea on campus, but I missed the big Obama rally on Friday since j and I had tickets to the Phillies-Mets game, could have seen Hillary at the Palestra last night (right across from my lab). All-in-all, other than witnessing Barack bowl (btw, the clip I saw had him at 37 through 7, but he was coming off a spare), it hasn't been too bad. While I would have been a better bowler (at least wing it down there with some authority please), I would have been screwed as soon as I rented my size 8.5 shoes... no way the media wouldn't have laughed their ass off at my midget feet.

So on to the actual voting weirdness. First, there is a surprising opening for a state senator spot in town that has been pretty heavily advertised. So I started looking into the race to decide who to vote for and found map of the district:

Yeah, we're that little red dot in the middle. Don't you love Gerrymandering?

Finally, here is my sample ballot. Now I had to vote for my presidential nominee, but then a little further down you see where I had to vote for the delegates to the national convention who are listed by whom they are committed. What happens if I vote for Obama, but nominate a bunch of people that are committed to Hillary? I find this very confusing. Oh well, should be interesting to see the results of the election tonight, especially if it is something other than the 6-8 percent win for Hillary everyone seems to be predicting.

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-04-10T10:13:00.004-04:00

Went to the NY Times Opinion page today. Maybe this has always been there and I just missed it, but what seems a little out of place?

Seriously?!? Girls Gone Wild? Really? That's what you've succumbed to? Now I see why The Washington Post won more Pulitzers...

10 years ago today...

2008-04-03T11:10:00.003-04:00

I went on a date with a very lovely lady, where I was very nervous and hardly spoke (hard to believe) while my date proceeded to tell me about her time in the slammer (okay she was in city holding for not paying a speeding ticket). Luckily, we had subsequent dates and discovered that we were perfectly matched (scarily so). I still don't know what I would have done had it not worked out. t has told me more than once that I sucked to be around during the period of time when it was still up in the air.

Anyway, it's been the most incredible 10 years I could have ever imagined. I love you j, and I'm glad that we have had many friends through the years enjoy this experience with us.