drtron's Xanga

I'm going to go save Xanga!

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:11:36 GMT

Xanga's dead.

Back again!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:18:14 GMT

Xanga may be dying, but I felt like posting anyway since I haven't in quite a while. :)

Just got back from a week-long trip with my mom and Apollo to visit Jerry in Berlin. It consisted mostly of drinking and shopping and eating really good food in various parts of Berlin. We also went to a couple orchestra concerts, one of which I slept (and snored) through. But that's ok because I was still jet-lagged at that point! The other concert was by the Berlin Philharmonic. It was an outdoor concert with a huge attendance (~ 20,000 people?), and it felt kind of like a ball game only with music instead of a game...

We also went to Stockholm for a couple days, which was also quite pleasant. It was cool and sunny and very pretty, and there was ocean everywhere along with a lot of old architecture.

When the trip was over we had to leave Jerry behind in Berlin, but on our way home we got to haul a bunch of his stuff back to the States - 7 large bags of it! - since he and Lizz are moving back to the US soon. Getting all your belongings moved across an ocean can be quite a pain, so we didn't mind helping out with this. Of course, instead of "we" maybe I should say "Apollo," since Apollo happily did about all of the heavy bag-lifting. Kudos to him. :)

Getting Jerry's accordion back was the most fun, though, since it couldn't really fit into a bag, and Apollo had to carry it around by hand. The accordion would occasionally make noises when he didn't mean it to, as accordions can sometimes do that if they don't have a strap to keep the bellows closed. This is quite unlike the lovely flute which will barely make a peep for you until you've spent some time figuring out how to play it. That accordion certainly attracted enough attention, including a couple music requests. :)

Anyhow, now back to the protostellar accretion paper (to be **hopefully** submitted soon!!) and hotness in Austin.

Stuff I learned over Thanksgiving

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:13:44 GMT

1. I CAN stay awake through a whole concert!
We went to see a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert. At one point in the middle of a piece, the concertmaster managed to knock all of her sheet music off her stand and into the first row audience. I was hoping a few of those first row people would fight over the music and the winner would claim it as their own and get it signed by the violinist after the concert or something. Instead, one of them politely gathered the sheet music and placed it back on the stage. Oh well.

2. My family likes to play Settlers!
It did take a small while for my dad to learn the game. Excerpt of the lengthy conversation in which Apollo explained the game to him:
Dad - "Ok, so, what's the goal of this game?"
Apollo - "Basically, you want to build as many settlements and cities and possible."
Dad - "Uh huh. And how do I build these settlements?"
Apollo - "You buy them with your resources."
Dad - "Ah. How do I get resources?"
Apollo - "Well...by building settlements and cities."
Dad - "Wait...but...how do I build settlements, now?"
Apollo - "...You just...buy them...with resources."
Dad - "Ok. Ok. Remind me again how I get these resources?"

It went on like that for a bit.

3. Cats is ...kind of a disappointing musical.
I kind of suspected that beforehand, but we all went to go see it anyhow, and on the whole going to see a show really was fun. Anyhow, I'm guessing the draw of the musical must be the dancing. I know very little about dancing, so I probably couldn't appreciate it the way others could. It was certainly impressive and very difficult-looking, though. But if all you want is to listen to a good story told through song, look elsewhere. Cats has little story to it.

There was at least that one great point where Grizabella belted out the last verse of "Memory."
Yeah, that's about 30 seconds out of the whole 2 hour show.

.........................................................................................................................................................................
And now it's back to work. Apparently I'm expected to publish two papers next semester. My advisor says he has an idea for one that should be pretty quick and straightforward. Hope so.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Hum

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:59:23 GMT

I'm tired.

I want to do something worthwhile, or at least sorta kinda noteworthy - maybe just making more progress at work.

I need something to feel proud of again.

I want to go back to times where I could accomplish something every day, even if it was just a little bit of reading for class or an easy question of a homework assignment.

I'll do better next semester.

What one of my students said...

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:39:05 GMT

The last homework we had included this question:
"In modern science, what is the standard of truth?"

One of my students said this:
"We 'average people' put our faith into the scientific experts, like Einstein, and we believe that what may seem like gibberish to us is in fact truth. ...the 'average person' is just to accept the conclusions of those with greater knowledge in the subject."

...

Kinda like me when I go to the car mechanic's.

That's HER standard of truth. What's yours?

Another student said this:
"In modern science, the standard of truth is the church doctrine."

Another said this:
"In modern science, the standard of truth is the media."

K, now I feel like they just weren't listening when we went over this question in discussion section. :(

Saving the World

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:48:32 GMT

Some days I'll take a break from working and sitting in the office to walk around campus for a while. It's some nice, enjoyable, solitary time.

Until Greenpeace.

People from Greenpeace have taken to standing around the part of campus where I usually walk around. These people will try to catch my eye from a hundred feet away. I know right then that they're going to be messin' up my me time. Then they'll start talking to me by saying something like "Hey, you've got two arms and two legs! That's perfect for saving the environment!"

As if amputees are any less capable of donating money to Greenpeace. But anyhow, then they'll tell me something about how there's some company cutting down trees in Canada, and that this will lead to a 30% percent reduction in my oxygen supply.

Really? Can't say I know a whole lot about environmental science and whatnot, but...30%? That number *sounds* overly big. But, then again, I'm certainly not the person to ask about how accurate that number is.

Their 20 second spiel isn't quite convincing enough for me to give them money. Mostly they just make me feel awkward and uncomfortable, and I dislike this. It makes me wish I was better at just rudely ignoring people.

Still, encounters with them did get me to check out the Greenpeace website. (However, I didn't quite like *everything* I saw). Also, in a way, I'm thinking about the environment. Right now.

Maybe they somewhat did their job after all. Maybe.

Back

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:16:49 GMT

Finally back. The conference in Italy went well, and I got to put a lot of names to faces I had heard of from the papers I've read. Then I saw those people get drunk and go crazy about soccer. Kinda fun, except that I never got into the soccer/football/whatever craze, so I didn't follow it all. Biggest dampener of that part of the trip was when I ended up paying about 90 bucks or so to do a load of laundry. Really didn't mean for that to happen.

For the next couple days after the conference, I got to meet up with Joanna (from Rice). That was quite a good time, and we had too little time to try and see too much, but it was fun to try. :)

After going to Florence and Siena with Joanna, I made my way down to Rome all by mahself. Other than the Vatican Museum, which I could have happily made the *only* thing I saw in Rome, this was definitely not one of the better parts of the trip. This was mostly due to increased difficulty walking - walking all day for that many days can add up to some very sore legs and joints - and a pretty crappy hotel. Also, I find that when I travel alone without friends around to distract me, I tend to get really lonely and slightly depressed. I probably won't travel alone in a non-English speaking country again any time soon.

Downsides to traveling in Italy -
1. No Vince :( :( :(
2. Difficulty of internet access (Call it sad if you must but when it comes to internet I NEED IT)
3. Not knowing enough Italian to talk about the things you need to with the Italians (Apparently "hello," "sorry," various food terms, "I have a reservation," and "check please" are not quite enough to get around Italy with ease - at least not the less touristy parts.)

Upsides -
1. Lots and lots of art and architecture and Roman and Etruscan ruins and cool things like that to see
2. Pretty countryside and seaside
3. Pretty towns

Good to be back.

Takin' a trip

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:07:07 GMT

I'm finally leaving tomorrow for a conference in Italy. The traveling part is exciting enough, but getting ready for the conference was not. I tried to get some sort of science results to present at the conference, and I didn't quite them.

I remember when working hard would get me good grades, commendations, and general success. Now, however, working hard doesn't necessarily get results.

Guess that makes work more exciting.

Have I whined about this before? Probably.

I've passed the midway point of my twenties now. Early twenties are all gone now.

K, 11 hours till travel time!

Quick elevator story

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:27:54 GMT

Today as I was going down the elevator in RLM (my office building), several undergrad guys got on the elevator around floor 13. It seemed like they were in a frat, maybe on a sports team, that kind of thing. They wanted to get off on the 7th floor, but the elevators do not stop on floors 5, 6, or 7. They have escalators on these floors instead. So, one of the guys decided to be funny and press the 7th floor button repeatedly, thinking that just might make the elevator stop on that floor after all. At first I felt disappointed because I have done the press-the-elevetor-button-over-and-over-again-and-as-fast-as-possible thing before, thinking it might amuse the others in the elevator. However, after seeing this guy do the exact same thing, I realized it was not so much funny as mildly irritating. Not only did someone else have the same hi-LAR-ious idea as me, but now I got to see that, unless you're doing the button pressing, it's not that humorous.

The funny kid: "The elevator doesn't mind all the button pressing."
Funny kid's friend: "The other people IN the elevator do."
The funny kid: "The elevator and the people in it can live with it. HAHAHAHA"

Anyhow, as the kid was doing this, the illustrious Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg stepped onto the elevator. He also wanted to go to the 7th floor, but this wasn't a problem for him because he has a special elevator key that lets him stop on whatever floor he pleases. Actually, it's probably the same key that the handicapped (walking impaired?) people use. Anyhow, the funny kid then said, "Oh, hey, here's a guy with a key! This dude will get us to the 7th floor! Awesome!" Dr. Weinberg was completely silent to this, but he might have scowled just a little. Shortly after they all got off on the 7th floor.

For some reason seeing a Nobel prize winner referred to as "guy" or "dude" to his face makes me laugh.

That's all.

Birthday!

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:12:47 GMT

Vince's birthday's coming up. He's progressing from the young and wild and fancy-free stage of life, the early twenties, to the more wise and mature and all-knowing and old stage of life called the MID twenties. Here are gifts I have considered (some of which were hinted at by Vince himself, but perhaps you can guess which of these was not really his idea all):

1. Ping pong table
2. Foosball table
3. Pool table
4. Air hockey table
5. Tennis court
6. Some thingamajigger or other that will allow him to play his ipod through his car speakers
7. 1000 KISSES!! and a cupcake.

7's pretty cheap and easy. Thus, that is the most probably gift for now. But we'll see.