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My favorite quote from today

2008-10-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

My favorite quote from today. "Because if Elliot Spitzer can get up, brush himself off and go running in a city that laughs at him after resigning from office due to a high class prostie scandal, then I can do that too....minus the prosties, and pretty much everything else. So I did! It was a good run and an even more interesting morning!" It comes from Reagan... good one Reag!

The past

2008-09-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

I got an email from Alex H. yesterday regarding a this video we put together a few years ago. We used to make the new undergraduate researchers watch it under the pseudonym "Safety Video". It is really silly, but it reminds me of some good times, and some great friends. Alex now works for himself in the start-up NUB labs. They do a lot of cool things. The coolest thing is that Alex is moving forward with his ideas. He isn't afraid to get out there and do what he has always talked about. It is quite contagious actually. Enjoy the video and check out their website.

I love high speed photography

2008-09-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

I really love taking pictures of things that happen quickly. If that involves fluid dynamics I usually like it even more. This past week we took a whole bunch of really cool milk drop images that I need to post. Here are a few of my favorites. Our newest graduate student said that she sees why we like what we do so much. I guess it helps to have the right equipment too! These aren't quite exactly what I have in mind for the perfect shot, so I hope to take a couple more next week and get things just right. All of these photos were taken with a Canon 20D, Nikon 105 mm macro lens with Canon adapter, 580 speedlight flash, and a Timemachine timing box with infrared trigger. One of the interesting things you can do with a photo shoot like this one is try to take a series of drops at different stages of imact to get a sense of what happens at impact (that is the method that Worthington used, who was the first person to photograph water and milk droplet impacts). Another fun thing to do is compare and contrast the differences between a drop of milk hitting a surface like the one above, and a milk drop landing into a pool of milk. The difference is quite phenomenal.

Reach the Beach

2008-09-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was able to have one of the best runs of my life. I ran two 10 km races and a 5 km race all within 20 hours. Twelve of us signed up to run the Reach the Beach relay race, which runs from the White Mountains in New Hampshire to Hampton Beach. 209 miles total, with everyone running 3 legs of this 24 hour endurance race! We started on Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm and ended a little before 6pm on Saturday! What a strange feeling it was. I was the eleventh runner so I was really anxious to run for over 7 hours while I drove and waited to run my first leg. It began at 11:30 pm and I ran harder than I ever have and recorded my best 10 km time of 46:16 min by my watch. That is just a little under 7:30 min/mile! Really a fantastic pace for myself. Then I felt sick and tried to sleep for two hours before our van had to move on again. At 6:30 am I was running again and this time completed a 6.3 mile course in 48:26, which is just a little slower than the previous times... still not bad for going on 24 hours without having slept more than 2 hours! Everyone else was running so well I felt pressure to bust out as fast as possible. When my final run at about 4:00 rolled around, I was primed to run all out. it was only 3.1 miles so I knew I could just waste myself. I got the wrist bracelet (like the baton) and ran as hard as I could. 8 minutes later I heard honking from our van. I figured they were cheering my amazing pace onward. Every time there is an exchange the van passes the runners (usually about 12 minutes after they begin) and they go the next stop to exchange runners or sometimes stop at the half way point to cheer them on. This time though my team was trying to tell me I had gone the wrong way! I had missed the turn while exchanging the wrist bracelet. It was an honest mistake. Immediately after the exchange you had to cross the street and take a right. I was so excited to bust out the 3.1 miles I just ducked my head down and started to pump my legs into action as I tried to find a nice rhythm. I turned around and began running back. All told I think I lost about 1.5 miles of ground, but I ran really hard and passed a few people on the way back. I felt really bad, but I ran what felt like a really fast pace. Either way everyone had a great time, and we were all exhausted. Will I do it again next year? Honestly, I hope we don't live here next year! By that I mean I really hope I graduate in the next few months. Enjoy the pictures.

Perhaps the best hike ever.

2008-09-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Pictures.
Last weekend was amazing. It began late on Thursday driving to New Hampshire's White Mountains to hike the Presidential Range. We arrived around 7, made camp went to dinner, then drove 40 minutes south to drop off a car and pick up some of our other hikers. We slept the night in a campground that only lets 4 people camp per site, others can join you for a fee of $10 per person per night.... New Hampshire apparently needs the income, without a state tax how can you blame them I guess? Aside from that little hiccup everything went perfectly. We woke to a beautiful sunrise around 5:30 am, headed to the trail head and hiked up to the base of Mt. Madison, by Mt. Quincy Adams, over Mt. Adams, past Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Clay, up Mt. Washington (largest in the region), down and over Mt. Monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower, and Pierce. All told 19.1 - 19.8 miles! And it only took us 13 hours 5 minutes! Not bad for a bunch of old desk workers! Eat that commadore 64. We went back to camp for some chili, smore's, and sleep. The drive back on Saturday was fun and we found a great spot for root beer. The pictures are also up so please enjoy them here. The weather was amazing, Washington was shrouded in mist that slowly ebbed and flowed from the peak. The sun was out most of the day, and the temperature was in the upper 50's and lower 60's which made the trip perfect. The second half of the trip was a lot easier than the first half, but everyone hiked like champs and I think our pace was really fast. I even enjoyed a swim at Lake of the Clouds. The AMC has a bunch of huts up their which make it unnecessary to bring a tent. If you are interested I think that is the way to go but you have to make reservations.

Work is going great. I am answering the last of the comments I got back last week on my first peer reviewed paper, and I hope I can send it back to the editors the first of next week. I talked to a few people at different Universities last week and am going to apply for a few faculty positions in the next week or two. I also found a couple more post-doc grants that look like they might fit into some of the ideas that I have had either on my own or with other people. Of course, if they involve others I have to contact them, which I have begun. Other than that, the thesis is on the top of my mind constantly. I plan on working a bit later today, but the weekends have become sort of sacred. I try to spend them with family and some time on the resume / website if I get time. Oh I almost forgot, I was invited to speak at Mathworks in October. That is the company that makes matlab, a program that I use constantly! I am excited to talk to them about how useful their product is and give them some feedback on some things I would like to see added (i.e. drop the ugly java interface, and improve the plotting functionality!). Honestly the product is awesome, my comments are mostly asthetic and lets face it superficial, way to go matlab you rock. Now if I can just manage to keep my productivity at a level where I finish this darn thing before 2008 is over so I don't have to change the date on my ring!

I guess I should underline the importance of getting this first paper published. It isn't my first, but it is my first peer reviewed, longer than one page, and is setting the stage for the next couple to go out the door. What it means is that I could potentially get an academic job now. I am by no means the most qualified or most prolific of my peers, but having one major contribution out thier for people to see makes it a lot easier for me to get an interview and etc... Of course, I will be competing against a few hundred other nerds and that means I have to keep my fingers crossed, prepare well, and hope I get a few interviews. Devine providence will play a role I am sure.

Discovery Channel photos

2008-08-25T18:35:00.001-07:00

I know I can't stop talking about the Discovery Channel visit. Perhaps it was the fact that the gratification of a job well done was so quick... whatever it was I managed to post a few photos as well as put one here. The shoot was so much fun, and as everyone that week kept saying "no pun intended". This week I spent time trying to catch up and now that it is the beginning of a new week I am also trying to catch up.....

Scratch that. I have actually been really productive. Despite the three surgeries, kids going crazy, parenting, working on three projects at work at once, taking pictures and organizing backups, maintaining relationships and still managing to run 7-12 miles a week, oh and organize a big hiking trip, I would say I am actually being really productive. Perhaps my thesis isn't as far a long as I planned (remember I wanted to graduate in May), the thesis is moving along in a really nice direction I think. I am still working on the bullet chapter, but I think when it is all done it will turn into a really nice paper. The only stone in the way I am not looking forward to is trying to figure out what to say and write one more paper that includes the 300 or so drops of the many different mass ratio spheres I did this past January. I was actually impressed that this year I basically took all of the data and processed 4 times more information than I did in the two years previous! That probably doesn't mean anything to anyone reading this, but for me this is really just a big self esteem booster to keep me going. None the less I am going to need all of the help I can get to finish this thing by January!

And as always there is someone I met that is doing three times as many things as I am and four times as successful. I of course compare myself to them, and wish I was doing what they are doing, and am in total awe at their awesomeness! But alas, I sin in my wish. I hope your last week before classes begin is a great one!

Discovery Channel

2008-08-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are starting to anticipate my graduation. It seems like everyone I know asks me when my defense date will be. No matter who it is I say something like "I am pretty sure it will be around December". Do I really know? I will bet my committee would say otherwise, based on my most recent performance. But I keep hope alive by moving forward. A lot of exciting progress is being made. Two great things have happened on two fronts in the past two months.

The spinning sphere research has found more recognition (new mural going up in ME headquarters) and Brenden stumbled upon a fairly straightforward solution for curve fitting that is going to turn into a paper and resolve that part of my thesis! Thanks Brenden!

The bullet research has also moved in two directions. The first is that I was able to re-derive the model we have been using for the design process. A task I thought impossible two years ago. It took me roughly 3 weeks but I think it is really coming along nicely. More exciting though is that we were also recognized by the Discovery Channel and they came and filmed our experiment on Friday! I was informed of this opportunity just a week before hand and Rod and I worked very hard to get everything ready for their visit. There was a lot of machining and setup to get back in place for the shoot, and Rod put in some long and frustrating days in the machine shop. Thanks again Rod, you are incredible and I am sure we wouldn't have been ready without your help!

We had to get permission from the pistol coach Will Hart. He was terrific. When I called he said he had had a bad experience with a guy with the same program a year ago but that he would over look that for me and allow us to do the show. The ironic part was that although that particular jerk doesn't work for D.C. anymore (fired or something), the show title was the same. Thanks to Will for letting us move forward despite the past! Although it would have been fun to see Will give the guy a piece of his mind had he been there.

The day was amazing. The crew was extremely nice and I think things went really well. Of course, they had a bit of time to set things up and then things got busy. At times things were going quickly, then there were lots of long pauses, which were sometimes hard to just stand around with so many other things to do in the back of my mind. I was really glad that Alex could do most of the interviewing. She was a natural and it made me less stressed out knowing that I didn't have to worry about that part of things. I got a few moments though and it was fun to just see how they run a show like that.

I wasn't surprised that they wanted to create a sort of story to make the science a bit more interesting. However, it was strange to have to repeat things when they either missed them on camera or on the sound board, or if the director just wanted a second take. It was also strange to be "ghost interviewed". I don't know if that is the proper term but when I got excited a couple of times the director would take me aside and ask questions. They were usually pretty general but he didn't have a mic so it was like talking to a ghost interviewer, and it felt strange. I tried not to make things sound contrived but lets just say I could see them using those clips for some really lame statements. I can't wait to see how silly I look and sound. As you know I am a pretty excitable person and I just hope I didn't say something that isn't true or that comes across as dumb.

That all aside I met some great people the host Jeff Lieberman, and Mat were terrific, the whole crew was interesting and had some amazing stories of their own. Everyone seemed genuinely interested in our research, which was a bit flattering. The producer even stopped by for a few minutes and we talked about the research. Finally I met Wes Skiles who is an amazing director of photography, and he had some really great advice about careers and exploring science and the world without fear and with excitement. He really got my mind flowing with ideas for future projects... lets hope some of them become realities.

In all cases, I was thrilled and excited to be a part of it. Not to mention that the publicity should be a good thing. Here is the only photo I have right now of the event, more to come later. You can see me way in the back. It airs between Oct 13th and end of December. I will keep you posted when it will air exactly. The working title now is "Time Warp" and you can see some previews of episodes here.

Summer times

2008-08-03T13:56:00.001-07:00

Summer has been productive and fun, although I wish I felt like I did when I jumped this 15'10". I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but for somebody who has never long jumped before it felt like a long way. Perhaps that is what my thesis will feel like when I am finished. When I look around I am sure that it won't compare to some of the other feats at MIT around me, but it will feel like a long way for me. Let's just hope I land soon, I am sort of getting burnt out on the writing thing.

Here is my plan for those of you interested. Finish my rough draft Sept. 1st. On to my CV, website, and application filling out for most of Sept. October I will have my last committee meeting (hopefully, it didn't go well in June!). Then I will be editing the thesis and writing a paper or two before December. November is APS in San Antonio. And then the thesis defense in Dec. or Jan. hopefully before Christmas so that it will be a nice relaxing Christmas vacation, filled with dreams of sugar plums.

What is on the docket for this week? More of the MIT bullet study chapter, and hopefully moving on to the stuff I did in Maryland. I have some major edits left in two of the other chapters, and I still have to write the introduction and conclusions, but that is about it.... oh yea, I have a huge digital appendix to setup. My goal is to make it completely html driven with videos and graphs linked to a large set of parameters that I used for doing the actual experiments. If anyone has a great idea on how to automate the whole thing I look forward to your suggestions.

Random thought

2008-02-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

I know it has been forever since I posted. But I just have to say this. Sometimes my best work happens when my pencil isn't sharp and the eraser is gone!

Back in Boston

2007-07-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, we went to Rhode Island again this year. There were more problems than last year, no internet, email etc. but we took it in stride better than last year knowing what to expect. We spent a lot of time as a family. I don't know if it was of a high quality, but time none the less. I got a lot done preparing for a big experiment, which starts next week. I didn't get nearly all the writing I should have, but who wants to do that during this very mild new england summer? I posted some pictures of some of the things we have done up until now here. Tonight I went on a boston harbor cruise, our host DR KARL HAGLUND, PHD Author of the book: Inventing The Charles River and Bishop of the Cambridge 1st Ward was incredible and informative! I only wish I had had my camera. We even got to go out into boston harbor through the locks!

My new ride!

2007-06-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

Check out my new ride! I love this little vespa. Julie decided we should name her Lulu and Gus won't stop asking for rides! I get my motorcycle license next week, and I can't wait. Now I can get fat because I don't have to walk anywhere and save gasoline... sort of.

Fun and rainy weekend

2007-04-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend Minna and Dan came up to Boston with their kids and Minna's mom Ruth. It was so much fun. Dan and I went F1 racing, we all ate sushi, and I kept calling Ruth Beth for some reason. All the fun was sort of washed out with all of the rain. The typically New England Patriots day activities were all canceled or moved indoors except the Marathon, which turned out to be a great race, but we stayed home.

The paper is nearly complete, and so my thoughts are turning to the next one. I must admit that this process is a long one, but I feel better as I get closer to finishing my first real paper, believing that I can write the next one considerably faster. I just need to push myself for the next two to four days or so to finish the last and hardest parts of editing and describing all of the findings and hard work I have put in over the last few weeks... last year really, but the last few weeks have been productive from the standpoint of usable data to talk about. Check out Dan's site for more details, for some reason I can't post pictures right now!

2007-04-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

I always seem to have an excuse don't I? Between Sam's birthday and trying to get these 320's done each night I now find less time to post. I guess dedicating 1 hour to something other than the "have too's" in my life is showing me just how much time I am wasting in my day. Today I tried my hardest to finish an assignment, and work on solving the problem of a certain figure in my article that should have been written by now. This plot is really making me angry. Either my analysis is wrong, the code is wrong, or I don't understand the result, because right now it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

So just how is the 32o's going for me? Monday was great, Tuesday I forgot to do one of them, so tonight I am trying to make it up. The idea was to do 3 X 20 minutes of something you want to do daily but just haven't managed lately. I also said you have to do all 7 hours. So I am doing all 7 hours, even though last night fell apart.

I am not being fully honest the main reason last night fell apart, was that I watched "An Inconvenient Truth". However, I am not sorry that I watched it. Although, I thought that some of the ways in which the data was presented were borderline alarmist. Overall I liked it and am still giving it a lot of thought. There really is a lot I could be doing personally right now to consume less energy and produce less carbon dioxide. But now I want to know how I can help as an engineer. I really want my next project or the one after that to be directly related to finding a way to capture carbon, or change it from a gas into another element or into dirt, or something. Or a way to decrease energy use, or increase efficiency, or something...I know it sounds vauge, but so are most beginnings. I just feel like if I don't get involved in some way that I am sort of missing the point of the message and letting my kids down in some way. Letting myself down in some way. Lets all pledge to start "consuming" less. As a kid one of the things my boy scout leaders always said was "Leave no trace". From a philosophical standpoint it's impossible to "leave no trace" of ones existence, but leaving a small one is a lot less annoying to future generations.

My 320's aren't going great because I have been starting them so late in the day...note to self: make improvements to ones self requires an alert mind, so start earlier in the day.

Productivity:
I don't really know because I haven't been tracking this as well as I did last week, but here is a guess.
9-12 article and listened to npr in one ear about the IQ2 debates
12-1 lunch and break with Jesse
1-2 Learned about spatial solutions to the boundary layer using the Orr-Sommerfeld equations
2-3 picked up race tickets and started homework
3-6 worked on homework, it seems to be working, now just need to answer questions.

At work 9 hours, productive for 7, actually not too bad. I guess when I don't "complete" something in a day I feel sort of like it was wasted.... whatever.

How is your debt?

2007-04-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

I am just getting started on the last 40 minutes of my 320's. I read on the train this morning so I only have two other things to do. I took some time this evening to look over our emergency preparedness plan and inventory our 72 hour kits. The kids have grown a lot and the main things we were missing were clothing related. We also need to update some of the food items, but the main thing was that most of the kit was scattered into three parts, which would make its usefulness in an emergency null.

I also updated my checkbook, which is something I have just started doing on a weekly basis. Before that Julie had the burden and we often argued about finances. Our new system seems to be working well. This is our third month with the system and I am pleased, and we haven't fought once about it yet. Basically, I am in charge of all the bills and the main bank account. Julie is in charge of a separate account for spending on things like food, clothes, gasoline, etc. The amount is fixed for now, but seems a little on the low side. However, the motivation for her is that if she is wise with it, she can spend any extra she accumulates however she wants. It also means we could go hungry, but luckily she is a loving wife and mother.

It feels good to have a more strict budget because we both know exactly where the money is going. It also feels a bit constrictive right now because we paid off our credit cards. After running the numbers I thought we could pay off all of our creditors. I paid off all but one just to be safe, and I honestly think the plan would work, but we have a vacation coming up and I don't know how we could pay cash for it. So we will probably dip back into the tar pits of credit again soon.

My guilt is exacerbated by a quote from David B. Hales of the quorum of the twelve who said "You should not use credit cards to go on vacation or things of that nature. Pay cash for them and you will avoid debt." He is right. It is a little late now that we have airline tickets....but my mind is starting to think of a few ways we could save money and still have fun. After all it is our tenth anniversary and we should celebrate our magnificent marriage. However, following the council of a prophet will get us further both in this life and the next than just throwing caution to the wind in a frivolous attempt to regain our youth through materialism.

I read a depressing article about debt today. I have a fair amount of debt myself. It is really unavoidable with a family of this size to support. It would be nice if Federal Financial Aid would take into consideration people with families. It makes me sad that some of my lab mates can enjoy themselves and save money each month, while I borrow money every month just to pay my bills and eat. It is even more depressing to think that about two months of every year those needs are met through a credit card because I can't even qualify for enough loan money to cover those months. I will admit that part of the problem was a lack of skill at budgeting my money in the past. That is one of the reasons I am trying to gain control of our finances. However, I still fill that there are some big gaps in the way the money is appropriated. I guess what I am getting at is that the whole purpose of financial aid is to assess the needs of the individual, but having a family and being married doesn't really seem to factor into my financial package. The counselors will say it does, but honestly an extra $3k a year compared to a single student is really nothing when there are 5 mouths to feed.

You may be thinking that I shouldn't be in school with a family? Perhaps you are right, but then on some levels isn't that a form of discrimination? Make sacrifices you say? Isn't going to school a sacrifice? I have been in school every year since 1997, going every summer, and that entire time I have been married, I also worked full time all 5 years I was getting my bachelor's degree. I point these things out not to brag, but to say that I think I have been making sacrifices. Perhaps they were the wrong ones. What would I like to see? Need based financial aid that makes sense for everyone. I don't want my lab mates to go into debt in graduate school, but then I don't want to either. After all my salary is enough for them to live on comfortably, why then can I not have the same?

320's

2007-04-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

This week along with my usual posts of random pictures and productivity stats, which I know you all can't wait to see, I am also going to participate in the 320's. This program I thought of while in the shower yesterday. Each day for 7 days you must do 3 things each for 20 minutes that you have wanted to incorporate into your day, but for some reason haven't been able to, and no you cannot count sleep and work! This means 1 hour dedicated to straightening out some curves in your straight and narrow path. This week mine will be scripture study, mandolin or guitar, and reading Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Why? I feel like if I do these three things each day then I won't spend the rest of my day thinking about them. For a while I have been trying to incorporate scripture study and music into a daily routine, but with limited success. I am usually reading at 11:30 and about to fall asleep, and by that time practicing an instrument is no longer on my wish list. After listening to conference and hearing about a few deaths this past week of people I know in a remote way, I realized that if I don't start doing just a few of the small things I have always wanted to now, my life will be over I will have missed so many small opportunities to become who I wanted. So this week I will try to incorporate something my ancestors knew a lot about (routines)! Some may ask why I didn't add exercise, the main reason is that this week things are really warming up, and my bike tires are pumped up and my chain is lubed, so it is time to get back on the bike commute, which will be enough exercise for this week. Although, it rained today so I walked again :( but tomorrow looks nicer!

So if you would also like to do the 320's just sign up here by commenting or emailing me, and I will put you on the list. What do you get? I send you a fine chocolate bar via mail if you do all 7 days and send me a small report on your improvements in each area over the small duration. So sign-up and get some free chocolate. I mean lent will be over so you could eat it! So far Thom and Jeff have signed up.

The perfect day

2007-03-31T12:39:00.000-07:00

If I were using matlab to track my productivity Friday would have been 'NA'. I actually had a wonderful day. I didn't do any work and I spent time with Julie, which is always pleasant. I actually didn't even feel guilty for not doing any work, and that is a rare thing these days. Another blessing of taking a real day off, was that I realized how much I like what I do. I have been pretty happy since my thesis has started to come together, and have felt a sense of worth and progress each day. But yesterday I noticed that when my thoughts did move back to my work it was not with a sense of dread but with a smiling excitement to resume my research, with a fresher look at some of the things I have been trying to tackle. I picked up the book 'For love of insects' by Thomas Eisner at Borders and read for a while on our date. I loved how excited he was about his research. I started to find myself thinking jealous thoughts that I wished I liked my work as much as he did. As I reflected on my self negative statement a thought came to me. That statement was simply a relic of an older me. One that I have been trying to remove from my mind for a while. I wasn't unhappy, in fact, my next thought was that I should find a better way to archive everything I am doing so that in 30 years I can write a book about the things I am discovering. I was enthusiastic about my future, for the first time in 4 years! I have a tendency to belittle myself and compare myself to everyone around me. I have been trying to have a more positive outlook about who I am and see myself fitting in with those around me in a more symbiotic way, worrying less about how I compare to others, instead focusing on how I can better fit in and keep the gears moving forward. It seems to be working, and I have noticed that I am feeling more confident.

Today's photo is from the Fells wilderness reservation area near Boston, MA. I thought this circular rock pattern looked nice under the snow matted grass.

Thursday

2007-03-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

I read somewhere that Thursdays are the least productive day of the week....Actually, I think it was my boss at the knob factory I worked at as a teenager.

Productivity,
9-9:30 email, read, talk to Jesse
9:30-12:30 Article (last figure)
12:30-2 Talk about forced vortex vibrations with lunch
2-3 Administrative details
3-5:30 Article
Hours 8.5, usefulness 5.5 = 65%.

I guess he was right.

Jour de productivite and basketball

2007-03-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

I had a great day today. I was very productive, made a lot of progress on my paper, helped out a friend, and played basketball. Yes I included basketball in my list of things that went well today. Normally I am really crappy at it and lack the necessary skills. Today I felt good made %50 or so of my shots and blocked a few people, I even got a couple of rebounds. I wonder what will happen tomorrow. The weather has been so nice, it just makes me happier to get up in the morning. I wonder how people must feel living in Florida?

Productivity:
9-9:30 email and reading
9:30-9:45 talk w/ Jesse
9:45 - 12 Article (figures)
12-12:15 lunch break
12:15-3 Article (figures)
3-3:25 email walk break
3:30 - 5:00 Article (figures etc.)
At work 8 hours, useful work 6.5 hours = 81% efficiency (a lot more than I can say for my car).

Getting back to work

2007-03-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty productive. I didn't really start wasting time until the last half hour of the day. The only bad part was that I would have preferred to work on my paper this afternoon, but opted to work on some homework instead, while I had the chance to work with others. I am going to Thom's again tonight to play mandolin, and I hope tomorrow is also filled with productive time. The paper content is complete in my head, but still needs to be put into the paper. Then I think I will spend some time refining the last section, whatever I have done tomorrow is all I will do for the rest of the week. Then it is on to more experiments and an attempt to assess the reality of the accelerometers.

Productivity:
8:20-9 walk train walk
9-10 Organize and clean-up from friday and file transfers to allow me to use both computers.
10-10:30 got hot chocolate and talked to Jesse and Jordan
10:30 - 12 worked on paper.
12 - 4:00 ate lunch while I worked on the quasi 1-D solution for viscous flow in a diffuser using the interacting boundary layer theory!
4-5 talked and wasted some time.
5-5:30 printed out a schedule for the rest of the week (didn't finish)
5:30-6:20 walk train walk
total hours 10hours away from home, 5.5 hours of useful work!

Messy day

2007-03-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

I wasn't very productive about getting work done today, but I did make our home feel a little more cozy. I spent the day at home putting out little fires that started over the weekend, like the fish that was dying, and a room that was out of control cluttered and dirty. I spent most of the day repairing a closet that had fallen apart and was raining plaster because the owner had never thought that it should be painted. I spackled, cleaned, and painted most of the day away. It was actually nice to slow down a little bit and have some long conversations with Julie. It has been a long time since something else was taking both of our attention away from one another. With that out of the way I should be much more productive this week.

Here are the totals.
Late start to the day 8:30 showered and got ready by 9.
90min going to store and buying supplies for fish and printer.
90min sitting down answering email and getting lunch ready for kids.
120min spackling closet and preping for paint.
120min painting closet and cleaning up.
90min barbequeing and making dinner.
90min putting clothes in new closet.

Sweeterade

2007-03-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

I don't know exactly why when you put mentos in diet coke carbon dioxide is released so violently, but I sure like to watch it. This weekend we ate a lot of candy, so we found lots of things to do with it when we were bored of eating it. It seems like the reaction is really only sensitive to the outer layer of the mentos, because the reaction only lasts for a few moments and then the mentos continue to dissolve and the coke tastes like there is still a lot of combination left. I will have to do a more conclusive study this summer. We also talked about ninjas. I knew so little about ninjas before. Now I find them very fascinating and I think I am getting pumped up about them. I'll bet that ninjas know a lot about how diet coke reacts with mentos! I haven't laughed so hard in a long time, thanks Jake and Reagan!

Falcon on campus (a while ago)

2007-03-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to put this picture up for a while. A couple of months ago this falcon was in Killian Court at MIT and I took a bunch of pictures of it. Thanks to Jesse for calling me when he saw it. Interestingly, it was trying to eat squirrels!

Productivity report:
45min Walk train walk
10min Get a donut.
210min Article figures
70min Learned about energy methods for determining drag, power, and dissipation in viscous flows
90min Lab meeting (learned all about red algae and correlations for their growth)
60min Error analysis of a flapping foil

in at 9 out at 5:30. More work at home I can feel it! You know those days - sometimes weeks - where you just can't seem to accomplish the thing you set out to do even though you can't stop working on it, it is always on your mind, and you have been banging away at it for 30+hours? Well I had one of those weeks! I am sure next week will be better.

Crayola doesn't make a color for your eyes!

2007-03-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a lot of fun. I met with Thom and Judy to play mandolin, guitar, banjo, and ukulele. In the process we spent most of the time listening to music. I really liked the song "Crayola doesn't make a color for your eyes." by Kristin Andreassen. It is a really great song and Thom said that in concert a lot of the percussion is made by hand jiving! Anyway check out the song you can hear it here. If you really like it you can vote for it to win the John Lennon songwriting contest.

Productivity, I ate 1960 calories.
30min - Walk train walk
120min - Journal article and force plots
30min - Discussion with labmates
45min - Listened to a talk on relaxing grid methods and information based modeling.
45min - Discussed weather with friends while eating lemon bars.
225min - Journal article and force plots

In at 9am out at 5:30pm.

Blogging

2007-03-21T17:15:00.000-07:00

Ok sometimes I think blogging is really lame. It is difficult to find a subject to write about and when I do it just comes out like a pile of crap. Most of the blogs worth reading have a subject, mine is absolutely random. Most of the blogs worth reading are interesting and thought provoking. I would put more time into one subject, but that would take time away from my work and family, and so now I know why my blog is lame... I have too many excuses. However, I did make a commitment to write here each day this week. So I have a new plan. I am going to use this blog as a way to try and increase my productivity by openly admitting how much time I wasted and how productive I was. So here is my productivity analysis for today. Oh and I am going to keep posting a picture a day because I like to.

I ate 2400 calories today, walked 30 minutes, but I may go for a run this evening.
At work from 9:00 to 5:00pm

45min- Walk train walk
120min- Process PIV results and back-ups
60min- Plan trip to Keypoint Hotel and Plane tickets (Thanks Momi)
30min- Lunch
30min- Journal article figures.
70min- Techniques to solve for the wake of a separated flow using Newton's Method
30min- Tea with friends
90min- Hele-Shaw (sp?) viscous fingering solutions
30min- Walking and Talking with Brenden and Alex
45min- Walk train walk
60min- Work on journal article

There you go, my first day publicly announcing how unproductive I am. Actually, it was a pretty good day. I really think this will keep me motivated. I mean my adviser might actually read this! Yikes, I hope that if she does she will go easy on me.

Balance

2007-03-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

How do you balance a career and a family? So far I just plow through and hope they are in balance. I take breaks whenever possible and try to spend time with the family. However, usually by that time I have bills or something else I have left behind piled up on my desk and so the day is gone and I haven't done much with them. I mention it because I wonder if I am becoming the kind of person I want to be. Family. I am home more often than a lot of people. It isn't that I am not around, it is just that perhaps I could be more when I am there. I am going to try to think about ways to become a better family member this week.

Productivity

2007-03-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Being productive isn't always easy. Lately, I feel like I am busier than I have ever been, but I also feel like I have very little to show for it. Perhaps it is because I am always "almost" finished with the paper I am working on. I am actually doing real solid work and slowly adding it to the final product, so I know it will get done eventually, but the process grows tiring.

I love the scent of new ideas. My brother in law wrote a little article on his blog today about how writing each day for strict amount of time at a particular part of the day can make ideas come faster. I want that type of idea flow. He also mentioned that using a paper and pencil or pen for his first and second drafts has really helped him solidify his drafting skills. I would agree. Lately I have been trying to keep a better lab notebook, and it has helped me bring my ideas and thoughts out and into document format a lot more often.

Now if I could just balance everything. Here it is 11pm and I still have four things unfinished I planned on doing today... Perhaps tomorrow.

Another update

2007-03-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

The sad part about writing so little not so often is that when I sit down to write an entry I don't like the look of this webpage any more and I want to start over with everything. However, I am going to resist that temptation and stick to making a post here everyday about something interesting that is related to my work, so that my three readers can see a little more about what I do.

Last week I spent most of the week determining the lift and drag coeffecients for my spinning spheres. It sounds easy I know, but in reality it takes 1.2 hours per run to determine this using the computational power of a G4 powerbook. This data is helping to finish polishing the story of my research, which now not only has shape but is starting to be polished. I just hope the shape is similar to a sphere, since that is the topic of my research! You're right my puns are lame, but 30Rock is very funny don't you think?

I thought this guys work was worth looking at. I really like these representations, and it turns out a lot of his other photos are pretty cool too. www.chrisjordan.com I didn't realize that 2.3 million people were incarcerated last year, did you?

Update

2006-11-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

I am writing my thesis proposal, working on my thesis, and yes planning the next set of experiments related to my thesis. I am busy and should be doing some work, but just wanted to let you know that although I am terrible at keeping a daily journal, writing regularly in a blog, and keeping track of all the events of my life, I do have some things I do on a daily basis. I shower, eat, walk to and from school, read, pray, and even have been writing a portion of my thesis or thesis proposal each day. How do I do it you ask? How do I manage to do 6 things on a daily basis? Although, it may not seem easy, it actually is, I am just really good at making it look hard. Take my hair for instance, I am letting it grow, mainly because of a bet with Julie, but also because I can look so much more desheveled now. And everyone knows that those that look deshevled must be important, busy, or crazy...all reasons to leave me alone and let me work on my thesis. It also seems to keep my new found purpose (graduation) on my mind. Let me explain. A few months back I needed a haircut. Julie said that I didn't have to cut it and that I could let it grow until I graduated if I liked. Wasn't that nice of her to give me permission? Anyway, one joke led to another, and then a bet that I would have to cut it before I graduated. So far I haven't. Though, it is starting to annoy me. It falls in my face more often now, and that can be annoying. I find myself blowing it out of the way, which probably looks kind of funny to some people. That is part of the reason it keeps the thesis on my mind, it actually rests on top of my mind. A big hairy mop, collecting my brain waves, thoughts, etc, but always there oozing a reminder that I must keep working to finish, sometimes it even talks to me. "Don't get distracted, get back to work or I might fall in your face...aha I told you I would fall in your face!" I may need a psychiatrist after graduation...I might need one now, aside from that it just goes to show you that there is a reason many grad students having long hair...I just don't think its so that they have an imaginary friend nagging them all the time.

If I do end up getting a haircut maybe I will try not showering next. It seems to keep some of the same distractions at bay.

Tired!

2006-05-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Everyone I talked to today seemed tired, myself included. I don't know why but it just seemed like the day dragged on and I wasn't on top of my game. This weekend Julie and I watched a movie called 'Proof' with Gwenyth Paltrow. I liked it but can't remember why. I think one of the points it was trying to make was that if you take care of crazy people you love, you might become crazy yourself...and that geniuses are typically crazy as well. Since I hang out with scientists and engineers a lot, I have to say that in general none of us are crazy. Perhaps a little over zealous about our work and work habits. Not as social as some people, yes, and maybe even selfish, but not crazy. Having had personal experience with some people diagnosed as crazy, I must say that I have asked myself on more than one occasion if I am crazy. My answer is always no but is biased so I typically poll the people I meet and get to know. So far 17% say I am on drugs, 23% say I am normal, %33 say I am weird, and only 27% say I should be in a mental institution. Of those polled and replied that I am crazy 29% were relatives or crazy or both. See I am normal.

Me and President Hockfield

2006-05-03T06:42:00.000-07:00

Monday we had the grand opening of the basement in Building 5. The basement is where I reside and over the course of the last 9 months there have been some serious renovations across the hall, which luckily have helped improve our side of the hall as well. Thanks to a generous donation from Mr. and Mrs. Pappalardo the labs across the hall will be dedicated to nanotechnology. We will continue to do fluid dynamics on this side of the hall but let me take a second to welcome the really really really ridiculously small people accross the hall. If you don't think that is humorous then this joke will also bore you at the ribbon cutting speach President Susan Hockfield (first woman president of MIT) said "I know you don't like to call this the basement, you prefer to call it the 'ground floor'...pause and laughter... I've been getting a lot of calls from people with offices upstairs that are upset and are requesting offices also on the 'ground floor'." Followed by more laughter. You have to realize that in a place this nerdy, any sort of joke is well rewarded. Anyway, as you may know our lab takes a lot of pictures and such for our experiments and things. Since I had a camera around my neck I was asked by our Department Head Rohan Abeyaratne to take a bunch of pictures of the event, with the stipulation that he would arrange for me to get my picture taken with President Hockfield. So here it is, this picture was taken by Prof. Slocum, and I think it is the best picture of the whole bunch...I am not going to post the other pictures unless I get some requests. Oh, and I got to meet the past president of Northrop Grumman, Joe Gavin. What a great guy, he was hilarious, intriguing, and had some really great stories about MIT and the space industry. He was in charge of the Lunar Lander project! Can you imagine? It was surprisingly fun.

Some answers to a bibliography solution

2006-04-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

I was so happy that two people commented on my last entry! Two people I believe are not members of my immediate family! Anyway, I am sorry to respond to their responses so slowly, and am happy to report that their advice was fantastic. I now have a great bibliography system. I am using bibdesk and have found some hidden features that are making it easier to keep my bibilography organized in one place.
When entering the different fields I never took advantage of the url or local url feature. These links allow me to either download the article and then link it to the local url on my hard drive or to link directly to the url on the web. This is great if I have an old article that I have scanned, I can put it in a folder entitled papers, but link it to the local url link in bibdesk and the next time I look up that article It will appear with just a click of the mouse. The url link is used to link a file from the internet to bibdesk. This is a great way to keep track of all my articles that I want to leave online. For now I am kind of anal and am downloading pdf versions of all the articles I find, and printing them, and filing them. As I use the system more and more I realize that filing them is almost pointless. The advantage to downloading the article is that I can have it with me at all time. So when I don't have access to the internet or to my schools subscription to a certain journal, I can still keep researching. My system is beginning to feel complete and neat, and that makes me say "sweet". Ok that was lame, but so annoying that I had to leave it in this entry.

Last time I was complaining that there wasn't a great way to comment or put notes in the articles I read because I can't put figures I like or equations I want to input. It is still true that I cannot do this in the annote section of bibdesk. Serkan commented that I should use Equation Services, which I downloaded and am very pleased with. Unfortuneately, bibdesk won't take advantage of this feature, but DevonThink does allow me to use this feature. The great thing is that I can either take notes in DevonThink (which is the easiest way to take notes) and when I do a full size review I can just go straight to LaTex and make a document there if need be. When I am done I can link it to the bibiliography file in bibdesk by adding a general category for all files called MyNotes (see picture at top of this entry). I made the category MyNotes a local url and voila, I put the file I wrote while in DevonThink in the MyNotes section of the bibliography, and the next time I look at the entry the notes are there and they are retrieved ready for me to read and look at! This system also allows me to be lazy with how I file the document. If I use DevonThink it does all the work for me and files it automatically. If I use LaTex I can just put it in a folder near "Papers" entitled "notes" and bibdesk will make the appropriate link for me, making later retrieval easy.

There are two things that I think would make good improvements. One would be for the bibdesk group to add the ability to add pictures, graphics, etc. and equations from equation editors like equation services directly into the annote section or any section for that matter. Bibdesk already utilizes latex editing when the preview is used to look at a specific entry or entries. It would be great to have the annote section work similarly. When you wanted to view it in its final form it could utilize the latex compilers. When you entered the text you could just enter your equations as you would normally do in latex. Bibdesk allows me to do this for all the fields like author, title, etc. but it would be useful to do the same in the annote section and have a way to view the annote section after it is compiled. The second improvement would be a way to automatically backup my bibliography and figure out a slick way to check my bibliography on the other computer I use to see which version of my biliography is the most recent, a sort of syncing function. This would allow me to be lazier about copying my files from one computer to the next and ensure that one article I read on Monday on my laptop, then another article I catalogued on Tuesday on my desktop would all be in the bibliography on Thursday when I start writing.

However, I want to be clear that I am very grateful for bibdesk. It is a great program and working very well for my needs. I have tried Endnote and refworks, and found that bibdesk was much better on all accounts than the other programs. The addition of Equation Services is a small thing and not having this functionality doesn't distract from the usefulness of bibdesk. The anonymous comment helped me to look back at the bibdesk website for hidden functionality, which was very pleasing and fairly straightforward to find. As far as searching goes, it seems bibdesk has a good search tool, but it is important to click on the magnifying glass to ensure that I was searching in the right category or in "all entries".

What do you use?

2006-04-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

To start I thought you might like to see the most recent MIT Hack entitled "Caltech Cannon Hack". I read in the paper today that a while ago Caltech stole this cannon from a prep school near Caltech, and that in response to some prank Caltech played at this time last year, MIT students decided to bring this huge thing out east. They must have really thought this through. It must have cost a bit of money too. Anyway, have a look for yourself here.
I also wanted to know what any of you who read this do once you have read an article you are going to put in your biblography. Since there are only 2 of you that read this blog that use bibliographies, I guess I may never get a response but I was curious. I use bibdesk for the mac, but once I have read the article and made my notes I don't know what to use to jot the notes I made into, scan a pdf? The notes section of bibdesk seems the easiest place to retrieve my notes but I use equations and figures a lot and it won't take those fields. It also has a poor search tool. So I was thinking DevonThink but they have poor support for equations as well...ideas are welcome.

Another week of mediocraty

2006-03-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

It seems no matter how hard I work, my research takes a back seat. This week I am going to get up extra early (5 am) and go straight to school. I want to see if I get more done. I want to see if my focus can return to my research. If it can then I might have a chance to graduate before my kids enter college.

I guess I spend a lot of my time thinking about things that aren't directly related to my research. The rest of my time is spent helping others actually. I spend a lot of the week working on the laboratory, homeworks, and answering peoples questions in the lab. Perhaps if I come in early enough I can avoid getting caught up in all of that and get something done. Lets see how it goes...I will try to report back in a few days...now I just need to get an alarm clock that will get me up, without excuses. Steve Pavlina says that I should have a no arguing policy about waking up. When I hear the alarm I should stretch and wake up and not even allow myself to discuss my options. Otherwise I will argue myself back into bed. Honestly I want to go back to bed, even now, but I should be working. So tomorrow I begin the battle with myself and discipline. I will let you know who wins.

New Mandolin

2006-03-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

My mom sent me new mandolin on Friday! It sounds funny but it is the nicest gift she ever gave me I think...next to life...I don't mean to belittle life, but this thing is awesome! It has an amplifier so I can bother the kids and neighbors with my playing. She also sent a tuner, which makes tuning 8 strings a lot easier. I have been playing the fiddle for a couple of months now and maybe she just thought I sounded crappy... or maybe Julie begged her to change my instrument!hahaha, actully I am pretty sure she just wanted to give me something nice. I am really please and have already learned a couple of songs. Nothing to fancy, and I am not really that good (of course), but I am having a lot of fun. I hope that I can take lessons soon. I don't really even know if I am playing it right. Anyway it was just the thing I needed. I have been a little down lately. Research seems to be taking a backseat these days and I don't like that because it means I am no closer to graduation and no closer to solutions. Hopefully with the second half of the semester coming up I will gain some momentum and get in a grove...being a TA isn't as easy as I thought it would be, but I am enjoying it.

Posting from a widget

2006-03-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

I am posting from a new macintosh widget that posts blog entries to blogspot.com. Once again the ease of using a free blogging tool is awesome. I am very excited about this tool. Perhaps I will be able to blog more often. For those of you who don't know what a widget is: a widget is a sort of small application that runs on an alternate window. When I am working under normal conditions on my desktop or whatever I click on f12 and a transparent window appears over my work. On the window are a couple of very small at a glance applications for instance: a calendar at a glance, a clock, a calculator, a conversion tool, the weather, a dictionary. I can use them and then return to my work with just one button click. They look cool and track small pieces of information all day. I like them and so do many Mac users. If you use windows you are out of luck, but you probably have some excuse why you are still using a PC and probably don't feel bad. Let us all strive to be more productive. I hope this helps me do so.

T-Minus ? To graduation

2006-03-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

I don't really know how long it is going to take for me to graduate. I read this article today and some of the comments. It was an interesting article about the need for schools to help doctoral students graduate sooner. The average time it takes to graduate from a BS to PhD is 7.6 years, on the rise over the past 30 years! How can I shorten that time frame? I will definitely have to move faster than I am now!

The study sites a couple of suggestions, but overall I see a problem that isn't mentioned, as it applies to science related PhD's. Many scientific disciplines have become so complex that students must learn much more before they can make a contribution. Students must understand everything about the past before they can look into the future. This requires time and therefore makes PhD completion times rise. Although many students have a head start over students 30 years ago (many high school students can take calculus, whereas 30 years ago it was only taught in college) the distance to make a contribution is increasing rapidly. Scientific discovery has become very competitive and complex. Discovering new and interesting contributions to ones discipline is often more difficult than in the past because so much must be learned and studied before one can attempt to formulate anything new.

I can't be sure that this is the reason why people don't graduate sooner. Perhaps it is the comforts of grad school that keep people here (free pizza, exhaustive dead ends, late nights, and a decline in social life). Aren't those three great reasons to go to graduate school? Perhaps it's an aversion to moving on to something outside of the academy. At some point people tire of it. That is when they either decide to leave or get serious about finishing. And that brings me back to...Well me. Honestly, I am not always this self centered but I have one goal as of late... And that is to get my PhD as quickly as possible. Oh sure I probably have 3 more years... But that doesn't change my goal. I am told that if I write my goals down they will happen a lot sooner. So there you are I wrote them down and maybe I can help move the time to graduate statistic back to 7.599 years!

Once again I think that if you want to graduate sooner it is really up to you. Are you asking the right questions? Are you reading and writing each day? Are you taking courses that will lead you to a solution? Have you found a good mentor? Are you meeting regularly with your advisor? In almost everyway it is up to the graduate student to graduate. So how can we shorten the timeframe? I will be on the look out for solutions. I am getting tired of reading about the problem. I know what the problem is, I have the problem, I am the problem. So lets find some solutions, proactive solutions. Solutions I can actually DO something about.

Nacho Libre

2006-02-10T17:36:00.000-08:00

Nacho Libre absolutely intrigues me! I have the feeling that this movie could become my second favorite movie of all time next to Napoleon Dynamite. I mean just look at his picture! Could he be any more serious? Could he look any tougher? Could he have a bigger wedgie? How can he keep a straight face? Two years ago Mindy, Jill, and Jerry took me to Napoleon Dynamite and I laughed/cried through the whole thing. I am absolutely serious. Those who know me or were in the theater that day know I am serious. I was laughing so hard that when Napoleon Dances I had to put my coat over my head and close my ears, because my core muscles hurt so bad and I was starting to get an ear ache from all the smiling. I took some deep breaths so that I could return to the fun. So my expectations are high for this next movie, and I hope that it lives up to them.

Saving a matlab figure on a Mac.

2006-02-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

I find that when i have created a figure using matlab on my mac, I sometimes get an image type that I didn't want. Today I wanted a .jpg but got a .eps instead. Furthermore a lot of the images I try to save don't open properly afterwards. So to save myself from the agony I decided to find out the command line for saving figures hoping that it would solve my problems. Sure enough using the command line rocks once again. Here is the command for saving a figure.

saveas(figure(#),'filename','type')

There is a whole list of types at this link, the ones I use most are jpg, tif, ai, and eps.
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/saveas.html

My research has been reduced to the cheshire cat.

2006-02-09T10:49:00.001-08:00

I have been messing around with my images to gain a better understanding of how they are analyzed. I analyze them for position of the spheres as they pass through the water. Knowing the position helps me determine the spin rate of the spheres. To get the position data I simply subtract two consecutive images, throw out the points that are gray, and look for the perimeter of the remaining blob. I then match the perimeter to the curve of my ball and I know the center. I got to a certain point and noticed that I had recreated the Cheshire Cat! I couldn't stop laughing. Yes I am a nerd.

And the winner is...

2005-11-29T11:16:00.000-08:00

So this past week I submitted a poster to the annual American Physical Society conference with the help of my advisor. And the winner is Tadd and Alex, which means that we will be able to publish our results in the Physics of Fluids Journal later in the summer and our poster will be on display at the March APS meeting. I am excited to be published for the first time, and proud of the pictures and poster we created. Here is the poster in its smaller format. I wanted to win very badly, but was honestly surprised to hear that we had won. I had thought the conference ended Monday morning, but it actually went until midday on Tuesday. So when Tuesday came and I hadn't heard anything I thought I hadn't won anything. Feeling a little disappointed I said to myself "wouldn't it be great if Alex called later today or emailed saying she forgot to tell me that we had won?" I looked at myself in the mirror and thought to myself "get a grip you over optimistic fool." So the day carried on and around 11 am Alex called and said that Kelli had just called her and there was a little purple ribbon on my poster that said "Winner". Alex and I were very pleased but we were all too busy to celebrate, so we cheered and went back to work. Later that evening Julie and I celebrated by going out to eat. I wanted to thank Brant, who helped take these great photos, by taking him and his wife out to dinner but they were too busy as well. There were also some postcards we handed out that were taken directly from the poster. If you would like a postcard mailed to you just send me a quick email or comment on this blog below. Finally some of the hard work seems to pay off...Now back to work and writing.

A new watch and a broken car.

2005-11-21T10:19:00.000-08:00

Four weeks ago my watch band broke on my timex ironman heart rate monitor. It has one of those non replaceable types of bands and so I was bummed out. I called timex and they said I could get it replaced for $7 ! Holy cow what a great deal! So I sent it in... later they sent it back, except that it even had a new face, wait no, it is brand new! Ha ha, talk about great luck. Then the car broke and it is costing almost $700 to fix, something wrong with the coil, so the third piston won't fire... Personally I think we are getting ripped off. Julie's computer hasn't held a charge in over two months... so it is always plugged in. We took it to the apple store and they are fixing it this week for $100! We win some and we loose some... I just wish I could win some of the more expensive prizes! I finished a poster for APS it looks pretty nice, I hope it does well. mumble mumble.. Ok back to work.

Getting a PhD means more than your topic!

2005-10-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

I am writing about something I discovered a long time ago. Going to school to become something like an Engineer requires one to be more than that subject they have chosen to "specialize" in. As an engineer writing a masters thesis, I find that I am truly a jack of all trades, non of which am I very good at. I have to be a writer. If I am not a very good one graduation, funding, and publications are difficult to acquire. I have to be a graphic artist. If I want people to see what I do, then I have to present my research in a manner that is pleasing to the eye. I also have to be a teacher and explain my ideas to others when they ask, or be ready for a pop presentation at a moments notice. I have had to become a photographer, a secretary, a coordinator, public speaker, mathematician... and I am sure there are others. I am not complaining but I am saying that my skill levels are increasing significantly even if I haven't finished my thesis yet... So I am going to get back to work now.

Hondurian Shigella!

2005-09-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last post. I have done a lot this summer. Mainly, I worked on my thesis and made some progress... If I don't sound excited it is because I am not nearly as far along as I would like. I did make progress though. I also spent a weekend in Utah, and 9 days in Honduras, a night in Miami, and a day in the hospital at Maine Medical. Honduras was like a whole other country... wait it is a whole other country. I was amazed by the beauty there, shocked by the living standards, and nervous about the food and water. We were able to place two radio antenna's, look for our old sensors, successful radio tests, tested many water towers, helped solidify the hydro model, and made plans for the next year. The food was surprisingly good, the people were some of the nicest I have ever met, and I even learned a few words in Spanish... My first full sentence was a joke that no one got... I am probably spelling it wrong.... Que pense a var a nabar a manana? "Do you think it will snow tomorrow?" Man was it hot there! I got heat rash, and yes I got some intestinal illness called Shigella. I didn't actually experience it while I was there, instead it came to critical mass around 5 am on Friday after we had already set off for the long weekend in Maine. I had forgotten my antibiotics, and my stomach paid dearly. By the time I was in the hospital the nurse couldn't take my blood pressure properly because I was so dehydrated... Ten hours later they gave me the antibiotic my doctor in Boston had recommended, and I was feeling a little better by Saturday night. I feel better now but weakened, and I now have a head cold that the rest of the family seemed to bring back from Maine, or Utah, or whatever. Now it is back to school and thesis. The class I am taking this semester looks promising, a class on fluid dynamics of interesting phenomenon, like skipping stones, sportsballs, and insects. In the picture I am on the right, Andrea on the left. We had to wear bandanas because the roads were so dusty. We had to ride in the back of the truck because there were only enough seats for 6 inside the cab, and only two seatbelts! I got to drive, and it was a fun because they honk at almost everything, and you get to pass a lot of beat up old trucks with thousands of bananas stacked in the back with some kid riding on the top of them! I almost forgot, I saw a crocodile! It was huge. Of course, it was across the river from us, but we did have to swim in the same river, so technically I swam in crocodile infested waters! Yikes!

Cockroach!

2005-07-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

After a busy day of trying to get everything ready for our proposal on wednesday, I walked downstairs to clean up some of the mess and begin debugging the last few items, I then came accross this thing in the hallway. I was scared! Seriously, I know it sounds like I am a whimp, but this thing looked like it was an inch off of the ground going 20 mph! I couldn't resist killing the thing though. So I ran and stepped on him. I went to get a piece of paper to pick him up so I could take a picture, and when I tried to pick him up with the paper, he ran away again! I heard a crunch the first time I stepped on him, but it must have been his wings? Wow, what a tough cockroach. I can just see these things in 25,000,000 years evolving into enormous, alien like creatures with 3 inch thick shells wreacking havoc on humans everywhere. Or their relatives from planet Scavenge, coming back to check on the little guys, and seeing me destroy their little babies makes them go berzerk and kill me. Ok ok ok, I will try to relax, I just didn't want this thing in my hallway...Of course, if there is a cockroach this big in the hall I can only imagine how many more there are like him in our hall. There must be millions of these guys in the building I work in! It's a good thing they don't know how to attack, and unite themselves. We might really have a problem if that were the case. Ok, so I am borderline phobic here, a little overboard you might say...maybe, but what will I see next? A colony? organized insects uniting? A rat? A raft of rats on a science expedition? If I want to survive I am going to have to get a bigger shoe, er maybe a better weapon. I will call the pest control service tomorrow, and my psychologist.

Things are picking up

2005-07-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

I have about 6 weeks to get my thesis complete...for the most part. It is coming along well. I feel like I am making more and more progress each day. This week I accomplished everything I set out to do and that makes me feel a lot better. I have some more writing to do this weekend so that I will be where I want to be on Monday. But the push to get it done is driving me, besides I want it over as soon as possible. Now that I am trying to put my research into a cohesive document I am finding satisfaction in doing the work. It is nice to finally see some of the product of my hard work. I hope some of this material can be put in a paper soon. I wanted to put up a photo of some of the recent shots I have been doing. So enjoy, and happy independence day!

Afternoon slowdown

2005-06-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a hard time staying focused and alert around 2 pm everyday. If I can be productive during that time I usual have a productive day. If not I seem to be upset for the rest of the evening. I looked up some ideas to get over it and here is what I came up with.
1- Run as fast as you can down the hallway and back!
2- Go to homestarrunner.com and waste some more time, then take a nap.
3- Give in and take a nap on your desk, then find a more comfortable place and take another nap.
4- Go to the gym and workout, but don't look at yourself in the mirror while changing or you might give up.
5- Go get some candy and hope the sugar reawakens you.
6- Listen to Commencement...it will definately put you to sleep.
7- Cut, or burn yourself by accident!
8- Spray windex on your cut...or face!
9- Go outside!
10- Find out your friends from college are all making a lot of money and living in Hawaii, while you still wear pants in June in Massachusetts because it is too cold. All because you chose to get a "higher" education. The anger will wake you up.
11- Dream of bossing your friends around when you are finished with your PhD. Smiling makes me not sleep!

Ok so the list is lame. But now I can get back to work.

Another day

2005-06-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty productive.
I was able to get all of my parts working properly. Now I just need to make them all look nice and neat and put them away so that I can begin experimentation. I also cleaned out the tank so that I am ready to perform some experiments. Although slow, I am glad to be working again. Last week was a very emotional week, and getting back into the swing of things feels good. Tomorrow I will hopefully finish all of the clean up items, move more of my things to the new lab, set up the remaining computers, and hopefully run some experiments. I need to do a lot more writing. I hope I can begin a more productive routine after I finish cleaning the lab.

I should post more

2005-03-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

I would really like to post to this website everyday... so would everyone. The lame thing is no one would read it so what is the point?

Hello World

2005-03-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

Well hello again. This site has moved. Isn't it refreshing? Now I can post away from my own computer! That just makes me happy!