Toledo Speedway evening.

On Friday, I went with Terry and Dan to the Toledo Speedway to watch several "Figure 8" races. While not a Demolition Derby, per se, the various cars, cars-with-trailers, and school buses were likely never to be raced/used after that night. Therefore, demolition was always a factor hanging in the air. One point from that evening that I realized before even getting there was how out of place I would be; that I would be about as invisible as the full moon on a clear night in the open prairie. I was right. Admittedly, I could have taken some trouble in making myself a little less conspicuous by taking off my hip-worn camera bag, wearing a ball cap, and putting on a different t-shirt (say, a Michigan one). I didn't care to do so. Well, it meant that there was always a little bit of a shock that I would be there - talking with the people as if nothing was amiss (the look on the face of the girl working at concessions was priceless - I wish I had my camera available).

I would have taken more photos of the race action, but for two problems:

1. There was a large fence blocking access to the speedway proper (which is a good thing, in case a large piece of vehicle were to be propelled in the general direction of the stands) that reflected all the light from the flash, making photography difficult, and

2. There was a very nice, but very persuasive police man making sure that no one got close to the afore-mentioned barrier, especially during the course of a race.

So with those two caveats known, please accept my paltry slection of photographs, taken during periods of a race that involved a brief pause:

Large construction vehicles removed buses too battered to continue further in the race.


The "Chris, will you marry me?" bus wins the final race of the evening! (We all later discussed the point that it would likely be all downhill for the racer from this evening.)
The motor-madness crowds all try to find their way out of the Speedway, all at once. We decided to go to the Speedway's bar (yes, the motor speedway has a place for you to drink before driving home) in order to try and wait out the mass exodus of cars before returning to hippy-dippy Ann Arbor.

No rain.

No rain today, and little indication of rain in the near future, however, gray skies go on and on:

Gray Skies (apologies to Irving Berlin)
I was happy, just as happy as I could be
Ev'ry day was a sunny day for me
Then good luck went a-charging out my door
Skies were clear but they're not clear anymore

Gray skies
Crying on me
Nothing but gray skies
Do I see

Corvids
Cawing a song
Nothing but corvids
All day long

Never saw the clouds building up high
Never saw things going good-bye
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you're all gray, my how they fly

Gray skies.
Sunshine is gone.
Nothing but gray skies.
From now on!

Anyway, there were a few students this morning playing on a large see-saw, raising money for charity. Also, I saw some fungi growing on the side of some railroad ties that used to form the platform base of an outdoor art installation (see below)

There was more rain yesterday than I thought!

OMG! It actually got up to 2,500 cfs! More than double my prediction! Look at that response time, and then look at that quick flushing of the system. (Perhaps we had some overnight rain that caused the rise in the morning, or perhaps there was a dam release at Argo...) Hmm....

Anyway, so I promised to have some photos of people walking through the torrential downpour. Obviously, these people were rather more optimistic than I was first thing in the morning (or else, they had their umbrellas stolen at some point during the day. (Unlikely, though, since I have been seeing people each day that it has rained (the past two days, as you can see in the graph) have not carried umbrellas. (As a side note, I have a feeling that today will have some rain, too, but I have not seen students wearing raincoats or carrying umbrellas... Not to be overly-critical, but sometimes you have to wonder if peopl really have a deep-seated desire to become completely drenched.) If you want to see a short video of how bad the backwater gets, check it out here.

Lots of frickin rain!

Lots of rain right now. I expect there to be a very quick response in the Huron River today (considering how much of a leap happened yesterday when there seemed to far less rain). If you look at the below graph of river discharge in the Huron River at Ann Arbor, you can see that over the course of a few hours of heavy"-ish" rain, there was a four-fold increase in discharge (unfortunately, I don't have the rain gage data for yesterday). I would expect that today's rain will create a discharge of over 1000 cfs (9 times greater than the median discharge of the day - of course, I do understand that a single day's anomalous weather has little impact on the median value of a series, but it is still amazing! For this reason, this calls for some expletive! OMG!!!
Also, there will be photos of people running through the rain, and (if I can figure out how to put up some short video) a clip of people trying to wade through or pursuing a futile effort to walk around a large puddle that blocks the entire pavement. (It always causes a problem when there is a lot of rain, and becomes downright deadly when the weather turns cold enough to freeze puddles into a vast plain of slippery death.)

First social event

The first social event of AY06/07 got off to a decent start last night with many people showing up at Burns Park for some keg goodness. There were many bike-riders there, indicating where the SNERDs were (as opposed to the hundreds of other people at the Park). I dont' know how many people were there, but it seemed like about 70 people showed up (at at $3 per person, that was more than enough for covering the keg). Luckily, the weather held up quite nicely, and people played frisbee, walked dogs, and stood around bs-ing around the keg (most of the people fell in the last category). Thanks to Lekha for letting me use her Nalgene for some beer (since I didn't bring a cup, nor did I want to use one of the few cups provided for people such as myself). After the keg, we went to The Grizz for some food and (some of us) more beer. Unfortulately, some of us (Neil) forgot their ID, and so could not get any Grizzly Peak goodness. Ah, well.

Biostation Orientation was fun.

The UMBS Orientation was quite fun. Many from the incoming class attended, and I think they all had a really good time. So, now you get to see some photos of the UMBS during the late summer (there were no blackflies this year, so that was nice).

How did you get here? Help me figure this one out.

It appears that I'm getting a lot of traffic to this page (I'm writing this on Jan 11, 2010), but I can't figure out why. Could you please leave a comment below indicating what search brought you here? It's really a puzzle to me.

Cheers.

SNRE Orientation

Leaving tomorrow to help with the SNRE Orientation. Happily, the Biostation has been reinstated as the destination, and (happily) I've been asked to help out again. Strangely, I find myself the "old hand" for going up to the Biostation, as the staff going up are newer than my stay with SNRE. (Maybe this is Fate's way of making me realize that I must accept the nice little cardigan she has already knitted for me.) Anyway, look for photos from that here (or other places where I post these things).

I really hope that people actually read the e-mails that Karen sent out vis-a-vis what to bring/not to bring. It always seemed that there were a number of people who got to the Biostation and thought, "Holy CR@P!!! This is not what I expected from my concept of Michigan!" (Since many people seem to equate Michigan with the auto industry; Robocop; or Eight Mile. All of which are actually just "Detroit" which is the same as equating Japan exclusively with Tokyo; California exclusively with LA; New York exclusively with NYC; you get the idea.)

As Michigan's tourism board is trying to get people to realize: Michigan is much, much more than Detroit. Okay, I don't know why I generally end up with a rant when writing in my blog, but maybe it's not such a BAD thing... (Or maybe I just am settling down from drinking up a large cuppa joe.) Writing about such banal things in a blog makes me think about a specific Girls with Slingshots webcomic. (It's not mine to distribute, so just click on the link and find it - and many other funny strips.)

Writing about webcomics, I am further reminded of what reminds me of my current daily grind of modeling. (Thank you PHD comics.) This comic and this comic also remind me of what I sometimes find myself doing (thanks to Commissioned Comic). Okay, enough with the procrastination from work... Back to modeling in [Awww...] HEC[k]-RAS.

Siddartha Gautama ≠ Hotei

On the left is a picture depicting the Buddha, Siddartha Gautama, during his time of fasting. As you can imagine, the depiction of an emaciated spiritual leader would not have had as much of a "draw" to potential supplicants who habitually suffer from starvation, and may be looking for a benevolent spiritual savior. Still, if you want to learn more about the history of Siddhattha Gotama (aka Buddha), then I would suggest that you check out Osamu Tezuka's 8-part graphic novel of the Buddha's life.

It is just a little pet peeve of mine that people in the US and Europe all associate the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) with the recharacterization of the Chinese Bo Dai Luohan/Shinto god Hotei (shown on the right), which - except for tertiary characteristics - are not very similar at all.

To many Americans (and possibly Westerners in general), there is little to no understanding of who the Buddha was, to such an extent that many equate a Chinese Taoism-derived deity with an historical person from northern India. To put this in analogous terms, this would be like saying that the Christian God (the Father, as depicted famously on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel) was interchangeable with the Greek god Zeus.

Admittedly, the depiction of God in the Sistine Chapel is based on a Classical patriarchal figure, most commonly characterized by Zeus, however, most people would be able to say that the old man painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is not Zeus.

To complicate things just a little, though, in East Asian Buddhism (i.e., in China and Japan), many Taoism-derived deities, including Hotei, were folded into the Buddhism of those regions as Bodhisattvas. However Bodhisattvas are not the same as the Buddha, and Hotei was and remains a completely separate individual from the Siddhartha Gautama. This really shouldn't be too difficult to understand, especially given the ways in which characters found in Western mythos are derived from different roots. Good examples are the names of the archangels (whose names and features were derived from Babylonian mythos) and the Norse mythology, which is an amalgamation of two different Germanic pantheons, named the Aesir (with the famous gods Thor, Odin, and Baldr) and Vanir (with the less-famous gods Freyr and Freya).

But all you have to do is just look at the statues depicting the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, with one deity-cum-Bodhisatttva (Hotei). They are different entities.

Rant over.

It's getting HOTTER.

Look at the pictures.

It's our turn for hot weather soon.

Okay, so it isn't as hot as it was in California. It isn't the record temperature, either (that was set in 1940 at 98F, if you can't see the picture). However, this is a slightly disturbing feature. I don't think that people in Ann Arbor are really prepared for temperatures in the mid-90s. Hopefully the forcast of lower temperatures in the next week are right. Otherwise, it will be problematic for many people in a town which is not known for having a lot of airconditioning.

Of course, as our Enlightened Leader, the Great Decider, global warming is not a subject of imminent concern. That means that, according to the Great Enlightened Decider, this cannot be global warming (since it is happening "imminently", as it were). Since it is not global warming, this slight uptick in the average weather be something we shouldn't worry about. Therefore, we should just get us some watermelon, sit outside with a glass of iced tea, and have not a care in the world!

Fart Fair DONE!

Fart Fair is done yet again. And yet again, I have not purchased any pieces of fart. I DID pick up a pair of speakers at a friend's yard sale, though. Although I am moving in about three weeks, I figured that the purchase was well worth the price and slightly increased moving volume.

The photos of the vast sea of people descending on Ann Arbor on Friday was dwarfed by what showed up on Saturday. Amazingly all gone by Saturday evening, the town was jam-packed with the Upper Midwest's finest. Never before had I seen (or mentally acknowledged) the vast numbers of large people in Walmart shorts and t-shirts, walking about under the sun.

Sabrina's aunt and uncle came in from Cleveland for Saturday, and, after taking us out to dinner, we all went to see Sabrina's cousins' baby (now three weeks old). As expected, little Dylan has more hair (sticking up all which way), and his nose is less squshed than previously. Also, he turned out to be more responsive than before, tracking his mother's voice as she moved around the room. I'm sure that I will have my own photos of baby to share, so I will (still) hold off on posting them.


My bro is coming to MI in August, so it will be nice to hang out for some little bit of time before he becomes a practicing professor at William and Mary.

Rain makes my office sticky.

The rain this morning cooled the city down. However, it also increased the humidity. My office is now a cool sauna of just pure pleasure. (Please note the sarcasm dripping off that statement just as easily as sweat is dripping off my forehead.)

I am thinking how nice it would be to A) close off the doorway to the perpetually-hot scale room, B) have insulation in the roof to decrease the amount of midday heating, and C) have an air conditioner cool off the rear attic offices.

The temperature is likely to reach the upper 80s in SE Michigan. Yum... "We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave. The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising, the attic certainly can, heat up."

Fart Fair 2006.

Ann Arbor art fair is started. Already I have been out and about perusing the many pieces of schlock-art available for purchase. Occasionally, I find a diamond in the rough, but (like diamonds), I cannot afford them. (Nor would I really know what to do with the stuff.) So, as always, I end up walking around the streets looking at the stalls much like I was at a museum of "Art-of-Varying-Qualities." As in years' past, these artists are a little touchy when it comes to having photographs taken around their pieces of work (as if I would really be able to reproduce a woven hat based on a photograph, or a fresco made of faux plaster), so no photos for now. However, I think I will take some of the larger installations that are less likely to be purchased, and more likely to be photographed by people in general.

The weather is cooler than it was a few days ago, but the general trend seems to be keeping it up in the mid-80s or higher. (On an historic side note, London apparently reached record temperatures of 93F, and over 100F in the subways. This was reported to have been warmer than Rome or Madrid. Who says global warming is an issue? Oh yeah, I do.) On the note of weather, large gusts of wind two nights ago cut the power to my block. It was not restored for over 20 hours. Luckily, yesterday was not as hot as the day before, so my fridge contents were not subject to a slow bake over the course of the day.

I have a small hidden desire for large gusts of wind to bring about much chaos at the myriad of art fair booths. It would be interesting to photograph the artistic carnage...

GIS rasters are annoying.

I don't know who came up with the saying, "Rasters are faster, Vecters are 'correcter'..." but I want to get that person to explain why this is the case. I'm having so many projection errors with all the different rasters I'm working with. AAAARRRGH!!!

I know that one of the reasons is due to ArcMap's current inability to project vector features into raster features using the Michigan GeoRef coordinate system. (This is highly annoying, since everyone seems to want to use MIGeoRef.) Another problem is coming with the orthophotos, which have just recently decided to not line up with my TIN or vector features! Annoyances are mounting, and my urge to hit something hard is also increasing (mitigated and frustrated by the knowledge that pounding on the computer will do more harm than good).

Must... breathe. Let the anger out. Think upon calm thoughts. Look out the window. Pray for rain. Get a cup of coffee... Something... other... than... anger... (It is, after all, only a computer program, and can only work with the data it is given, and the parameters within which it is supposed to work. There is no need to get angry with an unreasoning machine that is merely reacting in a manner consistent with its programming. And, yet, GIGO really does get on my nerves.)

Naadam

Today is the start of the Naadam festival in Mongolia. It brings us to think about history, and the changing of the entire Old World by Genghis Khan. A celebration of a bloodthirsty warrior/father of a country, and near deific constant leader of the Mongolian peoples. In 2000, I took a trip to Mongolia during Naadam, and it was an amazing celebration of horsback races, wrestling, archery (from horseback), and traditional singing. So many of these practices migrated with the Mongols to where they conqured, including Japan. Although I'm not a historian (meaning that I have no proof of this), I strongly believe that Japan and Mongolia are closely related, both as a people, as well as specifics of culture. Japan was invaded twice by Mongolia, and it is difficult to imagine that nothing had "rubbed off" on Japan from those invasions. Two that come to mind are the saddle and horseback archery. The Japanese saddle and the Mongol saddle were very similar. In addition, the creation of a horseback bow came about after the Mongol invasion. Luckily, the penchent for goat and sheep meat didn't stick with Japanese culture. If you have never had pressure-cooked goat or sheep, let me tell you that it has a lot of fat, and even after being cooked at super high temperatures, it is still very very tough. Additionally, boiled blood sausage is not a big point of interest in Japan (nor is butter tea and yak's milk). We must be thankful for the small blessings in life I suppose.

Anyway, happy Naadam!

A sight you probably won't see again.

The destruction of the old business school building (to make way for the new Ross School of Business building) lets you see the back side of the School of Economics. I like taking these sorts of photos, since it shows a view that will likely never be seen again. It is also the only way that I could get the whole length of the Econ. Dept. without either stitching photos or investing in a wide-angle lens and then correcting the image with Photoshop.

Econ. Dept. as seen through the rubble of the old Business School

Pinkney Outing

So, Saturday was warm, threatening to be in the mid-90s in Ann Arbor. It was time to get out of my concrete pad, out of town, and over to Pinkney! Cris Turney had sent out an e-vite, and so I met up with people I hadn't seen in a while, and people I haven't met at all. In all, I think there were over 20 people that showed up during the day. (Most didn't last until 5PM - I didn't last too much longer than 5PM.) It was good.

Apart from the requisite "lying-about-reading" and food grilling, there was also the lake swimming and lake frisbee!

Unfortunately, we learned that Pinkney has a "NO ANIMALS" and "NO BIKES" policy. The first command is a bit of a question for me, since we (humans) are animals. Of course, I'm sure the DNR were meaning the second definition: "An animal organism other than a human, especially a mammal." However, I also question if they will enforce the third definition: "A person who behaves in a bestial or brutish manner." Somehow, I think not... We were there long enough for the DNR to enforce the law upon the dogs we brought... and the bikes we brought, too.

Now, the issue with bikes I don't understand. If the statement was "NO BIKE RIDING" then I could understand the intent. However, with bikes costing up to $1,000 being ridden in from Ann Arbor, people might want to have them close-at-hand, rather than trusting to a lock, chain, and rack.

Going home, I learned that the US tied with Italy in their second game of the World Cup, and that Ghana beat (!) the Czech Republic. USA has a chance (perhaps a slim one) to get to the second round! Ahh, the wonders of World Cup Soccer. Just keep us hanging on.

Anyway, don't we SNERDs look so happy sitting out at the lake? (Don't worry, everyone in the photo had slathered on enough sun screen to keep themselves from turning lobster-red, I'm sure.)

Cutting down the old elm tree

The elm tree that stood just outside the Dana Building's Diag-side entrance is no longer there. After having one of its major branches lopped off last year, the grounds staff have decided that it could not be saved, and so toppled it this afternoon.

A tree will not be planted there until the fall. Hopefully it will not be another maple or oak (as there are plenty around the campus already). The UM forester I talked with made a mention about some disease-resistant elm trees that are being cultivated, but the Diag planting design was not his jurisdiction.

Although I am not a "plant" person, it is still sad to think that there will be a large gaping hole in the Diag's "canopy" near the Dana Building. Hopefully Prof Moore will not have too many issues with glare as the summer progresses.

Rainy day in April.

"Drip, drip, drop little April shower, Beating a tune as you fall all around."

Okay, so the film Bambi didn't make the showers seem so cold as they made today. (Well, cold as compared to yesterday - personally, I think this is nice weather, although my plants would be wont to disagree if the could.)

It is SUPPOSED to get back up to the 60s tomorrow. Let's see. Until then I'm going to enjoy the wonderful cool day that is somewhat remeniscent of a Scottish grey.

Auchermuchty!

Sunny Days

Last Saturday, I went to a "PrEaster" Party at an old friend's old house. The photo looking like something out of a JCrew catalog is just a regular graduate student sort of "porching" behavior that is common in the sunny srpingtime. (In case you are interested, you can find all of your clothing needs with JCrew, but probably at a higher cost than you would want to pay as a graduate student).

On a bit of wandering around later, Keith and I bumped into Shinsuke, and (while talking) saw an Isetta pull up at the A2 farmer's market. It's such a nice little car, in the sense that it provides something akin to an enclosed motorcycle on four wheels. The door placed on the front of the body made me wonder if such a car would be amenable to parallel parking, since an inconsiderate driver might back up close to the front of the Isetta, making it impossible access the door. Also, the length of the Isetta appears to be about the same as the width of most midsize cars, and definitely shorter than the width of most SUV's. Of course, this might just be too tempting for an over-zealous traffic warden to ticket...

Finally, Keith and I ended up at the rope swing out at West Park. The photo doesn't do justice to the drop-off that one swings out over.

Weather: Sunny.

There are art installations on the Diag this week, courtesy of the MLA students. Yay! Art! Distraction! Learning! Multi-disiplinary multi-media learning tools!

The following descriptions match up with the various projects (however, they will not likely match up with my photos, since Blogger and I don't get along very well).

ROOTed (front of Dana and Randall)

Jennifer Austin, Erik Dayrell, Susie Mattke-Robinson, Mary Walton

Beneath the surface, the roots of a tree provide stability, strength, and life. Were these roots visible, you would see they reach out far past the trunk of the tree, extending well beyond the canopy. They would bleed their imprint onto the ground, making clear the connection between the life of the tree, the earth around it, and our place rooted in nature. Media: Broadcloth, wire.

Dioxin Exposure! (front of Dana)

E. S. Bauer, S. M. Layton, M. S. Jastremski

Dioxin is a dangerous chemical produced primarily by waste incineration and burning coal to generate electricity. It is present to varying degrees in nearly all life on earth, humans included. Dioxin Exposure! does what its name implies; it amplifies something that is all around us, even inside us,
but that we never see. For more information on Dioxin, visit www.ejnet.org.




Wind at Work (next to Hatcher Library)

Brian Chilcott, Amy Hiipakka, Britt Olsen-Zimmerman, Joel Perkovich, Ja-Jin Wu

The Wind at Work installation is intended to reveal that clean wind power becomes a sculpture in the landscape, rather than a scar as left by traditional fossil fuel extraction. Our intention is to promote the simple beauty of these forms in a bright and joyful space.



Shrine of the Once and Future Forest (front of Tisch Hall)

Jennifer Dowdell, Dave Laclergue, Carrie Morris, Zhifang Wang

Inspired by "The Once and Future Forest" by Leslie Jones Sauer of Andropogon Associates, this shrine mourns human-induced threats to forest diversity. The project encourages consideration of the history of introduced diseases, pests, and invasive species in North America. Playing off of current concerns about the emerald ash borer and the hemlock wooly adelgid, the shrine intends to expand awareness of a long and catastrophic history of similar disturbances, and the inevitability of future epidemics if preventative policies aren't established.



Flux (front of Angell/Mason Hall)

Katherine Foo, Tao Zhang

This installation speaks to the complex energy network that lies underneath the earth. The exponential mathematical relationship of its form expresses the intrusiveness of human beings' patterns of resource use.



Highlighting Diversity (tree wrappings)

Michael Yun, Holly Zipp, Yasuhiro Ishihara, Alicia LaValle, Amy Beltemacchi

We are surrounded by the solidity and permanence of trees but their inherent familiarity can make them invisible to our eyes. Wrapping tree trunks with a simple swath of color highlights the diversity and immutability of the trees. A sequence of horizontal bands at eye level emphasizes a line on the landscape and brings unity to a space which is otherwise experienced disparately. Each color corresponds to the tree's botanical family. We hope to deliberately connect our community to the landscape with this simple act.

Weather: Sunny

I went to the farmer’s market, A2’s PFC, and Eastern Accents Café. At the market, I picked up some leafy greens from Brines Farm (fantastic salad mix, arugula, and spinach). ** As a side-note, MS Word 2002 doesn't include "arugula" in its spell-checker **

On the way to the farmer’s market, I saw city workers cutting down a tree near the “Y”. I didn’t ask why they were doing it, but if it was like many of the trees there, it was some sort of maple (so it wasn’t because of the emerald ash borer). It was likely damaged by the heavy winds we’ve been having recently. Still, to have four large trucks come to take down the smallest tree on the block seemed a little overkill to me. That they spray-painted a blue "X" on the side of the tree facing the street before starting to cut does, however, make it seem more (erm) in line with what I would expect from the city.

At Eastern Accents, Curt and I were given the privilege of briefly hosting a drunk in a puffy jacket for a few minutes before he realized that:

1) he couldn’t draw in his state of inebriation (he was apparently trying to draw a woman’s face, but couldn’t get past drawing just the eyes), and

2) he wasn’t going to get much more from us than near-rapt attention at the nonsequitor of his presence (after all, it’s not every Saturday morning that you have a drunk join your table at an near-empty café).

I’m also including some photos of Ann Arbor’s lovely City Hall that I took on my way to the market. It seems to be a building lost in time. I say this because, given the right building materials and planning, the design would have been awe-inspiring, as the building would appear to defy gravity; a triangular wedge standing on its point. Instead, we have something that tried to make an attempt at this in planning, utterly failed somewhere during the construction phase, and now sits sullen and alone in the middle of its asphalt parking lot. Ladies and gentlemen: the city hall building of Ann Arbor.

Weather: Rain and rain and rain (and clouds)

I woke up today to the sound of rain pelting down on the roof. Lots of rain. Yesterday was sunny and breezy. Today is rainy and breezy. It MUST be spring.

Unfortunately, this rain means that we will be postponing the Spring Picnic to another day (the first time since I started here). As SNRE students, part of me feels that we should be able to withstand and enjoy the various types of weather that is part of a Michigan spring. However, I am not a "normal" person in this regard. (Plus, rain doesn't go well with sandwiches...) If there was some way of having a gathering outside the building, out of the rain, but in a different situation (similar to the Arb), I would be all for it!

Oh, well. Back to work. Back to (a modeled) reality.

Window: Cloudy

Apple is now capable of doing Windows! People with Apple can now use ArcGIS! (And apparently, it runs Windows faster than a PC...)

Weather: ...

The bird flu is not even 10 miles away from my alma mater, St Andrews in Scotland. The story is likely to cause panic in the area. I hope my friends keep a sound head and do the right thing.

Weather: Changeable.

It appears that the Ross Business School's Davidson Hall is to be demolished as part of the $300 million redevelopment process. The trucks are out and ready to start the destruction! I took some last photos of the place before it goes bye-bye and all that is left is rubble. I wondered when this will happen, what will the new building would look like, if it would be LEED design, how this might hurt the school's short-term enrollment, or cause more people to come to an expanding program. All questions were mostly answered at the "Community Creation" page at the Ross School of Business. Lots of pictures of what the thing looks like, including information about their fitness center!?!

I also include a photo of one of the sorority buildings overshadowed by the South Quad dorm. I just like the photo.

Also, Bank1One is now Chase! (The ATM is being measured to fit. It turns out that most of it is plastic - just like the H2!)

Weather: bleaugh

The weather is SUPPOSED to get warmer. We shall see... (currently 37F, but it FEELS like 29F.) Slightly windy. Perfect! This is good weather.

(The "bleaugh" is just my mood right now.)

Webcomic review 1: Okay so I read webcomics. Fine. I know that there are better ways of spending my time. However, I choose to not follow them. In this and future blogs, I will go through some of the (many) webcomics that I have deemed suitable (for various reasons) for me to read. The first one is Accidental Centaurs by John Lotshaw. Apart from having a bias positive regard toward John's last name (hahahaha, bad joke), I feel that this strip is a nice piece of fantasy comedy, and isn't a dark, violent, gory, erotic, super-sarcastic, and/or geeky comic. It isn't manga-esque or a super hero comic, but features two centaurs (Alex and Samantha) that were originally human scientists from earth and are now caught in another dimension where they meet a genie called Lenny that transforms their perceptions of themselves (and you, the reader) to that of centaurs from Greek myth. They go through some adventures, but since the comic is updates only semi-weekly, each adventure might take a year or more to get through (going through the archives is a better way of getting a feel of each entire plot arc). John's pacing seems to be a little slow for my liking at times, but he still makes the ride a good one.

There is usually some amount of time that passes between adventures, so you pick up with Alex and Samantha in a place that usually has little to do with where the previous story line took place. Additionally, there has been a couple cross-over plot lines with The Wotch (coming up in a later post), and a few guest artists have also contributed work.

Final review: I like it! You should check it out.

Weather: Windy

I like days like today: just above freezing, windy, and touches of sunlight (I would call it a "dappling", but that might be going too far). Brisk wind; makes me feel like I should be energetic.

Yesterday, I went to a talk by the creator of Piled Higher and Deeper, the online webcomic all about graduate life. It was a great talk where the (now FORMER grad student) told us all that procrastination is GOOD. However, procrastination is often mistaken for laziness (which is BA~~D). The difference is that if you procrastinate, you put off something until a later time (usually unnecessarily). If you are lazy, you just put stuff off.

There are two implications here: the first one being that if you procrastinate, you will do it when it needs be done (although "when it needs to be done" and "deadline" apparently don't always mean the same thing), and the second one being that procrastination requires finding something pleasurable to do (although not always pleasurable in all circumstances; such as cleaning all the dishes, vacuuming the house, cleaning the oven, etc) that suddenly makes postponing the first thing necessary.

The problem comes from GUILT. Guilt comes from (other than being a Catholic) the belief that you SHOULD be doing what you are distracting yourself from actually accomplishing. However, guilt tends to make a person enjoy their distractions less and less, causing them to pursue them more and more, causing a person to hurtle along a downward-spiraling trend toward depression. The key is to enjoy your distraction fully, and then go back to what you were working on before being distracted. (And learn to become less distracted with extraneous things in general - like life...)

Finally, I liked his explanation of Newton's (modified) second law of graduate student life:

F=m a

therefore: a =F/m

or

Age (grad student) = flexibility (of choices)/motivation (to finish)

As one progresses through graduate student life, one's motivation to finish tends to wax and wane (apparently at electrical engineering at Stanford, motivation wanes more than waxes). As dm/dt decreases, da/dt is expected to increase, as per the formula. The key to finishing a PhD is (apparently) not increasing motivation per se, but seriously decreasing a grad student's flexibility! (So long as the flexibility is lower than the term for motivation, the degree will be finished!) What an insight!

Weather: PhD Potluck-y

Thanks Dave (and Lekha) for hosting this month's PhD potluck. I've never been to such a successful one (and met so many PhD students from outside SNRE)!

I learned many different things tonight. The first one being that Paducah, KY was the glue that holds all of us together (who would have thought that such a small town would have independently come up in four different conversations). By the end of the night, we had established that Paducah was central in many critical points in the world's history.

Another thing that we all learned was that the best way of getting a good rent while in town is to "get to know" your landlord/lady a little bit better.

I learned that Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are separated by about 60 miles, and 2000 years, and reminded of the story of Isaac's birthrights, teaching me that one should never judge a son by the hairyness of his arm.



Finally, I learned about freecycle.org, which is apparently a great way of getting rid of stuff that you don't want, don't know how to get rid of, and don't necessarily want/need to sell. I will have to check out this site, see if there is anything that a poor grad student such as myself can get my grubby little hands on.

Weather: Cloudy

Went to an April Fool's wine & cheese party out on the east side of town last night. I got back home at 6AM, and I have photographic evidence that Keith is a wine fiend!

Daylight saving's time. Bah. It's 1 PM and I'm just starting out the day.

Weather: ...

Happy April Fool's Day.

Weather: Showers illuminated by lightning.

So, the weather was nice walking home at 5:30, and walking down Liberty St. I bumped into Lorcan and Marina on my way home. They were thinking about going for a jog, and I was going to the "Y" to get some swimming in. (I have to worry about my girlish figure, don't you know.)

There were dark clouds threatening to the west when I got to the "Y" to start swimming at 6PM. Swam for 30-40mins (I finally got a pair of goggles at the CCRB on campus for $4!) and then took a nice, long shower. By the time I left (~7PM), it was raining. I went back into the locker room, changed back into my swim trunks, packed my jeans (with the cell phone I'm borrowing from Solomon until May) into my backpack, and went back out to brave the potentially-heavy rainstorm. As I was prepared (somewhat of a boyscout) for the weather, I had brought a waterproof jacket with me. This I draped over my backpack (carrying my data-laden laptop) for the slog back to the apartment.

Well, I started on the 2.5 blocks home, and the water seemed to come down harder and harder each step I took. By the time I was back at Liberty St, my boots were soaking. It seemed as if I was reaping the benedictions of the rain goddess, there was so much rain. A monsoon would have had a hard time matching the volume of rain that fell in that short period of time. By the time I got back home, my boots and socks were as wet as if I had walked through a river, and my shirt was soaked in front.

I got inside the building, took of my boots and socks, went back outside, poured the water out of the boots, wrung out the majority of water from my socks, came back inside, and (with wet and quickly fogging glasses) walked up the stairs, and rang the bell for the apartment. Luckily, Curt was in, and got the door (thanks, dude).

I wish I had my camera with me, because there was a lot of amazing water sheeting across the pavement going on. After divesting myself of the worst of my wet clothes, I stood outside and watched the lightning show for a little bit, trading lightning storm stories with Curt. Lorcan had earlier mentioned gin and tonics on his deck to watch the lightning. Unfortunately, I wasn't about to go back out into the rain for some G&Ts (yes, you can call me a wuss).

Next time, if a thunderstorm is threatening, I will return to the apartment first, collect my water shoes, drop off all electronics, and THEN head off to swim at the "Y". Of course, I probably would have gotten as wet walking home as I was when in the pool if I had done this, but at least I could have taken my time to get home... (Okay, if that last sentance didn't make sense, because of lack of context, then I understand - it doesn't make much logical sense to me, either, but I think it conveys the point... somehow.)

Weather: Changeable

So, it was supposed to be rainy today, with lots of thunder and lightning. Work is going very, very, VERY slowly. I'm finding that I am not making very much progress - I'm fatigued for some odd reason, too.

Correlation values for different variables.... How to relate (modeled) water temperature to trout abundance... How to relate (measured) water temperature variance to changes in flow... All these things I am trying to figure out (somewhat unsuccessfully at the present time)...

It's approaching 3:30PM, and I need a pick-me-up... (As I'm in the habit of using too many ...'s when I'm tired...)

A slightly odd juxtaposition: Charlotte Church singing "Voi Che Sapete" in the Institute of Fisheries Research building's attic offices, and (OMG!) a smattering of sunlight through the obliquily-placed window that is my only connection to the outdoors. Occasionally, I hear a guy walking to and from classes singing a song (most likely playing on his music device). Of course calling it "singing" stretches the notion slightly; belting-it-out is more like it. The acoustics of this part of campus ensures that there is a definite "ringing" quality to all noises above a certain decibel, and (let me tell you) he surpasses that point easily. He's not that big of a guy, either; slighly about average height, somewhat atheletic build, long hair, mutton chop sideburns, wears a black trenchcoat (apparently regardless of the weather), but obviously has good (nay, GREAT) breath support. That he can apparently carry a tune at that level of volume is also amazing.

What is odd about the whole thing, though, is the complete and utter lack of any reaction from people passing by on the sidewalk. Not a glance, not a comment regarding his singing (disparaging, or otherwise), nothing. It's like watching that scene from Schindler's List, the one with the girl in the red dress. You feel like the only person in the world who notices the person, who, to you, is so obvious. Perhaps they are thinking, "Don't look at the crazy loud man walking this way." But they don't look at him as he passes, nor snigger to each other if traveling in a group, which is also odd.

I think he works at the Pizza House restaurant in town (there can't be that many people with his hair styling, build, gait, and face in this town).

Weather: Rainy

Okay, so today is the opening day of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. Hopefully, THIS is not the reason why people are talking about global warming (call it climate change if you want). Hopefully, it isn't because of a transient computer animated phenomenon characterized (in the trailer) by a small rodent chasing after an acorn.

On the flipside, hopefully this will cause some media attention to linger on the subject of global warming for a period of time longer than the film is in release. (Seeing that this is a family film, the time of release might actually last through May, when all the summer blockbusters come out). Maybe I'm just getting up on my environmentalist high horse, but I do think (and many scientists - social and physical - are making the same point) that something crazy is happening with the weather. Eventually even regular economists will have to realize that global warming will affect natural resource stocks and flows including many non-fungable goods, such as water, land, and clean air. I would like to see the paper on that!

Okay, so to come back down. Back to work. I don't know what to do for lunch, though...

Okay, I'm starting as well.

Although there isn't any "pressure' to speak of, I feel that there are more and more (and more) of my friends who are jumping onto blogging. So here I come as well. In the great risk of joining the large number of people who are saying "Oh, my God!! This is my first time blogging!" I must say that this is my first time "blogging" although not the first time that I have been writing and posting stuff online.

We'll see where things go with this.

19 Jan 2004

We just got back to Gomti Guest House after buying the tickets. That was an adventure. First, we had to finalize the schedule and get the total ticket price. Then we had to go to a bank in order obtain the rupees to pay the tickets. The main station is something else. Situated opposite one of the bazaars, the area attracts thousands of people. And hundreds of autorickshas. The station itself is crowded with all types of huanity, and the smell of humanity and fuel and excrement all mixed together. The bank was located at platform 12, and to get there we needed to purchase a platform ticket. There was the long march to platform 12 from platform 1. The train station is laid out much like the rail yards of the UK, but with a much grander scale. We did get the money changed, and walked back to the ticket office. To and from the ticket office was done by autoricksha. That was quit fun as well. The driving in India seems to be "go where you can and honk your horn constantly." My ears are ringing slightly. I got a few photos of the trips over and back. Now, we are off to purchase lunch and some on-the-road supplies for our trip to Haridwar.

18 Jan 2004

I am sitting at the small cafeteria at JNU. After I have eaten the Masala Dosa (which was recommended), the group of us will go to the train station for our tickets for the rest of the trip. H. is a great sport from Israel studying chironomid larvae in rivers. S. and I may be helping him later with some of the research he is doing. I need to still do e-mailing back to the U.S., friends and family. The environs are starting to become familiar, although some of the customs are yet to become ingrained. I have taken my Pepto so the dosas may be eaten without problem. I will finish my entry after lunch.

... or not.

Jan 17, 2004

Got a few hour's sleep [on the plane to Delhi]. We are now flying over Afghanistan. The time locally has just been turned off, so this may mean a movie - nope; comedy shorts. Everybody Loves Raymond.

It was followed by a BBC comedy - very fun.

We are now on the final descent into Delhi. The little airplane icon on the monitor is hugging the large diamond that is Delhi, and reads "Remaining flight time: 0:08."

Still, at an altitude of somewhere above the clouds, I don't know how we will be able to meet the ETA. Maybe the fog rolled back in? I hope that we will not be diverted. Here's the captain (first [announcement] in Dutch). Ah, we're in a holding pattern of unknown duration. We shall wait...

17 Jan 2004

11:58 AM. WE HAVE ARRIVED!!

The fog/smog is still thick. Can't easily see past a few 100 meters. Still, it is exciting - and not just because I'm getting more stamps in my passport.

The trees are different.

The runway is dry of snow, ice, or rain. Dry and warm (~15C). And I still have my longjohns on. Oh well. I'll just not try and exert myself too much.

YAY! WE ARE FINALLY HERE!!