For Science!

Reading aloud

2010-03-11T17:46:00.000+13:00

For that last few days, I've been reading my thesis aloud to Crystal. This process has been interesting, and has really led me to find a lot a small errors that need to be addressed before I give my full thesis over to my supervisors to review. I should be finished with that by the early next week.

I've received editing recommendations for my Summary and Conclusions chapter, and have done most of them at this point. The big struggle that I have now is to find a few good closing sentances. I'm not expecting my thesis to close with the same feeling as The Great Gatsby, but I really need some thoughts that push the implications of my research, without repeating things that have already been said too much. I hope I can find these few words quickly.

I also sent in a resume to a company that I hear might have an engineering job available at about that same time that I'm planning to return to the US. I feel rather nervous doing this. The last time I was looking for a job was in 2005, and the economy was still doing pretty well. The outlook isn't that great right now and even engineering jobs are pretty scarce. The job is really good and I shouldn't have too much trouble living in an area that I like either. I put a lot of work into both the resume and the cover letter, so hopefully they leave a good a impression and I get a call for an interview.

Tuesday Meeting: MIA Chapter 8

2010-03-09T21:46:00.000+13:00

Meeting with the supervisors today. I'm still waiting to get chapter 8 (my summary and conclusions) back from them, but I've now received Chapter 7 from everybody. I'm getting very close to finishing the thesis and have started reviewing the document as a whole myself. This means I'm getting really close to the end. Once I have completed my once through, I'll give the thesis as a whole to my supervisors to review. Following final revision, I'll be ready to get the thesis printed, bound, and submitted. Getting really excited now.

Where do the weekends go

2010-03-08T21:08:00.000+13:00

Unlike everyone in North America, I've already had to deal with Monday. Nuts to that. But the weekend was pretty good. Besides going to Lush and getting some nice smelling things, I spent some time talking to my parents, and playing some games with Crystal, Chris, and Brandon. I'm really ready to be finished with my thesis so that I have a bit more leisure time. Things are getting pretty close. I'm running around trying to secure permission to use some third-party copyright items. So of it has been easy, but I'm going to end up writing some letters to take care of the rest. Hopefully, the rights holders are willing to let me use stuff for free since I'm a poor student and not really publishing my thesis. I spent the rest of the day entering some data into a spreadsheet and drawing a profile for a stratigraphic section that someone else described. Then I printed out a copy of my thesis so that I can start checking through it to make sure that everything flows together reasonably well and I don't repeat anything. I have a meeting with my supervisors tomorrow, and will hopefully get some editing suggestions back so that I can wrap up the last few chapters.

Weekend wanderings

2010-03-06T19:12:00.000+13:00

Though I suppose it wasn't that much of a wandering. Crystal and I went to Lush and bought some more nice smelling things. Mostly we needed some more conditioner and decided to pick up some more henna dye for Crystal's hair. The clerks gave us a sample of what they called a "foot mask", as in, something like a facial mask, that you use on your feet. The funny thing is that I recognized three of the ingredients because they are geological: kaolin, pumice, and smectite. Kinda funny putting dirt and rocks on your feet to make them smell better.
At this point, I need to make some dinner though, so I think I'll cut this a little short.

What's left to do

2010-03-05T23:05:00.000+13:00

I am coming very close to the end of my thesis work. There are essentially two chapters that are still in the editing process, but both chapters are pretty short. I'm somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks to finish. I won't know precisely until I get some more editing recommendations from my supervisors. I've got suggestions from two of three supervisors on Chapter 7. Meanwhile, my supervisor had asked me to largely rewrite Chapter 8 from some general comments that they had (it was a bit short, and needed to really be focused on the summary of work and conclusions). I've got most of the edits recommend for Chapter 7 done and have resubmitted Chapter 8. I just have a few diagrams to draw for Chapter 7 and I'll be caught up on that until my last supervisor gets back to me on that.

This ending process has been very interesting for me. I'm finally spending time to reflect on the work that I've done for that last few years. I find this to be very rewarding. Understanding what I've found in my research (as well as what I have learned about the process of scientific research) is probably one of the best rewards I could hope from this degree. Certainly I hope to see some monetary rewards in terms of better wages etc., but I don't feel that is the ultimate goal of the work that I have done for that last four years.

In addition to the thesis work, I have spent some of my free time lately reading Alan Wolfe's The Future of Liberalism. Wolfe explains in a way that I, as a layman, can understand, the evolution of liberal thinking from such people as John Locke and Immanuel Kant to more modern thinkers and writers. In all the book is a very good read and balances its presentation of liberal and illiberal philosophies, contrasting them, without demonizing either. In many ways, Wolfe allows the reader to make his own judgment at each step. The book is a bit long, which means I'm taking a bit of time to work through it, but I'm pretty sure that I will continue to the end.

As the completion date approaches

2010-02-10T18:18:00.000+13:00

I am fast coming to the end of my time as a PhD candidate. The thesis is due on February 26, and although I am making good progress in my revisions, I feel that there is more to do that I really have time for. I have turned a draft version of my entire thesis into my advisers at this point and am primarily working to revise it to their satisfaction. My conclusions chapter has essentially been returned to me with the rather simple comment "you need to discuss how your research relates to the field as a whole". This is, in fact, one of the requirements set forth in the PhD statute for the university. Its not something that I haven't done at all. I spent a good portion of Chapter 2 setting the scene for where my research will sit in the field. At this point, I simply need to connect the new discoveries that I have made the work of other people. I think I can manage to that without further direction, but I'm worried about the time.

I have just begun revising Chapter 5, which is the chapter that primarily presents my work in the Auckland area. I still have Chapter 6, where I attempt to tie all of my work together.

I'll leave the post here though. I need to get back to work.

Christmas Holidays

2009-12-30T16:49:00.000+13:00

The holidays have turned out to be great fun, even though I'm spending a lot of my time working. I took half a day off on Christmas eve, and the whole day of Christmas. Since then I've mostly been working as normal. I bought myself some awesome new shirts from Nicholas Jermyn, can't wait for an occasion to wear them. I also bought myself a small moleskine planner to use next year. I really like the look of it.

I'll be moving to Onehunga next weekend. Can't believe how quickly that is coming up, but I'm also really excited about the move.

Back to work for me though, I need to get all my notes put together so that I can start writing my next chapter.

No internet today

2009-12-16T12:08:00.001+13:00

Gah, no internet (besides email) in the office today. Someone's borked the proxy system or something. I guess I'll get more work done today.

Year in review

2009-11-11T10:15:00.002+13:00

Well, its certainly been a long time since my last post. I'm really not that good at this blogging thing. At least not doing it regularly at all. But I figure I should give a bit of an update on my life. Since my last post in May, I've continued to work on my thesis, cooked lots of tasty food, and traveled to Egypt and the US. I've got some pictures of the Egypt trip available on my photobucket account. I'll try to post here more often, but with my thesis coming down to the wire, I'm going to be a bit pressed for time.

Food Talk

2009-05-26T16:03:00.002+12:00

Wow, its certianly been a long time since I've written anything for this. Suffice to say, I've been very busy with my thesis work. I'm going to take just a few minutes here to let everyone who reads this know that I'm doing pretty good. Also, I've been having a lot more fun with cooking lately. My wife and I have put a lot of work into trying some new recipes lately, and in a few cases I have documented these with pictures which I have uploaded to my Photobucket account. Eventually I'll get around to actually posting some of them including Thai Green Curry, Spicy Lentil Soup, and a few others. I'm rather proud of my cooking ability now. I know I'm not a chef by any means, but I can make some good tasting food.

For example, I tried something rather new last night: roasted squash. I've always been a bit shy about trying new vegetables through most of my life. Afterall, veggies are not ussually as tasty as sweets. I cut a butternut squash in half, added some butter and a tiny bit of brown sugar, and roasted it in a pan for about 45 minutes. It was nutty and delicious. I have another squash waiting for me at home, and even though I'm going to have curry with some veggies in it, I'm thinking about roasting the second one to eat with dinner as well.

Also, just checked scores the Basketball scores, and Denver pulled off a win. Woo!

Writing - Day 1

2009-03-19T19:43:00.002+13:00

I spent all of today writing the introduction of my thesis. It's taking a long time because I keep having to go back and check my facts, and citations. I'm trying to make sure that everything comes together right the first time through the writing process. This meant that in reality, most of the day was spent looking through all of the papers that I've read previously, and finding the important points in them, and condensing them down into the summary that I need. I think I have all of the papers together again. Tomorrow will hopefully look more productive in terms of things like word count.

Tonight was another taco night. I've got a recipe that I really like down pretty well now. Take about 1 lb of ground beef, brown, and drain grease. Add 1 chopped onion and 1-2 cloves of garlic, diced. Cook for a few minutes until the onion is soft. Add a half can of diced tomatoes, plus enough water to just cover. Season with cumin, chilli powder, and cayenne pepper. Simmer until nearly all the liquid has evaporated. Serve with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and salsa or hot sauce. Ours tonight was accompanied by sweetcorn and refried beans. Yummy!

Round the world flights

2009-03-18T16:50:00.001+13:00

I'm attending a conference this October in Alexandria, Egypt then going home to Colorado to participate in a friends wedding. This makes booking flights a bit of a weird exercise. Especially when Expedia.com recommends going from Auckland to Cairo via Los Angeles and New York City. That was the cheapest flight; somehow cheaper than flying the much shorter distance via Sydney and Dubai. I guess either way, I'm basically having to fly to the opposite side of the world, but the economics of the whole thing is rather weird. The good news: I might be able to get the whole trip in at under $2500 per person (that's US dollars). Still a bit for us on our relatively low income. May have to beg the parents for a little assistance again.

A bit more drawing today. Revised some drafts according to my supervisors comments yesterday. I'm pretty much done with that work for now. Tomorrow I'll start into the writing and get a better idea of what fieldwork that I need to do on Tuesday. I'm really trying to step up the pace of my work, especially since my supervisors indicated that would be important for me to finish in time. Time to check the weather and get a feel for whether work next week will be alright.

Committee Meeting

2009-03-17T17:04:00.001+13:00

Today was my committee meeting. Things seem to be going pretty well. My supervisors think that I'm doing quality work and that my rate of progress is satisfactory. However, I do think that I will need to ramp things up a bit to get done with the year. For one thing, I've been told that I should start writing my thesis (or at least the introduction to it) now. I'll be working on that, as well as a few other things over the next few weeks. I've got the annual report basicallly done. I have my application for conferance funding ready to go and will turn it in tomorrow.

In my free time, I've been playing through the old Warcraft 3 expansion and having a lot of fun with it. The bonus level is a bit challenging, and I'll be retrying it tonight.

Fish Feast

2009-03-17T11:54:00.001+13:00

I really enjoyed the fish that I prepared last night. Just got some cod fillets, dusted then in flour, then pan fried them in olive oil. I do this fairly frequently because its pretty cheap, tasty, and easy. Served with some fresh green beans and French rolls. Tonight is going to be a bit of an experiment with pasta, sausage, and ricotta cheese. The sausage and cheese are leftover from the calzones that we made earlier this week and they need to get used. I have a meeting with my supervisors this afternoon, so I'm spending most of the morning getting ready for that.

Drawing some more

2009-03-16T17:19:00.005+13:00

I'll probably end up filling quite a large number of blog posts with this, but I want to continue with daily updates, so that means discussing my daily work.

I spent two hours today working as a TA. I teach for a civil engineering class, helping them to learn about rocks and minerals. It's a bit of a crash course for them, but I really enjoy it. Today was sedimentary rocks, which is probably the easiest week. The difference between a mudstone and a sandstone is readily apparent, even if you don't have eyes.

When I wasn't involved with that, I continued my work with the drawings, and finished up the sketch that I started to work on Friday. I had to learn a new tool in Illustrator, so I'll use that as the excuse for why my work took so long. I won't be showing a picture today. Out of a sense of (probably) unreasonible paranoia, I don't want to show off any of my finished drawings until I've got them in my thesis. But I think it looks pretty good.

Tomorrow, I have a meeting with my supervisors, which should be interesting. I get to show them these drawing that I've been working on, and discuss what more needs to be done.

Tonight, I'm planning to make some fairly tasty food. Pan-fried fish might be one of my favorite simple meals. It'll be accompanied by some veggies and pasta. Bon appetite.

Drawing and Such

2009-03-13T17:10:00.003+13:00

It has certainly been a long time since I have done a blog post here. I'm thinking about trying to do a daily/weekly/something report on my thesis progress. For one thing, it will help me see what I'm really getting done and make sure that I keep up the work.

Most of my time today was spent tracing a photo I took of an outcrop. I'm also writing up a description of each of the soils that I saw at the outcrop in the standardized NZGS format. Here is a sample of what this is looking like so far.

I still have a bit of work to do on it. Things like adding a scale and describing all of the soils in it. Work like this has been one of the major focuses of the past month for me. I have a lot of logs I've done in the field, and nearly all of them need to be digitized for use in my thesis later. It's a lot of work, and I'm trying to get through it quickly, while still producing good quality work.

Me at Starlight Symphony

2009-03-13T10:06:00.002+13:00

Young Geotechnical Professionals Conference

2008-11-14T10:10:00.003+13:00

Well, I'm back from the conference and have a few minutes now to make a bit of a post about it. I had a good time. I got to see a lot of interesting presentation about geotechnical practice in New Zealand and Australia. I also got received some interesting feed-back on my work. I've got some stuff to work on from those comments, but I think it will make my results more useful.

Anyways, here's a couple of pictures. I'm not that great a photographer, and I certainly don't even try at enough pictures most of the time. Wellington is hugely different from Auckland. The geography defines the shape of the city in a way that many from the Western US would understand. We were treated to 4 beautiful days and I count that as fortunate. I've heard that Wellington can be pretty nasty with wind and rain.

Test

2008-10-31T11:51:00.001+13:00

This is a test to make sure that Facebook is properly importing my posts.

Edit: They seem to be getting posted now. Good.

Schaffer vs. Udall

2008-10-31T09:15:00.004+13:00

I've been listening to KCFR's series on the Senate candidates, and I just wanted to make a quick note about two things that surprised me. Udall is against gay marriage, on the principle that marriage is a religious institution and people of faith should be the ones to define it. He does support civil unions however. Second, Schaffer is against the "Definition of a person" amendment. Both of these really surprised me when I first heard them. Without being fully immersed in Colorado's senate race, I have to some degree replaced both of them with Strawmen who tow the party line. Listening to this series, not just this little snippet, but the whole thing, has given me a better perspective on the two candidates. To those Coloradans who have not voted yet, I recommend that you listen to them.

kcfr.org

Economic Stimilus Package to Target Public Works

2008-10-30T20:59:00.002+13:00

I'm a bit of a blog machine tonight, but this story caught my eye. I'm in favor of this method of economic stimulus. Everything I've read about economic theory has said that checks sent to taxpayers are usually not helpful in the longterm. This article originally posted at Wired.

Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke have been racking their brains for something that might give the U.S. economy a bump. Their next try might be good for the nation's transportation system — but it's not going to be cheap.

Bernake is throwing his support behind a gigantic stimulus package that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats are pushing through Congress. If it were to become reality in its current form, it would significantly boost spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects: like a giant toll that everyone in the country has to pay.

The stimulus plan, which would be the second this year, would cost between $150 billion and $300 billion. In addition to allocating funds for traditional infrastructure spending, lawmakers are also considering provisions that would give families and businesses tax credits for investing in green projects like wind and solar.

While there is significant support for the package on Capitol Hill, some economists argue that the economic impact of public sector spending is overstated. "If the government taxes or borrows $10 billion new dollars to build bridges and roads, it's sucking the $10 billion out of the private sector economy somewhere else," Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute told Marketplace. "You know taxes are going to have to be higher than they otherwise would be."

Others say that these types of projects take time to ramp up, minimizing their economic impact. But the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials disagrees. It estimates that there are roughly 3,000 highway projects that could begin within 30 to 90 days of receiving funding, and several U.S. governors have been pleading with Congress for money to restart their states' stalled construction programs. With the recession projected by many to be long and deep, investment in infrastructure would have a big economic payoff, especially in sectors like construction, where unemployment sits at over 10 percent.

But on the downside, infrastructure spending can be especially vulnerable to political shenanigans. "You don't want to build more bridges to nowhere," Global Insight's Brian Bethune is quoted as saying, referring to the infamous Alaska project that has been bounced around as an issue by both presidential candidates.

At this point the plan is being well received in part because the last stimulus package, which consisted of rebate checks to taxpayers, was a bust. "It gave the economy a sugar high that faded as the financial crisis intensified," economist Peter Morici told the Associated Press.

But priorities in Washington can shift quickly. Right now, if the package actually passes and what it ends up looking like is anyone's guess.

To me, this is similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was hugely helpful in pulling the US out of the Great Depression.

Referendums

2008-10-30T20:41:00.002+13:00

Having looked again at the ballot I've realized that the referendums don't require too much opinion from me. Let's give this a go.

Referendum L
An amendment to section 4 of article V of the constitution of the state of Colorado, concerning the ability of an elector of the state of Colorado who has attained the age of twenty-one years to serve as a member of the Colorado general assembly.

I know what I was like at 21. I would not have been ready for a position in the state legislature and I doubt many 21 year olds would be. I agree the the age of 25 strikes a good balance.

Referendum M
Shall section 7 of article XVIII of the state constitution concerning outdated, obsolete provisions regarding land value increase be repealed?

Article XVIII, Section 7, authorizes the state to delay collection of additional property taxes when a property is improved by the planting of trees. There are, however, no tax breaks that take advantage of this. Nor is there any reason that such a law could not be passed if we wanted to have such a tax break.

Referendum N
Shall there be a repeal of section 5 of article XVIII and article XXII of the state constitution, concerning the elimination of outdated obsolete provisions of the state constitution?

Do we get rid of the law that prohibits saloons? I guess. I doubt we will see a resurgence in them.

Referendum O
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning ballot initiatives, and, in connection therewith, increasing the number of signatures required for a proposed initiative to amend the state constitution; reducing the number of signatures required for a proposed statutory initiative; requiring a minimum number of signatures for a proposed initiative to amend the state constitution to be gathered from residents of each congressional district in the state; increasing the time allowed to gather signatures for a proposed statutory initiative; modifying the review of initiative petitions; establishing a filing deadline for proposed initiatives to amend the state constitution; and requiring a two-thirds vote of all members elected to each house of the general assembly to amend, repeal, or supersede any law enacted by an initiative for a period of five years after the law becomes effective?

If you have followed this at all, you will notice that I think people who use the citizen's initiative process are generally short-sighted or attempting to serve specific pet projects. Making it easier to propose statutory amendments compared to constitutional ones may help in this regard. I feel that the Colorado constitution has been messed with too much in the last couple of years and people really need to knock it off.

Amemdments 52, 54, 58, and 59

2008-10-30T20:04:00.004+13:00

Hello again everyone. We really are getting down to the line here. I'm sure many of you have already voted using a number of early voting options, but since I'm a bit busy with other things, I haven't been able to finish up this series as quickly as I would like. Today, I'll look at the last four amendments on the Colorado ballot. We're skipping a few numbers because those measures have been withdrawn by their sponsers.

Amendment 52
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the allocation of revenues from the state severance tax imposed on minerals and mineral fuels other than oil shale that are extracted in the state, and, in connection therewith, for fiscal years commencing on or after July 1, 2008, requiring half of the revenues to be credited to the local government severance tax fund and the remaining revenues to be credited first to the severance tax trust fund until an annually calculated limit is reached and then to a new Colorado transportation trust fund, which may be used only to fund the construction, maintenance, and supervision of public highways in the state, giving first priority to reducing congestion on the Interstate 70 corridor?

Another taxation and budget issue wrapped up together in an amendment issue. The trouble with this one is typical of initiatives that are put on the ballot in Colorado. This is an amendment to the state constitution; its very difficult to change. My response here is fairly similar to several other initiatives such as this. A change in the severance tax policy would not be bad. As part of an overarching strategy, I think it would be wise to increase the tax on fossil fuel development and add further incentives to renewable energy research and implementation. I really dislike setting aside budgetary items in amendments. I-70 needs some work, but it really needs to be addressed in another way.

Amendment 54
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning restrictions on campaign contributions, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting the holder of contracts totaling $100,000 or more, as indexed for inflation, awarded by state or local governments without competitive bidding ("sole source government contracts"), including certain collective bargaining agreements, from making a contribution for the benefit of a political party or candidate for elective office during the term of the contracts and for 2 years thereafter; disqualifying a person who makes a contribution in a ballot issue election from entering into a sole source government contract related to the ballot issue; and imposing liability and penalties on contract holders, certain of their owners, officers and directors, and government officials for violations of the amendment?

Alright, this amendment basically says that people with government contracts should not be allowed to donate that money to campaigns or use it for other political purposes. The blue book has probably pointed out the biggest problem with this issues: it prevents county or city level contractors from contributing money to candidates or causes outside of the limits of the person holding their contract.

Amendment 58
SHALL STATE TAXES BE INCREASED $321.4 MILLION ANNUALLY BY AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES CONCERNING THE SEVERANCE TAX ON OIL AND GAS EXTRACTED IN THE STATE, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, FOR TAXABLE YEARS COMMENCING ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2009, CHANGING THE TAX TO 5% OF TOTAL GROSS INCOME FROM THE SALE OF OIL AND GAS EXTRACTED IN THE STATE WHEN THE AMOUNT OF ANNUAL GROSS INCOME IS AT LEAST $300,000; ELIMINATING A CREDIT AGAINST THE SEVERANCE TAX FOR PROPERTY TAXES PAID BY OIL AND GAS PRODUCERS AND INTEREST OWNERS; REDUCING THE LEVEL OF PRODUCTION THAT QUALIFIES WELLS FOR AN EXEMPTION FROM THE TAX; EXEMPTING REVENUES FROM THE TAX AND RELATED INVESTMENT INCOME FROM STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING LIMITS; AND REQUIRING THE TAX REVENUES TO BE CREDITED AS FOLLOWS: (A) 22% TO THE SEVERANCE TAX TRUST FUND, (B) 22% TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SEVERANCE TAX FUND, AND (C) 56% TO A NEW SEVERANCE TAX STABILIZATION TRUST FUND, OF WHICH 60% IS USED TO FUND SCHOLARSHIPS FOR COLORADO RESIDENTS ATTENDING STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, 15% TO FUND THE PRESERVATION OF NATIVE WILDLIFE HABITAT, 10% TO FUND RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMS, 10% TO FUND TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS IN COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES IMPACTED THE SEVERANCE OF OIL AND GAS, AND 5% TO FUND COMMUNITY DRINKING WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT GRANTS?

This is again, a good place for the state to increase its revenue, but a bad way to target the spending of such.

Amendment 59
SHALL THERE BE AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION CONCERNING THE MANNER IN WHICH THE STATE FUNDS PUBLIC EDUCATION FROM PRESCHOOL THROUGH THE TWELFTH GRADE, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, FOR THE 2010-11 STATE FISCAL YEAR AND EACH STATE FISCAL YEAR THEREAFTER, REQUIRING THAT ANY REVENUE THAT THE STATE WOULD OTHERWISE BE REQUIRED TO REFUND PURSUANT TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL LIMIT ON STATE FISCAL YEAR SPENDING BE TRANSFERRED INSTEAD TO THE STATE EDUCATION FUND; ELIMINATING THE REQUIREMENT THAT, FOR THE 2011-12 STATE FISCAL YEAR AND EACH STATE FISCAL YEAR THEREAFTER, THE STATEWIDE BASE PER PUPIL FUNDING FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION FROM PRESCHOOL THROUGH THE TWELFTH GRADE AND THE TOTAL STATE FUNDING FOR ALL CATEGORICAL PROGRAMS INCREASE ANNUALLY BY AT LEAST THE RATE OF INFLATION; CREATING A SAVINGS ACCOUNT IN THE STATE EDUCATION FUND; REQUIRING THAT A PORTION OF THE STATE INCOME TAX REVENUE THAT IS DEPOSITED IN THE STATE EDUCATION FUND BE CREDITED TO THE SAVINGS ACCOUNT IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES; REQUIRING EITHER A TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY VOTE OF EACH HOUSE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OR, IN ANY STATE FISCAL YEAR IN WHICH COLORADO PERSONAL INCOME GROWS LESS THAN SIX PERCENT BETWEEN THE TWO PREVIOUS CALENDAR YEARS, A SIMPLE MAJORITY VOTE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO USE THE MONEYS IN THE SAVINGS ACCOUNT; ESTABLISHING THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH MONEYS IN THE SAVINGS ACCOUNT MAY BE SPENT; ESTABLISHING A MAXIMUM AMOUNT THAT MAY BE IN THE SAVINGS ACCOUNT IN ANY STATE FISCAL YEAR; AND ALLOWING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO TRANSFER MONEYS FROM THE GENERAL FUND TO THE STATE EDUCATION FUND, SO LONG AS CERTAIN OBLIGATIONS FOR TRANSPORTATION FUNDING ARE MET?

This amendment is trying to fix some of the funding conflicts already in the state constitution by creating more of them. I think that summarizes my opinion on that pretty well.

As some of you may know, I still haven't received my official Colorado ballot, and so I will most likely not get to actually vote on these ballot issues. I have submitted a write-in ballot for the federal and state elections, so my voice will be heard in that way at least. I guess I'm also doing this blog, which may help to raise attention to some of these ballot issues. I'm at a conference on election day, so I won't be able to follow everything, but I will do my best to keep an eye on things.

If I have some more time, I'll cover the four referendums on the ballot as well.

The Bachmann Slip

2008-10-24T12:39:00.003+13:00

I meant to talk about this a few days ago because I think it is shocking. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann calls for a return to McCarthy-ism in America. Regardless of which party she is from, promoting the idea that some Americans are anti-American or have anti-American views is stupid. All of us want what is best for the country, we just have different views about what is best.

Colorado Ballot Issues - Amendments 49, 50, and 51

2008-10-23T13:45:00.006+13:00

Hello again to everyone. I haven't had as much free time for posting lately, but I thought that I should try to make some time to go over a few more of the ballot issues that Coloradans will be seeing this year. I should also speak about one of my biases. I think that the Citizen Initiative method in Colorado is a bit broken. Activists of all stripes tend to use this process in an attempt to lock things into the state constitution that cannot be easily changed. We elect our General Assembly for a reason. We use a republican model for a reason. Sometimes, it is better to leave the lawmaking in the hands of people who dedicate their lives to it. They are (or should be) experts on it. It is the same as trusting the advice of a doctor or lawyer in the appropriate situations. Therefore, unless I see an initiative that actually changes something that is wrong in the constitution, I will probably vote it down. Even if it is a good cause, a worthy initiative, I will try to block it. Our legislature is in charge of the State budget. If you would like to see more funding go to a specific project, write to your representative or senator and get them to do something about it. Vote people into office who you think will push the causes that you care about. Certainly, our representatives should take the opinions of the electorate to heart, but they also owe us their judgement. If the electorate is pushing Issue X but Rep. Smith knows that passing Issue X would cause a $2 mil shortfall in state revenues, he should vote against it.

Now, on to the main event.

Amendment 49
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning deductions from governmental payroll systems, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting a governmental payroll system from taking a payroll deduction from any government employee except deductions required by federal law, tax withholdings, judicial liens and garnishments, deductions for individual or group health benefits or other insurance, deductions for pension or retirement plans or systems, or other savings or investment programs, and charitable deductions?

Alright, this is a constitutional ammendment that prohibits government employees from having certain types of witholding. Simply put, I think this is unnecessary. There are already laws that people can opt out of any witholding that they don't want. I'm voting "no" for this.

Amendment 50
SHALL THERE BE AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION CONCERNING VOTER-APPROVED REVISIONS TO LIMITED GAMING, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, ALLOWING THE LOCAL VOTERS IN CENTRAL CITY, BLACK HAWK, AND CRIPPLE CREEK TO EXTEND CASINO HOURS OF OPERATION, APPROVED GAMES TO INCLUDE ROULETTE AND CRAPS OR BOTH, AND MAXIMUM SINGLE BETS UP TO $100; ADJUSTING DISTRIBUTIONS TO CURRENT GAMING FUND RECIPIENTS FOR GROWTH IN GAMING TAX REVENUE DUE TO VOTER-APPROVED REVISIONS IN GAMING; DISTRIBUTING 78% OF THE REMAINING GAMING TAX REVENUE FROM THIS AMENDMENT FOR STUDENT FINANCIAL AID AND CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES ACCORDING TO THE PROPORTION OF THEIR RESPECTIVE STUDENT ENROLLMENTS, AND 22% FOR LOCAL GAMING IMPACTS IN GILPIN AND
TELLER COUNTIES AND THE CITIES OF CENTRAL CITY, BLACK HAWK, AND CRIPPLE CREEK ACCORDING TO THE PROPORTION OF INCREASED TAX REVENUE FROM VOTER-APPROVED REVISIONS IN EACH CITY OR COUNTY; AND REQUIRING ANY INCREASE IN GAMING TAXES FROM THE LEVELS IMPOSED AS OF JULY 1, 2008 TO BE APPROVED AT A STATEWIDE ELECTION, IF LOCAL VOTERS IN ONE OR MORE CITIES HAVE APPROVED ANY REVISION TO LIMITED GAMING?

Simple version of this ammendment: allows cities to set new limits on betting, and changes the allocation of the revenue. I'm not against a constitutional change that would allow the expansion of gambling options. However, tacking on the changes for the revenue targets is not so good. This gets a "no" from me.

Amendment 51
SHALL STATE TAXES BE INCREASED $186.1 MILLION ANNUALLY AFTER FULL IMPLEMENTATION BY AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES CONCERNING AN INCREASE IN THE STATE SALES AND USE TAX TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR LONG-TERM SERVICES FOR PERSONS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, INCREASING THE RATE OF THE STATE SALES AND USE TAX BEGINNING ON JULY 1, 2009, BY ONE-TENTH OF ONE PERCENT IN EACH OF THE NEXT TWO FISCAL YEARS; PERMITTING THE STATE TO RETAIN AND SPEND ALL REVENUES FROM THE NEW TAX, NOTWITHSTANDING THE STATE SPENDING LIMIT; REQUIRING AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE NET REVENUE FROM THE NEW TAX TO BE DEPOSITED IN THE NEWLY CREATED DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES LONG-TERM SERVICES CASH FUND; REQUIRING THE MONEY IN THE FUND TO BE USED TO PROVIDE LONG-TERM SERVICES FOR PERSONS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES; AND PROHIBITING REDUCTIONS IN THE LEVEL OF STATE APPROPRIATIONS IN THE ANNUAL GENERAL APPROPRIATION BILL EXISTING ON THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS MEASURE FOR LONG-TERM SERVICES FOR PERSONS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES?

This is a good example of the worthy cause that should not be an ammendment. Although this is only a statutory ammendment, I'm still against this on the basis that it is an ammendment. Certainly we should fund programs that we have so that they reach the people that need them. Again though, this should just be something that the legislature should take care of in their annual budget vote. If we need additional tax revenue to cover the costs, it can be brought before the voters as a referendum. I would encourage the proponents of 51 to get out and encourage the General Assembly to fund this program. Adding an ammendment to change the sales tax and lock that revenue into one program is not the way to go about this. Fiscal situations change every year, which is why the budget is voted in on an annual basis.

Just a quick note

2008-10-23T10:26:00.004+13:00

I've been rather busy lately, and I feel the need to explain my abscence from the blog. I've had weekly committe meetings working to hammer out my funding. I've found out that one of my supervisors is leaving the University at the end of the year and that is somewhat throwing a wrench in things. Anyhow, as part of the funding thing, I am writing a progress report, which is basically turning out to be a sort of kernel of my thesis. It's a lot of work, and I'm being forced to really examine my figures that I'm planning to use. The process is helping, but its forcing me to work really hard right now.

I'm leading our Bible study on Job tonight, and haven't really had a chance to prepare for that yet. Hopefully, I can find some time during dinner to do that. I've read the passages that we'll be studying at least. Now I just need to look through the questions a bit more.

Wired Magazine interviews John Hodgman

2008-10-14T16:19:00.001+13:00

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/16-10/pl_print_hodgman?currentPage=all

I've heard John Hodgman's work on This American Life several times and really enjoyed it.

SEM photos

2008-10-13T16:39:00.003+13:00

A lot of work today. I've been looking threw the pictures that I took using the scanning electron microscope last week and trying to characterize the microfabrics of my various samples. I need to get the book out of the library that has the detailed pictures about microfabrics in order to do a really good job of though. Right now, I'm just looking at the types of particles and contacts that exist. My intact samples seem to be quite loose and the particles are only in edge to face contact, with the exception of clay microaggregate which form face to face contacts. Any way, here is an example photo. I think it pretty cool stuff. You can see a lot of clay particles in this picture. They are the things that look like a cross between a stack of books and a snake. This whole thing is pretty cool.

Conservatives for Obama

2008-10-13T14:19:00.002+13:00

Recently, two prominant conservative writers have written editorials supporting Obama. The first is Chris Buckley, son of William F. Buckley. The second is Wick Allison, former editor of the National Review. I think Allison's argument is a bit stronger and more appealing. I think his assement of what conservitism and liberalism as ideals is very good and in fact reaffirms my position as a centrist. Namely, I think I have a bit of the liberal idealism for what ought to be done, but I also look back at what has been done to see whether or not it worked. Anyways, both are good reads.

Also, I had trouble expressing this when I was asked about it the other day, but I have to say that I think the wall of seperation between church and state must go both ways. Neither should have undo influence on the other. I hope that makes more sense.

NSA may be spying on US citizens

2008-10-10T12:56:00.003+13:00

Suprise, suprise.

This really bugs me. The ammount of civil liberties that have been stripped from American citizens since the Sept. 11 attacks is terrifying. These actions are unconstitutional and have not even been proven to make us safer.

On a side note, I think the advertisement for salad dressing on the page using a clip from The Flaming Lips "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Song".

You can put lipstick on a pig...

2008-10-10T12:07:00.001+13:00

...but that still doesn't make Fox News happy.

Colorado Ballot Issues - Amendments 46, 47, and 48

2008-10-10T10:24:00.004+13:00

I've had a look at the Colorado Blue Book online, and I am rather intimidated by the shear number of ballot issues. Over the next week, I'm going to try to give my views on the various amendments and referendums on the Statewide ballot. For the purpose of this blog, I'll be quoting the measures as they will appear on the Adams County ballot.

Amendment 46
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning a prohibition against discrimination by the state, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting the state from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting; allowing exceptions to the prohibition when bona fide qualifications based on sex are reasonably necessary or when action is necessary to establish or maintain eligibility for federal funds; preserving the validity of court orders or consent decrees in effect at the time the measure becomes effective; defining "state" to include the state of Colorado, agencies or departments of the state, public institutions of higher education, political subdivisions, or governmental instrumentalities of or within the state; and making portions of the measure found invalid severable from the remainder of the measure?

Proponents of Amendment 46 claim that it removes affirmative action. Opponents say that it would cripple many outreach programs (especially those sponsored by universities) from targeting minorities and women. This would also include scholarships and similar programs. Propenents say that we have reached a point in our society where race, ethnicity, and gender are no longer the relevent deciders about economic status. They claim that instead, economic class should be used as the primary determinative factor in the allocation of scholarships and outreach programs.

My opinion will have to be limited to gender issues because it is the one I am most familiar with due to my field of study. Women are underrepresented in the maths and sciences. This is a fact.
This chart from the WISEM program at Mines.

CSM Female Students Percent of Total Enrollment Fall 1992 - Fall 2004
Year	% of Total Undergrad Students	% of Total Grad Students	% of Total Females
1992	22.4	20.3	21.7
1993	23.4	20.3	22.3
1994	24.6	19	23
1995	24.3	20.4	23.2
1996	23.7	19.9	22.7
1997	24	20.1	23.3
1998	23.8	21.4	23.2
1999	24.2	23	23.9
2000	25	25.1	25
2001	24.7	29.6	25.7
2002	24.2	31	25.8
2003	23.4	29.1	24.6
2004	22.7	27.5	23.7

Source: Fall 1992-2004 CSM Registrar’s Reports

In terms of anecdotes, most of the girls that I went to school with would have been perfectly qualified to pursue careers in science and technology. There is a fairly well reported phenomenon of girls losing their interest in science and math during middle school, primarily due to pressure to not be perceived as "too smart". This is generally a group that should be targeted and that is distinctly not related to their socio-ecomonic status. This effect is seen in all women regardless of their family's income.

For reasons such as these, I must oppose this amendment. Certainly, economic status should be taken into account in recruitment programs etc., but we should not remove gender and race from the equation either.

Amendment 47
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning participation in a labor organization as a condition of employment, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting an employer from requiring that a person be a member and pay any moneys to a labor organization or to any other third party in lieu of payment to a labor organization and creating a misdemeanor criminal penalty for a person who violates the provisions of the section?

I've had a bit more difficulty in my thinking about this one, and I still have not made a solid decision either way. On one hand, I feel that participation in any organization should be voluntary. If you work at a place, you should not be required to participate in the company picnic or what not. On the other hand, Unions do a lot of work to advocate for their members, not limited to collective bargaining for wages. If Union enrollement at traditionally Unionized trades is not required, enrollment may drop, and the ability of the Union to help the workers could be lessened. My other inclination is to say that things are working as they are. Another thought is that this is an amendment and if it passes is very hard to remove or change. Things which I might not be opposed to becoming some sort or law (ie referendum or bill brough forth through the general assembly), I am against they idea of them being a part of the State constitution. With all of those qualifiers, my current inclination is No for this amendment. I will be looking in more detail at the arguments for and against before I make a final decision on this, and I encourage anyone reading this to do the same.

Amendment 48
Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution defining the term “person” to include any human being from the moment of fertilization as “person” is used in those provivions of the Colorado constitution relating to inalienable rights, equality of justice, and due process of law?

This amendment is primarily designed to challenge abortion rights as designated in Roe v. Wade. One problem with the amendment is that it is scientifically absurd. There is no medical or scientific way to know the moment of conception or fertilization. Further, a recent study on in vitro fertilization has shown that roughly 40% of fertilized embryoes created have genetic issues, ussual missing or extra chromosomes, and would likely not become implanted in the womb. In other words, 40% of fertilized eggs are likely to result in miscarriage. This makes the law very difficult to enforce. This amendment gets a No.

Conclusion
So far, three amendments and three "no" votes for me. For those who are looking at this through Facebook, please come to forscience.blogger.com, so that you can have a look at the various links contained throughout this post. Comments are welcome, especially in regards to 47.

Lamb Burgers

2008-09-23T22:26:00.002+12:00

Crystal and I decided to try something a bit different last night. For obvious reasons, lamb is a lot less expensive in New Zealand than beef. Given our need to live on a budget, we decided to try making some burgers using lamb mince. They turned out really nice. I grilled some mushrooms to put on them as well. All in all, a culinary success, which is good considering that we bought enough mince to make burgers two nights.

My research is going alright. I spent a good portion of the day checking on my last shearing test. The test was finally finished near the end of the day. So, that's that. I'm not able to use the lab again for a few weeks. But I have some other stuff planned, including a field day next week and preping some samples for the Scanning Electron Microscope. I'm really eager to have a look at things in the SEM. It's really a huge part of my PhD work that I've mostly put off because I know it will be difficult. Nonetheless, I'm sure that it will be scientifically rewarding.

In my free time, I've been playing through Warcraft 3 again. Not sure why, just seems like a fun thing to do. I've been putting in 20-30 minutes per day on the Wii Fit, though I'm don't really seem to be losing weight yet. We'll have to see what happens after a week or two. I definitely feel like I'm getting a workout by doing the yoga, strength training, and aerobic activities. The balance games feel a lot more like fun and less like excersize, so I'm not sure how much they help, but I do a few of them anyways.

I've also started reading The Once and Futute King, which is a really good book. When I picked it up from the library, I had no idea that Disney's The Sword in the Stone had been based on it, but it became clear rather quick, and a check at Wikipedia confirmed it. A really good book so far. I've one more chapter to get through The Sword in the Stone and then I'm on into the later parts of Arthurian ledgends.

Why the choice of Palin pushes me firmly into the Democratic Camp

2008-09-08T10:30:00.002+12:00

A lot of my relatives are probably looking on in horror as I espouse my political opinions. Most of them are Republicans in the traditional sense. They believe in small government, fiscal responsibility, and social conservitism. I've been an Obama supporter for most of this election. With the way his campaign worked, I heard a lot more news about him than any of the other candidates (except Ron Paul, but most of the things I heard about him were how crazy his policies were). For the entirety of the primary season, I was willing to concede to McCain that he represented some sort of reform (at least within the Republican party). He was generally more moderate than the neocons, and had tried to push for smaller government and less spending. However, his choice of Palin as his running mate throws all of that out the window.

Things I don't like about Palin

She is branded as a reformer who moved Alaska politics away from "the Good Old Boys".

I might think this was the case if it wasn't for the blatant cronyism she demonstrated during her time as mayor and governor. She tended to completely clean house of all appointees and put new people in place who would be completely loyal to her. Many people that spoke up against her were fired.

She is also branded as a fiscal conservative.

In a state with budget surpluses and a huge tendancy towards earmarking, she managed to move a city from low debt, to enourmous debt during her term. The only congressional earmark that we heard of her turning down was the famous "Bridge to Nowhere" which was only turned down after much public outcry.

She is a blatantly cynical choice which is attempting at once to appeal to both the conservative base and women who supported Hillary Clinton.

I'm sorry McCain, the women who supported Clinton were mostly pro-choice, pro-equal pay, and pro-women's rights. As a social conservative, Palin is against all of those. That makes this aspect of her appointment hugely insulting to the intelligence of Clinton's supporters.

Otherwise, I found the speeches, especially Palin's and McCain's, hugely lacking in policy. For the most part, Palin bashed Obama, including his work as a Community Organizer. I'm sure there are many social workers and such that were offended by that. Meanwhile, McCain spent most of his speech, discussing his experience as a P.O.W. The thing is, we've all heard that story many times. Yes, its moving. John McCain wouldn't sell out to his Vietnemese captors. I wanted to know what you would do to help the country now and in the future.

There is also this weird thing with the Republicans trying to brand themselves as the party of change, ignoring the fact that they controlled both Congress and the Whitehouse for six of the last eight years. I'm sorry, you can't rally against the Man. You are the Man.

I'm not going to go into any of the other two-faced talking that has been done by people in the McCain campaign, I'll leave Jon Stewart to do that.

The Science Debate 08

2008-09-03T12:21:00.002+12:00

One of the reporters at Wired Magazine's blog site is being criticized by the internet masses for reporting on Obama's answers to the science debate question. I would say critisizm would be due for biased journalism if the story wasn't already so biased. Obama's campaign is the only one that has issued a clear science and technology platform. McCain has refused to respond to Science Debate 08 and has tended to change his position on a number of issues. I'm somewhat skeptical that Obama will be able to deliver all the funding he has promised, while cutting taxes, the fact that he has a clear platform speaks volumes.

So far, the McCain campaign seems to be for drilling and continued use of fossil fuels, and denies global warming. Not very good there.

Obama seems to have changed his mind about NASA funding, which is good.

In terms of money for all the funding that Obama proposes, most that is supposed to go towards clean energy would be derived from a Carbon Cap and Trade system. Urging companies to clean up and using money generated from that the invest in energy technologies is a pretty clever plan.

HPV vaccine

2008-09-02T15:58:00.002+12:00

I was just reminded of the outrage response to an attempted mandate of the Human Papaloma Virus vaccination for pre-teen girls. This is a vaccine that has been shown to have a huge success rate in reducing the instance of cervical cancer in women and it is most effective when adminstered before a woman is sexually active. Some right-wing people have claimed that it promotes promescuity in women. These people have a fundamentally different view of the purpose of government I think. I see the separation of church and state as an important thing. I'm certainly a Christian and have my beliefs, but I do not feel that it is the responsibility of the government to create laws that force everyone to follow these beliefs. I ussually try to avoid double posting like this, but I thought this was important enough to bring up.

I think part of the reason that this has been coming up is because of the forthcoming election. I have a gut reaction that decided my initial feelings about the election, and sense that point in time I have been slowly unravelling my feelings and beliefs to figure out why that reaction occured. The fact is, the Republican party no longer fights for the things that I believe in: small government, fiscal responsibility, and less interference in citizens' lives. This comes back to my belief on legislating morality. I do not share the view on many social issues with the Democratic party platform, but their general tendancy to provide equal protection for all citizens is important to me. Their stance on investment in alternative energy technologies is also important. Drilling any of the US oil reserves is only a stop-gap measure and will not provide the consumers with any real relief. It also doesn't help any with concerns of global warming. I used to take the view that there have been huge swings in temperature in the ancient past of the earth. More recently I saw the comparison between ancient and present day CO2 levels, and that was enough to convince me that something is going to happen.

Vaccinations

2008-09-02T15:44:00.004+12:00

I just listened to a woman on NPR state that she does not trust the numerous studies funded by pharmeceutical companies related to possible side effects of the standard infant vaccination schedule. I really can't understand people like this. There is a very strange anti-science faction developing in the US and it worries me. These are people who feel that the results published by scientists are simply opinions within a cloud of many opinions. This simply is not the case. Scientists are ussually very good at self-regulation, meaning that, if someone publishes results that are BS, they will quickly get called on it. We ought to listen to the experts because they are exactly that. Experts. Most of them have spent their entire lives studying the topics on which the publish, so they really do know what they are talking about.

The other part of this argument that worries me, is that measles cases are on the rise. I remember getting some of my last booster shots when I was in elementary school. I'm sure that as an infant I did not find them comfortable. However, I'm glad that I have been vaccinated against these diseases. Some people argue that some of the vaccines increase the risk of autism in children, but there is no scientific evidence for an increased risk of any disorder associated with the vaccines that most children receive. There is also a very small contingent of people who espouse a religious belief that prohibits vaccines. I cannot fathom this argument. Holding oneself to the tenants of their faith is one thing, but forcing that faith onto an infant is quite another.

I'm not sure what else I can say about this. I just wish that scientists got the respect that they once did. I don't think people should blindly follow them, but they shouldn't refuse their advice as "elitist" or anything of that sort.

Science and the Candidates

2008-09-01T13:25:00.000+12:00

Scientists and Engineers for America, a non-profit, non-partisan group sent out a questionaire to the presidential candidates asking them about their stances on science and technology related issues. So far, only Obama has responded.

More cool science stuff

2008-08-18T13:57:00.000+12:00

Originally from Science Friday

In recent years, the use of ethanol as a biofuel to help deal with the ongoing energy crisis has received a good deal of attention from Washington. But can we produce both food and fuel -- and can ethanol truly replace oil and gas?

In this segment, Ira talks with ethanol biofuel advocate David Blume about common misconceptions about the use of ethanol for fuel, and about Blume's vision for decentralized, community supported ethanol production in the US. Could a neighborhood ethanol distillery be in your future? Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests
David Blume
Executive Director of the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture
Author, "Alcohol Can Be A Gas" (International Institute for Ecological Agriculture, 2007)
Santa Cruz, California

Related Links
Permaculture.com
Segment produced by:Charles Bergquist

This is some pretty cool stuff. A former farmer talking about ideas to make ethanol useful. Similar to subsriber farms, where a group of local people pay a fee to the farmer to receive a portion of the harvest. Farmers could do a similar thing with ethanol. A small distillary at the farm would allow production of the alcohol for consumption by local people. I haven't previously had too much faith in ethanol as a viable alternative energy. This would make it nearly as useful as oil. The difficulties of carbon emmisions and alcohol tending to corrode engine parts still remains however.

Attack ads

2008-08-15T11:02:00.003+12:00

Lately, its seems that all I hear about the US Republicans are their attack ads. I really dislike this style of politics, since I feel that public figures ought to be elected for their own merits, rather than the fact that they threw more mud at their opponent. Pointing out differences in policy makes for good argument and debate. Pointing out "weaknesses" that don't directly relate to the ability to govern is stupid. This is the latest.

Friday, I'm in Love

2008-07-18T13:04:00.004+12:00

I seem to make a lot of posts on Friday, usually about that fact that it is Friday. Well, I guess this is another of those. This week has not been terrible, though I was really busy at the beginning of the week. I was running back and forth between engineering and geology trying to get a lot of work done. I've put 12 more samples through the X-Ray Diffractometer. That's a special device that use Bragg's law of refraction to determine the spacing of atoms in the crystal latice of minerals. Because various minerals have distinct crystal spacing, I can determine what minerals are present in a given sample that I use. The 12 samples that I ran this week are whole rock samples, meaning that I crush the entire sample and put it in the machine. Later, I'll be working on clay mounts, where I purposefully try to concentrate and allign the clay minerals in the sample. This is done because many clays have similar signals, and concentrating them makes the signal stronger. It also allows me to do some clever things that manipulate the signature crystal spacing of the clays, like adding ethylene glycol and baking them at 500 °C.

After a long break from the campeign, I am planning to bring my Pirate themed world back to active play with my RPG friends. I'm planning to give the world a significant rewrite though, because there was a lot of stuff that I was never completely happy with. Some parts of the history didn't quite make sense. And I feel that the game plot itself had become rather confused and tangled. I think we'll restart at first level in a small town. I'm going to make a bit of a series out of crafting the starting town for the players. Keep tuned for that.

In other news, I may be moving this blog over to the Gameslave. Chris and I are looking into it now, so it won't happen for at least a week or more.

The Research Continues

2008-07-08T16:00:00.002+12:00

Despite a few setbacks, I'm keeping the research going. I had some samples go missing during the time that the lab was moved. I also had to spend way too much time trying to get the lab equipment to work. I was only able to get through two sets of samples during the time I had available. Now, the lab is needed for teaching again, so I won't be able to use the equipment again until the end of the next semester. But, I have plenty of other testing to keep me busy while the weather is cold and rainy.

I took the car in to get a WoF today, and as long as that turns out alright I'll be free to get my registration renewed. All this is good cause it means I'll have a car for another year. There isn't really a whole lot to report other than that. Chris, Crystal and I have begun recording a podcast for our gaming website every other week. You can find it over at www.thegameslave.com. Its not exactly a high quality production. Its basically just three friends talking about games and giving our views on the latest game related news. Still, we've been having fun with it. Mainly, we're just recording conversation that we would have anyways. If you're interested in that sort of thing, have a listen.

Laptop Death

2008-06-16T15:46:00.003+12:00

My laptop died this weekend. Another dead hard disk. Somehow, I just seem to have terrible luck with these things. I'm trying to write my article for the Young Geotechnical Professionals Conferance, but the words just don't want to come today. My experiment is going well today though. There has been a definite peak in the strength curve, so that makes things pretty cool. Also, the bank actually found a way to make things more convenient for me, simply by changing what type of account I use for my savings.

Back in New Zealand and into the lab

2008-06-12T14:50:00.003+12:00

Hello everyone. This post may be a little obvious to many, but I have returned to New Zealand. The flight back was an adventure of its own when it felt like our plane was going to drop out of the sky shortly after leaving DIA. After a rather long and turbulent flight to California, we arrived in LA, navigated the maze that is LAX and found our international flight. The trip across the Pacific was much less eventful. I watched Juno. I'm not sure how to feel about that movie. I think I enjoyed it, but I may have been too far gone from the Nytol as well. I'll try to catch it again whenever it comes out to video so that I can form a real opinion about it.

Arrival in NZ was standard except that we came from the opposite side of the airport that I am used to. Every time that I have arrived in NZ so far, the plane has parked at a gate on one side of the terminal. This time, they were on the complete opposite side, which meant that going through customs and immigration felt somewhat backwards compared to normal. We purchased some duty free and were picked up by a friend. My birthday ended up with just going to Mexicali for some tasty food. I can't really complain. I got gifts from everyone before I left the US. I do feel like I was missing some cake though.

This week I have been in the lab. If you've been following my Twitter posts, which are conveniently located just to the right of the main blog, you would have an idea of this dilemma. To summarize: I'm trying to calibrate a data logger and everything possible is going wrong. Today (Thursday) things are finally looking up. I have a sample in the triaxial testing apparatus. It's sitting in the water and saturating so that I can have undrained conditions at failure. Especially because I don't want the sample to be unsaturated, cause that makes the geomechanics much more complicated.

I'm pretty sure that Crystal will have a raise. The operations manager, her boss, is going to talk to the owner about giving her a raise. Both of these guys like her, so I think we should see a slightly higher income from now on. This on top of my funding means that we can upgrade our life style slightly. Going out to eat is an option again. Before, we were really splurging if we didn't cook a meal. Now, things are going to be alright.

As I mentioned earlier, I've got Twitter now. The feed updates on this page or you can go direct to my Twitter page and add me or whatever.

Grants and Funding

2008-05-12T16:51:00.003+12:00

So, after all the long waiting and hoping I've got some grant money, courtesy EQC. And its being funneled through the IESE, which means that I might be moving office again. In order to provide me with more supervision and some better mentoring, and to help springboard their Engineering Geology/Geotechnics branch, I'll be moving to IESE new offices in mid-late June. I'll take it, if it means getting out of this freezing building before we get to far into winter. It really is a good opportunity for me as well. I'll get to be in close proximity to more people who will care about my research. Ever since the only engineering geologist lecturer here went onto retirement/contract, I've felt pretty lonely (intellectually speaking). Most of the other people in the department are busy researching things related to geochemistry and petrology or paleontology. I just don't share as much in common with that sort.

Anyways, also less than 72 hours from being back home in sunny Colorado. Both Crystal and I are looking forward to our little break. Fortunately, I've gotten my lab work to a good point before I head home. I may have some writting to do while I'm there as well. It'll be good for me to get at least some work done during the three weeks I'm away. I keep thinking about my timeline back home, and the thought that the time will be nice, but not nearly enough keeps coming up. I guess I should enjoy the opportunity while I can.

I have a lot of movies to see while I'm at home and the prices are more reasonible. The much higher cost of living is probably the biggest turn of of NZ for me. The people, environment, and setting are all great. I love the geology here, especially because I feel like people researching here actually have a chance to find something that's really new and could actually impact the country as a whole. I just don't think I could have that feeling working back home. All of the geology in Colorado seems to be so well understood. Maybe its just cause I'm doing my research here that I feel that way.

This post has dragged on a lot longer that I had originally intended, but at least that gives everyone a fair update to what's going on. To those of my family and friends living in Colorado, I look forward to seeing you soon.

Home again soon

2008-05-06T16:43:00.002+12:00

Its really snuck up on me. I tried to ignore the whole thing so that I wouldn't get excited prematurely, but now its right on top of me. I'm going home for three weeks to see my family. I'm really excited about all of this. I'll get to see people who I haven't seen for more than a year. It'll be weird taking a break from my work for awhile, but I think it will be well worth it. I really don't know what else to say. I'm definitely excited by it but not really looking forward to the actual travel part. Oh well.

I gotta get home and get the dinner going for Crystal. Hopefully I'll remember to talk a bit more about this soon.

Tasty Food

2008-04-21T10:31:00.003+12:00

Not a lot of news to report really. Went to a wedding for some church members this weekend. They'd asked me to play my guitar a bit with some others for the ceremony. It was pretty good. Nice ceremony and a really pretty setting.

Finally made some tuna noodle casserole last night. For those who don't know me too well, this is one of my favorite home style meals. My favorite comfort food so to speak. My mom had given me the recipe a while back, but it took a long time of me needling Crystal about it before she was willing to give it a try. She has some sort of prejudice against casseroles. Anyways it turned out great. I adapted my mom's recipe, I think I made it really tasty. I added some fresh mushrooms and some frozen veggies (carrots, peas, and corn). It turned out really good. I'm looking forward to the leftovers tonight. I'll need to cook it a little hotter next time though. I didn't brown on the top that well. But the veggies and mushrooms made it really tasty. Normally the dish just has some cream of mushroom soup added. But Crystal and I are both crazy about mushrooms, so more it always better for us.

Research is going alright. I've been stuck in the lab doing that contract work most of the time, though I should be finished with it relatively soon. And I might have some news about a grant in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully. Things are sounding promising, but I don't want to say anything more.

Immigration news

2008-04-04T13:50:00.002+13:00

So, after several weeks of waiting, we have finally heard something about Crystal's visa/permit application. Looks like she has been approved. I can finally stop being worried about things. Looks like life will get more boring again, but better that than worries about being a criminal.

New Visa

2008-03-12T15:09:00.003+13:00

I've finally gotten my new student visa and permit. After several weeks of annoying set backs and spending about two hours waiting in line, I'm legal to be in NZ for another year. Now, I just have to jump through a few hoops to get Crystal's permit renewed and everything will be ducky. I still think the fees that are charged for this process are pretty exorbitant. $130 for mine and $280 for Crystal's. Assuming a billing rate of about $30 per hour, that would mean that someone is looking at my permit application for about 4 hours. Crystal's gets over 9 hours of inspection. Somehow, I really doubt this is actually the case. Besides that, if you apply from within the US, there is no fee. I would assume that there would be less of a fee when you are involved with the main branch rather than an international office. But since when has reason or logic ever permeated into any form of government, let alone immigration.

We are supplying to INZ a copy of our marriage certificate and proof of our address, which should be sufficient to prove both "living together" and "in a genuine partnership". I think what annoys me, is that in principal, my permit is easier to get than Crystal's, when I think that the opposite should be the case. I.E, I feel that once I have proven myself here for legitimate reasons, Crystal should pretty much just be allowed to be here. After all, that's what the law states. Partners (not necessarily spouses) are guaranteed a work permit for the period of the main applicants student permit. After my experiences last year, I've decided that INZ requires an annoying amount of proving of a partnership, especially when marriage is not enough to satisfy them.

In any case, I no longer feel nervous about not having my passport in my possession. Since it is the only ID that I have that everyone in NZ will accept for everything (especially the procurement of alcohol) I don't like being without it.

Anyway, study is still going well. I have an abstract and article due at the end of this week, though I am primarily waiting for feedback from Colin before I send them off. In fact, I'm just waiting for a final ok from John before I send the abstract off. I think it all looks pretty good and am excited at the prospect of presenting at these conferences. Crystal wants to come along to the one in Egypt, and I can't blame her for that.

Plane tickets

2008-02-15T10:13:00.003+13:00

Well, I've been bad about updating for the last few weeks. Christmas is over, and life is pretty much back to routine for both Crystal and me.

We are however, finally seriously looking at purchasing plane tickets for a trip home. The plan is to spend three weeks at the end of May back home. We are just organizing to make sure that we have all the money stuff figured out.

I've been doing a lot of field and lab work lately, and I'll be in the field again next week. I'm also getting a short article ready for a conference in September. Thankfully, this conference is in Auckland so that I won't have to do any sort of travel to go there.

Now, about my business

2007-12-19T17:47:00.000+13:00

The only real business that I have to report for today was taking the car to the shop. The transmission was stuck in "park" for some unknown reason. After doing some investigation online, Crystal and I checked the fuse related to that system, but that was not the problem. I took the car into the shop, and they had it fixed in a few hours. Turns out it was a switch (which was cheap) so most of the bill was labor. Only came out to about $120 NZ. And they fixed the radio too. Crystal and I should be wrapping presents tonight to send back home to various people. Won't be there in time for Christmas, but they won't be too long after.

Two external bits of news

2007-12-19T17:12:00.000+13:00

I'm going to make this a seperate post so as not to clutter up the news about my little life with goings on in the rest of the world. The first is this. Here's a quick quote from the site.

PETER JACKSON AND NEW LINE CINEMA JOIN WITH MGM TO PRODUCE “THE HOBBIT”

December 18, 2007

ACADEMY AWARD-WINNER PETER JACKSON AND
NEW LINE CINEMA JOIN WITH MGM
TO PRODUCE “THE HOBBIT,”
EAGERLY-ANTICIPATED FANTASY ADVENTURE EPIC

.

NEW LINE AND MGM TO CO-PRODUCE AND
SHARE WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS

PETER JACKSON AND FRAN WALSH TO EXECUTIVE PRODUCE TWO FILMS BASED ON “THE HOBBIT”

Los Angeles, CA (Tuesday, December 18, 2007) Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson; Harry Sloan, Chairman and CEO, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM); Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs of New Line Cinema have jointly announced today that they have entered into the following series of agreements:

* MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, “The Hobbit” and a sequel to “The Hobbit.” New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.

* Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on “The Hobbit.” New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.

* Peter Jackson and New Line have settled all litigation relating to the “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) Trilogy.

Said Peter Jackson, “I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a legacy we proudly share with Bob and Michael, and together, we share that legacy with millions of loyal fans all over the world. We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth. I also want to thank Harry Sloan and our new friends at MGM for helping us find the common ground necessary to continue that journey.”

“Peter Jackson has proven himself as the filmmaker who can bring the extraordinary imagination of Tolkien to life and we full heartedly agree with the fans worldwide who know he should be making ‘The Hobbit,’” said Sloan, MGM’s Chairman and CEO. “Now that we are all in agreement on ‘The Hobbit,’ we can focus on assembling the production team that will capture this phenomenal tale on film.”

Bob Shaye, New Line Co-Chairman and Co-CEO comments, “We are very pleased we have been able to resolve our differences, and that Peter and Fran will be actively and creatively involved with ‘The Hobbit’ movies. We know they will bring the same passion, care and talent to these films that they so ably accomplished with ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy.”

“Peter is a visionary filmmaker, and he broke new ground with ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” notes Michael Lynne, New Line Co-Chairman and Co-CEO. “We’re delighted he’s back for ‘The Hobbit’ films and that the Tolkien saga will continue with his imprint. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Harry Sloan, who has been instrumental in helping us reach our new accord.”

The two “Hobbit” films – “The Hobbit” and its sequel – are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of “The Hobbit” release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

The Oscar-winning, critically-acclaimed LOTR Trilogy grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide at the box-office. In 2003, “Return of the King” swept the Academy Awards, winning all of the eleven categories in which it was nominated, including Best Picture – the first ever Best Picture win for a fantasy film. The Trilogy’s production was also unprecedented at the time.

For more information about “The Hobbit” films, please visit www.TheHobbitBlog.com.

All in all, I think that this is very good news for fans of the series. I'm a little leery of the news of a Hobbit sequel, but with PJ as producer I'm sure that things will turn out for the good.

The second piece of news is for me to recommend to everyone to listen to the Best of Ideas podcast for Dec. 10 and 17. Its a two part show about the future of hydrogen in our energy system. David Scott, a long time engineer, make some very good points about energy and the use of hydrogen as a "currency" in his terms. He describes the place of hydrogen as similar to that of electricity. Neither are a power source in themselves, but they are a way to deliver power to a place where it is needed and to do the work that needs to be done. He argues his points much more eloquently than I can argue them here, so I recommend that you take a listen. Generally the whole podcast is pretty good, and was recommended to me by a Canadian that I know through the internet. The link to the podcast page is here. You can go to that page and download the individual episodes, or subscribe.

Rainy Days

2007-12-18T16:36:00.000+13:00

So, first truly rainy day in a few weeks and guess who decided the umbrella wouldn't be necessary. Hopefully, I'll be able to get home without getting completely soaked.

I had a pretty good weekend. Most of Saturday was spent in cleaning up the apartment. All that Crystal and I have left to clean is the bookshelf, so I think we did a pretty good job. On the other hand, we have another slug friend. I really don't know why they want to wander into our apartment. We aren't leaving food out or anything like that. And we never actually see them. Just the little trail of slime that they leave behind. I need to remember to put some salt down tonight. That'll teach him.

Sunday was spent doing some Christmas shopping. We've got gifts for most of the people on our lists and we'll send them off soon. I think we'll ship everything to my parents house. From there, it can be redistributed. It won't be likely to be there by Christmas, but it shouldn't be too late.

Speaking of which, we'll be at the Phynn house on Christmas eve for some merry making. I thought that a sangria might make a welcome addition to the party, so we'll be fixing that later this week. We made some chocolate chip cookies on Sunday and we are planning to make sugar cookies next weekend. Turns out that it takes about the same amount of time to make a batch of cookies as it does to make spaghetti sauce. That kept both Crystal and me busy on Sunday evening. I've discovered that red bell peppers, mushrooms, and fresh garlic are welcome additions to my mom's recipe.

I wasn't able to make it into the lab today unfortunately. No one was there most of the day. I was able to get in a few minutes this afternoon to weigh some samples, but didn't really have time to do much else. I've spent most of the day catching up on reading. When we did the cleaning, I found a stack of articles that I printed out but never read. I've got through about half of them now, and that includes entering some info about them into EndNote. That's a citation program that I use to store bibliographic and other information about the various articles that I'm referencing.

As soon as Christmas and New Years are past, I will be able to get some more field work done. I need to do a good amount, but I know where to go and what to do. I just have to spend the time down in Tauranga to get things done.

P.S. All our international cards have been sent out, except for one, whom we are still trying to find an address for. So, look for something in the mail in the next week or so. I hope they are in by Christmas, but I can't be sure. I've also taken a few pictures of things, and I'll try to post them soon. Crystal is really hard to get photos of.

Cards are out

2007-12-14T16:31:00.001+13:00

The first round of Christmas cards went in the mail today. As soon as I get some addresses looked up, more cards will be sent out.

The new gmail thing, allowing you to talk to AIM people is pretty cool, though having not signed into AIM for about a year, I'm not sure about talking to people, since I'm not sure they will remember me. We'll have to see. Maybe I'll just put a thing up on the forums that I'm willing to talk to people.

I was having some trouble with GIS today. I talked with the tech guy and after about 5 minutes, he showed me how to turn the tools that I was trying to use on. I felt a bit foolish at that point. But now I've got it working again, and will be doing some analysis with it.

Not much else to tell. For the first time ever, Crystal and I have been able to find real corn on the cob at the grocery store. We'll see how it turns out. There are a lot of things that neither of us have ever actually cooked before, even though we've eaten them a lot. This is another one of those things. We are in fact having the most American thing we can manage in NZ. Frankfurters (ie hot dogs, or near enough) and corn on the cob. Horray!

1 month to anniversary

2007-12-13T15:38:00.000+13:00

Well, I'm not sure what to post today. I meant to be in the field this week, but between some rainy weather, unfavorable tides, and that colloquium thing that I had to do on Monday, I ended up not. I have spent most of the week in the lab so far. Tomorrow they have a meeting there in the morning, so I won't be able to do any work then. I'll have to finish up the experiment that I'm working on in the afternoon.

I'm not sure how I feel about Christmas this year. For me, it has always been a holiday about family. Even with the strong religious meaning that I also feel for the day, I think that the most essential part of celebrating Christmas is getting together with people whom you love. This year, I'll be so far away from everyone except Crystal that I don't know how I will feel when the actual holiday comes.

It's also one month until my 1st Wedding anniversary. That's another funny thing. I still have trouble believing that Crystal and I have been married for nearly a year. The time has gone by really fast. I have to remind myself of what I've done during the year to keep myself from feeling like I haven't accomplished anything. I've been to two conferences, made running up in the Faculty poster competition, started detailed work in a new study area, and done a good bit of geomechanical testing as well. I might have been able to do more, but looking back, I think that I worked hard enough. Next year, I'm planning to get more accomplished. For one thing, I'll have several more months to work on things. For another, I have a better idea of where to go in the future.

Crystal stayed late at work last night, and plans to stay late again tonight. I'm glad that she is really applying herself to her job, but sometimes I think she might be working too hard. I also feel that without funding, I'm really not towing my weight in the financial end of things. If I could get the funding that I've applied for, Crystal and I won't have to worry much about our finances for the duration of our stay. I'll work hard on the applications as soon as I hear back from the first round of application.

Business Cards

2007-12-06T12:42:00.000+13:00

Well, I think I may be finally getting some business cards to hand out at conferences and such. I'll let everyone know once I find out more.

My annual report is coming up due. I've filled out my part. Colin has been working on his, so we should get together this afternoon to sign everything and then send it off. Everything looks alright. I've got a lot of work to do over summer this year, but I should have a lot of my thesis done coming into Winter. The planned completion date is mid-2009. After that, I will still have the oral examination and I may stick around for graduation. But, I think I'll be home for good in 2010.

Friday, blessed Friday

2007-11-16T12:55:00.000+13:00

I have finally made it to Friday again. I've just finished up a set of Atterberg Limits at the lab. Crystal and I have continued watching Aeon Flux. It just keeps being weirder in a lot of ways.

The weekend is supposed to have very nice weather. Maybe Crystal and I will go do some more walking in the park or something. We had a very good time a couple weekends ago when we went around town towards Parnell.

I've gotten a presentation together for the Geotech Colloquium at the university. I just need to run things past my supervisors before the date of the presentation. I'll be sending a draft along to my supervisor in the Engineering Faculty.

2007-11-14T12:34:00.000+13:00

Not a whole lot to report on today. The ring shear test finished yesterday. I've got some plans to do other work. Right now, I rewriting some of my older work. I'm having to change it around because we've changed the focus of the work as a whole. Really, that change in focus happened awhile ago but I just haven't gotten around to revising things before.

Crystal and I watched two episodes of Aeon Flux last night, and it really is just as weird as I remember.

I think I'm close to finishing Phatom Hourglass now. Only about two temples left as far as I can tell. I have plenty more things to find though.

2007-11-13T12:16:00.000+13:00

Another day at the lab. and I've almost finished the ring shear that I've had going. Sorting through the data I've looked at for the last year has shown some interesting possibilities of trends. I've got a lot more work to get real trends, but there is some promising stuff.

Crystal has started drawing again, which I think is a really good thing. She's had me buy her a drawing journal too.

For some reason, my eye is continually watering today. I don't have any other allergy type symptoms though.

Not much else to report on. I've been playing a lot of Phantom Hourglass. It's a really fun game and I definitely recommend it to others.

So much for the field day

2007-11-12T12:23:00.000+13:00

I went back to look at the tide tables for today, and realized the tide comes an hour later than I previous had thought. So, I won't be going into the field today after all. I have some planned time at the end of next week that should work out better though. I'll take two days then, and after that I'll have the 26th with both Colin and Warwick out in the field with me.

I had a good weekend though. Started out a new D&D game with my friend Brandon at the helm. It's really little more than a sort of Fight Club, but still a lot of fun. Mostly, we just have it to fill in the gaps between our regular games when we don't have some of the players. This week we had a party of three (rogue, fighter, and sorceror) vs. and Ettin. Turned out pretty good. My character, the rogue, managed to get the killing hit in on the ettin before it took down our fighter.

On Sunday, Crystal and I went to see our Mel's new flat. She's got a pretty nice place now. Our chilis are growing well so far.

Post-meeting

2007-11-09T12:27:00.000+13:00

I feel much better after my meeting with Warwick and Colin. Better, though it has more or less just changed the panicky feeling. I've gone from lost with little idea of what I should be doing to worried about the huge amount of things that I ought to be doing. Having a direction to take my research is a lot better though.

I'm going out to the field again on Monday to do some testing, and probably some sampling as well. I also just found out that there is meant to be a geotechnical symposium at the university for all the researchers who have done work in the geotech lab during the previous year. They've asked me to present my work there. I'm not terribly keen on it, because I haven't really done a whole lot. Especially, I haven't even begun to answer the questions that I'm looking to answer from the tests that I'm doing. All that I really have is some raw data. I should probably try to find some way to relate things.

Enough about that though. Crystal and I are having steak tonight for the first time in months I'm sure. We found some sirloins on clearance at the grocery (I assume because they were old). We've had them sitting in the freezer. Tonight, I plan to grill them up with some portabello mushrooms. It should be tasty. I have no guarantees of the tastiness, but everything promises to be good.

I just thought of another little story that I haven't related yet. Crystal and I went to Blockbuster last Saturday and got ourselves signed up. They've got a pretty good special there as long as you can wait for things to be 7 day rentals. 4 for $10. Anyways, we got Blackadder 2, The Dark Crystal, Dogma, and V for Vendetta. V had to be watched since the Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes night. I hadn't seen Dogma and Crystal hadn't seen Blackadder 2 since I watched it without her. And it has been a long time since either of us watched The Dark Crystal. The movie still looks good by today's standards.

I think I'll end this post there, since I've run out of things to say. I keep meaning to add Crystal as a person who can post to this blog, but I don't think she is the type that ever would, so it's probably a moot point.

Ring Shear Tests

2007-11-08T12:30:00.000+13:00

So, I'm working on a ring shear test in the geomechanics lab. The whole test takes several days, though I don't have to be around the apparatus very much. I only have to take a reading exery hour or half hour typically. If you are interested, have a look at an article by E. N. Bromhead from 1979 in Ground Engineering. It describes the apparatus and the test procedure at least.

I should finally have a meeting with my supervisors today. I've been trying to get this going for awhile. Hopefully, we'll have some good progress towards funding opportunities for me. I suppose that at the very worst, I will have $3000 per year from the University. I'd really like to have some more so that Crystal and I would have less to worry about in the financial area.

Not much else to talk about. A friend I met last year at IH came to visit yesterday so that Crystal could finally meet her. We had some tasty pizza.

Missed Appointments

2007-11-06T16:19:00.000+13:00

So, yesterday, I went back and forth between my two supervisors (which is ridiculous in the first instance since their offices are next to each other), and I set up a meeting for today starting between 2 and 3 PM. To put it simply, one of my supervisors hasn't been in all day. Don't know if he's sick or what, but you would think he could call or send an email or something to let me know that he's not going to be around.

This really annoys me, because now my primary supervisor can't meet tomorrow, which means the meeting has to get pushed back to Thursday. I have generally been trying to get a meeting together for the last two weeks, ever since I returned from Australia. I don't know why it is so difficult to get three people together, especially when one of their schedules is almost completely open.

This really annoys me, because I need to talk to my supervisors about funding and field work. I need funding to keep this project going, but I have no idea where to start looking for it, or I would go about applying for it if I did find something. I also need to get some more field work done. My trip on Friday was a demonstration of why I'm better to go out with someone more experienced. I got myself lost (or at least missed my turn) twice costing myself on the order of 45 minutes of valuable time in the field. With that much time, I could have had a brief look at the second outcrop that I travelled to.

What it comes down to is that this event highlights my concern about how much my supervisors care about my research and my success as a PhD student. I feel that one of them is generally preoccupied by his family and teaching and the other by his research.

I feel that this problem has lead to me not getting as much work done this year as could be hoped. I know that my own tutoring schedule has been somewhat to blame for that, but I also feel that my supervisors could make themselves somewhat more available to help out.

Ready for the Conference

2007-10-18T16:50:00.000+13:00

I don't think that I have posted this at any point, but I'm getting ready to go to a conference in Australia starting this Sunday. I've got everything set up finally, including airfare, hotel, and transport to and from the airport. I'll try to post a few comments while I'm there, but I'm not sure how internet access will be, and I'm not sure how busy that I will be.

I've got a new office finally. I've been moved to a new office with two other PhD students. I like it a whole lot. I have a computer in the office even. So things are a lot nicer than in my old office.

Things are generally looking good now. I have my last day of tutoring for the semester tomorrow, then I'll just have about 40 webpage assignments to grade and will then be completely free to continue my research.

Harry Potter Tonight

2007-08-14T12:38:00.000+12:00

So, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix is finally available for cheap tickets in Auckland. Crystal and I are going tonight, so I should be able to post some sort of review later.

Crystal is also working to get a job now. We're going to be dropping resumes at a bunch of the retail places near our apartment this afternoon.

I'm not posting Harry Potter Spoilers

2007-07-31T11:01:00.000+12:00

But, I am reading The Deathly Hallows now. Crystal and I bought a copy at Border's this weekend. We're currently half-way through the book, as we are taking turns each reading a chapter aloud. It's a fun way to read with someone, especially so that you can share the thrills and laughs at the same time. So far, I think that the tongue in check humor has surprised me more than anything else. I've also made the rule that unless presented with a complete body, that I will not believe any deaths that may have occurred.

Crystal is getting some illustration ideas from the book too. We'll see if she goes through with any of them.

Work on the thesis is alright. I feel a bit like I'm racing against the clock to get some work done to put on a poster in the University contest. I'm not sure if I'll have the work done in time though. I'm going to do my best on it. Crystal is helping me to prepare figures for my poster that I will present in Brisbane. Its a real help. I think my figures will make a lot more sense and generally be more useful.

Poster preparation

2007-07-26T15:14:00.000+12:00

I've begun work to prepare my poster for presentation at the ANZ Geomechanics conference. I have not yet received the details of format, but I have a number of steps that can be used to get started. One of these is preparing figures to present on the poster. I have a lot of work to do to making sure that I have all of my information presentable in pictoral form. I plan to use the lest text possible, because that really seems to make a more effective poster. Also, I already have plenty of text in the article that will appear in the proceedings, so interested people should be able to look at that.

I've forgotten how Illustrator is both wonderful and difficult to work with at the same time. Some of the features that make it quick to sketch over photos also make it difficult to color various areas. I have at this point finished one of the poictures that I will be interpreting.

I'll be getting Crystal to help me a bit with this when she has time. But I think I have been sucessful with my first attempt.

Another long abscence

2007-07-25T14:53:00.000+12:00

Well, the last time that I posted, my wife had recently arrived and we were still settling in. Since then, I've been very busy with my research project. I've run a number of samples through the geomechanics lab and done some more field work. I have a lot of other things to talk about but many of them seem a bit silly and are mostly gaming related. Crystal and I are still making slow but steady progress in World or Warcraft. We'll soon be able to join the rest of our friends in end-game events.

I have recently sent several thank you cards to people who sent birthday or other cards or gifts. They are much appreciated, I'm just of the absent minded sort. So, several people, and you know who you are, should be looking for mail in the next couple of weeks.

Crystal has just submitted her application for a work permit, so we are hoping to get a positive response back soon. We ended up sending two large envelopes stuffed to bursting, containing evidence of our "partnership". The fact that we are married was not enough for INZ last time, so we have sent in letters from friends and family, as well as copies of our chatlogs and letters to each other as corroborating evidence. I don't think that they can dispute that we qualify as a partnership anymore.

I've applied for every descent scholarship that has come my way in the last few months. I tend to be limited due to my international status, but there are a few scholarship that I'm eligible for that other people aren't. Two of these would give us enough money to mostly pay rent and food, leaving whatever income that Crystal ends up with to pay her student loans. I can only hope that one of these will be approved.

I'm going to Australia in October for a conference. I still need to make the poster, but I have a grant for the travel costs. Crystal is going to help me with the poster design, once I get around to planning the content. I need to design another poster for the University competition as well. These are parts of my important task for the next few months.

I think I'll end this post here, since I'm busy with a number of other things as well today. Take care everyone, and I hope to talk to you soon.

Field Work and Sampling

2007-05-07T11:33:00.000+12:00

After much waiting and anticipation, I finally made it to my field area to do some sampling. I'm glad that I waited. We had a beautiful day, and we were able to time the tide so as not to need to wake up before dawn. Sampling went really well. Matt (another grad student) and I made pretty quick work of all the sampling. Now I have a large number of samples sitting around, waiting to be tested. I'm planning to start work on them tomorrow, since Matt is busy graduating or something today.

Meanwhile, in the virtual world, I've nearly made it to level 58. Only another hour or so of playing will be required. More about this is available at The Gameslave. We're getting ready to implement new website design too. So, there's lots to check out over there.

Field Work

2007-05-03T11:13:00.000+12:00

The New Zealand weather keeps trying to prevent progress on my thesis. I try not to be a fair weather geologist, but it is simply easier to work when the weather is dry. Combine this with the fact that my work is right on the beach and requires a low-tide in midday for me to work productively, and it becomes hard to find a good time to work. But, the plan is now to go out to work tomorrow. I'll be collecting samples mostly, but also working on getting a better hold on the stratigraphy of the area. Fortunately, I won't have to work too hard on that, as an MSc has been assigned to the general engineering geology of the area.

In the meantime, I have continued working on my paper research. I've also been playing a lot of World of Warcraft. Someday soon I will be able to go on raids with my friends. I think I only have about a week more to play before I will be in Outland.

Lecturing

2007-05-02T09:47:00.000+12:00

I just gave my first "public" lecture today. The New Zealand Geotechnical Society invited two other students and me to present our research at their monthly meeting. Everything went great. The presentations were well received, and I've been tentatively invited back to give another talk in a years time. This second talk with reflect the next stage of my research. The whole thing is really exciting. According to my wife, I was talking in my sleep last night, but the only word that she could recognize was the name of my field area: Matata. I wish I could remember what I was dreaming about.

International Journals

2007-04-13T11:53:00.000+12:00

For the entire period of my study, one of my supervisors has encouraged me to check the international literature on my subject. Only recently have I begun to run into problems. I've found that, for most journals, articles are written almost exclusively in English. I'm not sure why this is, but I'll take advantage of it to read articles from Japanese and Italian researchers. In the last week I've found two articles that would be very helpful to me, but cannot be read because they are in other languages. The first is an article in French about the formation of clay minerals in some volcanic deposits. The second is an article in Japanese about a similar subject, although this one deals more with the successive changes in mineralization with age. They both have English abstracts which helps me get a general idea of the article, but does not provided the amount of detail that I prefer. If any who reads this blog (if anyone does) would like to translate either paper for me, let me know and I'll get in touch with you.

In other news, I'm still plugging away towards level 53 in WoW. I've discovered that the Searing Gorge is actually a viable questing zone, with decent XP and monetary rewards. I'm trying to decided weather to buy a normal level 40 mount, or just wait and save up for the Epic level 60 mount. Tough choices I have to say.

I received a package of books from my parents this morning at 7. I was a little upset at having to jump out of bed and throw some clothes on to answer the door, but I've been waiting for this package for some time. Now, I'm just waiting for the package that will carry my monitor cable for my desktop computer. When that arrives, I'll finally have a working computer for both Crystal and me. This will probably make our internet usage go up, but we enjoy playing together so much that I can't see this as a bad thing.

I've also been waiting for some form of email contact with my supervisors for quite some time. I finally hear back from one of them, and they remind me that I have a presentation on Tuesday. I had added it to my calendar and I still forgot about it. But its only 10 minutes, so I don't have to talk about much. The primary concern at this point is me relating the work that I've done to one of the organizations that provided funding for me last year. Personally, I think that if I have to give presentations that they should continue giving money.

Easter and Semester Break

2007-04-11T10:52:00.000+12:00

Somehow, University here is already on break for two weeks. This means that I'm generally lacking guidance now. At least I have a few things to work on in the duration.

I've managed to play more WoW lately. I've been working hard trying to force my character to a level high enough that I can play with my friends again. I'm getting pretty close at this point.

Easter was great though. I spent most of the day with the Phyn family. This is the same family who invited me over for Easter last year. This time, Crystal and I spent the day together. I felt less homesick while I was there. Compared with last year, when it was my first major holiday that I was away from my family. But having Crystal with me made everything much better. She seems to be doing alright, and isn't too homesick herself.

The research is going well. I've finally made it through a huge paper on some of the younger volcanic units that I see in the Central and Eastern Bay of Plenty. Not stuff that I'll see near Tauranga, but certainly things that I should be able to find near Matata. The paper was huge. Included their raw data in the paper would have probably made it the appropriate length for a Master's thesis.

Research

2007-04-05T11:19:00.000+12:00

I arrived in my office at 9 this morning and plunked down in front of one of the departments computers. For the next two hours to now, I've been digging through the GeoRef databases and Google scholar in attempts to find more information about the weathering of volcanic ash and pumice beds and the formation of halloysite. So, bascially, I'm not having a lot of fun. Personally I feel like I should be able to go home now. But I have to keep working to try and find more stuff. I'll have to make a trip to the library at some point.

I've tried to not make my blog overly political, but sometimes certain issues just make some vocalization necessary. My opinion of Bush continues to sink lower and lower. His lack of a real energy policy in his State of the Union address is truly disappointing. The lack of understanding that most politicians have for science is astonding. This fact is one of the things that makes me really want to run for some office, even if its just city council or something. I feel like a scientist (not necessarily me) has much to offer our US political system that has so long been dominated by lawyers and economists. I don't think that a science-ocracy is the solution, but I do believe that a better understanding of science as it relates to policy and current issues is important. The last 6 years have been marked by a retardation in the understanding of science in the House and Sentate. I hope that the legislature will recreate an organization to advise them on scientific and technical issues.

So yeah, I'm not sure when or where I'll start trying to run for a political office, but it will happen. Eventually. Right now, I'm a little ways away from home, but I'll be back in a few years. Hopefully things haven't gone to hell before I get a chance to help.

P.S. The term "carbon footprint" is stupid. Just say "carbon emmisions". Its a lot more accurate.

Return to New Zealand

2007-04-04T10:09:00.000+12:00

Well, I certainly haven't posted for awhile. I've been quite busy, and the shear number of things that I need to report make it difficult to put them all in one post. I'll just have to summarize. In early December I went home to visit my family for the holidays. Colorado was completely dumped on by several snow storms. on January 13, Crystal and I were married. I changed my airline ticket around to stay for another month with her. I moved back to Auckland at the end of February. Crystal followed in late March, and we are now living together happily. I hope to keep updates more frequent in the future. I'd like to start podcasting again, but the "day in the life" format doesn't seem to be working for me. This is hard cause I'm a really big fan of a lot of programs that promote that sort of journalism (ie "This American Life" from NPR, check it out). But I think that the life of a PhD student might lack a certain amount of interest required for that sort of a podcast. I may instead look at making a short weekly cast of my thoughts on the current games that I'm playing. Basically an audio form of the Slaved Articles that I should be posting on the Gameslave. I really need to get back to posting those.

Also, I hope to put some pictures up eventually, but I'm feeling pretty lazy right now.

Two weeks

2006-11-22T21:46:00.000+13:00

I've got less than two weeks before I leave New Zealand. It's a little hard to believe that my first foray into this foreign place is nearly over. Soon, I'll be heading back to Colorado.

On the other hand, I have so many things that need to get done here before I leave. I still haven't found out if I will be able to stay on for a PhD. I can only hope that I am able to find that out before I leave the country.

I have a lot of work to try and complete in the next couple of weeks, and that isn't going to make things any easier.

Sometimes we lose things

2006-11-05T19:00:00.000+13:00

If you ask anyone who knows me, they will confirm that I'm not very good at keeping track of things. So when I saw this sign during one of my walks around town, I was really moved. Something about losing something so unique touched me. Although many of the things that I've lost have been simple items were a replacement could easily be purchased, it would not be the same simply because I wouldn't have the same history with the item. I hope they find their bear.

Why no posts?

2006-11-02T09:08:00.000+13:00

Well, I'd like to say that I've been to busy and dedicated to post anything for the last few days. But the truth of the matter is that I just haven't really had anything that sparked my interest and desire enough to post to the internet. Life has been going on mostly as it does for a grad student. I'm still working on my conversion to a PhD program. Things are still looking hopeful, but the fact that the Geology department recently merged with Geography has made things slightly more interesting. But, life goes on.

I'm a pretty avid listener to "All Songs Considered", and although I normally try to take note of the artists that are reported, I don't actually make an attempt to find out about them. In a recent episode, two artists really caught my attention. One Ring Zero play some wonderful, slightly quirky music. Something like TMBG, but not as far out there. Their song "Natty Man Blues" is absolutely wonderful. Christine Fellows's song Souvenirs gave me shivers. It's a long time since a piece of music has given me that feeling. I love it so much. These are two artist that I will begin purchasing music from.

Also, a friend recently reminded me of the great music that Polaris did for The Adventures of Pete and Pete. So, I made a quick search on Amazon, and found out that the CD was available. This is also going into my pile of things to buy with Christmas money.

A good run

2006-10-29T21:43:00.000+13:00

I meant to post this yesterday, but I didn't manage to get around to it for one reason or another. I had a really nice run in the Auckland Domain yesterday. I decided to experiment and take a longer route than I usually do. This turned out to be a very good idea. The weather was beautiful, and although the run really kicked my butt, I definitely enjoyed it. Part of the run is through a part of the Domain that is almost native bush. I may have to go back just to take pictures some time.

Podcast 2

2006-10-18T16:38:00.000+13:00

I've got Podcast 2 up finally. This is all about my adventures helping a friend with an amateur film. Check out their site here.

Geomechanical testing

2006-10-17T16:58:00.000+13:00

After waiting patiently for several months, I've finally been allowed back into the geomechanics laboratory. This means that I'll be able to advance an important angle of my thesis again. I'd nearly forgotten how difficult some of these tests are to run. I'm glad that I have a lot of people to ask for help. They keep me from messing up all my test results. If I messed up the tests I would not have a good thesis in the end.

The truest essay ever

2006-10-14T12:48:00.000+13:00

I'm a regular NPR listener when I'm at home, and since I've been in NZ and schedules and time differences being the way they are, I've taken to listening to my favorite programs via podcast. Some I listen to all the time, like Science Friday and All Songs Considered. Others I haven't managed to listen to with regularity. I just listened to the best This I Believe essay ever. It's entitled "There is no such thing as too much Barbecue". If you have a chance, I recommend having a listen.

Wikipedia

2006-10-12T21:18:00.000+13:00

I feel like such a geek now. I've started editing Wikipedia pages. This is really something that I never planned to do, mostly because I didn't think that there would be anything that I would ever know more about than someone else. So my two pages that I played with are as follows:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matata%2C_New_Zealand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Edgecumbe_earthquake

I really am proud of myself. But also horribly embarrassed that I'm blogging about editing Wikipedia.

Final Section

2006-10-10T16:03:00.000+13:00

Well, after another few minutes of talking with my supervisor and tweaking, I've come to a more finalized version of my generalized stratigraphic section. This is a huge part of my thesis and demonstrates some of the more difficult work that I have done. For example, I have about 12 drafted sections that I used to create this one. I also have about 120 pages of field notes and observations with sketches and sections. This single graphic represents a huge amount of field data. I can only hope that it will someday be useful. Remember, you can click on the image to view a larger version of it.

Moment of Clarity

2006-10-09T22:10:00.000+13:00

Have you ever had one of those moments were something just suddenly makes sense to you? I had one of those tonight.

Now, I'm a Barenaked Ladies fan, but only recently have I started really listening to their lyrics really close to try and see what the messages are in their songs. So, I'm listening to The Old Apartment, and its finally making sense to me intellectually. This was fairly average for me. I looked up the lyrics at one point and read them while the song was playing so that I could be sure that things could make sense. All this is the way things normally work.

Then, I watched the video on YouTube. Suddenly, and without any thought of my own, the song made sense emotionally. This took me by suprise, and I found myself getting a little teared up by it. I guess I'm really just a sentimental fool.

The strangest movie ever

2006-10-05T22:45:00.000+13:00

Dancer in the Dark may be the strangest movie ever. I don't think I have ever seen a stranger movie. On the other hand, it is also a brilliant work of art. I may have to watch it again. There are such strange and subtle nuances to it. The tragic irony of"nothing bad ever happens in musicals". I'm not sure what the end message of the work is meant to be. I'm still thinking about that. But overall, its really strange, but also very though provoking.

Two days worth of work

2006-10-04T08:32:00.000+13:00

I spent the last two days compiling a lot of my previous work into simple geotechincal descriptions, and then simplifying these descriptions even more into a diagram. Here's the results. It may not be very readable at this resolution but trust me. This figure is great. Please keep in mind that this is my intellectual property.

Funding and mid-year slump

2006-10-03T23:36:00.000+13:00

So, for the past couple of days I've just been feeling really bummed about my research. I'm not even sure why. There are no logical reasons for this feeling. My writing is going pretty well. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my primary supervisor. In fact, his biggest single piece of advice was that the writing is good and that I need more figures to help tell the story. I'm also getting things back from a professional friend who is also reviewing my manuscript. Things are really looking good for my research. In fact, the only negative thing that I've seen is that I didn't get a scholarship. Well, I guess there is also the fact that I didn't win anything at the poster competition. To some extent, I feel that I'm working hard, and that a lot of people are telling me that I'm doing good to my face, but when it comes to real outcomes, no one likes my work. Or at least they aren't willing to put their money in to show support.

Part of me also feels very strange about not taking any papers. I don't feel like I'm learning enough. For this reason, I wish I had stayed in the US. But, browsing through the web pages of some of the more prestigious schools in the states, I'm lead to the conclusion that very few universities actually care about engineering geology. This leaves me with the options of Missouri-Rolla (eww, Missouri) or Mines. I went to Mines as an undergrad, and I got along with a lot of the faculty pretty well. In fact, I got along with all of the faculty except the engineering geologists. This makes studying there not a great course of action. Even if I manage to pull a PhD here, I'd still need to find someplace to do Post-doc work. I've promised my fiance that we won't stay in New Zealand that long. I just feel so trapped. I want to be part of academia but I feel that my topic is not something that people actually study in an academic fashion.

I just don't really know what to do. I feel lost. But at the same time, my research is really exciting me in a way that it hasn't for a few months. For a long time, I felt like I was waiting on other people to get things done so that I could do my work. Somebody needs to explain these feelings to me, because I really don't understand them.

Rain rain, go away!

2006-10-02T21:04:00.000+13:00

It's still raining. I can't handle this. My arid climate upbringing has not giving me the tools that I need to deal with days and days of rain.

On a slightly happier front, I have a presentation tomorrow for the Institute of Earth Science and Engineering (aka my funding). I'm a little nervous about the presentation, but not enough to get me to actually practice it. Maybe a good cup of tea or coffee will make me feel more motivated.

Scary Scary Lightning

2006-10-01T19:36:00.000+13:00

I though thunderstorms were impressive in Colorado. They're a lot scarier in New Zealand. I just had a bolt of lightning strike less than a mile away from me. I nearly jumped out of my dorm in one motion.

Kilt day

2006-09-30T19:44:00.000+12:00

So, I'm totally wearing my kilt today. Awesome-sauce!

I love internet quizes

2006-09-27T11:36:00.000+12:00

Cause how else would I know how geeky I am.

Your Geek Profile:

Gamer Geekiness: Highest
Music Geekiness: Highest
Academic Geekiness: High
Geekiness in Love: High
Internet Geekiness: High
Fashion Geekiness: Moderate
General Geekiness: Low
Movie Geekiness: Low
SciFi Geekiness: Low

How Geeky Are You?

Crazy Weekend

2006-09-27T10:57:00.000+12:00

I know its Wednesday, but I think I need to make my post about the weekend now. There was so much that its taken me all this time to process all of it. First off, Saturday night was International Night. Groups from most of the countries staying at the hostel gave some type of presentation or performance relating to their country. Unfortunately, the light wasn't good enough to get any pictures of the performers. I did get this interestingly moody shot though.

On Sunday night I met with one of the other people from the forums. We had some beer and pizza. Good times were had. Then we failed horribly at taking pictures of our selves. Here is an example.

Net Neutrality Debate

2006-09-22T11:56:00.000+12:00

Although nothing definite has happened yet in the Senate, it appears that those of us who like our internet are likely to lose. This article provides a wonderful example of how our representatives are being manipulated by lobbyists. You know, if we had an organization dedicated to providing the House and the Senate with scientific and technical information so they can form their own decisions on these topics, issues like this might not even come up. Oh wait, they shut that organization down.

Long story short, I feel that our politicians are going to ruin the internet without a full comprehension of what they are doing. I recommend that everyone please write to your Representative and Sentators. Let them know how you feel. I really don't want to have a stupid tiered pricing scheme where only the largest and most popular internet sites will be accessible at good speed. The internet has worked fine as is so far. By voting against these bills, congress can maintain this status quo.

A new obsession

2006-09-19T23:54:00.000+12:00

So, its come to my mind that a cool thing to own would be a replica of Haruko's bracelet from FLCL. The problem is that I cannot find any place that sells them, and I'm really not much of a crafty person. So, I'm left with the choice of haphazardly trying to assemble something myself, or commissioning are artsy person to do something for me. If anyone who reads this is interested in helping me, please drop me a note. I'm poor, but I ought to be able to pay at least for materials and shipping.

RSS feeds

2006-09-19T01:13:00.000+12:00

I've finally figured out RSS feeds. Happy day! Now I can keep better track of everyone else's blogs. This is a very good thing.

Escape Pod

2006-09-18T14:56:00.000+12:00

Escape pod is a great podcast recommended to me by a few of my other friends online. I've been a little behind in the listening though. Today, I listend to EP065. First of all, the story they have is great. But at the end of the cast, there is a reference to Penny Arcade. I'm still laughing.

And for those of you viewing this on Facebook, I recommend you check out the actual blog. Facebook does not seem to like bringing my embedded URL's when it imports, and I'm way to lazy to go through and fix everything. My blog site is forscience(dot)blogspot(dot)com. I'll also put up a link on my profile page.

Just found

2006-09-17T00:48:00.001+12:00

Saw this on dA. Looks pretty cool.

Serenity and Chaos

Deviant Art

2006-09-17T00:35:00.000+12:00

I've made myself a page at Deviant Art so that I can share my horrible drawing with people who might care. Check it out.

Makeshift Miracle

2006-09-13T22:42:00.000+12:00

I post on forums from time to time, and I recently encountered one our members noting that his comic was now available for free (before it had been pay only). I'd never taken a look at the graphic novella, but I'd seen the guys art style before, so I decided that it was worth a look. I was damn impressed. I recommend everyone to take a look at Makeshift Miracle. Good art, and a great story.