They Might Be Giants

Over the Thanksgiving break I found my They Might Be Giants cds...this is a band for those that don't know it from my youth. I was pretty pumped when I found them and had to show it to the one person I knew would share my enthusiasm...Rey. As a result the best song by them, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", got stuck in her head. She then wrote a post in which she states that no one at her work had heard of the song and actually thought she was making it up. Therefore, in order to better educate everyone I've posted two of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs.

"Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"




"Birdhouse in Your Soul"

Thanksgiving Break

Here is a quick overview of the time between my last post...
1) I finished up at the APS meeting by attempting to give Sherry's talk...it didn't go so well. I then snapped a quick picture of Ensign Peak from the convention center (see below) before hoping on a plane back to Michigan.

Ensign Peak that I climbed from the Salt Palace Convention Center

2) I had an awesome Thanksgiving day meal with a turkey that so good and some of the best stuffing I've ever had...good job mom. Plus I watched a lot of football...so a traditional Thanksgiving.
3) Got to play with Rey and Tom's dogs some. Plus Rhino left a nice puddle of pee for me to step in just before I left home...his way of saying goodbye.

Rhino wishing he could come into the living room and hangout

4) Helped gut my brother-in-law's buck...a first for me. Tom got a really nice 8-point buck on my dad's new property, which makes my dad Tom's corporate sponsor.

Tom and my dad (corporate sponsor) with the 8-point.

5) Went back to Ann Arbor to hangout with Demoree, since I've seen her for about an hour in the past week. We decided to get a Christmas tree for my apartment (I was pretty close to getting one last year and now with Demoree to help decorate it was a must).

Christmas tree and our stocking.

Demoree and I with my new Christmas tree, and it only took like 5 takes to get this picture.

Salt Lake City - Day 2

Day two highlights...
1) I gave both of my talks today at the conference and everything seemed to go pretty well. I was pleased that at the end of each talk there were plenty of questions (meaning at least some of the people aren't asleep) and when I was leaving the conference room a professor that I know from his research (he had no clue who I was before my talk) came up to me and was really excited about my work.
2) I was then pushed to give sushi a try by my advisor who loves it and claimed he could find something I would like...sure enough I did like what I had (Dem so I guess this means we can go have sushi some time...hmmm I wonder if I shouldn't have told you and then acted like I was just being really nice offering to go...I'm young and still have things to learn).
3) I then decided to go for a run so that I could check out some of the area and get some exercise at the same time. I immediately started heading for the mountains (well more like large hills compared to the rest of the surroundings). As a result my run quickly became a jog and then shortly after that a walk...steep climb, high elevation, hot day, and I'm not in that good of shape. However I just keep heading towards this one peak because it had something on top of it...then I decided to attempt to reach the top. The final way was pretty difficult for me since I was getting pretty tired and the climb was starting to get pretty steep. Then I finally hit the top and found out it was the location that Brigham Young first climbed to when arriving to survey the land. It also turns out that there is a trail that goes up the back side making it really easy to reach the top...I'm kind of glad I went up the steeper side. So I didn't have a camera so I couldn't take any pictures from Ensign Peak, but I did find a website linked them for you...

Little monument constructed to remember Brigham Young and others surveying the land

Wasatch Range...western edge of the Rocky Mountains

Salt Lake City downtown with the capital building at the bottom of the picture

The Great Salt Lake

4) I was asked this evening to give a talk tomorrow. While it is a good thing that I get more face time in front of the fluids community, I'm a little more concerned because the talk is in an area that I haven't personally done any research in...we'll see how that goes.

Salt Lake City – Day 1

I have now completed my first day in Salt Lake City for the Applied Physic Society 60th Annual Division of Fluid Dynamics Conference. Sounds like a blast I know, but honestly with the exception of the swirling tower of fire it hasn’t been anything special. Even though there isn’t that much to share and I should be working on my presentations (plural because I’m now giving two talks…one of which I was asked to make on the flight to Salt Lake City…fortunately I’m a good grad student and always have data that I wasn’t expected to have), I will give you a few highlights from my trip so far.

Hightlights…
1) A nice view of some mountains from my hotel room. I believe there are better views but need to get away from our location to see them...hopefully tomorrow.

View from my hotel room.

2) Salt Lake City is a very unique city and I think I can only express this with a few observations I’ve made.
i) Front page headline of the Salt Lake Tribune “Utah less Morman than ever”…down to 60.65% (that’s just Mormon not Christian).
ii) I walked past a bridal dress shop called “LatterBride”
iii) The city seems so ordered and disciplined…I can’t even bring myself to jay-walk here (seriously multiple times I’ve started and just didn’t feel it was right)
iv) Salt Lake Tribune…”More citizens [Utahns] pack heat in plain view”

3) Swirling Tower of Fire!!!
I'll give more details later and (assuming I can figure it out) video of this, but now I must get to work. Enjoy some photos of the swirling tower of fire.

Grad School or Farming?

I've often joked when asked what I want to do with my PhD once I get it that I'm trying to convince my dad that I'm qualified to be a farmer. Then today PhD comic gives an indication that graduate school and farming are not that dissimilar. I suppose it does make sense because they both require lots of hard work, long hours, and little pay.

A Gift from Myself

My friend Sara recently posted about how each year when its time to pull out the winter coat she finds little presents that she left for herself the year before. I basically do that but its more like I forget about it and look for it all year until I pull out my coat. So this past year I've been rather confident that someone stole my Gerber until today when I grabbed my coat and low and behold there it is...I was so excited. Down in Memphis I always called it "the wrong tool for every job", which it really is. Plus I found a dollar in the pocket...Bonus.

My Gerber!!!

Invisible Tanks

This is no joke...the Army says that by 2012 they will have combat tanks that are completely invisible. In reality they already have done it, but the system is not reliable enough for actual battle at this point. Last week there were some "secret" trials (I don't know how secret since I have heard this from a couple sources) at which an unidentified soldier was quoted as "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun." I've heard that the technology works by actually bending light away from the tank surface and then projecting images from behind the tank taken with cameras...well done Britain.

They only thing I'm not a fan of is that each article online that I've looked up about this makes their own photoshoped attempt at what it looks like with half the tank invisible...why make up the news?

But seriously invisible tanks are awesome...