An Invitation

So I'm tired of being warned when I get onto the blog. So now I'll invite you all to read our thoughts instead. You don't have to, but you are welcome to. Anyway. Today an F-18 crashed into some houses about 10 minutes away from where I work. Cool. N0t cool for the houses and families that suffered, but cool, a fighter jet crashed in the neighborhood. The pilot ejected and landed on a baseball field at a nearby high school. Cool.

A WARNING

I've tried very diplomatically to dance around the issues of this election year. Including B-Rock Obama, John McCain, Sarah Fey, and Joe "The Plumber" Biden, amongst other things like Prop 8, Prop 1a, 4, and the TON of other crap in SD. But it's over, and now the real fights begin.

So Let It Be Known:

This is MY BLOG, a place where Lish and I can post as we will, as such I'm gonna start flying the flag of Amendment 1. Yup, I claim freedom to worship how I will and freedom to publish what I will, you don't like it- leave!

I was once taught that freedom of speech is not so that you can say what you want, it's so that the other guy can say all the things that offend YOU. Part of the rules of the US is that we can and should say what is our opinion, who you listen to and what you do after is your own choice.

~Chris

Let the nastiness begin

So people are very upset that Prop 8 passed ( I intend to address this in more detail over the next few days) but more ironic is that now, while preaching equality they decide to become hostile...

A story in the LA Times shows that the LDS faith will become the main focus of hatred by those who oppose prop 8. Not the first time that people have decided that LDS people have too much ability to influence elections. Irony here is in the form that so many other churches, including the Catholic church supported prop 8, but hey why hate on them...

Whatever the end result I can tell you this. I am proud to be a member of the LDS church, I am proud of the fact that I supported prop 8, and if you honestly think that my freedom to choose my way is so reprehensible, and causes you so much disdain, than maybe you need to consider moving to a place where the public opinion doesn't matter. Cause last time I checked the public in CA twice has said that they don't feel that homosexual marriage should be legal. And that is enough for me.

~Chris

So there was a little electon yesterday...

As you may know I'm in the minority of all of my friends down here b/c A) I am republican and B) I support many of the moral propositions. Yes I know that there is a great argument as to what is moral and whatnot but I won't discuss that here. The great part about America is just that I don't have to agree with you. You don't have to agree with me...

That being said a good friend of mine had this on her blog and I couldn't help but laugh as I am a huge muppet fan:

One of those Weeks

You ever have one of those Mondays that you know is just setting you up for a seriously rough week- well mine started yesterday (that's right Sunday) and I don't think it's gonna let up till next week some time. Ouch, that's all I have to say is OUCH!

Chris

Sick of the Lies and the Hate

You know by now that CA is embroiled in this interesting Prop 8 scenario. What most of our friends else where don't know is how deceitful many of the tactics of explaining prop 8 are. I'm gonna take the time later to explain a bit of what I've noticed but in the mean time, I found these two videos on You Tube that I thought were great examples of the dangers to the future generations and their understanding of the great institution of marriage if prop 8 fails.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkv6miGIcTU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLGn_F1uTEo

Chris

Sweet - that's all I can say

I need to say thanks to Natalie Kardos for the link:

I Want THAT!

A real interesting read

A friend of ours is keeping a very interesting blog here. I have been meaning to post some interesting stuff I"ve learned about prop 8 but in the mean time... enjoy this read.

YES on 8

I support prop 8 for many reasons, the main one being that I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. There are other substantial reasons, to see some of them try the following links:
http://preservingmarriage.org
http://protectmarriage.com

Bullet dodged

So I didn't get picked for jury duty. In fact, I didn't even get to go to a courtroom. Instead, I had to sit in the jury lounge room till almost 3:00 PM. I would have rather been at work. So boring. Oh well, I'm off the hook for at least 19 more months (if you're unsure how tha works, I'll be happy to provide you with insight).
Chris

Post-lunch...

Time for a new game to pass the day. We're gonna play "fat guy, head nod" rules are very simple look at the 350 lb fat guy and watch him get the head nods (you know cause we all want to be asleep). Then count how many violent nod/jerk awakes he has in 2 minutes. Then guess will it be more or less in the next 2 minutes. Give it a try and post your results in the comments section.

Bored stupid

Yeah so here I sit they've still only called 1 group away and lunch is setting in, worse yet is that I may have to sit around here after lunch too. I just don't want to be here- its a sad situation as to how slow they are and how sparse they are with information. A simple go home would be nice.

Jury duty - the waiting game

Now is the most brutal part I've been waiting for over an hour. They've called out 1 group of like 60 people and that's it! Seriously!?! Excuse me, I have better things to do, may I be excused? Great, thanks, see you later.
If only...

Side note

The old guy has a great halting speech that invokes William Shatner only 20 years older. I want him to say, "my jurors, my little jurors." maybe I can get him to do my voicemail a la "wait wait, don't tell me." oh here's the other jury story he tells... Sweet I'm 2 for 2!

Jury duty pt. 2

So a couple years ago when I got called to jury duty there was this old judge whose job it was to tell is how privelaged we are to serve. So ithought by now he might have died (lish had confirmed in feb that he was still around). Turns out nope he's still around even now- cause guess what, he's currently telling me the exact same story that I'm pretty sure he told me 3 years ago. But that being said they have a new movie that they show at the start, too bad they don't serve popcorn...

Jury duty

So here I am stuck at the "Hall of Justices" hoping that its not my turn to do my civic duty. Yup that's right I have to report to jury duty. So my plan for the day is to keep you posted as I endure through what I hope you will be a short day.

Published

About time! So I finally got my manuscript finished, organized, pushed through the correct number of hoops, and so now I submitted it to publication- only thing left is to wait for reviewers to tell me what to fix... in the mean time- even better news is that I got published today!!! Yup different manuscript I was only a co-author on this one, but still I got published! Feels nice to finally see some fruits to my labors. October could be a good month...

~Chris

September already?!?!?!

Okay, beside the fact that I'm tired of looking at me and zucchini, I'm going to update the blog. I'm not sure where the summer went, but when my birthday flew by, I knew I'd missed it. But hey give me credit, it's hard to tell it's summer in San Diego. When it never really gets above 80 for more than a couple days, it's easy to miss. But alas, summer is gone. Looking back, we did quite a bit, but mostly just worked. A lot. We spent the early part of the summer with me being stressed about my job, then that subsided for a while. Then we went on the pioneer trek, the best and worst experience I've had in a long time, but would definitely do again. (just imagine...three tour busses filled with teenagers for a week...) Then we came back and worked. Chris finally had some big success at work, finishing off one of his specific aims for his thesis. I then started being stressed about work as I applied for and prepared to interview for the job I'm already doing. (One of the benefits of working at a university and being union) After having my interview postponed 5 times, I've finally interviewed and I just have to wait for them to decide whether I got the job or the other person they interviewed. As the HR lady said, "we have to do a competitive interview process, and you can't compete against yourself." How does she know, anyway? Hopefully I'll have good news soon...

And zucchini steaks for all...

So Alicia and I are vegetable lovers. Love to eat them, prepare them, even the smell of steamed vegetables is good to me. So that being said even I have a finite limit to my love of all things green. So when our friends Kate and Jeff offered us a zucchini out of their garden we immediately said yes. Unbeknown to us was the sheer volume of said zucchini. It was so big that we didn't even know what to do with it- so to bread it went, with some other assortments being made before having to chuck some. Fine, dandy, life goes on. Then after the trek we got another one- cool I could go for some veggies. Problem was, three days later Kate offloaded another half a zucc on me. So what you might ask? Well see it's not the number it's the size!
Below is a single section of one of the zucc steaks that I had to cut so that we could do stuff with them.









Needless to say they're HUGE! Yeah that 1st picture, that's a US quarter next to it.
So we made some lasagna featuring zucc, and then w still had ~10 cups of zucc left so we shredded it. Who knows what we'll make with it next!
Oh and btw- we still have a whole zucc left to deal with.

~Chris

Below are some pics of Lish prepping the zucc.

Rockin' it up in the coffee shop

Just like a Friends episode gone awry, I find myself hanging out at the coffee shop listening to one of my friends play away on the impromptu stage.
Always a good way to pass the time on a Friday night. It works out for the better because then I can get to sleep for Saturday morning surf club! Ahh, the life of a bored couple that doesn't get much sleep anymore.

Plans...rethunk

So I always thought it might be fun to have twins one day. Then I taught 4 year olds. I could handle 12 at once, twins would be easy. Then I taught 2 year olds. Again, 2 at once, no problem. Then I went on the trek. No more twins. I just don't think I would make it through the teenage years. Heck, 1 at a time might be pushing it. Oh, and kudos to all those who have survived parenting teenagers (and mom and dad, you'll never know how easy you had it).

The sweetness of Barstow, CA

So its 11 pm and we just drove past the linwood exit. Hmm never has barstool looked so good as when they said 2.5 hours to San Diego

Lost? Wish I could lose a kid or two

So here we are finally headed home from our trek we have had a good time mixed with all sorts of craziness - some of which I would never believe had I not been there myself. So the plan right now is survive the 12 hour ride home and then over the next week we'll post up the whole thing along with some sweet pics

Congrats to Danny and Darcie!

So I'm a little slow, but I wanted to just say congratulations to my brother and his wife, who just had their second baby last Friday. Here is a picture of Darcie, Mary and Derrick.

Live Blogging a Lab Meeting- Take II

So this time I'm going to live blog one of the other researchers in the lab- a lady by the name of Rouhi.

8:30 - She balks at the absence of people so she says we will wait.
8:39 - She complains that there are not enough people but we start anyway.
8:40 - She has a diagram of a standard cell with a partial outline of the Cu transport pathway. She is attempting to explain the pathway.
8:42 - An all too familiar picture of ATP7B is shown - she is talking about the domains. Certain "key" residues are pointed out.
8:46 - Discussion of xenografts
8:47 - Now she's talking about her published papers - is this gonna be all her talking about what she's done? Hmm seems like she may be taking advantage of the fact that Steve's not around.
8:48 - ATPase activity is pH dependent. Hmm.
8:49 - Dr. X is questioning how she characterized certain aspects of the paper- she gives an unclear answer. He pursues and she kinda dances around it- he gives up and lets her go on.
8:50 - Km and Vmax is discussed (I for one don't buy it, but I'm too busy typing to interfere)
8:51 - She's talking about an ex-coworker that tried to do molecular weight shift assays. She is very fast to criticize all those she had working under her, and fast to mumble defense of her work.
8:55 - She shows some kinetics that suggest that maybe it moves DDP- seems very unclear and non-specific
8:57 - She refers to Brian and his clones. Says that they've just been following what he did.
8:58 - Talks about the pMal-ATP7B complxex and how she has helped him purify it.
8:58 - NMR (only need 5 mg of protein- is that all- only takes 5 L of media! Oh yeah, and like a month of non-stop work)
9:01 - She's now showing Mohammed's work and all the gels that he ran. I decide to ask about what appears to be a weight shift- I am told that even though it's higher it's not anything. Hmm...
9:03 - She is asked about cross-linking and non-specific by Dr. X. Again she says well that isn't a problem.
9:05 - She has the NMR data up and is fumbling through what she obviously doesn't know.
9:08 - She has a figure out of a new paper and is unsure what it is but is trying to say that it shows that the 7B is rigid with Cu and 7A is not. She says that she hasn't read the paper but this is what it tells s (don't ask how she knows that).
9:10- Cu and DDP bind similarly to 7B. She is telling us where she's headed next.

And that's it another shorty- man I love these (esp. since the last one was almost an hour and a half).

Live blogging a lab meeting

So I thought I'd give a few people an idea of what I do every Thursday. I decided to live blog a lab meeting.

8:35 - We arrive in room, there are a noticeable amount of seats missing
8:37 - Projector turns on, we wait
8:39 - Brian introduces the topic, DMT1
8:40 - Figure #2 comes up first, he explains that the order is to help us understand, not necessarily exactly how they were published
8:41 - DMT1 seems to control Cu (I) and Fe (II) transport
8:42 - Figure #3. Ascorbate controls the uptake of Cu AND Fe (III)
8:43 - The "more important" figures - figure #4 - As you treat with more Fe you actually decrease the amount of Fe being taken up over 60 mins, same thing with Cu
8:44 - "The money shot." Using Antisense to DMT1, to decrease DMT1 presence, you get a decrease in not only Fe, but also in Cu.
8:45 - Brian pines for a marker (oops, I forgot to grab those). He starts to explain that DMT1 may be another player in not only Cu but also in moving DDP (we know there are other transporters b/c CTR1 -/- still move DDP). Seems that DMT1 is expressed on the cell surface and also in the exosomes.
8:46 - There may be competition between CTR2 and DMT1 in the fight to accumulate DDP and Cu. First plan of attack is to run and SRB or two to get a baseline to see if there is increased accumulation. Then maybe do some uptake studies.
8:47 - That's it! Wow that was SHORT! Nice job, Brian.


**Note this happened on the 17th of June- I just finally got it posted.

Stuck on a bus - part 1

So, awhile back Lish and I decided to both start taking the UCSD free shuttle they offer from the Hillcrest hospital up to the main campus (La Jolla)(I alone used to ride the shuttle and Lish drove), and usually we have good luck with the occasional problem of a stupid driver. Problem is the new batch of drivers just started for the year... Survey says: they suck! We have more break downs and missed buses as a result of the change than I can even begin to describe. The major offender is evidenced in the title of this blog. Yup 7 am and I'm on the side of the 5 north waiting to be picked up. Ain't nothing better! In fact I'm not sure there exists a better way to start your day. It is the ultimate commuter wake up. So I guess the question is why do voluntarily we keep taking the shuttle? Well see its free, and that means all the more money for investing and less wear and tear on Blue Steel. But the trade off is that for every 50 good rides you get an average of 1 bad one. So that brings is back full circle to the title: stuck on the bus. Really I don't think I'd mind if the driver was cool about it-but he's not. In fact quite the opposite from the way he's going on you'd think it was OUR FAULT his bus broke down.
This brings me to the other point I ran to get on the bus this morning- no not because I was late but because he left 5 minutes early (verified by people I know that missed said bus). Worse: I ended up running, having to stand on the bus, and then in the end I still had to get picked up by the bus I could have been sitting on peacefully had I not been in such a hurry to get to work! WHY OH WHY do you leave early (not even consistently early where I can count on it)!?!
Anyway- moral of the story is this: I'm stuck on the bus AND to top it off in 2 weeks I'll be stuck again (only this time it's 30 hours not 30 minutes)!
Chris

A whole new blogging frontier

Why on earth would I want to do this? What on Earth is THIS!?! This my friends is one more effort to really try to be a better blogger, this is mobile blog. Yeah so I've known about this for over a year but have never used it- guess I'll try it. After all, I have about an hour an change every day on the bus - rather than just read I guess I could take the time to post up a few blogs. We'll see!

Neglect, Self-Respect, and a second thought on Wall-E

Yes we're neglectful- there's a reason we don't have kids- mostly I would probably be the dad that forgot to pick the kids up or drop the kids off, or some random combination thereof- heck if I can't keep up with a blog how can I keep up with other things that don't just live at a certain URL. That aside, I feel like I want to address Wall-E first. See I finally put my finger on it: They just kinda took half a movie and stretched it out to let us believe they had a whole story. Now I know there are a lot of people who are all up in arms about the fact that it seems to be making this large statement about enviromentalism/capitalism/Americanism- my thoughts- fine, whatever, I don't care if you have an agenda to push- by all means push it- just don't forget to entertain me while you're doing it. That's just it- the story took the super easy way out. They didn't bother filling in plot holes, they didn't explain many of the aspects that we see, heck they even contradict themsleves during the movie! That's the reason I feel cheated. Yeah, the funny part is that this movie was conceived years ago (same time Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and several others were discussed) so do I feel that they were setting out to make a social commentary? No. Am I bothered by the political issues presented? No. The opinion of one group is just that, the opinion of them. To be upset by it would be to contradict everything that I have been taught at home, and in the church. I'm sure many who read this blog agree with what they present, and I am not an anti-enviromentalist by any stretch of the imagination (sorry to break it you but I also don't think that pollution is gonna end the world- maybe spiritual pollution but that's a whole other ball of wax); no, I'm bothered because they just didn't bother to develop a complete story, instead they kinda take the easy way out, and then just end the movie. Ehhh. Not on the same scale as something as great as Toy Story or, for me especially, The Incredibles. I feel that maybe there's a reason this was the last of those movies discussed at that fateful luncheon to be developed- maybe they just didn't have the complete story, and knowing how good they are (were?) they figured, "Hey, we can still do this!" Maybe I'm wrong- I hope I'm not- because I would hate to see the end of the Pixar reign of nothing but quality come to a close. But see here's the thing: Alicia and I saw the first standees and teasers for this a year or two ago at Disneyland and even then I was apprehensive, as was she. Seems my spidey sense for movies hasn't completely left me after 9 years of being movie theater-free. I'm also optimistic because of the short at the beginning- in my honset opinion it was THE BEST short Pixar has ever done. It felt complete, like a whole story, and not just a single joke or a tech demo. So maybe that is a sign of good things still to come. I sure hope so.
Wow- that took a lot longer than it should have. So on a different front... we're hoping to have some pictures posted in the next few days of random San Diego, so that'll be nice I suppose.
I've been surfing a lot- I plan on doing a post on that in the near future about new additions/subtractions from the surf catalog. Until then...

Chris

Movie Madness

So we haven't been to the movie theater since the third Pirates movie came out. This week we went twice. And remembered why we don't go to the theater. A)Chris managed a theater and notices every flaw in both the theater and the movie. B)Movies are super expensive. C) The biggest reason of all- Movies generally are not that great.
This week we saw The Hulk, which wasn't a bad movie, but not worth $25 to see. It didn't help that it was out of focus the entire movie either. But it was fun because we went with some friends, but I can watch a movie with friends at home, and on Blu-Ray so its never out of focus unless it should be. Saturday we went and saw Wall-E, the new Pixar movie. How can you go wrong with a studio that has a pretty much flawless record? That's what we thought. But I was really disappointed. Not to say that the movie wasn't good, but it didn't live up to Pixar standards. The animation was awesome, don't get me wrong. But I feel like Pixar stopped short of what the movie could be. I loved the robot parts, they were funny and very entertaining. I would still recommend seeing it for sure, but don't get your hopes too high.

Weight loss...

So it's been a good week. A really good week. Since April my assignment at work was to change my classroom so that it would pass the state re-inspection. Unfortunately, changing my classroom did not involve much, only changing the attitudes and habits of my fellow teachers. Needless to say, it was somewhat stressful. And some of you may know that I don't necessarily do well with a lot of stress. Thank goodness that Chris is so patient. Anyway the state inspector came back for his re-inspection this last Tuesday. And the final verdict? We passed. Hooray! The best weight loss program ever. I haven't felt lighter in a long time. Anyway that's my big news. Now I get to apply and interview for the job that I've been doing for the last 3 months and get my classroom ready for re-accreditation. Sounds like fun.

alphaBETA

So I got an invite to a very exciting Beta to a game I am not officially allowed to mention but is of the same family as R6. I'm very excited as I always love being in betas, but more importantly I LOVE TC games. I'll be sure to post some generic notes about the game- we'll call it something entirely different... sorry I have to be semi-mysterious- I had to sign an NDA (yeah already, I know!). I'll, umm, communicate more as I get to start. I don't even get the game till the 15th, but still...guess I know what I'll be doing that week.
-Chris

And the mystery visitor of two weeks ago is...

Nick the Alfajor! Congrats to Nick on winning our lovely prize of a 10 days/11 nights trip to San Diego. Where he enjoyed sun, surf, sand, mexican food, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007, lots of time doing nothing, and of course lovely Knotts Berry Farm (home of the world famous Boomerang and The Jaguar). For more details on the exciting trip stay tuned as we recap the highs and lows of Nick, the now graduated from High School, Waite's visit to see his favorite sister and brother-in-law.
-Chris

Why I hate the Nintendo DS

So the irony of this post is that I don't really hate the DS- per se. (I'm not even allowed to hate the DS b/c A) I play games on Alicia's sometimes and B) Oh yeah, I bought Alicia's for her for her birthday)What I hate is what it's doing to certain video games... allow me to explain: See I'm not the guy who thinks that if it's not "HardCore," it's crap. That's not me at all. In fact some of my favorite games are deffinetly not hardcore, but see this is where I have a problem. The following is a quote from Ubisoft UK managing director Rob Cooper:
"Sony needs to show us a bit more about what its plans are to convince the publisher to invest lots more money into it. Especially when you've got the DS selling at such a tremendous pace.

"I suppose it's almost too technical for the casual person, those that are buying the DS at the moment, who want a few buttons and not a lot more. It's so simple what [Nintendo] has done. That's where I think Sony has gone a little bit too complicated, they've over-specced it, the price is too high and they need to go back to the drawing board and start again," he added. (From Gameindustry.biz)

See my problem is this- I don't want less buttons. I don't care! I can handle the fact that my current controllers have...(let's see... 1,2,3,4,5...13 plus 3 joysticks)13 plus 3 directional pads of some sort. Heck, I play PC games they have...(let's see...1,2,3,4...100+) something like 104 or so keys- WHY do I need less!?! Furthermore, I love my PSP- part of the reason I own it is b/c it is technologically superior, heck I can use it to wacth a Movie, and TV show, play several games, and listen to music, all with out having to carry anything more than the PSP itself (yes I can do all of those off a single Memory stick that I load into the side of it, no movies, no game discs, nothing but the PSP alone). Most of the reason we bought our PS3 was b/c the Blu-Ray looks so nice on our TV, heck the Wii didn't even offer the ability to listen to a CD or DVD on it. So what this guy is saying is that the rest of the industry should do just like Nintendo did with both the DS and the Wii (like I said here's the irony, cause you guessed it- we own a Wii too) but what if we don't always want the kind of garbage that is put out on the Wii and DS (Case in point: Petz series from the fool who opined this to begin with- I'd like to add that I think it is a travesty that we are teaching an entire generation of kidz that it's OK to spell using Z as the letter to indicate plurality... oh yeah and that whole Dogz Fashion...ughhh shoot me now!). So where am I going with this? Easy.

While I don't mind the collection of games that inhabit the Wii and DS and I really like the idea that more people are "in to" games and all things that go along with video games, I really wish that certain publishers would stop saying that we are all the same and that the games that might appeal to my niece, Madison, or to my parents (proud Wii owners, I might add), should be the games that I want to own. Cause so help me if all I can buy 2 years from now is Petz and stinking Raving Rabbids I'm gonna sell all my video games and take up a new hobby like cross-stitching.

I have my own abilities and sometimes I like the complex and harder games, sometimes I like technology that is forward thinking not just two palm pilots merged together. Ah well what a world we live in when the white boy in SoCal has to cry out that he too is an individual and can think and act apart from everyone around him.

-Chriz

Famous, almost

This is just a realy funny side story. For those of you who may have hoped that I had grown up (read matured) and mellowed out after serving some time in the bishopric- lemme direct you to the following interaction I recently had with a friend of ours.

I am so funny

-Chris

Fired!

Yup I might as well be because I apparently have no time to blog (I'm thinking of a good reason why Lish can't- I'll let you know when it hits me). In the mean time you should know that I have started on 3 posts only to have the thought train either A) Leave the station without me or B) Derail mid-post. Kinda sucks. So a quick catch up on all the ongoings: In the last 2 weeks I have: WORKED, worked, worked oh yeah and had to go into work once or twice. Lots of church (as usual) and then there was the random visitor. I'll have to let you know more about him in a future post. But in the mean time... oh yeah, played some video games (not too much believe it or not), went to Knotts Berry Farm- flashback to 20 years ago, got beat up something fierce at KBF, stupid Boomerang, surfed a couple times, been informed of the dangers of crabs (don't ask you don't want to know), hung out with friends, BBQ'd, took care of some shopping, including the addition of 15 or so 12-packs of the new dew flavors, and even got in a baseball game. Most of said activities were directly or indirectly a result of the visitor.
Well I gotta run- I'll convince Lish to post later or something.
-Chris

Back in the Game

So aside from the lack of posts for awhile (funny thing is I have 3 incomplete posts just chillin') I decided to scratch down the happenings. I'm back in the game. What does that mean? Well see when I moved to SD I decided that I wanted to surf, no matter what. It happened, fairly quickly I might add. I bought a board within weeks and I was out within days and riding. Problem was I bought a damaged board. I know, I know, how bad? Well I thought I got it fixed with some Solar Resin- turns out there was more damage than I knew about. So I rode the pants off the board for about a year and change, then it happened- the bulge. See overtime you get seawater into the foam and it expands. So I had to bow out, sure I rode a couple more times, and it was all good, but in the end... yeah I had to stop riding. Then there was the whole getting boards to the beach, etc. that I just didn't have time to do, esp since I'd use the cherokee to transport, and it was a nightmare sometimes. So then we bought Blue Steel and found that we could get a Thule Roof rack through Chev for CHEAP. So we bought. And then I used some savings and a 20% off and got a surf rack- mind you this is the best rack I could envision: ease of use, secure, fast. It's sweet. So now the issue is no longer transport it's boards. So I took up my friend Natalie on her offer to buy her board. Now those of you who know me well know that I have a scar in between my eyes from a surfing accident- yeah well guess I bought the board that gave that too me. Figure it's part of me, and I it. So I ran it down to Joe Roper's and am having the nose fixed up on it some. Oh yeah, and we decided to utilize Costco's sweet softy sale. Got an 8' softy for next to nothing. So we now have 2 boards AND a way to get to the beach. So I guess it's not just me in the game, time to haul Lish out again. Plus, on the bonus side, Jeff has convinced me to go out some Sat mornings with them... we'll see how I do. Anywho, I'm back and ready to ride with all my free time, er something like that.

The Proof is in the Pudding, Pt. II

So you know I don't think I could have asked for more cooperation to drive home my whole UCSD vs. SDSU than the last week has provided me. First of all was the Taekwondo story (here) and now there is THIS! Now this thing is so big that I know people back East that heard about it. We're talkin' CNN AND Fox News big. You know drugs are really, really bad, but drugs mixed with weapons and lots of cash- yeah now you're just plain out of control. It's times like this that I want to make sure I distance myself from SDSU even more. Btw- as a corollary to what I started out talking about which was sports teams don't help you have a better school always... read THIS. That's right another reason that I wish people would just forget that SDSU is even part of San Diego. Now just in case there's any questions
A) I do NOT go to SDSU
B) I do NOT do crack
C) I do NOT involve myself in any way with ANY SDSU sports team.

The funniest part to all this is how I was decried by people I know when earlier this year Alicia and I posted about Foreign Frat Parties with Guns, turns out that we had it all wrong. Not only do frat boys have guns in the army but they apparently LEARN how to have such ragin' parties at home when they go to school at SDSU. Yup, so you have Local Frat Parties with Guns! Good thing that whole frat boy stereotype is so off-basis, huh!?!
-Chris

Resistance is Futile, OR My Gas is More Expensive the Your Gas

I have been holding out. Fighting, if you will. And I dodged the bullet one more time, but I don't know how much longer I can take it. I may have to do the unthinkable and put in $4/gal gas pretty soon. Currently the average in SD is something like $3.98. Too bad only Costco hits below that #. Seems that every where I look it's $4.03 or more. But I found a sweet little oasis of $3.95 where I barely could bring myself to put in 3 gallons- I did it mostly cause I needed to wash the windows and that was best way to do it. Good thing I did, cause it rained today- I didn't even have to wash the whole car just the windows and POOF! rain. I'm good. Now I just wish I could get the same kind of results with my science.

The Proof is in the Pudding

So in following with my post earlier today about success. I got on the bus this afternoon and lo and behold the headline of the school newspaper read, "Top Taekwondo Teams Can't Bully UCSD at Nationals." Yup seems UCSD is a national powerhouse in individual AND team taekwondo - GO TRITONS (yes that really is our mascot)!
Now if only i can convince them that we need a science decathlon...
-Chris

Raise in Rent

So when I always pay rent, the first thing I think is how I could be owning a house in UT or ID right about now. So imagine how much worse it was when we got the official news that our rent would be going up again, not too much mind you, but still that's a few hundred more a year. However, it all seems to even out. How you ask? Easy. I got a call from Michelle (my sister) it was currently snowing at their house in UT. Meanwhile I was down in La Jolla enjoying SUN and about 68, with a slight breeze, just enough to keep it enjoyable.
Well when you put it that way...
Maybe I will just shut up about the rent.
-Chris

The Measure of Success

A funny thing happened to me today while I was looking at my e-mail. I realized that success is such a subjective thing. Now I know what you're thinking- Well, DUH! But I mean it is something that is REALLY only in the eye of the beholder. The perfect example comes from me moving to San Diego. Whenever I told people in Utah that I was going to UC San Diego they immediately said, "Oh yeah, San Diego State, I had a nephew who went there." (mind you this nephew was legally stupid as a rock) And I would try to help them understand that UCSD is NOT SDSU (I know that dang trickery of including San Diego in the name of two universities within the same city). See here's the thing SDSU is ummm great as a... place to go get edumacated but the truth is it is part of the notoriously under-performing Cal State school system. They're good, but it's like a half scoop of vanilla ice cream- yeah it gets the job done, but really? Whereas UCSD is part of the better-performing UC system, which at least means A) We're bigger and B) We have more money- plus it means professors actually want to teach here. Now there are other major differences- UCSD is in La Jolla, at the beach; SDSU is in La Mesa, near... lots of poor Mexicans? But that aside- why is that no one has ever heard of UCSD or seems to think anything of it? Because according to how they measure success UCSD is a failure. See most people think of universities and immediately think, " When was the last time I heard that name in an athletic event?" And this is where UCSD REALLY fails. See UCSD has several national champion teams, as well as many top 25 teams (something like 10 or so), trick is there all in rich SoCal sports. I mean a national championship in Ultimate Frisbee is really cool, but who follows it? How bout our top 5 mens AND womens POLO teams? yeah thought so- hey we also are top 5 WATER POLO. Oh yeah, and lest we forget that we a have a national individual champion going to our school, for fencing (the sport NOT the selling of hot goods). And the list goes on - Nat'l Champ Surf Team and Individual, equestrian top 25... you get the idea. But see that means nothing because we don't belong in the Big Ten in football, or belong to the ACC in basketball. So then the next question is this: How does your team's performance help you get a better degree? Well Iguess there's the money that comes in- money is always good- but see UCSD received the most research dollars of ANY public institution last year, oh yeah and we're a top school in science both training and research (we're always top 3 usually #1). See for me as a scientist I think that THIS is success. Too bad some people in my own family still don't know where I go to school...
Yes I know this seems to come across as me bragging and making myself better, and in a lot of ways it is. But it is also this moment that I realized that when I chose UCSD I had already started to realize the real success lies in where can I get the best PhD, not where can I catch the best game. Now don't get me wrong, I think sports are great, heck I would have been one of the first to buy tickets to games had I gone to Wisconsin, but I don't regret choosing school first.
-Chris

I'm so much Hotter than YOU!

Yes you heard it here first- I'm hotter than alls ya alls. Course the only way to measure accurately is to use a dosemetry badge and ring. Which according to mine is hotter than anyone else I know. That's the perks from doing 5 radioactive experiments in the last month or so. You know (well actually you don't otherwise this conversation wouldn't be happening), I don't like radioactive stuff. I play with really nasty stuff too. Today, again, for the fourth time, in about 6 weeks, I used 64Cu, which is really hot copper. So hot it was at 21 mCi when it shipped- creepier still- it was only 1 ul that they sent me. HOT!!! To put this in perspective: I was exposed to the equivalent of 6 or so hours of continuous MRIs (you know the medical imaging technique). Yeah kinda bad. Good thing I use a LEAD VEST of DEATH, 100's of pounds of lead blocks, lots of plexiglass (the 1/2" stuff nonetheless) and of course my safety goggles. So NO, I'm not going to be glowing just yet- but let me tell you what a pain this is to use this kind of precautionary equipment. First of all- I have to wear PANTS and SHOES- yes, I know, I work in a lab, but see it's in San Diego... look even PIs here wear flip-flops to lab (and yes shorts too). Then I have to wear a lab coat ALL DAY. Oh yeah and then double glove & the whole 25lb lead apron dragging you down. Then you have to work around these stacks of lead and plexi- all while listening to a Geiger counter go non-stop. Now do for 8 hours or so- rushing b/c the half-life of this stuff is 12 hours so no time to waste- except you spill a drop and it may take you 2 hours to clean it up so be VERY careful, very FAST, all in lead.
On an ironic side note that super hot Cu that I receive comes overnight via FedEx- best part according to the manifest, it is safe to be carried on passenger planes. Hmm, makes you wonder what your luggage is really sitting next to in the belly of that plane, huh?
Now everyone has a wonderful insight into why I can't stand radioactive days. But hey, all in the name of science.
-Chris

Back in the Saddle Again

Yup, finally found a few spare minutes in which I didn't want to just lie in front of the TV or on the bed. So a quick catch up on all that's been going on. Well, Lish is in full swing with her "new" work- for those who haven't talked physically with us you may not know that for the time being Alicia is serving as the interim Lead teach at work. That's the "good" part. The bad part is that they got to this point b/c things were so far down the tubes that the other lead lead them to fail their recent evaluation from some state honcho. So they have asked Alicia to please serve as a temporary lead in an effort to steer the ship that is their class from the rocks of absolute failure. So for the last few weeks Alicia has been serving as the lead for her class, far more stress than she had hoped, but that being said everyone who comes in says how much better the class is since she took over. So... in true Alicia fashion she is doing awesome and will lead the class forward towards a passing score.
Now for me, hmmm what to say? I've been working like a dog in an effort to get some serious data so that I can get another paper out. I'm getting mixed results some good, some bad, and quite a few - huh? Yup I don't even pretend to know the answers to some of what I'm seeing. I am however getting sick of all my radioactivity work. If it's not [Cu64] it's [C14]. Which by consolation will allow me to really screw with any isoradioanthropochronologist b/c he'll never be able to carbon date me. So anywho, yeah lots and lots of work. Which leads me to my rant (didn't think I'd post without one did you?). I'm really frustrated with the narrow-mindedness of people. I wish that people, random ones from Church and family members alike, would learn how real PhD programs work (real vs PhD lite (Lite= something like a PhD in PoliSci or English)). Why do I wish they'd learn? Cause I'm sick of having to explain the non-answer to the question: So, how much longer? I don't know. How much longer you gonna live? Don't know? Why not? Same reason for why I don't know how much longer I'm gonna be. Now that isn't saying I'm not gonna get it till I die. It's just that there are a LOT of factors. It's not like I just have to take some classes and write a paper or two (that would be a PhD lite) I have to do ground breaking research and LOTS of it. And in case you failed your science classes, research doesn't always work. So how than in the cosmos am I supposed to know what will and won't work? If I knew I wouldn't be doing research would I? So then the question is how much more research? Well exactly twice as much as it is half. I don't know- I'm hoping year or so more. Reality says whenever I have made my contribution to science.
Well I'm done.
Good to be posting again. Maybe, I'll try again tomorrow.

AVA Review- A collection of 2nd timers

Yeah I know, I said 4 weeks ago I'd talk about the show. Eh, you get what you pay for (that's right cheap-skates!). So the deal is, for those of you who don't know, AVA is the abbreviation for Angels and Airwaves which is a band featuring the singer/guitarist of the now-defunct Blink 182, Tom DeLong, along with guitarist David Kennedy (Boxcar Racer, Hazen Street), drummer Atom Willard (the Offspring, Rocket from the Crypt), and bassist Ryan Sinn (the Distillers). So Tom, an SD native, got some of his friends together and created a band whose main aim is Emotional Rock, AKA ambient rock, or in otherwords, sensory based rock. It is a type of music that has more invested energy than your typical generic rock. The songs have meaning and often times convey real feelings or sensory of more than just auditory value. What does all this mean? Well it sounds kinda strange to hear it described, but if you listen it kinda invokes this idea that you should be hearing it as a soundtrack to a rock opera, or in some huge stadium. Often times the band cites 80's U2, Springsteen, The Police, Pink Floyd, etc. as influence for how to construct the album. Anywho, it's good post-punk music that shows a very emotional side of Tom and co.
Alicia is a big fan of their stuff, as am I, so that should tell you something. With two albums out they aren't exactly huge, but certainly not small time either.
The show/experience went down at SOMA- which is in its third iteration. The venue, having been there a few times now, is very much what you would expect to find in the mid-90's SoCal punk scene. Dark, concrete, no seats, smallish stage, enclosed, and above it all- in a strip mall next to the Sports Arena (a huge Delta Center-esque venue).
The opening acts were a mixed bag. Some bands that I could have passed on and one that was a new found goodness. "Ace Enders and a Million Different People," is a band consisting of a collection of distinct people all supporting the main singer/songwriter/guitarist- who ironically enough is called... Ace Enders. You may know him best as half of the songwriting/singing effort that fronted the now defunct band "The Early November." Good stuff, slightly more chill than emo and yet more demanding than elevator music. It had a nice sound, so good, in fact, that we picked up the album while we were there (hard to say no to a CD and T-shirt for $15). The next opening band was a group called, "The Color Fred." Featuring, (you guessed it) ex-band, "Taking Back Sunday,"'s guitarist. Ehh, folksy rock, eh. Last up was a group that I had seen several times before (couldn't place where until they said where they're from), "Meg and Dia," straight out of SLC. Well technically I think it's Draper. Anyway, whiny, ehh, so-so, could have left them too.
But then the moment finally came, the main event. Angels and Airwaves. A small stage, three flags at an angle, nothing much to it. Oh yeah and after it started LOTS OF LIGHTS AND SOUND. They were LOUD, and if I even thought I had epilepsy I would have gone into seizures like mad. Holy spinning lights, Batman.
Yeah the band played for about an hour and a half straight. It was good. Playing almost every song off both albums. They did a nice little 3 song encore just to show they could. It was a strange feeling. You could tell they enjoyed being home. But yet it felt like they were trying so hard. Maybe, because they had family and friends in the crowd they had to push harder.
So survey says: 7.5/10
Would I go again? Yes, in a heartbeat. Would I pay $50 to go? Nope. Would I recommend them to anyone? If you liked Blink, especially songs such as Adam's Song, Stay Together for the Kids, or Anthem, or if you liked the album Boxcar Racer you'll enjoy this. If not, well this isn't gonna change a whole lot of opinions. Yes there is more to them than just punk, but the root of it all is that SoCal angst.

BTW- Irony is that 3 of the 4 bands that played were all made up of defunct bands. So Alicia and I were commenting that this should be called the "Comeback Tour." I'm thinking more along the lines of, "Yet Again," or, "One More Chance Tour."

Wacky Wednesday!

For those of you who may not know...I spend 8 hours 5 days a week with around 23 two year olds. And although they keep me laughing most of the time, there are days (few and far between) when I wonder if I've chosen the right career. Today was one of those days. This morning was a complete disaster. No matter what I tried (or anyone else for that matter) they (the kids) insisted on running and screaming and generally ignoring anything and everything. So after nap and snack, when 10 or so of these little 'friends' (I use the term loosely at this point) decided that drums, pianos, and tambourines would be fun, I didn't figure it would do me any good to try and coerce them to stop. So as Chris so eloquently put it, "If you can't beat'em, join'em." And that's exactly what I did. I grabbed a tambourine and asked the band what they wanted to play. Before we were done 25 minutes later(that's an eternity in 2-year old time), we played about 8 encores of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" a few rounds of ABCD's (yes, that's the same as the ABC's, but I have a friend who must think the D feels left out), some "Wheels on the Bus" and "Old MacDonald" and some other songs mixed in as well. We kind of died out with Old MacDonald though. Too Bad. But after the morning we had, I was extremely impressed with myself for containing and entertaining my little friends. And in the peak of it all I think I had every child (16 at that point) either playing, singing, or watching with great interest. And any adult within a 3-mile radius was probably wondering when the sky was going to fall, but hey, we had fun right?

Tickle This!

So last week on our way home from doing baptisms with the 2 youth in our ward we went to WalMart to pick up a few things. I will never again go to WalMart on a Friday night, it was scary. I don't think anybody there had anything else going on at all, because I've never seen so many S...L...O...W... people in my entire life. Then, every time I turned right my shopping cart sounded something like "ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk." The worst shopping cart I've had in a while. But on a Friday night after a long week, it was almost entertaining and I wasn't about to go try to switch it out. As we're meandering through the toiletries section looking for hair goop, I turn around a corner and WHAM! there it is. A very, very, overweight woman wearing a bright red T-shirt with Elmo on it. But the worst part? Her shirt said very plainly "Tickle This!" Ewww. No thanks. Really, no thanks. After I had cleared a path and my head we wandered to the electronics/DVD/video game section ( a must at any store on any given shopping trip). As I walked past the cashier stand I noticed a tiny palm tree affixed to the corner of the booth. Rubberbanded to the tree was a very small Michaelangelo figure. I took a picture but I haven't retrieved it from my phone yet, but I will post it as soon as I can. Very entertaining. I still haven't been able to complete poke out my mind's eye enough to get rid of 'Tickle This!," but what can you do?

WaHoo for Map Packs!

Yes we've been AWOL for a week. Yes there has been crazy amounts of stuff going on, yes we'll try to get it all posted this weekend. But in the mean time. Call of Duty 4- my absolute vice in the world right now has just released their expansion map pack!!! Sweet there goes another week of my life!
-Chris

Caesary Chavez

Cesar Chavez is one of my favorite people this week. Who is he and why, you ask? His name is Cesar E. Chavez, and when pronounced really quickly (as in on the radio the other day) he sounds like a nice, flavorful dish. And, according to a sign posted at the ECEC (my work) last week, and I quote "ECEC will be closed March 28 due to Cesar Chavez." Why wouldn't he be one of my favorite people? So Chris and I got to take the day off after 2 very crazy stressful weeks. We had big plans for Friday. We did. But when you wake up and it is overcast and only about 55 degrees, it makes it really hard to want to go to the beach and go body boarding. Wah wah wah, all of you who live in the cold say, but 55 IS cold here, (no matter what you try to tell me!) Anyway...we spent the day playing video games, cleaning and sewing. Which I think is just what we needed...a day off.

Hmm one more reason I'm glad I don't drink

So this came courtesy of my friend Natalie (the link was on her blog). I don't know that there's much I can say other than- wow, another reason not to drink.

Don't Drink and Think

Chris

Back to Vegas- a look at a game I shouldn't want but do

Just a quick heads-up to those of you who game. R6 Vegas 2 is out. This is so bad... what do I do- do I long for the joy of playing R6 Vegas 2 which is sure to be even better than R6V, and by doing so know that I am forsaking my extremely capable guy on CoD4, OR do I say, "Well there's always a few months from now for R6V2, and honestly will I want to play MP?" Cause see all along I never thought I'd ever play MP much, not with friends. Turns out when friends aren't near by, or readily available I still hop in to a few rounds of CoD4- now Alicia knows that this is usually a bad choice cause I just get mad at the people playing, but yet like a glutton looking for another whipping, I just keep playing. THIS btw is how CoD4 became a time-suck beyond all others. So my concern is do I want to try a new game (which I know I'll love b/c I'm a R6 addict, even more than CoD- thanks to Ed, who got me stuck on R6 to begin with).
See here's where I have to wax sentimental for a minute. R6 is where I cut my teeth in LAN partying. What exactly does this mean? Well let me show what 2:00 AM on a weekend in the TownHouse may look like:













So on top of just the normal great gameplay and all, there's this whole... "I Heart R6" and it brings back great memories on top of it all.
So there's the conundrum. To buy or wait? Chances are I'll wait- I've got lots else to do, but still it is nagging at me.

BTW- To make matters worse I do have a gift card to buy at least part of it... man oh man, what do I do?

AWOL

If a blog is left alone in the forest with no one to post does it cry? Yes.
Sadly our blog has been weeping for a week now. I wrote a post, but haven't had time to append the pics, so it sat. I attended the AVA concert and was planning on writing it up, but I haven't. And then my parents came into town for a few days, including a glorious escape to Disneyland for a couple days. Again, I was gonna post- but I haven't. Oh yeah and in the middle of all this I have worked way TOO MUCH (like 60+ hours a week- even nights at home working :( ) And through all this, neither Alicia nor I have been able to get close to the blog. And yet it sat, sulking like a lost suitcase on the side of the information superhighway. But now we're back. Hopefully over the next few days I'll get some of these posts up, and with Alicia's help we'll catch everyone up to speed.

Chris

Gettin' Rich with Sunshine Dollars

So recently we were playing BANG! (feel free to ask me for a good banging) with our friends Jason and Elise. During the out of control gaming we were talking about how poor wages were in SD versus costs of things like rent. It was at this point that Jason told us during his recruitment to his previous job he was told that even though the pay was not commensurate in respects to other locations/work, that they also paid in Sunshine Dollars (a la living in Sunny SD). That of course got me laughing and thinking simultaneously (a dangerous habit, I know). So when I was recruited to the BMS program here at UCSD they too talked of a lack of equal pay to cost but that it WAS San Diego. So was that the scientific way of saying, "Hey we'll pay you in sunshine dollars."
So as part of my goal to always save more I have officially opened up my SDSD account (San Diego Sunshine Dollars). Only question now is: Do I have to make a payment every time the weather is gorgeous? If so, how much? Can I buy my way out a gray weekend?
The irony of it all is how true it is. Alicia and I have often talked of the fact that if we'd have chosen to go to UW it'd be different. We'd own a house, I'd probably ski more, wouldn't surf, and oh yeah, people wouldn't just happen to want to come visit us for a few days. Interesting. That being said, we often talk of how nice it is having a beach a few minutes away, bicycling year-round, and the fact that I have palm trees out side my window. Oh yeah and the pay really is good here- if you count the SD ;)

Now to make everyone jealous, I had to go down to SIO to last week (Scripps Inst. of Oceanography (its part of UCSD just down on the coast more)), so I decided to take a few pix while I was there:

So this is about 50' from the building I work in. A great place to eat, as long as you don't want to go back to work any time soon.


This guy was making me jealous- wish I could join him, he looks lonely.

Christmas comes but twice a year

Right now is one of those moments I wish I had a camera. See, a couple days ago I had to call EA to get a replacement guitar sent out for Rockband (mine had started to act funny). It was a painless process (a true first in customer service). I was told there are two options 1) Have them send me a box, send my guitar, wait for them to get said guitar, wait for a replacement to be sent to me, or 2) Have them send me a guitar in a box, and then send mine back to them (free- but I had to have them place a hold on my card). Wow, choices... OR NOT! Umm I'll have you ship the guitar so I can at least always have a guitar with me. So here I am today 48 hours later and voila! I have a guitar in my hands. WOW 48 hours to ship and get to me from Michigan. Not bad...not bad at all. I'm well over impressed with the service I received. I wish ALL customer service was this efficient. Too bad I'm now spoiled. Thanks EA, you set the bar extra high on this one. Now to everyone else out there- you better shape up, cause I know it's possible to get great service, even from a huge company.
So why the camera in the beginning- simple- I have a guitar at my desk in lab. Who doesn't think that truly is a great photo op?

Foreign Frat Parties with Guns!

***Warning: The Following is NOT a political statement. I am fine with the war, I don’t frown on the marines, or the armed forces. Instead I frown at how stupid we as a nation are.***

He he he, nothing better than getting the boys together and being crazy, foreign style! Now the goal here is not to be political in any way shape or form- no, no. I merely want to point out some really funny realizations that Alicia and I came to recently while watching the news. Once again there were marines in the news for doing stupid things- foremost among them was the “potential abuse of a puppy.” Now in no way am I qualified to speak on it because all I saw was a simple video of the marines holding the pup by the scruff of his neck- very much the way a mother dog would. Now for those of you who cry at Old Yeller and mourn every road kill cat- I’m sorry, but I am apparently a calloused person as I didn’t even think twice of that. Well for whatever it doesn’t matter in getting to the point- these are 20 year old guys doing stupid things and the nation is shocked. Did I miss something? Did the “nation” never go to college? Did we forget movies such as Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, and Old School. I just don’t get it. At what point did we think that sending 18-25 year olds was a good idea to represent America? These are teens to early college kids. Everybody remembers those guys in college, right? Now I understand that some of the demographic went to the sheltered bubble that is BYU but that being said there are still those guys hanging around at UVSC and in the grocery stores, gas stations, and concerts (not to mention Taco Bell at 2:00 AM) in and around Provo. Lets face it here’s what we’ve done: trained these guys and given them firearms, sent them to a foreign country with minimal supervision with a bunch of their friends, and now become appalled when they go and do the same thing that they would have done had they been back in America, in the Sigma Chi or Pi Kappa Alpha houses. Did I miss something? Honestly people, all we’ve done is create a foreign frat party, with guns! I for one don’t even bat an eye when I see what stupid people have done while serving over seas (and why should I? People do amazingly stupid things at home too). Am I just crazy? Am I so desensitized? Or is it maybe that I have such low expectations out of frat boys that this type of action merely serves to reinforce my stereotyping? No matter what it doesn’t matter in the end. Because as long as the marines recruit, and as long as we allow 18-25 year old kids not be under constant supervision we will get this type of action. I for one don’t care, in fact I find it funny sometimes, stupid frat boys! Now with GUNS!!!

A Quick Congrats

To Kevin and Pam:
Congrats on the birth of your son. Sounds like it was a wild ride to Ogden. Hope you guys are doing well.

Chris and Lish

Gettin' NASty in our house

Now I know what everyone is thinking? What on earth is this title? Well let me provide you with a quick link here. Yeah so still confused? Good, er, wait, bad. So what does this all mean- it means that the hundreds of pictures and thousands of albums of music that we own finally have a neat place to all party together. Plus it means they're safe (I have opted to RAID 1 the drives). We opted to get a sweet little D-Link NAS box and then a couple of 750GB drives. So while I have 1 1/2 TB of space since it's mirrored I only have ~740GB for storage- yeah I know I should think of upgrading. In the mean time it's nice to be able to have all of our music in one place, or so the theory goes. The reality is this means a WHOLE LOT of work over the next month as I try to inventory and rip ALL of our music. Good news, however, is I'll finally have a complete catalog of my music. Also I am looking forward to the fact that I can DDNS on it- meaning no matter where I go in the world I can access ALL the files (aka music and other) from the internet. Also of noteworthy to the few of you who have corrupted files that need a copy- FTP can be run off a DDNS-enabled server. So you should be able to get the file copies you need to repair broken discs and such. Just thought I'd share that excitement with the few of you who know what I'm talking about. Oh and on a side note- it's a sweet UPnP and AV server so I can stream the music/pix/vid to the 360, the PS3, and any other comp I have hooked up to the system. It'll be nice to not have to worry. AND it features a print server to boot so I can now print without having to turn on the Gateway. Who knew a little box could be so useful!?!
The cool factor is pretty low- until you see the unit- it's about 5" tall x 7" long x 4" wide- smaller than a toaster with 1 1/2 TB of data- WOW!

btw- the Geek factor is uber high on this! (couldn't resist)

Changes and Housekeeping

Sorry to inform everyone, but, "I (and now you) can't get no." Yup instant satisfaction has been taken away. Yeah because of the problems with spam "commenters" we've had to put an approval button on the comments. Don't worry, we'll post everything from everyone, we just are sick of unsolicited "Click here for free Rx" crap. Hopefully if it goes away we can take that off, until then Lish and I will try to check the blog a few times a day to allow for "current" posts. Weekends- I make no promises.
Until then Cheers!

**UPDATE** I've found a sweet JavaScript that I can run that enables me to automatically approve a whole bunch of peeps AND also filter keywords- so for the time being partial SATISFACTION has been restored.

After the flood all the colours came out...

It was a beautiful day. Don't let it get away.

You know the irony of drought is that every time you hear about it, it rains. So is calling a drought the modern version of a rain dance? Does this make meteorologists no better than some crack-pot shaman? or ode sit make them superior because they can actually get it to rain? Either way I'm sick of the rain.
Yup in the last month we've had 3+ inches of rain. YIKES! The beauty of the rain is how clear it is after. Starting Monday it cleared up, now we have 75 and sunny. The ocean looks so gorgeous. I think in some ways it's worse because now I have to fight the urge to not work and instead play outside or ride or go surfing. Oh well, I guess you win some and you lose some.

On an unrelated note-

Thanks Shane for my new favorite BuzzBite Ya picture. This trumps anything you could ever take during the ride.

The Star of India (& other fun things)

Okay, so this summer Chris and I are going on the infamous pioneer trek. Yeah, yeah, pretty much everybody did that when they were 15 or whatever. But what's cool is that we get to go as a Ma and Pa. And since it is such an ordeal to go to Wyoming from San Diego, our Stake is making the most of it. So we get to experience 'just what the handcart pioneers did'. Starting from the time they left England.

Last Saturday we got to go visit the Star of India, a sailing ship kind of similar to that which the pioneers sailed on. This is us with the Star of India in the background.

To see the Star of India, you buy a ticket to the San Diego Maritime Museum which includes several boats including the HMS Surprise, which was used in the filming of the movie "Master and Commander."

This is Chris steering the ship into battle.
This is me actually steering the ship from below deck.

Below is Chris's favorite part of the museum, the Russian sub.

So this is one of the coolest symbols I think I've ever seen. Don't get too close or lightning will come out of your head and hand (who knew?).

The Happiest (?) place on Earth

Ahh yes Disneyland. I know it was a week ago we went but I finally decided- cause I guess Lish won't- to talk about all the joys and entertainment that can be had. For those of you who may not know Alicia and I are Disneyland Addicts. The Rides? Yup. The Freaks? Yup. The Costumed Characters? Yup. Parades? Yup. Mickey pretzels (esp the jalapeno cheese filled ones- the cream cheese aren't bad either)? Yup. Hot Chocolate in a mug to end it all? Yup. We could live there if they'd let us. So anyway back to the case at hand. It was 11:00 AM the park and only been open for a couple hours when we stumble across this:


WOW!?!? Really- it's only 11:00 AM. And this guy was OUT! I walked up nice and close to snap this. There were people all around, food being served 10 yards from this guy, heck this is outside a store and across from 3 rides, and a huge children's attraction. So my only 2 questions are this?

1) HOW? How do you stay asleep like that?

2) WHY? What on Earth has led you to this point?

Exclusive! INSIDER PICTURES: Blue Steel- Exposed!

Here are some pictures of the interior...

A/C, MP3 jack, CD/MP3 Player

Love me some stick shifts, safety belts, and bucket seats

Plenty of room in the backseat...

Notice on the steering wheel are Chris's favorite options (cruise control and audio controls for his 6-speaker sound system) We also enjoy pushing the big red button (hazard lights)

and the craziest feature of all (so crazy it took us 3 days to notice it...) the sweet sunglass holder!

The FINALLY posted pictures of the "New-new car"

Here it is!!! Blue Steel!We definitely like the color...

and the 15" alloy rims...

fog lamps to boot...

and, no, no plates does not indicate stolen...

and we like the look of the rear spoiler too!

POST FLOOD!

The management of this web log wishes to inform you of the following:
This is just a heads up- there have been a few recent posts on our blog - some of them out of order (yeah that's me) so you may want to take a look-see at the older sections- cause you may have just missed the best post yet, or not.

Back for more

So this was once on the blog- I think I lost it when I was trying out new backgrounds. I'm just gonna link to the other blog that has posted:

Do's and Don'ts with the newborn

I highly recommend the whole book.
Man what more can I say.
BTW- I prefer "introducing the child to pets" myself.

New-New Car

It's really hard for me to get the title right. It needs to be read with a pause after the first new. Not two fast news, that just sounds ridiculous. So anyway...We bought a new car...see a couple posts ago. When we bought it, the assistant manager and sales manager that sold it to us apparently knew nothing about the product they were selling. So, as a result, they promised us a lot of things (air conditioning, cruise control, stereo w/audio jack, and new rims and tires). These features were not on the car when we bought it but we were assured that they could be added without difficulty. WRONG!!!!! Apparently the model we bought accepts none of said features, at least not without great difficulty. But they promised!!! (Besides the fact that we had already paid for said features...) So at this point we had 3 options...1)They would just reverse the whole transaction and give us our old car back...hmmmm nope, that isn't going to work, one of the main reasons we bought the car was because you took our old one... 2) They could find a way to get most of the said features put on the car (with great cost to them)--which isn't perfect but hey, most is better than none right? or- 3) They could find another car at another dealership and try and trade it so we could switch. That definitely sounded like a winning option.
So they tried. And tried. And tried. Or so we thought. Apparently through this whole process it was very important for us to be standing in front of them. We saw absolutely no progress-none- unless we were at the dealership in their faces. GRRRRRR! So they finally found some acceptable cars (with all said features, from the factory) We told them the priority order and the next day (IT'S A MIRACLE...) we heard that our #1 choice was good to go and that someone was going to go get it. (it'll be ready tonight or tomorrow for sure...)This is Friday morning. We don't hear anything else the rest of the day. We try to call--he's busy, he's not here, he's cutting a deal, he's too busy. WHAT!?!?!?! Just because you already sold me a car does not mean I'm not important! TALK TO ME!!! But no. So we again have to make an appearance at the dealership. And the guy is REALLY annoyed that we did. The car just got here, he tells us, and will be ready tomorrow afternoon for sure. No problem. We tell him we'll call around 2:30 the next afternoon he says great it will definitely be ready. So we called the next day at 4. He's busy. He's cutting a deal. REALLY? So, when he doesn't call us back...we show up again. Oh, uh, ummm...the guy didn't come in today that takes care of it. Sorry. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? At this point, it's me (nice, calm, Alicia) that's mad. REALLY mad. So when he tells me that it will be ready tomorrow I find it really difficult to believe him. So I look him in the eye and ask...And what if it's not? What do I do if it's not? He's starting to feel a little guilty now, and replies, I'm not going to answer that question because it will be. So I look at him again as my eyes fill with tears and say, What if it's not? and walk out. Apparently, I should have yelled and cried 3 weeks earlier. Maybe it would have been resolved that much sooner. Because, as I have noticed on several occasions, crying works. The next day my car was finally ready. Finally. And yes it includes all said features, including being a manual transmission, plus a spoiler and fog lamps. (Wahoo!) But it is the same kind of car, in a steeley blue color and it's official name is Blue Steel... But I love it...and I'll probably never ever ever ever ever in my whole life buy a brand new car ever ever ever again.

Pretty sure I had more posts than this....

I could have sworn that in the last two weeks I'd posted. Well in my mind I did. So I'm not gonna talk about the whole car situation, I figure Alicia would/could cover that. I'll talk about the non-exciting, like friendly get-togethers. So the long story-short is when we lived in Logan we never knew a quiet weekend because we always invited everyone over. It was great- nothing better than me (Chris) ruining the solemn evening of Sunday by scoring crazy points in Quiddler spelling Sex Toys. Hey it's not my fault that every time I get the same three letters in my hand. So fast-forwarding to present- it's been a long time since we've had so many things going on with people that we don't get "down time." In fact, I can't remember the last time we got together with people so frequently. Now this sounds weird like a pity party, or some sort of heartfelt post of times past, or neat intervention now- it's not. It is a post of me observing that hey I remember how it was, and now it's kinda happening again. That's all. We've been to Brian and Erin's a couple times, Jeff and Kate's, became jealous of the Foster's place, finally got to see the Cook's house, had a slightly over-done RockBand party- who knew that 14 was too many for our apartment? It's been great. Now, however is the downside- I'm tired, and my house is a mess again. Oh well, it's worth it. Now if you're reading this in UT or ID: think back on any Sunday night you randomly showed up at the Townhouse and just start laughing, cause you know something funny will come to mind. If you're reading this is San Diego: think of the fact that Brady absolutely wanted to play, "Don't Fear the Reaper." Wow I never would have pegged Brady as a BOC fan- just goes to show you they're everywhere. On second thought maybe Brady just had a fever and every knows the only cure is, "More Cowbell."

Just can't get enough, just can't get enough

This was supposed to be the spot that I was gonna post pix and such from one of the RockBand/chaos parties we've had recently. Too bad that isn't gonna happen anytime soon. In the mean time I'll just tell you what addicted means- addicted is when Alicia is jonesing to play a game. Period. Anything that can make Alicia turn on the Xbox is pretty addictive, plus on top of that she gets the mic and instruments out. I love my wife, I hope she doesn't think this is meant to tease her, I'm just observing how addictive RockBand is some days. Oh, and on a good note we have opened up all of the songs so that means I can get my "Learn to Fly," fix anytime I want. So on a different note, I should inform everyone that the car woes continue. Hopefully we'll get it all fixed sooner or later. Oh yeah, and I am trying to figure out how to balance life, because now that Alicia has been recalled into RS, and suddenly I am doing more bishopric stuff than ever, I think I'm gonna lose it- oh yeah and we're still training for the Ride the Rockies bike ride this summer. Anywho- later. Yeah and maybe I'll get some pictures up someday.

FFF and Rockband Saturday...

Whew! Can't get enough! There is nothing better than getting together, making fun of others, laughing at each others mistakes, and generally creating mayhem. This weekends havoc was brought to you in part by Alicia (she does all, what more can I say), XBL, Mountain Dew, and the letter Q. Why Q you ask? Cause you just can't QUIT!!!
Yeah it was a little crazy around our place this weekend- I convinced/suckered some friends into some late night CoD4, man that was great. Nothing better than mayhem on that little trailer depot. Then for even more entertainment we went to Blairapalooza- Brian and Erin (friends of ours) hosted a house party that included excessive amounts of RockBand and GH2/1.
So then we decided it's time to finally get that party we've been planning off the ground. So it happens THIS COMING SATURDAY- RockBand Saturday at the Larson's - now with a bit of SingStar to help warm up the vocals. This ought to be good.
Now for all of you who can't make it- know this- you're still invited and YES you can spend the night if you can make it down here.
Until then...
...on a steel horse I ride, and
I'm Wanted (wanted) Dead or Alive (dead or alive).

Chris

PS the hope is pix and/or vid so keep close cause you may just end up being A) Famous or B) Infamous- hey it's a good way for people to live vicariously

PPS It's gonna have to be a BYOD cause I am NOT providing enough for everyone.

New Car!?!?!?!

Yes...we got a new car. A brand new car. I'm not sure what to do with a brand new car. Why? Well, our Cavalier that we've been driving for the last three years had seen better days. Being hit 3 times in as many years is not usually good on cars, go figure. Anyway, we'd been having brake, body and wiring problems on it for some time. Which under ideal circumstances would be fine. Chris would be able to fix those seemingly minor problems. But since we don't live in ideal conditions (for that anyway...see Chris's Christmas in Paradise post for further details), it makes it both difficult and expensive. So we weighed our options. See what we could get as a trade in with the Cavalier. Buy a new car and sell the Cavalier. Try and work out a way to fix the Cavalier. So we went to the nearest Chevy dealer, just to see what they had. Here's what we found.

So its not what any of you ever expected us to buy. Yeah well, we never saw that either. But it's amazingly roomy. So roomy in fact that when Chris gets in he still has at 6" of headroom- yeah for him! And we both miss driving a stick shift. And it wasn't a whole lot of money, especially when the dealer offered us a killer trade in deal. Oh yeah, and its really fun to drive! So now we have a new car, what we do next will remain to be seen...