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!