Why I hate working late @ SIO

So many of you know that I work down at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography @ UCSD sometimes. This involves some very boring work in a lonely dungeon of a room. It is worsened by the fact that if I turn down the hall I am greeted by a wall of windows looking out over the beach and the pier. Combine that with the beautiful sunset and the idea of me still being here for another 3 hours and you know why I don't like being here in the evening.

**On a side note: This is what sunset on Nov. 9th looks like in SD- beats snow any day!

Junker Car

So last year when Lish wrecked the Aveo (yeah, yeah, not her fault) we got an awesome situation- we got back 99.x% of the original value of the car. Essentially we had equity in the car. So we bought a new car. As is the norm when you buy a new car we had a work order on it, including tint and such. So during that time the dealer put us in a rental car. PIECE OF JUNK!

It was an '08 Chev Cobalt bare-bones. It couldn't have been more stock had it tried. So I decided to enjoy it. The plastic (not vinyl, straight up blown mold plastic) dash was awesome. I'm pretty sure I could have sanded a 2x4 on it, it was so "texturized."The ghetto trash plastic E-brake surround and the super sweet shifter with vinyl boot that was coming off was just the icing on the garbage cake.

It's a shame that the car bottoms out so easily at 75 and it's also a shame that it'll only go 55ish in 3rd with an RPM around 4K... little things to think about.

Seriously!?! Welcome back to 1996

So I was reading on U2 . com this morning that apparently the opening acts for the band during their tour in 2010 will include Lenny Kravitz!

Wow, I didn't even know he still did music, let alone toured... to all of those going to SLC to see the show may I suggest the following apparel:

Tear-away track pants. C'mon you know you still have some in the closet.

Maybe a leftover grunge t-shirt. Something from the vein of mudhoney or maybe a classy Alice-in-Chains shirt.

Anything Tommy Hilfiger

Baby t-shirts for the girls

If you're feeling ambitious you could rock some early goth looks. Keep in mind that you need to make sure you keep to the goth, as tempted as you might be to go Emo.

A Titanic hat or shirt. Something classy, like Leo leaning over the edge with the caption, "I'm the King of the World."

Maybe something more relevant like say... an, "Oh Behave!" Austin Powers shirt. (While whistling, "That Thing You Do.")

Or maybe you're edgy and you bought the, "Show Me the Money," shirt (Good on you for sticking it to the man and supporting that hot, young actor Thomas Cruise)

Hmm lets see what else...**Rummages through closet and looks in laundry hamper for last week's outfits**

Ahh yes, one last one for ya:

A nice Green Day Nimrod T-shirt under your cardigan, some super low-riding jeans and maybe some extra long hair. Yup that was what I wished I was wearing.

Oh, and throw on your Starter jacket if it gets cold that evening. Something classy like a University of Miami (You know the 'Canes) one.

Then get ready to sing all the awesomeness of, "Are You Gonna Go My Way?"

Cause, boy howdy, I can't believe how awesome the opening acts for 2010 360 tour are!!!

Chris

Dumber for it...

I've decided that the absolute worst way to show off years of veritable knowledge and experience in grad school is requiring the writing of a dissertation. I stare day after day at my computer knowing I need to write more of my thesis stuff but have no motivation to do so. So what do I do instead? ANYTHING. Facebook? Sure, why not. Kotaku? Sure, why not. IGN? Sure, why not. HULU? Actually, I've been good about avoiding TV watching (as of yet)- which is super good as I would be in a world of hurt thanks to Netflix on demand. Blog? Sure, why not. I just feel dumber every time I sit down to try and explain in coherent sentences years of work. Yes, I do have journal papers to write and I am trying to finish those as they are the basis for my work, but still... It hurts my brain and my butt to try and sit at my desk and write non-stop. You would think that my being able to speak for hours on end and answer with ease any scientific questions that are fielded at me would be sufficient for granting a PhD, but NO. I've decided that the final months are the hardest, not because of the work, only because of the hoops. Oh well, back to the grind.

~Chris

Enough with the idiocy of Facebook

People are idiots!

The following is a response to a Facebook post of a friend of mine who claims that she got the H1N1 flu after getting the shot 2 days before:

I would be highly amazed that you could justify your sickness to the shot seeing as how nearly all current vaccines use recombinant partial-attenuated virus (AKA never had the full virus in it) due to costs and FDA requirements (Live and heat-inactivated are only used in the run-up period). Also keep in mind that you may not have the H1N1 and your local MD isn't equipped with the RT-PCR diagnostics required to validate H1N1 away from all the other virii out there.

So I know I may have just offended a bunch of people, but hey it goes on-

With regard to some friend of mine from high school (again on FB) talking about taking all these tests to determine the sex of the child

(Her Status update) : my voodoo pee test said girl. It was the weirdest test and I wouldn't do it over again. We will see if it is right though. Crossing fingers.

Yesterday at 11:36am · Comment · Like

Person 1- I have a funny test for you, ask me about it when you see me in person

Yesterday at 11:56am

Original Poster- You have peaked my curiosity...

Yesterday at 12:01pm

Random Girl- did you check the chinese birth calendar? it was right about caleb, and wrong about leah. so 50/50...but it's been accurate with a lot of my friends!

Yesterday at 12:06pm

Original Poster- I

did the chinese birth charts. It was correct with my first two, but wrong on the third. This time is says girl, but who knows :)

Yesterday at 12:20pm

Person 1- The Argentine's believed that your baby starts to manifest it self through you. And there are certain things girls and boys do different.

Yesterday at 12:26pm

Other Random girl- I can't wait to find out if the voodoo test is accurate. How come it was weird? Or is it too graphic to write about? :-)

Yesterday at 12:27pm

Original Poster- Interesting Darwin, I am curious.

Jamie, not too graphic so I will try to explain. First there are several things you can't have. You can't have polycystic ovarian disease, no progestrone therapy for ten days, or intercourse within two days. You wait until morning for your sample. You pee in a cup and draw up 20 cc's to put into the test cup. It looks like there was glitter in it as well as other chemicals. You swish the cup for ten seconds. It has to be on a flat surface after swishing and it has to have white under it. You then have to read the test at eye level after ten minutes. If it is green, it is boy. If it is yellow/orange, it is girl. So, if I looked at any angle other than eye level it was green, but eye level it was orange. So I called their help desk and they said it was definitely a girl. Their website also said, if you don't look at eye level it will always be green because that is what the chemicals do to your urine. Freakin weird if you ask me, but we will see. They said it is 90% accurate! Hope they are right, I would LOVE a girl!!

Yesterday at 12:38pm

Well Wisher 1-

GOOD LUCK!

Yesterday at 1:11pm

Well Wisher 2- That would be so fun for you guys!

Yesterday at 2:27pm

Random Girl 3- Wowza! I've never known anyone that has taken that test...til now! That's fun stuff! I'm still sending pink babydust your way!

Yesterday at 3:03pm

Well Wisher 3-

congrats

Yesterday at 3:24pm

Well Wisher 4- I bet it will be a girl! Are you going to find out? Or just be surprised when it's born!

Yesterday at 4:05pm

Longing Girl 1-

I have 3 boys too, I hope my next one, when that happens, will be a girl too.

Yesterday at 4:25pm

Expert Girl 1- Congratulations... The sex depends on when you ovulated. i'll email you about it..... Cindy

Yesterday at 4:29pm

Original Poster- According to ovulation Cindy, we are set for a girl as well. For the risk of TMI, I will email you about it and you can see what you think :

My response follows:

I'm sorry as a trained biomedical researcher I just have to point out the obvious fact from 10th grade health class - it's not yours to decide (your husband carries X and Y, not you), as for the others...ummm of course it's a 50/50 chance of being right - there are only 2 choices (for most of us)

Seriously!?!

I wish I could explain how infuriating the idiocy of the collective is. People are dumb sheep who believe anything that someone else "heard" somewhere!!! Think people, just stop believing blindly and THINK!!!

~Chris

Hate "Photos" and "Photogs"!?!

So before I delve in to the finer points of this I was just thinking again of how much I hate the proliferation of the sub-$1000 dSLR camera- that and how ridiculous everybody who owns a Canon Rebel neckstrap is. BTW- don't flaunt it it's not a freaking d series and even then I don't know that I would tout it as all that unless it at least holds a mark moniker (mk II or MkIII). Now before everybody gets in a fit and lynches me you should know where I'm coming from.

dSLR does not equal professional photographer.

B&W is a type of picture that you specifically compose to- NOT a FILTER on photoshop.

Holga is a type of camera with a very artistic value to it- NOT a BOX you click on photoshop.

Oh yeah, and photoshop is to help fix small imperfections and minor adjustments NOT a compensation because you suck at photos.

So why the ridiculous hate? Well see I've had a lot of people that I am connected to get married in the last year or two, as such everybody posts all these photos online - via FB or blog or flckr or you-name-it. Then I see other people gushing about how awesome they are and how they're the best wedding photographer in the world, etc. ad infinitum. This is fine and all, until I start seeing how crappy this stuff is and how much of it is 20 something girls that daddy bought them a camera and they have a macbook Pro so they can charge an arm and a leg and then take these senseless photos, add B&W effects or add a Holga Vignetting and say it's art. It's NOT!!!

I'm not a great photographer, and I don't really like/do well with wedding pictures, but that being said I'm not charging thousands of dollars either. I have shot a total of 3 (?) weddings and I have never done any of it as a pro. It was always as a favor or as an honor to be able to take some pictures for a friends wedding. That being said I am insulted as an enthusiast and friend of multiple professional photographers when I see the crap that is put on FB and flckr. Really you took the dumbest photo and then not only did you make it black and white but then you included the color one so that everyone knows that it's not really a B&W, or maybe you included both the B&W and the sepia tone wash - dear stupid do you even know what a sepia wash is? or how it's done??? (besides the obvious, "Well I click here and it does it- ta da!!")

To me black and white is the best looking form of art there is (now I know I am wrong, but this is my opinion). And to see it corrupted by idiots makes me sick. Think of it this way - most professionals spend years shooting Black and White heck some of them never leave it, but I guarantee you that all of them know how to shoot it. Furthermore, every person who takes a real photo class starts in B&W. This is where you learn the fundamentals, this is where you learn how a darkroom works, keys, tones, pushing, pulling, etc. you learn how to really take a good picture and yet somehow the lack of people knowing the basics seems to make them pros and leads to crap for photos.

If I offended you well I hope you can look past it, if you're really offended lemme know (not that I will do much about it, but maybe we can talk and I can show you what I mean). Otherwise always ask to see a professional's film cameras to know how they're digital stuff is.

Trust me a $500 dSLR is not a camera that you want as the main camera for your wedding- the sensor is too small and it may be 60 megapixels but that number means next to nothing- I know 6MP cameras that outshoot nearly everything else there is.

Chris

You sir, are an absolute DUCK!

So I am going to use some harsh words in the next few sentences after which I am going to post a comment that was left regarding our post from last night.
Some tool of a person who is quite possibly the biggest dirt monkey I've ever met left some anonymous post on the comments section (I have since deleted it) but seriously!?! Who are you and how pathetic are you that you go in and personally write some of these comments, after which, I might add, you then act like you know me and that we're some how buddies. Best part is that obviously he's a retard and a tool b/c he refers to school (something that is never posted in my blog) and then he goes on to leave some post about some UK website reuniting people (cause I know SOOOOO many people in the UK). WOW! Some people... Thanks Buddy!

Reuniting Friends said...

Great post buddy ....Really the school days are the best days of life...The content of the post was really nice...we are trying to reunite school friends through our website to share their fond memo

BTW-I'm glad that he likes the "content of my post" too bad I can't say the same for him!

Chris

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

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

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

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

I'm calling to provide you with an update...

And by update I mean I'm calling to tell you the same thing I've told you 5 times before: "I need to get more information (from my end) before I can get an answer for you." And by more information I don't mean from you (the consumer whom I called) I mean from us the provider of service (and the initiator of this call). Does this make sense to you? Yeah me neither. Let me tell you a little story of the black box that couldn't and the company called Micro$haft (names have been changed to protect the guilty).
As most of you may know my loving wife bought me an Xbox 360 (BTW 360 = number of hours I have now spent trying to get my console back). She opted to buy me the nicest of the consoles the one that was called Elite (suggesting that it may be better than the "standard"). Well after a few months of happy use- not excessive by any stretch (I'm thinking of all night parties with my Nintendo- man that thing never could die- still hasn't in fact 20 years later and plays most reliable of all), it died. Fine, I got the Red Ring of Death (google it- it's ingrained into American Gaming Lexicon). So I called M$ who closed WHILE I was on the phone. So I had to call back- fine. I called in on Monday October 1st, at 6:30 AM (yeah I got up that early just for that), I was helped promptly by a fine young man who said I would be receiving a box to ship it back to M$ in about 4-5 days (AKA Friday at the latest). Away we went willing the box here faster- Friday the 5th came and went and no box- OK I guess I'll call Monday. Monday's call nets me the following: UMMMMMmmmmmmmm I don't know how this system did this but.... we never got your request for a box... we have your call we just didn't ship the box- huh!?! Fine, ship me a box NOW, please. So I wait again.... yup 4 days later it gets here (that would be Thurs., Oct 11th). I rushed home and packed my console in the box and voila! Shipped! Sweet so they told me it takes no more than 10-12 business days to look over the console and either A) Fix it (unlikely) or B) Ship me a replacement (likely). So I watch UPS.com anxiously tracking my box every step of the way... HOORAY it arrived- signed in at 10:56 AM on Tues Oct 16th. Sweet so lets say it takes 12 days past that...carry the 3...add 2...subtract for gravitational pull...count Halloween as a holiday and.... yup, should be getting an answer NO LATER than November 2nd. OK I'm ok with that I've got lots to do. So on November 3rd I start to get worried and I start calling. First I get some people who tell me that it seems to have taken a bit longer- huh? Fine, I'll wait. By the start of next week I'm mad, I want an answer, so I do what anyone should do, call back. Now at this point I'm not gonna go into details, but sufficeth to say I have called at least 25 times, spoken to 10+ supervisors and at least, 20 first line helpers. I have also e-mailed 3 times.
See here's the problem THEY DON'T KNOW DIDDLY! They can never help me, I have been transferred/referred to the "Call Back Team" 3 times and have gotten 5 total call backs from 3 distinct groups. All with the answer seen at the start: Umm we don't know why, it shouldn't take this long. Their latest is "We don't have any replacement consoles in- fine FIX MINE instead."
I've asked for refunds- umm well we can't do that, I've asked for a reason that is has taken this long... uhhh we don't have one. I have asked for a manager... uhh we don't have one that speaks to people.
So now I am just PISSED! Yup I said it- I'm so mad that every time Xbox calls I yell, and yell, and yell. - On a side note they don't like it when you ask them personal questions about what they PERSONALLY are gonna do and they REALLY don't like it when you use their first name e.g. "What are you doing, David, to ensure that my console is being fixed?" Also I have found that rhetorical questions that often point out grammatical or contradictory statements that they make seems to really make them not like you.
I'm now a hostage of Micro$haft for 45 days- if only they'd send me a ransom to tell me how I can be released from their stranglehold-like grip. Better yet- if only they'd just give me a real answer.
So all I can say at this point is how much I hate this situation- it's not about video games, I've got plenty of those to play, it's about how my expensive investment in technology is now the laughing joke of M$ and how they seem like they're really just out to get me.