The Vast Back Catalog

When Kirsten and I were preparing for our nuptials, it became apparent that, although I love to put together music playlists, she should be in charge of our wedding mix. The reason is apparent from the chart above that I just made. It shows the number of songs in my music library sorted by release date. The majority of my music dates in the 1990s or later, after grunge hit the music scene. Most of the typical generic feel-good party hits, from motown to the 80s, are missing. Luckily this is Kirsten's specialty, so she was able to supply most of the good music for the wedding. And she did a great job.

Now I've decided to go back and try and find all those "oldies but goodies" that I know I like. Stuff like that one Lionel Richie song that I can still stand, and some REO Speedwagon, and Journey, and some Bill Withers. There's a lot out there that I know I like, but I just wouldn't be caught dead having for some inexplicable reason. Now I'm old enough to just enjoy the pure pop of Eric Carmen without embarrassment. Well, maybe still a little.

Ikea + Paper Source = Awesome!

Ikea furniture is great for several reasons--it's cheap, it's stylish, and it's modular. But it is also ripe for modification. We have a couple of plans for personalizing our current Ikea furniture, and Kirsten finished the first of them this weekend. This is a Billy bookcase in red, with clear glass doors. Ikea suggests lining the inside with one of their designer papers, but, to be honest, they are all pretty ugly. Instead, we picked up two rolls of designer wrapping paper from Paper Source. Ikea supplied cardboard inserts for the glass doors and plastic tabs to hold it in place. All we (meaning Kirsten) had to do was cut the paper to size and tape it to the cardboard inserts. We're both really happy with the results.

Geoscience Education

During lunch I read an interesting article in a recent issue of EOS, the newsletter of the American Geophysical Union. This particular article was written by several geoscience education researchers and psychologists and talked about how geoscientists view the world differently than most people, and how we can train new students to think this way. Basically, the article identified several key concepts that geoscientists implicitly understand:

1. The Long View - Geoscientists think about the Earth in terms of millions and billions of years. The majority of individuals never have to think about time in this way, since our active lifespans are measured in tens of years. This kind of thinking relies on things like exponential numbers and proportional reasoning. I honestly admit, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea of a billion years.
   
2. The Complex Systems Approach - Take a look at a typical diagram of the water cycle, and you'll get an idea of what this means. And that is a simple example!
3. Professional View - This is basically the distinction between how I experience a place like the Grand Canyon now compared to how I experienced it as a kid. Then, it was just this really neat place with tough hikes. Now, when I look at the Grand Canyon, I see billions of years of Earth history, the entire evolutionary history of Life on Earth, and the erosional power of water. I feel that in some part I "understand" why the Grand Canyon exists, even though I don't know all the particulars.
4. Spatial Thinking - This is the ability to read and understand maps and to be able to mentally manipulate objects in three dimension. It involves understanding the orientation of rock layers underground and visualizing geologic structures like faults and folds.

Unfortunately, many students have difficulty in these concepts, mainly because they aren't stressed in traditional science education. Luckily, the article also has some suggestions on ways to integrate these concepts:

1. Use a Narrative Approach - By teaching or explaining things sequentially, the students' minds can better understand the Long View of things. This is in contrast with the typical way of teaching timescales simply by dates and numbers on which events are attached (think of a typical history lesson). Instead, teach the events first and add the timescale later. I like the idea of using a reverse timescale. Begin with the modern day and work backwards, explaining how things got the way they are.
2. Teach the Feedback Loop Concept - This is almost never taught in schools. I don't ever remember hearing the term "feedback loop" until college, but it is a very important concept. But this is one of those ideas that opens up the world for students and becomes the basis for understanding Complex Systems.
3. Fieldwork - Understandably, this is where geoscientists learn their Professional Vision. By making disparate observations about the world around them and combining them into a single worldview. But teaching this to students involves a two-prong approach. First, there must be mentoring. If you just let students out in the field without providing instructional support, they won't make much progress. They need to make their own hypothesis, but then they need advice and suggestions in order to refine them. Second, the students should make a map. This helps them learn to look at the real world and abstract the geology from it.
4. Practice Spatial Skills - This is another thing I never learned in school. Everything I learned dealt with processing numbers, not 3D objects. One good and practical way to rectify this is to have students read and annotate maps. Another is to build and interpret 3D models. I think I learned to be really good at this by doing lots of visual puzzles as a child. Also, I had a penchant for creating maps. When everybody else in kindergarten were painting houses and flowers, I was painting a treasure map!
   

I think there are ways to incorporate these things all the way to kindergarten. But for me, these ideas will help me if I ever need to teach another Introduction to Geology class in the future.

A little rock action

I understand how people can feel that Mogwai is pretentious, but their music really resonates with me. It's moody and intense and emotional. And they were, for me at least, all that last night at the 930 Club. I had chills several times during the performance, and what was so great about it was that they only played 2-3 songs from their new album. Most of the songs they played were older. When they started playing a really old song, Mogwai Fear Satan, I knew it was coming, but I was still surprised by the aural onslaught at the end of the song. For the encore, they played their epic My Father My King (Part 1 2 3), which was frickin' awesome.

Gunner in the Wild

I finally developed some rolls of film I had lying around, and I wanted to post some really great photos of Gunner up on South Mountain.

The following comment thread on the A.V. Club review of the Sims 3 game almost made me shoot tea out my nose!

Gay
TV Dinner
8 June 2009 | 12:32 AM CDT
This looks pretty gay.

Spinner
8 June 2009 | 12:44 AM CDT
Such a good review of the game, in depth and literate. Way to bring something to the conversation pal! Good job!

ocean of cats
8 June 2009 | 1:07 AM CDT
Why yes, you can create a gay character, thanks for the contribution!

Juror nr.3
8 June 2009 | 7:42 AM CDT
If anything, it doesn't look gay enough.

Raymond Luxury-Yacht
8 June 2009 | 7:50 AM CDT
Should have saved this comment for the upcoming "Taste Test: Penis"

Jenny Lewis

Kirsten and I saw Jenny Lewis at the 930 Club last night. Even though I don't really like any of her new songs, she is an outstanding performer and has a really great backing band. Luckily, she did play all of my favorite songs from her first solo album, which I absolutely love. Here's hoping that I get a chance to see Rilo Kiley proper before they become too big and have to play stadium and pavilion shows.

Dollar Redesign

Catching up on my newsfeeds, I came across the Dollar ReDe$ign blog. It's about time the US joined the rest of the world and started using truly colorful paper money. And we've been using the same design template for far too long.

It's Anatase, Beotch!

Here's another figure. This one should be self explanatory!

Data Figures

A friend was talking last night about a coworker blogging at work, and it reminded me that I haven't posted in a while. I'm been mostly spending my time writing papers, so here's a figure I just made yesterday.The squiggly lines underneath the image are EDS spectra showing the rough composition of the bright material. Contributions from the background support film and the surrounding fluffy silica aerogel (containing silicon, oxygen, and carbon) have been subtracted, which is why there are inverted peaks in some spectra. I'm not necessarily convinced that this is the best way to process the data, since I think it tends to show that the bright areas are depleted in carbon. Actually there is a lot of carbon in the bright areas, but only surrounding the mineral grains, while carbon is homogeneous in the aerogel.

Best of 2008

It's finally here. I've previewed the mix on CD and it sounds pretty good to me. 2008 was a bit of a strange year for music. It started out very strong with the Vampire Weekend debut album in January, but the latter half of the year seemed full of mediocre indie releases. But I've found a number of good songs in all the audio chaff. Still, I have the feeling when I redo this playlist in 10 years (or even if I redid it next year), it would be very different.


Best of 2008

101 Amanda Palmer - Astronaut
102 Anathello - All the First Pages
103 Marco Benevento - Bus Ride
104 Glasvegas - Flowers and Football Tops
105 Vancougar - (I Hope Your) Money (Keeps You Warm)
106 Shearwater - The Snow Leopard
107 The Silent Years - Open Up Our Eyes
108 Jack Johnson - Go On
109 Dido - Quiet Times
110 Peter Broderick - Below It
111 Crooked Still - Undone in Sorrow
112 Leona Naess - Leave Your Boyfriends Behind
113 Plants and Animals - Bye Bye Bye
114 Catfish Haven - Ready to Die
115 Tilly and the Wall - Tall Tall Grass
116 Weezer - Heart Songs
117 Slow Club - Christmas TV

201 Air France - No Excuses
202 The Submarines - You Me and the Bourgeoisie
203 Pendulum - Propane Nightmares
204 We Are Scientists - Ghouls
205 Mux Mool - Night Court
206 The Very Best - Hide and Seek
207 Santigold - L.E.S. Artistes
208 M83 - Skin of the Night
209 Coldplay - Lost!
210 Shiny Toy Guns - Season of Love
211 The Notwist - Good Lies
212 Cloud Cult - Everybody Here is a Cloud
213 Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
214 Alias - Well Water Black
215 Lullatone - The Bathtime Beat
216 Ratatat - Mirando
217 Portishead - The Rip
218 Son Lux - Stand

Ratatat

Last night Kirsten and I went to see Ratatat play at the 930 Club. They were pretty darn good, to say the least. It was fun to watch all the youths get excited from the balcony. I would definitely go see them again sometime, and I heard they have a new album coming out soon!

Noah's Dilemma

I would totally wear this t-shirt.

The Knife Incident

Occasionally in movies, TV, and books somebody will slice of a finger while chopping vegetables with a knife. I always thought this was something that doesn't really happen in real life because you have to really not be paying attention to do something like that. Well, last knight as I was washing dishes, I accidentally knocked a knife off the counter, and it fell tip first into one of my toes. It seemed a bit surreal that it fell so perfectly right in the middle of my toe. Afterwards, I put on a band-aid and it was fine.

Ten Years Back: Best of 1998

My Best of 2008 playlist has been on the back-burner because of moving and general business at work, but I had quickly cherry-picked my favorite songs from ten years ago for a supplementary playlist. It's pretty interesting to go back to older music and see what you were into then. Actually, on this list, only about half the songs I listened to in 1998. The others I discovered later in grad school.

1998 represents really my first full year in college. I was coming into my own in a big way, and learning how to deal with peers who didn't automatically come from a religious perspective. I also began to branch out away from grunge and alternative into a bit of electronica. But 1998 also marks the release of some albums I will take to my grave, like Mineral - EndSerenading, Cardigans - Gran Turismo, and Smashing Pumpkins - Adore. These are albums I can (and have) listened to on repeat for days. Some of these songs also remind me of college friends. Bran Van 3000 is for Caleb D., Radiohead is for Clare D., and Chikada Wasei is for Melissa V. Air reminds me of Jacob K. and that Jewel song reminds me of Becky R. for some reason. And Smashing Pumpkins is for William M., who used to give me such shit for listening to that album.

Anyway, here's the list:

Ten Years Back: The Best of 1998

01. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
02. Bran Van 3000 - Drinking in L.A.
03. Semisonic - Closing Time
04. VAST - Touched
05. Radiohead - Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)
06. Foo Fighters - A320
07. Eastern Youth - Natu no Hi no Gogo
08. Mineral - &Serenading
09. Jewel - Hands
10. Knife in the Water - Sent You Up
11. Alanis Morissette - Unsent
12. Air - All I Need
13. The Cardigans - Do You Believe
14. Chikada "J.J." Wasei - Cloudy, With Occasional Rain
15. Kent - 747 (English version)
16. The Smashing Pumpkins - For Martha

Let me know if you want a CD

synchrotronning

I'm back at the ALS. This time the guys I'm with aren't very experienced, so I'm running the night shift (10PM-6AM). I drank some strong black tea, so I'm doing well so far on only a couple hours sleep, but we'll see when it gets closer to sunrise. We had some initial problems with the instrument for most of the day. I guess this weekend a power supply for the sample stage controller blew out. This morning they received a replacement power supply, but it also blew out as soon as it was turned on. So now we're using a spare stage controller, but it's not particularly well-tuned. Basically, the images turn out a little fuzzy, but it's good enough for us to get data.

Inauguration

It was bitter cold, but Kirsten and I bundled up and headed down to the Mall. I wore my long underwear and my thickest wool socks. The Metro looked busy, so we caught a bus downtown that dropped us off at K Street. Then was joined the growing crowds moving down 18th Street. Eulynn had a plan to situate ourselves near the Washington Monument, and we found a reasonably good view of a jumbotron on which to watch all the proceedings. Unfortunately, as the crowds grew the view afforded to the shorter members of our group disappeared. It was very cold, and the winds picked up every now and then, but it was bearable. Rev. Warren's inaugural prayer was as douchey as I expected, but it was pretty funny the way he said the names of Obama's daughters. "Sasha!!!" But the oath and address were great to hear firsthand, and everybody cheered.

We overheard later that there were no "crazies" there. Not true for us. In front there were loud, obnoxious, atheist liberals and behind us were loud, obnoxious republicans who cheered every time Chief Justice Roberts was mentioned, as though his nomination to head of the Supreme Court was a big "take that!" in response to Obama's election.

On the way out, we became lodged in a human logjam between the barrier fences, a line of porta-potties, and blockading tour buses. We finally made it through and scooted around a second line of porta-potties to escape the crushing crowds. There was a bit of mayhem and people were stymied on how to get out of the Mall. My legs were stiff from standing in the cold, and it was nice to begin walking again. We walked up 19th Street to Connecticut Ave. all the way to Woodley Park. By then we were so cold, exhausted, and hungry that we stopped in at Open City. It had been so long since I last ate breakfast, I think my stomach didn't know what to do with a dose of hot food. After eating, Kirsten and I hobbled the rest of the way home, opened up some wine, took a bath, and slobbed around for the rest of the day. We left the apartment that morning just after 8 AM and didn't return until about 4:45 PM. Yes, it was a long day in the cold, but it was worth it.

Kirsten and I were talking about it, and we agree that we are glad to be living in DC during this historic time, and that we have the chance to experience it and partake in it firsthand. She wonders if this is our version of Woodstock or the 1963 March on Washington... if this is our touchstone event defining the cultural politics of our generation.

Arizona Trip

Many of you may know I've been in Arizona for the past week or so. It's been a good trip. I got to spend time with my parents, did a lot of writing at ASU, and got to see my dog. I thought I'd post a few pictures. Normally Gunner and Ed roughhouse (Gunner wants to play; Ed is a cranky old man) but here they are being cute because they want to get on the carpet with everybody else.

I don't condone of this behavior, but some people play with Gunner this way.
Gunner after conquering South Mountain (I'm not telling him we didn't go all the way to the top!).

Arizona

I'm back in Phoenix for a little over a week. My primary purpose it to start work on a chapter for a book with my old advisor, but I'm also here to see family, friends, and my dog. It's nice to be back, but a little strange. I have to admit I like Phoenix, especially the weather and the mountians close by, but the urban sprawl has gotten a little out of control. There's a few industrial and business centers in the Phoenix metro area, but everything else is residences and commercial plazas. I'm a bit surprised how much building is going on despite the bad economy. It is a little comforting to know that anything you might want to buy is just a few miles in some direction on the grid.

I've been here since this weekend, but this week I'll start revisiting my favorite restaurants. Plus I need an infusion of good Mexican cuisine to last me another year.