Earlier this week I was at Cal Tech. That was my first time at that campus. That is such an amazing place. Their seismology building is just incredible. The more I think about it, the more I am definitely contemplating doing seismology in grad school. I talked to my research mentor about this today. Here is the catch: Most grad schools want applicants in seismology to come from a geophysics background. Thus far, the schools that I have gone to only offer programs in geology. This means that to stand out about the rank and file of other grad school candidates, I need something more on my plate (besides internships). It looks like I will be minoring in physics afterall!

This is something I’ve always contemplated in the back of my mind, but was never sure if I could do it, or even if I should do it. Now that there is a purpose for it, I’m thinking about it. Looking at the requirements for a minor in physics at SFSU, I will only need 12 more units after this semester! That is a whooping 3 or 4 classes (depending on units). Holy crap! Sign me up. As my sister (a fashion design major) said, “damn, maybe I’ll minor in physics too!” That might push my graduation date back an extra semester, but it is worth it in the long run. I’m willing to greet physics with open arms. Here’s to hoping it’s greeting isn’t a punch to the stomach. 🙂

I put a cheesy video of me touring Michelle and David’s new apartment in the downloads section. Or you can directly download it here. It is a 34 second, 1.2mb download. You’ll need DivX codecs installed on your machine or a DivX Player to see the video. If you already have either, don’t worry!

I registered for classes today too. The schedule for this semester is 15 units (ack!), consisting of:
Sedimentology and Stratigraphy, Mineralogy, Physics 3 and Oceans and Atmospheres. Should be a piece of cake. Righto!

This weekend has two more nights of Tsunami Bomb scheduled. I love seeing that band perform. They have so much energy and are so friendly as well. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be back in town on Sunday night then if people want to do anything. I need to start thinking about stuff for Nic and Kristen’s wedding too. So much to do!

I am back down in Southern California. My sister and I drove back down yesterday, and spent nearly 10 hours on the road as we took the 101 freeway down instead of the 5. Then we made a few scenic detours through LA and showed her my apartment here. (She was less than impressed by it to say the least!)

On Saturday night, I had yet another “Wow, this city is so small!” experience. Back in March, I met this amazingly awesome girl from Berkeley. Just crazy intelligent, great sense of humor, into excellent music and an all around awesome person. We hung out, even had a dinner together. Then never really spoke to each other again. That was kind of a bummer. Evidentially, the power of my dorkiness was too much for her. Hah. In anycase, I saw her at the show last night! I haven’t seen her in 4 months (not to mention that she lives in Berkeley), and I see her at a music club in San Francisco the one day I am up there this whole summer. This city never ceases to amaze me.

The show itself was awesome! One of the best shows I’ve seen Tsunami Bomb play (that was my 9th time seeing them). I guess it was extra special since they were basically on their home turf. Before the show, I was hanging out with some fans I know from their message boards, whom I’ve seen at other shows. Mike, TB’s guitarist (who I bought the guitar from last year), was walking around the sidewalk before the doors opened and saw us. He said hello and remembered every single one of us. It was great getting to talk with him, he is one of the friendliest people I have ever come in contact with. Once we were inside, we chatted about various guitar stuff as well. After the show, we were all back on the sidewalk and got to hangout with the band some more. Em, their singer, stayed until every single person who wanted an autograph was gone. That is so great to see. They are just the raddest group of people.

This weekend made me realize just how much I miss the Bay Area. I’ve been kinda down today now that I’m back down in So Cal. There’s things I love about both parts of the state though. However, I cannot wait to go back up north. Only around 5 more weeks or so to go though.

The one thing that I am kind of saddened for is that I haven’t really had time to enjoy to summer. Basically the weekends are the only time I am free. I’ll have a week and a half between when my internship ends and when school starts, so perhaps I’ll take a mini-vacation sometime then.

Anyway, off to a bonfire with the roommates and their friends! Ta ta.

I arrived at Michelle and David’s new apartment in Berkeley about a half hour ago. Oh man. I am so unbelievably jealous! I thought my place was awesome, their’s just completely blows mine away! (At least I have a rad scenic view!)

Basically, when our parent’s next come up to visit, they are going to have to look at my place first, otherwise they won’t be impressed.

My place: “Oh wow, this is nice.”
Michelle’s: “THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!”

They won’t have an internet connection until July 15th though. Whatever is one to do? Thanks to the miracles of modern technology (laptop plus this wireless card), I am now borrowing one of their neighbor’s internet connections. 🙂 It’s scary how easy it is to find an unsecured, wireless internet connection almost anywhere now. Though it is also quite convienent.

Anyway, time for bed. It’s nice to be back here in the Bay Area. Even if it’s only for 2 whole days.

Goodnight.

Today I was sitting on a hill near Mulholland Drive, babysitting a radio antenna for an hour or so, while we were testing shooting signals back and forth over a distance of several miles. It’s quite hot and lonely as well. To my surprise, a car pulls off the road and an older man gets out and strolls over to me. Being my good natured self, I think, “Oh! A new friend to talk to and kill some time!”

The conversation goes like this:
Me: “Hello!”
Him: “That looks like an interesting setup you have there.”
Me: “Yes, it’s part of a seismology experiment we’re doing at UCLA.”
Him: “Seismology. That’s nice. Say, I’ll tell you what you should be studying!”
Me: (With baited anticipation) “Hah, what’s that?”
Him: “The power of God, that’s what!”

Err. Excuse me? So here I am, basically in the middle of nowhere, and a crazy person still finds me! To talk to me about the power of his friend evidentially. He talked about things like how he got back from a crusade (which immediately scared me) and it was amazing to see all these kids there experience the “power of the lord.” What was this power?

Him: “Well the Reverend asked if everyone could feel his power, and suddenly, everyone in the room fell over!”

At this point, I pulled our laptop out of the case and started frantically pushing buttons. Unfortunately, there was no magic escape key for him, but I figured if enough interesting windows flashed on the screen, he’d leave me alone! After carrying on for about 10 more minutes over this bizzare event he went to, he finally went on his way. I was saved! Well, maybe not by his standards, but it was good enough for me. 😛

Alright, I was going to go to S.F. on Saturday morning, but I’ve decided on a whim to go now… as in, like 10 minutes. 🙂 So this will give me a little more time to relax and see people, and it will be nice to not drive up one day, only to drive down the next day.

Off I go!

I spent quite a bit of this weekend setting up a new system for web blogs on my site. The system is called WordPress. This should make it about a million times easier to post journals and things on my website.

For those who aren’t familiar with how blogs work, most of them have a simple system to post. Basically, the user opens up a special webpage, types their entry into a text box and clicks “Post!” The website is automatically updated and everything is set. Very simple, quick and easy. However, that isn’t that way I’ve been doing it for the past 9 months I’ve had this. I directly edited my webpage, typing the entry into it, saving the page, then uploading the new page to my server. It was a fairly tedious process. Everytime I wanted to create archive pages, I had to manually create them.

Now with WordPress, I have the amazingly awesome functionality of all these other blogs on the internet! I can simple type my latest entry into a textbox and click post it. The webpage and archives page are all automatically taken care of. I’m quite pleased with this so far actually! The most noticable improvement is the monthly archives list on the left hand side of the screen. Commenting is now also much easier.

Of course importing all my previous blog entries was a huge pain, since I had to import every single one of those by hand, as well as retype all the comments that had been made for previous posts. Anyway, after slaving around, it looks like everything is in working order. If you notice any quirks or problems, feel free to email me.

Anyway, on the way back home to Redlands on Friday night, I was driving in the fast lane, which entails going about 75 miles an hour. All of a sudden, my headlights shine on a medium sized dog that suddenly appears right in the middle of my lane! I screamed and instinctively swerved, flying across two lanes of traffic. That was incredibly frightening. This was still near LA, so the fast lane has absolutely no shoulder. How the dog got there is mind boggling. It’s also scary to think that if there was a car to the left of me, I would have slammed into it, since I just completely jerked the steering wheel without even thinking. Ugh, that could have been disastorous. I really doubt the dog lasted long, since the traffic flow was somewhat heavy. 🙁

This weekend, I hung out with Nate, Nic and Dan for fourth of July celebrations. Nic, Nate and myself went to the University of Redlands to watch the large fireworks show they put on every year. My thinking was fairly clouded though. Here we are celebrating our country and being patriotic while on the other side of the world, people our age are dying in vain, for an unwarranted war. Eh.

After this, Dan and I went to his brother’s house for a party. It was a very cool group of people there. There were some interesting people I got to meet, which is always a great experience. It was nice to hang out with them.

This next week is pretty busy, especially in regards to music. On Wednesday, I am going to try to see Terra Naomi play and on Friday, I definitely want to check out Angie Mattson again too. Such great, talented musicians, who both have amazing voices! It also looks like I’ll be going up to San Francisco for Saturday and Sunday. Before I found out about my internship, I bought a ticket to see Tsunami Bomb up in S.F. Granted, it was only a $9 ticket, but I still want to see them. Plus my trip will serve two purposes, as I’ll be bringing my sister back home for a week as well. It will be nice to visit the city. I already miss it so much. Hopefully there will be enough time to say hi and hang out with some people up there too! (Harmony! :-P) I’ll keep everyone posted.

Well, here is the first test of the new blog system. Let’s cross out fingers. 🙂

“My rights are denied by
Those least qualified
Trading profit for pride
But it’s okay
Everything’s backwards
In Americana my way”

-“Americana”, The Offspring

Last night my roommates and I went and saw Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”. The movie was almost 2 hours long, and had a few parts where the movie seemed to drag. Overall though, Moore does an excellent job of exposing Bush’s false pretense for war with Iraq. The amount of lies this administration has spouted is disgusting. And somehow, Bush is still running neck and neck with Kerry! Ugh, what is wrong with this country? Anyway, definitely check out that movie if you get a chance. It’s completely worth it.

While I’m still somewhat undecided on this election (I personally don’t care much for Kerry), I’m positive I won’t be voting for Nader in this election. I’m not too thrilled with him. Sadly, he tapped Peter Camejo to be his running mate! Camejo ran for governor under the Green Party banner for the California recall election. After seeing him speak at the antiwar protests in San Francisco, as well as watching him in the televised debates, I think he is one of the best orators I have seen. Had he been nominated as the Green Party’s presidential candidate, I would have easily voted for him. Of course there’s the whole issue of “how bad do we want Bush out of the White House?” I always have believed voting isn’t about strategy, it’s about what your heart wants. Of course my utter contempt for the current administration has me somewhat confused on what to do. Kerry is going to need every vote he can get. Ugh. There is still around 5 months to decide I suppose. We’ll have to see what happens. In the meantime, how about some political propaganda?

One Thousand Reasons
Antiwar.com
Open Secrets

Today I went to USC for a communications workshop that was setup for all the SCEC interns. I definitely have to say, UCLA is way better in my opinion! Though USC is a private school, and a fairly prestigious one at that. Still, I am totally in love with UCLA.

One of the speakers today was Dr. Lucy Jones, who many of us Southern Californians are familiar with since all the news networks interview her after a major earthquake. She was quite an energetic person. She was telling us some funny stories, such as the seismologists at their Pasadena office have come up with a new naming convention for earthquakes. It is based on how many news vans show up in front of their office. The recent San Diego quake that was located offshore and didn’t damage anything was classified as a “6 truck earthquake.” Hah!

Anyway, I’m off to go run! Last week I ran a mile in 7 minutes and 41 seconds, that is so awesome for me!

I took one of those personality tests recently from www.colorquiz.com. In general, I have always found the results to be fairly accurate. I think the latest test nailed me for the most part, though it seems to make a big deal of me being distressed. I don’t really think I’m too distressed over everything going on in my life though. I’ve been pretty damn happy as of of late if you ask me! 🙂

Anyway, my results:

Saw the Angels beat up on the Oakland A’s tonight too. It was nice hanging out with the friends again, especially in the middle of what appears to be a long week! So many calculations and so much research to do. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day! Anyway, some possible exciting finds in our seismology research today, so I’m pretty excited to go back into the lab tomorrow and try some more stuff.

Last night I saw Angie Mattson play at a small restaurant/bar type thing near Hollywood. I found out about her nearly 6 months ago when I was perusing the ads on craigslist for fellow musicians. After checking out some mp3’s, I was totally hooked. It was rad finally getting to see her perform live, she has a phenomenal voice. MP3’s are available at her website. If you get a chance, definitely check this talented woman out.

Every time I see a great band, person or group perform, I get so inspired! I would love to play music. Money isn’t even an issue really, I’d just love to find someone or a group of people and play! It’s so awesome when you have people to play with and things just click. At the very least, this will give me some motivation to write some more stuff!

Shortly after my last posting, I discovered a tradition at UCLA entitled the “midnight yell.” Basically, everyone in the neighborhood screams in unison at the stroke of midnight. I don’t mean scream as in cheer, I mean scream as in horrible, blood curdling, someone-is-stabbing-me-with-a-knife scream. Now, multiply that by about 500 people! I thought I was the star of a new horror movie!

Last night, I didn’t know what to expect, but I decided to prepare anyway. As the clock approached midnight, I heard lots of commotion outside. Allow me to introduce you to another tradition at UCLA: The Undie Run. Yes, hundreds of students gather to run down the street in their underwear at midnight! I have the pictures to prove it! Apparently, both of these traditions happen every year during finals week to help relieve stress. Definitely a great approach at doing it!

My sister flew home from San Francisco this weekend, so that will be nice to see her and hang out again. With my mom moving back to Mentone, the living conditions are going to be pretty cramped this weekend at the old house. Hopefully it will be done soon though! It is an incredible place to live, with the creek flowing through our yard, having the house complete would just be icing on the cake!

I’ve been running 2 miles everyday since I’ve been here. Trying to get back into my old workout routine. Evidentially I am seeing some results! I ran the fastest mile I have done in years tonight! 8 minutes exactly. I was hoping to break 8 minutes, but still, that is awesome! I think the last time I broke 8 minutes was in 9th grade! And I still had the energy left over to run the second mile! It’ll be good to be back in shape, especially if Dan and I get around to doing some hiking this summer.

Seriously! What college guy wouldn’t dream of sharing an apartment with four girls? They are such a fun group though. This is finals week at UCLA, so everyone has been pretty much cooped up in their rooms and studying the past few days.

Doing some maintenance, I found out that my gallery was hacked sometime in the last few days. Four full albums were wiped out. I’m in the process of restoring them as I write this. Looks like it is time to upgrade to the latest version of gallery. That’s what I get for skimping on security updates.

I attended a few graduation parties for friends at Cal State San Bernardino this weekend as well as the CSUSB geology club banquet. Seeing everyone again was so rad. Of course it’s quite possible I might not see some of these people again, as we all move on to bigger and better things. Some pictures with friends this weekend:

With Jessica
With Amber
Most of the geology crew

The Cassini-Huygens mission has also returned some fascinating photos from its first encounter with Saturn’s moon Phoebe. Check out the awesome photos on the website. Hmm, all I seem to do anymore is talk about astronomy. How about some cool geology news?

Apparently there was a 5.2 earthquake today off the coast of San Diego. Despite having a job this summer where I am doing nothing but looking at earthquakes, it might be surprising to learn that I didn’t find out about this earthquake until around 5 hours later when I checked the messages on my phone. A friend of mine from SFSU has an internship in San Diego this summer and called about it. Apparently some people as far away as Ventura felt it, though I didn’t feel anything and I was sitting in a chair at that time. Pulling up a record for a seismogram at Cal Tech (which is about 25 minutes east of here), you can see the wave isn’t much bigger than the background noise.

I wonder when our turn is though? I’ll probably be back up in Northern California if/when that 6.5 hits. We’ll have to see!

I ended up driving around Beverly Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains today, looking at some spots for radio sites we want to use in an experiment. The houses up there are just incredible! There is a lot of money invested into this tiny area of Southern California. It’s pretty weird to think that I live minutes away from all these famous stars and musicians. Perhaps I’ll accidentally bump into Angelina Jolie while going for a run and be able to swoon her with my knowledge of rocks! Hmm.

Anyway, that is really all the news there is at the moment. Besides pretty much working all the time, there isn’t much else going on! I guess that kinda nullifies the title of this post. I did get my grades for last semester at SFSU. Let’s just say I’m not as happy with them as I could have been. I mainly attribute that to the fact that I was sick for a week and ended up missing some MAJOR stuff, which ended up having drastic repercussions on my grade.

As I am writing this, Venus is currently transiting the sun! Unfortunately, us folks on the west coast are part of the 25% of the Earth’s surface that won’t be able to see the transit. That doesn’t stop geeks like me though! Using a program I love called Celestia, I can create what the current situation is right at this very moment as I write! Here is a screen shot from Celestia. The black dot on the face of the sun in the lower left is Venus:

Cassini also goes into orbit around Saturn at the beginning of next month. That is going to be another exciting mission that will return tons of amazing data. This is shaping up to be an awesome year in astronomy. Especially on the heals of losing the Galileo spacecraft back in December.

I went home this weekend, which is nice to be able to do. Got to hang out with my parents, see the animals, do laundry for free as well as grocery shopping. Just a nice time to relax. Even got a chance to hang out with Dan as well. I’ll probably be heading back into Redlands almost every weekend while I am down here. Not too bad, since it’s only an hour and a half drive.

UCLA is a nice campus! Their geology building is by far the nicest that I have ever been in. Lots of well lit displays, even interactive stuff, like what we tried to setup at CSUSB (on a limited scale) last year. I have keys to the geology building, keys to my office (which I share with a grad student), a UCLA ID-Card and my own UCLA email address! I’m set to go here! 🙂 We’ll have to see if I get accepted here for grad school, that is still a ways off yet though.

Last night and today, I’ve been designing a database to sort through about 35,000 earthquakes (M2.0 and greater) that have happened since 1990. Since I don’t want to sort through these quakes by hand to find the data I need, I decided to put my geek skills to use and make a computer do it for me! The database is almost complete, and I can sort earthquakes by size, location, depth and even date they occurred. The second part I need to implement is a system to determine what stations were able to record the earthquake, as well as a system that lets me choose one station and show all earthquakes it recorded from a certain area. It is some pretty complex stuff, but I’ll probably have that done within the next few days, then I can start actually LOOKING at earthquakes. I’ll probably post the database online. It’s a version based on what is available at www.data.scec.org, but you’ll be able to do slightly more complex stuff with this version.

On Friday, the Cal State San Berdo geology club is having an end of the year banquet. I’m going to be able to attend. I’m excited to see a lot of these folks again, many for possibly the last time since they are graduating! 🙁 What a great group of people though.

The last thing I wanted to write about was an awesome website called Wikipedia. It dubs itself as an “open content” encyclopedia, which basically means that it is fully user editable. See a subject that needs modification or has some incorrect material? You can add to it, or even create new articles! This openness leaves it prone to some vandalism, but they have thousands of users who are constantly tooling around. Overall, it is a great community website. I’ve been getting quite involved in it recently… you can check out my contributions on my user contributions page. I’ve added some rudimentary articles on the Santa Ana River, Salt Domes and Mt. San Gorgonio. Maybe in the future people will go back and add more content to them. Wikipedia already boasts more entries than the Encyclopedia Britannica! (However, average word counts per article are different. Britannica has roughly 600 words per article while Wikipedia only has 350). Definitely check it out and try looking up some articles, I think you’ll be pretty impressed overall!