Dave Schumaker

So I’m leaving school today and walking up the platform to catch a train home. A little old lady is in front of me running up the platform. I notice that her backpack is open, so I jog up and catch her to inform her about this. As she pulls it off her back to close it, she drops a sweater and folder. Then she exclaims “OH MAN!!! I HAVE TO GET TO WORK!!!!” all while she’s trying to close her backpack (and having a bit of trouble). And then she starts wailing! “OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! OHHHH NO. OHHHHHHHHH!” Then she picks up her stuff, gets on the train and continues to wail. And wail. And wail for the entire ride home!

Oh man! I’m sorry to have brought bad news to her life. 🙁 Good grief, just by the mere act of me talking to people, I can make them cry. That makes me feel great. 😛

I encounter the craziest people on these trains. Last year, another little old lady sat next to me on the ride to school and proceeded to tell me her life story… despite me having headphones on! And then she mentioned her boyfriend Jason. Then she would ask me “Oh! Did I tell you about my boyfriend Jason?? He is great!” Then a few moments later, “You know my boyfriend Jason? He’s great!” And then she proceeded to ask me again if she told me about her boyfriend!

So cook some popcorn and pull up a chair, and I’ll tell you about how I discovered a roommate’s obsession with downloading PORN!

Beware, this post contains massive quantities of computer sleuthing/nerdiness and might be boring to your average reader… Continue reading “Computer Sleuthing!”

A project that I’ve been wanting to get off the ground for quite awhile is coming to fruition! A site strictly dedicated to geology news! Check it out. 🙂

I’ve written about this before, but it’s really sad that two people who were awesome friends at one point in history probably won’t ever speak to each other again. It’s even worse when the friendship ended for rather dubiously weak reasons.

Anyway, for some odd reason, I had an urge to try to start our friendship over again. Perhaps it’s because she’s been on my mind lately. Or how random things associated with her seem to keep coincidentially popping up. Or her best friend sending me an email that said she “missed having me around.”

After exchanging a few emails dealing with random science stuff, I asked her if she’d like to get together for lunch one day, just to talk, when I’m home for spring break. The response I received flat out rejected that idea, or even the idea of friendship. So much for trying to be mature and extend an olive branch. That makes one feel like crap. The tone of this email (as well as the initial email that set things in motion a year ago, or rather, killed them) and its negative message make it seem as if I did something to wrong her. Why is there so much animosity there? For no apparent reason too.

Regardless, the email this evening stated that “I am being direct and honest when I say that I have moved on in life.” Moved on from what exactly? Not to mention a recent email reply that said, “I’ve been thinking about you lately.” It just seems rather curious to claim to have moved on and want nothing to do with someone when still interested about the events going on in their life (i.e., consistently checking their webpage roughly once a week… according to site access logs). Because “moving on” somehow involves knowing what’s going on in my life. Whatever.

So however petty it may seem, I’ve decided to ban that IP address from this website. I think it’s better for both of us. Though I have no illusions that the ban is fairly easy to circumvent if one is dedicated enough, but it is peace of mind for me. And it helps her to actually move on. Of course it probably makes me look like a petty asshole, but I no longer care what her opinion of me is anymore. What’s the point?

After thinking about it for quite awhile tonight, I feel better though. I basically got the (final) answer I needed, and I guess I can move on myself, rather than still clinging to some false hope of trying to be on friendly terms again. It also solidifies my feelings and opinion of her, in an unfortunately negative way. Perhaps that makes it easier to forget someone. Perhaps that explains the animosity of her previous letters.

It looks like I did well in the student research competition. I just found out today that I won in my category (Mathematical and Physical Sciences) and will be going to the statewide competition in Sacramento at the end of April! Yeah!!

So I decided to take the time and compile a list of freely downloadable programs that I think most people should check out, given time and patience (and in some cases, how much they value their sanity). Sorry Mac users, this post is fairly PC-centric. Let’s begin! Continue reading “Useful and Helpful Program Recommendations”

Just got back from a jog in Golden Gate Park. There is something about hearing the wind gently blow through the trees and seeing bats fly above you that is just downright freaky, not to mention being one of the only people out going for a run. However, it was an awesome and peaceful sight, all the same.

Spring break is a mere 2 weeks away! This semester is flying by surprisingly fast. Though this might have more to do with that fact that I’m constantly busy. Next week is going to be pretty brutal: Petrology lab exam on the 15th, Volcanology midterm on the 16th and a Petrology lecture exam on 17th. I almost feel like my fellow friends who are on the quarter system at other schools. That alone would make a pretty intense week of finals.

Lucky me though, I am only on the semester system… this means that we can add more work! So on top of finding time for 3 exams to study for, I also need to write a 10 page paper in Engineering Geology and create a presentation based off of it, which are due on the 16th. Also need to finish a lab and complete a load of work for my group in Quaternary Geology for our grant proposal. Oh yes!

Speaking of presentations, I haven’t heard back from the Office of Graduate Studies yet in regards to my presentation for the student research competition. In the Physical Sciences/Math category, I competed against 3 other people, who were all grad students! I think I managed to hold my own though… 😉 I had quite a few people from class come to check it out and my sister even managed to stop by. That was definitely awesome to have support from both friends and family.

Information Overload

Regarding the overall title of this post, it doesn’t just apply to school, but to my whole life in general at the moment. I was thinking about how much information we have access to at our fingertips and how much amazing it is, yet also time consuming. For example, in my case, I’m a member of many different web communities. Among them: Kuro5hin, Metafilter, PhysOrg, Slashdot, and Wikipedia. Checking each of these sites involves quite a chunk of time (though at the same time I learn quite a lot from them).

I need to find out where I heard a quote that goes something like, “We learn more in a single day than a peasant in the medieval era did in their entire life span.” Sadly, what all this information overloading means is that the day simply isn’t long enough.

Cool! Just got an email: My presentation for the student research competition is Thursday at 9AM. It’s time to frantically work on my presentation!

I saw Tsunami Bomb on Saturday night for my thirteenth time! (That reminds me that I need to update my show list on this site) It was a special “bomb-squad” (as they call their fan club) party plus show. Being the incredibly dorky person that I am, I’m a member of this group and was able to buy a ticket for the pre-show event (which started at 4pm). They had something like 200 tickets available for this, but only 80 were sold. Evidentially, this is due to the fact that the show was in Petaluma (about 45 minutes north of here… and their own home town), while the majority of their fans are located in Southern California.

A similar event I attended for them last year in Southern California yielded a packed house. This time was pretty mellow, which was nice since it actually gave everyone a chance to talk to the band. Food and other goodies were provided and we all hung out for roughly 3 hours, before doors opened to the public and it was time to rock!

I saw A LOT of old friends that I haven’t seen in awhile, whom I’ve met through attending their shows… even people I know from Southern California. So it was kind of like a reunion for a bunch of us Tsunami Bomb nerds. It’s pretty neat to see people make a roadtrip go see a great band. I’ve done it myself a few times. 🙂

Their old bassist, Dominic (who parted the band on bad terms quite awhile ago, but I met “way back in the day”) decided to show up and check out the show. I haven’t talked to him in quite a long time, so that was great getting to see him again. He has his own band now (Love Equals Death) who I haven’t yet seen, but I kind of enjoy some of their stuff.. He also introduced me to his girlfriend and she told me about her band. I checked out some of their songs and they are quite awesome! Her band’s name is Gazelle. It’s punkish but has this interesting feel to it. If you’re interested in chick-fronted rock, check it out. For those who know my friend Janice, it is almost akin to her old band (though a little more melodic and with a harder edge), Get The Girl.

I also found a live video of Tsunami Bomb playing a song. You can check it out if you’re interested to see what I’m so excited about. Beware, it’s a 30 MB mpeg. Scroll down until you find the file by Tsunami Bomb.
PunkRockVids.Com Live Videos

School
So in school news (I decided to start breaking this down into sections since my posts tend to wander all over the place), I submitted my paper for the student research competition. I should hear from the Office of Graduate Studies this week to determine when I give a presentation on my topic that will be judged. I’m looking forward to that, especially since I think I’ll do pretty well.

Also, for some strange reason, I’ve also been thinking about a lot of strange physics type of problems recently (perhaps it’s something in the water I’m drinking?). One of them dealt with generators that produced energy based on tidal influxes and whether building lots of these would have some sort of negative effect on overall tidal energy. A nerdy thing to think about I suppose. Another thing I’ve been thinking about is something called Lagranian Points, which are points in space between two bodies where gravity between them is basically canceled out. It’s a pretty interesting phenomenon that I just heard about recently and have been reading about in various publications and articles.

After having some fuzzy thinking about all of this, I decided to email Maureen, who I know would have a lot to say on the matter and be able to offer me some unique insight. However, we haven’t talked in nearly a year, as our friendship basically came to a disastrous end. I guess I did it partly out of curiosity of these questions and partly out of some strange urge to talk to her again. She is one of the few people I know who I could ever have amazingly deep conversations with (I remember we stood in her driveway for 30 minutes one day debating over whether or not Pluto was actually a planet. Oh yes! That should solidify any lingering doubts you may have had over whether or not I’m a complete nerd). So I guess part of me misses those conversations and the friendship we had. It’s a shame that the whole dating thing had to get in the way of what was an awesome friendship and ultimately ruin things in the long run. I’d like to think we’re both quite mature people and able to handle that. Oh well. Anyway, she did write back and offered a great response that opened my mind to some new ideas on the subject (just like they used to).

Anyway, I think I’m being a little too nostalgic (perhaps it’s directly related to the fact that it is 1:20AM?). It’s definitely weird how you can go months without thinking about someone and then you just start randomly thinking about them again. The brain works in mysterious ways. Until next time…

If you’re a college student, it’s inevitable that the word “poor” will eventually become associated with you. I think for the most part I’ve managed, but this semester is especially difficult due to an intense school schedule and hardly any time to work. So I’ve been slowly watching my bank account dwindle, while limiting the amount of extra curricular activies that I do. Despite this, it still seems like my bank account is, erm… leaking. Serves me right for living in one of the most expensive cities in the United States.

The job with the California Geological Survey has apparently fell through, since state funding is basically nonexistant. At the moment, I have a few options on my table. I have some guitars I want to sell (hard to believe, I know) and possibly even my huge amp. At this point in time, I don’t think the band thing is going to pan out, and it’s just taking up space and money that could be used elsewhere. I’m also considering posting on craigslist and advertising for any sort of services for webpage design, since it’s something I know how to do and could probably make a few bucks off of.

I even applied at REI today too. While I hardly have any free time to work (and it will cut into study time most likely), it seems like a fun place to work and would be an environment where I could somewhat stimulate my brain, as I learn about various outdoor equipment. Unfortunately, the lady behind the counter said they are not currently hiring. I also briefly considered walking into Trader Joe’s, since they love me there and have said on many occassions that I am welcome back anytime. I think that is my “last resort” option though, since bagging groceries for 7 hours a day isn’t the most appealing task in the world.

Anyway, monetary issues have had me kind of down lately. Other than that, things are going alright. While I’m not a huge fan of rain, it’s amazing to walk around San Francisco at night when it is coming down. Hardly anyone is on the streets, few cars driving and things just appear so clean and crisp. It’s beautiful and peaceful. At least until you realize you stepped in a huge puddle and now your foot is soaked. 😉

Rock climbing at the gym tonight was one of the most fun things that I’ve ever had a chance to do. It was initially stressful, but Meghen kept working with me and offering support, eventually moving me to some bigger and bigger walls. I finally felt comfortable during my last climb of the night (which was convienently the hardest climb of the night for me). There is something about the thought of slipping and falling 40 feet that just isn’t appealing. Granted, the ropes and your belay person will save you, so that if you slip, nothing happens. But it takes awhile to get to that point.

My first few climbs, which were up a small wall were tense and I was nervous (hands were sweaty!), so it made it hard to grip some of the rocks, even with chalk. After doing a few climbs though, I felt comfortable on the wall and with the rope. Eventually, I decided that hanging in mid-air is kind of fun! It takes awhile to get over the feeling of “Oh my God, I’m going to die!!” Unfortunately I wasn’t able to complete the last climb of the night since I kept getting stuck on some slightly technical move and falling off the wall. We finally gave in since I was frustrated and my body was also EXHAUSTED from working so hard.

Meghen was pretty insane. Of course she’s been doing this for something like 6 years too. I definitely want to go back. The only downside is that membership to that gym is $60 a month! They have a student “discount” which only knocks $60 off of the normal initiation fee of $125. Ugh! I’m a poor college student, I don’t think I can justify that at the moment. 🙁 I might drop in once every few weeks though and just pay the walk-in fee. I have to say, it’s somewhat addicting.

Afterwards, we ate dinner at good old In N’ Out (which I’m beginning to think is like a church to me… I’ll explain that one some other time). Then we rented “The Motorcycle Diaries”, which I thought was a great movie. I’m not sure what I liked about it so much though, since the movie wasn’t that deep or particularly moving. However, it was filmed very well and it was interesting to see how Che Guevara started to develop his initial feelings and political beliefs and his empathy of others.

Anyway, it’s been an awesome and long day. Time for some well deserved rest!

Cool! Tomorrow, a friend is taking me to her gym to go rock climbing tomorrow evening. That’s something I’ve never done before, though I’ve thought it was definitely interesting. One of the first times I ever saw people doing that in person was during a geology trip to Devil’s Punchbowl in Southern California. It was pretty rad to see people scaling these vertical rock walls. Anyway, I’m looking forward to it! Perhaps this will be a new hobby to take up? Perhaps it will also help me conquer a slight fear of heights that I have. I’ll have to report on how it goes tomorrow evening.

A local online newspaper/magazine up here wrote one of the best article’s I’ve yet seen on this subject, documenting the potential earthquake dangers in the Bay Area. It’s five pages long. I got through the first page and thought it was interesting, so I emailed a link to my mom and my sister. Then I kept reading. Big mistake! I’ve managed to scare both my sister and mom out of their minds. Anyway, the article paints a pretty bleak picture for this area. It scares the crap out of me too, maybe that’s why I’m so interested in studying earthquakes however.

I’m also entering the research I did this summer for SCEC into an undergraduate research competition that is being held throughout all the CSUs. I submit a summary of the research on Monday. If they like it, I’ll have a chance to present it, along with other students at our school in two weeks. The top candidates in each category go on to represent SF State. So if all goes well, I’ll potentially have the chance to represent my school in Sacramento at the end of April! So I’ll probably spend the majority of this weekend writing my summary and preparing a presentation just in case!

Two weeks of school down! Of course I missed most of this week due to having a cold. That was a great experience and I ended up missing a lot of important classes. Hopefully this means that I won’t have to deal with being sick again for the rest of the semester and it is out of the way now. One can only hope at least.

It seems like I’ve been getting sick a lot more often since I’ve moved up here. I feel like it might have something to do with taking public transit. It seems like a lame excuse, but then again, being in close contact with all sorts of people who cough, sneeze and touch the hand bars, I think I’m exposed to quite a bit more up here. I rarely remember to wash my hands when I get off the bus or train too. Perhaps that is something I should be more vigilant about. Of course now I sound like one of those people obsessed with too many germs around.

Ah hah! Just found this little tidbit on a health website: Experts agree that scrubbing your hands is the first line of defense against bacteria and other germs that can cause colds, the flu, skin problems and more serious illnesses.

In other news: Judging by the past two weeks, school is going to be pretty intense. Part of me feels like I am already behind in work! Nonetheless, I just need to struggle on through it. I’m also applying for another summer internship in Southern California that sounds absolutely awesome. I’m crossing my fingers that I get it. The office is located in Riverside, so I can live with my parents for the summer and sublet my room up here. Anyway, I’m mailing everything out early next week. I’ll be anxious to hear from them.

In random news: Michelle and I randomly stumbled across a Mediterranean food place that makes these AMAZING falafels. I went back earlier this week and after paying, I noticed he gave me back too much change (3 cents instead of 2 cents). Since I was just out the door, I returned, handed him the penny and said, “You gave me 1 cent extra.” He laughed and then offered me praise! “Wow, that speaks a lot about you! You are a good person!” That definitely made my day. Of course I don’t think anyone else I passed on the street cared too much as I strutted by and said, “Hey! I am a good person. Ohhh yeah!”

On Friday, we had a themed party at our place, entitled a “P-Party.” The objective was to dress up as something that started with the letter “P”. We had physicians, people in pajamas, potheads (wearing a pot on their head), pilots, proctologists, purgatory, pirates, punks and even “peace.”

I decided to be slightly different and dress up as a phone! I spent a few hours on Friday making my costume. However, in a fit of absent-mindedness, I ironed the #3 on backwards! I didn’t realize it until after everything was already put together. Oh yes, that was awesome. I received quite a few compliments for it too! Of course the interesting placement of the zero was a unique conversation starter (and even lead to some interesting pickup lines).

Anyway, here’s to hoping I’ll get better in the next few days! It’ll definitely be nice to get out of the house, especially since the weather has been BEAUTIFUL.

School starts… erm, today! However, in a twist of amazing luck, my first class isn’t until 12PM. That means I can get some definite sleeping in time! Last week, I didn’t feel as though I was mentally prepared for this semester. After this weekend though, I think I’m ready to take it on. Before I explain, let’s talk about the events leading up to this weekend.

Last Sunday, I wanted to get out of the house, so I decided to go for a run. I haven’t done that in awhile, but it also served as a good chance to gauge my ankle. I ended up running two miles and my ankle didn’t bother me a bit! This is very good news and made me quite happy.

On Wednesday night, I decided to go play volleyball at the YMCA near downtown San Francisco. After not playing for nearly 3 months, it was nice to be on the court again. I think I did pretty well. I even recognized some people from the Berkeley YMCA when I played there. There were a few times when I was hitting the ball and landing that my ankle felt slightly sore, but it held up fine!

Finally, this weekend was the ultimate test. As many know, I’ve been wanting to do something before school starts. It seems like it has become somewhat of a tradition. A good way to clear my head and do some adventurous stuff before focusing on academics again. Initially, I planned a camping trip this weekend. As more and more people decided not to go, or weren’t able to go (and it eventually came down to just a girl I know and me going), we decided to scale it back to a one day trip so it wouldn’t be too ackward. So yesterday rolls around and things don’t work out for us to go. That’s fine! Life gives you lemons and you make lemonade (or something)! So I decide to throw a bunch of gear into my car on a whim and drive! I was dead set on going on an adventure before school starts, so I wasn’t going to let a lack of company stop me.

I drove two and a half hours down to Pinnacles National Monument. I’ve never been there before, but heard quite a bit about it from geology classes and friends. That place is AWESOME. I hiked a total of 15 miles over two days (and have a blister the size of a small country on my right foot to show for it). I definitely want to go back with some friends. The campsite was cool and the park itself was gorgeous.

They even have some caves there that I decided to explore!

I took quite a few pictures and put them up in my photo gallery:
My camping trip to Pinnacles National Monument.

Alright, in school related news, my schedule this semester looks like the following:
Engineering Geology
Petrology
Quaternary Geology
Volcanology

Yes! 4 geology classes. HOWEVER, I think I may try the “no-social life” approach that I almost perfected last semester by adding a fifth geology class on top of it: Geologic Mapping. Yes, I took that damn class at Cal State San Bernardino, but since you can’t be a geologist unless you have an ego, it is recommended I take this class since it supposedly teaches us more than the class I previously took.

Benefits:
1.) Theoretically, I can graduate THIS FALL. Realistically, the only thing left for me to work on in Spring of 2006 would be my senior thesis. Since I will be 24, I won’t be covered under my parent’s health insurance plan anymore, so it doesn’t matter whether I’m a full time student or not.

2.) My potential New Zealand trip in January/Febraury of 2006 may conflict with a class. If I get this out of the way… nothing to worry about conflicting! This means that after my fieldwork in New Zealand is wrapped up, I can spend an extra week or two to hang around and check out the scenery. That would be two whole months in New Zealand. NICE.

Drawbacks:
1.) 5 geology classes that ALL have field trips. That means I will basically have ZERO free weekends. That will also mean I can’t get a real job in order to pay bills (though I will be getting an AWESOME stipend next month for my help with the SF-ROCKS project).

2.) I want to go to grad school at Berkeley bad. Will I be able to focus with 5 classes and be able to pull off at least a 3.5 GPA (or more realistically, at least maintain a 3.0)?

3.) If I want to graduate by fall, that means I’ll have to be working on my senior thesis WHILE completing both Physics III, Chemistry II and one other crappy GE class in the fall. Unless… I can talk to an advisor and start working on my thesis over the summer?

Maybe I’ll go to all the classes this week and see what the work load is.

I’m back up north and ready to start school. Well, I shouldn’t say ready to start school though. However, there is still one week of winter break left before classes start.

My close friends from Southern California departed on Sunday night. It was a blast having them up here. There’s something about having your close friends from far away coming to visit you that is just awesome. We explored some new parts of the city that I haven’t spent much time in since I’ve moved up here. Those were some fun adventures.

I was able to check out some new music this week, courtesy of one of my geology friends, Peter. His uncle was playing a show at a small cafe. Definitely cool! It’s always inspiring to see musicians play in small intimate locations like that. Maybe one day, when I have free time…

In other random news, I applied for a position with the California Geological Survey. I should find out whether I get the job or not this week. I’m crossing my fingers. It sounds like it will be a fun job.

I’m hoping to do something this weekend before school starts. Basically one last hurrah before it’s time to get serious again. I’m thinking of a small little camping or hiking trip. Still some more planning to do. At the moment, Point Lobos or Pinnacles are looking like likely places.

Lastly, I’ve added some random pictures in the friends section of my gallery pages. A group pic from New Year’s Eve at Nic’s, and a few group pics from last weekend, as well as a few more random pics thrown in for good measure.

In 24 hours, I should be on the road and heading back towards home. The original plan was to have Dan and Nic ride with me and we would drive up to San Luis Obispo to meet up with Nate. We’d hang out in town for a bit, grab a bite to eat and then sleep. Then on Thursday, we’d all carpool up to San Francisco. This way would be nice since we’d break the trip up into 2 four hour segments. Thanks to the crazy storms of the past week, we may have to change up our plans. Highway 101 is closed thanks to landslides, so this eliminates a direct route to San Luis Obispo. Unless it’s cleared up by tomorrow, we may just have to push on towards S.F. and meet Nate up there on Thursday or Friday at my place. Ultimately, we’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings. It’s quite possible that they’ll have the 101 opened up by tomorrow evening since the storms are over.

This weekend, I spent some time hanging out with Brandee, a friend from USC that I made this summer during the internship for SCEC. For my birthday, she decided to take me to see a psychic. That was a fun/interesting experience. After driving around for a bit, we selected a psychic who was located about 3 blocks from where I used to live this summer. We walked in, told her what we wanted (a palm reading) and that was it. She went to work!

So what does my future hold? I will live to the ripe age of 82. I will not die from sickness or tragedy, just of old age. I’ll have 2 children, 1 female and 1 male. I’ll be married between the ages of 26 and 27. That was the general fluffy stuff in my opinion. Then she decided to delve into my past:

Lately, I’ve been seeking out too much advice from others and I need to just go with my gut feeling. (Interesting… I have been asking everyone and their mother about how I should plan this next semester after the hell I went through last semester. But then again, this seems like a general line you can feed to anyone)

I am disappointed with how I did in school recently. And I am not focusing on school as much as I should be. ( Okay, this is totally true. But then again, we’re right across the street from UCLA, it’s obvious I’m a college student. Most college students are striving to do better.)

She said that I went through some very difficult times two years ago. (This was downright wacky and scary. Exactly two years ago, I was in a relationship with someone that I thought was one of the most amazing people I had ever met that was is the midst of crashing into the ground. This was particularly difficult for me to deal with). But she says 2004 was better (she was right) and 2005 is going to be fantastic.

And lastly, apparently there is a girl in my life that I care for very much but she doesn’t necessarily feel the same way about me. (Err, I dunno about this. There are a lot of people I care about, so I can’t really think of who it would be). But she said to “give it time and things will change”. Of course she said this right in front of Brandee. By our body language, it’s obvious we aren’t dating, so maybe she was taking a stab in the dark? I’m not sure. Besides, that would violate my strict policy of not dating anyone from USC. 😛

We hung out at the Getty Center for a bit and then went to go to Dave and Buster’s. I started feeling naceous for some reason and had Brandee drive my car. Then I proceeded to spew my brains out all over the sidewalk on a few occassions. Oh yes. That was classy. It was nice of the psychic to tell me that I was going to be sick too! Oh right, she didn’t. 🙁

Evidentially I caught a nice flu bug that both my mom and dad were having at the exact same time. I was eventually able to drive the hour and a half from Brandee’s house back to my parent’s house (thankfully without having to empty the contents of my stomach). The rest of Saturday night/Sunday was a disaster in terms of this flu. Thankfully I am over it now though! I totally owe Brandee for driving us back to her place and putting up with all of that. She is the only person I know who has gotten a cheesy little Saturn to peel out. Hah!

Anyway, the next time I post, I should be back in the Bay Area!

It was exactly a year ago that I made the decision to move to San Francisco. I find it hard to believe how fast the time has flown by. A lot has happened since then. I feel like I’ve grown up quite a bit since I moved away and started living on my own, and have become quite a bit more responsible as well. Awesome changes all around. I think I have an interesting note I wrote down in a journal back in January of 2004 that pondered where I would be a year from now. I’ll have to dig it up when I return to S.F. in two weeks and post it. It’ll be an interesting comparison.

And where will I be in January of 2006? I’m going to New Zealand! (Still not official yet, but I am going to try to do everything in my power to go there). Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Also, I think that I’ve finally conquered my irrational fear of roller coasters! I went to Magic Mountain yesterday with some friends and we went on nearly all of the rides! I had a blast and definitely wouldn’t mind going back again. Towards the end of the night, we all started feeling queezy though (of course most of that might be attributed to our New Year’s Party the night before). Regardless, it was a good time.

Anyway, changing to a more somber subject, it is amazing to see the amount of support people are showing for victims of the tsunamis. Right now, people have donated nearly 12.5 million to the Red Cross through Amazon.com’s donation system. The Red Cross alone is reporting nearly $48 million dollars in donations, which is incredible. Millions more have been donated to other organizations as well.

Regarding the tsunamis, my website apparently has a high Google ranking for anything relating to tsunamis. However, this is attributed to the fact that I have quite a few posts and photo galleries on this website dedicated to Tsunami Bomb, one of my favorite bands. In the last few days, my website has gotten over 400 hits from people searching Google and other search engines for tsunami related information. As a consequence of this, the search engines take them to my Tsunami Bomb photo galleries!

I know for a fact this isn’t what a lot of these people care to see. So to help facilitate the spreading of information, I coded up an interesting script that runs on all pages of the website. Basically, it uses PHP and it detects if the referring URL contains the words “tsunami” and “bomb.” If so, then the script doesn’t do anything, taking the user directly to the photo galleries, which is most likely what they want to see. However, if it detects the word “tsunami” but WITHOUT the word “bomb”, the script then intercepts the incoming visitor and redirects them to a special page I setup with information on the tsunami. You can view that page here.

I have to say, I absolutely LOVE using PHP for web design stuff. It is quite powerful and you can do some awesome things with it.

Anyway, for those interested (or for future hits from Google that are searching for how to do PHP redirects) I’ll post the code below for your own use.

< ?php //Some source code taken from this page: http://us3.php.net/strpos //Modified by David Schumaker (Dec 31, 2004) function findStr($search, $target) { $matches = 0; $search = strtolower($search); $target = strtolower($target); $output = ""; // Create the "search" array, which holds all our search terms $search = explode("*",$search); // You could change this to: '$search = explode(" ",$search);' if you wanted your search terms to be split by a space. $pos = 0; for ($i=0; $i // Check if the current search term is in our target if (strpos($target, $search[$i], $pos) != '' && strlen($search[$i])>0) { $pos = strpos($target, $search[$i], $pos); $matches++; } if (strlen($search[$i])<1) { $matches++; } } if ($matches == count($search)) { return true; } else { return false; } } $searchurl = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']; //find name for "tsunami" $searcht = findStr("tsunami",$searchurl); //search for tsunami bomb $searchb = findStr("bomb",$searchurl); //search for www.rockbandit.net (coming from within my domain name) $searchrb = findStr("www.rockbandit.net",$searchurl); //search function to determine where to go if(($searcht==1) && ($searchb==1)) { //Search relates to Tsunami Bomb, do nothing } else if(($searcht==1) && ($searchb==0) && ($searchrb==1)) { //Do nothing, search contains rockbandit, coming from within own website. } else if(($searcht==1) && ($searchb==0) && ($searchrb==0)) { //Search relates to tsunamis - redirect $URL="http://www.rockbandit.net/tsunami.php"; header ("Location: $URL"); exit(); } else { //Search does not relate to Tsunamis at all. Do nothing. }?>

I’m sure most people have heard about the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck yesterday in the Indian Ocean. Upwards of 12,000 dead at the moment, mainly from tsunamis. I’ve been reading news reports throughout the day and this is only getting worse. I donated some money to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, who are appealing for roughly 6.5 million dollars to assist victims of the earthquake. Definitely donate if you get a chance.

Second order of news relates to the asteroid 2004 MN4 that was discovered this summer. Based on observations carried out over the past 6 months, astronomers concluded that there was a small probability of impact with Earth when it passed by in 2029. Initially estimates placed this at a 1/233 chance of happening. Further observations on Thursday required astronomers to revise their estimates to a 1/63 chance of impact and observations on Friday brought that number down to a 1/45 chance! That is still a 98% probability of it completely missing earth, but is still “low” enough to warrant quite a bit of interest. It will be interesting to see what further observations conclude in the next week.

However, using the Earth Impact Effects Calculator that was created by researchers at the University of Arizona, one can plug in some info based on what we know about this asteroid. While this asteroid is dangerous on a regional scale, it isn’t big enough to create global extinctions. That is somewhat reasssuring, though if 2004 MN4 were to hit, it would still leave a crater nearly 3 miles in diameter.

Third order of news: I saw The Phantom of the Opera tonight with my sister, aunt, cousin and my parents. While I haven’t seen the play yet (due to circumstances not working out every time it’s in town), I decided to go anyway! The movie was absolutely phenomenal! At the moment, it probably ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time. If you have any interest in the musical, check this thing out.

Lastly, in a bit of a geek fest earlier today (and taking time out from reading earthquake news), I coded up a neat little search page with the help of this website. I also added a search box. This allows you to search for any sort of subject matter in my blog and it will bring up a list of all posts that contain that word or phrase. Pretty nifty in my opinion. For example: How many posts do I talk about guitars? 🙂 Just a small example of what’s possible.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great weekend whether they celebrate Christmas or not. It was definitely great to see a lot of family that I haven’t seen in awhile. Plus… my reunion with pumpkin pie!

Papers turned in! That means that this semester is officially over.

Now it’s time to begin packing in earnest. It looks like I’ll be able to leave tonight at some point.