Dave Schumaker

I just got back home from my going-away/summer-is-here party I had with people from work. Not that many people there, but I was definitely happy with who showed up. It was quite a fun experience and we talked until quite late. It’s kind of a bummer to have to take off when I’m just starting to really get to know people. Ah well, in 3 more months I’ll be back and things can pick up where they left off. Anyway, to Emily, Harmony, Julie, Katherine and Ben, I thank you guys!

Interestingly enough, as I was riding the bus home tonight, this guys leans over and quietly says something to me. I didn’t understand, so I asked him, “what was that?” His response was:
I hope I see you again.

!!

So, it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, I’m on a crowded bus in the middle of San Francisco and a guy is hitting on me. What do I do? I turn and flash him a smile and say “thanks!” He tells me to have a goodnight and gets off the bus.

Luckily, this event was cancelled out by a beach bonfire we had last night for the geology crew. Lot’s of hot dogs and drinks were provided for this end of the year bash. Musical instruments were even brought! I brought my guitar and jammed with one of my professors. Part way through the night, two girls from another bonfire came up and wanted to kidnap me and take me back to their bonfire. That was… interesting.

Anyway, it’s quite late/early, so I think I should head off for now. Goodnight.

Well summer is almost upon us. You know what that means! Time to do away with the disheveled hair. My excuse for growing it out was basically because San Francisco is cold, and I need something to keep my head warm. In reality, I was just lazy and cheap! Anyway, here I am, all brand new and shiny! And a few pounds lighter now that all that hair is gone…

I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately. Probably because I’m leaving for a few months and feeling like I’m already going to miss it up here. This is from Sunset Peak, which is basically our front yard. 🙂 Our house is the green house in the lower left hand corner by the tree. You can just barely make out the towers for the Golden Gate in the distance. Here is another from the peak, looking towards downtown San Francisco.

One final down, one to go. Plus two labs I need to finish (late), two projects for geomorphology I need to finish and a presentation on methane-driven extinctions. Ah yes, nothing like 7 days left in the semester and a workload equivalent to a whole quarter. This weekend is going to be hectic too! Last day of work tomorrow, geology bonfire at the beach on Friday night, and a going away party on Saturday night. Bring it on! I work best when under insane pressure anyway! (Though that probably isn’t a healthy thing at all!)

I forgot to mention in earlier posts, I finally sold my Epiphone Les Paul Gothic the other day. Nice to get that out of the way. Now I need to get rid of the Gretsch and all will be well.

This is my “I-Should-Be-Studying-But-I’m-Going-To-Do-Everything-Else-First” post. My room is always the cleanest when I have a project due or things to study for. A favorite quote I’ve seen on a Despair poster about procrastination: “Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now.”

I’ve been getting quite a few emails lately about not buying gas on May 19th. I decided to visit a great site on the internet, entitled the Urban Legends Reference Pages to check this email out. I use it quite a bit and it is a great resource for anything that sounds too fishy (such as those “forward this to everyone you know and you will get $500 from Bill Gates!”). According to snopes, this May 19th “gas out” will have absolutely no effect. Basically what needs to happen is a boycott of larger proportions to send a message. As the snopes article states:

David and I were jamming together the other day as well. Whenever we hang out, I get so inspired to play and write more music. He just has this awesome energy about him. I’m so happy my sister found such a rad guy. I showed him the latest on the song I was working on awhile ago and he was really excited about it. Perhaps I can actually finish this thing and do a good job recording. Our friend Phil is in New York working on an audio recording internship, so when he gets back, I’ll have to see if he’ll want to help out. Maybe by then, this thing will be done!

In astronomy news, there is some pretty rad stuff happening soon. On June 8th, Venus will transit across the face of the sun. Unfortunately, us living on the west coast won’t be able to see it. Doh! Of course if you are super geeky like me, you simulate it using a program called Celestia.

On my way back home from school today, I looked up as I was opening the door and discovered we evidentially have a new roommate!

Also, courtesy of my awesome friend Harmony, I came across an interesting website that talks about a photographic interview. It sounds like fun and once I find some time, I am going to try it! Well enough with the massive link propagation! Talk to you soon.

Things are quickly winding down. I really can’t believe how fast the past four months have flown by. What a wild trip it’s been. In two weeks, I should be back down in Southern California for a day, then Dan and I are going to head up for a quick hiking trip into the Sierras. After that, if things work out properly, I come back down and move into a new apartment in Westwood for the next 3 months. This time, I’ll only be an hour and a half from home, which isn’t too bad.

I finally had the real 90-day review yesterday at work. It went completely awesome! I scored a 30 cent raise and they told me to definitely come back at the end of summer. How awesome that went! My last day of work is on Thursday. I’m gonna miss that group of people.

On Wednesday there was a university-wide walkout that was supposed to be statewide, protesting the Guvernator’s fiscal policies that relate to the Cal State system. Not sure how well it went at other colleges, but there was quite a bit of noise at this one. I didn’t participate though. Way too much to do with finals coming up. However, the situation is pretty dire. They are cutting the engineering and dance programs here. The school can’t even afford to print up schedules for the fall semester! Some of us are worried that geology might be next on the hit list since we’re a fairly small program, but apparently we actually bring in quite a bit of money to the school with research grants.

Went to the beach yesterday to do some homework and took some pictures. It’s so awesome since there is a dune right there at the edge of the beach and you can just sit up on it and have an excellent view of everything. I also figured out the mileage and it is exactly two miles from my house.

Looking north
Looking south

This was taken in the evening a few weekends ago. Check out the famous fog. Yes, basically a picture of nothing: Fog!

Stuff for the fall semester is coming together quickly. I had my advising appointment today and it looks like I will be able to take all the classes that I requested. However, it is going to be tough. Next fall will be nothing but geology classes: Stratigraphy, Structural Geology and Mineralogy. Between studying and field trips, that will leave little time to do anything else! However, I need all 3 of those classes to take the classes I want in Spring 2005. Ah!

The more I look at it though, the more I want to do my field camp in New Zealand during January 2006. What an unbelievable experience that would be! If I put my heart and mind towards nailing that goal, I’m positive I’ll find a way to go somehow. Hell, the last year is definitely evidence of this, as I have achieved all sorts of things that I really wanted. That tends to make one somewhat confident. 🙂

Tentative School schedule for the next few years:

*Plus a few GE’s and electives that I will have to throw around in certain area. ALMOST DONE THOUGH!!!

Brandy is definitely coming up to visit this weekend, so that will be fun to hang with her as well. In anticipation of this, I need to finish my paleontology paper tomorrow! We’ll see how far I can get. I’ll also need to turn in my two-weeks notice at work tomorrow too. I’m going to miss that group so much. These are some of the most friendly and awesome people I have ever had the fortune of working with in my life. I hope they let me back in when I return at the end of the summer.

Baseball is back! I have to say last year’s playoffs was some of the most amazing baseball I have ever seen. From the Cubs to the Red Sox and even the Marlins, all the games were just phenomenal. And now that Murdoch and Fox have finally sold the Dodgers, I can like them again without a guilty conscience. Not a moment too soon too, because they are ON FIRE this year!

I just got back from a game tonight with some of my fellow geology classmates. Oakland A’s versus the Yankees. While I’m not necessarily a fan of either team, I am always down for hating on the Yankees. It was a great game and went all the way to the top of the ninth inning, when in true Yankees fashion, they tied it up and then drove in the winning run. While I wasn’t rooting for them, I can definitely appreciate some fine baseball.

Plans for the weekend:

» Wait for more info on that internship.
» Friends from high school, Emily and Brandy may be in town on Saturday night.
» Write a paper for paleontology.
» Finish up TWO late labs for geomorphology.
» Start looking for people to sublet my room for the summer.

Tomorrow is advising day as well. Looks like next semester is going to be another tough one. Currently on my plate is Mineralogy, Stratigraphy and Structural Geology. However, I might not be able to take the Structure class due to some funky prerequisites, so I may be taking Hydrology instead. In the next year I will need to squeeze in Physics 3 and Chemistry 2 somewhere also. Perhaps if I kick butt, I can take field camp in New Zealand in the winter of 2006! That would be so amazing! I think I can save up the roughly $4500 it will cost between now and then. Definitely worth it for 6 weeks!

Some various cleanup on the website too. I’ve added ratings for songs in the music section. Also, for those using Internet Explorer or Mozilla derivatives, you might notice the new background graphic up above. I thought it added a nice bit of personality to this blog. 🙂 The background picture doesn’t render in Safari for some reason though. Not sure why at the moment.

This last week started off amazingly hot weather wise. The past 3 days have been absolutely perfect though. Yesterday, after sleeping through my alarm and ditching a class (doh!), I decided to go hang out at the beach for a while. That was refreshing to do. It’s so relaxing and the beaches up here aren’t crowded compared to the ones down south. Of course that is directly related to the fact that the water is icy cold. Despite that, it was a gorgeous day. Today I did… the same thing! Yes, that is unheard of. Me going to the beach on my own volition, let alone two days in a row! I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather today and go running along the beach.

Of course all this beach stuff has sparked my interest in trying to surf. It looks so fun. Rentals for surfboards and wet suits down at Pacifica are fairly cheap from what I hear and I know some people who would be willing to teach me. They even have lessons, though that is slightly more expensive. However, a few things are stopping me. My fear of creepy, crawly things and other carnivores that lurk beneath the waves and the constant fact that Mother Nature is reminding you of whom your daddy is. The last time I was swimming at the beach was at San Clemente in September and a stingray decided to use my foot as target practice. I pretty much wrote off the beach after that. The other problem is the fact that I am not a strong swimmer at all. I guess before I even consider jumping on a surfboard, I need to work on my swimming endurance skills.

Nate and Christina are coming up later this evening to visit, since they are in the area for some family affairs. That will be nice to see them. I don’t think Nate and I have hung out since before Christmas. Dan was thinking of coming up sometime in the next few months too, though I might be back down in So Cal by then for my internship. It’s definitely nice to see my friends again though. The people up here are cool, but I still miss so many from down south.

Also, the unthinkable is happening! I want a Mac. Not just any Macintosh though, I really would like a laptop since it would be convenient for carrying around all over the place when doing research and school stuff. I’m looking at some of the Powerbooks, and of all the laptops I’ve looked at, the Powerbooks look like the best ones. Though they are slightly on the pricey side. The model I’m looking at is around $2600, and that is with Apple’s student discount. So I probably won’t be getting one of those very soon. Though with my internship and getting money from that, perhaps I will be able to afford it after all!

School is winding down but there is still a lot of work. One thing I’ve definitely neglected this semester is playing guitar. I really want to write more music and even lyrics, but I just can never seem to find the free time to do it. Perhaps we can get back to that soon. Who knows, maybe with me back down south, Dan and I can get back together and lay down some more music. It seems like we’ve come quite a ways from when we first started with our first song, “Fairly Simple” to the latest that are slightly more technical: “Starting to Rock” and “Tsunami Rock” (both of which actually don’t have base lines yet… but they will!).

A few weeks ago I ended up seeing Offspring for something like my seventh time. I wasn’t that impressed unfortunately. Their set list revolved around a lot of their more cheesy songs and I think I was one of the *older* people in the audience! Considering I’ve been less than impressed with their last three albums as well, I almost think it’s time I should just walk away. 🙁 I haven’t even bought their latest album yet and it’s been out for nearly 6 months, and sadly I don’t have any plans to buy it. Ah well! Despite that, I am greatly indebted to their manager, who has hooked me up with tickets and after show passes nearly every single time I have asked. Thank you Larry. At least there’s been a lot of new music I’ve been getting into, such as Muse. Check them out!

What a huge entry! Anyway, catch you soon.

I would like to take this moment to dedicate a special thanks to my friend Tracy. At the beginning of this month, she forwarded an email to me about the Southern California Earthquake Center and summer internships. Mind you, she is in Boston… majoring in Mathematics. How this email arrived in her in box, I will never know. But knowing that I love geology, she forwarded it along to me! I checked out the website and decided to fill out an application, two days before the deadline (April 5th). I’ve been waiting around since then for word of their decision. Something like 70 students from across the country applied for it.

I GOT IT!!!

Looks like I will be moving back down to Southern California for the summer to work at UCLA! Words cannot describe how excited I am to have gotten this. There are a few issues I need to work out, namely if I will be living at my parents and commuting or renting a place in LA somewhere. We’ll figure this out as the time draws near. It is supposed to start at the end of May. What a great experience. All thanks to Tracy for informing me too!

Anyway, I flew back up here yesterday morning after spending the past few days in So Cal. It was beautiful weather and definitely nice to see my parents and hang out with many of my friends again. It was a fairly relaxing experience from the non-stop tedium that is going up here at the moment. My research paper is finally almost done and only 3 weeks late. Good thing too, cause two more papers are coming up soon, plus a final presentation. Ah, to live life in a stressful environment!

Braces supposedly come off in four weeks! You can tell it’s so close, my teeth needs to move just a little more…

Alright, off to write a few more things in my paper before I go to bed. Until next time!

Alright! Courtesy of their manager, I get to see the Offspring tomorrow night at the Warfield. I have backstage passes too! I’m looking completely forward to that! I haven’t seen them in over a year and they put on a really fun live show, so I am definitely looking forward to that.

I’ll be back down visiting Southern California from April 21 – April 24, mainly for an orthodontist appointment. I am supposed to get my braces off! We’ll see though, since it still looks like there is some moving that needs to be done before then. I miss a lot of people, so that will be good to see friends and family again, although for a very brief amount of time.

I also applied for an internship this summer for the Southern California Earthquake Center. It looks like the competition is pretty tough. If I get it, I’ll be moving back down to So Cal for the summer while I work on that. We’ll see what happens with that, but I think that would be such a great experience. I was looking through the list of people who have had internships with it and I found an old friend from high school that I haven’t talked to in years! I sent her an email recently, so that was cool to talk to her again. Considering all the news reports about possible earthquakes in Southern California this summer, I think this could be a perfect timing for an internship.

See everyone soon!

I’ve been sick the last week! It all started out as a simple cold and developed into this horrid sinus infection. After going to urgent care yesterday, they gave me some antibiotics, and I already feel 100% better! Too bad I didn’t do that earlier in the week, since I am missing a geology field trip that is currently going on this weekend. Doh!

Between school projects, geology trips, work (and lack thereof, due to being sick), being sick in general, this has been one of the most stressful weeks of my entire academic life! Luckily, it is coming to a close.

So I’ve moved into the new pad! What is it like so far? Well first off, check out the view:
First, Second and the stairway I have to climb to get to the house! I need to do some fixing in my room though. The curtain rod decided to fall out of the wall for no good reason, so for now, I have the curtains nailed to the wall.

In other news, it looks like NASA has extended the missions for both the Mars rovers too. That is exciting to see. I’ve been following those things like mad the past 3 months. NASA is hoping they can both last until September, which would put them at 8 months of being operational on the surface, or nearly 3 times longer than scientists had initially planned.

Evidentially I spoke too soon in my last post. The people at that house called me back! So we set everything up and I will be moving all my stuff over there tonight. Once I get pictures of the new place, I’ll post them. I’m looking forward to this so much.

Alright. Doing some cleaning up and redesigning of certain parts of the site. First and most notable (or not…) is that I’ve eliminated the news page entirely. It really conveyed no important information, and any news that I need to pass on will just be written in my blog anyway. So, goodbye news! Secondly, I’m trying to setup a forums section for discussion of certain topics. The forum is basically up and running but I don’t really have a public link for it yet since I’m still trying to sort out some basic issues. This is probably a useless feature that will most likely involve discussions mainly about geology between myself and me. Anyway, once I get all the kinks worked out, I’ll make the link public.

I spent part of this week apartment/house hunting for rooms to rent. I came across a good offer on craigslist and went to go check it out. $490 for a room in a 2 story house in the Golden Gate Heights area. It had an AMAZING VIEW. The people who lived there were very cool and the whole setup seemed great. I was really looking forward to it and thought I made a pretty good impression on them. Evidentially not, since they never called me back, even after I called them a few times during the past couple of days. Argh! Oh well, my closet will have to suffice for now.

Anyway, I just realized that it’s 3 in the morning. What on earth am I doing up at this time? I guess trying to enjoy as much of my last day of spring break as possible. Though thanks to this, I’ll probably be sleeping through most of it!

Today, my parents, Michelle and I went down to SF-MOMA, which is the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Apparently, it is the second largest museum in the United States consisting of contemporary art. Overall it was neat. Though I don’t think I am left brained enough to grasp some of the very abstract things that some of these artists attempt. For example, why is a piece of blank canvas considered art? A urinal signed by someone in 1917 is also considered art. It is interesting to think about, but all it mostly accomplishes is making my head hurt!

One of the floors was dedicated to photography, which I found much more interesting. In fact, one of the rooms on that floor had quite a few pictures of Redlands! That was surprising and nostalgic. Another interesting section was based on nothing but objects. There were sculptures as well as various “everyday” objects that were on display.

To get into the spirit of things, I think I will get myself into this whole “modern art” phenomenon as well. The following piece is entitled with something that has nothing to do with the picture (this seems to be one of the rules when creating modern art). The title: “Watermelon Over a Blue Moon.” Secondly, I have applied a few bright and weird colors. Third, I leave it up to your own interpretation! 🙂

“Watermelon Over a Blue Moon”

Yesterday, I had my 30 day review at work. It went completely great! None of the supervisors had any sort of complaints about me. We went over the file that is kept on me and there were a few good comments written in there from some of the supervisors as well! The review form had two sections on “Good Things” and “Things that need Improving”. The Good section was full of comments and the Needs Improvement section had almost nothing. Just very basic stuff such as “Needs more experience on the floor.” That made me so happy, I think I had a huge cheesy grin on my face the rest of the day.

Other random things that are notable: Went swimming today for the first time since about September. I love water! I wish I was a stronger swimmer though, that comes with practice. Hopefully I’ll go a lot more. I definitely want to get back into a workout routine as well. I had one for awhile then got caught up with moving/school/work. Also, met a very cute girl from London today, who is on vacation. That was a neat experience.

Need to start looking for a new apartment too. The room I am staying in is entirely too small, plus our lease is up in a few months anyway. If I can find something, I’ll probably move out immediately. I may end up looking around Haight, Fillmore or Church. Those are my top priorities, though those areas may be kind of expensive. We’ll have to see how this goes!

Lastly, David and I were jamming last night. I was showing him ideas I had for a new song. He came up with some awesome riffs and suggestions that really inspired me. I think I might create a cheesy web page detailing the evolution of a song. There may even be vocals and lyrics eventually! Stay tuned for more info! 😉

[Updated: (3/23) 2:03AM] – Click here to check on the evolution of a song! A crappy mp3 is also posted.

I attended my first antiwar protest today. It was a powerful experience. There were people from all types of backgrounds, all sorts of opinions and even all levels of intelligence there. One of the coolest events was seeing Peter Camejo speak. It’s really too bad he isn’t taken more seriously, he is an amazing orator and does a great job at getting his views across in a rational matter. You can view pictures I took of the protest here.

Yesterday I went exploring and ended up walking for a few miles along Ocean Beach. It was such a beautiful day. I will have to post those pictures soon. In other news, Michelle went down to Southern California to visit our parents for the first part of spring break. Michelle and my parents are driving up tomorrow and they will spend a few days up here. I’m excited to see them.

Spring break is now officially in session. Though sadly, I will be working through it for both my job as well as a report in geology. We’re analyzing a landslide that happened in Marin and basically coming up with erosion rates for a small watershed for the past 13,000 years basically. It is going to be such an intense report and I haven’t even started. Due in 3 weeks too!

Got the job at TJ’s! Rad! So that will give me a much needed financial infusion. So far it has been pretty good working there and everyone I work with is really friendly.

The last few weeks have been extraordinarily busy though, between working and school. This past weekend we went on a field trip into Marin and measured a landslide that happened in the 1980’s for our geomorphology class. It was a busy day, but what an amazingly beautiful area. I will definitely have to come back there.

Last week I planned to drive back down to Southern California after classes got out at night. On the way to school on Wednesday, something like 2 inches of rain fell within 30 minutes, creating all sorts of flooding and power outages. School ended up being cancelled, so I took the opportunity and drove down earlier than I had planned. Though it ended up raining the entire drive home, so that was a stressful 7 hours.

I had an orthodontist appointment and I was dropping my car off since I hadn’t touched it while I’ve been up here and also don’t want to have to worry about parking tickets or it getting broken into. After my orthodontist appointment, I hung out with friends from all walks of life during the day. It was good to see a lot of close friends again as well as some of my geology buddies that I’ve left behind down there. Interestingly enough, one of the guys I am going to school with up here knows a friend of mine at Cal State San Bernardino. He went to high school with her and they both attended some geology classes together over at R.C.C. Crazy!

I bought an adapter for my computer so I uploaded some videos to the site. Check out the downloads section to see them, but I don’t recommend trying if you are on dial up. They are pretty hefty downloads.

I was coming home from school yesterday and got off the train like I normally do. As I’m riding the escalator up, I notice a rather frail old man in front of me. He steps off the platform and takes a few small steps, more like shuffling his feet. I was thinking to myself, “Hmm, that doesn’t look natural.” As soon as I finished that thought, he collapsed. As he fell forward, he landed on a lady who was in front of him. She was caught totally unaware and landed flat on her face. I remember exclaiming, “Oh shit!” I ran to old woman who was laying face down and to see if she was okay. A few other people did that same. Looking over to the old man, his eyes were rolled up into his head and he was on the ground shaking. My phone had no reception in the station so I stood up and yelled for someone to call 911 or get the BART police. After a few more moments of yelling this, one of the people working one of the transit booths ran over and told me that BART police were on the way.

Another guy went to help the old man, who had now come to. We picked him up and asked if he was alright. He was still completely unresponsive though and mumbling a bunch of random words. There was no way he could stand on his own, so we carried him to a railing and had him sit against it. Two police officers showed up a few moments later and started asking some questions. I explained what happened along with another lady who was tending to the woman who fell. After a few moments, the officers said we were free to go. As I was leaving, the old man looked at me, waved and gave a thumbs up sign.

Still no luck regarding the job hunt. Waiting for TJ’s to call me back. Crossing my fingers and hoping they liked me well enough. Back to the grind!

Classes finally started last week. Originally, I was signed up to take Geomorphology, Paleontology, Volcanology and Physics II. Total of 14 units and a fairly large load. Volcanology ended up having only one other person in the class with me, so that will most likely be cancelled. I ended up dropping it anyway, so that frees up my Wednesday nights. Physics II is going to be hell and from the reviews I’ve read on teacherreview.com, I need to stay as far away from this woman as possible. So I dropped that. That only gave me 7 units (I believe I need 8 to qualify for full time status). SFSU has this requirement called Segment III classes that all students are required to take. They are basically a choice of classes from a large group that you must take. I chose a geology related one entitled “Our Violent Earth”. It seems like it will be cake! So this semester should be relatively easy.

Had a job interview with Trader Joe’s on Friday. As I was sitting down, I noticed my application had a post-it note attached to it that said “Good 1st Impression.” Awesome! I felt fairly confident about the interview too. They said they would call me this week sometime to inform me of their decision. Hopefully I nailed it!

My bedroom is basically complete. My main computer is hooked up and I am back in business! So what does my bedroom look like? Check out the pictures! And no, those posters aren’t mine. I just haven’t had a chance to take them down yet. Pretty cramped quarters if I do say so myself. The cool thing is that I built that bed myself. I’m quite pleased with that.

Pic 1 – Looking inside the bedroom.
Pic 2 – From the inside, looking out.
Pic 3 – Under the desk.

Also posting a new song that I actually put together quite awhile ago. Entitled “Electromagnetic” since it was completely put together on the computer. I was messing around in Fruity Loops and creating some drum beats and bass lines when I came up with it. It is kinda catchy. 2 minutes and 38 seconds is the run time. 2.5mb download, get it here.

Lastly, I meant to post about this last week. Upon my arrival to San Francisco 2 weeks ago, my car had been parked out in front of my sister’s apartment for not more than 3 hours when I received my first parking ticket. It was kind of like a welcoming present.

Everything that I need to survive is up here, though I did leave a lot of stuff back at home. My first full week in San Francisco is coming to a close. It’s been non-stop though. Between packing things away, building a loft bed for my room (that way I can actually have room!), buying food and eating it as well as job hunting, I’ve hardly had time to relax. My computer is still in pieces at the moment since I don’t have a desk or anything to set it up on. I’ve been using an old laptop that my mom doesn’t use anymore to check email and do internet browsing. Right now, I’m updating this page from my sister’s iMac. Not too keen on how this will work. Hopefully things should be finalized in the next few days and I can post pictures of my new life.

Lately, the weather here has been absolutely beautiful! Perfectly clear skies, temperature slightly on the chilly side. Tonight it’s been sprinkling and it looks like there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow. The wet and cold weather that San Francisco is known for is definitely something I’m going to have to get used to. Haven’t seen much of it yet however. Knock on wood I guess!

On Saturday night, Megan B. was in the San Francisco area since her choir at Chapman University was on a tour of the Pacific Northwest. Saturday was their last night of the tour and since she was in town, we decided to hang out. I met her at Fisherman’s Wharf where she introduced me to loads of her choir friends. Later on we went to go eat at some very pricey sea food restaurant. We had a bunch of left overs that no one was going to eat, so I asked them to bag them for me and I ended up giving 3 bags of food to homeless on our way home. Yay for noble causes! Anyway, it was definitely good times seeing Megan again as well as some of her friends that I’ve seen on prior occasions as well: Jeff, Emma and Brittany.

I have an appointment with the chair of the geology department at SFSU tomorrow. Walking around it today and last week, their department actually seems quite large. Where we basically had about 2 classrooms to ourselves at CSUSB for geology, they appear to have an entire floor dedicated to the department. They even have pictures of all their students posted on the walls. It looks like there are at least 25 geology undergrads there, so it is a pretty decent sized program. I think it will be a challenge, but I’m definitely looking forward to it. School starts Wednesday!

Been putting out lots of applications and resumes for job hunting too. It gets so repetitive filling out the applications. They all ask exactly the same questions and are pretty much setup the same way, except the front page where a company’s logo will go. It’d be much easier to have a standardized form, print it up and just drop it off, but I guess this way weeds out all the lazy people. 😛 I did have an interview today though at SFSU’s bookstore. I felt pretty confident about it. We’ll see how it goes though. He still had others to interview throughout the day and I am supposed to call him back tomorrow.

EDIT: Doh, using Mozilla’s WYSIWYG editor on the Mac, it totally screwed up my webpage. Time to open this in a basic and boring text editor and do it the old fashioned way. Ugh!

Hey look, an update!

Been doing quite a bit of house cleaning on the website to update some information, correct broken links, add new links, add some pictures here and there. Probably nothing too noticeable though!

After spending a week up in the Bay Area and doing a lot of contemplating, I’ve finally decided that I’m going for it. Been packing all my stuff and will be moving to San Francisco come this Tuesday. I have so many things of my life now packed away into boxes. And I won’t even be able to bring them all mainly due to current circumstances. For the time being, I’ll be living in this large closest/storage room thing at my sister’s apartment. There isn’t much room to bring a lot of my stuff up, so I’ll have to bring it up later and after I muster up enough money to get my own place.

This last week has been absolutely busy though. From packing, to saying goodbyes, to hanging out with people. I have so many feelings going through my head, from being excited, to nervous, to sad. Though it’s not like I’m saying good-bye forever. I’ll be coming back to visit. I already have some appointments to come back down here in a month for an orthodontist visit.

Today and tomorrow some folks in geology are going orienteering down in the Anza Borrego Desert that is kind of near San Diego. I really want to go, but won’t be able to attend since I still have quite a bit to finish packing. Tonight I also have some plans with some more friends to hang out as well.

Saw Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” yesterday. I’ve seen this movie before, but it is extremely well put together. Watching it a second time, I’ve concluded that the film mostly leaves it up to the viewer to decide what the problem is in America. While I dislike guns (I wouldn’t mind even more strict laws in place), it is ultimately our society that is the root of the problem. While debating this the other day, I came upon the realization that even if all guns in America were somehow magically removed, you would still have violence. (This is why debating with an open mind is fun! You can learn, understand and see things you might not have thought about!) Granted, you most likely wouldn’t find people robbing a liquor store with a bow and arrow, but our society has such a violent shadow, this wouldn’t change many things in my opinion.

I watched one of the Mars Rovers land about 2 weeks ago on NASA TV. Since then, I’ve been following it so intently. Partly because I find it so amazing and cool, though also partly because Spirit is a robotic geologist. I’ve been looking at all the pictures coming back and even posting in forums such as Slashdot, talking about the latest discoveries.

It’s late and I need to pack a bunch of random stuff that is laying on my bed before I can go to sleep. Until next time!