I'm gonna get fat.

I noticed a sign today on the Loop. A Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop is opening soon.

In unrelated news, the cashier at Schnuck's looked baffled by the unrelated items I placed on the conveyer belt. I purchased two limes, one bag of ready-made greenery salad, four bakery cookies, and a container of cilantro, at 10:30 pm on a Monday.

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Self-censorship

I wrote a "Monday morning quarterback" account of my weekend and realized that it would take a whole weekend to read. So I'm cutting out the summary and just leaving you with my "editorial comments" after having digested the events. Feel free to ask me to clarify or elaborate anything if you're really interested. ...continued

1. I know I'm getting back in "student mode" when I begin with Thursday when talking about my weekend.
2. I'm even moreso in student mode when I stay out as late as I did several nites in a row.
3. The few girls I saw earlier this summer, I had some reservations about; now with Kristin, I see no reason why this won't be the beginning of a relationship. I can't stop thinking about her, and I get "butterflies" when she calls. This could be really good. Oh, and Enzo gave me his stamp of approval, and apparently Kristin's friends did the same for her.
4. I love the feeling of the air when it is cool and damp. I love the smell of the woods. I don't think I could ever live in a city more than a 40-minute drive from a nice piece of nature.
5. Zo went on "Kenny Banya style" about people's use of literally. He noted that when someone "literally ate the whole thing" or "finished literally the entire job," that is incorrect usage unless the eating of the whole thing or the finishing of the entire job is written, that is, somehow put into literature. Well, buddy, hate to say but you're rantings were for naught: Webster gives two definitions of literally, the second of which is "in effect : virually." So indeed there is no necessity write it in literature for something to be taken literally! But good fodder for the brain nonetheless. Language is too shades-of-grey.
6. Seeing the engineering orientation and the people associated with it was definitely nostalgic. It's interesting to see what has changed and what hasn't since I was in charge just a few years ago. It's fun to catch up with the other upperclassmen, especially all the other "super-seniors" like myself, and to see how the sophomores have stepped up since last year.
7. I've taken a big risk by not making coffee this morning.

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Engineering words of wisdom

At work, looking for engineering design courses at other universities so we can interview the profs. Came across this little tid-bit by a teaching assistant at Purdue, who credits it to another source, The Fullness of Wings.

• Part of the art of being a good engineer is knowing where to steal good ideas.
• There is no perfectly optimized design because you can not account for every aerodynamic effect on an airplane. Get it good enough and get on with it.
• The best way to solve an engineering problem is to guess the right answer.
• Any damn fool can figure out another way to do it. The first solution to a problem is often entirely adequate.
• If you can't fix it, feature it.

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The silliest coupon. Ever.

I just returned my fourth trip to the bookstore (well, second to the Hilltop campus store, and I've made two stops at the Med School bookstore as well) and am still chuckling inside from a coupon the cashier offered me during checkout.

Class begins September 1. Typically everyone already has his or her books by this point. There are two weeks where we can add or drop classes with no penalty. So that absolute latest anyone would get textbooks is September 15. By this time, most everyone also already has well-stocked supplies for the semester.

Further, most Washington University branded merchandise is purchased not by students during the semester, but rather by parents for themselves or their sons and daughters. Parents leave after orientation (if they come at all), and Parents' Weekend is officially October 15-17.

So why on earth did I get a coupon good for 20% off my $100 between September 20 and October 1???

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Wow.

No other way to describe it. Utter awe. Michael Kelsey is phenomenal. For starters, he's a one-man band. But this isn't the typical guy-with-a-guitar that you'd find at open mic nite covering Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews. Not at all. He calls his style "Aggressive-Progressive Acoustic Guitar." Think Michael Hedges meets Steve Vai, and throw a bunch of toys into the mix. Then you might get something close to ...continued the wonder that is Michael Kelsey.

John, Chris, and I got to Frederick's early. Even hearing Kelsey warm up and sound check was a treat. He's got nearly every toy a guitarist could dream of—we're talking digital loop sampling, E-bow, wah, multi-effects pedal, drum machine, and more—and plays all of it in alternate tunings on a beautifully-worn Taylor acoustic with a soundhole pickup. Tonite there was a small drum set on stage as well, some of the pieces of which Kelsey played with feet or hands while looping a bassline he sampled onstage, and a local drummer who was apparently a friend-of-a-friend of his sat in for improv rhythm on a few songs.

Anything in the entire club was fair game to be incorporated into a song. Kelsey did some improvised lyrics about people in the crowd and the underwear decorating the overhead fan. He played guitar, bass, and drums all on his guitar, percussively slapping out a foundation and playing a beat and a melody over it. Other stage "props" were a marble from a girl's purse (this made a really neat visual trick while using the volume pedal and e-bow), a sample of an audience member singing something very much off-beat, and a harmonica which he invited someone to play. He even used the mic and mic stand, not only as they were intended, but also as percussive sounds and mechanisms for playing "slide" guitar during solos. Even when he busted a string, he kept playing, really playing, while improvising some words to get someone to bring him his guitar case, then kept hammering out a bass line while restringing his guitar!! I mean, the guy played like a schizophrenic, there was so much going on onstage!

I left this evening having purchased two of his CD's and signing up for his mailing list. One of his "buddies," a rather drunk fellow who told us how he used to manage a band that Kelsey opened for once or something, told us that Kelsey had recently won a nationwide guitarist contest and played with Eric Clapton at one of the college Bowl games. If this is true and Kelsey becomes big someday soon, I recommend finding a small venue now and catch this guy in an intimate atmosphere. Your jaw will hit the floor. And he'll figure out a way to work that into his performance.

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Times and Folding; Theory of Relativity

A few less-than-scientfic ponderings:

Times and Folding

Today in class the prof was talking about enzyme kinetics, and how a "hundredfold" increase in concentration covers most of the range of reaction rates. My problem is not with enzyme kinetics but rather with the use of "numberfold." I have never been sure what exactly it means. Is "fold" the same as or different than "times?" I feel as though it is commonly used as both of these.

Example: "Our profits increased twofold." Does that mean our profits doubled, that is, went up times two, or does that mean the profits were quadrupled, that is, folded two times, or two raised to the power two? When I hear "fold" I immediately want to exponentiate 2ⁿ (like folding a piece of paper n times), but it seems that it is not always taken as such.

Theory of Relativity

Not the one that good ol' Al thought up. I'm talking about relative periods of time. I notice in my writing and speech that I use relative measures of time quite often, and it can be a bit confusing for everyone because I don't always give the benchmark to which it is relative. What I ought to do is force myself to adopt a set of standards for the following cases:

1. When does the other day become last week?
2. When does several weeks (e.g. six or eight if we were talking exact terms) become a few months?
3. When does about a year and a half become about two years?
4. When does recently become a while back and then change to a long time ago?
5. What the hell do I mean when I say when I was younger???

I suppose it's all just a question of rounding and significant figures, all relativity. But it sure makes it rough when I say, "I haven't seen that movie in a long time," and then I need to clarify, "Well, I saw it about a year and a half ago," when indeed I saw it twenty months to the day!

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Lil itty bitty music wish list, Part II

I ended up getting the Thrills single and one of their albums. Also got Modest Mouse, Phoenix, and Indigo Girls. New developments:

• The Rachael Yamagata tune, I may want the whole album (Happenstance). I'll have to read some reviews, but I'm thinking yes. For the uninitiated, she sounds a bit like a cross between Norah Jones (insert dreamy sigh) and Fiona Apple.
• I still need to get some Ani DiFranco in my collection, but I don't know where to start?! Suggestions, please, what album of hers is most "essential" if I can only get one?
• A Girl Called Eddy - The Long Goodbye
• Terri Hendrix - One Way (boy, what's with me and chick singers lately?)
• Reed Foehl has a song called When It Comes Around, that sounds very David Gray-ish. I think I may just get the whole album, Spark.
• I still haven't bought the new Gomez album, Split the Difference. These guys are great. Yeah, Brit rock!

Tonite after work I'm going to see Michael Kelsey play at Frederick's Music Lounge. Not too long ago some of my buddies saw him, and apparently he is just wicked. I've seen the DVD that John bought after his show. Yeah, I'll post my review later.

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Running therapy

I was pissed! Wasted a good chunk of daylight this evening with a mobile phone to my ear, fighting thru automated recordings, before everything came to a head in a crowded store. I got home and forced myself to write a letter to the Customer (Dis)Service department while I was still hot with rage, even though I knew it probably wasn't even worth it. (I may decide later to post the letter I wrote, just for kicks...)

But then, right after I hit save, I changed into workout shorts and an old Nike tanktop and went out for a run. Everything was better: the cool damp air outside was so easy on my lungs, the motion was better than sitting at a computer, and the elevated heart rate from activity just felt more natural than that from anger and stress. Running, more generally any good, strenuous exercise, is definitely my preferred form of therapy. Forget shrinks! I'll take my Asics out any day.

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Rawhide

Ain't you never seen a bunch of city slickers before? 
More photos here

When it seemed the weekend couldn't get any better, I found myself outside of Raymondsville, MO, riding horses with a few friends. Golden Hills has acres upon acres of land, with so many interconnecting trails it made my head spin. Thru forest, fields, and dry creek beds we rode, eight hours in total. I'd write more detail now but I'm exhausted from the long day and from recounting the trip several times already. If you're interested, ask me and I'll talk, but for now I'll go to bed like Margerie, dreaming of horses (note the subtle CC reference).

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The Thrill is not Gone

Went to see B.B. King at Riversplash with some brothers/alums. Picked up the Metrolink for the short trip to the Landing and walked thru throngs of people to find a seat on the hill just south of the Arch. Unfortunately there was a large tree blocking our view of most of the stage, but the sound was superb. And for a 78-year-old man, B.B. still plays a mean guitar. The band was good, too: a lot of energy, even when the bottom would drop out; great dynamics; excellent improv all around. And the peoplewatching was also great. I mentioned that I felt as though I were a character in a Where's Waldo? book. After the show we hit Duffy's just before their kitchen closed. Yeah, this evening was hard to beat. Now I sleep and tomorrow I ride horses. Life is grand.

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The answer to all our country's problems

Ok, maybe not all the problems, but quite a few. And these ideas are not by any means new, so I'm baffled by why more people don't adopt them. I suppose the answer to that is mere laziness. But that is where the problem stems, as well: our collective laziness has caused these problems and stands in the way of their solution. But, aside from implanting the work ethic gene into every newly-conceived child, the solution requires ...continued a change of culture.

I recall hearing a while back, and pardon me if I get the details wrong, that a certain school district in Washington implemented a "Human-Powered Bus." The gist is that, rather than have kids wait at a bus stop, a few parents from each neighborhood would walk with a small group of elementary students each morning, alternating with other parents on a day-to-day basis. This simple plan is great for the following reasons:

1. It gives kids and parents another opportunity for "quality time," which seems to be ever-rarer in today's households.
2. It promotes physical activity among children, combating the "fattening of America" from an early age.
3. It reduces, however slightly, the dependence on fuel to run school buses.
4. It cuts costs to the school district of providing the buses. (What about the bus drivers' jobs? Well, maybe they'll be among those who "drive" the "Human-Powered Bus.")
5. It reduces emissions from buses or automobiles that would otherwise bring the kids to school.

Similarly, working adults can commute to work under human power. Granted, I wouldn't expect people who live in suburbs and work downtown to do so, but there are plenty of folks who live within a few miles of their workplaces. Particularly in regions where weather is reasonable year-round, there is really no excuse for driving a short distance to work.

I live about 1 mile from Wash U's Hilltop Campus, where I am a student and an employee. Recently I also have obligations at the Medical School Campus, which is a bit further from my apartment. However, I am generally a bicycle commuter. Even on evenings and weekends, when I go around other places in St. Louis, I try to bike or walk unless I know I will be carrying a lot (for example, to go grocery shopping) or if the weather is really bad (heavy rain or snow).

This is where a change in culture must come. In addition to laziness, people seem reluctant to walk or bike because of weather (ok, I'm guilty of this sometimes) or other social pressures. Motorists are, on the whole, clueless about how to treat cyclists. Let me make this clear: everywhere except interstates or where otherwise indicated, cyclists have all the rights and responsibilities of motorists! Bikers, this means that we, too, must stop at stop signs. But it also affords us a whole lane to ourselves where feasible, so drivers need to stop trying to squeeze past us on the left if you can change lanes to get around us.

Another shift that must happen before bicycle commuting can really take off deals with business attire. I don't ride when I need to wear a suit, but I'll still ride in slacks and a shirt. We need clothing designers to make a line of clothing specifically for the bicycle commuter. These clothes would look like regular business clothes (business-casual is probably the easiest) and would feature stain-repellent fabrics to ward off the mud spots kicked up from wet ground, breathable but windproof materials to provide comfort in warm and cold weather, mechanisms to hold pant ankles out of the chain, and perhaps removable crotch padding for longer or bumpy commutes.

Office buildings need to have fewer parking spaces and more bike racks. There ought to be showers, or at least cool towels, to allow bikers to freshen up when they arrive. Backpacks and messenger bags already exist that can secure a laptop and plenty more while riding.

If more people commuted to work or school on bicycle or under other human power (hell, or even battery power like the Segway!) we would see many improvements in our nation.

• Lower dependence on oil
• Lower occurrence of obesity and other weight- or activity-related disease
• Cleaner air from reduced emissions
• Less traffic
• Fewer cases of road rage and auto accidents

Further, people would be happier, since the act of exercise releases endorphins that affect mood. People would be more sociable, since seeing another person on a bike has a more "human" element than seeing another person sitting in a car or truck. People would also save money, since bicycle maintenance costs less than car maintenance (I'm not saying that people will get rid of their cars, just that a car driven less, particularly in less city traffic, will need maintenance less often) and leg power costs less than gasoline.

With that, I will rest my case. I'd love to get some tips from other folks who bike to work regularly, so leave comments here if you've got them!

This post was inspired by my trip (on bicycle) earlier today to the public library, during which I had a little girl wave happily at me, a few other cyclists nod at me, a young woman in a car smile at me, and three SUVs and two sedans nearly hit me.

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Revision of my life plan

If there's one thing I've learned from interpersonal relationships in the last year or so, it is that trying to use a plan as an indication of the future is overly optimistic and dripping with futility. So when I talk of my "plans" for post-graduation--a full 9 months away--and how I want to start a biomed device company, no matter how sure I am, it is still a pipe dream.

I'm just too quick to find an idea or a person or a concept or a field that I like, and obsess about it, and make it my life, and talk about nothing else with the same enthusiasm. Those who know me have heard extensively about ...continuedthe Halo and about my summer internship; I'm doing a little better about keeping the lid on about Smart Chair but I still share any non-confidential details willingly.

So now my new thing. Well, I haven't yet come to the point of uber-enthusiasm, but it may very well get there. Today after class I went to a meeting for work. Some folks from St. Jude Medical were in to discuss the logistics, legal and otherwise, of their bringing projects to Wash U for senior design classes. I've met Jon before on several occasions, and Bob seemed pretty nice as well. Hearing about their corporate culture, especially after talking to a number of recent WU alums who were hired and absolutely love SJM, it seems that may be a logical step in my career development. They can train you in many different aspects of the business (for those of you who don't know, St. Jude does a lot with the heart--cardiac rhythm management, stents, etc.--as well as other biomed applications) including design, quality assurance, technical support, clinical and field operations, sales, and more. The whole "package" is what drew me to entrepreneurism, and it seems that SJM may be a great place to "learn" these skills without risking losing my house and my professional reputation if a startup flops.

Like I said, I'm still not totally sold. But I sure as hell wrote down the dates that they'll be back for recruiting. Ken mused afterward that he thought they looked ready to hire me on the spot. Come to think of it, it wouldn't be so bad to build professional skills and reputation at a solid company out in California!

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Lost & Found

• On my way to a meeting for work over on the Med School campus, I couldn't figure out which was the South Building. In the process of looking, I found McDonnell Sciences, where I will have class tomorrow morning.
• I found a message from Alana in my inbox this afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised, and I'm glad that my reply and her re-reply were both friendly, sincere, and free of jealousy and spite. Though I still don't know whether to take her up on the invitation to get together next time I go back to Chicagoland.
• I got lost in music during my run today. (Several of the songs on the playlist were those from my Lil itty bitty music wish list.) While my mind was lost, I got all but really lost physically as well when I took a wrong turn near the Muny. Ended up running a lot farther than I had anticipated, but the weather was lovely so I didn't mind too much.
• Despite my only telling about two people the address of this blog, it appears a number of my friends (at least those from St. Louis) have found it.
• I found a book on my steps this afternoon. My dad had ordered me Peterson's Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs. So now when I get sick from mis-identifying an edible wild plant from the other field guide, I can cure myself the natural way.
• I've lost the desire to do research for Smart Chair tonite.

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Naptime

I'm exhausted. If anyone should be exhausted, it's John. He certainly is. He ran an Olympic-length triathlon today in Effingham, IL. Brian and I went to cheer him along. It was fun, exciting to watch the transitions, interesting to observe the athletes and spectators, great to drool over the nice bikes and other gear. Congrats to John for finishing and finishing strong. Quite a feat.

Brian and I hit Guitar Center afterward where I bought strings so I can hopefully play my classical again. Now I am going to sleep for an hour, then dinner with my sister and coffee with friends. Need to make sure to leave time for last-minute work things before Monday, and book a ticket to NYC for Sept. This is really going to happen.

Zzzzzzz....

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Invention Disclosure

Described herein is concept for a novel model for pseudo-simulation ("MODEL") of social or other interpersonal interactions among a plurality of persons. INVENTOR claims ownership of implementation of MODEL in all softwares and in hardware devices whose principal function is to run such a model. Possible applications of MODEL include, but are not limited to:

• Entertainment - use in "role-play" and other games
• Research - use in research in such fields as psychology and sociology
• Training - use in various training exercises in which the trainee must react to decisions ranging from rational to irrational.

Details: ...continuedThe disclosed MODEL is a probabilistic, time-variant system with linear characteristic and non-gaussian deviation. MODEL requires three inputs: HistoryFact, HistoryPerception, and CurrentState. Further, MODEL provides three outputs: Decision, Value, and Confidence. MODEL processes the inputs using weights with default values that place highest consideration on CurrentState, followed by HistoryFact, and lowest weight on HistoryPerception. Custom weights may be defined for a given simulation, but generally the default weight scheme holds. MODEL first creates a list of possible Decisions, then attempts to select the Decision that provides the highest Value. Value is assessed on a exponential-decaying curve, with Value points most heavily weighted on the subject of the model and decaying by "degrees of separation" in relationship from the subject, as defined in HistoryFact. For example, a label of "immediate family" or "close friend" has a higher Value weight than "new acquaintance," "stranger," or "adversary."

Additionally, the HistoryPerception input affects the Value judgement of MODEL. However, unlike HistoryFact, items in HistoryPerception do not have a one-to-one relationship with items in Value; rather, HistoryPerception is characterized by nonlinear error. What differentiates this MODEL from other social models is that many other social models use a Gaussian distribution of error to propagate items in inputs similar to HistoryPerception, whereas MODEL uses a "black box" or "neural network" method of error propagation. Hence, errors in HistoryPerception are not readily described by standard probabilistic means, nor do they show strong correlation with "rational" decisionmaking that would be based on CurrentState. Instead, errors fall somewhere between these two well-understood models.

After all possible Decisions have been analyzed, MODEL outputs the Decision that has the highest Value. Recall that Value is based on relationships defined in HistoryFact and on situations defined in HistoryPerception and CurrentState. Confidence of the result indicates how strongly the subject will defend Decision: low levels of Confidence mean that the subject may deviate from Decision with minimal pressure. Confidence level increases linearly with Value and decreases cubically with reliance upon HistoryPerception.

Example: MODEL was run with subject and two other persons: A has a short but rich history with subject, and B has very little history with subject. For both A and B there is heavy reliance on HistoryPerception, which, recall, has nonlinear error. In three distinct trials of slight variations on this setup, subject has acted consistently with MODEL's prediction, despite low Confidence and moderate Value. Confidence was indeed a good indicator of subject's adherence (or lack thereof) to Decision. Of note, however, is that MODEL provides no provisions for subject to "learn;" in other words, similar classes of inputs with different individual persons do not yield progressively higher Value or higher Confidence.

Future Work: INVENTOR seeks a programmer or another inventor who can add such a learning feature to MODEL. Further studies of MODEL's applicability on several subjects in various situations will likely reveal more factors that must be adjusted.

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War Pigs

People who know me won't believe it. Yes, I love live music. But more often I'm at small venues watching up-and-coming singer-songwriters or small under-the-radar bands that happen to be passing thru town. But tonite was uncharacteristic. Tonite was OzzFest. ...continued

Suzi called me Wednesday afternoon and asked what I was doing Thursday. Turns out her brother's girlfriend won a radio contest and got 20 free tickets and free food & drink to see the show, and she got to go onstage and such. So, I was invited to OzzFest. I must say, Judas Priest rocking out, band clad in leather pants and big hair all rockin out in perfect synch, was pretty sweet. Black Sabbath also rocked it out, and I think my ears may be bleeding. I mean, 15th row, center, with no earplugs, really hurts in that great way that you only feel at concerts. Ozzie needed the mic stand to remain on his feet, and poured buckets of water or something off-colored (hopefully gatorade but possibly urine?) on the folks in the first row.

With respect to peoplewatching, I can't decide what was more amusing: the older men with mullets or ponytails, or the young preteens decked out in black clothing and metal-studded accessory. With respect to the music, I was pleased at how much I enjoyed the hard rock/metal given that my "comfort" genre is much lighter; pleased that I recognized many more songs than I thought I would; pleased that I really felt the music, even headbanging (as short as my hair is) and throwing my fist into the air (sans index and pinky devil sign). With respect to the people I went with and met there, let me simply say it was an interesting crowd.

It's now 3:15 am. I just got off the phone with one friend who is on her way home. I have a voicemail from another friend, in New Jersey, who I haven't talked to all summer. My apartment is about as messy as it gets and my folks are coming in tomorrow. I have to get up in a few hours for work. I rocked out with Ozzy Osbourne and now reek of cigarette smoke and beer. And I'm spilling my thoughts onto the computer screen. Yes, life is great.

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Before & After: How quickly nature changes

As promised, here are the pics demonstrating the stream drying up in a matter of 3 months.

Before: Early May 2004, this part of the Cave Branch of St. Francis River at Rock Pile Mountain Wilderness Area was deep enough to bathe and almost swim.	After: Early August 2004. Same spot at the river (note the skinny trees and the large rock in the background), this time was all but dried up. This spot was one of only a few along the entire branch that still held some water, and the only movement was a little trickle here and there where a spring surfaced.
Photos posted using Hello.

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Stargazing

The 2004 Perseid Meteor Shower

I guess I have something to do tonite after volleyball--thanks s00zi!

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Lil itty bitty music wish list

Not complete, just recent. I'll probably hit iTunes hard this weekend.

• Modest Mouse - Float On
• Rachel Yamagata - Worn Me Down
• Phoenix - Run, Run, Run
• Indigo Girls - Fill It Up Again
• The Thrills - Not For All the Love In the World
• Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama
• The Push Stars - Freedom

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Mid-afternoon snack

You all know that dip toward the end of the work day, where your butt slips further down the chair and your eyes have trouble focusing on anything but the clock. I passed the last quarter hour perusing a friend's website before going home to get a quick bite and then my run. Funny how my quick bite turned into a meal's worth of Indoor S'mores and all but the last few drops of milk. Now I get to sit and wait to digest before I run, during which hopefully I can snag the washing machine in my building to get the poison ivy residue out of my hiking socks.

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A weekend in the Great Outdoors

Indescribable. But I'll try to sum it up in a few paragraphs. My dad flew in Thursday nite, and Friday morning we headed out to Rock Pile Mountain Wilderness Area. Apparently it is Missouri's smallest wilderness area and does not get the use it deserves. To that end, we have declared it "our wilderness." For good reason: we went first in May, and this was our second trip; between the two, we have covered all the designated trails and a lot of other, less walkable areas.

Rock Pile Mountain was named for the "mysterious" ring ...continued of rocks atop it; we give a simple explanation that someone long ago, be they natives or early settlers, made a giant bonfire and the rock pile was their fire ring. It was designated a wilderness area in 1980, so it will remain untouched by developers forever (hopefully). As a wilderness area, we love it--miles from the nearest "city," we drove for a good chunk on gravel roads before we hiked in 5 miles to set up camp. By our estimates, the camp sites get used once a month at best, and the trail may get used by only a few hikers each week.

When we went as a family of four in May, it was gorgeous. We set up camp near a stream that runs into the Cave Branch of the St. Francis River; the stream provided us with water for drinking and washing dishes, and the waterfall just a bit downstream provided spectacular views while a small pool nearby was great for bathing. This time around my dad and I were surprised to see that the stream had all but dried up: only a few little spring-fed pools remained. I didn't realize it had been dry enough to dry up a whole stream! We even got a picture of us pretending to wash where the bath had been--I'll post the "before and after" when I get a chance.

Also while in the park we located a geocache that was hidden. Geocaching is a combination of a treasure hunt and a techie game, where the seeker uses a GPS receiver to find a "cache" that somebody hid and posted clues online. It gives a great excuse for our otherwise sedentary society to get off our collectively lazy asses and out into some nature. If you have the money to get a GPS or have a friend with one, I highly recommend trying out geocaching as a hobby.

While hiking around the trails we adhered moderately to "Leave No Trace" in that we did have to clear the trail of hundreds of spider webs in order to not disturb the surrounding foliage, but we left the site cleaner than how we found it. We did make use of a few plants that we found along the way, thanks to my dad's recent Amazon acquisition of Peterson's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. We made a cold beverage out of Sumac berries (of course not the poison variety), cooked up a few pads of cactus, and dug up a Sassafras root to make some tea. Had there been water present we were looking forward to fish with dinner, but had no luck there.

A few generalizations crossed my mind while out there. For one, silence is rare. We were miles from civilization: we couldn't hear a road from anywhere in the park and we only once heard an airplane, but the frogs and locusts and crickets were almost deafening at nite. It was marvelous! Second, it takes a few strong characteristics to enjoy backpacking. Not just anyone who enjoys camping can have fun going backpacking; it takes a love of solitude, an appreciation of nature, and a will to overcome boredom and pain at times, as well as a lack of aversion to dirt, body odor, and bugs. Third, nature is truly awesome in her beauty, balance, adaptivity, and organization. The complex ways in which different beings interact, in which chemical machines have evolved into organizations and ecosystems, in which form and color and texture and depth and sound and motion all come together to bring you into a world that a camera can't capture, is difficult to comprehend.

So here I sit, hours after we've returned to civilization. My dad marvelled that, while we were there, the world could have changed completely--an earthquake, an attack, an assassination, anything--and we would not have known. I was so lost in wilderness that I didn't have time to dread checking my email when I got home. Fourteen voice messages (thirteen of which were friends pulling the old "drunk dial") and somewhere around thirty email messages later, I sit here blogging, scratching my shins and ankles until they bleed, having sped thru a slideshow of the photos we took. Already it seems far away. But it's not, really. It just takes a separation of mind to get there.

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My favorite eating utensil

Of late I have realized just how much I love eating things with a spoon. Especially while snacking, a spoon is certainly my favorite utensil. Often there will be a spoon in the drying rack and another on the countertop, even though I live alone, because I use my spoons more often than I wash dishes.

Things I have eaten with a spoon (in no particular order): ...continued

• Cereal. yogurt, oatmeal, other breakfast foods
• Applesauce, right from the jar
• All four servings of the instant pudding that you shake with milk and chill for 5 minutes
• Grapefruit
• Ice cream:
  • A whole gallon in two days
  • More times than I can count, a whole pint of Ben & Jerry's or Haagen Daas in one sitting
• Salsa, right from the jar
• Brown sugar (long story, but basically I was out of snacks and had no time to run to the grocery store for about a week)
• Peanut butter, often a whole jar in two days
• Soup (of course)
• I'm one of those people who likes to twirl spaghetti around the fork using a spoon, rather than cutting it
• Raw oats (another long story, similar to the brown sugar)
• and much more...

The spoon is under-appreciated in a number of respects. For one, when somone eats quickly, the term is often "shoveling food into one's mouth." The shovel is not simply an oversized spoon; rather, the spoon has an identity of its own. For another, the spoon can be used as a makeshift mirror with which to see around corners or in tight spots. Case in point: my grill's ignitor switch wasn't working, and I needed to see if it was sparking, so I reached my spoon down in there and took a look.

Further, of all the standard kitchen utensils, the spoon is second only to the spatula as being the least dangerous. Would you want your child playing with a meat cleaver, a cheese grater, or an apple corer? Probably not. But give that kid a spoon and watch the hours melt away.

Next time you see your friendly neighborhood spoon, give it the old "Good Game." Thank it for being the perfect vehicle with which to deliver food to your mouth, and so much more.

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"This Old House" meets the RIAA

Mikey's favorite hobby is building furniture. He is on a tight budget though, and can only afford one screwdriver, a Phillips-type head. For a long time Mikey was able to borrow Phillips screws from his friend Sally; now, however, the Furnituremakers Union has declared that Mikey can no longer borrow any more screws. Not wanting to give up his hobby, Mikey is forced to purchase screws. However, the only screws that he can buy have a square socket head. He cannot use these screws how he wants to: he can only turn them as far as his fingers can grip, because his screwdriver is not compatable with his screws. ...continued
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I wish I had enough cash to buy an iPod. But I don't--I'm stuck with my iRiver flash-memory mp3 player. And I don't want to give up listening to new music. And I sure as hell don't have enough money to drop $12 on a CD for a band I've never heard of, just so I can make a backup copy for personal use to load onto my iRiver. So anything I buy with iTunes, I can listen on my computer but not on my mp3 player. Am I supposed to carry my laptop around when I'm going for a run and want some tunes to keep me kicking??
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Mikey solved his problem by scrounging around the shop for any tools he could find; he then proceeded to modify the square socket screws he bought so that he could use his Phillips screwdriver. Maybe not the easiest workaround, but he could still enjoy building furniture...

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Must I welcome myself?

Welcome to the 21st century! I still dislike using my mobile phone in public, and I've done sufficently well at keeping away from AIM, but of late I've felt that

1. I'm out of touch with my friends, and they are out of touch with me,
2. I miss the joys of writing, especially of creative, nontechnical writing,
3. I love new toys that spend my time.

Given these considerations and my unwillingness to submit to the perils of instant messaging, I decided it was due time to start blogging.

So what will I put here? Hell if I know! It probably won't be political, at least in most cases. It may potentially offend some people, at least in some cases. Hopefully it will make someone think--it will make me think. Yeah, for now this is just my "selfish blog," where I can organize my thoughts and rants, where I can play with words the way I play with numbers and computer code at work. If other people care to read, great. If they care to comment, better. I love hearing the gears turn...

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