Wiki is awsome

Yesterday I was looking at articles on wikipedia. I used to do this when I was a kid too, with the real encyclopedia. It's really interesting. The beauty of wikipedia is that it, if you see something wrong you can change it, but if you don't know anything about the subject you can be confident that someones else made it correct.



So I was thinking, most of the time for classes in which a research paper is required, the paper gets written and then the teacher uses all the papers for a bonfire to roast marshmellows on. Last quarter we came up with the idea of presenting our research papers to our class in a power point to make it seem like less of a waste of time and to get peer review experience. But another good idea, i think since it was my idea, is to have them publish it on wikipedia. It's easy to check up on and measure their progress because each page has a history that anyone can view. And it's out there for peer review. Of course I would require a certain length and depth, and include a bibliography, and that it were either an original or a significant improvement on an existing page.





So, I'm presenting this idea to you all. I might suggest this to my professors next quarter. What do you think?

Agatha reloaded

They fight, and bite,

And fight, and bite, and fight,

Fight, fight, fight,

Bite, bite, bite,

The Puppy and Crayfish show!



Now you can see Agatha fighting with the crayfish in live action.
Fight!

Another week in Loma Linda

I think I need to get a camera. I don't know how to write a post without a picture. I guess I'll need to learn how to be entertaining without pictures because it looks like I'm losing my readership. Or watchership since I've heard that some poeple come here only for the pictures.


How about some highlights from the week.

The jeep turns better the the wagon. Parallel parking is super easy and I can fit into places that would otherwise leave me driving around the block. If I had a picture I would show you.
I paid off one of my credit cards that I had been carrying a balance on for 4 years. That's awsome. I was getting charged $50/month for finance charges. It's just a trick though, I still owe the money but now it's on another card.


Goodbye Nebraska :(
I applied for a California drivers licence. This does not mean that I am Californian or indicate anything about how long I will actually live in California. Unfortunately, it might indicate that I wont be moving back to Nebraska. So, even thought the california licence doesn't mean much to me, I might take Ceri's advice next time I move and delay getting a new licence until I actually have to. I almost didn't pass the eye exam. I tried reading the board twice before the lady let me use the machine. She said I was just barely legal. After my tests and money they gave me my old licence back cut up and said, "Here's is your temporary licence".




Last night I went to see Tosca by Giacomo Puccini at the Redlands Bowl. It was well done I thought. I couldn't understand most of it because it was in Italian and I didn't bother to get a libretto. The first act was interesting and had a lot of actors and action. By the second act I was eagerly anticipating the end. This was probably because there was less action in the second act and I still couln't understand the words. But the singing was very good. So after most of the second act being drawn out it ended abruptly and with a bang. Mario was supposed to be only fake killed by the fireing squad but it turns out he was for real killed. Tosca was so upset, and also in trouble for killing Scarpia (the cheif of police) that she threw herself off the roof of the building. The fireing squad used real muskets and gunpowder so that was exciting. I didn't think I would stay for the whole thing, but, it was a good opera, and what else was I going to do?



Not a very entertaining post so far. I've been thinking of writing something about Kansas versus science. Maybe it would be to late but it's still in the news. Maybe I'll do that today if I don't find anything else to do.

California and the First Sleeplessness

California

So I had to leave Ohio on the 23 of July for work, and to meet my mom and switch vehicles.




This is the view from the hotel we stayed at in San Clemente. I like the location a little better than the hotel we used to stay at in Oceanside but the hotel itself is not that great. The internet didn't work and there was no breakfast, and it's expensive, like $150/night. I'm glad the company is paying for it because I would be sleeping in my car and bathing in the ocean every night. Or I guess I might just drive back to Loma Linda for the evenings. One night at like 3 in the morning, the fire alarm went off. I thought there was a fire until I went out my door and ours was the only one going off. Turns out some people upstairs were getting a little crazy in the hot tub and it leeked into our room.



I wasn't to good about taking pictures this time. Since I had killed my last camera in the canal getting the fike nets out. I did take some pictures of the San Clemente nuclear plant and of the Camp Pendleton countryside. But I'm a little nervous just admitting that I took those pictures. I don't know that sort if of thing is legal or not. It probably is. You can be a terrorist for anything these days. Don't wear any heavy coats or parkas, I know that.


On the right are some red eared pond sliders. As I may have mentioned in previous posts, our mission is to remove all the exotic species from the Santa Margarita Estuary. These are exotic turtles are exotic but I guess since there is no protocol for killing turtles humanely we often end up throwing them into the weeds and hoping they die, or live depending on your point of view. I didn't want to kill them so I took them. Another action of questionable legality on my part. I do have a California fishing license though so I think I'm covered. Those fike nets will catch all sorts of animals and most of the drown before we get to them. Which I am glad about. We have caught 3 beavers. Imagine trying to get a live, squirming, thrashing, biting beaver out of a net while your in the water. They are exotic, too. The whole project is kind of dumb, but whatever. It's fun. We are never going to get all the crayfish out of the river with minnow traps. And we are never going to get the exotic fish out of the river if we keep throwing them back in the lake. I'm not going to explain the whole thing to your right now. I think we go one more time this summer and we are done.

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Sierra National Forest

After a week of fishing and getting paid for it I went to meet my ma at Sierra NF just east of Fresno. We got there late the first night and camped way up this winding road at a free campground.


The next night we went to the ranger station for maps and a campfire/camping permit. We decided to head up towards a grove of Sequoias called the McKinely Grove. I guess it wasn't as impressive as the groves in Sequoia National Park because I didn't take any pictures of them. They are still big trees though. We stayed up there and camped just off the main road and then fished in Dinky creek for about two days. It was nice and relaxing.





This is the fishing whole I used. This stream is "planted" with fish every week but I couldn't catch any.







This was the view from our second night.





Below, Agatha is playing with a crayfish I we had bought for the turtles. The liked the fish better so I had to dispatch the crayfish with Agathas help.





I had hoped to have a video of Agatha and the crayfish but the place I am hosting it won't release it yet.




Quick ecology note. There are some native crayfish to California but many have been replaced by species from the genus Procambarus because they are sold for bait and thrown into the water live.




The pond sliders are also introduced by people that buy them in pet stores and put them in there garden ponds. Both animals are from the south around Louisianna, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi area. Pond sliders will eat fish, crayfish, and small native turtles. I haven't mentioned bullfrogs yet but they are another invasive species. They are from the midwest and south as well. Bullfrogs will eat anything, even snakes, fish and birds. They are partly responsible for the decline of the native arroyo toad in southern Califronia. If you have one of these things for a pet and you do not live in part of there native range. Please do not let them out.






So the second night we drove up this trail a bit to get away from the road. I have to show a couple pictures here of the road.



























Check out my car following the jeep right up this mountain.




















You see Ceri? Escorts are cool.






































Ok, Ceri doesn't believe me. She has a car just like mine and hates it. Although, she does like it better now that I got it to run better and get better gas milage.

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1 august (my birthday)

Backwoods Sleeplessness

On the last night I was with my mom in the forest we had a pretty good adventure. We decided to take a beginners off road trail in the jeep to test out it's new engine. It went back to lake a secluded lake with some good fishing. So, we left the turtles and the wagon at the trailhead, loaded up the jeep with camping gear and took off down the road.




It was a good one for beginners just like the pamplet said. Ma started out driving but was scared so I took over. By the time we were headed back out Ma was getting a better idea of what the jeep can do and she drove most of the way back out. These are all pictures from the way out but whatever, its the same trail both ways.
































This is the rock pile near the end. It was a little tricky but no real danger. (Something more tricky than this is trying to get all these pictures to line up right. )






























Here is ma looking good behind the wheel.



































We got to the lake around noon. So we spent the rest of the afternoon lazying around. Ma went swimming while I was fishing. The lake was warm, not like cold glacier feed lakes in Colorado. Fish were jumping everywhere. I guess they were eating dragonflies that day and not salmon eggs. I didn't catch any fish the whole trip.










This is Brewer Lake. Really nice.
























This tree fell down and took a couple with it. This is where we parked the jeep and made our kitchen. We couldn't eat near the lake because of bears. It was a little bit of a hike to the lake from here but the trail got really difficult. I like that we could close are food in the jeep at night instead of hanging our food.

































I don't know what any of these flowers are called.















































Here is a nice place to take a bath.

































Ok, so that was a nice relaxing afternoon. We had some weird nacho hamberger helper thing for supper and got into the tent around 6pm. We still had two or three hours to darkness but we knew the mosquitoes would be terrible. I read a few short dective stories from ma book since I had finished my own book the night before. The Invisible Man really wasn't a very good story. When the sun left us behind a mountain I turned on my headlamp and read a while longer. I kind of had to pee but I didn't want to get out in the mosquitoes. Ma had already gone out to walk Agatha and had let some bugs in. I figured I could wait until sometime in the middle of the night when the bugs weren't as bad, or else just wait until morning. So I drifted off and fell blissfully asleep, which I am not convinced is the only way to sleep in the backcountry.



I must have started sleeping around 9 and I sleep pretty well in a tent. Around 9:30 I here my mom scream. I jumped up and she was yelling at Agatha.



"Be quiet, Agatha lay down. Agatha be quiet. Agatha lay down."



Agatha was staring out the window ignoring my mom. I didn't know what was going on but I was starting to get scared already. Then ma told me there was a cat outside the tent.



"A what? A mountain lion?" I asked.



" I don't know. A cat I think." She said. I couldn't hear anything but my mom talking to Agatha and Agatha licking her butt. Then I herd this noise from somewhere over by the creek. It sounded like a skreetching scream to me.



"Was it that?" I asked. My mom didn't hear it. Awhile later I heard it again. Meanwhile, Agatha was still licking her butt and I couldn't hear what my mom was pointing at by the side of the tent. Finally, everything else was quite and I heard a russle and and meowish noise. I couldn't see anything outside and I didn't want to turn on my light in case it was a mountain lion.



I layed myself back down and stared at the roof of the tent thinking about what it could be. It didn't sound big so I wasn't to scared about that. But what was the noise I had heard. I had never heard a puma before but I know they scream like old women. Then I started analyzing the noise. It did sound more like a skreetch than a scream. I don't know. And what was the thing outside the tent. Agatha didn't seem to care anymore but I was wide awake. And I had to pee. I was just hoping I could make it until daylight.



About three hours later I couldn't take it anymore. I told ma I had to pee and asked her what time it was. It was 12:30. There was no way I was going to make it until morning. So I put on my shoes and headlamp. Unzipped the door and stood up. Ma yelled, "Your letting the mosquitoes in." So I had to clear the door and face the night. I took a few steps and shined the flashlight all around. There were no signs of life which was a relief. I relieved myself and jumped back in the tent.



For the rest of the night every noise had to be analyzed. Cracking branches, chirps, knocks across the lake, and fish splashing around.



In the morning there were no tracks, scraps or anything to help us solve this mistery. All I had was the sound I had heard. We packed everything up pretty early and headed back out. Taking the pictures you've already seen of the jeep on the trail along the way.



We ate some breakfast back at the trailhead, switched cars and drove down out of the mountains. Ma headed north through Yosemite and I headed south to Loma Linda. When I got back I surfed the internet for the sound clip I linked to. That sounds really similar to what I heard. That combined with the meow and the smaller sounding animal outside the tent leads me to believe that it might have been a lynx.

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Anywho, sorry that was so long. Now I am caught up with the present. I am back in Loma Linda and bored even though I should be measuring more birds in the lab.




Now that I've been keeping up with posting I'll try to continue so keep checking back.

Washington and New York

Here is most of what I did in Washington and New York.









I measured birds. Without having done any analysis so far. It does look like at least some of the populations will be
diagnosably different. I am concerned about the measurement of the red on the throat but I'll see what happens when I
run the data through some statistics.




I also saw some cool stuffed birds I'll never see anywhere else.





This is the ivory billed woodpecker which I guess there is a chance I might be able to see someday. Now that it is no longer extinct




This one is a passenger pigeon. They used to cover the skies so thick you couldn't see daylight between them. They would move in flocks a mile wide and 300 miles long. It's crazy to think that these birds once made up 40% of all North American birds and we know that the last one died on 1 sept 1914.

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New York

New York was more of the same for me. We got in Wednesday night, the 20th of July. Traffic wasn't great in New York City
but it wasn't impossible either.





We managed to find a parking spot on Todd's street
immediately so that was good. Todd is a friend
from the Mill in Lincoln. We used to play chess and sometimes ski together. He was a most excellent host.



After Ceri and I finished in our respective museums we met Todd at his local coffee shop and then headed to "Little India" for some cheap and tasty indian food.






Todd had an awsome apartment with roof access.














Click on it to see the full size.








After the Indian restaurant we helped somebody celebrate leaving for Italy for a year at a bar in Midtown. I'm told it is one of the financial centers and is a huge terrorist magnet so it's one of the only subway stops that gets a police presence.

The next morning we went drove to the place where the twin towers used to stand. It was a pretty big whole. And I took a lot of pictures. So here are some of them.

This one says "Remember, Jesus loves the people you hate."



Jesus called us to renounce violence and befriend our enemies.



Here are a few additional thoughts


Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.



You can't hug children with nuclear arms.



Bread not bombs



The strongest insurgency in Iraq is where there is no electricity, water, sewer and trash clean up.


New York City had 2245 murders in 1994 and 590 in 2004. This has been attributed to Guiliani's zero tolerence for petty crimes. They cleaned up graphitti and came down on anti-social behavior.










There are four subway lines running in the bottom of this pit. The pit looked like it was 4 or 5 stories deep.






We were trying to get a picture of us with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

After seeing downtown we had to go back home to Bowling Green so that I could catch my flight from Dayton the next morning.

Here are Ceri and I pretending to be asleep.

This gets me pretty close to caught up for the summer. I have one more week to cover which will include the other sleepless night that I had. I'll get that done this week sometime so keep checking in.

Various forms of sleeplessness

Maybe I should title this, "Various dislikes of dorm life" but there was also the sleepless night in the mountains at the beginning of the week. More on that later.


I think there are people reading my blog more frequently now that I have been updating it more frequently. So you probably read the long post with pictures of part of my trip to Ohio. That took me a long time to write, about 3 hours actually. I'll try to finish that trip today sometime.



No time to sleep, sleeplessness


I was up late that night partly because of that and partly because a friend/science cohort/future roommate was back from Honduras and showing me pictures. They are really good pictures too. He had a flight leaving from LAX early Friday morning and I agreed to drive him there. So, I slept almost 4 hours Thursday night. I don't mind that so much except that it cost me about $25 which I don't really have. I didn't feel like turning right around for the 2 hour drive back to Loma Linda so I stopped to get a muffin and coffee and locked my keys in the car. I mentioned that in my "money well spent" post. Thursday night was sleepless because I didn't get much time to sleep.



Annoyance sleeplessness.


Last night was an entirely different kind of sleeplessness than anything I had experienced earlier in the week. There were some people in the apartment when I went to bed at midnight and they were kind of loud but I closed my bedroom door and soon they left. Then, at 3am I was very rudely awakened by, I presume the same people. This time they were very loud. Yelling, playing loud dance music, yelling about dancing or not dancing. Drunk and still drinking. Now, I think alcoholic beverages are a perfectly fine when socializing. But socializing to me means intelligent, provocative conversation in a healthy atmosphere. Or at the very least coherent and happy.

Drunks can be amusing I guess. But I get tired of the stupidness real fast and I need to be able to get away. Vomiting and walking into things is only funny for so long and then I get annoyed and bored. Drunks get frustrated because other people don't understand what they are trying to say, but instead of speaking clearly and reasonably they yell and get mad. I've seen the same tactic used when talking to someone that doesn't speak English. Trying to increase the meaning of their words with volume.


These people were intent on drinking until they passed out. One of the arguments I heard was whether or not they should drive home. I contemplated running out there in my underwear to scare them away but realized my only real option was to roll over and try to get back to sleep. Assholes.


Other complaints I have about the dorm so far include; people using my dishes and leaving them dirty, people eating my precious and expensive food, and people sleeping in my bed while I'm away. So what keeps me here? Location and price. I doubt there is anywhere else in southern California as cheap as this other than my jeep.


Ok I should say something positive about the dorm. The Loma Linda Market is right across the street. School is a block away. All utilities are included - electric, a/c, broadband, telephone. The kitchen has a garbage disposal. There is a balcony that look at the hospital and the hills behind it. If I can deal with the other people I guess it's not so bad.

I'll try to be more positive when I get more sleep.

Music video on the blog

I'm just playing around here to see what is possible. I am a Gwen Stefani fan. I can't figure out how to keep it from playing without hiting the play button.



"Cool"
by Gwen Stefani




ok, I removed the embeded video

File sharing and money well spent

File sharing

I am going to finish my last post shortly. First, I have a general question. Does anyone know a way to post files and make them available on the blogger? Video or mp3 files for example.

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Money well spent

I'ld like to share another thought while I am here. When one is poor, one must think about money quite a lot. Value, depreciation, and versitility of everything becomes an issue. Today, I am adding another thing to my short list of well spent money.

Here is my list.

1. Food has alwasy been first on my list. I have to eat and I might as well. If it comes down to gas or food. Food is a renewable resource and walking or riding my bike far more efficient in terms of energy expenditure. Walking/running = ~120 kcal/mile, biking = ~25kcal/mile, driving costs an incredible 660 - 3300 kcal/mile. (A statistic from Ken Kifer's Bike Pages. An addmitedly unscientific source, but you can do the calculations yourself if you want.)


2. Bicycle. For some of the same reasons listed above, ie. fuel efficiency and general health. But also, because I can buy a $30 part for a repair to a bicycle and it will run fine for a year or more. Thousands of miles. Try fixing anything on your car for $30.


And the new addition.

3. AAA. If you must drive. I don't know how many times I've called AAA but I'm sure they are keeping track. At least twice, recently, on trips to LAX. Locked keys in car, dead battery, dead car. With towing at $2/mile or a locksmith at probably more than $50, it's worth having that roadside insurance. To make it even more worth your money, use somebody elses money. I actually don't know how much it costs since I have been on my mom's plan for as long as I have been driving. Thanks ma.

Catching up

I am really behind now, but I'll start catching up. I don’t expect much will happen worth writing about now that I’m back in Loma Linda.
Maybe I'll become creative like my friends doing their own blogs.

I’ve been gone from LLU for most of the summer so far. That’s pretty much the way I like it.
I think the only reason I would call this place home is that it's shorter than "Daniels Residence
Complex at Loma Linda University.



So, where should I start? There was the other half my trip to Washington that I was going to finish.

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More Washington

I’ll just share some photos real quick.


There were these sea flakes on the beach. Crunchy but not like corn flakes.



Me and Bradley fought like crabs to decide you got to lay in the sea flakes.





The next day we went to the Tillamook Cheese factory, which was really cool but I don’t have any pictures. Then we had some time so we stopped at a windy part of the beach.




We went back to Vancouver and my Aunt Tina came to visit.



Then Ceri left on Friday and that was sad. I didn't know it yet but I would
see her again pretty soon.




[I have a limit to how many photos I can upload per month so we’ll see how many you get to see]



On my drive home the moon was gigantic over Mount Shasta.




It doesn’t look like it in the picture but I read about it in the news when I got back to school. click here




Oh, yeah! Another thing I saw on the way back to Loma Linda was big trees. These things are seriously large

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Loma Linda


Ok, so I was back in Loma Linda for like two seconds. I had to move into my
dorm room.
Which is ok for a dorm. Then I went to Oceanside and Camp Pendleton for a week to work for
Ecorp. Have I mentioned Ecorp before? I like it. I feel like they treat me well.



Unfortunately, I got my camera in the water while fishing with Ecorp. It never recovered so there are going to be a couple weeks without pictures.



I came back to Loma Linda and realized I didn't have any work for another three weeks and almost everyone was gone.
Alex had just bought a ticket to leave on Monday. So I bought one too, for Ohio.

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Ohio


I flew into Columbus on the 4th of July. I thought I would be able to see some fireworks from the air,
but there really weren't very many going off. Ceri have packed a picnic but we couldn't find any fireworks to watch,
so we found a dock on a river and ate there in the dark. We ate cherries and spit
the pits into the water. Frogs were croaking
around us. It as really nice.

The first week I was in Ohio Ceri had painting class. That took most of the day so while she was painting I
formatted my computer. It runs much faster now.
In the evenings we ate and watched movies. We watched kind of a lot of movies.






Sometimes we went to the coffee shop or library and worked. Ceri did center stuff and I did parrot stuff.

Her painting looks really good. I went up to the studio to check it out while she was in the process and
I think it is one of the better paintings that was in the room.



On the next Monday, Bill (my professor recently back from the Bahamas) called to find out where I was at.
When he found out I was in Ohio he thought that was close enough to Washington DC that I might as well hop on over there.
So, that week I spent a lot of time getting tools and measuring equipment together. And figuring out travel plans.
And I bought a camera.
Ceri was awesome about the whole thing. She was really supportive letting me use her car and coming with
even though she really didn't want to go.



The day before we left for Washington and New York we went to church in Toledo, drove to Michigan on accident,
and ate at a really good Indian restaurant.

I really like the church building and location.
You can get distracted by the green outside.



This is the Tandoor on Reynolds Road in Toledo.

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Another Washinton

This one is on the other end of the country. There's not really much to say about here. But I thought it deserved a bar and a bold heading.

Bill's parents were really nice and let us stay with them in their house north of Washington.
We would take the commuter bus in and out of downtown. It's really the best way to go. It dropped us off
one block from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Ceri went to the art galleries while I was working with the parrots.
You may have already read about it in her posts on the
18th and
19th of July.



Ok, I'm tired and I have to stop for now. I'll
finish this tomorrow or this weekend for sure but this hold you over until then.