Question of the Week

Which would you prefer: 1) a wild, turbulent life filled with joy, sorrow, passion, and adventure -- intoxicating successes and stunning setbacks; or 2) a happy, secure, predictable life surrounded by friends and family without such wide swings of fortune and mood?

(From the very thought-provoking "Book of Questions" by Gregory Stock).

What about option 1) surrounded by family and friends? Would you still choose secure and predictable?

I'm IT!

Well, things got a little hectic with our recent move from Richland, WA to Evanston, IL. In one bitter twist of coincidence, WYDOT closed I-80, and we were stranded in Evanston WYOMING! for a day (24 hours longer than we wanted to be there). But we finally made it to the little city north of the BIG CITY, and the crazy madness of getting settled in a new place is winding down, so it's about time for a post.

There are a billion things to put up, but before I get to anything else (sometime in the next week or so), I should take care of some URGENT blogging business. I was just tagged by somebody special (thanks Ronni!), so you get to learn a few interesting things about me.

First, though, here are the RULES:

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog....

6 interesting facts about me:

1. I'm an overeducated chemist with a PhD from Penn State. I wrote my thesis on "CatalyticallyInducedElectrokineticsForMotorsAndMicropumps" (hopefully the space-less title will keep the wrong people from googling my webpage...). After a one year stint at PacificNorthwestNationalLab, I'm now working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University (more on that later...).

2. I have a thing about telephones. An addiction maybe? I can't explain it, but I think that it is one of the most interesting and poorly appreciated technologies. But my interest extends to technology and gadgets in general.

3. I was once assistant manager at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. I quit my job there for a job at "the Mall" selling clothes. I hated selling clothes more than selling chicken.

4. I bike to work everyday. Okay, most everyday. (I'm kind of a sissy about riding in the rain). One day I just realized that the only exercise I got was walking up and down the stairs at work, so I made it a point to bike as often as I can. Usually that's just to work and back, but I try to hit the trails a couple of times a month. Note to self: find off road "trails" in the big city.

5. I love to read. Usually non-fiction (I'm a news junkie!), but I'll get into a novel once in a blue moon. I have a collection of textbooks for reference in our "library", you know, in case I ever have a question about that one guy you sailed to that one place in 15-something...

6. Okay, I'm not proud of this one, but I have a hard time going number 2 without bringing a little reading material. I mean sometimes you gotta sit and wait, and I get bored without something to read. And I don't think I'm the only one!

I'm going to tag:
Brian
Nick
Chelsea
Kenna
Adam
Bret

Dad-in-chief

I gotta remember this whenever I think I'm too busy for some quality time with the kids:



I mean if the PRESIDENT can take his kids calls, I've got no excuses!

Naked DSL

High-speed internet access is a must these days. The low cost option is DSL, but for the cell-phone generation, this requires people who don't need a land-line to get one anyway. This obligatory phone line at our house is basically just a lightning rod for telemarketers. I can hear your cry: "Oh, if only there was only a way to get cheap DSL without forking out another 30 bucks a month for a regular phone line." ($30/month = $360/year = a good road trip somewhere interesting).

Friend, I feel your pain. Since I'm a natural born value-shopper (cheapskate?), I thought I'd look into "better value" internet. "Better value" meaning a Basic (768 Kbps) connection without a land-line for less than a Basic connection WITH a land-line (currently ~$45/month).

Happily, a lot of phone companies are starting to offer "Naked DSL", which is basically DSL without an activated land-line, or "dry-loop DSL". I checked with Verizon and they freely admitted that you can in fact order DSL without ordering regular phone service. But don't be fooled into getting more than you need. You could pay up to 2x as much for the "popular" 1.5 Mbps plan, instead of the basic 768 Kbps plan. Unless you're a media pirate (argh!), the Basic plan is fast enough for e-mail, google searches, and even full-screen youtube videos (I want my youtube!).

Since we're moving to an area serviced by AT&T, I checked to see if AT&T offers similar plans. Turns out they do, but they only market the "popular" plans, which includes the "Express DSL" which is 1.5 Mbps for $44/month. That's about what it costs for Basic connection WITH a land-line. What a crock.

It gets better: I recently found out that AT&T has been REQUIRED by the FCC to offer BASIC DSL without a land-line for $20/month (see HERE for the story). Of course they don't market this plan, since it's not as big of a moneymaker as the "popular" plans. According to an anonymous AT&T employee, if you're area is serviced by AT&T and you want BASIC DSL without a land-line, here's what you need to do:

•Call the AT&T Dry Loop department directly at 888-800-4095
•Ask to switch to "DSL direct"
•If they give you a hassle, say it's a "retention offer"

So that's what I intend to do. And if you wish you didn't have to pay $30/month for a phone line you don't use, you should too.

Phone Patch Test

There a good chance you're thinking one of three things right now:

1. Not another post about telephones!
2. Sweet! Another telephones post!
3. This guy posts about telephones?

(There's also a good chance you're either hitting the "BACK" button on the browser, or the "NEXT BLOG" button at the top of the page).

Either way, I finished my phone patch a while ago, but never got around to posting about it. A phone patch is little electronics gadget that routes audio from a phone line to the LINE IN of, say, a computer sound card. Then you can capture telephone audio digitally with your PC (or MAC, if you're into that sort of thing).

Short story is that it works! For a quick demo, and to hear my favorite telephone company recording, click HERE.

And, if you're still with me, here's the long story. I built this phone patch with parts from Radio Shack for under $20. Now that I know what I'm doing, I could probably make another one for about $10. Here's the schematic:
C1 is 1 uF capacitor rated for up to 250 V.

T1 is a 1:1 isolation transformer (primary coil is 80 ohms, secondary is 60 ohms). This is to protect your computer sound card from potentially damaging surges from the phone line.

MOV is a metal oxide varistor. If the voltage spikes on the line above 150 V, it shorts out protecting the rest of the circuit.

D1 and D2 are 1N4001 diodes. Above 0.7V and they are supposed to short out through the loop if anything dangerous gets past the MOV and the isolation transformer.

v(in) is the audio signal from the telephone company. I don't know what the value actually is. But the voltage out is line-level; enough to power a pair of standard headphones without an amp (~100 mV max?)

v(out) goes to the male phone jack that plugs into the sound card LINE IN input. If you want to use the MIC input, you'll need to add a 100kOhm resistor in the v(out) loop series.

This is optimized to run right into the PC sound card LINE IN; to pull audio OFF the phone line. But it can also be run in reverse; to put audio ON the phone line. You know, in case you want to add background music to an otherwise dull phone conversation.

Culture club...

I got into a discussion with some co-workers about culture (or lack of) in the bustling metropolis of Richland, WA.

One guy's idea of culture is drinking beer and going hunting with his buddies. He was also the first to admit that this doesn't exactly fit most people's definitions of culture. But it's a "cultural" activity that is pretty important to him, and one that is well within his reach, even in the western Washington desert.

Another co-worker represented the opposite end of the spectrum when he described how revolting it was to go to a live production of "the Nutcracker" that used -- are you ready for this? -- a pre-recorded soundtrack instead of a live symphony. (seriously! What kind of neanderthals!)

Anyway, my idea of culture are things that 1) make me think 2) open my eyes to something new 3) bring people together 4) represent the very best people have to offer.

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is good music. While there's a special place in my heart for pop music that brings people together, I usually retreat into more esoteric musical adventures that say things that I wish I could say (thoughtful lyrics are a MUST!) or amplify a mood. Ooo: amplify a mood! Like blasting Tick Tick Boom by the Hives after kicking some butt at an interview or getting pumped up for the bike ride home from work by listening to Eye of the Tiger (my evening ritual as I'm filling out my time report). And watching a home movie that shows everyone growing up to the song "100 years" by 5 for fighting has a way of making me appreciate the little things in life.

There's a lot more to culture for me, but now I want to hear from you. So, all right, audience participation time: What is culture to you? (this is the part where you click the "Comments" button at the end of the post).

Intestinal Fortitude

It's almost Veterans Day and I'm in the middle of Inside Delta Force by Eric Haney. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, written by a guy who has driven life into a corner and reduced it to its lowest terms. "If it's not hard, it's not worth it" seems to be his mantra. The book is full of real in-the-trenches-and-don't-ever-forget-you're-mortal action, not unbelievable Hollywood special effects. Amidst the action and intrigue, he's also got some great gems that inspire you to "go for it":

"It is important to realize that we have the ability to manufacture our own fate when we want to. We can summon up intestinal fortitude and proceed when things look bad, or we can find plenty of reasons to quit if we don't want to go forward."

(Eric Haney, Command Sergeant Major, USA (ret.) 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment--Delta)

Intestinal fortitude. That'd be somethin'. Carpe diem.

Worst Ideas Ever!

This list is bound to be long, and grows with each passing day. But the top of the list (today anyway) is dedicated to the yahoo who said to himself "Hey, I've got an idea. Let's put carpet in the kitchen and dining area. It'll be so easy to clean and will never smell bad!" Seriously, who wants to rent the rug-doctor every time you spill some milk ... or applesauce? There ought to be a building code against that. Carpet just happens to have the same absorption properties of a dishwashing sponge (bacteria farms) that should be replaced every couple of weeks. And have you ever tried to clean sticky rice off of carpet? Whoever thought of this definitely does not have kids.

But, I'm sure there are worse things though. Any ideas? Bad ideas only!

A 2nd Postdoc?

For those who don't know, my family and I are moving to Northwestern University in Evanston, IL (just north of Chicago). I'll be working as a postdoc in the Chemistry department. It's the chance of a lifetime, and we are really excited about it!

So, in honor of our move to Northwestern University, here are some Fun Facts:

1. You'd think a "Big Ten" school would be bigger, but in 2005-2006, there were only 7,826 undergrads, and almost as many grad students (5,640).

2. Founded by 9 Methodists from Chicago, including 3 ministers, religious symbolism from its birth persists. The latin phrase in the seal means "Whatsoever things are true" (Philippians 4:8), and the greek phrase means "The Word...full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

3. Every school I've ever been affiliated with had BLUE as a school color (including elementary school!). Northwestern's colors are refreshingly different: Purple and White.

4. Home to the best women's Lacrosse team, Northwestern's Lady Wildcats captured the NCAA championship title for the third time in a row this past year.

5. The football team, though improving in recent years, has a well-deserved reputation of futility.

6. Famous alumni include: Charlton Heston, David Schimmer, Zach Braff, and Steven Colbert.

7. Another less-than-famous alumnus: Graham Spanier!

Great things to come. Stay Tuned! (By "stay tuned" I of course mean that I might update my blog sometime in the next month...)

The meaning of life?

Wikipedia has like 2 million or so articles on the meaning of just about EVERYTHING, so I thought I'd check out the meaning of life, according to Wikipedia:

"LIFE:

From Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia

This article is about life in general. For life on Earth, see Organism. For other meanings of "life", see Life (disambiguation)."

How about that: the meaning of life, complete with a "disambiguation" hyperlink!

Landmark Scavenger Hunt!

So it'll be a while before we travel the world. But, hey, why bother messing with Airports and Passports? You can see the Wonders of the World from the comfort of your own home! All you need is Google Maps!

I've been trying to track down some of the world's more interesting landmarks with Google Maps. This is what I have so far:

1. The Eiffel Tower
2. Teotihuacan
3. Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii
4. Washington, DC: The White House and the Washington Monument
5. Niagara Falls
6. The Statue of Liberty
7. The Great Pyramids in Egypt
8. The Kremlin in Russia

Go ahead and navigate around like in regular Google Maps:

- The arrows in the upper left corner of the map will let you move around on the map (or you can "click-and-drag", which I think is easier).
- the + and - buttons (by the arrows) will zoom in and out.

Click on the blue markers to see what's there. If you want a bird's-eye-view of the landmark, make sure you're on "satellite" or "hybrid" view, and zoom in as far as you can.

View Larger Map

I'm still looking for the Great Wall of China and that GIANT crater in Arizona (Oh! and Crater Lake! That should be pretty easy.)

Any other cool landmarks you can think of? Leave 'em here in the comments section and I'll try to track them down while watching "The Office" or "The Unit".

Where do you go?

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach...

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,

to life so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life

to cut a broad swath and shave close

to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms

...and not, when I came to die, discover than I had not lived.

(HDT)

A New Hope?

These guys get an automatic 100% on their sci-fi, science, and dork scores!


More menacing than a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers, it's Earth's Gravity Field effectively neutralizing the fledgling Rebel opposition. A New Hope ... dashed to pieces.

(Thanks to Benji for this great link: http://www.geekologie.com/2007/10/bike_mowers_are_awesome_cut_gr.php)

Global Confusion Science

So this post has been a while in the making. It’s been really interesting to see the “global warming” debate play out, not only in the scientific literature, but in the NEWS. For a guy who hasn’t really made up his mind on this, I have been surprised to see what is fundamentally a scientific debate turned into a public relations campaign on both sides of the issue. After reading Brian Anderson’s thoughts on the subject, I felt like it was time to get this one out there.

TWO BIG QUESTIONS:
There are two basic questions at the heart of all the “global warming” hype. First: is the temperature of the Earth increasing? Second: if the Earth is warming, what is causing it? The answer to the first question is “yes”. Since diligent temperature record-keeping began in the mid 1800’s, there has been an upward trend in Earth’s temperature. I don’t know what the answer to the second question is, and I think the people who do know need to do a better job of communicating that to the public. The people who don’t know (or think they know) need to shut their cakeholes.

Now that I’m up on my soapbox, let me just summarize my thoughts on the subject: Whether or not human activities are causing global warming is a hard question to answer. The people who know the most about climate admit it. A lot of people think they have it all figured out, or think they really could figure it out if. Only. They. Had. More. Research. Funding! (Sniff, sniff! Call the wah!mbulance!). But my personal opinion is that this is in fact an open question, despite what Al Gore, Rush Limbaugh, Senator Inhofe, or RealClimateScientists say.

Here’s the thing: if man-made climate change is still an open question, there are two “worst-case-scenario” questions everybody (everybody who has an opinion anyway) needs to ask:

1. What if global warming has NOTHING to do with human activities, but we try to do something anyway? I guess that depends on what we try to do. If we’re going to penalize companies for non-compliance to arbitrary regulations, we run the risk of hurting US, and as a result, world economies. That’s a bad thing. On the other hand, if we’re talking about throwing money into research and development, I think developing new energy-efficient or energy-production technologies is definitely a good thing, even if “experts” are wrong about global warming.

2. On the other hand, what if global warming has EVERYTHING to do with human activities, but we don’t do anything? That’s a tougher one, in my opinion. If we don’t start doing things now, we will be in a world of hurt later. Sure, climate changes. But if WE’RE causing it, every living thing will be affected and we are bad citizens. Worse than that, if there’s something we could have done and didn’t, then by the time we convince Senator Inhofe, we’ll REALLY have our work cut out for us.

Either way, it seems that the prudent thing to do is hedge our bets, and focus on developing energy-efficient and energy-producing technologies. There are at least 3 other good reasons for doing this: 1) We will stay on top of R&D and innovation in the world, 2) With innovation come more jobs and better standard of living, and 3) New technologies can help get us off dependence on foreign oil. All of these are in my mind more immediate, tangible reasons for Energy R&D than averting *possible* climate change.

There I said it.

Vindication!

One of my big complaints with the Nerd-Test (besides the lack of 90% confidence limits) was that it didn't properly break down "types" of nerdiness. A guy who knows how to code in MATLAB isn't necessarily the same kind of nerd who dresses up like a Sith-Lord to stand in line for 3 days for Episode 3 tickets. And someone who has a goofy laugh is not necessarily the same guy who can build a computer from scratch. See how confusing this gets? It's just really important that people are put in the RIGHT compartments, so they can be appropriately judged (are you judging me? you're judging me aren't you! don't judge ME!) and ridiculed.

Enter: Nerd Test 2.0!




Bring it on!

An ant on the tablecloth
Ran into a dormant moth
Of many times his size.
He showed not the least surprise.
His business wasn't with such.
He gave it scarcely a touch,
And was off on his duty run.
Yet if he encountered one
Of the hive's enquiry squad
Whose work is to find out God
And the nature of time and space,
He would put him onto the case.
Ants are a curious race;
One crossing with hurried tread
The body of one of their dead
Isn't given a moment's arrest-
Seems not even impressed.
But he no doubt reports to any
With whom he crosses antennae,
And they no doubt report
To the higher-up at court.
Then word goes forth in Formic:
"Death's come to Jerry McCormic,
Our selfless forager Jerry.
Will the special Janizary
Whose office it is to bury
The dead of the commissary
Go bring him home to his people.
Lay him in state on a sepal.
Wrap him for shroud in a petal.
Embalm him with ichor of nettle.
This is the word of your Queen."
And presently on the scene
Appears a solemn mortician;
And taking formal position,
With feelers calmly atwiddle,
Seizes the dead by the middle,
And heaving him high in air,
Carries him out of there.
No one stands round to stare.
It is nobody else's affair

It couldn't be called ungentle
But how thoroughly departmental

- Robert Frost (a man ahead of his time...)

Happy Easter?

It's a very special time here at our house. And by "special", I mean "involving a disturbing surprise".

Every year, we follow the old-fashioned tradition of coloring and hiding hard-boiled Easter eggs. After the great Egg Scare of 2004 (ES04), when we found a forgotten (but still intact) decorated egg a few days after Easter, we decided to meticulously document the number and location of all eggs hidden indoors from now on.

And I think we have. Our detailed inventory has allowed for 2 incident-free years since ES04. But despite the efforts of two egg-attentive parents, this year has revealed a somewhat more unpleasant treat. The entire event is strikingly similar to ES04, except for the time between the egg-placement and discovery. After a full FOUR MONTHS, the echo of Easter-past manifested itself in the form of a once beautifully-decorated, and now BROKEN pink shell still containing a shrunken sphere of solid protein! I'll spare you the "what's grosser than gross" part of the story, suffice to say that we were not the first things to discover the neglected egg.

How could this single egg have slipped past the radar? I mean, we counted the eggs before AND AFTER hiding! I have a theory: the Easter Bunny isn't the only one who likes to hide eggs. This is, apparently, a fun pastime for kids who like to re-play the magic of Easter morning for days after the initial event. Eventually the magic fades, along with the memory of re-hidden eggs. Fast forward four months, and a few insect life cycles later, and we have the makings of the Terrible Egg Event of 2007, dwarfing ES04 by several orders of magnitude.

Clearly, there are some weaknesses in our current Easter-inventory system, which you can bet will be corrected before Spring '08.

Quantifiable Nerdiness

To confirm what everyone who reads this blog might suspect (at least the 86% who are cooler than me. The rest are either blissfully unaware, or proudly "nerdier" than me), here's my "official" nerd score:

I don't think that's right. I mean, they didn't even give me confidence intervals. How do I know how good that number even is?

BRAVE CAPTAIN!

And now, Mike Watt and fIREHOSE with one of the best songs ever written and this page's namesake:

What are you going to be when you grow up?

Just for fun, I took a career-placement test to see what I'm going to do when I grow up. Nice to know that this is pretty much what it was when I started college. I don't know about you, but I'd have to say this is pretty accurate.

Career Inventory Test Results Extroversion ||||||||||||||| 46% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||||||| 60% Orderliness |||||||||||| 36% Altruism ||||||||||||||||||||| 63% Inquisitiveness |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 83% You are an Idealist, possible professions include - information-graphics designer, college professor, researcher, legal mediator, social worker, holistic health practitioner, occupational therapist, diversity manager, human resource development specialist, employment development specialist, minister/priest/rabbi, missionary, psychologist, writer

Take Free Career Test
personality tests by similarminds.com