Sunday, November 8, 2009

Halloween Part 1

The first week of October we decided to attend a Halloween park in Logan, complete with animals, a train, and more activities than you could possibly survive-here are a few

First off we went through the corn maze (M and I having a grand old time)
This, however, did not last long as Mom, peering about for workers, started running for dear life through the rows-specifically going against about 80 posted signs-to the entrance, and yelling at us all to do the same. (apparently she did not have high hopes for us completing the 500 acre headless horseman corn maze)







Next we watched as Dad, attempting to rope some steers (horns taped to a chair), 






ended up roping himself.  


M just begged me to take this pic


Several of us participated in sliding down the mountain in a flour sack, crashing into a pile of straw at the end.  We watched as child after child flew down, bounced off the straw, and bounded up the hill.  We thought it looked pretty fun and perfectly save so we hopped in line.  As my turn came around, I sat on the bag and off I went.  20 sec later, drowning in straw, I realized I had miscalculated some things, including the fact that weight has some effect on your landing.

We finished off our day-o-fun with an in-the-dark maze-has there ever been a worse idea?  Yes, lets take a pitch dark room, cover up the exits, and create a maze, not with soft cushions and padded walls, but with metal lawn ornaments and tables etc.  We could not see a thing, our phones could not even provide any adequate amount of light.  Whenever someone made it to the exit and opened the door, we would all start running like little crazed mice in that direction, hoping to make as much progress as possible before once again being left in the dark.  We eventually made it out, after F ran into a light fixture poking out of the wall that could have cracked his head open, and all the rest of us were banged up from hitting tables and such.  That was  a moment of pure relief.  


That was the start of our Halloween Season, which only got better...

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Some wise words

There are some things you just should not do if you ever want to sleep again 

that includes watching movies on the FearNet TV station (pretty soon I'll be like P and have to get rid of my TV)

Soon I will post about happier things, including a Bachelorette Bash In Vegas with the Earl of Pleasure


Thursday, June 25, 2009

My Identity was stolen on a Thursday

Interestingly enough, after a false alarm identity theft on a Tuesday, I really was an actual victim of identity theft on a Thursday.  It all started in Canada....

And it ended there too, thanks to the vigilantes at the bank.  They contacted F when my credit card, (which I can testify was in my wallet throughout the whole sordid affair), was used at all sorts of establishments (places you would never let a child enter).  Fortunately, F took care of everything and now I can rest assured that, for the time being at least, I am the only me.

Additionally, I have learned how to put pics on a blog

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Inspirational Moment

I will now post inspiring words that I find in strange places (some people have quotes of the day.  However, at the rate that I am finding these, I am not sure I can do more than a quote or two of the year).

Intelligence, then, means the capability to select the essential pieces out of a vast sea of information, and to reorganize them into a new meaningful statement called understanding.
As we go through our lives, we experience a huge number of events. Experiences themselves, however, do not make us wise. Only after reflecting upon the experience and deducing the essential message from these experiences, do we learn something from life."

From "Underneath the Bragg Peaks: Structural Analysis of Complex Materials" by T. Egami and S.J.L. Billinge.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

To Miss M

To appease Miss M who catches my speelling erorrs.

Some people can spell, while others can only spil
Some like E, make it to state at the bee, Others, out on the word kill (khil, cil, ckyl)?

People have different talents, they know different stuf
There are so many things filling our heads up with fluf
You expect a computer generation to speel? What the hek!
I suppose the real problems arise when they don't bother with spell chek!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

My present state

I am now married.

How I came to be a semi-permanent student

Today I stood at work and wondered how I came to be there.  I realized, it started with a certain anachronism, Mr. Pickering.
You see, Mr. Pickering was the organ teacher.  It was at his concert at the State Mental Hospital that my mother encountered his brother-in-law, a current graduate student in chemistry at the university.  
Now up to this point I had greatly enjoyed my high school chemistry experiences.  Additionally, as my other areas of fancy (dance and piano) had already been claimed as majors by older siblings (and my parent labored under the impression that only one per family was allowed), I began to seriously consider the sciences.  When a brother slash friendly rival chose to pursue chemistry, my path was all but cemented.
And so, you begin to see why my mother was excited to meet a student- it gave her a glimpse into my future.  She dragged him over, exclaiming all the while, listing off his enthralling course work, and came to rest before me.  With barely concealed emotion shining forth from her eyes, she told me the most marvelous part of it all, he was learning how to make cocaine! (along with a disclaimer that he had to sign an agreement that they would not market the stuff)
I went home that night and thought to myself, well, this could be some useful knowledge.  I would like know such dangerous things as how to make cocaine and so I will become a chemist.
I went through my first year without a whisper of the drug.  I though, well, they simply dare not trust such young fools.  So I kept going.  By junior year I was beginning to become impatient.  As a graduating senior, you could say I felt an inkling of doubt.  However, I did not give up!  Instead, I realized, such interesting information cannot be passed about recklessly, oh no no no.  If you want access to such knowledge, you must prove yourself.  And so I signed up for graduate school.
Well, being in my second year, I took a moment to glance out the lab windows (they really are quite spectacular and its a shame we keep them closed and work in the dark so often).  I had an epiphany.  Completely unbeknownst to me, I had missed the cocaine track and ended up in the physical department.  Somewhere along the way, I had been completely sideswiped!  I looked around.  No cocaine or even marijuana. 
At least there is a laser with a high intensity beam.  If you were to run half your hand through it, nothing would happen-at first.  The next day, your fingers would turn black.  After a week, your fingers would fall off, and there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it (DNA mutation, irreversible).  I can be comforted that this is at least as exciting as cook booking.  There is nothing like going to work and wondering which limbs will come home with you.
So isn't it strange, how you end up where you are.  Though my motivation changes from year to year, I guess it all works out in the end.