Danielle borrowed my car while I was at work to check out some of the local wineries. The Livermore area is actually host to some of the best wineries in the country, so it was a nice way to spend the day I’m sure. After work we headed out for some great pizza and on to a SF Giants game, which was a lot of fun.
Pictures in the flickr gallery if anyone is interested.
Dani managed to get tickets to a cruise from her mom, and so we took off on a 3 hour cruise but without the disaster and ensuing sitcom that usually follows. It was a great time and very relaxing. Some great pictures of the bay and its many features. Really nice.
Dani and I spent the day at the California Academy of Sciences, which was really nice and very interesting. I recommend you check it out if you’re in town; it’s in Golden Gate park so there’s plenty of other things to see while you’re there. The museum was mostly dedicated to the life sciences, with a strong focus on mankind’s effect on the environment. There was an interesting display of a large scale with sliders for different things which you could use to measure your carbon footprint. I measured as “conscientious”, so that’s refreshing.
The aquarium there was really good, with quite a bit more interactive displays than the Monterey Bay Aquarium, though not quite as expansive as that institution. I really liked it, though of course I’m a science nerd.
Lots of pictures in the flickr gallery if you’re interested.
Well, it had to happen eventually. I finished up my Masters degree and now it’s just on to my own research, bouncing around in that cloud trying to find a topic.
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
I worked full-time through undergrad, going to school in the evenings and on weekends. That, and double majoring (CS and Math) meant it took me seven long tough years to get my degrees. Add another year or so of time at UofL, along with the two years I’ve been in Boulder and it adds up to ten years of continuous enrollment in higher education. I’ve learned a thing or two about a thing or two, but I think I’m quite ready to move on from taking classes. That realization came after I took my prelim, which was one of the toughest weeks of my life. I made it out with a couple of high passes, so that was worth it too I guess.
Dani and I spent the day wandering around the Japanese Tea Gardens at Golden Gate Park. It was really nice and relaxing, and well worth seeing if you’re spending the day in the park. We headed down to the wharf to catch the 4th of july fireworks and found a great spot behind some restaurants on the water. The fireworks show was good but short. There’s of course some great pictures in the flickr gallery.
Danielle and I met up with Dave and Matt W. on Friday at the Alameda county fair. I have to say, this is probably the best fair I’ve ever been to. There were metal detectors at the gate, which was weird, but other than that it was a great time. Lots of games, bad food booths, and Night Ranger was playing there! (Sister Christian FTW!). I won Dani a teddy bear in the shoot the clown in the mouth game, so it was all a very traditional evening. There was a pretty kickass model railroad exhibit there too, and of course there are lots of pictures in the flickr gallery. A really nice fireworks display capped off a wonderful day.
4th of July weekend was great. My girlfriend Danielle came in town and we spent the weekend doing all kinds of things. Friday we woke up at a beachfront hotel in Monterey bay, then headed out to 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach, then on to the beach at Santa Cruz. Nice and relaxing, with some great scenery. There’s quite a few pictures in the flickr gallery.
I love this picture of me. I kind of look like some south american dictator or something.
Today was another in the series of amazing talks I’ve gotten the opportunity to attend here at LLNL. The topic today was LIFE, the Laser Inertial Fusion Engine, a project underway at the lab and somewhat of a successor to the NIF. At a high level, this will essentially make the concept demonstrated by NIF into a functioning power plant. It’s so much more than that though. For example, one of the many things that we will be able to do with it is to burn up / extract energy from the nuclear waste that is currently intended to be stored at Yucca mountain. It’s another of those grand engineering and science challenges, but very smart people are very confident that it can be done with the proper support. There’s some good videos related to NIF here, including this one that follows the path of the lasers from their origin to destination, explaining what’s happening along the way.
I was reading over some of my posts recently (iPhone saga and gay marriage comments come to mind) and I realize that some of my posts may come off as spit-flecked vitriol and it kind of seems that I’m in a bad mood or something. I think it’s mostly that it takes a pretty high level of emotional response in me to overcome my inherent staggering laziness so maybe that’s why. I’m actually really happy with my life right now. Life is great out here in CA and there’s a certain special someone who’s come back in my life and has been making me feel really good about myself lately.
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