A Year's Worth : Homeward

Tonight, I pack once again. Nothing special, I have done it hundreds of times before. Road trips, bus rides, and airfare have all whisked me across the globe as I chase after something that resembles life. Each Christmas, though, I make the trek home to visit and spend time with those people that helped to make and define me. However, more and more, it feels like just that, a visit.

As the world shrinks, the more adventurous and explorer types tend to find it easier to maintain relationships with those that you love, even when they are half a globe away. However, it is impossible to supersede the distance, relationships thrive when the person is half a block away. Shared experience, face time, moments that do not feel forced or limited are important. And above all, the most important thing for a relationship is time. Time to laugh, to love, to hate, to hurt, to grow, and to do the none too important things.

How we spend our time defines us (a very "duh" statement, but I'll say it to sound smart). As I have aged, I spend less and less time with my family, my base and more with the world at large. I have developed an intricate social network with some of the most interesting (to me) people in the world. They are my family away from my family.

But why should I develop another family in the first place?

As I get ready to leave home once more, I am hounded by a guilt that I have abandoned those that mean the world to me. My mother, my father, and my sister each propelled me into the future. However, I have a nagging suspicion that I just used them and now have left them behind. A balance must be struck.

I suppose, mostly the shift in internal thought process has come about by simply getting older and maturing. Will I continue to abandon the relationships that mean most to me for the next exciting challenge? Will I be content to return home someday? Is this nothing more than being fearful about being homeless, car-less, and soon country-less?

Questions. The answers are the stuff of life.

-Nomad

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

From my vantage point at the rally.

Success: Bizarre Attempt at Tomato Soup

{from thekicthn.com}

Long time no posting. What writing a paper means. I was pulled out for a moment and had the chance to try a very tasty Tomato Soup Recipe. Although I failed horribly at emulating what was on the recipe, I did manage to create an interesting onion-garlic-tomato-pimento stew. Note to self, inversion blender needed. For my efforts, I was awarded half an unbeatable homemade apple pie. Fair trade!

Wine Glass Marathon

View Larger Map

26.2 Miles of Fun! My legs finally recovered on Wednesday all the way.

At Top of Ithaca Falls

Summers in Ithaca, NY are very rarely beat. There is a relaxed atmosphere, the great outdoors, and an unmatched scenic beauty. As an ode to summer, I just wanted to share another of my hiking adventures. Although it was not as far as my Six Mile Creek adventure, a friend an I returned to Ithaca's Gun Hill for a quick walk around, completing my July 4th hike.

The abandoned site offers many great views of industrial remains, natural beauty, and impressive grafitti. Additionally, it is a technically challenging hike (and slightly illegal) but very rewarding.

You can take a peak into the famous Ithaca Gun Stack...



Or some of the additional abandoned structures...



Overall, a great way to spend a waining summer afternoon.

...Leipzig...

 

Via Flickr by totallyunknown

So, this is what I am slightly anxious about.  Four months living in Leipzig.  Good thing I speak German.

What to do with a pen...

What to do at 2 AM, can't sleep, and procrastinating from work? Simple! Draw on yourself with a ballpoint pen. Not only that, draw an entire landscape. When I get nervous/anxious about something, I tend to draw... often times on myself...



What I am nervous about will have to be detailed in a later post...

On transitions...

Being involved in academia yields a yearly reflection around the end of August as the warm summer months cool into the beginning-of-the-school-year fall. As yet another year ticks off the calendar, I realize that I have been in school for 19 years. A long, long time if you ask me. Many things have changed along the way, most noticeably in my friend group. Several friends took the plunge and got married, one of my closest friends is having a child, and several others have finished up and moved on to other institutions.

I'm feeling old.

But, slowly I have begun to accomplish things as well. Working on getting my first publication out as well as taking a major milestone exam on my birthday this fall. I am also now head of our graduate student organization, training for marathons, and possibly moving to Europe in the spring. Life is busy.

I guess my year of distraction is ending, I am beginning to focus on what I want out of grad school and life in general. If you are just starting out in grad school, there are many blogs and books written about a successful PhD or masters experience. However, in my experience and witnessing my friends triumphs and tribulations, I can tell you that each experience is unique. Seems like a cop out answer, but the experience you have in grad school depends on department, location, advisor, friend group, research focus, etc.

If you are looking for broad advice, the best you are going to get is that the experience will surely challenge and try to break you. A balance between personal issues and academic will continuously be challenged. Overall, if you enter grad school directly out of undergrad, you will experience many pains of growing intellectually as well as just simply maturing into your mid-twenties. If you come back after entering the workforce, you have to strike a balance between advancing in academics and starting a family. The pursuit of a degree is highly time consuming and at times, mentally exhausting.

So why do it?

Because I am in the process of publishing a paper, prepping for a marathon, and maybe moving to Europe shortly. In essence, it is a part of me now, and I would not change my experience, the good, the bad, and the ugly, for anything in the world. Once you reach that peace, you know you are where you are supposed to be.

Meerkats, Penguins, and Zoos

When I travel, I enjoy visiting the local zoos. I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Seattle last week and snuck away to visit the Woodland Zoo in the Northern suburbs of Seattle (a long walk). I am always interested to see how the animals are displayed differently. Two of my favorites to visit happen to be the meerkats and the penguins.

Meerkats

The right image is of Seattle, the left is of London. Note, you are able to get incredibly close to the meerkats in the London zoo whereas in the Seattle Zoo, you stand behind Plexiglas. Interesting.



Penguins

Again, Seattle is on the right and London on the left. The Seattle zoo had a much better penguin display. You can even view them swimming as below.

Logic Gates

Summer and science
Not clash nor needless thoughtless
Summer xor science

Chinese Fold Out Print

Ithaca NY is famous for the plentiful and eccentric used book and clothing stores found on the Ithaca Commons and elsewhere scattered throughout Tompkins County. I personally frequent Autumn Leaves myself and often am surprised at what I find. Being a pseudo local, I have had the opportunity to collect a good portion of graphic novels, science fiction, records (from the now dubbed Angry Mom records), odd old magazine clippings (a friend and me sat through laughing at how sexist, racist, and obnoxious our society used to be, imagine when future generations look back at us!), and numerous, numerous books. One of my most recent finds was a Chinese Print. When outstretched, the image is about twenty feet long and depicts an average day in the life of local Chinese residents along a river. Overall, an awesome find. If you ever are interested in finding unique items, look up a local used bookshop in your neighborhood and stop by. You never know what you may find...

Godspeed is Reuniting!

In case you haven't heard, the great experimental band "Godspeed You Black Emperor" (put the ! wherever you see most appropriate)!!!

Ithaca Gun Hill

  

My goal this afternoon was to hike part of Fall Creek here in Ithaca, NY. A good way to spend a hot and humid Fourth of July. It is also part of my overarching goal to hike the four major gorges that are in Ithaca before I relocate to somewhere new. However, today was met with frustration.

Fall Creek is the longer of the creeks that flow that cuts through the Ithaca area.  The watershed cuts through the Fall Creek Neighborhood downtown (aptly named) and continues eastward through Cornell's main campus, Dryden, McClean, and stretches all the way to Cortland, NY.  During heavy rainstorms, the marquee waterfall here, Ithaca Falls, becomes a spectacular to watch.  A great location to view the natural wonder is right across from the local Townie bar the Creeker.


However, Ithaca Falls and the Creeker share an uncharacteristic neighbor, especially for Ithaca.  The noisy neighbor is the old Ithaca Gun Hazardous Waste Site.  I happened to stumble into it while looking for a path to continue my gorge trek and I must say, it is a mess.

  

The empty shells are contributing heavy metal contamination to the local area. So, the next time you are thinking about enjoying a quick stroll or swim through the Fall Creek/Ithaca Falls area, just remember the mess that sits on top of that hill. Maybe one say it will be cleaned...

Woods Hole - Cape Cod

Sometimes you get to escape. Sometimes you get to escape, learn about metagenomics, hangout with friends, and see whales for the first time in your life. Sometimes you just can't complain about anything.

Ithaca Tuesday Market

Ithaca, New York is centrally located in a very agricultural region.  Therefore, the community has the advantage of maintaining a vibrant Crop Share community and multiple Farmer's Markets.  The Farmer's Market run on Tuesday/Thursday in DeWitt Park by the Ithaca Commons and Saturday/Sunday at the permanent location near Lake Cayuga.

The Tuesday/Thursday Market is extremely handy if you live in a neighborhood near to the Commons.  You can pick up your lunch or some fresh veggies for dinner.  It is a quick way to get farm fresh foods that are locally grown and harvested.  If you are considering moving to the Ithaca area, this is one of the main advantages of living in the Fall Creek neighborhood or downtown in general, the Commons serves as a meeting place in general and contains many of these activities.




In addition to the food and fresh goodies, there are activities such as story telling or small bands that occur for the local children.  In a way, the Farmer's Market is not only a celebration of the Ithaca farming community, but a celebration of the overall community in general.  If you have a chance, you should definitely stop by and support the local vendors, farmers, and community as a whole.  Besides, you'll get something tasty or beautiful out of the deal anyways!

Oil Drop

In celebration of BP, a new art series is cropping up around Ithaca.  I'll keep you posted.

Six Mile Creek Hike

If you are looking for something to do in Ithaca, New York, all you really have to do is walk to one of the gorges and go for a hike. A very long hike if you are trying to avoid work and want to feel like you have something accomplished. The first full hike I have gone on independently in Ithaca so far is trying to walk from the mouth of Six Mile Creek near Lake Cayuga to its source in Brooktondale, NY. See the map below.


View Larger Map

I went off trail and got lost around Burns Road which is just past the halfway point, so I will have to go back and do it again. However, some of the items you can see on the lower leg of the Creek are amazing. There are three dams along Six Mile Creek, lovingly called First, Second, and Third Dam depending on how close you are to Lake Cayuga.

First Dam:


Second Dam:


Third Dam:


Bring mud/water shoes if you go. Also, this is not a great hike for little children or amateurs because between Dam #2 and Dam #3 the trail becomes very rugged. After Dam #3 the trail disapears on the north side so you end up following deer and other animal trails. Additionally, there are many plants out there whose lone purpose is to cut you. Anyway possible. The trail on the north side also ends and leaves you in a very beautiful but challenging marsh below.

You do see some beautiful sights along the way. Several of the trails take you hundreds of feet above the creek bed itself.  Make sure to bring water and possibly a snack on hotter days.  You will really want it right about here.  This is overlooking the reservoir to Dam #2.  Dam #1 and #2 is also where illegal swimming and diving is fairly commonplace.  Folklore has it that Dam #3 is where the nudists go.  However, I have only seen one naked man in the Dams, and that was at Dam #2.  I did catch two skinny dippers way early in my journey...




The reservoir above Dam #3 is where the City of Ithaca draws their water from.  Therefore, it is fairly pristine.  However, because of this fact, it is technically illegal to hike on the North Side I found out midway through via a sign posting.  The sign is posted near to where any semblance of a trail ends.  Be careful here, you are now following animal tracks if you follow my way.  Additionally, the terrain will get rough and will force you to tredge through the lake itself.  The shore is full of decaying muck, so bring appropriate shoes and be prepared to sink to your shins.

Now, after you made it through the marshes, you will hear cars going by.  This is not Rt. 79 but Burns Road.  This is where I got turned around, primarily I blame NYSEG for this.  A power line runs along Burns Road so NYSEG recently clear cut the entire forest beneath it, making the path out nearly impossible.  I followed along a deer trail and was able to find a path through the debri.  However, I stepped on a fawn.  No, literally, the deers I were following made a thicket in the clear cut wood and as I crossed I stepped through it.  The fawn seemed okay because it darted off into the woods, hopefully it will be reunited with its clan.

So, long story short, I nearly made it half way before getting confused.  I will have to start again really early in the morning and I might take the lazy mans way out and start from Brooktondale to Cayuga.

Several notes, this trail is not safe.  There are many places where one can slip and fall hundreds of feet.  Use caution when exploring any of the gorges in Ithaca.  Pack water, food, an extra shirt, and an emergency phone.  Additionally, notify someone of where you are going and what time you expect to get back.  In essence, use common sense.

Visual Correlations: War on Summer

Google trends is a powerful resource to see what is going on in the internet search world. For example, let us look at the search volume index of Summer and War over the past seven years (presented in the line graph below).

Figure 1. Search Volume Index versus Time for the search terms "War" and "Summer". Data collected from Google Trends(c) on May 18th, 2010.

Anyone notice anything of interest? As the Summer searches ramp up, the War searches begin to diminish. The trough of War searches occurs just a little bit after the Summer searches. Therefore, there may exist a small search association between Summer and War. Maybe while we are thinking about summer we would rather not think about wars? Vacations inhibit hostility?

Also of interest are the overall trends...

Figure 2. Search Volume Index versus Time for the search terms "War" and "Summer". Linear trendlines and relevant parameters are added to the graph. Data collected from Google Trends(c) on May 18th, 2010.

Note that it appears the overall search in War has been decreasing faster than the overall interest in Summer. It will be interesting to see how this trend progresses in the future. Maybe as a society we are becoming more interested in leisure than fighting?

I think I'll continue to follow up on these for a bit...

Old Artwork

Lamp Slats 2007

Psycho 2007

Beauty 2007

Yellow Pig Project

Pretty self-explanatory. Yellowfied.



The scuff was fixed, I will upload a new picture after I get a better camera/unpack the pig again.

Travels - Paris and London

Paris...

London...


If you are ever feeling funky about life, run away to a foreign country. It really does help. Note, I need a new camera and after discussion with many people, may end up getting a Canon 7D. Go big or go home, eh?

Roller Derby or What I do on Saturdays

I volunteer as a non-skating official (NSO) for the local Ithaca League of Women Rollers (ILWR) that contains the SufferJets and the Blue Stockings. Hopefully, one day I will be upgraded to a full Ref.

Beer Brewing Taste Test

One of my friend group's hobbies is to brew our own beer. Every spring, we host a small beer taste test for craft brewers in the Ithaca area. Expect to see more posts about craft brewing and applied microbiology in the future.

Homemade Couch

This is a much older project completed in January of 2007. It is still one of my favorites due to the fact it was relatively inexpensive and came out looking quite neat. Although I have forgotten many of the details of the construction, overall it was a corduroy fabric covering a cushioned, simple trough design. Turned out reasonable.

Unfortunately, with moving across country, the couch was sadly left behind.