This past week was a beautiful: the sun was shining, the temperature was in the mid 70's, and all seemed right with the world. This morning, it's raining.
Yes it does rain in California.
And when it does rain, it tends not to mess around. The forecast shows rain this morning, this afternoon, this evening, and tomorrow. There's even a flash flood alert on top of that for areas of L.A. County that have been recently burned.
I do love watching the rain though. Maybe it goes back to childhood memories of Corvallis where it seemed like it rained every day, or maybe it's just the randomness of the drops, the way it throws light in all directions. Especially on a Saturday, where I don't have anywhere to go and can just relax and watch the water pouring down through my window.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Halloween, Rifftrax style
In honor of Halloween and my abiding love of making fun of movies, I headed out to the Rifftrax live event this last Thursday. The movie they riffed was the classic Vincent Price "House on Haunted Hill" a delightful product of its times movie that was perfect for Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson, and Bill Corbett to go after.
This is the second Rifftrax Live! presentation that I've gone to (the other being their Christmas special last year). The last one was fun, but this one was amazing. Part of the fun is being in a semi-crowded theater. Southern California has enough former MST 3K fans like myself to fill a theater for these types of events, and the fun of seeing them do their shtick live really adds to the laughs.
This is the second Rifftrax Live! presentation that I've gone to (the other being their Christmas special last year). The last one was fun, but this one was amazing. Part of the fun is being in a semi-crowded theater. Southern California has enough former MST 3K fans like myself to fill a theater for these types of events, and the fun of seeing them do their shtick live really adds to the laughs.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Dala
Last Friday, I headed up to Scripps for their once-a-semester free concert on their big lawn. This is part of a series of concerts organized by a Scripps Alum, Elizabeth Levitt Hersch '74. Part giving back to Scipps, part advertisement for the Levitt Pavillions, this is always a well-organized nice event. Performing this time were Dala, an acoustic folk duo from Canada.
They were awesome! I have to admit, my consumption of folk has dropped dramatically since leaving North Carolina, so it was nice to get a booster. Lovely harmonies and an easy back-and-forth between two friends made for a wonderful concert. The concert setting itself was also very nice--by setting the time from 5:30-7:00, there was a pretty transition from day to night while they played. And they even gave chairs and/or blankets to everyone. A great way to start the weekend!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
A week in Warsaw
The first night in Warsaw, I met up with some friends, Galin and James, and headed out to Old Town. Warsaw's Old Town is in fact quite new: almost every building was destroyed in WWII, and meticulously recreated in every detail. The result is like nothing else: a modern medieval city with incredible artwork and detail adorning stonework that is mere decades old.
The Royal Palace managed to save some of their most impressive art, including four of the thrones used by kings of Poland. The audiotour is great: it includes headphones (no holding up a weighty device to your ear), and each room has a main number, with extra numbers reserved for specific items of interest.
The next day (before the conference), we headed out to the center of town and the Warsaw Uprising Museum. This contains artifacts from the desparate days near the end of WWII. The Red Army was
encamped outside the city, and with the hope of reclaiming the city the local resistance tried to expel the Nazi forces. But Stalin had other ideas, and his army sat while the German first retook the city block by block and building by building, and then waited further as Hitler systematically destroyed all the important buildings in retaliation. The Uprising Museum tells this story through artefacts, letters, photos, and even film taken by the Poles. An immersive, moving museum.
From there we headed westward to the National Museum. This containsone of the largest collection of medieval religious wood carvings that I have seen with intricate detail very well preserved. And the paintings by the Polish also reveals a deep artistic tradition.
On Wednesday, the conference organized an excursion: A guided tour through the Old Town followed by dinner in another gallery. The dinner was great, and was accompanied by a concert by a trio of women on piano, clarinet, and flute.
Friday was the last day of the conference, and again the afternoon became a sightseeing opportunity. The Palace of Culture and Science (Stalin's "gift" to the Polish people) looms massively in the center of town, and the terrace offers great views of the city.
One corner of the Palace houses the Museum of Technology, a history spanning from the paleolithic to modern times. Automotive, radio, electronic, and typewriter fans will find much to love in their exhibits, and the basic science experiments are quite cool.
Finally, we swung through Old Town for some picture taking. What a lovely place!
The Royal Palace managed to save some of their most impressive art, including four of the thrones used by kings of Poland. The audiotour is great: it includes headphones (no holding up a weighty device to your ear), and each room has a main number, with extra numbers reserved for specific items of interest.
The next day (before the conference), we headed out to the center of town and the Warsaw Uprising Museum. This contains artifacts from the desparate days near the end of WWII. The Red Army was
encamped outside the city, and with the hope of reclaiming the city the local resistance tried to expel the Nazi forces. But Stalin had other ideas, and his army sat while the German first retook the city block by block and building by building, and then waited further as Hitler systematically destroyed all the important buildings in retaliation. The Uprising Museum tells this story through artefacts, letters, photos, and even film taken by the Poles. An immersive, moving museum.
From there we headed westward to the National Museum. This containsone of the largest collection of medieval religious wood carvings that I have seen with intricate detail very well preserved. And the paintings by the Polish also reveals a deep artistic tradition.
On Wednesday, the conference organized an excursion: A guided tour through the Old Town followed by dinner in another gallery. The dinner was great, and was accompanied by a concert by a trio of women on piano, clarinet, and flute.
Friday was the last day of the conference, and again the afternoon became a sightseeing opportunity. The Palace of Culture and Science (Stalin's "gift" to the Polish people) looms massively in the center of town, and the terrace offers great views of the city.
One corner of the Palace houses the Museum of Technology, a history spanning from the paleolithic to modern times. Automotive, radio, electronic, and typewriter fans will find much to love in their exhibits, and the basic science experiments are quite cool.
Finally, we swung through Old Town for some picture taking. What a lovely place!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
New York, New York
It's hard for me to believe that last weekend was only my second time in New York City-what a fun place! Of course, much of the fun came from getting to see a friend from the Duke days (only two years ago but feels like forever sometimes), Bianca who is now at The City College of New York and now is living in Manhattan.
We saw Avenue Q after hitting the half price ticket place in Times Square, it's really a wonderful show. The next day we headed over to the American Museum of Natural History in Central Park. Awesome place! Went to a planetarium show, haven't done that in years. Here's a picture of us enjoying the foyer.
After New York I flew over to the University of Warwick to spend a week talking with Gareth Roberts and his group--including another friend from Duke, Natesh, who will be starting at Harvard in the fall. Go Natesh!
Finally yesterday I landed in Warsaw, Poland, where I'll be giving a talk at the MCQMC conference.
We saw Avenue Q after hitting the half price ticket place in Times Square, it's really a wonderful show. The next day we headed over to the American Museum of Natural History in Central Park. Awesome place! Went to a planetarium show, haven't done that in years. Here's a picture of us enjoying the foyer.
After New York I flew over to the University of Warwick to spend a week talking with Gareth Roberts and his group--including another friend from Duke, Natesh, who will be starting at Harvard in the fall. Go Natesh!
Finally yesterday I landed in Warsaw, Poland, where I'll be giving a talk at the MCQMC conference.
Friday, August 6, 2010
The months, they are a changin'
I get it when you are a kid: Summer's supposed to fly by then. So why does it seem that as I get older every summer seems to go by faster?
Last week my REU'ers (Research Experience for Undergraduates) gave their final presentations, turned in their papers, pulled up stakes and drove/flew off into the...well sunrise since most are from parts east of ol' California.
That's eight weeks that just went by at lightening speed. The six in my group (Elise, Scott, Jason, Jacky, Dan, and Annie) broke into two projects. They turned out great presentations (yay Beamer!) and...okay papers (I'm sure with more time they would have been fabulous.) Now comes the hard part--keeping the momentum built up during the research to get those papers polished and into journals and published. Go team!
Last week my REU'ers (Research Experience for Undergraduates) gave their final presentations, turned in their papers, pulled up stakes and drove/flew off into the...well sunrise since most are from parts east of ol' California.
That's eight weeks that just went by at lightening speed. The six in my group (Elise, Scott, Jason, Jacky, Dan, and Annie) broke into two projects. They turned out great presentations (yay Beamer!) and...okay papers (I'm sure with more time they would have been fabulous.) Now comes the hard part--keeping the momentum built up during the research to get those papers polished and into journals and published. Go team!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Summer time fun, a summary!
So it's been about a month since my last blog post. I'd hoped to be all done relating my travels through Italy by now, but once again an exciting summer has intervened. So I thought I'd step back and give the brief description of what I've been up to lately this last month.
After the trip in Italy came what I went to Europe for in the first place: The Ninth Valencia international meeting of Bayesian Statistics. This was the first year I had been invited to give a talk: very exciting! So I tried to go with my A material, a new algorithm that my graduate student Sarah and I have been working on for the last year. It did receive a lot of attention, and I found the discussions with those interested in the method to be enormously helpful. One thing I'm working on right now I'm working on the finishing touches on my response to the written discussion of that paper.
So that was a week, and unfortunately, it was also the first week of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) that I am running this summer. I had sent my crew (six students from around the US) daily assignments to work on, but there's nothing like being there in person. So the first few days were a blur as I lectured extensively and got them up to speed on the projects they would be working on.
A few weeks later they were pretty much in self-sufficient mode, and I just had to check in once a day to make sure all was moving along smoothly. As I write this the end of the REU is in sight: next week they will be giving oral presentations of their final results, and both groups are writing up their work in paper form as well. Along the way, I went out to Joshua Tree National Park with lots of the Claremont REU (more than just my six are pictured below) and we also had some other events as well.
Last week was more traveling for me, although not academic in nature. I met my folks in Las Vegas for a three day whirlwind tour of magic and acrobatics before heading out to the Grand Canyon. The last time I was there time was limited but this trip we took our time and did things right. The highlight was a Ranger led morning hike partway down into the Canyon. Great stuff! On the way back we also hit Sunset Volcano National Monument, a gem of a park just north of Flagstaff.
That wasn't the end of the week for me though, as last weekend was La Grande High School class of 1990 twentieth reunion. Also great fun as I met up with friends that I hadn't seen in, well, 20 years! Okay, a few I'd seen since then, and Facebook does make it easier to catch up, but still there's nothing like just hanging out and dancing to the 80's favorites.
After the trip in Italy came what I went to Europe for in the first place: The Ninth Valencia international meeting of Bayesian Statistics. This was the first year I had been invited to give a talk: very exciting! So I tried to go with my A material, a new algorithm that my graduate student Sarah and I have been working on for the last year. It did receive a lot of attention, and I found the discussions with those interested in the method to be enormously helpful. One thing I'm working on right now I'm working on the finishing touches on my response to the written discussion of that paper.
So that was a week, and unfortunately, it was also the first week of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) that I am running this summer. I had sent my crew (six students from around the US) daily assignments to work on, but there's nothing like being there in person. So the first few days were a blur as I lectured extensively and got them up to speed on the projects they would be working on.
A few weeks later they were pretty much in self-sufficient mode, and I just had to check in once a day to make sure all was moving along smoothly. As I write this the end of the REU is in sight: next week they will be giving oral presentations of their final results, and both groups are writing up their work in paper form as well. Along the way, I went out to Joshua Tree National Park with lots of the Claremont REU (more than just my six are pictured below) and we also had some other events as well.
Last week was more traveling for me, although not academic in nature. I met my folks in Las Vegas for a three day whirlwind tour of magic and acrobatics before heading out to the Grand Canyon. The last time I was there time was limited but this trip we took our time and did things right. The highlight was a Ranger led morning hike partway down into the Canyon. Great stuff! On the way back we also hit Sunset Volcano National Monument, a gem of a park just north of Flagstaff.
That wasn't the end of the week for me though, as last weekend was La Grande High School class of 1990 twentieth reunion. Also great fun as I met up with friends that I hadn't seen in, well, 20 years! Okay, a few I'd seen since then, and Facebook does make it easier to catch up, but still there's nothing like just hanging out and dancing to the 80's favorites.
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