Nothing quite like going through bunches of your stuff and tossing it and/or setting it aside to donate. Why yes, it is time for me to move again, why do you ask?
Archive for July, 2007
It’s hard to beat a great dinner with a bunch of my classmates followed by a couple of games of bowling. I scored a 144 and a 107, the former being a personal best, I believe. All in all, an excellent Friday night.
For those worried about spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, let me assure you that there are no spoilers in this post. Any links to pages that may contain spoilers are clearly marked. You’re welcome.
Like much of the rest of the world, my weekend was saturated with Harry Potter mania. Since this was the last book, I figured it was my only remaining chance to experience the pure craziness known as a midnight launch party. And, hell, if I was going to go, I decided I should go all out. Therefore, I roped Stephanie into dressing up with me and going to our local Barnes and Noble on Friday.
According to their website, we were supposed to dress up as our favorite characters, but, seeing as I don’t know that I have a favorite–except maybe Neville, who, unlike me, is not a girl–I went with the character I most resembled physically: Bellatrix Lestrange (link contains HP7 spoilers). For those who do not know who Bellatrix is, she’s basically Lord Voldemort’s most loyal and deranged follower. Stephanie, we decided, should join me as Bella’s younger sister, Narcissa Malfoy (also with the HP7 spoilers).
We put a fair amount of preparation into it in the week beforehand, including an evening I spent carving our wands and another that was spent trying to make Stephanie blonde again. We also got ourselves marked by the Dark Lord. For authenticity. We dressed with plenty of black and green, and then, with some help from some Muggle bloke, we went a little crazy with the photo-taking. On the other hand, some may claim that I just went outright crazy:
After a bit, we headed over to the local Barnes and Noble for their Midnight Magic party and I got my bracelet. We wandered around admiring outfits for a bit and doing our bit for the trivia scavenger hunt, but the all the children with lightning scars on their foreheads were a bit much for us, so we walked over to Chili’s for margaritas and a bite to eat. We got back to the store in time to volunteer ourselves for the costume contest. I think, aside from one kid I saw dressed as a Deatheater at one point and one adult who appeared to be Snape, that we were the only evil-doers there. There were tons of Harrys and Hermiones, a Luna or two, and a couple of Tonks(es?). There were also a few who had cleverer costumes, including an older woman who had a wonderful handmade Professor Sprout outfit and another fellow who made a convincing Mad Eye with whom I had a mock duel. A young couple dressed up as Harry and Hedwig–the girl had white feathers and had tied a letter to her leg even! I think my favorites, though, were the girls who had dressed up as house elves–specifically as Winky and Dobby. They were dressed in stained pillowcases and had big elf ears attached to headbands. Winky wore a button saying “I <3 Mr. Crouch” and carried an empty butterbeer bottle while Dobby wore mismatched knee-high socks and a tall stack of ridiculous knitted hats. It was excellent!
None of us won the costume contest, unfortunately, but we knew that they would give it to a kid. The girl who won was Luna and had, among other things, a witch’s hat with a great, big stuffed lion on top! We did get lots of compliments on our costumes, though, particularly on our Dark Marks and wands. I had so many people ask where we got our wands that I half-wished that I’d made extras and sold them at the store. I probably could have paid for both of our books. Ah well.
Needless to say, it was a crazy, silly, and fun night. I’m very glad that we did it, despite the fact that I’ve since been a zombie since, what with all the sleep I didn’t get staying up and reading. But what’s that to a bit of fun?
I spent most of this evening Photoshopping our photos into Harry Potter-ness (although Joe did a few them, too), so have some fun looking at the photos.
So the BBC informs me that computers have now “solved” the game of checkers such that their program can play every game to a win or a draw. Cool. How did they do it? Well, basically, they did it the way I would have done it if I were faced with said problem: try every possible combination of moves. But, because ‘brute force’ doesn’t sound as nice as ‘non-heuristic approach,’ you can guess what the researchers called it. One of the head researchers is quoted as saying:
“I think we’ve raised the bar - and raised it quite a bit - in terms of what can be achieved in computer technology and artificial intelligence.”
Maybe I’m confused on what we’re counting as artificial intelligence these days, but I was under the impression that forcing a computer to check every possible combination of moves did not count. If there were some sort of clever optimization algorithm hiding in there, maybe, but there’s no mention of anything of that nature in the article. Maybe one of you computer-science types can step in and enlighten me? Please?
Final count on yesterday’s godawful-long-nonstop-no-break-workday: 12.5 hours.
I think I deserve more sleeping in and not working than the hour I got this morning.
The past week has primarily been spent doing long hours of research. There was one ten-hour-straight-non-stop experiment last week and we’re currently in the middle of a second one as I type. It’s a sucky way to spend a Monday, but it does represent some progress toward having results to present at that aforementioned conference.
The highlight of the weekend was a visit from Mark, who I then dragged all over Ithaca. Among our weekend exploits were a trip to the Johnson Museum of Art, a tour of the Ithaca Beer Company, a hike at Buttermilk Falls State Park, and a stop by Ithaca Falls. It was my first proper trip to all of the above, which meant that things got to be engaging and new for me as well as him.
We hit some standby favorites, too: ice cream at the Cornell Dairy Bar, pizza at the Nines with friends, a bit of Soul Calibur II, and plenty of movies–including last night’s still hysterical Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Despite having watched it together many times as undergrads, we still noticed new things to laugh at last night, like random three second musical interludes with no discernible rhyme or reason. And Alan Rickman is still what makes the movie worthwhile.
Otherwise, life in Ithaca is mostly work these days. Soul-sucking, energy-draining work. Can I get a weekend please?
I’m safely back in Ithaca and back at work. My accomplishments thus far are few, aside from the excitement of my advisor wanting to find the funds to bring both me and Stephanie along to the APS conference this November. This means, of course, needing a paper with results to present, but, also, it means I will very likely get a chance to see some of my former profs again in Salt Lake City.
Before I can get that work done, though, I feel the need to finish off my whole vacation story. On Saturday, we took a drive south to visit Ocracoke Island. On the way, we made a brief stop at Cape Hatteras to see the lighthouse there. It’s a 208 ft. brick lighthouse–the tallest of its kind in the U.S.–poised on the coast of Hatteras Island to warn ships at sea in the area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. In 1999, it was moved about 800 ft. from its original position to save the lighthouse from falling into the sea due to the shifting coastlines of the area.
After that, we caught the ferry to Ocracoke Island. Actually, I was starving and had ducked into a shop to buy something to eat and had to chase my parents’ truck onto the ferry right before it left without me. Oh the excitement!
The island itself is mostly a National Seashore, with the exception of Ocracoke Village, which, though it exists mostly for tourists, is much less touristy than some of the northern islands. We walked around the harbor area a bit and poked around shops mostly. I had some fun taking pictures of people’s houses and yards.
More photos of Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke Island are in the gallery.
On Sunday I got up early and went down to the beach one more time to try flying my kite. The wind just wasn’t there, though; it was the stillest it had been in all my time on the island. I tried all the same, without any luck, and, on my third attempt, the kite crashed into the Atlantic. I had to wrestle the surf to keep from losing the kite altogether. Disappointed, salty, and extremely sweaty, I went back to the campsite and hosed the kite off. We packed up camp and hit the road. My family dropped me off at the Raleigh-Durham airport, and, little by little, I made my way home to Ithaca. I got back to the apartment just a few minutes after 11 p.m., cleaned myself up and unpacked, and went to bed.
So ends my 2007 vacation…
Today’s highlight was a trip to the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk. Truly, the geek in me rejoiced. It’s possible that the woman giving the talk on the Wright brothers and their work may have found it odd when I knew Otto Lilienthal’s name when she forgot it. But it comes with the job. Like having to take pictures of the reproduction of the Wright brothers’ wind tunnel. Which still isn’t as strange as my father filming me taking those pictures.
It was ridiculously hot and humid outside, so Kelley and I were the only ones to make the walk out to the four flight markers and then up one of the Kill Devil Hills to the big memorial.
I quite enjoyed having a chance to see where it all began, but, unfortunately, I didn’t see a lot of other people who felt the same way. It seemed like there were a lot of people with kids under the age of six there, and the kids just had no interest whatsoever. There was a lot of whining to be heard alongside the explanations of exasperated, arm-waving parents of how “This is where the first flight ever happened. Right here! The very first!” Let us all spend a moment mourning the slow, sad, wheezing death of science and engineering in my country. Okay? All done. Right. Let’s work on fixing that one, shall we?
More photos are up in the gallery.
On our second day of vacation we took my sister to visit The College of William and Mary, which is, I believe, her ultimate dream college. I have been charged with the duty of helping her put together the best possible application. In the meantime, I took pretty pictures.
Day Three was spent at Water Country, U.S.A., where I managed to get only a mild sunburn on one spot on my shoulder. Also, I rode waterslides. Lots of waterslides. But, for me, not getting sunburned is probably the most excellent part of any day spent entirely outside.
Yesterday was primarily spent driving down to the Outer Banks. We passed Kill Devil Hills where the Wright brothers flew–I’ve been promised that we’re going back so that I can indulge in some geekiness. We also made a stop at the largest Kitty Hawk Kites store in the area. Damn is that place awesome! It’s where my parents got my Wright flyer kite. My sister had forgotten to pack her kite and my kite was too big to bring on the plane, so my parents ended up buying two kites to fly while we’re down here. I also got myself another kite. Because I’m crazy like that. Although, if I got to be as completely crazy as I’d like to be, I’d be signing up for hang gliding lessons over the 80 foot sand dunes on Jockey’s Ridge!
Our campground is on Hatteras Island, which, at this point, is only about a quarter mile wide, so it’s an easy walk from our campsite to either the Atlantic Ocean or the sound side of the island. After we got the campsite set up, I took a walk over to the ocean side and started having fun taking photos.
After dinner I ran over to the sound side of the island so that I could get a sunset over water picture to add to the collection I started when we lived overseas. I’m really pleased with how they came out, but that probably won’t stop me from continuing to go over there at nightfall to get some more. I may even get up early one morning to get a sunrise photo over the ocean!
Today we got up fairly late and spent most of the afternoon on the beach. The conditions weren’t the best for it, but Kelley and I tried the boogie boards anyway. We got pretty scraped up; my sister’s sworn that she’s not leaving the trailer again. This comes after yesterday’s frolicking. We’ll see how long that lasts. Dad and I got their new box kite out, but the wind was a bit rough for it. Still, some of the other people on the beach said it made for a nice air show while it lasted. I’m sure we’ll have better chances for kite-flying later.
I am currently in Williamsburg, VA on vacation, with the most questionable and iffy Internet connection I’ve experienced this side of the millennium. So I figure that, should I wish to say anything, I should do so now.
Yesterday was spent dodging children at Busch Gardens Europe. Mom and Dad basically sent my sister and I off as soon as we got inside the park, so she and I spent the day riding every major ride in the park while they went to shows. I’d actually been to this park once before, some nine years ago, but I didn’t remember a whole lot of things aside from a vague recollection of Alpengeist and distinctly remembering how Kelley wouldn’t stop screaming in terror when we all rode one of those big boats that swings forward and back. (She refused to go on that this time and wouldn’t stop muttering when we were near it.)
The day’s highlights, for me, were Apollo’s Chariot and their newest ride, Griffon. Apollo’s Chariot was very much like a toned down version of Cedar Point’s Millennium Force. It has a 210 ft. drop and top speeds of 73 mph, whereas Millennium Force has a 310 ft. drop at 93 mph. Griffon was a bit different. It features a 205 ft. drop that starts out at 90 degrees–actually, if you’re one of the ten people in the front row, they hang you out over the edge of the drop for about four seconds before letting you go. It took a lot of effort for me to get Kelley on that ride, and, unfortunately, the length of the line kept us from going on it more than once. Schade.
Another ride that was particularly interesting, in my opinion, was their Curse of DarKastle, one of their so-called 4-D rides. The premise is that you’re visiting a haunted castle in Bavaria. You board little golden sleighs, put on your 3-D glasses, and then you get driven through a ride with lots of areas with screens projecting 3-D images. I have to say that it’s pretty freaky having knives and such thrown directly at your face–they look like they’re actually going to hit you, too!
I might have said more, but breakfast is waiting on me, and we have to get off soon. Today will be spent at William and Mary College, helping my sister go on a college visit. Whee, fun!
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