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Friday, December 28th, 2007
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6:34 pm - The horror that is CA auto insurance
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I'll just say this: my auto insurance costs may very well rise by 300% in getting a new car and moving to LA. DAAAAAAMN! I knew it would be considerably more... but wow.
current mood:  shocked
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| Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
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12:21 pm - The final east-coast update
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And so here it is. My last east-coast post. I'm still here in CT until January 3rd, but its likely I won't have the wherewithall to remember to post here before I move.
Things are speeding up here rapidly. This Friday the movers come to pack my stuff up and ship it off to L.A. I'm partially packed as it is, so that's a step in the right direction. The problem is more, what do I not pack? The moving company says I might not receive my stuff for up to two weeks after I get to LA... which kinda sucks. Some items are still going with me to L.A., but I'll need them in the interim, like my laptop. It looks like I'll have two suitcases full of stuff to be plane'd, one of clothes and other of gifts, laptop, Wii and other items.
And then there's the cat. The furry noise-machine is also coming with me, and is my carry-on item on the plane. That will be... interesting.
The thesis is probably at about 90% finished. But as anyone who has done something like this before will tell you, that last 10% is often the most difficult. I'll be finishing it out in L.A., mostly working on the introduction. I'm looking forward to working on it in a different place. I just can't stand this office anymore. Its way past time to leave.
Anyway, to everyone have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Festivus, and assorted pagan celebrations. Next time you hear from me, I'll be in sunny California!
current mood:  tired
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| Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
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3:17 pm - BATG Finale!
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Tonight at 8PM, on the CW. The Beauty and the Geek finale. Our very own Dave and his partner Jasmine go up against their mirror images in the "beauty" Sam and the "geek" Nicole for a chance at $250,000.
Watch it, you! Yes, you in the back! WATCH IT!
Be on the look out for a cameo appearance by Jason Melbourne in the audience.
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| Sunday, November 25th, 2007
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2:41 pm - Clarification
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I should clarify one thing from my previous post, in case there's confusion. I had said in my prior post I would be going out to L.A. in October, and I'm clearly still in New Haven (but there's still leaves on some trees... it could be L.A.... no firestorms though).
The thesis simply wasn't going to be finished by then. Now, however, about 95% of it will be done by the time I'm out. Following my visit to L.A. in September, the people at Xontech were more than gracious enough to push back the start date. This was mostly because my security clearance had hit a beaurocratic snag, through no fault of mine or theirs. Now my security clearance process has begun. I have already been interviewed by someone from the U.S. Office of Personel Management, as have some of my contacts (some of who read this!). There is every indication there will be no problems with me getting clearance.
Anyway, by the time I get out there, I should have temporary clearance, and can begin work on the good stuff right away.
OK, back to it all...
P.S. I've created a very specific carrot for myself in finishing the thesis. In addition to being able to really start to live, and being with Chris again, I'll be able to play Super Mario Galaxy. But not until I finish the thesis. :)
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1:30 pm - End Game
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Well, here it is. I'm in the home stretch with the hell that is this thesis. The good news is Thanksgiving was exceptionally theraputic for me, spending Thurs. and Friday with Chris and her family. Spending time with Chris and away from anything Yale was fantastic.
But now it restarts for the home stretch. Basically I have set myself a deadline of Dec. 31 to finish. My new job begins Jan 7th. I'll move out there sometime in the first week of Jan where I will stay with Chris until it is ultimately decided where I will live in L.A.
The current state of the thesis (and I write this more for myself than anyone else as I doubt its all that interesting) is this:
Its basically four parts: The introduction, and three papers. I'd say I'm at 20% completion on the intro (yuck, its like a 20 page book report), 80% completion on paper 1 (because the re-write is going to be a bitch and a half), 99% done on paper 2 (yay! and the one I'm most proud of), and 50% done on the third. The third isn't too bad at this point and hopefully by the end of the week the draft is done.
After I submit what I have at the end of the year, I'll continue to work on the defense talk out in L.A. and return to New Haven sometime near the end of January to give the defense. While I'm not that concerned with the talk aspect, I am with the questions afterwards. I'm praying for pity and apathy in that I won't be continuing on in astronomy and really what do they care at this point.
With luck, I'll be able to attend Aaron's New Year's party, and see Chris and also Jason the first week of 2008.
And I would be remiss in not swinging by Dave's place in Boston to visit the world's most famous LARPer one more time!
Sigh.... Time to dive in.
current mood:  stressed but not overwhelmed
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| Thursday, September 20th, 2007
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2:19 am - Stardom once removed
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Holy crap, has it really been that long?? Gee you'd think I've been busy or something.
Quick post to catch people up:
- I start my job in LA, thesis done or not, on November 5th. What hasn't been finished by then will be done in the evenings between then and Thanksgiving (or so the plan goes).
- Chris moves out to LA ... today actually (damn its late).
- Because its so late, getting on to West Coast time will be a piece of cake. I can't seem to shake this staying up until 2AM business.
- I, myself, go to LA to apt. hunt with Chris's help on the 28th. Have some prospects, but the move is daunting, considering everything else that's going on. Financial liquidity issues seem to be settled for the moment.
- I highly recommend to everyone (as if I haven't pimped this enough) to watch Beauty and the Geek, episodes of which can be seen on cwtv.com . Keep an eye out for my good friend, Dave. He basically starts off the show.
Sleep beckons... or pleads. Either way, g'nite!
current mood: Drained of all mental energy
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| Monday, July 23rd, 2007
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11:41 am - Random coincidence or meant to be?
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I've just discovered that a computer game called "Tabula Rasa" is coming out around the same time I start my new job and leave astronomy behind.
Coincidence? It is a coincidence that I might actually be able to play said computer game then?
current mood:  contemplative
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| Sunday, July 22nd, 2007
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5:15 pm - Friend MIA
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It could be Dolsen is either in his new place without internet access... or off on an adventure of epic proportions.
Not normally a Simon and Garfunkel fan, but this popped in my head today as I've been spinning my wheels on the thesis.
Sitting at my office PC
On a Sunday afternoon,
Going crazy with the thesis,
Laugh about it,
Shout about it,
When you've got to choose,
Every way you look at it you lose.
Where have you gone, King of Geeks, DOlsen ?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Ooo ooo ooo.
I'm aware i've broken some kind of pentameter there... Eh.
Random thing: I've got a song from the game Elite Beat Agents stuck in my head. Damn fun game.
current mood:  working
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| Monday, July 9th, 2007
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6:07 pm - Emotional extremes lead to exaggerated weirdness
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I've been all over the map this weekend with levels of stress. From being ambivalent to freaking out completely. That and I'm starting to be a hypochondriac about by heart and blood pressure. stress... STRESSS!!
I will end this post with a quick quote: 100 Experience Points to those who recongize it:
"You no take candle!!!"
Yes... I wish I was out stealing candles...
EDIT: Apparently there is a wildfire not 2 miles from Kitt Peak. Great...
current mood: stressed
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| Thursday, July 5th, 2007
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4:03 pm - We take a break from our regularly scheduled spazz-outs
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I've realized that the only way I'm going to survive the next three months are with regularly scheduled and regimented sanity breaks. First up? Transformers tonight, with maybe a little bit of Tekken thrown in with Hugh and Tomer on a HDTV.
You know what's really sad? I don't think I've had a "Guys Night Out" in literally YEARS. It may be a geek-night out, but its a night out dammit!
Back to work until I leave... Damn you silicate absorption features! Why do you mock me so?!
current mood: rushed
current music: Gershwin
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| Saturday, June 30th, 2007
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7:20 pm - BTW
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Harrison Ford is really small! Slight, might be the better word for it. But then, I notice people with such physiques. ;)
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7:11 pm - Indiana Freakin' Jones!
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I was about 20 feet from Indiana Jones and almost didn't realize it. A friend and I went downtown to see where they might be filming Indy 4 in New Haven and literally before we knew it we were on the set location. As we were getting shooed across the street I glance over my shoulder and saw double as there was standing Harrison Ford and his stunt double. Even still, it was a chaotic mess of 50s era cars, busses, motorcycles, etc. Somewhere in that was Spielberg but I didn't see him.
They've also dressed up the Chapel street shops to look like old school, 50's storefronts and lampposts. Ironically, the extent of the street that has been spruced up for the action sequence they were shooting (with Indy riding behind a guy on a motorcycle and it appeared he was trying to get on a moving bus) ended right at the Chapel Street Blockbuster. :)
There weren't as many people out watching as I would have expected, but it was 5PM, and most people were just trying to get home I suspect. Most of the set hands and extras really looked out of it by that time. They'd been going since 7AM.
I guess I'd better get used to this sort of thing out in LA. Still, its really going to be cool to see Yale, New Haven, and the Green on the big screen in a feature as huge as Indy 4.
current mood:  impressed
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| Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
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3:46 pm - Looking for Hotel California
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Actually, Yale feels more like the fabled "Hotel California." You know... you can check out but you can never leave? I'm definitely on the verge of completely checking out, but dammit I want to leave.
The trial and tribulations of moving to California hold much more interest to me than my current work. The ineptitude of my advisor doesn't help this any. I no longer would recommend Meg as an advisor for anyone. But at least I can distract myself with CA related issues.
It is well known that LA has some of, if not the worst traffic in the country. The trick is getting a place to live close or essentially in the same neighborhood as Chris, and position ourselves half way between downtown LA and Van Nuys, where Chris and I will be working respectively. We're looking at Los Feliz, a neighborhood nestled below Griffith Park between the 101 and 5 freeways. The one question I had was "How's the traffic?" Chris's commute is going to be hell no matter where she lives, and she won't even be getting on the highway. Me? It looks like I've found what I call the "Golden Route." Basically I take the 101 North to the 405 North and then drive Victory Blvd to near where I work. Its supposed to be about 18 miles in length on the freeway, and during peak rushhour, both morning and evening, the traffic averages 65 mph!!! How do I know? Check this out http://www.sigalert.com . Freaking awesome site. I take it with a grain of salt, but it looks WAY better than your typical commute.
Finally... best of luck to the one, the only, Dave Olsen (http://gee-tar.livejournal.com), whom I hope to soon call King of the Geeks in about 5 weeks time. :) He's a finalist for the casting of the reality TV show, Beauty and the Geek. He is a geek's geek, a gamer's gamer and he hopes to be the most famous LARPer of all time with this show. Good luck, Dolsen!
current mood:  apathetic
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| Monday, June 11th, 2007
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6:30 pm - Ten Weeks Later
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| Thursday, March 29th, 2007
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6:50 pm - The VG wars
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These charts repreent the current worldwide sales of the three newest video game consoles as taken from vgcharts.org.
The results are striking, and even a brain-fried scientist like myself can figure it out. The site breaks each bar down further, into Japan, Americas and "other" which includes Europe and Australia mostly.
* 61% of all X360s are from the Americas, while not even 400,000 units have been sold in Japan. The X360 was released nearly a year and a half ago.
* The Wiis are spread out roughly evenly among all three areas, 2.5 mil in the US, and 2mil in Japan. It should be noted that the Wii was released essentially simultaneously worldwide, a bit sooner in the U.S. and a bit later in Europe.
* The PS3 has yet to sell 1 million units in its home market of Japan. It was released just before the Wii in Japan and the US. and within the last week in Europe.
The costs for these machines, if you buy the premier packages?
XBox 360 = $400
Wii = $ 250
PS3 = $ 600
The end results clearly state that the Xbox has established itself a solid user base, the Wii is the hot system of the past 4 months and well... the PS3 is severely overpriced and its hurting sales. Also, the previous Sony product, the PS2 has been keeping pace in the new sales department in Japan with its new system, which isn't bad for an almost 10 year old system.
All in all... I'm happy with my Wii purchase regardless of these figures!! And might get a PS2 or Xbox 360 in the future. :)
current mood:  nerdy
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1:35 pm - A concert made with freaks like me in mind
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On Saturday I will be attending (thanks to a wonderfully generous gift by Chris) the first ever university concert of Video Games Live! Yes, a concert devoted to playing some of the most memorable (and in some cases less so, as the concert head is a VG composer as well) game diddies out there.
Rachel attended this last year in Virginia, and she thought it was pretty good, but could have been better. We shall see. Apparently some of the big highlights for the show are songs from Mario, Sonic, Halo, World of Warcraft and of course Final Fantasy and Zelda. The local free arts rag here in New Haven has the show plastered on the front page. Mario, Link, Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Yuna (Final Fantasy X), Master Chief, Donkey Kong, Dirk Daring (Dragon's Lair), Solid Snake, and some random Night Elf chick all appear on the cover, along with some space invaders and Tetris blocks. It should be fun!
They're having the concert in Woolsey Hall, which is known for its 100 year old 3 story pipe organ. Apparently the producer of the show saw this thing when thinking of a unique adaptation to do for Yale. He is quoted as saying "Dude, Castlevania."
It should be a lot of fun. Even more interesting is going to be Chris's reaction to it all. :) She has a mild gaming past, but most of the music will probably be new to her. Its also supposed to have a light and video show along with it.
Something to look forward to in this thesis-filled time of mine.
(Oh and you know they're going to end it with One Winged Angel... you just know it.)
current mood: thoughtful
current music: Delightful Spekkio: Chrono Trigger
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| Thursday, March 22nd, 2007
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4:38 pm - Thesis intermission -- for games!!
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So I came across this article today (for all my gamer friends out there) which lists the top ten hardest games of all time, from IGN.com http://pc.ign.com/articles/774/774907p1.html
I've now come to realize that most gaming sites are absolutely full of crap. Here's their list:
10: Ninja Gaiden Black - XBox
OK, I've never played it, but it cannot be harder than the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy. I've gotten to the last boss twice, and never managed to beat him.
9: Devil May Cry 3 - PS2
Again, never played it. Hope to soon.
8: Battletoads - NES
Oh yes... finally I can agree on something, and this should be bumped up numerous notches. Aaron and I used to play this all the time, he owned the game and still died numerous times on the stupid motorbike level. It wasn't a matter of just memorizing the jumps, it was that your brain would actually freeze up and would not respond because it became so repetitive. I swear I think I got nerve damage on this one.
7: R-Type - TG-16/SNES
Bogus. Its hard, yes, but I just beat it the other day on the Virtual Console, and my reflexes aren't what they used to be. No question a good game, but not #7.
6: MDK2 - Dreamcast
This slipped by my consciousness, I've never even heard of the game.
5: Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts
How a gaming magazine can put this at #5 and not #1 or #2 is obscene. This is one of the hardest games ever. Two hits and you're dead. You get to the final boss and beat him? Good for you, you have to get there again FROM THE BEGINNING without losing the special ring they give you. I only beat the final boss once, let alone twice.
4: F-Zero GX - Gamecube
Oh please, its hard, yes, but not to this degree, to place this after G'NG it just wrong.
3: Shinobi - PS2
Again, I only played Shinobi on the Genesis, so I can't comment...
2: Mega Man - NES
Hard, you betcha. But not impossible. I'm starting to think that games I didn't realize were near impossible when I was a kid made me the gamer I am today. Because I can beat most of them.
1: Contra - NES
This is why I think this game site is full of crap. Is it hard to beat with the 30 man code? Yeah, but it can be done pretty easily. They're talking straight up, without "the code". Forget these guys, it really isn't that hard. Its all memorization. It is no where NEAR the hardest game of all time.
So basically I only agree with Battletoads, Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, and I'll give them Mega Man for being hard. Here are my games that should be on there in no particular order:
Ninja Gaiden
Blaster Master
Bubble Bobble
Ikaruga
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Kid Chameleon
Hudson's Adventure Island
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Wizards and Warriors
Lemmings
Astyanax
Abadox
Castlevania
Uncle Fester's Quest
Back to the Future
OK I'm done now... back to work... But please, these gamers today don't know what a "hard" game is. ;)
DAMN KIDS, GET OFF MY LAWN!
current mood:  ranty
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| Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
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1:13 pm - The decision has been made
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This past week, I had to make a choice that was as difficult as choosing between the Simpsons Season 5 and 6. Although its probably closer to having to choose between only watching cartoons from now on or only playing video games. Two extremely entertaining choices, but losing out on another path.
I had to choose between a great offer from CalTech for a post-doc position and a job as a systems engineer at Northrop Grumman. They are both in the LA area, they are both jobs that allow me to make use of my (hopefully) upcoming Ph.D degree, and in a broad sense, I'll be doing similar things (image and signal analysis). The similarities end there, however.
In the end, it came down to this: After two years at either job I'm ready to move on. What skills will I have learned and how marketable would I be to future employers? At CalTech, I would have become an expert in infrared astronomy, no question. At NG, I'll have a broad background in hyperspectral analysis, a deeper understanding of computer programming and other skills, and that's not even counting what I may acquire once I get security clearance.
Did I mention that NG pays about 60% more than the post-doc job with plenty of room for advancement? Yeah, that's a big one.
In the end, I chose a position that I never thought I would attain, and 4 years ago would have never considered. It appears my time in astronomy will be completed once I get the Ph.D. I'm taking the Northrop Grumman job. I start in October. My instincts tell me that this is the right decision, my brain and my heart are very conflicted. I have to learn to trust my instincts alot more often.
The ironic thing? I'm now looking for places to live in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. This area lies in the shadow of the hillside that is home to Griffith Observatory, possibly the most publically famous observatory in the nation. Let's hope the end result is more like "The Rocketeer", a fun, unassuming, and underappreciated film, and not as much like "Rebel Without A Cause."
Whew... I'm just glad the decision has been made. The most gut-wrenching, soul searching, and yet happy and exciting week of my life...
current mood: contemplative
current music: Back to the Future theme
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| Monday, February 12th, 2007
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2:21 pm - Why is it I'm hearing the Beach Boys in my head?
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Oh right.... I GOT THE SPITZER JOB!!!! Pasadena, here I come!!! At least I'm 90% sure I'll end up there.
current mood:  ecstatic
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| Sunday, February 11th, 2007
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2:20 pm - Jobs? What jobs? I don't need no stinking job!
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Oh right but I do, to pay for food and shelter and internet... things I can't live without. :)
Then, in the words of Professor Farnsworth... "Good news, everyone!" I was offered a position at Drexel University (Philadelphia) on Friday. It appears my new choice of an avatar was prescient. Now, its not the perfect job (but then what is) but it is A job. With luck, I'll hear from some LA-based places as well! :)
Whew... I think the evil monkey in my closet will leave me alone for a while now...
current mood: chipper
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