Treehouses

This blog has moved to Wordpress.

2008-06-08T09:01:00.002-04:00

Yeah, the basic features on Wordpress.com allow my blog to look nicer than with Blogger. Also, I never felt too good about the URL I picked for use with Blogger. Treehouses can now be found at http://treehouses.wordpress.com/.

Comrade Eddie!

2008-06-07T13:58:00.003-04:00

During my walk around downtown Moscow today, I discovered this billboard. In tribute to this awesomeness, I present lyrics of Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills in Russian:

Белый человек пришел через море
Он принес нам боль и страдания
Он убил наших племен, он убил нашего вероисповедания
Он принял нашу игру за свою необходимость

Мы боролись ему трудно мы боролись ему всего хорошего
Ушли на равнинах мы дали ему ад
Но многие пришли слишком много для криийский
Ах, мы сможем когда-либо быть бесплатными?

Верховая езда через dustclouds и бесплодной отходов
Галопирующей над равнинами
Чеканки redskins обратно в свои дыры
Борьба с ними на их собственной игре
Убийство за свободу ножом в спину
Женщины и дети, и трусы нападение

Пробег на холмах баллотироваться в вашей жизни
Пробег на холмах баллотироваться в вашей жизни

Солдат-синего цвета на пустоши отходов
Охота и убивать их игры
Насилуя женщин и мужчин, теряя
Только хорошие индейцы являются приручить
Продажа них виски и занять свое золото
Рабство молодых и уничтожая старые

Пробег на холмах баллотироваться в вашей жизни
(повторять до конца)

I wanted to translate this translation back into English, but there are hardly any errors, except that "Пробег на холмах баллотироваться в вашей жизни" translates back into "Mileage on the hills run for your life".

I have a bunch more photos that should eventually be geotagged. I'll try to get them ready and share them too.

+1 Barack Obama

2008-06-04T13:22:00.002-04:00

At the beginning of 2008, I would not have anticipated Senator Obama taking the Democratic nomination. I thought I was sure about one thing though, that a ticket shared by Hillary and Barack would only work if Hillary's name came first. I believed in this notion because, based on the campaign that Hillary ran, her being Vice President would be harmful to the operations of Barack's presidency. In other words, I thought she would be too hungry for power to be a constructive member of Barack's inner circle, even though such a ticket would make demographic sense according to what CNN told me while I was eating dinner earlier. I thought that Barack would make the better Vice President. He would serve constructively in the position and Hillary wouldn't have to worry about getting assassinated. Furthermore, what would presumably be eight years of experience in the White House would almost certainly help Barack's case in the next election.

However, now that Barack has the nomination, I am very confident that he will become the next President. To be clear, Barack's main opponent, John McCain, is annoyingly self-righteous and backwards in his policies. He’s also a robot under President Bush’s control.[1] I'm sure that enough voters are better than that.[2] Anyway, now I am thinking that Hillary can come around and shed the unfortunate tone she took in competing for the nomination. If Hillary can maintain discipline as a party member, then Barack’s presidency will fare well with her as Vice President. Of course, I still want Richard Anderson to be VP because he’s the man, but I’d vote for an Obama-Clinton ticket.[3]

[1] Did anyone else see his hand gestures in video clips of a recent speech? He was doing that elbows out, hands open, palms in, circular motion that Mr. Bush always does. I can see it now, George Bush in a circa 1998 virtual reality platform from Shaper Image, driving John McCain. However, it’s much more likely that McCain was imagining that he was gathering nuts with which to fill his cheeks.

[2] Fine. Call me delusional.

[3] Unless of course a really sweet third party candidate comes along… This condition makes me wonder: what would it take for another candidate to have my vote instead of Barack? My friends, I’m going to save the answer for another post.

There May Just Be a God After All.

2008-05-13T20:26:00.003-04:00

When I was in the eighth grade, I went on a field trip to a Mosque in New York City. Once there, we took off our shoes and sat upon the soft carpet within the high-ceilinged, elaborately patterned building. An imam sat down in front of us and did his best to educate us on the rules and customs of Islam and, in accordance with jihad, attempted to convert us. I agreed and disagreed with the various ideas he espoused and ultimately decided that I would keep the religious status I was born into. One of the ideas that I disagreed with was that the tornadoes which caused a lot of damage in the Midwest, just before our visit to the Mosque, where the work of God trying to tell mankind that gays are bad. I disagreed with this notion for several reasons:

His argument that gays are bad was based on his belief that nature is full of opposite pairs. His examples upholding the natural arrangement of male and female included positive and negative electric charges, day and night, and that animals never gay it up. The latter point is wrong, and the imam only managed to point out that homosexuals are different and different is never automatically bad.
God doesn't actually have it out for gays because San Francisco still stands while homophobic Jesus-lovin' Bible belt inhabitants get Dysoned every few weeks each Spring.
Bad weather has surely occurred prior to the advent of Homo sapiens.

However, the weather and seismic events that occurred in Burma and China make me consider that divine intervention is afoot. Like I said before, bad weather isn't new, and neither are earthquakes. It's the timing of these disasters that makes my ears prick up. In Burma, we have the military junta attempting to tighten its grip on the people by holding a false referendum of an illegitimate constitution. The junta has no intention of changing Burma's status as a virtual slave state. The recent typhoon has served well to highlight the greed and cruelty of Burma's leaders as they try to save face. Meanwhile, journalists languish in Chinese prisons, while the government paints a pretty picture of the Olympics and looks away from the atrocities in Darfur and Burma. Perhaps an intelligent designer is trying to point out that the governments in question are up to no good.

Of course, I would never wish such ordeals on anyone and I don't actually believe that God is intervening. Everything I've pointed out is merely circumstantial. That said, there are some problems in the world that need to be fixed. Therefore, I propose the founding of a philanthropic mercenary organization designed to remove cruel and unjust leadership. Bruma's junta would make a good first mission. Our philanthropist mercenaries would swoop in and quietly subdue and capture the unwitting junta members and promptly liberate Aung San Suu Kyi allowing her to form the government per the election in the early nineties. These events would proceed in a single evening, of course, and the deliverers of justice would certainly wear snazzy uniforms.

Taken from Sillof's Workshop.

Surely, if any organization is going to be successful at regime change, it would have to be a stylish derivative of the Justice League. Afterall, the job can't be left up to the likes of Mr. Bush.

From Russia with Love

2008-05-05T21:04:00.002-04:00

Finally, here are my photos from Moscow:

I think some of them are pretty cool. I took these photos on my first trip into downtown Moscow. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't good. Luckily my Nikon Coolpix 8800VR held up relatively well. The rain sucked, but it did make the Red Square look all shiny. The mist made Saint Basil's Cathedral look really spectacular. Buildings like this one freak me out with their age and beauty. They're all over Moscow, too. I can't really rationalize a vacation to Moscow, but I can't rationalize passing up an opportunity to visit either. Somehow, despite the traffic and pollution, Moscow makes me feel good about humanity. Too bad pictures can never really convey this sentiment.

Subway Surfing in Moscow!

2008-04-13T15:03:00.002-04:00

Twenty-four hours, three beers, 27 subway stops, several Soviet monuments, one hitched ride, and one fanny-pack later, I am about to pass out. For serious. I couldn't sleep at all on the flight from JFK to Sheremetyevo so I watched The Host on my laptop and read DMZ Vol. 4: Friendly Fire and a little bit of Flight Vol. 2. After arriving at the hotel, I showered and passed out for a little bit, and then went into Moscow to do some touristy stuff. I got some good photos but, like the ass that I am, I forgot to bring the USB cable that connects my camera to my laptop. Therefore, it will be a little while before I can share them. Also, Baltika is a good brand of beer.

In Soviet Russia the Toilet Flushes You!

2008-03-28T08:54:00.004-04:00

I feel as though I've taken on too much responsibility this week. I bought renter's insurance, Alstom is shipping me off to Moscow, CCCP for the week of April 13, I made a claim using said renter's insurance, and bought a nice suit at Macy's.

The events concerning the insurance and the toilet reference in the title of this post boggle my mind. I signed for a policy Sunday evening, which I did not previously have, and this morning the toilet backed up, flooded the bathroom, and leaked into the unit downstairs. For serious. Having the foresight to get the policy is just as much an act of God as my crapper rejecting its breakfast. Consider also, that the affected neighbor downstairs enjoys listening to Christian rock in the early morning and late evening, praying out loud, and crying while he does so. He also talks very loudly on the phone for hours about how much he loves God and how his passion makes him a better person than folks like me, who aren't Jesus freaks. Act of God, indeed.

I am excited about going to Moscow. This adventure will include a lot of firsts for me:

I've never visited a non-English speaking or non-Spanish speaking country.
I've never flown for more than about four hours.
I've never been so far from home.

To clarify that last statement, I've never traveled farther north than Toronto, farther south than Belize, farther east than Puerto Rico, or farther west than Las Vegas. That said, I can only imagine visiting Moscow for work related reasons because it really isn't relevant to me. I certainly respect and appreciate the city's history, but it's a history to which I don't belong. Furthermore, Moscow seems closer to nowhere than I'd travel to for the sake of traveling. I'm also nervous about the trip because it seems like the folks at Alstom's Russian branch are counting on my expertise on piping analysis. I'm told that I am supposed to answer their questions. I wonder if they have any idea what they are in for.

I hope to take plenty of photos with my new Holga in Moscow. In fact, I hope to take one of a Volga. I will consider the trip wasted if I do not achieve this goal.

Steve Jobs Chums His Bathtub with Whale Meat to Feed His Ego: Part 3

2008-03-19T00:13:00.008-04:00

Continued from Steve Jobs Chums His Bathtup with Whale Meat to Feed His Ego: Part 2.

On Monday, Kat's computer stopped working again. I never really expected my fix to be permanent, but it did last a good while. I will probably be able to get the computer running again, for my own purposes, but Kat needs a reliable system to do her work on. So, last night we went to the UConn Co-op to get her a new 15.4" MacBook Pro.

Anyway, Kat wanted CCP4 installed on her new system. Unfortunately, it was pain in the ass. I'm pretty sure that most of the problem has to do with the software, but we were unaware that the system didn't come with Leopard already installed. This meant that it was a while before we realized that X11 wasn't already installed. However, after upgrading to Leopard and confirming that X11 was now installed, nothing about the CCP4 installation changed for the better.

I believe that the problem is that the CCP4 binary sucks. So we decided to use fink to install the program according to the instructions on this wiki and CCP4 works now! I can't remember if I followed the instructions for installing fink exactly but I think it was a matter of installing Xcode3, downloading the source for fink, which automatically decompressed, and compiled it by first navigating to its folder in the terminal and typing:

./bootstrap.sh

Then I followed the rest of the previously mentioned instructions. They are pretty clear except for telling you how to start CCP4. The instructions for doing so are here. I don't expect that anyone looking for clarification about getting CCP4 running will ever look to this post for help, so I intend to update the wiki a little bit. Hopefully we'll also have success in installing Coot.

I am going to drop the Steve Jobs Chums His... title after this post. I'm afraid that Treehouses might slip into the dark abyss of Apple hating, which isn't my style. While I am usually impressed by their products and culture, I am only sometimes perplexed and offended. Such is the case with Kat's new 'puter. The case is really nice to look at, the screen is great, and Leopard seems to be nice to work with. However, we've noticed some really troubling behavior. For example, when switching between text fields in different windows, such as from Terminal to TextEdit, it takes a few seconds before keystrokes start registering. It's not as though I start typing and then several seconds later everything I typed appears. Rather, there is some sort of waiting period before keyboard input is allowed. Kat hasn't experienced it at work when the computer runs off of the wall outlet, but we definitely noticed it on the second evening of battery power, but not the first. Anyone with information on what is going on and how to fix it should let me know. This problem is really frustrating.

In other news, my Holga came in from China yesterday. I can't wait to start taking photos!

Steve Jobs Chums His Bathtub with Whale Meat to Feed His Ego: Part 2

2008-01-30T18:03:00.000-05:00

Continued from Steve Jobs Chums His Bathtub with Whale Meat to Feed His Ego.

The title of this post and the previous one is probably too harsh on Mr. Jobs. I have no way of knowing his or his ego's feeding habits. I've employed this hyperbole to convey my frustration over and issue that plagues engineers and is subsequently injurious to society on a grander scale. For now, I will stick with the iBook as an example.

For the record, Kat's laptop has been working soundly until today. We were hoping that the problem Kat experienced is just one of those weird things that would inexplicably never happen again. My suspicion that a certain chip is beginning to disconnect from the motherboard appears to be correct.

So I followed this guide to place a shim between the metal shield, which lies flush against the bottom of the computer case, and the rebellious chip. I cut out a small piece of a CD-R for my shim.

Opening up the computer was really easy with the exception of what may be another one of Apple's dirty tricks. Photographs will probably describe it best.

See that orange ribbon in the back? I think it's supposed to connect the hard drive to the motherboard. However, it was affixed to the shield and thus came loose from the motherboard when I lifted the shield up. In alternate universes, I tore the ribbon, forgot to reconnect it when putting the computer back together, and was possessed by Dr. Sam Beckett ("Oh boy!") who fixed everything and left me to take all the credit as he hopefully made his final leap home. Here's a closeup of the dastardly ribbon cable.

Eventually the hard disk ribbon came loose from the shield allowing me to take this photo of the poorly designed motherboard.

I placed the piece of the CD-R between the offending chip and the black ribbon which connects the optical drive to the motherboard and then reassembled the laptop. And it works! Hopefully this surgery will be my last on Kat's computer, but there is a chance that the shim I chose isn't thick enough in which case I'll have to cut it open and try again. I just want to say that I fixed it for good and be a hero.

Anyway, when a similar problem appeared in the iBook G3, which preceded Kat's G4, Apple owned up and made an attempt to do right by its customers by extending the warranty. However, Apple hasn't made any attempt to fix the problem with the G4. That's just appalling and feeds my suspicion of Apple, their products, and the intent behind their design. In taking apart Kat's G4, I noticed a design feature that annoyed me: extensive use of plastic snap tabs instead of screws, like older generations of the iPod. I understand that screws require inventory and an additional manufacturing step, but they make repairing the product easier and can always be replaced if damaged. Snap tabs are not replaceable and will weaken or ruin the case if broken. It's as though Apple couldn't care less about making the G4 repairable. Therefore, I charge that Apple engineers their products to be trendy, fast sells with lifetimes that satisfy Apple's desires rather than customers' needs. That is, I contend that Apple designs their products to require replacement in order to facilitate the sale of new products; planned obsolescence. Apple gets away with this because they've successfully sold the idea that having the latest Apple is fashionable. Yes, Apple products are useful and easy to use, but if I were to consider buying a new Apple product, its cool factor would compel me more than its ability to retain value. Other brands don't retain value very well either, and it bothers me that consumers accept this standard of quality from their computers. Dixie cups are supposed to be disposable, not computers.

One final point of advice: keep screws and other removable parts in a safe spot. Replaceable as they may be, losing them is a pain in the ass.

Steve Jobs Chums His Bathtub with Whale Meat to Feed His Ego

2008-01-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

Well, wouldn't you expect him to do so given his treatment of Apple fans* and his company's suspicious engineering practices?

The latter allegation seems to have affected Kat's iBook G4. It wouldn't boot properly this morning when she got to work. Instead the screen remained blank and the fan turned on at full speed. Over one thousand iBook users have reported the same problem which is well documented here.

So I decided to see if I could fix it. I got to step 7 on this troubleshooting list by Apple before it turned on. The computer conked out after a few minutes. Next, I place two hands to the left of the touch pad and applied a good amount of force and then slowly hit the power button. It turned on.

Thus far I've had the computer on for about 45 minutes. I am shutting down now and will reboot in the hopes of achieving a smooth and proper start up without doing anything special such as applying pressure to the casing.... and it works. No sign of the aforementioned problem. This result is good because it means that Kat is not computerless for the time being. But, it's also bad because I think it may signify the beginning of the problem. If the computer acts up again, I may move on to this fix. If I'm feeling macho I'll try this one, too.

More to come.

*This link bring you to a post on Violet Blue's blog. While I do not consider it to be pornography, her blog is sexually themed and may not be safe for work.

Ubuntu to the Rescue

2008-01-02T20:47:00.000-05:00

My hard drive crashed just before the New Year's party Kat and I threw. The timing for this was really poor because it meant that I was about to get drunk and enter 2008 fully aware of how stupid I was for not backing up the photos that I had taken and the music I had collected over the last 4 years.

So, I did some googling and came across the following solution: to boot from an Ubuntu Live CD, mount the bad hard drive, and copy the important files to an iPod. It appears to be working. Unfortunately, it seems like there are a few corrupted files here and there, but I've already recovered the vast majority of my photos and couldn't ask for more at this point.

Actually, I am hoping for Dell to speedily replace my bum hard drive, but that all depends on whether or not my computer came with at least a five year warranty.

Anyway, heed my cautionary tale. Back up your stuff. Hard drives suck.

¡Conoce al diablo que se llama Diego!

2007-12-27T22:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a movie of my cousin Dave and I playing with my family's new dog, Diego, on Christmas. To be clear, he's been with us for about a month now; Diego didn't pop out of a box under the tree or anything. His original owners realized that they didn't have the time to keep a dog and they were probably pretty stunned by Diego's apparent bad luck. In his first year of life he's had two surgeries. One to remove a bunch of industrial paper towels that were blocking his intestines, and another to bolt his hip back together after an unfortunate meeting with a moving vehicle. So my dad decided to adopt him. As you can see in the video, this puppy is a lot of fun. He's mischievous too. Diego likes to eat things like shoe laces, gloves, socks, and imitation Uggs. I'm sure he'll come around in that regard. Hopefully Diego's luck has changed because he fits in really well with the Padillas.

The YouTube Debates Aren't that Awesome

2007-12-26T18:20:00.000-05:00

This post on the Official Google Blog makes me pretty upset with Google. All this talk about breaking down barriers and not one mention of including third party candidates in future YouTube debates. Let's get something straight: Google isn't improving the political process. They're just reinforcing the status quo, and claiming otherwise. So much for ~~"don't be evil"~~ "You can make money without doing evil". If Google really wants to improve the political process, then they need to turn the election into a real competition and actually make it interesting. Imagine a debate where the debaters are judged on what they say and not on how they answer (or not answer) questions or how they behave or other minutia. Such a debate would actually be useful to voters. A sure way to bring this about is to invite third party candidates to debate. Doing so will call into question the legitimacy and earnest of the candidates who currently aren't working hard enough or making enough of a case to deserve the position they seek. I agree that YouTube is powerful, but Google needs to use it to affect the sort of change that the USA needs. Something is wrong when elections are won by very slim margins. Blaming the problem on the red-state/blue-state division of the country is incorrect. Rather, the presidential candidates we've seen in the last few elections have been too similar. Modifying the debate format to help voters discern the difference between candidates isn't the way to go about solving that problem. Rather, YouTube should use it's muscle to force candidates to adopt diverse positions and give voters a real choice.

One might argue that YouTube couldn't hope to hold a debate with third party candidates because Democrat and Republican candidates would refuse to participate for fear of the sea change that I've described. I argue that YouTube is too powerful for any candidate to ignore simply because they want the exposure. Google has no excuse.

Google, don't be evil. Make things right.

Bug: another item on the list of things I wish I invented.

2007-12-06T17:35:00.000-05:00

Once in a while, a really good idea comes along that I have trouble not thinking about. Such is currently the case with the pictured device, called the Bug, soon to be available from Bug Labs. What is it? The answer is that it is almost anything you want it to be, and it can do almost anything you want it to do. To be specific, the Bug is a hand-held computer base with which modules can be easily snapped on and off. The modules that will be available upon release of the product, which will be sometime in 2008, include a camera, GPS, motion sensor/accelerometer, and LCD touchscreen. The entire device is open source, from the hardware to the software. This means that the Bug can be configured to precisely the user's intention.

So, I could, for example, use the accelerometer module with a program that would take data points as my car coasts from, say, 60mph. From this data I could determine my vehicle's drag coefficient. Or I could connect the Bug to the headphone output of my radar detector. With the GPS module I could keep a record of the locations where radar signals are detected. Then, I could make the sound turn off whenever I am driving through an area where there are always false alarms.

Apple wouldn't build and sell such a device. Neither would Dell or Sony. That's precisely why the people at Bug Labs are so smart. A device that helps you determine how aerodynamic your car is will not sell. But, a device that can adapt to any specific function is a major shift from the realm of conventional consumer electronics, whereby the creators of the device attempt to tell you what you can and can't do. There are enough geeks that can appreciate this design philosophy to constitute a large demographic. I can't get over how Bug Labs achieves this versatility by having the Bug consist of simple building blocks, which dictate the functions of the device as a whole depending on selection and arrangement. The Bug is awesome for many of the same reasons that LEGOs are awesome.

The Bug could serve the purpose of an iPhone, should the user so desire. However, I do not imagine the two competing with each other. They are different products. The iPhone is a closed platform that does exactly what Apple designed it to do. Many consumers desire and are satisfied with Apple's innovation. The Bug is an open platform that allows the user to innovate. It will conform to the user. The community of users will find more uses for the Bug than a team of engineers could hope to incorporate into a closed platform device. Many consumers will find the utility of the Bug very attractive. I sure do.

Anyway, enough of me trying to sell this thing. The folks at Bug Labs do it better. Here's a link with videos.

String Theory

2007-11-18T19:54:00.001-05:00

In AP Physics, I had the Elegant Universe by Brian Greene as assigned reading. My verbal reaction to it was something like, "this is all very interesting, but isn't String Theory kind of an idle pursuit?" I recall that my teacher got annoyed. Anyway, I filed String Theory away in my mind for a while, until I watched the Nova special of the same title as the book with Kat and Bidya. I still find it very interesting and I still have a hard time as seeing it as anything more than mental masturbation. If string theory is not true, or if there is no unifying relationship between gravity and the other forces, would we miss it?

What irks Kat and I is that String Theory is a sensation and it receives more attention than fields of science that are not only practical, but uncontested as fields of science. There doesn't appear to be any way to disprove String Theory, after all. What is worrisome is the possibility that String Theory receives grant money. A quick Google search yields no evidence of this, but it isn't a stretch to charge that for every bit of attention that String Theory gets, the rest of science gets that much less attention. For example, the Nova special on String Theory could have been a special on Medicinal Chemistry instead. Conceivably then, if there is a relationship between attention and funding, there is less funding available for the rest of science. If that's the case, then it's a damn shame because labs, such as my girlfriend's, have to work really hard for their grant money.

But I am not about to take part in any war on String Theory. It is fun to think about dimensions beyond the four that we can perceive and whether or not the void of space is really a void. The truth is that funding shouldn't be so damn scarce in the first place. The War on Drugs and the War on Terror gobble up more funding than String Theory ever could. [Yes, this article just took a political tack.] Wondering where the AIDS vaccine is, where the Male Pill is, where a viable, safe, and renewable alternative to fossil fuels is? These goals are smoldering in Iraq and decaying amongst sprayed coca crops in Colombia. Consider that in 2005, AIDS claimed an estimated 2.8 million lives. In the same year, AIDS research received $19.7 billion in funding from the US while the Iraq War received that much in a little more than three months. In contrast, it is estimated that 290,000 were killed under Saddam Hussein's rule of 24 years. Understandably, many have strong opinions regarding terrorism and narcotics. But, if you are thinking of voting for someone who supports the Wars on Terrorism and Drugs, please consider where your tax dollars won't be going first. When science gets the funding and attention it deserves, then maybe String Theory can finally become the non-issue it ought to be.

QED

The above comic was taken from xkcd.com.

Randall's Island, NY

2007-11-05T12:19:00.000-05:00

I never really said anything about the Arcade Fire concert. It was a far cry from when I went with Kat to see them in February 2005. In fact, here are some of my exact words about that show...

Eventually, some odd music came on. I think it was Win Butler's grandfather's music. Then the band appeared. And then, they rocked. Let my try and reproduce the setlist.

Wake Up
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
No Cars Go
Haiti
Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
Intervention
Une Annee Sans Lumiere
Neighbor-hood #3 (Power Out) / Rebellion (Lies)
In the Backseat (?)
[encore]
Headlights Look Like Diamonds
Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

[Sigh] I can't remember very well. Crown of Love and Born on a Train were also played, but I don't remember when exactly. And there was definitely one more song in the encore.

I know that if you've been following this band, you've heard or read what I'm about to say before. This concert was the best concert I have ever been to. Coming from me, that doesn't say much. I have not attended that many concerts. So let me elaborate. I cannot remember a time before seeing the Arcade Fire preform that I felt so close to pure satisfaction, nirvana. Then again, I've never been to a concert under the same circumstances. I can't remember being as close to a band. I can't remember liking the music as much before hand. I can't remember a band that interacted with the crowd so well. I can't remember a band that poured out so much energy, and was so fundamentally earnest in their efforts to not only rock, but establish a warm but fierce intimacy with the audience. Win knew people in the crowd from, apparently, having worked with them from living for a time in Boston. He talked with them. Even at the end of the show, the end of the tour, they came down from the stage and, in funeral procession style, encircled the crowd with their instruments in hand. Win mangled the second highest string on a bass and violently tore apart the strings on a six-string.

And as I said, this left me completely, purely satisfied and free of desire, at least to the extent to which I was aware. I have an extremely elementary understanding of Buddhist philosophy. What I know and believe tells me that Thursday night was a good thing, despite the weather, despite getting lost, and despite paying what was surely too much for tickets. I didn't even feel that empty, punched-in-the-gut sensation that I normally experience when I pay too much for something.

That passage came from my old LiveJournal. What a time capsule. Anyway, this time around, four bands opened for Arcade Fire, and they were all really good. I'm glad to have finally seen Les Savy Fav live. Tim Harrington, the lead singer, or performer, is crazy and funny, but what's just plain weird is that his band is totally legit, and they play like he doesn't exist. Even though I didn't really care that much about them before the show, I really enjoyed Blonde Redhead. They have a really deep, moody sound that contrasted sharply with Les Savy Fav's schizophrenia, but they served as an appropriate bridge into LCD Soundsystem's epic performance. LCD Soundsystem was the only band that night to actually look at home on that huge stage. Their sound, and the accompanying light show impressed this first time LCD Soundsystem listener. Frankly, they outdid Arcade Fire, the headliner. In my concert going experience, the headliner is always louder than the opening acts. Arcade Fire didn't follow the pattern at this show, and their first two song suffered because the person at the soundboard was probably a little miffed too. Furthermore, the band had a hard time connecting with the crowd, at least to the extend which they did when I saw them two years ago. Contributing to the impersonal experience were the massive, yet cool, visual displays that effectively devoured the band. In an attempt to interact with the crowd, the best Win could do was to bash Mr. Bush, and the best his brother could do was to climb some scaffolding with a drum. Incidentally, it was brother Butler's birthday, and all this sick person could think was how awful it would be if he fell to his death. Anyway, as much as I don't like the President, and as much as I like dangerous stunts, I used to think that Arcade Fire was above that. Don't get me wrong. These guys are great live but they were better when I first saw them. I guess the point is that they've changed. But who can blame them. Arcade Fire has been hugely successful, and rightly so. They make good music.

Here are some good pictures that someone from Pitchfork took, and here a slide show that I took. I need to get better at taking photos.

Beer, Music, and My Cube.

2007-10-05T14:49:00.000-04:00

Topics to be addressed:

Sunday’s brew session
In Rainbows – the new album by Radiohead
The upcoming Arcade Fire show
My cubicle

Everything seemed to just work on Sunday, despite the fact that I was brewing in a small kitchen and that there is plenty of nice carpet that was just asking to be spilled on. The brew entailed the following recipe, which I adapted from the one here:

Grain

8lbs. Marris Otter
2lbs. Vienna
0.5lb. CaraHell (Crystal 10L)

Hops (Cascade only)

1oz. at 60 minutes
0.5oz. at 30 minutes
0.25oz. at 15 minutes
0.25oz. at 5 minutes
1oz. irish moss divided between additions at 15 and 5 minutes

Procedure

Mash at 152°F with 3.5 gallons of water – about 1.33 quarts/lb. of grain.
Batch sparge at 175°F to collect about 6.5 gallons of wort.
60 minute boil with hops and irish moss additions as listed. Collect about 5.5 gallons.
Chill to 73.4°F and pitch Wyeast 1065 yeast.

Several factors made this brew day go really well. For one, my head is in a better place than during past brew days. I’m employed and not worrying about exams, senior design, etc. This means I wasn’t preoccupied and was thus less apt to make mistakes. Kat was also a big help. She weighed out my grains and made me food. We shared the kitchen surprisingly well even with all of my brewing equipment in the way. Upgrades I made to my equipment proved beneficial. I modified my grain mill so I could use my electric drill instead of a hand crank and purchased a wine whip and a six-gallon glass carboy. The modification to the mill and the wine whip took a lot of labor out of the brewing process. They were both fun to use and very effective. Above all, the carboy just looks nice. It allows me to watch the fermentation process. Watching the yeast go to work after brewing for most of the day is very rewarding. Here's a video:

I made two changes to my technique that made my brew session much easier. First, I made a large yeast starter over the course of the previous week. Doing so allowed for active fermentation to happen much sooner, which meant less risk for infection and less time for me to worry if I did something wrong. Second, instead of fly sparging, I batch sparged. I don’t know if I will go back to fly sparging. It’s too much work and there are too many opportunities for mistakes to happen. Fly sparging is too much like the examples in MATH 211, Differential Equations, where there’s a flow rate of fresh water coming into a reservoir with an initial salt content and a flow rate leaving the reservoir and you have to find a solution for the salt content over time. It sucks. Batch sparging is like taking a bath, where you don’t have to deal with rates. Batch sparging allowed me to achieve the proper malt content in my wort, as well as the proper batch size, which is something I was not able to do in previous attempts at fly sparging. I only regret not learning about batch sparging earlier in my brewing career and not brewing this particular batch a few weeks earlier. If I had, then it might be ready for Oktoberfest. Next year. Here's a slide show of the brew session.

I have a blog. I like Radiohead. Therefore I guess I have to contribute to the hype surrounding In Rainbows, their new album, available for free download on October 10th. Even though I haven’t heard the album yet, and it has just as much potential as any other new album to suck, I am more of a Radiohead fan than I used to be. Why? Because the band is taking something on that I’ve been advocating for a little while now: that freely (and allegedly illegally) downloaded music should not correlate with lower sales of albums in tangible format. From this argument, one must conclude that if there is no loss, there is no theft, and thus no crime in pirating music. There should be no correlation for two main reasons. First, digital music is typically lower in quality than unadulterated music from a CD or even vinyl. The uncompressed music from a hard format, omitting cassette tapes and the like, just sounds better. And mp3s, for example, are often fraught with glitches that have none of the charm of those found on vinyl. Second, you can’t hold an mp3. It doesn’t exist as anything more than data. It’s not collectible. It’s worth no more than the space used to store it and the bandwidth used to transfer it. Hard formats, on the other hand, can be held, can fit on a shelf. You’re careful with whom you share them with. They are worth more than digital music files. Selling a tangible album then is simply a matter of convincing buyers that the album is worth adding to their collections. Doing so is accomplished by proving to the buyer that the music is good and offering more in the tangible version than can possibly be had digitally. Radiohead is doing just that. In addition to the free download, an exceptional album package is available for preorder, containing the album, with a bunch of extra songs, in both CD and vinyl, as well as tons of album art. At $80 or so, it’s expensive, but if the music is good enough, I’ll buy it. Final summation: downloading an album freely, and then not buying it in hard format does not make you a thief since you weren’t going to buy it anyway. If anything, pirating music gets people to go out and buy CDs, because they can do so without fear of getting ripped of. Rather, it is the big record companies that are the thieves for lobbying for the right to push crappy music on unwitting consumers and for trying to sell low quality mp3s at tangible album prices and not offering anything tangible. But I digress. Props go to Radiohead for adopting a smart business model.

Tomorrow I am going to see Arcade Fire, Les Savy Fav, LCD Soundsystem, and Blonde Redhead at Randalls Island, NY. I am pretty pumped, although not as pumped as I was when I saw Arcade Fire in February 2005. Their latest album, Neon Bible, is good, but I don’t like it as much as Funeral or Us Kids Know. Nevertheless, I know that they put on a great show, and I’ve heard that Les Savy Fav does as well. It looks like tomorrow should be a pretty awesome day.

As for my cubicle, it needs some work. See what I mean:

I’m thinking that in addition to better organization, it could use a beta fish or maybe an ant farm. Let me know what you think.

New Apartment

2007-09-03T15:31:00.000-04:00

Finally, a video tour of my new apartment. You'll forgive the poor audio. My recorded voice always sounds bad and it didn't help that my Roomba was running in the background. Currently, the video is being hosted by YouTube ~~and blip.tv~~. ~~I did this because I wanted to compare the services. Eventually I will take down the one that I am least happy with.~~

Kat and I are really happy with the new place! Everything from the exposed brick to the paint job really suits our tastes. The apartment isn't brand new... we've been here since June, so we've had time to pick out furniture and set things up the way we like. So far, everyone who has visited has been really impressed. The place has also proved to be really good for parties. There's plenty of room for guests and shenanigans. As a bonus, we haven't received any noise complaints yet, meaning that we either have really tolerant neighbors or the place is well insulated.

Anyway, enjoy the tour!

Seaside Heights, NJ: home to the best and worst of the Garden State.

2007-07-16T17:40:00.000-04:00

I won’t concentrate on the worst. You are totally capable of imagining it for yourself. Think rhinestone belt buckles, muffin tops, and Gino the Guido (not work safe). While a daytime visit would have been warmer and allowed for an $8 romp on the beach, I appreciated the over stimulation provided by the bright, colorful lights on the rides and game stands. I’ll summarize the evening’s events:

Kat and I played at the ~~frog-launching~~ Frog-Bog stand at Casino Pier and won a teddy bear.
I punished a large cone of Kohr’s frozen custard.
I watched Bidya exploit a nine-year-old boy sitting next to her on a roller coaster. If you’re reading this, don’t be ashamed little man.
And I ate some pizza that had been on display all day and did not get sick… yet.

This trip was my first to the Jersey Shore. Despite exclamations of fear of their own state, my guides, Kat and Bidya, apologetically asked me not to judge the state based on what I saw at Seaside Heights. Thus far, I’ve passed plenty of judgment on NJ just by driving on her roads and highways, if they can be called that. My tune hasn’t really changed after this weekend’s visit, but now I have some appreciation. I could say that the NJ shore is Americana’s tombstone, but I don’t really know what that means. It sounds smart though. However, if that sentence makes any sense, then it might explain why Kat was upset to see a Dunkin’ Donuts on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights. There’s almost nothing wrong with it, and in that sense it’s like an invasive species of seaweed. It doesn’t look like it doesn’t belong, but it doesn’t. It hitched a ride on a foreign vessel took root in this new harbor, and won’t ever go away. There’s no point in even trying to make it go away because it’s just seaweed. But you have to appreciate all the seaweed, and I sure do. Why? Because its extract, carrageenan, is used to make ice cream which is delicious. Going back to the frozen custard, I love the decadence. I want a machine to myself so I can bask in the dense, yolky glory of it all. Until I find a closer source of this joy pudding, I’ll still have some tolerance for NJ’s traffic.

But I digress. My point is that what makes places like Seaside Heights special is slipping away. These places aren’t exclusive to NJ. This year looks like the beginning of the end for Coney Island, for example. Some people will say that the remission is due to bad groups of people and their disrepute that are moving in. I disagree. Diversity is what makes these places in large part. The same goes for independence. Cramming various amusement parks, bars, and individual rides and games with different owners within a small area helps to keep prices down. Having more than one of the same ride or game within walking distance keeps lines bearable. In short, everything is more fun. Yet there are forces that are invading, be they subtle, passive, deliberate or blatant. I wouldn’t call the lone Dunkin’ Donuts blatant. I would, however, call what is happening and has been happening in Coney Island very blatant. For a concise history, read the Wikipedia article. And patronize one of the boardwalks. These places are not being allowed to just be and it’s a damn shame.

TV on the Radio and Aloha

2007-03-11T12:52:00.000-04:00

Aloha is on hell of a band and the photo I took of them does no justice. The show was at Toad's Place on Saturday. Aloha opened along with some other band for Sparta, who also performed very well. I went with Kat, Tatsu, and Jesse. The picture doesn't show it very well at all, but there are two keyboards and one vibraphone. I was really happy that Aloha brought their vibraphone because Kat had told me that in a previous concert it was not present, presumably because it's difficult to transport. It sounds even better in concert than on CD. Their set included some songs that I didn't recognize but they played most of my favorites including "All the Wars", "You've Escaped", "Summer Away", "Boys in the Bathtub" and "Let Your Head Hang Low". Their rapid instrument switches and the percussionists' seemingly ambidextrous, multi-instrumenting skills were really appreciated by the crowd which consisted mostly of Sparta fans hearing Aloha for the first time. The encore began with looped keyboard effects and ended with an explosive drum break down. The $5.00 Bass I was sipping on couldn't have tasted better. If Aloha performs this well as an opener, I can only hope to see them headline.

The last three photos were taken at the TV on the Radio Concert at Lupo's in Providence on March 1. The were taken with a real camera so I guess I don't have an excuse for their poor quality other than that I am a crumby photographer. Luckily for Kat and I, we showed up right before TV on the Radio got on stage. Prior to the concert, I never thought of how the band performs together. It was just great music to me. Now when I listen, I get taken back to the show and visualize them interacting with themselves and the crowd. Their set covered most of the good stuff from Disparate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes and Return to Cookie Mountain. However, it was too bad that they didn't play "Mr. Grieves". The set ended with "Staring at the Sun" which broke down into a dance bass riff to send the crowd their separate ways.

Sierra Nevada Clone

2007-03-07T02:21:00.000-05:00

I tasted my latest brew for the third time in four weeks and it was delicious. It's Sierra Nevada clone made with the following recipe:

8 lbs. of Pale malt
1 lb. Biscuit Malt
1 lb. Crystal Malt
Mash at 150 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour with 1 quart of water for every pound of grain
Sparge with 10 quarts of water at 170 degrees Fahrenheit
60 minute boil; at 60 minutes add 1 oz. Chinook Hops, at 15 minutes add 1 oz. Perle Hops, at 2 minutes add 1 oz. Cascade Hops
Chill wort to less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit
Pitch Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)

I fermented in the primary for about eight days and then in the secondary for two weeks. I used DME for priming. The last couple times that I tried the beer, it wasn't so great. No esters, but hardly any flavor or carbonation. It's totally delicious now and tastes very much like Sierra Nevada. I wouldn't say that it's exact, but I am very happy about it. The ABV is approximately 5% and my girlfriend, Kat, and I have decided to name the brew Last Semester Ale. Hopefully it will continue to age and get even tastier by St. Patrick's day.

From Last Semester...

Pictured is the label Kat illustrated. I don't really want to stick it on every bottle. I'd rather just save time and only put it on the ones that we give as gifts. Removing the original labels from the bottles is just two much of a pain. In fact, bottling in itself is a pain. I can see myself upgrading to a keg system within a year. Then again, there is an old school glamor to bottling and naturally carbonating, which isn't to say that natural carbonation cannot be achieved when kegging. It's just nice to see a little sediment at the bottom of the bottle, like that in Sierra Nevada Pale Ale bottles.

Senior Design Quest

2006-11-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

Right now I am trying to find testing information and real life issues for Capewell's HCU-6E Military Pallet for my Senior Design Project at UConn. I need to learn about testing procedures and theory for sandwich panels and I am hoping that someone who has experience using one of these pallets can tell me exactly the sort of hell this pallet goes through, and if or how it survives. Hopefully someone who has used these pallets in the military or Katrina Recovery will read this post and volunteer any information they have. My only understanding of the HCU-6E Military Pallet in real life use is the following anecdote: that soldiers have a knack for swiping these pallets and using them to floor their tents. If I can find this information then my team and I will be able to design tests for our prototypes. The picture of the pallet comes from one of Capewell's catalogs.

Bienvenidos

2006-08-05T15:41:00.000-04:00

This blog begins amidst the near end of a great internship at Rogers Corporation, the near beginning of my second to last semester at UConn, and a looming entrance into the real world. It also the result of inspiration from my friend's website, frankchi.com. It's a great, straight up look into his goals and talents. I hope that this blog will help to serve that same purpose of showing myself off.