Frisbee Golf

Ever play frisbee golf? I played this weekend. I had a pretty good score for a first time frisbee golfer. My first throw was a disaster, I ended up in a playground. From there my next toss to the hole ended up in thicket of trees. Everybody was thinking "this guy sucks." From there I made a 50ft putt into the chains. Surprised the heck out of them. :) The rest of the day kind of went like that. I got third place out of seven players.

My driving definitely improved as the day went one. People were marvelling at my distance near the end of the day, unfortunately they weren't always straight. I think I have found my new calling. I am going to drop this whole postdoc thing and try to find a disc golf sponsor.

Hunting in Tucson

Hunting is much harder than I realized. It makes me admire those hunters in the past that used rifles without scopes and had to reload between each shot. No one I was with actually took any shots this weekend. That was a vital part of my education I missed. We were never in the right position and the three day weekend meant the other hunters in the neighborhood were making the bucks kind of skiddish. The guys I was with were very very good about spotting deer with the binoculars.
Even with them telling me where to look I was only able to see about 50% of the deer they were finding. Impressive. Here is everyone milling around the campfire, it was a little on the cold side.

News Flash!

Nothing terribly exciting has happened in the last month. Bummer. Let me see if I can dredge up something interesting to report.Well, let's see. My project is barely moving, but at least it is moving forward again. What you see below is a gel used to seperate DNA bands of various sizes. The uppermost band in the right hand lane indicates a successful reaction. Take a look for yourself!

Exciting huh? Luckily I have that to keep me inspired. My lab has been pretty empty lately, which translates to a lot of work getting done (nice) but the silence can be deafening and distracting too.

Niagara Falls Update

Visited Niagara falls in late July. I can't remember if I blogged about it or not. Here are a couple photos of the trip! It was a 12 hour drive, one way.

apartment upgrade?

My bathroom had a steady stream of drops coming from the ceiling on Friday. I checked with the upstairs tenant to make sure they weren't overfilling the bathtub. I called the complex and they came and cut several holes in the ceiling to check what was going on. They left a lot of debris behind and a few large holes in the ceiling with a note saying they would come back again at the start of next week to fix it. Bummer. My papertowl roll was decimated when I got home that night, I guess they used it to clean their mess (they only cleaned parts of their mess). :)

Petersburg, Jamestown and Yorktown!

Mom and Dad flew out to Charlotte for the week. They drove a couple hours to meet me in Durham and we hung out for a few days. Lori accompanied us on a day trip to Virginia where we saw Petersburg, the site of a civil war battle. Most of the pictures are on my Dad's camera.
From there we drove to Jamestown and spent a couple hours touring the famous landmark. In the early evening we thought we'd try to squeeze one more trip in and drove another 30 mins to Yorktown, site of the revolutionary war surrender of Cornwallis. I have this picture of the house where Cornwallis sent his Lieutenant to surrender on his behalf.

Pontoon Plane

I took a Sea Plane to Lake Union on my way out Seattle. The plane took off from the marina on the island, landed at Lake Union, and I took a 5 minute shuttle to the airport from there. Once I boarded my commercial flight headed for Milwaulkee I snapped some pictures of Mt St. Helens from the air. Enjoy all the photos below.

Camping!

Labor day was fun. Camping in Asheville. It was kind of cheating because rather than actually rough it we stayed at a KOA. I think we had fun. One or two more camping trips and I think Lori will be ready for a backpacking trip. Maybe. We bought the tent, lantern, and chairs at target and rented the campstove. Here’s a picture of the inexpensive, yet nice, tent.

Seattle Conference!

I am at a mini conference in Seattle. I'll be back in Durham on Friday. My boss and I left Tuesday (I left at 6am and his flight at 7am) but we arrived here in Seattle within 10 mins of each other. Next was a 2 hour car ride to the ferry departure point. We tried to take the ferry but got here too late so we had to wait 2 hours for the next one. Here are several photos of the ferry system.




They even loaded an eighteen wheeler on the ferry. Cool.

Here is the ferry dock at Fox Island, our only stopping point on the way to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

At the Fox Harbor dock there was a massive bumper pier designed to keep the ferry from running astray. Here is a game that was on the concrete slab topping the pier.

The objective of the game was to throw small coins from the ferry and try and land them in the old car rim. I imagine someone collects the money occasionally because I estimated there was about 100 dollars total between the four piers.

We finally got in around 7pm. We had a quick dinner because they were shutting down the cafeteria and then we went to our respective bunks. I am rooming with two grad students named Chris and Brandon. They're an interesting group. First morning here and I was the only one up, this place kind of reminds me of summer camp (from
The Parent Trap because I never went to a real one myself) because it is so
heavily wooded and just little cabins around the campus.

Update:
Last night we drove the university van to Lime Kiln lighthouse to watch the sunset. We got there a few mins after sunset, but I did manage to get a photo of the lighthouse.

Return from Denmark!

Postings have been light due to several reasons, but most likely it just boils down to laziness. I have returned, however. First let me get you up to speed on Denmark. I am obviously back in the U.S. We came back on the Sept 26. I’ll give you the whole update. The most notable thing from the end of our time in Denmark was our trip to Copenhagen on the second to last weekend (the last weekend being the weekend we left, obviously). We did several things while we were there. We stayed one whole night which included a walk to the mermaid statue, a statue erected in reference to Hans Christian Anderson’s famous story. Below is a photo (it was taken at night, this is the best I could do).

Here is a photo of one of the canal streets near our hotel.

Here we are walking to get something to eat. We ate at the equivalent of a fast food place in the shopping district. One particular member of our group liked it so much we were forced to walk back and eat there once more.

Here is a picture from inside the place. You can usually assess the quality of an eatery by the menu, you be the judge in this photo.

We got a tour of the parliamentary building, but no cameras inside so you only get a picture of the outside.

We also visited a place called Christiania. Christiania was founded in 1971, when many people from different backgrounds began to take over an area of recently abandoned military barracks together as a protest against the Danish government.
The people in Christiania have developed their own set of rules, completely independent of the Danish government. The rules forbid stealing, guns, bulletproof vests and hard drugs. Famous for Pusher Street, where weed is sold openly from permanent stands, it does have rules forbidding hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. The residents negotiated an arrangement with the Danish defence ministry (which still owns the land) in 1995. Since 1994, residents have paid taxes and fees for water, electricity, trash disposal etc. The future of the area remains in doubt as Danish authorities continue to push for its removal. On Pusher Street, cameras are not allowed, and locals will wave their hands and shout "No photo!" if they see someone trying to take a picture.

I was amazed at the number of satellite dishes in this place. You would think "hippies" might shun the modern marvel of dish network, but apparently not. We got a tour from a resident for the equivalent of $6 U.S. Here are some of the pictures from the town.




Someone in Copenhagen has a sense of humor, they placed a strawberry on top of an animal poop, so of course it will be commemorated on this website. Some German tourists joked that it was the morning’s Danish. I’ll stick with the jelly donuts.

A photo from the 3 hour train ride home from Copenhagen. This is looking out of the window of the train on Sunday evening, Aug 19.

I do have one funny story from my last days in denmark. I was trying to buy OJ at the store in Denmark, but yogurt, it turns out, also comes in a big juice-type jug with oranges pictured on the front so I ended up getting yogurt. It's not too bad to taste, but if you're expecting OJ and you get plain yogurt then it can be a little freaky.

Everything went well with the trip home UNTIL we landed in the U.S. Typical. :)
The line through customs was long, and we almost missed our flight. We boarded the plane and the door shut behind us. We got stuck on the runway for 3 hours and then we taxied back to the terminal and offloaded. The weather was keeping us from taking off. We ate Wendy's for dinner and then hung out for a while. We finally boarded the plane and waited around a bit longer, then we took off. We got home Sunday morning instead of dinner time Saturday. I slept all day Sunday. I was so tired. The trip ended up taking about 1.5 days. My luggage made it ok though. That's good.

Denmark - Day 8 through 12

Work week. We have been getting in to lab around 9am every morning and then working until about 6:30 or 7. Results here are up and down. Somethings are working and somethings are not, but that is typical regardless of the lab. Some things never change.

Here's a picture of almost everyone in the AFM room trying to measure the topography of some DNA samples. This was near the end of the day and we agreed to convene in this room before taking off for the day.


We gave talks yesterday the danish students. They were supposed to be a 10 minute summary of our plans and results. Here's a screen shot of my ppt.

Here is a picture of us in the kitchen working on our talks. Well, the one guy is drinking beer, but Elizabeth and I were working.


Lastly, here is a picture of my office.

The side of Denmark you shouldn't see!
Just kidding. Actually, nevermind, I guess I am not kidding.

We took Andy to dinner tonight because it was his last night in town. He had to get back for the start of high school. We rode bikes to a seafood restaurant, which turned out to be closed. We then walked about 20 mins to another place. The entrees were probably $45 per person, which was a little steep even for Denmark (but that includes tax and tip). I ordered vegetarian! It was plated very neatly, and the portions were extremely small. Surprisingly I wasn't hungry when I left. I paid cash, but the rest of the group wanted to pay on their CC's. When their visas came back rejected, they scrounged enough cash to pay. We walked back home with our
bikes (because we didn't bring bike lights) and called it a night.

Denmark - Day 7

I got up earlier than anyone else (around 11am) and took a short stroll to the park at the end of the street. I ran a loop around the park (it was a big park - maybe a 2.5 mile loop), and stopped at the beach when I was done. The beach was small, but the Danes seemed to love the lukewarm weather and sand. I got home and everyone else was slowly waking. We went to the store to buy supplies for dinner, then we went off in search of lunch and a laundromat. We ate lunch at a small sandwich shop near the movie theater. See the red arrow below.

We found the laundry right after lunch, in no time, but it took us a little while to determine the exact method of washing clothes. You would think laundry is like using the restroom, universal, the same in every country. Wrong. They centrifuge their laundry in a whole seperate machine before drying. Apparently for efficiency, but still unusual to us. After slowly figuring out how to buy detergent, program the washers and dryers, and work the centrifuge we agreed to come back with our laundry and do it again some other time. We then rode to lab for a bit to process our reactions. Here is a picture of everyone climbing the stairs.

After school we rode back to the guest house, prepared and ate chicken salad, then milled around. We didn't finish eating until around 11pm. We got a late start on the day though.

Denmark - Day 6

We got up Saturday morning and met in the visitor house lounge around 10:30. We biked down the street to the train station, and took a 30 minute train ride 30 miles to Bjerringbro. From there we paddled canoes down the longest river in Denmark, 9 miles to Langa (see the map below) and had a BBQ at Jacob's house.

Here are a couple of photos. Not everyone is pictured. There were probably about 11-13 people total.


After telling stories and getting to know the Danish students we hopped the last train back to Arhus (it can be spelled Aarhus, or Arhus) and rode to town. Somewhere along the way the Danes got the idea they wanted to take us to the bars. Dirty and tired from canoeing, we agreed (me with the idea we wouldn't stay out too long). I got home at 3:30am and promptly fell asleep. I would have preferred to not stay out that late after canoeing all afternoon, but it was good fun. We actually left the Danish students at the bar, they were going to try one more place before they went home. Sheesh.

Denmark - Day 5

The lab supplies showed up the day before, so we're off to our first real day of work. We spent our morning troubleshooting an instrument for our Danish hosts. Elizabeth (a graduate student from Duke) and I stayed with them over several hours and helped identify their possible problems. In the end their data turned out better than it ever had (by far, they said), and they were giving each other high-fives. It would normally be a little weird to spend so much time solving someone elses problems, but they're going to take us canoeing tomorrow in return so it seemed like a fair trade. We only had about an hours worth of work to do today anyway, because we had to set up reactions and then wait for them to finish. They should be done on Sunday so we'll head back in then to figure them out. Here is everyone (minus the photographer - me) leaving after a long day.

Denmark - Day 4

Alright, a little late on this post. We went to an art museum today, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum. ARoS is one of the largest art museums in northern Europe, 10 stories tall with a total of 17,000m² of floor space. They don't allow cameras inside so I have no pictures to show you. Except this one, which was googled. It is an EXTREMELY lifelike fiberglass sculpture of a boy, but if standing up the boy would be over 40 feet tall.

After this we went shopping, I bought some postcards and a danish hot dog as a snack. I took a picture of Peak Performance. In the U.S. these are sporting stores for runners, but here it is a high end clothier of the same name (no relationship though).

After that, we went back to the guest house and made dinner. Here is a photo of our spaghetti/garlic bread feast.

After dinner we walked down the block to gelato, came back and relaxed.

Denmark - Day 3

After getting up around 7:30 this morning I made my way down to the basement gym of the visitor house. It's a bit like a hotel gym, with a few cardio-type machines, some free weights, and a couple machines for lifting weights. I lazily worked out (if at that point you could even call it working out) and then took a shower. Around 9:20 this morning we jumped on our street rods and cruised over to the University. We fetched some keys that allow us after hours access to various rooms and labs. We had lunch in the on-campus cafeteria (crab cakes, quiche, and orzo salad) and then we went to a mall for postcards, batteries, and a few other necessities. I took some photos of the campus.
The first is the chemistry building.

The next two are panorama photos are taken from the top of the Physics building, I think it is the tallest in Aarhus at 8 stories.


I took a photo of the vending machines in the building too.

Excited yet? :)
Here's a picture of the cereal seen in the small mart near the university.

That's right, guld corn! :)
After the horseplay of the photographer I thought I'd better look like I was doing something worthwhile. After failing at this, I decided to do the next best thing. Take some pictures of Den Gamle By, a mock danish town composed of 15th century (and newer buildings).
Check out how thick this thatched roof is!

Or you may want to see the waterwheel and the gears that it drives...



And lastly, before my camera died, the "secret." That's what this little room was called. It was an enclosed room with a window seat attached to the outside second story of a building. This little window seat had a special opening where Danish people would sit and drop presents on the street below. Yes, that's right, an indoor toilet with no running water, only a 10 foot drop to the sidewalk. This is the view from down below. Lucky for me (and probably everyone reading this blog) the room was unoccupied during the photograph. :)


We're still waiting on supplies from the U.S. so we're not exactly busy working, yet (the supplies arrive tomorrow--they're in Paris at the moment).