Josh's Postdoc Adventures

Logging Surprise!

2009-06-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

I have been finding these at the rate of about one per week since I moved back to California. The nickel is included for scale. I found this one while I was removing a tree stump.

I have been using them for an experiment in self-assembly. If I convert each one to a monolayer, how many specimens will I have to test before one of them self-assembles back to its original shape? Anyone reading this blog want to venture a guess?

I'm Back

2009-05-16T09:12:00.001-07:00

I'm back in California. My possessions showed up a few days ago and my car arrives back in California in a couple days. I start a new job soon and I will be looking for housing out in China Lake. It's an exciting time!

Outer Banks

2009-02-08T06:17:00.000-08:00

I went to the Outer Banks last weekend. That was a fun trip. I have posted some photos below.

This photo shows the Hatteras Island's current location in the background while the granite stones in the foreground show it's original site. It was relocated in 1999 because of the eroding shoreline bringing the ocean nearly up to the base of the lighthouse.

Here is the Hatteras lighthouse up close. I would have liked to climb it but it was closed for the season. My tour book didn't say anything about the closure.

Welcome to Avon, where stress is forbidden.

This house could use some grooming.

I stopped by the site of the Wright Brothers' first flights. This photo shows the markers for their takeoff spot (far left), and their landing spots for their first three flights (on the right). I knew their first flight was only 120 feet, but I had never really thought about how far that really was. This photo shows that it really wasn't far at all. It was their fourth flight that really gave them the feeling of success, when they flew about 850 feet. That marker is too far off in the distance to be seen in this photo.

Here is a closer look at the first landing marker.

Here is the plaque noting their take-off spot for their flights.

Part of the reason their flights were short in distance but longer in duration was because of the strong head wind (30mph+). Their resulting ground speed was relatively low (probably making it a lot safer (a crash at less than 10mph isn't that scary, is it?). This photo shows the flag on the day I was there. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction on the day I visited, so the Wrights would have had a strong tailwind.

Celebrity Sighting Part II

2008-10-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

I happened to fly on a plane with Abby Wambach earlier this month. She's the most famous female soccer player in the U.S., and possibly in the world. We ended up waiting together at a gate in Philadelphia.

She had her hair cut short and was wearing a hat but her face was unmistakable. I am pretty sure she wasn't expecting to be recognized because when I talked to her she turned slightly red. Her suitcase had the initials MAW so I was pretty certain it was her before I talked to her.

She broke her leg before the Beijing Olympics and wasn't able to travel with the team. The US Team ended up winning the gold medal this summer. I asked her how her leg was doing. She said it was healing nicely. I told her there were a group of us in Durham looking forward to her getting back out on the field.

She was flying coach with the rest of us grunts. Normally when I see her on TV she's surrounded by smaller players which makes her look taller. However, when I stood next to her I felt like I was a lot taller than she is.

Weekend Celebrity Sightings

2008-09-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

Do you know who this is?

That’s right (or wrong, if you guessed incorrectly), Senator Joseph Lieberman and his wife! I was at a conference in Seattle from Tuesday through Saturday. I stayed in a hotel near the airport on Friday night, and Joe Lieberman was in the lobby with his wife while I was checking in. I didn't say anything to him, but I got independent verification from a couple other sources that it was, in fact, Joe Lieberman. There was no security entourage with him. I suppose he is simply a senator in the eyes of the secret service, but it seems like he should have had a couple people with sunglasses and radios following him around.

Yesterday morning on the return flight I had a layover in Chicago. Everclear (the band) got on my plane and rode to RDU with me (they flew economy class too). I was standing next to them at the baggage claim and could see stickers with the band's name on their stuff coming off the baggage carousel. It turns out they played a gig in Raleigh last night. The cover charge was $10, which might explain why they were flying economy class.

Golf

2008-04-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

I went golfing this weekend. First time ever, essentially. I went once before when I was 16 or 17, using someone's right-handed clubs (I am left handed). I have used the driving range probably 6 times (the last time was in October) so I am definitely a beginner. This weekend I was able to acquire the proper left-handed clubs. If you have never been then you might not know (like me), but there is a dress code (no jeans). I was going with the fast-food rule, that is, if you have enough clothes on to eat inside a fast-food joint then you have enough to play golf. Evidently, that is wrong in the eyes of the golf course. After a return trip to change my jeans into khakis while my group used the driving range, we were all set for our 3pm tee-off.

On the first five holes, all par 4's, I shot 8,6,8,8, and 7. After that a thunderstorm set in so we gave up and went to dinner. A guy I play soccer with is a regular player and he said my swing was better than the rest of my group's. Granted, they weren't exactly professionals but it was nice to hear I have a future in corporate hobnobbing if my lab work doesn't pay off.

cable tv

2008-03-15T15:19:00.001-07:00

I finally got rid of my $56 per month for 70 channels cable television. I opted for a digital receiver with some rabbit ears ($13 from Wal Mart) where I can get about 15 channels including all the major networks. I think the only two I will miss from regular cable are ESPN and TNT, but I have ESPN360.com to make up for that! Instead of relying on the TV for all my entertainment I plan on using it only when I am desperate. I'll use my reduced channel options as an excuse to do something else more productive.

more Duke basketball

2008-03-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

I underestimated the zeal with which people root for Duke. I remember one day in late October I was walking to the gym and I saw these guys out in the middle of the grass outside Cameron Gym surfing the internet on their wireless capable laptops. The weather had already gotten very cold and I remember thinking it was way too early in the season for them to be outside waiting in a line. I decided there must be something else going on that day I don't know about. Within the next few days the tents started to go up, just in time for the winter rains. A photo of the tenting scene is below.

The rest of the photos were taken the morning of the Duke/UNC game (3/8/08), 12 hours before its scheduled start. It was drizzling for 2 days in a row, then the morning of the game when the rain had finally stopped the wind started blowing in 40-50mph gusts. You can see the effects of the wind on the tents.

The next photo is the brown burrito. To escape the wind some students got a brown tarp and set up a makeshift shelter. It reminded me of a burrito. You can see one guy inside the burrito holding the tarp, and another in the background dragging garbage cans to anchor it down.

You can see the length of the line in the next photo, 12 hours before the game.

These guys are guaranteed a spot inside due to their tenting diligence, they're just waiting around in the wind and ~35 degree temp to try and get a courtside (versus two to three rows back) seat! They really are crazy. The red line in the photo indicates the path of the waiting line and includes a kink where it wraps around the block. The court is to the left of the news van on the far left.

Of course the last photo is the famous Cameron Indoor Stadium, the setting to some of the country's most famous basketball stories and the current coach of the USA basketball team.

Duke Basketball game

2008-02-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

Went to the Duke/Maryland game last night. The whole experience was awesome.
It is a small arena. I had a great seat, right behind one of the baskets. I took a couple photos that I thought you might find interesting. You can see Coach K in one of the photos. Dick Vitale is in another one. I was sitting against the railing as he walked by before the game so I snapped a picture.

Need Better Insurance?

2008-02-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Then don't go with my company. They won't even cover me in case of accidental nuclear explosions. What's next, they won't cover my boat if a sign comes out of nowhere?

New Suit

2008-02-11T06:39:00.001-08:00

I got a new suit a few weeks ago. First time trying it on is pictured below. What do you guys think? I know, a haircut and shave would be nice.

Cracked Window

2008-01-24T18:58:00.001-08:00

My windshield on my car cracked this morning on the way to work. The window had a ding since long before I bought it and I never thought much of it. Apparently the combination of bumpy road, extremely cold weather, and the defroster on the inside of the car caused it to POP while I was driving. Now there is a 4' crack along the bottom of the window.

I called the insurance company this morning and they're sending someone out to take care of it in the morning. It won't be covered, but at least they arranged the appointment and guarantee the work.

Parental Units

2008-01-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

At Christmas this year we watched a slideshow of old photographs my Grandfather had digitized. I had a great time peeking into my family's past. Take, for example, the photo I have posted here. Can you tell which is my parents from their youth, and which is them after 30+ years of terror named Josh, Tricia, Nathan, and Chris?

Frisbee Golf

2007-12-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-04T06:19:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-10-23T12:08:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-09-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-08T05:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-10T02:33:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-03T11:05:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

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).

Denmark - Day 2

2007-07-31T16:45:00.000-07:00

Woke up around 9am thinking I had to hurry to catch up to the rest of group. After my quick shower I came to find that they were still struggling to get up. After some quick pieces of toast I went down to an ATM to help the lost luggage victim try to get some money out of an ATM. To no avail I gave him a loan until his family could wire money from the U.S. We came back to the guest house, grabbed a taxi and went to a bike rental place. I saw this interesting elevator on the way.

Here is a photo of us renting the bikes.

My boss is the tall one in the blue shirt, and our host Kurt has his hands in his pockets.
Another photo of the very large dog keeping an eye out for thieves (and small tasty Americans -- see the lower left).

Actually, this dog was extremely unfriendly.
We rented the bikes for 450Kr for about 1 month, that translates to about $82 U.S. Hopefully we find they're a convenient way to get about the city. So far they have proven useful and fun. We toured the campus and the labs for a short bit and then made our way to a mall to see if we could straighten out Western Union for our baggage-less companion and get calling cards for everyone else. Worked out okay.
We came back, sat around for only a few minutes, then took a cab to dinner. Great meal at what seemed like a very expensive place. I delivered a toast to our host and my boss for making the trip possible, and we all enjoyed the conversation (and house wine). :) Yes, Mom, I delivered a toast. Everyone said it was nice which left me satisfied. After dinner we walked to a bar and then had a few drinks with some grad students from our hosts' lab. We stayed about an hour, grabbed a cab back home, and here we are. Here I am anyway, blogging. I am off to bed. Good night!

Denmark!

2007-07-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

We left on Sunday, July 30 at around 3pm (after delays). We arrived on Monday, July 31 at around 1:30pm (again after delays). Four flights, a few of them long, several weather delays, and some lost baggage (not mine), and a couple airline meals later I am sitting in my apartment in Aarhus blogging about my trip. I did my best to stitch up a panorama of my room.

We got here, got settled in for a little bit. I took a shower, some of the others tried to track down their lost baggage, then I hit the store across the street for some jelly and bread for PBJs. We went for a walk a short while later and stumbled upon some very old boats in the harbor. A local told us it was a club for old wooden sailing ships. He offered to take us out sailing on a day when there would be better weather, so I think we're planning on trying to take him up on it. I took a picture of a jellyfish floating in the water. I saw 4-5 jellyfish in a 30yd radius.

We wandered around town for about 30 minutes looking for a place that might be tourist friendly and stumbled on a bar called Peder Wasser. Thinking it might serve some kind of fried bar food we walked in to a Danish cheers episode. You know the kind, where everyone knows your name (cuz it's either Jorgen or Jan). They looked at us like we were from another planet (which, of course, we were) and so we strolled out the way we came in. It wasn't really that bad, but they did drink and smoke heavily, with no sign of a kitchen so we did the next best thing. We went to Ziggy's Cafe. I got a chicken sandwich. It came with a side of peeled, fried, potates. Good tasting. After dinner we made our way back to the guest housing. I wandered for a few minutes trying to find a payphone but finally gave up. Came back, tried to read a book for a few minutes but instead passed out with all my clothes on and lights on.

posting update

2007-07-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted lately, I am working on trying to get my project rolling before we take off to Denmark. It would be nice to have something new to work on over there rather than troubleshoot existing problems. I'll keep you updated soon.

Pennsylvania Wedding

2007-07-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

We're going to drive nine hours to a wedding in Pennsylvania. I managed to arrange a stop in either Hershey, PA, or Niagra Falls, NY. Cooperstown (the Baseball Hall of Fame) was too far away. Pictures from that trip coming soon. The wedding is on July 14th, Bastille Day.

Visit to Bennet Place

2007-07-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

We stopped by Bennet place, a little farm in Durham, North Carolina. It was the site of the largest troop surrender in the civil war. Sherman and Johnston met there 3 times to hammer out the details of the Carolina's surrender to the Union. It spared North Carolina from the fate that Sherman delivered to Georgia and South Carolina. No pictures, we forgot the camera. Here's one from the web.

Day Hike around Yosemite

2007-07-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Nathan took several pictures on a day hike we took around Yosemite valley. We left from G&G's house and drove the 45 minutes necessary to get to the valley. The first photo is a picture (taken from the back of Nate and Cindy's Subaru) of one of the falls, I can't remember the name, there are so many.

The second photo is a picture of Bob Carter's slab poured the day before the photo was taken. He's building a house in the same neighborhood of G&G's house.

This next photo is a picture of Half Dome, taken from Nathan's camera.

Another half dome picture, you can't have too many of these. They make an average blog slightly above average. :)

This next photo is of all the hikers that day, Nate, Cindy, and Dr. Carter. :)

In this photo we can see Nathan has mastered the aim the camera, start the timer, make the run to the rest of the group, and wait for the flash to go off. We didn't set the camera on a level resting point,but everything else worked perfectly.

I can't even remember this falls name, but it requires a lot of stairs to get to the top.

Lastly, a photo of the smartest Carter on paper and his brother Nathan.

Weekend at Granny and Gramps'

2007-07-08T11:15:00.001-07:00

After the ceremony we caravanned (is that a word? I am supposed to know this because I am a doctor) down to Granny and Gramps' house. I took some photos of the trip. Here are two grumpy people taken about 2 seconds after they woke up from their TV nap. It was supposed to be a photo of them napping, but they woke up in the process of documenting their nap.

Here is a group photo, Mom, Sis, Marcia (she goes by many names), is sitting behind Gramps in this photo and Bob is off with Brad doing something with his house I think.

Graduation in Davis!

2007-07-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

You can call me Dr. Carter. My brother, Nathan, likes to call me the smartest person in the family, on paper. That's a title I can live with, at least it is a title I can use in public. I think it is an upgrade from what the two brothers used to call me, poosky facesky. I have lots of pictures from this trip.
The first is with Tuffer and Sarah, some longtime friends of mine from Davis. We got to know each other through soccer.

This next photo is me and Nathan. Two handsome guys, nuff said.

This next photo is lucky me posing with three lovely ladies, Dr. Werner, Dr. Porter, and Dr. Robins from left to right.

And of course, I have to have photographic proof of my graduation. Here it is for all you non-believers. :)

Best Dissertation Award

2007-07-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

I won an award! My old department awarded me with best dissertation and they offered to fly me back to Davis to give a seminar. I took a couple of red-eye flights to get back there and back, but I gave a successful talk by most accounts. I'd really like to become the kind of speaker people flock to go see. You either have to be really good, or really famous to be one of these, but that's my goal. The crowd in the audience had about 50 people maybe, probably the largest crowd I've ever spoken in front of but most of them were there to either accept their own award or because they were my friends. While I was there I took a picture of Scorpio with her baby, a good looking duo if I do say so myself.

Flowers from Grandma's 90th Birthday

2007-07-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Those flowers turned out to be clovers. They peaked at the photos I showed you earlier. Bummer. I guess I'll have togo out and buy some of my own flowers to plant in there because a bunch of three leaf clovers don't do me much good. :)

USS North Carolina

2007-06-07T17:04:00.001-07:00

On a day trip to Wilmington last weekend we stopped by the USS North Carolina. The ship is permanently moored in Wilmington and visitors are allowed to tour the ship. It is in very good shape, and the docents maintain the ship in the state that it was in when it was decommissioned in 1947.

Wildflowers!

2007-06-07T16:59:00.001-07:00

At my Grandma's 90th birthday in Roswell they were handing out packets of wild seeds. Well I took them home and planted a pack. Take a look at the photos and see how they are progressing.
Week 1:

Week 2:

Pictures of my apartment!

2007-05-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

Things are about as well setup as they're going to be, so I thought I'd post a picture of the inside of my apartment. This is my first attempt at a panorama photo, kinda lame, I know. Suede couch, coffee table and end table, and target TV stand. The second photo is a better look at my couch and coffee table.

3 mile hike!

2007-05-19T14:25:00.001-07:00

We went on a 3 mile hike around a national park near Raleigh. Here's a picture. We then went to Trader Joes a few minutes later (it is normally a 30 min drive but we were in the neighborhood when we went for our hike), and later tonight we'll go to Shrek 3. Tomorrow will probably be a work day.

Durham Update - Week 2.5

2007-05-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

There was about an hour of really hard rain, and vicious thunder and lightning. I wish I could attach a video of the rain, but I'll be more than happy to email you a 6 second video (~2MB) I took on my camera. Email me at joshua.carter@duke.com.

Durham Update - Week 2

2007-05-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

It is the second week of work now. Things are pretty busy around the lab. I got stuck with the job of preparing a talk for Monday, the start of my third week. The first week we spent moving the entire lab to a new building, so that week doesn't really count. I walked over to my old building (aptly named Gross Chemistry Building) to snap a picture, and the camera died. I did get a picture of the walkway to the building.

I snapped a picture of new building, which is great. New countertops, floors, new smell. Luckily I'll be here for the very first year in its existence, when it is at its peak.

This last Thursday I went with Lori and Daniel (another friend) to catch a AAA baseball game. Tickets were $6!!! Try finding that in a major league park. This is the baseball team made famous by the movie Bull Durham. With the smoke snorting cow in left field. This is a new stadium for the team, about 10 years old, but they moved the cow over from the old stadium so it is still here. See the pics below!

Last few weeks!

2007-05-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 24 through Friday, April 27
I got back from Roswell on a Tuesday and I went around to see all the profs who were on my dissertation committee. My boss said he would sign all the paperwork, and another said he would sign the dissertation on the Thursday before I was to leave town for Durham. I couldn’t find the third member, and to my dismay, I checked his mailbox to see that my dissertation was right where I left it. I found some of his research group members and they told me he would be in for one day that week, Wednesday, before he left town for a trip. I went home that night and prepared everything I needed for my dissertation. I printed up the necessary paperwork, and went back to school the next day. I got my boss to sign all the paperwork with no problems, and then I went to camp out at the missing committee members’ office. He finally showed up and saw my partially signed paperwork in my hand, and agreed to sign and said he would read the thing later. Knowing that 2 out of 3 members had given the dissertation a thorough read, I wasn’t too worried. The next day I got the third member to sign and all was well. I turned it in on Friday, April 27 at 1:30pm. That was when I officially became a Dr. I guess.

Saturday, April 28
I drove 45 minutes to the car shipping place to drop off my Camry to have it shipped to Durham. I showed up at the door and the place was abandoned; empty parking lot and a locked building. Knowing that I only had an hour to find the place because they closed at noon, I frantically called around. I was leaving the next day and didn’t have any other way of shipping my car to Durham. I was finally able to ascertain they had moved a couple of days earlier to a new building a quarter of a mile away. Whew! I drove there dropped off my car, and got a ride home to Davis with Michelle, a friend of mine from my early days in Davis. I finished Saturday packing and throwing out junk, and then Sunday hopped on a plane to Durham.

Monday, April 30
I spent Monday “hiding out” around Duke. My official start date is Tuesday, so I just caught up on reading.

Tuesday, May 1
New job, new people, new boss, same problems. Lots of paperwork, lots of walking around on campus to get an ID card, parking spot, health insurance, direct deposit, and a mailbox. After a long day trekking in the 90 degree heat I went to Costco with Lori.

Wednesday, May 2
We move our entire lab to a brand new building tomorrow, so we will spend today doing inventory and packing items in boxes. Yay.

Roswell - Grandma's 90th Birthday

2007-04-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Grandma's cat was jumping around behind the blinds the first day we got here, so upon opening the blinds to see what the hub-bub was about, this is what we spotted...

Hummingbird nest!
We spent about 2 hours milling around on the back porch, take a look.

Update

2007-04-17T08:21:00.000-07:00

The powers that be here at Duke must have gotten wind of my blog posting yesterday (no pun intended) because the problem seems to be fixed. The construction continues in the background.

First Visit to Duke

2007-04-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Saw the Duke Cathedral this morning. Took a photo on a windy day, 50mph gusts in fact.

Then I headed over to meet a few people to sign paperwork and things. Turns out I can see Lori's building from my boss' office window, so I took a picture.

Then I see something interesting, a reminder that this campus is not as nice as people might think. Take a closer look and everything becomes clear. A sign of the wind, but there are little signs like this everyday, even in good weather. I should have warned this lady not to walk on the grass.

The campus is okay, everything is under construction, the roads are in terrible shape, and parking is horrible. You would think that at least two out of three of these problems would be fixed in a wealthy campus. Lori and I walked right by the Cameron Indoor stadium (where the "famous" basketball team plays) on our way to her lab, interestingly quiet. UC Davis is equally nice in my opinion. After dropping Lori off at her work I headed off to the library to see what kind of campus maps I could find, and hopefully find a wireless internet connection. After a couple of hours figuring things out at the library I was able to meet up with the people I was supposed to meet, which is when the porta-potty hilarity ensued. The entrance to this building I was in smelled like urinal cakes.

Dissertation, Flight to Durham

2007-04-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

My boss emailed me this morning around 1am to say that I could give my dissertation to Frank and Matt (my commitee), so I finished formatting around 5am and went to bed. After oversleeping, I woke up at 9am and rushed to school with my luggage in the back of my car. I pulled up to a metered spot (that a colleague had just vacated) and there was 30 mins left on the meter. Sweet. I threw in another couple quarters and ran to lab with my ginormous suitcases. I printed one copy of my thesis, photocopied it, and threw them both in their mailboxes. Then I ran back out to my car because the meter had expired 5 mins earlier. As I started the car a parking enforcement office walked by to check the status of my parking meter, whew, barely made it out of there without a ticket! Drove home, biked back to the building, grabbed my suitcases and headed to the MU to catch the airport bus. Waited 5 mins, hopped on the bus and took it to the airport. Checking my bags, I see the bigger bag is 49lbs, 1 pound shy of having to pay extra for baggage being too big. Wow, today must be some kind of anti-Friday the 13th for me. Knock on wood, I still have one more plane flight then hopefully my 49lbs suitcase shows up with me, we'll see.

Update:

The plane landed fine, the suitcase showed up, and all is well. What a fast paced day!