Hi, my name is David and I live in Austin, TX. I'm a graduate student at UT studying advanced biofuels and public policy. I enjoy jogging, eating, and the internet. These are my musings on energy, life, and things I enjoy on the internet. I'm also here: email, follow, flickr, or on this thing.
Conference center from our hotel room
Petco Field
The Harbor Bridge
Sunset
Clear skies
Park
Orange Line
Fish and Chips
Gaslamp
Some pictures of downtown San Diego, near our hotel and the AAAS conference.
I’ve wanted to surf for years now, but the waves are lacking in Central Texas. When I found out I was coming to San Diego I got really excited. We lucked out by arriving in town at 9am so we had most of the day to relax and hit the beach. After hitting up In-N-Out, we headed to our surfing lessons on Pacific Beach.
The beach was a little farther than we guessed initially (by a mile..), but once we got to it we were able to walk along it, and walk back down it when we realized we were headed the wring way. We eventually made it to the surf shop for our lessons.
Surfing is hard.
I should clarify. Surfing on the water is hard. ‘Surfing’ on land isnt so bad. We started out on the beach learning how to lay on the board (toes touching the tail), paddle (like climbing a ladder), and getting up off the board (a combined push-up and jumping rotation). A small crowd had gathered on the beach to watch us laying on our boards and popping up. I think we were entertaining.
Surfing in the water is a different story. Surfing doesn’t look like it would be all that hard, but it is, and your body is wrecked afterwards. You’re constantly fighting the waves as you walk out in the water. And then when you spot a good wave, you turn around and start paddling. It’s hard to know when to stop paddling and get up on the board. Your initial reaction is to stop paddling and get on the board when the wave starts pushing you, but you have to wait and let the wave carry you. Then you get up.
At least in theory.
The combination of inadequate sleep, traveling, and cold water made getting up on the board hard. A lot of times I wouldn’t get up in time, or get up to early, and then wipe out. But after awhile the tides changed (har har) and I was picking good waves and getting up on the board. Once I could do that I was satisified. I had set a goal of standing on wave with a board by the end of the day and I did it!
But there is so much more to surfing than what I got in an hour and a half of small waves. I have incredible respect for the guys who can cut cross waves, or swim out and catch the really big waves.
What an experience though. I totally understand the lifestyle of the beach bum and Southern California surfer. My body was beat up after it and I was pretty dehydrated, but we had a blast. Here’s a really blurry photo of all of us in our wetsuits afterwards.
Much love to the guys and gal at Pacific Beach Surf Shop (Ben, Wyatt, and Isha) for showing a bunch of Texans the first steps in learning how to surf!
As our first order of business upon landing in San Diego yesterday, and before we headed to the beach for our surfing lessons, we decided to head to In-N-Out burger for lunch. In-N-Out is one of those things that Californians are very fond of and talk about a lot. I’ve never been before, so I wanted to taste what the fuss is about.
I ordered the Double-Double, which is a double meat, double cheese burger, the fries, and a vanilla milkshake. I didn’t get the fries “animal style”, which is cheese and sauce, so I guess I didn’t get the whole experience, but I did get an In-N-Out hat.
I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think there is anything special about In-N-Out. The burger was good, but my favorite burger is still from Crown & Anchor in Austin. Crown is hands-down theyastiest burger ever. I know the In-N-Out fries are fresh cut, but they don’t do it for me. Just because something is fresh cut and organic doesn’t mean it tastes good. The milkshake was really good though.
So not to knock my Californian friends, but In-N-Out didn’t blow me away. If I want a great burger, I’ve got to stick with Crown.
Update: As some of y’all have pointed out, I’m making a direct comparison between In-N-Out and Crown when they aren’t the same type of burger place. But they both sell burgers and Crown’s taste better. I could compare In-N-Out to a local chain if we want (like Dan’s, Mighty Fine, or P. Terry’s), but again, those all taste better to me. In-N-Out isn’t bad, I just think it gets hyped up too much.
I’ve been meaning to blog this past week, but things have been busier than normal lately. I’ll have more to say about that (hopefully) in a few weeks, but the big news right now is I’m headed to San Diego tomorrow for the AAAS Annual Meeting. I’m super excited to be around some of the world’s greatest minds, and better yet, I’m a session aide so I’ll be helping out at a few sessions here and there.
I’ve always wanted to go to San Diego - I can’t believe I’ll be there in about eleven hours. I know it’s still winter, but I’m planning on learning to surf and all the other things people do in Southern California. I’ll have daily updates (with pictures!), so check back. Until then, enjoy the song!
“Homescholers for Perry”
Best of all, these signs were made by the Perry campaign.
high-res photoYou can laugh, but I’m really proud of becoming the Mayor of Thundercloud on Lake Austin! Now I’ve got to hold onto my position. Next up: Mayor of Taco Deli.
What Do You Think Tea Party Movement Is About? (FOXNews.com)
This Fox News poll may not be the most scientific of all polls. But it may be the most hilarious.
Ahhh.
By Gahan Wilson for The New Yorker.
I’ve had a printout of this picture at my desk (or cube when I was at NI) for the past three years. There is something about it that makes me smile every time I see it. So here you go. Enjoy!
??? Error using ==> mrdivide Matrix dimensions must agree. Error in ==> Slimer_v3 at 69 td = log(2)/u; % doubling time [d] Error in ==> Slimer_run at 37 results = Slimer_v3(solar_data, CO2_data, water_data, available_land, F, pond);
Ahh, Mr. Divide makes his long awaited return!
I should elaborate a bit. Back in undergrad we had a series of classes where we programmed projects in Matlab. The beauty of Matlab is that (1) you don’t really need to follow strict programming rules, and (2) that matrix operations are very easy to perform. For projects like ours (modeling a gas turbine cycle, or gear ratios) Matlab was a great tool. However, we weren’t very good programmers back then and would constantly bump into the mrdivide error, which basically means we were performing an incorrect matrix operation. Trying to divide something by something else that won’t work. Stuff like that. The error popped up so many times that we nicknamed it “Mr. Divide”. So instead or running into an annoying error every once in awhile, we were greeted by our good friend, just coming by to say, “Hey, you can’t divide those two matrices like that!”
I know it doesn’t sound that funny, but after hours of sitting in the LRC ( the old computer lab in the ME building - without windows!), jokes like this helped us keep our wits. So whenever Mr. Divide shows up, I think back to the good times working on projects with my friends.
I usually don’t care much about SuperBowl ads, but I really enjoyed Audi’s “Green Police” ad. I initially tuned the ad out because I thought it was from Greenpeace, but then I realized Audi are poking fun at some of the more ridiculous folks in the “green” movement. As an owner of a 2004 VW TDI (i.e., pre clean diesel), I’m really excited that the new TDI has finally made it into the A3 here in the States.
And the hot tub scene was pretty funny.
Millencolin - Lozin’ Must
But, wait. A spark flashed somewhere deep in the dark ethereal waters of her consciousness. The entire pantheon of macroeconomic theory appeared before her in an instant, as if two angels debating at the speed of light rattled off the hypotheses and rebuttals and counterrebuttals of every economist and social philosopher since the Enlightenment. The years of surreptitious study, the countless, long Alaskan winter nights spent propped up in bed with tome after tome illuminated by a little clip-on book light, it all came together in one great apocryphal moment. And there, in the green room behind the main ballroom of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, she concluded that the supply-siders had been right all along. All that’s needed are a few tweaks around the edges to curb the rampant greed of the wealthy and to make sure the money stays within American borders, and growth will surely come. Growth, tempered by humble restraint and the pride of patriotism. Prosperity will recover alongside the recovery of values.
A warm, peaceful lightness washed over her. She looked up from her coffee at Piper, playing innocently with a Zhu Zhu Pet. There was certainty now. Direction. Piper, could you hand mommy that pen? Thank you, sweetie. She looked down at the notes on her hand, crossed out the word “budget” and replaced it with “tax.” Applause floated into her space as Breitbart finished his introduction. She stood up, straightened her skirt, and walked out on stage.
Or she just went into a catatonic state.
Spoken like a true patriot. When will we realize that fighting a “war on terrorism” is counterproductive? Terrorists aren’t state actors with intelligence centers that we can launch missiles at, they’re trumped up gang members who obtain power through bribery, drug sales, and other illicit activities. They feed off of the fearful and uneducated who are vulnerable. We should be rounding these guys up with handcuffs, disrupting their financing, and drying up the base of uneducated riff-raff they fill their ranks with.
And denying folks the rights we enjoy because we don’t like them and they don’t like us isn’t exactly what our country embodies. But then again, I don’t expect anything else from a group of profiteering “activists” who want to overthrow our own government and instill their own brand of radicalism.
