The Travel Adventures

Or, why no one should want to go on vacation with me:

I have found the perfect location for an inner tube

When you stick someone (me) who likes activity inside of an office, the result is somebody (me) who spends as much time as possible wearing themselves out after they exit the office. And if you take all that inactivity and send the person (me again) on vacation... Activity after activity, day after day. Zoom>>>  Zoom>>> Let's go hiking! Today is biking! Paddleboarding! Skydiving! Okay, maybe not skydiving. Snorkeling!

What? You want a break? Are you kidding? There's a whole 30 minutes of daylight left! Zoom>>

Plus, when you play harder, you sleep harder. It's a great day plan!

You'll miss your office after the vacation is over.

Then, if that isn't enough, some of these things are deadly! If you make it out cut, scrape, bruise, and other injury or scar free, you're doing a great job.

Of course, it's almost to your benefit that I get one, or all of the above. Then I have to take a rest day. Or slow down.

Anyone care to join me?

There are two people in this photo. No my camera isn't tilted.

I've managed to carry battle scars of my summer adventures all the way up into winter. From the hike above and getting fairly sunburned, I've carried my backpack straps all summer. They are tanned in to my shoulders. I have a watch tan. And a funny tan spot on my chest from a partially zipped jacket. Ah, the things that build character... Despite spending time in Hawaii, none of the above are gone.

Now, this has turned into an experiment: how long do the effects of a June sunburn last...

If I am wrinkly when I'm old, it means I got outside and enjoyed the sun.

In Conclusion

Remember the challenge I posted earlier? Well, I managed to convince 19 other people to sign up! Woohoo! I learned that it is hard to convince people to sign up for something that will make them work, and even harder to get them to actually do it. Maybe if I made it a group effort there'd be accountability... I can't bare the thought of leading 19+ people on a hike or a run... Then there are the people who, when set loose, make you run for your money.

At the end of it all, (it's arguably still going on) I set my personal goals nearly perfectly. I was rather impressed; they were seemingly lofty at times, but I pulled it off. And as a result, I shaved about 1:30/mile off of a race time this year. I beat my Lost Lake time by 26 minutes! (All because I have never hiked so much trying to keep up with some of the people on this challenge...)

Half of me is feeling so lazy right now that I really don't want to have to do this next summer, but I think I'll be on the ENSTAR Lost Lake team for the duration of my employment.

Speaking of employment...

I'm so excited to be a priority member of Era Airlines!! I get to board first! On a 30 minute flight. With 19 seats. But I gain flight points faster now!! To fly wherever they do! In Alaska. Mostly on the west coast. yay... I can fly to Bethel, Cordova, Kodiak...

Actually, the last two might be potential options for fishing.

"I don't know how you can do it; going to the same place and doing the same thing everyday?" (someone's remark about my job)

"After nearly 10 years consulting, take my word, this side of the equation is much nicer, it's never the same" (my boss' summary of my job)

I tend to lean towards my boss, (maybe that will get me a raise...) especially considering that I only go to the same place 3 or 4 times a week, and hardly ever do the same thing. Last week, I reported twice to 2 locations, at odd hours, and had monumental challenges to solve. It's really inconvenient when valves don't seal and you're needing the gas shut off...

But, ooo! I saw an awesome physical property. *Rule of thumb: for every 17psi change in pressure of natural gas, there is a 1F degree change in the temperature* If you raise pressure, temperature goes up, and vice versa. So, when you open up a valve with a 560psi pressure differential across it, and the ground temperature is already about 38F, you get a lot of ice.

Then! Throttle back the valve so there is less gas moving through it, and what was iced now thaws. But only where the gas isn't flowing.

What you see below is frost from the cold gas, and what happens when gas goes through a 90 degree bend: it swirls.

Steel Candy Cane

Yeah... I don't see this everyday...

Next Time, I'm in Charge of Flights

Where's the Bean Stock?

Wow! I've managed to make it 3 whole weeks since I last posted.
Believe me, it was a fight not to post; but with sheer will power, I overcame the urge.

Coffee is a good thing

"I should blog" "oooo, what's on gearpatrol" "I should blog" "hmm sleep sounds nice"

3 weeks ago I was working like crazy trying to prepare for my week long class. Monday I spent in the Valley trying to start some work in hopes that I could've sent it off for approvals while in Chicago. Tuesday I spent in Kenai being shown an area where I am designing a station for; they gave me a thumbprint sized location to fit a footprint sized station. Great... Wednesday "Hey, btw, we need you down in Homer" And "Hey, btw, the meeting isn't until 3" Yay... Another 14 hour day in Homer. Thursday and Friday I spent catching up on stuff that I missed while out the first three days. It was a hectic week. More FlyAway Rewards Points for me!

So then I venture forth to Chicago to learn about how to properly design measurement stations. Just in time!
"Why are we leaving at 2:30 in the morning??" Because you picked the flights, Paul...

The first place I looked for in Chicago was good coffee, and found it at Intelligentsia. Paul proceded to laugh about how hipster the place was. Hey, I go where there's good coffee. Upon getting our slow brew, we walked over to Millenium Park to see the giant silver bean. I think it's called the cloud gate. I think I saw the moment-after of someone proposing. There was a lot of applause and PDA.

I spent the week drinking out of an educational fire hose, and I think I absorbed the gist of everything. I found out that my cohort is not much of a museum person, so we spent the week walking around the town and finding food. I highly recommend Gino's East Pizzeria and Seven on Heaven. Gino's East is near, well um... Hooters, and a Hard Rock Cafe, but the pizza was great! I had to admit defeat after only 3 slices, though. Seven on Heaven is cajun. Whatever cajun is doing in downtown Chicago, it's doing it right. That was phenomenal. It may be a good, or a bad, thing that we found that on the last night.

After walking around and exploring pretty much everywhere North of the river, on the last morning, in the beautiful sun, we discovered the South side of the river; where Frank Sinatra sings, "On State Street, that great street, I just want to say..." Bummer, it's the last morning. Next time, I suppose.
"Wait, there was a 9pm flight? Why didn't we get on that last night?" I don't know, you tell me
"Dangit, why didn't we take the direct?" Can I pick the flights next time, Paul?

(Don't get the wrong impression, Paul is a great, hilarious fellow. He is me at ENSTAR, except for Anchorage)

I return to a desk that looks more like a mountain. That was a first. Monday I spent the day just staring at it. Actually, I picked up my axe, and started hacking away. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. My desk actually surfaced by Thursday and I made some great progress in other areas. I love it when things go my way.

Last week also started hill training. Oh, how I hate it so. I am sore. Like a warm hug... Maybe one of these days I'll get a new hobby that requires less energy.       Nah!

And, as texted to my sister, that delicious image on the right is an egg house. It's really simple: take a tomato, scoop out the inside, put an egg in there, bake it, top with bacon. Great stuff. And it has bacon. Who can argue with that?

Who Celebrated May the 4th?

Excited!

Woohoo! I have seven sign ups to the fundraiser!
You don't want to be left out, do you? Sign up now!

I have had the undue pleasure of spending multiple days down in Homer. I don't know what I did to deserve the torture of having to fly down there for a day and fly right back. The worst part is that the morning flight gets in about the time that all of the baked goods come out of the oven at Two Sister's Bakery. That really is horrible. (I'm surprised I'm not more well rounded)
The sticky buns are amazing. And the savory ham and cheese danish... Mmm... Steps to a great morning: Land in sunny Homer, start company truck, drive to bakery, let truck warm up while enjoying coffee and baked goods.

Of course, after driving around all day with no destination, I get really bored and tired. And when you leave the house at 5am, not to return until 9:45p, it makes for a long day.

Driving around Homer makes me want to take my road bike down there.

Or any bike.

Shoot, I'd take a scooter.

I also want a cabin down there on top of the ridge in the picture.

Sigh... Someday...

If I lived that close to that bakery, I really would be well rounded.

I have high expectations for my upcoming adventure to Chicago. Not that I expect anything out of the travel experience, but I expect every little snowflake to have melted off my favorite trails by the time I come back. Starting that week, no man will be able to contain my desire for running outside. I should be out there already. Gearing up. Preparing for races. Ascending the highest peaks.
Winter, END! Or I am coming to chase you away!

If you see a person jumping up and down on a mountain or kicking snow around, beware. That's me making winter leave...

What is Necessary

I am becoming more of an engineer every day. Translation: I am replacing my blood with coffee. I love coffee. I love coffee in the morning. I love it in the afternoon. Sometimes at night. There are now six different ways to make coffee in this house.
And I still sleep soundly at night!

I'm beginning to start to possibly think about maybe moving out, I've come to realize something that I cannot live without: a grill.
As a man, at least one meal a week should revolve around a grill. There's my theory. To grill is man.
Not just any grill, but a wood fired or charcoal grill.

I've been exercising this manly muscle for the last two weekends, making some amazing venison tenderloin last weekend, and chicken this weekend.

The tenderloin was fantastic. I saw that it was thawed (and bleeding all over the fridge) so I took matters into my own hands and made a marinade. Apparently it was from a young deer, and was extremely tender. Extremely. Not quite cut-with-spoon tender, but close. Makes me want to be a hunter and live by "if it's brown, it's down".
The accompaniment to the tenderloin were vegetables (in the tinfoil in the picture), cubed hash browns - that were so close to cookie jar home fries - and mushrooms and onions. Tasty meal

I tried something new with the chicken to try and solve the common chicken problem: dry white meat. I sort of filleted the breast and rubbed in some basil garlic butter. Nothing makes something taste better like fat. More and more fat. Long story short, my brother complemented the chicken.

So wherever I choose to reside, rest assured there will be a grill outside. (And some way to make coffee)

Caffeinated Experiments

First, let it be written, that I, could not help my brother with a Calculus problem.
I feel so out of practice. Ashamed. Inadequate. *Sniffle

That last one wasn't true.

I do feel bad, though.

Wednesday brought the end of all of the relatives at my house. Don't get me wrong, family is nice, but they need to stay in small doses to be good. I.e. 40 of them running around for a week is not good; 2 running around for a week is great. I'd like my cousin who I hadn't seen in 10 years or so to come back in the summer and be my fishing buddy.
But even with that, my life does not return to normal. I've been running around for work and now starts the traveling. First a day out of office, then three days out of state. It's sort of ridiculous that to attend a day and a half seminar, I have to be gone three days.
Let another adventure begin!

Being the coffee snob that I am, or at least the addict, I have decided that when I finally move out, I want some sort of coffee bar in my kitchen. There are one hundred ways to brew coffee, and I want them all. Or a lot of them. On that list of methods is a home espresso machine. I will someday have one, and not just a push button one, a manual pull the shot-steam the milk one. (Just above the espresso machine on that list is barista training - offered at the local Kaladi Brothers company)
Since it is impractical to use more than one method to brew coffee in a rushed morning, I've decided to find the "best" way to brew given time, effort, and, most importantly, flavor.
I tested three this weekend.

On the left, a Bialetti Moka Express; on the right, a Chemex. Unseen is the french press.
I used Kau Coffee from Hawaii for the french press and the chemex in equal amounts and volume of water. They were both brewed for the time that it took to pour the water into the chemex. However long that is.
The results: the french press makes strong coffee. That is black. And kind of bitter. The chemex had a lot more flavor. Only slightly less strong.
Both are better than the brewer we normally use.

This is where it departs from being scientific with control:
I used the Moka Express the next day, and I had ran out of Kau.
This one was much more fun.
A moka express is like a percolator, that makes espresso, and upside down. In other words, it starts with water in the bottom, and ends with water in the top by forcing the steam through the grounds in the middle and condensing it in a neck before pouring into the reservoir.
Trial 1:
I may have ground it too fine and packed it too hard. The very little water that made it through the grounds was black. Very black. With the consistency of lava. The pressure relief valve was going off the whole time. Oops
Trial 2:
After it had cooled down such that I felt safe opening it without it spraying boiling liquid every where...
I ground the coffee less fine, didn't tamp it as much. Viola! I had something between espresso and a very strong cup of coffee. Wasn't too bad. Wasn't exactly a shot, though.
Given these three, depending on how groggy in the morning I am, a moka or chemex should be the normal way to go.
Next up: the V60 pour-over and whatever else I find will make coffee. Except by sock. I have no desire to use a sock as a filter.

The Vanishing Author Act

Don't I perform such an excellent vanishing author act?
I was kind of hoping that this blog would continue in my absence, but blog posts aren't like interest: it doesn't accrue when you're not paying attention.  As a result, nothing has been added to the record for quite some time.

We'll just say I was taking a sabbatical. Again. Much longer.

So... Lets flip back the calendar to last July and go through what I've done. ... If I can remember.

July:
July is fishing month. I managed to get 5 straight days fishing in and only taking one day off. I drove down to Kenai on a Wednesday after work and fished that night. I took the Thursday off and fished the next day, cleaned fish, hung out, normal fish camp activity. Friday morning I woke up terribly early and flew back to Anchorage to work the day. After work I flew back to Kenai to fish that evening and through the weekend driving back Sunday afternoon.
That's a power weekend.
The following Tuesday I flew to Houston for a 2 day conference for work. I was upgraded to first class 3 out of 4 flight legs for the trip. Ahh... It's so awesome to the the bachelor traveling around in first class...
We're up to 5 days of fishing, 1 day of work, 3 days of travel, then 1 day of work and...
Back to Kenai. I tried fishing 2 more times, ran Lost Lake, and then Sunday drove back to Anchorage.
Oh. And I got in a 3 car wreck on the way back. ...Yeah... So much fun. (the picture of this seem to be lost)  By a miracle the insurance company decided to fix my car, but that didn't really matter. (See September)

August:
I got to play best man in another wedding. Pretty awesome. Late congratulations to Steven, everyone.
I worked through the month. Ran the Lost Lake race at the end of the month. Not too eventful.

The Color of Death

September:
Went camping at savage river in Denali National Park with three friends. Cold, but really fun. We got rained on. Hiked through the fog and more rain. Then snowed on. Thank goodness for camp fires. I would've been quite frozen otherwise. Oh, and got lectured on why fall is the worst season: it is the season of DEATH!!!! Everything is dying and shriveling up and rotting!
Mid September I got the privilege of going halibut fishing. For work. And getting paid. I live a rough life.
At the end of the month, I made a purchase bigger than what school cost me:
Meet Geb:

Geb. 'Nuff Said

Its fun to drive an AWD rocket.

October:
The most notable event in October is me joining Crossfit Alaska. Crossfit is nuts, exhausting, painful, but really addicting. Not to be masochistic... We'll save crossfit for another day.

November:

I went down and visited Andrew and Chelsea over thanksgiving. I miss going and chilling out with them since they've moved. The funny part of my trip was that I was hoping to be lazy, do nothing, eat anything and everything, Chelsea, on the other hand, wanted to eat healthy and go to crossfit. I had an entirely paleo thanksgiving, and it was delicious. Late thanks to Chelsea who made all of it. (Oh, and I was reminded how much I don't like carving a turkey... it's so hot on your hands...)

December:
We wish you a merry Christmas...
I had the undue pleasure of house sitting for a friend who quietly went insane right before she left and somehow acquired 5 dozen apples. What do you do with 5 dozen apples???? Well, you make 2 rounds of monkey bread, the filling for 3 apple pies, you leave a dozen with your family, and you eat the rest. So many apples...
That brings us up to the New Year, and one final tale:
My boss asked if I could house sit over New Years. Sure. He showed me the quick ropes, I met his dog, all was fine and dandy. Day 1 of house sitting: I'm in the kitchen making dinner, and I hear "meow"... ? *turn around* A cat?
Thought process: okay, there's a dog door, maybe it snuck in. If its here in the morning, I'll know it belongs.
Next morning, "meow" Searched the house all over, found the litter box, food, and water. The cat must belong.
I mentioned it later when my boss returned, "oh, yeah, normally the cat is good for 4 or 5 days, so I didn't think about it"
Great...

...And a happy New Year!

(and to those who have heard those stories already, I have to catch up with you)

All Heart

Ice. (ice baby...)

It's actually pretty interesting. So! This will be fun facts of water and ice. More small talk conversational material.

www.benbest.com

Why do lakes smell worse in the fall? Because water is most dense at 4C. (39F for you english people) When the temperature of the ambient air approaches that temperature, the water from the bottom rises to the top since it has been storing all of the summer heat and is above 4C. This is known as lake turnover. And the smell is everything being brought up from the anaerobic conditions at the base of the lake.

This is also why lakes freeze from the top down. The water at the bottom is warmer than 0C.

When water freezes, it forms a hexagonal close packed structure. See the image at the right. All of those black dots are water molecules, and the whole hexagon is an ice crystal. Ice likes to grow out of the vertical faces of that molecule. They don't have to be oriented vertically, but in the image, they are. When it forms off of one face, its a grain of ice. A ton of grains put together is called columnar ice.

Other types of ice:
Granular ice forms from freezing slush, creating porous ice.
Frazil ice forms in rivers that have supercooled below freezing. Ice crystals form erratically in the water, float to the top, then clump together to form sheets of ice.
The supercooled condition creates an environment for ice to form on the riverbed. Yes, freeze at the bottom of the river. This has been known to cause rocks to float when a large amount of ice is formed on the rock face.

Why all the ice?
For starters, its being taught in Arctic Engineering. And theres a bunch ice floating down the Chena. I went and stood by the river to watch. Its rather relaxing just watching it all go by. You can hear all the ice absorbing water as it goes by. It sounds like thousands of those wooden wind chimes. Pretty cool.
The picture above had a cool phenomena going on. That black line is a tree stuck on shore and the river is flowing from left to right. The ice behind the tree is being drawn/trapped there by the eddy that the tree is creating, causing the ice to flow up river behind it.
Also see the columnar ice.

What has become of my computer dilema?
Well, my computer has been reduced to the hard drive. It's all heart now. Though, it will be much cheaper than expected to fix it, so it might be resurrected after all.
My saving grace in this troubling time was family in Anchorage and ENSTAR! My mom went and bought me a macbook air. It's slick, small, light as a feather, and super quiet. Plus one battery charge lasts me about two and a half days. Thats sporadic usage, but still impressive.
ENSTAR gave me a computer in the fall, and without it, I wouldn't be able to continue my reports because that machine has Word and Excel.

Pressure. Pushing down on me...

I can hear the champion whirring.

Summer Time!

I survived an 8 hour exam! (Everybody can celebrate now)
The best part is that I feel confident that I passed. The premise of the exam is a little ridiculous: instantly know which formulas to use to solve the test question. For 8 hours. We're engineers, we are taught to think objectively to solve problems: Google!
"Gaze into my crystal search engine to see the solution!"

In celebration of my semester rapidly coming to an end, Sean and I decided to hold a beach party. Or more appropriately, back deck party.
Is there anything better to do on a sunny Sunday than barbeque with friends? The only thing missing was the kiddie pool filled with warm water.

The great American past time

You could tell that it was a man-sponsored event because the meal was mostly meat. Peppered bison steak, chicken kabobs, chicken breasts, and salmon. And chips and dip. Oh! And Kevin made amazing hand squeezed lemonade. Poor fellow didn't realize that we had a juicer. His labors were greatly appreciated, though.
We just got to sit around in the sun, munch all afternoon, and ignore homework.
To make it more of a beach party, Sean moved the truck into the back yard, we opened the doors and windows, then blasted music. Pretty sweet boombox, eh?

What makes a Nathan: Toys!
So I still suffer the urges of a boy when it comes to shiny things and other toys. I must have it. The trick is to resist the urge for meaningless things. (Hot Wheels and Legos are not meaningless and are great purchases at any time)

My new toy: a Garmin Forerunner 610

It's freaking sweet. It tracks total time, pace, distance, heart rate, percentage of maximum, time behind a virtual partner, where you're going, how you can get back to a certain place, where on a course you are... and so on. For both running and biking.
The best part: It's touchscreen.
It has too many features for mere watch buttons.

When your finished with your run, it links wirelessly to my computer and then uploads it to the Garmin website where it displays all this awesome information.

Definitely one of the coolest toys ever.

The 2nd mile here was one of my fastest recorded.

Don't Try This At Home

Okay, this is my warning.  What follows is the theory behind something.  I am in NO way endorsing that you try this.  If you do try it, it is not my fault.

www.learnthermo.com

How to walk on fire:

First, let me explain boiling. Thermodynamically, boiling occurs when a solid surface in contact with a liquid is at a higher temperature than the saturation temperature. Saturation temperature is the point when the liquid has absorbed as much heat as it can. Any more and it vaporizes.  On that nifty diagram to the right, everything to the left of the arched curve is a liquid.  Everything under that arched curve and is shaded is a liquid-vapor mixture.  Point 1 is a saturated liquid.  Boiling occurs as soon as we go from point 1 on the graph to the right, and become a mixture.

There are three modes of boiling: convective, nucleation, and film boiling. Convective boiling occurs just when the surface temperature is above the saturation temperature of the liquid. Convective currents form (think wavy heat lines that you see rising from blacktop on hot days) and carry the "boiled" liquid towards the surface until it's cooled.  Nucleation boiling is when the bubbles start to form.  There is no clear point that defines the separation of these first two.  First there aren't bubbles, then there are.  The last, and most awesome, (and relevant to my point) is film boiling.  Film boiling is when there is a vapor layer separating the surface from the liquid. Think of a long thing bubble covering the bottom of the entire pot.  Because air/vapor is an excellent insulator, heat is no longer transferred into the liquid, instead the surface temperature of the pot increases until the heat transfer overcomes the insulation and the temperature of the liquid starts to rise again. (There's a nifty graph that illustrates this too but short of me drawing one, I don't have one)

What does this have to do with walking on fire, though?

There is moisture on your skin.  Presumably, if you are going to attempt this for the first time, there's a lot of moisture due to perspiration from nervousness.

When you step onto the fire, the moisture goes through the first two modes of boiling and arrives at film boiling.  You get a nice insulating layer in between your foot and the coals.

Tread softly, and carry a big stick because if you stand for a prolonged period of time, you go passed film boiling and the insulating layer disappears and you'll want to pole vault off the fire.

Oh, and you need a $^@%&* hot bed of coals.

(Kids, don't say $^@%&*.  And please, please don't try walking on fire)

One of Life's Lemons:

As witnessed in a hotel room.

 What makes a Nathan:

Chilling out. I love just sitting around or wandering with no agenda and no cares. (no homework) It has it's place. There's a point where this becomes boredom, then you better add some sort of agenda or it could lead to trying to walking on fire. Until then, it can clear your mind, realign your thoughts, take you to some deep, dark corner of your head you forgot was there...

I don't have the liberty to do this much anymore, more specifically right now, but it sure makes me appreciate it. My recommended places to try it:

around a fire, just sitting

wandering around bookstores

running (what else do you have to do while moving)

walking

friends living rooms (this occurs when they think that there's an awkward silence or that you're bored. They often try to fill this void. Silence is golden)

I guess I should add at this point that most of these occur alone or in silence.

Ahh... Silence.

Getting to the Meat of Things

We're just going to skip over any personal update or commentary and cut straight to the chase.

What you will learn today: Why condensation occurs.

The picture on the left is a control panel to an extreme temperature simulator.  If you can't read what it says, the set temperature (top number) is -45.0 C.  The next number down is -45.3 C. (current temperature)
My senior design group wanted to see how much a heat pipe would shrink if we froze it.  That's why I got to play with the freezer.
All that aside, to the point!
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in air compared to the maximum amount of water vapor in air at the same temperature; that is to say the current vapor pressure of water divided by saturation vapor pressure. In a formula:
P[H2O in air]/P[saturation @ temp] - (if the top value is at 70 F, then you want the saturation pressure at 70 F)
This changes with temperature; as temperature rises, relative humidity goes down.  Conceptually: you have a cube of air with a given amount of water in the air.  You heat it up.  The amount of water in the air stays the same, but the air can now hold more water, and the number on the bottom of that equation increases. (the result shrinks)  And the opposite is true.  You freeze the cube and the amount of water it can hold decreases. (value up)
Okay, now you a master at relative humidity.  You pour yourself a glass of ice cold... Water.  The ice cold glass is surrounded by hot air.  The amount of water in the hot air is equal to the amount of water in the cold air surrounding the glass, but the saturation pressure at the lower temperature is less.  It is so much less, in fact, that the relative humidity goes above 1 so water has to come out of the air and you get...

Condensation

You now have something interesting to explain to everyone when you feel like you can't make small talk and there's that awkward silence. ...

What makes a Nathan: (more appropriately, what Nathan makes)

I love to cook and I love to eat.  (which came first, the appetite or the hobby?)

This is my take on food: it's fuel, but fun to experiment with. Here are my fundamentals:

These are carbs. Left is complex, right is simple. (kudos if you know what they are)

Complex

Simple

Simple is good for filling you now and giving you energy now. Complex is good for keeping you full and giving you energy later.

Blueberries, Anyone?

(In my head simple: good for training now, complex: good for the long run this weekend)

Due to caloric density, you must eat a large volume of complex for it to really matter.  Actually, that makes sense since most complex carbs weigh quite a bit less than simple ones.

Another rule: Color is good. Eat the rainbow, just not skittles.

I was complemented on my rainbow today.

Ways to get affects from both complex and simple carbs? Eat both. Duh.

But to me, no meal is truly complete without meat. I love meat. Mmmmm... Steak.  Or in this case, fish.

Hey, my grill had to make it in somewhere.

Oh! And as you see from the above, you can grill a lot of things, like pineapple! Its amazing. Trust me.

As you can see from the mass of pictures, I really love food.

And the best part, food is like math.  Its just simple addition.  Salad+pineapple+fries+salmon = YUM!

Don't worry.  I only ate half the pineapple and salmon. Everything else, though...

And remember, tip your waiters and waitresses.

Enduring - aka A Long Ways to Go

Right-o. I was looking at my past race stats that I have accomplished and determined that I have a really, really, really, long ways to go to get my pace time down to what I was running two years ago.
1st 5k (and first ever race): ~27min (i.e. 8:39pace)
2nd 5k: ~23min (7:22)
3rd race, 12k: ~59min (7:53)
I'm not fast. By any means. My marathon time that year was 4:56, a pace of 11:30.
Why am I divulging this information? (besides the fact that divulging is fun to say?)
Because as it currently stands, my 5k time right now is ~28min (8:58) and I want to run a 4 hour (9:09) marathon in less than 3 months. 82 days to be precise.
Yeesh. Better get moving. Literally.

Educational Section:
Enduring is a nasty word. It means suffering patiently or remaining in existence. How very depressing. But! (there is always a but in this blog) It is similar to word such as: continuing, persisting, constant, stable, steady, steadfast, fixed, unwavering, unfaltering... (Thank you dictionary app)
Now are those some words that you would like to be known by? I know I would.

What makes a Nathan:
It's time, to introduce you to my lil' friend.
"Will the usher's be so kind as to lower the lights?"
"Those of you with weak electronic and mathematical skills may wish to close their eyes."
(Get to the point already...)
"Ladies and Gentlemen, my right hand, the 'heavy weight' champion, the Ti-84 Plus."
I've had this thing since my freshman year of high school, and I still don't know everything that it does. I know that I can solve equations that people with those newer fandangled Ti-89's can't. (Clever manipulation of graphs) It's flat out amazing.


...silence falls upon the crowd... What is this appearing in the opposite corner???

"Someone to challenge the title???"
"This is going to be an epic fight"

This is my new Ti-36X Pro. With all of those extra letters, it must be amazing, right?
Bottom line: It is. I'm contemplating cutting off my right hand for this thing; this newer, slimmer, faster, fewer menu'd, solar powered thing of beauty.
Why? It does nearly everything that I used the 84 for and more. (except graph) We're talking integrals, derivatives, solving polynomials, matrices, and more! Plus its allowed on the FE. And smaller so I can take it to work if need be.

We'll see how this battle turns out. The last week the 36 has been pretty impressive.

(Hey, I'm an engineer. I can love my calculators)

Last word: why am I writing in my blog when I'm so busy? I had 20min before my personal hw cut off time which isn't enough to start anything. When is there any better time to blog?

Hi There

No I have not been writing in my blog. No I have not forgotten it. No I do not feel bad. No.
Okay, now that all of the "no's" are out.

I have been wildly doing homework. And if I'm not doing homework, I'm studying the grand Fundamentals of Engineering exam. Insert a side note, I was just called "babe". (?) A running tally of what I'm doing- Lab write ups: 5-8 hours. Machine design homework: 4-6 hours. Arctic Engineering homework: 2-3 hours. Machine design project: 8-10 hours. Senior design project: 8-10 hours. 11 hours of class and 2 hours of lab. 6 hours of F.E. review classes.  6-8 hours of Tau Beta Pi/other honor society work. Then 10-12 hours of FE studying on my own time.
We're up to 62-76 hours a week. If you factor in 8 hours of sleep a night, your typical work week is 80 hours. I'd like to say that I sleep 8 hours a night. (6-8, at most) But! Lets add the fun stuff:
1.5-2.5 hours a day of gym time. This is "sanity time". Its when I get to unwind, plan, plot, and generally do what I want.
I will sleep less before I decrease this time.

Now, why am I spending this much time in the gym? June 23, 2012 is the Mayor's Marathon which I was convinced to run. I am going to do it.
I'm also trying to do it in a much faster time than my 2010 Equinox, so I have to drastically reduce my pace.

Educational Section:

Grain patterns of metals are sort of circular. When they go through the rollers, they elongate. Eventually, the grains go back to circular. Why?
Hooke's Law!

Stress is force/area. Strain is change in length over original length. E is a material property.
Under the rollers, the metal is plastically deformed. Once it is plastically deformed, it goes back to it equilibrium state, except now deformed. So the grains go back to circles, just smaller.

What makes a Nathan this week:
MAN CAVE!!!

Version 1

Version 2

When I moved in January, I had all of my apartment furniture, and really nowhere to put it. Luckily, my new room was large enough to fit it. Then I was given a tv. So now I've got the makings of the ultimate man cave.

Version 3

Better View of Version 3

Static elements that haven't moved: bed, bookshelf, and couch.
Version 1 -> Version 2: my chair and my desk switch places.
Version 2 -> Version 3: I ran out of desk space so I was forced to add that island desk.

Things to notice in Version 3: Mug warmer (the black disk next to my Mac)
Magic Trackpad (Graciously lent from Steven and simply one of the coolest things in the world)

The K-man walked into my room and exclaimed "Dude! It looks all official! Like I need a chair 'here' (across from my desk in the last pic) and I need an appointment."

Welcome Back

Nothing says "welcome back!" quite like a flooded apartment.

Apparently pipe broke upstairs in the wall nearest my bed. Most of the apartment floor was soaked and they tore up the carpet. On top of that, the kitchen circuit went out, so everything in the fridge was bad.

I had fish in the freezer. The strange thing is that it's not in the freezer. I'm not sure what happened to it.

Well, hello. I gave practically no warning that Christmas vacation meant not blogging. Somehow, I just didn't find time.

Tying in to the last post, I said something was wrong on Tuesday the 20th. I'm not sure when it started snowing, and I am equally unsure of whether or not it truly stopped. The piles around the yard are now quite deep and as high as the tractor bucket. There's a lack of places to put the snow.

The wind was pretty strong at times and created this:

Notice the trails that those snow balls made behind the larger ones.

There were clear skies a few days, and I got to listen to people whine about 5 to 10 below.

Just one more way that Fairbanks says, "welcome back!" The sign read 40 below at 5pm and 41 below at 6pm yesterday. I read this morning that it was 45 below in Nenana. When I drove through Anderson, the heat was being sucked from my car. It was blowing hot air out of the vents, but the interior temperature was falling. I don't want to know how cold it was there.

While I was in Anchorage, I completed a few applications, and worked a little. Well, maybe not a little. I think I worked more than I did in October, November, and December combined.

Only now am I getting a relaxing break. (That's only because its too cold to go outside and do anything)

Stay tuned for how the last semester comes and goes...

View from one of my office windows

Vacationing In a Warmer Climate

My apologies for the delay.
Last week started, and finished, finals.
Monday, I gathered a group and we went and spread Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear.  A huge success in my standards, we had a group of six people.  Most important, though, was the look of amazement and the smile that grew on their faces.  Plus we "sang" the 12 Days of Christmas at the top of our lungs in the Civil Engineering hallway.
Twas' a traumatic (rest of) week.
I studied, took a test, studied, took a test, studied, took a test, studied, and took a test.
Tuesdays's test in a phrase: On a scale of 1 to 5, how much effort did you put into this class? A. 1 B. 2 etc. (actually on the exam)
Wednesday's exam: Open book, open note, open other textbooks, open internet. Just don't talk to your neighbor.
Thursday's exam was one of the hardest that I've taken.
Friday's was at 8pm.  Who schedules an exam for a Friday at 8pm?


Rewind to the weekend before. I thought that my gingerbread house construction plans were not going to work out until Kevin called me all excited about building one.  Since a picture is worth 1000 words, here's how it went:

WHAT?!?!? I get to build a gingerbread house???

But what should I make?

YAY! I'm all done!

Fast forward to Thursday again.  Brendan flew up to Fairbanks for the weekend.  Friday we drove around town, worked out, then went to see Sherlock Holmes.  This was the first movie I've seen in theaters since the newest Chronicles of Narnia back in March.  Decent movie, too.  Made me chuckle at times.  Much more closure than the first movie.

Saturday was supposed to be MANlympics, but you can't have games with only three people, so Brendan, Sean, and I decided to throw the caper around, build a fire, then shovel the yard into a pile to make a MANcave.  Caper tossing is just fun.  The Scot's sure know how to make a manly event.  The fire wouldn't have happened without Brendan.  We were starting it with matches, and it was dying until Brendan saved it.  But it turned into an inferno and burned some nice 10X10's.  The pile that we shoveled ended up being near 10' in diameter and 6' high.  I was a tad stiff in the morning.

Our Caper

The Blaze

Sean Working at the pile

We finished Saturday by going to Chena Hot Springs and soaking in the beautiful hot water.

Sunday morning I woke up far too early and got Brendan on a plane.

Continuing on Sunday, Kevin, Sean and I trudged around the top of Esther Dome with MAN-lamps and flashlights in the dark.  There were clear skies making the night beautiful.  We're doing it again.  Hopefully with a full moon.

After Esther Dome, the three of us went to the airport to pick up Andrew, who came in to drive down with me.

(This listing of events is getting rather boring, so to speed things up...)

The Prestige is a straaaaange movie.

And patience is a virtue. Steven drove down Sunday morning, it was icy, but manageable.  The evening drive was absolutely horrible from what I hear.  There was blizzards, ice, more blizzards, thunder, lighting, blizzards, ice...

Monday morning, however, was driving in a winter wonderland.  There was great visibility, the roads were mostly clear.

We're now caught up to Tuesday, at which point, I will say something is wrong with Anchorage.  Its super windy, its warm, and it is not pretty.  I want to go back to Fairbanks where there is actually snow.