My math skills were vindicated. I was asked another math problem that I was able to do and conclusively prove that the answer that was given for this problem was in fact, wrong. The square root of 97 does not come out to be a nice number.
Even better than that, I got to sing the quadratic formula song: (to the tune of pop-goes-the-weasel) x is equal to negative b plus or minus square root of b squared minus four a c all over 2 a.
Now try and forget that.
Last time, I said that I was addicted to coffee. That is not entirely true. I am consumed by it. And I happily consume it.
There is always room and time for coffee. Always. No rush is more important than a chance of sitting back and relaxing to a nice slow bar brew.
This is me taking my 10 minutes to smell the roses as I go by.
I have now gone 4 for 4: been to a coffee shop 4 days in a row. One of those shops I've returned to for the last 3 days. (I'm hoping to go for a 5th)
But all of this coffee does have a use: adjusting to time zones while traveling. I had to switch three hours when I went to Chicago, so I front loaded my day with TONS of coffee. It was great! Maybe not healthy, but after 5 or so shots before lunch, your afternoon is magical. Unless you're trapped inside of a seminar, like I was. Then you just sit there and look left. Then right. Then left. Then right. Then at your watch. Isthisseminaroveryet?CanIleaveandgorun?Hey,thatguyjustsaidsomethingcool,didyoucatchthat?Oooo.Mypencanmakesquigglylines.CanIleaveandgorun? squiggle squiggle*
Then at night, you suddenly think that you are going to fall asl... snore*
Chicago is... a city. That is windy. And chilly. I only got out to explore one night, but I do have to return soon. I left myself a lot of openings for exploring then.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Here Comes the Bride
See, I'm making a valiant effort at keeping this ball rolling. When I have time. Maybe.
Picking up where I left off:
By the by, my sister got engaged last July during one of the fishing trips. This is how I found out:
cast...drift...cast...drift... (dad) "Hey! Robin just got engaged." cast...drift...cast...drift... "Oh." cast...drift...cast... "Caught anything yet?" cast...drift...cast...
Back to the New Year, January was the time when the wedding planning was starting to increase. Somehow, coincidentally, I got really into crossfit and started taking housesitting jobs at that time. I was hardly ever home. Wedding planning is actually bearable when you're never home. My simple bachelor life of work, activity, and sleep was at a prime during this period.
February: work, activity, sleep.
I was asked to do a part of a big company project, and was given no deadline. 3 weeks into February, I was told "first week of March". Wait. 2 Weeks??? So I got to fly down to Homer twice, stay the night once, drive all over the place, and create routes for the pipe project. Then I return to the office and fight with drafters to get stuff done. I heroically battle comments such as, "that can't be done", "no way", "shouldn't they have asked us earlier?" Well, yes, they should have, but I was allocated enough manpower and it looks like I actually got it done. Amazing.
It's sort of funny when a department director says "I'm tired of doing the project manager's job."
March: work is exploding. It is not funny when you sit in a meeting with 15 high ranking company people, you are the lowest on the totem pole, and as these titans of companies argue, your task list gets longer. And longer. And longer. I've got so many hydraulic modeling jobs now it is not fun...
However, then you have your year end employee review and your boss says that they really appreciate the work and effort I do and the energy and enthusiasm you bring, and everything is suddenly all better. "Do you have any questions?...Should we change anything?..." No sir, I'm happy as a clam.
Hopefully I'm not the horse that always says "I will work harder" and then gets sent to the glue factory.
As of yesterday, there is no more wedding planning. HOORAY! But my life won't return to normal until... a few weeks from now because I get to travel for work soon. (I love my job)
Out of words for the day.
During the wedding ceremony, my only task was to be the level head. (It would've gone better if I was actually given a plan) so when a wedding supposed to start at 2 hasn't started by 2:10, there's a problem. Solution, I grab the microphone, "SIT DOWN!" The response, "who gave the engineer the microphone???" Hey, I'm getting stuff done. So what if I lack tact.
Picking up where I left off:
By the by, my sister got engaged last July during one of the fishing trips. This is how I found out:
cast...drift...cast...drift... (dad) "Hey! Robin just got engaged." cast...drift...cast...drift... "Oh." cast...drift...cast... "Caught anything yet?" cast...drift...cast...
Back to the New Year, January was the time when the wedding planning was starting to increase. Somehow, coincidentally, I got really into crossfit and started taking housesitting jobs at that time. I was hardly ever home. Wedding planning is actually bearable when you're never home. My simple bachelor life of work, activity, and sleep was at a prime during this period.
February: work, activity, sleep.
I was asked to do a part of a big company project, and was given no deadline. 3 weeks into February, I was told "first week of March". Wait. 2 Weeks??? So I got to fly down to Homer twice, stay the night once, drive all over the place, and create routes for the pipe project. Then I return to the office and fight with drafters to get stuff done. I heroically battle comments such as, "that can't be done", "no way", "shouldn't they have asked us earlier?" Well, yes, they should have, but I was allocated enough manpower and it looks like I actually got it done. Amazing.
It's sort of funny when a department director says "I'm tired of doing the project manager's job."
March: work is exploding. It is not funny when you sit in a meeting with 15 high ranking company people, you are the lowest on the totem pole, and as these titans of companies argue, your task list gets longer. And longer. And longer. I've got so many hydraulic modeling jobs now it is not fun...
However, then you have your year end employee review and your boss says that they really appreciate the work and effort I do and the energy and enthusiasm you bring, and everything is suddenly all better. "Do you have any questions?...Should we change anything?..." No sir, I'm happy as a clam.
Hopefully I'm not the horse that always says "I will work harder" and then gets sent to the glue factory.
As of yesterday, there is no more wedding planning. HOORAY! But my life won't return to normal until... a few weeks from now because I get to travel for work soon. (I love my job)
Out of words for the day.
During the wedding ceremony, my only task was to be the level head. (It would've gone better if I was actually given a plan) so when a wedding supposed to start at 2 hasn't started by 2:10, there's a problem. Solution, I grab the microphone, "SIT DOWN!" The response, "who gave the engineer the microphone???" Hey, I'm getting stuff done. So what if I lack tact.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The 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.
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| The Color of Death |
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:
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| Geb. 'Nuff Said |
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)
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:
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)
Sunday, July 8, 2012
On Track
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| American Guns |
I apologize.
That was an awful post to leave up for so long.
It is Sunday afternoon, I have nearly nothing better to do, thus I blog.
Since I left, I have graduated, partied, lived it up, started work, enjoyed life, so on and so forth.
Immediately after graduation, I sent off my best friends Andrew and Chelsea to hot, humid North Carolina. If they were snowpeople, they would be melted by now.
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| Kudos if you know where this is |
My family romped all over Hawaii. Two islands worth. It was great fun.
We [family] started at Pearl Harbor; a sobering but really cool place. We crawled all through a submarine, saw the USS Arizona memorial, then finished up with the Big MO'.
There was waaay more. I saw the submarine museum, but not the museums that lead up to the Arizona or the air museum. We'll leave those open to make sure that I get back to Hawaii.
Needless to say, I want a house on Kauai. There are so many hikes to do, so much adventure to be had. Tons of biking, potential for pouring rain, nice beaches, and it is relatively uncrowded in comparison to the other islands.
I started my job. I love it. I love my job. The people I work with are great. One of the other engineers is very boisterous. My supervising engineer is what every runner aspires to be. The director of engineering is quirky, but can be pretty awesome. He was angry at I.T. and suggested I just go buy the biggest, baddest computer I can find. I settled for larger monitors, which no one has ever thought about before because they are the most coveted item in the office.
Shortly after arriving, my supervisor took a week off and I've been trying to figure out how things work on my own. Sometimes, that is really frustrating, especially when projects are not moving as fast as I feel they need to be. But I see the wisdom: I am getting to know the system.
 |
| Pre Race |
Post marathon, I've been golfing a lot. For some reason, I find it really fun. It is super challenging not to get frustrated, but the number of good shots that I have is increasing. That makes you just keep coming back to the game.
I was in the company tournament, and I'm not sure how, but I won a natural gas BBQ grill. I guess I'm blessed. And it means that my family can't get rid of grills. Every time one gets sold or taken, we get a new one.
My current music kick: I guess it's blues. Little Axe. Jon Shain. Jo Bonamassa. (thank you Pandora)
My current goal: lets just recover from the marathon. I feel spent and running is really hard.
So! In future chapters of Nathan's life, I want to explore the hole in the wall restaurants around Anchorage. Take golf lessons. Learn to rock climb. Find every other possible means to enjoy life. I am a free man. This is going to be great.
Check back periodically for updates.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Think About It
I am so close to finishing, I can almost taste it. I cannot wait until 11:15 Thursday when my final normal class lets out.
And, because I'm playing with my new computer and I ran across this...
How many unnamed faces do you know?
And, because I'm playing with my new computer and I ran across this...
How many unnamed faces do you know?
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
All Heart
Ice. (ice baby...)
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.
It's actually pretty interesting. So! This will be fun facts of water and ice. More small talk conversational material.
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| www.benbest.com |
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...
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...
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| I can hear the champion whirring. |
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