When you really don't have enough to do....

Just because I can, I've taken to totally modifying the interface of my laptop. One of the other grad students in my office has a Mac laptop and he likes to give us a bunch of crap about how much better the interface is than Windows. So... I did some looking around online and ran across a bunch of ways in which you can make Windows XP look and function much like the Mac OSX. Here are a couple of screenshots from my laptop and you can compare it against what's on the Mac website here . I must admit that it's been fun giving my computer an identity crisis. Lorena thinks I'm silly but I like it. If you have any questions about how to do it, drop me an email and I'll send you some info about how I did it. I think my computer is a little more efficient now but that's not admitting Mac is better.... only they may have a better user interface.

A Semi-Traditional Thanksgiving

For our first Thanksgiving away from family, Chris and I have had a fairly traditional holiday with a lot of food consumed. I even attempted to make my first pie!

The Moscow Food Co-op had only extra-large butternut squash available when I did the grocery shopping on Wednesday afternoon. I actually picked up the squash for a recipe for Wednesday evening, but could not find all the ingredients, so I had to change the original plans for the squash. I found a recipe for sausage and apple stuffed butternut squash in the Joy of Cooking. Lacking sausage, but not the Granny Smith, I made that with only half the squash, but modified it by adding pumpkin pie spice (the recipe already called for a lot of brown sugar), raisins and pecans. It was yummy. (I just cooked the other half of the squash).

Thanksgiving Day included…

9:00 AM-- butternut squash and pecan waffles and coffee 1:00 PM – roasted squash seeds with cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin and salt 1:30 PM – late lunch of slow cooker chicken, apple, raisin, and pecan stuffed butternut squash from the night before and salad 3:00 PM—raspberry and pear pie with vanilla ice cream and coffee 8:30 PM—Thanksgiving Burritos inspired by Taco Tontos in Kent, OH. These included mashed sweet potatoes (or were they yams?), sweet corn, brown rice, chicken from lunch and lettuce, wrapped in a tortilla shell and baked until piping hot. And, of course, more pie We also had leftover waffles and roasted squash seeds throughout the day

Mmmmm! Twelve hours of eating… sounds like a traditional Thanksgiving to me. I even got in an afternoon naps with both Swirls and Pokey keeping me warm.

Oh, and the pie. It was my first attempt at making pie. The crust was a little thick and the bottom crust kind of shrunk when it was first baked, therefore, the top and bottom did not meet. It wasn’t as good as my Dad’s or Chris’s Grandmas’, but it was still tasty and I have now gotten over my pie crust intimidation. The next one will be even better, but it might be a full year until the next one. As Dad’s favorite saying goes, “I’ve been slavin’ in the kitchen all day.” But, surprisingly, I have enjoyed it. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, whether it be traditional, some spin-off of traditional, or completely unconventional and unique.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family back in Ohio! This is a time when it's hard to be so far away from everyone and this is the first Thanksgiving that we've completely done our own cooking. That's what crock-pots are for and there's a chicken in ours right now. A pear/raspberry pie just went in the oven. Should be some good eatin' later. On a side note, I finished cleaning up the Miyata bike frame that I acquired from our landlords and transferred all of the components from my Lemond fixed gear over to this frame. I even took it out for a test ride this morning and it's awesome. The geometry is a little different but I'm sure I'll get used to it soon enough. The pictures below show the before and after. Lorena picked up some bike polish down at the bike shop and it really made the frame shine. Now I just have to clean up my Lemond frame to sell.

Double bummer

Wow. I suppose I spoke a little too soon when I was trash talking about the Steelers last night. The Browns put up one hell of a fight but to no avail. Of course, it's not the first game we've lost in the last 30 seconds. It's amazing how Worthlessberger could suck so badly in the first 3 quarter and then all of a sudden have a career game. One of the post game shows on WTAM in Cleveland suggested that Cribb's 92-yard touchdown run is what cost the Browns the game because it kept their defense on the field too long rather than getting a break while the offense drove down the field. I guess there's always next week, the battle of Ohio against Cinci. Based on the results of the rest of the season, I'd say that we have a better chance of winning next week because Cinci has a winning record and we do much better against teams with a winning record. The second bummer comes from the fact that when I tried to update the beer page, it stopped working. I'm going to take it down for a while to figure out what the heck is going on. I may move to another web hosting service because the Geocities thing is very cumbersome. Naturally, I post when it's back up.

Ohio wages war....

... on it's neighboring football institutions. What a rivalry weekend for football if you happen to be from Ohio. We watched Ohio State send all those losers that drove 3 hours to cheer for "the best defense in college football against the run". How many yards did Pittman have? The Buckeyes had over 200 yards on the ground to go with over 300 through the air. The game was certainly not as close as the score suggested. That blue team got a gimme pass interference call in the 4th quarter that was non-existent. The funny thing was, even here in Idaho there were some fans of the blue team at the bar where we watched the game that occaisonally had something to cheer about. With the exceptions of OSU's center making Troy Smith look bad, he undoubtedly showed why he should win the Heisman. Hey! Mr. Pouty Face! You should have listened to your mom when she said your face would freeze that way. I hope (and I think they will) the Browns send Worthlessburger, Samson, and Mr. Smiley back to the armpit of PA with yet another big L. This time it will be a double because it's a conference game. I suppose I seem a bit biased and yes, the Browns have only won 1 game in the conference but, do you honestly expect me to say anything nice about the Steelers? I love seeing Cowher's frown get bigger and bigger. And finally, the trifecta would be complete if the Browns win because Ohio University beat Akron on Thursday night meaning they're 6-1 in the MAC. They must be putting something different in the Hocking because OU is doing pretty well this season. I guess a 'quadrafecta?' would be made complete if we beat those people who go to school in Oxford and think it's Florida. I'm speaking of the Miami . Too bad that rivaly game couldn't be this weekend as well. It's Fall Break here so I'm staying up way too late doing stuff like this when I really should be catching up on sleep. Maybe I'll do that now. Go Browns!! Pittsburgh Sucks! Good night.

Bikecar, the movie

We went to see a really great movie this evening called 'Bikecar'. It's about four guys who build a bike-car that they pedalled from Moscow, ID to some of the major mountain ski areas in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon to do some snowboarding. You can check out their website at: http://www.bikecarmovie.com If you get a chance to see it, we highly recommend it. It's just a lot of fun.

Certainly not what holds up this institution...

So, we went to powwow on Saturday at Memorial Gym on campus. I didn't know it but, there are these sculptures of crouching football players that are placed to look like they're holding up the columns above them. I do find it a bit strange that a university building would have such architectural features but maybe we had a good football team back then! Our poor football team has taken a bit of a tumble in the last few games as you may have gathered from some posts here. Despite having Dennis Erickson as our coach, I guess they're proving that it isn't necessarily the coaching that wins football games. It's a good thing we don't count on athletics for big chunks of funding... I'll write some more later in the week about the powwow because it was really cool and we have some pictures from it. We (as in the UI Cycling Team) also did a charity ride today on campus to try to raise money for the Moscow Food Bank to help families for Thanksgiving. It was fun and we certainly got everyone's attention as they were eating their lunches in the Commons. That's all for now. Need sleep.....

Bicycle commuting never gets boring

Even though I seem to ride the exact same route every morning and every evening, it's never the same. We've started into some wintry weather lately and so you always have to be on your toes. Especially when riding a fixed gear. We have some nice off-camber turns on the way in that should be even more interesting as we get some more slush. I think it was last Friday that it was sleeting when we woke up and changed over completely to snow by the time we left for school. As if the slick streets weren't enough of a challenge, I decided to take some pictures while riding.

As you can see, we didn't get much snow on the ground but up on Moscow Mountain there's still snow from last week. Then again, it's 2000 feet higher than we are in town. I can't wait for "real" winter to show up so I can test my bike handling skills. We did have some pretty gnarly wind on Monday. Gusts around 40mph making track-standing at the traffic lights a bit harder. I still like to stroke my ego a bit by not moving at all through an entire light. We have actual bike lanes in town and it's fun to roll up beside a car and just balance through an entire light without rolling. The goofy thing is when I don't ride my fixie in, I forget that I can't slow down by simply resisting the cranks and so I have to actually remember to use my brakes. It's a good thing I never get going too fast at any point in the commute. Like I said, bicycle commuting never gets boring.

The Beer Page is Up!

I know I've posted a lot today but since I actually have some time to do so... I'm making up for time when I wanted to do it earlier this week. Anyway, the beer page I promises a few weeks ago is actually up now in it's initial form. I'll be adding more to it and what not as I have time. Until then, enjoy and feel free to comment either here or drop us an email with any beers we should try. We might not be able to get them here but it will be something to keep in the back of our minds in case we run into them. You can access our beer page from the link on the right side. Cheers!

A bad weekend to be a sports fan

Boy, sometimes the stars aren't in your favor. It was not a good sports weekend in this household. We went to the Idaho-Nevada game yesterday and sat through that painful 45-7 loss. It was like anything that could possibly go wrong for Idaho, did. It's like the team that took the field was a different bunch of guys than those who played against Boise State a few weeks ago. The sad thing is, they got killed by Hawaii last weekend. Getting killed two weeks in a row doesn't help the old morale. Another sad thing was watching all of the "fans" leave at halftime, just because it was 31-0. To come out for the second half and see mostly empty stands doesn't help the old morale either. Today, we went down to a sports lounge called The Dugout to watch the Browns game. They actually have a pretty cool setup down there. There are about 5 big screen tv's and they have a bunch of plush chairs and loveseats around each. With NFL Sunday Ticket, they also have all of the games and so you basically change the channel to the game you want to watch. As it turns out, there were a few other Browns fans there but mostly a bunch of Broncos fans that were rooting against the Steelers. They have a few good beers on tap but no food. You can bring your own in or order stuff to be delivered. It's a bit of a different concept but we think we've found a good place to watch football. Beats the hell out of watching the play-by-play online since we can't even get a good audio stream on the internet. The Browns did a good job and were actually winning at halftime and then friggin' San Diego had a few big breakout runs that swung the momentum their way. The Browns tried to come back in the 4th quarter but came up a touchdown short. C'est la vie and such is the life of a Browns fan. We need to steal Marty Schottenheimer back from San Diego and give these guys a kick in the pants. I guess that makes me sound old for harkening back to the good ol' days of the late 80's Browns teams. On top of all of this, I had two flats on my bike this morning. One right before I was heading out the door and one about 7 miles from home as we were heading back in. I think this deserves a good beer.

Genesis Conference Day 3

I’m writing this at 39,000 feet above somewhere between Los Angeles and Spokane. I look out the window every so often and see cities below but it’s impossible to tell where the hell we are. I can say that I like flying in jets much better than prop planes for commercial flights.

We flew on American Eagle from Monterey to LA earlier this evening and it was not that much fun. During the little show that the flight attendants do before takeoff, they normally show you that the little oxygen masks pop down from above and you put it on. The oxygen is supposed to start automatically. Not on this puddle jumper. Not only are the oxygen masks supposed to be in pouches on the aisle seats only but you have to plug the oxygen mask hose into this little hole above your seat to get the oxygen going. Jason never did find the little pouch that was supposedly on his seat. It was loud as hell and there was lots of rattling. The noise was more annoying than anything but I can imagine how that sort of thing would make some people nervous.

It’s about 10pm and we’re not due to land in Spokane until 11:30. Neither one of us is looking forward to the hour and a half drive back to Moscow. It’s supposed to be cold when we land too. Something like 20 degrees. We left a balmy 60 degrees in LA and it was about the same when we left Monterey. Even with the nice weather, I’m still pretty sure I wouldn’t want to live by the ocean.

We did visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium this afternoon, something I recommend. A lot of people we talked to prior to our trip were a bit jealous that we were getting to go to the aquarium because it’s pretty famous for being good. We even got a bit of a discount on the admission price for being college students. We were a bit limited on time and were also a bit tired from walking the 4.5 miles from our hotel (with luggage) to get there but if I ever get a chance to go back I think it would be easy to spend a whole day there. One of the most impressive tanks they have contains yellow fin tuna, white sharks, and a fish called a giant sunfish. It’s not your common bluegill and I’m not sure I would know what to do if I snagged one of these things. I don’t know what I’d do if I snagged a damned tuna! Those things were huge and their scales almost looked like they had chrome plating. I’ve never seen anything like it. Kind of makes you wonder what percentage of a single fish Bumblebee is stuffing into that little can…

The conference was a really great experience. We were able to establish some great contacts with the people at VR&D and that will hopefully help us when we undoubtedly run into issues trying to set up analyses in Genesis and VisualDOC/Script. I know that I was more than a little surprised at the range of analysis problems that the VR&D products were being used on. It also gave me quite a few ideas for helping the tractor pull team with their frame optimization. After seeing some of the huge potential this software has, I think it could be hard to justify designing without it in many cases.

I would have loved to spend a little more time in Monterey in general checking out all of the touristy things to do and eat at some of the restaurants along Cannery Row. Alas, we have to go back and do that darned school stuff. It’s like we’re graduate students or something.

Genesis Conference Day 2

I guess this was really the first day of the conference because it was when the presentations actually began. We had a nice social breakfast and then about 5 presentations before lunch. The lunch was a pretty fancy affair complete with multiple forks! I should probably focus on more of the subject matter rather than the food even though both were great.

I think the coolest presentation was done by an analyst from the U.K. that was working on the optimization of formula 1 race car cockpits. Each year there are some minor tweaks to the outside shape of the cockpit for any number of reasons and the new task becomes making a monocoque cockpit that is as light as possible while still being able to protect the driver in the event of a crash. Genesis was used to determine the optimum wall thickness and carbon fiber layer lay-up angles for minimum weight and adequate crash protection. We talked with the presenter later in the day and I think it was generally a case of HDYGTAFJ (“How Did You Get That Awesome F***ing Job?”). This guy was responsible for optimizing the current world champion’s cockpit and he got to work with all of the major formula 1 race teams. His methodologies gave us a lot of ideas to take back for various senior design projects.

The evening concluded with drinks and dinner at a restaurant called Isabella’s on the Wharf in Monterey. We had some great wine and an even more incredible dinner. Correction, we had a lot of wine with our dinner and I don’t think we were the only ones. It certainly didn’t make us want to work on school work when we got back to the hotel.

Genesis Conference Day 1

It was a bit too early getting up this morning to head to Spokane. Our flight didn’t leave until 9:20 but you know what they say about getting there early and it is an hour and a half drive from Moscow. It really was a nice morning and one nice thing about driving that early in the morning is that the sun hadn’t risen high enough above the hills of the Palouse to get in my eyes.

I met up with Jason, another grad student, at the airport and we proceeded to fly to Seattle on a little puddle jumper of a plane. I couldn’t even stand up in the center aisle and it was definitely the smallest commercial plane I’d ever flown on. A big cold front was pushing through and it made for a bit of a bumpy ride. One cool thing about it was seeing Mount Rainier from the air, all 14,000 or so snow capped feet of it. We saw it from the interstate on our trip to Seattle for Starcrossed but it was even more impressive from the air. Naturally, when we landed in Seattle it was raining.

Our next stop was San Francisco before heading on into Monterey. This was a much smoother flight and if you’ve never flown into San Fran, the final approach to the runway is a little disconcerting to say the least. You look out the window and keep seeing the water getting closer and closer and just before it looks like your going to be swimming… there’s the runway. Our flight to Monterey ended up being delayed an hour so we actually were taking off after the time we were supposed to land in Monterey.

The flight to Monterey was on another plane just like the first one of the day and was only about a 20 minute flight. The Monterey airport is about the size of the one in Moscow/Pullman. We caught a cab right outside the airport and proceeded to the hotel.

The hotel was right on Monterey Bay and our room faced the ocean. The sound of the waves was pretty loud and from inside the room, it sounded like the wind was just howling outside. There was a reception for the conference attendees and so we got to mingle with a few of the top people from VR&D, the software company that was putting on the conference. A really great bunch of people. They even provided all of the attendees with a bottle of wine and a corkscrew to take home. The name of the wine was Genesis, the name of the software for which the conference was about. The wine is actually made in Washington State and they thought it was appropriate as a “parting gift” as it were.

We were pretty tired from the trip so we didn’t hang out at the reception too long. Besides, we had homework that we brought with us to do… something that didn’t last too long as we were losing motivation as the night wore one. We did consider walking down to downtown to check out the night life but decided that it would be better to see everything in the daylight. I guess the really interesting part begins tomorrow.