The quick update on the tree: Saturday I spent 5 hours working on trimming off all of the smaller branches. Dennis & Uncle Mark (in tie and all!) both came by and helped a lot with sawing down the medium size branches with a hand-saw (see pictures above). Then my neighbor, Steve, brought his chain-saw over and finished the big stuff. I hired my lawn-guy to take the leftovers to the dump, though he spent hours waiting in line to do so as everyone else was doing the same thing. By the end of the day, Sunday, I just had a pile of leaves/twigs on my driveway as a reminder of what was once there (again, see pic). Now I have to get an arborist to help me figure out the next steps with the part of the tree still standing. Also, I'm very sore from such work - rarely used muscles got a work out! (plus I now have a tan)

The previous weekend my family drove up and helped with the rec room one more time. We got 9 more ceiling lights installed (major pain!), sister built a media cabinet, covers for various holes in the wall, and found the source of the cat-pee smell (I sat in it!). While the cats continue to be adorable (they have their own picture area here), if they continue to react so poorly to the new carpeted rec room, we may have to take more drastic action.

Dennis bet a nice bottle of wine back in March that I wouldn't have the home theater complete by the time he returned in June. He returned, and it still wasn't complete (the "bar" or game table hadn't arrived, yet). So, to celebrate the new lights, table and him winning the bet, my Dad brought up a very nice 2000 Silver Oak Cabernet that we all shared along with some nice cheeses, crackers and the showing of a cheesy movie (National Treasure 2 - Mom's choice).

For those of you that asked, I haven't seen WALL-E, yet, but did have fun watching Wanted last night with a couple friends. Sadly, this once respectable theater pales in comparison to my own. Not bragging, just a sad state of the local theaters. I do miss the Warren theaters of Wichita!

So, after a brutal winter that rarely got above freezing, and a spring that has provided major thunderstorms every other day (and taught me about water in basements), the summer has brought the first actual casualty. I was wrapping up things at work last night but then felt the need to stay on as I wrote an awkward email to my favorite coworker. Can't decide if that was good or bad as a brutal storm hit. It felt like it was 10pm outside (it was 4:50pm), so dark and then the hail started to hit, then the power went out. Went outside and saw pieces of the building all around and large piles of hail - looked like someone just dumped coolers of ice around in piles everywhere (see pic of hail at my home 2 hours after the storm had hit). When the winds & hail died down, I made a break for the parking garage through the river that was 42nd St and street lights out (cars did not want to stop for me and it was till pouring!).

Driving home was a mess. It took 1 hour to drive 2.3 miles. From flooded streets, to trees blocking every other road to police not letting go the way I needed (I was oh so close (2 blocks) and when I asked if I could go that way and how I could get home (it was the 3rd time I'd tried that intersection) the officer yelled at me "It's not my problem, figure it out!"). To give some perspective - there was the annual Memorial Park concert and fireworks (Kool and the Gang plus .38 Special this year) planned at 6pm so there were a lot of people at the park (blocks from my home) and people at work were told to stay there until after the storm had passed, so the roads in that area were full of cars, even if it was dangerous to be out (I drove under several broken trees that could fall at any moment and over logs and curbs at places).

When I finally got to my block, the neighbors were out giving me condolences so I know something bad had happened. Nothing I could see and just a few large branches were down on the block, but then I saw it. My front large tree was split down the middle. I was so relieved that it didn't hit the house (I had seen several cars and homes flattened by trees on my drive home). See the pictures. Some friends came over for food and games anyway which was good for cheering me up.

I'm off to go help remove the tree - the rest will have to be taken down some other day, but it doesn't look like it will live. Maybe seeing WALL-E will be another nice escape this weekend.

George Carlin died a few days ago. He was one of the first celebrities I ever met. I had been at college for just a couple weeks and CPB brought him to perform. Great show, great guy and he was on one of my first dorm room posters - the one that had hundreds and hundreds of bad words/phrases on it. I learned how so many phrases could be innuendo for something else that day. But it is something to have a comedian that is so entertaining also be a decent human being when off the stage. His routines have been used to spread anti-government, anti-religion and anti-business by a plethora of groups (some respectable, many not) - but the reason I always enjoyed his humor was that it made you laugh and question things at the same time. The usual "Oh yeah, that's funny, cuz it's true" combined with "does it have to be like that" or "it's sad that it's true" thoughts. No matter, I'll miss him.
Comedy Central Early Tribute
Recent one on America (used by those groups listed above)


Physics/tech links:

Phoenix Mars Mission (great that this project, led by U of Arizona, has gotten so much attention. They've done a good job managing it and setting up PR - maybe a sign that future projects should be outsourced from NASA?)

Fastest-ever flashgun captures image of light wave - tech - 19 June 2008 - New Scientist Tech (I hate it when headlines mislead readers on the science, but it's still cool to see)

IBM's Roadrunner breaks petaflop barrier, tops supercomputer list | Tech news blog - CNET News.com (People wonder what IBM does these days since it's no longer in the PC business... here's one thing it still does well!)

Colliding with nature's best-kept secrets - CNN.com (never heard of this guy before, but it's interesting to see how the scientists get attention)

Earth Will Survive After All, Physicists Say - NYTimes.com (another story on CERN)

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete (curious take on the subject)


Health-Science/Sex links:

Adventures In Science: The Incredible, Inedible Egg (fascinating first-time ever pictures of a woman's ovulation - this should just disturbing enough that the following links about sex won't be as scintillating)

Can’t Find The G-Spot? You’re Not Alone: The Science of Sex (curious - still have a lot to learn about women)

I've had the G-shot...and YES,YES,YES, my sex life has never been better (UK paper)

ABC News: G-Shot Parties: A Shot at Better Sex? (see a theme, yet?)

AskMen.com - The G-Shot (last one, honest)

Baby born with eight limbs takes her first steps after life-saving surgery (whoa! Amazing pics and story)

Morbid thoughts make you reach for the cookies | Health & Fitness | Reuters (this somewhat explains my purchases from the month of less sleep from shoulder pain)

Books - 2 Books on Illness and Wellness Give Opposite Advice - Review - NYTimes.com (Nortin Hadler is a unique rheumatologist. I have his previous book and can usually appreciate his somewhat cynical view of the health system.)


Potpourri:

Re: Neck of the woods. (In Paris I used the phrase "In my neck of the woods" with a Portuguese doctor. I realized after a second that she had no clue what that meant, and then I thought of how those words together didn't make any sense to me, either. Well, this link cleared it up, but I'll have to work harder on not being so difficult to understand. )

Nintendo Wii Fit women and the $41m damage bill | The Daily Telegraph (who knew the Wii could be so expensive after all!? )

Daily Herald - Crazy Horse monument turns 60 with no end in sight (hope this gets completed in my lifetime)

A ROMAN GLASS GAMING DIE (on sale at Christies - I love this line "Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used." How cool is that?! Gamers of the ancients? )

Lego Death Star Exclusive High-Res Pics: 3,800-Piece Death Star Diorama Is Coolest Star Wars Lego (meh, I stil prefer the recent huge Millennium Falcon - though I own none of these!)

Airplane Pilot Shares His Thoughts | Your America | Reader's Digest (tell it like it is!)

Picture of trends in CEO pay from NYTimes. (I could imagine BJ saying that CEOs need to be paid this much to encourage them to do what they do well, etc., but isn't this ridiculous?)

And the fun video to end on - Matt is back with his new higher res video of dancing around the world! Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) on Vimeo

(written on plane back to US)
While trying to figure out which train I should take, a good friend from Switzerland, Axel, ran into me. Made my "winging it alone" approach much easier. But when before I was at the stop where I was supposed to get off, they had a small strike, so I had to find a new route to the hotel (Axel had already left). Once there, I still had to fill 3 hours since my room wasn't ready (they said 10am online for me, but it was 1:30pm). Exhausted, I took a long nap, then headed out to see the Eiffel Tower and surrounding area.

Wow - it's much more impressive than I thought it would be! Which is good 'cuz if I wasn't distracted by it, I would have been by all of the couples there (meh ). Actually met a fellow tourist in line travelling by herself (boyfriend was at Radiohead concert). She's a German med student - which is especially good since the elevator to the top had me in a bit of panic/vertigo! I have a fear of heights, but at the same time I love them - something I crave and find fascinating, especially the vertigo that "tells" me to jump.

I actually went to the meeting every day of the conference. Was nice to visit with my friends and colleagues from all over the world and more relaxed than the American one (this Oct in SF) as I had very little to present and only a couple meetings requiring my attendance. Still was surprised at the lack of very large conference centers in Europe - every year it's bigger and every year it's still not big enough. Next year is Copenhagen which may be less popular of a destination, but I'm excited about it for the physics history!

As for Paris, so many observations. The obvious - very expensive and crowded. So many stores of fashion/style and pastries and so much good food. There were a host of beautiful women of all ages (maybe a requirement of living there?) though less notable attractive men. Fairly dirty in many places - more garbage cans are needed and definitely more recycle areas (they have green pods that look like the scout-probe droid from Star Wars hiding every several blocks). No recycling at the convention center.

In other important observations, they had Coke-zero everywhere - JOY! (even at McDonalds) Yes, I tried Mickie D's on the Champs-Elysees with some friends from Portugal. It was huge with a limited menu and a wide counter with ~15 staffed registers/attendants. I wanted to try some frites in France (French fries), plus there was special pleasure in reliving the scene from Pulp Fiction in my head. AND they had a mayo-salso for fries. Met a group from Vancouver there (yes, I have a habit of talking to strangers when I'm in foreign countries. Similarly 2-years ago I had a nice time (& surprsingly nice food) at a Burger King in Amsterdamn with ~10 Jamaican soldiers. Maybe it's because I have less pressure to behave myself? More likely due to preferring it to talking to the voices in my head. ). A young woman was crying on the flight to France. I gave her a Milky Way. I know, ridiculous, but she was happy to have it, and then told me in a few broken-English words about leaving her boyfriend in the US for 6 months as she went back home to school. The French miltary guy on the flight back who read more about computer RPGs than actually playing them (Josh, sound familiar to us?). So many stories...

Yes, I did try a bunch of nice French restaurants - from small social joints, to deli's, to fast-food (Paul is a nice chain), to some of the finest around (Restaurant L'Angle du Faubourg - over $100 and oh so good!). Also had some Middle-eastern, Italian & east Asian cuisines. I expected to gain weight, but made up for it by drinking coke zero (again, yeah!) and tons of walking.

How much walking? Well, I didn't take the pedometer (a mistake), but easily 10 miles a day. For example, the Louvre, which is HUGE - walked from the Arch de Triumph down to it (my friends wanted to go shopping at the Disney store. Disney is big here - almost went to Euro-Disney just because I'd never been to any of them and thought it would absurd... but I digress). This museum went on and on. So many impressive works (and so many "stolen/recovered" from times of antiquity). Loved the Egyptian writings/sculptures. The French paintings didn't impress me as much - maybe the size of them. You need a place as big as the Louvre to display them! I'm looking forward to returning there and seeing more. On the way back the metro broke down, twice, so we were forced to walk again. This time taking a detour since W was visiting. Security was incredible - makes me wonder the costs of having a disliked world-leader visit anywhere. In so much pain from walking! Also of note that evening - France lost badly (4-1) in Eurocup play, so the town was a bit depressed; I walked through a small alley filled with young lesbians (a bit of a spectacle, but here, like many other times, I couldn't interact much since I didn't know the language). Another sight - was walking to hotel after great food one late evening and discovered 9000 young adults dressed all in white, drinking champagne, and lined up around tables all up the Champs-Elysees. Apparently they meet some place random with only hours of notice every year - still don't know what it's for, but not quite a flash-mob (too well organized), but close!

My hotel room had a bidet. Just seems useless for what people tell me it's for - seems more useful for washing the feet as it's just so damn low (pic taken for Michelle's curiosity). Other notes - spoiled wrotten Americans. Can't help but notice these princes(ses) when nearby. No looks make up for such at-times vile behavior (not just women, but for this trip they stood out). Sun goes down at 10pm - no wonder everyone eats late! I finished my meal last night at 11:30pm. Sun comes up at 5am (wha?! how the hell does this make sense? Oh yeah, we are further north. But hadn't noticed this profound difference since Stockholm in 2002 which was only mostly dark between 11pm-3am). Online told me to expect cold and rain all week - it was so wrong! Yes, clouds, but it was gorgeous most everyday with temps near 70. Couldn't even get the next day's weather correct.

Tried to see Musee d'Orsay, but they had security problems and wouldn't let anyone in. It was my biggest disappointment as it houses some of my favorite paintings (impressionists). Did a walk-by of Notre-Dame. Really want to see the Disney movie again. Walked by Montmartre. Want to see Amelie again. (See the theme, yet? Though have fought away my desire to see French Kiss a 2nd time ).

OK, novella is almost done. Love the public transportation, the views, the food and overall spectacle that was Paris. Plenty more to see some other day, but great trip overall. Spent some down time working but kept it mostly to here on the plane. Body is in a lot of pain, but so it goes. Oh yeah, also saw the new La Defense in the financial center - it's huge! Took the glass elevator to the top and didn't have a med-student to save me from the vertigo/panic - completely took me by surprise! Not much to see on top, but was hilarious to see the small computer museum - I recognized so many of the machines (some of which my father still has hiding at home). Crazy to treat them as historical artifacts when they're so young. They had an Apple Newton & the same model iMac G3 that my grandparents still use! I'll put up pics shortly.

Ok, bod needs me to sleep. Congrats for reading this far!

Can't believe it's been 3 weeks since my "crappy day". Now that it's no longer freezing (and for the most part, absolutely gorgeous outside), time just flies!

Carpet was installed and I've been using the new home theater for a few local events. I now have a public Google Calendar (permanent link in my K... tab above) showing past and future events so friends can either plan ahead or check it when they want. Everyone who helped me with the basement gets to choose a movie/show of their choice in the new theater. Parents are coming back in mid June to help me finish it up - install 10 more lights, trim, curtains+. Should be a full weekend again!

I have two and a half students "working" for/with me this summer. Overall I'm fortunate as the two full-time students are hard working and good to work with, but it does change my work schedule some and adds to the responsibility list. Spent a few days working in Wichita - drove through a flash-flood storm along the way (and, just like the dislocation - which is still a major pain - I got pulled over for speeding along the way as I suspected would happen after I read about what to do when pulled over (see previous list of links), though only a warning (it's good to be so damn sexy )). Having to get a lot done before I leave for Paris - I'm actually typing this in the airport as my flight is slightly delayed. I've done nothing to prepare for what I'll be doing in Paris (besides the usual meetings, sessions, etc). Guess I'll just wing it!

While the yard looks great - new flowers popping up all the time (currently I have a pink rose bush in bloom, plus some peaneise ?sp) while others fade, we've had night after night of incredile thunder storms. Last Sat night was the worst - sirens from 2:30-3am, tornado hit a few miles away and we lost limbs, trees and power lines around the neighborhood. The worst is that I now have water collecting on the unfinished part of the basement - scared of what may be happening on the theater side! Got a new dehumidifier to help out (the kitties were taking too much time in walking through the water puddles, drying off upstairs, rinse, repeat).

Speaking of the kittehs, QBert hurt herself 10 days ago during the first marathon Heroes showing. After several days of guilt-by-others and watching her limp around (I suspected nothing was broken, but there was the uncertainty that it broke and was healing wrong), I took her to the vet, only to be told (after many xrays) that nothing was broken and that I should just let her limp and heal. Still not used to the expense of city vets.

Yesterday was my annual clothing purchase day. It's nothing official, but I rarely go shopping for clothes, and when I do, I get a lot - often to last me for the year. The bad thing is that these stores don't have carts (and the extra sad thing is that I usually need one!). Needless to say, I'll be sporting the latest in US fashion while walking and being rained on in Paris this week. As for the credit card debacle from last month - still finding new fraudulent purchases. Items that didn't reach me until I got the paper statement (don't know why they weren't listed online) - the crook easily charged over $1K in online purchases, but nothing over $100 (maybe that triggers a flag?). Also makes me question the online places I made purchases this spring - maybe that good deal on the surround speakers made this possible?

Ok, they're herding us up for boarding - off for now!

Wow, seems like only a week, but it's been 3! Here are the links, the life update will come tomorrow. Catchup before I leave for Paris (and before the new iPhone is announced!)

One of my favorite recent movies, the overambitious Donnie Darko. I'll be showing it in the home theater this summer, but if you've seen it, here's a followup article on it. Everything you were afraid to ask about "Donnie Darko" - Salon.com

It's likely not a coincidence of the timing of this announcement - the Phoenix lander on Mars (and uncovering the near-surface ice!), the upcoming X-files movie and relapse to the paranoia of aliens instead of terrorists. It does make me wonder if they know something and are preparing others for an announcement.
Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens - Yahoo! News

Who Owns the Moon? Lunar Property Rights - Real Estate on the Moon - Popular Mechanics


One of the funniest niche-hobby sites I've seen (that isn't ICHC or theonion) - BEE DOGS! (Bee sure to read the transition text to each page - I was amazed at how many pictures of beedogs there are!)

OK, another funny picture - in fact, I laughed so hard I cried on this one. Neither dog was injured, but it's still so damn funny. Excellent demonstration of conservation of momentum!

Biggest Drawing In the World (also an advertisement for DHL).

A lot of the physicists I worked with at Fermilab came up from TX after this project was canned. It's sad, but I'm glad the LHC at CERN is up in action. USA, don't give up on your basic science research! Super Collider lab now gathering weeds near Dallas | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Another link to CERN - YouTube - The Grid (the Internet of the near future?)

Technology Review: Pretty on the Inside ("3D" pictures of cells)

I linked to stories of the strange dieing-off of the honeybees last year. Still a problem! Last flight of the honeybee? Alison Benjamin reports on a very real threat | Environment |

Something closely related to my research in the NYTimes. Personal Health - An Update on Jane E. Brody's Total Knee Replacement Surgery, 3 Years Later

Lovers and liars: How many sex partners have you really had? (Interesting research)

And a couple comics from a wonderful and eclectic online strip, xkcd. Described as xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe - Fortune Cookies (something I often do), and I am also an ex-marching band drum major - this would happen to me as I often walk to the beat in stores.