When the Sky is Full of 0′s and 1′s
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In Texas, A Time to Circle the Minivans
This strory is just amazing. One woman with her silent protest has started a movement for peace in the heart of texas. On the flip side we have the unsympathetic pro-war jerks coming down to show us how much they value human life. The suppoort for the Peace House is great, now they have enough money to pay off their mortage and bills. This is some of the greatest news I have heard in a while. Its good know there are other peaceful protesters and that things can get done with just anti-viloent protests. Keep up the great work everyone. Meet with Cindy , an interesting blog discussing this and an interview with Cindy

• Chicago Transit Authority map on Google Maps | Holovaty.com
  (tags: google map hacks cta chicago)

I will post a picture of my new bike soon so here is the Marin site about my new bike . I am really excited about it. I rode about 4 bikes yesterday and this one was the most comfortable, and even though it was a bit more then I wanted to spend it seem to be a bit better built with a few better parts (double walled rims really kinda clinched it for me). I cant wait to go for a bike ride today. I also bought a better lock, a kryptonite lock and cable so that it wont get stolen as easily. I hope

• FC2K
  another site for info
  (tags: feul_cell_talk)
• Howstuffworks “How Fuel Cells Work”
  how stuff works site
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• California Fuel Cell Partnership
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Investor
  page of links to more information
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)

Well, where to start. The day in the lab was particularly crappy. I know that it is research and all, so having a reaction go to complete crap is not unexpected. We did learn a bit more about this reaction that is troubling us, which is good, and it was on a small scale as suggested by my co-worker (so I didnt waste all the much material, although we are to the point where we cant afford to waste anything right now, both starting materials are in short supply at the moment and there is a deadline to met). Combine that with the fact that I also had to present at group meeting and you have a pretty crummy work day.

Now onto the ride home. The shuttles get us to the train station on time, nothing surprising there (there have been a few cases were a car accident or train crossing has delayed us such that we get to the station late and have to wait an hour for the next train). As soon as we get there there is an announcement “The next inbound train toward Chicago is operating 30 minutes late”. Great! Kirstie and I had plans to go to the movie in Grant Park The Night of the Hunter . We usually have more then enough time, and it was just going to be the 2 of us so I didnt worry that much. It is upsetting though to know that you wont be home at the time you usually are. So we get on the train and due to its lateness, we have to get off at Winnetka and transfer to the train behind (because the next train was right on our butt, our train became express to downtown and the next one ran local). No biggy.

Finally, we pull into Rodgers Park, its 6:30pm only about 20 minutes later then usually. Not bad for all the hassle. I walk over to where I locked my bike and …well…its not there. Now its not like a great bike, we picked it up at K-Mart about 3 years ago but, I did have 2 wheels and got me where I needed to go. More importantly is that I had also chained my helmet to it. The hemlet was basically new, I purchased it when I started biking to the train station in june. What was it looked with you ask? Well a Master Lock cable lock. According to the guy who’s bike was next to mine they can easily cut those, which they do quickly. After a few minutes, a van will the drive by and pick up all the lose bikes. Why did you use that? I had though “Well if its sold, it must be decent at keeping a bike safe” Wrong! The guy who I was talking to had a U-lock to lock the frame and a cable for the front tire. They didnt cut the cable because its not worth it to get just a tire, when they can cut one and get a whole bike. What was even more frustrating was that they had cut more cables than bikes they took because there was a Trek bike with no lock just sitting there. They must have run out of room in the van, silly them they could have got much more for the Trek than my many year old, beat up Huffy. Oh well, atleast I learned this on a bike I was about to replace anyway. Now I will know what not to do for the bike that I get with the certificate that kirstie gave me for my birthday. I do feeel bad for the other bikes stolen though. This was the rack infront of the metra station and a lot of the bikes with only cables where for the ppl in the neighborhood who take the train up to the suburbs, usually for hard labor type jobs, anything that will pay the bills.

I end up walking to the “L” and getting home at about 6:50 pm, and we pack up and go to the movie. Very creppy but at the same time some amazing scenes. there are some shots that are just breathtaking in their erie-ness. I enjoyed it but not as much as other movies. Its not going to make my top 10 list any time soon.

Chicago Tribune | NASA Cancels Fla. Landing for Discovery
Well, it look like the shuttle will touch down in CA. Also appears that mission control has good taste in music. I wish the crew good luck. I know I sure would love to be in CA right now…..hmmmmm

WorkingForChange-10 reasons not to move to Canada
Kinda funny list, but also insightful. I do worry about this country, but I agree staying here and fighting the power is the much better option. If we all leave and the US becomes more conservative, nowere on the earth will be safe. US is such a global power, and we can only mack change from within the US.

New Theory Challenges Current View of How Brain Stores Long-Term Memory (Northwestern University News)

This is a very intesting article about how memory might work. From the article

…..Routtenberg’s new theory goes on to propose that the brain stores long-term memory by rapidly changing the shape of proteins already present at those synapses activated by learning. While it is universally agreed that brain proteins are critical for memory storage, Routtenberg’s hypothesis challenges the widely accepted, 40-year-old model that long-term memories are stabilized only once newly synthesized proteins are transported to recently activated synapses.

This seems to describe something like a RAID array in your brain. Each piece of memory being placed in many different spots, like having multiple del.icio.us tags for peices of memory. I wonder when computer OS programers will start to look at this for a way to store data on HD. I really think i need a break from computers.

It seems like the month of august will allow us some time to slow down. This is a combination of our last half of the week. Starting on thursthurs, with Smog(band) @ the empty bottle. What a great night. The openers Feathers were really amazing, folkyfolky music. Each member played almost any instrument and they all harmonized really well with each other. Then Smog came on and blew me away. He had a second guitarist with him who added a bit of a country blues vibe to the songs. He played most of A River Ain’t to Much to Love with some old favorites thrown in.

Saturday it was a bike ride down to the Art Institute to the see Toulouse-Lautrec & Montmartre exhibition. Being members (thanks to Kristie’s parents) we get a couple of free tickets and so decided what a great way to spend the saturday. The exhibition is quite large and seems to cover most of the art taking place in Montmartre in the late 1800′s. Even though its billed as a Toulouse-Lautrec show there are just as many paintings by his contemporaries to show the cross-influences and overall creative atmosphere that was happening. I would have liked to to be less crowded but it was a saturday of beautiful weather. The rest of the day was punctuated looking for something to eat (since lo cal local has now been bought out and will be turned condo’s) and record shopping. To close the day it was another performance at Mess Hall, this time dubbed MF vs PSR vs YAHMAHA. I enjoyed this even more thimprov improv roulette the other night. We got there a bit late and walked in on the PSR set which was amazing. Cello played through a delay/looper and 2 keyboards that fed into another loop device with a 4th person on drum machine/sampler. It was really textual and dark, while the cello would add melody to the rumblings of the very affected keyboards. There was a lot going on. MF was a guy who performs by the name Mr Fuckhead and plays a yahmaha keyboard where he tweeked the notes until they were unrecognizable. After his 2 “performances” (which were really just all of us watching his programer run since he had pre programed it so all he had to do was hit go) there was a large group session which went on for about 30 minutes. Very inspiring performances all around. I worked on something sunday morning based on some of the ideas talked about by most of them that night.

Sunday was low-key, as it should be. Brunch at Le Creperie and then some bumming around the Belmont area while kirstie took pictures. On the way to unlock the bikes I get a call from my brother who informs me that he is engaged. I am not totally surprised, he has been going with the same girl for about 4 years and they seem happy together. Besides that nothing new going on.

• About Pure Data — PD Community Site
  (tags: music making software open-source)
• New Theory Challenges Current View of How Brain Stores Long-Term Memory (Northwestern University News)
  some interesting studies on memory
  (tags: memory brian study university)

Last night kirstie and I went to Mess Hall to see a performance that is part of the Open Source/Open Ear fest. Last night was something called Improv roulette, there were 3 duets each paired up by chance. We walked in on the middle of the first pair, a clarinet and a guy with telephone pic-ups, cd player, tape recorder. From the part we heard it was an interesting set, sparse melody intermixed with hums, beats, and static. Next was a laptop and a guy with effects, a mixing board, a tumb piano, and a whistle like toy. This was my favorite group of the night, they really seemed to work off each other and created a ever changing wash of sound. Third was one of the more “traditional” pairings guitar (well more like a ukulele) and trumpet. For the most part these 2 did call and response type stuff mixed up with some times where the guitar took a more foundation role while the horn soloed over top. Last small group was trumpet, guy with cd’s/tapes and mixign board, and laptop. This was very interesting but also the loudest set of the night. The tapes/cd’s contained samples of tv/radio comercials, noise, other songs which he could slow down and tweak. The trumpet player craftd some interesting melody lines through the chaos but had to play louder then before to be heard. To close the evening all the performers got together and did a large group improv. This worked really well and kept both kirstie and on edge wondering when it would end. (Not that we wanted it to, but part of the excitement is not noing where its going). While we were sitting there I thinking that improv music like this is similar to a movie seen in a theather, the experience of the image on the big screen is half the fun. With this music, watching it being created and being there while it happens is half the fun. Its all very hectic and exciting.

well, looks like this works. I tried the new (to me at least, but it appears that you could for a while ) daily blog post on del.icio.us. Oh well, I guess I am a bit slow. I hadn’t been using del.icio.us for awhile but I think I am going to try to get back in the habit. As you can see from this recent batch of links, I am preparing for my yearly journal club presentation. This year I think I am going to do it on fuel cells. Journal club is a monthly get together at work for all the associate level scientists in my department where we present on some topic. It doesn’t have to be work related, its more to just some extra practice preparing and presenting a talk.

• Howstuffworks “Fuel Cell Cars”
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Wired News: Fuel Cell Car Coasts Across U.S.
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Howstuffworks “How Fuel Cells Work”
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Fuel cell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Fuel Cells: Promise and fact
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Automobiles Using Fuel Cells
  (tags: fuel_cell_talk)
• Boot Camp – Mashing for Beginners
  (tags: music making)

I was thinking today about how much slower corporate life is then academic. During university studies a two week period could include; 4 or more tests, a paper or 2, at least 10 daily assignments for each of 5-6 classes, and countless hours of studying. Each of these being important for ones development as a student and could therefore make a large impact on the semester and possibly the university “career” (graduation). Now, lets compare this to industry; it takes HR 2 weeks to get back to you on a simple question to which the answer usually ends with “that is what we were told, we are looking into it”, this must be done by X date (and the person who will do the next step doesn’t start it until X+Y date where Y is usually >=5), I ordered something last week and its still sitting in purchasing waiting to be “Approved”, it takes years (5-8) to advance to the next level. In a 2 week period there is very little that could possibly happen that would have any significant effect on ones “career”. This transition is difficult if not all together confusing. “You mean I spent 4(5,6,10)yrs in school, working like a chicken with my head cut off, at the speed of light, to get into a system that makes the movement of river banks and tectonic plates look fast.” Well not exactly. Day to day hustle will keep you on your toes, but in the end that is because we are essentially worker bees, and the overall movement of you as a person is very slow. Now granted we did have a lot of growing to do in our early 20′s and made big steps into the person we have now become, so in those terms we are left to refining what we are. We may pick up new hobbies and/or get better at those we currently have but, basically if you were are jerky meat-head or a introverted a-social geek at 25 then chances are you are always going to be. So to replace the feeling of fast paced growth we felt in our teens and 20′s many ppl turn to climbing the corporate ladder in leaps and bounds, stepping on anyone that gets in their way. To them I say a healthy “fsck you”, there is more to life than the big and fast. Fundamentally, these ppl lack the ability to see the finer and smaller details. This is what life is, the average person doesnt become a everything they want overnight. One post here, one there and after a year or 2 you have 100′s if not 1000′s of posts, a number that if you were told when you started you wouldn’t believe. Baby steps, mountain moving one pebble at a time. So for me this is something I am going to start working on, one song/piece a month, one or 2 paintings, a post everyday or 2, reading a book a month (along with each magazine I get BTO and Wire ). Nothing huge, but something that will keep me thinking, improving with each step.

Well sunday is winding down and it was a great weekend. Friday we decided to see The World . This was on ok movie, a bit like a Chinese soap opera set in an amusment park. Very long and slow with not enough important character development. It was at the music box and on the big screen with oragn playing before hand so the evening was not a complete waste (and any time kirstie and i see a movie, its great because its fun discussing it afterward regaurdless of what we thought of it)

Saturday was a bit hectic, we had to pick up the cake and we had breakfast at svea (which was yummy). Afterwards, came back to drop off the cake, check to see if kirsties work check came (which is didnt …dam slow postal service) and then go to the bank, guitar center (i needed a mic stand) , cabrini (kirstie wanted to take pictures) and then to wicker park. Once there (after a time killing pit stop to stanley’s market…because michelle wasnt home yet) we met up with michelle and had some flourless chocolate cake that she made for me. It was excellent and was perfect fuel for an afternoon/evening at the wicker park street festival. There really only 3 bands we wanted to see; Head of Femur, Okkervil River, and The Oliva Tremor Control. Caught the last half the Head of Femurs set, and then walked around during Turning Machine who really really dreadful. Had some crappy fried food and chips and then made our way back to the north stage. Okkervil River were great, I think we had seen them once before opening for someone at Schubas but this performance was much better. After a long change over (where more crappy fried foods were consumed by us) the Tall Dwarfs played a few songs (they are touring with Oliva Tremor Control, who allowed them to play a mini set before them). They were good, short pop songs on 2 guitars, with new zeland accents. Oliva Tremor Control finally came on and they were ok, they played songs off Black Foilage (most of our favorites), but they just didnt translate well live. Not sure if it was do to being outside or just becuase the albums have lot of production to them that is hard to pull of live. We left a bit early (they were still playing, but I am sure their set was going to finish soon) so we could get over to schubas and see palliard with the thin man. Palliard was great, even better then on the album. The lead singer looked really confident and sang with conviction, while the other guitarist (who also played a bit of lap-steel) was great. A stand up bass along with a solid drummer rounded out the rhythm section. Thin Man was excellent, his songs were these great country tinged folk/story songs. He played accordian and guitar, along with another stand up bass a second guitarist and drummer. He looked like Lou Reed and has a bit of a british accent. Both of these bands are residing in chicago, which means I will look forward to seeing them again real soon.

Sunday was a much more low key day. Kirstie gave me my birthday card which had gift cert for rapid transit (this bike store we went to in wicker park) for enough for a new bike. Way to nice, I am really excited. Kirstie and I took a leisurely bike ride over to angels for some mexican brunch. Once we got back I did some (what ended up being 4 hours without me knowing it) recording and she took a nap. We had cake for dinner and are now going to have some pineapple for desert. This turned out to be a great day.