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August 24, 2008
Becoming Best Friends
I've been back in State College for just over a month now, since late night on the 21st of July. Even though it was good to be home and visit friends and family, I was glad to get back to my life in State College, back to my friends out here.
And even my research I was glad to return to. Yes, even that. Although it was maybe for reasons of deadlines that are approaching. While I was back in Wisconsin, I was notified that I won a scholarship to give a 15-minute talk at a conference in New Orleans on the week preceding Thanksgiving. The conference has a long title: the Defense Threat Reduction Agency - Joint Science Technology Office Chemical & Biological Defense Physical Science & Technology Conference (DTRA-JSTO CBD PS&T Conference). What a mouthful! So we just call it CBD for short.
Anyway, I was, quite frankly, a bit disappointed at the time that I won the scholarship, because I didn't particularly want to go to the conference, and the only way I'd be sent was if I was awarded a scholarship from the conference organizers. Sigh. It's mainly because I was (and still am) nervous about whether I'll get the work I'd promised in the abstract done on time, but I'm pretty sure that's the first time in my life that I haven't been happy that I won a scholarship. Kind of a weird feeling.
At any rate, the 3-pg manuscript on what we're presenting is due 5 September, which is fast approaching (the due date was moved back from 15 August, thankfully), especially since I don't yet have any of the research done. I've been delayed and delayed and delayed with various problems in trying to get WRF (the Weather Research & Forecasting model) working on the cluster at ARL, more or less by myself. It's been pretty frustrating that I've continually been met with hurdle after hurdle and problem after problem, because with each new problem that crops up, it costs me time to try to get something done before the manuscript is due. But even if I don't have everything done by the time I write the manuscript (and I won't), in reality I'll basically have until late October to get done with everything, as our powerpoint slides are due on 28 October, a full three weeks before the start of the conference. So until then, research is definitely gonna be keeping me very, very busy. I'm sure when it comes to November that I'll be very glad that I won the scholarship to spend a week in New Orleans (especially if Daniel & Katie are able to come down from Shreveport one evening for a visit!), but right now I'm just nervous about being able to get everything done on time.
Earlier this month I also submitted an abstract for the Atmospheric Chemistry Conference at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (we just call it AMS), which will be held in mid-January in Phoenix. If my abstract gets accepted there, I'll give a pretty similar talk to what I'll give at CBD. I really hope I can go to AMS though, because I have family down there in Phoenix, and it'd be cool to see all them again.
But I've been far more glad to get back to all my friends here in State College, both from PSCG and from meteo. For the first three weeks after I got back to PA though, I hung out a ton with Alex. From introducing him & David to the fun that is Megachess, to a Spikes game and bowling on Caren's birthday weekend visit, to church softball games, to team trivia at G-Man, 
to playing some Wii at Tracy & Amanda's, to Bible study and church, to taking Alex to Otto's for his birthday, to going to Pittsburgh for an evening session at a conference (more on that later, in a different post maybe), to watching some Olympics, to going around town putting up posters for "Elijah" together (and introducing him to Waffle Shop!), to driving to Altoona to get Mexican food at El Campesino, 
to plenty of late-night hanging out and a whole bunch more, we really had a lot of fun spending time with each other getting to know each other. We also spent quite a bit of time at the church playing music together, taking turns on the piano, playing both praise songs (teaching each other some new songs) and secular songs. That was so fun to jam out with him, he's such a fantastic musician! 
And that was in addition to serving together on the music team at church on the first two weekends in August (one of which I led, but Alex had a good deal of input on the songs I chose), which was great. After we got back from getting Mexican food in Altoona with Isaac, Dan & Neal from PSCG, I helped Alex get all moved out of his apartment that he sub-let for the summer, 
and I even took some stuff off his hands that he had to get rid of (the people he sub-let from left much of their stuff and told him to throw or give it all away), including a pretty nice couch & recliner, plus a few other random things. Then the next morning, on Wednesday the 13th, I drove him to the airport, so that he could fly back home to Minnesota and then drive to Valparaiso for his senior year. I sure hope he gets admitted to Penn State Meteorology for grad school next year, that'd be so awesome! But since he lives in Minnesota, I'll at least see him over Christmas break (and I'll probably drive back for Christmas too, and pick him up along the way since Valpo's halfway between PSU and the Twin Cities! :-).
It's really amazing how quickly Alex & I became such good friends -- basically, two months after meeting each other (four weeks of which Alex was in Canada, another week of which I was in Wisconsin/Minnesota), we've become each other's best friend! We just think so much alike (we even independently got the same style of sandals, haha) and have so much in common, we connect on so many levels. It's been such a blessing from God to get to know each other and become a part of each other's lives. We're even starting a 52-week read-through-the-Bible program together on Monday, since it's the start of the new academic year for both of us. That's something neither of us have done before, and we're both really looking forward to it. I've never had a friend as close as Alex is, and I hadn't realized just how much I needed someone like that. And for that I'm so thankful to God, He is so good!
Posted by Jared at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2008
Star Wars at the Science Museum
Soooo, yeah... I've put up, what, two blog entries in the last month? And one of those wasn't even a normal post about what I've been up to. I guess that's what happens when I'm busy every evening, having fun and hanging out with friends. :-) I think I'll do this in installments so that none of these blog entries get too ridiculously long. And after all, I need to get back in the habit of blogging somewhat regularly.
Digging way back into the memory archives, back when I was still in Wisconsin a month ago (has it really been that long?), on Saturday the 19th of July I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota with my younger brother Jake to see the Star Wars exhibit they had there. They had a bunch of the original costumes and props from the Star Wars movies, including the Millenium Falcon, TIE Fighters, Luke's Tatooine land speeder, the three primary wookies from the storyline (Chewbacca, of course, plus Tarfful and Salporin), Darth Vader, C-3PO, R2-D2, a bunch of light sabers, and much more. It was really cool to see everything in person.
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There was also an omnitheater show about special effects, but it was obviously pretty old, because all the movies they talked about were made prior to 2000, and also fairly limited in scope because they were only movies that George Lucas or his company had a hand in. So as far as it went it was pretty interesting, but it would've been really cool to see how they've advanced in engineering special effects in the last decade, as well as what other movie studios have done. I mean, do we really need 5 minutes showing how they did the effects in "Kazaam," that awful Shaquille O'Neal movie? I think not.
After the Science Museum, Jake & I went over to Aaron & Eve's place for dinner, and then a boat ride to watch some fireworks at the Spirit of the Lake Festival at Mound. While I have been spoiled somewhat by the State College fireworks, it was still cool to watch fireworks over the lake while on a boat. I haven't done that since 1991 in Cumberland. It was definitely a lot tougher to take good pictures of the fireworks while on the boat, that's for sure!
I wasn't at all sure if I'd be able to go to the Science Museum or to my brother Aaron's place that day though, because the day before I started to come down with a headache and a sore throat. I was glad to feel okay -- not good, but well enough I guess -- so that I could hang out with Jake and do that stuff, because I knew he had really been looking forward to it. I was pretty miserable the next couple days though, as my sore throat morphed into a humdinger of a cold. How did I come down with a cold in July? I really don't know. After being so crazy-busy the first few days of my trip home (after being at a conference), and then really relaxing and not doing much when I got back to Cumberland in mid-week, maybe my immune system decided to relax and take a break too. That's actually happened to me before, as I've gotten sick more than once right after final exams finish up. Anyway, I was pretty out of it at church down in Taylors Falls on Sunday, and then the day after that (Monday the 21st) when Carl & I drove the 17 hrs from Cumberland to State College (we left a little after 5am -- UGH). A one-day 17-hr drive isn't the most pleasant thing in the world anyway, but it's pretty miserable when you have a bad cold in addition, making you tired, light-sensitive and just out of it in general. At least I was able to spell Carl a couple times though, for a couple hundred miles in Indiana and Ohio, and then the last stretch from Clarion to State College. We were both ridiculously tired the whole time we were in PA, but we were determined to make it back to PSU, even if it meant having to switch every 15-30 minutes. But we made it back safe and sound, so that was good.
Well, it'll probably take another couple blog entries to catch up for the rest of the time in which I've been derelict in my blogging, but at least this is a start. Time to cheer on the American women in the gold-medal beach volleyball match, as Misty May-Treanor and Kerrie Walsh go for their 108th consecutive victory. 108!! No matter what sort of competition you're in, that's utter and complete dominance! Just one more reason why the Olympics are awesome!
Posted by Jared at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2008
Farewell, Mt Nittany Apts
Well, tonight's my last night in Mt Nittany Apts, where I've lived for the last two years. Tomorrow I'm moving to my new digs in Imperial Towers, down on Waupelani Drive. Hmmm, I suppose that means I should start packing... Seriously though, I don't think it's too big a deal that it's 11:30pm the night before I move and I haven't packed a thing. I just don't have that much stuff. If push came to shove and I worked really hard, I could probably have all my stuff packed up and moved out in three hours. And besides, I've had way more fun hanging out with Alex all day today (seriously!) for his birthday than I ever would've had packing. :-) So if that procrastination puts me in a bind tomorrow, so be it. It will have been very worth it, in my mind!
But in any case, tomorrow night I'll be resting my head in a new apartment. It'll be nice not to have loud people gathering right outside my window throughout the night anymore, or have loud cars honking their horns in the middle of the night to try to get the attention of whoever they're waiting to pick up. That's why I got very little sleep last night, and that's one of the things I definitely won't miss about Mt Nittany Apts (my bedroom being literally right next to the driveway and main door to the building).
Oh, and in case anyone's interested in what my new address will be starting tomorrow, here it is:
425 Waupelani Dr, Apt #301
State College, PA 16801
Anyway, either to packing or to bed I go!
Posted by Jared at 11:37 PM | Comments (2)