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February 28, 2009
First Publications
I'm soon to be a published author! Woohoo! A couple weeks ago we found out that the journal article based on my Master's research, and on which I'm the lead author, was accepted with minor revisions to the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology! And most of the suggested revisions were truly minor, though a couple will certainly require some careful thought. We hope to be able to get the revised article sent back to JAMC this month, well ahead of the mid-May deadline. Assuming our revisions satisfy the reviewers and editor, then it'll just be the waiting game for a few months until it's officially published. It does feel good to have gotten back the review with only minor revisions, especially after an earlier version of the manuscript was rejected by an editor of another journal.
On Friday I took the Technical English Competency Exam, yet another requirement that the Department of Meteorology has installed for PhD students to pass before we're even allowed to schedule our comprehensive exams. For it we have to submit a 500-word extemporaneous essay (which we completed in the class Meteo 580), submit a manuscript no longer than 4 pages in AMS Conference preprint format (so I turned in my AMS preprint from January, with a couple minor tweaks), and give a 12-minute oral presentation on our research. The faculty evaluators are notoriously picky about details in this exam, especially in the timed talk. For instance, going even a couple seconds over 12 minutes is a black mark, as is having small text on any slide, undefined acronyms, not talking about the axes/units on any graph shown, and including anything that's not relevant to your central point. It's good training, and I completely understand their desire to try to ensure that every person coming out of this graduate program is capable of concisely and coherently communicating their research, especially after seeing large numbers of simply bad talks at various conferences. So even though I've given plenty of presentations before, the exam was still a bit nervewracking, especially as I knew the 12-minute mark was looming imminently (I finished in 12:03 or so, I was on the last sentence of my conclusions when Dr Shirer stood up at 12:00, the signal for me to stop). And although I maybe packed a little too much info into the talk, or spent a little too much time on background (at the expense of results), I passed the timed talk portion of the exam! I won't know about the results of the written portion of the exam for 2-4 weeks, but at least I won't have to give the talk again. One more hoop has now been successfully jumped through. Woot.
And I don't know if this should legitimately go under the category of "milestone" or not, but I finally created a CV (curriculum vitae) for myself on Monday. From scratch. I was applying for the College of Earth & Mineral Sciences Centennial Travel Research Award, and one of the requirements was a CV, and I didn't have one. Not even a partial or an old one (I also don't have a resume, not even an old one). After more than three and a half years in grad school, and with quite a few conference presentations and posters to my credit, I figured it was high time to start actually keeping track of all this information before it became any harder to remember or track down any of it. I suppose at some point I'll get around to adding the content from my CV to my website.
Oh, and I'm soon to be a published photographer as well! A woman from Great Britain discovered my website and saw some of the photos I took of Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington. She's writing a book about Te Papa, and asked permission to use some of my photos! Which reminds me, I really need to get her that copyright form ASAP... I'll post more details about the book when I have them and when this is a done deal. But how cool is that? Now I just need to figure out what the best way is to add that to my CV. :-)
Posted by Jared at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2009
Timely and Relevant
I decided that instead of watching President Obama's "State of the Union" speech tonight, that it'd be a much better use of my time to read about the real Messiah. I'm working through a 52-week Bible reading plan with Alex this year, but because I'm just over a week behind schedule currently, the reading for tonight was Romans 13-14. The first words I just read?
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." (Romans 13:1, ESV)
Who said God's Word wasn't relevant? Those are words that everyone of all political stripes would do well to remember more often. This isn't the first time in this Bible reading plan that a passage I've read has been particularly timely, either, and I was just struck by it. Anyway, now back to Romans.
Posted by Jared at 09:44 PM | Comments (2)
February 18, 2009
Defense Lives Here???
And I thought the Wisconsin @ Penn State game I went to with Ben a week and a half ago was perhaps the most excruciatingly painful basketball game I'd ever watched, when the BadgerBadgerBadgers walked out of Happy Valley with a disgusting 54-44 win. Penn State shot a pathetic 0-for-14 from three-point land. Ugh.
That game has been replaced in my pantheon of most painful games ever to watch.
When Kent & I drove back from our IM basketball game tonight, we turned on the radio, and they said the score was Penn State 17-15 Illinois -- at HALFTIME. Yuck. Both teams had round-trip tickets on the struggle bus tonight. I watched most of the second half on TV at home, and I thought it was pretty much over when #16 Illinois "jumped" out to a 29-20 lead halfway through the second half (at that point, the Fighting Illini were on a 16-3 "run" over a 13-minute span). And then the Nittany Lions came alive. Well, sort of. In the final 10 minutes they pulled themselves off the mat and responded to Illinois' 16-3 run with an 18-4 run of their own to close out the game. That's right, the final score was Penn State 38-33 Illinois. 38 to 33. I'll let that sink in for a bit.
38 to 33.
And no, this wasn't a girls' high school basketball game. It was beautiful Big Ten basketball at its finest. It was the lowest-scoring men's basketball game in NCAA Division I since December 2005, when Monmouth beat Princeton in a 41-21 snoozefest. Umm, yeah...
But hey, a win's a win. Especially over a top-20 team on the road (incidentally, it's also the third win in a row for Penn State at Illinois, the first time PSU has ever won three consecutive games at a Big Ten road venue). And this win was absolutely HUGE for Penn State, as they're scratching and clawing to try to earn an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. Last time I checked there wasn't a requirement for a team to score 40 points for it to be counted as a win. This game may have set basketball back several decades. And I'm pretty sure this game was the basketball equivalent of the infamous 6-4 game (in the 2004 football season, Iowa defeated Penn State 6-4 here in Happy Valley... I remember seeing that box score while I was in Australia and shuddering in horrified amazement). It may not have been pretty tonight, but I'll take it! WE ARE... PENN STATE!
Posted by Jared at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)
February 17, 2009
Thirty Years of Trivia Lovin'
I really don't feel like doing any Google searching for awhile. I did more than enough of it this past weekend to last me quite a long time. For those of you who weren't aware what I was doing all weekend long, I was participating in the annual KVSC 50-hour Trivia Marathon. KVSC is a campus radio station at Saint Cloud State University in central Minnesota, and they've been putting on this trivia marathon every year since 1980, and I've been participating in it ever since Carl introduced it to us physics nerds back at Gustavus a few years ago. This year's theme? XXX: Thirty Years of Trivia Lovin'. So that, combined with it being held on Valentine's weekend, made for quite a few love-related questions. There was even one round where the answer to every question was the title of a TV show that had "love" somewhere in the title.
Though I've been helping out Carl with the trivia contest for a few years now, we haven't ever had the manpower to cover the entire 50 hours. This year was different - we got organized! Our team, "Knee Deep In Theses!", was made up of almost entirely grad students, and had two hubs - Cornell University (Ithaca, NY, at Carl's apartment), and Penn State (at Walter's apartment). Here at PSU it was mostly me, Walter & Kent, but Petters and Jacob both came by for a bit on Friday night, and Bob stopped by for awhile on Saturday evening. 
We were hoping for a better turnout, but oh well. At any rate, every few hours we switched off which location was "in charge" of calling in our answers to the trivia hotline, keeping track of the questions, etc. At any given time, we had anywhere from 5 to roughly 15 people on our team (not only at the hubs, but also in faraway places like Seattle and Switzerland) researching the questions and supplying guesses, hints and clues in a team chat room. Carl had also organized a Google document that we continuously updated with written copies of the questions, point values, answers, and names of the operators at the trivia hotline who answered our calls (in case we had to challenge our official point total at some point). We worked together pretty well as a team.
Here is a smattering of sample questions and answers, so that you all can get a feel for the difficult, and sometimes just plain bizarre, nature of the questions:
Q: (30 pts) According to this Bakers Dipping Chocolate ad, there are four serving directions. The first is to melt it in the microwave. What are steps 2, 3 and 4?
A: Dip, dip, and dip. (we didn't get that one)
Q: (75 pts) In Sparky's book, "Your Dog Plays Hockey," Sparky's story states that this dog was injured, and tried to claim to his owners that his injury came as a result of being tripped by Wayne Gretzky in a hockey game. Give the name of the dog, and how the injury really happened.
A: Snoopy, tripped by a waitress in a coffee shop (I managed to find that one!)
Q: (60 pts) In the "Star Wars: Episode II" cereal adventure game on the back of the box, there was a planet on the four corners of each of the two different game boards. Name each of the planets.
A: Coruscant, Hoth, Geonosis, Tatooine, Kamino, Endor, Naboo, and Tatooine (Tatooine appeared on both game boards) (we got that one!)
Q: (30 pts) Al Neff [a long-time employee of KVSC Radio] was once challenged by Bravo Burrito to eat a burrito of nothing but hot peppers. What was the name of this burrito?
A: The Burrito of Eternal Damnation (we didn't get that one)
Q: (40 pts) Where you have penciling you have erasing. The 1985 "How to Draw Comics" comic shows the eraser that works best for those extra tight spots. What is the name of the company and the type of eraser shown?
A: Eberhard Faber, kneaded eraser (we didn't get that one)
Q: (100 pts) What fictional breakfast cereal uses the slogan, "For A.M. Pep, Yet Don't Forget!"?
A: Grunchy Crunchy (we didn't get that one)
Q: (100 pts) Nick and Fetcher use a tin as their suitcase to sell items to desperate chicks. What's the name on the tin?
A: Thorne's Extra Super Creme Toffee (Carl popped in his DVD of "Chicken Run" to find that answer!)
Q: (15 pts) What's the longest river in Ireland?
A: The River Shannon (we got that; there were usually one or two easy, small-point questions in each round)
Q: (15 pts) What is Todd Davis' social security number?
A: 457-55-5462 (we got that one; you've seen the LifeLock ads, right?)
Then there were some questions, like this one, that were totally Google-proof, even after knowing the answer:
Q: (100 pts) What fictional character was known as "The Toughest Bee in Bugburg"?
A: Two-Sting Stinson (what?!? even my entomology grad student friends Dan, Tracy & Amanda had never heard of that)
And now for perhaps the craziest question of the contest, referring to a visual trivia that had black-and-white pictures of 30 couples from various movies (most of which we were totally unable to identify, by the way):
Q: (250 pts) Visual Trivia #30: Use the standard mathematical order of operations, (a*b) + (c*d) + (e*f), where:
a = year in which each movie shown was released, added together
b = difference in years between newest and oldest movie shown
c = ZIP code of the residence of the 6th youngest actress shown
d = number of movies shown that were nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture
e = 83rd prime number in the ascending sequence
f = current age in years of only living actor in the picture born on Valentine's Day + current age of only living actress in the picture born on 14 Jan.
Once you calculate that number, dial that number, preceded by the area code 815. Name the business at the other end of that phone number.
A: Sent With Kisses (815-474-0669) (uhhh... yeahh... about that...)
Every round usually had at least one or two "audio trivia" questions, where they'd read a question, and then play an audio clip, and usually you had to identify the source of that clip. And then of course there was the obligatory "creature feature" hour, which had audio clips of monsters from really, really bad horror films, where we had to identify the name of the movie. Example:
Q: (70 pts) These people are being chased over the river and through the woods by a mutant monster. [audio clip of some monster roaring and chasing screaming people] Name the movie.
A: Prophecy (and yes, we did get that one, haha :-)
Q: (100 pts) These kids are about to be unpleasantly surprised as they picnic on their farm in this campy old creature feature. [audio clip of kids picnicking, then screaming as some monster starts roaring behind them] Name the movie.
A: The Godmonster of Indian Flats (didn't get that one)
Anyway, it was 50 hours of trivia like this, with 9 (or sometimes 18) questions per round, and our team finished in 29th place (out of 76) with 8,700 points (the winning team had over 14,000 points, and there were almost 18,000 points possible). I think that's a fantastic finish, especially considering that nobody on our team was alive to remember events asked about in many of the trivia questions (such as the sponsors of some old TV show). And our team also won "Best Team Name" in this year's contest!!
As for my part, I did 27 of the 50 hours: hours 1-8 (6pm-2am Friday night), 16-30 (9am-midnight Saturday), and 44-48 (2pm-6pm Sunday). It was fun, but very tiring (especially the 15 straight hours on Saturday!). But we've already marked our calendars for next year's trivia marathon, 12-14 Feb 2010, when we'll try to improve upon our 29th-place showing! We're always looking for new members to help out, whether here at PSU, or at satellite locations around the country and around the world! Even if you can only help for an hour or two, extra Googlers are always appreciated. For now though, I'm glad that I can get back to my regularly-scheduled life!
Posted by Jared at 12:33 AM | Comments (4)
February 10, 2009
Victorian Bushfires of 2009
As I'm sure most of you have seen in the news the last few days, there have been some terrible wildfires raging in the bush in the Australian state of Victoria. Bushfires in Australia are an annual occurrence in summertime, and are always tough to battle because of the explosive flammability of eucalyptus trees, which are ubiquitous in the landscape Down Under. Perpetual drought and recent record heat (118 F last week in Melbourne) have made for tinder-dry vegetation in southeast Australia, not helping matters. This meant that any potential fire would likely grow very large and unmanageable quite rapidly, which only makes it all the more unconscionable that at least some of these deadly fires appear to have been started by arsonists.
I first read about the fires on Saturday night, and at that point I believe 103 were confirmed dead. Now, as of this writing, 181 people are confirmed dead, and the death toll is expected to approach or even exceed 300. This is by far the deadliest wildfire outbreak in Australian history, far exceeding the 71 deaths in the Black Friday fires in Victoria in 1939, and the 75 deaths in the Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria and South Australia in 1983. When I read about the fires, which are mostly to the north and to the east of Melbourne, I immediately thought of all my friends who live in and around Mel. I emailed them on Sunday night, and have gotten a few responses so far. Being half a world away, it's easy not to put a human face on the story, so I thought I'd summarize what I've heard from my friends so far here, all living in suburbs of Melbourne:
--Joel & Rosey (Blackburn, VIC): Fine, not in danger, but they have friends who have lost friends in the fires.
--Rob & Simone (Notting Hill, VIC): Fine, not in danger.
--James & Ali (Narre Warren, VIC): Fine, not in danger personally. Their suburb has lost about a dozen homes to fires in the last couple weeks, but no fires are currently threatening the suburb. Ali is Head of Campus at a country school that is on high alert because of fires in the vicinity. Several families at that school have lost property, livestock and pets. James is Chaplain at a local P-12 school, and several families at that school have lost property or loved ones.
--Simon (Frankston, VIC): Fine, not in danger, but also knows people who have lost friends or family in the fires.
--Connie (Doncaster, VIC): Fine, not in danger, but several people from her church have been directly affected by the fires, or know people who have perished in them.
--Kieran & Emily (North Balwyn, VIC): Fine, not in danger, but know people who went home from work one day to find nothing left.
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If I hear from other friends, I'll add those to the list. [Connie's info added 7:30am Wed 11 Feb. Kieran & Emily's info added 7:10pm Wed 11 Feb.]
I'm glad to hear that all my friends seem to be okay and safe, but it's sad to hear that they all know people who lost possessions or are grieving the loss of loved ones. In addition to having friends who are only one or two degrees of separation removed from people who have been directly impacted by the fires, and on top of the staggering death toll, I've been affected by these fires because they've ravaged some areas that I've traveled through. For instance, the first 2-3 days that I was in Aus were spent at IFSA-Butler orientation in Cathedral Range State Forest. That's less than 10 km north of Marysville, one of two towns that have been completely wiped off the map by fires. Currently the death toll at Marysville stands at 15, but that is expected to rise to around 100 as forensic teams make their grim searches through the charred ruins of the town. Some victims might never be positively identified, they say... It's just an absolutely horrific, unimaginable situation. I've also driven through the areas of Gippsland (a region of green rolling pastureland east of Melbourne) that have been charred by arson-lit fires. I also visited a wildlife sanctuary in Healesville, a town that's very near one of the fires. There's also been a fire burning in Wilson's Promontory National Park, where I spent several days hiking and camping.
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For a map of where fatalities have been confirmed thus far, click here.
For a collection of photos from the wildfires, click here.
For continuous updates and stories about the fires, visit The Australian and The Age.
Authorities are now concerned that two of the biggest fires will merge into one giant fire. It could be some time before these fires are brought under control, especially with hot weather returning by the weekend. Please pray for God's comfort for all the people who have lost property or loved ones in the fires, that God's sovereignty would be shown through this disaster, and that He would bring rain to extinguish the fires.
Posted by Jared at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2009
The Groundhog Needs an Optometrist
I think Punxsutawney Phil needs a vision test. Back on Monday "the prognosticator of prognosticators and the seer of seers" saw his shadow, meaning that we'll supposedly experience another six weeks of winter rather than an early spring. This is the second year in a row that thick clouds have failed to prevent the rotund rodent from seeing his shadow. I think something's fake with this whole Phil thing. This was the 97th time that Phil has seen his shadow, compared against only 15 times he hasn't seen his shadow (the last one being in 2007, my first time there), and 8 times with no record.
This was also the first Groundhog Day since 2006 that I did not go to Punxsy for the festivities. And I was very glad to enjoy a year off! There's a chance I might go again at some point, but it's pretty much the same every year (at least in the two years I went). The whole thing is just such a weird piece of Americana, with more than ten thousand people gathering on a hill in rural western Pennsylvania in the middle of the night, huddling in the cold for hours with cheesy entertainment, all until an overgrown rodent is yanked out of a hole in a stump, paraded around in front of flash bulbs, and then a short proclamation is read. Then everyone turns around and goes home. So bizarre. And then this year add to it a whole bunch of Terrible Towels waving and a bunch of "Here we go Steelers" chants, in celebration of the Steelers winning the Super Bowl mere hours beforehand. Like I said, I'm really glad I didn't go this year!
Phil's wintry forecast seemed to have merits for a couple days, as we dropped all the way to one measly degree on Thursday morning (the half-hour walk into campus became much more pleasant once my face lost feeling), but then today we were experiencing a heat wave, with temps soaring into the mid 50s. It felt great! "Troughiness" has persisted over the eastern U.S. for much of the last few weeks, keeping temps cold, but now the pattern looks to be becoming much more zonal (and warm!) for the next week or two. Our piddly snow/ice pack should be melted by Monday or Tuesday for sure. I think Phil's forecast will turn out to be a bust.
When temps climb into the 50s after January, I'm usually ready for winter to be over. I love winter and I love snowstorms, but I've grown bitter over how we've gotten screwed storm after storm. Initially there's the promise of a potentially big snowfall, but then the storm track leads to us getting sleet, freezing rain, dry-slotted, or completely missed altogether. Pretty much everything but significant snow accumulations. Basically, if all it's going to do when it's cold out is occasionally flurry, it may as well get warm. 2009 has been one giant, colossal waste of cold air so far. Good riddance to this winter, I say! Bring on spring!
Posted by Jared at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)