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May 30, 2009

First-ever Round of 18

So I'm not a golfer. I've never pretended to be a golfer. I've only been on a 9-hole par-3 course in Barronett a couple times in high school with my friend Greg, and then I took a beginning golf class in my final semester at Gustavus. Other than a few times playing mini-golf, I hadn't touched a golf club since May 2005. I've turned down invitations in the past to play at the 9-hole par-3 course here at Tussey, but this time when Adam called and invited me to play a full round of 18 holes with them at the Penn State White Course on Memorial Day, I thought: "What the heck, I'll probably suck but it should still be fun." It was an absolutely gorgeous day for golf too, sunny and mid 70s.

So a bit before our scheduled tee time of 1pm on Monday I went to the driving range with Adam, trying to shake off a whole lot of rust (not that I ever had a consistent or good swing to recover, though). I didn't have my own clubs, so I had to rent my own, as the White Course doesn't allow two people to play out of the same bag (which of course makes them more money). And there were five of us (me, Adam, Julian, Ben & Chris, all from my church), so the course made us split up into two groups. Adam, Julian & Ben went out in the first group, and Chris & I went out right after them. The plan was to stay right behind them and more or less join them after the first hole or two. That never quite worked out though because I sucked too much, causing Chris & I to fall further and further behind the threesome, until at the end we were three holes behind at least. We never caught up, and we only ran into them maybe a couple times the whole afternoon. So what I thought was going to be more of a group outing didn't quite turn out that way. I felt bad that my poor golfing probably also made Chris's afternoon less enjoyable as well, because we weren't able to keep up with the rest of the group.

While I was able to hit some decent shots at the driving range (mixed in with plenty of bad ones, of course), as soon as I stepped into the first tee box, I suddenly lost what little ability I had started to regain. Even with a few mulligans/penalty shots from the tee, I still eventually just took one of my pathetic shots, and something over a dozen strokes later got it in the hole. I was embarrassed and was getting really frustrated. After the embarrassing 1st hole I started to get better gradually, so that from the 3rd through 8th hole I finally started being able to hit tee shots that were consistently going forward and getting some distance on them. Unfortunately I got a blister at a bad spot on my left hand on the 2nd hole, so I had to change my grip to try to protect the blister. After a few holes (and many swings) of doing that more awkward grip/swing, my hands really started to hurt, my left one in particular. The pain really started to come on by the 9th and 10th holes, and I really should've stopped after the 10th or 11th hole when it was clear that I could no longer maintain a good grip on the club throughout an entire swing (especially not during the backswing), which meant that the ball was going any which direction and usually not very far (when your golf swing effectively becomes one-handed, it's not good). I decided to suck it up and try to play through it, but from that point on I quite honestly could not wait for the round to be over. And the hand pain only got worse, which only made my shots worse, which only added to my frustration (and caused me to have to take more shots, so it was a positive feedback of pain and frustration that led to an increasingly negative attitude on my part). Continuing to play really was serving no purpose though, because I wasn't able to try to try to practice or improve my swing the rest of the round because I wasn't able to have a consistent swing at all.

It's now a few days later, and my left hand is mostly better, but it's still a little bit sore, surprisingly. It's a good thing I didn't have to play piano this week... In retrospect, I should not have said yes to playing a full round of 18 holes when I hadn't touched a golf club (other than a putter) for four years. The smarter plan for me would've been just to be at the driving range for an hour or two, and maybe do a 9-hole par-3 course a few separate times at least, before attempting a full 18. If I had known we were a group of five and would have to be split, I would've declined so that they could've had their foursome and stayed together (especially since I was the only complete newbie to golf). I also did not anticipate that it'd take 6 hours to golf 18 holes (especially not for just two people); I'd planned to do some work that day on my prospectus, but that obviously didn't happen. I foolishly didn't wear sunscreen either, partly because I didn't think it'd take more than about three to four hours, so those sunburns are finally starting to mellow now. I also should not have been teeing off from the farthest box back with the rest of them; I should've been from the farthest box up, because I wasn't going to be comparing my scores to theirs anyway, since they'd all played previously. Basically, I'd do pretty much everything differently if I could.

I do very much appreciate the invitation to play 18, but my overall experience would've been much more positive had I even just agreed and paid for only 9 holes. If I would've stopped after 9, I would've come away with a feeling like I was starting to get better. What I can say for sure though is that I won't be golfing 18 again any time soon, barring some special circumstance. I am willing to give golf another chance -- eventually -- but I need to be more realistic about my abilities and skills and stick with the driving range or par-3 courses for awhile. Golf is meant to be enjoyed, and I would like to enjoy it; I had a good enough time on the front 9 after the 1st hole, but on the back 9 I really didn't enjoy it at all. It also costs a fair bit of money to play enough rounds to start getting better, whether you keep renting clubs or finally buy your own. Because of the money and time aspect and how much I have to do this summer, maybe it's a hidden blessing that I had a rather negative experience with golf this week, because I'm certainly not going to be one that says, "hey, let's go play some golf!" Or at least I won't be doing so anytime in the foreseeable future. Maybe I should just stick to tennis or some other sports, where I also know I'm not very good, but I feel like I have a bit more control over what happens and how well I do.

Posted by Jared at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)

May 27, 2009

26 Hours in Ithaca

For the second weekend in a row I took a little trip. Two weekends ago I was in Valparaiso, IN, to visit Alex, but last weekend I drove up to Ithaca, NY, to visit my friends Carl & Seth from Gustavus (Carl's a grad student at Cornell). I didn't head up there until Saturday morning so that I could get a full day of work in on Friday on my prospectus. I made good progress on it too, writing another two pages, so I felt good about taking a break for the weekend, at least for a couple days.

After grabbing some lunch, Carl & I went to Ithaca Falls, one of the many waterfalls in and around Ithaca, which really is "gorges," as they say. It was quite enjoyable just to sit there and listen to the waterfall, especially with how infrequently I see water (running or otherwise) here in central PA. Eventually we got chased away when this cumulonimbus on the right matured and moved overhead (I think I might submit this one to the PSU Meteo weather calendar in the fall!). At first we were going to stick it out when it was just lightly raining. But then all of a sudden some monster drops started to fall, and I told Carl we'd better head back to the van, because it was about to start pouring in 30 seconds or so. Fortunately the dime-sized hail held off till we got back to the van! But other than that little thunderstorm, it was beautiful weather all weekend in Ithaca.

A little bit later Seth got to Ithaca (he started his drive in Waukesha, WI in the morning), and we welcomed him to town with a brewery tour of Ithaca Beer Company. And free taste testing of course. :-) I've never been on a brewery tour before, so I thought it was pretty interesting. I was somewhat surprised by how small it was too. After that we got some dinner at a good Mediterranean restaurant before spending awhile at a cool little bar called Pixel and then playing a bit of Rock Band back at Carl's. It was a fun evening, and great to catch up with both of them again!

Then on early Sunday afternoon we drove about 15 miles north of Ithaca along the west side of Lake Cayuga to go to Tuaghannock Falls State Park. Tuaghannock Falls is about 200 feet tall (with the walls of Tuaghannock Gorge towering another 200 feet or so above that), and until a few years ago apparently was the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi River. It used to be, that is, until a big chunk of Ithaca shale broke free from the top of the waterfall. Now it's just the tallest waterfall on the east coast north of Georgia, haha. Those caveats still amuse me. :-) After going to see the falls and walking along the shore of Lake Cayuga for a bit, Carl & Seth decided to go to a nearby winery for some wine tasting, but I decided to drive back to State College so that I could get back in time for most of Bible study, and because I had designs on doing work Monday morning, even though it was Memorial Day. That, and I much prefer to drive during daylight if I can help it. I also figured that it wouldn't be a good idea for me to head out on a 3.5-hour drive after doing wine tasting. ;-) Seth's on an east coast road trip, and he'll be swinging through State College on Saturday & Sunday on his way back to Waukesha, so I'll see him (and maybe Carl) again in a few days!

Posted by Jared at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2009

Senior Week at Valpo

I had a great time with Alex late last week! I'm so glad it worked out that I was able to drive over to Valparaiso for a couple days during his senior week! With this visit, it turned out that I visited Alex at Valpo at the beginning, middle and end of his senior year. It's neat that it worked out like that. And this was his second move-out in a row that I was able to help him with too (last August I helped him unload and clean his State College apartment). I didn't mind helping him go get boxes, tape them together or get them loaded. I just enjoy hanging out with him so much, no matter whether we're doing something "fun" or mundane.

We did do plenty of fun things too though. On Thursday evening Alex & I went out to a good Mexican restaurant in Valpo for dinner (definitely can't get good Mexican like that in State College!). Then we joined several of his friends from his meteo department (several of whom I remembered from the AMS conference in Phoenix in January) for a couple games of bowling (Alex & I went 1-1 against each other, after I pulled out a spare-strike in the final frame of the second game to rescue a win). After bowling we all went out to Pass Times for some drinks, the same place Alex & I went when I visited in December (we were impressed the waitress remembered us too, with our order of onion rings with southwest sauce, long islands, and taking our picture, so that was neat too). And once again it was a very fun evening!

It rained quite literally all day long at Valpo on Friday, so we weren't able to do anything outside like we'd hoped to. So we stayed inside pretty much all day, but did venture to a piano (of course) so that Alex could play the pieces he learned this semester. We also played a bunch of ping pong. And I do mean a bunch -- 18 games worth over two stints! Amazingly neither of us were getting bored with it either (obviously not, since we played 18 games!), and we were pretty evenly matched because we tied at 9 games apiece. In the evening we went to a graduation open house for another friend of his for a bit, before he had to be on duty back in the dorm for the last time as an RA. And for his last-ever time doing rounds, he busted out his unicycle, and I had to run to keep up with him most of the time. Pretty cool. :-) Alex has quite a unique set of talents, that's for sure!

Also, Alex officially accepted his offer from the University of Michigan on Friday right before we went to lunch. We both thought it was fitting that we were together when he made his final decision, considering we're best friends and how much I've been advising and helping him all along the way since last summer. I obviously still wish it would've worked out for him to get an offer and come to Penn State, but it seems pretty clear that God is leading him to Michigan for grad school. I'm excited for Alex that he has such a good opportunity at UM, and that he likes Michigan so much that he was able to choose them and be excited about going there, rather than looking at it as a second choice or anything like that. He also found out on Thursday that he'll be able to do research for Michigan this summer (starting next week!), up at UM-Bart Station (northern lower peninsula, up near the Mackinac Straits)! I haven't ever been to that part of Michigan before, and I'm looking forward to visiting him up there once or twice this summer. :-)

On Saturday morning after grabbing breakfast at Valpo's new student union/dining hall (which reminds me a lot of the sweet cafeteria/dining hall at Gustavus), we went over to the chapel. You see, Alex & I were hoping to be able to climb up to the roof of the chapel, which is something Alex wanted to do once before he graduated. We would've done it on Friday, but since it was raining we figured the roof would be too slick. Unfortunately someone was practicing organ when we were there Saturday morning, which meant getting up to the roof unnoticed would've been highly unlikely, considering we would've had to climb up to a ladder in amongst the organ pipes to get up to a catwalk and crawl space that leads to a skylight. :-) I'd been looking forward to doing that, so I was a bit disappointed when it became clear we weren't going to be able to. So instead of going on that little adventure, we satisfied ourselves with admiring the chapel, taking photos all over.

Alex also was able to find the remote control for the bell tower, and he asked which of the pre-programmed songs I'd like to hear. I chose "Immortal, Invisible" because it was Aaron's favorite hymn:

(Apologies that the microphones picked up so much of the breeze.) The Chapel of the Resurrection is enormous and beautiful -- it's the largest on-campus chapel in the world. (My mom went to Valpo for two years, and the chapel's huge stained-glass windows were installed while she was there.) Alex gave me & Ash a tour back in September when we visited, but it was cool to see it again. And this time by going in the middle of the day we didn't even have to "break in" through a hidden back door either, haha. ;-)

Not long after our wanderings around the chapel it was time for us to part ways, for me to start the long drive back to PA and for Alex to meet a friend for a round of golf before his family arrived in town. I would've stuck around for his graduation ceremony on Sunday, but his brother Patrick was already going to be staying with him in his dorm on Saturday and Sunday nights, and it's a tight squeeze to fit two extra people in a dorm room. ;-) Graduation day is so hectic anyway, and we were able to spend more time together by my coming for a couple days before commencement. I was so glad to get a chance to hang out with my best friend even for a little bit during his senior week, to celebrate his graduation and his grad school decision -- the 9-hour drive each way was totally worth it to me! I'm already really looking forward to the next time we can hang out again!

Posted by Jared at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2009

Committee and Wedding Planning

No, not my wedding. My good friend Mike from high school called me on Saturday to ask me to play piano at his wedding! It'll be on 29 May 2010 -- at Lambeau Field in Green Bay! That'll likely be the biggest venue I'll ever play in, haha. I have plenty of time to debate whether to wear my Vikings tie either to the rehearsal dinner (which is Packers themed) or to the wedding itself. He & Ashley basically gave me the freedom to pick out what songs I think would be good, and I'm already getting some ideas. With it still being a year away though, at least I have plenty of time to try to learn some more complicated pieces if I decide to do that to supplement the hymns I'll pick out.

After talking to a couple faculty members in the last couple days, I now have my PhD committee formed! I still have to get all the signatures and all that jazz, but that's just a formality. My committee will be Sue Ellen Haupt (Adviser/Chair), Dave Stauffer, Marcelo Chamecki, Derrick Lampkin (Outside member, Geography), and Joel Peltier (Special member). I think I have a good committee put together! Now I just have to find a time in late July or early August when they're all free so that I can schedule my written and oral comprehensive exams. Let the fun begin?

I saw the new Star Trek movie last night with Ash, and it was incredible! I think it's definitely the best of all the "Star Trek" movies, that's for sure! There were plenty of cool explosions and fun plot developments. The young actors really pulled off the personalities of the "future" characters so well; that's really what made the movie. It also had its funny moments, but it thankfully didn't cater to 7-year-olds like Star Wars Episodes 1 and 2 did. Instead it was typical Star Trek wry humor, mixed in with some inside jokes/references. It was great! I think it's a movie that someone without any previous Star Trek experience would still enjoy, but even a casual Star Trek fan would enjoy it more fully because of the inside references. It's a movie I'm definitely willing to see again! There were several great quotes from the movie, but one of the most memorable was, "SSSPPPOOOOOOOOOCCCCCKKKKKK!!!", which brought back memories of the "KKHHHAAAAAANNNNN!!!" moment from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. :-)

Well, it's time for me to finish getting ready and drive out to Valpo to hang out with Alex for a couple days!! His graduation is Sunday afternoon, and while I thought about going there for that, we figure we'd get to hang out with each other more if I came for a day or two before graduation. So I'll be getting back to PA on Saturday night. I'm looking forward to seeing him again, and celebrating with him!

Posted by Jared at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2009

Light-Bulbs in the Shower

I've heard the stories of many a grad student slaving away mentally, stumped day and night about their particular research problem. Stumped, that is, until inspiration strikes them. Oftentimes these "light-bulb" moments seem to happen in the shower, of all places.

As of my shower this morning, you can count me amongst them.

I'm not quite sure what the right word is, but it'd be fair to say that I've been feeling kinda down lately because of the status of my PhD research project (among other things). I've had a general idea for awhile of the main part of what I want to accomplish -- to find the best configuration of a numerical weather prediction ensemble for the purposes of atmospheric transport & dispersion prediction. The primary challenge has been how to determine what that "best" configuration is (which combinations of model physics options to use, how to perturb the initial/boundary conditions, etc.). I've been told that to make my project PhD-worthy I need to come up with some sort of quantitative foundation, a mathematical or statistical way of determining what configuration is best. Fair enough. I've been under the impression for awhile though that that meant that I'd have to try to devise some way of predicting or determining a priori what configuration would be best. That's what's been getting me down and apprehensive for awhile, because I haven't been able to see a way even to start that. Even though I know that all the other parts of my project are going to take work and that problems will undoubtedly crop up along the way, I really haven't been worried about the rest of my project. If only I could figure out how to lay a mathematical foundation for my project, I felt like I'd be set.

I was becoming more and more convinced that it would be impossible to determine the best configuration beforehand, though. In a fully three-dimensional NWP model, there are just too many feedbacks and physical processes interacting with each other to try to isolate or predict the effects of changing any one model option (which is itself pretty complicated) across an entire spatial and temporal domain. So if I can't make a quantitative determination of that beforehand, what about after the fact? Hmmmm... Then it struck me this morning. The core of my idea is to create my ensemble, let it run for a few months to a year (so that we have a big enough sample to allow for statistically significant conclusions), and then calculate ensemble means, spreads, errors, etc. for the ensemble as a whole as well as several mini-ensembles (all being various subsets of the whole). Having that information then for many "mini-ensembles" should hopefully allow me to make a determination or assessment after the fact about which ensemble configuration is "best." It's not exactly an earth-shattering idea, but hey, it's an idea, when I was previously bereft of them! I told Sue about my idea this afternoon, and she reacted positively to it too. :-) The idea admittedly needs to be fleshed out quite a bit more, but hey, I only came up with it this morning in the shower!

So today I've had a much more positive outlook about my research project. And considering how much the ups and downs of research tend to dominate the life of a grad student, that also means that my outlook on life (or at least my life for the coming months) is much more positive now too, haha. Now I think I might actually be able to make some solid progress on this in time for the GMU conference in July and for my comprehensive exams in early August! It's amazing what power a single idea can have. And it's an answer to prayer, really.

Now I'll actually have some serious time to spend on my PhD project too. First, I finished Advanced/Mesoscale Forecasting, my last-ever class (for credit, anyway), last week since it didn't have a final. It's amazing how much less stressful finals week (this week here at PSU) is when you don't have any finals. :-) And second, I finally was able to submit the revised version of my first-ever publication to the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology on Thursday last week. It was accepted with minor revisions back in February, so it shouldn't be too much longer before it gets formally accepted in full now that we have the revisions in! The revised manuscript would've been submitted a few days earlier, except that I stumbled upon a bug in one of my programs. And hooray for bug-fixing that makes results look even better! Anyway, with that out of my hair, I can finally stop working on stuff from my Master's project and actually start focusing on my PhD project. As much as I like it here at Penn State, it still would be nice to graduate eventually!

Posted by Jared at 11:58 PM | Comments (1)