Tuesday, December 14, 2010

800 miles of Observations: A Tale of Travels.

The morning began at 345am, when I awoke from a dream only to look at my alarm clock with a sigh of laziness.  I had set the alarm for 400am but awoke minutes before by some sort of miracle, only to avoid the menacing sound that would have radiated had I slept past 400am.  Coffee on, dog fed, dog outside, shower on, shower in, water on, oatmeal made, coffee poured, breakfast....this was the rhetoric of my brain at such an early hour.

I remember hitting the road at 445am on the dot.  Tank full of gas and nothing but the day to waste it.  Heading towards the sunrise, it heading towards me as if we were having a game of chicken, little did it know, I was going to turn first, and long before it got to me.  Changing my trajectory from East to North, towards the great white plains of Western New York.  Lots of traffic for such an early hour...I remember running with the rats and mice near Charlotte, them, racing each other for the cheese, me observing their every move from inside their clan.  What a feeling to know I'm traveling to my leisure, and them to the wheel.  Wytheville, VA in 4hrs flat...great time being made.

Then came the old man, Mr. Winter I believe his name was...  Western Virginia would be the first battle ground of our old rivalry.  I had seen victims of my nemesis strewn along the shoulder and medians of the interstate.  A pair of tractor trailers twisted, one of the cabs ripped off and shredded, I knew the Old Man had been menacing about these hills, and I would be no welcome traveler.  I could tell he had missed our rivalry.  A swing here and a jab there, "Old moves for and Old Man!!!", I shouted, as I accelerated around a curve and up a hill, constantly adjusting my steering to pull out of slides.  Even on my golden pony from SC, the Old Man had  been beaten.  This did not settle well with him, and he departed to develop another strategic attack.

After some time away from my old foe, he came at me again with another one of his old tricks, lake effect snow.  It seemed as if most of my travel along interstate 79 into Erie PA was as if I was floating on a cloud, or constantly surrounded by pillows, even though I knew if I strayed from the pavement, it would be exactly the opposite (or maybe not as the pillows would keep me cozy in my final resting place).  I made my way forward, cautiously navigating between the punches of my enemy.  Others went at him with zeal instead of strategy and respect, these travelers days are numbered.

New York State, Interstate 90, roughly 12 hrs after my departure.  Good time, considering myself and my car were beaten and battered from the onslaught of ice and wind the Old Man had unleashed.  The trip was almost over, and after seeing a few more fallen allies, I knew I had to push forward and finish this trip to show the Old Man my hard Northern exterior had not melted soft in the South Carolina summer.  A few more lake effect bands running across the highway and I was on to the next challenge, the surface roads of Cambria, NY.  Unplowed and unlit, my pony was terrified.  After an hour of treacherous navigation, more treacherous than that of the Old Man's Interstate Battlefield, we had made it back to the farm.

Beer, wine, and feasts awaited us as we rode in like the conquerors we had redeemed ourselves as.  Cheers.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Drunken Ramblings: Part 2

I know you've been waiting for the next part of this....my seven followers.  Tonight was a fun night.  Got to hang out with a friend of mine who's company I really enjoy, however, this friend doesn't seem to feel the same about me, which is unfortunate.  I don't really blame her, people are different, and that is fine.  But she is not the subject of this ramble, this ramble is about young people.

Is it wrong for me to not enjoy loud music and a bunch of people around me screaming at the top of their lungs to hear a mumble of what the person next to them is saying? only to nod in agreement or shoot a smile in order to preserve their superficial short lived friendship...  Am I in the minority here?  I often wonder if there is something odd about myself that I don't enjoy this atmosphere....it's hard for me to put my finger on it because there is another variable in the equation, I was playing the DD tonight.  Had I consumed enough alcohol to be on par with the rest of the night people, would I be yelling in some girls ear trying to get her to smile?? or 'dancing' (if you can call it that) grinding and bouncing around like sex with my clothes on??  I personally don't think I would be on that boat, but who really knows...maybe I wouldn't be staring at the tv screen, pretending to watch hockey.

Perhaps this is me growing up, but the other thing is, maybe I'm just not into shallow people.  Maybe I don't want to meet some random girl at a bar and bring her back to my apartment, not maybe, but actually.  It's not that I'm intimidated by women, I love their company.  But not in the atmosphere of a smokey room where assholes are walking around with bottles of champagne trying to bring some class to the cesspool.  I'd much rather have an intelligent conversation with a girl where I don't have to compete with loud music or some dude with a hard on trying to bird dog every girl in sight.  A friend of mine has recently called me a creeper, and it really hurts when she says that....she just doesn't know me.

At any rate, I guess I don't fit the mold.  Maybe I'll just avoid these situations all together.  But back to the girl, I was doing a favor and I really hope she appreciates it ( I think she does).   I also wish she would give me a chance, but thats another blog post...maybe.  Good night interwebs, I got a hot and ready little caesars calling me from across the way.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Drunken Ramblings: Part 1

Bwahhhhhhhhhhh.  I really enjoy the company of great friends.  Christmas sweater parties are fun, even if you don't have a christmas sweater...You're a christmas sweater, and apparently it's a grammatical error to spell christmas without a capital 'C', I don't think so.  Oh hey, by the way, Van Morrison is great...Recently rediscovered how much I loved the music after it was voided from my hard drive by some pathetic computer crash ordeal...'Puters...they're gonna be the end of it, technology and all.

But enough about that.  Let's talk about how beautiful women are...The most beauty I fine is not in Nature,             but in the curves of the female figure.  Some girls think I'm a creeper because I say some things that could be taken as kind of creepy.  But really, they just don't get it. I'm just being sarcastic, trying to get a rise out of them, trying to see what's beneath the make-up and pretty clothes.  Get it together girls, I know it's hard to see a guy as a person in this town, because so often, guys who talk to you are frat boys who are trying to get in your pants, but I'm not that dude, I'm just trying to peel away the callous outer shell of your defense to find out what you're really all about.  And I know it's hard to break habits, but stereotyping an entire gender is kind of ridiculous.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Cabin Fever!!!! and solutions.

Greetings to my seven followers.  This week has been great so far, minus the shitty weather we've been having here in Clemson.  Today wasn't so bad, at least the sun was out, but the wind was whipping up something terrible and made it cold.  Had a nice walk out on the levee with Catherine and her roommates' dog Remy, of course Prevail was there also.  He was actually the reason I was there, had a bit of the cabin fever due to the nasty weather the past few days.  The guys had fun exploring around and taking a dip in the lake while me and Catherine got to chat about school and whatnot.

 A few nights I made some chicken curry which turned out great.  The leftovers were not as good as when it was fresh.  Aside from the curry sauce ingredients there was chicken, onions, garlic, broccoli  (def. not a conventional ingredient in Indian curry dishes), zucchini (not sure on this one), and some red pepper for spice.  Very delicious, and very spicy.  Oh and the best part was the jasmine rice, it smells really good all by itself.


Last night I made spaghetti and meatballs (from scratch, just the balls, not the spag.).  However, I did not feel this dish was worthy of my blog post, also I forgot to take a picture of it.  However, tonight I made pork chops, steamed broccoli and a baked potato.  The chops were awesome for two reasons, I seasoned them perfectly and got them wicked cheap cuz the sell by date was today.  The potato has smoked gouda, dill, and yogurt.  I just need someone to enjoy these fine dishes with me....

To change gears abruptly, I'm fairly certain I will be staying at Clemson for my PhD.  This means another 3-4 years, and a lot more work.  But you know what, I'm ready for it.  In my past I've always been nervous about work loads and figuring things out, but experience is something you get just after you need it.  Here's to Dr. Adam Mangel.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Strange dream

I wanted to get this down somewhere before I forgot it.

So I'm at some sort of conference thing and this guy is talking about religion, I'm not really sure if he mentioned Jesus, but I remember he said God because this is where things started to get weird.  First of all, I was wondering what I was doing there, I must have been tricked, because any of you that know me, know I would not be attending a seminar/sermon about God willingly.
     So he's going on and says, "I own God".  To which I gave him a puzzled look and said, "You own God".  And he shook his head and gave me some reason which I can't remember and continued talking.  After some time, his female assistant came over and started talking to me and she could tell I wasn't budging on my opinions.  The man came back over and whispered something along the lines of, "Hey, I'm trying to do a show here", or something like that and gave me an envelope of money....and then told me to leave him a copy of my key to my house...(I told you it got weird.)  To this I responded, "I'm not giving you my fucking key to my house".  I threw the envelope of money at him and it spilled all over the place, showing everyone in the room what had happened moments earlier with the bribery.  Oh, I forgot to mention, the other people in the room seemed to be mostly from my high school.  I then pulled out a quote from Bill Maher (paraphrasing) and said, " Jesus wants to save you and Jesus wants to do all these nice things, but he's bad with money. Give him your money", the room erupted with laughter and applause and I grabbed my things and walked out.

     Hurrying to the elevator and getting the door closed I knew that this wasn't over.  Something was going to happen, but this is a dream, and if you think it's going to happen, it does...

So this conference was in a hotel and I thought my room was on the 4th floor, it wasn't, but there was an after-party thing for the presentation I just crashed, and everyone was there, even though I had left with haste after my brief stand-up routine.  (once again, weird)  Also, the man running the show was there, the guy that tried to bribe me and said he owned God, along with two armed guards.  I hurried to another elevator and got on only to have this kid who was getting off hold the door open for the two guards and the guy.  They had caught me and said I was in violation of some law that prevents people from interrupting presentations at this convention.  I argued my case with them momentarily, then realized the futility.  We went back to my room and they said my things would be sent back to NY and I was to come with them.  Then I woke up.

What does it mean?  I have no idea.  I also had another dream a few nights back where I encountered a bear growling and yelling at me and towering over me.  But I growled and yelled back and managed to tame it.  My dog was in that one with me, maybe he scared the bear.


I'm open to opinions on this one, so feel free to comment.  I know there's only like 5 people that read this so if I get one comment I'll be happy.  Sweet dreams.

  

Saturday, November 27, 2010

How do you define yourself?

Today, I was talking with some people about sunglasses.  This girl started telling everyone about her set and mentioned that they cost roughly $100 to which I replied, "that's ridiculous".  She looked at me with an astonished and puzzled look, maybe taking offense to my response thinking that I was insulting her ugly sunglasses when I was merely disgusted with how much she paid for them.  Personally, I paid $20 for my sunglasses, which is on the high end of my budget for sunglasses, and they work great....Keep the sun out of my eyes and everything.

I guess what I'm really getting at is what will outlive both me and you, capitalism and greed.  This idea that we need bigger, better, more expensive STUFF than everyone else.  So that people envy you and want what you have.

"I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown"
-Henry David Thoreau,  Walden

Extravagance in your life really means you aren't happy with what you were dealt, and if you can not be happy with yourself, how do expect someone else to be?

Friday, November 26, 2010

Turkey Day.

Well it was a great day full of food and wine and of course, football.  I spent the day over at my buddy Dave's place in Pendleton with Chris and Rich.  The dog was along for the ride also since Dave has a little bulldog named Tonka.

My first turkey turned out great.  I rubbed it with some cajun spices and roasted it for just over three hours.  The instructions claimed two bags of giblets but I only found one.  Turns out they stuff one in the body cavity and one in the front of the turkey.  They would have both fit in the body cavity, what's the reason for separating them?? Probably just to make the rookies look bad..  Either way it was delicious and we pretty much killed all of it except for half of one of the breasts and some dark meat which will provide me with turkey sandwiches for the next day....leftovers are the best part of Thanksgiving.  Also tried my hand at some sweet potato crunch which turned out well.  Basic southern dish, sweet potatoes of course, then lots of sugar.  Now I feel sufficiently warmed up for my stuffing creation for the department holiday party on the third.  Now I just need to perfect the recipe.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Barley and Kale Soup, cooking is fun!!

Barley and kale soup, delicious.  Barley, kale, carrots, onions, garlic, veg. broth, sweet peppers, mushrooms.  I'm trying to get back to my whole food ways.  I have strayed many times from this diet merely for convenience. Heart disease and diabetes run deep in my fam. so any ground I can gain now should be a good head start.  I will be cooking my first turkey on thursday along with some other fixins.  A Thanksgiving dinner for the books.  More pictures to come of delicious foodstuffs.

Friday, November 19, 2010

And you may ask yourself....

Seems like every day, I change my mind at least 20 times about staying for my PhD.  I guess the real problem of staying is that I'm scared.  A lot is expected of someone with a PhD, and I'm worried about filling those shoes.  I could easily take a job, make some money, start 'big kid' life as one of my friends put it so well.  Will this decision really effect what my life turns out to be?  It's not like it's going to change my intentions for what I want out of life.  Maybe some day I'll really know what to do, until then, I'm waiting for a turn signal....

Sunday, November 14, 2010

To PhD or not to PhD, that is the question

Never have I been more back and forth about a decision, maybe because this one involves the next 4 years of my life, and the years to follow.  Many of my friends have told me to stay in school and get my PhD, but I'm not sure what I want to do.  I have been convinced to stay for a day or so, but then something inside me says, wait a minute, don't do that.  And the same goes for me leaving and getting a job, I've been convinced so much that I started drafting a resume, then I'm like, wait a minute, is this what I want???

The thing that bugs me the most about this decision is that I don't even know what I'm basing my decision on.  I want to stay in school because I'll learn more and be able to do what I want when I get out instead of being a desk jockey or writing reports about field work I've done for some company.  If I leave with my masters, I'm more than likely going to fall into the abyss that is application of my studies, and escape the theory.  No longer will I wonder why, but I'll just be reporting numbers.....

If I stay and get my PhD, I'll most likely stay in academia for the rest of my life, working as a post-doc or working as a professor.  I'm really not sure how many jobs are available in industry for a geophysicist.

One thing is certain in my mind, if I do decide to stay, some things need to change.  I will definitely move away from creekside drive and try to find a house to rent for cheap so I can be away from the hustle and bustle of fraternity/sorority parties and obnoxious college kids.  Wow, I sound old.  If I'm gonna be in Clemson for another 4 years, I need to have a place where I can relax.  The only problem this presents is renting a house is a bit more expensive than my one bedroom apartment.

Either way I decide to go on this, I'll make what's best of life.  Maybe that's why I'm so indecisive about this.  I know that I'll excel at whatever I do, so maybe it doesn't matter what I do.  I like being in school and learning, but I also like making money.  But I've gotten by so far on little money, maybe it's possible.  Then again, if I decide to do this PhD thing, I could always drop out if I don't like it, but man would that piss some people off...  Maybe someday soon I'll figure it all out, until then, I'm stuck in perpetual thought, staying and going at the same time.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

I like being on top.

Sometimes I wonder how I get so down.  And this isn't even the worst I've been.  Maybe that's why I feel the way I do, because I was recently reminded of the power that women have over me, it's really not fair.  And it's impossible for me to change, be gentle ladies.  

I just need to remind myself, as you might need to one day, that things aren't so bad.  Maybe we should all take a trip somewhere to a place where people have to work for things that we take for granted.  Ever lose your cell phone and feel completely out of touch, lost, and desperate.  Then you're overcome with a feeling of how pathetic you've become, but as soon as you are reunited with your phone, you're right back to it like riding a bike.  Keep and open mind folks.  Your life is a walk in the park on a semi-cloudy day compared to some peoples hurricane of a shit storm.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

It's on the table.

Some people are able to focus so much into one thing.  However, there are some things in my life that are just inescapable.  It seems as though these things cloud my mind so much, that I can't think about things that really matter.  Perhaps the thing that bothers me most about this is the question "Why do I dwell?"

Someone once told me I am very passionate, and it seems like a weakness at times.  I think I just need a dose of home, a cold one with my old friends, a break from grad school before the final push to my degree...and then a sweet job and a big house in the country so I can resume farming like mom and dad did for years.

"A dreams a dream
And all this livings so much harder than it seems
But girl don't let your dreams be dreams 
You know this livings not so hard as it seems
Don't let your dreams dreams
Your dreams your dreams be dreams"


-Jack Johnson

Monday, October 25, 2010

The remainder of SEG in Denver

Our second night of shenanigans in Denver involved meeting up with an old friend of mine from high school.  She brought her cousin along, who was a total fox, to this food and wine place called Sketch Food and Wine.  I'm guessing the name comes from all the art and photos on the wall, a great place indeed.  Great sandwiches and cheap wine.  So we sat with my friend and her cousin and laughed and talked the night away with 2 dollar glasses of box wine, classy.  I pushed my chair away from the table to adjust my seat and ran it into the woman behind me, little did I know, this was when the night was going to get alot better, as if it could.  Turns out this woman was the owner of a medicinal marijuana dispensary in Denver and the woman she was with worked there also.  We started talking and laughing with these women also and Sudershan and I were having a blast.  I mean what two guys wouldn't have a great time with 4 beautiful women??  The girl who worked for this women was gorgeous, and all over me when I gave her a hug.  Anyways, the night winded down and we cabbed it back to the hotel to find Dr. Moysey still working hard.  Thursday was full of meetings and talks, then onto the plane and back to Clemson around 1am.  If I go back to Denver tomorrow, it will not be too soon.  Cheers to you Denver, and cheers to you Marybeth, Molly, Shawna, and Ashleigh, it was a great night.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

SEG Day One

We got in to Denver late on Monday due to flight delays in Atlanta. The hotel had a problem with our room so I coerced the beuatiful concierge to send us up some beers on the house. After some revisions to my presentation, I tried to sleep but I was so nervous about getting to the conference that I was awake every hour or so checking the clock. Needless to say, my presentation went very well and got a barrage of questions at the end. Some of them coming from very respectable names in the community. After some congratulations from friends, I sat down and listened to the remainder of the talks in my session. To my surprise, I am better at public speaking than most professionals. Roaming around the exhibitors floor was great, lots of booth babes and free swag. After the conference was a near surface geophysics reception where we ate food and drank lots of beer then Sudershan and I escaped to play pool and get away from the science conversations. We ran into a crowd of people from the conference, our advisor being one of them, and followed them to a pub where I played a practical joke on my advisor. It could have went better as the amount of laughs was scarce. At this pub Sudershan and I talked with some girls and had some laughs, a great night all in all. Now its morning and Denver is smiling at me, and I'm smiling back, when I leave it will be too soon.
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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Misleading

To believe in a personified being, omnipotent, omniscient, etc. is irrational.  To learn from the stories of this being is moral.  Please, do not confuse the two.  When religion clouds your mind, it's hard to understand other people who are also jaded, or lucid.  Please, for your sake and for the worlds sake, be yourself.

Get back to it

Good morning blog.  Last night, I dreamed that I had moved back to Buffalo from Clemson, and started working at the Lexington Co Op again.  So I guess you could say I kinda miss that place.  The only reason I left that place was because my new manager Matt was a total jerk.  He was only concerned about numbers and couldn't find the time to talk to you as a person, it was just "hey, here's some work for you, do it".  But this was never a problem for me, I always worked hard and got my stuff done and had time to chat with people and be their friend.

Anyways, regarding the title of this post, back in June/August I was exercising regularly and watching what I eat and it worked out great, I lost around 15lbs.  However, I fell off the wagon and stopped both of those things.  I keep telling myself to get back on it, even if I only run a couple days out of the week, it's better than not at all.  I've just been so damn busy lately with this presentation for SEG and this paper for IJG, I don't have any motivation.  I guess if I end up at 250lbs by the end of grad school I'll have some motivation.

Also, I just found out that I will not be attending AGU this fall in San Francisco.  It's my fault though, I was so busy that I forgot to submit a proposal to get money to go out there.  Well, this gives me time to get ahead on my research I guess.  I keep thinking about graduating and defending, whether it be in August or December of 2011.  I haven't told my advisor yet, but I just don't see myself staying for my PhD at this moment.  I really want to get out of school for a while and make some money.  I mean if I could live for this long on less than $15,000 a year, imagine what I could do with $40-60,000.

Fish who keeps on swimming is the first to chill upstream. -311

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Chopping away at this thing called school

Well, it's a week from the day I'll be presenting at the SEG conference in Denver and I just made some revisions to my presentation for my adviser to look over.  I'll be glad when this is over and I can mosey around the meeting and pick up a bunch of free stuff and drink some good western beer.  Can't stop there though, final draft of a journal paper to the International Journal of Geophysics is due November 1.  Oh man....why do I agree to these things.  On a lighter note, once that is over, I may be tripping down to ATL to catch a show, immediately followed by tripping to Asheville to catch a show by the same group, yeah....I dig them.  Speaking of digging, I'm hoping this girl digs me.....cuz I dig her.  We'll see how it goes.  After the relax hits me after those shows, it's back to work on the research and hopefully start writing my thesis.

Changing gears momentarily, why do people have to be so ignorant about things?  Carl Paladino, a republican guebernatorial candidate for NY made some horrible remarks about homosexuals.  What's the big deal?  Who cares if some dude likes another dude in that way, or if some girl likes another girl in that way.  Let them be.  It's just that simple.  Yeah, they can't have kids naturally, but I think I stand with many when I say the world could use a few less humans.  But that's an entirely different blog, maybe someday I'll rant about overpopulation.  All I have to say is "Idiocracy"...watch it.

Well, I'm off to a shower, then meeting with the adviser about the presentation.

PS. Started watching Dexter, good show, bad for productivity.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Great weekend!

My weekend began on Thursday night with a show down at 356 in Clemson.  A great band from Boone, NC by the name of Do It To Julia played and rocked the house.  What a great band, it's easy to forget how music can make you forget about day to day stuff.  It's incredible, the power that music has over people.  I really think it has the ability to bring people together from different walks of life and dance and appreciate things that songs are made of.
Onward with the weekend, Friday night brought some celebratory drinks with some great people, one in particular, for a birthday bash.  Tequila shots for the special lady.  Many smiles were had, along with some good food.  After that, a great friend came to visit and we continued the celebration into the night, which included a party on the roof and decorated cookies.
Saturday consisted of a tour of Clemson, the Geology Museum and the Lake, followed by some BBQ and Fall for Greenville.  Then on to the best part of the weekend, Zach Deputy at The Handlebar.
I had mentioned about music making people happy and lightfooted, I have never laughed and danced so much at a show as I did last night.

How does music make you feel?
Does it help you when you need it?
Take a listen to Zach Deputy and find yourself tapping your foot.

Peace and Love
Adam

Oh Man!!! A blog.....

Well, just in case some people are interested in what I have to say about somethings, I've decided to start a blog....I doubt anyone will view this other than myself.  We'll see where this goes, maybe some people will appreciate my opinions.

Talk to Ya'll real soon
Adam