Here's my random posting to prove that I participate (however seldom) in the Web 2.0 experience. As you can see from my blog I've posted all of 6 (now 7 but this doesn't really count) times in the past 9 months. I find it challenging enough engaging life in the real world, so I rarely find time to share my real life with the virtual world.
I'll probably play with some of the other sites like 43 things or make a picture book directly through Picasa (anything you upload to blogger is automatically stored their anyways... but I could play with it some more). I'm crazy busy right now though, so for the assignment I'm just going to go the easy route and submit something easy.
I haven't really run across any aspects of Blogger that I dislike. When I do make use of it I'm primarily posting summaries of trips and adventures along with some pictures. What I like about Blogger best is that it's NOT as much of a networking site as Facebook or MySpace. My friends and family are aware of my blog but no one else would really come across it unless they google exactly "brianbirchler." Thus, blogspot lets me communicate more easily with those I care to but I don't feel overwhelmed sorting through extraneous information.
Finally, regarding how I might implement blogger (or Web 2.0) in general into my curriculum, I'm not really sure. As a math instructor I'd have to get really creative with a lot of the blog or social networking type sites to incorporate them into my lesson plan. One could more easily imagine some projects based on creating wikipedia entries or utilizing google earth. Since I haven't made a lot of use of Web 2.0 principles for myself (or written lesson plans for that matter), I'll have to reflect on them a bit more before I'd have some really creative ideas for classroom use.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Moab
Ahhh....spring break. Having just quit the lab (see post 30 minutes ago) I actually get to enjoy it again in true undergrad style. While I am staying home during the week to catch up in school (again see recent post), I'm taking full advantage of the weekends. I just got home from a power-trip to Moab late last night and next weekend I'll be heading out to Fruita, CO to mountain bike with my Boulder friends. I'll post on the latter in a week, but now for the former.
Moab + beautiful weather + mountain bike + camping + friends + seriously repressed Brian = marvelous. I headed down early Saturday morning to meet up with my friend Ben and some of his family for riding (with Ben) and camping (with the family). Other than a slight boo-boo where I remembered 30 minutes into the drive that I'd left my registration and proof of insurance at home (took it out of the car to photocopy for some legal garbage), the drive down went swimmingly. I met with Ben and crew at a beautiful campsite just outside the entrance to Canyonlands NP. This picture was taken literally 40 feet from where I'd parked my truck:
Speaking of the truck, this was the first time I've actually justified ownership of a 4x4 vehicle. The road into the campsite was definitely 4WD and required enough clearance that even my car was dragging bottom in some spots.
After a couple of hours around camp, Ben and I headed out to Sovereign trail for our ride. It was a blast but pretty hard on me. For my first ride of the season it was a bit more technical than I was anticipating. I think I endo-ed no less than 4 times and definitely crashed at least 6 additional times. Miraculously, my body has only minor scrapes on bruises. My bike on the other hand... Let's just say I recently got back from the bike shop and we're talking new brake levers, one new cable, and major tune up on every remaining component except the front fork and the pedals/bottom bracket. Joy. Fortunately, the bike shop knows me well and they'll rush it through in time for me to go to Fruita this weekend. They are either nice, or just recognize a good business opportunity when they see one (since I'll probably be bringing a banged up bike in next Monday as well). But the ride... Fabulous. Beautiful desert country, and a nice mix of dirt singletrack, ledges, and slickrock.
That night we had a delicious dinner (buffalo tacos with fresh cilantro, avocado, and salsa) compliments of Christa (Ben's wife). We had a nice fire and appreciated the glory of stars (new moon...so no natural light pollution). I slept under the stars in the back of the truck and it was fantastic. The next morning we had another magnificent meal of eggs, sausage, hash browns, and muffins. I need to camp with Ben's family more often...they roll in style. I'm usually eating canned beans and instant oatmeal. I then headed down to Indian Creek to hang out with my friends Eric and Polly while they did some serious crack climbing. Finally, around 5:30, I hopped in the car and drove home. It was a lot of driving in a short amount of time (about 750 miles in two days), but it was totally worth it.
Aside from the Moab trip, I also got out for a nice hike in the foothills behind my house about two weeks ago after a big storm. Here's a pic of SLC on one of those rare, gorgeous days where there is absolutely no air pollution (you can click on these pics to see them full size by the way):
Adios,
-b
Moab + beautiful weather + mountain bike + camping + friends + seriously repressed Brian = marvelous. I headed down early Saturday morning to meet up with my friend Ben and some of his family for riding (with Ben) and camping (with the family). Other than a slight boo-boo where I remembered 30 minutes into the drive that I'd left my registration and proof of insurance at home (took it out of the car to photocopy for some legal garbage), the drive down went swimmingly. I met with Ben and crew at a beautiful campsite just outside the entrance to Canyonlands NP. This picture was taken literally 40 feet from where I'd parked my truck:
Speaking of the truck, this was the first time I've actually justified ownership of a 4x4 vehicle. The road into the campsite was definitely 4WD and required enough clearance that even my car was dragging bottom in some spots.
After a couple of hours around camp, Ben and I headed out to Sovereign trail for our ride. It was a blast but pretty hard on me. For my first ride of the season it was a bit more technical than I was anticipating. I think I endo-ed no less than 4 times and definitely crashed at least 6 additional times. Miraculously, my body has only minor scrapes on bruises. My bike on the other hand... Let's just say I recently got back from the bike shop and we're talking new brake levers, one new cable, and major tune up on every remaining component except the front fork and the pedals/bottom bracket. Joy. Fortunately, the bike shop knows me well and they'll rush it through in time for me to go to Fruita this weekend. They are either nice, or just recognize a good business opportunity when they see one (since I'll probably be bringing a banged up bike in next Monday as well). But the ride... Fabulous. Beautiful desert country, and a nice mix of dirt singletrack, ledges, and slickrock.
That night we had a delicious dinner (buffalo tacos with fresh cilantro, avocado, and salsa) compliments of Christa (Ben's wife). We had a nice fire and appreciated the glory of stars (new moon...so no natural light pollution). I slept under the stars in the back of the truck and it was fantastic. The next morning we had another magnificent meal of eggs, sausage, hash browns, and muffins. I need to camp with Ben's family more often...they roll in style. I'm usually eating canned beans and instant oatmeal. I then headed down to Indian Creek to hang out with my friends Eric and Polly while they did some serious crack climbing. Finally, around 5:30, I hopped in the car and drove home. It was a lot of driving in a short amount of time (about 750 miles in two days), but it was totally worth it.
Aside from the Moab trip, I also got out for a nice hike in the foothills behind my house about two weeks ago after a big storm. Here's a pic of SLC on one of those rare, gorgeous days where there is absolutely no air pollution (you can click on these pics to see them full size by the way):
Adios,
-b
Back from the Dead (slight hyperbole)
Hola to my blog readership of 10, ok 5, ok my mom, Dacus, and possibly Kyle. My prolonged absence was associated with the same reason I never post to my blog more than (in this case much more than) once a month: work. But Hallelujah! I have finally quit the MRL (muscoloskeletal research labs for those of you unfamiliar with my misadventures in graduate school). I have been contemplating quiting my PhD program and moving into secondary education for more than a year now. I'm finally making that plan a reality this May when I will hopefully start a Master's in Education program and earn secondary licensure in mathematics.
The trouble with work is related to how my boss and I handled my transition out of my lab. I warned Jeff (my boss) about my intentions last summer and told him I'd officially be leaving in May before the holiday break. We had a grant deadline coming up in March, and not wanting to hose several of my friends working on the project, I told Jeff that I'd be willing to work as much as I could but I had several higher priority commitments than the lab (I'm TAing a cardiovascular physiology course this semester and taking 12 credits of math classes so I will have the appropriate coursework qualifications to teach). Jeff said "That's great [that I'd still help out instead of outright quit] and we're happy to pay you whatever you're willing to work." In my constant attempts to make everyone happy and avoid conflict, I probably mislead Jeff by telling him I hoped to work 20 hours a week, but that there might be weeks where I could only put in 10-15 hours. This was ridiculously naive and optimistic. It quickly became apparent that I could only work 10 hours a week at best, and after a month of falling behind in class (definitely failed a few midterms) and shirking my TA responsibilities, I told Jeff just that...that I was only able to give him 10 hours.
This occurred about a month before the grant deadline and a week and a half before a conference abstract deadline that Jeff apparently wanted me to submit something for (of which I was totally unaware). Needless to say, his response was very brief, and very not cordial. Instead of taking the appropriate course of action and just quitting, my pathological desire to please caused me to shirk school/teaching even more and work even harder to get Jeff what he needed. All in all, I probably ended up averaging 30 hours a week of research for the months of Jan and 1/2 of Feb. This situation was ridiculous, but I didn't want to burn any bridges so I just sucked it up and cranked.
I quit about a week and a 1/2 ago and life since has been great. Jeff was perfectly fine with me quitting, which kind of pissed me off. If I'd quit in Jan or Feb I'm sure he would have had some choice things to say (given what he said when I told him I needed to cut back hours). The fact that it seemed he could care less now kind of implies to me I was just being used to meet the grant deadline and Jeff could care less after that. Oh well. I've been catching up in classes, going to the gym, swimming, and generally doing things that keep me sane again. I'll add a couple posts with some recent pics from hikes and bikes very shortly. This post could bite me in the ass one day if for some strange reason Jeff comes across it, but I don't care, it felt good to write. He's done some genuinely thoughtful things for me over the past year and a half (like buying me books on teaching math in the classroom for Christmas), but for the sake of future PhD candidates I wish he'd work on his people skills a bit more. I can't wait to teach. I'm sure I'll start blogging about that over the summer as I start getting classroom exposure. Adios,
-b
The trouble with work is related to how my boss and I handled my transition out of my lab. I warned Jeff (my boss) about my intentions last summer and told him I'd officially be leaving in May before the holiday break. We had a grant deadline coming up in March, and not wanting to hose several of my friends working on the project, I told Jeff that I'd be willing to work as much as I could but I had several higher priority commitments than the lab (I'm TAing a cardiovascular physiology course this semester and taking 12 credits of math classes so I will have the appropriate coursework qualifications to teach). Jeff said "That's great [that I'd still help out instead of outright quit] and we're happy to pay you whatever you're willing to work." In my constant attempts to make everyone happy and avoid conflict, I probably mislead Jeff by telling him I hoped to work 20 hours a week, but that there might be weeks where I could only put in 10-15 hours. This was ridiculously naive and optimistic. It quickly became apparent that I could only work 10 hours a week at best, and after a month of falling behind in class (definitely failed a few midterms) and shirking my TA responsibilities, I told Jeff just that...that I was only able to give him 10 hours.
This occurred about a month before the grant deadline and a week and a half before a conference abstract deadline that Jeff apparently wanted me to submit something for (of which I was totally unaware). Needless to say, his response was very brief, and very not cordial. Instead of taking the appropriate course of action and just quitting, my pathological desire to please caused me to shirk school/teaching even more and work even harder to get Jeff what he needed. All in all, I probably ended up averaging 30 hours a week of research for the months of Jan and 1/2 of Feb. This situation was ridiculous, but I didn't want to burn any bridges so I just sucked it up and cranked.
I quit about a week and a 1/2 ago and life since has been great. Jeff was perfectly fine with me quitting, which kind of pissed me off. If I'd quit in Jan or Feb I'm sure he would have had some choice things to say (given what he said when I told him I needed to cut back hours). The fact that it seemed he could care less now kind of implies to me I was just being used to meet the grant deadline and Jeff could care less after that. Oh well. I've been catching up in classes, going to the gym, swimming, and generally doing things that keep me sane again. I'll add a couple posts with some recent pics from hikes and bikes very shortly. This post could bite me in the ass one day if for some strange reason Jeff comes across it, but I don't care, it felt good to write. He's done some genuinely thoughtful things for me over the past year and a half (like buying me books on teaching math in the classroom for Christmas), but for the sake of future PhD candidates I wish he'd work on his people skills a bit more. I can't wait to teach. I'm sure I'll start blogging about that over the summer as I start getting classroom exposure. Adios,
-b
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Thanksgiving
Hello again from the realm of my head. I've been lazy and haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks, but I'm wrapping up one of the best Thanksgivings ever...so I thought I'd put up some pics and a description.
I stayed in SLC for the second year (sorry mom), but this time around my friend Stephanie from northern Michigan, my best friend Mike (displaced from Michigan to Boulder), and Stef's good friend Kristine (displaced from Michigan to Denver) all made it out for the weekend. Stef flew in the Saturday before Thanksgiving and we went on a power trip down to Arches NP. We left late morning Sunday, arrived in the park around 3:30, set up camp, and then raced over to delicate arch to catch the sunset. We just missed the sunset but still caught some really beautiful colors in the sky. We stayed for a while and were actually the second to last group to leave, so it was really cool seing DA in such solitude. Here's a self portrait of Stef and I at DA in the waning light:
That night I nearly froze to death. I have one good 15 degree bag which chivalry dictated I give to Stef. I opted for my $10 used from the outdoor rec center, no loft, backup-bag (more accurately described as a light blanket). I spent the night in thick socks, capilene pants, insulated pants, a capilene top, and R1 jacket, and my micropuff (insulated down jacket) and still got the chills. I should have remembered that trick about filling your Nalgene with boiling water before bed and putting it at your feet. Regardless, the next day was sunny with a high of 60 so the chills were quickly cooked out. We went on a fantastic hike in Devil's Garden, and then did the obligatory driving tour of the remaining arches. We caught a delicious pizza dinner in Moab before heading back to SLC that evening. Here's a picture looking out from Double Arch and another overlooking the top of Landscape Arch (that one is definitely coming down soon):
Tues/Weds I worked while Stef hiked around in the day. Wednesday night Stef and I braved the pre-Thanksgiving shopping scene to get food for Thursday. We spent most of the evening prepping squash soup, twice-baked potatoes, and a home-made apple pie (props to my boy Tender, a.k.a. Andy Anderson, for hooking me up with a fantastic pie recipe). We finally crashed around midnight, and were briefly awoken when Mike and Kris arrived from their post-work drive to SLC from Boulder, CO. The next morning was pretty mellow. We went for a very chilly hike in the foothills behind my house to justify the mass quantities of food that would be consumed that evening. My debut self-prepared Thanksgiving dinner was a fantastic success. In addition to the aforementioned goodies we had sweet potato pudding, salad, turkey, stuffing, pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies, cherry wine from Traverse City, and more. I'll be rocking the leftovers for several days as I grossly overestimated on quantity.
Friday was another great day. We had another mellow morning before going on a driving tour of the Wasatch front. I took everybody up to Snowbird ski resort and then we did a short hike in Little Cottonwood canyon. That evening we went bouldering at the Front and then stuffed ourselves with Thai for dinner. Here's a pic of Mike, Kris, and Stef looking out towards the mouth of LCC during our hike:
Saturday (today) is bringing us near the end of our fun. We woke up at 6:15 to head down to Diamond Fork canyon and soak in some hotsprings. It was a pretty rushed affair b/c Stef had to be back for a 2:00 flight. We basically drove an hour, hiked an hour, soaked an hour, hiked an hour, drove an hour, and then rushed Stef to the airport. The canyon was beautiful and we had a blast though. This afternoon Mike and I went for a bikeride along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail while Kris walked around downtown. I'm currently typing this blog while Kris reads and Mike is passed out on the floor. Tomorrow, sadly, they'll have to go back to Boulder, and I'll have to clean the house (a one-bedroom apartment doesn't sustain 4 people very gracefully) and get ready for another week of research. Here's one last picture of the trio of friends at the hotsprings:
I hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was as merry as ours. Adios,
-b
I stayed in SLC for the second year (sorry mom), but this time around my friend Stephanie from northern Michigan, my best friend Mike (displaced from Michigan to Boulder), and Stef's good friend Kristine (displaced from Michigan to Denver) all made it out for the weekend. Stef flew in the Saturday before Thanksgiving and we went on a power trip down to Arches NP. We left late morning Sunday, arrived in the park around 3:30, set up camp, and then raced over to delicate arch to catch the sunset. We just missed the sunset but still caught some really beautiful colors in the sky. We stayed for a while and were actually the second to last group to leave, so it was really cool seing DA in such solitude. Here's a self portrait of Stef and I at DA in the waning light:
That night I nearly froze to death. I have one good 15 degree bag which chivalry dictated I give to Stef. I opted for my $10 used from the outdoor rec center, no loft, backup-bag (more accurately described as a light blanket). I spent the night in thick socks, capilene pants, insulated pants, a capilene top, and R1 jacket, and my micropuff (insulated down jacket) and still got the chills. I should have remembered that trick about filling your Nalgene with boiling water before bed and putting it at your feet. Regardless, the next day was sunny with a high of 60 so the chills were quickly cooked out. We went on a fantastic hike in Devil's Garden, and then did the obligatory driving tour of the remaining arches. We caught a delicious pizza dinner in Moab before heading back to SLC that evening. Here's a picture looking out from Double Arch and another overlooking the top of Landscape Arch (that one is definitely coming down soon):
Tues/Weds I worked while Stef hiked around in the day. Wednesday night Stef and I braved the pre-Thanksgiving shopping scene to get food for Thursday. We spent most of the evening prepping squash soup, twice-baked potatoes, and a home-made apple pie (props to my boy Tender, a.k.a. Andy Anderson, for hooking me up with a fantastic pie recipe). We finally crashed around midnight, and were briefly awoken when Mike and Kris arrived from their post-work drive to SLC from Boulder, CO. The next morning was pretty mellow. We went for a very chilly hike in the foothills behind my house to justify the mass quantities of food that would be consumed that evening. My debut self-prepared Thanksgiving dinner was a fantastic success. In addition to the aforementioned goodies we had sweet potato pudding, salad, turkey, stuffing, pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies, cherry wine from Traverse City, and more. I'll be rocking the leftovers for several days as I grossly overestimated on quantity.
Friday was another great day. We had another mellow morning before going on a driving tour of the Wasatch front. I took everybody up to Snowbird ski resort and then we did a short hike in Little Cottonwood canyon. That evening we went bouldering at the Front and then stuffed ourselves with Thai for dinner. Here's a pic of Mike, Kris, and Stef looking out towards the mouth of LCC during our hike:
Saturday (today) is bringing us near the end of our fun. We woke up at 6:15 to head down to Diamond Fork canyon and soak in some hotsprings. It was a pretty rushed affair b/c Stef had to be back for a 2:00 flight. We basically drove an hour, hiked an hour, soaked an hour, hiked an hour, drove an hour, and then rushed Stef to the airport. The canyon was beautiful and we had a blast though. This afternoon Mike and I went for a bikeride along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail while Kris walked around downtown. I'm currently typing this blog while Kris reads and Mike is passed out on the floor. Tomorrow, sadly, they'll have to go back to Boulder, and I'll have to clean the house (a one-bedroom apartment doesn't sustain 4 people very gracefully) and get ready for another week of research. Here's one last picture of the trio of friends at the hotsprings:
I hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was as merry as ours. Adios,
-b
Friday, November 10, 2006
Summer Recap
So having not discovered blogspot until this fall, I feel like I need to do some retroactive posting of pictures from my various summer adventures. Here's a quick run down of the fun:
1) Memorial Weekend: Bryce and Zion
Mom and Dad come out for their first visit to SLC. I took them down to Zion and Bryce NPs for the holiday weekend. Zion was really cool but way to crowded for my tastes. I would also recommend that with the exception of angel's landing, just skip Zion proper and spend most of your time in Kolob Canyon. This region seemed to see much less traffic and was more scenic in my opinion. Bryce was fantastic. I would love to go back there in the winter when the hoodoos and pine trees are covered in snow. Here's a picture looking out from the base of the amphitheater region of Bryce:
2) Mid-June: Indian Peaks Wilderness Area (IPWA)
I flew out to Boulder for a long weekend to hang out with my friend Mike (and other former Ann Arbor pals). We went for a two night backpack in IPWA which is just south of Rocky Mountain NP. It was gorgeous. We camped up at a high alpine lake and went for lots of day hikes, including one up to a pass on the Continental Divide. My only regret was not having a fly-rod. The lake we camped at was teeming with 15-20 inch brook trout. Here's a pic taken by a friendly rock at the top of Buchanan Pass:
3) Early July: Mount Timpanogos
A handful of us from the lab (and significant others) made an overnight out of hiking to the top of Mt. Timpanogos in the Wasatch Front. It was brutally steep but the scenery was absolutely amazing. The entire hike up to the valley at the base of summit is a steep, switchbacking ascent along which twin waterfalls are constantly coming off the side of the mountain. The wildflowers were amazing at this time of year. We hiked up to the base of the summit late in the afternoon, camped, woke up early to catch a sunrise and summit, then hiked out. I couldn't believe something this beautiful was only a 45 minute drive from my house. Here's a picture of my silhouette catching the sunrise over the Uintah mountains:
4) Late July: High Uintahs
My brother Pete rolled out for his first visit to Utah. We spent most of the time around SLC, but we did head east into the High Uintahs for a couple days of backpacking and fly-fishing. The mountains were beautiful, but at times it was difficult to appreciate their majesty through the swarms of mosquitoes that were constantly around us. In a mere 3 days and 2 nights my brother and I consumed a half a bottle of REI Jungle Juice. That stuff is 100% DEET, so I'm amazed one of us hasn't sprouted a 3rd eye yet. Bugs aside, the trip was great and we caught copious amounts of small (12 inch) brook trout. Peter was particularly thrilled at getting to make large fires and cook fresh mountain trout for dinner. A picture of Pete with a fresh kill:
Well...that about sums it up. August and September were 100% lab all the time. I managed to get in lots of local mountain biking during that time, but that was it. I had a conference and a grant deadline to meet in mid-Sept and early October, so definitely no weekend adventures. I'll be looking forward to having some travel fun again Thanksgiving week when my friend Stephanie from northern Michigan comes to visit. Adios,
-b
1) Memorial Weekend: Bryce and Zion
Mom and Dad come out for their first visit to SLC. I took them down to Zion and Bryce NPs for the holiday weekend. Zion was really cool but way to crowded for my tastes. I would also recommend that with the exception of angel's landing, just skip Zion proper and spend most of your time in Kolob Canyon. This region seemed to see much less traffic and was more scenic in my opinion. Bryce was fantastic. I would love to go back there in the winter when the hoodoos and pine trees are covered in snow. Here's a picture looking out from the base of the amphitheater region of Bryce:
2) Mid-June: Indian Peaks Wilderness Area (IPWA)
I flew out to Boulder for a long weekend to hang out with my friend Mike (and other former Ann Arbor pals). We went for a two night backpack in IPWA which is just south of Rocky Mountain NP. It was gorgeous. We camped up at a high alpine lake and went for lots of day hikes, including one up to a pass on the Continental Divide. My only regret was not having a fly-rod. The lake we camped at was teeming with 15-20 inch brook trout. Here's a pic taken by a friendly rock at the top of Buchanan Pass:
3) Early July: Mount Timpanogos
A handful of us from the lab (and significant others) made an overnight out of hiking to the top of Mt. Timpanogos in the Wasatch Front. It was brutally steep but the scenery was absolutely amazing. The entire hike up to the valley at the base of summit is a steep, switchbacking ascent along which twin waterfalls are constantly coming off the side of the mountain. The wildflowers were amazing at this time of year. We hiked up to the base of the summit late in the afternoon, camped, woke up early to catch a sunrise and summit, then hiked out. I couldn't believe something this beautiful was only a 45 minute drive from my house. Here's a picture of my silhouette catching the sunrise over the Uintah mountains:
4) Late July: High Uintahs
My brother Pete rolled out for his first visit to Utah. We spent most of the time around SLC, but we did head east into the High Uintahs for a couple days of backpacking and fly-fishing. The mountains were beautiful, but at times it was difficult to appreciate their majesty through the swarms of mosquitoes that were constantly around us. In a mere 3 days and 2 nights my brother and I consumed a half a bottle of REI Jungle Juice. That stuff is 100% DEET, so I'm amazed one of us hasn't sprouted a 3rd eye yet. Bugs aside, the trip was great and we caught copious amounts of small (12 inch) brook trout. Peter was particularly thrilled at getting to make large fires and cook fresh mountain trout for dinner. A picture of Pete with a fresh kill:
Well...that about sums it up. August and September were 100% lab all the time. I managed to get in lots of local mountain biking during that time, but that was it. I had a conference and a grant deadline to meet in mid-Sept and early October, so definitely no weekend adventures. I'll be looking forward to having some travel fun again Thanksgiving week when my friend Stephanie from northern Michigan comes to visit. Adios,
-b
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Silly Blogspot
So here's a fundamental flaw with blogger.com:
They allocate server space to host photos you upload to your blog, but they won't host a photo uploaded to your profile. Therefore, I had to make this silly post to upload a photo of my face that I wanted on my profile. That's all folks.
-b
They allocate server space to host photos you upload to your blog, but they won't host a photo uploaded to your profile. Therefore, I had to make this silly post to upload a photo of my face that I wanted on my profile. That's all folks.
-b
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Sold my soul
Well, I finally did it. I sold my soul to the mult-media empire known as Comcast. After attempting unsuccessfully to poach wireless internet from someone in my neighborhood for a year, I decided to bite the bullet and just pay for it myself. I can handle the $29.95/mo. promotional rate, but once it kicks up to the full $55 that will just feel like extortion. Comcast is well aware that the internet is slowly becoming a mandatory utility (at least for my technology addicted generation), and, poised as the only company capable of providing consistent, high bandwidth service, they are charging service fees that make natural gas look cheap. Sigh.
Protests aside, I will now start using the internet like the crack that it is (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6062980.stm) and I thought what better way to start than creating my own blog. Blogs are a brilliant idea. Now, instead of actually calling my friends and family and maintaining a personal connection, I can simply point them all to www.brianbirchler.blogspot.com and save my time for more important things, like watching pointless videos on youtube or networking with people I barely know on Facebook. Man the internet is friggin' sweet.
So for my first blog I will give a power recap of my first year and change in SLC, UT. I moved out in Aug '05 to play in the mountains and start a PhD in Bioengineering. The mountains are great. The PhD...not so much. I'm currently trying to phase out of the program and enter the realm of secondary education. That subject definitely merits a second blog, so I'll get to that later. I've met lots of great people out here. My lab is fantastic. If I could describe them in a sentence, it would be "the love children of a nobel prize winning scientist and a drunken fratboy." These guys are crazy smart, career driven, and work super-hard. They also party more often and harder than anyone I've ever met. This is either a tribute to their alchol tolerance or a sad comment on my social life (a little of both I think). Beyond the weekend festivities though, each of them is amazingly cool and really eased my transition to a new city. I have to give a special shout out to Trevor & Tenneal (TnT) for letting me crash with them for my first week in town and for being suicidally fast hikers. Perhaps another shout to Belgian Steve for replacing my best friend Mike C. as a biking & bouldering partner and for our shared obsession with global domination (a.k.a. RISK).
Other than the labmates, I also love hanging out with my friends Eric & Polly Dacus (Eric is a fellow bioengineering PhD student and climber) and Bill Cutting (an old friend of my Dad's from H.S. and college). As the lab has owned me for the past year (and it's filled with such great people), my social circle apparently hasn't branched out much beyond its borders yet, but that's cool.
Ok... I got interupted for a half and hour, lost my train of thought, and have to finish a bunch of housecleaning, so time to roll for now. More later. Adios.
Protests aside, I will now start using the internet like the crack that it is (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6062980.stm) and I thought what better way to start than creating my own blog. Blogs are a brilliant idea. Now, instead of actually calling my friends and family and maintaining a personal connection, I can simply point them all to www.brianbirchler.blogspot.com and save my time for more important things, like watching pointless videos on youtube or networking with people I barely know on Facebook. Man the internet is friggin' sweet.
So for my first blog I will give a power recap of my first year and change in SLC, UT. I moved out in Aug '05 to play in the mountains and start a PhD in Bioengineering. The mountains are great. The PhD...not so much. I'm currently trying to phase out of the program and enter the realm of secondary education. That subject definitely merits a second blog, so I'll get to that later. I've met lots of great people out here. My lab is fantastic. If I could describe them in a sentence, it would be "the love children of a nobel prize winning scientist and a drunken fratboy." These guys are crazy smart, career driven, and work super-hard. They also party more often and harder than anyone I've ever met. This is either a tribute to their alchol tolerance or a sad comment on my social life (a little of both I think). Beyond the weekend festivities though, each of them is amazingly cool and really eased my transition to a new city. I have to give a special shout out to Trevor & Tenneal (TnT) for letting me crash with them for my first week in town and for being suicidally fast hikers. Perhaps another shout to Belgian Steve for replacing my best friend Mike C. as a biking & bouldering partner and for our shared obsession with global domination (a.k.a. RISK).
Other than the labmates, I also love hanging out with my friends Eric & Polly Dacus (Eric is a fellow bioengineering PhD student and climber) and Bill Cutting (an old friend of my Dad's from H.S. and college). As the lab has owned me for the past year (and it's filled with such great people), my social circle apparently hasn't branched out much beyond its borders yet, but that's cool.
Ok... I got interupted for a half and hour, lost my train of thought, and have to finish a bunch of housecleaning, so time to roll for now. More later. Adios.
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