monitorhead

• Since 1999, I was not registered to vote until my wife filled out a card for me so I would vote in the 2004 presidential election.  I voted by absentee ballot
• Sometimes I check my own blog expecting to see something new
• Sometimes I think I should have studied computer science instead of chemistry
• To me, the scariest thing about moving to Texas is going a month without a steady connection to the internet
• I think graduate school has created a false reality for me where deadlines are soft, regular working hours don’t matter, LA traffic does not exist and the brightest people in the country make less than the guy sweeping the floor
• Days when I don’t drink coffee never really start for me
• From April to July, I averaged 2 hours of video game play per day
• Secretly, I look forward to buying a Macintosh computer

While here at BNL, I learned from my safety test that 50% of Americans will contract some form of cancer and 1 in 5 Americans dies from cancer.  Luckily for me, I may already be imbibing a dietary supplement shown to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease (heart disease is the #1 cause of death in Americans).  A study has found that coffee contributes more antioxidants -which are linked with fighting heart disease and cancer- to the diet than cranberries, apples and tomatoes. According to the article, other benefits of coffee include increased alertness, postponed muscle fatigue, reduced risk of cirrhosis, and alleviation of asthma syptoms in some cases.  I never knew I was being so healthy.  Drawbacks do exist such as increased irritability, insomnia, heartburn and high blood pressure.  My friend, Ryan, recently posted a link that calculates the number of caffeinated drinks it takes to kill you- around 112 espressos for me.  So long as I can moderate my coffee intake, I should be doing fine.

To start off my re-entry into blogging after the past 10 days or so, I would like to recap (briefly) the last 125 hours.  I have been at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) part of Brookhaven National Laboratories (BNL) since Wednesday to perform x-ray scattering experiments as part of thesis research.  Here is the breakdown of a trip gone badly:

23 Aug- After awaking at 3:30 am to catch a shuttle to the airport, this day only goes downhill.  My connecting flight from Atlanta to Long Island is cancelled twice and I spend the night (a few hours of it anyway) in a Days Inn located directly in the landing flight path.

24 Aug- I awake bright and early to catch a flight to NY La Guardia airport (not my destination) from where I will rent a car and drive to the lab at the opposite end of Long Island.  Upon arriving at La Guardia, we discover our bags did not make the trip.  I round out the day taking safety tests and buying toiletries and underwear at the local Target.

25 Aug- My labmate and I spend 9 hours building our apparatus and setting up our experiment during which time, the safety administrators at the lab tell us that a critical part of our device can not be used due to electrical safety hazards.

26 Aug- Having found a suitable replacement for our unapproved equipment, we begin experiments in earnest at 10pm.  We begin 12-hour shift work.

27 Aug- We learn that there is unscheduled time following the scheduled end of our experiment.  This means we can recover some of the lost time during our troubled setup time.  This is the first good news we have had.

28 Aug- I just realized that it is Sunday and I have only written 1 page of the last of 3 research proposals due on Sept. 1 as part of my thesis program requirements.  I’d better get crackin’. 

I have also thrown together a quick photo album of my local surroundings here at the beamline.  If you are interested in seeing where I go click here. 

Here is a story for all you Mac fans out there.  It seems that a near riot broke out this morning as 1,000 people rushed to buy used iBooks for $50 from the Henrico County school district in Virginia.  The story describes people being pushed to the ground, scraped, beaten with chairs.  One woman even wet her pants rather than relinquish her place in line.

This is the kind of story that Apple loves to see in the news.  People in a mad dash to get their hands on amazing Apple products.  The funny thing is the cheap laptops were 4 year old iBooks-probably not the most desirable of computer hardware.  Still, I think the frenzy is partly due to the recent craze surrounding the iPod.  The iPod has really revived the entire Apple company.  I read that 21 million iPods have sold and 18 million were in the past year.  So obviously, there is a lot of Apple/Mac love going around.  Macintosh computer sales are also up due to the "halo" effect of the iPod.  So it would seem that the strategy at Apple is working.  People probably figure that their iPod will work better with a Mac.

And they are probably right.  Megan recently bought herself an iPod Mini.  (So, we too are susceptible to the Apple lure.)  Apple makes you use iTunes software to interact with the iPod.  Although, this is a pretty good piece of software, we have had some problems running it on Megan’s laptop (a Windows PC).  Specifically, iTunes corrupted the cd writer configuration when it tried to install software to burn CD’s.  I was able to fix it through some arcane registry hacks.  Most users would be unable to do this and would assume that their PC wouldn’t work with the iPod.  Next step: Go buy a Mac.  So Mac sales are up.  If this a conspiracy by Apple, or do they just write bad Windows softare?

Do you want a Mac?  What about an iPod? 

I grew up with the Nintendo Entertainment System.  It wasn’t the first video game system I played but it was the first I ever owned.  There is a whole generation of boys (and girls, I suppose) who can’t help but think of the first time they saw the triangle with "Zelda" emblazoned upon it rise over the waterfall after inserting the golden colored cartridge and they can probably still hum the theme song for every level of Super Mario Bros. ( I bet you’re thinking of it right now).

All of that nostalgia was re-invented when Nintendo released some updated titles for the Nintendo Gamecube over the last few years.  I don’t have a Gamecube so I have not enjoyed reliving my childhood days, but I would like to have played Metroid Prime or one of the many new Zelda titles.  Growing up with 8-bit graphics systems, I am amazed by the realism in some of today’s games–entire 3-D worlds are created for the game settings.  Good ol’ Link is now riding horseback and slashing in 3-D style while Samus Arun fights off Mother Brain from the first person shooter (FPS) perspective.

I would like to see is a spin on the Super Mario Bros. series.  Those Italian brothers have mostly stuck to their bread and butter–hopping around, driving race carts, being a general spokesmodel for the platform.  I think Nintendo should cut ‘em loose.  Let those guys take on a first person shooter.  I would love to see that big white-gloved-hands bouncing fireballs toward odd flying turtle/dove monsters.  Smashing your head into bricks to release mushrooms would be much more challenging.  It would be cool if the levels from the original Super Mario Bros. were recreated only in 3-D.  Then we could use our ancient knowledge of warp tubes and we would get to swim on level 3, or was is 5?  That would be so cool.

What would be your favorite game to remake?  How would you improve it?  What would you keep the same?