Report for Burl

I'm working on a report on the interesting bits of research I was involved in this semester. Its due Monday (tomorrow). Here's a teaser:

No satisfactory method exists to properly quantify the effect of the error produced. It is hypothesized that by producing a method that can accurately and consistently detect inhomogeneities the error in the emf could be accounted for in the calibration of the thermocouple.

Did I write that? I sure did, man that's good stuff. I realize out of context that morsel doesn't make much sense but I can assure you as it sits in the report it's golden.

Testing Torpor

So I bombed the GRE even though I thought I was doing great through out the entire thing. I finished right at the end of the time limit on all the sections and was under the impression that I got most of the quantitative questions correct.

I saw a few questions about mean and standard deviation, which according to Kaplan is a sign that I was getting into the “harder” questions – meaning I was doing well. So I don’t really understand why I didn’t do better.

As far as the verbal section goes I kind of knew I wasn’t doing so hot because all the questions seemed easy and on the computer exam that’s a sign that, well… it meant I was fucked. I must have missed a few of the harder ones in the beginning and as a result the computer dropped the skill level and I was doomed.

I could give a shit about confidentiality concerning my test scores so here goes. If I remember correctly I scored a 410 on the verbal and a 600 on the quantitative. I wont know what I got on the analytical for a while. Lets hope this is good enough for NMSU, I was told my score wouldnt matter much but we'll see I guess.

GRE

Today I take the Graduate Records Exam (GRE) in El Paso at 1:15 PM.

I'm sitting here at my desk this morning after reading Kaplan's GRE Exam, More of What You Need to Score Higher on the GRE Exam, 2006 Edition last night, in its entirety.

Now that I feel perpared with Kaplans methods I’m starting to worry about things like:

What if my computer doesn’t work?
What if the mouse is hard to operate?
What if the keyboard is like mine and the letter ‘H’ doesn’t work sometimes?
When am I supposed to leave Las Cruces so that I get there on time?

And Finally…

I hope El Paso isn’t on a different time zone.

Keeping in Touch

When I was in high school I had a friend tell me: "Out of all of the people I know, you Raven need a cell phone the most. It's like impossible to get a hold of you."

To present I've carried a cell phone for 7 years. I'll probably die a cell phone induced cancerous death at the young age of 30. Either that or I might die in a gasoline station fire when I answer an important call while pumping gas despite the omnificent warning signs that tell me other wise.

Despite my inherent cell-induced demise, I do however appreciate the basic convenience that owning a cell phone has given me. I can talk from in my car during rush hour. I can talk when I'm stranded in the middle of the dessert. I can talk from the living room, toilet, shower, kitchen, and bedroom with out wrapping myself with that accordion-like cord thing. I can answer calls when I'm in class, at a restaurant, and even Starbucks. Pretty much as long as I am not at my parent's house or any other thick-walled adobe house I'm available and standing by to answer your important call!

That said, I'd like to quote a statement I heard someone make at a party a while back: "A cell phone's ultimate purpose exists for the convince of the owner of that phone and the owners alone."

Ok, that seems selfish, I agree. If wifey needs to call just to hear your voice so she can properly make it through the day - I owe her as much to answer. And if a friend calls needing a ride home from the bar and then opts to drive him/her self home after a few too many when I'm not picking up; I'd of preferred to have been available.

Afterwards it seems obvious that someone was trying to get a hold of you like you were the only one left on earth. Signs typically include flashing lights, a large number of text messages - mostly just repeates of the phrase: "answer your phone asshole!", and more missed calls than your cell stores a history of.

So what does everyone think? Due to the advent of cellular telephones after how much time and how many tries should someone start to worry about the person you're trying to reach? And because of caller ID no one leaves real voice messages anymore so here's the break down:

2 weeks, 30 missed calls, 15 "answer your phone" messages?
4 days, 20 missed calls, 20 "answer your phone" messages?
1 day, 10 missed calls, 5 "answer your phone" messages?
2 hours, 5 missed calls, 26 "answer your phone" messages?
5 minutes, 45 missed calls, 76 "answer your phone" messages?

Before cell phones what was a standard turn around for a call back? I'd say a day or two, and you would have probably only called the house once and left a message with your name and call back number.

PCU

Who hasn't seen the movie PCU? A high school senior visits college for the weekend, and stays at the wildest house on campus in this classic tale of anti-political-correctness.

what's that? You've never heard of it? Dude, where were you in 1994?

The movie was modeled after all the protests that happen on campuses all over the country. Typical university students in the past and present are mostly if not actively liberal planet saving hippies. If you keep up with campus current events there's typically a protest for animal rights, or energy conservation, or within the last 5 years anti-bush demonstrations.

That said at NMSU you cant swing a dead cat in the parking lot with out hitting either a "Viva Bush" or a "Sportsmen for Bush" bumper sticker.

Today I saw something written in chalk on the side walk. It read, "Love thy neighbor, support gay rights."

Ok you say, cool, I didn't even know we had a gay community here, but what ever, I'm not into it but cool - not here at [sarcasm]good ol'[/sarcasm] NMSU. It had been crossed out with a new message that reads "God Hates Fags! aggiesforchrist.com"

Goes to show that Christians only love their neighbor if their neighbor is also Christian. Ugh, I just don't know what else to say - I'm a little angry right now... I need a beer.

The Great Easter Gift Exchange

It's been years sense Leif and I had an egg-hunting-good-time for Easter. I remember when we were growing up Easter used to be a lot like Christmas, with some pretty kickin' gifts from the Easter Bunny. We made Easter fun again this year! Leif, Chels, and I did a little gift exchange between the three of us. It turned out GREAT!

I ended up making each of the guys a basket. For Chels I got some Godiva Hot Coco Mix, a bomber of some specialty IPA from the Ska Brewing Co., and a stuffed giraffe. For Leif I went a little over board and managed to score some plastic eggs big enough to fit a miniature of booze inside; the eggs came in a pack of six, so naturally there were six shooters in his basket. I also got Leif some chocolate and the latest magazine issue of Performance VW.

White Sandboarding

White Sands National Monument is located on I-70 between Cruces and Alamagordo, only about 40 miles from the house. On Friday Chels and I woke up and decided it would be fun to take a drive over there. We packed the cooler, and left Cruces around 2pm. I also made sure to pack an old snowboard we had laying around the apartment for a little Sandboarding action.

We got there in no time; 40 miles goes by fast in the Corrado, especially on a nice day with all the windows rolled down.

The following picture is from the above sandboarding link. I, like this guy, spent a few seconds upside down.


Unlike this guy, it was completely unintentional and the landing totally hurt. Typical of most times I attempt to have active/sportive fun I scraped both elbows, my knee, and most of my chest. I also took a big chunk of skin off of my hip.

I took a spill when I realized I was really starting to pick up speed near the bottom and bailed. Because I was going so fast I couldn't get running fast enough downhill to start to come to a stop. When I ran out of downhill I hit the very hard-flat surface where the sand had compacted from rain - chest first.

I've been limping around the last couple of days mostly because my knee feels really stiff. The scabs arent bad at all - except they're the kind that are just not deep enough to anything but sting. This is especially the case when my cest comes into contact with anything other than air, things that suck right now include: water, the bed sheets, clothing, any table I accedently rest my elbow(s) on, and people (including myself) who carelessly/loveingly touch me where I've been scraped.

Google Maps?

I've always done pretty good at getting lost every time I go to El Paso. For that reason last Wednesday when we went to the Bob Dylan concert I thought it would be best to check Google Maps for directions to the Don Haskins Center. This way with proper directions we could relax, not worry about getting lost, and leave Las Cruces at the last minute - secure in the knowledge that we would be able to negotiate the proper route, express-like.

So here's the map Google Maps produced:



The purple line is the route Google recommended, with the instructions ending somewhere in downtown El Paso...

But wait a minute, Don Haskins Center? "Hey Chels, isn't that the UTEP basket ball stadium?"

"I don't fuckin' know."

So we ended up leaving at the last minute, following the directions into some neighborhood in the downtown area, realizing the mistake, and than winging it back up Paisano Drive towards I-10 and the UTEP campus. Luckily Chels was able to provide directions to UTEP.

We ended up missing the first hour of Merle Haggard because of the scenic route through downtown. Dylan rocked, and the way home went a lot smoother.

Sleeping and Women

It's a scientific fact that Chels needs more sleep than I do. I'm curious if this is gender specific or not... Do girls need more sleep than men?

Maybe it's Chels specific. Every night she always falls asleep right away, while I lay awake for another 30 minutes. In the mornings I wake up with her 6am (some mornings she sets it at 5am) cell phone alarm, nudge her to turn it off but than only get up with my 7am alarm. I then make coffee, take a shower and then try to actually wake her up. By this time she usually says something like, "Oh my god I should have been [there] by now!"

Her excuse, or so she tells me, for not being able to get up in the morning, is "I can't help it, your bed is so comffy." Although I agree that my fouton on the floor is the balls, it gets me every time that someone who may have never slept on the floor like this in her life would think so. I have to admit I am flattered every time she says it. There's something rewarding about getting a good nights sleep on something as simple as a fouton mattress laid flat on the floor.

Email Highlights o' the Day

I got a couple emails from Shorty today. Among a picture of the easter bunny (dead) and some pics of a tractor pull was this joke - which I thought was the balls.

An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess."

He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."

The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to his pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for one week and do ANYTHING you want."

Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, exasperated the frog asked, "What is the matter with you?

I've told you that I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The engineer said, 'Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog, now that's cool."

A little about how we met

I get a lot of grief about not posting enough about Chelsie... from Chelsie, as it were. I'm sure it has nothing to do with a jealousy of me spending more time on the Internet than with her but rather her merely stating the obvious. Rather than simply appease her by gradually working gossip about our relationship into the content here I thought it’d be cool to post up an excerpt from an essay I’ve been forced to write for a class on a romantic relationship that I’ve been in. If you find these kinds of things horribly cheesy you may has well just skip over this one:

I met Chelsie on November 12th, two years ago. From the instant when I first saw her, to the moment when she agreed to marry me, and everyday thereafter we continue to grow closer to each other. During these short years the moment in our relationship that stands out the most in my mind is the period during which we first started dating.

At this time we were both working in an old biker bar on the outskirts of a small town in southern New Mexico. I worked as a cook in the back, where I cooked (read: deep fried) all the typical fried bar foods, including frozen burgers, pizza and nachos. Chelsie worked as a bar tender, she continuously fought off the come-ons from the much older drunken patriots clad in ridding leathers and Harley dew-rags.

As a pair, we stuck out as both being very different from the usual crowd that inhabited the bar; actually, it was probably because of our adverse surroundings that our similarities and common interests became so apparent. Everyday I found comfort in Chelsie’s objection to the type of food we were forced to prepare and the manner in which the management conducted their operations. I always looked forward to work on the days when she was behind the bar and dreaded the days when she wasn’t. On the days we worked together we kept a distance in order to maintain a proper work edict, but a quick glance in her direction would help to put a smile on my face...

The rest as it were tries to meet the requierments of the assignment and gets a little technical with "comunications terms" and very much less interesting.

Dylan

Chels, Leif and I have tickets to see Bob Dylan on April 12th in El Paso.

I'm SUPER SYKED!