NY Times Fail

I hate to be the one to say this, but all research in real-time is boring...even when its field research.
http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/nuts-and-bolts-in-madagascar/

Paying It Forward

I've been flipping out for a week because I lost my keys at school. Luckily, years ago someone gave me a key tag that says "If found, please call" and then has my home number on it. Some awesome guy found my keys and called me. I was telling a friend today that I wanted to figure out who he was so I could thank him, and give him something small like a gift card or something, and she suggested that if I couldn't I just do something kind for someone else. I like that idea. I always feel like this kind of stuff happens for a reason. I think this particular incident helped me refocus on some upcoming deadlines. Let's see though. There's always a chance I completely missed the life lesson.

Today two people got in touch with me that I haven't spoken to in over a year. Weird timing.

Song of the night: "Cooler Than Me" by Mike Posner

Massive Update

Its been a really long time since I did this, but I figured it was best to get back into the groove of things with a massive update. When I looked back at my blog I found myself wondering, “What have I done since April?”

Surprisingly, I’ve actually done a lot.

Here are some of the highlights:

I went to the Grand Canyon.

I went to Taliesin.

I went on a hellishly curvy road tour outside of Phoenix.

I saw Erin!!

I saw Weezer.

I flew to Boston for the evening.

I experienced the saddest birthday party ever, with the grumpiest birthday boy ever.

I had an amazing summer garden.

I wasted entire days over the summer doing random silly things with my brother. (AMAZING!)

I went to Roanoke for the first time.

I stayed out late to see Interpol.

I went Jersey Shoring.

I met a cat I actually like.

I got my masters.

Vikram did a dance.

I cut 10 inches off of my hair.

Sedona Day 4

Today we went to Montezuma’s Castle. Its a misnomer, though, because it was never Aztec as the first settlers assumed. Instead it was from the Sinagua Indians. They were cliff dwellers and built into the side of a limestone cliff.

These cliffs had a totally different texture than the red rocks or canyons in Sedona.

The signs were all a little annoying because they asked more questions than provided information. I guess its because there really is very little information available…we don’t know who the Sinagua were, why they built into the cliff, what they really did, why they left, or where they went.

The structure is awesome! Its actually very high up in the cliff, which left us wondering how they got up there, and how they carried stuff up.

All of us in front of Montezuma’s Castle.

Although Montezuma’s Castle is a larger ruin, Castle A was originally a larger structure. Its ruins were closer to ground level, and we could walk up to to them and see some of the walls and stuff up close.

A picture of Castle A:

Both of the ruins in relation to eachother:

After Montezuma’s Castle we went to Jerome. Jerome is supposedly the largest ghost town in America, but in reality there were a ton of people there. Its an old mining town that was once the 4th largest city in America. When the copper mines closed in 1950 the population dropped from over 15,000 to around 50. That’s when it became known as a ghost town. Today around 500 people live there. Most of the buildings are the original buildings from when it was a bit city. We were expecting an abandoned, empty town, but there were a ton of tourists and open shops and stuff.

The above may look like a random picture, but there’s a great tid bit that goes along with it. All the roads to Jerome were narrow and largely unguarded, and Mom kept flipping out, thinking we were too close to the edge. This is one of the edges she thought we got too close to. it looks really scary, but when you get close you realize its not a straight drop but more of a short steep slope followed by some gradual slopes.

V and Mom didn’t want to get out of the car, so they had Dad pull up to the signs so they could read them from the comfort of their seats.

At this distance Jerome looked interesting. Up close it was quite underwhelming.

This is the only really abandoned building we got to look at up close.

Notice the random toilet in the middle of the space.

The history of the abandoned building/ruin.

This picture has a great story behind it. V wanted icecream, and Dad swore he saw a Ben and Jerry’s. So all four of us trekked up this big hill only to find it was actually Paul & Jerry’s Saloon. V was so disappointed, especially when he realized it was a modern day bar.

After Jerome, I wasn’t feeling well, so we came back to the hotel to rest. Turns out I have heat exhaustion and sunburn. Good times. I’m off to bed now, so I can be ready for the grand canyon tomorrow. More soon!

Sedona Day 3

After our exciting adventures through the wind and sand on day 2, we decided to stay near Sedona on day 3. We took the morning a little easy to give V and me both some time to get some work done, and then we went on a jeep off road tour of the red rocks. Many of the pictures are crooked because they were taken while bouncing around the back of the jeep. Our driver was a guy named Rusty, and I wish I had a picture of him. He was a real cowboy. He wore leather chaps over his jeans, a bandana, collared shirt with a rugged jacket, and of course cowboy boots and a hat. He also had one of those pull yourself up by the bootstraps life stories. He was born in Alaska and lived in a tiny log cabin with his parents where he did things like dig a 40’ well. At the age of 11 he ran away and lived with the Native Americans up there. They put him to work immediately in their fish selling productions. Eventually later in life he drove a truck around the 48 states, was an electrician, managed people’s ranches, and now he’s a “prospector” which really means treasure hunter. He’s retired three times but hates it so he drives these jeep tours and maintains all of the jeeps for the company that he works for. he was very knowledgeable about the history, flora and fauna of the area. Also, somewhere along the way he managed to get married and have 11 kids. A couple years ago his wife left him, and he has since remarried. Very exciting life story. Anyhoo, on to the pictures…

Vikram, Mom, and Dad on the Jeep. So far the ride has been fun but not too crazy. We were still on paved roads.

And we’re off the road! Still though, this part of the dirt road wasn’t too bad. There were a few bounces here and there, but there wasn’t enough to really upset anyone…yet.

The Indians used the outer bark of this tree to make mats and baskets.

Yucca plant, the fibers of which are also useful for weaving, and parts of it can be eaten.

Green Agave, near its death it sprouts this tall stalk that can grow at a rate of up to 3 inches/day. Also at this time it condenses all of its sweetness into its bulbous base. Agave is naturally very sweet, about 22% sweeter than sugar, and its a lot better for you than sugar.

Prickly pear cactus…useful for a lot of things. The center is what is used as food, in lotions, soaps, jellies, etc. Apparently its lightly sweet, but nowhere near as sweet as agave.

We went down this huge hill over a bunch of rocks. Luckily all of us were wearing our seatbelts. Had we not been, we would have heat the roof many times, if not fallen out.

Mom’s reactions were the best! We always knew we were about to go over some really awesome, rough terrain when Mom said “DON’T LOOK!” (The rational being that if you don’t look you can tell your mind that the road isn’t really that bad.)

The road was really really rough. V and I thought the ride was awesome!

We got down at this point to take some pictures. Dad was so excited to get to the edge of the lookout for a good picture that he didn’t notice he was running across loose rocks. He fell really hard and got hurt fairly badly. It put him out of commission for the afternoon, but he healed well overnight.

This is picture Dad was so anxious to take.

The view we had was AMAZING. I know I keep saying that, but seriously these “red rocks” make you believe in god; they’re that awe-inspiring.

We couldn’t take any more pictures because the ride got too rough for me to feel comfortable holding the camera in my hand. After the tour, we dropped dad off at the hotel to rest and went in search of lunch. You’d think that wouldn’t be so hard in the afternoon in a tourist town, but we went to three restaurants, all of which were closed. One of them was even a Quizno’s, which was supposed to be open according to the hours listed on the door. Eventually we found food and came back to the hotel to rest a bit with dad. In the late afternoon, Mom, V and I went on a drive through southwest Sedona. The houses we saw there were really awesome. There are no pictures of that, though, because I was driving.