alphonsis's Xanga

The View - Moorea edition

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:43:52 GMT

The view of the twin bays of Moorea, from the top of the 3 Coconuts Trail; Opunohu on the left, and Cook's on the right.

Delicious.

Dry run - completed.

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:27:31 GMT

Just got back from my weekend at the Bodega Bay Marine Lab. It was a very tiring weekend, spent most of the days running transects or plant ids in 100+ weather (well, it felt like it), and ran around at night doing insect collections of various sorts. I'm sunburned in a few places, got more mosquito bites than I can count, but I feel great.

The professors said that this weekend was a kind of dry run for our time in Moorea. I just hope that my time in Moorea goes by a little slower than this weekend did.

Just 5 more days until I'm in the middle of the pacific.

^_^

Free at last

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:42:07 GMT

Been confined to crutches for two weeks, and I've finally broken free. I've still got a bit of a limp, but I'm just telling people it's my pimp walk.

Struggling to get healthy by this weekend for PAX, because that shit will be off the hook!

Oh, and school starts Wednesday, yay!

A friendly game...

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:52:40 GMT

Her first time playing, and she wtfpwns me... Shortly thereafter, I retired for the night.

Japan

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:02:29 GMT

View from my seat. Pretty comfy, even after 10 hours in the air.

Had to check out the Mickey D's, and that Mega Mac is monstrous. Four patties?!?
Oh, and that ebi-filet-o is pretty awesome too

The obligatory culture clash photo. What the hell is going on here?!?! Translation please!

The second of a series. Whatever caused their pain, is something I don't want to do either. Now if only I could figure out what it was warning me about...

It's official

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:18:39 GMT

Barring any natural disasters or deity inspired cataclysms I will be spending eight ten weeks this fall at the Gump research station.

woot!

Just throwing it out there

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:40:41 GMT

The odds are slim, my transcript is atrocious, and my CV (or rather, lack thereof) is laughable. Regardless, I sent it in. Went over each of the pdf files one more time, convinced that a lack of spelling errors and typos will somehow inspire them to accept me. Satisfied with the professional nature of my application, I bundled it up and sent it along its electronic journey to the board. Where the fate of my fall semester lies in wait, to be weighed and measured along every other overly motivated young college student.

Two weeks before they announce the final class roster... I must distract myself for the next two weeks, lest I drive myself mad thinking in circles.

pew pew laser beams!

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:14:30 GMT

I remember being in junior high school and play mech warrior at my friend chang's place to no end. Using my tiny little Jenner's lasers to blow up enemies by the knees and watch them fall to my tactical superiority. That was the stuff of fantasy books and sci-fi movies. Unless of course Northrop Grumman has its way. Looks like we're quickly on our way to a weapons grade laser system. Granted, it won't be fired from cool mechs, but rather from a large slow bomber. Instead of multiple lasers, they'll manage to fit per bomber, but still!

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/12/northrop-grummans-laser-system-passes-second-major-milestone/

Oh, and along the same vein, there was this one awesome weapon called the Gauss Cannon. They were slow to fire, but if you could get one to hit a limb it would tear it right off your enemy's mech. It was the ultimate wtfpwned weapon, very similar to the bfg from doom in terms of cool factor. The Navy's got something very similar they're testing to use on their future battleships to replace those hugenormous cannons they currently use.

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2008-02/navy-tests-32-megajoule-railgun

It's just nice to see my childhood fantasies become reality. Now if I could only get them to let me fly to Mars...

One size doesn't fit all

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:08:45 GMT

So I wandered on down to Steele's, the local dive shop to pick up a wetsuit. I've been renting for some time now and I figured it was time to get serious and decide on a style. So she takes a look at me, asks my weight and grabs a 6.5mm torso off the rack and asks me to try it on. After trying it on, it seems a little baggy on the arms and chest, but ok on the thighs. I come out, she looks me over and says the darndest thing...

"So it's a little baggy on the arms, you could do one of two things. Get it customized at otter bay to get rid of the extra neoprene or work out to make your arms bigger."

oh man... a part of me died right then.

On being a master...

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:32:02 GMT

I've never really considered myself a master at anything. The term brings up visions of olden days when crafts were passed down to apprentices. When I imagine a master blacksmith I see a man with the scars of his trade prominent on his arms and the tough leathery hands from wielding metal tools everyday of his life.

However, thanks to the Diving Control Board at Berkeley in about 15 weeks, and 16 dives, all things going well, I'll be a NAUI Master diver. Which is kind of odd, because right now I'm a PADI Advanced diver. Oh well, should be interesting!