A local celebrity...

http://bangornews.com/detail/94861.html

Bicyling does pay off

Let's just say I am happy I had the camara that day:>

I just renewed my pledge to bike to work with the New Belgium Brewing company. Apparently by biking to work I have managed around 200 miles a month on my bike. Which according to their site saves 200lbs of CO2 emissions, $40 dollars in gas, and uses 56,000 calories or 186 beers worth of energy. While I am pretty sure the first two numbers are monthly (I have saved way over $240 dollars in gas in the 6 years I have been without a car), I have an incling that the last figure is per year (I think I burn something like 60 calories a mile on my bike.)
Of course, this is assuming I still have a car and wouldn't be saving by not having the other expenses associated with a car such as insurance car payments and maintenance costs. Which is probably why I was able to pay off my loans rather than accrue more in grad school.
So, what are you waiting for! Make your pledge! Biking to work relieves stress, tones your tummy, reduces your carbon footprint, reduces the amount you spend and saves time by allowing you to get a workout while you commute.
Hmm, maybe I should pedal harder and think less while I am riding.

Fall Colors!!!

The Pennobscott River
The Stillwater River, a.k.a. the Western side of the Penobscott river
Flowers from the garden.

Aloha from Maine!!

Phlup and I enjoying the downtown Camden area.

Ahhhhh! After nearly loosing all nuero-cortex function due to self induced stress created by the overwhelming need to get off of Long Island, it was decided that it was time for me to move to a state that emphasizes a more tranquil lifestyle. In short, I moved to Maine! While I haven't technically finished my thesis (err revisions and re-writes), I am vacationing and enjoying the domestic life, as a plus I even have gained some of my ability to think.
While Orono Maine isn't necessarily the most touristy portion of Maine (it is here more or less because of the college) it does have some interesting characters. Phill and I live in a house not far from campus across alongside the Still water river (a wooden paddle manufacturer blocks any view we would have of it). It is about a month ahead of Long Island as far as fall goes with temperatures already dipping towards the freezing mark. The fall colors and ready access to the river and fishing, however make up for any loss of the summer season.

The house Phill and I are renting the upstairs rooms in.

The sign for the paddle manufacturer (Shaw and teeney), note the store hours.

Phill hiking along the Appalachian trail.

A fall fish I caught on the Western branch of the Upper-Penobscott river. Yes, I am fishing without pants (we had to wade across a fairly deep channel to get to the part with the large rapids we were fishing (Compared to the rivers in Colorado, this river is huge! ). And yes, I am wearing a mosquito net.

Hmm, camaras help

I left my camara in Maine. Right now i am thinkingthat it is just one less thing I will have to pack, but it also means that I have no pictures from any of the activities I have done all summer. So in order to keep you at ease, I drew a picutre.

Summer!!!!!

Ahhhhh, there is nothing like rubbing aloe vera into your newly produced sunburn. At least the sleeves of my jersey are really short so MOST of my arm is tan. Now that the sun is out we Long Islanders have seemingly remembered why we moved here. The beach!! and the fun hill climbs on the way to beach. While the local beach is absolutely gorgeous and only a couple of miles away, it is also up some pretty steep hills. In interest of saving my legs I decided to try a more cir-cum-que-it-o-us route, and it turned out to be twice as long and still bringing me up the same hill, just on the opposite and steeper side (just as successful as my spelling apparently).
Of course I can't complain, because while riding up the super steep hill I had the time to lay in the grass (gfjslmm)and come up with the idea of the tan through bike jersey!!! or reverse clothes. Somehow I have a feeling the bike jersey will be more of a hit. In addition to random bicyclist and sun bathers, the flowers have come to bask in the warming glow. In interest of saving you guys from having to look at my funny tan lines, here are some of the flowers that have magically appeared in my yard.

Dodgeball

To prove how effective lab meetings are. In some other lab's weekly meeting it was brought up that they could probably beat all the other labs in the game of dodge ball. While I am not sure why they decided dodge ball was the sport of choice and not let us say soccer, but this eventually led to a random smattering of e-mails and a full out tourny. While the lab didn't even make it into the second round, the Marine Disease lab did quite well (blame it on the foreigners). Note the fencing around "the pit" and the crowd that gathered to spectate.
Our lab racing for the balls.
Some action.
More action.

Sailing!

As it turns out, I am more productive when I do more things (that doesn't say much about efficiency, but don't tell my advisers or they may end up crakin' the whip!). In order to celebrate this old revelation, I have joined a group of colleagues to form a sailing team. We meet on Wednesdays and race against the locals (mostly well-off retired lawyers form the city). Unfortunately this last race was a slow one (we didn't reach 3 knots until an hour into the race), but that gave me plenty of time to respond to the commands the boat owner, Bill, makes in a seemingly foreign language. Some of the crew trying to catch the best wind.
Our reflection
Our competition smoking us.

fist bumps

What is it with the fist bump?First it was the wedding lock fist bump at Michelle and Scott's wedding (click randoms and m blog link for pictures), then it was Obama and his wife's campaign bump, now it is every where from tiger woods to other golfer people and the ladies on The View, leave it to my sister to start weird and widespread trends.

Vax to Flax

Every year my schol has a four mile race from the main campus (Vax) to our closest marine labs in flax pond. Last year I ran really fast, but on the wrong course ( I ended up running somewhere between 8 and 9 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes rather than just 4 miles), so this year my only goal was to not get lost. I ended up second (I folowwed somebody towards the end, but more importantly I did not get lost!! I couldn't find any pictures with me in them, but here is a picture of the start.

To counter Scott and Michelle's Post...

The Cushy jobs I apply for...

WORKING CONDITIONS
• Requires working in a fast-paced environment with short deadlines.
• Occasional statewide travel is required.
• Requires working long hours at times on weekends and evenings to attend meetings and meet deadlines.

• May encounter angry or upset individuals.

• Requires a flexible work schedule that varies in the number of hours worked on a daily basis, but not necessarily each
day, or a work schedule in which the starting and stopping times vary on a daily basis, but not necessarily each day.
This includes working at all hours and workdays in excess of eight hours or 40 hours per week when necessary.

Well, Hawaii isn't perfect after all.

Sigh....

Further proof that Colorado needs an ocean, or atleast a diseased crustracean.

Graphs!!!!

It took me so much longer than it should have, but I finally finished my "main graphs" on the internal immune parameters of my lobsters (see one below). Now I just have to collect the data and do the same for the external immune parameters, in a tenth the time.

Recently in the lab...

More like lately.

STATISTICS

In order to analyse my data most efficiently, I have downloaded several different statistical programs. While none of the programs seem to be perfect, I have come across the reality that the majority of my net worth is now represented by pirated versions of statistical software on my computer. The picture drawing above is of several of the icons on my desktop, I can't copy the JMP icon for some reason, but see if you can identify the icon of your favoured statistical program!

This poor neglected blog.

I would like to tell you the reason I have not updated my blog as of late is because I was too busy and simply could not take the time out from my frazzled life to post an entry. That somehow in the process of finishing the collection of my data, classes, and house sitting my life was so overwhelming that a blog was simply out of the question. In reality, however, I spent plenty of evenings sitting in front of the television contemplating how a television show based off a bunch of random people living together and competing for attention could be approved, let alone dozens of shows with the same theme, and something as simple as removing candy machines from schools could be so highly scrutinized.
My apologies for my boring life. I will post cool pictures soon.