Rush

I know I haven't posted here in forever. I promise I will update this soon.

Right now I just got back from a Rush concert and it was so heartbreakingly beautiful that I had to spew my overwhelming happiness to the internet at large. :') That's a smiley face that's crying with joy.

Geddy, Neil, and Alex will forever have my heart.

Core Dump

I've neglected this blog yet again. Here is an undetailed list of my recent activities through the passage of photos. Click on pictures for larger images!

I got pie'd for the physics club's annual Pie a Professor fundraiser where we auction the chance to pie a professor in the face. My lab professor did this... At least I was raising money for the club. :P

I went to IU's Little 500 bike race for the first time. It's an IU tradition that I thought I should see once before graduating!

I went observing for 5 nights in March, at Kitt Peak in my second home, Arizona! There was more snow than I had seen the whole winter in Indiana :P

I saw some beautiful sunsets up there, and we were open 4/5 nights, closed one due to high winds!

Look at those mountain layers!!!!

I brought my sister's SLR camera with me and took some nice photos of the pristine skies up there at 7000ft! The photo above is the dome of my telescope for 3 nights, the 2.1m. The other 2 nights I was at the 0.9m telescope.

The bright city lights light up the 4m dome across the mountain top. 

 

I graduated!!!! Elaine and I on graduation day, behind our home away from homes, Swain West, the physics & astronomy building. 

 My best friend Naomi graduated from Purdue! :)

I got an SLR camera for graduation! It's a Canon Rebel T2i and I love it. I use it mainly to take photos of cats, but occasionally photograph people too, I guess. That's a picture of my sister's cat, Chips (I think?)

Sister's cat Fish (I think?)

My baby, Moka Latte!

Moka being cute.

I made lemon meringue for my good friend Jesse's birthday. I was nervous I would ruin it but it turned out DELICIOUS. I got the recipe from allrecipes, can be found here.

My good friend, Nick, came to visit Indiana from Arizona, and him and his girlfriend (and my fellow astronomy major at IU!) Teresa visited me for a day. All three of us were in the REU in Flagstaff together, and now they are most disgustingly cute couple ever!

My little sister, Lizzy, graduated from high school! 

I went to Baltimore for an interview with Space Telescope Science Institute... I GOT THAT JOB! :)

In the words of my favorite band, Rush, and their song Prime Mover:

From the point of ignition
To the final drive
The point of the journey
Is not to arrive--
Anything can happen!

Prime Mover

I know people say "No, really, I love [insert band]", but you don't get it, I really love Rush.

This is probably the greatest group of musicians that has ever picked up guitars and drum sticks. SERIOUSLY.

Late Night Rush

I know it's 4am, but still, man do I love the band Rush. I mean, look at these guys (and this and this). I mean, Geddy, Alex, and Neil make the most amazing power trio I've ever heard. And yes, I insist you click on those links. All of them.

I mean, let's face it, THEY'RE PROBABLY THE BEST BAND TO HAVE GRACED THE EARS OF THE HUMAN RACE.

Listen to my msuic
And hear what it can do
There's something here as strong as life
I know that it will reach you


Don't annoy us further!
We have our work to do
Just think about the average
What use have they for you?
Another toy will help destroy
The elder race of man
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn't fit the plan!


...


I stand atop a spiral stair
An oracle confronts me there
he leads me on light years away
Through astral night, galactic days
I see the works of gifted hands
That grace this strange and wondrous land
I see the hand of man arise
With hungry mind and open eyes


...


Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation
We have assumed control
We have assumed control
We have assumed control

(I started to just pick my favorite lyrics from the song "2112", but then it just turned into almost all the song.)

Life in Arizona

I just stumbled across this old post I never published... a bit old news, but here :P This blog serves just as much as a journal for me as it does for you, so I'm still going to post it!
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Some random happenings in my life recently...

Went and saw Rush in Phoenix with two of the other REU students, Vivienne and Phil. This was the same tour/show that I saw last August in St. Louis, but it was just as freakin' amazing as it was then.

Had a pool party at NOAO astronomer Katie's house. She and her husband (I'm blanking on his name, but he works at NOAO as well) are wonderful, nice people. They have a pool party every year for the REU students. It was a nice escape from the Tucson heat.

After the pool party, that evening we all piled into the NOAO van and headed to the Desert Museum. Even though I had already been there with Jenny, this was also exciting because we went in the evening. Animals Jenny and I didn't see before were out, and we also got to find scorpions with UV flashlights!!! It was great, and I even saw a momma scorpion with dozens of babies on her back.

Me and 3 other REU's, Vivienne, Phil and Morgan (can you tell who the dweebs are in the group?) saw all 3 Lord of the Rings extended edition movies in the local theater. IT. WAS. EPIC. (and long)

I feel like I've done more things, but I guess not... but in the meantime, get ready for a booty-licious post in the future...

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(I wonder what booty-licious post I was referring to....?)

Living in the Limelight

My sister had a baby on the 22nd! :) She had a home birth to a healthy little boy. He's such a cutie too! Hearing her talk about the experience of childbirth pretty much cements my suspicions that it may be one of the most intense experiences in life (and isn't for me).

Last weekend myself and some friends attended what will forever be one of the most epic concerts (so far). I fear this post will be similar to the Dream Theater/Iron Maiden one, so if you don't want to hear about Rush, read no further.

Sunday I went with 4 other friends to St. Louis to see Rush. Since all of us were coming from different parts of the state, we all met near the airport, and from there carpooled to St. Louis. We ended up leaving ~3 which was right on time. Since there's a time change to Missouri, we ended up getting to St. Louis pretty early, which gave us time to eat dinner and then head over to the venue.

We had pretty crappy seats, but that was because all 5 of us bought tickets together. We were in the last row of the pavilion, but it was still rockin'. They played an awesome set, including... ALL of Moving Pictures!!! That was incredibly cool. What songs I can remember (probably not in order):

-Spirit of Radio
-Some song off of Presto (which I don't own)
-Time Stand Still
-Leave That Thing Alone
-Workin Them Angels
-BU2B (off their upcoming album Clockwork Angels)
-Freewill
-Marathon
-Subdivisions

Intermission

MOVING PICTURES! Which includes:
-Tom Sawyer
-Red Barchetta
-YYZ
-Limelight
-The Camera Eye
-Witch Hunt
-Vital Signs
-Neil Peart DRUM SOLO!!!!
-Caravan (Clockwork Angels)
-2112 (Overture & Temples of Syrinx)
-Closer To The Heart
-Far Cry

Encore:
-Villa Strangiato (WOOHOO!)
-Working Man (Reggae intro...!)

They played phenomenally. I can't believe these guys have been making music since the early 70's. Who knew 3 Canadian dudes could be so cool? It's amazing how much great music only 3 people can make. I was superbly impressed with all the pieces they played. Everything sounded great and Geddy Lee actually got all the high notes. I'd never seen Rush live so was unprepared for the raw power of the combined forces of Geddy, Neil, and Alex (yeah, we're on a first-name basis). Neil played a crazy drum solo, which as far as I know, is staple to Rush's concerts. Alex Lifeson busted out some rockin' guitar skills, and Geddy was all over that bass guitar. In short, an awesome concert.

After leaving the venue at about 12:30, accidentally driving past the Arch 3 times, and stopping for gas stations 3 times, we were on the road back home. We made it to Indy at about 5am after the time change... Yikes! From there everybody headed their separate ways home. Completely worth the traveling though.

It was a completely epic trip that will definitely go down in the books!

The only salvageable photo from the concert.
Workin Them Angels

A Long, Long Time Ago...

Hello! I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Been a little behind I suppose. I guess there is a lot to say now, to make up for the lack of updates! It's going to be hard to think back so far, but here's a try... Going to split this up into multiple posts, for each week, as I'm that behind!

OK! So, two weekends ago (I think...?) on Friday a few of us and two people I don't know went to a restaurant called Granny's Closet to have dinner and do some... KARAOKE! I had never done karaoke until this time... it sure was an experience. Teresa and I sang 'Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. We were probably the third people to go... as the night wore on, I found that people were more receptive to bad singers the more drunk they got. Next time I'm going to try and go later! Eric and I sang 'Tom Sawyer' by Rush, and the crowd didn't really get into it (Rush ain't so popular I guess...). It was really fun and quite embarrassing! The way I see it, though, I'm never going to see those people again, so I might as well make a fool out of myself. Eric lost a bet to Teresa (she ate a habanero suicide chicken wing) so the two of them sang 'Oops I Did It Again' by Britney Spears... Remind me to never lose a bet to Teresa.

The next day we went to a few thrift stores. Some random junk I scored: 3 records, 2 pairs of earrings, a cool shirt, and a psychedelic red mug. Somebody bought a really tough puzzle of a gorilla sitting on a river made of stars... it's really strange. We're still working on the puzzle!

Sunday we went to Fossil Creek Springs, where we found water in AZ!!! Who knew it existed naturally here?! It was a good hike down to the springs, and once there we went swimming. The water was fantastically clear and cool, and it was really nice to get out of the heat for once. There was a pool you could swim to if you swam underneath a rock and came up ~10-15 second later... I was too chicken to do it. I hear it was really tough though, so I'm not too bummed about my irrational fears this time. In my defense I did jump off the side of a cliff/rock that was a good 25-30 feet high. Lots of fun! I'm slowly getting over my fear of heights! I fell on some slippery rocks and then had a wicket nasty/cool cut and bruise on my toe for over a week! I just can't manage to do anything without hurting myself.

At one point on the hike back up, we stopped to refill water at the source of the springs (it was clean). There were two middle-aged hippy-esque guys there who had a shrine with incense and candles set up. They were pretty funny, but really friendly. They gave us a pair of goggles, and you could look down into the source of the spring. Only myself and another guy in the group jumped in and stuck our faces into a hole in the ground. It was pretty neat, but I couldn't see very far. The hippy guy kept saying it went down forever and would be a life-changing experience. I'm pretty sure he was, shall we say, feeling a little more insightful than usual. If you use your imagination, though, it was pretty cool, I guess.

Okay! So that Tuesday we were invited to go observing on the 32-inch reflecting telescope at Anderson Mesa (Lowell's telescopes are there). It was pretty neat, but it was almost all done robotically, so the observer just had to push a few buttons and sit back. It was still pretty fun to 'drive' the telescope, AKA tell it what kind of filter to expose on and how long, and then look at the images, etc. Somebody went and got pizza and we sat around eating and chatting about possible deaths in the Canyon for a while we waited for clouds to pass. They never really did pass, but we salvaged a few images before giving up at about midnight. A small teaser into the real world of astronomy!

Sadly, I forgot my camera on every trip except for the observing... Hopefully later I can grab some from somebody else and upload some! For now, enjoy some photos of the telescope!

From left, Kathy (program director), Teresa (IU homedog), Christine (geologist that somehow got in the astro/physics program...), and Eric (the crazy one).

Some views of the scope.