Lauren's Life

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9/16/2009
Work has taken an interesting turn this past week, I have been given a project from someone who just left.  It is great experience to learn a lot of programing skills by seeing someone else's project and editing it.  Unfortunately it rather complicated:  It is a web application (html) with a flash component (mxml and action script) with a google earth API plug in (Java) that calls layers that we built (KML); so five programing languages later - I think they think I'm a programmer.
I guess I'm going to be... :-D

Also in my life, I just took the first of four big tests for my black belt!  I'm very excited - I got a new belt that is brown and black.  This was the 'pre-test' where we becoming 'candidates'.  The next test will be the 'written' where we do a history review and Japanese words and meanings, then a physical where we run 3 miles and do 50 push ups.  The final and big test is all of our katas and the karate form itself.  *so exciting*  I had no idea I would end up doing this :)

This past month Rebecca from Seattle started a blog with all her amazing crafts:  http://bitsofcraft.blogspot.com/
I cannot believe how good she is.

-lbd

8/10/2009
I have been traveling a bit these past few weeks, and yesterday Granddad said I needed to update my blog, so here goes.  My sib is now in AZ, and I went (with my parents) and visited her.  It was over 100 every day, but it was a 'dry-ish' heat.  The locals did say it was humid for the area, but coming from New England it felt dry to me.  I think my sib is excited to start her new job, she met her coworkers and got excited about it.  (People are always the difficult part of any job, right?)

Tim and I have made several trips to Long Island to pre-celebrate the wedding of two friends (Justin & Nicole).  The first time was the Jack & Jill 'Bridal Shower', and the second was the Bachelor party. It was a long drive, but fun to see friends.  The second trip down Tim and I went wine tasting on our drive home - great fun, I think we should go wine tasting more often now :-D  Unfortunately, the one really bad revelation from the trip is that I think I'm allergic to cats.  :'(

This past weekend Tim & I visited Tim's Aunt & family with Granddad.  Their first kid is heading out to college in the next week or two, so it was a kind of 'good bye' party.  I have now experienced 'beer butt chicken' which was pretty darn awesome...  Tim & I really need a proper grill.    

This week I stayed up in Massachusetts to do some training in "Flex", which is really "Flash" but fancy.  It makes me happy my company is sending me off to learn stuff, and Flex/Flash is a pretty fun programing language.  My hope is to practice in my site... so maybe my homepage will be changing once I learn it & have some time to play around (OK, homepage might not be changing for awhile.)

*sigh* and all this traveling isn't doing good things for my blubber layer.  

-lbd

7/5/2009
This whole 'job' thing is really getting in the way of my bloging... But I'm back!

Work is great - I'm doing a lot of programing; learning KML - the google earth xml coding,  I might be learning 'Flex' which is fancy flash software (but it looks pretty hard.)  And I'm getting a little tiny bit of science in there too, but I think more is coming.

Summer seemed to have a false start this year over here.  We had one of the wettest Junes ever, and we haven't even pulled out the AC window unit yet.  For the 4th of July weekend the weather finally cooperated and it was BEAUTIFUL, and I got another sun burn kayaking.  The beach had it's yearly bonfire which was awesome as usual, but not quite a scary as last year. mmm... burning

We also went out for lunch in Newport and visited the biggest of the mansions for the 4th - the Breakers.  (We heard that everyone goes to Bristol for the 4th, so Newport is deserted - they LIED.)  It was really cool though, and Tim hadn't gotten to see any mansions yet.  The thing Tim commented on was that they look huge from the outside, but they aren't big mazes on the inside, they are just a few giant rooms.  They did switch to a recorded tour instead of a guide, kinda sad, but it meant there was no line.  It was a fun date around Newport though.

I have been kayaking three times (down the same river) with Jay & Allison and Tim finally got to come this last trip.  Jay always talks about wanting to go be adventurous... but he always goes down the same river, I don't quite get it.  This last time was pretty awesome thought since we went farther down the river (13 mile kayak) and the rivers were flooded by several feet of extra water.  mmm... kayaking

mmm... Summer
-lbd

5/25/2009
ANNNNNDDDD... I'm back
Since my last post (which was written in Ireland in May, but not posted until yesterday) I have since:

(1) graduated
(2) took a trip to the west coast
(3) gotten a job
(4) started said job
(5) got my brown belt
(6) Tim had his birthday
(7) gotten a second car
(8) Tim went to Colorado
      (& shifted positions at his work- he now more actuary than hurricane modeler)
(9) had several fun weekends (see flickr for record of activities)

My job is working with applied science associates - ASA.  They are a science consulting company and do a lot of ocean modeling for everyone from NOAA to oil companies.  It is a pretty hard core company; they are growing pretty fast and they just moved into a new building.  I like the people a lot, and the work is really in line with my experience (maybe a bit more modeling than I'm use to though).

Summer is well underway here, I already got a sunburn kayaking yesterday.  I haven't quite broken down and put in the AC unit into the wall though.  (I will do that the first night I can't sleep).

In other people news: Anna is a mother!!  Her baby (Kyle) was born May 8, 2009 and was 10 lb10 oz.  I hear he is a happy (*perfect*) baby :-D   *yeah*  *Congratulations*

-lbd

3/9/2009
The rest of MY trip (Tim stayed a week longer than I did) was over the weekend - so I dragged Tim around.  We did a great bus tour that showed off all the fun spots I went to, but the tour guide gave interesting background.  We went to the Guinness brewery & had a pint (that took me a long time to drink).  Then wondered around the city & went out to dinner.  We also ended up seeing the watchmen with a bunch of Tim's coworkers.  This was kinda weird, but pretty fun.  
The Book of Kells sums up a lot of history for Ireland in this one book - one of the main places they really use the Celtic knots.  Kinda inspiring  to do some work like it...  The exhibit around with the origins and history was the cool part, the book was just a really old book behind some glass.

We also checked out an old jail - Kilmainham Gaol.  It was... cool?  Certainly strange to go into a jail, but it was suppose to be a progressive jail that re-educated people by having it be all light & spacious, and a 'watchful eye' was always looking at you.  Lots of famous patriots had been held there, many were shot.  The whole experience was really a tour of how much Ireland hates Brittan (again).

I came back on Monday, that was a long trip...  long walk to a tram thing, then a long bus ride to the airport, then a long wait at the airport for the plane - THEN the 8hr plane ride, then a tram thing from Boston to Providence, then karate-Jay picked me up from the train thing and dropped me off at home *few* so tired.  When do I go back?

-lbd

3/5/2009
Ah, the north side.  I went exploring around another "National Museum of Ireland" today.  This time it was arts and history (last one was archeology.)  I spent quite a few hours looking at their collection of sliver and other random things from Ireland.  They had a brand new exhibit of all their war memorabilia.  The whole thing was in an old barracks, so it seemed fitting.  I spent a long long time in there, but I still didn't see it all (I think I missed a whole floor somehow.)

As soon as I left the Barracks I realized this was definitely the sketchy side of town.  I looked in my trusty tourist book and it claimed it had been "smartened up" recently.  I eventually ran into that part (lots of new construction a few blocks further on), but right outside the barracks wasn't a place to hang out at night.  I found the main strip of the city and the shopping center and walked that.  It was incredibly busy, but really fun.  I wish I liked shopping!  There were a bunch of really cool looking stores.  

When Tim came home we went to "Burdocks"  one of his coworkers said it was THE place for fish n chips.  It was a cute hole-in-the-wall take out place with super greasy food, but we sure liked it.

-lbd

3/4/2009
I walked way to much today.  I did a lot of park exploring (most of which are on the East side.)  The Grand Canal is really cool, but the building on it isn't finished (or was currently being updated).  I also checked out Merrion Park, which is basically a smaller version of St Stephen's Green.  Pretty pictures though...

I met Tim at his work and we went out to dinner with the office.  It was pretty dang nice, and a totally off the beaten path restaurant (AND it was free, which always tastes good.)  The thing Tim and I learned about Dublin, was that before you do ANYTHING, you go to the pub.  Then after your event, you go back to the pub.  Drinking is practically the national sport.  (So much Guinness...)

-lbd

3/3/2009
I walked Tim to work this morning, got to see the big building he is working in.  Then I checked out the St Stephen's Green Park.  OMG.  Talk about beautiful green space!  I wonder what their landscaping bills are (totally worth it.)

I did a bunch of measuring today.  First was the National Gallery of Ireland.  Even in their art galleries, there is tension with Ireland and England.  In this gallery there was a hall for portraits of "people important to Ireland."  The UK wouldn't give them money to get portraits, because a gallery in London already had a place for "people important to the UK."  But the director used what he had and got a bunch of portraits anyway.

Walked the Trinity College campus.  Its like UW, but not at all!  (I'm waiting to see the Book of Kells until Tim can go with me.)

Then to the National Museum Of Ireland - Archeology.  Let me tell you, they love their bog: it saves everything (like bodies *shiver*) and creates natural boarders.  So I braved looking at one body (they had 3) but was too freaked out to look at the other ones.  They had great prehistoric artifacts showing interwoven animals & Celtic knot stuff (in gold, lots and lots of gold.)  And they had a Viking exhibit!  Sliced open skulls & weapons  (violently mutilated skulls scare me less than bodies... corpses just shouldn't have skin.)

By the time I was done I was so tired!  I went home and took a bath in the giant bath tub in our hotel.  Tim came home and we collapsed with a glass of wine with some pasta.

-lbd

3/2/2009
I dub this day "vacation day"  (aka, "complete failure to launch")  I did really good and got up with Tim, set him up with clothes and saw him off.  Then I passed out until the cleaning lady woke me up at noon.  Feeling rather guilty I got up and went shopping for trinkets at the big mall really close to us.  So now I have a lot of green things in a bag for people (yeah!)  Other than that, Tim and I had pizza and had a really hard time falling asleep.  This was due to the fact that I had slept till noon, and poor Tim was completely stressed out with tons of work.

-lbd

3/1?/2009 - IRELAND
Yeah, what day is it?  This time change is rather awkward and when you fly all night you have NO idea what is going on.  

We had a driver waiting for us in the Dublin airport.  It was really fun to see one of the people holding a little sign with your name on it.  Hehe, we felt so important :-D  Unfortunately, we were NOT particularly important, because the guy dropped us off at the wrong place.  That was a little mystifying.  So we got an impromptu tour of the city... with all our luggage, as we tried to figure out where we were suppose to go (probably should have gotten a taxi.)  We did eventually find everything and got checked into a very nice place.  

Undeterred by our earlier (slightly exasperating) tour, we launched again with significantly less luggage in tow.  Our goal was to get a good day of sightseeing in along with forcing our bodies into the new time zone (+5hrs from the East Coast).  We did pretty good, it was a beautiful day and we took a lot of pictures.  We had a guide book and went to a bunch of the locations, we also had tea and scones at this super cute shop.  We came back for a rest around 2pm, and accidentally passed out until 7pm.  (oops - that wasn't twenty minutes...)  For dinner we found an Irish pub playing a football game on GIANT projectors.  We ordered two pints of Guinness and fish n' chips.  :-D

It was a long long day.

-lbd

2/23/2009
I have seen parents talking to their children (esp when they know sign language) coercing their children to "use their words."  I have been feeling like that lately doing little edits to my thesis - my adviser keeps crossing off my "baby words" and puts in "big kid words."  Nothing really changes, but he is trying to make me sound smarter (yeah... good luck with that.)

So here are some good switches:
something is not "seen" it is "observed"
"This helps us understand" should be "This helps to elucidate"
not "built", "constructed"
"shows" should be "indicates"
"find" should be "determine"
"move" is better as "displace"

-lbd

2/18/2009
Science funding in the Stimulus bill:
National Science Foundation (NSF): $3.0 billion
Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science: $1.6 billion
DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E): $400 million
DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: $16.8 billion
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): $1.0 billion
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): $830 million
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): $600 million
National Institutes of Health (NIH): $10.4 billion

I feel like this makes it pretty obvious this is a renewable energy & health focus for science funding.  (FYI, NSF is paying my bills right now.)

-lbd

2/16/2009
I'm trying to catch my breath a little bit right now, busy busy.  

Tim is a Black Belt!!  That happened the previous Sunday (the 8th).   Amber came down and saved me during the really long circle of candles part of the ceremony and we both took a lot of pictures.  :-D
It was really exciting to see Tim get his black belt.  I got to put Tim's new black gi top on - so that was great fun.  *Yeah Tim*

We also had a very nice Valentines day - Tim always has fun with VDay, so romantic :-)

I'm asking my committee about defending my thesis in late March/early April; I'm a little nervous, but I really should be graduating now - so cross your fingers!

-lbd

2/4/2009
Who, in their right mind, would fly over a volcano that could erupt at any moment?

I'm really excited about google earth's addition of the ocean bathymetery to their maps!  My uncle pointed it out to me the day it came out, and since then several other people have emailed me - including excited professors.  It is an absolutely amazing way to disseminate data freely and easily, there are just so many applications!  *Yeah Internet*

Yesterday I went over to a local company that hires oceanographers.  They weren't actually hiring, but then I'm not actually looking for a job yet either.  It was a 'meet and greet' kind of situation, one or our karate friends works there so I had a bit of an introduction.  Still it was the first time I had done some semblance of an 'interview' type situation, and it was pretty stressfully - but a good learning experience.

-lbd
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