My Hovercraft is Full of Eels!

 I got to ride in this LCAC!

Received with no explanation

Jonathan/Yoni, who is traveling for LoudBicycle, asked me to post this picture with no explanation:

Wild blueberry picking

A few weeks ago we went wild blueberry picking at Minnewaska State Park Preserve.

 There are hills there that are covered in wild blueberry bushes!

And, now for something completely different. Apparently Lake Minnewaska has a leech problem:

And yet, for some reason, they allow swimming and people actually swim in it!!!

Lag BaOmer In Southern California

This past week I was at Camp Pendleton at the ExFOB event (Here are some videos the Marine Corps posted from the event, I will post more in the future as they do.  Hopefully some will have me in them).  Camp Pendleton is in northern San Diego County, and as you may have heard there are some fires.  So to start you off I will show you some pictures of ground squirrels in the middle of the field where the event was held.

I will follow this up with pictures of MV-22 Ospreys I saw flying at Camp Pendleton.

Friday morning I woke up with my rental car covered in ash, and while driving home after the event I noticed that it was 110 degrees outside.

Now that I have spent all this time building up to it I will show you why no one will be lighting bonfires for Log BaOmer in my area.

 This fire was about six kilometers from where I was, and there where a few times that I saw flames.

 The ash and smoke from these fires made it all the way to Los Angeles (about 100 miles away) where there are air quality warning in places.

This is the results of a small fire that occurred on the side of I-5 after a vehicle collision last Wednesday, that closed I-5 northbound.

Tropicana Orange Juice Doesn't Rot

Some of you may recall the myth of the non-rotting McDonald's hamburger. Fortunately, this myth has been thoroughly debunked. But, I have been doing my own experiment:

We bought this carton of orange juice over 2.5 years ago, and the "best before" date is December 19, 2011. For the majority of the 2.5 years, this carton was held, unopened, at room temperature; it was hidden in the back of our spare fridge in the basement. Yet, there is no external signs that it was spoiled -- the carton isn't bulging or swollen. It just looks like a regular orange juice carton (well, except for the warning label):

So, I decided to open it and see what it looked and smelled like. This is what the juice looked like:

The only obvious change was that it was definitely oxidized -- it had a brown color instead of orange -- and some OJ sediment settled to the bottom, but there was no visible signs of mold or spoilage at all. It smelled like "fresh" orange juice. I was very tempted to taste it, but Stacy wisely convinced me that it wasn't worth it.

There has been a lot of coverage recently about the industrial methods used to make "fresh squeezed" orange juice. See here or here or here. But I think this total lack of spoilage of an allegedly-agricultural product held at room temperature for years speaks both to the amazingness of pasteurization, and to the extent of the marketing fib that is this:

Wintertime in Southern California

 My mother has been visiting me for a week.  Sunday we went whale watching.

Harbor Seals.

 

Here we have an offshore oil rig in its natural habitat.  We did not want to get to close and risk spooking it.

 Anacapa Island one of the five islands that make up the Channel Islands National Park.  The park itself extends one mile into the water around each of the five islands.

 Seabirds, there are examples of California Brown Pelican, Cormorant, and Blue Footed Booby.

 The birds in the middle are Blue Footed Booby.

California Brown Pelican.

Sea Lion.

A whole bunch of sea lions.

Two gray whales.  They where about 45 feet long.

The boat we where on.

 Me with Giant Coreopsis a plant that is all over the Channel Islands (photo credit: my mother).

Me with a fake elephant seal, they can grow to almost twice the size of this one (photo credit: my mother).

Watch my thesis defense live, tomorrow!

Tomorrow, August 1, at 11am, I am defending my Ph.D. thesis. I'm going to be streaming the event live. You can watch here (enter as a guest):

http://meet15596452.adobeconnect.com/thesisdefense/

My advisor said that I shouldn't provide buzzword bingo cards at the defense itself. But, here's a link to the cards, and feel free to play along at home (leave a comment to this post about which number card(s) you're playing).

Welding

Prepare to be amazed by a blast from the past.  I took a welding class about 3-4 years ago.  That's right this blog post has literally been years in the making!  The class was offered by a local vocational school and was geared as adult continued education.  I learned arc weld, MIG weld, brazing, and how to cut steel with an oxyacetylene torch.

 This was my basic welding setup.  I had an auto-darkening helmet, this meant that when I struck an arc the goggles immediately darkened so I wasn't blinded, but when I wasn't welding I would be able to see what I was doing.  Additionally, I am wearing a welding coat, its treated cotton.  Also, thick leather gloves.  On the right is a wire brush for cleaning up welds and on the left is a welding hammer, its to clear off slag.

This is my brazing and oxyacetylene cutting getup.  Same shirt and and gloves but wearing brazing goggles.  On the theme of a long time coming, I was clearly way ahead of the times.  Watch out guys, we're dealing with a badass over here.

Austin is Weird

Austin is a weird city. On one hand, it's the capital of Texas, which is a pretty weird state. These were two random houses we saw:

I can't imagine anyone in New Jersey flying its state flag (without trying to be ironic), yet this seems to be pretty standard fare in Texas.

On the other hand, it seems to be the hipster capital of Texas, too. Austin is also the home of the Whole Foods mothership:

Inside, they had these really cool electronic price stickers on the shelves which I assume lets them adjust the pricing on a shorter time frame than most grocery stores.

There were also some pretty funny signs and garbage can options outside:

This is one particularly cool-looking building I noticed:

Finally, Austin's famed bar/music scene starts quite late: