Name:Matt Country:United States State:Utah Metro:Salt Lake City Birthday:9/3/1980 Gender:Male
Interests:Music, listening and playing bass->Nirvana, NoFX, Muse, as well as other punk, grunge, psychobilly, alternative, electronica, classic rock, classical, bluegrass, R&B, ska (old and new), banda, nortena, ranchera, mariachi, folk, etc., sports (watching and playing; UCLA Bruins, Miami Dolphins, Anaheim Angels), hikes, video games, Mongolia, politics Expertise:Geology, Teaching, Sports strategy, trivia, plus I'm a top Answerer on Yahoo! Answer's Earth Science and Geology section! Occupation:Geologist Industry:Education/Research
So, I'm all moved in... today is not great, because Shawn's out of town (in the dirty dirty) for business. But, I move on.
My Wikipedia fetish is only growing. I am now up to 24 pages created, 27 images uploaded (like the geopetal fossil above), and over 500 total edits. You should check out my (funny) user page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Qfl247. I am especially proud of this table I made on the Bedform page:
Water in phase with bedform, low angle, subtle laminae
Pool and chute
Very low
Mostly erosional features
Speaking of geopetal, what does that word mean to you? I am locked in a debate over this word, because some people think it means "Pertaining to any rock feature, e.g. cross-bedding, that indicates the relation of a top to bottom at the time of formation of the rock." (Bates and Jackson, 1984, Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd ed., Prepared by the American Geological Institue) and the UK definition of it is only the bubble fill of a vesicle or fossil, they use the term "Way Up Structure" for all paleo-up indicators, which I have never heard. Any of you? Anyways, Wikipedia has the UK def but not even a reference to the US def. I am working on this.
So, that's my life right now... might do a music swap party tonight, so I have that to look forward to, besides adding more to Wikipedia, like the Hanksite crystal above.
P.S. I've been watching the original series of Star Trek for the first time. I expected it to be cheesy and predictable, but I am actually very happy with it... much better than I thought.
Not a lot going on... but great things to come, including my first visit of Lulu in months and a trip to Portland/Crater Lake/Grandma's.
This is what is going on: I am moving! Shawn and I are taking the next step to see how much we really do love each other, and I am going to save some $$$ and move in with her and her roommate Alex (who owns the house). Did I mention it is fall?
I am also going to have new pets: Cats!
This is Mae... she's the playful and rough one of the group.
This is Missy... she's the kind yet devious one.
This is Cloud... the... uhhh... pretty (dumb) one.
You may be saying, "Matt, are you not allergic to cats? Is it soon to be moving in with your girlfriend?"
My answer to that is, we are basically living together now (see above), and my allergies are OK... not great, but OK. So, I can do it.
One of the best things is shopping and rearranging (Both of which I secretly like to do when moving). Yesterday I bought a nice display case for my rock collection (cat protected!), and it looks quite nice. In case some of you have not seen my (museum quality) rock collection, here's a glimpse:
Here are my minerals. In the back is a huge piece of Lepidolite.
My igneous rocks, with Mongolian nick-nacks. The grey rock, front and center, is a month younger than me (from Mt. St. Helens eruption of October 1980).
My sedimentary rocks, with fossils. My awesome crinoid is bottom left.
My metamorphic/altered rocks, including a mafic dike in a felsic rock and a pillow basalt from a ophiolite zone in Mongolia and a piece of the fault that threatens my life right now, the Wasatch, in the back.
Pretty cool, huh? The only specimens I can't find are my awesome slickenside from Orocopia and my giant Sphene from just outside Yosemite. So, if any of you wanna see it in person, let me know.
Lately, I've decided to abandon my quest on Yahoo! Answers (for the most part), because democratic learning is hard. Instead, I have converted my online nerdishness to Wikipedia. Refernces are great.
The most important page I made was Dollaseite-(Ce), the mineral named after our beloved Wayne Dollase from UCLA. Not only did I make the page, but I now have a piece!!! I went online, found a guy out of the Netherlands that had a (small) piece, and bought it. Only 30 Euros (about $44 bucks), so not too bad considering it is only known from Sweden. Why doesn't the ESS depertment have a big chunck of this on display, showing off to the world the WE (UCLA) have a prof who has a mineral named after him?!?!?!?!?
I did recently go on a Snake Valley trip, where I talked about our project with many folks from all backgrounds, including SNWA people.
Strangly, the highlight of the trip was a cement plant that I crossed a hundred times on the way to Snake Valley. It was amazing... this pic came out cool because of the aresol limestone that was in this room... you can only slightly see the giant pulversizing cylander.
Last night, Shawn and I saw David Cross! Very funny...
Not much else going on... looking forward to the weather changing! Yesturday's high: 89 F, low: 50 F, hot. Tomorrow's high: 47 F, low: 31 F, chance of snow overnight. Crazy, no? That must be the biggest change in weather since the hall or records mysteriously blew away...
True
Lifetime
