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...
Fernando and I took a trip to Tennessee to see our precious UCLA Bruins play the University of Tennessee Volenteers. They even gave us a True Blue car!
The first evening (Friday), after meeting in the airport, was spent walking the sights in Nashville. In the background is the Titan's stadium.
The evening was slightly dampened (pun intended) by torrential rain... it was insane. Even the locals said this was a lot of rain.
On Saturday, we drove the 2.5 hours to Knoxville and Neyland Stadium.
On the drive, we saw many a Vol fan.
But we also saw this: a state of TN license plate with a U of Alabama logo on it.... wtf?
Knoxville is a very nice town, but there is one thing about it that is unmistakable...
The wigsphere, I mean, Sunsphere!
Right away, Fernando and I knew we had seen this thing before. It turns out that in an episode of the Simpsons, the one where Bart gets a fake ID and takes Milhouse, Nelson, and Martin on a road trip, they go to Knoxville to see the World's Fair, only to find out that it happened before they were born. I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that it was a real thing.
Two quick stories that intertwined: Fernando left the tix in the hotel in Nashville, so while we waited in line to ask, whimsically, if we could get a replacement, we met Kyle and Alan. They came to Knoxville with a backpack and nothing else, and needed to ask about getting their bags into Neyland. We offered to hold their bags in our car, and when the cop wouldn't even let them past him, we just had to talk to the UCLA ticket person. It was actually much, much easier than we thought, and it allowed us to help a fellow Bruin or two! After a quick jaunt to the car, we were ready for the game!
The stadium (102k in attendance) and the atmosphere was unreal. The crowd was super loud, in sync, and smart. The band was great (even with 100 Rocky Tops), and even played our fight song in the opening!
The lines that were drawn in the crowd were sharp!
If you did not see the game, it was quite dramatic. Crazy turnovers and penalties, goal-line stands, and back and forth all game. UCLA won and played better, I think most Vol fans would admit that, and in fact, did. the fans, before and after, were incredibly nice and polite. They would call us over just to talk and bs. I can only hope that all fans would act like that, though I know they would not.
After the game, we were pumped! I can honestly say, however, that the fans made it such an experience that would've liked the game regardless of outcome.
After the game, we hit the town to cheer on the Buckeyes. So, they just passed a state law saying that you are allowed to bring in a handgun to a bar if 1) the bar does NOT post a sign forbidding it 2) you declare it 3) you do not drink. Gotta love gun nuts, or else they will shoot you.
This is the random car of women that stopped and had to thank us for beating the Vols. It was... yeah...
Sunday morning was great... ate the best meal of the trip at Bar-B-Cuties (that's a lot of sauses) and went to Ruby Tuesdays to watch football and the crazy end of the Bungles vs. Donkey game.
Fern and I parted ways at the airport, and things were fine... until my first flight was delayed, I missed my connection in Houston (last flight of day), and had to sleep at Terminal 39C in the Bush airport. Yuck. It really, really, sucked. Got to the SLC 13 hours late.
I was a little sheepish about this trip initially, but now, I want this to be a tradition. Who's up for Austin in 2010?
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