Sorry, wish I had more exciting things to say.

Well, I did meet the new grad student, and guess what. Go on, guess.

She’s from Ridgecrest! That’s right, my little po-dunk, white-trash, redneck mountain town. She lives right off China Lake Blvd., walking distance to my dad’s place. It’s unbelieveable.

Well, here’s a poem, in case you want to read something. I read something on the ‘net that reminded me of this one.

Undated
By Matt Affolter

And now,
I pledge to you my heart.
It is captured and in your grasp,
The pursuit is over at this joyous moment.
All my lust, all my love,
All my warmth, all my security,
Lies in you, my chosen one.
Also,
I pledge to you my soul.
Enclosed in a dream and delivered upon first sight.
To your ever-waiting doorstep.
All my vision, all my vigor,
All my desires, all my prayers,
Lie through you, my new religion.

My mind, however, must remain with me.
Even with a vast majority
Perpetually devoted to you,
A tiny sliver must remain conscious,
Just so I know how lucky I am.

Finally home. So long, stinktown.

I should have come back earlier, but I was too busy. With what, you ask?

I went to my second of two bowl games of the season,

The Fiesta Bowl, fuck ‘sc, Fiesta Bowl, fuck ‘sc, at beautiful Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ.

I went to the game with Anthony, a Bruin alum and Sylmar Spartan alum.

I also saw the lone Utahn that was there that I knew, Anthony, a geo undgrad in the band. The crowd was at least 3/4 Utah. There were more people at this game than we can fit in our stadium in the SLC.

Our seats were great. Too bad Alex is gone.

It was a fun and great game. It is a shame we don’t have a playoff.

After that, I came back to LA, hung out for one day, and left at 6:15 AM Tuesday morning to drive back to the SLC. I got to the SLC at 4:45 PM (PST), making the trip 10.5 hours. I stopped a total of 15 min on the trip for food, gas, and bathroom. The drive is tough, but it beats flying.

Here is my pimped out ride. It’s a black ’91 Mazda 626 standard trany with 252k miles, a leaky trunk, and no hubcaps. Oh yeah, it snowed last night.

So long LA, I won’t be there anytime soon. If you want to tour the 6 national parks in Utah (plus Yellowstone), visit the world class ski resorts within 30 miles of my house, or see me in general, you’re gonna have to make it out here.

P.S. Here’s the newest ESPNmag cover…

I Love LA…

Well, I still at least have some feelings for LA, even after all this time apart.

What have I been up to, besides furiously working on grants that are due by Friday?  I’ve been checking out some of the old stomping ground places… like…

If you don’t know what this is, you don’t belong here.

Here is, what I believe is, the best building anywhere.  For you non-Bruins, notice the asymmetry in Royce Hall (i.e. 2 windows on right tower, 3 on left).  There are dozens all over the building, “perfectly placed inperfections” as they say on the tour.

I also checked out some places I used to live, like

Dykstra Hall (w/ De Neve to the right)

and Gate 15 at Pauly.

So, what have I been up to?  Well, I went to the Las Vegas Bowl, UCLA vs. Wyomingm at UNLV’s stadium.  It was100x better than the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose last year.

I went with Fernando.  We started the drive at 8AM, got to vegas in time to eat a buffet at Paris and then go to the game.  We left right away and got back to LA around 3:30 AM.  Fernando was wearing his throwback Gary Beban jersey.

It was cold.  It was 40s with wind. I was not prepared enough.

It was way fun, even though we lost on a last minute TD.  And get this: we set an all time LV Bowl record with 27,000+ people in attendance, and it was not close to selling out.  Second place?  UNLV-Alabama with 25,000+.  They can’t even sell out their own stadium, how pathetic!  I definately heard chuckleing when the anounced it.

I also went to my origional hometown, Ridgecrest, CA to spend xmas.

I even saw my old friend Josh.  We talked a little and played horseshoes.  He’s a professional drug dealer in Bakersfield now.

One thing about my Dad’s house is it is practically a museum, and it is even more like it in xmas time.

One of the coolest parts of spending time with my dad is his new dog, Star.  Here she is sniffing her nose off, like usual, in La Tuna Canyon.  She’s a great dog and really a good influence on my dad.

So, what did Santa bring me?  The one thing I wanted!

A Miami Dolphins pocket watch!  Thanks Santa!

It’s been too long.  We should catch up.

 

This has been one crazy time lately.  On 11 Dec, I flew from the SLC to Burbank and directly (I mean DIRECTLY, like grab bags from baggage claim and get in the car) w/ Sheila to Big Sur to meet up with some of her homies from CSULA.  We got there at 12:30 AM, just missing Laura’s (Sheila’s (awesome) advisor) BDay.  We brought the cake, but alcohol was consumed instead.

Big Sur is certainly nice looking.  The next morning we ate breakfast cake, which you should try, if you’ve never experienced.  We lazed it up and eventually made our way to San Fran to start AGU.

AGU is certainly not as fun as GSA.  I did see some good talks, but there wasa lot of downtime due to lack of interest in sessions.  Well, I’m not a geophysist, so that’s probably why.  The best part was seeing people I know give talks and/or hang with them.  I saw Jorge, Kari Cooper, Eric Middlesteadt, Teresa, my advisor, and the other prof from the Mongolia trip all present.  I also saw Jeremy Boyce, who is (as of 1 week ago) engaged.  I also saw Kelly, Pat, and Nate while in P-a-l-o A-l-t-o.  I was stating w/ Sheial at her parent’s place.  We took the CalTrain in every day.

Here is Sheila and Kelly enjoying the Gates of Hell at Stanford.

 

Here is Kelly working hard (or hardly working) at her fam’s store: Kumura (sp?) Gallery

Here is the Stanford Geology Library.  That’s right, this is for ONLY geo books.

Probably the most entertaining thing at AGU was this guy.  Luckily, I’m not a geophysist.

So, after AGU, I’ve been down in LA being crazy like every Festivus break.  Right now I am at Gabe’s place on 510 Landfair.

And now, it’s time for another instalment of…

Tales of Fernman

Starring: Our hero, Fernman; Monica (Fernman’s girlfriend); Reyna (Monica’s friend); Gabe and Javy (Fernman’s friends and fratbrothers).

Special guest apperence by Matt Affolter as “The Comforter”

This enstalment is rated R.  It contains adult content not sutable for children.

Our tale begins at everyone’s favorite Monday late night activity: Karaoke.  Everyone was having a great time, especially the girls, who were comfortably over their two drink minimum.  After rousing renditions of “Instant Karma”, “Boy’s Don’t Cry”, and a falsetto version of “About a Girl” by Matt (who is sick), the bar closed and our merry group was forced to relocate.  The girls offered their place to facilitate the proposed prelonged beverage consumption.

As an aside, the nobel nature of our hero Fernman should be noted.  After a long list of conquests, both quick and extended, and with his current situation of a comfortable relationship, his motives turned to extending his empire; not through continued feats of his own merit, but through the success of his supporting cast.  On this night, Fernamn’s aim was to acheive his new goal toward Matt.  Am earlier meeting between Reyna and Matt had sparked interest on both sides, and Fernman was going to try to use this to enable a connection.

After arriving at the girl’s place, our party found that the other (male) roommate of the girls had a female caller, and they were watching Reservoir Dogs.  They quickly preceeded into his room.  Fernman, Javy, Monica, and Reyna, by means of yelling, entering the room, and various other activities, performed one of the crulest things one can do: cockblock.  (This, by the way, shows the power of Fernman, who takes it away from those outside the inner circle while encouraging his allies).  After a bit, they left. As this was occuring, some Smirinoff’s were taken out and drank by Reyna, Monica, and Javy.  As the night went on, the beligerance increased exponentially.  At about 3:30, Gabe was ready to go, and Javy drove him.  Since Matt was staying with Gabe, Gabe told Matt to come along.  But after several subtle guestures by our hero, he realized that he should go alone with Javy.  This left the male:female ratio = 1.

Fernman, in order to set the mood (one would assume) began to engage Monica.  Matt and Reyna engaged… in small talk.  Then, a fatefull ring of the phone broke up the awkward situation.  Reyna answered and locked herself in the bathroom.  After a few minutes, sobbing began to emanate from the bathroom.  The person on the phone was Reyna’s ex (later conversation would reveal that they broke up with much difficulty, and the previous day a conversation between Reyna and the ex furthur complicated the situation: The ex had requested a reconciliation.).  After another half hour, with continued crying, Matt was ready to leave, but the keys to the car were lost.  So, Matt went into the departed roommate’s bed to sleep.  Fernman took the couch with Monica (guess what they did).

At about 4:30, Reyna was finally coaxed off the phone by Monica and Fernman.  She was an emotional wreck.  She was placed into the room with Matt on another bed, still distraught.  Fernman went back to the couch with Monica (yes, again).  A conversation began between Reyna and Matt, about relationships.  She needed to be consolled, so she layed down next to Matt.  They talked for approximately 1 hour, mostly concerning the ineptitude of people in relationships and the subsequent confusion and distress.  They both lemented and reciprocated, but holding each other was the extent of the contact.  They discovered how naive they both happen to be and could certainly relate on the topic of lack of experience and difficultly in relationships.  At 5:30, there was a second phone call, this time from a friend of Reyna’s.  They had a (relative to the last) pleasant conversation until 6 AM.  During this time, Fernman moved to the bed Reyna was going to sleep on, away from Monica, due to an argument.  When Reyna got off the phone, ready to sleep, she discovered a snoring Fernman, and slept in the livingroom.

In the morning, Reyna left to go to work (9ish).  At 11 AM, Matt requested a ride home.  After Matt was kicked out of the room by Fernman, (yup), he was taken to Gabe’s.

So, are there any regrets?  No, because as much as we would all love to live up to the model patented by Fernman, it is not always possible.  Matt could have taken advantage of this inebriated and depressed girl, but that is not how he operates.  That’s only a feat that a Fernman can attempt.  And believe it or not, dispite the lack of sleep, this night was enjoyable to Matt, if only for the holding of Reyna.

 

Well, that’s it.  I’ll have upates from the rest of my LA trip as they happen.  And next entry, stay tuned for a Fernman special investigative report on the clitoris, nature’s rubix cube.

Thanks to all for the kind words. It was a bad day, and I let it show, for sure. The next day I talked to the head of the Grad School (a Prof of mine as well) and told him about it, and he said I need to work on it but also my advisor needs to work on her mentoring skills. He then sent me this email:

“Thanks for meeting. It is an awkward situation but I have confidence there is a solution.

There is a future here for you. Put me on your committee.
I could help you with your writing … and other matters. And I would enjoy working with you.”

OK, on to much, Much, MUCH better topics…

This weekend, I lived out a nearly life-long dream. I saw my first professional football game.
I saw my favorite team, in person. What this means to me is beyond the capability of words.
I’ve wanted to do this for at least 12 years, so half my life.

How did this come about?

Well, Jeremy, pictured, after being my office neighbor for two years in U of Montana, has moved on to Florida International University in Miami. Now that I know someone in Miami, I have an excuse to visit and see a game. So I went to this weekend’s game vs. Buffalo, my former most hated team.

And Jeremy did certainly live in a tropical haven. Here is his Banana Tree, ready to fruit in the Spring.
The winter is hot and humid. Temps were 70s w/ 75% humidity.
I was not enjoying it. Give me below 30 with 5% humidity anyday.

These two, Sonya on top and Stewie (yes, named after Family Guy) on bottom.
I was hepped up on allergy medicines the whole time. The couch I slept on was soft, but just didn’t work for me. Sunday night, the neighbors partied until 4:15 AM. Weak. Sons of Bitches.

Here is downtown from the freeway. I did see some of the town, like Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, and I did eat at the famous “La Carreta” Cuban restaurant on Calle Ocho where they will not even attempt english. Also ate on the warf and toured FIU.

And here it is from the top of the Stadium. It’s kinda far away, huh?

Ahhh… Joe Robbie I mean… Pro Player® Stadium. By this time I was very giddy.

And here I am, where I’ve wanted to be for so long.

Here is Jeremy and Kate (the gf).

Here are Jeremy and I. I am saying “we’re number 1″ and he’s saying “we’re number 8.”
I do want to make the point that it does not matter to me that this season’s in the tank, and there are several reasons why.

-I’ve come to terms with the horrid play of the team
-I got to see them live
-In my 12+ years of being a DolFan, they have had lots of success.
I can’t remember a season where tey were under .500.
In fact, they have only been under .500 6 times in almost 40 years: 1988, 1976, 1969-1966.
Not bad. This must be the law of averages kicking in this season.

Here is the view from inside the famous spiral stairs around the Rob.

Here are what some fan’s think of the pothead rickey. I also enjoied the fan who put big pot leaves all over his #34 jersey.

Here is the view from our seats. These are the or near the “worst” seats in the house, but the view was great. Way better than seats I’ve had at the Rose Bowl and certainly better than Colleseum seats for ‘sc.

Here is a shot from live game action. I don’t remember what this play resulted in, but chances are Feeley threw an interception.

Here is our halftime ‘entertainment’: Travis Tritt.
His live performance makes Ashlee Simpson seem like a polished Jazz player.
The most FAKE thing ever.

For every game, there are traditions. Dolphin traditions include:
fans sininging the National Anthem and playing the fight song for TDs and FGs.
You can hear it here.

(Verse)
Miami has the Dolphins,
The greatest football team!
We take the ball from goal to goal,
Like no one’s ever seen!
We’re in the air,
We’re on the ground,
We’re always in control.
So when you say Miami,
You’re talking Super Bowl!

(Chorus 1)
Cause we’re the Miami Dolphins,
Miami Dolphins,
Miami Dolphins Number 1.

(Chorus 2)
Yes we’re the Miami Dolphins,
Miami Dolphins,
Miami Dolphins Number 1.

(Repeat)

So, we did lose, but I was having too much fun to notice. Can’t wait for next year. And as Fernando so aptly said, “It’s great to be among like-minded people.”

So, I sent the essays I’ve been working on to my advisor. Read a portion of her response:

“Let me be brutally honest: these essays are extremely weak. They need a lot of work, more than what you will be able to accomplish immediately, and actually would require more direct input from me than I think is appropriate for one of these grfs (which are supposed to be written by students). I know that is a blunt statement: I am not saying this to discourage you in general, but it is a serious issue. I think you’ve made a good start, and of course you have to start somewhere. And the more times you try something like this and submit it, the better. But, I have to tell you I have some real concerns about your writing—my honest opinion is that these essays strike me as high school level at best. If you really hope to go into academics, good writing needs to be so second hand that you can do it in your sleep (because that’s about all the spare time you’ll have). This issue could seriously hamper your success as a PhD student and certainly as a professor.
…
The overall essay organization is poor, paragraph transitions are lacking, and sentence structure needs help as well. There are whole sentences that just make no sense.
…
It’s up to you whether you want to submit these with whatever revisions you have time to do. I don’t mind if you do go ahead and submit them, but I think the chances for success are quite low—I am more concerned with the bigger picture here.”

Damn, I promise to get my GED soon. S-M-R-T.

And then someone pointed this out to me on the dept picture board:

No faith… things like this make me want to quit and become a HS teacher.

OK, it’s almost 1 AM, it’s 25 °F, and I’m in my office. Boo.

I had a personal deadline of finishing my first draft of my NSF Grad Proposal due Friday. Plus, I have a 40 min ppt presentation that I started today at 4 PM and finished at 10 PM. Boo.

All that, and I STILL watched the Utes beat SUU in BBall…

So, I had a good Thanksgiving in NoCal/SoOr. I gave my cousin a few geo books. I’ll have her going crazy on some feldspar in no time.

When I got back to the SLC, I found this. You can set your watch to it… when I’m out of town, the storms come in…

By the way, the Nirvana boxset is great. It actually makes me gitty to listen to it. And I haven’t even watched the DVD yet, which I’ve been told is the best part. And just in case you are counting like I am, the box set brings my number of recordings of Polly (my fav song) to 25 (two are covers by other bands). It had one new and one better version of a demo I had. In fact, I can’t wait to listen to it for a half hour on the walk home.

And now, time for…

University of Utah vs. the Team Down South, 2004

Of course, not everyone is into it. My roommates (Scott L, Dave R) were not.

My buddies, Arron (pictured), Joe, Steph, and Katrina. Aaron had a very good day.

I woke up at 7AM to see College Gameday, even though I hate the dumb people that stand behind people on camera. This was about respect for my new school, and I have to do whatever it takes. This is a before pic (early in the morining).

Turns out they really didn’t need me. This is an after pic, when it was over. The parking lot in front of the stadium was packed, thousands of people.

I could barely get a good look at Lee, Kirk, and Chris. Chris seemed to really be on our side, he would turn back and look over the crown between the action, and he would do his best to get us pumped up.

Last year’s Holy War (or Church vs. State) Game was played during a blizzard, and the final score was 3-0. Snow and cold was forcast for the game, and when it started to snow at about 1 PM, I got worried.

The weather was cold, but not snowy for the game, thankfully. Here we are walking to the game, with the U in the background. Quick note: Everytime a Ute sport team or induvidual wins a game, the U is lit up all night long.

We walked around tailgates before the game. There we discovered the real team everyone roots for: Beer.

Joe brought 9 beers for us to drink before the game. Well, with me not helping things, the beers needed to be drunk fast because it was time to get our seats. Here is a pic of Joe trying to fight off an extra-foamey Corona. I tried to explain to Joe that drinking does not actually warm you up, it actually constricts the blood vessels, but he just told me to shut up. Joe wound up giving away 3 beers.

We got our seats and got pumped. Here is “the best band in the west,” as our anouncer says. I know of a band in Westwood that might disagree with that.

Here is a typical scene from this or any game of the season. We have a minumum of 3 recievers, and Alex Smith is in shotgun. I can count the number of times that we’ve been in a big formation (<2 WR) or Alex under center on one hand.

By half time, it was 21-14, and people were nervous. All the Tostitos chips and tortillas and sombraros and sarapes were getting heavy…

But we outscored TDS 31-7 in the second half to win 52-21.

With about 1.5 minutes left, we started pouring onto the field. When a TDS player was tackled short of a first down with 15 seconds left, a good part of 45,326 fans rejoyced and we filled the field. Let the mayhem begin.

An email sent to the MUSS warned us that we would be allowed on the field as long as we used stairs, didn’t jump over the railing, and let the goalposts come down with their auto-goal-post-bringer-down system. Of course, none of that happened. It was crazy fun. Both posts came down.

Ever wondered what’s left of the goalpost after it comes down?

What a great win. What a great season. I just hope I don’t do my football jinx again:

First year at UCLA (1998): Win 8th straght over ‘sc, go to Rose Bowl.
Since: lose 5 straght to ‘sc, who becomes co-national champs, we do poorly

First year at Montana (2002): Come off 2001 1-AA National Championship, snaps 17 game winning streak over rival MSU, lose in second round of playoffs after recieving high seed.
Since: lost second year to MSU, did win this year.

In other news:

I’m flying into SFO Monday night. I’ll be driving to Ashland, OR for Turkey Day, as I always do.

I can’t wait for the new Nirvana Box Set to come out this Tuesday. All kinds of new/rare songs.

Scott (pictured above) is moving out. I will have a new roommate soon, either Aaron or Joe (both also pictured above).

With a new profile pic comes a big change to the format of your favorite programing. Instead of only Simpsons references found in each xanga, now there will be Family Guy and South Park added to the reference possibilities. This is not because I am running out of Simpsons references, it is because there are instances where I can think of a reference from those shows as well which would work perfectly in the entry. So, enjoy, and keep reading!

First, the answers to the GeoTriva quiz:

1) What is the name of an ore which is enriched by natural weathering processes?

2) What is the name of pyroclastic matrerial that is washed downslope?

3) Which crystal system has 3 unequal oblique axes?

…one last chance to guess…

1) SUPERGENE

2) LAHAR

3) TRICLINIC

If
you got 1 right, you are a geology minor! If you got 2 right, you are a
geology major! If you got all 3 right, you are as nerdy as me! And for
that lowly trojan/cougar all-star who can’t even get one right, you
get… ABSOLUTLY NOTHING!

I’m very excited about the Holy War
this weekend. Those biased retards from College Gameday will be here in
the SLC. The only thing worse than their horrid analysis is people who
stand behind them… see you there.

So I guess everyone’s all
lovey dovey. Fernando’s hot and heavy with his new girlfriend, Mrs. Pat
Lam is getting married, all my roommates are getting some, and even my
friends are getting into it. And me, well I have a great story to tell!
Not really… thanks for opening up old wonds… I’m in a real strange
way right now, I don’t even like anyone. You need prospects before you
can play the field… Anyways, I decided to write this in response to
my utter loanlyness. Hey, inspiration comes, and you have to accept it.
Try to guess what it means!

Sonnet 30 11-14-4 ©Matt Affolter

A shell of a man is all I see,
So to you, emotion I gladly send,
And after lover’s scorn and apathy,
My swelling heart, these words, I gladly lend.

“In you I see all the reasons for love,
My past erased and filled with your eyes,
The culmination of all I’ve dreamed of,
You are my purpose ‘til my spirit flies.”

Please take this passage and do with it well,
Its presence to me brings a great pain.
Why do I place upon myself such Hell,
And continue my life normally sane?

As my life progresses maliciously,
I find hope living vicariously.

One
more thing: in my Earth Science reviews class, we had to find a good
abstract and a bad abstract and critique them.  Well, I hate to
say it, but I pick Bad religion’s lead singer’s abstract for his
Master’s work.  Here is what I said.

“Bad Abstract: Graffin 1992

    This abstract suffers in the fact that it is
infected with needless information.  This abstract should be
shortened to only a few lines demonstrating the main point only, but
the author showed no control in editing.  The defense may be that
the extra information is needed, but an incomplete abstract would be
preferred to a walk through abstract with no substance and no
direction, which would be destined for nothing.  That just leads
to a recipe of hate and sorrow on my part.  I do forgive the
author of this abstract because he is the lead singer of one of the
greatest punk bands ever: Bad Religion.”

If you’re a fan of Bad religion, you should get it. By the way, the show in Denver was sold out. Fuck, that’s been happining to me a lot. Also by the way:

You Are From Saturn

You’re steady, organized, and determined to achieve your dreams. You tend to play it conservative, going by the rules (at least the practical ones). You’ll likely reach the top. And when you do, you’ll be honorable and responsible. Focus on happiness. Don’t let your goals distract you from fun! Don’t be too set in your ways, and you’ll be more of a success than you ever dreamed of.

I’m so tired, I haven’t slept a wink. I’m so tired, my mind is on the brink.

Well, that’s not entierly true. I just got back from GSA Denver. It was a blast and a half. We arrived in SLC at 5AM this morning. Considering I got little sleep on my broken backup thermarest on a hotel floor the previous 4 nights, I am ready to collapse.



Unfortunately to all my loyal readers, I was anti-shutter happy. And, I’m too tired right now to detail the trip. See Sheila’s blog for details of the trip. We were practically attached at the hip during the meeting.

By the way, the poster session went better than I could have imagined. Bill Dickinson came by and like it. What more could I ask for? Several people came by and said “I always thought that was the case, I’m glad someone finally did it” and others said “I’m teach classes in sandstone petrography and I may have to change/add in your idea to my class.” Everyone was possitive, no one was really negative, and people had reasonable and thought provoking questions for me. Also (what are the odds) Paleojabba had the same session and posterboard! I was on one side, she was on the other! That tripped me out. Alos, I met Pezzam. Also at my poster I met Ron Affolter! My namesake is also a coal geologist w/ the USGS in Denver. In fact, we both have imagrent roots in Chicago, so we might very well be closely related!

Possibly the funnest single event (besides seeing verybody) was GSA Trivia night. Sheila, Vin (FIU hydro guy w/ Jeremy), and I got wolloped on by the U of U group. Oh well, it was still fun. People were divided into groups and answered 10 Qs per round, and lots of prizes were given out. Plus, the fun and loudness apparently really disrupted the “Friends of the Cephalopods” meeting next door, which was awesome. Here are some sample Qs:

1) What is the name of an ore which is enriched by natural weathering processes?

2) What is the name of pyroclastic matrerial that is washed downslope?

3) Which crystal system has 3 unequal oblique axes?

(Check back next time for the answers)



Of course, the best part of the trip was the free/discounted stuff, considering the trip did cost a lot. I think I got my money’s worth.

So remember, when GSA calls, you gots to except the charges.


BREAKING NEWS:
Geothermal activity increasing in the SLC…