Bewildered, disgustited, sad…

But most of all, scared.

May God have mercy on us all.

Happy Holloween to one and all. Before we get started, a disclaimer from a concerned mother.

Hello, everyone. You know, Hallowe’en is a very strange holiday. Personally,
I don’t understand it. Mm mm… Kids worshipping ghosts, pretending to be
devils. Oooh, things on this blog that are inappropriate for younger
viewers. Things like the following entry. Nothing seems to bother
kids. But tonight’s read, which I totally wash my hands of, is really scary.
So if you have sensitive children, maybe you should tuck them into bed
early tonight instead of writing Matt angry letters tomorrow. Thanks for
your attention.


First things first. I am in this orginization known as the MUSS. It is basically a student sports group here at U of U which gets you into better seats for games and special events and tailgates. Well, this week I got an email for a Holloween party. Here is the text:


Halloween Costume Party!
Saturday, October 30, 7:00 pm – 11:30 pm
University of Utah LDS Institute

Black light volleyball, food, stomp.
We will be projecting the U of U vs. San Diego State game!
Admission is $3 with a can of food, $4 without.
Modest dress, no masks, no cross dressing.
Sponsored by the Alpha Chapters of LDS/SGC


I could not believe that next to last line. Leave it to the LDS to take a fun holiday like Holloween and turning it into a Nazi death march. Needless to say, I wasn’t going, but if I was, I would have been turned away (on 2 out of 3 violations).



Yup, that’s right, I busted out the infamous Snow White again this year. Hey, the Utahans hadn’t seen it, and I couldn’t think of anything better, so why not? It was very popular last year. This is me with Gabe, husband of Brenda, a PhD sed person. Before the Geology/Biology/Etc. party that was to be later that night, we went to Brenda where Margaritas were consummed en masse.



Here are the guys and girls before we left to the main party (©Steph)



These are the folks I hang out with, not only on this night, but in general. The sorcerous on the left is Steph. She’s from Ohio (Muskangum Col.). The human cannonball is Aaron from Chicago (U of Illionois). Breakfast at Tiffinay’s Audrie Hepburn in Katrina from Minnesota (Michigan Tech, with Alex Matiella). These 3 are the 3 I hang with every weekend, practically. We go to all the football games and dept functions together. By the end of the night, Steph and Katrina need Aaron and I to help them walk because they were both shitfaced.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. No.




These pictures do not give justice to the crowdedness of the party. At least CF12 (Crowdedness Factor 12). There was a haunted house in the basement, which was CF20 or more. The scary part really was the basement itself (i.e. pipes, uneven floors), not the effects that were set up.



My personal prize for best costume would go to Mike’s ‘Jolly Green Giant.’ Very good and detailed.



Of course, I did get people saying that I would win. This hot girl said to me several times, something along the lines of, “That is the ugliest costume I have ever seen. It’s awesome.”



I also liked Amy’s and (my former roommates) Chris’ costumes. And guess what, the box actually dispenced wine!



As you all know, drunken people, on occasion, feel the desire to leave. So at one point, our little group decided we should go to another party. OK. So we walked in the rain for a place that was just a few blocks away. After about 1/2 hour, it was apperent that the group did not have the mindset to find this place. So, we went back to Brenda’s.



So, we sat around and dried off and drank more until 1 or 3 or 2. Damned if I knew because of the MDT/MST switch. As we left though…



Snow!!! Yeah, so taking a pic of snowing in any light is hard, but here you can see the flash bouncing off the huge, wet, and heavy snowflakes. By this time, the entire ground was covered w/ ~.5 inch. We got about 1 or 2 inches in the valley overnight. I carefully drove Steph and Katrina home, and drove back to go to my place to sleep.



“It’s begining to look a lot like Hal-loween, everywhere I go…”

Hi kiddies. Believe me, I am not geting any skinnier.

This morning we got our first dusting of snow. It was barely there when I woke up. Not worthy of a picture.

It’s that time again, from the makers of EPFW and The Body Acoustic (coming soon), it’s:

Matt’s Semi-Diurnal Rant!

This weeks rant is brought to you by Gorman’s Ear Guards. GUARD YOUR EARS!!! with Gormans.

#1

Some people need to understand what the difference between “best” and “important”. There is a big difference. Best means you were the pinicale of acheivement in a specific field or subfield. Important usually refers to innovation or subsiquent influence. These two things are not the same. Let’s look at baseball for an example. If I ask you for the “best” player, you might say Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, etc. Plenty of debate there. Now, if I ask you for the most “important” player, you might think of Jackie Robinson, Curt Flood, Bruce Sutter. Sometimes these terms apply to the same player, like Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron. But not always. The point of this is, don’t confuse the two. For example, are Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground two of the more important artists in rock history? Sure. Are they two of the better artists? No way. Maybe Bob is one of the better librettists, but musically, they were below average at best.

#2

There are a lot of things that bug me about the President. So, what outranks them all by a mile? Is it the horrid environmental policy? Is it taking away rights from homosexuals? Is it the threat of Row vs. Wade being overturned? Is it the 1000 people that died in war for one reason at first and another now? Is it the lack of compassion for world affairs? Is it the $7+ Billion that Haliburton got without a bidding process and has since done a bad job? Is it the lack of due process in Guantanamo Bay? Is it the reduction of the Bill of Rights through the Patriot Act (among other similar things)? Is it the across the board lowering of air/water standards? Is it the logging in national forests? Is it the drilling proposals in ANWAR and the Rocky Mountain Front (Sun River Canyon area)? It’s none of those things (I could go on). It is the use of 9/11 for political gain.

9/11 was a mistake on our part. It should have never happened. We knew Bin Laden was ready to attack, we knew two top terrorists were in the country (they were 2 of the 4 flyers), we knew people were taking flight school, we knew they wanted to fly planes into buildings. I realize that threats come in all the time, and you can’t act on everything. But still, 9/11 was a failure. How can the American public let Bush use this failure as a main (positive) campain point? Why is the person who allowed this to happen better prepared to defend our country? Bush always polls better on security issues, but why? 9/11 should be a dark cloud over the campain, not a silver lining. Bush should take resonsablity for 9/11, and heads should have rolled, not just Tenent’s head, either. Basically, my point is: Bush failed, why is he better than someone who hasen’t tried yet?

#3

After all that, sometimes I feel that we deserve Bush as president because the American people are stupid and getting stupider. Why did Bush lose the first debate? Because he scowled? Give me a fucking break. How about the issues? Do they matter? It’s hard for me to believe that people actually listen to the debate. And when both sides lied in the debate, it was hardly an issue. How could Bush get away with saying, “I never said I was not concerned about Osama Bin Laden” when that is EXACTLLY what he said earlier this year. If Bush wins, and the country goes to hell, I just hope major reforms can be done at that future time of crisis.

OK. Thanks for reading. Feel free to rant back.

This is a pic of our computer lab in the dark. I think it looks cool.

So like two weeks ago I mentioned I was out in the field. Many of you did not believe me and demaned evidence that I actually went out in the field.

Well, that may be a half truth, but here’s the proof anyways. I went out the famous Green River formation with Jessica Moore-Ali Adeeb to her field area for her Masters. It was fun.

Lately, I’ve just been listening to my new music and getting work done.

I went to the Utah game, and we dominated. I really am starting to think we are good.

Especially this guy. Final line:
29-37, 341 yds
4 TDs, 1 INT
10 Rush, 63 yds, 1 TD

Well, here’s the only pic I’ve got from our beloved MSH. Remind me next time I go back in time to give myself a digital cameral like 5 years earlier. Anyways, this is Alex, looking at a canyon formed in the 1980 deposit that’s ~100 feet deep. This proves that the Grand Canyon can be formed in only a few decades and the earth was born in 4004 BC.

But seriously folks, I do have some exciting news. I just bought the new Fatboy Slim album. Yes he’s up to his old tricks, and not only in the music, but also in the videos. Check out Fatboy Slim’s website to see the new video for “Slash Dot Dash”. If you liked the videos for “Praise You” (guys dancing in Westwood) and “Weapon of Choice” (Christorpher Walken), you’ll find this video to be just as unrelated to the song but just as amazing. You’ll never think about markers, nudity, orange hats, and bathrooms in the same light.

So, the other night I got caught up in watching a strange movie in German called Brother of Sleep. It was about this weird guy who like had visions and shit, and he was kinda an outcast, even though he was a virtuoso organ player. The important thing I got out of it was this girl was in love with him, but he chose his music over her. Great.

Since all of you love the features on my xanga, and are always demanding more, I have decided to add a new feature.

From the makers of EPFW and The Semi-diurnal Rant comes…

TALES OF FERNMAN!

This will be stories of the exploits of a certain someone who shall remain nameless (but you can guess who). This idea is loosely based upon Offenbach’s excellent and famous opera “Tales of Hoffman”. These stories I’ve been hearing are just too good to be hidden away from the public. So, I’m just givin’ you what you want, Fernman by the barrelful.

Today’s Tale of Fernman is rated: TV MA – AC, SC, N key
Do not read on if under 18 years of age or if faint of heart.

Our hero was at a bar, an Irish pub he likes to frequent. He met a girl, and Irish girl. This came about because of her drink order. While our hero was drinking Guiness, the irish girl ordered Cuervo on the rocks (ironic, eh?). Well, they got to talking, and as the bar closed, they decided it was time for tacos. After tacos, they headed back to her place. Well, after listing to vintage and rare CDs for some time, things progressed, and our hero discovered that the Irish girl had a surprizingly attractive body for being a pale, skinny white chick. They wound up having sex and falling asleap. At 6AM, things got interesting. At this early moring time, our hero and his most recent conquest were awoken by a knock at the door. This did not sit well with our hero. He wanted to hide, or go somewhere else, but this was just a studio apartment, and his nudity prevented an escape from under the sheets. The Irish girl stumbles to the door, semi-dressed, and answers the door. At the door is another man. Our hero does not know who it is, but from what he could gather, it is an ex of the girl. After a breif conversation, she turns to our hero and says, “I have to go,” at which point, she proceeds to go. Our hero, befuddled at the current situation, does what anyone would do in this situation, alone in another person’s apartment he barely knows. He goes to her CD collection, borrows a few, and leaves. He would see her again, but it is safe to say this relationship is doomed, not from the former incident, but from a racist comment on the second date (along the lines of “Mexicans don’t belong in this country”).  That would be the relationship’s downfall.

So, there you go. If you like our newest feature, I assure you there will be more to come. If you didn’t like it, too bad. Just kidding…maybe…is he joking?

Hey no-Cal, these guys are hella good…

I was out in the field, so I didn’t get to watch the greatest day in
SoCal sports in quite some time.  Oh well, the sacrafices one
makes for their love (geology, of course).

Speaking of baseball…

I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I’ve been doing fantasy sports
for 5 years now, and I’ve never won a public league, and certainly have
never won it in such a dominating fashion.  Also, consider this, I
was in Mongolia for a month and could not update during that month!

Nothing much new around here… I was out in the field this weekend, I
will have info about that soon.  Ben, my roommate, is back from
China.  A bug known as a Box Elder Beetle (see above) is currently
in its annual infestation phase of my building (WBB).  I’ve been
thinking about Mt St Helens a lot, and the whole crew, since its gonna
blow.  Well, I’ve got a 513 in my work station I should attend
to.  Or a midterm, I can’t remember which.

So, damn xanga says I have not updated in a while.  Well, they are wrong, wrong as rain.  Speaking of rain…

We got are first ‘winteresque’ storm, with a dusting in the Wasatch.  The skiers are allready salavating.

This weekend I went on a field trip to the world famous Book Cliffs,
near Green River, UT.  This is the place that sequence
stratigraphy was invented, literally.  It was an awesome
trip.  Saturday was hot and clear.

Sunday was not.

Even saw some cool petroglifs, well, they were cool in places where
they were not discraced by “Frank” or “Jesus” carved next to them.

The trip was lead by Bryan Bracken, who is a really cool guy and really
helped me finally understand some of the intracacies of sequence
stratigraphy.  He definately turned my head on the oil
industry.  I’m not saying I’m ready sell my soul, but if the prof
thing doesn’t work out, oil would be a viable alternative.  This
was certainly NOT true before the weekend.  Maybe I just need to
take my brain medicine, or maybe I changed.  Either way, Mr. Show,
season 4 came out on DVD today, and I’m gonna watch it.

P.S. I am learning the song “Through the Darkness” by Tiger Army on my
bass.  It’s a challenging song, with difficult vocal lines, vocal
rhythms, and words, and a very intracate and interesting bass line, and
I hope to have it down by xmas.  That way, your requests can range
from that to Polly to Hide Your Love Away, and that’s about it (as far
as full songs).

It’s been too long, I know.

Well, I don’t have too much to say. I’m just churning along in the ol’ PhD. Taken classes, cuttin’ billets, you know, the works. Had my birthday (two weeks ago), which was uneventful. I go to the world famous sequence strat haven the Book Cliffs in So Utah this weekend, and I’ll take pictures. Of course, this is also the weekend that my house is having a big party, so I will miss that. I told my roommates that I would just hide in the bushes while they were cool and then they could hold parties, but they still had to have it this weekend. Bought the new Flogging Molly, which is awesome.

I do have a story to tell.

So, my roommate, Chris, moved out at the end of August. With him he took several things, including, his can opener. So, we have not had a can opener in the house for some time. So, I got home last night, and Chris was paying his old pad a visit and eating dinner with my roommate Scott. Well, since we have not had a can opener, my roommates have been using my pocket knife to open cans. There was another pocket knife in the house, but it was broken. Well, since I was not home, and Scott had to open a can of tomatoes for his chicken-rice creation, he apparently struggled for some time trying to use something to get the can open. Eventually, he went to the garage and sawed the can down the middle, made a big hole, and then took a kitchen knife and stabbed, gouged, and sliced (some of) the tomatoes out of the can into the rice. He said there was a fair amount of metal filelings that made it’s way into the dish, but Chris never noticed.

So later on, as he was telling the story, Chris got the idea that he could open a can with the broken pocket knife. Scott warned him that it wouldn’t work, but Chris was determined. So, they searched through the kitchen and found Ben’s (Ben, along with Dave, are the other roommates. Ben is in China doing research right now, and Dave was in the living room durring this production) can of water chestnuts. Scott said he would eat the whole can if Chris could get it open in the next 10 min. So, Chris struggled, and struggled, eventually resorting to using the corkskrew, bottle opener, sissors, and main knife before resorting to taking a butcher knife and hacking the poor can of water chestnuts to bits, and getting out a fair number of the water chestnuts through the now gaping hole in the top of the can. So, as promissed, Scott ate them all up. Just another day in the Thug Palace.

I am officially started with my PhD now.  This friday was
orientation, which was fun.  I met most of the new grad students,
and it seems like a good group.  Not a fan of the girl/guy ratio,
however.  On saturday we went up into the Wasatch range, and hiked
around the famous ski resort known as Alta.

It was a fun day.  I felt like the magical man from happy land, in
a gumdrop house on lollypop lane.  One crazy thing that happened
is one girl, who was from MN and MI, passed out twice on the outcrop,
once for 5 sec and once for 20 sec, separated by ~2 min.  It was
kinda scary, but she was OK and hiking some more 15 min later.  We
looked at a pluton and the areole around the pluton, including a neat
forsterite marble.

That’s all for now.

P.S. I love DirectTv.