more pics and Tim Reynolds

Every friday night here in Los Alamos, they close off one of the roads and have a free concert, usually some local musicians, and street food vendors. I never went until last night because Tim Reynolds was playing (he's performed a lot with Dave Matthews and is really really good). The only camera I had was on my phone, so its a bit grainy. But anyway, he was awesome. He was also insane. And there were kids dancing in front of the stage for the whole concert:





And now some more pictures of the beautiful area of Los Alamos:

On the drive down the mesa:


The open road:


The sunset in the Jemez Mountains:


I really should take more pictures, because these are just ones from my phone and they really dont do it justice.

Tomorrow I'll have been here for 2 weeks. Wow. Feels like I got here 2 days ago.

I can definitely see how people can be work-a-holics here. Its so easy to work from 8am-6pm (which is what Im currently doing) and not even bat an eye. It was hard for me to stay at my desk at RPI for more than an hour. I wonder what the big difference is. Less distractions? Less ambient talking? More motivated people? All of the above?

But yeah I have a feeling that the next 10 weeks are gonna go by so fast.

bandelier nat'l monument

Me and Amber and Tarik (other grad students in my office) went to Bandelier National Monument this morning. It started off really nice but then it rained as soon as we were climbing the wooden ladders 140 feet up into the cave. Here are some pictures:


I look thrilled. No really it was cool.















The Bat cave

finally here

After 35 grueling hours of driving, from Troy, NY to Los Alamos, NM... yeah Im here.. and Im getting reimbursed $1300 for my efforts (48 cents per mile and per-diem expenses). It was 2182 miles.

I had a plan perfectly set up, too. I was going to drive to my parents house in Jamestown, NY, stay for a few days. Then drive to Urbana, IL for a complex systems conference. Then when that was over, I was going to drive to Springfield, Missouri to meet my friend Kim and stay with her. And then go to Los Alamos from there. I had set this up weeks in advance. I was to arrive on May 19th (a saturday) meet with my landlord and move in. Then I was to start orientation on Monday the 21st. I told LANL this weeks in advance too.
But then when I was at my parent's house, I was informed that I needed to be drug tested at Los Alamos before starting my orientation. But I needed to have it done so they'd have my test results by the 18th (friday) so I could be set to start on monday (the 21st). So in order to do that, I had to be at LANL on thursday morning to get tested. But I was to give my presentation at the complex systems conference (in illinois) on wednesday morning.
So as soon as my presentation was over, I left for los alamos. I drove straight from 10am wednesday morning in Urbana, IL, till 3am thursday morning, and stayed at a shitty hotel in Amarillo, Texas. (But I stopped and had dinner with my friend Kim in Springfield, because I felt bad about not being able to stay with her) Checked in at 3am to the Quality Inn. "Quality" being the operative word, ha! Slept for 3 hours, and then left Amarillo at 6am and drove 5 more hours to LANL. I should have slept in my car and saved $50. Or I shouldnt have stopped at all and drove right through. But oh well. I got there, got my drug test, met my landlord, unpacked my bed, and collapsed on it for 3 days. I got really sick too. I thought I had mono, but I think I was just really tired.

Orientation was 2 days of paperwork and listening to people tell me I cant look at porn while at work, and I cant go behind the scary fenced in gate unless my badge is red or blue.

Finally that was over and on wednesday I met with Hasan and he gave me a few papers to read. Er, 10 papers to read. Im now an expert on epidemic spreading on scale-free networks with cutoffs in the number of degrees. Well not really. But at the end of the summer I might be.

The good thing is that my apartment is nice and clean, but really empty because I could only take as much furniture, etc., that could fit into my tiny Cobalt coupe. Which, by the way, got here just fine. I have a newfound respect for my car. But now I need new tires and brakepads (maybe rotors too because of the way it sounds when I stop at traffic lights, etc). And hell, I think I will buy a set of cool rims for my new tires too.

I didnt realize how beautiful Los Alamos was. I will post pictures soon.