The Beauty of Lies: 2008

26 May 2008

24 May 2008

Institute for Genomic Biology

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Another building at Illinois that was under construction when I was last here, but is now completed. (In the foreground is the Morrow Plots; some things never change.)

National Center for Supercomputing Applications

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Yet another building that was under construction when I was a student, but is now a completed building.

Engineering Hall, from Grainger Library

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Micro and Nanotechnology Lab (on right) expansion completed

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Construction still ongoing at Memorial Stadium

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20 May 2008

Crazy Mountains, Montana

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I-90 West, Mile 377

WY-120, Meeteetse to Cody

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Wind River Canyon, Wyoming

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19 May 2008

I-25, Wyoming, Mile 56

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Side-of-the-road snow, Rocky Mountain National Park

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Rocky Mountain National Park

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Rocky Mountains, north of Colorado Springs

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18 May 2008

Prowers County, Colorado

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Wind turbines outside Dumas, Texas

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Enter the Great Plains, north of Amarillo, Texas

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09 May 2008

FM-1093, between Willis and Eagle Lake (Hoefer, TX)

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Detour: Orchard, TX (oops)

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Brumbelow Rd

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28 April 2008

NASA Stennis Space Center

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I always wondered where Stennis was -- right on the edge of Mississippi

I-59, Mississippi, Mile 143

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I-59, Georgia, Mile 2

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I-59, Georgia, Mile 5

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27 April 2008

I-75, Tennessee, Mile 74

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I-81, Virginia, Mile 165

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I-66, Virginia, Mile 293

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25 April 2008

Garden Photos, Lewistown, IL

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My mom just sent me this batch of photos that combines her two hobbies: gardening and photography. This is from my parents' garden in Lewistown, IL:

That looks pretty good. The first thing that crosses my mind--which shows how greedy I am compared to her--is that she could monetize her hobby if she wanted to, since she knows how to take a good photo (and she's not afraid to snap them). The second thing is that the difference between the lively flowers and the dead background--it is early spring and the trees haven't come to life yet--is quite striking.

21 April 2008

New flyover on I-45/TX-6, Katy, Texas

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19 April 2008

waxy.org brings back Infocom memories

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Andy Baio of waxy.org recently posted a story that's close to my childhood: Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He has disentombed an old hard drive from Infocom, and shares the secrets behind a game that was never finished.

I never played much of the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game -- since I hadn't and still haven't read the books by Douglas Adams -- so this particular game doesn't strike a heart chord for me. However, before HH, Infocom produced a series of games that I played the hell out of on our old Commodore 64: Zork [wikipedia.org].

Haven't heard of Zork? Too bad. It's probably not as fun to discover now as it was so many years ago...

Actually, come to think of it: it wasn't me that discovered Zork, I remember now that my dad had it. Hmm. Something to ask him after I ask him how the recent earthquake ride was.

...anyway -- probably not as fun if you discover it today, since Zork was a text-based game. No pictures, just text. You, the adventurer, had to make your way through a mostly-underground world, collecting treasures, making your way past characters that were trying to stop you from reaching the endgame (or in Zork III, past characters that were trying to help you).

Sure, text-only doesn't seem fun, but the game was great since the puzzles were challenging and the humor was odd. Without the corresponding graphics -- and if you were really adventurous, without purchasing the corresponding map of the game -- you were allowed to create the world in your imagination, to see the thief or the wizard or the house or the mine as you thought it would look.

West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

>

This nostalgia bomb courtesy of Slashdot.

18 April 2008

Barack Obama Road, San Antonio

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15 April 2008

Looking for Salman Rushdie recommendations

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While in San Antonio visiting Megha over the weekend, we were watching Real Time with Bill Maher on YouTube. It wasn't a brand new show -- the topic du jour was the appointment of Harriett Myers (sp?) to the US Supreme Court. On that episode the panel consisted of a name I don't remember from the New Republic, Ben Affleck, and Salman Rushdie.

The panel was entertaining, but my mind was nagged the entire time by the fact that I hadn't read anything by Salman Rushdie, who I knew -- or, rather, presumed to know -- was a bigshot writer, famous, critically praised, etc. What I knew about Rushdie consisted of: (1) wrote The Satanic Verses; (2) is not the Ayatollah's best friend; and (3) was once married to a supermodel. That's it. (Then -- side note -- Megha informed me that her mom really likes his books... excellent).

So I'm asking you -- yes, you! -- to suggest a few books by Sir Rushdie that I can rent from the Houston Public Library. From my Facebook wall, I already have one vote for St. Urbain's Horseman (thanks, Adina). I'll probably check out two this round, and if they're good, I'll go back for more.

All (useful) advice is appreciated, and if you'd ever like to borrow a book, let me know.

12 April 2008

Pineapple 1 - Knife 0

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10 April 2008

Mapped: Photos from Chandigarh, India, Jan 2006

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This post about my trip to northern India in 2005-2006 is preceded by photos from New Delhi and Agra.

On 2 January 2006, Megha and her family took me to the Rock Garden in Chandigarh, just to the north of their home in Ambala.

The audacious background of the Rock Garden was just as interesting as the sculptures and the architecture. The Rock Garden is a pile of junk. Nek Chand, the force and vision behind the project, created the garden -- a 40-acre spread of sculptures, waterfalls, towers, and courtyards -- from scrap and waste. Discarded wires, porcelain, industrial materials, broken bangles, pieces of glass bottles -- all pieces of rubbish individually, but part of something whole and substantial when brought together; it is much more than a pile of junk.

The most striking aspect of the Rock Garden, to me, is the dedication -- I mean obsession -- that must have driven Nek Chand to continue working on it. It's not that hard to initiate something small, a few sculptures that can be hidden away with no effort, but to work in secret for nearly 20 years, creating an enormous work of art out of the forest... I can't even imagine it. I can only wonder if, somewhere, in the back of his head, he had an idea that he knew was so incredible that he had to follow through with it. Or maybe he was just passing time, keeping his hands busy and the art created itself.

If you're ever passing through northern India, through Punjab, I highly recommend that you stop at the Rock Garden for a long stroll through Nek Chand's masterpiece. And while you're there, take your time, wander. As a bonus during my trip there, we met Nek Chand for a few minutes in his studio, which is located in the garden itself.

Rock Garden [wikipedia.org]

Nek Chand Foundation [nekchand.com]

Have a look at the camera icons on the map below, which shows where the photos were snapped. Can't see everything in this window? Open it as a larger map.

If you use Google Earth, you can download the network link file for this trip to your My Places. Your placemarks will automatically be updated when I add photos to the rest of this trip, including Dak Patthar, Ambala, Allahabad, and Kolkata.

08 April 2008

How much would you weigh on the moon?

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Banner #1 hung in Space Center Houston for http://www.yurisnighthouston.net

Mapped: Virginia to Texas, March 2008

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28 March 2008 was my last day at Orbital Sciences Corporation in Sterling, Virginia; 31 March 2008 was my first day at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in Houston, Texas.

For those of you keeping score at home, the shortest distance between the two is approximately 2200 km (1400 miles). The chosen route, which took me through Columbus, Ohio to visit an old roommate and San Antonio, Texas to drop my girlfriend off at home -- she was wonderful enough to be cramped in the same car cabin as me for three days, wow -- was approximately 3200 km (2000 miles). As my parents used to say: "no rest for the wicked." (Or was that "weary?" The former is accurate enough.)

Generally speaking, the trip could be divided into two parts: (1) rain; (2) no rain. (1) > (2). I think it started raining outside Nashville and stopped... well, for a while in Texas, but only for a while. It was especially nasty around Nashville -- we're talking sheets of rain, and my first experience with zero visibility caused by a truck ejecting an enormous amount of standing water onto my windshield. So we took refuge in the Best of India Restaurant in Nashville for a while.

Megha proved once again that she's sharper than me by planning, on the fly, an alternate route from Texarkana to San Antonio. I was going to take I-30W to Dallas, then I-35 to San Antonio. Of course, this will get you there, but she saw that you could go diagonally from Texarkana via TX-155 to Palestine then US-79 to Austin. Not only did this cut off quite a few miles, it was much more scenic, I presume, than the standard side-of-the-road interstate fare. Also, it was her first time seeing oil rigs; for shame, to think she's been a Texan for nearly a year without seeing an oil rig :-)

Again, in the spirit of TMI (too much information) and capturing my prolific and hopefully-soon-to-be-a-thing-of-the-past road trips -- this ain't no Duluoz legend -- around the great contiguous US, I present to you another map. This trip from Virginia to Texas is detailed in a Google Earth .kmz file on my wiki. It is mostly complete now with a few photos from the trip, plus placemarks and paths, but I recommend -- as always -- that you download the network link file if you're a Google Earth user. Add that to your "My Places" and the trip will be updated anytime I update the static files on my server.

A version of the trip is displayed below. If you want to see the photos, click the camera icons. Want to see a larger version of the map? OK, go here.

If you just want to see the photos, go to my albums on Picasa, Flickr, or Panoramio.

Final note: it would be most excellent if you would post a comment here, -- or if you are a Flickr/Picasa/Panoramio user, there. It's your world, I'm just driving around it.

04 April 2008

San Antonio, from a side window

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Near exit 589, I-10W, San Antonio, Texas

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30 March 2008

Palestine Lake, Texas

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Linden, TX

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29 March 2008

Welcome to Arkansas

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Downpour in Nashville, Tennessee

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University of Louisville... grain elevators?

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Ohio River

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Cincinnati, Ohio

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Columbus, OH

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28 March 2008

I-70 west, Maryland (2)

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En route to Columbus, OH

I-70 west, Maryland

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Goodbye, Orbital

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27 March 2008

Moving is ugh

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I haven't lived in the same place for more than a year since high school (for those of you keeping score at home: 9 years ago).

Allen Hall, Urbana, IL (1999-2000) - Lewistown, IL (summer 2000) - Allen Hall, Urbana, IL (2000-2001) - Lewistown, IL (summer 2001) - Busey Ave, Urbana, IL (2001-2002) - White St, Champaign, IL (2002-2003) - 1st St, Champaign, IL (2003-2004) - Nevada Ave, Urbana, IL (2004) - California City, CA (2005) - Nevada Ave, Urbana, IL (summer 2005) - Newman, IL (2005-2006) - Strasbourg, France (summer 2006) - Lewistown, IL (fall 2006) - Fairfax, VA (2006-2007) - Potomac Falls, VA (2007-2008) - ???, Houston, TX (2008-????)

Enough. Maybe.

Photos from The Embassy, Urbana, 19 Oct 2003

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While I'm in the mood for archiving things on my laptop before it finally fails, I've posted some photos to Flickr from when Finite Element played at The Embassy in Urbana, IL on 19 October 2003.

Link to: the photo album

The photos:

And if you had a look at the album, why not add me as a contact in Flickr?