What I did on my trip to Hawaii

I got back from Hawaii late this afternoon. Overall it was a pretty nice trip, although there were a few rough patches here and there, which I'll outline in detail in this entry.

I left last Saturday at 6 AM. If you know me, you know that I'm not a morning person whatsoever. So, the whole being up and coherent enough to board a plane was a bit difficult. But, once I got on (after going through security twice because I left a shaving knife in my travel grooming kit completely unintentionally) the flights themselves went fairly smoothly. I flew to Detroit, which isn't new to me. I've been to that airport several times. From there I went to LAX. I always pictured LAX to be this really big airport with hundreds of gates spanning as far as the eye can see. I was rather disappointed with the reality. The terminal I was in had maybe eight gates, and not a whole lot to choose from foodwise. I did have to eat something, though, because apparently serving meals on a longish flight has become a thing of the past. So, I bought some terribly overpriced Burger King food, and then went to a gift shop to buy some snacky-type foods for the flight to Honolulu. I had plenty of time to do all this because my flight from LAX was delayed. So, even with getting there an hour later than anticipated (due to strong headwinds), I ended up having a longer layover than I was originally intended to have. After that, the flight to Honolulu was pretty smooth as well. I slept for part of it, because I just couldn't stay awake much longer. When I got to Honolulu, I had to wait quite some time for my luggage to make it to the baggage claim, and then I took a shuttle, which apparently stops at just about every hotel in Waikiki. I think I got to the hotel around 10 PM Hawaii time, which would be 3 AM eastern. So, I was pretty damn tired and all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep.

The following day was just a relaxing walk around Waikiki day. I went to the Honolulu zoo (which isn't very impressive compared to the Milwaukee County Zoo or the NEW (Northeast Wisconsin) Zoo) and spent some time looking at animals and taking pictures, because I tend to be very touristy when I go places. They were also having an art show along the beach, so I walked around there to see the different things that were available. Following that, Katie and I, since I was sharing the hotel room with her, went to the opening reception for the Ocean Science meeting, which involved free beer. I couldn't pass up anything free. I am a college student after all. Then I tried to get my materials for the meeting, which at first I thought would be a breeze because the "S" line was very short. This was very impressive since last names that begin with S seem to be very, very common. However, when I got there, after spelling my name to the person manning that line at least five times, my registration was nowhere to be found. So, I went to the Information booth and asked about it. The girl at that booth told me that just because I submitted an abstract doesn't mean I've registered. I thought to myself, "No shit, Sherlock." She then proceeded to tell me, in a very condescending, bitchy way, that I needed to bring proof of my registration in order to actually register. So, I was a bit flustered, and pissed off that I couldn't just register nice and neatly and be done with it. After that, Katie and I met up with someone she met on the plane, who was also going to the same conference and we (with some of his friends) went to TGIFridays for dinner. I wasn't all that hungry because I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, so I just had a drink and watched them all eat. That ended that evening.

Monday morning I was up relatively early and on the phone with Diane from the Meteo Department to get her to fax me the webpage that said I had registered. I did that and went to the convention center and showed it to the people at the information booth. This time the actual organizer of the meeting was there, and it was determined that just because I had that page didn't mean I actually registered. Basically, something happened with the transaction so that the fee didn't get submitted to them. So, they made me fill out a lost registration form and I'll have to email them telling them that they should contact Diane for payment. That took up most of the morning. Because of that, I missed out on going to Pearl Harbor, but I wasn't going to let it completely ruin my day. I decided, on the spur of the moment, that I would take a bus to the North Shore to see what the beaches looked like up there. It's so much nicer there than in Waikiki, mainly because it's less touristy. I went to Sunset Beach that day and took several pictures of the scenery and avoided some rain. Then I went back and caught a bus that had the same number route as the one I rode there on, expecting it to go back the way it came. Little did I know that the bus changed route numbers and went around the island on the other side. So, I unfortunately missed out on the poster session that day (although I did look at the important ones before I left, those being Katie's and Kathy's) but it was worth it. Plus, it's a very cheap way to see much of the island. That took up the rest of my day.

Tuesday was my day in the spotlight to present my poster. Unfortunately, I had to have it put up by 8:30 AM. But, that gave me time to talk with some of the US ECoS people beforehand. I talked extensively with one of the team members and we're collaborating to write a paper together describing the climatologies of oxygen along much of the east coast of North America. So, that was pretty cool. Then in between the oral carbon cycle sessions (which I didn't really gain a lot from) I was chatting with one of the other team members that I just connected with the first time I met her. So, that was pretty fun. Then, all of a sudden, it was time to go to stand by my poster. I had a pretty steady flow of people that wanted to chat about my work, which was nice. I even talked to a prominent NSF guy who basically encouraged me to keep going with my work, which was very nice. The two hours for the poster session seemed to go very fast, though. After that, I went out to eat with some members of the US ECoS team, and we got caught in a significant downpour. I even saw some flashes of lightning. Seriously, the first few days I was there, I felt like I was in a warmer version of State College, because it seemed to be cloudy all the time. Dinner was fun, though. Then we went to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert, and then I caught a bus to get back to the hotel room.

Wednesday was another day I needed to go to the oral session on the carbon cycle. So, I did that for most of the day and then went to the poster session to look at what other people were doing. I found a couple posters on turbulence that I found very interesting, so I chatted with those people for a bit. Then I went to the exhibitioners to see what sorts of free stuff I could collect. It was a little disappointing, though. I only got a couple pens, some pamphlets, and a small fish and dolphin (fake, of course). After that, Katie and I went out for Thai food, which was nice. It was sort of a bonding moment, where we chatted about lots of different things. It was definitely a good time. Then we got back to the hotel room in time to watch a repeat of the pilot of Lost, which happened to be pretty much the only TV we watched, but since Lost is filmed on Oahu, we wanted to see it. Plus, Katie hadn't become addicted to Lost yet, although she's gottened hooked just by the pilot.

Thursday I decided to take the morning off and go back to the North Shore. There wasn't much going on at the conference that I was incredibly interested in. Plus, I saw that there was a high surf advisory for the northern parts of all the islands of Hawaii, so I figured the waves would be pretty impressive. They definitely were. I sat on the beach and got lost in them, not literally, though. I even kind of ignored the book I brought along to read and just watched the water. It's such a calming thing. It made me realize that I really need to live near a body of water after I finish grad school. Some of the waves were so impressive that I climbed up on some of the rocks to get a good picture of a splash hitting them. I hope those turn out well. After the beach, I went to the poster session and had a wonderful discussion with a professor sutdying hypoxia in the Hood Canal in Washington. It was really nice, and I even got her card so we could continue to correspond with each other. Since my research is hopefully going to go in that direction, it was very good to make contact with someone whose doing similar research as I am. After the poster session, they had an aloha reception on the roof of the convention center. I went there because it was free food. They had some wonderful fruit and several roasted pigs. It was very yummy food. After that, since it was a beautiful night, I walked back to the hotel on the main street by the beach. There were some interesting sights there, mainly from various street performers. It was pretty cool.

Friday was a relatively slow day. I only went to the couple afternoon oral sessions, which were very interesting, dealing with hypoxia and how it's model, some data that's been analyzed, and how it affects biology across the food chain. It was very interesting stuff. After that, Katie and I were planning on going to dinner and see a jazz show. We went to dinner at Ciao Mein, and Italian/Chinese restaurant. Very good food, but my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Then the club we wanted to go to had a dress code (collared shirt and pants for a guy), so we walked along the main drag and went into various stores looking for a cheap collared shirt for me. We were having so much fun window shopping that we lost track of time and never made it to the jazz show.

Saturday was my last day in Hawaii. I had a late afternoon flight out, so I wanted to wear myself out a bit. I decided that I'd go climb Diamond Head, a dormant volcano from the top of which you get a 360 degree few of Oahu. That was quite the hike, proving that I should probably get in better shape. But the view from the top was totally worth it. After that, I went back to the hotel and got ready for my shuttle to take me to the airport.

This is when things started to get a little frustrating. First of all, I looked at my itinerary and saw that I was flying Northwest again on the way home. So, I told the shuttle driver to drop me off at the Northwest check-in gate. So, I ran my checked bag through their agriculture scanner (the Hawaiians are very particular about letting their fruit out of the country). Then I went up and tried to check in for my flight, but the self-serve screen wasn't working for me. So, the lady came up to me and said that I had to go to Delta because that's who was flying to Atlanta instead of Northwest (which is just confusing for me). Delta, of course, was way on the other end of the airport. So, I'm scurrying there and get to the self-check-in kiosks, and they tell me that I have to run my checked luggage through the agriculture scanner for Delta now, because apparently I can get fruit somewhere between those two gates. So, I did that and got all checked in. Then I went through security and got asked if my carry-on could be opened. I had no idea why they'd need to do this, since I left the grooming kit in my checked bag. So, I said fine, and the guy that went through it took out my keys and said that that may be what was confusing the person looking at the x-ray, and he specifically held the bottle opener on my keyring. So, he ran the bag and my keys through separately, and then told me I was fine to go. Why he needed to do that is beyond me. I mean, seriously, what harm am I going to do with a bottle opener?!?! So, then I finally make it to my gate and find out that the flight is full, so I can only have two carry-on bags. So, I ended up having to check my poster in since I didn't want to check anything else. After all that I get on the plane and we take off for Atlanta. This time we got a meal and everything was pretty good. I tried to sleep as much as possible, even with a kid crying in the background and the parents apparently doing nothing to shut the kid up. But, I must have slept some, because I was woken up by the attendants serving a breakfast snack. My layover in Atlanta was a bit long, but not too hectic, except that the staff couldn't decide which gate we were really leaving from. Once I got on the plane, I pretty much passed out because I needed more sleep. Suddenly we were in Detroit. I had a semi-long layover there, and then boarded the plane to State College. This is where things get pretty hairy. Once we got in the air, things were fine, not too turbulent. But, when we were landing in State College, things got really bumpy, and due to probably a combination of factors, including jet lag, not enough sleep, and having just enough food to make me queasy, I got airsick. Pretty badly, I must say. It came on all of a sudden, too. Plus, I don't think there was a bag in the pouch in front of me. Of course, it came on so suddenly (and I was trying very hard not to actually vomit) that I couldn't have been sure. But, yeah, that was a great capper to the whole airline experience. Luckily, the people sitting across the aisle from me (I was alone on one side of the plane, fortunately) were very helpful, and the guy even gave me his jacket because mine was kind of ruined. So, needless to say, I'm not planning any flying adventures anytime in the near future, not only because I got sick, but because I've seen way too many airplanes and airports in the past week.

So, that was my trip to Hawaii. Most of it was fun, but I'm really glad to be home. Now, I need to get enough sleep tonight so that I'm sort of coherent enough to teach tomorrow. With that, I'm off to bed!

One Down, One to Go

This time I got significantly better results of my candidacy exam. I passed one section and failed the other. I'm just glad I got one of them down. You can't imagine how much relief I feel now!

The section I passed was the dynamics section. Dr. Shirer said I did significantly better on that section than I did last time, so that was good news to hear. I still have to retake the physics, which I'm not thrilled about, but I'm happy nonetheless!

Now I'm heading home and relaxing for the rest of the night.

D-Day Eve

Tomorrow's the day. I find out how I did on the candidacy exam for the second time. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I've had this panicky feeling since I found out that the faculty meeting to discuss the candidacy exam is tomorrow. (I found this out about a week ago.) When I first got the email, a wave of feelings swept through me. Excitement, dread, delirium, panic were all swirling around my head. Mainly that combination of so many emotions left me feeling a little nauseated.

So, I've been feeling that way for about a week now. Not all the time, but fairly often. Usually at times I can put it aside for the sake of doing something else. However, today has been a rather rough day. Actually from about 3:30 on has been rough. I finished teaching at 3:20, then went back to my office. At that point I got a terribly bad headache and started feeling a bit queasy. So, I decided to catch a bus to get my car so I could come back to my apartment and try to not think about what's coming tomorrow. I did that relatively well, but now that it's close to bed time, I can't stop thinking about it.

Part of me doesn't want to go to sleep because then tomorrow will just come sooner, and I'm just fearing the worst: that I won't pass yet again, and they're going to kick me out of the department. Of course, interspersed with that are feelings of confidence. OK, maybe not confidence, but at least some hope that I'll get good news. I'm trying to not get my hopes up, because I let my hopes fly too high last time, and the crash and burn from that was nearly too much to handle. I don't know if I can deal rationally with that kind of disappointment once again. I really don't. Luckily, I do have my weekly therapy appointment tomorrow, so whatever news I get, I can start to process in therapy. But still, the anticipation is killing me.

I really wish that they wouldn't have told us so far in advance about the faculty meeting tomorrow. I don't know if it would have been better hearing it with only one day's warning, though. The only thing that would have done was ease the concern about that for about six days.

I swear, some of the faculty get off on torturing us students. Not only do they make us take a hellish exam, but then we have to wait weeks on end to find out the results. Then the only information we get is if we pass or fail. We have to wait several more weeks to get feedback on all the questions we answered because the graders want to remain anonymous. That part does make sense. Having it be a double blind test is a good way to deal with it. However, we students are still getting the short end of the stick because our answers don't get typed up. So, any faculty that may have had us in a class might be able to identify our handwriting. I doubt that, but it is possible. But the professor's comments get typed up so the students don't have a chance to say that one professor hated them and wanted them to get out of grad school. Still, though, I think it could be slightly more fair.

I just don't know what to expect though. Plus, I don't want to go to sleep. As much as I've wanted to get my results, I didn't expect them to come out this soon. I almost want to postpone the inevitable.

The only thing that's keeping me relatively sane with regards to this test is that I know I walked out of both days of it feeling like I put 110% into each section. So even if I fail, I can hold my head up high. At least theoretically, anyway. If I do fail, I may not be able to hold my head at all. I may just bash it into the nearest wall.

Another thing that's getting to me is that the faculty meeting, again, is coming at a time when my advisor isn't hear. So, I really have no one to stick up for me, should it come down to it. I mean, sure, some of the other professors want me to pass, but I don't think that would carry as much weight as it would if it were my advisor talking. So, I'm a little annoyed by that.

But, on the other hand, pass or fail, I'm going to be in Hawaii in less than two weeks. That will either be a nice reward for doing well, or my last hurrah before finishing up the work I'm being paid for before making my way into the work force.

Now I should get to bed, so this whole waiting thing can be over. Of course, I still have to wait until noon to get the results (damn teaching getting in the way of things), but at least my mind will be semi-occupied during the morning. Alrighty, off to bed to try to get a decent night's sleep. I have a feeling that will be rather futile, but I've got to try. An update will come tomorrow with the news, good or bad.....

Chuckles while grading

I have to post this entry now, while I am grading, because one of my students answers on a lab question is too hilarious. The question is about the influence of water and latitude on the annual temperature range, and they have to match cities with pairs of summer and winter temperatures. (Karen should remember this one.) One of the cities listed is Seattle, and one student put this for part of the reason (he got the actual reasons right):

"Also, there are more Starbucks in Seattle than the rest of the world all over, so the coffee helps with the temperature as well..."

I actually laughed out loud when I read this one. I needed that laugh because sometimes grading these kids' labs gets a bit annoying for lack of a better word. Anyway, I enjoyed that and had to post it before I forgot.

New Link

Yes, I just posted an incredibly long-winded entry just a few minutes ago, but I forgot something. For those who regularly look at this blog (the few of you who do), I've added a new link to my fun links section. It's called Cute Overload. It has the cutest pictures of animals that I've ever seen. You could almost get a sugar rush from them, that's how sweet they are. So, if you like cute animals, take a look. OK, I'm done now.

Another Random Thoughts Post

I'm writing this post mainly to avoid getting too bored while waiting for my Matlab code to run. It's rather silly to use Matlab to process a boatload of data, but I hate Fortran, so I'm willing to deal with waiting an extraordinary amount of time for code to run. Anyway, I've had a lot of random thoughts lately, and figured I might as well post them now.

- The other day I woke up to the radio playing (I hate getting up with an annoying beeping sound) and they were playing one of Sheryl Crow's songs, Good is Good. The opening line is "Good is good and bad is bad." Even with being rather incoherent when I wake up, I thought that that statement was completely stating the obvious. I was like, "Well, duh," when I heard them. I had started out thinking that those were the stupidest lyrics I've ever heard, but them remembered a different song that was relatively popular several years ago: LFO's Summer Girls. That song qualifies as the dumbest song ever to be recorded. It's like that group didn't even care if their song made any sense. I hated that song so much!! Mainly because I'm one who actually listens to lyrics, at least when singers enunciate them enough. Anyway, that's just a rant.

- Gilmore Girls was amazingly good this week, especially the last twenty minutes or so. There isn't much to spoil about it. Basically it was a fight among Rory, Lorelai, Emily, and Richard about what's happened previously in this season. But, it wasn't all fight. It was just completely different from previous episodes, but so very good. I can't understand why more people don't watch it, besides the fact that it's on the WB. I also recently read a fascinating plot twist that's coming up, which is that Richard was a member of the Life and Death Brigade when he was at Yale. The fallout from that will be very interesting to see. I just realized that this random thought probably has no bearing on anyone that reads my blog, but hey, it's interesting for me, and that's what matters, right?

- I went to see Brokeback Mountain last weekend. It's a very good movie. Great story, great direction, great acting. I can definitely see why it's winning so many awards. However, it didn't really come as a surprise to me that the cast of Crash won the SAG award for best ensemble. At this moment, for me, there is a tie between these two movies for best picture of the year, hell, even ever. The cast in Crash was amazing, and I loved the way everyone's story was tied to someone else's. Both of them are great movies, and they're both nominated for Best Picture. I'd be thrilled if either one won, but I'd prefer Brokeback to win, just because it would be nice to see people recognize that that movie is a traditional love story, even if it is a love story of two guys.

- I get the results of my candidacy exam next Wednesday. Frankly, I'm very surprised that they're ready this early. The faculty aren't exactly the swiftest when it comes to getting feedback. When I got the email, I was feeling a whole slew of emotions. Mainly, though, I felt a little nauseated, just because I have both great hope and great fear about what the results will be. Everyone keeps telling me I'll be fine, but I don't have that much faith in myself. Hey, it comes with being a pessimist. I'm really hoping to get good news, but I'm also trying to keep my expectations low, only because I know what a crushing blow it is to have high expectations and have them shattered. That's how I felt the last time I took the test. So, I guess we'll see what happens.

- I sent in a proposal for a fellowship on Tuesday. Ray was encouraging me to apply because the research I'm doing fits in nicely with the goals of this particular NASA program. So, most of Monday was spent writing up the proposal, which was really hard work, but I think I ended up with a decent piece of writing. It was such a hassle getting it in, though, because they encouraged people to use their online system, which is what they'll exclusively be using next year. So, basically we were their beta testers, which I always hate being. That system that they have is very un-user-friendly. It seriously took forever to get anything done with it. I hope they do something to make it easier to use by next year.

- I've been very anti-social of late. I'm not sure why. Well, actually, that's not entirely true. I know I'm not the most social person out there. Anyone that knows me knows that. I'm perfectly comfortable sitting at home watching TV or curling up with a good book. But lately, people have just been getting on my nerves. Not so much people I know, but random people in the store. I swear, half the time I'm just about ready to punch people because they're being stupid. But, that's not really the problem. I just haven't felt like hanging out with other people. I'm sort of in my loner/broody phase. It doesn't help that my circle of friends if very dynamic, in that it changes quite often. Now I'm working on building a new circle, but that takes time for me. Plus, February is notoriously a bad month for me. Too many emotional things to deal with. This year, I get the added bonus of stressing about candidacy exam results and going to a conference. So, basically I'm on one hell of an emotional roller coaster until March, really. It kind of sucks, but what can I do?

- Speaking of the conferences coming up. Two weeks from tomorrow I'll be on my way to Hawaii!! I can't wait. Yes, it's for a conference, but I definitely am going to enjoy my stay there too. Maybe spend some time on the beach (with lots of sunblock because I burn incredibly easily). I'm of course going to go to the Hard Rock in Honolulu, just because. I'd love to go to Pearl Harbor, just to be historical. And it looks like there's a hiking trail up a mountain near Waikiki that I'd like to go on, but I'd probably have to get hiking boots for that, so that may be a no-go. I'm also kind of hoping to see an eruption in the distance just to take a picture of it. I'd like to do more touristy stuff, too, like go to their zoo, a few museums, maybe go to the north shore, etc. And it would be so great to see anyone from the cast of Lost. That would be so cool!! It should be a good time, regardless, though.

- Speaking of Lost, I was a little upset that they were showing a rerun this week. I thought in the week leading into February sweeps they would have shown a new episode. But, of any of the episodes they could have shown, I'm glad it was the first Hurley-centric episode. I don't know why, but I find parts of it very funny. Of course, I have a dark sense of humor sometimes. I did have a thought occur to me when Hurley's money manager was telling him that he owned a box company. I'm wondering if that was the same box company that Locke was employed at. I think Locke worked at a box company, anyway. They do like to have people interconnected like that. It's just a thought, and anyone that reads this that watches Lost is welcome to comment on my speculation.

- Invasion was a rerun, too, and I was sort of hoping it would be one that I haven't seen yet, but alas, it was. I ended up sleeping through most of it.

- I've also become addicted to Dancing with the Stars. Most of the time I have not watched a reality show, mainly because I think they're stupid, but this one is actually fun to watch, at least the dancing portion is. I don't watch the result show, because I hate how they can drag out saying which couple got the fewest votes for so long. That's the thing I hate about American Idol, too. I know it's to add drama, but it just annoys the hell out of me. They could spend five minutes doing the results, and then move on. Anyway, I'm just ranting there, so I'll stop now.

- This weekend is Super Bowl weekend, and apparently any local channel won't let us forget that the Steelers are in it this year. Frankly, I don't really give a damn either way about who wins. I'm not a huge Steelers fan (I only rooted for them last year because I lived with two major Steeler fans), and I don't really like the Seahawks either, because Holmgren turned into an ass at Green Bay before he took the job in Seattle. So, I guess I'll just be watching for the commercials. I was invited through someone to a Super Bowl party, where they're having turducken (which just sounds like a weird thing to even contemplate creating, but better sounding than tofurkey), but like I said before, I'm feeling relatively anti-social lately. So, I probably won't go. We'll see, though.

Well, I guess that's about it from me, at least for now. I'll probably leave Walker pretty soon and head home, and maybe take a nap. Either that, or crash in front of the TV for the night. Either way, it'll be nice and relaxing.

State of the Union

This is going to be relatively short post for right now, mainly about the State of the Union address. I just took a poll on CNN.com asking about how I feel about the sountry after the State of the Union address. Since I didn't watch it, I clicked that radio button. When the results came up, nearly half the people taking the poll didn't watch it. It's pretty sad that more people didn't watch Bush's speech. (I have my priorities, a.k.a. my TV shows to watch. I'll probably read the transcript of the address, or maybe just a list of key points.) You'd think more people would be enthused about politics. Although, at this point in his second term, I think a good portion of America is unhappy with the direction the country is going. I know I am.

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say for now. I have a really busy Wednesday ahead of me.