Our New Apartment

Ricardo and I have moved to an apartment in Sunnyvale. We moved our stuff in about three weeks ago, but we are still drowning in boxes and not all our furniture has been found yet on Craig's List. We also have some on offer from family that we haven't claimed yet. (Thanks Everybody!)

But it is coming along and we should be settled by Christmas. Or President's Day. :-) At the very least I am happy to find that we enjoy sharing our space.

We are in Sunnyvale on a fairly big road. Thankfully the apartment is only about 6 years old, and so has double pane windows and plenty of insulation, so we can hardly hear it. The new construction also means it is not a galley kitchen, and we have a washer and dryer in the unit, which is a really nice perk. Living by the road helps in that apartments with this floor-plan further back in the unit cost more per month.

It was built right in the midst of the housing boom, where everyone was leaving apartments for houses, so they used all sorts of nice touches. Berber style carpet, foot-square granite tiles on the kitchen and bathroom counters, blond wood cabinets. It is so much nicer than some places we looked at. I'm so glad we could find such a deal! We even have a bit of a patio! Thank goodness for that road! :-)

Here's a few pictures to give you an idea. I'll take another set once we're settled:




The bedroom. This room is actually pretty much settled and I should probably take another with the furniture to give you an idea of the size. That's my purse in the corner. It is actually a fairly large room. We actually have about 725 square feet, which is large for a one-bedroom around here. We have another window to the right because we are an end unit.



The bathroom sink. I know, this is like those Real Estate virtual tours of vacant homes you see on the net. But notice the granite! See? :-)



Me in my moving clothes and the huge bathroom mirror. Like a fun house in there I tell ya! Except without the waviness part.



Our huge living room with sliding glass door at the end. This connects to the kitchen by sorta a bar area, an extension of the kitchen sink. Our patio is out the door. We will not be using bar area of course. Complete teetotalers. (Hi Mom!)

Anyway, our new Magicka IKEA bookshelf is off to the left of the sliding door now. A STEAL at $50 on craigslist (retail $200) and 2 doors (sold separately) came with it FREE! Love that craigslist.com. The folks who sold us the bookcase have the matching TV stand. They are selling it at the end of the month, and said we could have it for $20! (It has a bit of a scratch.) Bring it on!



The kitchen. And the granite again! I love these cabinets too. They are a better color than that, I had the florescent on. Where's my light box when I need it?



Our patio, and the lovely street that saved us all that money. Thank you, street!



The floor plan that the manager gave us when we were looking. Ricardo scanned it. So much easier to give a schematic than describe the layout.

You can see our house on Google street view. Email me and I'll getcha the number. It is slightly different than our mailing address, which of course is the same all over the complex.

See below for the other new post, Ricardo's fall color pictures.

Ricardo's Fall Color Pictures

Ricardo took a trip to New England in October and took some amazing pictures of the fall foliage, as well as some of the lighthouses down the coast. Here's a sample:







To see a selection of his best from that trip follow this link.

Ricardo and My Summer Adventure: Capitola, Santa Cruz, San Juan Bautista

Hello Everyone! Ricardo and I took an overnight trip around Labor Day to the Begonia Festival in Capitola, then slightly north to stay in Santa Cruz, then inland to Mission San Juan Bautista the next day. Pictures follow.

First, the Begonia festival in Capitola. A more true small town America festival you could never find. The main event was the floats. Local group created floats out of Begonias (semi-tropical flowers in the red/pink/yellow/white range, mostly) and mounted them on rafts and then towed these by rowboat down the river that runs through the center of town.

The river actually never reaches the ocean. It ends when it meets the beach, which consists of a high dune of sand, so the river ends in this lagoon. So at no time are the pilots in danger from large ocean waves. I knew that would put your mind at rest. (The river actually does meet the ocean, just under the sand, but that is neither here nor there.)

My favorite pics from the festival:



See the little kids on the back on this turtle? You can see the folks in the park watching the action float by too. We stood on this hill high above the river, but we could see well.



A whale, one of my favorites. "It Came from the Sea" was the theme. One group came up with a great monster in response, but I didn't get a good picture.



"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!" Blatant pander to the crowd (we helped in the judging), but cute, no?



I just love this hotel room, right on the sand, so colorful, and a garden. Lovely. We didn't stay here (we lodged in Santa Cruz instead). I just thought it was so cute, and right off the pier.

(Continued below)

Middle of the Weekend in Santa Cruz

We stayed overnight in Santa Cruz. The next morning we walked up West Cliff Drive to Natural Bridges State Beach. It all reminded me how much I love Santa Cruz. I haven't traveled there enough since I graduated from UCSC.

We stayed in Beach Flats, which is actually a little scary because that is supposed to be one of the worst neighborhoods in Santa Cruz. Not bad for one night, though, and we could hear the revellers down at the Boardwalk. Scream down the roller coaster hill, hold your breath going up, scream once more. It has a rhythm, like waves at the ocean. We ate at the pier, which is right there. Good seafood.

Two pics:



The view as we started up West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. I loved the bikes locked to the fence.



Ah, the California Coast. So gorgeous. I especially enjoyed the watching the water rush into this sea cave.

A Visit to Mission San Juan Bautista

Here is the third part of our trip - a visit to Mission San Juan Bautista. Being a native Californian and having grown up with the name, I had never thought to translate it into English. It means Saint John the Baptist, of course, and they have a lovely statue of him in their alter wall. I've gathered some of the best pictures below. The darkness of the mission kept me from getting good ones inside, though Ricardo got better ones with his professional grade equipment (see links on right below). Here are some of my favorites:



Ceiling of the mission with chandelier. Cool light on this one.



I loved this side door into the mission, complete with obligatory vine. It was just as you'd expect to find at a California mission. It led out into the walled garden of the mission, where the chickens run free. Felt very authentic.



Ricardo took this one obviously. I almost wasn't sure he was really taking one but I thought I'd smile anyway. Didn't it turn out nicely?



Don't we look lovely? This is the mission garden I spoke of. The mission lies behind us. You can hardly tell how hot it was that day.

New Profile Picture

Did y'all see the new picture of me in the "About Me" section on the right (scroll down)? Mom took that one at Katie and Eric's wedding this summer. As you can see I'm wearing my summer garden wedding hat. Love that one; got it in Scotland you know. I'm so pleased with that pic - it is my Facebook pic now too.

I'm a Real Science Writer Now

Well I have been working at NASA Ames for the summer and it has been great fun. I feel like a true science writer now. They hired me to work on the FY06 and FY07 annual reports (from scratch) and I now am putting the finishing touches on the mock-up for the 2006 Annual Report. So I really did accomplish something this summer. 2007 is almost all done as well, though not laid out yet.

I did the lay-out in InDesign, which I have never worked with before. It is a powerful program, that is easy to use once you understand a few rules. I'm glad I have some experience with it now; that is a good skill to have in the job market.

I love my boss, and wish I could continue at NASA, but they told all us interns early on that they don't have enough money to hire us as real employees. In fact that is why they get so many interns: they are cheap and do good work at completing specific projects. Then they leave. It is fun while it lasts, though, and it will look good on the resume.

My department is SimLabs, which runs all the flight and air-traffic control simulation at Ames. Our VMS is the best vertical motion simulator in the world in about 100 different ways, and we are very proud of that. It is an amazing place.

I have learned a huge amount about translating technical documents into more of a marketing tone too, though what I am writing would go to potential customers, so hardly complete lay-people. In fact they know way more about the concepts then I do. But I have enjoyed interviewing the various engineers and becoming something of an expert for a day or two about these esoteric concepts, like pilot control loaders. Fascinating stuff. Ask me anything.

I even flew the Boeing 747 simulator. I crashed the plane. Flying is hard. :-)

Our Trip to Fort Bragg

Ricardo and I just took a trip to Fort Bragg for my Birthday. It is a little odd, the town is "Fort Bragg" but the actual fort the Russians built and maintained for years is called "Fort Ross." Why the discrepancy? Perhaps we'll never know.

It is a cute town though, with lots of fun things to do. You may not have heard of it it is so tiny. It is just north of Mendocino, the artsy touristy town that gets more visitors, and about three hours North of San Francisco. (Is that right Ricardo? I forget.)

Here are my favorite pictures. There are four posts of pictures because it seems blogger has a limit it can handle per post. Enjoy!



My artsy lighthouse picture. This is the Fresnel lens(pronounced "Frennel" because it is a French man's name) used to focus and amplify the oil lamp used to light the lighthouse beacon.



Ricardo on a point of land taking a picture of the Pacific. The first day was a little overcast with stormy waves. My Birthday day though was gorgeous with sun and blue sky. So nice.

I seemed during the trip to have a little equilibrium problem. Most of my distance pictures feature a tilted horizon. I wasn't drunk, I swear! :-)



The angry sea that first day.

Second set::Train

Ricardo set up this delightful excursion. We took a train ride through the woods, by a river, to a "mining camp" under the redwoods. It was beautiful and I do like trains. The only bad thing was that it was supposed to take around three hours round trip and it took more like six. We had been planning to have lunch when we got off our morning train ride so we were hungry at the end. I still had fun though.



Our locomotive. It was a steam locomotive, very fun.



On the train, chugging through the woods by the river. We had someone else take this picture so you could see the train car.



Us by the train up in the pretend mining camp. Someone else took this one too so you can see the train. Y'know, I don't think we took one picture of ourselves. Weird. :-)

Third bunch o' Pictures

These take us to the beach at noon, then to the lighthouse that evening, through to the botanical gardens the next day.



dear Ricardo staring off into the ocean. This was a lovely beach, actually. It had a large river coming to meet the ocean that was warm and shallow and lots of people swam in it. And the actual beach/ocean part featured clean warm sand and good views of amazing waves. That was fun. We were heading to glass beach, though, so we didn't stay really long. Glass Beach is the site of the old dump that closed one or two hundred years ago. All the trash is gone, but the glass bottles have gotten broken and tumbled in the sand and water until they are small and smooth. The ground is covered with glass fragments. People collect them, even though you're not supposed to. Blue glass is very rare. Mainly white, green and amber glass.



This is my most amazing picture. It is one of the light houses, I think Point Cabrillo, at sunset. If you look closely you'll see I caught the flash of the lighthouse and a plane going by on the left. Isn't that cool!?!



A beautiful and fancy fuschia in the botanical gardens.



Ricardo taking some amazing pictures of the flowers in the botanical garden.



A field of sunspot in the gardens.

Fourth and Final Fort. Bragg Pictures

The final pictures in our series. Leaving Fort Bragg behind .



This was also in the botanical garden. Ricardo often takes pictures like this, of just a field of repeating patterns, like roof tiles. I like the texture of these plants that carpeted the ground.



This picture is of the ocean off the point that comes halfway in the walk around the garden. There was an Osprey there that day, diving for food. Real fun to watch.



An impressive cannon at the fort near the chapel (center) and an officer's house (left). I found one of the rangers trying to move one of these cannons in in the eastern round house. This building is heavily fortified, and multiple cannons face out, defending the fort. Someone had moved the cannon nine inches aways from its slit in the wall. Eventually we had three people, levers, everything. We could not budge it. It must have taken a crowd to dislocate it.



A sparsely furnished bedroom in the officer's house in the fort. This would look even better if it was black and white.



The Golden Gate.

Done!

Well I finished the semester at SJSU. I still have about 5 more weeks of my online course because they are on the quarter system, but it feels great to be done with one school course. My last final of the semester there meant I should move out of housing. I won't have classroom instruction except maybe once a week in the Fall so it doesn't make sense to stay. I will mainly work on my thesis all the time, and I can do that anywhere.

It was quite the end of an era in my apartment. Three out of the four of us moved out. We hated to leave the poor 4th one but the time had come. I hope she gets some good housemates. I was so lucky that everyone in that house was so kind and generous. I enjoyed hanging out with them all the time and we all became good friends. We had a good time. I can't believe it is over.

Now I wonder how to integrate my stuff back in to the house. I lived at school for 2 years, so I accumulated a certain amount of stuff. I'm going to get rid of a lot of it hopefully. There's just no room. Amazing the amount of stuff I fit into that room without it seeming crowded at all. It felt open and spacious and yet I took bag after bag out of there. And it is a pretty small room too! Man. Well wish me luck in getting this done somehow. Now some of my stuff is in the living room so I know Mom is rooting for the swift integration.

Utah Pictures Up

Ricardo has posted three pages of photos from Zion, Bryce Canyon and other parks in the southwest Utah region. They are, needless to say, gorgeous. You can reach them by clicking here. Take a look; they're fabulous. Such amazing rock formations out there and Ricardo catches them all in the best light.

Magazine

I was the Editor in Chief for a magazine in my features class. It came out and it looks great. I'm so proud of it. It is called "Other Voices" and is about people who society generally rejects, like immigrants and the homeless.

My other article came out too. I got an article in the school magazine about the black box label on antidepressants warning of suicidal thoughts in teenagers. I examined the controversy. I'm proud of that one too.

There are about four more new posts. Read on if you like.

Ricardo's pictures

My boyfriend Ricardo went to Death Valley and Bryce Canyon a couple of weeks ago. I was going to accompany him but there was too much happening at school. He has some great pictures though. Check them out here. They are labeled "Death Valley 2008."

He only puts his absolute best up there, so there aren't many. He's still working on the Bryce ones. These are beautiful though.

Internship!

I got an internship! This Summer I will work at NASA/Ames as a science writer. This is the culmination of a dream. The internship is perfect, just what I had hoped for. It truly embodies the science writing principles I intend to use in my career.

My job will be to write the end-of-year reports for the Air Simulation group at Moffet Field. Due to a shortage of staff they have neglected to write the reports for 2006 and 2007. So that will be my job. I'll interview the scientists about their research and discoveries for both those years. Then I'll write up the official report for NASA that they will give to potential customers who may want to use their equipment and expertise.

This seems like a very big deal to me and I feel so lucky to have this opportunity. I start June 9 and run through September. I can't wait! Yaaaay!

Thesis Approved!

My thesis was fully approved by the committee! They didn't think I had to change anything with my method or anything. I'm so happy. Now I can work on it this Summer.

It will be hard finding all the suicide reports, because if they follow the guidelines they won't use the word "suicide," especially in the headline. So it becomes difficult to find all the reports with certainty.

Thesis Proposal In!

I turned in my thesis proposal to the graduate committee today by the deadline. 12 copies, in Dr. Tillinghast's box, by 5 pm as ordered. Yaaay! It feels so good to have that of my back for a bit. It feels like have been working on it forever.

The experiment I suggested was to study the New York Times and see if its suicide reports were affected at all by media guidelines released by the CDC in 2001. I know, kinda a morbid topic, but it fit both their and my criteria: it involves mass media (them) and it has something to do with neuroscience (me).

At first I researched bias against the mentally ill in the media. I found out that bias was way too broad a topic, and I'd never be able to summarize and get out a literature review. In passing though I had discovered the field of suicide contagion, the idea that suicide is "catching." In this theory publicity surrounding a suicide, if done badly, can lead to other suicides that would not have occurred without the coverage. There's some fascinating evidence that such contagion exists.

So now I wait. They will read them all and get back to us on or around the 21st. I have a feeling I'll get conditionally approved, the most common response. That means they approve the concept, but want me to fix some details before I begin. I can live with that. Education and research are a collaborative effort after all.

R&J Pt Reyes

Finally, I present to you the much anticipated, oft requested pictures of us together. Well, two are just of me, but as it's my blog I get to put them up too if I want. Besides, I wanted to show you the Oyster Farm.

But more on that later. On with the show!



We set the camera on one of the rocks as a tripod for this one. Yet another gorgeous day at the beach. This is Drakes Beach in Pt. Reyes. A full length shot too - you don't see those too often.



In the meadow we hiked to the last day. I've borrowed Ricardo's hat (which he so graciously offered) because I've forgotten my own. Don't we look lovely?



I am standing next to heaps and piles of Oyster shells. They are dumped there as they process the oysters, then they are bagged up in net bags and carted away. We are at the Oyster Farm in Pt. Reyes. I believe it predates the sanctuary. They use low impact methods of farming and harvesting. Really quite fascinating.



Another one of just me. I'm shielding my eyes from the harsh sun. I think I didn't realize the picture was being taken right then. Such a gorgeous beach, Drakes Beach, and beautiful weather.



Drakes Beach in Pt. Reyes at sunset, with R&J in the front. This is my favorite of us from the trip.

There are more pictures from the trip down below if you haven't had a chance to see them yet.

Pt. Reyes (Reprise)

Well, Ricardo and I returned to the scene of our earlier storm drama to make another attempt at a lovely Pt. Reyes vacation. I'm happy to report that this time we were entirely successful. Gorgeous sunny yet cool weather, pleasant fellow weekenders at the breakfast table each morning, scrumptious food, just a delightful time all round.

As usual I have some pictures for your viewing pleasure. The one of the two of us is on Ricardo's camera and is not available yet. Here are the scenic ones. Enjoy!



The iconic Northern Californian Coast shot. This I believe is near Bodega Bay.



A beached boat in Tomales Bay. You can't see it at this size, but the name is "Point Reyes"



Another popular shot, looking down all 303 steps to the Pt. Reyes Lighthouse. They had to put it further down the cliff to be under the usual fog bank. They claim those steps are like a thirty story building. I don't believe it. I think it may be the right number of steps for 30 stories, maybe, but the steps are so shallow it only amounts to nine or ten stories in height. Oh, and that 303 figure does not include a long sloping section where there are no steps, just the paved path. So they do fit in a little more height that way.

More second Pt. Reyes trip pictures below.

More Pt. Reyes

The remaining photos I wanted to share from our four day excursion:



One of the rocks on Drakes Beach, Pt. Reyes, just as a wave had rolled in. Drakes beach on Drakes Bay facing the Pacific is gorgeous, especially as the sun set on us.



Compare to the one below in the other post of the flooded creek. This is the same creek, taken from the same point. As you can see the creek doesn't even cover the bottom of the channel. All that remains of the flood are the logs that got caught on the trees.



Taken from near Spinnakers in Sausalito. The San Francisco skyline and sail boat.

An Exact Count of Lies

We all know Bush and the rest of the administration lied in the run up to the Iraq War. But do you know exactly how many times they lied?

Two non-profit journalism groups, The Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism, counted every time Bush, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, and the rest of the representatives of the administration, said that Iraq and Al-Qaida were linked (lie) or that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to get WMDs (lie).

In total during the two years before the war the administration lied a total of (get ready for it) 935 times. That is 1.3 lies a day, every day, for two years. The implication (as reported in the San Jose Mercury News on 1/23/08) is that the administration knew these were lies, even as they propagated them by every means possible. This number came from a review of a database of public statements made by the administration, in interviews, press conferences and the like.

The study also faults the press for believing these lies, as well it should. There was no independent verification. Bush and his cronies got a free pass after 9/11 and they have been making the most of it ever since. It makes me ashamed of my profession. The article by Douglas K. Daniel quotes the study as saying: "The media coverage creat[ed] an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war." The press fell for it, and so we all fell for it.

You all know I am no fan of this administration. But knowing they lied almost 1000 times (and that is just before the war) on top of their incompetence (as see in Iraq and Katrina) and corruption (Haliburton) makes me even more heartsick for this country. How long will it take us to repair the damage? Both at home and abroad, in our wars and in global perception of the United States. I pray we get a Democrat in the oval office come November.

Pt. Reyes

Ricardo and I had a long planned trip after New Year's to Pt. Reyes, just north of San Francisco. As it happened our trip coincided with the worst storm in 5-7 years. Cue the excitement!



The surf on Thursday, the day before the worst storm day. It is hard to tell from this picture but it was bad. It broke twice on its way to the beach. Huge waves crashed atop each other and multiplied. And the wind was horrendous, enough to nearly blow you over.



Muir Woods during a lull on Thursday. Real low light, (we were there late and it was so cloudy) but so beautiful and green.



This is about half of the creek behind the B&B. As you can see it is galloping toward flood stage. We actually left two nights early because the Innkeeper said maybe we should get out while we could. Trees were falling and blocking most of the main routes, and other places were flooding already. We took this lovely, scenic back roads way out, and got home without many problems. We did get caught in the southbound 101 closure at the Richmond bridge. Ricardo's GPS unit, who according to the documentation is named "Jill", has a button marked "detour". We pressed that and she led us down a variety of frontage roads that got us neatly around the closure. She's so handy.