I have long been a fan of the products at Despair.com — starting first with the Demotivators, some of which I find really funny (and true!) — and have known about the Made in USA by Robots t-shirt for a while (I find it hilarious). I saw the t-shirt  in person for a first time a few days ago at work. I was a little surprised, but in retrospect probably should not have been. If I had seen someone wearing it at NREL that would have been a surprise.

It has been sunny (and increasingly hot) the past couple of weeks.

On Friday, we switched to overcast and got more comfortable temperatures.

We went kayaking last Sunday. This was the first time I have been kayaking. It was pretty fun and was definitely good exercise.

The kayaks were rented in Lake Union at the Northwest Outdoor Center. We headed over to the Arboretum (in a double kayak). In the Arboretum we saw, at close range, a Great Blue Heron, a duck with many ducklings in tow, and a lot of turtles (mostly Red-Eared Sliders, I think). These are marked on the map by white, red, and yellow circles, respectively. The Great Blue Heron even caught a fish when we were there. Unfortunately, I did not get good pictures of any wildlife.

After touring around the Arboretum for a while, we headed back. Estimates place the route at a little more than seven miles.

I was not sure if loons spend any time here, but yesterday I saw one swimming and diving in Lake Washington. I had previously only seen them in Ontario and Minnesota and had little knowledge of their distribution.

Based on what other people are saying, it has been unusually cold most of the time that I have been here. Yesterday was pretty chilly, and it even snowed briefly during the afternoon.

A couple weekends back I caught an episode of A Prairie Home Companion. It happened to be their “joke show“, which included “The Sound of Chicken’s”, a parody of “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. The song was actually a repeat from last year’s joke show. Listen to it here.

The show was pretty entertaining, but in addition to the song, the following joke sticks out in my mind:

Q: What do you call a lawyer who has gone bad?

A: Senator.

That was a month-long blackout. Internet service was established in my new apartment today.

I do not have time to write anything substantial now (bedtime), but I am happy to report that I am back.

I have not posted yet that I have found a job in the Seattle area as a Research Scientist at Microsoft, mostly because I have been really busy as a result. More details on this will be coming.

Today is my last day at NREL. The day will be filled with getting signatures for the check-out procedure (I am calling this the Treasure Hunt because it involves running all over the campus looking for people) and social events with group members.

I was contacted earlier this week by a system administrator back at UIUC about Proteus, my old workstation. Proteus is still hosting my old site, another former graduate student’s website, and the UIUC SIAM Chapter’s website.

The system administrator wants to take Proteus out of service. Since I have this website it is not such a big deal, but I have a couple concerns. First, the web-based Geneagrapher is still running there (although it probably should not be). This will force me to let it go or to implement a solution for this site. Second, I am not sure how much losing that site will affect the page rank here. Big deal, I suppose.

Welcome to the year of the ox. Enjoy!