Long Beach

Pasadena (of course)

Seattle

Portland

If you or someone you know lives in these cities, please call my crises hot-line.

I meant to post this quite a while ago but my schedule as well as JPL policy has made that more difficult than it usually is.  Not that I’m complaining – suffice it to say, I’m having a great time out here sort of reinventing my self.  Here’s my usual schedule:

6:00am: Wake up (yes, I’ve reluctantly become a morning person but it is sticking)
6:15am: Lift heavy things in the gym
7:05am: Sprint back to the dorms to get ready for work
7:20am: Bus to JPL
7:50am: It’s a secret
6:15pm: Catch the bus back to Caltech
7:00pm: Go for a run on the streets of Pasadena
8:30pm: Eat dinner and screw around for a bit
10:00pm: Bed time

The bike isn’t here yet which is why the bus is still in there – hopefully this weekend or early next week it will show up.  It is going to be sweet too.  I decided to forego the road bike since not having a mountain bike would pretty much grate against my soul so I gave a buddy of mine a call and was hooked up with a pretty sweet piece of hardware at a great price (no, it is nothing illegal).

The 6am wake up time rose out of the need to actually take a hot shower in the morning.  The dorm I’m staying in should probably be condemned from a utility standpoint so in short the plumbing sucks.  Hot water is sort of a rare luxury.  A much better option is to work out in the morning then hit the shower up there.  Thus far it has been a great motivator  and I have yet to not hit the gym before work.  The only down side is that by the time I get to JPL in the morning I feel like I’ve gotten my ass kicked: I’m tired from lack of sleep, my arms are jello from lifting and my legs hurt from running.  It is a struggle to not fall asleep on the way home.

I’ve picked up my running quite a bit as well.  Since the weather is the same (perfect) here every day there is no need to attempt to schedule around acts of god, no excuse for not going either.  The highlight of my evening runs came last Wednesday when I worked a bit later than usual by which time the sun had already set (it sets so damn early here!).  Anyway, I went out for a nice long run and on my way back, some dumbass taking a right turn at an intersection decided to gun it while I was in front of his car.  I’m sure my body rolling over his hood scared the shit out of him but I failed to get my foot up to the windshield like I should have; though that may have caused a heart- attack.  So, allow me to reiterate my previous statement: LA is no place for pedestrians.  Living in all sorts of different places over the past 26 years I’ve managed to avoid getting hit by a car.  1 week in LA and I can now check that little box off.

But alas, time for a shower.

“Pressure waves move through the blood vessels, which are pliable; these waves are not caused by the forward movement of the blood. When the heart contracts, blood is ejected into the aorta and the aorta stretches. At this point the wave of distention (pulse wave) is pronounced but relatively slow-moving (3 to 6 m/s). As it travels towards the peripheral blood vessels, it gradually diminishes and becomes faster. In the large arterial branches, its velocity is 7 to 10 m/s; in the small arteries, it is 15 to 35 m/s. The pressure pulse is transmitted 15 or more times more rapidly than the blood flow.” Source

That goes out to all the people who thought I was a freak because when I lay flat on my back I can feel the blood coursing through my body from my stomach down to the tips of my toes. I’m 100% certain I’m not the only person that can feel this but it is really quite neat since it there is, as the article mentions, a wave emanates from your chest and moves outward. What would really be strange is if I could feel the return pulse in the veins although I’m not sure if that is possible.

Anyway, I’m not sure what brought that on . . .

So Day 2 in LA. Interesting place so far but rumors of LA’s hatred of pedestrians and other non-automotive crowd is certainly true. I don’t have a bike yet but I still wanted to head down to a beach. I’m staying about 5 miles away from the coast but one would think I could catch a bus or something and get down there somewhat quickly. Hahahahah yeah right. There were some options but they all involved multiple transfers and stuff like that. So I just hoofed it. 13.5 miles later I’m back on the couch sipping a much needed Coors Light. Don’t worry mom, I had sunscreen on so i didn’t get burned.

The ocean is just like I remembered it: wet and salty. The closest beach was Playa del Ray which is naturally where I headed. It was very nice but very empty. I was there quite early - around noon on Thursday so I suspect many of the usual patrons are slaving to The Man to get some rent money. I will join them next week.

On my epic pedestrian journey through western LA you can imagine I saw and learned many fascinating things: the underside of large highways is probably smoother than the top side, “The Life Adjustment Center” is a phrase I never want to see stenciled in reverse on a glass door, the only two fisherman fishing from the beach are really just drinking beer and getting high, and finally I learned that Home Depot is an excellent place to hire migrant workers (they wait near the entrance but are friendly enough).

After yesterday’s epic journey I opted to take it a bit easier. Thus far today I’ve only hiked about 4 miles in this urban concrete jungle but the scenery improved. Next door to the place I’m staying is the Hillside Memorial Cemetery. It is a Jewish cemetery that is impossibly green nestled in the heart of a bunch of drab concrete pasta. Even the air smelled clean there so suffice it to say I cut through on my way to really nowhere. Before I entered I tucked in my shirt, not out of respect for the dead, but to avoid scorn from the living - I think the dead are just happy to have visitors, plus they weren’t always wearing their Sunday best either. However, like FedEx for a cemetery I saw a hearse slowly and stoically winding its way up the well manicured roads - time to go before I am forced to perform the kapparot to atone for my sins.

After bidding fair well to the dearly departed, I hike over to Borders to get a book. I figured that I’m going to be reading the Ender’s series by Orson Scott Card, I should at least try to do it somewhat in order. As i get deeper and deeper into my current book by him, it is evident I missed a lot so it is time to backtrack a bit. The balance of the afternoon then will be spent sipping a Beam and coke by the pool reading (ironically enough) Speaker for the Dead.

Goodbye Houghton, I’m leaving you for a desperately needed vacation from myself.  I’ll see you again in August.

That’s the volume of stuff I’m taking out to California with me. Well, plus my backpack too but that is usually with me anyway. The packing manifest goes something like this: board shorts, white t-shirts, swimming suit, running shoes, crocs, 3 pairs of jeans, some nicer t-shirts, couple of sweat shirts, couple of books and my bike helmet. Luckily all of this stuff fits into my hiking pack sans a crowbar. It may seem like I’m packing light but that is the way I usually travel anyway. I have no interest in dragging a bunch of crap half way across the country since I don’t interact with about 90% of the stuff I own anyway.

Everything is pretty well set out in LA for me. I’m meeting my friend Chris Rock at the airport and I’m going to crash at his place until I can move into the dorms on Monday. I was really wishing that would have been Sunday for ease but not much I can do about it. Apparently my first real day of work won’t be until Tuesday but that will also be a continuation of Monday’s undoubtedly fascinating orientation. What that really means for those catching this a bit too early in the morning is that I basically have 4 full days to mess around. Don’t worry, I’m not getting paid for any of it so there is nothing dirty or underhanded here. Just a few days for me to screw off. I see the beach in my future. My ability to read the future doesn’t extend further than 4 days so looks like Thursday is the day.

I have only one more thing to do before I leave and that is to lay out a summer research plan so my stuff can continue at MTU. I worked on this for a while today and I think I’ll have a pretty solid, yet very simple plan. Brad mentioned that he may pick up an undergrad to push some stuff through in my absence and I think that would be fantastic. The less work I have to do in the fall, the better since at some point I want to graduate for real!