Happy New Year from The Dispersal of Darwin! (& Patrick)
2
Category Archives: personal
External Hard Drive
I need to get one to store thousands of photos and lots of short videos… any recommendations for a brand/type of external hard drive, under $100?
I’ve been saving photos/videos to CDs, and recently one disc of videos of my son is now not responding when I insert in in my laptop, which probably means I didn’t burn the videos on it right (but I usually check that things go on discs when I burn), or for some reason the disc is worthless now… I need something easier and more reliable than the many CDs I have accumulated since my son was born…
Happy Holidays!
Crazy Hailstorms in Bozeman Today
First, around 3pm, we had a quick rain and hail storm, which woke my son up way too early from his nap (his window was open, and he came into the living room a little scared). Here’s a video I took:
Then, in the evening, when leaving the local farmer’s market, a second hail storm hit, and we had to pull over in the public library parking lot and wait it out. The hail was hitting my windshield so hard I thought it was going to crack. I opened my window and got struck on my side and it hurt. My two year old son was not excited at all about the car being pummeled by balls of ice. Here is a video someone else took of the hail at the farmer’s market:
And this is a photo of some of the hail. Most intense hail I’ve ever seen, and someone else claims it’s the most intense they’ve seen in Bozeman in their 21 years living here, while another local resident relates the hail to their garden – or what used to be a garden. We saw several trees which had been knocked over on the way home, and there was flooding in the streets and gutters and shoulders all around… Crazy weather!
Savannah Sparrow
Did a short hike today on Triple Tree Trail south of the main part of Bozeman with my son. Was able to ID and capture a few types of sparrows. Other pictures from the hike here. If anyone can ID the flowers, butterfly, and dragonfly, that would be great…
Yummy, watermelon!
My son dug the watermelon we had on the 4th, and I dig how easy it is to wash his hair after the haircut I gave him today…
My silly little man…
"Catch the Reading Bug"…
… is the theme of the summer reading program at the Bozeman Public Library.
Blogging Tyndall
This fall I will start working on a project with my advisor to transcribe letters of the 19th-century Irish physicist John Tyndall. The letters I transcribe will deal with his years mountaineering in the Alps. Adrian Thysse has three posts up today about John Tyndall:
Mystery of Mysteries: Tyndall Speaks of Darwin and Agassiz
Natural Reckonings: Sunday Sermon: Tyndall on Teleology
Natural Reckonings: Tyndall Speaks: On Religion and Science
[Photo: Wellcome Images]
And from Victorian Web, a short bio of Tyndall by John van Wyhe.
No More Withdrawing & What To Do With Summer
Yesterday was my last day withdrawing old books from my campus library. All in all, in six months I physically handled 18, 604 individual books or journal issues, and that’s not including the books that were damaged in the January floods. It was a good job and paid well, but I knew it was only temporary. Unfortunately, I never found time for blogging withdrawals, but we are having a used booksale this Tuesday, and I have my eye on a few older science books.
I am looking forward to spending time with my son this summer, while my wife picks up more hours at the public library. We have no plans for road trips (a quick flight to Sacramento in September for my sister-in-law’s wedding), so it will be nice to remain at home. I want to get outside, hike local trails, visit the Children’s Museum and Museum of the Rockies with Patrick, and go look for some birds. Also to read books when he’s napping (for myself and for reviewing on DoD). Graduate school will be here before I know it! I am set to take graduate level courses in Early American History, Public History, and Historical Methods, on top of the Tyndall project (which is paid!). Therefore, I obviously won’t be looking for other work – I will be plenty busy.
What are your summer plans?
Patrick & Me
On Sunday… I love how he is popping new words into his vocabulary every day. He can even distinguish an ape from a monkey!
Doing "Field Research"
Doing “Field Research”
Originally uploaded by
I was aked by the editors of Yellowstone Science to provide a picture of myself doing field research to go at the end of my article. Do historians & students of history do “field research”?
Today in Science History
Thirty years ago today, future historian of science Michael D. Barton was born.
From Today in Science History:
Thomas S. Kuhn (Died 17 Jun 1996; born 18 Jul 1922). Thomas Samuel Kuhn was an American historian and philosopher of science who was the author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), one of the most widely read and influential books in 20th-century social sciences, humanities, and philosophy. He pointed out that scientific research and thought are defined by “paradigms,” or trusted theories, concepts, methods and experiments. Such paradigms are accepted by scientists, who continue to extend, refine, explain and measure results until they meet an problem that cannot be resolved within the established framework. Such anomaly or contradiction eventually requires an intellectual revolution, such as the paradigm shifts from Ptolemaic cosmology to Copernican heliocentrism.
Yellowstone Photos
I spent Sunday, Father’s Day, driving around Yellowstone National Park (we spent Saturday together as a family, with a wonderful finger painting & poem from my son), looking for and taking pictures of features/locations mentioned in my paper that is going into the publication Yellowstone Science this summer. Pictures here. I was happy to see many areas I hadn’t visited before.
Congrats, Catherine!
My wife now has her Master’s in Library and Information and Science from the University of Washington (she was a distance student). We celebrated with a BBQ with friends & coworkers, and her commencement ceremony consisted of her wearing MY graduation cap and this nifty t-shirt. Now, she needs to find a job….
Research Help
I have the following snippet from a May 1, 1872 newspaper in Janesville, Wisconsin (The Janesville Gazette):
The World says: “The time was when baptism was the thing most needed to make a person respectable. Now the one indispensable is a trip.”…Now it is the Yellowstone, the Yosemite, or Europe, Paris, Venice, Florence, Naples or Rome. As facilities for rapid traveling increase, the Mecca will be transferred further east, west or north. Presently, we suppose, nothing short of a visit to Alaska, the Nile or Japan, will justify the hope of a seat in the kingdom of heaven.
I need to find out which newspaper “The World” is. All I can find online with that title is a Fort Wayne, Indiana newspaper, but it seems that it doesn’t go back that far… Any ideas?
Obama Pics & Vids
Here are my pictures from the Obama rally last night, and two videos:
Obama in Bozeman
On Friday, it was announced that Barack Obama was going to have a rally in Bozeman, in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University. My wife waited in line for an hour and a half to get tickets on Friday morning, and I waited two hours today to be toward the front of the line to get in the arena to see who I already voted for. I have a bunch of unworked-on pictures, so I will just post this one tonight, and hopefully share the rest in the next day or two [UPDATE: pics & vids posted]. It was alot of fun to see and listen to our (most likely?) next president.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Obama plays to packed house (2008-05-20)
MSU News Service: Obama rallies crowd of 7,000 (2008-05-20)
New West Bozeman: Obama Draws Nearly 8,000 in Bozeman, Talks Public Lands, Access
And a video from CNN:
Summer is here!
Lots of fun at the playground today… more photos here.
My Son Enjoying Dirt & an Earthworm
Thanks for the congrats!
One down, one more to go…. who knows after that. Thanks for all the congrats, especially from The HMS Beagle Project!
More photos here.
After 9 years…
… I can finally say I have my undergraduate degree. I started commmunity college down in California in 1999, received an associate’s degree in math & science, then I attended San Diego State University (yes, this SDSU!) for three semesters (2001-2002), intending to major in biology. Working too hard as a restaurant manager for the California chain Pat & Oscar’s, as well as my grandfather passing away from pancreatic cancer, translated to a below than average performance in my biology courses. I was on academic probation for a period of time. I decided San Diego wasn’t the place for me to live nor SDSU the school. I applied to Montana State University intending to be in the paleontology program. I was accepted, and decided to live at home for a year to save money. During that time, I demoted myself to a server (read: tips) at Pat & Oscar’s (yes, one in my hometown too), and took a few geology courses at another local community college. I moved to Bozeman at the beginning of 2004, and worked for a year to get residency. Before I even started classes in January of 2005, I changed my major to history (of science). Finally, after three years at MSU (I finished in December), tomorrow I will celebrate receiving my Bachelor of Arts in History and minor in Museum Studies.
Happy New Year!
Everyone have a Happy New Year, be safe, and don’t forget to start writing 2008 on your checks. If there are resolutions for myself regarding academics and this blog, they are:
1. To get on top of applying for graduate school for this coming fall here at MSU. I am meeting with the professor in charge of the history graduate program this week, but I need to edit a paper for a writing sample, request recommendation letters, study for the GRE, etc. All on top of deciding on an avenue of research related to my interests.
2. Read more books!
3. Write more original stuff for this blog, and to get started on that I will be doing some book reviews in the coming months. I’ve requested some new titles from publishers and will receive them once they are ready (several around April).
4. I have scores of links that I have not yet put into a “dispersal event” post like those I started doing over the summer during my Yellowstone internship. I am hoping to do a ginormous mega-post soon.
Happy New Year…. I am going to go have some pizza…
Merry Christmas
Wishing everyone a very nice holiday. We are staying home in Bozeman this year, and probably won’t head to California to visit our families until March. It snowed quite a bit today… and I am very exciting to spend Christmas morning with my family.
Merry Christmas!
What Am I To Do Now?!?!
Although I won’t walk nor receive my physical diploma until May of 2008, as of today I am no longer an undergraduate. I have my bachelor’s in history (science, environment, technology, & society option) with a minor in museum studies. I started community college in California in 1999, did 2 1/2 years there, and transferred to San Diego State University intending to major in biology. I decided that school wasn’t for me, and moved to Bozeman in 2004, starting at Montana State University as a history major in 2005. So what am I to do now?
Well, I will be working at the campus library starting next week, but I hope to be able to start graduate school here in the history department next fall. But in the meantime, I hope to get lots of reading done, and I should probably peruse this webpage.
[Picture: me on my visit to MSU in 2003 before deciding this was the place]
