Osage Hills Adventure

Mis padres.

Y mi amor.

Check it out ...

My friends Laurie and Melissa and I are running the Dallas White Rock 1/2 Marathon on Dec. 11th. So fun ... we are really looking forward to hanging out with each other and Drew, Jeff, and Jesse.

Run the Rock

Pause?

Sometimes I keep checking to see if there is a pause button in life. It's always quite a shock when you travel, get sick, or someone dies that the world does not stop and grieve, rejoice, what have you, alongside. It is in a true and rare friend that you will find this solace. I love you Amy & Whitney.

It's easy to see something you don't understand in a negative light ... such as those convictions/callings, etc. which prompt you to ask "God, why are you so slow?" and "What's going on here?"

So often, I feel as if I really need to know the answer RIGHT NOW, but that's really not the case. Very few life things must be acted upon immediately, poorly appropriated urgency can be a nasty vice.

I guess this is another control issue ... as I was originally beginning to type what is above I ended up typing this section first. The only place there is a pause button that I'm really familiar with is on the remote control. It's funny because you have to surrender control of life as you're going full speed - it seems like a scary turn over, but it's the most peaceful thing you'll ever find.

Force = mass x acceleration due to gravity

It feels as if I constantly have some very heavy book in my backpack ... sometimes more than one, which can get kind of painful occasionally. Why can't they just make them in little snip its, or computer files. Then we could all just have paper-thin laptops with a digital version of every text book we need for the semester.

Of course this may cut out work for some menial jobs, but hey ... let's all try to be more productive so that trade and specialization will continue to increase rather than fall into being stagnant.

That may be kind of a high horse ... well, the point was, my backpack, whether toting Physical Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, or Molecular Biology, is heavy. Everyday.

Strangely, it makes me really happy to understand all this great knowledge.

University of Texas Medical Branch

UTMB is the University of Texas's biomedical research institution located in Galveston. This must be an excellent instittution, I'm going on reputation as I do not know anyone personally who works, goes to, or talks about UTMB, but their summer program URL indicates excellence in the field.

As I was skimming their application for a 2006 summer undergraduate research position, I came across the two essay topics, one of which really intrigued me.

The question read as follows: "Please describe what you consider the most significant scientific advance you have read or heard about in the last year. (No longer than 100 words.)*"

Now that's a fine question ... but the first time I read it I thought that it asked for "the most significant scientific advice you have read" in the last year, and my thoughts began to run with that.

I now realize that that's not the question and I'm going to have to come up with something a little less inspirational and a little more technical and cutting edge, but I figured that I would share what I think to be the best piece of scientific advice right here.
(They're really missing out ... maybe they'll see the blog ... right.)

"Know how to solve every problem that has been solved."
- Richard Feynman

I came across this quote in Stephen Hawking's Universe in a Nutshell and believe it to be the best advice on science I've ever heard. If one were truly familiar with the solution to each problem even in their own discipline, then great scientific breakthroughs would truly abound, once we all got out of school at 60, but you know, relatively speaking, those final 10 years that we actually got out and did something may be more productive than those we could have just shooting in the dark.

Of course, this is why you specialize, but still - wouldn't it be something to know how to solve every problem that's been solved?

Good advice, Dr. Feynam.

On Exciting Things

If someone were to ask me to recommend an exciting piece of literature that really made an impact on me I would have no doubt about my answer.

Although I might begin to recall many fantastic imaginative images and feelings such as the terror and awe evoked from being trapped on a small escape boat with a hyena, an orang-utan, a zebra, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and think to myself, "well, that really would get the nerves going (Life of Pi), nothing quite compares to books for the common scientist-man on Theoretical Physics.

So with high acclaim, I suggest a reading of Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell and Richard Feynman's What Do You Care What Other People Think?.

Beyond human relationships, there is nothing better than expanding your mind, the way you view things, how you process information ... I even put running outside in October behind this.
- Of course this pursuit can make even more profound the deepest of friendships.

So go ... go buy a house in Charleston place and set out two rocking chairs. Invite a close friend over nightly, just go ahead and marry your best friend, either way, rock the nights away in your lovely chairs beneath the spinning fan, listen to 40's mousic, sip Chardonnay or hot coacoa, as the season allows, talk, read, debate, love.

This is living.

words, words, words

In order to expiate the debacle of the word a day thing this past weekend I will attempt to be more assidious this week so that our knowledge of vocabulary may asymptotically approach its apogee.

Loving the Giver

Word of the day:

ephemeral
Pronunciation: ef-em-ur-ul
Function: adj.
1. brief; fleeting


Today as I was running ... gorgeous, wonderful, no hindrances, just pure kinetic motion & clear thoughts ... I began to think about how beautiful all the trees were and began to warmly soak in the the descending rays of sunshine fading quickly into the horizon. I also like to do this little spread your arms out as far as possible as if trying to reach around something that's just too big - it's a wonderful way to enjoy your form.

Then I began thinking about something I had read earlier in the day from John Piper. He was talking about how we are naturally conditioned to love the gifts (nature, etc.) rather than the giver - but this makes no sense when we take a step back.

What to-be bride would prize her beautiful diamond ring perfectly cut to shine like no other over the person of her betrothed - the man who has been continually cut and shaped for her, the one she has been cut and shaped for? (Currently I am reminded of Lewis's lecture which contains the small phrase "the blows of his chisel that hurt us so much are the very blows" that carve the masterpiece.)

If you were to give up one thing, the ring or the man, obviously the ring must go. There is no gift without the giver. It is our duty and greatest fulfillment to fall in love with the giver and appropriately prize his gifts.

Neat thoughts.

God is SO faithful ... I wrote a couple days ago questioning whether I could trust Him. I can, I do, I will - He leads me to still waters and refreshes my soul, sweetness springs within and out through each part of me.

Trust Him - He has done great things for us.

Intransigent

i-n-t-r-a-n-s-i-g-e-n-t

defintion: the quality of refusing to compromise.

To use it in a sentence ... Pertaining to any major decisions in my life, I hope to be intransigent.

*just to explain the nature of this strange new format here, a friend and I have begun to review for the GRE and this is a fun way to learn vocab ... now we can all be very scholarly in our conversations

Every girl needs a dad like Joe Kaufman. He is constant encouragement, a good man with an excellent reputation, wise, gentle, a leader, a newly avid outdoorsman (cool, eh?), and so much more. I love you dad! 

Lovely. 

Blueberries with the Chancellor

At least that's what I'm hoping for. Blueberries would make a much needed addition to the whole "balanced breakfast" thing - lots of great color!

The following is a little unbelievable ...

Mid-last week I got a personal e-mail from the associate dean of the Honors College here at the U of A inviting me to attend a breakfast with the chancellor and a small group of other students which is being held so that the chancellor can touch base with the students' concerns. That's really neat - I wish he would have breakfast with students every Wednesday, everybody needs to eat breakfast with the chancellor. (I hope he's a blueberry fan, too!)

So anyway ... that's tomorrow morning and I'm really looking forward to it. Following that we're hosting some first graders over at the chemical engineering department and are going to be making liquid nitrogen ice cream - isn't that amazing!

Liquid nitrogen is so cold that it will immediately freeze anything and we're going to use it to make ice cream - it evaporates really quick so there's no chemical consequence besides the temperature change.

Science is cool!!! Pretty cool I guess, well, you know.

Shauna ... I think we need to work on tracking down that Bill Ny guy.