No, I haven't started a new phase of my life since the post-biking phase. I'm still post-biking. "Turn the Page" is simply referring to Bob Seger's song, because I'm on the road again. But this time I'm killing the atmosphere in the process (with my car). Eh. Whatever. I think there are about 2100 miles of solo driving planned between this past Thursday (when I came out here) up through September 22nd, when I should be arriving back in Archbold from Columbus, Ohio.
I have not been quite as proactive as perhaps I ought to in the job search. So far, I have only applied for maybe 6 or 7 jobs, with only a few more lined up in CareerBuilder that I plan to apply for. I spent much more time exploring graduate programs online. The future that currently looks fun is to work 1 - 4 years, and then study to get a Ph.D. (Ph.D. is cheaper than a Master's, and only takes a few years longer). Where? I don't know. In what? Right now I'm thinking Neural Engineering.
You may wonder, what is that? Well, it's studying the brain to figure out how to plug various machines into it - robotic arms and legs for amputees, small circuits that can simply bypass a damaged segment of nerve to keep the electric signals travelling between the brain and the limb that is on the other side of that damaged nerve, and so on. An example of an electronic prosthesis that is already available is the cochlear implant. Basically, a few signal processors are implanted into the cochlea (the part of the inner ear that translate sound vibrations into electrical signals to send to the brain) while a hearing aid is worn behind the ear. Though each implant can only process a narrow frequency range, they can now put enough in that it give very nearly ability to sense the standard frequency range, quite literally giving hearing to the deaf (my grandma got this 5 or 6 years ago; it does work).
I'm not actually as interested in the cochlear implants, but that's what is actually commercially available now. Also in the works are mechanized arms and legs, and even an optical implant (though right now they have only brought that up to being a 4x4 pixel sensor, giving a total of 16 pixels of sight, which would barely help in sensing movement). The optical implant is some distance from implentation I think. But all this is getting there and terribly exciting.
So, Biomedical Engineering, here I come. The deaf will hear, the blind will see, and the lame will walk (and even have fully functioning robotic hands). It's the new Jesus major. (Can I actually say that?). There are many sub-areas of research related to this, some more engineering, some more physiology, some more materials science, but all of it is interdisciplinary and quite fascinating. I guess I will be taking some biology after all. But for now, to continue making supper and enjoy the rest of my visit to Syracuse, etc.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
pizza!!
Well, I have a couple days at home alone now with the parents taking Darin to Hesston, seeing as his classes start Monday. I decided to take a break from the job search this morning and googled "real pizza dough recipes" and came across this website:
I have not tried it, but he has some very good, very detailed information on how to make a great pizza. I plan to at least try a less time-intensive version, starting this afternoon (after a grocery trip). I have high hopes for improving my pizza-making skills over the next couple days. Though I doubt I will try to trick the oven into letting me bake it at 800 - 900 F (apparently that's what you need for a really good pizza). I'd say one of my favorite parts of this guy's site is the number of myths he debunks (he may be wrong, but he sounds like he knows what he's talking about, so I'm taking his word on them actually being myths; he took about 6 years to develop this recipe).
It has been raining a lot the past few days here in Archbold, which is probably all just as well. It does keep me from going out fishing (even after the rain's done it's not really worth it - fish usually don't bite too well after a good rain or two, or five). It also keeps me from getting motivated to run and/or bike. Yes, I said it: bike. Last week I actually went out again and biked about 25 miles with my dad and brother-in-law after a 2.5 mile run (I figured running first would make it more fair to the other two).
The job search is going slowly. Well, slowly in some ways. I've been able to cross a lot of cities off my list very quickly (it doesn't take long to go through a city when you only come up with 50 job postings and zero, maybe one, are jobs I could apply for). I've heard about a couple distant possibilities both in Chicago and in Knoxville, but neither of those are sure bets at all or happening in the next month. On the bright side, there's nobody to share the fair trade chocolate bars with that were left sitting on the counter in the kitchen... That and this extra bit of unemployment gives me a little more opportunity for a couple/few quick trips visiting friends and family (though this time by car).
Sunday, August 9, 2009
A summary... (oh, and a little on New York)
The Finger Lakes region is pretty. It's not too dissimilar to eastern TN/southeastern IN, except it has a few really long, skinny, glacier-carved lakes. The riding was mostly fairly relaxed, or would have been if I hadn't pushed hard to get up hills to keep up with all the 50+ year old people (well really to keep ahead of them when possible, if only slightly, just to make it look like I had learned a little something about biking after doing 1400 miles of it before joining them, who have been cross-country multiple times and have been biking for longer than I've been alive). A couple days, due to hills of the previous days, I was more sore than I'd been all summer. But anyways, the food was great, the weather was pleasant, the company was fun, and the scenery was beautiful. And it was finished after a mere 5 days (one of which I might have taken off to sit and read...).
This summer, starting on the morning of June 2, when I left Archbold, up through August 7th at 5:00am when I arrived back in Archbold from the Finger Lakes ride, I...
...traveled a total of 7,811 miles:
1655 by bike
2090 by car
4035 by train or bus
and ~31 on foot, hiking
...consumed:
8 gallons of gatorade
maybe 25 - 30 candy bars (most of them king size, and usually two at a time)
nearly a full box of maple and brown sugar-flavored Malt-O-Meal
at least 1 - 1 1/2 lbs. of peanut butter
50 - 60 tortillas (almost always for lunch, but only for lunch)
2 large jars of peanuts (that was all before Utah)
...pedaled as many as 800,000 pedal strokes
...cursed at my bike and any convenient hill, pothole, or particularly smug-looking bird/small animal more times than I care to count
...traveled for two months and one week, spending 28 of those days on the bike (for about 125 hours of total riding time), drinking perhaps 40 - 50 gallons of water in those 28 days (in addition to the gatorade), and having only one of those biking days in the rain
...slept in my tent for almost exactly half of the trip, usually waking up (though not necessarily getting up) between 4:30 and 5:30am
...spent no more than 4 nights *not* using my sleeping bag since leaving Hesston (which is also almost as many nights as I've had air conditioning since then, as well)
...went for as many as 4 days without a shower and as many as 8 without wearing underwear (between bike shorts and lined pajama shorts, it's just not necessary...)
...got more tan lines than I could have dreamed of
..."slept" 3 nights on Amtrak and stayed awake 1 night in the car
...spent a lot of really amazing time with a lot of really amazing people - both old friends and the random acquaintences that come with traveling. So, to everyone who was a part of my summer - thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It has been incredible.
This summer, starting on the morning of June 2, when I left Archbold, up through August 7th at 5:00am when I arrived back in Archbold from the Finger Lakes ride, I...
...traveled a total of 7,811 miles:
1655 by bike
2090 by car
4035 by train or bus
and ~31 on foot, hiking
...consumed:
8 gallons of gatorade
maybe 25 - 30 candy bars (most of them king size, and usually two at a time)
nearly a full box of maple and brown sugar-flavored Malt-O-Meal
at least 1 - 1 1/2 lbs. of peanut butter
50 - 60 tortillas (almost always for lunch, but only for lunch)
2 large jars of peanuts (that was all before Utah)
...pedaled as many as 800,000 pedal strokes
...cursed at my bike and any convenient hill, pothole, or particularly smug-looking bird/small animal more times than I care to count
...traveled for two months and one week, spending 28 of those days on the bike (for about 125 hours of total riding time), drinking perhaps 40 - 50 gallons of water in those 28 days (in addition to the gatorade), and having only one of those biking days in the rain
...slept in my tent for almost exactly half of the trip, usually waking up (though not necessarily getting up) between 4:30 and 5:30am
...spent no more than 4 nights *not* using my sleeping bag since leaving Hesston (which is also almost as many nights as I've had air conditioning since then, as well)
...went for as many as 4 days without a shower and as many as 8 without wearing underwear (between bike shorts and lined pajama shorts, it's just not necessary...)
...got more tan lines than I could have dreamed of
..."slept" 3 nights on Amtrak and stayed awake 1 night in the car
...spent a lot of really amazing time with a lot of really amazing people - both old friends and the random acquaintences that come with traveling. So, to everyone who was a part of my summer - thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It has been incredible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)