Hopefully The Eddie is a Go Tomorrow
December 7, 2009
The best surf contest in the world, The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau or as it is normally known ’The Eddie’, may be taking place tomorrow at Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu!
The motto of this unique suf contest is ‘The Bay Calls the Day’ due to the fact that the contest only runs when the surf is over 20 feet, as measured by Hawaiian standards – from behind, for an entire day. The contest has only been held 7 times in the last 25 years. The waiting period this year opened on December 1, 2009 and will close on February 28, 2010. The contest is fitting memorial to Hawaiian big wave surfer Eddie Aikau who perished much to early.
It looks as if this year the Bay is ready to call the Day and I look forward to seeing this unique contest. If you would like to watch the link to the event is
http://live.quiksilver.com/2009/eddie/
Rockin’ In The Free World
November 12, 2009
Now that I have finished my dissertation, I have had the opportunity to do something that I have wanted to do for my entire life. Learn to play the guitar! It has only been about 4 months so far but I have already learned a few riffs and am having an amazing time sitting down and picking out songs from artists such as AC/DC and the Doors. They still don’t sound quite like the originals yet, but that is coming! 
I am now a Doctor!
August 14, 2009
As of 3:06pm on June 6, 2009, I am officially a Doctor of Philosophy!!! WooooooHooooooo! It has been a long time in the making, approximately 14 years to be more specific, but the day has finally come when I finished and filed my dissertation. It feels like my life has opened up in front of me. There are so many projects and things that I want to do now that every extra minute is not taken up by working on, thinking about or worrying about my dissertation.
I arrived at UCLA 17 years ago as a transfer from Ventura Community College to work toward the lowest degree granted by UCLA, the Bachelor’s, and have now taken my educational road to its conclusion at the highest degree granted at UCLA, the Doctor of Philosophy. It feels good! I cannot wait to spend more time with both my beautiful daughter and wife, living a fairly sedate life for next bit.
I can say it loud and I can say it proud…..I have a Ph.D.!!!!!
Levi is in Form!
February 17, 2009
Today Levi Leipheimer was on fire in the pouring rain of the Tour of California!
Go Levi!!
Gigapan Photo of Inauguration
January 24, 2009
David Bergman took a Gigapan photo of Barack Obama’s Inauguration. This photo consists of over 200 photos that have been stitched together to create a final photo that is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels with a final file size of almost 2 gigabytes! It really is an impressive photo in which you can focus in on individual faces in the crowd behind Obama!
Enjoy it on David Bergman’s site:
Was Condi the first African-American President of the United States for One Minute?
January 23, 2009
The title of this post sounds pretty preposterous but it actually was worked out by constitutional scholars according to the timeline of the inauguration on Tuesday. Although this will probably never make it into the history books because of the very obvious technicalities involved, I still thought that it was really interesting.
The jist: The outgoing President and Vice-President were no longer in office as 12pm on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.
That means that the next in line is the Speaker of the House and then the president pro-tem of the Senate, in that order. However, the Speaker and the President Pro-Tem are not President until they resign their offices.
Neither of them did, therefore the succession goes down to the Secretary of State, who does not have to resign their office to become President. So from the time that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were no longer in office, 12pm, and the time that Joe Biden completed his oath of office, 12:01pm, the President of the United States was Condoleeza Rice, making her the first African-American President of the United States. Heck, she was also the first woman President of the United States at that.
(Edit: Depending on the timeline of W’s inauguration, by the same reasoning, Madeline Albright may have briefly been the first woman President of the USA.)
So Joe Biden was the President from 12:01 to 12:03pm, when Barack Obama became President at the completion of his Oath.
Pretty Interesting Stuff!
Read the newspaper article here:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/01/20/remember-when-biden-was-president/
PS: Thanks to Leo LaPorte for pointing me to this article and topic in his blog at
http://leoville.com/2009/01/21/21842/
Coming up for Air
December 13, 2008
I this the final push of my dissertation, I have now racked up a total of 163 pages that have been put through a first edit. I still have about 60 pages already written that have to go through that same first edit, which should bring my grand total before intro, conclusion, front pages, figures and bibliographies. That is good news since I already have to add a few points and clear up a few other things before I am done with the dissertation. I should not have to add any other new pieces to my dissertation to make it of acceptable length!
Other than that, my daughter turned 2 back near the end of October and we celebrated her birthday with a great barbecue in the back yard. The weather cooperated and it was about 80 degrees that afternoon and we had a wonderful celebration.
More Internet Flotsam
October 23, 2008
Not alot of time lately, but have seen a few funny things on the internet.
Veronica Belmont pointed out these 80’s music videos redone in a literal fashion on her blog:
http://www.veronicabelmont.com/2008/10/80s-videos-much-improved/
The best of the two is definitely the A-Ha Video. The best lines are the ones about the pipe wrenches!
Going to try to go to a Ghost Tour at Strathern Park tonight in Simi Valley. http://tinyurl.com/5ogykb
Sometimes, history is more scandalous than fiction. If you want to read some interesting stories of pioneer families, religious cults and hollywood stars check out some Simi Valley history.
Classic Saturday Night Live Skits
October 19, 2008
I was surfing this weekend and found three of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits:
“Clarence the 5th Beatle” with Eddie Murphy:
“The Continental” with Christopher Walken:
Christopher Walken – The Continental
Dear Blog, Long Time No See!
October 1, 2008
Boy, have I been busy over the last few months. I am trying to finish writing the last substantive chapter of my dissertation and have written approx. 90 pages of this one chapter over the last 2 months. I am not sure how it got to be so long but apparently I did have something to say about the identity of the rulers of Dynasty XXV!?!?
My daughter has been growing like a weed over the last two months and is now talking non-stop! I know that is surprising given who her father is! (amused sarcasm) Since we speak German exclusively at home and speak English when we are visiting with my family, she is using both German and English and has recognized from context which of the languages she should use at any given time. At less than two years old, Nuria recognizes that there are two words for every object and oftentimes will give the word for an object in German followed immediately by the phrase “in english…..”. It took me years to get to the point in German where Nuria is right now. It will not be long before she is correcting her poor father’s German!
It seems to be so easy for young children to pick up new languages. I am so happy that we have decided to raise Nuria speaking German from the start. Although we speak German exclusively at home, we do speak English when we are out in public or with my family. Nuria seems to be picking up both languages very easily. Many folks are frightened that using two languages will confuse the child, but in our experience that has definitely not been the case. The only danger seems that you might facilitate the development of a pidjin-type of language development if you start to mix the two languages within the same sentences. We have been working very hard at speaking exclusively German or exclusively English, depending on context, to ensure that she learns each of the languages properly. Sometimes it has been hard on the members of our family that speak exclusively English, but in the long run it was definitely the right idea. Nuria amazes us every single day.
