Destroyer Minis

Plip plip plip
  --6 October, 2008, 1:18:37

I'm trying to get back to a regular-ish update schedule. This week I've updated my random stuff gallery. That's two beetle paintings and photos of the psuedoscorpions that reside on my front porch. (So cool!)

I have a fish tank which recently got some new occupants-- four hatchetfish and some bright red shrimp. The first time I fed the new arrivals, one of the hatchet fish got so excited that he hopped out of the tank. I didn't see this, but I did hear a gentle rustling, as if a rat was in the heating duct. I looked for the source of the noise behind the tank stand and there was my poor fish flopping about. It's miraculous that he survived, but he seems perfectly fine now. I've named him Dusty.

Getting back on top
  --27 September, 2008, 12:54:11

I've been back in Seattle about a week now. You know those arse hats who travel internationally whilst sick turning local influenza outbreaks into pandemics? Well it was my turn to don that hat and I brought home a nasty case of sniffles to share with my friends.

School has started and looks to be fun as ever. It's the start of a new year so there are bright, shiny and new freshmen all over the place. I needed some easy credits so I'm taking a 101 class. It's full of freshmen. The first day was spent lecturing us on how difficult this class is going to be. It's Drama 101. Somehow I don't believe them.

Let's see cool stuff...I saw a hornet fly into a spider's web to steal a fly out of it. On the bus yesterday, a crazy guy's voices were giving him a hard time and he threatened to blow me up if I didn't get out of his way. I was't in his way, but did decide not to get into it, so that ended without further excitement.

On the subject of cool stuff, I'm trying to get caught up from this summer's website neglect. So here are a bunch of new mini pics.

Today France, tomorrow Italy
  --14 September, 2008, 0:04:42

The internship at Belfast is complete. As part of our project we showed that various grinds of iron do not effect the date that is calculated for our samples. Woo! It was very neat, we PV'd those nRTs and I only spilled liquid nitrogen on myself twice.

On Thursday we flew to France. Nice was nice. From there we drove to Lyon. Along the way there were flamingos! Soon, after I get home, so not too soon I guess--there will be pictures! Andrew has taken over six hundred and my father has taken quite a few as well.

A big thanks to Jérémie for showing us around the kraken studio, and for giving us tour guide directions. : )

But now, my flight to Rome is about to leave. I don't expect internet access much in Rome either, so I'm afraid email responses will have to wait.

Pond hopping
  --3 September, 2008, 6:18:06

I'm in Belfast learning how my parents' particle accelerator works. We have expanded gas, and compressed it just like in thermodynamics. Speaking of which, grades are in, and despite doing way the heck too much this summer, I got straight A's. Even in thermo--and the A's in entomology were both of the 4.0 variety. : )

Unfortunately the network here will not allow me to access the backside of my site. The firewall is protecting me from myself, which means that I won't be able to add pictures or check email until I find an internet cafe. Before I left, I uploaded a carabid beetle I painted. Hooray for remembering URLs.

boy am I tired
  --18 August, 2008, 5:56:48

I just flew home from Indy, and finished my term paper for entomology...it's 4am and boy are my arms tired. They match the rest of me.

It was a good con. Busy, but good. I have a couple of new trophies for my collection. I won 1st place single figure for both Gencon and Privateer's contests, as well as Darksword Best in Show.

A great big thanks for everyone who took my classes, I had a really great time teaching you and making a mess with my paints.

To Gencon
  --12 August, 2008, 13:41:41

I'm off to Gencon early tomorrow. My three entries for the various contests are finished. My entomology problem set and a draft of my term paper were submitted on time yesterday. 90 of 100 insects have been identified as part of my final project. Tonight I must finish a thermodynamics problem set and pack. While at Gencon I must finish another thermo problem set, my term paper and study for the three final exams which are shortly after I return home. Needless to say, my head is a bit a-swirl. I'm not entirely sure where I am, but I know where I'm headed--Gencon!! Whee!

For those of you who are taking my classes, I recommend bringing examples of your work so that I can tailor my class to be of most use to you. Also if you bring a list of aspects of painting that seem too hard, and I will do my best to make them easier.

Woo!
  --4 August, 2008, 14:43:56

My first thermodynamics test was half a month ago. Half a month ago I panicked and forgot how to apply a simple equation, and how to use my calculator...and how to spell basic three letter words.

I've spent this chunk of time worrying about passing the darn class after bombing a test like that. For those of you who haven't witnessed this, I really excell at worrying about test scores.

The exams were returned today. My score was 40 points higher than I expected. I'm not entirely sure how that's even possible--but if, for some reason, I chose to skip the final exam, I would still pass the class. Right now I'm feeling a mixture of vast relief, joy, and the desire to kick the prof in the shins for taking so long.

Zombies!!
  --21 July, 2008, 15:02:25

There's been a lot of nothing happening on my site for the last couple of weeks. This is due to my course load, in particular I blame thermodynamics. For some reason I thought it would be clever to take not one, not two, but three courses this summer. At the moment, I'm on the way to turn a typical weekly thermo homework set--20 pages of calculations. Despite my pages crammed full of integrals and partial derivatives I suspect a distinct lack of clever on my part.

The good news is that two of the minis I'm painting for Gencon are darn near done.

I'm looking forward to seeing people outside of my classmates and housemates soon. Say about in about 4 weeks or so.

Procrastination!
  --10 July, 2008, 23:21:36

So, guest writing for Marike again, this is Andrew.

Marike has been working hard on her Thermodynamics class, and when I mumbled something along the lines of "You don't mind if I guest-write for you again, do you not?", she got lost in the double-negatives, and foolishly nodded her head.

The last couple of weeks have been full of Thermodynamics, however, there were a couple of moments of light among the doom and gloom of ideal gases, isothermal expansion, and adiabatic containers.

The interesting tidbit number one was an invasion of house-flies at Marike's place, which was solved in a neat manner. I would have most likely simply fly-swattered them all, leaving squished corpses all over the place. Instead, we headed down to the local nursery, and bought 2 carnivorous plants. After a couple of days, the carnivorous plants took care of the fly problem splendidly--the flies obligingly crammed themselves into the pitchers. It was quite fascinating to watch the flies crawl into the plants' reservoirs, and be unable to climb out - apparently the inside of a carnivorous plant is more slippery to a fly than glass.

An interesting tidbit number two was the trip to Mt. Pilchuck. The trail was completely covered in snow (anywhere from 3 to 6 feet, depending on location) and, after climbing some hills that were hard to ascend, and impossible to descend, we had to spend quite a bit of time trying to find a way down. Eventually our way down ended up being a fairly steep snow-covered hill, with a stream running under the snow, and a lake at the bottom. I was wearing sneaker-like shoes for this particular adventure, so I slipped and slid about 50 feet or so towards this lake. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and the snow had a crust, so most of my skin from my lower-forearms is gone. Pictures of this particular adventure can be found here.

In keeping with the procrastination theme, a mini named Deva was stealthily added to the gallery last week.

And on a final note - I'm not into the whole miniature painting thing, but seeing what Marike has planned for her GenCon entries makes me go "Ohh! That's some neat stuff!"

Excitement!
  --20 June, 2008, 13:52:19

I believe it's safe to say that biochemisty type people have a bit of a mean streak. This extends to the faculty as well. They are always the last ones to turn in their grades, so after the brutal exams one must wait more than a week before you can find out how you did. After about a million refreshes, my grade was finally displayed. 2.6 for biochem. That's a C! How can this be possible?

*RUPTURE*

That grade would only be possible if I had severly bombed the final. So I emailed the prof. His response was, "Whoops, that's supposed to be a 3.6. I don't think I've ever been happier about a grade.

Andrew and I drove down to Portland for fun, excitement and decompression. The pictures from that are here.