25 June 2010

My Grandpa

My Grandpa passed away a year ago today. He was a really cool dude and I miss him a lot. My aunt recently found this post written about him in February. It appeared in the proceedings of The Board of Trustees at Ohio State. He rode his horse 200 miles to go to college!


THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE

ONE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH

MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Columbus, Ohio, February 4 and 5, 2010

Fairfax E. Watkins

The Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University expresses its sorrow upon the death on June 25, 2009, of Fairfax E. Watkins, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science.

In 1930 Fairfax Watkins rode his horse some 200 miles westward to the mountain town of Blacksburg, Virginia, where he began his studies of mechanical engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. After graduating with a M.S. degree in mechanical engineering in 1937, he received an offer from Professor Thomas French for a faculty position at The Ohio State University. Professor Watkins taught at Ohio State from 1937-42.

In 1942 Professor Watkins took leave from OSU to serve in the United States Army during World War II. While serving in the military, he managed engineering operations of the barrage balloon protection of the Panama Canal, for which he was decorated with the Legion of Merit Medal of Honor.

Professor Watkins was transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943, where he served as a professor of military science. A year later, while still in the U.S. Army, he served his country by investigating the background of scientists working on the Manhattan Project.

When WW II ended, Professor Watkins took a civilian job with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation where he designed traffic interchanges for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. These interchanges, then called clover leafs, were among the first to be built in the world.

Professor Watkins returned to Ohio State in 1946, joining the former Department of Engineering Graphics where he taught courses in engineering graphics and engineering mechanics. He retired from OSU in 1974.

On behalf of the University community, the Board of Trustees expresses to the family of Professor Emeritus Fairfax E. Watkins its deepest sympathy and sense of understanding of their loss. It is directed that this resolution be inscribed upon the minutes of the Board of Trustees and that a copy be tendered to his family as an expression of the Board’s heartfelt sympathy.

My maternal grandparents, Fairfax and Olga.


23 June 2010

Urban Gardening

I have built the second tier to the Urban Planter. Only one more tier to go until it's complete.

I should have my vegetable plants, which have nearly outgrown their current containers, into their new homes by the end of the weekend.

Today I listened into an NPR program on Urban Gardening which featured a guest called The Cheap Vegetable Gardener. After investigating this chap on the internets, I found out about a nifty little contest he's got going on to win a responsible gardening kit from Garden Safe. I'm all about it. The buggies have got to go!

The cutest thing about the NPR interview was the tip regarding how to deal with bunnies, squirrels and birds. You just gotta grow enough to feed yourself and all the little critters as they have as much right to the land as you do!

20 June 2010

Lepidopterology

This weekend I got a brand new (to me) camera that I'm very excited about. More on that later...

In the mean time, here are some iphone photos from my trip to the conservatory of a few butterflies that were around. There weren't as many as were out in years past, but I think that's due to the fact that I have not ever gone this late in the conservatory butterfly season.



One landed on my hand


18 June 2010

Women's Cycling Conversation Forum

My girl Meredith Joy and founder of Yay Bikes! is organizing a forum to discuss biking for females in Columbus. She wants to know how woman feel about cycling in Columbus; what it means to us and what we would hope for cycling in the future. The info gathered from this forum will be used to create an agenda for women's cycling in Columbus to be carried out in 2011. The forum will be held Wednesday, June 30th at 6:30PM at the University Area Enrichment Association building on campus. It'll be a super low key (multiple, small) round table discussion Let's get riding ladies!!



Women's Cycling Conversation Forum facebook event

17 June 2010

Singing with Super Desserts at Comfest

Justin Riley of the Super Desserts invited me and a few other folks to perform with the band as part of a choir for Comfest on the main stage (Bozo) next Saturday afternoon.

This is one of the songs I'll be singing with them next Saturday:

Super Desserts - On Sunday from Ohio Sessions on Vimeo.

We had our first practice session last night at the Conservatory of Music at Capital University and it was a total blast! Justin and his group of musicians are so fun to sing with. Some of the songs we'll be singing may include: Funeral, Ibiza, I Only Love You Because You Can Play Guitar, and On Sundays. The set is only an hour long so I don't know which ones they'll have us all sing on. Last night we practiced 8 songs over three hours.

Notes for Wicker Chair:


Here's Justin and another guest choir member, Curtis

14 June 2010

iphotos from the weekend

Popped into one of Ohio's caves for a wee visit this weekend. Took some poor quality photos with my iphone:






Just for your nerd alert: this is an example of where calcite crystal is hanging off of an iron oxide deposit called a duel formation which is really rare, however I'm kind of suspicious that the Ohio Caverns made this factoid up so they can seem impressive and different from the other caverns in the land. I guess it doesn't matter because I thought they were pretty cool anyhow.



After caving, I tried to get to this candy shop in West Liberty that advertised lots of free samples (!), but it was closed (!!!). However, across the street was a pretty sweet green haus. So I went there instead.







This was my favorite part. This little flower started growing out of the wood in the walls of the greenhouse. What a trooper, huh?

10 June 2010

Dance Dance Party Party

No Boys. No Booze. No Judgment. (Legwarmers Optional)



Going to a planning meeting tonight for starting a Dance Dance Party Party Chapter in Cbus.

In answer to anonymous formspring question: "which legs are yours!", none! This photo was stolen from the website, which probably means I should site the location.

08 June 2010

Tummy Bug


I have a rather bad stomach bug. Yesterday, I got IV fluids to replace all that I lost.

Update

06 June 2010

Camp Falcon

Last weekend I got to hang out at the summer camp I spent at least 6 summers at as a kid. It was really cool to catch up with the other campers and staff whom I hadn't seen for a good 15 years. All of them were up to super cool things like: big time documentary film maker (including About Baghdad, the first film that came out covering the war in Iraq), PhD student of contemporary racism, a lawyer who works with national security, a PhD student of speech pathology, and yet another PhD of chemistry, and that was just the ladies! I was impressed with the diversity of smarty pantism that was represented by my fellow campers.

The camp opened up a bunch of the activities like archery which I was happy to learn I was still pretty okay at. Unfortunately I couldn't play on the beach as the waterfront was under a good 5 feet of water.

Here are some flags welcoming campers as they drive up the winding road leading to camp (taken with iphone)


This seat sits on a little peninsula that normally rises out of the water about 5 ft (Nikon D50)


This would be the water front that is under water. That diving board you see is the high dive (Nikon D50)

01 June 2010

happy kitty


happy kitty, originally uploaded by animal nudity.

Happy kitty indeed!! I'm so excited about this weekend. I get to...

a) hang out with my old roommate who is on break from PhDing at Rutgers
b) go see three beautiful ladies perform their brand new music
c) go back to the summer camp I used to go to when I was a kid for alumni weekend
d) go on a bike ride with my favorite people and then do some glow yoga