September already? Insane how fast this year is going. Things have been crazy out here in Boston. I applied for and got a full-time position at the hospital where I’ve been doing my research (as an Associate Medical Physicist). It will be great for me financially and professionally (board certification, clinical experience, etc.), but it’s been a ton of work so far. The amount of time that I have to spend on research has dropped from 95% to 5%. If I’m ever going to finish my PhD, I’ll have to push that number up quite a bit… The good news is that an increase in research time will be possible, as I’ve been investing extra time learning the ropes and one of our staff physicists is currently out on leave. Things should get better.

Football starts tomorrow. Happy days.

you guys should check out will ferrell if you haven’t already at www.whitehousewest.com

Hey,

Thought I’d start a new topic since this could get a little involved…

Basically, the rim of the discs can be angled or formed differently to give them different flying characteristics. A driver has a really wide slightly angled rim so that the profile looks more like an airplane wing. Putter discs are made for lift rather than speed, so they don’t go as far but are basically easier to throw and are way more accurate. Their rims look more like a traditional frisbee, almost semi-circular. Not sure if this written description is good enough, so here’s a quick image of what I mean…

As you can tell, the putters are a lot more like the regular ultimate frisbee discs we’re all used to seeing. One big difference, however, is that all of these discs are about 8.5″ diameter rather than 11″ diameter. Aerobies, one would think would be great, but since courses tend to be frought with trees, I think the aerobies would get stuck up trees often. Also, the discs we are using fall within some sort of standard which disc golf pros use…

The two I own are actually mid-range discs which are in between the two illustrated. I find I don’t have good enough control for a long range driver yet, and I’m pretty good at putting with the mid-range guys, so I haven’t bothered to get one yet.

So, here are a couple of hilarious sites…

http://www.jibjab.com

http://spamusement.com/

Congratulations on another year older and still managing to game. I am envious! All I get to play is freecell
and the occasional game of starcraft. I miss Stars!

Hope you are enjoying the remenants of summer and still having fun with your program. Is it a full two years?

(To everyone, sorry I haven’t been too active on the blog. It’s been a busy summer. Seems like everyone is
pretty busy.)

Hey, going down to Portland this weekend for a wedding. We’re staying with Colin and Diana and hopefully we’ll be hanging out with George a bit, too. I’ll try to take photos.

Also, as Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force says, I put one and one together and decided this site is starting to piss me off. It seems to be down half the time. The web hosting company says it was some domain routing things which they claim to have resolved. We’ll see…

According to Mike Imrem, carrying a football makes an athlete great. (I found this trail of links in Kaufman’s daily sports piece on Salon.com.) It’s hard to fathom Imrem’s argument that Lance Armstrong should not even be considered a great athlete. In fact, it is downright asinine. Fortunately, there are people out there like Patrick O’Grady who aren’t afraid to put out a “big dirty, personal foaming rant.” God bless him. There’s no doubt that Ricky Williams is a fine football player, but he would be an embarrassment at basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, and -yes- cycling. While Williams in certainly strong, Armstrong has endurance and a tolerance for pain that most football players only dream about. Never mind the fact that Armstrong has the discipline to stay in shape and avoid illicit drug use… It’s amazing the Imrem is published regularly; he should be out there pedaling [sic] his work…

Well, no one seemed too excited about my DNC postings, but whether you like it or not, the election is coming. Lately, Bush et al. have spent a lot of money defaming Kerry et al., so Americans Coming Together (ACT) decided to strike back. Will Farrell was enlisted to mock some upcoming Bush-at-the-ranch commercials. You probably have to like Will Farrell to appreciate these, but who doesn’t like Will Farrell?

“Are you sure it’s not a bear or a puma?”

Greetings all… So they say that the world is watching the DNC, but I had to go to the Comcast network to see anything prior to Bill and Hillary’s speech. It was a shame, because former-President Jimmy Carter delivered an intelligent, insightful, and inspiring speech (meanwhile, NBC showed Fear Factor). Carter, looking good at 80 years, is still eligible to serve another term – sign him up!

I was a little nervous about watching the DNC, because Kerry looked like an idiot on ESPN’s baseball tonight on Sunday – talking about the DH and what team Clemens should claim as he takes his place in the Hall of Fame. (At least Kerry got a high-five out of Millar after that dinger…) But in the end, it was pretty good television, and the Democrats looked like a unified group with positive message. Eventually, the Clintons came to play, and former-President Billiam put on a good show. Hillary was decent, but she didn’t deliver a “Presidential-level” speech. I don’t think that she has the charisma to be a viable candidate in 4 years (assuming the worst), and she may be too old 8 years from now… William J. started slow, but I think he finished on a strong note. He might have bashed the current President more than the Kerry campaign would like, but I think he did an excellent job blatantly reminding America who Bush’s policies are designed to help and how. I wonder if Teddy Kennedy will be able to match the intensity and message delivered by the two former Presidents last night…

Did anyone else see it?

Hey all… I know I’ve been absent for a while, my bad. Things have been busy at work, and I hope to have a string of good news to drop on you guys in the coming weeks. But regardless of how my wheelings and dealings turn out, I do have some great news: I have joined the ranks of uncle-dom.

My nephew, Bergen Melhus Leafblad, ‘stands’ 19″ tall and weighs 6 lbs 8 ounces. He was born today at about 2:00 pm in Minneapolis. According to my mom, he’s got a head full of black hair, and he’s the cutest baby she’s ever seen. (I’ll try to ignore that one, mom…) I hope to have a picture to post in the next few days…