New Website for North Star Lodge #447

I have been working on a website for the Masonic lodge I belong to, North Star Lodge #447 in Estherville, IA. I just registered a new domain for it and have it hosted through WordPress.com. The new address is http://northstarlodge447.org/. We will be adding more content later, but we can finally say that the lodge has joined the rest of us online. While you’re there, please sign the guest book.

Tri-society Meetings in Pittsburgh

I went to Pittsburgh this week to go to the American Society of Agronomy – Crop Science Society of America – Soil Science Society of America annual meetings. It was a pretty though long nine hour drive from Raleigh to Pittsburgh. Most of the trip was in West Virginia. Unfortunately we were about two weeks behind peak fall colors but it was pretty none the less. The meetings were held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center located riverside in downtown Pittsburgh. Here is the website for the meetings.

There was over 3,000 people who attended the meetings. During the meetings many people present their current research through posters and presentations, exhibitors present their products and companies, employers do job interviews, but most importantly – people network. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference. I was able to meet several well known “wetland soils people” and can now put a face to the names on the research journal articles I read all of the time. I presented my master’s research through a poster presentation at the conference. I had entered my poster in a contest with the other graduate students in the S10 – Wetland Soils division. I ended up winning the contest which was a nice surprise. For my poster I had to hang it early in the morning on Monday then stand by it between 4 and 6pm. At that time people can come by and ask questions. Posters are great for opening one-on-one discussion. Several people had good advice for where to take my research in the future. Several people also had great questions.

On Tuesday I ran in the annual meetings 5K run. The race started at 6:30am and the starting line was 1.5 miles from my hotel. I had to get up well before sunrise and walk the whole way to the run, then run the 5K (3.1 miles) then walk back. It was a lot of fun though. There was about 100 people who ran in it. I did my part as an ex football lineman and secured the back of the pack. I did 3.1 miles in 35 minutes. The running path followed a greenway trail that was on the opposite side of the river from the convention center. I was told that the trail dates back to before Pittsburgh was “Pittsburgh” when the river was only 4-6 feet deep and people had to portage their boats.

Pittsburgh is a great city (despite all of the Steeler fans). The city is very clean and has a lot of new industry and technology coming into it. The buildings have a lot of character to compliment their age. There is a lot of tradition in the city too. Some fellow graduate students and I did what we do best and went drinking each night. One night we went to East Carson St. which is a strip of bars and restaraunts that are between where the steel mills used to be and where the steelers lived. They would each stop in for food and beer then head home. The large amount of bars from way back when now make it a “premo” spot for nightlife in the city because each building has a liquor license. The strip had 60 bars in a very short walk. A bar crawl there would probably end up in a person actually crawling. Also, since there were so many bars, competition drives the price of beer down. We were drinking 89 cent Bud Lights and it only took $30 to get all of us buzzed. We also ate at Primanti Brothers which Pittsburgh is also known for. It is a bar-restaraunt which serves the whole meal in the sandwich. For example, I got the pastrami sandwich, which is a normal pastrami and Swiss sandwich, but with a whole serving of coleslaw and fries on top of it – all between two pieces of bread. We also had some Iron City beer and Yuengling which the area is also known for.

I also went to a mixer for Iowa State faculty, students, and alumni on Monday night. It was good to get caught up there with some old friends and meet some new ones. Attendees for the conference stayed at various hotels. I stayed with the rest of the NCSU grad students at the Omni William Penn Hotel. This place was the definition of class. I felt like I was underdressed the whole time except for when I was in my suit for my poster presentation. Here is the outside:

And here is the awesome lobby:

It was a good thing my research grant was footing the bill. The convention center was also really cool. It is hard to explain but here are some pics I took while on the 4th floor deck overlooking the river.

Colby checking out the view

Old School Riverboat

Upstream

Weinan and Wendy

The convention center roof with the Pittsburgh skyline

Convention center and more skyline

Adam and the looking glass

Pittsburgh was fun. I didn’t really know what to expect of it but I was surprised none the less. Plus it is where ketchup comes from so it has to be good. Anyway, the conference was good. Next year it is in Long Beach, CA. Hopefully I’ll be able to go to that one too since I’ve never been to Cali.

Cycling Equipment Review: The Helmet Lock

I was contacted a while ago by a rep from thehelmetlock.com to do a product review. Even though this is just a modest little blog (that has been neglected in recent months) I am happy to do a product review… especially if I get free stuff! So here is the scoop. The product is called The Helmet Lock. The Helmet Lock’s key to being ingenious is its simplicity. It is basically a metal loop with a bolt that is covered in plastic (to keep my bike scratch free). The picture to the right shows a closeup of it. To use it you push to loops on either end of the lock through holes in the helmet leaving the bolt on the inside. A U-lock, or cable lock in my case, is then pushed through the loops and locked just like you would normally lock the bike. So, like any good scientist, I’m going to summarize my findings.

The good

This invention is easy to use and is extremely useful for bike commuting and recreation. It also stores well by just putting it on your bike lock. The website for it (see above) has great pictures for step by step directions. They probably aren’t needed though because the locks are pretty intuitive. I keep it on my bike and use it just about every time I lock up my bike.

The bad

I didn’t sacrifice the helmet lock that was sent to me to test how strong it holds up to pliers or bolt cutters. However I don’t think the lock would do a whole lot to stop a determined bike/helmet thief. On the other hand, if the person is going to go through so much trouble to steal a $30 commuter helmet then they are probably gonna steal your bike too. This isn’t something that would keep me from buying a helmet lock.

The ugly

Actually the locks look great – I just couldn’t resist the classic western reference.

Here are some more picks I took of The Helmet Lock that you can purchase from thehelmetlock.com for $12.95 or $19.95 for 2.

More School!

Hello all. As those of you who frequent this site might have noticed, we’ve been sort of “MIA” lately for new posts. There’s a reason – no time! But hopefully we will be able to post more often in the future. We’ve been up to a lot lately. We moved to a new apartment/townhouse (pictures to come in a future post), flew back to Iowa for a wedding (pictures to come in a future post), Spent a weekend in the Appalachians with some friends (pictures to come in a future post), the Ranger breaking down, the Grand Am needing work, Stacy’s been busy with work, my research and thesis duties are piling up, and so on. Some of those, as you can tell, warrant new posts in the future, but for now you’re going to have to settle for some BIG NEWS. I have decided to stay at NCSU for my PhD in Soil Science.

In the beginning of September my major professor got word that we had received a grant from the USDA to continue our research on phosphorus release from a restored wetland in southern NC. It has funding for three PhD students, one of them being me. I was given until October 30th (when the grant funding starts) to make my decision. Before I made such a big decision I thought I should examine my other options first. I ended up talking to a professor at Indiana that I’ve kept in touch with through the last couple of years about an opportunity that he had for a PhD student. I ended up visiting Indiana University where I met him, his current graduate students, and faculty and staff of the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). I was impressed with the campus, the department, and the professor but I ultimately decided to stay at NCSU. The main reasons being that I wanted to be traditionally trained as a soil scientist and that I could continue on my current Master’s project and learn more from what I’ve already accomplished. I am leaving open the possibility of doing future work with the professor at IU, possibly through a post-doc position or something. He seemed like a great scientist and is very well known in the “wetland world.”

I am excited to start work on my PhD at NC State, despite the current demands of my Master’s thesis and class. If everything stays on track I will be finishing my master’s next spring and my PhD somewhere in 2013, or possibly in the spring of 2014 at the latest. That’s a lot of school, but I enjoy it. There are so many classes to take and so many new things to learn and discover!

In other news, Stacy’s dad is doing great on his path to beating lung cancer. He is gaining the weight he lost during chemo and radiation and is back to his normal self. We got a Nintendo Wii (not good for my productivity) and Stacy has become addicted to a $5 Tetris game we downloaded to the Wii via wireless internet. The Wii has been fun. We have Mario Kart and Wii Sports. We’ve also had our eyes on other Wii games in the future. I think I will have to get a 007 James Bond game eventually, ’cause you can have a Nintendo without a Bond game. My truck had a series of “episodes” where the front left wheel wanted to stay in four-wheel drive when I was in 2WD. That took a while to fix but it is working now. However, the clutch gave out this week so a friend and I will be working on that this weekend.

For future posts, stay tuned for the following:

• A product review on the Helmet Lock, a cycling gadget that lets you lock your helmet to your bike so you don’t have to lug it around (special thanks to Blake at thehelmetlock.com for the hook-up, and for patiently waiting for my review)
• A weekend trip to Appalachia for some serious road cycling – and great mountain-top views
• Our new townhouse with a “virtual tour”, i.e. pictures
• Christina and Ben’s wedding back in Estherville, IA
• and more

Stay tuned, we’ll try to post more.Thanks for stopping by.