Tools, Tunes and Total Awesomeness

Last Wednesday Matt and I went to see a Tool Concert at the Santa Ana Star Casino in Bernalillo, NM.  It was really cool.  And many shenanigans occurred along the way.

I got off work early and we decided to take a short nap before heading to the concert, which was about half an hour drive away.  I’m a pretty light sleeper so I got up when the alarm went off and started getting ready but Matt is a pain in the butt to wake up (case in point: me spending Easter Sunday with his family while he slept in the other room).  Finally, when I was finished getting ready, I tried again.  This time, all I needed to do was tell him it was 7 pm and he was up in about 2 seconds.  Should have thought of that sooner.  Doors opened at 7:30 and we hadn’t eaten anything yet so we decided to grab something on the way.  The only 2 places on the way were Burger King and McDonald’s.  Since I have sworn off Burger King for life, we took the lesser of the two evils and went to McDonald’s.  They forgot to give me my fries (but still charged me for them) and gave us only one packet of barbecue sauce between the two of us.  Oh, and no napkins either.  I am never going back to that McDonald’s again.

We made it to the concert just in time and the line to get in was really short.  It would have taken me a lot shorter to get through the girl security line but some dumbass could not for the life of him figure out where the line to buy tickets was and he decided to ask the security lady, who had to show him about 3 times because he didn’t get it.  Finally he just gave up and left.  Thank goodness.  I was up next, so I walked up to the lady (who decided it was necessary to brush her hand across my, uh…cooter)  and then two guys started fighting so she stopped right in the middle of what she was doing and called security on her radio.  All because of some stupid boys fighting in the damn parking lot.  Man, boys are dumb.

I got in and the place was PACKED.  I could barely walk anywhere there were so many people, wandering around, buying $7 Bud Light (how silly).  We made a beeline for the stadium and found our seats, which were great.  (This is good because when we were buying our tickets the computer kept giving us crappy seats and we had to try for better ones a whole bunch of times.  Matt was getting really cranky)

The concert was really great.  They played a great mix of songs ranging from old to newer stuff.  In the past, people have said that Tool concerts are really boring because the band just stands there playing their instruments.  This is true.  They do just stand there and play their instruments, but that’s what they’re all about.  They don’t like to be showy and bounce around the stage like idiots.  They want their audience to experience their music, not them.  Plus there’s so much else going on that it doesn’t really matter what’s happening on stage.  They put up a display of video and artwork from their albums and music videos on huge monitor screens, and there was also a laser light show to go along with the pulse of the music and beat of the drum.  It was truly an audio-visual experience.

The one thing I thought was really cool was Maynard (lead singer and musical genius extraordinaire) took back stage to his guitar and bass player and stood in the back with the drummer.  He did do some funny little dances while he was back there but not too much.  Oh and at one point he left the stage and came back stripped down to his skivvies.  Definitely a little weird, but oh well, his music’s good.

Another thing that’s fun about concerts is people watching.  Since we were up in the bowl of the stadium, we could see what was going on down on the floor.  The mosh pit was hilarious.  It was just a circle of people randomly running around and skipping through it.  And someone else threw a whole bunch of sheets of paper into the air like confetti.

I wish I had pictures of all of this.  I didn’t bring my camera because I didn’t think it would be allowed in, but I saw a girl in front of me taking pictures and I was bummed.

But then I thought of the person standing next to me, smiling, having a good time, and so excited to be there with me.  And I thought, this person, holding my hand and giving me kisses, he really cares about me a lot.  And that made me happier than any concert ever could.

An Observation

I just finished watching the first hour of American Idol.  I haven’t really been watching it at all this season, because I’ve been doing other stuff or haven’t really felt like it.  But I watched it tonight because I went to work out and couldn’t think of anything else that would be on and also keep my interest (The new 90210, which is on at the same time, kinda makes me annoyed, not that I really liked– or watched– the old version, but whatever).  So I watched it and it’s gotten REALLY LAME this year.  Everyone talks waaaaayyy too much.  They really don’t need to talk so much.  It’s not a talk show.  That’s why I didn’t like Brooke last year, because she would not shut up.  Ever.  And what’s up with Ryan talking to everyone’s parents?  There’s still about a bazillion contestants left, and I don’t particularly care what all their parents have to say.  (Personally, I don’t think Ryan does either.  Poor Ryan.)  And what else?  Oh yeah, and the singing kinda sucks.  Not that I could do any better, but I also don’t try out for singing competitions.

So that’s what I think about that, if anyone cares to know.  Maybe I’ll write about V-Day or some such nonsense tomorrow but now I am tired because I just lifted weights and it was hard.  So I think I’ll watch Nova.

Bye.

Waldo Comes Back with a Vengeance

Ahh, Geographic Information Systems.  Ya gotta love it, and love to hate it.  It’s pretty much my entire life right now.  Every morning I go into work, and (after reading my email and the various blogs I’m addicted to) load up the GIS.  But mind you, this is not as simple as clicking a button.  Nooo waaaay.  In the government, things are always several times more complicated than necessary.

Recently, all of our GIS database information where we can add and edit data was moved to a central database in Kansas City.  Now, to access the data, we have to go to the Kansas website, enter our name and password, navigate to the GIS file (which is always where it opens first for me now that I’ve gone there so many times, making it somewhat easier), and open GIS (takes a while… during this time I generally twiddle my thumbs, send text messages, etc).

Then when GIS is open I have to add the data.  This requires going to another webpage and entering a different username and password (it’s amazing I can keep them all straight!). Generally I add the map of the Gila National Forest and the bazillions of sample points that go along with it.  What I end up with looks something like this:

The Gila's Burro Mountains, where I am currently editing data

Every single one of those little dots is connected to a site, transect or observation description, consisting of location, soil, and vegetation information, among other things.  How does the information get there, you may ask?  Well, I’ll tell you.  Maureen’s boss gives her a big binder full of papers from the 1970s and then she gets to copy all of the information on the papers into the computer!  I could explain how the information gets onto the paper in the first place but that is a summertime story (that I have partially gone into in previous field work posts).  It takes me about an hour to get through one of the site description sheets and then my boss comes back and tells me I did something wrong and have to go back through all of the descriptions I just did and make changes to them.  So it takes a while.

I’ve just gotten back to doing that work after last week when I spent quite a bit of time working on another GIS project, called learning how to use the TEUI toolkit.  The TEUI toolkit is basically an extension of the toolbox that is already in GIS (if you are familiar with that) but applies specifically to the work we are doing.  It is used as part of the beginning process of creating a field map, whereas the data entry stuff is more towards the end of the process.  Going through the toolkit reminded me a lot of the Where’s Waldo type lab activities I did in grad school.  I learned how to make pretty, colorful maps, like this:

In addition, I also did another fun computer activity: learning how to properly book a flight in our new travel authorization system, which is pretty much the most amazing thing ever invented (that is, according to the people who came up with it).  That took me ALL MORNING, with the help of two of my fellow officemates and then two other people in HR (because the first girl I talked to didn’t know what she was doing and got confused).  But my endeavors were successful and now I get to spend two weeks learning about dead things in nowhereville Arizona.  Hooray!  (Actually it’ll probably be fun and I will tell you about what I learned when I get back as one of my more science-y posts).

Well, now that you know what I do for my job, you could probably go in and do a better job at it than me.  But please don’t do that.  I spent quite a bit of time and money getting that silly dirt degree.

Weekend Setbacks, Successes and Shenanigans

Weekend planning is definitely different now that I am in a relationship.  It can have its benefits, but also involves some compromise that I’m not used to.  Every month, The New Mexico Natural History and Science Museum has a Geoscience collection tour that just so happened to be last Friday.  I really wanted to go but since it was a nice day I agreed with Matt to go for a hike with his two friends Adam and Tina on the Sandia Crest.

I left work early and on the way to Matt’s house I decided to get some gas.  While the gas was pumping, being the idiot I am, I decided to try to shift my keys around in my hands even though I was still holding the gas nozzle, and it flew out and splashed all over me.  Then I said “Fuck!”  really loud and people probably heard me, and I continued to fill my gas tank.  But the damage was done.  I smelled like gasoline so bad.

Since I was already on my way to Matt’s I just went over there and the first thing Matt noticed was the smell.  As it turns out Adam had “something” to do so he and Tina couldn’t go out with us after all, and then for some reason it got really windy all of a sudden so Matt told me to just go home and he’d come over in a little bit to help me do my laundry so my clothes wouldn’t smell.

We were both in a pretty bad mood considering the disappointing turn of events that afternoon and Matt decided that the thing that would make him happy was going to Federico’s (one of his favorite Mexican restaurants) for rolled tacos and enchiladas.  Unfortunately, the girl who took our order was not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer and apparently didn’t understand what we wanted so she only rang us up for one of our orders and we didn’t notice until we were about half way home with the food.  True, perhaps we should have paid more attention to what we got but the moral of the story is… Matt. was. pissed.  He wouldn’t even eat any of the food we got.  I told him we could share but he said he wanted me to have it and made pasta for himself.  He would only eat one of the rolled tacos I didn’t eat because I was full and he didn’t want it to go to waste.

So Friday ended on a poor note but lots more happened this weekend.  To be continued…

What your tax dollars are paying for

My kickin’ new backpack, that’s what!

But, oh yeah, I can’t get it yet because REI is being dumb and won’t let me come pick it up if it’s paid for by someone else’s credit card.  Something lame about credit card fraud… I dunno.  So I think I’m just going to get it online or something.

My weekly hotel stays and per diem are also all paid.  I get like $49 for food per day, which I barely even use because I have this weird thing with restaurants and I usually end up eating not much or only raw vegetables if I can get away with it.  But I am always STARVING at lunchtime.  This past week I ate almost an entire block of cheese in two days.  MMMM… cheese.  So I guess I could say the money goes towards my groceries too.

PLUS!  Our entire office building got brand new computers this week.  I set mine up today and it took me allllll day to get it to work.  I even had to stay an hour later than I was planning.  Guess that means an hour off for me next week!  And the computer is huge.  It has a 300 GB hard drive or something ridiculous like that.  Man it is heavy!

London in the summertime

Ten points if you can name the title and artist of the song referenced in the above line. 

My sister is off in England right now, and from there will take a tour around mainland Europe.  I am sooo jealous!  New Mexico sounds way boring compared to that.  If I even get to go to New Mexico.  It is taking forever to get my grad transcript and the transcript people are being a big pain in the butt about it too.  So today I got fed up and started to get a little rude.  My advisor has told me that I need to be more professional in my interactions with people, but sometimes people are just stupid.

Speaking of my advisor, I sent off my introduction for the paper he wants me to write last week, but haven’t heard back about it yet, because, oh, by the way, he’s in Scotland.  Nice.  So i’m just sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for things to happen.  Messing around with my scrapbook (I made two England pages) and watching movies.  Today I watched Across the Universe, the Beatles musical one.  My opinion: The basis for the plot is a little weak, there are several unnecessary characters, and it’s too long.  But it’s not bad, and the music was good, of course.

The holiday weekend was good.  We went up to the cottage for a family shindig-type deal.  Went kayaking, took a boat ride, the usual.  Oh yeah, and painted the house.  My uncle is a professional painter so he did most of it.  I mostly did prep work because apparently my family doesn’t trust me to paint things.  But I did get to go up on the roof.  My sister’s friend from school lives two doors down and she came over while the painting was going on, stood there watching for a while, noticed the bushes were covered with towels (to keep the paint off), and said “oh, are we expecting a frost tonight?”  My uncle thought that was the funniest thing ever.  He brought it up at least three times.

It was a good time, though.  Good food, great weather.  Unfortunately, the temperature has since gone down into the 60s, which I suppose isn’t so cold, but coming from Vegas it’s kinda rough.  I hear we’re expecting a frost tonight.  Better go cover the bushes.