Updates

First crack at Internet access for a while, so a bit of a blast here while I have a bit.  Went to Vancouver, BC over the weekend to visit with Chet and meet with my friend Ryan.

First two are from my tour at TRIUMF, Canada's premier (er... only) particle accellerator.  Granted a tour and some geek speak from my fellow Michigan Tech undergrad Ryan, who is much smarter than me and thus went on to become Dr. Ryan, Ph.D.  He's leaving TRIUMF (located at the beatiful campus of U BC in Vancouver) to return to his doctoral alma mater Michigan State to work with their new fancy pants accelerator that is going in.  So when you get over being excited about the stupid orange ball thing, take some time to cheer for MSU academics, too.  Yay, Physics!

Anyway the pictures are just fun nerdy examples of the cool stuff I got to see at the accelerator.  This marks my second visit to cyclotrons of the world.  I asked Ryan to create a Higgs boson for me while we were there, but he was a little busy.  (Yeah, that was a physics joke.  Totally not embarrassed, either.)

Later Chet took me out for some traditional Canadian entertainment, 5 pin bowling.  Deapite the name its not actually half as difficult as regular bowling, though it still goes great with beer.  Also featured was the creepy dinosaur mural and classic design urinal, making it quite the cultural experience.

Made a big feast the next day with Chet and I collaborating.  Final plate looked like this, wasn't too shabby.

After that flew up to Juneau, AK to meet my boat.  We can skip the pictures of that, since with the spring and the volcano going off up north it was a sleety wet mess.  Just imagine a picture of my phone short-circuiting.

Last are the enginge control console for the MV Malaspina, and a shot of the harbor in Bellingham, WA where I am now.  I've got another 10 days or so on the Mal.  She does the Southeast run, from Bellingham up to Skagway and many spots between.  Great boat, great crew.  Nothing bad to say about either, but I'm still quite looking forward to being done and getting to relax for a while back in Michigan.  Anyway, that what's happening here.