I had an incredible weekend as AMi came to visit. I just left her at the airport a couple of hours ago and watched her fly back – heading 2000 miles home. We had very full, exciting, and vivacious days that make you happy to be alive wherever you are.

She was able to meet the quirky and great people here that I call my friends, do a lot of walking around Gaithersburg and DC, and chillax by the grill at night in this lovely weather that they have been experiencing here.

The week was certainly packed full of night frisbee, quirky social gatherings, delicious grilled food, a touch of good beer, lots of fun, oh and a ton of good productive work done by me. I’ll be sure to post more stuff as this week will be a bit more wound down.

Week four is coming soon! Ami is going to be visiting me this coming weekend: can’t wait! See you soon!

I added a few new pictures to my Google Picasa Web Album. You can see them by clicking the link below or anytime by using the link on the right side of the pages.

From NIST SURF 2007

Coming this week! Pictures of the robot that my roommate is working on, pictures of the autonomous Hummer that drives around the NIST campus, and the NIST boat! Stay tuned and have a great week wherever you are.

This weekend is comprised of me reading some books from the library and studying a fire dynamics book with no obligations, really. It’s quite pleasant. I am currently reading ‘The Making of a Philosopher’ by Colin McGinn:

Here are some of my favorite selected quotes from the book thus far:

“I lived alone in a tiny, depressing bed-setting room [...] but I had more freedom to pursue my interests. Since I had no money there wasn’t much to do except read and talk (does poverty encourage literacy?).”

This is a very good one for now. I’m sort of limited on activities this weekend because I await the receipt of many checks and money from school and work, yet I have access to this boundless sea of knowledge around me in these wonderful books, thoughts, studies, and equations. A simple walk around Gaithersburg during a nice sunny Saturday or the contemplation of such an above quote while staring out the window for thirty minutes are the parts of life that are invaluable to me, yet I see myself and others skipping over these parts when everything is going ‘normal’.

“It is hard to exaggerate the importance of this type of contact between students and teachers; for you to believe in yourself, someone else you respect has to believe in you first. I try to keep my eye open for students who could benefit from this kind of attention and encouragement, while avoiding favoritism and excessive ‘mentoring’.”

I love this quote because I can speak firsthand about this. If it weren’t for the great mentors in my life, I would not be here working with the top scientists in the world. And, as one progresses in thought, mind, and book smarts, it is easy to forget that there is an obligation you have to ‘mentor’ the newer people coming in, no matter what level you have achieved or what field you are in. This is what makes the concept of thought work in life.

And finally:

“There is a period in one’s twenties when philosophical discussion with a friend can be the most delightful of experiences, and an ideal way to make progress in one’s thinking. And it helps relieve the solitariness that is so much a part of the contemplative life.”

This last one speaks great truths. Sure, I can perform all of my intellectual work within myself and solve great mysteries, but even sharing that with one other person in an eloquent way will serve to grow not only their mind, but yours. This happens as you try to come up with the words, writings, and gestures which translate your thoughts into something externally beneficial to another person.

So, what is a boring weekend to others sends me adrift in the universe in thought, wisdom, and a really fun time.

And people wonder why I read a wide range of subjects, such as philosophy books. Or they wonder what philosophy has to do with my life or fire protection engineering…

Have a pleasant weekend.

Today I did the ASSIST Evaluation at the Aberdeen Test Center, which is a military proving grounds. It was sweet. I volunteered to participate in a field experiment involving soldiers and facial recognition and real-time processing software. They also test high explosives on site, and you can hear/feel the bomb and artillery detonations from miles away. Inadvertently, the bomb explosions every ten minutes were definitely the coolest part of the day. That was very weirdly soothing.

I got to play an Iraqi student and a soccer player. All in all, very cool. I also got to hang out with my peoples and play ball and stuff.

I also got to think quietly. Waiting in very long lines can sometimes force one to do this. It is those quiet times that come that make you wonder what it is that you are doing in life. Loving? Thinking? Socializing? Living like an animal day to day in this world? Why do I do this or why don’t I do that. How am I living back at home?

THESE are the things that I am thinking. What do I do here in Maryland that I LOVE that I totally ignore at home? How can I change them? Should I change them? After going on and on about how this is the perfect community and all, why not change things? Here are a few of my notes on my progress, thinking, and whatnot:

WRITE MORE:
I love to write. Writing is my thing. I scribble, blog, doodle, technically write, etc. I love to write. I love to think. I must tie these things together better. By writing more, I can say things better. I can use the right word, just like my favorite authors write up thought processes. This comes with lots and lots of practice. Years even. Write letters, books, manuals, essays,etc.

By writing more, I think better, and become more interesting, which feeds the other values. I can have a tangible life. I can have output things that others can read and think about. Writing lives forever. WHO writes? Not many people do. That doesn’t mean that I can’t write. I can love deeper. I can express myself in weird poems to technical manuals. Everyone can read.

READ less:
Why less? I can’t take up ALL of my time, input, and thinking by reading about it! I have to write about it! I have so much stuff in my head, let me get it out there. Admittedly, this stuff came from reading a lot, but I am referring to where I am NOW. I can also read less as to not overwrite my passions. I push to avoid redundancy. How many books have I read about time management? Am I effectively managing my time?? Then why another book about time management??? And, by reading less, but very pertinent books, I can of course build vocabulary and in turn not overwrite or define my experiences with too much reading. Very important for me.

SOCIAL MORE:
Social life is definitely a huge thing here in my experience so far in NIST SURF. Point-ful socialization is a big part of every big thinker and successful person’s life. However, letting intellectual thought overtake your social interaction can break that very point. As one person (Proust) said: he does all of his intellectual work within himself and he doesn’t let that stop him from talking to anyone, as will I follow this wise concept.

I do this now, but I have to remind myself of this ever so important fact of social being. Also, socialization should be very open. It should be your closest physical friends that you can share ANY idea or opinion and get good feedback from. Not necessarily knowledge, but the sharing of experiences can be highlighted here. Onto comfort. This is important so that you aren’t filtering your thoughts and mind at any level because you are nervous or hesitant. And finally, platonic. You may or may not have a platonic relationship with someone. Not with your parents or significant other, but a good, platonic, true friend or friends. Platonic in the sense that Plato meant it. Not shallow, but a relationship that extends beyond the bounds of physical and even the mental world. One of spiritual closeness.

LOVE MORE:
Following on with the idea of socializing, then comes loving more. How can you love more? And why? It can be very different for everyone. Spending real time with your loved persons is key. Real, free, true time together, with no regrets, no appointments, and no obligations. Just fun life experiences. Funny how you learn that only when you are away from your loved one.

VARIETY MORE:
This involves sports and new people for me this summer. Play a new sport, go outside more, and meet new people. Of course, it’s easy in an environment of forced socialization. I’m in a hotel with over a hundred similar young students who are up for that kind of randomness. How then in the real world? Simple: do more stuff like that! Join a group, find that person that you need, and communicate. It really is simple, but I don’t do it enough at home. This is one of those times that I just say to do it. Get out there. Don’t ignore your other obligations, but do more to expand, every day. It’s hard when you have routines, too. It’s also hard to share good wisdom about improving this area because this is a largely self-motivated part of life, but one that gives the biggest and best results.

Well, that is where I am for now in the areas that matter most to me. These 2.5 weeks have been a fantastic part of my life.

Thanks for listening.

Things are speeding up here at NIST. I’m glad to be at work on this Monday. Today I am continuing left over work from last week, trying to get these automation scripts in MATLAB working.

I spoke to my research advisor this morning, as I usually do, and he was telling me the details of the project and the next actions. He also mentioned that this guide that I am working on will be published under his and my name by the end of the summer. Wicked! Honestly, I had hoped to get a name or something at the end of a list somewhere for my summer work, but this is huge! So, little did I know that within nine weeks, I will be publishing probably one of the most read and biggest papers that I will ever write in my lifetime into the real scientific community. This keeps getting better and better.

Greetings,

I am having quite a good day here, pretty relaxing. It feels like Houston in March, the weather here is amazing most of the time. Especially the windy nights and cool, sharp mornings. I’m pretty up to speed on my project, and there are tons of other things to work on besides the main project. It’s always nice to be able to decide when you are most productive and work on that schedule instead of someone having to schedule your mind for you. i.e. me posting this blog entry because I need a break from coding and wish to flex my writing is a great example of the way things work around here.

Today I am working with MATLAB, FDS, and other things:

You see, I take the document from FDS :

Then I take the document upstairs and process it:

Then I take the results to the engineers:

I WORK WITH PEOPLE. I’M A PEOPLE PERSON! (That there was a weirdly placed Office Space reference if you missed it)

That’s right, those plots are dynamically generated from the MATLAB code. Sweet.

It’s very fun to use everything that I have ever learned here. From programming logic (this MATLAB code comes from using MATLAB for 2 days), to computing platforms like Linux, Mac, and Windows, to technical writing skills, to LaTeX document editing, to SVN committing, to Differential Equations, to cable details, to technical communication, to philosophy, to image editing, to fire dynamics and chemistry… Well, you get the idea.

Everything helps tremendously. If I had looked at that list five years ago and wondered if a job or field existed which combined those things and more things that I love, I would have laughed.

See y’all later:

P.S. I got my first piece of mail from a friend! Thanks! That was an awesome photo.

Welcome to the end of my first week. Large post ahead; grab a cup of coffee and enjoy.

WORK

I worked a lot on what is a Validation manual. I got quite a bit done and most of us SURF students were quite happy to have a productive week despite all of the government safety and orientation meetings.

Anyway, (for now) my project involves validating Fire Dynamics Simulator and its methods and results and preparing these validations in a way that an authority can comfortably understand and interpret the results as something that can be used to design for life safety and environmental safety. In fact, the latest issue of Fire Protection Engineering has an article by my research advisor therein:

The article can be found here if you are in any way more interested in what is going on up here. For the too long; didn’t read crew, we take experiments like this:

And then generate tons of graphs like this that are easy to understand and that prove the validity of our fire models:

So there you have it. I’ll let you know more as it goes along.

UPCOMING IRAQI EVENTS

In about two weeks, I will get to travel up to a military base in Aberdeen and play as an actor in a field research test. Of course, I will be playing an Iraqi local, perhaps a shopkeeper or layperson, and don an Iraqi outfit as seen by researchers. It is a one day thing, so why not. It is to help test this sort of military technology:

OFFICE

Here are some pictures of my wonderful office, with whom I share with one of the best innovators and mathematicians in the fire science world:

The perfect office filled with fire science and math books and a traditional chalkboard with elite FDS scribblings.

My desk and window looking out upon the lovely NIST ANSI and ASTM approved standard trees.

The place where the real magic happens.

PLAY

Other than work, I have found a good crew of folks here to share my mind and fun with. I am a firm believer in having a strong and good minded group of close friends while making any sort of progression, whether it involves science, the self, or happiness. I searched out those folks and got lucky, and I can say that such a group is a big part of what I am doing here in Maryland. To have a gathering of like minded and likely motivated people that you can be around frequently is one of the biggest values for me in life.

Oh, and we still have fun too:

So, until next time, check yo’self before you wreck yo’self. Peace out.