The Bigness of Geoscience: Mid-Meeting Thoughts

From charges lying on bacteria in the ground to kilometer-sized gravity anomalies on the moon, geoscience is HUGE. The AGU Fall Meeting is huge too, but maybe on a couple orders of magnitude less than huge. The amount of coffee consumed here is HUGE, but not as huge as the amount of knowledge consumed. There are so many talks on so many topics, and a million (I may be off on my estimate) more posters on more topics. The titles of said talks and posters have so many words in them. There are thousands of important earth scientists concentrated into a two-block radius. Everything is so big.

In case I haven't explained the reason of my excitement to you in person, the AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting is an annual earth science conference held in San Francisco. I have the privilege of attending because of the research internship I had this past summer with CMMAP (Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes) at Colorado State University. They are paying me to basically be in science heaven and present my research among the thousands others. It's pretty cool.

For those who have attended a Career Fair, particularly the one at Colorado School of Mines, imagine a super-duper-sized Career Fair, but instead of talking about getting oil, everyone is interested in science. That is only the exhibit hall. And there's the poster hall which takes forever to walk across from. And the countless talks simultaneously occurring.

It's overwhelming because as a third year undergrad, I don't really know exactly where in geoscience I want to go. Being a Geophysics major seems so general here. So the Meeting is a sampler of sorts. On the other hand, I am really grateful for my Mines education that has taught me so much, and my internship that taught me other aspects of earth science. I've attended lectures on Climate Change, Modeling, Induced Polarization in Bacteria, gravity remote sensing on the moon, numerical methods, and I've been able to somewhat understand them with my background knowledge. Until my coffee runs out. But AGU understands us scientists and our need for free coffee.

It's not just the caffeine in my blood: I'm excited about earth science right now, not gonna lie. Gotta go get more free swag and/or knowledge now. Over and out.

What Happens When You Cross Dead Week With Finals Week?

Answer: a very crazy engineering student.

Due to awesome circumstances that will have me flying out to San Francisco next Sunday to attend the AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting, I have to take all my finals early. In short, this week gonn' be cray. 

This week, I'm going to do a daily log like I did freshman year Fall semester here. See you on the other side, brother. 

Sunday, December 01, 2013 6:09 p.m.
Mental stability: Fine
Hours of sleep last night: 8

So this is what stands between me and being done with this semester:

I'm so unmotivated and want it to be next week already, but lab reports don't write themselves, so...yeah.

Monday, December 02, 2013 5:48 p.m.
Mental stability: Meh, alright
Hours of sleep last night: 7

Blehhh....this paper on elastodynamics that we have to read for extra credit for Dynamic Fields makes me want to punch myself in the face. Who knew math could be so aesthetically appealing yet comprehensively challenging at the same time?

Wednesday (but still Tuesday since the sun hasn't risen), December 04, 2013 1:32 a.m.
Mental stability: confused, caffeinated and yeah
Hours of sleep last night: 6 (I'm sensing a pattern here).

So in the midst of studying for our Dynamic Fields final tomorrow, the school got an email that the campus would close tomorrow, or basically we would have a snow day. So we were like, "woot", and then I was like, "Oh, hmm that means we won't be done with DF forever, oh wells." And then there was an email saying school IS NOT cancelled, and then we were all like "Noooooooooo," but a few of us have mixed emotions because I just want stuff tomorrow to be over with. Else, I'd have to reschedule stuff and that is very hard this week. Anyway, I buy into the theory that the first email was hacked and this was some cruel prank.

Wednesday, December 04, 2013 10:39 p.m.
Hours of sleep: 6
It's too cold to study. Bleh.
Also, I have forgotten how to study alone. I have zero motivation.
On the bright side, Dynamic Fields is over forever.

Thursday, December 05, 2013, 12:34 a.m.
Mental stability: alarmingly calm (not caring)

After the catastrophe (that did prove to be a hacking of some sorts), Facebook was flooded with very angry posts by very angry people, and my Snapchat was also flooded with crying and sad faces. A tragedy, indeed. However, I somehow felt pressured to hate the school, and how dare they not give us a school day, even if it was barely precipitating (but deathly cold), especially after we received an erroneous email!!!!!!!

Um, okay.

Honestly, I remember a day when I really used to care about school, when it was life and doing well was everything. This might have been way back in kindergarten, but why have we lost this love of learning so much, that we would rather do nothing on the day in which most would have critical review sessions, and for us, final exams that are a huge part of their degree. We pay so much money per credit hour; I would have been really mad had we not been able to go to school today. I don't want to sound holier-than-thou because I did really enjoy that snow day freshman year in February, but that was not one of the last days of class, there was way more snow on the ground, and the "brilliant idea" for a snow day was not put forth through a hacking.

But after celebrating for 30 minutes while being diappointed, I read the email and was disappointed and celebrating again. Then I studied more at The Stoop with Shane, which is a good thing because two-fifths of the questions that appeared on the final would not have been studied otherwise.

Also, something something about wishing upon a sigma-star (real and imaginary part of conductivity).

But anyway, I rocked my I Love Mines mug today with coffee in it. Rebecca glared at me. I rambled about how much I love my education.

Almost....there....

Al...most....there....

Friday (Thursday really), December 06, 2013 1:41 a.m.

Hours of sleep last night: like 8 (No Field Methods, woooo!)

Mental Stability: Pretty good

My predicament this deathly cold week in which I have realized that I would hate living in Hoth:

The cold and the need to study makes for an interesting combination. But they both add up to caffeine. Once consumed in the late evening, they both make for a night of sparse sleep. Once awake in the morning, the need for studying is heightened. However, my internet is slow and I cannot download the lecture slides. So I need to venture out into the cold. The cold intensified the need for a hot drink. And such and such.

Twelve more hours!

Saturday, (Friday really), December 07, 2013 1:38a.m.
This day combined everything I loved and hated about this semester and this school.

Sunday, December 08, 2013 11:16 a.m.
But yeah, as I was saying...
I woke up to take my AEM final, but made coffee first. I also needed to make my notecard. I had not studied at all. Then it was two cold hours in the Geophysics Reading Room trying to remember Partial Differential Equations because I had forgotten to put PDE stuff on my notecard. Then I went to Subway. Then I went back to Green Center and took the Electrical Methods test. After 40 minutes, I emerged, and was done with exams. Woot. After my professor told me again of how awesome of a class we were, I walked to across the hall and started the last homework coding assignment for Electrical Methods. My classmates had been working on it for hours. The Linux Lab was buzzing. And it would end up taking me 12 hours to complete. Thankfully not 12 straight hours, as I left at 5 to go to Bob's Atomic Burgers with Jayden and only worked for five hours on Saturday after sleeping in. After getting back to coding, we also had the Moonlight Breakfast (free food!) at Slate to look forward to. At about 11p.m., I headed to The Loft and got to hang out with a few IV people.

But as I told Rebecca Saturday evening while at Panera, it's been an awesome semester. How did Saturday (and the whole week) combine everything I love and hate about Mines? I hate the craziness, but love the craziness. I'm still in awe of how I've made it through it all, the five finals in three days with homework and stuff--not to mention three straight semesters with 18 or more credit hours. I love the craziness because it really brings people together. By studying with my geophysics friends and goofing off and going to Moonlight Breakfast at Slate, I can see that we've built an awesome community. I haven't had that much fun studying since freshman year in Maple 159, the Maple 1st study room. And Shane, upon learning that I'd leave the Linux Lab to eat and not help him with MATLAB said, "Why are you always going to dinner with friends?! Do you bribe them?". Haha, no, but I'm glad that I've been able to hang on to old friends too in the midst of craziness.

Next semester is going to be so fun. Spring semesters hold baseball, E-Days, Spring Break....and hopefully good times in geophysics and good times with old friends (oldies but goodies).

But for now, school's over and I'm out.

Late Semester Blatherings

Lately I've had this feeling that I need to write something profound whenever I find the inspiration, time, and willpower to throw together a blog post because of the scarcity of said posts of late. But that is ridiculous. So here goes unprofoundness.

Well, it's November already, and the end of it at that December, wow. The amount of homework assignments and exams can fit on a decent list. Things are coming to an end, thank God. As much as I'm so ready to be done with this semester and any class with the word "Field" in it, I can honestly say that I've had the best time since freshman year. (Part of that may have to do with the lack of good time I had sophomore year, but whatever.)

Is it because we've finally attained respect for being a Junior? In past years, there were only torments of how it gets worse and how we should "just wait til Junior Year".

Is it because I've stopped caring? Possibly. And it's not like I don't care, because I do. I just care about stuff other than school more.

No, I think the reason is that we've finally built a strong community that's going to stick together until graduation. And I'm slightly biased when I say this, but I believe our class of 30-something geophysicists are the coolest class to ever have class in a while.

We all knew the day would come when we would have all the same classes together. We looked forward to the time when we would probably be learning real stuff about our major. And here it is, complete geophysics. Well, except math.

There are good things, there are bad things. Best of all is that the so-called "Junior Hell Year" is a week away from being halfway over. Woot.

Dead Batteries

I had two quarters in my wallet--just enough to make a 15-minute phone call on the pay phone to the only people whose phone number I have memorized. I told my parents that I was at a 7-11 off S. Golden Road and Quaker and asked if they could please come and get me. Why wasn't I in my car? Because I needed a working phone. I figured a working phone would be available at the King Soopers, which is one of the few places open 24 hours in Golden. The liquor store looked open, but I opted to stay away from there. Instead I briskly walked six blocks in the October night until I hit 7-11. Luckily I wouldn't have to walk all the way to King Soopers. Which brought me to buying a chocolate milk while I waited at the 7-11.

Why did I need a working phone? Because upon pulling off to the side of the road, I reached for my phone, and it promptly died. Well, crap, I thought. After praying for my car's healing for a little while, I admitted that my car was dead, my phone was dead, and with it being nearly midnight on this Thursday night, there was no way I could get home by sitting in my car on the side of the road. My only choice was to walk, and for who knows how long. This side of S. Golden Road is poorly lit, and there was construction going on, so walking conditions weren't that favorable. Worse, I was wearing my slippers. Even worse, I didn't have a jacket. (Good thing it wasn't that cold). Gah! It seemed that everything that could possibly go wrong did.

Why was my car dead? I had no idea. I kept asking myself that same question. I had just gotten the battery fixed, because just a couple of weeks ago that had died. But now, it was not the battery. (My dad later revealed it was the timing belt.) It was such a strange experience, for it just croaked right as I approached the large roundabout by Research Road. Switching from 4th to 3rd gear, it just wouldn't go. Pounding the gas pedal...and nothing. Well, crap. I had to decide whether I had enough kinetic energy to make it around the roundabout, and decided that if I tried, I would probably get stuck in the roundabout and have to get out and roll my car to safety. So that's when I coasted to Research Road and pulled off to the side of the road before picking up my dead phone.

Why was I wearing my slippers? And what was I doing out at this hour? I usually drop my friend off after Bible Study around 8:30, but my friends were having a movie night, so I stopped there for a few hours. Of course no movie night is complete without slippers. So that was why I was driving two hours later than I normally was.

Why did my timing belt break when it did? Funny thing, I actually thought the movie night was at The Unicorn House at first, so I showed up there confused before heading to the north side of Golden. Who knows where I would have died had I not taken that detour. Which brings me to the question...

Why didn't I take 6th? I always take 6th Avenue. It's faster, and I probably would've welcomed the extra minutes of sleep since I had class at 8AM  the next morning. But I remembered that part of 6th was closed for construction the other day on the way back. I'm really glad I took S. Golden after imagining if I just died out on the side of the highway with cars around me going 65 miles an hour.

Why was my phone dying? Because it was Thursday, of course. And Thursdays seem to always find a way to suck this semester. This Thursday was fine, even great until I found myself trekking in the dark towards some store that had a pay phone, more annoyed than afraid.

Funny, but the night before I had been trekking along also, but this time was fearful of rattlesnakes, other wild animals, and tripping in the dark. I had spontaneously driven to the base of North Table Mountain after getting the urge to just go somewhere. So my camera and water bottle tagged along the somewhat short trail that I hadn't walked up since first semester freshman year.

I remember it being harder freshman year. But I also remember not taking as many stops along the way as I did Wednesday...taking pictures is distracting. I took so many pictures that by the time the sun finally sank all the way past the horizon, my battery was almost dead. With the twilight dimming and me not wanting to use my phone flashlight app just yet, I scrambled down the mountain, careful to not be eaten by snakes and such. I took a different path (probably not a great idea in the dark), and beheld the volcanic "crater". I turned my camera on, hoping for one last shot, but right then the battery died. Welp, that's it then. 

With the sky darkening by the second, I stopped wasting time and really scampered back to the parking lot. I wondered if I would have time to eat dinner before IV Large Group. I didn't.

In short, dead batteries equal adventure in some sort and lessons learned in another sort.

How I See God's Character Revealed Through Math

For those who haven't had the pleasure of hearing me gripe first-hand, let me tell you about Dynamic Fields:

I hate not knowing what's going on. It's the worst feeling.

I need to know what's going on, what I'm supposed to be learning, and what I can expect in the future. One way for me to know what's going on  is to be in charge and in control of it. Many Mines students probably hold this sentiment as well: they've worked hard to get where they are now, and that is now leading them to getting a degree that will make money. We think we can control most of that.

So when we don't know what's going on, we lose control over the future of our academic careers, in a way.

But what's even worse is when that feeling spills over into real life.

Last post I talked about how I actually love turbulence, but I like order. The definiteness and clarity of processes that I desire in real life are probably reasons I went into studying something like engineering and science, fields dominated by process, order, data, analysis, results, and the flowcharts that describe the whole thing.

That's the way I am. And it's a reason I sort of dislike geology, with its subjectiveness and ambiguity and such. Interpreting blurred lines, such as seismic, is sometimes difficult because of some of the same reasons. Now you see how not knowing what's going on is so difficult for me. It's like scrolling through lines upon lines of computer code looking for the syntax error and running it not knowing why your code isn't quite what you want it to be. And you thought your code was so orderly and logical.

I walk down the hall from Dynamic Fields feeling worried, frustrated, lost, even angry, and tired. I feel like I don't belong here, like I want to give up. The area in front of the room for Advanced Engineering Math (AEM) fills up with chatter and complaints about the proceeding Dynamic Fields lecture or nightmare of an exam. I sit down in my usual chair in AEM and after being walked through a few equations on the board, understand that somehow, everything is okay or at least will be eventually. 

Math is constant. It has always been there as a subject, and it is usually a confidence booster. Usually.
But it's structured well. You know what you're supposed to be learning, or know what formulas or methods to use, and know the extent of work you'll have to put in to do well. There's usually a point in Math. And it's the basis of everything we do in engineering and science.

I feel like life sometimes feels a little like Dynamic Fields: messy, complex, incomprehensible, and I have no idea what's going on. I see God's character revealed through math: constant, purposeful, and knowing.

 Realization: life is not a script, function, or lines of code. Of course it'd be simpler if it was. Of course it'd be a great deal more boring.

Sometimes looking ahead in Math, I get a glimpse of a crazy complicated equation with symbols I don't yet understand. Yet I know we'll learn about it and get there...eventually. It's like God when I'm frustrated that I don't know what's going on is saying, "Don't worry, we'll get there....eventually."