No News is Bad News

Studying is incrementally consuming more and more of my time as my exam looms ahead, so my apologies for not posting anything for almost two weeks.  I figured posting about studying wouldn't very interesting, and nothing else interesting has been going on, so I'm short on material.

One of my favorite things about summer is that it's the season for all the best fruit.  Some of my favorites are peaches, pluots, nectarines and watermelon, but of course, I like everything else too.  An unexpected perk of living in California is the amazing produce that is available, apparently because we grow a lot of it for the rest of the country.  A lot of people also have fruit growing in their yards (myself included), and Liz brought the lab some peaches and plums from her house.  Soon, I'll get some free grapes from the vines on my fence.

The biggest news is that my drum kit is complete!  As you can see from the photo below, she looks pretty.  Here's a breakdown of what goes into turning a craptastic kit into a thing of beauty:

1. Removed, cleaned and polished all the hardware (including 72 lugs, 8 hoops, 3 stands, and every other piece of chrome on the set).
2. Properly fixed the previously makeshift repair job on the bass drum pedal (I don't believe in makeshift repairs unless they're temporary).
3. Stripped the scratched, cracked and warped plastic wraps from the drum shells.
4. Killed some brain cells in an enclosed, poorly ventilated space by using mineral spirits to remove the glue residue that remained after the stripping (thankfully they use very little glue with the cheap sets).
5. Masked the bearing edges, then sanded the wood shells and applied one coat of a cherry colored stain.
6. Finished the shells with three coats of a semi-gloss polyurethane. (The stain and polyurethane needed to dry for several hours respectively between coats, so I ended up doing three coats over the course of three days.)
7. Reattached the hardware, replacing or retrofitting any missing or damaged screws along the way.
8. Mounted new drum heads and resonant (bottom) heads, replacing a few missing tension rods (I was glad that the ignorant fellow who tensioned up the old heads without all the rods didn't end up warping the hoop).
9. Fix yet another shoddy repair that was done on the the snare strainer hardware (using a hammer to pound out warped metal), then polished and remounted them.  I also replaced the snare wires and straps.
10. Polished the cymbals to a like-new finish.

Hmm... when I outline it like this it doesn't seem nearly as arduous as it actually was.  The staining itself took almost a week to complete.  Polishing 72 lugs and reattaching them with 144 screws by hand was pretty intense.  Also, every repair or replacement required either a trip to the hardware store or an online order.  The result of all this hard work...

The general consensus is that I did a good job (thanks to everyone who thought so) and could sell the set for a meager profit if I so wished.  It's too fun to play, and much to integral to the band, for me to consider selling though.

Same Old Song and Ice Dance

Not much has been going on lately; research and studying have kept me busy.  I'm also in the overly drawn-out process of fixing up my new-old drum kit.  I'll have pictures of that as soon as its done.

Playing hockey with Brandt has been fun.  He said my game has improved since he last saw me play.  I'm glad that now he has encouraged me to play above my skill level, because I already feel like I'm becoming a better player by doing so.  When I think back to this time last year, hockey has definitely become a lower priority since then.  I would use my lunch break to skip out of lab and play a pickup game at the rink.  I think the combination of taking time off for my wrist to heal (still painful from a sprain three months ago), studying, lab work, the new band, and beginning weight training have eaten away at the time I used to spend playing.  At least I can look forward to the new season in the fall, when I won't have classes or a big exam.  I'm enjoying the prospect of reliving my '06 winter schedule of hockey five times a week. Hopefully that will include a new pair of skates that won't be so vociferous about their state of disrepair by proclaiming "clackity clack!" with each step.

I tried to get in touch with my inner artist, which has long laid dormant below a sea of creativity-stifling science and facts.  My guitar was the muse of my sudden inspiration.  There are often several-day stretches were my guitar will sit in the corner, like a neglected child, wishing to be picked up and held.  My Les Paul is like the often ignored middle child, with most of my attention being poured upon my acoustic Martin (counting as both the older and younger children).  This night had a bluesy feeling to it, so I switched on the amp and let the little glowing tube growl out some of my favorite songs. After finishing up the set, I set down the guitar with some mild satisfaction (thinking... "I could really use some lessons").  I caught the sparkles of light off the chrome bridge and pickups, and inspiration took hold.  After creating music with an instrument as fine as the Les Paul, I probably should have followed suit and used something better than a mechanical pencil and printer paper to draw it, but inspiration waits for no one!  Forty minutes later, my creative spirit had been quelled.  The results are below.  I'll eventually include a photo of the matching inanimate object of my affection.  You can tell I was getting tired since I decided not to finish the left side or bottom of the guitar. What do you think?  I feel that having a forum to display my artwork will encourage me to create more, but I'm not sure I that's what my readers want to see, so voice your opinions!

As per request, I have included at the end of this post a video of the dirt bike riding that was featured in my previous 4th of july post.  Enjoy!

Loud, Quiet, Loud

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but lost the cable for my camera, so expect another post very soon after this one.

To celebrate this independence day, I spent Friday afternoon at the home of Badi's uncle, who lives somewhere in the countryside between Winters and Vacaville.  It's really great to spend special occasions with my friends' families when I'm so far from my own; it makes Davis feel a lot more like home.  Farid and I were the only non-relatives playing in the championship pool volleyball tournament, but I definitely felt like part of the family in our come-from-behind victory after taking over the shallow end.  This was followed with looking at old family photos.

After finding out there was a 50cc kids dirtbike in the shed, you can easily guess what we did next.  I took two falls into the dry, sharp grass on my second ride (I guess I got a little too bold).  From this photo of Badi's ride, you can see how awkward it was for full-sized adult to sit on the child-sized bike... but you can also see how fun it was, and how good Badi is at posing for photos regardless of what he's doing.

This photo of me standing over the bike after my ride seems to provide a good perspective of how tiny this motorcycle actually was, and the smile on my face shows you how incredibly fun it is to ride.

I took the long way home, winding my way through the orchards and farms along Putah Creek Rd.  I managed to snap this photo along the way.  I think the composition of it is pretty good, considering I just stuck my camera out the window of my car as I was driving. 

The day came to a noisy close with fireworks back in Davis with Brandt and his girlfriend Sonya.  I thought the fireworks display was pretty good for a small town, but when I got home, PBS was showing the Independence Day celebration in Washington, D.C., and that looked like something really worth seeing.  We then walked around downtown, which was basically closed for the holiday, and I showed them all 6 blocks that were worth seeing.

Here's a photo of the finale to the Davis show at the Davis Community Park; lacking a tripod, I had to brace the camera under my chin to keep the fireworks from looking too squiggly.

Saturday was very quiet, having spent most of the day in lab.  Everybody was out of town, so there was nothing really going on that night either.

Then on Sunday, things got loud again when I brought by "new" (old) drumset home.  I still can't decide if it was truly a good deal or not.  The bass drum pedal, upon closer inspection, have been broken and repaired more than once (the drive chain was rigged with a bicycle chain), the heads are in much worse condition than I originally thought (needed total replacement),  some of the tension hoops appear slightly bent (which might be a problematic for tuning), and the whole kit is incredibly dirty.  On the plus side, all the bearing edges look to be in decent condition (the most important part), the bass drum (most expensive) head doesn't need replacement, and the cymbals are almost new (and had I bought them new, would have cost more than the whole kit.)  I think once I get the new heads and take the whole day to tune all the drums, we'll find out if it was a steal, or if I got robbed.  Anyways, here they are in all their glory...

Qualified to Rock!

I met with my first qualifying exam* committee member and I have mixed feelings over what he had to tell me.  The good news is that he mostly confirmed expectations of what was going to be asked of me during the exam, namely general immunology questions about topics that apply to my project (easy).  The bad news is that he mentioned that having two committee members with joint appointments in nutrition and immunology, I can expect some questions relating to nutrition (very hard).  I basically know nothing about nutrition except that "vitamin A does a lot". On top of that, I have yet to talk with my outside area faculty member, and all I can see coming from that meeting is even more non-immunology stuff to study (super hard).  Having never taken any classes in my outside area, three months is feeling pretty short.

On a lighter note, it was like old times again wednesday night in Sacramento.  My 3rd college roommate, Sean, was visiting San Francisco and came to Sacto for dinner.  So Brandt, Sean and I stumbled upon this Mediterranean style restaurant in midtown call Kasbah.  It had one of the most unique interiors I have ever seen.  It was a very exotic, relaxing atmosphere, influence by what seemed like Moroccan design.  Best of all, the food was really delicious.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, and the picture I got of the web doesn't fully portray what it was like.  There were plush couches running the full length of the walls; they were behind arches and pillars you can see in the photo.  The place was also much darker, a bit above candlelight, which was weird at first, but very nice once you got used to it.

The "band" (myself and Badi) had its first productive jam session Tuesday night, and we're finally on our way to creating two songs, based off Badi's previous work.  We're also getting a bass soon thanks to Faraz, but unfortunately, one of the most important instruments, the drums, are still locked away, sitting idly in Iliana's apartment, awaiting her return.  Below is the dream kit I almost got for my birthday, but opted out at the last second because of the sheer cost and permanence of the purchase.  Maybe I should reconsider... they are awfully pretty.

My personal attempts at writing music have been met with some problems.  I'm having trouble finding that fine line between inspiration and imitation, and nothing I create sounds original enough.  I think starting a journal to record my brief moments of inspiration will have a very positive impact on my creativity (thanks Heidi).  First I need to find time to learn the basics of music theory for the guitar that I have been avoiding for the past 7 years.  I've only recently realized that my ignorance in the subject is likely the reason for the prolonged plateau of my learning curve.  Hal Leonard to the rescue...

* If I haven't told you already, the qualifying exam is a three hour oral exam administered by a committee of four immunology faculty members, and one from outside the department (cell biology in my case).  In the first hour I present my research proposal and answer questions about it, and in the last two hours I answer general questions about immunology (anything goes).  Now if only I was getting a PhD in music, maybe I'd be on top of my studies, instead of behind them.