this only lasts 1 minute 55 seconds. I think it's worth hearing.
Oct 30, 2008
Oct 27, 2008
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree
I love my dad. He must have had a chemical imbalance that physically required him to be playing jokes all the time. I figure that's where we Sparks kids get it.
my newest endeavor? When we get to Massachusetts I think my driver's license will look like this:
Except I'm obviously not the famous Red Sox player, Manuel Aristides Ramirez. and I definitely wasn't born in 1972
To accomplish such a funny ID is tricky. If you hurry and pull a face right when they snap the picture the person will only let you keep it if they're a jolly happy person who enjoys a good joke. How many people like that work at the DMV? zero. So this calls for drastic action. I'll walk in with that face on and keep it through the whole application process. They'll be too scared to say anything. What if that's just my face? It's genius.
I'm guessing Jodi will want to go with something more l ike this:
my newest endeavor? When we get to Massachusetts I think my driver's license will look like this:
Except I'm obviously not the famous Red Sox player, Manuel Aristides Ramirez. and I definitely wasn't born in 1972
To accomplish such a funny ID is tricky. If you hurry and pull a face right when they snap the picture the person will only let you keep it if they're a jolly happy person who enjoys a good joke. How many people like that work at the DMV? zero. So this calls for drastic action. I'll walk in with that face on and keep it through the whole application process. They'll be too scared to say anything. What if that's just my face? It's genius.
I'm guessing Jodi will want to go with something more l ike this:
Oct 20, 2008
New Friends, Jack-o-Lanterns, Lost bets
Here we are showing Qu Zhixue around town.
Carving pumpkins- it's our favorite party of the year. Jodi and I brought Qu Zhixue, the visiting researcher from China with us. He had definitely never seen anything like that before. I totally made a Temple of Doom out of my pumpkin complete with a huge skull face and 6 bone columns. The shadows it cast were totally awesome. jodi decided to forego her usual amazing sculpture of a pumpkin and just make an artsy one with lots of little holes. The rest of the people's were amazing but you'll have to check the Jeepeadseon's blog to see them in the coming days.
An another frightening note-
FACT: it is quite shameful to have read 3 out of 4 awful teen angst books. (well, technicaly, I guess one was read to me on a long car ride home from utah) FACT: it is also shameful that in an effort to finish said books the night before the quarter started again I burned through a flashlight or two. That said, at least it wasn't all in vane. I won a sweet bet in the process.
My mega awesome best friend Andy Perkins drew a perfect likeness of Seth from a picture we gave him and then he added the most sexy vampire giving him a seducing bite on the neck.
Behold, Seth will never dare make a bet with me. If I had to wear this shirt for a week straight... I think I'd die.
front and back
closer up
Carving pumpkins- it's our favorite party of the year. Jodi and I brought Qu Zhixue, the visiting researcher from China with us. He had definitely never seen anything like that before. I totally made a Temple of Doom out of my pumpkin complete with a huge skull face and 6 bone columns. The shadows it cast were totally awesome. jodi decided to forego her usual amazing sculpture of a pumpkin and just make an artsy one with lots of little holes. The rest of the people's were amazing but you'll have to check the Jeepeadseon's blog to see them in the coming days.
An another frightening note-
FACT: it is quite shameful to have read 3 out of 4 awful teen angst books. (well, technicaly, I guess one was read to me on a long car ride home from utah) FACT: it is also shameful that in an effort to finish said books the night before the quarter started again I burned through a flashlight or two. That said, at least it wasn't all in vane. I won a sweet bet in the process.
My mega awesome best friend Andy Perkins drew a perfect likeness of Seth from a picture we gave him and then he added the most sexy vampire giving him a seducing bite on the neck.
Behold, Seth will never dare make a bet with me. If I had to wear this shirt for a week straight... I think I'd die.
front and back
closer up
Oct 15, 2008
Oct 12, 2008
A Little Inspiration
Some of you may wonder at times "I wonder why in the world the Sparks' blog address is ask-a-scientist?". I'm going to answer that question right now. First of all, Taylor decided to go ahead and create/ title the blog without consulting me...but at least I know where it comes from. One of our favorite songs is "We're All In This Together" by Ben Lee.
I love it, and it inspires me.
We're all on this earth for the same purpose and we are in it together.
So Taylor, the nerdy scientist that he is, was of course drawn to the phrase "ask a scientist, it's quantum physics, that we're all in this together" which we interpret as meaning there is definite proof that we are all connected physically, mentally spiritually...just ask a scientist.I love it, and it inspires me.
We're all on this earth for the same purpose and we are in it together.
Those we hate, those we love...all of us...it's a beautiful thing.
So there you go.
Let yourself be inspired to reach out.
Oct 10, 2008
My advisor rocks
Since I'm on the subject of nerdy science dudes.
Check it out! In my area of study the Journal of the American Ceramic Society is the main journal we publish in. Well, since this is their 110th anniversary they got an evaluation team together and judged the 11 best papers ever written in the journal based on citations, science/creativity, impact in the field and impact out of the field.
My own advisor, Dr. Clarke, made it on the list! In fact, 3 of the 11 authors are here in the UCSB Materials Engineering department! The paper can be found here.
Even though we're moving away from this paradise city I'll still be with such an awesome advisor.
Check it out! In my area of study the Journal of the American Ceramic Society is the main journal we publish in. Well, since this is their 110th anniversary they got an evaluation team together and judged the 11 best papers ever written in the journal based on citations, science/creativity, impact in the field and impact out of the field.
My own advisor, Dr. Clarke, made it on the list! In fact, 3 of the 11 authors are here in the UCSB Materials Engineering department! The paper can be found here.
Even though we're moving away from this paradise city I'll still be with such an awesome advisor.
Oct 9, 2008
Scientist, or philosopher?
One of the many ultra famous scientists is Michael Faraday. (let's face it, you know you've made it big time in science when they name a metric unit after you. 1 Faraday (F)=96485 coulombs per electron.) We are still studying and admiring his works actually 150 years later.
I came across this glorious SINGLE sentence in one of his papers.
"That wonderful production of the human mind, the undulatory theory of light, with the phenomena for which it strives to account, seems to me, who am only an experimentalist, to stand midway between what we may conceive to be the coarser mechanical actions of matter, with their explanatory philosophy, and that other branch which includes, or should include, the physical idea of forces acting at a distance; and admitting for the time the existence of the ether, I have often struggled to perceive how far that medium might account for or mingle in with such actions, generally; and to what experimental trials might be devised which, with their results and consequences, might contradict, confirm, enlarge or modify the idea we form of it, always with the hope that the corrected or instructed idea would approach more and more to the truth of nature, and in the fulness of time coincide with it."
scientist? or prolific exceedingly eloquant philosopher? (with a slight tendency towards run-on sentences)
his paper I took the sentence from is found here.
I came across this glorious SINGLE sentence in one of his papers.
"That wonderful production of the human mind, the undulatory theory of light, with the phenomena for which it strives to account, seems to me, who am only an experimentalist, to stand midway between what we may conceive to be the coarser mechanical actions of matter, with their explanatory philosophy, and that other branch which includes, or should include, the physical idea of forces acting at a distance; and admitting for the time the existence of the ether, I have often struggled to perceive how far that medium might account for or mingle in with such actions, generally; and to what experimental trials might be devised which, with their results and consequences, might contradict, confirm, enlarge or modify the idea we form of it, always with the hope that the corrected or instructed idea would approach more and more to the truth of nature, and in the fulness of time coincide with it."
scientist? or prolific exceedingly eloquant philosopher? (with a slight tendency towards run-on sentences)
his paper I took the sentence from is found here.
Oct 5, 2008
Shake-face
What happens when you give this a good shake?
This!
moral: friends like this are the best! What will we ever do without them in icy cold Boston?
This!
moral: friends like this are the best! What will we ever do without them in icy cold Boston?
Oct 1, 2008
BEST NEWS EVER!
(above: Elder Neves the Cowboy, Susana and me in Rama La Falda)
I heard from a long lost convert from my mission 2 days ago! Susana Costa, a fantastic lady I baptized on my mission, messaged me to tell me that her husband, Luis, just got baptized! this week it happened!
(above: Luis & Susana Costa visiting in Tandil, Argentina)
It was April 27th 2003 that Elder Coats and I decided to knock her door in Palihue, Bahia Blanca, Argentina. She was absolutely one of the best converts of my whole mission. I remember because Luis almost didn't let us in. He decided to "ask his wife" knowing full well that since she was super active in her other church (baptist as I recall)she probably wouldn't let us in. Well to his surprise (and ours!) she did let us in. We had an amazing first in which we taught about Ezekial 37:16-17 which was the beginning of a great conversion. Her pastor did not want to let her go, and we had to resolve a lot of doubts and questions, but three months later, on July 26th 2003 Susana was baptized.
(above: Susana's baptism in the La Falda, Bahia Blanca Chapel)
I had amazingly spiritual experiences with that family and I always knew someday Luis would find the gospel, he was too amazing a person not to. Hearing this news that he was baptized makes me happier than anything I could ever imagine. Felicitaciones Luis! Sos un capazo! Que Dios te bendiga!
(above: she was the last person I visited before flying home at the end of my mission)
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