Catch up with Long Time PF Member!

[SpaceTiger]

Hey PFers, how is everyone doing? It has been over a year since I last posted here (Dec. 07, it looks like), I just thought I'd check into see how things are going.

A good bit has changed in my life since my grad student years... I got my Ph.D. in Jan. 2008 and started working at Rutgers around the same time. In June 2008 I started dating a girl who I knew in college and we got engaged in May 2009. I'm still at Rutgers, but likely planning to move to the Baltimore area by the start of next year.

Aside from astronomy, I spend a lot of time on hobbies, including photography and music. Recently, I started a music blog exploring the entire history of western music:

http://hopelessjourney.nicholasbond.com/

Ambitious, I know, but I'm an idiot that way.

Anyway, give me some updates. Forum upgrades? New mentors? Scandal? I hope Moonbear is keeping everyone in line.

 

[Monique]

Hey SpaceTiger, congrats on the graduation and engagement. Good to see that you're keeping yourself busy.

 

[Moonbear]

Hey ST! Congrats on your engagement!

As for me keeping everyone in line, the only ones I'm keeping in line these days (barely) are my nursing students. I'm just too swamped with teaching responsibilities these days, so despite the occasional nudge from other mentors, I've turned in my cape and keys to the executive washroom.

 

[Astronuc]

Hey ST, congrats on the engagement.

We're busy - so drop in more often.

 

[Evo]

Hey ST! You're wildlife thread is still going.

Congrats on the PhD and the engagement! You are really missed around here.

 

[Kurdt]

Hey ST. Glad things are going so well for you. I hope you can spend a bit more time around here. You're missed.

 

[Garth]

Hi ST from the other side of the pond!

So glad you are at Rutgers and engaged, congratulations on both!

I am too busy to post much but I've missed your input and our discussions...

Garth

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

ST Hurray! Congrats and welcome back!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

It's good to hear from you again SpaceTiger. Congratulations on your engagement. In a bit of serendipity, you had recently been on my mind because I had noticed that you are a friend of my nephew on facebook. Good luck in your plans to move to Baltimore.

 

[Danger]

Great to hear from you again, Tiger! Congrats on both counts.
There were more than a couple of times recently when I was going to invoke your name for a response to some question or other, and then realized that you weren't around any more. Drop in more often, even if it's just for a quick 'hi'.

 

[Norman]

Congrats on the engagement and graduation! It sure feels good once they bring you back in after your defense and they tell you that you have passed doesn't it? I agree with everyone else that you should show your face around here again every once in a while.

 

[hypatia]

Nice to hear from you ST. What a great update on your life. Congrats!

 

[SpaceTiger]

You guys are right, of course, I should stop by more often. PF is like a bag of potato chips... it's hard to post just once!

 

[Moonbear]

And now that I'm reading this with a little less sleep deprivation:
RU Rah Rah
RU Rah Rah
Who Rah?
Who Rah?
Rutgers Rah!
Upstream, Red Team
Red Team, Upstream
Rah, Rah, Rutgers Rah!



I still wear purple or orange when WVU plays RU.

 

[SpaceTiger]

Rah, Rah, Rutgers Rah!

I would be more enthusiastic about Rutgers football if construction on their new stadium wasn't slowing my drive to work every day.

Besides, I'll be a Penn State fan to the day I die.

 

[Moonbear]

They're building ANOTHER new stadium? They built a brand new one while I was a student, and it wasn't THAT long ago! (I'll have MIH ban anyone who contradicts that statement. ) I hadn't even heard about this new stadium construction, yet they trashed all the individual colleges due to budget cuts. I would have preferred they kept the colleges and trashed the stadium!

Edit: Besides, you don't have to give up your alma mater's team. You can do like I do, and wear purple on game days.

 

[Astronuc]

They're building ANOTHER new stadium? They built a brand new one while I was a student, and it wasn't THAT long ago! (I'll have MIH ban anyone who contradicts that statement. )

Um - this is NJ. They need a new place to bury the bodies.

or they need to move Jimmy H again.

 

[SpaceTiger]

They're building ANOTHER new stadium?

Eh, I think it's technically an expansion to the old one... and I think they're having trouble funding it. It all happened after they had that big year (2007?) in football, after which they started sucking again. And I don't think they counted on the economy tanking quite as much as it did. I do root for them, of course, but it's tough to be enthusiastic when they aren't so competitive.

 

[turbo]

It's been a while Nick. Congrats on the engagement and hope to see a few pix from time to time.

Nothing much new here. Got fired for the inconvenience posed on my employer by my disability, got sued for almost $3/4M by same jerk, but prevailed. Fought through several years of denials from SS disability, and finally prevailed in front of an administrative law judge, a medical expert, and an employment law specialist, so I've got a little money coming in monthly. Researched and co-authored a paper on interacting galaxies for Astrophysics and Space Science, with paper #2 already researched and headed into the writing phase.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/vn64v77g52j6k250/
http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.1492 (free on-line version)

Got a Kubota tractor and have built a nice gravel road to the lower part of my property so that I can grade it off, loam it, and transplant my fruit trees to a more convenient location. Also, got me a pretty new niece who really likes "driving" the tractor.

That's my baby brother and his baby. She is "daddy's girl" to the max. A couple of years back, I stocked my back-yard pond with maybe 8-10 chubs to see if fish could survive in it, and there are thousands of them now. My wife wants me to build a dock so Hayley can sit out there and catch them. Chubs (dace) are bony and not too tasty, so she'll be exposed to "catch and release" early on.

 

[turbo]

Um - this is NJ. They need a new place to bury the bodies.

or they need to move Jimmy H again.

There are lots of monolithic pours going in around here to provide foundations for huge wind-mills. Hmm...is that why I've seen more vehicles with NJ plates around this summer?

 

[Moonbear]

Um - this is NJ. They need a new place to bury the bodies.

or they need to move Jimmy H again.

There are lots of monolithic pours going in around here to provide foundations for huge wind-mills. Hmm...is that why I've seen more vehicles with NJ plates around this summer?

My first observation when I started to try digging some holes for some landscaping at the beginning of the summer, when I first moved into my house, was that now I understood why WV doesn't have any mafia. Too hard to bury the bodies in this rocky, clay stuff they call soil here.

I do root for them, of course, but it's tough to be enthusiastic when they aren't so competitive.

That doesn't stop me...but of course I mostly only do it to irk some of my fellow faculty. I think everyone has a soft spot for their undergrad school, that no matter where you move, it's hard to root for other teams. It takes a while for the new team to really start to worm its way into your heart. It's starting to happen here. This year, I did wear blue and gold on the Friday when everyone was supposed to wear their school colors.

 

[turbo]

My first observation when I started to try digging some holes for some landscaping at the beginning of the summer, when I first moved into my house, was that now I understood why WV doesn't have any mafia. Too hard to bury the bodies in this rocky, clay stuff they call soil here.

I have fought with this soil for several years, and I have decided that clay and rocks aren't going to win. An old friend's son has an affordable business-model based on selling gravel, sand, loam, manure, etc, and he is the fellow that I bought the materials from to build the road to the lower part of my property. Now that I have a tractor, I'm going to get two large (14 yd) loads of sand to spread and till into my garden to improve the drainage and resist clay-type caking, and another full load (or two) of rotted manure to boost the organic content of the soil. I have free access to a nice grader for my 3-point hitch, and I borrowed it today to level the stone and gravel on my new road. It will come in handy spreading the sand and manure prior to roto-tilling.

 

[honestrosewater]

Congrats on your engagement (if I haven't said so yet)! I thought Bradley would beat you to the whole marriage thing. He seems so much more the settling-down type. I suppose he still has time, though. Anywho, I hope you guys are very happy. Are you involved in planning the wedding?

How is Tug?

 

[SpaceTiger]

Are you involved in planning the wedding?

I am, though we decided to have a long engagement, so the wedding is still over a year off. We booked the reception area and church a few months ago, but I still have to book the priest. Since we're both planning to start new jobs next year, it's going to be a busy time, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

 

[honestrosewater]

Will you play a Beatles song for your first dance?

 

[SpaceTiger]

Will you play a Beatles song for your first dance?

I'm working on that.

It'll definitely be the Beatles for the mother-groom dance.

 

[honestrosewater]

I'm working on that.

Just tell her she can choose the names for the kids. Those things aren't important anyway.

(Besides, you can break your word later. She'll be stuck with you by then.)

 

[turbo]

ST, a young friend of mine wanted me to help her pick out "first dance" music and didn't want something lots of other brides had used (like "Wind Beneath my Wings). I brought in a CD of Come on Home by Boz Scaggs and queued up "I've Got your Love" and that was all she wrote. I wasn't able to attend the reception, but she told me that mothers, aunts, grandmothers, friends, bridesmaids, etc were all crying.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Welcome back and congratulations on all of the good news, ST.

 

[SpaceTiger]

ST, a young friend of mine wanted me to help her pick out "first dance" music and didn't want something lots of other brides had used (like "Wind Beneath my Wings).

Yeah, I've been vetoing any suggestions I think are too generic, like "Can't Help Falling in Love." The whole point is for it to be a memorable dance and people are a lot less likely to remember it if we dance to a song everybody already associates with weddings.