Ocean Sciences 2008

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:45:10 -0700

I just returned from the 2008 Ocean Sciences conference. It was a good time. I gave my first big talk on Thursday at 4:45 pm. I think it went really well. I was a bit nervous, mostly because I wanted to remember to say everything, but I think I did pretty well.

Tristan, Sam, Toshi and I arrived at 5:30 am on Saturday morning. We rented a car and headed straight for the beach. Sam and Tristan then rented surfboards, and Toshi and I assed out on the beach in the sun. Sunday was sorta a repeat, except this time Buckley was along and we all rented boards for a couple hours then just hung out on the beach. The rest of the week was pretty fun. I missed more talks than I should have because I was working on my own (I felt sorta bad about that). Other highlights were bumping into Polly and having a good chat with her, along with partying with Sally and other UW folks.

It was a good week, and I feel like giving that talk was a positive and major milestone.

To-PhD-or-not-to-PhD, Alaska, Disco-Kegger

nospam@example.com (Levi Kilcher) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 21:28:00 -0700

So I've been meaning to write this post for a while. Many exciting adventures have happened in my life lately. Most recently, I have just walked in the door from the 2nd night of my Cuban Salsa I (specifically Casino) class. What a blast!

Perhaps the most significant happenings in my life over the last month have had to do with my near miss with dropping out of graduate school. The short story is that: a) I got discouraged/depressed about school. b) took a while off to think about it why exactly I want to do this at all (including traveling home to Alaska... more on that in a moment). c) Eventually decided to actually do this thing. For those who have talked to me in the past, this may not sound much different than other thoughts that I've had to this effect. However, for those who have talked with me through this one, I think the differences are clear, and I feel pretty good about the decision that I've made. I'm now shooting for being finished with my PhD in a year. There, I said it. ;)

Alaska was fantastic. My Nana and Grandpa Mark were there as well, and it was wonderful to spend some time with them. August is growing up, and while it is fantastic to see him, it makes me miss all the moments that I don't even know I am missing. My favorite August story from this trip was when we were sitting down to breakfast at "The Cosmic Kitchen", and two police officers came in. When they sat at there table to wait, August sat up straight and said:
"Thank you for serving and protecting our city of Homer." You can imagine how much the officers appreciated this, and August proceeded to get up and sit at there table to discuss local current events.

I've had a few fun weekends since coming home from Alaska. The day after I arrived back in Corvallis, I headed straight back to Portland and joined Peter, Kara, James, Andy, Axel, Tim and Melissa for a "ring-in-the-new-year" at Mt. Hood Meadows. It was fun, except for the 20 minutes that I had to wait at the bottom of the lift while the fireworks went off (at 10:00, not midnight). The next weekend (Jan. 5), Emily came into town. It's been nice to have another friend around town to hang with.

On the 12th, we threw our "Saturday Night Fever", disco party that was inspired by the Disco music I won in a White Elephant gift exchange at my Mom's friend Shannon's place in Alaska. I don't know if this was the best party the Hacienda has ever hosted, but it was the best party I've ever hosted and the best party I've been to since... I dunno probably Junior year. For some reason, I can't imagine parties ever being as much fun as my sophomore year of college. It was all so new and exciting at the time. Anyway, highlights included Kenny - root beer in hand - heckling pool players for at least three hours. The dance floor was raging for at least 4 solid hours, and the kegs (ya, that's right there were two... though admittedly one was only 5 gallons) were tapped by midnight. Fortunately, I had encouraged people to bring back-up supplies, and the party was still going strong at 2. Logan lost his shirt, twice, and pretended like he couldn't find it again. Many impressive costumes surfaced, out of the >70 people. I even caught a bunch of crap for not telling everyone that it was a theme party. I can't really keep track of all of the debauchery, but I believe it was a success.

Levi's Silly Blog - Research

Ocean Sciences 2008

To-PhD-or-not-to-PhD, Alaska, Disco-Kegger