half a cat

I think LLNL is up to something sneaky. This story on CNN says they are developing the laser to do hyrdogen fusion. I think they are just getting tired of the drop squirrel problem and have gone “Redneck” in their approach to killing the little suckers. Talk about using a shotgun to get a mouse….

I’ve added some new photos to the gallery

• Melanie’s college graduation party
• Cades Cove
• Few random photos in the friends section.

I have also taken the time to finally reorder a few albums to reflect current situations…

So today Kelly (my new TN friend) introduced me to Southern cooking, ala the Smoky Mountains. We drove up from Knoxville to Cades Cove, did the loop and then headed back through touristville. We got to see a few whitetailed deer pretty close, but no bear or other critters. Talk about an hour solid of driving of all the tourist trap shops you could want! Waterparks, antique shops, Dollywood stuff, etc. But the real fun of the day was the food. I was pretty skeptical about most of it to start with, but I am a converted man now!

• Boiled peanuts. I have to say these look really odd. Basically they are regular peanuts that have been boiled in a big pot for a long time. You get a big 32oz cup of them for 3 bucks and a paper bag for the shells. They are really pretty good — taste more like beans than peanuts once they are softened up.
• Deep fried dill pickles. Yum. Just plain Yum. Horseradish sauce and mustard. Damn these were good.
• Fried beer battered green tomatoes. Surprisingly good. The ones we had were quite meaty, so lots of tasty goodness. There is much less tomatoe flavor than I’d expected and really kinda tasted like onion rings with something different in the middle — if that makes any sense.
• BBQ. Ok, not my first time with this, but it was so good it bears mention. If you get here, “Smokin Joes” is a must stop.

Yeah, I had a salad for dinner. I think I am going to need another suitcase to pack the extra ass in.

Update: Here are a few pictures I got in Cades Cove

I hope to have photos to help illustrate some of these things, but in the meantime I will just try to describe them. So…what am I talking about you ask ? This is going to be a list of the Twilight Zone items here at ORNL.

• Innocent signs for things like ‘High Flux Isotope Reactor’ and ‘Spalation Neutron Source’. I get that creepy feeling like when I think about standing buck-nekkid with my ’special parts’ in front of the microwave. Are my kids now going to have 14 fingers and 3 heads ? Just think of the troubles clothing those little mutants. I guess I better find a wife with some serious knitting skills, otherwise I’m gonna have to do it (I can, thank you Mom for that bit of manly instruction when I was a kid).
• Girls. They are about as scarce on the lab as a virgin in a biker bar. I can honestly say that I don’t think I have seen a single girl at the lab that I would risk asking out. Besides they are all smarter than me.
  • This is SO not the case in Knoxville. My neck was sore after Sundown in the City.
• Y-12. This is the first Uranium separation plant. Ever. I drive past it twice a day to the lab. I keep thinking there is a Homer Simpson somewhere in there.
• People fish in “Mecury Creek“. As they say here: that ’splains’ a few things.
• Cell phones. They almost work here, some buildings are great, others absolutely no signal. I have a hunch that someone is listening too, which gets dangerous when your friends are criminals like mine. “I was never convicted of that…”
• There will be no pictures of this, but for a week there was a helicoptor flying around with some sort of torpedo looking thing hanging from a cable. Oddness.

I think that is all for now, more later as I explore the place.

So, I’ve been sold to ORNL for the summer. Yup, I am officially a ‘tech whore’ now. This is much more fun than my years as a ‘bio slut’ in college - they haven’t even stuck any needes in me…yet! I am here to help provide that ever so poplular happy finish with getting Lustre configured and running on their 5000 node Cray XT3. With this assignment comes a 3 week initial stay in Oak Ridge, followed up with one week per month return visits to boost morale and compile expense reports.

So far the stay has been pretty good, and as usual I will leave it to my skill with bullet lists to explain.

• hotel is not bad. I have a king bed and A/C. TV channel selection sucks.
• There is nothing to do in Oak Ridge besides eat at chain restuarants, and bad ones at that.
• Knoxville is close enough (and I rated a rental car for this trip).
  • I recommend getting down to the Old City and to the strip.
  • If only one - do the Old City, but if during “college season”, do the strip. UT girls.
• I was lucky enough to make some friends right off the bat, so I’ve had great tour guides for bars and restuarants here.
  • Putting together cute girls and this southern accent is very nice. Very nice.
• Work has not been too bad, the first week went quite smoothly, second week has been waiting around for massive hardware problems. Waiting sucks.

I’m not feeling that creative at the moment, so I will expand on this more later….

I am gonna file this in the ‘funny like Beavis and Butthead’ category, but honestly — getting busted for ‘punching’ or ‘choking’ the monkey? Is PETA going to follow in the steps of the RIAA and file suit against 13 year old boys now ?

Oh yeah — Hi from Tennessee! More on that later…

So… you might have noticed that I’ve failed to update this in a while. Here are the recent events:

• Travis and Charla’s wedding. Wow.
  • Usually a single bloke like me has fun flirting at weddings like these, as there are lots of cute single girls. Not so much with this one — most of the girls there were either “with man” or were bitchy girls I went to High School with. Bummer!
• A nasty cold. Two weeks, one near death and not working. Sucky.
• Trip to Seattle for work, working at Cray.
  • I had forgotten what it was like to work normal office hours. Talk about a treat!

Here are a few pictures that I’ve managed to snap too.

• Bekkah and Bogart. I had Rebekkah here for a morning while Melanie was taking tests for school. That kid is just amazing! Melanie, you are a lucky mom!
  • 
• Mountains somewhere close to Seattle.
  • 

Chad’s Wedding

This was a great time, the wedding was at the Old Depot. It was a very nice affair, with a good party afterwards. I will let the copious amount of photos do the talking, rather than try to use my meager literary skills.

So here are the photos!