The Dark Side of Oz

So I had some extra time today, and being surrounded by corn fields I thought it'd be appropriate to check out the great urban legend: The Dark side of oz (which I'm posting below.) The theory is if you play pink Floyd's "The dark side of the moon" with the motion picture "The wizard of oz" they go together hand in hand. The amazing thing is, they do! At first, it's just trippy, but it gets crazy at the following points:
-When the witch lady first comes into the scene
-When toto is being taken away
-When the house is being taken by the tornado
-When Dorthy arrives in Oz

Anyhow, if you got some time, Check it out for yourself:



-mike

Notre Dame and CSU

So over the past week i went back out to colorado to visit colorado state university. Colorado state is in Ft. Collins, about 1.5 hrs north of denver. It is beautiful there, a little bit further back from the mountains though (than in boulder). The hydrology department there is HUGE! They have like 30 flumes that can get up to 230 cfs (a ton of water). Some of them are large enough to do full scale river simulations. Anyhow, Although all that is cool, the staff was very impersonal and it sounded like I would be one amongst 200 grad students. The one professor I was able to get ahold of is leaving next semester, and overall I don't think the fit was right for me.

On my way back I got on standby for an earlier flight from denver to chicago. It was the bomb because somehow i got a first class seat, and as I drank my wine and lounged with my footrest, i got stock tips from the investment broker next to me. There were times where I litterly started laughing out loud.

Anyhow, after less than 24 hours in springfield I was back to the airport to go to the University of Notre Dame, in indiana. If you think of a private school being a place where there is tonnes of money floating around and everybody wears sweater vests... well you're right. Every building is constructed like a catherdral (its a catholic school) and even the civil engineering building has stained glass windows (with math equations in them...) Anyhow, they really treated us nice, took us to nice restaruants and put us up in a really fancy hotel (do I really need 2 rooms and a bathroom in my hotel? I guess so). The department there focues on enviromental work, more than fluids. One cool thing was they have research going in conjuction with the anthropology department to help clean up water in africa and explain the importance of clean water and sanitary pratices in developing african countrys! Thats cool. Anyhow, I dont think i'll end up there either.

I'm here for a couple days and then i'm off to seattle to check out my last grad school. I'm excited about going out there, they have a really awsome program and seattle is cool, but it rains a lot.

Oh, and I read Obamas book "The Audacity of Hope". It really kinda gets you into his head, but i hear the first one is even better. He's extreamly likeable.

peaceout!
-mike

I love Google

I, much like Kevin, Think Google is great. If you aren't in the know, Google runs this site along with Google calender, Gmail, Google earth, Google sketchup, and pretty much the rest of the world.

You'll be thrilled to know that I have combined my blog with Google calender so you can get a snapshot of what I have coming up (an answer to my new blog title? Perhaps.) Simply scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog, and my calender will be there!

So if you're my dad, or a crazed Internet stalker, or just curious as to when I'll be in Clemson next, you should be thrilled!
-Mike
(p.s. Google spell check made sure that "Google" and "Gmail" were capitolized in this e-mail.)

Boulder, CO

So pretty much right after I got back to the U.S.A I was in a plane again headed to Boulder, Colorado to check out University of Colorado. Boulder is a really happenin' town, so if you've never been there I'd recommend you check it out. It's a huge skiing community, but I don't ski. Anyhow, as far as the university goes, their campus seemed Huge, but is very bike friendly and supposedly has great public transportation. All of the profs I met with were very friendly and after the tour and interviews we all went out to a local brewery (the mountain sun brewery on Pearl st.) for some brews. All and all, it was a lovely time but I really can't say what my decision is until I visit other schools?


(that tall pointy building in the middle of this webcam image would become my home if I went to CU-Boulder)

Whats next on the agenda? Well I guess you could call this week my "spring break" but instead of leaving I get to stop traveling, sit down, and do my taxes. I heard MTV might come and do some filming of the craziness, so keep your eyes open. Then next week its off to Colorado State (i hope, they're hard to make plans with), and Notre Dame. The following week it is University of Washington (in Seattle) and then its DECISION time.

For anybody that was wondering, following Seattle I'm going to Southern Illinois with my parents for a little family vacation, and then headed to CLEMSON! So, look for me there around the second week in April!

-Mike

(p.s. Ed, I'd say my favorite place in all of Australia was Tasmania. I would have liked to spend some more time there, there's a smaller town on the north end of the island named Launceston which is supposedly quite nice, and many more national parks to romp in. Hobart was also a cool town, but take this with a grain of salt. This is coming from a guy who'd rather be in the woods than in a big city. If your a big city type of person, Sydney really is worth checking out.)

America

Holler,
I'm back in the states. The return trip was rather uneventful. I got labled as a Vegan when trying to tell the airline I was lactose intolerant... so i had vegan meals, but they wern't bad. It's weird that I can spend sunday at the beach, live monday twice, and tuesday be here in Illinois where there is snow on the grown. When you live one day twice, it gives you a lot of time so I finished reading "Brave New World" which was really good.

I have pictures up on my album now, including one or two from tazmania and i'm working on putting up my panoramas from the trip, so check them out!



It's funny if you stand at the back of a trans-pacific flight in the back of an airplane. Hundreds of people all sitting there, with their headphones on, staring at their individual screen each playing their individual movie at the individual time they choose. Mass-individualizim.
-mike

Sydney Oprea House

I went and saw a show at the Opera house last night. I have to say, its quite the experience. I saw Brahm's 2end and 4th symphonies played by the Sydney Symphony. You go in and there are all these fancy well-to-do people drinking expensive cocktails, and guys with fancy (free) horse-devours walking around. Then in intermission you can go out and sit and enjoy the harbor. Man did his absolute best to try and light up his masterpieces (namely the harbor bridge and the opera house) but God one-upped him with a full moon and a star lit sky illuminating the whole harbor.

Today i went to Bondi Beach, and had a good swim in the huge surf there. It was crowded but very refreshing! Tomorrow i go home! (Australia has been excellent, i miss home but this trip wasn't long enough)

An interesting note about Brahm. He always felt inferior to Beethoven and because of that he had a lot of trouble ever finishing his symphonies. His first took him 20 years, and he still was afraid to release it because he knew what a genius Beethoven was.

(oh, i FINISHED catcher in the rye. I've picked up Huxley's Brave new world and its quite good so far.)

-peace out,
Mike

-P.S. in response to ED's comment: No this is NOT the end of the "planned" adventures of Mike Soltys. Upon returning to the states I have a itinerary taking me in the month of march from South bend, Indiana; Boulder, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; and hopefully Clemson, SC. April and May include working in Mississippi (i hope) and also a hopefully multi day canoeing trip on the beautiful Buffalo river (which may get post phoned to later in the summer). June I'll be in Ghana, Africa. July, there is the possibility still, that I will be in Honduras.

Then in august, its Adventures in CIVL ENGINEERING masters wooo (don't get too excited)

-mike

Sydney

Sydney Is Huge! Who knew? For some reason I'm really confused with the time. They're doing all sorts of Mardi Gras celibrations this weekend, and the Gay people are out in numbers. But i thought Ash wednesday was a while ago, so I really don't know whats going on. I ment to do something for Lent, but oh well!

I've done some extensive "urban hiking" and feel like I've seen a good bit of Sydney. I also got a rail/bus/ferry pass that will take me anywhere in the "red" zone for 1 week. I don't really know where the red zone starts or ends, but so far I've been golden.

Tonight I'm going to the Oprah House to see Brahms 2end and 4th. Having a student ID is the bomb, it makes everything a lot cheaper. I got a 100 dollar seat for 25 dollars.

The guy I'm staying with in Sydney is a retired physicist. He lives in a very "proper" and "quiet" section of town. It's kind of nice to wake up and see books like "Nuclear Reactor Engineering Basics" and "Quantum photo chemistry" and to know that I'll never have to read anything in those.

I'll be back in the states on monday! Give me a call!
-mike

Books

I think this post is ment for english majors. Will somebody tell me who decides what books are worth reading and what books arn't? I got through highschool and college without reading very much for classes, and so now i'm trying to catch up with "the classics". I picked up a copy of catcher in the rye today and I have got to say that it's horrible. It seems to be similar to "a clockwork orange" but not as good. It's kind of like the movie "babel", which was nominated for all kinds of awards, and the only reason you sit through it is trying to find out when its going to get as good as it's acclaimed to be.
Anyhow, i'm on chapter 19 of the book, more than halfway through, and i'm about to quit. I've taken it off the list.

After a little research, i'm going to go ahead and tell you other books that i've read in the "top 100" list that are (in my opinion) not worth reading:
Catcher in the Rye
Lolita
A clockwork Orange

But while we're talking, i will say that I noticed Kurt Vonneguts "slaughterhouse-five" on the list and that is one of the best books i've read in a very long time.

Also, some lists include "the lord of the rings" which, if i'm not mistaken, are three books instead of one. And I have to tell you that while the hobbit was worth reading, The other ones put me to sleep. I really didn't even enjoy the movies that much (i think i lost some friends just now).

well. thats enough ramble for now. Off to sydney in the morning!
-mike