This is a picture out the window of the plane when I was flying from Dulles back to Raleigh. The weather was pretty bad but it was kind of sweet as the sun was setting the whole flight back and we were between two cloud layers. I was bored so I took a bunch of pictures. At one point there was a thunderstorm we went around but I never caught any lightning that I was seeing in any pictures. The guy next to me was definitely a white knuckle flyer and not enjoying it as much.

Vail Panorama

So the above image looks like crap but click on it. I made it using a feature on my new camera called stitch assist and then some sweet software that came with it. I did one for the back view of vail too but never got the time to do a full 360 degree view.

Back Bowl

On the second day of skiing the weather wasn't quite as great although it snowed pretty much all day ensuring the skiing conditions stayed really good all day. This is a shot of one of the back bowls from one directly across. Definitely the coolest place I've ever skied as there are really no trails and you just pick a line and go. You don't really get an idea of just how big the bowls are from this shot. There are actually skiers on the other side there but they're just specs. I was taking a break halfway down. Only did a couple runs back here as Dad and little bro didn't want to brave it and I wasn't keen on skiing by myself back there all day. At one point I went 10 minutes without seeing another skier. Want to get back to Vail again ASAP.

Perfect Weather

This is just a shot again from the top of one of Vail's peaks straight off into the distance. The weather the first day was fantastic. You could see forever.

Vail

This is a view off the top of one of the mountains at Vail. I got to go skiing with my dad and my brother after the ACS conference compliments of Sun. I think I might move out west as I'm ruined for skiing in the east any more.

Chicago Site

This is a picture from walking around chicago one night. Its a huge metal sculpture in the millenium gardens. Its totally chromed covered and I never got the chance to go back and see it during the day but it looked totally sweet at night. This is one of a bunch of neat pictures I got. Reminded me of a huge chromed out red blood cell as the underside of the sculpture was pretty much hollow and also done up in chrome.

ACS Chicago

A couple weeks ago I spent the week in Chicago attending the national meeting of the american chemical society. I gave a talk on my silylglyoxylate research. This is a picture from the expo where all kinds of vendors selling scientific equipment and chemicals were displaying their stuff. The thing I'm standing next to is a gigantic chemical reactor. I would never have any need for something so large and ridiculous but it looked pretty cool.

Bottled

Been a while since my last post, again this one kind of lame. More to remind me of when I bottled the beer so I can drink it. This is again the dubliner. Each bottle has a teaspoon of white sugar so the yeast will naturally carbonate the beer in the bottle. I tasted a bit of it to make sure that its good. Tasted good, kind of hoppy bitter but hopefully that will go away with some ageing. Can't wait...

Beer Me

So this is mostly so I know when to check the beer again. Started brewing my next beer today. It was supposed to be for St. Patrick's day but looks like it will have to go a bit longer then I planned. I'm making dubliner a nice stout beer.

Blast Wrangler

Since I'll be bringing up a bunch of starting material in the next few weeks this is the first of many ridiculously large reactions. There is the possibility of explosion in this one (mostly right at the begining) hence the blast "wrangler" (really called the blast shield but it would mostly focus/wrangle the blast). I just left it up cause well its safer and has more of a bad ass effect in the hood. The actual reaction is just adding Sodium Azide to N-Acetylsulfonyl chloride.

New Project

Zaragozic Acid C

So I'm changing focus at work. My new project is going to involve finishing the above molecule. Its been made before but our way is pretty cool and creative compared to the old methods. I don't want to say any more cause it hasn't been published yet but he's a link to info about previous work on the molecule. This molecule is going to be a beast. Incidentally the link is part of another chemistry blog I check out sometimes. Previous Work

Xtal

I grew these crystals over the course of 4 days last week. Its an alpha cyano amide. The crystals should be white but I thought they looked pretty sweet with the brown color (they came from a completely opaque brown solution so I was thrilled I got crystals). They also were huge so I took a picture.

Signs

EHS (Environmental Health and Saftey) recently posted the warning signs outside of our lab for anyone who is coming into the building such as a fireman during an emergency. With this sign in front of the room you spend 12 hours a day in would you want to come to work? My personal favorite is reproductive toxin.