Dave Schumaker

Ugh!

I am still shaking. :(

Anyway, it's totally my fault and I put myself in that situation. But regardless.

My plan was to take some night photos of the waterfall behind the Metreon in downtown SF. Normally, it's a very pretty area during the day, but it can be kind of sketchy at night. I figured since there was a big convention in town and so many tourists would be nearby at the Moscone Center, it'd be okay. Way wrong.

I was carrying my huge camera tripod with me (obviously looking like a target) and my camera in my backpack. I get to the middle of the grassy field (which is dark of course) and started setting up the tripod when I noticed someone running across Mission Street in my general direction and kind of sticking to the trees. This creeped me out.

So I folded the tripod back up and decided to walk back towards the Metreon. This dude ran up and cut me off. He had a hoodie over his head and a black bandanna over his face (total robber style apparently). His hand was in his pants and he said "Hey fool, give me all your shit!"

I was shocked even though I knew what was happening and all I could think to say was "What the fuck?"

He said, "I said give me everything, like your camera and wallet. I have a gun and I'm not playing" and stepped towards me.

So... I hit him in the chest with my tripod.

Ugh. (Stupid, I know!)

He backed off and said, "Alright, I see how it is. You better watch yourself" and ran off!

That was it. No fight or anything. Thankfully, nothing taken and I'm not hurt. Just shaken up a bit.

I flagged down a police car up the street and filed a police report. I doubt they'll catch the guy though. I told the officer that I probably shouldn't have hit him in the chest and he said, "No way, it's great you did that. Next time, hit him in the fucking face though." Ah... vigilante justice at work.

Eh... anyway, that was probably the scariest moment of my life.

I know you can't put a monetary value on your life and objects can just be replaced. But my first thought was simply "My cell phone, wallet, iPod, camera and lenses are all in my backpack right now. That's almost my entire life right there..." Not to mention my New Zealand sweatshirt... now *that* is irreplaceable. ;)

Joking aside though, it's weird how instincts work. I wasn't trying to be a hero or go Rambo style. But damn, I'm not a pushover either. That said, things would have been different if he actually had pulled a gun on me. I'm willing to wager at this point that he didn't have one (he never showed it).

But I was still worried that maybe I'd get a bullet in the back as we went our opposite directions. :(

What a stressful night.

Anyway, here's a photo of my savior and hero. (And probably the key reason I got mugged).

The American Geophysical Union conference is being held this week in San Francisco. Something like 13,600 of the world's top geoscientists are congregating around town to present and talk about the latest earth science research. It's a really awesome experience.

I got to help present a research poster this year on behalf of the SF-ROCKS outreach organization I work for, helping high schoolers get interested in the sciences. It's definitely awesome seeing the kids talk to real scientists about what they learned and the research they carried out as part of the program. Some of the kids are absolutely brilliant too, and have a better grasp on science in their sophomore and junior years than I did when I was starting college!

Anyway, highlight of the day was attending one of the keynote speeches at the Marriott, given by none other than Al Gore! It was great getting to see him speak in person. His speech focused on how ”inconvenient truths“ (ie, research that challenges conventional wisdom) are being censored by the current government and that we as geoscientists have a huge moral responsibility to make sure that our research and its implications are heard by the media and general public, especially in regards to climate change. It was a neat sort of speech in a ”rah-rah let's do it“ sort of way. He definitely does a great job. When he started his speech, he introduced himself by saying, ”Hi, my name is Al Gore. I used to be the next President of the United States.“

Hah.

Anyway, in other news, I am now in the new place. It's on the 17th story of this apartment building in Lower Pac Heights (which I think they only call it that to give it a classy sounding name... we're right in the middle of Western Addition and the Tenderloin. Hah... at least this immediate surrounding area is nice though).

Check out some photos!

Definitely love this place. My roommates are quite cool too. We also have very similar schedules and habits. Apparently, we're all snooze button sleepers. So in the morning, the house is a chorus of alarms constantly going on and off for 30 minutes. It's kind hilarious actually. A nice way to wake up. ;)

Last bit of news: Just got my work schedule for next week and I'm pretty disappointed. They didn't give me the days off that I requested, so I will not be coming home for Christmas. :( Ugh! That makes me pretty sad. So many friends and family members I haven't seen in so long that I was looking forward to see again. Thanks to the wonderful world of retail, I've missed out on two big holidays this year! Boo to that. I'm actually currently looking for a real job at the moment as well. Something that will utilize this nice, shiny and expensive geology degree that I'll now have!

Speaking of which... my thesis defense went AWESOMELY! I just have a few minor edits to make on my actual thesis paper, then I am home free and done with my undergraduate education. Out into the real world! What a crazy prospect...

Things have been extraordinarily hectic and busy for me as of late. My apologies for the lack of updates!However, tomorrow morning, I leave with my family to go on a week long cruise to the Mexican Riviera!

Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas will be the three stops we check out while we undoubtedly do all the touristy things.

In other news, I recently picked up a nice, swanky digital SLR camera (Nikon D80) and will be lugging that along with me. Hopefully I'll snap some cool photos with it. ;)

Played around with it quite a lot lately. You can check out a lot of the photos I've taken with it on my Flickr page. Pictures from the trip will go up once I get home! :)

Here are a bunch of awesome pictures I've taken in the past few weeks with it. Enjoy!

Alright!

Things have been insanely busy lately between school, work, BBQs and other assorted things. I'm not going to bore everyone with the mindless details at the moment, but I do want to show you something!

So I'm currently taking an "Art of Comedy" class. There are a series of projects throughout the semester that we can do and we have to choose one. For some strange reason, I chose to perform 3 minutes of stand up comedy in front of the entire class (this is a theater filled with something like 250 students). Holy Crap!

Anyway, today was the big day! (Err yesterday/Tuesday was now that I just looked at a clock). My friend David decided to stop by to offer moral support and even film it, since I've never done anything like this before.

As luck would have it, out of 10 people who were going to perform today, my name was randomly drawn first! So how did I do? Alright I suppose. I went a little fast (but you only have 3 minutes and then they cut you off!).

The first few seconds of the video is missing, I am basically saying how iPods are basically the most popular music players ever...

How did I do? Judge for yourself!

My friends and family who know me well enough are always both amazed and appalled at the junk that goes in my system and the fact that I'm somehow still a skinny guy. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually pretty amazed too, but I think I really should start changing that before it's too late!

A few months ago, my mom bought me this book after I commented on the fact that I'd like a cook book that shows me pictures of the meals I will be making. I guess it has to do with me being a visual person (and wanting to know what meals actually look good!).

This is all fine and dandy, the problem being that my only cooking experience up to this point in my life is heating up water for pasta and occasionally making banana bread. However, I'm always up for a challenge! I opened up to a random page and found a recipe for ranch chicken. It looked and sounded good!

So I went to the store, assembled the proper ingredients and went to work. Most people would consider this a scary proposition, since I nearly burned my parent's house down one day simply by trying to cook popcorn in the microwave!

I have to say, I'm actually quite pleased with how everything turned out!

And the final product! Ranch chicken with fettuccine alfredo and vegetables!

It was EXCELLENT too! And now I have a few days of leftovers too! I think I might be able to get this cooking thing down. It will actually be nice to not eat out for something like 5 days a week now and save money (and potentially eat healthier too!).

Now the real test will be to see whether or not I get sick within the next few days... hah.

The summer solstice was yesterday, and like a law of nature, the fog arrived back in San Francisco on cue! I'm kind of bummed about that. At the same time however, I am happy that my "Law of the Wintery Summer" is still valid.

Summer Solstice = Fog for 3 months

Yes! Time to get used to it. I just had a feeling about that too... this morning when I woke up, I saw an AMAZINGLY awesome sunrise! So I decided to take a picture:

Of course, as the day goes on... here is the SAME view! Basically 10 hours later...

Yes! That is something I haven't seen in quite awhile. Time to get used to it again! :)

Luckily, we've been taking advantage of it up here as the new house mates and I have been having some friends over for BBQs the past few days!

A new feature recently added to the awesome Google Maps website is that users can now view the handy KMZ files created in Google Earth right in Google Maps. This means you don't have to download any software. Just visit the website and you can see a list of locations and such.

So! To test this new feature out, I uploaded a KMZ file I created in Google Earth that shows every single In N' Out that I have ever been to.

I know I posted a graphic last year about it. Now thanks to Google... it is a fully interactive map!

Check it out!

Alright! As of last week, I am finished with all my undergraduate course work! The only thing remaining is to spend this summer finishing up my senior thesis and then I am done! So close to being officially done with school. It feels amazing and scary all at once. The next immediate goal is to study for the GREs, do well enough on them and then apply to some awesome grad schools in the fall! In the meantime, I need to see if I can find a cool job that will pay the bills too.

I'm leaving tomorrow to head up to the Sierras with Dan. On Thursday and Friday, we're going to attempt to climb Mount Whitney. There still seems to be a lot of snow up there, but we'll see how it goes. We both have all the gear we'll need though, so that's good. Here's to hoping it's a successful trip!

Here is a picture I snapped of Whitney a year and a half ago on a geology trip:

Next week I'll have a picture looking down. ;)

I really do have the craziest small world stories happen to me in this city.

Anyway, for the most part, this is going to be ripped straight out of an email I wrote to Meghan recently.

While riding my bus on the way to school the last few weeks, almost everytime I get on, I notice this quite fashionable, extraordinarily cute girl who apparently has a class at the same time I do. The bus is always super packed though and she's usually at one end while I'm at the other.

So I'm really not sure how I notice her out of all the other people that are packed on the bus, but she continually catches my eye though. I've always wanted to say something to her, but I feel kind of strange being a random bus guy and saying something like, "HEY! YOU SMELL PUUURTY!"

Anyway!

So, two of my housemates are moving out at the end of this month! We post an ad on craigslist and get a load of responses. We setup some appointments for this past week. On one of the nights, a housemate left to go down the hill and pickup two ladies who were interested (their lease apparently expires soon and they are friends/roommates right now). They walk in the door and I look up.

One of the girls is the one I always see on the bus! I think my mouth hit the floor. Of course in my infinite smoothness, I said "WHOA! I TOTALLY RECOGNIZE YOU!" (Thankfully I stayed away from the "you smell pretty" line).

She said, "you do?" I thought it wasn't a good idea to admit that I'm a bus stalker so I just said that she just looks really familiar for some reason.

So we showed them the house and they definitely seemed interested (price, proximity to school and the fact that they said the rooms were "good sized" - which we've never gotten before). We'll see what happens in the next few weeks, but I'm sure I'll probably see her on the bus again soon.

--

In other news: I aquired the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album "Stadium Arcadium" through rather nefarious means awhile ago.. Anyway, I've finally had a chance to listen to it and I am really enjoying it! It's especially interesting since I've never been all that hot on the RHCP. They have some good tunes in my opinion, but I never got all that into them. But this is definitely one of the best albums I've heard so far this year in my opinion! Definitely excellent.

Alright... a week of classes left and I am done! YES! Then I begin to contemplate what I'm going to do with my life. Yikes!

Woo! I love random trivia (especially trivia nights at bars too!). I've always been fairly good at it. However, I've never been good enough and neither I or any of the teams I have been on have won anything!

Until tonight.

I decide to go study and finish writing a geology paper (I got an extension!) at a local bar/coffee shop/art gallery called the Canvas Gallery. It's an awesome little place about 5 blocks from my house and usually has these awesome events going on every night.

I checked the calendar tonight to see what would be going on and if it would interfere with my studying. Sure enough, it would! It turns out they were having an event called "Ask a Scientist" and tonight's speaker was from the USGS! He would be talking about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (who's anniversary is tomorrow morning at 5:12am). Even better, they were having a trivia night about earthquakes with prizes to the winners! AWESOME!

So it started in 10 minutes, I packed my bag and booked it down the hill, making it just in time to get a scorecard. The finally tally, I got 8 out of 10 questions right, the highest score there! (And one answer was originally right but I erased it!) Yes! I guess it was kind of cheating... since I'm a geologist. Ah hem. The questions WERE hard though.

Anyway, I ended up winning this awesome book, signed by the author himself! Pretty productive evening.

Well, I never did get to write any more to my paper unfortunately. I should do some of that now though. I have grand ambitions to be downtown at 4:30am to attend the memorial service and should probably get to bed early.

It's pretty crazy to think about though, especially after walking around the streets tonight. 100 years ago was a night much like tonight. Crystal clear, calm, quiet. No one really knew of the impending doom that was about to be unleashed. And it can happen at any time too.

Of course I've already heard numerous people in the last few weeks say, "Wouldn't that be crazy if it happened again, right on the 100th anniversary?" I suppose stranger things have happened up here of course. We'll see what tomorrow brings! :)