Musings

  Wine and Wildfires: A Journalistic Essay of Climate Change, Grapes, and Engineering a Solution  Fire It was Summer 2020, and the world was on fire. Southern California was on fire. Napa was burning down. Oregon was on fire. And it seemed like fire was the only one on the loose. Because the rest of us were on pandemic lockdown.  I remember bits and pieces of that apocalyptic season, when I was working on my Master's research at Cal Poly Pomona amid lockdown and social distancing.   I remember driving home from the lab, unsure if my family would need to evacuate. Gusting winds were swirling white ash every which way, and the air was choking with burnt-orange haze. This is what I remember of the 2020 wildfire season that would go down in history. At the time, Oregon wasn't yet on my radar, other than daily news headlines about the fires. I actually wouldn't step into the picture of Oregon fires until 2023, when I began my PhD at Oregon State University . Tha...

 A first-hand tour of some of the food and fiber produced here in Oregon. Beautiful landscapes as experienced on a bike. 

 Any other Calculus afficionados out there?  ~~ Approaching Perfection   Stepwise by approximation Like words stacked together Fewer = poetic But when slicing functions into infinitesimal portions More = precision Polar opposites Limit approaching infinity Almost. There. But always traveling.   A virtuosic symphony Is strung from motifs That flow like a cascading waterfall, Each black marking summoning a droplet, Converging into roaring thunder Or flying in a light, racing trance Reverberating Ebbing to a deep, desperate melody As the nuances of boundless notes Assemble into a masterpiece.                                                 Or a portrait, coaxed into being from delicate brushstrokes ...

 3.1415 I strike the first chord and press the pedal, anticipation reverberating throughout the auditorium. 92653 My fingers fly through a light, racing trance of notes, 58979 ebbing to a deep, desperate melody in a sublime 6 versus 7 rhythm, 32384 Like a perfect circle, requiring an inexplicable, infinite march of digits known as pi to delineate. 62643...

  On my research exploits to "catch" m-cresol in the lab. m-cresol is a smoke taint indicator compound.  The scientific method Just not the one you were taught The one where Earth whispers in your ears As you let your imagination soar Running through the woods The wind in your face The warm sun on your back Free Uninhibited Where Answers are clear as the gurgling creek And blue sky Then, aside you Appears the molecule That you are trying to catch               It’s hexagonal phenol ring rolling like a tire               The methyl group waving a cartoon gloved hand at you               The hydroxyl group swinging from damp branches Here it lives and breathes freely As your feet patter in its rhythm With the vision It barrels past you, goes off-...