#ThatsAllForNowFolks [October 2018]

Last month of the Revolution’s 2018 season, which means no playoffs for them. Again.

October 6, 2018, at Atlanta United, 2-1 L
This was the game with the absolutely unbearable announcers. I knew it was a nationally televised match, but for the first twenty minutes or so, I thought they were broadcasting Atlanta United’s feed because the announcers would not shut up about Atlanta United. It was worse than the time the Kansas City announcers wouldn’t stop going on about the turf at Gillette Stadium. Worse than the NYCFC broadcast that kept cutting away from the ball every time the Revolution had possession to show NYCFC players on the bench. After the first goal (complete with GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL call, which, to be fair, the announcer also did for the Revolution’s late goal), I switched to watching the muted video stream and listening to the Revolution’s radio call with a 2-3 minute lag. As for the game itself, the Revolution played with the intent of not losing by a lot of goals, which is not how you win games. Juan Agudelo picked up the late consolation goal in the second minute of stoppage time.

October 13, 2018, vs. Orlando City SC, 2-0 W
Was away for this game and missed it, but the Revolution picked up another home win. Cristian Penilla and Diego Fagundez scored their twelfth and eighth goals of the season respectively. Orlando is another team that struggled in 2018, but these are the kind of games the Revolution historically, bizarrely, can’t win. See the tie against a 2-win San Jose team earlier in the season.

October 18, 2018, at Real Salt Lake, 4-1 L
This was basically the Toronto game again. They went down early, stayed down, and when they had a chance to start a comeback, Nick Rimando saved a Teal Bunbury penalty kick. Which isn’t that surprising¹, but that’s the kind of game it was. Kelyn Rowe got his first goal of the season to close out the scoring for the night.

¹According to the MLS website², Rimando has faced 32 unsuccessful penalty kick attempts out a total of 88 taken against him, which is more than 36%, double or close to double the typical miss rate for penalty kicks. Besides that ridiculous percentage, the number of unsuccessful penalties against him is more than the total number of penalties all but the top dozen or so MLS goalkeepers have faced.

²mlssoccer.com, which belongs in the ranks of PIN numbers and ATM machines. This is what happens when you don’t found your league until 1996 and the Multiple Listing Service exists.

October 28, 2018, vs. Montreal Impact, 1-0 W
For the second year in a row, New England ended their season by playing Montreal. Last year they were spared the indignity of not winning a single road game with a late goal from Rowe to earn a 3-2 victory. This year, the big story was Fagundez scoring to secure the win as well as pick up his 50th MLS regular season goal. He’s the youngest player to do so (the second youngest is Landon Donovan) and the third Revolution player after Taylor Twellman and Lee Nguyen.

Record for October: 2W-2L-0D
Overall record: 10W-13L-11D

At the end of the season, it came down to not winning enough games. For all Brad Friedel’s talk, he ended 2018 with less points than New England finished with in 2017 (41 vs. 45). His 10W-13L-11D record is about the same as the 13W-15L-6D from Jay Heaps’ last season with the team, and although early on it looked like they might have better balance between their home and away records, they weren’t as good at home in 2018 and they still only won 2 games on the road. I don’t think it’s entirely Friedel’s fault, and I don’t think a revolving door of coaches is the solution to all the Revolution’s woes, though there are some concerning comments from the players about the first-year coach. I’m interested to see how next season goes, but I’m not sure I’m even cautiously optimistic about it. More like keeping optimism in a box in the back of the closet where it can be dragged out if things start going well and are still going well in mid-October or so. Here’s to the end of the 2018 New England Revolution season and the start of the 2019 season, another year of dreaming of 20-goal DPs, stadium deals, and MLS cup.

Merry Christmas

Altitude and Art

While I wouldn’t have minded spending my whole trip redoing things in Chicago, I did see some new things, namely the Sears sorry, Willis, Tower, and the Chicago Art Institute. I also (finally) had Chicago deep dish pizza. It was alright. The crust was both over and undercooked, but the pizza in no way desecrated the name of the food it was supposed to be. I’m looking at you, Manhattan “clam chowder.”

Normally, the thought of paying to take an elevator ride and look out windows reminds me of shredding money, but once in a while, I will pay for the privilege of throwing my hard-earned stipend at these tourist traps. This was one of these times. We headed up around sunset to try and see the city during day and night. There was almost no line when we arrived, and we only had to wait at the elevators for maybe ten minutes. Once we arrived at the viewing area, however, we found the tourists out in full force. We walked around a couple times, then decided to wait in line for the glass floor alcoves because we were there, and we had nothing better to do.

View toward Lake Michigan.  Buckinham Fountain is in the bottom left, half covered by the red building.  The part jutting out further down is Adler Planetarium.  Next to that are the Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum.  No clue about the rest of the buildings.  The things in the sky are clouds.

Most of the families and groups were pretty good about getting in there, snapping a few pictures, and moving on. There were a few people who felt the need to do a short photoshoot, take seventeen thousand selfies, and then switch positions with their friend, but they weren’t the majority, thankfully. We watched the sun set while in line, made it to the ledge, took some pictures, and looked down 1,353 feet to the ground. I wouldn’t say you have to do it, but if you’ve bought the CityPass or need to complete a Chicago experience in less time than it takes to go to a museum, I guess it’s worth it.

On our last day there, our attraction of the day was the Art Institute of Chicago. I like art, but I’m not going to debate symbolism or color theory, and if your art installation is fifty-three TVs screaming at me, I will be less than enthused. I found the layout horrendously confusing and kept wandering in circles and/or going left when I should have gone right and/or going right when I should have gone left. By the time we left I had it mostly figured out, but not before seeing European Art Before 1900 four times.

Clockwise from top left: dead chicken, abstract buffalo

(it's supposed to be suggestive of a landscape), Nahant shoreline, dead fish

Overall, I liked the Art Institute. They have a nice variety of paintings, sculptures, furniture, and other art-ish objects. Everything is generally arranged by region and time period and includes Asian art (further subdivided), Greek and Roman art, American art pre 1900, American art post 1900 (up to 1950), Impressionism, Contemporary art, Modern art, the arms and armor, paperweights, and the Thorne miniature rooms (models of rooms built at a 1:12 scale). I was most entertained by landscapes, dead animals, and the paperweight collection. I also enjoyed the arms and armor and American art, plus mini Lincoln in the sculpture court. Other highlights were American Gothic, Georgia O’Keefe’s cloud painting, and that painting Sunday at the Park with George is inspired by.

Top: armor.  Bottom left: mini Lincoln.  Bottom right: paperweights.

It was a quick trip to Chicago, but I/we managed to pack a number of things into it. We went to the zoo, Field Museum, Skydeck, Art Institute, walked along Lake Michigan, saw Grant Park, ate deep dish pizza, and had dinner with my brother. After all that, I got back on the train and headed back to Ann Arbor. We made good time out of Chicago and through Indiana, then outside of Kalamazoo, we stop a couple hundred feet down from the station. They announce that we’re waiting for a freight train to get out of our way. Okay. We sit and wait. Ten minutes later, they announce that the freight train is waiting to get into the yard so it can get out of our way. Okay. Fifteen minutes later, we finally get moving again. Combined with other smaller delays, we’re close to an hour late when we make it to Ann Arbor, but I’ve heard of people being two or three hours late, so I’m not complaining (too much).

Return to the Windy City

[In case you missed me, I was away, but I’m back – and back to work – now. At this point, blog time is running about four months behind. There are a couple more summer posts after this one, then in fall I went to a cider mill for the first time in years and attended a conference. After that, I left the country for two and a half weeks, which hopefully I’ll finish posting about by next summer. Stay tuned.]

Once again, we leave Ann Arbor for this post and head back to Chicago. On this trip at the end of August, I was headed west to see a friend from Cornell – a former fellow ChemE, senior design group member, and roommate – who was vacationing in Chicago. This time, I did not travel at the crack of dawn on a bus-less holiday morning, but in the middle of a Sunday when both the city and university buses were running. I did miss church, but if I’m remembering correctly, this was the first Sunday that I’d missed all year. I rode Amtrak again, and the train ride there went smoothly (besides the fifteen minutes we pulled over to restart the electrical system . . .). Don’t worry, the train ride back was more than an hour late to make up for it.

Instead of recapping this trip day by day, I’ll condense it to two posts, one with things I’ve done before (this post) and one with new experiences (the next post). The friend I was meeting up with hadn’t been to Chicago before, so we did some of the big Chicago things that I’d already done because I’m the kind of person who eats the same ten things every day. I’m not going to be bothered by seeing the same museum twice in a summer.

After I arrived in Chicago on Sunday afternoon, we made a quick trip to the zoo that was notable mainly for the heat. A lot of the animals were in hiding. Either that or they were abducted by aliens. We did see the polar bear, which was MIA last time I was at the zoo. Most of the primates were also in view, mainly because they had no energy to hide from people.

The primates are #OverIt

The first full day in Chicago, I paid a second visit to the Field Museum to spend some quality time with Sue and friends, plus rocks, minerals, and taxidermy. Once again, I enjoyed it, and wandered around for most of a day. Because my friend actually likes food, we left around lunchtime to eat something that wasn’t an eight-dollar museum sandwich, then returned. I skipped the room of fake plants this time, and took more time to look at the dinosaurs. It turns out that last time we missed the part of the exhibit where Sue is being rehomed. She’s not on display yet, but there’s a viewing window that lets you see her in her mostly-reassembled state.

Hi, Sue

Lastly, would this even be a post about Chicago without a picture of Cloud Gate? The answer is no. Here’s the bean:

The back side of the Bean

Ye Olde Arte Faire

One of those other things that is a big deal in Ann Arbor, like football and the colors blue and maize, is the annual art fair in summer. This was the weekend before the Champions Cup game, but I forgot about it until after I posted about the game because soccer > art (sorry, art). During art fair, dozens of vendors from all over the country arrive to sell their wares for exposure cold, hard cash and thousands of people visit to artify their homes. Since getting to art fair involves the same bus I take weekly to get to central campus, I usually go to gauge how unaffordable everything is.

Art fair on State Street

And also to see art/people watch, but a not insignificant amount of time is spent trying to read price tags and differentiate between commas and decimal points. (Is that painting $200? $2,000? $20,000? Who knows?) Many of the streets around the Diag and in the State Street area are closed off for the weekend, allowing people to wander mostly freely. The art ranges from landscape paintings to pottery to handmade toys to furniture to giant cacti. If I ever get my own house, I might have to find a giant metal cactus for my front lawn, maybe some flamingos and garden gnomes too. I know, I have impeccable taste.

I didn’t buy anything this year (or last year) but I did enjoy looking at everything for sale. At one point I walked into the nonprofit section and was immediately accosted by five hundred people exhorting me to vote/support their political candidate/donate/take a bumper sticker/join their religion. I ignored all of them, passed through their gauntlet of pamphlets, and returned to looking at $500 ($5,000? $50,000?) sculptures and paintings. To be fair to the artists, I know art takes time, talent, and material to create. It’s expensive. Some artists even limit prints to increase the demand and value of their work. I get it; exposure doesn’t pay the bills. Some might argue being a grad student doesn’t either.

Somewhere on Main Street

Oh, well. Maybe next year the stars will align and I’ll find the trifecta of affordability, likeability, and utility. Meaning that 1) the price is on the order of weeks of groceries or less (on the order of months of rent and above is too high) (sorry, giant cactus), 2) I actually like it (sorry, purses, scarves, skinny alien people sculptures, anything that looks like you could paint it with your eyes closed, etc.¹), and 3) I can actually use or display it in my apartment (sorry again, giant cactus). My current wall decorations are prints of photos I took, a periodic table placemat, a postcard from Norway, and a lenticular card of dancing penguins if that gives you any idea of how often I find art² that meets the above criteria.

¹Disclaimer: none of these things are directly related to any particular booth at art fair, so don’t worry if you were at art fair selling purses/scarves/skinny alien people sculptures/paintings you did with your eyes closed.

²My definition of art is debatable. See: giant cactus and flamingos.

#DumpsterFire [September 2018]

The title speaks for itself.

September 1, 2018, vs. Portland Timbers, 1-1 T
The first half of this game was shaping up to be a repeat of the Sounders game in July where nothing happened, but then slightly more happened. Scott Caldwell scored his first goal of the season off a rebound from the Timbers goalkeeper after a Kelyn Rowe shot. Not sure if the goal was the highlight or if finding out that his goal song is “Party in the USA” was. The Timbers then equalized from a corner kick. Again, never heard that one before. It was almost cleared off the line, but almost isn’t good enough. Rowe looked pretty good in central midfield, and Juan Agudelo got minutes in the second half. It was another mixed performance from Agudelo – half of the time he holds up the ball and nutmegs defenders, and the other half the ball comes to him and the game physically slows down because he comes to a complete stop to decide what he’s going to do, then he dribbles straight into three defenders.

September 5, 2018, at New York City FC, 0-1 W
For all everyone complains about the Revolution having to play on turf, there is something not quite right about NYCFC’s field, besides the fact that it’s a baseball diamond (they play at Yankee Stadium). The ball did not seem to bounce correctly, and the field feels tiny, though Wikipedia says it’s only 5 yards smaller in length and width than Gillette (110 yds. x 70 yds. vs. 115 yds. x 75 yds., which equals a loss in area of ~10%). The camera crew also kept showing artistic overview shots from strange angles and if I remember right, this was the game where they cut away to closeups of NYCFC players sitting on the bench while the Revolution had the ball multiple times. The non-soccer aspects notwithstanding, the Revolution kept themselves in the game long enough for Brian Wright to capitalize on a rebound to hand NYCFC their first home loss this season. With Wright’s first MLS goal and a shutout from Brad Knighton, who took Matt Turner’s place in goal, New England won for the first time in two months. Would this be the start of another late season playoff push? [Spoiler alert: no.]

September 15, 2018, at Los Angeles Football Club, 1-1 T
In the Revolution’s first trip to California to play LAFC, the air was filled with the drama known as the Lee Nguyen saga. Predictions from Revolution Twitter included all variants of New England being destroyed by not only Nguyen, but also similarly-former Rev Benny Feilhaber. Shockingly enough, neither Nguyen nor Feilhaber scored or even seriously threatened the Revolution. LAFC’s goal was a Revolution “we can’t clear the ball out of the box” special, and Brandon Bye picked up his first MLS goal on a header from a Teal Bunbury cross to equalize late. Not terrible from the Revolution, but still not enough.

September 22, 2018, vs. Chicago Fire, 2-2 T

Another one of those games where the Revolution are kind of in it but not really. Chicago went ahead twice, the second time on a Michael Mancienne own goal¹, and Caldwell and Penilla salvaged the draw. New signing Guillermo Hauché made his debut and looked fine. Hauché is the Revolution’s new exciting goal scorer who has never scored a professional goal. File that one under the Most Revs Things to Happen, along with stadium rumors, blind draws, terrible DP signings, and weird vibes.

¹It was bound to happen sooner or later. He’d had about three close calls in his past four games and the Revolution fanbase was just waiting for it to happen.

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same, September 29, 2018, at Toronto FC, 4-1 L
With the playoffs basically (but not mathematically) out of reach, the Revolution chose this time to self-implode. Penilla opened the scoring for the Revolution, then they proceeded to let Toronto back into the game before the half. It was all downhill from there. The ref even gave the Revolution a chance to pull themselves together by calling a Toronto goal back because of offsides, but the Revolution basically said no thank you and let Toronto score three more times before the final whistle. I’ve stopped being horribly bothered about them losing, but they played like they didn’t care. All I want is to watch some soccer.

In September, the Revolution went 1W-1L-3D for an overall record of 8W-11L-11D. Their goal scorers were the following: Brian Wright, Scott Caldwell (x2), Brandon Bye, and Cristian Penilla (x2). Two recent Superdraft picks who opened their MLS accounts, a central defensive midfielder, and the team’s leading scorer. So the forwards are mostly not scoring and the defensive isn’t defending. And people wonder why this team has problems.

#LGR?

After two years in Michigan, I can now say that I have been to a sporting event in Michigan Stadium (the Big House). I can even say that I have seen a football game in the Big House. I cannot say that I have seen an American football game in the Big House. When I first heard that the International Champions Cup was coming to Ann Arbor at the end of July, I was tempted to go, but a minimum of $55 for tickets that would be 3,492 feet from the field for a game featuring two EPL teams I don’t really follow was a little much. Then two days before the game, on Thursday evening, Michigan athletics emailed the student body offering $25 tickets. That I can do.

The last professional soccer game I attended was the New England Revolution against the Philadelphia Union at Gillette Stadium in 2016, as the Revolution were at the tail end of one of their summer slumps. The Revolution lost 4-0. So the bar was set pretty low for this game, which would feature Manchester United and Liverpool. Basically my only requirement for this outing to be a success was that I be entertained.

A coworker, a friend, and I set off with what we thought was plenty of time to get to the stadium. We parked in south Ann Arbor to catch a shuttle bus operated by the city to the stadium. The concept was good; the execution needed a bit of work. We waited over half an hour to get on a bus, then spent another ~20 minutes packed into the bus slowly making our way toward the stadium. When we were dropped off, we were at the exact opposite end of the stadium from our seats. By the time we made it to our section, we were just in time for kickoff.

With that auspicious start, we settled in to watch the game. Just being in the Michigan Stadium with tens of thousands of other people is an experience; later, the announced attendance of 101,254 would easily make this game the highest attended Champions Cup match of 2018. Our seats were about halfway up the stadium, and I was pleasantly surprised that we could see the field, the players, and even the ball. Funnily enough, Manchester United’s colors are red and yellow and Liverpool’s are red and white, so there was an abundance of Cornell colors (#LGR) and a noticeable lack of blue and maize. Among the Liverpool and United jerseys, I did also spot some representation of the USMNT, the Columbus Crew (#SaveTheCrew)¹, Zlatan, the LA Galaxy, and I wore my Revolution hat (#NERevs).

Both teams started the game cautiously, with neither side challenging the other too much. Liverpool was awarded a penalty in the 28th minute for what seemed to be a routine foul in the box. A few minutes later, Manchester United equalized off a nicely taken free kick.

Halftime in the mostly full stadium.

Tied 1-1, beer ad on the screen.

The two teams went into the half tied, leaving their fans to sit in the sweltering heat and humidity packed in like sweaty sardines to watch beer ads. As the second half went on, Liverpool started to threaten United’s goal and had the bulk of the possession. They scored in the 66th minute, were given another penalty in the 74th minute, and scored probably the best goal of the game in the 82nd minute. They were working the ball around Manchester United’s box, the ball was kicked goalward, cut back out, and Liverpool picked up its fourth and final goal of the match on a bicycle kick.

The game ended without drama, and both teams headed off to the locker room. I waited for the crowd to thin out a bit before joining the stream of people walking north from the stadium to downtown Ann Arbor. It’s about a mile between the stadium and central campus, and honestly, it would probably have been faster, cheaper, and less crowded to walk from there than take the shuttle bus. Oh well. I’ll know for next time. In the end, was it worth it? Definitely yes. Was it hot, crowded, and loud? Also definitely yes. The game somewhat lacked intensity – pretty weak, by the book penalty calls; something like a single yellow card all game; no headbutting, 50 mph slide tackles, or face slapping – but it was more of an exhibition match than a tournament, so I’m not complaining that nobody wanted to break their leg for imaginary brownie points. And I was entertained, so my goal was met.

86th minute, final score on the board

[Full game highlights found here. Liverpool’s bicycle kick goal starts around 1:08.]

¹As of October 12th, this may be #SavedTheCrew, as the owner of the Cleveland Browns is trying to buy the team and keep it in Columbus.

Violets are Blue

Back in Ann Arbor¹, my mother and I arrived in town just in time for the peony garden at the arboretum to be in bloom. Last year I found out that this is a Big Deal. This year I figured that flowers would be more interesting than repeat trips to Kroger or sitting at the card table in my otherwise furnitureless living room for my mother.

Last year when I visited the peony garden, it was a somewhat cloudy and overcast evening. This year, it was a cloudy and overcast afternoon, until the sun came out. The lighting was a challenge, but I came away with some flower photos without my shadow on them. While we were there, there was some sort of performance going on, so the peony garden was filled with people listening to the music groups; serious photographers with tripods, super ultrazoom macro lenses, and wind boxes; children; college students taking iPhone selfies; etc.

Some peonies

Another peony

After enjoying the flowers, we walked around the arboretum a bit. We went down to see the river and walked alongside it for a while before going to see a large bug-infested field. Until next year, peonies.

Clouds

¹This happened in June. Blog time is currently running >4 months behind.

#SummerSlump, part 2 [August 2018]

This month, everyone’s favorite MLS disaster returns with four more ways to disappoint their fans, their club, and themselves.

August 4, 2018, at Orlando City SC, 3-3 T
They started promisingly. Juan Agudelo scored early off a Brandon Bye long throw. Yes, a long throw in. Christian Penilla doubled the lead as a result of the Revolution pressing Orlando. Orlando scored an open play goal and a set piece goal. Teal Bunbury came on as a sub and immediately made an impact by scoring to put the Revolution ahead again. And then in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Orlando scored the last goal of the game off a set piece. Stoppage time set piece goal against the Revolution. Never heard that one before.

August 11, 2018, vs. Philadelphia Union, 2-3 L
Another day, another loss. The Revolution went down two goals in the first half, came back to tie the game in the second half, and lost in the 76th minute when a penalty kick was called against them for a handball in the box. Andrew Farrell scored his second goal, Wilfried Zahibo got his fourth off of a Diego Fagundez free kick, and Antonio Delamea was called for the handball.

August 19, 2018, at DC United, 2-0 L
I missed this game because it was nationally televised and not shown on ESPN+. I’m not sad that I did, which is kind of sad. Scott Caldwell got sent off for a second yellow for the first time in ~5 years in MLS. I’m not even mad. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of a soul-sucking losing streak, there’s nothing you can do but slide tackle someone with excessive force.

August 25, 2018, at Philadelphia Union, 0-1 L
This was a bit of a lackluster game. Philadelphia’s lone goal was scored on a breakaway that looked offside. The linesman raised his flag but the ref never blew the whistle, so after video review the Union were awarded the goal. Classic case of play to the whistle, but I will say that this was different from Bunbury’s possibly offside goal against Sporting Kansas City earlier in the season because of the time and space between the non-call and the ball in the net. It felt like the ref was about to blow the whistle any second, and Matt Turner did come off his line to try and make the save, but knowing the Revolution one of three things would have happened: 1) Turner touches the Union player, who collapses in agony instantly, and gets a red card, 2) Turner attempts a save, but looks so ridiculous that he ends up on that weekend’s compilation video of the “10 dumbest goalkeepers” and goes viral, or 3) he kind of tries to save the shot, misses, and the Revolution lose to the Union for the second time that month. On the bright side, new signing Michael Mancienne looked pretty solid in defense.

And so the Revolution fell to 7W-10L-8D, with an August record of 0W-3L-1D. They looked good for stretches (when they were scoring) against Orlando and during the first Union game. The rest of the time they were making some of the same dumb mistakes they’ve been making for the past three (four?) years. They don’t even necessarily look terrible all the time. They just do things like leave runners completely open in the box on corner kicks, and in the end, if you put the ball in the back of your opponent’s net more times than they put the ball in your net, you win. Amount of possession, number of shots, shots on goal, saves, and looking pretty don’t matter.

Pinto, kidney, fava, Navy

Featuring Cloud Gate (aka the Bean). And pinto, kidney, fava, and Navy are all . . . types of beans. Ha, ha; I’m hilarious, I know. Our travels in Chicago brought us relatively close to Cloud Gate pretty much daily. I took every opportunity to visit the Bean. And the rest of this post will be nothing but pictures of Cloud Gate, because this is exactly the kind of content you should expect from me by now.

Sunny afternoon Bean

Cloudy evening Bean

Quiet(er) morning Bean

Cloud-containing Bean

Foggy side Bean

Donut Day

On our last full day in Chicago, we did not visit a museum, but I did get a donut. We took the train to the Wicker Park/Bucktown area and discovered a donut shop upon exiting the station. I had a chocolate dipped old fashioned donut. I don’t regret getting this donut, but it might have been even better plain because the chocolate was a little overpowering. Turns out June 1st is National Donut Day, so we also got a free glazed donut that I ate the next day. Still good.

We did a self-guided architecture tour around Wicker Park that my mother got out of a physical guidebook. Yes, they still make those. Yes, people, including my family, still read those. My newfangled cellular device is barely intelligent, I like reading maps, and I’m kind of old and grumpy inside. I don’t like relying on my phone for everything. After seeing a bunch of houses that had no significance for me, we walked around some more and looked at the stores and restaurants before having ramen for lunch. It was pretty good ramen, but I’ve had better in the Boston/Cambridge area.

Back around Millennium Park/Grant Park, we stopped at the library that’s not a library (originally actually a library, now the Chicago Cultural Center). We saw parts of Keith Haring’s Chicago Mural, painted in 1989 by Haring and Chicago public school students. There was also some sort of art, a big dome, and live music of the loud and moderately unintelligible kind. We returned to my brother’s condo for dinner and I watched Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which was so dumb it was good.

Chicago skyline stitched together in five minutes using Paint

Taken by the Shedd Aquarium/Adler Planetarium

I don’t have a whole lot else to say, so I will mention how we got tickets to all the paid attractions we visited. We opted for the three-attraction Chicago Explorer Pass because based on the activities we wanted to do, this made the most economic sense. The cost is $79 for three attractions ($104 for four, and $119 for five). The prices they list for the things we did are $45.92 for the architecture cruise, $32 for the Field Museum, and $33.95 for the Museum of Science and Industry, a total of $111.87. However, both museum tickets had an extra exhibit/show added to the base price of $24 and $21.95 for the Field Museum and Museum of Science and Industry respectively. But even foregoing the addons, buying tickets individually would be $91.87, so you still come out ahead in this case. Another thing to consider is that you’re limited in what the extra exhibit you can choose is. At the Field Museum, our option was a ticketed exhibit (and I think the mummies weren’t an option); we chose the underground exhibit. At the Museum of Science and Industry, we could pick from one of the giant screen movies; that’s why we saw the ocean show.

The other multiple attraction ticket options are the Go Chicago Card and the Chicago CityPass. The Go Chicago Card is probably the most expensive option unless you’re the kind of person who speeds through museums in a couple hours and are willing to visit 2-3 attractions in a day. The starting price is $109 for one day, but in that day, you can visit as many things as you like out of a list of 28 attractions. Adding days takes progressively less money – I’m kind of wondering now if anyone’s managed to visit all 28 attractions in 5 days ($219) or less. The CityPass gets you into 5 attractions for $106. Three are fixed; the other two have two options to choose from. Note that if you want to go to the Shedd Aquarium, it is not an option with the Explorer Pass, but is included with the Go Chicago Card and CityPass.

To conclude, the Explorer Pass is probably the most versatile for the best value, and was worth it for us on this trip. If I ever wanted to go to the aquarium, I’d probably plan it for a trip when I had time to do everything on the CityPass because tickets for the Shedd Aquarium alone are $40 compared to $20-25 for the rest of the museums. I also haven’t been to the Adler Planetarium, Art Institute, or up to the Skydeck. Also waiting for a good musical to pass through Chicago (or for someone to hand me tickets to Hamilton). Next trip, maybe.

Sue Had It Coming

One of the other major museums in Chicago is the Field Museum, located on Museum Campus along with the Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and Soldier Field. From Millennium Park, we walked along the waterfront to the Field Museum, entered the museum, and came face to face with Máximo. Máximo is a titanosaur who has taken Sue’s place. Sue the t-rex is currently in storage while a new home gets built for her. We also arrived while a pterosaur was in the process of being hung, which was newsworthy enough for at least one news station to send a cameraman.

Stanley Field Hall, the main lobby of the Field Museum.

Pterosaur to the left, Máximo to the right.

While the Museum of Science and Industry features exhibits containing things people have made, like boats and trains, the Field Museum skews more towards natural history, like rocks and taxidermy. The first exhibit we visited had you imagine that you shrink to a hundredth of your size and explore an underground den of dirt, roots, and insects. We’re going to ignore the scientific implications (hi, Ant-Man) because it’s a cool idea. The exhibit teaches about soil porosity, types of root systems, symbiotic root fungus, and the kinds of insects you might meet.

Just a friendly neighborhood grub.

Next, we walked through an exhibit about conservation, which showed video clips and field notes from an actual Field Museum trip to Peru for rainforest conservation. That led to the Regenstein Halls of the Pacific, featuring objects from and information about various Pacific island nations. From there, we emerged back on the upper level balcony, looked at some of the rocks and meteorites, and then it was time for lunch. Downstairs in the Explorer Café, I uncomplainingly ate yet more museum food before wandering the Field Museum for three and a half more hours.

We returned upstairs to see the gems and jade jewelry. That was followed by an entire hall of plants. We saw maybe three other people in this vast room of pine cones and palm fronds encased in glass. At least some of the seeds were real, but most of the leaves were not. Going through this fake forestry caused us to emerge straight in the dinosaur hall in the middle of the Evolving Planet exhibit. We spent some time visiting with Sue’s friends, then walked backwards through time, watching multicellular land animals devolve into sea blobs and trilobites.

One of Sue's friends, a hadrosaur

Back on the lower level, we covered birds, the cat and dog families, Asian mammals, African mammals, and What is an Animal?. That was the west side of the lower level. The east side contained an extensive exhibit about ancient American civilizations (Mayan, Incan, plus half a dozen others you never knew existed), items from Northwest Coast and Arctic Peoples, and the gift shop. Like the Museum of Science and Industry, you could spend an entire day here and still not see everything. I think we missed a few rooms because of how the exhibits lead into one another, but we saw almost everything in six hours, with a lunch break. I did mention that I like museums, right?

[The post title is a play on the song “She Had it Coming” from (wait for it) the musical Chicago. I wanted to name all the posts about this trip after song titles or lyrics from Chicago, but try as I might, I couldn’t relate a musical satirizing criminal justice to penguins, a U-Boat, or donuts (still to come).]

Scientia et Industria

The first museum of the Chicago trip was the Museum of Science and Industry. I’m going to preface the rest of this post by saying that I love museums. If I have to be vacationing in a city instead of trekking through mud somewhere, museums (and other related attractions) are an acceptable substitute for rocks and trees. Some museums even have rocks and trees inside them. The Air and Space Museum¹; National Museum of Natural History¹; American Museum of Natural History²; Metropolitan Museum of Art²; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston³; New England Aquarium³; Museum of the Earth⁴; Newport Mansions⁵; Casa Loma⁶; Boldt Castle⁷; Henry Ford Museum⁸; Greenfield Village⁸; been to them all, plus more. Do I see the same variations of old furniture, dinosaur reconstructions, rocks, art, planes, trains, and automobiles in all of these places? Yes. Do I care? Not a bit.

[If you’re keeping track of my travels, that would be ¹Washington, DC; ²New York City, NY; ³Boston, MA; ⁴Ithaca, NY; ⁵Newport, RI; ⁶Toronto, Canada; ⁷Thousand Islands, NY; and ⁸Dearborn, MI.]

The point is that even though I’ve seen other model ships, space artifacts, and plasma globes, we still spent six and a half hours seeing the model ships, space artifacts, and plasma globes at the Museum of Science and Industry. We started the day by making our way to the giant dome theater in the space center via the circus and I Spy exhibits. The I Spy rooms were fun; each enclosed area had a scene set up in it, like penguins playing poker, and a list of things to find in the scene. It was basically 3D I Spy. When we reached the space center, we looked around a bit, then saw a show about oceans and fish in the giant dome theater. The Museum of Natural History in New York City has a similar theater where I’ve seen a show about space and stars (twice). I’ve also seen the national parks show at the Henry Ford Museum multiple times, which should surprise approximately nobody at this point.

The draw of the giant dome theater is that the screen is above you and wraps around so that you feel like you’re surrounded by the show. It’s a cool experience to have every once in awhile. After the show, we watched some clips from the Apollo 11 mission as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon (while Michael Collins waited for them back in the command module). The Museum of Science and Industry is also home to the actual Apollo 8 command module. Apollo 8 orbited the moon for the first time and produced the Earthrise photo and Christmas Eve television broadcast where the crew read from Genesis while circling the moon. Of the crew, only Jim Lovell would go on to make another spaceflight, becoming the commander of the infamous Apollo 13 mission, while Apollo 8 was the last mission for Frank Borman and Bill Anders.

The Apollo 8 Command Module

The other main exhibit that we wanted to see was the U-505, a German U-boat captured during World War II. This is probably the biggest unique exhibit in the museum. The exhibit takes you through the events leading up to the capture and towing of the U-boat, complete with animatronics and torpedo sounds. Then the main room contains the U-boat itself, plus things taken from the U-boat such as cans of bread and enigma machines. If you’re doing the whirlwind tour of the museum, and only see a few exhibits, this should be one of them.

U-505

By this time, I was hungry, so we had lunch at the Brain Food Court. Yes, it’s really called that. No, I didn’t see any brains being served for lunch. Like our lunch the day before (and the day after) it was standard museum fare. Sandwiches, soup, salad, noodles, blue jello, etc. I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again – I am not a huge food person. If it’s not too salty, greasy, or expensive, it’s good enough for me. Following lunch, we made our way through most of the rest of museum, seeing the model train, baby chicks, glacier pictures, bicycles, a 727, and the world’s largest pinball machine before calling it a day.

If you really like museums, you can definitely spend a whole day at the Museum of Science of Industry. If you like museums, at least go to see the U-505, the Apollo 8 capsule, the pinball machine, and the chicks. Because how can you resist baby fluffballs?

Fluffiness

Lions, Tigers, and Bears

Day two in Chicago: featuring the Lincoln Park Zoo. For the rest of this trip, my brother would be busy with work, leaving my mother and I to explore Chicago on our own. We took the train to Fullerton and walked the rest of the way to the zoo. At the zoo, we saw a variety of fascinating things, including trees, grass, benches, clouds, and signs. Also a seagull, because that’s what you really go to the zoo to see.

[If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m kind of that person. You know, the one who goes to the art museum to see a Van Gogh and spends more time taking pictures of the floor tiles. My favorite reasons for doing things are, in no particular order, 1) for the heck of it, 2) because I was told not to/to prove a point, and 3) to drive everyone around me crazy. I once ate a single potato chip precisely because the bag bet that I couldn’t eat just one (reason 2). I’m currently watching the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order just because I want to see Avengers: Infinity War (reason 1). While playing Codenames¹ the other week, I tried convincing the other team to pick washer no matter what their clue was (reason 3). Death? Washers are dangerous, and you wouldn’t want to get stuck in one. Gravity? Gravity is a force, and washers have a lot of centripetal force. And so on and so forth.]

Amazing.  What diversity of wildlife.

And we also saw some animals. They were okay, I guess.

Seriously, though, for a free zoo in the middle of a major city, the Lincoln Park Zoo has a surprising variety of animals and the zoo is well-organized, even with 347 different school groups running all over the place. They have indoor and outdoor exhibits featuring land animals, apes, primates, birds, fish, and mosquitoes. The last are native to Chicago and ensure you have a fully immersive and tactile experience. The size of the zoo means that you can see everything in a few hours. We ended up having lunch there, which was standard museum-style food at a reasonable price.

While we were there, most of the animals were out/active. The kangaroos were lying on the ground looking very unkangaroolike, some of the apes kept hiding in the corner to avoid people, and the polar bears were nowhere to be seen, but we saw almost everything else. I enjoyed the small mammal-reptile house and the bird house. You get a high species to area ratio. If you have at least 2-3 days in Chicago, I would recommend the zoo, especially if you don’t like museums. It was free (my favorite price), I hadn’t been to the zoo in years, and they had penguins, so I left happy.

Some of the animals we saw - Clockwise from top left: rhino, zebra,

flamingos, giraffes, and penguins

On the way back to the train, we stopped by the Lincoln Park Conservatory. I’ve previously demonstrated my extensive knowledge of flowers and plants that aren’t native to New England (see two posts previous), so this was a quick stop, but it’s also free, so worth it if you have an extra half hour. By the time we got back to the vicinity of the Chicago River, we still had time for the river architecture cruise. Multiple people I have talked to say they really like this activity, but it was not my favorite. I liked it, and we heard some interesting stories about the buildings along the river; however, I still prefer museums where I can walk through at my own pace and read about the parts that I think are interesting (see next two posts) or hikes (because dirt, and trees, and sky). Based on other peoples’ opinions, I’d still recommend it, though I probably won’t do it again any time soon. Even after the zoo, conservatory, and architecture tour, we still got back to my brother’s condo with time for me to get some research done. Pros of computational research. Or a con? Wait a second . . .

Here is a plant we saw at the conservatory.

Here is the Chicago skyline as seen from the architecture cruise.

¹Codenames is played with two teams and a grid of words. Each team has a Spymaster who knows which words belong to their team. The Spymasters take turns giving clues to their team to try and get their teammates to pick the words that are theirs.

#SummerSlump [July 2018]

Revolution fans from the Jay Heaps tenure will know exactly what this means. Every year under Jay Heaps, the Revolution would have a disappointing to moderately encouraging start to the season, only to forget how to play soccer during the summer months. I want to point out here that I’m not trying to disparage or blame any of the players or coaching staff, just point out the team’s bizarrely streaky play during the summer.

In 2012, Heaps’ first year, the team went winless for ten games between July 14 and September 1, including 5 straight losses during this period. The next year, they actually seem to have avoided the summer slump, starting with only one win in the first six games, but never losing more than two games in a row the entire season. During 2014, the Revolution went eight straight games without a win from May 31 to July 26, but then came into form in time to go all the way to the MLS cup final to lose a record fifth final, this time to the Galaxy.

In 2015, they lost five straight from June 25 to July 11, but shortly after rallied to win six straight in August and September. In 2016, after drawing 7 of their first 10 games, the Revolution went from July 31 to August 28 (6 games) without winning. Then last year, they stumbled through the majority of the season, needing a strong fall performance to make the playoffs. Instead, they were murdered by Atlanta and Orlando within the span of two weeks. Heaps was fired, Brad Friedel was brought in during the offseason, and the first half of the 2018 season happened, which brings us to this July.

July 7, 2018, vs. Seattle Sounders, 0-0 T
Not a whole lot happened in this game, which you can kind of tell from the scoreline. It took seventy-three minutes before there was a shot on goal – a forty-yard attempt from Seattle that Matt Turner took care of by basically standing there and letting the ball fall into his arms. Even the Revolution social media team acknowledged the lack of excitement by posting a highlights video featuring kickoff, streamers, the final whistle, and postgame fireworks. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tear my heart out, why don’t you?, July 14, 2018, vs. Los Angeles Galaxy, 2-3 L
This game, maybe more than any of the other games so far this season, captures the spirit of being a Revolution fan since 2008. After losing Cristian Penilla to a red card 23 minutes into the game, the Revolution went up a goal in the 28th minute. The Galaxy tied the game, but New England took the lead again shortly before the first half ended. They were moving the ball well and looked good up through around minute 75. It’s a lot to ask to be playing down a man and keep pressing, but the Revolution were doing it. Then in minute 85, the Galaxy’s Ashley Cole was baited into a second yellow and sent off. What the Revolution should have done was take the time to regroup, settle down, and prepare to play hard for up to ten more minutes. What they did was go into panic mode, watch the clock, and let momentum shift to the Galaxy. In the second minute of second half stoppage time, LA got a corner kick. I’ve been following this team for awhile, so my first thought was (depressingly enough) if they let in a goal on this set piece, they’ve lost the game. LA scored on the corner kick. In the third minute of second half stoppage time, after the restart, the Revolution were too casual with possession on the right sideline, lost the ball, and that’s how the Galaxy scored their third, and game-winning, goal.

Hey, Bobby, July 18, 2018, at Minnesota United FC, 2-1 L
Anything that happened in this match was ultimately overshadowed by the fact that former Revolution goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth chose this night to have the best game New England’s seen from him in awhile. To be fair to Shuttleworth, I liked him when he played for New England. You can’t say that he wasn’t invested in the game. He just inexplicably had this habit of letting in long shots while making ridiculous reaction saves. Also of note were a couple of Scott Caldwell shots, including a one touch outside of the foot attempt that was bound for the back of the goal if (guess who) Shuttleworth hadn’t showed up to make the save.

I Give Up, July 21, 2018, vs. New York Red Bulls, 0-2 L
Missed this game because I was playing board games with people from church. Can’t bring myself to watch the replay.

We’ll see what happens in August, but history is not on the Revolution’s side.

Record for July: 0W-3L-1D
Overall record: 7W-7L-7D

Road Tripping: Let’s Acela-rate*

There was the time my roommate and I got stranded by the bus six miles away from our apartment in Ithaca. There was the time I tried to fly out of Ithaca in winter. There was the time my bus disappeared.¹ This time, my travel plans involved no planes because it’s more trouble to fly from Ann Arbor (Detroit) to Chicago and no buses because there were no buses running. That’s right; my latest brilliantly thought out travel plans included journeying on Memorial Day. In my defense, I had planned to travel on Tuesday, but when I went to buy tickets, the Amtrak site gave me an error after I entered all my credit card information. I didn’t want to be double charged, so I waited until the next day to try again, at which point all the Tuesday tickets were sold out. Besides travelling on Memorial Day, I also thought it would be a good idea to take a train that left Ann Arbor at 7 in the morning.

Sunrise

Shockingly enough, the buses were not running on Memorial Day, especially at 6 in the morning. But I eventually made it to the train station, seeing the sunrise on the way, and had a smooth ride to Chicago. Yes, I said smooth. I had plenty of space, more than on the bus, it was quieter, and we didn’t have to sit in traffic. There were no detours through New Mexico, no attacks from monster geese, and no freak June snowstorms. The train was about half full on this trip. It made three stops between Ann Arbor and Chicago and arrived at Union Station pretty much on time.

We didn’t have a lot planned for my first day in Chicago; my mom met me at Union Station, we waited for my cousin to arrive on a different train, then we went back to my brother’s condo. We all had lunch together then walked around Millennium Park and along the river. My mom, my brother, and I finished out the day with dim sum for dinner and Shaun the Sheep back at the condo.

*The train I rode was not the Acela Express, which refers to the Amtrak route along the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, DC. I rode the Wolverine, which goes between Pontiac and Chicago via Ann Arbor and Detroit. The post title comes from a math challenge some math team friends and I voluntarily participated in one weekend in high school. The problem involved the Acela Express and train speeds and money, and yes, we obviously made that pun all day.

¹Moral of the story: I would make a terrible travelling companion.

April Showers

After the freezing rain came the normal temperature rain, and after that came the flowers. Because April showers bring May thunderstorms flowers. Following the purchase of my camera, I read a couple of photography books, but the best way for me to get better at taking photos was to start taking an excessive number a lot of photos. Therefore, my camera started coming along with me on my Saturday errands, which neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stopped me from.

Top left: Tulips in my backyard (leftovers from some previous tenant)

Bottom left: Purple flowers (possibly some sort of violet?) on central campus

Right: Pink flowering tree (vaguely cherry blossom-esque) by the library

Top: Butterfly weed at the arboretum

Bottom let: Dandelions.  Everywhere.

Bottom right: Some pink flower that was labelled at the arboretum but

of course I wasn't paying attention to what the sign said

In case you couldn’t tell, I know a lot almost nothing about floriculture. The only flower I’m pretty sure I managed to identify was the butterfly weed, because there are approximately two species of bright orange wildflowers. The tulips and dandelions don’t count because those are basically common knowledge. Thanks to a seventh-grade science project, I can, however, identify a couple dozen species of trees that grow in New England. We had to collect leaves and seeds from at least twenty-five deciduous and coniferous trees and look up other information about them (the scientific name for the red maple is Acer rubrum, in case you were wondering; don’t ask why that’s still in my memory). Turns out that was one of the projects that (somewhat) has real life applications, like tracking the phases of the moon and writing checks in elementary school. Unlike, say, fugacity.

Fit to be Tied [June 2018]

June 2, 2018, vs. New York Red Bulls, 2-1 W
So I was away in Chicago when this game was played and never got around to watching it, but the Revolution won. Diego Fagundez scored in first half stoppage time to level the game and Teal Bunbury got his 8th goal of the season for the win.

June 9, 2018, at Chicago Fire, 1-1 T
This game wasn’t terrible to watch, but the Revolution were unable to capitalize on their chances, whether through build up play or fast breaks. Bastian Schweinsteiger scored for the Fire on a standard “everybody lose your mark in the box” defensive breakdown from the Revolution. Bunbury equalized for New England after Fagundez pressured the Chicago goalkeeper into dropping the ball on a routine catch. Add that to the pile of weirdness the Revolution have experienced so far this year.

Win at home, tie away?, June 13, 2018, at San Jose Earthquakes, 2-2 T
Right before the World Cup break, the Revolution reminded everyone that they’re still the good old Revolution. As good as Matt Turner has been in goal for New England, the first San Jose goal was a direct result of poor distribution from Turner. On the other hand, the Revolution’s second goal was a direct result of Turner getting the ball to Krisztian Nemeth quickly so the front three could counterattack. The Revolution went into the half up a goal (Fagundez free kick and Christian Penilla from the fast break), then promptly allowed San Jose to score again within ten minutes of the second half. Frustrating because of the team’s inability to hold on to a lead and because this looked like a game they could win. Not the result I was looking for when I stayed up past midnight to watch this one.

Home cooking, June 30, 2018, vs. DC United, 3-2 W

Back at home after the World Cup break, the Revolution started off a three-game homestand with a win against DC United, who are not doing very well this year (okay, they’re dead last in the standings). In typical Revolution fashion, instead of putting a home game against a poorly performing team away early, they dragged it out until the final whistle. The Revolution’s first goal came from another Turner-Nemeth-Fagundez-Penilla sequence. My current opinion is that Nemeth has been better on the wing than Juan Agudelo because he’s been able to hold on to long balls that lead to goals and he’s strategically drawn fouls in/near the penalty box. He has, however, not scored yet this season. DC then scored off a free kick that deflected off of a United player’s face. Not sure what Turner could have done about that, but the original foul right outside the box should probably not have been committed. In first half stoppage time, Bunbury put the Revolution up again, setting his single season record for goals scored, previously 9 with Sporting Kansas City in 2011. The second half did not look great, and the teams traded penalty kicks to finish off the game. The call against the Revolution was again a foul that probably shouldn’t have been committed, and the DC foul appeared to involve Andrew Farrell’s shins being headbutted/tackled. Not the prettiest game, but they came away with three points.

Bonus game: US Open Cup, June 5, 2018, at Louisville City FC, 3-2 L
The US Open Cup is a yearly tournament that spans all tiers of organized soccer, from MLS down to amateur club teams. The farther down the soccer pyramid a team starts, the more games they have to play to reach the final game, but theoretically, every team in US soccer has a chance to win. In reality, an MLS team has won every year since MLS began in 1996 except for in 1999, when the Rochester Rhinos, a second division team, won. The end result was too painful, so I didn’t watch any replays and can’t comment on how truly awful or not this game was. Sadly, I can’t say I was entirely surprised by the result. The game came in the middle of their 6 games in 3 weeks, wasn’t an MLS game, and featured a lot of players who hadn’t been getting regular minutes in MLS.

Disregarding the Open Cup loss, MLS play went fairly well (first undefeated month since August 2015). Friedel returned to the 4-4-2, and more consistently played Jalil Anibaba and Antonio Delamea as his center backs, with Claude Dielna as left back with Chris Tierney out for the season and Gabriel Somi somewhat inconsistent. The back line still feels one wrong move away from impending disaster, but they got the job done in June. The Revolution head into the second half of the season with their best start since the 34-game schedule was implemented in 2008.

Record for June: 2W-0L-2D
Overall record: 7W-4L-6D

Ice Ice Baby

We’re going back to February April for this post. Three weeks into astronomical spring, as defined by the vernal equinox, and a month after the end of Punxsutawney Phil’s predicted six more weeks of winter, Ann Arbor was hit by an ice storm. You know, that clear, hard, slippery stuff that’s the solid state of water. Density of approximately 0.9167 grams per cubic centimeter. Only exists below 32°F at atmospheric pressure. That stuff. A month into spring, when people are supposed to be wearing shorts and raincoats, I found myself in gloves and snow boots, but at least I got some good pictures out of it.

Ice on branches

Ice on grass

Ice on soccer net

A couple weeks after the ice melted, spring kind of arrived. The weather ping ponged between mildly warm and sunny vs. cool and rainy for the rest of the month, then moved into hot/sunny/thunderstorms for most of May. We got 2.6 inches of precipitation in April and 6.74 inches in May, according to U.S. climate data (2.89 and 4.91 inches from Weather Underground). Average is 3.23 and 3.43 inches, also from U.S. climate data. It was cooler than normal in April, warmer than normal in May, and we hit 90°F multiple times before June was over. My un-airconditioned apartment reached a maximum of 87°F. If it hits 88, I think a time travel portal opens in the basement or something.

On a non-weather-related note, April brought the end of classes and TA’ing for me, then I took my preliminary exam (written report + oral presentation about my research and thesis plan) in May. Immediately after passing the prelim, I took off for Chicago for a week to see my brother and all the other things I didn’t get to see there last year when I moved his things into his apartment for him. Posts and pictures to come, because yes, I took way too many pictures. My excuse is that:

1) I’m a grad student. I needed a new hobby to go along with solving the daily crosswords and jigsaw puzzles. I am aware that I have the taste of a retired seventy-year old grandmother. Should I take up knitting, cross stitch, bridge, or bingo next?

And 2) I’m already that person that nobody notices at events. I might as well be that person nobody notices with a camera. [Funny/not so funny fact: People lose track of me because I’m below their sight lines. One moment I’m on their right, the next I’m climbing through their bedroom window at 3 am on their left. I also apparently walk without making enough noise, and semi-frequently startle people.]

I think that’s enough random rambling for now. #PeaceOut That’s how the cool kids do it nowadays, right?

Say Cheese

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that considering a purchase on and off for more than three years classifies it as a non-impulse buy. Earlier this year, I finally got fed up enough with my point and shoot camera to buy a DSLR. To be fair to my old camera, it is drop-proof, windproof, waterproof, and dustproof. However, it does not do well with indoor shots, low light, or focusing, so I gave in and bought a DSLR. Since the whole point of a DSLR is to be able to choose your own camera settings to take better pictures, I’ve been shooting in manual for the past few months. Am I doing it right?

I do actually know how to read the light meter, I promise.

The three main settings you control in manual mode are the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. The aperture is the hole in the lens that allows you to vary how much light reaches the camera sensor. Aperture is measured in f-stops, written as f2.8 or f22 (sometimes f/2.8 and f/22). Confusingly enough, a small f-stop number means a large opening, which results in more light hitting the sensor. Conversely, a large aperture value means a narrow opening and less light. Depth of field is also controlled by the aperture; shallow depth of field is achieved with a small f-stop value and greater depth of field with a high f-stop.

Left: aperture = f/5.6

Right: aperture = f/36

Background on the left is blurred out while the right is kind of/mostly visible.

[Click pictures to enlarge.]

The shutter speed is how long the shutter is open. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second, and intuitively enough, longer shutter speeds mean more light while shorter shutter speeds mean less light. In situations with moving objects, the shutter speed becomes important, and determines how much or little blurriness there is in a photo.

Top: shutter speed = 1/640

Bottom: shutter speed = 1/15

The fountain and water in the bottom picture should look smoother than the top.

Lastly, ISO refers to the light sensitivity of the sensor. Back in ye olde days before digital cameras, you would have to buy film with different ISO values and when you needed to change ISO – if, for example, you moved from a brightly sunlit field to a dungeon – you would have to physically switch your film. I know, how slow, inefficient, and utterly barbaric. A higher ISO value means that the film/sensor is more sensitive to light, so you would tend to need a high ISO for dark or indoor scenes. A low ISO means that the film/sensor is less sensitive to light. So why wouldn’t you always want a high ISO if it’s more sensitive? The higher you go with the ISO, the grainier the picture because the film picks up more noise.

I don't have a set of pictures directly contrasting ISO, but the above picture was taken with an ISO of 1600 and shows the graininess you get at high ISO.  (For comparison, all other pictures here had an ISO of 100.)

The aperture, shutter speed, and ISO can all be varied to compensate for each other so that the correct amount of light reaches the sensor for a properly exposed photo. For example, if you’re shooting trees outdoors in sunlight, you would usually be using a low ISO, high f-stop, and moderate shutter speed. If you then decide to start taking photos of a fast-moving flying potato, you would decrease your shutter speed. To balance the loss of light reaching the sensor, you could either decrease your f-stop value, increase the ISO, or a combination of both.

That’s the ten minute guide to shooting in manual with a DSLR. Most of my pictures from here on out will be with my new camera (yes, I actually did things and have things to write about that aren’t the Revolution). I ended up buying the Canon Rebel t6 with just the kit lens [ES-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS – the ES-S means that the lens is compatible with the APS-C sensor, which is not a full frame sensor; 18-55 mm is the range of focal lengths (zoom); f/3.5-5.6 is the range of minimum f-stop values, which vary depending on the focal length; and IS stands for image stabilization, which helps to prevent blur at low shutter speeds]. So far I have not bought any other lenses, filters, or accessories, with the exception of a camera bag. I plan to keep it that way for awhile, but we’ll see how long that lasts.