Live from Lyngby

Going to Norway...be back sometime Monday evening.  I'll be posting lots of pictures and a detailed account.  Love you all.  Be back soon.

As many of you may or may not know, one year ago today I lost a great friend of mine.  Tony Grifo, my best friend throughout much of my childhood passed away April, 27th 2007.  I would just like to ask everyone, if they could, to say a small prayer for him and for his family because on a day like today, it is so important that we remember.

Well, yesterday and today see me taking a break from my final Neurophysics project.  It looks like I will be creating an interesting model of a neuron and studying the effects of the nodal spacing of the nodes of Ranvier along the axon on the pulse frequency and threshold experienced by the neuron in conducting an action potential.  Woo!!!

More interesting perhaps is that yesterday I went for what Bill Bryson might call "a walk in the woods."  Tuesday I discovered a path along a stream that had signs indicating it led to Øresund, the name of the body of water that runs along the east side of Zeeland.  After making it only about a third of the way on Tuesday, I decided that the weather and fact that I was looking to "productively procrastinate" yesterday led to a perfect opportunity for me to make this walk.  With my guitar on my back and an idea in mind I set off to find the sea.  

It turns out that 13 km is quite a bit further than I had imagined it would be and that the shortcut I took on the way back was well worth the risk that I might not even be heading towards Lyngby (it proved to cut off about 5 km I believe).  These are of course a little rough estimates, but signs indicated that from Lyngby to the path's end it was about 12 km and I would guess that it was at least another kilometer from DTU to the path's beginning.

It is really nice to get out and clear one's mind.  On Tuesday I saw some herons which are really beautiful birds and yesterday I saw my first pheasant and also my first deer in Denmark.  There are some pictures of these on my Flickr page.  A pamphlet indicated there were a large number of deer in the reserve I spent some of the time walking through.  I also saw some people riding bikes and horses, which is always fun.

Here is an idea of my trip: 
                              


Next on the agenda is Norway...then my Mom and Erin come.  Perfect.  I really should get some work out of the way before all of that.

In case you guys haven't noticed, I've been experimenting with the layout for the past couple weeks or so.  Here is what I've come up with and I think I'll keep it, at least for awhile.  Note the integration of the playlist and a slideshow on the sidebar that lets you flip through, at least a bit, of my pictures thus far.  Of course, check out my pictures on Flickr for more.

Well, it looks like I'll be heading to Norway in a week and a half.  I'm very excited because I haven't traveled in awhile and my roommates and I finally got things together.  We booked our flight to Bergen on Thursday, May 1st and home from Oslo on Monday, May 5th.  Along the way we will get to see the magnificent fjords of western Norway.  Here is a taste of them and I'll definitely have a lot of pictures to show you after I get back.

This weekend my Mexican roommates had two friends visiting and on Saturday decided to take them out and show them some of the historical sights of Denmark. They were going to go to Helsingør, where I have already been, and then to Hillerød. I told them I would meet them in Hillerød and around 1 o'clock packed my things up a little early and headed out.

It is just a short trip, maybe thirty minutes, to Hillerød, a small town in north central Zealand. The town was a beautiful quaint little place and if the weather was a bit warmer I would have enjoyed the two hours I spent listening to music and reading in the castle's gardens before my friends showed up.

Hillerød is famous for being the location of Frederiksborg Slot, an historical royal residence of Denmark. The palace has some wonderful gardens and when the sun was shining, sitting around the lake with a good book provided some good relaxation. I think I will visit again.

Here are some pictures, do check out more on my Flikr page.

Saturday night I found myself at a bar with a few friends as most of the others tried, unsuccessfully to get into an "exclusive" club with a guest list.  Of course it ended with some toast with Nutella which is always a good way to end a night out.

I guess it is both interesting and sad but I never got to meet my neighbor. Two weeks after moving in Francesco, who was living across the hall from me, moved out to his new accomadation. When a new occupant moved into R3 not only did I never speak with him, I never saw him. The other guys in my container swear there was somebody there but I honestly never saw the guy. Not for meals, not for showers, not for classes or brushing his teeth. It was like living with a ghost. On Friday when a new girl moved in, it was a very pleasant surprise. Not only did I have the chance to meet her the first day she arrived, she also turned out to be extremely nice. Her name is Sarah and she is doing her bachelor's thesis on exchange from a University in Germany.

78 Days till Glastonbury!!!

Dear MR LUBEK,

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

You have booked to attend GLASTONBURY 2008 at Worthy Farm,
Pilton-Somerset on 27-29 June 2008

You have ordered the following tickets

Reference xxxxxxxx - 2 ONLINE ADULT 16+ at £ 160.00

Well Conrad woke up at 4 am and I was already up at 10 when tickets went on sale at 9 am GMT for Glastonbury Festival 2008.  Due to the fact that last year's festival sold out in an hour and a half we were nervous and ready to go.  After an hour and a half of "busy" pages I was finally able to get through and purchase two tickets for the festival.  What a relief.  Sure there are still tickets available, but nobody was really predicting this so when Conrad received that little e-mail message our EuroTrip 2008 plans were finally confirmed to some degree.  While they won't completely be absolute even when we embark on the trip, we do know that:

a) Conrad will arrive on June 9th to Copenhagen

b) We will be in Glastonbury, UK from at least June 27th-29th

and

c) We will be leaving to come home from Dublin on July 3rd.  Just in time to celebrate Independence Day.

To check out a list of some of the performer either confirmed or rumoured to be performing check out the page at efestivals.com.  On the right there is a sidebar where you can click on Line-Ups and Rumours.  They say its more about the atmosphere than the music.  I suppose in the collective, unified way Woodstock was perceived, although this is of course more commercialized but there is still something to be said about 135,000+ hanging out together in a rain and mud soaked field for three or four days listening to music.  Hopefully I'm not expecting too much, but I am sure that I could not possibly be. Definitely going to be bringing our wellies.

Here are some pictures from the festival last year and a performance...




...and the rain set in...



...here is a clip of the Artic Monkeys headlining the Pyramid Stage.

...to the Counting Crows!!!

Posted today on their website:

4.3.08 Counting Crows #1 in Digital Sales


Counting Crows skyrocketed into the Billboard Charts this week with the release of "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings".

Congratulations on the following rankings!
#1 Digital Sales
#3 in overall Sales
#4 on Triple A National Airplay for "You Can't Count on Me".

Check out the new album in my player and feel free to access the two free downloads on the sidebar. Good to see them back out there.