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Sometimes it feels like I've had the gas pedal floored for 2.5 years—non-stop work with brief surgical strikes of fun (which are also non-stop). This has made updating the site a lower priority, but I've also had less motivation and inspiration to update the site. Not sure what's next, but the next year will decide a lot of things (like, is it worth having a website anymore?). Feedback on this issue is appreciated. Interesting things I've seen over the past week:
------------------------------- I've always loved the graphical approach of Soviet propaganda posters and I can't remember where I found these, but they are great:
------------------------------- The Gimp recently made his own shaping room, which means there are at least two shaping rooms in Cape May County made by two of my friends. He's got me excited to shape a weird little board and I think this is the one I want to make—a stringerless little stubby. ------------------------------- I have good reasons for not updating—I was in the middle of the North Atlantic, then I had to move to another house!
I was on a boat or as they call it, a "ship" Bermuda in the background: My scientific team was Michelle and Tom: Here, Tom is inspecting the plankton tow net's "cod bucket": Here I am waiting for the ship to turn around, so we can deploy the net. This was the only daytime deck work we had in 7 days (all night shifts): Recovering the net in the sunshine— it was nice to see the sun. Tom and I tried on the survival suits:
Back on land, we walked around and found a decrepit half-pipe. I'm sure that wood cost a pretty penny—they should have taken better care of it. ------------------------------- Sometimes I feel this way: New house: "the oldest house in Rocky Hill, NJ" ------------------------------- Safely landed in surprisingly cool Bermuda (it's in the sixties, temperature-wise). Hanging out at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences all day, with a little stroll around town with father-in-law Tom. Here we go...
------------------------------- So busy that I forgot I even had a website... I had finished the stuff below, but never uploaded. I will be headed to Bermuda on a research cruise. Have a few days afterward—hope there's some waves on the outer reefs. Until I get back, there's this:
------------------------------- Sure, I'm in "academia," but check out my results on Murray's "bubble test" (below). I'm not going to say I don't know some of these people (they were the ones that bought houses from my step-dad and food at all the restaurants I worked), but I ain't one of them (according to the test). Some of the questions I found pretty funny:
Like I said, it's a ridiculou, but fun quiz (you can take it here). ------------------------------- Good guys, bad guys ------------------------------- You can download the entire PAGES newsletter HERE or just go to their website HERE. ------------------------------- Back in my graduate school days (2.5 years ago), a typical Sunday morning would find me waking up around 6:30 am to ride some waves. Depending on the season, I would then be driving north to see my North County friends (in the summer) or south to Imperial Beach (sometimes with George, mostly by myself). On the way, I would listen to KPBS. Afterward, I would drive back home to La Jolla while listening to Brunch with Bob (and friends) on 94.9. By this time, Brooke would be awake and we would walk to the La Jolla farmers' market with Jake. Things are a little different here in New Jersey. I'm using this peaceful time to finally update the site with all the photos I just found on an old disk. Check out Bob and Leah's wedding photos here. I would love to put up photos from Matty/Tara and Jeff/Lisa's weddings, but I can't find them... I'm pretty sure I only shot those on film and the film is sitting around waiting to get developed (I know, years later). Sorry dudes. Please enjoy some of these photos below from the Bob/Leah wedding and other good times in 2011.
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By the way, I am keeping a science-y blog over at www.princeton.edu/~prafter ------------------------------- On my flight home, I was standing in line behind an... interesting family. Dad, two boys, and a girl (all kids under age 11). There was a lot of yelling and fighting before we got on the plane. As we shuffled to the back of the plane, I realized that it was possible these people were going to sit next to me—I was (unfortunately) correct. The littlest kid sat next to me and he had the stinkiest feet I've smelled in a long time. Dad bought him a lot of snacks and the kid took the cheese and played with it like it was clay for an hour (pretty disgusting). Food kept falling off the tray onto me and my stuff, so after an hour of this nonsense I had the flight attendant bring a bag for us to clean up the mess (where was dad? completely clueless).
------------------------------- Valentine's day was actually pretty good this year... my wife got me a very nice card and I "got" her a locket with Jake and my own pictures in it. Right now, I'm in the land of the angel Moroni:
SLC, UT
------------------------------- Cool kids from the past month (or so):
------------------------------- Walking the dogs in Erwinna, PA.
------------------------------- When I am sitting on the ocean waiting for waves, I often think about my science (e.g. why don't we see the 100 kyr ice age cycling in many tropical paleoclimate records?). Sometimes, I've come up with some interesting ideas to test and I've always thought this time "slacking off" was worthwhile and improves my science. Well, it turns out that subduing the stressful, everyday thoughts leads to more creative problem-solving. A good way to go about this is by taking it easy in the morning... or (in my mind) sitting on the ocean:
Link here. I'd like to say this will make me go surfing more often, but the Atlantic hasn't been offering up much in the way of waves lately. Well, at least Chris Mansor is getting some waves in CA:
------------------------------- A new-ish Philly band that really knows how to do that thing:
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Everybody's favorite kneeboarder Albert Munoz is featured on the cover of The Surfer's Journal and also in this video by Korduroy. Might there be a resurgence of kneeboarding coming?
Legless - InnerViews from www.KORDUROY.tv on Vimeo.
Always animated. ------------------------------- 29 JANUARY 2012 Too busy finishing projects and applying for assistant professor jobs to update the site. Check these things out though:
------------------------------- 19 JANUARY 2012 The most popular paper at Global Biogeochemical Cycles is #64 (Rafter et al.'s recently published work). Yeah for me. Link is by subscription-only (ask me if you'd like a copy):
------------------------------- 14 JANUARY 2012 (update) Check out our friend Albert Munoz on the cover of the current Surfer's Journal! ------------------------------- 14 JANUARY 2012 January vacation-time. San Diego. Awesome. I happen to time my visit with two swell "events": These things eventually led to this (on a small day): Fortunately, there was a low risk of wildfires, so we could burn a bunch of Xmas trees: We ate all sorts of food: More to come. ------------------------------- 10 JANUARY 2012 If it's the beginning of a new year, then Brookie and I are taking our annual vacation. This year, we played the game of "East Versus West"—are we happier here or there? This is the perennial question and was even featured on Rob Gilley's blog:
My take: the waves get really good on the east coast (up to a little overhead), but they are more consistent (and get bigger) on the west coast. Photos to come. ------------------------------- 24 DECEMBER 2011 Photos from the season:
------------------------------- Tomorrow is Christmas day. Have fun with your family if you want to. ------------------------------- 21 DECEMBER 2011 Back on Thanksgiving:
Here in December, it's still not that cold, but it looks like winter here at PU:
------------------------------- 12 DECEMBER 2011 A video of Scott's acceptance speech:
------------------------------- 11 DECEMBER 2011 Scott Soens receives another (yes another) Surfer Poll award for Best Cinematography!
------------------------------- 11 DECEMBER 2011 Christmas in Princeton
I was walking home the other night and it had just rained. I stopped in one spot and took photos in three different directions.
------------------------------- 10 DECEMBER 2011 Yes, this is real: And, yes, this is awesome (I will be doing this): Recycling skateboards from pedro vieira on Vimeo. ------------------------------- 04 DECEMBER 2011 It is nice outside and all of the leaves are off the trees. The leaves are off the trees. Photos to come. ------------------------------- Fugazi is releasing recordings from their many years on tour (about 800 out of a thousand shows) and I think I know what I will be listening to for the next few years. Check it out HERE. Do I like Fugazi? Well, I have a Gibson SG for only one reason (If I could have gotten a cream-colored SG I definitely would have). They are asking for people to submit photos from all the shows, so I look up their 2002 show at Fort Reno (it was a mid-summer free show in a Wash. D.C. park). I'm excited to send my photos because I know I was getting artsy with a Holga at that time, but they already have a bunch of great photos from the show... from Glen Friedman no less! Well, maybe they'll put mine up, but they really aren't that great anyway:
And if you email photos, you might get an email back from Ian himself!
------------------------------- 01 DECEMBER 2011 Photos.
I took the above from Ben McBrien's workshop / bloggage here. Check it out HERE 'cause he makes rad wood products. ------------------------------- 28 NOVEMBER 2011 Vice put out an amazing series of interviews with the Ricky Oyola who is pretty much the epitome of the East Coast street skater. Super influential. Did you know he was from Medford, NJ? I didn't. Some of the people talk about Love Park being a scary place to skate in the '90s because... it was.
Note that Ricky talks about how "we were riding big wheels," because before these guys, everyone was riding tiny little "bearing covers" (including me). At the time, it was amazing to see the Philly guys and the Failure team guys skating super fast and doing big tricks. Of course, Tim Chapman was the one guy down here that went fast before it was cool. *I'm no going to embed all the videos because for some reason they all start playing at the same time and it's incredibly annoying. So, I've embeded one of the five sections above to start at my favorite part. ------------------------------- 26 NOVEMBER 2011 I got the fever to ride a skateboard right now and it's all because of this new skatepark in Ambler, PA. Super smooth, super fast, nothing over 4 feet high and some really unique set-ups all over the place. Only drawback is the southeast corner (there's nothing there). There's a great pyramid with a gap in the middle, but I always had too much speed going into that SE corner and had to run out. Regardless, I want to go back! Pretty uncrowded this day, probably because it was Thanksgiving.
Chris White needs to go back to this park for some redemption. ------------------------------- Speaking of Chris White, his wife and her sister fed me on Thanksgiving:
------- ------------------------ 23 NOVEMBER 2011 Got new surfboards. They are good!
I am also worried that my stance is too wide (look at where my booties go). Somebody bring a video camera down to the beach one day.
Yes, it is a 5'9.5" step up, which is just about all I need to get into some dredging east coast barrels. I wonder if it could work at Blacks... check out that pin tail! It's pretty much a tube hunter. The paint job is bad, but I needed to get some color on it before I waxed it up for another session. ------------------------------- 21 NOVEMBER 2011 Whoops, I guess the UC Davis occupiers were actually protesting the crazy tuitiion increase the UC system is undergoing. Either way, it demonstrates the militarization of our police (university police with assault rifles!) and the frequent brutality visited upon protestors. In other news, NYPD visits churches and synagogue "sanctuaries" to track and take pictures of Occupy protestors (link here). ------------------------------- In other news, it is still not possible to watch the MACHOTAILDROP movie (unless you were / are lucky to live near the few screening locations. The reason? I don't know, but the MachoTailDrop people say to drop a message on the FuelTV facebook page saying you want to watch MachoTailDrop. Dont' know what the heck I am talking about? Watch the trailer:
And then check out this incredibly bizarre / brilliant spin-off of MachoTailDrop for 'eS shoes:
Be A Manwolf Today from éS Skateboarding on Vimeo. ------------------------------- 20 NOVEMBER 2011 Crazy nice weather in the Jersey area today—too bad I am working, working, working. But the desk I work on has a lot of interesting photos under the glass top and I couldn't help noticing how good looking these people were:
To all my CA peeps—we will be arriving Jan. 1, so be prepared to ride a lot of waves with me and eat a lot of burritos. ------------------------------- 19 NOVEMBER 2011 An "Occupy" protest at UC Davis. Cops pepper spray student protestors in the face.
My only wish is that this movement was called "99 %" isntead of "Occupy". ------------------------------- 13 NOVEMBER 2011 Some people get to fly to Hawaii for fun times on the North Shore while others get to stay in Princeton, NJ and think about taking a trip to Hawaii. Which reminds me, everyone's favorite Herron brother is an official state of Hawaii lifeguard! I wonder if he still has the painting I gave him...
------------------------------- 09 NOVEMBER 2011 It's been good to be a New Jersey surfer this fall—frequent ridable waves that are semi-frequently good and pretty nice weather (except for that freak snow storm). Freak storm events have long been a prediction of global warming, so don't take this as evidence against a warming planet. I have no photos of the great waves or the freak snow event because my relatively new Canon point and shoot jammed. I have taken some old-school print film photos, but you know how that is... expect results in a few months. What I wanted to write and say is that Canon is giving me a new camera! Here's the proof:
Really great. I hope they survive the oncoming point and shoot apocalypse (when cell phone cameras take over—see this article for a discussion). ------------------------------- Today was also a brilliantly beautiful fall day on the Princeton campus. The kind of day that makes you think, "Einstein probably was walking to work and saw the golden light streaming through the orange and red leaves just like I'm seeing right now". Or maybe he was thinking important thoughts and never noticed. Well, I noticed and wished I had that camera, but here's some photos from last year:
------------------------------- 03 NOVEMBER 2011 The Rafter family had a great trip to the Outer Banks for the McClure / Angeline wedding. Super fun and lots of photos to get ready for the website. Here's a little taste:
------------------------------- 30 OCTOBER 2011 What a shock—snow just a few days after I was lounging on the beach in shorts. And the PRafterDotCom camera got messed up at the Jockey's Ridge sand dunes (freaking sand got everywhere despite my best efforts). Otherwise, check out this blog for happiness and check out this video to see about a 75 year old Englishman named Ray who dives for treasures in the deep blue sea: Ray: A Life Underwater from Danny Cooke on Vimeo. “A rogue with an eye for salvage – and the ladies – Ray: A Life Underwater is an affectionate portrait of one man’s deep sea diving career, told through his extraordinary collection of marine artifacts." This makes me think about my friend Skillet and Brooke's grandpa who are / were both hard hat divers (or whatever you call this kind of work). Brooke's grandpa had tattoos of a chicken and pig on each feet to keep from drowning (I still don't get that). I had a dream about diving the other day... haven't actually used SCUBA gear in a long time, but I distinctly remember the feeling like you were flying. It's really quite amazing. Perhaps it's a sign, just like this ridiculous October snow storm (followed by howling offshore winds that blew the waves flat in hours). ------------------------------- And here are more photos from the amazing day of surfboard riding on October 20th:
------------------------------- 25 OCTOBER 2011 We got to the Outer Banks on October 20th for Bob and Leah's wedding. Drove all night. Surfed all day. The corporate-surfo-media complex documented it:
Thanks to Brian Brown for getting me my surfing board in time to ride these below-sea-level drainers. I call it the "Tube Hunter" and it will be featured on PRafterDotCom shortly (after I get all Bob and Leah's wedding photos up). Lots of barrels in the 5 to 8 second range... and also a lot of beatings where we were smashed on the seafloor. ------------------------------- 18 OCTOBER 2011 (Going back to NC edition) Hi everyone. There is a slight possiblity of a week-long hiatus in PRafterDotCom. This is because the legendary BOB is getting married. To this lady.
And we are all going to the Outer Banks for the nuptials. I've been asked this many times and will probably be asked a few more: YES THERE WILL BE WAVES. YES THE WATER IS WARM (reportedly 84 degrees!). YES I WILL HAVE WAY TOO MANY SURFBOARDS! Some are wooden,some long, and many short. Several short surfing boards are for sale! This is one of them (a little too small for me, but good). It also has an awesome homage to my homey. This board is 19 1/4" wide. 2 1/4" thick. 5'6" long:
Oh yes, and the road to Hatteras Island is open—they put up a temporary bridge where the ocean met the Pamlico thanks to Irene. Here's the NC DOT video showing the new bridge:
If you're lucky, I will update from the South. If I am lucky, I will link up with the Hollow Daze editor Mike D. to shred some waves like this in Buxton: ------------------------------- 16 OCTOBER 2011 (OWS update) Just read several excellent articles and wanted to share. I also wanted to let you know that Suze Orman supports the 99 % ("APPROVED!") Nik Kristoff has an excellent article in today's NYT. From this article: did you know that the CIA ranks the U.S.A. as having a quite high income inequality? And that increased inequality may explain reductions in economic growth since the '70s. Also, this from the Congressional Budget Office:
------------------------------- 16 OCTOBER 2011
A fun wedding and the Soul Cruisers too! ------------------------------- 16 OCTOBER 2011 Back when it was summertime:
------------------------------- 14 OCTOBER 2011 (update) By the way, Occupy Wall Street and the 99 % movement have some really nerdy / awesome signs: ------------------------------- 14 OCTOBER 2011 My father-in-law is a pretty cool guy: he can fix almost anything, he can sail a boat, and will happily drive you to surf every morning and offer free advice on how to treat a dog bite (purchase bleach and cerveza from the local mini-mercado—pour bleach on wound and he will drink the cerveza and watch). There's a funny story behind that last point. It turns out that he also wanted to be a "space man" and take a trip to the moon when he was younger and he asked the D.O.D. if they could help him out. Check it:
------------------------------- 13 OCTOBER 2011 Ok, let's see what I haven't posted yet... oh yes, I took my nephew Christian to see the Philly Union play some European (and everywhere else) football:
He was youth player of the month, so we got free tickets and they brought him out on the field to be recognized. Soon he'll be out there kicking that there soccer ball for real! The kid is good!
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