JesseParker.com

Presentation power point done, off to find some respectable clothing and practice for a while

Enabling Tools for the Mechanical Analysis of Protein Molecules M.S. Defense Announcement For Jesse Parker Date: Friday, July 27, 2007 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: ITEB 3 60 Major Advisor: Prof. Ilies Co-Major Advisor: Prof. Kazerounian Associate Advisor: Prof. Fan The ability to predict the changes in the protein conformations when subjected to external stimuli is one of the open and most significant problems in science today. This thesis investigates three important topics related to this problem, and relies on the assumption that proteins can be modeled as kinematic chains. Specifically, we present the development and implementation of protein visualization techniques, and of two approaches to perform side chain level inverse kinematics, as well as a comparison of two energy reduction methods for protein structures. First, several visualization methods were developed and implemented for both protein structure representation, as well as data visualization, and have been...

Lots of these things around Three Forks, Montana. Not the least of which is the Parker Homestead in Parker Homestead State Park.

The wedding was nothing short of spectacular. I was the official wedding photographer so I'll have plenty of pics available eventually for the viewing of interested parties. Here's one of Travis having some cake.

Levi is now fourth as of Sunday! Go Butt Montana! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/results/default.stm

Sorry I didn't make it. Here's a couple from the archive, I hope the evening is alot of fun.

This was cool, all the police dogs and their handlers get together for a competition every year. I wanted to get some practice taking shots of moving targets, and taking pictures of strange dogs is considerably less creepy than strange people, so I went for it. There were four events, agility, tactical obedience, shooting, and some other obedience one. More photos if you click on any of the selections below. Grrr....

Funny, I forgot what people did when they had free time after work. Last night I went for a bike ride at Case Mountain, a really nice place I should visit more. The first part was a section of trail I haven't ridden before that goes through some hemlock tunnels. These things are creepy, the twisty branches remind me of sleepy hollow or something.. Looks like they want to entwine you and drag you off the trail Followed by a section that went past some old cabins, there was an old chimney, and this. Had an interesting mechanical. As I was going over a "roller" (steep thing you roll down, not jump off of) my derrailleur got sucked into my spokes. So, I'm way back on the bike with the seat in front of my chest, butt almost on the tire and my rear wheel locks up. Needless to say, I continue forward when my bike decides it doesn't want to. The result was painful, but somehow I didn't crash. The bike looked a bit off though. But surprisingly, despite the ri...

Defense next Friday, I think it may be time for a celebratory bike ride.

So after two years in a cramped nearly windowless hole, our lab is moving to a much larger room with more natural light. old New On a related note, I'm almost done with a first draft of my thesis, and plan on defending next friday. My advisor is leaving after Friday until the end of August, so this is the last possible time before then. Wish me Luck!

Doesn't seem to be that big of a deal anymore now that Lance isn't racing. It should be noted though, that at the end of stage nine, Levi Leipheimer (from Butte, USA) is in 9th place. Pretty cool for a guy from Montana eh?

I think I gave John a good idea of what's out here in New England. We went on a whirlwind tour that included beaches, hills, mountains, mosquitos, abnormal humidity, ponds, lakes, brooks, roots, rocks, quohogs, clams, crabcakes, and some history in Boston. Block Island, RI Savoy Mtn. State Park, MA North Conway, NH Lynn Woods, MA (Walden Pond) And Finally, The hometown UConn Forest

So after years of harassment from Jesse I came down to visit him in Connecticut. I arrived at 5:30 AM after an interesting day/night of traveling that started at noon and involved 7 hours of driving, 5 of flying and 3 of waiting in airports. We went for a bike ride back behind school the day arrived and it was fun, slippery rocks and roots the like of which I haven't seen in Montana. The next day we went over to Rhode Island and did some Rhode Island things such as eating stuffies and quahogs and helping Jesse practiced his "Rhode Island block" on the roads. I broadened my chowda experience to include the clear variety too, which is also delicious. We then went to Block Island via ferry and hung out on beaches, did a little ocean swimming and looked at some bluffs and lighthouses and such. Good times. Then we drove back to Storrs and slept for a while. Now I'm in his office downloading some pictures off of my camera to make room for our upcoming trip to Mas...

Kara had to go the the bon-voyage party for her People To People trip in Deerfield, MA. I came along, and went a couple of miles north to another town called Greenfield while she performed her leader duties. It's pretty neat to be around this kind of history. Greenfield was settled in 1686, and incorporated in 1753. At that time it was the northern frontier before the Canadian border. Sort of like the wild west.. or wild north.. or whatever. I went to Rocky Mountain Park, and rode along a ridgeline that is part of the same glacial formation as two other rides I've done: Mt. Tom in MA, and Penwoods in CT. Same rock and everything. Another interesting thing about this ride was the "poets seat tower". A sandstone tower that was built a long time ago in honor of the american poet Frederick Goddard Tuckerman . Tuckerman was good friends with Tennyson, and another poet I recognized but don't remember. I couldn't figure out when the tower was built, mostly ...