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The Topic of the Day is: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, T minus seven... A week until I leave! and of course, the result is PANIC and FLAILING and TONS OF WORK LEFT TO DO. Basically, my antennas and receiver box are finished. So today, hopefully! (assuming I see Carlos), we take them upstairs and install them. And if we get lucky and have time, I get to do a scan using a spectrum analyzer as opposed to a full backend receiver. If I do that, then I can make sure that my system, which is, let me tell you, sensitive to a range where there's a lot of high spike interference, won't blow out the backend receiver it's plugged into. I don't know *how* I will determine that, but that's what I get to figure out. IF that plays out well, then on Friday we have a whole chunk of time where I get to manipulate the system into thinking my receiver is some other receiver (because my receiver hasn't been programmed in yet) and then taking observations with it. Hopefully. Two major observations to do in that time period. The first is to focus my receiver; ie, figure out how much offset it is from focus and then adjust it. With software. Somehow. And then the second is to do essentially a cross or spider scan of as much sky as possible with my receiver, to check out the local RFI that we see from the telescope. Did I forget to mention that I need to first hook my system up to the noise figure meter and figure out the cal level, then email that to Phil? Does it not make sense to you? Because large portions of it are gibberish to ME. and it's my freakin frontend. Then comes the data reduction. Vasty, vasty quantities of data reduction. And I'll get the data on FRIDAY, so I'll have to work on it on SATURDAY (in addition to a pre-pack to figure out if I need to mail anything) before heading off to my boss's for a going away supper, and then on SUNDAY we're going to supposedly the prettiest beach in the south (well, it'll be a Caribbean beach; I admit, I don't need much more) and then to the bioluminescent bay at night. And then MONDAY is the workshop and our going away party and TUESDAY is my presentation. when the heck am I going to have time to reduce all that data before Tuesday???? AAAGH! and WEDNESDAY I leave. We head out at 10 am, which might give me some time to go shopping before hand. There are a few things I need to pick up yet (Louise (?), Jacki and Rachel (R!), Paddy and Sarah (R!), Patrick (?), Stephen (?), Mom (C+), Ryan (?), Casey (?)--aack!). A visit to the visitor's center this weekend might help with this. Anyway, one week and then I can see my family again, and have a few days hanging out with some fantastic friends, and then I get to head back to town and move in and get cats and do my regular lab research and... *is all excited* Labels: Arecibo |
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My Other Writing Sites | |
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Webcomics | |
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Stories I'm currently working on. | |
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***Tbook1 (Time and Chaos, needs a new name, needs to be edited) ***Book of Sun (Just needs to be edited. Tis a Nano novel) ***Book of Whispers part 1 (Does not jive at all with part 2; needs to be rewritten to fit and to have less suckage) ***Book of Whispers part 2 (Needs some rehaul editing, needs some loose ends tied up, needs to fit) ***Book of Whispers part 3 (Needs to be finished... then needs to die o.o Not sure if I need a third part in the series) ***Dium's Story (Needs a point, progress, anything... needs to be integrated into Tbook1, since that is what it is a part of, mainly) ***Trio Story with Jackie and Louise (Maybe we should get together and work on this, guys) ***Demon Story (This is working out pretty good so far. I like the plot, it's a bit convoluted, and the characters are interesting) ***New Witch Story (It's only 30 pages long, dang) ***Dragon's Voices (This has SO much potential! wee!) | |
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2 Comments:
I don't even know what "frontend" means, much less all the goobledy gook you were spurting a moment or two earlier. But I miss you like the beejeezus or something else that sounds obscure but is actually a WHOLE FREAKING LOT.
<3 SAJ
Dont forget your shiney new lappy waiting for you at my house!! hooray!!!
p.s. - word verification to post a comment is really hard for me, being all dyslexic and stuff.
Loves, misses.
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