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The Topic of the Day is: Friday, August 01, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, T minus five Wednesday, they took my antennas and receiver (together called the front-end of a receiver system) up to the platform and installed it on the platform floor inside the dome. BUT they got chased out by our pulsar astronomer, who wanted to use the time for observing even though it was test time. *disapproves*. And yesterday, the carriagehouse (ie, the thing the big line feed is attached to) was not working. So, no work getting done on my project then. Then today, some transmitter wasn't working last night so they are running it now. I might get to go up at 9:30 or 10. Hopefully that's enough time. Hopefully afterwards I'll be able to observe from the ground and get my real data. The hard part about doing an instrumentation REU is that I'm coming into what is essentially a closed, functional system. There are enough people here to run around and keep the telescope running; but all the people are required at all points of their time to do it. Introduce me, and suddenly I'm trying to use the resources available to add an additional function to the telescope. I can't disrupt the running of the telescope, though, so the real result is that everyone is worked extra hard whenever they have time to spare and nothing of mine gets done in a timely fashion. Well, anyway, at least it's heading up and essentially from here on out it's data reduction. Wednesday we went to the beach for sunset. I forgot my camera but John and Diana let me take some sweet pictures. The beach was glorious--the water just warm enough, and lots of big swelling waves. I want to go back there so that feeling can stick with me. There was also a cooler full of beverages and pizza afterwards. The people here are ridiculous levels of fun and oh so kind and helpful. I hope we can go again next week Tuesday, the night before I leave. When we got back from playa and pizza, there was a coqui on our window. I caught it and held it for a while, and then when I tried to look at it it jetted out of my hands. I chased it around the porch for a bit but I couldn't catch it again, so I just took a bunch of pictures and then chased it away. SO CUTE! half the height of my thumb and not much wider, so light and little... I think something about me is a little more complete after getting the chance to see the great mystery of Puerto Rico, the small and the difficult to find, the singing of the frog at dusk. My camera is incapable of capturing the light here. Dusk is brilliant and overflowing with a sort of shivering illumination that makes the trees and the cabins more obvious, and yet my camera has the hardest time getting pictures that emphasize this... this magical post-sunset landscape... it's just impossible to describe. And then, the night! a slew of liquid darkness brimming with frogs and insects singing, the rustle of the trees in the wind. And that's jungle darkness. It's different from the ocean darkness, where the whole world simply disappears at the shore's edge, and the lights and everything human falls off and what's left behind is... nothing. I'm going to miss it here. I love this place, its newness and strength and magic, its dusk and its night and the soft shallow luminescence when the sun rises. 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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