Dream in Blue

2008-12-27T21:55:00.003-06:00

At the request of my family members I apparently need to blog more.Things of note:<3 my family and friends. I've had a great week hanging out with everyone and seeing people I missed and reaffirming some old connections. The holidays were super stressful, but with everyone's help I've almost made it through. Twin and I will be back by Wednesday, and then I can really breathe easy.I still have a

2008-12-07T19:28:00.001-06:00

seriously sucky migraine on Friday put a cramp in all my "catching up" plans.I WOKE with the headache. So not fair. Did nothing to earn it (and Sashafeather, if you put up with that kind of shit every day I am seriously sorry and I don't know how you do it).pain meds held the beast back until 1pm, at which time I realized I hadn't eaten all day. But I had meetings. So I had to wait until 2, ate,

2008-10-17T08:49:00.000-05:00

PHYSICS GRE!!!!!!!!

2008-10-04T21:10:00.001-05:00

Still too crazy busy to write a real post. This is just a wave to say hullo and that I'm still alive.In New Mexico right now. Unexpected. There was a McNair conference down here and since it's a prospective grad school, I got the program to pay for me to come (wayyyy more expensive than I originally thought, though. woosh). The conference was.... average. It was interesting to be here alone; I

2008-08-25T14:13:00.001-05:00

Post AreciboFlew in. Last flight was delayed, then cancelled; I got on a later (1am) flight to my home town and managed to get to bed at like 3 in the morning. maybe 4, I don't remember. My mom and sister completely surprised me with my guinea pig (I thought she was back in collegetown). Saw K. for part of a day (it was fun, and very relaxing), and R. for another part of a day (so much fun! I

2008-08-05T15:15:00.001-05:00

Arecibo Observatory: The Last DayWell, this is it.What a busy five days it has been. My receiver got installed on the dish and observations were made with it. We need to focus it, fix its pointing, figure out what's wrong with the cal and then calculate the Tsys and the SEFD. Which, unfortunately, is not likely to happen before I leave. I wish I had more time, but I've already been here almost a

2008-08-01T08:04:00.001-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, T minus fiveWednesday, 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

2008-07-30T07:04:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-23T12:14:00.002-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 61 (I think)Whoosh. Two weeks until I leave, and a lot of that useless, restless feeling is dissipating. Yes, I'm ready to go and really excited to be back. But work is happening! The receiver box is almost done. I just have to:Analyze and write up the LNA conclusionsTell Carlos about any changesAttach copper strips to the plates (once the helix+forms are attached) to

2008-07-16T11:39:00.001-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 54Halfway between productivity and procrastination. I get a bunch done, and then I sit on my computer for hours.I am really looking forward to going home, back to a normal schedule and the rest of my responsibilities.I really really wish I was more motivated.I keep thinking of Tasiha's story, and how even though it can't go anywhere, it's still so beautiful, so powerful.

2008-07-11T09:14:00.001-05:00

And that was followed by an AMAZINGLY productive afternoon. woo!

2008-07-10T07:56:00.003-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 49The end of my 7th week here. Everything still feels like it's a dream.The project is moving forward! My helix antennas are getting constructed and this afternoon we are going to try some noise figure analysis measurements on the two possible types of LNA (and no, I don't quite know what that means).Pluses: I am learning how to work a network analyzer, and I think I will

2008-06-28T06:55:00.003-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 37Today's officially the start of my sixth week, and I am just about half way done.Cool things since last time:Twin came and visited me!!! YAYYY!!! we went to the local Arecibo beach on Saturday and both burned; then on Sunday we tried to find Bajuras Beach and failed, so we went to Crashboat Beach and snorkeled around a sunken ship (so cool! there were tons of awesome

2008-06-17T09:10:00.002-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 26I've picked up the piping for my antennas and sent in a work order to get the ground plates cut. I think today I'll find a caliper and go in and measure the width of that thick copper wire and see what gauge it is, and then talk to Dana about starting to wind it. Hopefully there's a machine that'll make helices if I give it the right dimensions.We only have enough

2008-06-13T09:21:00.002-05:00

I have to say that the coffeeshop arc in Girl Genius is really, without doubt, one of the best things I have ever read in comics. Ever.Girl Genius by itself is a really excellent comic, but that arc? SUPERB. In every sense of the word

2008-06-10T15:05:00.002-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 19Well, last night our last student arrived (in theory... there are other ones scattered about who come at various times in the summer. But now the two cabins on top of the hill are full), so there was a mini party. Afterwards, the sky was so clear (usually it's quite cloudy at night), so Ethan and Ali and I trekked down the hill and up another hill to the optical lab to

2008-06-09T06:45:00.003-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 18La playa, la playa, fuimos a la playa!We went to the beach on Saturday morning. I was the only one ready on time; everyone else was late, but oh well. I'm a morning person.The beach was BEAUTIFUL. soft sand and this gorgeous little bay shielded from most of the waves by a ring of rocks and coral reef. I got to touch coral reef (it's like... porous stone, but covered in

2008-06-05T09:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was interesting. I didn't get a lot of work done (oops) but we had our first meeting. People droned on about safety and not doing things alone without contact for medical help. I learned I can take a walk around the telescope whenever I want (so will probably do one this afternoon). We also talked about a whole ton of cool activities that we might do on weekends. So now we have 6 people

2008-06-02T07:34:00.003-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 11An unproductive weekend, no doubt in part due to my lack of internet up at the Cabin. It rained a lot Saturday and a little bit Sunday. We have a new neighbor in the other cabin. He came over a lot and we ended up watching a fair bit of TV. I'm not really the hanging out type person; usually I just want to be left to myself, so it was a little awkward. But it's nice to

2008-05-28T19:12:00.002-05:00

kind've angsty tonight.Project is a little... troubling. In that it looks difficult and I find it a bit hard to understand. But it is, after all, only the first week.More importantly, I've come to realize how much my own happiness depends on having those I care about around me. Twin especially. Friends also.this realization has lead to me being uncertain about how successful I might be in

2008-05-26T15:06:00.003-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 4Had a fun weekend. Went to see the new Indiana Jones movie with lots of people from the observatory. Had a good discussion with D., my second advisor, about what my project might be on. Then I spent all of Sunday reading The Time of the Dark and Trickster's Queen. I also watched portions of Blade. It was very relaxing.This morning I took a hike down the stairs to the

2008-05-23T19:08:00.003-05:00

Arecibo Observatory, Day 1:Got 3 hours of sleep last night. Flights to Chicago and San Juan were easy. Struggled back into my Spanish and managed to find the appropriate taxi driver (pre-arranged), get to a grocery store, and make it up to the observatory.The roads are hellishly close here, and everyone barrels around them at 50, and they're very hilly, and on one side there's a drop off and on

2008-05-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

Well, it was a long haul, but it's over. good riddance to that semester.A few general points:Quantum is over. It was hell and it ate my life and taught me to give up and made me hate physics. With any small amount of luck, I got a B (but no grades posted... cmon, it's been a week!)Cosmo is over. I really enjoyed the class and I think the final went well. Within any luck, an A, but almost

2008-05-05T11:18:00.002-05:00

conclusions from an angry Physics-Club-DiscussionI have a hard time objecting to an opinion (because that is not something which is mine to control)but I can and will object to the people who choose to hold such an opinion (or to the choice to hold such an opinion) if it is an opinion which I vitally disagree with.So, I remarkably disagree with the idea that "middle eastern men are all

2008-04-18T13:45:00.001-05:00

And I am back from the dead! SWEET!Last week was RIDICULOUSLY crazy, mainly because getting to my conference sucked. It takes up WAY too much space to tell the story here so I'll just summarize:1) My flight out of town was delayed an hour because they couldn't find a plane2) Despite running through Chicago's airport, I missed my connecting flight and the subsequent connection3) I got a new