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The Topic of the Day is: Tuesday, August 05, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory: The Last Day Well, 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 whole extra week. Friday when we went up to install the receiver I tripped in the receiver room in the dome. Bruised my knee and wrist and got some delightfully square cuts. They're healing all right but I am worried about maybe having chipped something, and also an ugly bug bite which might be Lyme Disease! not likely here, but I'm a bit of a worrier. Saturday we went to G.'s house for supper. His wife cooked some delicious South Indian food and we got to meet his daughter again. A good time was had by all and he loaned us his copy of Contact! Sunday we did go to Playa Sucia, one of the prettiest beaches on the island. It was a really long drive, all the way to the south, and we left at noon so we got there at like four. Swimming in the Caribbean was great--the water was green and cloudy and warm and beautiful, and the salt did wonders for my wounds. We met a big hermit crab on Anthony's towel, and I found a bunch of sea shells. Then we went to La Parguera, the bioluminescent bay. There was a little too much city glow for the bay to look neat, but the sky was gorgeous, with a nice Milky Way and some dust lanes, and even some shooting stars. We got in at 2am and I got up at 7am to come in and finish up my presentation, then headed up to the Visitor's Center early to practice. A quarter of the way up the extra giant hill (it's twice as tall as the way to my cabin!), one of the maintenance guys picked me up and drove me the rest of the way. I had a great, natural conversation in Spanish and it was delightful how easily I understood what was going on. The presentations went well and I got asked some really pleasant, thoughtful questions that I was totally able to answer. Post presentation, we had a party at the pool for a few hours. Then I had two hours of observing time with three extraintelligent superbrits who spent the time three steps ahead of me but never unwilling to stop and help me figure out was going around. They ran around and shouted things and were swift at programming, and we fixed our first light signal until it got a lot prettier and the pulsar astronomer came to kick us out. So I returned to the pool, and we discussed so many intelligent things in a thoughtful, realistic, yet entertain manner until midnight. When we got back to the cabin, we watched Contact (loved it! turns out Jodie Foster stayed in the other cabin, though. What a disappointment. and that bedroom they show? that's the LIVING room. the actual bedrooms are much much smaller) and went to bed at 3. I almost stayed up for the sunrise but couldn't quite bring myself to do it. Today has been super busy. Tons of running around, trying to get things to work, having final talks and presentations, doing pictures, meeting people. G. and D. took me out to lunch at Tony's Pizza and we've worked out the details on what we need to do next to get and keep my receiver functioning. I get to look into coming back in January over winter break! I don't know how I'll juggle it around AAS and trips to prospective graduate schools, but it is worth a try. And I think if I don't get into graduate school, they'd have no problem taking me back for a year. I am really going to miss this place. The strange, exotic nature of the nights, the dusks, the dawns, and the color of the sun and the sky during the day... all the greenery, the weird trees, the fresh fruit, the too sharp hills and the jagged cliffs and the giant cows. And the beaches. Definitely going to miss the beaches (I'm going one last time tonight in two hours). And I will miss all of the wonderful, amazing, friendly, kind, helpful, gracious people who have made this place a form of home. They have treated me as a scientist and as a peer and as a friend, and I have never felt more please nor more confident in my own abilities (except after going up to the platform). So thank you, to all of them. Labels: Arecibo |
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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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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 2 Comments:
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The Topic of the Day is: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | |
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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 conclusions Tell Carlos about any changes Attach copper strips to the plates (once the helix+forms are attached) to impedance match I think that's everything! then we get to install them up in the dome! (scary!) and take actual observations with them. Fun. Then, data crunch time and writing up a powerpoint at the same time to do my presentation on. I am really failing at doing anything besides enjoying myself in the evenings. Last night we went swimming in the pool until late. This past weekend I did do some data reduction but I also went shopping in San Juan, and saw Get Smart (wayyyy funnier than I thought), and went to a panaderia. And I've been playing vasty quantities of xbox's star wars battlefront. Squee! I am learning how to aim to shoot. yay! This coming weekend we are going to try to find Playa Sucia, supposedly one of the prettiest beaches on the Caribbean side of the island, and at night we are going to the bioluminescent bay in the south. Oh! and tonight we will probably go see Batman. yay! Anyway, as far as work goes, I am behind on my IDL for home and my emailing grad schools for home and my studying for the physics gre for home and my writing my mcnair paper for home. Shootshootshootshootshoot. I finished reading Inuyasha manga. Man, it was long, and I won't deny that a good 50% of it could be cut without harm to the plot (all right, maybe 70%). But I think it was worth it to see it through to the end. Sesshomarou turns out to be the best part (mwahahahahaha), and yes, there is lots of sadness, and yes, there is lots of gleeful happiness. Totally worthwhile. But it's long, I warn you, and at times tedious. Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, Day 54 Halfway 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. Maybe the reason I'm so work-weird is that I keep falling into the writing. Not poetry, even. Just... Tasiha. The dragon voices story is plot-stuck now (I really don't know where it's going from here), and the wizardslave story is lacking character motivation--meaning, I don't know WHY it's going where it is. I suppose that isn't necessary.... but still... I don't know. Everything is tumbled about. I feel like I'm just counting down the days until I leave. And it's not just all "I miss my family, friends, and home." There is something unreal about this place. I'm just passing time here. I don't get to leave a mark. Soon enough I will move on. And I am enjoying myself, and having a good summer, more than anything else. Perhaps that's why I'm ready to leave. I feel like life is on hold for vacation, and that I want to get back to the life. Things to do: meet with phil to talk about data reduction once we hook up the receiver get cal injection from g. get boxes from s. do noise figure analysis with g. on all the LNAs wire two more LNAs also study for the physics gre aaaagh back contact grad school folks finish contacting grad school folks work on my idl program. *kicks it* I am so addicted to Law and Order: SVU that I may consider collecting it. Other things I want to collect: Saiunkoku, Mushishi, Black Lagoon, Hellsing Ultimate (and I want to see Noein and Ergo Proxy in full), Full Metal Alchemist, Mahou Shoujo Tai (heehee!), Shin Angyo Onshi manga (even if I have to print it off and staple it together), Full Metal Alchemist manga (but there's so much of it and it's so expensive...)... so many ways to ... waste my time? well, to enjoy myself. I always want to be an expert at what I do, but I'm not willing to put in the effort--it's easier to sit about mindlessly losing myself in things. gah. Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Friday, July 11, 2008 | |
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And that was followed by an AMAZINGLY productive afternoon. woo! Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Thursday, July 10, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, Day 49 The 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 definitely get my receivers built before I leave. The guys I am working with (electronic department engineers) are really nice and very helpful (now that the telescope is no longer broken) Minuses: Not getting any papers out of this. Also, I am getting sick of hanging out with people. Maybe it's just me, mood swinging, blahdeblah, but I want to spend some time alone. I don't want to put the effort into paying attention to and validating other people. It'd be nice if they did it to me. Well, all angst aside, tonight we are going to go see The Happening and tomorrow, Wall.E. Then, in a week and a half, Dark Knight! Woohoo! And it looks like this weekend I might go to San Juan, and there's going to be a cook out Sunday that we don't have to cook at. And maybe we'll end up at the Caja de Muertos island (doesn't that sound awesome???) before I leave in August. Perhaps I'll even get the chance to hit the beach again before this is all over. Perhaps it's a bit silly, but I am really enjoying this as a vacation, learning to have fun and enjoy myself. Other things: I am missing the family and the friends and the lab, where I can get something done without depending on one person who's too busy to help. I need to study for the physics GRE! but every night it's just too much effort, and I don't have a study space. I'm about 50% done with contacting graduate schools (and it's been a great help!) but it's really time consuming and, I admit, kind of boring. I want to write, but I am at something of an impasse for both of my ongoing stories. I can't figure out the motivation in the wizard/slave story, and I can't figure out the overarching plot of the dragon story. I've some distinct images in mind, but nothing to connect them. And my poems keep getting stuck, because people are always around when I'm trying to write. rawr! Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Saturday, June 28, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, Day 37 Today'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 fish and the boat was neat, but the waves were kind've rough for snorkeling). Then we tried to find Tres Palmas beach in Rincon and failed, but ended up at Rincon Beach, which was very peaceful. Lots of nice big waves but nothing to smash on. Twin and I talk a lot when we are in water. Then we headed all the way down through Mayaguez and almost made it to Ponce before we realized we missed our exit; turned around and headed back to find the Bioluminescent Bay in La Parguera. Find it we did (amazing!) and it was really really really sweet. We lucked out and made it out before the moon rose; the sky and the water were very dark, and riding a boat out there is beautiful. The stars were gorgeous; and then when we got to the bay they had people jump in and swim around so we could see the awesome glowingness of their motion. Green fire in waves and ripples.... Finally, on Monday, Twin and I went to the local Arecibo beach in the morning; then she dropped me off up at the Observatory. Things that suck: I'm sick. With sneezing and coughing. The coughing's actually getting worse and as a result I won't be going to El Yunque, the national rainforest, today. *is very sad*. I can't do anything at work. I'm pretty much down to the machine shop stage, so everything I need to do I need to have supervision for, and everyone is hella busy. And next week my boss is gone so I am doubting that I will be able to do anything then either. I have to hope that the guys machine my stuff without me there. And I didn't give them the big picture... I simplified things... so there're a few steps that I'll have to do myself, I think, so that'll be challenging. I don't know if I'm getting far enough on my project. I know it's only a summer thing but I do want to get stuff done and it's just not happening I have run out of some food vitals (but fortunately someone is stopping at the grocery store for me today. yay!) Family + Insurance = strife and suckiness. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngh. why are my family things so complicated and painful and awful? last night I only prayed for healing for my twin and I and happiness for the rest of the family. And it hurt me to realize how far away and perhaps impossible those things are. Why do Twin and I have to suffer so much in the middle of all the family whirlwinds? Well, today is a day for staying home and finishing up some responsibilities. I'm going to finish reducing W-STAR data, fix/write my McNair paper, study up through Chapter 3 for the physics GRE, and email the rest of the grad schools in my "recommended" list. I will be productive! Labels: Arecibo 2 Comments:
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The Topic of the Day is: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, Day 26 I'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 piping for one of the 995MHz antennas. Plenty of piping for the 700 MHz. I hope my simulations are relatively accurate. It would suck to produce this and then have it fail. I got my book from P.1. last night, so I can start studying for the physics GRE. Things to do: Email more graduate schools (woo! I actually started! holla that!) Study for the Physics GRE (seriously, just get to work on this) Talk to D. and G. about the next step, now that modeling is mostly done Measure the gauge of that wire Go to the 2pm meeting Go swimming at like 5pm after work (yay, pool!) Reduce WSTAR data (seriously, just do this stupid thing. It won't take long and it's easy and you really really really really really need to do it) Rewrite McNair paper for spring (gak!) Submit info for AIAA scholarship (woohoo! goodbye to my last loan and my work study!) I can get through this. And if I do, I'll be in good shape. AND I have the best reward ever: Twin is coming down to visit me!!! YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!! she'll be here three days, and I have off for them, except for the meeting. Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, Day 19 Well, 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 see the stars. We could even see the milky way a little bit. I recognized the dippers, corona borealis, the summer triangle, and scorpio, but I don't know the constellations very well here. We shall have to go again at the dark of the moon; it was gorgeous but very bright. From the hill top we could see lightning storms coming from different directions. Slept 6 hours. Letting myself get adjusted to being busy again. I wish I were motivated to do my grad school prep work in the evenings, but with all the other people around distracting me it's kind've hard. Got up early, came on down here, and found my advisor, D., and we ended up going to the platform. It was.... challenging. Interesting. Really cool and simultaneously scary. The ride in the cable car was much easier than I thought. As long as I didn't lean over the edge (which I didn't, and couldn't), it was fine. Good view of the surrounding areas and the platform as we approached it. Getting onto the platform was not hard, and it's quite secure. Lots of railings, no place to fall over at all. But there were lots of stairs, and of course you can see through the stairs and all the way down to the dish below. That was pretty freaky. I was quite wobbly-legged the whole time, clambering up and down all the stairs. There were two tricky climbing parts; not fall-dangerous, just difficult to navigate. I took it slow, and it was actually kind've fun to be up there. But by the time we finished (installing a new compressor), they'd already begun astronomical observing so we couldn't take the cable car down. So we had to take the bridge/catwalk. And let me tell you, the catwalk is far worse than I thought. It is very steep, and very holey. Nothing dangerous, just that you can essentially see everything through all the holes. The dish, the wires, the surrounding hills, the visitor center. So you're going down hill, quite steep, your legs working very hard to keep from going too fast, and there's not really a railing to hang onto, just mesh as high as your head so you keep having to let go and get a new grip. and then at one point it was just a little bit tilted to one side. Not enough to be dangerous. But by the time I reached that point, a whole bunch of other workers were on the bridge besides me and D., and the thing was starting to shake and sway and move and it was just... terrifying. That's really the only time I freaked out at D.; not badly, I just asked him to stay closer so I could watch his back instead of the swaying bridge. The bridge lets out above the visitor center so we caught a ride in a van back down to the control room. D. and I then went into town to buy piping to wrap my helix antennas around. We found some stuff that looks like it will work quite well, and nothing for the larger size, so I have to run my simulations again and see how to produce what I need on a 4.5" diameter pipe. My legs ache, as if with cramp. Too much climbing and tension. Also, my back is..... um... crispy. Yeah. That's the best word for it. But I bought some aloe vera gel now and that's helped a lot. Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Monday, June 09, 2008 | |
| w | w |
Arecibo Observatory, Day 18 La 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 a soft slimy layer that feels like moss), and I stubbed my toes on some rocks. Then David let me borrow his snorkeling mask and tube, and I learned how to snorkel. It worked surprisingly well. And there were ALL sorts of fish: some little yellow and blue striped ones, and a bigger yellow one shaped like a butterfly, and a large white angel fish, and some other white or transparent fish that were hard to see, and some more just like them only with neon blue and yellow strips down their backs... well, okay, I'm not very technical :D I'll poke around online and see if I can find a list of tropical fish and their names, and get back to you. Then we went out and had some local food from the stalls: bacalaito, which is essentially a deep fried flat bread stuffed with little bits of cod that you couldn't taste; and hot dogs (loaded with meat, potato strings, cheese, ketchup, and mayonnaise... ugh, I thought I was going to die of cardiac arrest, though it was tasty); and piraguas, essentially shaved ice with syrup flavor, like snow cones. We went grocery shopping on the way home to pick up some essentials and I started to notice that I'd pinked out at the beach. Well when I got home and took a shower (it took forever to get all the sand off... how the heck did it get under my suit??), I discovered I was more than pinked. I'm pretty crispy, to the point where it's a bit uncomfortable to move my arms too much and wearing my backpack hurts like hell. I'll probably peel in a day or two. Sunday was spent goofing off on the computer and watching TV. At about 4 or maybe 5 in the afternoon, the rain started. We normally have afternoon thunderstorms here but this was a really big one. the lightning was tremendous, the rain torrential; we live on the top of a big hill, after all, and some of the strikes were pretty close. The power kept flickering on and off, and we lost the cable tv and the internet at various times. This morning I got up extra early so I could come in and get some work done. Instead, I ended up heading down the hill and taking a walk around the telescope. The ground shield is enormous! four or five times my height (maybe more, I'm no good at estimating). I got close enough to the telescope to touch a panel (exhibit gleeful squee here). I hope to go every morning; it's a kilometer circumference, so that makes for a nice walk, plus the climb up the hill afterwards is good for me too. Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Thursday, June 05, 2008 | |
| w | w |
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 here for the summer: Me, my roommates Diana and Tracy, and the guys: Elvin (sp?), Ali, and Ethan. There was a little introductory party in the afternoon by the pool and I talked to one of the British Guys, then shmoozed a bit with the awkward guy from Cornell and got some names of people to talk to (I think that I'd really like going there for grad school). I was preparing to spend another night putzing around on the computer, but then I wandered out for a walk and a talk with Ethan, and Diana came out to meet us and tell us she was bored. So we decided to go for a drive. I took my cell phone and was able to call my mom and my sister and my dad when we got down to Arecibo, and discovered that all my ID card problems were now major problems. shootshootshoot. But then something happened to turn the whole evening upside down. Atlantic. Ocean. ... ... ... ... I took no pictures. It was too dark out anyway. But there's no way a picture would suffice. The wind. The dark sand disappearing into the horizon And then you go down a dune, stumbling blindly because you can't see the changes in elevation in the dark, and the whole world opens... the horizon like an old wound, dark water and clouded sky stitched together in the distance. and lightning flickers to one side, and the water curls itself around your ankles and pulls at you. The horizon is hungry, like a mouth open but silent, and the wind rushes past you and the you sink into the sand a little bit more with every wave, and it goes on forever ... Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Monday, June 02, 2008 | |
| w | w |
Arecibo Observatory, Day 11 An 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 be left to myself while other people are around. It makes me feel comfortable and at home. Don't get me wrong. I guess I just don't like the hostess role, required to be utterly entranced by everything the other person says and keeping up the conversation when it flags. I don't do regular conversation very well. But I am not a misanthrope. Television and internet aside, I wrote a lovely bit of the Dragon Voices story. Two lovely bits. In fact, I almost doubled it (sorry, MadCityWriters: looks like it's a novel after all. *sigh* I fail at short stories). And I decided to spend an hour a day in meditation; not speaking, not trying to think, just being by myself and observing and listening. Not like that's not what I do already. My boss, G., should be back today. Then we can ask him about the gain we'd need to get the beam to the tertiary properly filled. I'm a little stuck because I've had to make assumptions from these equations that I'm not sure if I can make. Other exciting things: I twisted my ankle Saturday (it's okay). And I chickened out on going up to the platform. Maybe when it's with D. and G.... I prefer facing my fears with people who know me a little better, so they can understand that even if I'm freaking out, beneath that I'm an intelligent and rational human being. Labels: Arecibo |
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The Topic of the Day is: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | |
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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 graduate school. now I'm all question-y and uncertain and nervous and lonely (even though my first roommate is here, so that's good). Miss you peeps. Labels: Arecibo 4 Comments:
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The Topic of the Day is: Monday, May 26, 2008 | |
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Arecibo Observatory, Day 4 Had 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 office (tripped once on the way: wounds abound upon my knees and palms) and met with G. and D., where we discussed my project for almost 2 hours. Then I went into phase 1 of project, which is "learning what the hell is going." I spent three and a half hours reading, realized I hadn't had lunch, and lugged my books back up the hill. And I told D2 about the lack of utensils, internet, and phone service up here on the way, as well as got my key to get into the lab and my computer username, etc. Tomorrow I'll go turn in the paperwork to be here officially. The observatory is just lovely shortly after a rain--everything looks greener than before, and it's cooler and quieter. I ducked under a huge tree to get to the path to the stairs and wandered along by the cliff and then thought to myself, yep, I'm living in the rainforest. Making friends with the lizards and birds, hoping someone will eat the wasps building a little nest above the cabin door, and waiting for my roommates to show up. Pictures to come when I get some batteries for my camera so I can load them. 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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