anarchist_nomad (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anarchist_nomad) wrote2006-02-22 10:27 pm
anarchist_nomad) wrote2006-02-22 10:27 pm
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Day 82: Under An Orange Sun
Today, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat came into the lab with me. On the drive in, about six miles away, we could see large smoke clouds rising up to the sky, clearly from a fire. On closer approach, we realized that they must have been originating from the lab. I correctly surmised that there was a prairie burn underway. The lab schedules such controlled burns regularly as part of the prairie restoration project. However, I have never before seen such a burn as there was today. We stopped at CDF to peer over the berm into the Tevatron ring. Large chunks of the inside of the ring were ablaze. Through the smoke, the mid-day sun shone down on us. The light was attenuated enough to look at directly, and the sun was bright orange. We went up to the top of the high-rise to get a better perspective. Most areas inside the ring were either burning or already scorched. Having a strong relationship with fire, I was rather impressed with the scene. cheshcat was slightly horrified by all the burning.
That said, it has been several days since my last update with content. What has been happening this week? Here are events of note:
Saturday evening, while I was still at the Grove, I got a very clear look at the [Northern] Winter night sky. Diana's Grove is in an area with low light pollution, so many stars were visible, and I could even see the Milky Way faintly. Just before bed,cassiopia and I did some star-gazing. It was very cold, so I bundled up with five layers, then pointed different stars and constellations out to her... including her namesake. I found myself wishing that I had brought a telescope with me for the weekend. And, not for the first time, I found myself missing the clear skies of Arizona, where I could walk out and star-gaze almost any night that the whim struck me.
Sunday evening, I had a hard time sleeping... due to a very bad bout with stomach acid. This problem comes and goes, but it has been quite prominent of late. Once I move, I definitely need to find time to get this chronic problem looked at.
On Monday and Tuesday, there was another blood drive at the lab. When I arrived on Monday, I made another donation. I have been doing this for nearly nine years now; I should go back and track how many gallons I have given so far. Once again, I stuck with my new policy of not chewing the heck out of my right hand while my left arm is being punctured. Yay, me! After the blood drive, I went to a lecture on large extra dimensions. It didn't make my head hurt too much. In the evening, I attended my first CAN meeting in months. It was focused on Mayday planning. Sounds like this Mayday -- which will be the 120th -- there will be some significant events in Chicago organized by Anarchists. Very cool.
Tuesday, during the day, I began working on a year-long commitment that I had made during the weekend at Diana's Grove. This past weekend, ritual focused on elemental dedications. Except, instead of using the usual four culprits, the element set was Breath (instead of Air), Light (instead of Fire), Soul (instead of Water), and Being (instead of Earth). Ritual participants made a year and a day commitment to one of these elements, with each element carrying a different task that the dedicant commits to. In committing to Being, I was making a promise to take one action each week off the list of things I had meant to do but had not gotten around to. In making my dedication, my personal promise was to do one item per week from something that had sat for over a month on my to-do list and to do an additional item per week on something related to physics that went above and beyond any immediate pressing responsibilities to work. So, on Tuesday afternoon, I filled my first task.
Tuesday evening was a "Food For Thought" dinner, which are events organized for the lab's post-docs. We eat pizza and talk and one of the post-docs makes a presentation. At the last one, in December, I was the presenter. This time it was my friend, MW. After FFT, I hurried off into the city to go to the latest packing party for Midwest Books to Prisoners. On the way to BtP, I realized that Pazu, my Honda Civic, is only about 2200 miles away from hitting 111111 on the odometer. I know I am an uber-geek for caring, but I really want to see it hit that milestone -- and maybe photograph it -- before I leave for England next month.
Anyway, once I arrived at the packing party, I gave RA the financial analysis that I had done from the first year and a half of BtP receipts. She is going to use this information to try to apply for a grant for us. That would be excellent. She also had me write down a bio to go with the grant proposal. Last night, I spent most of my time filling book orders, which is not something that I usually do. Normally I either pack books or read letters or note prison restrictions. Filling book orders requires a different type of care, something better suited topolymorphism, though she was not feeling well enough to attend.
Tuesday night, for reasons beyond my comprehension, I could not fall asleep for a long time. I tried to sleep around 1:30am, but it wasn't happening. So I pulled out a stack of comic books instead. By the time I conked out at 4am, I had finally finished all of the prelude material for D.C.'s Infinite Crisis storyline. The pre-requisite reading from 2005 and 2006 includes a one shot special, 4 six-issue mini-series, a four-part Superman/Wonder Woman story, a five-part Justice League story, and a four-issue mini-series. That's thirty-eight issues of preliminary reading for a seven issue story. Go figure! Anyway, I read the final two items from this list last night and am now ready to begin the Infinite Crisis.
Today, as mentioned,cheshcat came to the lab with me. We worked in my office during the day. In the afternoon, I went off to see the week's colloquium, which was entitled: Gender, Lies and Video Games: The Truth about Females and Computing. It was pretty good, though the speaker ran a bit long. During the colloquium, I sat next to madandrew and we exchanged comments -- both meaningful and snarky -- during the talk. Shortly after the presentation ended, cheshcat and I came home for the evening. On the way, we stopped at the comic book store so that I could pick up my new books. I also snagged myself a copy of Alan Moore's V For Vendetta. I've been meaning to read it for about a decade and, with the movie about to come out, I should finally get to it before I see the adaption. And that's about it for today. I believe that I am going to call it an early night so I can make up some of the sleep that I did not get last night...
cheshcat came into the lab with me. On the drive in, about six miles away, we could see large smoke clouds rising up to the sky, clearly from a fire. On closer approach, we realized that they must have been originating from the lab. I correctly surmised that there was a prairie burn underway. The lab schedules such controlled burns regularly as part of the prairie restoration project. However, I have never before seen such a burn as there was today. We stopped at CDF to peer over the berm into the Tevatron ring. Large chunks of the inside of the ring were ablaze. Through the smoke, the mid-day sun shone down on us. The light was attenuated enough to look at directly, and the sun was bright orange. We went up to the top of the high-rise to get a better perspective. Most areas inside the ring were either burning or already scorched. Having a strong relationship with fire, I was rather impressed with the scene. cheshcat was slightly horrified by all the burning.That said, it has been several days since my last update with content. What has been happening this week? Here are events of note:
Saturday evening, while I was still at the Grove, I got a very clear look at the [Northern] Winter night sky. Diana's Grove is in an area with low light pollution, so many stars were visible, and I could even see the Milky Way faintly. Just before bed,
cassiopia and I did some star-gazing. It was very cold, so I bundled up with five layers, then pointed different stars and constellations out to her... including her namesake. I found myself wishing that I had brought a telescope with me for the weekend. And, not for the first time, I found myself missing the clear skies of Arizona, where I could walk out and star-gaze almost any night that the whim struck me.Sunday evening, I had a hard time sleeping... due to a very bad bout with stomach acid. This problem comes and goes, but it has been quite prominent of late. Once I move, I definitely need to find time to get this chronic problem looked at.
On Monday and Tuesday, there was another blood drive at the lab. When I arrived on Monday, I made another donation. I have been doing this for nearly nine years now; I should go back and track how many gallons I have given so far. Once again, I stuck with my new policy of not chewing the heck out of my right hand while my left arm is being punctured. Yay, me! After the blood drive, I went to a lecture on large extra dimensions. It didn't make my head hurt too much. In the evening, I attended my first CAN meeting in months. It was focused on Mayday planning. Sounds like this Mayday -- which will be the 120th -- there will be some significant events in Chicago organized by Anarchists. Very cool.
Tuesday, during the day, I began working on a year-long commitment that I had made during the weekend at Diana's Grove. This past weekend, ritual focused on elemental dedications. Except, instead of using the usual four culprits, the element set was Breath (instead of Air), Light (instead of Fire), Soul (instead of Water), and Being (instead of Earth). Ritual participants made a year and a day commitment to one of these elements, with each element carrying a different task that the dedicant commits to. In committing to Being, I was making a promise to take one action each week off the list of things I had meant to do but had not gotten around to. In making my dedication, my personal promise was to do one item per week from something that had sat for over a month on my to-do list and to do an additional item per week on something related to physics that went above and beyond any immediate pressing responsibilities to work. So, on Tuesday afternoon, I filled my first task.
Tuesday evening was a "Food For Thought" dinner, which are events organized for the lab's post-docs. We eat pizza and talk and one of the post-docs makes a presentation. At the last one, in December, I was the presenter. This time it was my friend, MW. After FFT, I hurried off into the city to go to the latest packing party for Midwest Books to Prisoners. On the way to BtP, I realized that Pazu, my Honda Civic, is only about 2200 miles away from hitting 111111 on the odometer. I know I am an uber-geek for caring, but I really want to see it hit that milestone -- and maybe photograph it -- before I leave for England next month.
Anyway, once I arrived at the packing party, I gave RA the financial analysis that I had done from the first year and a half of BtP receipts. She is going to use this information to try to apply for a grant for us. That would be excellent. She also had me write down a bio to go with the grant proposal. Last night, I spent most of my time filling book orders, which is not something that I usually do. Normally I either pack books or read letters or note prison restrictions. Filling book orders requires a different type of care, something better suited to
polymorphism, though she was not feeling well enough to attend.Tuesday night, for reasons beyond my comprehension, I could not fall asleep for a long time. I tried to sleep around 1:30am, but it wasn't happening. So I pulled out a stack of comic books instead. By the time I conked out at 4am, I had finally finished all of the prelude material for D.C.'s Infinite Crisis storyline. The pre-requisite reading from 2005 and 2006 includes a one shot special, 4 six-issue mini-series, a four-part Superman/Wonder Woman story, a five-part Justice League story, and a four-issue mini-series. That's thirty-eight issues of preliminary reading for a seven issue story. Go figure! Anyway, I read the final two items from this list last night and am now ready to begin the Infinite Crisis.
Today, as mentioned,
cheshcat came to the lab with me. We worked in my office during the day. In the afternoon, I went off to see the week's colloquium, which was entitled: Gender, Lies and Video Games: The Truth about Females and Computing. It was pretty good, though the speaker ran a bit long. During the colloquium, I sat next to madandrew and we exchanged comments -- both meaningful and snarky -- during the talk. Shortly after the presentation ended, cheshcat and I came home for the evening. On the way, we stopped at the comic book store so that I could pick up my new books. I also snagged myself a copy of Alan Moore's V For Vendetta. I've been meaning to read it for about a decade and, with the movie about to come out, I should finally get to it before I see the adaption. And that's about it for today. I believe that I am going to call it an early night so I can make up some of the sleep that I did not get last night...
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But I also have a strong relationship with trees.... :(
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(Anonymous) 2006-02-23 05:44 am (UTC)(link)Shortly after the presentation ended.....then what?
Looks like the end of your post is missing.
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Not my fault this time! :)
And thanks for pointing this out. I forgot to close a bracket, so LJ swallowed the rest of the post. I go fix now...
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Burning
Re: Burning
V
Re: V
Apologies if I have forgotten your efforts in this regard...
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So pretty that sky, and I haven't seen it in such a long time...
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