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Flew back to the land of the fording oxen last night. Of course, it's been nearly a year since I moved here and I've yet to see a single ox in Oxford. Ah, well -- we all have our crosses to ox bear.
Anyway, this is a long and rambling entry, so I'll be kind and break it up into pieces which can be put behind cuts:
My passport now has forty-one stamps in it, filling up thirty-six spaces. Said passport is less than twenty-seven months into it's 120 month lifetime. Methinks I shall have to send it back to the State Department to have extra pages sewn in. At this rate, it will be due for such treatment in about fifteen more months. Not looking forward to that, as I presume I won't be able to travel while it is in the State Dept's grubby little hands. Out of the forty-one stamps in my passport, thirteen are from the UK (all at Heathrow, despite the trip I made through Manchester Airport and the one I made through Birmingham last year), six are from Argentina, six are from India, six are from Italy, four are from the United States, four are from Ireland, and two are from France. It bothers me that France doesn't begin with a vowel, because then all the countries I've visited on the passport would begin with vowels. I should have three times the number of stamps from France... but for some reason, passport control at Charles De Gaulle never stamps me. Odd. I wistfully note that none of the stamps in this passport are from Japan, compared to my last passport where Japan had the largest presence. It's been over three and a half years now since I have been to Japan. I miss it. For that matter, it has been fifteen months since I have been to Argentina, and I miss that country, too. Not as much as Japan -- since I never lived in Argentina and I have been there more recently -- but I still miss it. Especially Buenos Aires, which ranks up there with New York and London and Paris and Hong Kong on my list of favourite cities.
Despite a raging sinus headache on the trip home -- guess who forgot to pack any acetaminophen? -- I made my way through all but the last few pages in the Arden Shakespeare's copy of Richard III. I should be able to finish that up today easily and return it to the library tomorrow. I finished the play some time ago, but I've been reading the notes and the source material that Shakespeare used when writing the script. The source material is written in the English of the time, which is modern... but with much less spelling standardisation. Thus it takes longer to work through, particularly with a splitting headache. I find myself wondering why I like this play... indeed why anyone would like this play. Everyone in it is an arsehole except for the young King Edward V (even his younger brother, Richard Duke of York, is prat) and the hero, Richmond... who is a boring cardboard cutout. So despite being a murderous monster, I find King Richard to be the most interesting and -- dare I say it -- likable character in the play (with the possible exception of his brother, Clarence). Who cares if Richard knocks off such irritating twits? Heck, I wish he would have killed some more, particularly that self-centered, vicious Margaret. Besides being boring, Richmond's part also bothers me because of the obvious propaganda. Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, went on to become King Henry VII after killing Richard. The self-same Henry VII who was grandsire to Queen Elizabeth I -- the Bard's patron. So of course Richmond has to look good... despite the fact that, once king, he was no less efficient than Richard at eliminating his political rivals. Finally, the timing of the play is troublesome. In fact, it suffers from precisely the opposite time problem that plagues super-hero comic books. In the comic books, about a bazillion things happen to the hero... all in the space of about two weeks. Spider-Man can have three monthly series (not to mention countless guest appearance), yet years go by in our world while he ages about a month. In contrast, the events that transpire in Richard III took place between 1471 (final defeat of King Henry VI) and 1485 (Battle of Bosworth Field). That's fourteen years. Reading through the play, it seems more like they happened in a little over a week. In short, I am not sure why I, or anyone else, should like this play... yet I do. Very much. It may rival Hamlet for my favourite Shakespearean play. Perhaps it is because I am a history buff and, as such, interested in the time period being portrayed?
Sadly, the timing of my return trip conflicted with the totality of the lunar eclipse. By the time I returned to Oxford, the shadow of the Earth had already passed more than halfway off of the moon. I had been looking forward to said eclipse since the last one, in 2004. At least there will be another in August -- less than half a year away. I should bring my telescope from the States before then so I can get a closer look, just like I did in May 2003 (missing most of the Phoenix Anarchist meeting to do so!).
Upon arriving home, my three adorable UK kitties all greeting the conquering hero with love. Or, rather, with incessant requests for love. I was thwarted in my attempt to pet all three of them simultaneously by the fact that I only have two hands. Still, I did my best. When I sat on the couch, they climbed all over me for attention so, realizing I would be stuck on the couch for some time, I turned on Batman: The Animated Series and watched the two-parter where Two Face is born. I think that, in all the various Batman continuities that I have witnessed, the origin from the 1992 animated series may be my favourite. It conveys poignantly the tragic figure that Harvey Dent truly is. Unlike, for instance, the Batman Forever movie, which entirely ignores the appeal of the character. There are a couple of flaws in this portrayal -- for instance, I prefer the classic device of a mobster (Sal Moroni) throwing acid into Dent's face in the courtroom to the cliched explosion involving a vat of chemicals that the animated series uses, and the post-surgery scene is blatantly stolen from the Joker's origin in the 1989 Batman movie -- but, overall it is excellent. In any case, these episodes are staving off the super-hero withdrawal that I fact due to lack of comic books left to read here on Skullcrusher Mountain. Thankfully,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat will be bringing a new stack with her when she returns on Tuesday. In particular, I am most eager to read the last issue of Civil War and the next issue of Iron Man: Hypervelocity. Anyway, as expected, the cats appreciated the cuddle time on the couch and, when I finally shuffled off to bed, they all snuggled in with me. I fell asleep with Foxy perched on the pillow atop my head and Totoro curled up against my chest. The Boy was there too, somewhere, closer to my feet.
Finally, I should say that the trip to Gran Sasso went well and was productive. Improvements have definitely been made to the CRESST experiment in some areas, and progress has been made with other problems. Given the request thatblaisepascal made last year (i.e., for more discussion of my work in this journal) and also given the fairly enthusiastic response that my entries on my research have garnished, I would like to discuss more what I have been doing. Unfortunately, such content is not suitable for the public domain. It is not classified, by any means, but there are competing experiments out there and, as such, we keep the details of our inner workings secret until such a time as we are ready to come forth and publish a result. Eventually, all -- or nearly all -- must be made transparent; such is the nature of science. In the interim, however, we keep things mum. It is one thing to talk about the status of the K-400 cryostat at Oxford, which is only for local R&D; it is quite a different thing to talk openly about the state of the CRESST experiment. The former is quite okay; the latter would be in poor form. Thus, I am toying with the idea of making such posts but keeping them friends-only. I have an inherent distrust of on-line security, and I have seen "locked" posts broken more than once (sometimes merely by accident). On the other hand, much of what I would write about is already on-line in a locked forum -- namely the internal pages of the CRESST experiment. So I am not yet resolved on whether to do this or not. If I do, it will probably be via a special friends filter, so that I don't bore anyone who could care less about my research. Anyway, let me know if you would be interested in being listed on such a filter. If there is very little interest, then that resolves the matter quite neatly.
I will not be ringing bells for services this evening because it is the first Sunday of the month, when the St. Giles group does a quarter peal attempt. Said attempts last about forty-five minutes and involve about twelve hundred changes. Needless to say, such a thing is beyond my current skill level. However, one of my goals for 2007 -- one of forty on the list that I drew up in January -- is to join in a quarter peal attempt by the end of the year. I had a talk with JP at the Royal Oak last week and mentioned this to him; he things that I should be ready before then. Excellent!
And I think that is all the news that is fit to print today.
Anyway, this is a long and rambling entry, so I'll be kind and break it up into pieces which can be put behind cuts:
My passport now has forty-one stamps in it, filling up thirty-six spaces. Said passport is less than twenty-seven months into it's 120 month lifetime. Methinks I shall have to send it back to the State Department to have extra pages sewn in. At this rate, it will be due for such treatment in about fifteen more months. Not looking forward to that, as I presume I won't be able to travel while it is in the State Dept's grubby little hands. Out of the forty-one stamps in my passport, thirteen are from the UK (all at Heathrow, despite the trip I made through Manchester Airport and the one I made through Birmingham last year), six are from Argentina, six are from India, six are from Italy, four are from the United States, four are from Ireland, and two are from France. It bothers me that France doesn't begin with a vowel, because then all the countries I've visited on the passport would begin with vowels. I should have three times the number of stamps from France... but for some reason, passport control at Charles De Gaulle never stamps me. Odd. I wistfully note that none of the stamps in this passport are from Japan, compared to my last passport where Japan had the largest presence. It's been over three and a half years now since I have been to Japan. I miss it. For that matter, it has been fifteen months since I have been to Argentina, and I miss that country, too. Not as much as Japan -- since I never lived in Argentina and I have been there more recently -- but I still miss it. Especially Buenos Aires, which ranks up there with New York and London and Paris and Hong Kong on my list of favourite cities.
Despite a raging sinus headache on the trip home -- guess who forgot to pack any acetaminophen? -- I made my way through all but the last few pages in the Arden Shakespeare's copy of Richard III. I should be able to finish that up today easily and return it to the library tomorrow. I finished the play some time ago, but I've been reading the notes and the source material that Shakespeare used when writing the script. The source material is written in the English of the time, which is modern... but with much less spelling standardisation. Thus it takes longer to work through, particularly with a splitting headache. I find myself wondering why I like this play... indeed why anyone would like this play. Everyone in it is an arsehole except for the young King Edward V (even his younger brother, Richard Duke of York, is prat) and the hero, Richmond... who is a boring cardboard cutout. So despite being a murderous monster, I find King Richard to be the most interesting and -- dare I say it -- likable character in the play (with the possible exception of his brother, Clarence). Who cares if Richard knocks off such irritating twits? Heck, I wish he would have killed some more, particularly that self-centered, vicious Margaret. Besides being boring, Richmond's part also bothers me because of the obvious propaganda. Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, went on to become King Henry VII after killing Richard. The self-same Henry VII who was grandsire to Queen Elizabeth I -- the Bard's patron. So of course Richmond has to look good... despite the fact that, once king, he was no less efficient than Richard at eliminating his political rivals. Finally, the timing of the play is troublesome. In fact, it suffers from precisely the opposite time problem that plagues super-hero comic books. In the comic books, about a bazillion things happen to the hero... all in the space of about two weeks. Spider-Man can have three monthly series (not to mention countless guest appearance), yet years go by in our world while he ages about a month. In contrast, the events that transpire in Richard III took place between 1471 (final defeat of King Henry VI) and 1485 (Battle of Bosworth Field). That's fourteen years. Reading through the play, it seems more like they happened in a little over a week. In short, I am not sure why I, or anyone else, should like this play... yet I do. Very much. It may rival Hamlet for my favourite Shakespearean play. Perhaps it is because I am a history buff and, as such, interested in the time period being portrayed?
Sadly, the timing of my return trip conflicted with the totality of the lunar eclipse. By the time I returned to Oxford, the shadow of the Earth had already passed more than halfway off of the moon. I had been looking forward to said eclipse since the last one, in 2004. At least there will be another in August -- less than half a year away. I should bring my telescope from the States before then so I can get a closer look, just like I did in May 2003 (missing most of the Phoenix Anarchist meeting to do so!).
Upon arriving home, my three adorable UK kitties all greeting the conquering hero with love. Or, rather, with incessant requests for love. I was thwarted in my attempt to pet all three of them simultaneously by the fact that I only have two hands. Still, I did my best. When I sat on the couch, they climbed all over me for attention so, realizing I would be stuck on the couch for some time, I turned on Batman: The Animated Series and watched the two-parter where Two Face is born. I think that, in all the various Batman continuities that I have witnessed, the origin from the 1992 animated series may be my favourite. It conveys poignantly the tragic figure that Harvey Dent truly is. Unlike, for instance, the Batman Forever movie, which entirely ignores the appeal of the character. There are a couple of flaws in this portrayal -- for instance, I prefer the classic device of a mobster (Sal Moroni) throwing acid into Dent's face in the courtroom to the cliched explosion involving a vat of chemicals that the animated series uses, and the post-surgery scene is blatantly stolen from the Joker's origin in the 1989 Batman movie -- but, overall it is excellent. In any case, these episodes are staving off the super-hero withdrawal that I fact due to lack of comic books left to read here on Skullcrusher Mountain. Thankfully,
cheshcat will be bringing a new stack with her when she returns on Tuesday. In particular, I am most eager to read the last issue of Civil War and the next issue of Iron Man: Hypervelocity. Anyway, as expected, the cats appreciated the cuddle time on the couch and, when I finally shuffled off to bed, they all snuggled in with me. I fell asleep with Foxy perched on the pillow atop my head and Totoro curled up against my chest. The Boy was there too, somewhere, closer to my feet.Finally, I should say that the trip to Gran Sasso went well and was productive. Improvements have definitely been made to the CRESST experiment in some areas, and progress has been made with other problems. Given the request that
blaisepascal made last year (i.e., for more discussion of my work in this journal) and also given the fairly enthusiastic response that my entries on my research have garnished, I would like to discuss more what I have been doing. Unfortunately, such content is not suitable for the public domain. It is not classified, by any means, but there are competing experiments out there and, as such, we keep the details of our inner workings secret until such a time as we are ready to come forth and publish a result. Eventually, all -- or nearly all -- must be made transparent; such is the nature of science. In the interim, however, we keep things mum. It is one thing to talk about the status of the K-400 cryostat at Oxford, which is only for local R&D; it is quite a different thing to talk openly about the state of the CRESST experiment. The former is quite okay; the latter would be in poor form. Thus, I am toying with the idea of making such posts but keeping them friends-only. I have an inherent distrust of on-line security, and I have seen "locked" posts broken more than once (sometimes merely by accident). On the other hand, much of what I would write about is already on-line in a locked forum -- namely the internal pages of the CRESST experiment. So I am not yet resolved on whether to do this or not. If I do, it will probably be via a special friends filter, so that I don't bore anyone who could care less about my research. Anyway, let me know if you would be interested in being listed on such a filter. If there is very little interest, then that resolves the matter quite neatly.I will not be ringing bells for services this evening because it is the first Sunday of the month, when the St. Giles group does a quarter peal attempt. Said attempts last about forty-five minutes and involve about twelve hundred changes. Needless to say, such a thing is beyond my current skill level. However, one of my goals for 2007 -- one of forty on the list that I drew up in January -- is to join in a quarter peal attempt by the end of the year. I had a talk with JP at the Royal Oak last week and mentioned this to him; he things that I should be ready before then. Excellent!
And I think that is all the news that is fit to print today.
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