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It's really close to midnight, so I'd best write something for today... lest I fall behind in the "New 100 Days of LJ" project. On the other hand, I have a video conference at 8:30am... so I should make this relatively short. Right, then, it would seem one of those boring updates on basic stuff is in order:
Tea: Six days into the New George Orwell Tea Challenge, I can honestly say that I am drinking more tea than usual each day -- brewing two or three pots in my new little teapot. Although I still poor oodles of sugar into my iced tea -- which I consider a different beast entirely -- I may well keep off of the sugar when the two weeks are over. We shall see.
Bells: Cycled up to Headington with JP on Sunday evening for a handbell practice at somebody's house. After being asked to "prove my credentials" with the 3-4 part on Plain Bob Minor, I got to try some new things, most notably my first go at the trebles part for Plain Bob Major. I got most of the way through it, despite having never studied it before. Apparently, I seem to have a natural talent for change ringing on handbells... and one of the women I met at the practice left saying: "Nice to have met you; your ringing makes me sick." I was assured that this was a compliment! On the ride to Headington, JP told me that he thinks I may be ready to learn a method -- other than the extremely simple Plain Hunt -- on tower bells, too. The two natural choices to start on are Plain Bob and Grandsire. Despite the fact that I know Plain Bob from handbell ringing, JP wants to start me on Grandsire. So I spent time today practicing the trebles on Plain Bob Major for tomorrow's handbell lesson and looking at the method diagram for Grandsire Triples for tomorrow's tower bell practice. I think I can now ring the covering tenor (the #8 bell) reliably for Grandsire Triples and also ring the treble (the #1) bell. I will request to do so tomorrow evening. As a bonus from Sunday's practice, I got to cycle down Headington Hill on my way home from ringing -- that was a lot of fun!
Games: On Monday evening,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat and I went to 50 Aston Street to visit with CG, who lives in that remarkable house. We hung out and talked, then played Settlers of Catan. Despite her protestations, cheshcat established a very strong lead early in the game. In the end, I won but she was a close second, with nine points. Indeed, if the development cards had not been against her, she would have won easily. She bought eight development cards... but seven of them turned out to be soldiers!
Work: The research seems to be going well this week. We improved the detector that I took such good data with two weeks ago and are currently preparing for another cooldown. Indeed, that is why I am at the lab just before midnight -- I need to start the pumps to evacuate the inner vacuum chamber overnight. We also have send jobs out to the workshop and the thin film facility and the wirebonding person; when those are ready, we should have what we need for the next cooldown or two. Between JI and I, the analysis of the previous data that I collected looks pretty decent, too! So yay for us!
Books: Started the text, rather than just the introductory material, for King Henry IV, Part One last night. I definitely want to read all six Henry plays before February and, so far, I am enjoying this one.
LiveJournal Stuff: I have such awesome friends -- thank you for re-affirming that I have a brain located somewhere in my head after yesterday's lapse. Lately, life has been a touch busy and so I am behind in replying to comments. Many apologies are due to such awesome friends! However, I have read them all -- and appreciate them! -- and, more importantly, am managing to keep up on all of your journals! Comments on comments will follow when I have a few minutes to breathe.
Miscellaneous: This week was the St. Giles Fair in central Oxford. The fair goes back about two hundred years (although that photograph goes back only about half that). It is held on the first Monday and Tuesday following the first Sunday after September 1st. The usually busy street of St. Giles is closed to traffic and turned into a carnival for two days. I work at the very Northern end of the street, so all I needed to do was wander outside to see rides and carnival games and food vendors and whatnot. Definitely a change from the usual -- and a very interesting contrast with the ancient buildings that line the street! I don't really know why they have a fair there every year, but it was nifty. Rumour has it that St. John's College -- the richest of the Oxford colleges -- owns the street and, although they let the city use it for general traffic most of the year, they choose to shut it down for two days as a way of asserting their ownership rights. Is this correct? I don't know...
Anyway, that's about all for tonight. Time to confirm that the cryostat is in a reasonable state, and then I am off to sleep for as long as I can before the morning's video-conference...
Tea: Six days into the New George Orwell Tea Challenge, I can honestly say that I am drinking more tea than usual each day -- brewing two or three pots in my new little teapot. Although I still poor oodles of sugar into my iced tea -- which I consider a different beast entirely -- I may well keep off of the sugar when the two weeks are over. We shall see.
Bells: Cycled up to Headington with JP on Sunday evening for a handbell practice at somebody's house. After being asked to "prove my credentials" with the 3-4 part on Plain Bob Minor, I got to try some new things, most notably my first go at the trebles part for Plain Bob Major. I got most of the way through it, despite having never studied it before. Apparently, I seem to have a natural talent for change ringing on handbells... and one of the women I met at the practice left saying: "Nice to have met you; your ringing makes me sick." I was assured that this was a compliment! On the ride to Headington, JP told me that he thinks I may be ready to learn a method -- other than the extremely simple Plain Hunt -- on tower bells, too. The two natural choices to start on are Plain Bob and Grandsire. Despite the fact that I know Plain Bob from handbell ringing, JP wants to start me on Grandsire. So I spent time today practicing the trebles on Plain Bob Major for tomorrow's handbell lesson and looking at the method diagram for Grandsire Triples for tomorrow's tower bell practice. I think I can now ring the covering tenor (the #8 bell) reliably for Grandsire Triples and also ring the treble (the #1) bell. I will request to do so tomorrow evening. As a bonus from Sunday's practice, I got to cycle down Headington Hill on my way home from ringing -- that was a lot of fun!
Games: On Monday evening,
cheshcat and I went to 50 Aston Street to visit with CG, who lives in that remarkable house. We hung out and talked, then played Settlers of Catan. Despite her protestations, cheshcat established a very strong lead early in the game. In the end, I won but she was a close second, with nine points. Indeed, if the development cards had not been against her, she would have won easily. She bought eight development cards... but seven of them turned out to be soldiers!Work: The research seems to be going well this week. We improved the detector that I took such good data with two weeks ago and are currently preparing for another cooldown. Indeed, that is why I am at the lab just before midnight -- I need to start the pumps to evacuate the inner vacuum chamber overnight. We also have send jobs out to the workshop and the thin film facility and the wirebonding person; when those are ready, we should have what we need for the next cooldown or two. Between JI and I, the analysis of the previous data that I collected looks pretty decent, too! So yay for us!
Books: Started the text, rather than just the introductory material, for King Henry IV, Part One last night. I definitely want to read all six Henry plays before February and, so far, I am enjoying this one.
LiveJournal Stuff: I have such awesome friends -- thank you for re-affirming that I have a brain located somewhere in my head after yesterday's lapse. Lately, life has been a touch busy and so I am behind in replying to comments. Many apologies are due to such awesome friends! However, I have read them all -- and appreciate them! -- and, more importantly, am managing to keep up on all of your journals! Comments on comments will follow when I have a few minutes to breathe.
Miscellaneous: This week was the St. Giles Fair in central Oxford. The fair goes back about two hundred years (although that photograph goes back only about half that). It is held on the first Monday and Tuesday following the first Sunday after September 1st. The usually busy street of St. Giles is closed to traffic and turned into a carnival for two days. I work at the very Northern end of the street, so all I needed to do was wander outside to see rides and carnival games and food vendors and whatnot. Definitely a change from the usual -- and a very interesting contrast with the ancient buildings that line the street! I don't really know why they have a fair there every year, but it was nifty. Rumour has it that St. John's College -- the richest of the Oxford colleges -- owns the street and, although they let the city use it for general traffic most of the year, they choose to shut it down for two days as a way of asserting their ownership rights. Is this correct? I don't know...
Anyway, that's about all for tonight. Time to confirm that the cryostat is in a reasonable state, and then I am off to sleep for as long as I can before the morning's video-conference...
