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Welcome, gentle readers, to my first post written at the age of thirty-six. Wowza, it has been a long time since I wrote in this space; probably the longest gap in the seven and a half years that I have been keeping this journal!
My apologies, dear friends, for going AWOL. Twas not my intent, but there has been a lot of life going on of late and somewhere along the line I simply fell out of the habit of updating. Let's try to re-establish that habit, shall we? After all, most of you are a continent away and I only get to see you a couple of times each year, if that. This journal serves as the primary means to keep in touch en mass, and it should continue to fill that noble function!
To this end, I shall attempt to bring y'all up to speed in the near future with a "State of the Nomad" review post. That should at least summarize the past month of recent events, from our explorations of England[*] to bell-ringing milestones [**] to a lovely nine day visit from my darling![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tawneypup[***] to theatrical escapades[****] to Paganesque goodness... and more!
For now, however, I want to resume journaling by picking up from the very topic where I left off: Namely Japan and its recent earthquake problem. It is with some sadness that I have learned of the latest quake that hit a short while ago today, recently enough that it was still red (indicating "within the last hour") on this map when I first saw it. It was "only" a 7.4 magnitude, compared to last month's 9.0, and so the tsunami waves are "only" expected to be about three or four feet tall. Only. My heart really goes out to the people there, with all that they have had to endure in the past four weeks.
The whole situation in Japan has had me very wound up over the past month. All of our foreign collaborators were repatriated safely, including the four students from Imperial College who were on long term assignment there. For the three who were in Tokai when the quake hit, you can see that they were severely affected. At one point, I took the arm of one and shook it, explaining that I was illustrating the worst quake I have ever felt in Japan. I then offered my arm and asked him to show me what he had felt in Tokai, where the quake was about a six. He declined to do so, saying that he would have to pick me up to demonstrate, as he had been "tossed around like a rag doll" when it hit. Oi. No wonder they are having trouble re-adapting. One student has taken a month off to go to Israel and recuperate; it says something when one heads to Israel and the Middle East -- especially now -- for relative rest and relaxation!
Besides our people, there is the J-PARC facility to consider. At present, it is not operational. Damage assessment is still ongoing, so there is no definitive estimate of when we will turn T2K back on and resume collecting neutrino data. Optimistically, it could be by the end of the year. Time to cross fingers and touch wood.
Ironically, despite the quake, this will be the first time that I attend the middle collaboration meeting of the year on schedule. We have three big meetings per year, early middle and late. I began attending in January 2009, shortly after I joined the project. In 2009, our middle meeting was cancelled with less than 24 hours notice due to an outbreak of swine flu in Japan, then rescheduled for two months later. Some people were already in flight when this happened. Whoops! In 2010, the middle meeting happened on schedule... but I, and many others, were unable to attend due to the Ash Cloud That Ate Europe (i.e., the eruption of the Icelandic volcano that grounded flights out of Europe). Now, in 2011, the worst disaster of them all hits -- one of the four greatest earthquakes on record. In response? Our meeting is moving location, as Tokai is not currently suitable to accommodate us, but will take place in Tsukuba (at the KEK laboratory) on the appointed dates. Go figure!
By coincidence, today was not only the day of another large quake in Japan... but also the day that I learned that the meeting will be taking place when it was originally planned and that I will be travelling to Japan next month to attend. I've some Super-Kamiokande shift to do afterward, so I am planning to be in Nihon for about two weeks next month. Very much looking forward to the returning, as I do love Japan!
The Oxford Tube has almost returned me home now, so I should post this and get ready to disembark. Probably for the best, really, as the only other things that I have to say about Japan involve commentary on the news coverage in recent weeks. Given that the coverage has been sensationalistic and horrendous -- focusing an undue amount of attention on nuclear reactors and all but ignoring the fact that half a million people have been homeless and without food, water, or power -- it is probably best that I not launch into that rant now.
Hope all is well with you, dear friends! Hello, LiveJournal, it's good to be back!
[*] E.g., Dover, Windsor, and Chester
[**] E.g., my first attempts at ringing spliced methods, half a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples on a working bell, and touches of Stedman Doubles and Triples
[***] Replete with an awesometacular party, a road trip, and lots of gaming!
[****] E.g., Derek Jacobi's King Lear and Chess and Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece performed by the RSC
[*****] E.g., Equinox dawn at Stonehenge withtawneypup and the lovely miss_amaranth and josington, experiencing ritual by the local Druids... plus a fantastic Oestara ritual run by my beloved cheshcat and making contact with local Oxford Pagan groups.
My apologies, dear friends, for going AWOL. Twas not my intent, but there has been a lot of life going on of late and somewhere along the line I simply fell out of the habit of updating. Let's try to re-establish that habit, shall we? After all, most of you are a continent away and I only get to see you a couple of times each year, if that. This journal serves as the primary means to keep in touch en mass, and it should continue to fill that noble function!
To this end, I shall attempt to bring y'all up to speed in the near future with a "State of the Nomad" review post. That should at least summarize the past month of recent events, from our explorations of England[*] to bell-ringing milestones [**] to a lovely nine day visit from my darling
tawneypup[***] to theatrical escapades[****] to Paganesque goodness... and more!For now, however, I want to resume journaling by picking up from the very topic where I left off: Namely Japan and its recent earthquake problem. It is with some sadness that I have learned of the latest quake that hit a short while ago today, recently enough that it was still red (indicating "within the last hour") on this map when I first saw it. It was "only" a 7.4 magnitude, compared to last month's 9.0, and so the tsunami waves are "only" expected to be about three or four feet tall. Only. My heart really goes out to the people there, with all that they have had to endure in the past four weeks.
The whole situation in Japan has had me very wound up over the past month. All of our foreign collaborators were repatriated safely, including the four students from Imperial College who were on long term assignment there. For the three who were in Tokai when the quake hit, you can see that they were severely affected. At one point, I took the arm of one and shook it, explaining that I was illustrating the worst quake I have ever felt in Japan. I then offered my arm and asked him to show me what he had felt in Tokai, where the quake was about a six. He declined to do so, saying that he would have to pick me up to demonstrate, as he had been "tossed around like a rag doll" when it hit. Oi. No wonder they are having trouble re-adapting. One student has taken a month off to go to Israel and recuperate; it says something when one heads to Israel and the Middle East -- especially now -- for relative rest and relaxation!
Besides our people, there is the J-PARC facility to consider. At present, it is not operational. Damage assessment is still ongoing, so there is no definitive estimate of when we will turn T2K back on and resume collecting neutrino data. Optimistically, it could be by the end of the year. Time to cross fingers and touch wood.
Ironically, despite the quake, this will be the first time that I attend the middle collaboration meeting of the year on schedule. We have three big meetings per year, early middle and late. I began attending in January 2009, shortly after I joined the project. In 2009, our middle meeting was cancelled with less than 24 hours notice due to an outbreak of swine flu in Japan, then rescheduled for two months later. Some people were already in flight when this happened. Whoops! In 2010, the middle meeting happened on schedule... but I, and many others, were unable to attend due to the Ash Cloud That Ate Europe (i.e., the eruption of the Icelandic volcano that grounded flights out of Europe). Now, in 2011, the worst disaster of them all hits -- one of the four greatest earthquakes on record. In response? Our meeting is moving location, as Tokai is not currently suitable to accommodate us, but will take place in Tsukuba (at the KEK laboratory) on the appointed dates. Go figure!
By coincidence, today was not only the day of another large quake in Japan... but also the day that I learned that the meeting will be taking place when it was originally planned and that I will be travelling to Japan next month to attend. I've some Super-Kamiokande shift to do afterward, so I am planning to be in Nihon for about two weeks next month. Very much looking forward to the returning, as I do love Japan!
The Oxford Tube has almost returned me home now, so I should post this and get ready to disembark. Probably for the best, really, as the only other things that I have to say about Japan involve commentary on the news coverage in recent weeks. Given that the coverage has been sensationalistic and horrendous -- focusing an undue amount of attention on nuclear reactors and all but ignoring the fact that half a million people have been homeless and without food, water, or power -- it is probably best that I not launch into that rant now.
Hope all is well with you, dear friends! Hello, LiveJournal, it's good to be back!
[*] E.g., Dover, Windsor, and Chester
[**] E.g., my first attempts at ringing spliced methods, half a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples on a working bell, and touches of Stedman Doubles and Triples
[***] Replete with an awesometacular party, a road trip, and lots of gaming!
[****] E.g., Derek Jacobi's King Lear and Chess and Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece performed by the RSC
[*****] E.g., Equinox dawn at Stonehenge with
tawneypup and the lovely miss_amaranth and josington, experiencing ritual by the local Druids... plus a fantastic Oestara ritual run by my beloved cheshcat and making contact with local Oxford Pagan groups.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
Glad you're back to updates. I don't post much myself these days, but I enjoy reading your updates. :-)
From:
no subject
As for Japan.... yeah. It's really quite a situation there and the news media do not do it justice. From all that I have heard, the Japanese earthquake preparation was a tremendous success, one that saved a couple of hundreds of thousands of lives. Additionally, from the first-hand accounts that have been passed on to me, it sounds like they were friendly, competent, and efficient at evacuating and aiding those in the afflicted areas. Meanwhile, the culture is so civilized and decent that there were no outbreaks of looting by Japanese during the disaster. All the while, back home, the news talks about the nuclear reactors and mismanagement. Talk about tunnel vision!
This is not to say that it is a perfect society. There are still problems, I know. But I really admire how they have handled this crisis, and my heart goes out to the Nihon-jin who have been affected.
To end on a positive note, I will mention an e-mail exchange that I had earlier today with a Japanese colleague. Starting a work-related e-mail, I asked politely how he was. Starting his reply, he responded:
"Mozumi is quite peaceful. Cherry blossoms have just started to come out in Toyama today."
Something about that reply, as reports of chaos come in over the airwaves, was very heartening. Probably aided by the fact that I used to live near the village of Mozumi and the city of Toyama, so I remember well what they are both like at this time of year, as the sakura (cherry blossoms) come into bloom. Honestly, it is my favourite time of the year to be there; I fondly recall this time in 1999, when I would grab a book -- The Lord of the Rings, if I remember correctly -- and sit down by the river in Toyama, as the sakura blossomed all around. Simply lovely!
Okay, I should probably stop babbling at you and get ready for bed. I hope that you are well, hon, and will talk to you soon. Have a fantastic evening!