The place where lost socks go...

I'm in Japan this week, doing a week of shift at Super-Kamiokande. I often get asked by non-scientists what "shift" means in this context.

I like to describe it as "babysitting" for our experiment. Generally speaking, when a particle physics experiment is running, it runs around the clock -- we don't limit our data taking to regular business hours. (That would be astoundingly inefficient!) Thus, there always needs to be somebody present to keep an eye on the experiment, to make sure all is running smoothly and nothing goes wrong. And, of course, to make things right again when something does go wrong!

Doing shift is generally boring. In fact, you hope it is, as "interesting" usually means that something has indeed gone awry! I've heard shift described as "hours of boredom, broken up by moments of terror."

Each collaboration has its own rules for how to distribute shifts and what constitutes a fair quota. The starting point is usually to add up all the shifts required in a particular year, then divide by the number of collaborators. This number can then be tweaked in various ways, giving more important people (i.e., senior faculty) a lighter load having less important people (i.e., graduate students) make up the difference. Usually, though, everyone ends up doing shift at some point. In my current experiment, T2K, I end up doing one week of shift each year, based at our far detector -- Super-Kamiokande.

What that means is that, for this week, I am sitting in the shift room for eight hours each day, watching the event display and -- every two hours -- running through a list of periodic checks. The event display shows a realtime readout of what our detector is seeing. It is the end result of a large number of systems, so if that looks good then all is likely well.

In fact, the event display is actually rather pretty. Don't take my word for it, though! There is a realtime feed on the web, so you can see for yourself:

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[N.B. Originally, the event display was supposed to be embedded in this entry, because that would be pretty. Far prettier than an external link. However, it appears that something as simple as embedding a webpage into LJ is not trivial. Why LiveJournal chose to disable standard HTML embed commands -- and replaced them with a custom lj-embed that is effectively undocumented -- is beyond me. Feh.]

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In other news, there was an amusing moment this evening when one of the secretaries came into the shift room. Her English is not great -- and my Nihongo is even worse! -- so it was a bit of a challenge to communicate. She said that she wanted to talk to me about board games on the internet. Not something that I would have expected! Then she mentioned YourTurnMyTurn. Again, strange. I certainly use the site -- have done so since wolfpeach introduced me to it back in March 2011.

She went on to explain that she is on the site. One of my collaborators, RW, told her about it and set her up with an account. Okay, that makes a little more sense -- I told RW about it some time back, and we played one game of Go there. So not quite as random as I had thought.

Then she continued to say something that I couldn't quite make out at first. Was she saying that we should play a game together some time? Sure, I would be okay with that! No, I heard her wrong... she was saying that we had already played a game! Really?

Turns out, she was right! Back in January, she and I faced off against each other in a game of go-moku, during a tournament. I vaguely recall the game in question -- I remember it being quite close... but, ultimately, she won. Of course, I had to immediately challenge, er, invite her to a rematch!

Although this was not as random as I first perceived -- having been part of the chain of events which led her to the site -- it is still fairly odd to find out that I gamed with one of the Super-K secretaries back in January... and didn't even know it at the time!

To all of you out there in 2012 -- which is the bulk of my f-list right now -- here is a message (or three) from 2013:

1. The world does not end in 2012. (Huzzah!)
   
   
2. 2013 appears to be a very dark place so far.[*]
   
   
3. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (HUZZAH!)

Right now, I am winding down from a lovely New Year's Eve party here at Chiron Beta Prime with my beloved cheshcat, my darling miss_amaranth, the ever-awesome wolfpeach, the fantastic dragonmamma, and several folks with no LiveJournals[**]. There were games -- like Give Me The Brain and The Shinnin' -- briefly interrupted by a quarter peal attempt at 21:00 to ring in the new year with some Stedman Doubles. Afterward, there was baked camembert (with garlic bread) and a chocolate fondue! Not a bad send-off for the old year, if I do say so myself!

A traditional year-in-review retrospective for 2012 shall be forthcoming. For now, however, tis time for bed. I hope that all of you still reading from last year are having a spectacular celebration... and I look forward to meeting you when you finally catch up with the times!

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[*] Though there are street lamps and the like, which helps.

[**] Gasp!

Good evening, gentle readers!

Your friendly neighbourhood Nomad has been a bad bad blogger of late! Too many lovely goings on and not enough time to write about them. Alas, there are far worse fates!

With only six days left before Christmas, what have y'all been up to, dear friends? Enjoying the holiday season, I hope?

Here in the City of Dreaming Spires, all is quite well. The holiday hecticness is in full swing. On Friday evening, we had a party to celebrate the birthday of my beloved cheshcat, starting with a feast at the Pink Giraffe -- one of our favourite Oxford restaurants. Once we were all quite, quite full, the party moved back to Chiron Beta Prime for birthday cookies (replete with firework candle), presents, and games. On Saturday, our coven celebrated the another notch in the Wheel of the Year by doing our Yule ritual WORK. Tis a good start to the season, with much more to follow, of course! The fun continues tomorrow, when the lovely weegoddess and J arrive for a visit from the States!

Meanwhile, here is a Christmas card for all of you out there in LJ-land! From our living room into yours (or wherever you may be reading this) -- Enjoy!


(click on picture for full version)

So because I don't have enough to do before leaving for Japan in four days, I randomly challenged some stranger to a game of Go-moku on Your Turn My Turn. I blame wolfpeach -- he and I are locked into a fierce four game final round in a Carcassonne: The Castle tournament, but he has not moved all day. How dare he have a life?? The nerve of some people! Anyway, starved for a gaming break, I wandered into the site's waiting room and challenged somebody who was looking for an opponent.

I have never played Go-moku before, but it is basically an m,n,k-game. Most of you will be familiar with at least one m,n,k-game, namely tic-tac-toe. Specifically, tic-tac-toe is a (3,3,3) game, as the "m" and the "n" represent the size of the grid and the "k" tells how many pieces you need to line up diagonally to win. With some slight additions, Go-moku is a (19,19,5) game.

Way back in 1990, during my tenth grade Algebra-II class, I was rather bored and decided to solve all possible variations of tic-tac-toe. That didn't take long. Still bored with the class, I started generalizing to other m,n,k-games. Mind you, at the age of fifteen, I had no idea that this is what they were called. In retrospect, however, it seems appropriate that I used my math class to do this. In the intro to the wikipedia page on these games, it notes that they are primarily of mathematical interest!

I started off with a (4,4,4) game (i.e., a 4x4 grid where 4 in a row wins) and quickly proved that, like ordinary tic-tac-toe, the game should always end in a draw. Moving on to a (4,4,3) game, (i.e., a 4x4 grid where 4 in a row wins) it became clear that the first player always wins. I went on to higher variants, until I ultimately settled on what I termed "Infinite Grid Tic-Tac-Toe". In mathematical parlance, this was a (infinity, infinity, 5) game. This turned out to be highly addictive and lots of fun, so many hours of that year were spent playing against my friends.

Since then I have not played Infinite Grid Tic-Tac-Toe in many years -- possibly two decades! Go-moku is not quite the same thing... but as close as I am going to get for now. Let's see how much I remember from way back when!

Meanwhile, in what is likely a highly arrogant move that will see me humbled for such hubris, I issued an unsolicited challenge to the highest ranked Go-moku player on the site. Their record is 144 wins and 9 losses -- a success rate of about 94% -- so this may be a bit of a foolish endeavour. On the other hand, I specifically set myself up to go first, and the first player should always win in such games. We shall see. In any case, I suppose that I can afford to be a touch cocky in this game -- after all, I basically invented it!

Wish me luck, gentle readers!

I blame wolfpeach. Yes, indeed, I do.

It was about two months ago[*] that I randomly encountered him on Ye Olde Oxford Tube as I made my way back from London. Foregoing my usual seat at one of the small onboard laptop tables, I sat down next to my friend to chat, rather than engage in my usual online antics during the journey home.

Partway through the trip, he asked if I would excuse him for a moment, as he wished to briefly check on one of his online games of Carcassonne: The Castle. I was intrigued.

I had originally become familiar with the game shortly after my beloved cheshcat and I moved to Oxford. Not knowing anyone there at the time[**], we made a point of importing many of our two player board games... plus buying others for our new home. Carcassonne: The Castle -- a variant of the more commonly known multi-player Carcassonne -- was one such game. Although I enjoyed it, twas was not much to cheshcat's liking and so we eventually donated our copy to the Oxford BiFest raffle last year, to help raise money for BiCon's scholarship fund. From there, it found a good home with the aforementioned wolfpeach. I confess that I had not thought of it much since, as we have developed a much fuller Oxonian social network and, accordingly, two player games have become the exception, rather than the rule.

Returning nearer to the present, that selfsame wolfpeach introduced me to the website known as YourTurnMyTurn.com. There, one can play a variety of two player games online -- thirty-nine to choose from -- at one's convenience. You make a move when you are able; your opponent is notified via e-mail and returns to the game to respond at their leisure. Since that introduction, many of my spare moments have been wasted spent on this site. I am currently engaged in a fierce multi-week game of Go with the awesometacular gyades, and I have played a multitude of short games -- including Dominoes, Battleship, Penguin, Connect Four, Lost Cities and more -- with cheshcat. My staple on the site, however, remains Carcassonne: The Castle, with both wolfpeach and my darling tawneypup as frequent opponents.

This seems to be a game well suited to my natural talents. Thus far, I have won over 80% of the twenty-one games that I have played. What's more, as play continues, my dear opponents sharpen their games, forcing me to resort to new strategies and tactics if I am to have any hope of maintaining an edge. Of the 108 active Carcassonne players registered on the site, I am ranked 18^th... and I suspect that I am improving. Hmmm, perhaps I should enter a tournament at some point. After all, I am having too much fun to stop now!

As I said earlier: I blame wolfpeach.

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[*] March 15th 2011, to be precise. A Tuesday.

[**] And being able to count all acquaintances in the UK on the fingers of one hand -- with a couple left over!

Good Friday to you, gentle readers! As you may (or may not) have noticed, the Nomad has not been the most conscientious blogger of late. To that, I say: Um... whoops! In an attempt to get the LJ ball re-rolling again, I bring to you that time honoured and ever-reviled much anticipated of entries: The Week-in-Review post! So sit tight, dear friends, and fasten your seatbelts! The week is about to begin!

Friday: Last Friday, I spent the day with a visiting josington. Although I stayed home from work, it was still a workday and, thus, we passed the time by installing Ubuntu and other useful software onto my new laptop. In the evening, my beloved cheshcat and I went to visit the supertastic wolfpeach, who gave us lessons on how to make our own [vegetarian] sushi. Much yummy food was made and consumed; there was also a game of Settlers of Catan, in which I eked out a very difficult win. On our way home from wolfpeach's place, we picked up the adorable miss_amaranth from The Island. Once home, all four of us -- cheshcat, miss_amaranth, josington and I -- stayed up late with much talking and cuddling.

Saturday: Woke up early and made my way into city centre with josington to attend OxCon, the annual gaming convention hosted by the Oxford University Board Game Society. These days, I mainly attend for the Puerto Rico tournament. This consists of four games of PR, with tournament points calculated based on the scores of individual games. I have been participating since 2007, making this my fourth year[*]. By the end of the third game, I was ranked amongst the highest four players, thus earning myself a seat at the top table for the final game. Alas, I came in third (of four) there and so I did not win the tournament. Maybe next year.

In the evening, the lovely fire_kitten rounded out our numbers to five. We made our way to the delicious -- and vegetarian -- pub, The Gardener's Arms for dinner, then came home to play games. We started with Apples to Apples, in which the delightful miss_amaranth achieved victory, then finished up with Bohnanza, where my darling cheshcat took the cake. Or at least the beans.

Sunday: Sunday began with josington and I making our way to St. Andrew's church to ring bells for services. After that, she made her way to a Quaker meeting whilst the four of us who were left headed out to the church-turned-restaurant, Freud, for brunch.

In the afternoon, we all reconvened in Chiron Beta Prime and prepared for our Imbolc ritual. This was the third ritual that we have WORKed together in the current turn of the Wheel of the Year. Just as we did two years ago, cheshcat and I have committed to observing all eight sabbats during this turn. In October, my dearest cheshcat ran our traditional Samhain ritual; in December, I stepped up to the proverbial plate and ran Yule; now cheshcat re-took the reins to be HP for Imbolc. The ritual itself was rather interesting, involving elements that I had not worked with previously. I cannot give much detail in a public forum, but my sweetie put together another job very well done!

After ritual, fire_kitten needed to go. josington and I headed out at the same time to ring bells for evening services at St. Giles church, in city centre. Shortly after we returned home, wolfpeach arrived. Together, the five of us played Puerto Rico. Because I had not played it enough the day before, of course! Actually, I rarely get tired of PR... and a five player game has a very different dynamic than the four player rounds that I was engaged in the year before. Due to this, I started out way behind as cheshcat took a commanding lead early on. She was so far ahead of everyone else that I bet her a pizza she would win. As the game went on, however, some early investments in infrastructure began to pay off and I caught up, winning by eleven points. cheshcat still passed everyone else by a wide margin, but I claimed victory... and she claimed a pizza!

When the wonderful wolfpeach left, the four of us remaining wound down for the evening with an episode of Jeeves & Wooster.

Monday: Monday morning started, as Monday mornings so often do, with the weekly T2K UK analysis meeting. One of my students was giving a presentation, so I paid particularly careful attention to her talk. It went rather well, I am pleased to report!

After work wrapped up on Monday, josington and the delicious miss_amaranth and I met my sweet cheshcat at The Mission for burritos. Then the evening's extra-curricular activities began.

This week, the theme seems to be a double-dose of evening activities. For instance, on Monday evening, josington and I rang bells at St. Leonard's church in Eynsham -- a new tower for both of us! This makes the eighteenth tower that I have rung at. The Eynsham bells are a little tricky, though nowhere near as frightful as what josington has dubbed "The Devil Bells of Garsington". Actually, the #4 at Eynsham was rather nice... and the #2 was not bad, either! The band was moderately experienced, so nothing more than Plain Bob and Grandsire Doubles was attempted.

When ringing ended, we collected miss_amaranth from the Island and went to the aforementioned Oxford Go Club. I played on a 13x13 board with the same gent who I had squared off against the week before. It was close... but he did defeat me, 23 to 11. Meanwhile, the lovable miss_amaranth had been learning to play. She and I had a 9x9 game and she did very well for her first match!

The evening ended with us gathering up cheshcat and going for bagels and ice cream at G&D's... then miss_amaranth had some lovely alone time for talking and snuggling and whatnot!

Tuesday: During the day, Tuesday was filled with errands. My dearest darlingest cheshcat and I had our semi-annual dentist appointment, which I am pleased to report went rather well. Then I made a blood donation before bidding miss_amaranth and josington farewell.

In the evening, my first extra-curricular activity was bell ringing at St. Andrew's church, here in Headington. That was followed with heading into city centre to meet cheshcat at the Burton Taylor studio for a performance of Edward Albee's first play (from 1958), The Zoo Story. I have seen this before, but not for many years. Indeed, yavin7 and I starred in a production of The Zoo Story that I had directed for my acting class at Hampshire College, way back in 1992! It was interesting to re-visit the play with adult eyes. Whilst I still enjoyed it, it was not as compelling as it had been all those years ago.

Wednesday: I began Wednesday -- Groundhog Day -- in a time loop... as some of you may have noticed. Then I made my way into London to spend the day working with RT and others at Queen Mary University of London. Upon my return to Oxford, my first evening activity was to ring bells at St. Mary the Virgin in Iffley. I followed that on with a T2K-SK meeting at 22:00. When the meeting ended, my wonderful cheshcat and I enjoyed a lovely stir-fry that she had cooked in her new wok, then I wound down for the evening.

Thursday: Yesterday began by continuing the string of meetings that had begun the night before. The first was our weekly Imperial T2K group meeting, which I chaired. Then I had a brief one-on-one with one of my doctoral students, GK, before the collaboration-wide T2K analysis meeting began. We are very close to approving our first results, so the meetings are coming at us fast and strong!

In the evening, I scaled back to only one extra-curricular activity. In honour of a visitor from Sweden, I opted to forego ringing at St. Giles, playing with the Oxford Go Club, and attending the Oxford Pagan moot. Instead, we convened at Skullcrusher Mountain for an evening of transhumanist gaming. We started with Betrayal at House on the Hill, in which AS commanded a hoard of bats determined to suck us dry. Thankfully, we scared them off and won! Particular kudos go to H, our visitor, for role-playing the Professor so remarkably well!

After Betrayal, the kid gloves came off and we played Illuminati. This was a rather long game, and extremely hard fought. I played the Bavarians and, after many hours and a couple of close calls, finally managed to squeeze through to victory!

Hmmm... If one considers each game separately, I suppose that Thursday can be counted as having two extracurriculars, too! Each game certainly took longer than the other activities this week!

Friday (again): Today has been mostly spent on working. And writing this entry. This evening, I will meet my phenomenal cheshcat at the Oxford Playhouse to see our third show of the year, Master Class, a piece based on the life of the opera singer Maria Callas.

And that, gentle readers, is the week that was. Still with me? If so, congratulations for sticking it out through the dreaded WiR post! Consider yourself awarded fifty points for sheer perseverance -- well done!

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[*] I was unable to attend in 2009, as I needed to be in Japan for a T2K collaboration meeting.

The verdict is in: The 2010 Event Horizon Summer party was a resounding success! We had a completely and utterly awesometacular time! Games! Four Square! Bar-b-que! Bonfire! Fire jumping! Fire walking! And more...! Thirty people turned up -- I took particular delight in spending time with many old friends for the first time in months (or years); I also met some fantastic new people who were quite vunderbar! I am off to bed shortly... but, first, I wanted to write a summary of the day:

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The party began at one o'clock, which meant that -- as always -- the first guests would not show up until nearly two. At this point, the time delay factors into my planning -- I stop doing party prep at the time when guests are supposed to arrive and hop in the shower. I end up clean shortly before the first knock on the door.

There were a couple of board games played. I engaged in a round of Ingenious with gyades and his sister as we waited for people to arrive. I won, which was a bit of a surprise. I've never won at Ingenious before.[*] Later on, there was a game of Iron Dragon going on inside whilst I was outside minding the bar-b-que. There may have been other board games but, if so, I was outside at the time and did not notice.

The first guest to arrive was xirpha. As usual, he came bearing with him a veritable feast of baked goods (and deviled eggs!). This man is a genius in the kitchen... and -- fortunately for us -- rather generous with his creations! After the Ingenious game ended, we sat around in the Event Horizon living room chatting as more people arrived.

After enough people -- about a dozen -- had accumulated, we made our way outside for the annual High Stakes Super-Mutant Sudden Death Four Square Match. As usual, I played with grace and aplomb, dominating the game all the way.[**] Actually, I played significantly better than usual at several points. Oddly enough, having a drink of water in one hand seemed to help immensely! My increased skill was particularly unexpected, given the triple distractions posed by the disarmingly delicious trio of datahawk, osprey_cat, and B[*]. As usual, wiktowasichu played exceptionally well -- sometimes whilst smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer!

A couple of hours later, the Four Square game wound down... with yours truly ending in the top spot, of course! It was then time to break out the grill and start making hamburgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs! A rather yummy time was had by all, even if there was a bit of a "burger malfunction" partway through. Thankfully, it was xirpha to the rescue in an emergency supplemental grocery run, and all was then well. No one left the party hungry!

As night fell, gyades reprised his role as firemeister and -- with just three matches -- started the backyard bonfire burning in our firepit. As always, it was a sight to behold... particularly at the beginning when the flames extended upwards quite high. It was at this very point when wiktowasichu surprised and amazed us by jumping through the fire and across the pit. Twice! Um, wowza -- color me impressed! That is a new tradition for the Event Horizon; no one has ever done fire jumping here before!!

The fire burned for a few hours, during which time nova_wolf added immensely to our bonfire experience by playing a lovely tune on her tribal flute. More of that for future bonfires, please! As it burned, much chatting and cuddling occurred. Your friendly neighborhood Nomad was a very happy camper after receiving some personalized attention from several most delightful women. Let's just say that thinking and walking were not always within the realm of physical possibility during this time!

Eventually, as the fire started to burn down, it was time to begin the annual tradition[****] of firewalking over the hot coals. The firewalking began at about half past midnight, at which time about one dozen of us still remained at the party. Both osprey_cat and wiktowasichu are old pros when it comes to walking on the hot coals. For me, this was the third year that I have tried firewalking. Unlike my past experiences, I found that I was nervous... but no longer terrified. I walked the full length of the firepit three times! Sweet! As wiktowasichu -- who happily dances in, rather than walks across, the firepit -- put it, this is no longer about conquering a fear. Now I walk over hot coals simply because I like it. This year, we had quite a few new people give firewalking a try. In 2008, four of us did it; in 2009, only three. This time around? Out of twelve people who were still present, eight of us walked across the firepit. Go us! For several people, it was their first experience; I really enjoyed watching them ride the adrenaline high that comes with it. I remember quite vividly what it felt like on my first attempts, two years ago!

By half past one, we extinguished the coals -- which were no longer terribly hot -- and moved indoors. Two people left; everyone else sat about and chatted for awhile longer. Finally, at a quarter past two, the diaspora began -- leaving only gyades and I behind and awake. We moved to the family room and talked for an hour or so. Then he went to bed and I came up to the office to write this entry. Now that it is complete, I am also off to dreamland. I am covered in sweat (from Four Square), grease (from bar-b-queing), and bug repellent; my feet are coated with ash from walking across the hot coals. I am particularly happy. A most excellent day is coming to its close. I love my life!

Thank you to all who helped make this an exceptionally amazing and incredible party! I really am quite lucky to have such an astoundingly awesometacular group of friends!

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[*] This was the third time that I have played.

[**] This statement has not been verified by the FDA.

[***] A beautiful and charming newcomer who was brought by her partner, the ever-awesome samiitiger. To the best of my knowledge, she has no LJ.

[****] Begun at the 2008 Event Horizon Summer party.

This coming Saturday is my birthday. As such, I have been planning a weekend of fun to celebrate. Apparently, my beloved cheshcat beat me to the punch.

Last Saturday was my surprise party. And what a surprise it was! Shortly after New Year's, cheshcat told me to block off the entire weekend for something that she was organising. Very mys-TEEEER-ious! All I knew at first is that the lovely bunnypip would be coming along, too.

No problem. I blocked off the days and thought little about it. Until -- bit by bit -- it kept coming up. The adorable miss_amaranth mentioned knowing what was planned and assuring me that I would enjoy it. She would be at the Pride march in Brighton on that day, though. The ever-awesome xmakina asked if we could hang out, as miss_amaranth would be out of town; I told him he needed to consult with cheshcat... as she was in charge of the scheduling for the weekend. In the end, it turned out that getting together in the morning would work... before the Cat and the Bunny and I had our evening plans.

Time passed and hints continued to come my way. bunnypip mentioned needing to do preparation. This meant "bake a cake"... but cheshcat covered it by saying that bunnypip needed to read the play -- making out like we had tickets to a special performance of something. This became odder on Friday, when bunnypip said: "Why is my kitchen a mess? I can't tell you." To borrow a phrase from Alice: Curiouser and curiouser!

Come Saturday morning, cheshcat went to get crunched and the chiropractor and I went to meet xmakina in the city centre. He played his part -- that of the distraction -- beautifully! I had no clue what was going on. Texts from miss_amaranth convinced me that she was in Brighton -- not Oxford! cheshcat claimed to need a nap, requiring that I call before coming home. Very clever! Unwittingly, I held up bunnypip by calling to chat when she was on her way to Oxford. Ooops!

Eventually, xmakina and I returned to the Flat With No Name. cheshcat greeted us sleepily at the door in her bathrobe. xmakina requested a drink, which I went to fetch........ and -- of course -- was greeted with a rousing SURPRISE!!!

Well done, everyone!

The party was well set up for your friendly neighborhood Nomad: The helium balloons were red and black -- one of my two favourite colour combinations. The cake had an Iron Man head on it. Mini-rockets -- instead of candles -- were used to mark the decades on the cake! There was also a karaoke set ready to be hooked up to our telly. Excellent planning!

Giving me an early welcome to my thirty-sixth year was cheshcat, bunnypip, L2, miss_amaranth, xmakina, wolfpeach (with a small in tow), topbit, pinkoi, and hughe. This gave us enough people to bring out the party games -- hooray!

We started off with the awesometacular Bag o' Nouns[*]. With two teams of four, ours won... but barely! We then moved on to Apples to Apples which, amazingly enough, I won! I enjoy A2A... but am not usually very good at it! I ended with seven cards; apparently I am: obnoxious, insulting, depressing, miserable, unreal, philosophical... and colourful! Whee!

By popular demand, we then returned to Bag o' Nouns. This time, the teams were off balance -- five to four. Not surprisingly, our team -- with five -- won... but it doesn't really matter, as a great time was had by all! Next game was Saboteur, which hughe won. I ended up as a saboteur in two of the three rounds; I think I work best when I don't have to lie.

Afterward, we took a break from gaming to get some food and sing some karaoke. After L2 and I began with some solos -- I sang Billy Joel's Uptown Girl -- it evolved into a group sing-a-long. With da_pupdetz as the backup singers. And many excellent dance moves! Wunderbar!

In the evening, we broke out The Shinnin'[**]. topbit was eventually revealed as the traitor... and proceeded to kill me then marry off my ghost. Ooops! It was a close game, though! If the spectral wedding had not concluded when it did, miss_amaranth would have charged in to save the day!

Finally, too tired to game any further, we sat around and chatted until stupid o'clock in the morning. Then I drove the last guests home and snuggled into bed with my beautiful bunnypip. Truly an excellent early birthday celebration!

The originally planned party is still taking place this weekend... so watch this space for more details tomorrow! In the meantime, this was a most excellent start to my birthday season... so an enormous "thank you" to cheshcat and everyone else who made it such a success! Y'all can pat yourselves on the back, knowing that you made this Nomad feel all special and tingly inside! I am quite, quite lucky to have such phenomenal friends and partners in my life!!

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[*] Many thanks to the amazing tawneypup for teaching me this game!

[**] Also known as Betrayal at House on the Hill -- another excellent contribution from the spectacular tawneypup.

Saw an incredible production of Pride & Prejudice with my beloved cheshcat last night! It was performed at the Oxford Playhouse, by a touring company from Theatre Royal Bath. This was the fourth show that we have seen together this year... and, by far, the best![*] The house was packed, as the show apparently had a number of fairly famous actors in it[**], for this excellent performance! The acting was incredible, the sets were extraordinary. Everything about this show -- except, on certain occasions, the lighting -- was utterly wonderful. Much humour was injected, as well, which fit perfectly. I am not certain where this tour will be going... but if it comes near you, gentle reader, I heartily recommend seeing it!

Hurm. I really do need a theatre icon for shows that are neither musicals nor Shakespeare.

Other than that, it has been a relatively quiet week. Just for the sake of journaling, here are some recent comings and goings of everybody's favourite Nomad:

On Tuesday evening, the fantastic wolfpeach came over for ice cream and gaming and hanging out. This was -- as always -- good fun! We taught him how to play Dominion and played two games (the so-called "first game" and the "interaction" game). I won both... although just barely on the latter!

On Monday evening, I made my way to St. Aldate's Church in the centre of Oxford for an extended ringing practice focusing on Plain Bob Minor. I feel that my work here is getting better and I would hope to participate in a quarter peal before this year is out.

Also of note, I hopped in the pool this weekend and swam a mile for the first time in Far Too Long^TM. That felt good! Being a water elemental, I need my immersion on a much more regular -- and frequent! -- basis! Must remember to make more time for swimming in the near future!

Finally, my dear friends, I know that I inundated many of you yesterday with my fairly technical post of sciencey goodness. I appreciate your collective indulgence and would not normally inflict such on you again so soon. However, there is one more piece of news that is so awesome, so totally bounce-inducing that I cannot hold it back! The news is actually from yesterday... yet I was not able to mention it publicly until the press release went through this morning. Here it is:

Ta-DAAA!!!


This, dear friends, is the first T2K neutrino event seen in the Super-Kamiokande detector. The brand new neutrino beam was fired down into the Earth... travelled nearly 300 km across Japan... then was detected in an enormous water tank on the other side of the country! How cool is that??

The three rings of light that you see are from particles resulting from the neutrino detection. The first two are probably from what we call a π⁰, which decays immediately into to particles of light. The other ring -- barely visible -- is from something else. Possible a nuclear interaction?

Anyway, I have been saying for some time now that T2K is moving into a very exciting era. This event marks that... and is the start of much more niftyness to come!

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[*] The first three were a stage adaption of Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop, a fairly bizarre rendition of Medea, and a delightful Ayckbourn piece entitled My Wonderful Day.

[**] So I am told, anyway. I am notorious for being clueless about celebrities. Want to know who was king of England in 975 C.E.? I can help you. Who are Susan Hampshire, David Beames, Natalie Burt, Peter Ellis, or Carolyn Pickles? I have absolutely no idea[**]... except to say that I saw them on stage last night and they all did a superb job!

[***] To emphasize my lack of cluefulness, I should point out that I have read their bios in the programme and, even after seeing all those television and film credits, I still have no idea who they are! Mainly because I have not heard of all these television shows and movies! cheshcat is frequently embarrassed by my profound ignorance.

I composed the initial part of my holiday write-up from a motel in Ohio, USA. Thus, it seems somehow fitting that I now write its counterpart, concluding the holidays from a hotel in Tokai, Japan![*] Without further ado, here is a summary of the last two states visited in the Nomad 2009 Decemberween Five State US Tour! Have at it, gentle readers!

Day Nine: (Thu Dec 31) Arrived in Michigan with gyades, where I greeted my darling tawneypup and her husband, plasmonicgrid. After settling in, we were introduced to Little Big Planet and the four of us spent a couple of hours bonding over the Playstation 3. When finished, I took a call from the future -- the charming cheshcat, the beautiful bunnypip, and the marvelous miss_amaranth phoned from 2010! We chatted for a bit, then it was time for homemade pizza paninis!

Guests[**] began arriving at half eight -- in total, fourteen people attended, making for a cozy little group. We played a couple of games of Bag of Nouns -- each time I was on the winning team by just a razor-thin margin of victory! I passed around the Signspotting book that cheshcat had given me for Yule -- it was generally a huge hit, with much laughter ensuing! At midnight, we watched an animatronic Dick Clark ring in the new year -- and decade! -- as we enjoyed malts at midnight! Yummy!

We got comfortable in the new year by chatting and having random attacks of silly string. Around two o'clock in the morning, it was suggested that we go to sleep... but we played Apples To Apples instead! Despite an early lead, I came in third with six cards to my name. Apparently, I am "pure" & "eternal"... as well as "chunky", too! More sleepy -- and slightly tipsy -- musings followed, so it was nearly six o'clock in the morning before people finally made their way to Dreamland. Definitely a fun way to see out the old year and welcome in the new one!

Day Ten: (Fri Jan 01) After a lazy lie-in, tawneypup and gyades and I went out for a delicious breakfast of omelette and hash browns and pancakes! Then we exchanged gifts before packing up for the drive to Chicago. gyades drove on first in his car; tawneypup and I followed half an hour behind in hers. The weather outside was frightful -- much snow and ice assailed us. Still, my dear Tawney handled the roads expertly... and the slow speeds required gave us all the more time to talk in the car! When we finally ran out of things to say, we spent the last hour or two singing various and sundry songs together, especially a few duets!

On our arrival in Chicagoland, the three us of went out for a dinner of Mexican food... followed up by games! I managed an amazing rally to beat gyades at air hockey... only to lose the next game to tawneypup. I then scraped by a win -- in overtime! -- against gyades in foosball before we all headed in to the Lazer Tag arena. This time around, I tried a new strategy: Hide in one of the highest spaces and try to pick people off sniper-style. It didn't pay off, though; not enough people in my field of view to rack up sufficient hits. Out of fourteen players in our free-for-all, I ranked only twelfth -- compared to tawneypup (clad all in black ninja gear) at #3 and gyades at #5. Oh, well -- better luck next time! After our session shooting each other in the backs[***], we returned to the Event Horizon for some good old fashioned Rock Band. That topped off the night well, until we were all ready to collapse into bed!

Day Eleven: (Sat Jan 02) After waking, gyades and tawneypup and I made our way to the Morton Arboretum to wander about the grounds. Although this magnificent arboretum is located only half a mile from the Event Horizon -- making me a frequent visitor when I am local -- this is only the second time that I have dropped by in Winter. The ground was covered in snow and the sun glistened beautifully off the shiny white surfaces! I had never seen the arboretum like this before -- it was absolutely lovely! We drove slowly through both sides, stopping in the middle to wander on foot. We attempted a gnome hunt... but found too many gnomes were hiding beneath the snow! Whoops!

After we returned to the Event Horizon, we let the games begin! tawneypup and I played Tic Tac Doh! using my Icehouse pieces, each winning several games. We then moved on to Martian Chess -- also an Icehouse game -- where I won. By this point, xirpha had arrived; we broke out Betrayal At House On The Hill and played with all four of us. Interestingly enough, we stumbled on the one scenario -- out of fifty -- where there is no traitor! Instead, the four of us had to collectively defeat our evil twins, which I am proud to say we managed without sustaining any casualties! Go us! By this point gyades was feeling a bit off so he went to take a nap whilst xirpha taught tawneypup and I how to play Ingenious; the first game was a close win for xirpha (eight points for him, with seven for each of us), whilst the second was a much more dramatic win for tawneypup (eleven points for her, seven for me, one for xirpha. Next up, we played Empire Builders. This was a close game -- and a long one! -- but I managed to achieve a victory! By this point, the lovely wyldekyttin, & unclevlad, as well as the charming emrldgirrl & wiktowasichu had arrived! We introduced them to the now-infamous Bag of Nouns, which was a hit! I teamed up with wyldekyttin and unclevlad against the rest... but, alas, we were undone! At the end of the game, we were behind three points!

We had a little time to chat and schmooze before we needed to head out to catch the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. My dear friends, I am proud to say that your favourite Nomad is a Rocky virgin no longer! Before the show, us virgins were rounded up and made to mimic barnyard animals having an orgasm -- my turkey garnered great laughs... and came in second only to the walrus! The show itself was lots of fun! The shadow cast was excellent and came equipped with very elaborate props! Of course, I have no basis for comparison... but tawneypup has seen half a dozen such productions of Rocky -- and she thinks that this one was the best! Originally, we had planned to dress me up as Magenta for the show; to that end tawneypup had brought a French maid's costume with her. Alas, time did not allow... so there are no compromising photos to share with you, gentle readers! Perhaps next time!

The cinema itself was impressive, with a fantastic ambiance and seating at conference-style tables. This permits a full restaurant menu, with food and drink delivered throughout the show. I very much enjoyed the venue and plan to return on future trips to Chicago -- either for Rocky or just for other movies! The admission fees are quite reasonable (only eight dollars), though everyone is required to purchase at least one item from the menu. No complaints there -- tis a good deal! Meanwhile, I owe thanks to wyldekyttin and unclevlad... as the surreptitiously intercepted and paid the restaurant check for tawneypup and I![****]

When the show ended, we bid them farewell... then returned to the Event Horizon to collapse into bed once more, circa three o'clock in the morning!

Day Twelve: (Sun Jan 03) Vacation over -- hop a flight to Japan!

Thus completed the Nomad's Twelve Days of Christmas in the US of A -- all in all, it was an excellent holiday and a wonderful start to the new year! Now I am in Tokai, batteries recharged and eagerly looking forward to the start of our next collaboration meeting tomorrow! The experiment is turning on now so these are some very exciting times!!

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[*] Hey, I've got a name to live up to!

[**] Other than gyades and I, of course!

[***] And front. And shoulders.

[****] Indeed, I would have thanked them sooner -- and in person! -- except that I did not learn of this until after we had already parted ways for the night!