The Thing at the South Pole!

After station close, there is a tradition that we participate in down here at the South Pole. Everyone gathers together and watches the movie "The Thing".  I have heard about this tradition for years, so I was very excited to actually be able to participate this time around! In fact, there are three movies called "The Thing", and we watched all of them.  It took around six hours, but it was a ton of fun.  The original version was made in the 50s, and that one actually takes place at the North Pole.  We started with that one and then went on to the 2011 version which is actually a prequel to the 1982 version by John Carpenter, which we finished with.  The last two actually take place in Antarctica which is why they have become traditional movies to watch.  The one thing I get a huge kick out of is the fact that it is pretty much taken as a given, at least in the new two movies, that Antarctic stations have dynamite and flame throwers... I have been looking around, but I haven't been able to find either, and I don't know what we will do if we get invaded by aliens!

Since we closed the station last week, we have started to settle into our winter routines. Our station responsibilities have shifted a little bit over the past week. During the summer, everyone has to take turns cleaning their shared bathrooms once a week, and the rest of the station is mostly taken care of by the stewards.  Since we have a large population drop during the winter, there is only one steward, so we split all the cleaning responsibilities into different groups around the station.  Each week groups shift change responsibilities and we have a different area of the station to clean. We started this new schedule this week, and it hasn't been too bad.  I have a great group, including my IceCube colleague Martin and the RAs Doug and Adam. We also take turns now washing dishes, but given the number of people on station, that should only happen once every month and a half or so.  I did my first turn in the dishpit this last weekend.  It turns out it was a lot more work than I was expecting!  I think I am going to try to volunteer some to help out more so it is not so bad for others. It is actually pretty common for people to volunteer in the dishpit, and I think I now see why.  If you have more than one person there, it makes things much easier!

Other than that, things are going well. I got a little behind on some of my winter projects last week due to station close and a few other things we had to do with the detector, but I have been doing well this week. I started some language studies this week: French and a bit of Spanish review on Duolingo.  If anyone is interested in learning or refreshing a foreign language, you should friend me on Duolingo so we have that extra level of competition.  It will help us keep each other motivated, I think. My username there is Hanavi.

One area that I am making some good progress in is reading. I have been reading a ton, mostly physics papers and books, but I have an extensive reading list that I am hoping to put a dent in this winter, and I have started on one of the bigger books on the list: War and Peace. I don't read as much as I would like.  When I talk to people, I generally find that they have either read way more or way less than I have.  I tend to be somewhere in the middle. I also tend to read slowly at times, but that usually isn't an issue as I can be a very patient individual, but War and Peace is a long book.  It may take me a while to get through.  I have read some long books before, so as long as I don't get bored, this one shouldn't be a problem... We'll see if it keeps my attention!

I have also started settling into a violin practice routine. I even picked up the trumpet and guitar for a few minutes yesterday.  Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes, my lips were so tired and sore, I had to put the trumpet down.  Similarly, I don't have calluses on my fingers any more so the guitar playing didn't last as long as I would like, either. I figure if I can do 15-20 min a day for the next couple weeks, I will be in a better place for both, and before too long I will be able to play for an extended period of time again.

On a bit of a personal note, my sleep schedule has been a little weird.  I am a bit of a night person, but that really shouldn't make a difference here, except that I have started to move into a night schedule. I think I would just prefer a longer day, so my schedule keeps moving later and later!  Until recently, I have tried to stick with a fairly normal schedule due to meal times, but that has started to slip some.  Given the nature of my responsibilities here, I do have some flexibility in my schedule, but I am not quite sure, how far I want to let my schedule flex.  Besides meal times, I would like to be awake for the internet which is only up a few hours a day, and I don't want to miss out on some of the social activities. I suppose we'll see how it all works out, so far it hasn't been too bad.

So far, winter is going well.  The sun is still up for a few more weeks, but the temperatures have started to drop.  We have seen temps going down to below -50F with windchills below -80F. As long as I can stay productive, I think this will be a great winter!

Getting into the grove of things

It has been a while since I have tried to keep up a blog, so I am still not quite back in the habit of posting regularly.  Though, to be honest, I am not sure my other blogs were updated quite as often as they should have been either.

At any rate the past month has been quite interesting.  I had a set of interviews up in Madison, WI for a job that I am interested in this past week.   There are still a couple more candidates left to interview so it should be a few weeks before they make their final selections.  One great thing about being in Madison was that I was able to get caught up with some IceCube collaboration friends I haven't seen in a while.  There are a ton of wonderful people in the IceCube collaboration and in my time there I made many friends, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to see many of them in over a year.  We still keep in touch on Facebook, but there is nothing like being able to sit down and visit and have a face to face chat with a good friend you haven't seen in a while.

I have still been trying to get a bunch of reading done.  I have almost finished a few more books.  One I did finish was Black Holes And Time Warps by Kip Thorne.  I think I started reading this book years ago, but I kept getting distracted so I never finished it.  So I recently restarted it and was able to get through it in about a week or so.  It really is a great book for someone with a physics background.  I loved reading about the history of the development of various topics in physics and how so many branches and researches were intertwined.  That much of the book should be enjoyable with any interest in physics at all.  The physics was very basic for me, but could end up being a little difficult for others without much physics experience.  Overall, I really enjoyed the book.

I have also been reading a lot of physics papers.  I still have a ton I want to read.  One project I think I would like to do one day is to build an online collection of papers for grad students in particular.  A listing of papers that are important for students to read as they enter particular research subjects, historical papers and review papers that are important to gain the basics of a subject or group of subjects.  I think that would have helped me as grad student.

I also have a few other computer/physics projects floating around in the back of my mind that I might try to work on soon, but I am not ready to even try to put down any real plans yet.  I'm going to have to let them float around a bit and see where they land.

So many books, so little time!

The past week has been somewhat good.  I found out I made it to the next interview for the job I want, and I was asked to be a godfather again for a couple of my best friends next child.  Both of those are very exciting, and to be honest, I am not sure which I am more excited by.  I have also been kind of busy with various other things.

I decided to try to read a book a week this year... So far, I have only read three books.  I am way behind! I could have sworn there was one more book I had read, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it would have been. Overall, I don't feel like this is something I have to be too overwhelmed by if I don't meet my goals. Really, I just want to read more, and having a goal helps keep me motivated.  While my books tend to be somewhat varied in nature, lately they are almost all at least semi-nonfiction.  I say "semi" because one was a bit of a biographical fiction.  It was mostly true, but with some details modified here and there to make it a little more allegorical.

The books so far:

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 
• The Art of Asking (Amanda Palmer)
• Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC  

I have actually been going through some old physics text books as well.  It has actually been fun reviewing without the pressure of school behind them.  On that note, I am also thinking about doing some electronics review.  I will probably spend some time on YouTube over the next few weeks watching electronics videos to get back into the grove of things.

I have also been trying to keep active with yoseikan.  I forgot how much fun it was, not to mention the added benefit of exercise. The past few weeks have been largely review as I haven't practiced in over five years, but I feel like I am not as far behind as I could be.

I visited VBAS yesterday for the members meeting, and they had a talk about their expansion into radio astronomy.  I am mildly interested in radio astronomy, so I may try to get involved some if time allows. I actually have a book on radio astronomy published by the ARRL that I started to read and never finished.  I may have to bump it up on my list of priorities now!