-

Isn't ice amazing.

Today was a good day off. It even felt like a day off. My activities for today started with a fantastic breakfast as an encore from an awesome Thankgiving feast last night. I had my favorite food in the whole world as shown in the photo, smoked salmon with red onions and capers, two custom fried eggs, a salt bagel, a fresh biscuit, cranberry juice, coffee, a slice of melon and some assorted cheeses. I had Mike take this photo of my breakfast. Antarctica is very harsh, just not this morning. Note the two "green brains", one in my pocket and one on the table.

After that we went up to the ham shack as a encore of my most-excellent contacts last night from Japan, Patriot Hills Antarctica and Pacific marine mobiles. I got my climbing harness on and climbed the tower to rotate the tri-band antenna more towards North America. The 20 meter amateur radio band is tricky down here. We have to follow the dark line. We are still experimenting with some very challenging radio propagation solar cycles. Currently things are pretty much at the unfavorable trough for shortwave conditions, which normally run on an eleven year cycle. (more on that...science payload 3 on the LDB this year).

I also got to see a world premiere of Werner Herzog's movie "Rescue Dawn". It will be released by MGM in March. Herzog is in Antarctica creating a film here about us, science, and the drama. The movie I saw today was a very moving movie. It will be something you will want to see if you like real life drama. Herzog appears to be a "bridge" producer between documentaries and feature films and he discussed with us the nature of doing just that. I could easily identify with what he described as his role. He is by all accounts a very special individual. I don't say that lightly. His life's experiences are profound.

Tonight for dinner I really hit it off with more of the ANITA team. I had a great talk with the PI (principal investigator). They are doing some great stuff. I have a personal invitation for the launch. http://amanda.uci.edu/~anita/

I am off to watch another Herzog film right now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
MotoSat My friend Pete called yesterday from I 81 near Scranton. He was twisting up the differential on his pickup while trailering his camper. The differential was making a lot of noise and he had just got some work done to it. Luckily, the camper and truck made it to whitney point. I agreed to pull the trailer with my truck to Rochester for him to lighten the load on his truck. It was a large camper, about 28 feet and 8000 lbs. My truck felt it was pulling something that's for sure. It was a different experience. We got home after midnight.
Read more
-
Image
Llama - Llama glama Professor had his surgery today. We removed a hunk of grizzely tissue about the size of a large eyeball from the side of his left foot. He behaved great!. We now have him locked in the llama house with his buddy Aries. The vet used a local in his foot. They had pictures with them to help figure out the foot anatomy of the llama.
Read more
-
Image
It is Thursday night. It is American night over at Scott Base (the New Zealand base). It is a couple miles away. I didn't much feel like going so I didn't. My ankle is a lot better. Today a co-worker and installed a radio with a battery/solar charger in a fuel pump house. Of course that was just a small fraction of what was done today. I received a satellite call from the folks out at Taylor Dome. They said I can slept in a heated module or with some of others who are camping outside. They said it was cold. That means (it takes a while to figure what cold means with all the unspoken context) it is between 25 and 50 below. I told them I will decide when I get there. I have to help them decide whether to dig up an antenna they see 5 feet of. The rest is buried in the snow. I am pretty sure it is a minimum of 35 feet tall which means 30 feet is under snow since 1996 (when it was supposedly installed). It does not snow a lot here but it did today. The snow really gets moved aro
Read more

John McEuen Live in Duluth GA

-
Image
We went to see John McEuen live at our local music venue about a mile from the house. John was a founding member of the Nitty Grity Dirt Band. It was great to hear the music and stories and to be there and experience. Their biggest hit was Mr. Bojangles. But there was a interesting smattering of stringed instruments in strange places over the years in different genres and cultures.
Read more
-
Image
The Weird Site -A classy selection of weird, strange and bizarre web sites and news facts. Today was a strange day. Not that every day is strange, but today I decided to recognize today as strange. I woke up 5:00 am and got the fire going again, surfed the web, drank coffee, made the usual to-do list. Started on the mead process, burned garbage, fed llamas, fed chickens. Started on ebay process, sold three items on ebay, and listed the llama beans. Thought about work and scenarios Got fire going again... needed serious reconfig in firebox. Some of the fingers used to hold fire became disjointed. CAUGHT CAT ON FIRE!... The orange cat (Tioga) came up to me on my computer stinking, looking for affection. He was rubbing on me and me and the monitor, and the desk, meowing... I thought it was outside rolling in the garbage or something, but no he had somehow caught himself on fire... what a dip sh#t. Anyway, he is no worse for the wear. I found the large bit o
Read more