soapbox

Man, I would have loved to have attended this today.

That would have been way cooler than working.

“David Ortiz will be actively involved in the instruction and guidance of participating youth who want to learn to hit like the pro.

Each registrant will receive a gift bag including an item autographed by David Ortiz.”

Of course, the $299 sticker price is nothing to sneeze at, but hey, quality time with Big Papi being Big Papi would probably be worth it.

is above me, and I see lightning flashes off in the south… i am taking darks. It was clear enough when I started observing, and I have never cranked the focus up above 900, but it is so humid, I guess it needs to be that high to get the best seeing one can get today–2.5 arc seconds.
go northdome!

I am sitting where Aaron’s desk used to be, listening to my favorite on-line christian radio station, and no one can see that I am not working, but posting a blog, since the desk is facing the door. I love my new space in 305! Furthermore, I cleaned out the microwave and the book shelf, and I took the other flat screen monitor. The wires from the monitor and speaker are cleanly and nicely wrapped around the desk. I have been “hanging out” with the computer specialist in the psychology department, so he has been helping me with all my computer wants and needs (and other ones as well… – just kidding!!).

It is rediculously hot outside, but I am in my air conditioned office in a cute skirt and halter top. The telescope on the roof is working fabulously, and I keep collecting data, and my psychology computer friend keeps me company and sometimes even brings me ice cream while I take the 10-15 min long obserations of RR Lyrae stars. I miss Nathaniel, since it is difficult to reduce data when there is nothing in the headers, and I have to figure out by myself what keywords to include, and why some bizarre error messages come up. It would be nice to beable to pester Nathaniel to figure out how to reduce the data. But Wegner is back, and Thor is also around, and they have been more then helpful, since they are so glad that someone is using the twinky telescope on the roof. And I actually have my first images reduced.

Brian has been gone the last 2 weeks, so I have spent many afternoons swimming in various swimming spots and riding in my psycology computer guy’s BMW to various hikes and cute restaurants.

I’m actually doing some work today (well, not at the moment since I’m blogging) and I have to say that nice things are nice and we, as fairly affluent grad students/post-docs/whatever else, should be pretty happy with our position in life.

I realized that while the office I’m in now is pretty gross (the carpet has stretched so much that it forms folds and mounds by my temporary computer and the chair I’m sitting in is less than ideal), things are pretty good. I’m relaxed in my linen pants and natural cotton everything else, I have a nice “timepiece” on my wrist, and I’m writing in a Moleskine notebook with a fountain pen to figure out how to best streamline a process.

You can add the fact that I’m now typing on an attractive brushed aluminum laptop and posting on a nifty little linux server that I control.

Anyway, if you’re not feeling as positive as I am, post a comment and I’ll see what I can do.