The Logbook of Lunicrax

Merry, the happy budgie

2012-01-31T22:24:00.003-07:00

Merry was an amazingly happy little bird, who enriched my life so much. Today, totally out of the blue, something happened (my guess is he choked on something) and I found him on the floor of the cage when I came home. It is amazing how attached you can grow to a little bird... Especially since he should've had so many more years to be happy. I had him 5.5 years, together with Pippin, since the summer day I bought them in Winnipeg, after 2 years of birdlessness (not fun). It was an awesome day, which I remember very well. And every day since then it has been a joy to come home.

During the last year, Merry adopted a few cute habits - such as flying to my head, walking up to the front of my head and bending down saying CHIRP! Then he would slide down the side of my head, hanging onto my hair, and stick his head out in front of my eye (mainly the left side) and start chirping his heart away. Sometimes he was so persistent doing this when I was eating dinner, that I had to put on a hat to be able to get some food into me. He adored playing with my thumb, and if he came with me into the office room, it would be a challenge to type.

During the trip over to New Mexico, I had the birds in a tiny cage inside a bag with star shaped breathing walls. Whenever I opened the side of the bag, two budgies would come and start playing with my fingers, while chirping happily. A most wonderful trip. They did not enjoy being stuck in Albuquerque due to a "snow storm" though. Having to stay in a hotel in that tiny cage made them loudly tell me how annoyed they were... They managed the trip very well though, and were very happy to arrive in their new home in Socorro the next day. A few weeks later, I got to borrow a palace of a cage from my birdsitter friends, which made the sejour even better. The first few weeks, flying was a challenge (due to the thin air), but Merry soon got better at it, and flew as well as ever during his last week. (The photo caption has a link to some Merry photos.)

Speaking of budgie personalities btw, check out this story!

New adventures in New Mexico

2011-09-04T21:49:00.002-06:00

It's probably time for an update... Since last time I wrote was in January. Does it take such a long time to get back to normal after a thesis defence? It almost seems so.. Although, there have been webalbum updates. Those do count. Here is a list of some adventures:

I can't believe I didn't write about the Florida trip! This was my present to myself for being done: watching a space shuttle launch (STS 133), with my brother Daniel
Spring in reverse: First Holland, then Sweden
Summer in Toronto and elsewhere (with a bunch of visitors) - London, Windsor, Bruce Peninsula, Quebec, Palmyra, Girl's camp, Socorro, New York

Whether I'm actually back to normal or not, is another question, but I do have a reason to write! After a spring of trying to rest a bit, I ended up getting a job in the early summer, with a start date of September 1st. This was good, because when you have a deadline at which you know something good is going to end (spending summer in Toronto with David), you appreciate the time so much more.

So, the job! It's a postdoc (which is a weird sensation - I'm actually at that point in life? finally?), and the project I'll be working on is pretty awesome! Observing halo radio emission in edge-on galaxies. It's called CHANG-ES (Continuum halos in nearby galaxies - an EVLA survey). My new supervisor is the PI (principal investigator) of the project, and many astronomers from all over the world are part of the CHANG-ES consortium.

EVLA is the keyword here - it is the newly enhanced VLA observatory (I think E stands for expanded), which is located in New Mexico. 405 hours of observation time was granted to this project, and so, here I am as well. For a year.

Yikes!

So I'm writing from Socorro, New Mexico, a little town everyone claims to be remote and isolated. Well. I lived 6 years in Winnipeg. Isolation is a matter of perspective. And the nearest big city from here, Albuquerque, is only 1 hr and a bit away. Soon Albuquerque will host the world's biggest hot-air balloon meeting (October 1-9). YEY! (And I just visited one in St Jean sur Richelieu, in Quebec (photos to come)). Anyways, I don't think the isolation will be that much of a problem. David will come often to visit, and I will go to Toronto every now and then as well. And there are mountains. And a HUGE observatory. And loads of astronomers. And, for this size of town, it seems like they are pretty good at coming up with diverse activities. The climate!!! Finally a warm place with short winters. And the FOOD! So far I've only had Sopaipillas with green chile (completely delicious), and some local yummy stuff at a fair with a rodeo, but it's certainly very promising so far. One of my goals of this year will be to learn the New Mexican cuisine.

Now for some photos of the surroundings (of course today, when I go out to take pictures, the weather is grey and dull):

The guesthouse with the courtyard in the middle. A very cute fox often hides under the planks. My room is in the corner straight ahead. The kitchen is on the left (not visible).

Here's the cute fox! I hope I can catch a less fuzzy version at some point...

This is a corner of the NRAO building and the view. The building is in a Y-shape (like the EVLA array)

This is my cubicle. It's on the edge of one of the tips of the Y-shape, so I'm sitting diagonally. And I love the view (usually the weather isn't grey, like today...)

Hard to take good photos of the rodeo in the dusk light.

And... I just had to add this one... Awesome photo taken by Sandra, after an awesome good bye lunch just before I left.

A new year with new chances

2011-01-19T18:04:00.001-07:00

This is one of the most new-yearish new years I've experienced. Defending the thesis and having that DONE, is (albeit still unreal) quite the change in my life. So, this is a year I have great hopes for! And here are a few of the things I'd like to do, as soon as I come home to Toronto:

Visit the library and read LOADS of books.
Put up a shelf for the microwave oven :)
Paint a painting of Groot genoeg. And of birds. And of anything really.
Make a photo album of the past year (uhm, and the years before that, all the way back to 2004... But one step at a time, I guess....)
Search for jobs
Make awesome food...
Spend lots of time with the Hobbit-birdies Merry & Pippin (I haven't seen them for soon a month...)
Start crocheting! I have crazy plans of making a bedspread. But again, should probably start with smaller steps.
Just exist, with all what that entails - have a little bit of a social life again, and lots of communication with family

And until then, while in Sweden - enjoy life to the fullest! Which is, of course, with my wonderful family members.

~~~~~

A little bit more than a week later (when I actually post this post), I've returned to Toronto. The first day after my return, we went to the library and I got a library card, and happily discovered that the Canadian library system (well, at least the one in Toronto) is exactly as awesome as the one in Sweden. I borrowed a few books and started reading one. And then it hit. Post-thesis stress or something of that kind. The symptoms are as unpleasant as the symptoms of the week before the defence (i.e. major stress). But then I could at least work (and work I did, seemingly neverendingly, and it did pay off, since everything I worked on was covered during the defence questions), and now it's hard to do anything at all. Apparently this is fairly normal, and so I hope a bit of vacation will cure it. But it is annoying - finally this time has arrived, which I've longed for for so many years, and I can't even appreciate it.

Today was however another special day - my thesis was officially approved by the university, and can be found here. I wonder if that is going to make me believe it's real? I think I'm going to celebrate by watching a bunch of Stargate episodes.

Done?!?

2011-01-05T03:05:00.002-07:00

Link to my supervisor's entry about my defense.
I have a bunch to report. But that'll have to do for now! :)

Submitted!

2010-11-11T15:47:00.002-07:00

I submitted my thesis Monday morning. !!!! It's been 3 days, and the realisation is just slowly sinking in. I'm enjoying being off and not worrying about the thesis - a very unfamiliar feeling. There is a growing worry about the defense of course, which I probably should start doing something about fairly soon (prep talk, study my large document in which I've collected potential defines questions).

But YEY!!! A strong worry about what to do about the future turned into calm yesterday as well. If the thought of following the path you're supposed to follow after a phd scares me half to death, and the thought of doing things that I would want to do fills me with calm and happy/excited anticipation of the future, there's got to be some kind of hint there telling you which would be the better way to go, right?

Since I moved to Toronto in the beginning of August, I've been working like crazy on the thesis, except for a week when my brother was visiting, and I got some sightseeing in then. On Tuesday, the day after my submission, I went downtown as a reward to myself, visited the Eaton centre, and walked around in the city, while David was doing simulator training (I got to see the simulators - very cool machines!!). Toronto is really great. A downtown where you can walk, enjoy, see the shadow side of nice "old" buildings being lit up by the reflection of the beautiful sunset in the neighbouring high glass buildings, follow the stream of people going home from work to the union station, take the GO train home in just 20 minutes. I love the GO train. It's rather Dutch except for the diesel engine, which is massive and crazy loud (but rather cool). I saw the most beautiful sunset from its second floor as I went home. The sun sets really quickly this far south! Just a matter of seconds!

Today is remembrance day, and my mother's birthday, and I don't think I've ever experienced such a beautiful 11th of November before. David was off and we took a bike ride up along the little river, through the forest, discovered a new path, and then back again. The last trees are getting coloured leaves now (they seem to take turns here - starting in September - I don't know if it's the norm, but the autumn really was amazing). The sun still burns my face. In November!!!

We also changed our number plates on the car today. Funny how such a seemingly insignificant thing makes such a difference in the feeling of where you belong. We need a new Holland sticker though, the old one is fading. The Sweden sticker is fine :)

Having fun with my wonderful camera. This is one of my favourites!

David's parents visited for a week - during some of the best autumn colours

The birds are preparing to go south

I'm so relieved!!!

First month at the place where the alders grow

2010-08-29T19:15:00.001-06:00

I love it here! We live in a part of Toronto called Etobicoke, very close to lake Ontario (300 m). With a beach. With loads of geese (I love geese!) and other birds. The apartment is on the east side of our building, but nevertheless it gets fairly hot on days of 30 degrees and above… It is also very humid here. In other words: I'm loving it!!!!

We have visited one of the 3 (!) ikeas more often than is probably sane (it's 10 minutes away, and they have cheap food…). It takes either 50 minutes or 20 minutes to get downtown depending on choice of transportation (bus+subway or train). My supervisor visited last weekend, and during the day we worked together at the University of Toronto, she showed me around. Before then, I had only seen the Astronomy building (which is wonderful!!! openable windows, an AC you can turn on and off yourself, and are asked not to use unless absolutely necessary, a HUGE lounge, plants en masse, large windows, and view south, with the CN tower in direct view) - and now I got to see a little bit more of campus. What a wonderful campus!!! I need to bring my camera and post some photos! There are lots of old buildings in gothic style. Just a few block south of where I'm located, there is a street (Baldwin) with a plethora of super cute restaurants. We went to one, and the food was just wonderful!

There is obviously an immense amount of things to do here, which I'm saving for when my brother comes over for a visit in September. Because - the thesis has priority #1 for now. But that doesn't stop me from simultaneously enjoying the weather, the location, the apartment, evening walks to the beach, being together again, the rides to uni on the subway, watching people, being in a big city, still having lots of nature nearby, seeing stars and planets over the lake, existing…

The lake in the morning

This little girl had flown all the way from Brampton in 3 days (about 20 km away), and stayed one night with us before I got in touch with her owners who came to pick her up. Just as well, thought my own budgies, who found her a bit bossy...

The Toronto temple - only 30 minutes away (!!!). I had some fun experimenting with HDR.

Trip to Toronto

2010-08-29T18:57:00.000-06:00

It has almost been a month now since I ended my 6 year long sejour in Winnipeg, and went east. So it's really time for an update on things. All bonds with Winnipeg are not cut yet though - the thesis is yet to be defended. And edited. Of course it would have been amazing to have all that behind me, and that was indeed my plan. On the other hand, it is nice to move in gradual steps.

The trip over was really wonderful - a 3 day camping trip, with husband and birds, trailer and tent, traversing a distance the length of Sweden (2060 km). We had a fair bit of rain the first night, at a camp site called Wolf River, a little bit east of Thunder Bay. But the tent did not leak, and it was ultra cosy to listen to the rain. All three days were rather warm, but our little Golf managed excellently! The second day consisted of lots of ascending and descending major hills bordering lake Huron, and it was pretty - of what we could see, a lot of time we were in thick fog. We camped a little bit east of Sault Ste Marie, in a wonderful spot just on the beach. We got our first swim for the year (about time…) and it was wonderful.

The last day felt never-ending. We arrived into Toronto just before 3 pm, after an 8 hr drive (instead of the anticipated 6.5 hr), I think on the hottest day of the three days. The traffic was intense, but it was fairly easy to get to our new abode. Some serious unpacking commenced. It took 3 hours in all. It was at least 30 degrees and rather humid - I don't think I've ever sweated that much for such a prolonged time!!

I left winnipeg scrubbing and cleaning, and I started out in Toronto scrubbing and cleaning - the previous tenants had not cleaned out the place. Yeehaa… The caretakers had done a great job cleaning the grossest details - stove, fridge, toilet, so they were in excellent shape (to our great relief!!!), but floors, walls, cupboards, etc, needed a thorough scrub. It was a long day…

T-6 days

2010-07-26T22:13:00.000-06:00

T as in Theresa travelling to Toronto (Tenting!). I bought a tent today at Canadian tire. Naturally it has a hole in the floor (and I did not buy the dirt cheap one! Perhaps I should have...). Naturally it's impossible to fit it back into the box in which it came. But! In exactly a week, we'll be camping!!! If the car doesn't break down I guess... The hitch holds. The trailer keeps in one piece. I'm a little worried about the birds too. I wonder how they'll handle 3 days on the road. And will D be able to jump to Winnipeg during the long weekend? Can I include a map here? Nice!

View Larger Map

Oh, what a relief!

2010-06-16T16:44:00.000-06:00

So, it seems like my thesis is going to be awesome. And the reason for that is that I'm going to put in an extra half chapter (or whole chapter) that will bind it all together - something I'd totally forgotten about (not the binding it all together part, that was totally on my mind, but the how to accomplish said binding - that was a bit elusive to me as I was finishing my "last" chapter on Tuesday - and it was really so simple, starting to occur to me as I handed over the chapter to my supervisor, and feeling a bit bad about its (the chapter's) inabilities to accomplish the binding on its own.

Lol. In other words, there are some parts missing, that have to be done (and when they are, the thesis will look great!) Which is ok, I know how, but it'll take somewhat more time than 3 days… In other words, my deadline is going to be moved, and I will work on this for a little bit longer (a bit ~ a month or max two). Am I disappointed? I'm sure my poor supervisor thought I'd be… (she didn't really suggest this to me, we had a great meeting discussing it all, and it felt nice to be able to look at the thing clearly, in perspective). But no! Actually not disappointed at all! I'm just very relieved!! It's been good working 13 hours a day - I've accomplished a lot. But, after 2.5 weeks of this, I'm quite exhausted. Indeed, even this morning, I had a really hard time dragging myself into activity. But my relief is more about knowing that the job will not be mediocre, and that I will be able to continue the way I've started.

These weeks have been very enlightening - I've forced myself to really work in a highly disciplined manner. I've learnt loads, which has felt wonderful. Not only about the topic, but how to fight the anguish, and be structured. That's how I fought it - anguish arrives when seeing too much at once. Then structuring it up, forming a plan, dividing into manageable pieces, and just take one at a time and keep at it, is the way to go. Prayer is an indispensable ingredient in this process...
I am not going to continue on the 13 hr schedule though… I'll aim for 10 hrs/day instead :) 8 - 18 should be good.

There's another benefit with this scenario: I don't have to be working here. I can be somewhere else, say… Toronto?

Happy.

3 weeks

2010-05-30T16:11:00.000-06:00

ARGH! GAH!
3 weeks left. And my thesis just keeps getting bigger and bigger (i.e. more and more things added on to it). 2 weeks ago something awesome happened: The last obstacle on my road was flattened, and everything I need to do thereafter, are things I now know how to do (uhm except convert continuum flux to SFR - that obstacle showed up after). But it all takes such TIME!
I have a plan: These coming 3 weeks I will be working from 8 to 21.

Progress

2010-04-24T07:19:00.000-06:00

I finished chapter 2 (data) 3 days ago (YES!). And my supervisor already gave me a pile of comments (things I really should have seen myself, but somehow one grows blind to the writing after a while, making the most obvious things going unnoticed). I've made a list of my remaining analysis, which needs to be written into chapter 6. It looks daunting, but still, on this the day of 50 days left before submission, it might just still be doable. I should leave a fair amount of weeks for chapter 7 (discussion).

I am thinking that going to the shuttle launch is a bit optimistic though. But, oh, I so want to go... There are three launches left, and the next one (after this one) will be just before the defence. And the last one might be popular...

(This is hilarious: I'm trying to "unconnect" my blog from my buzz, using chrome, and it doesn't work. Google, you're awesome, but seriously?)

Thesis, Toronto, climate and luggage

2010-04-15T21:46:00.001-06:00

I just can't come up with a catchier title than that...

2 months minus 2 days to submission. Still so much to do that I'm skipping my awesome Halifax conference, and have panic lurking around the corner almost constantly. It's not a bad panic (yet). It's just enough to keep adrenalin levels a little bit above normals. I was hoping that would mean better efficiency working. No, judging from today, it apparently just means an increased anguish about missing something vital and thus reading paper details ad nauseam on stuff that isn't even applicable. !@#$%^.
ugh.

But, I'm not always in front of a computer monitor! This weekend, I visited my cutiepilot who is residing in Toronto since almost 2 weeks ago, which was fun. So that actually meant a flight there and back again, plus a little bit of sightseeing in-between trying to finish my data chapter. Toronto downtown is nice, the lake is nice, and the colour of the lake is great. The transit system seems very efficient, but bus drivers are as friendly as in Gothenburg (i.e. not at all). Outside of downtown, some work could be done for appearances, I think - the Pembina-through-Winnipeg look is just not that attractive. And outside of the city we have yet to explore.

nth trial to get us and skyline into same frame...

Other things… If I had more time I would spend some of it writing about the fascinating and frustrating phenomenon going on in the misreporting, and grave misinterpretation of climate science. Media is largely at fault, for not being able to accurately report actual results of science. And there is a huge gap in-between scientists and the general public in how to interpret results. The general public can't stand uncertainties - they want exact numbers. Well, that's not going to happen. So, what then? Should the general public learn more science, or scientists learn how to better communicate the science? My personal opinion is that media and politicians should learn more science - and better communicate it to the public.
The situation now is quite laughable. The global temperature is increasing, and everything points towards it being due to industrialization. Yet most members of the general public think it is a hoax, because they prefer listening to people without an education in the topic at hand. All one need to do is study up on the actual situation (rather than reading the blogs of the anti-science denialists), and the picture gets clearer and clearer. I am going to link to a good list of references on where we are at today (yes it's a blog entry, but it refers to original articles).

Ah. Nice to get that out of my system a bit!

Now, if only my luggage could be found and returned to me… It was erroneously tagged by an apparently semi-analphabetic Air Canada employee (and for once I didn't check the tag…) who gave it the destination for someone named Williams. Which happened to be Comox, some obscure place on Vancouver Island that I have never heard of before. I wonder if Williams' luggage came to Winnipeg… In any case, it's the first time I managed to lose luggage on a one-leg flight.

T-59 days

Gaaaaaaaah.....

2010-04-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

I have two months to finish the remaining analysis and writing. Two months?!?! I mean, what did I accomplish during the last month, even though I worked like a droid on steroids?

<*Somewhere in winnipeg one can hear the echoes of a cry of many sentiments - feelings of anguish, mixed with frustration and resolution, hope and fears, wonderings of if it's even feasible, faith in accomplishment and deepest despair*>

Well at least I feel quite alive with all these feelings. Quite exhausted as well. The feelings cycle between elation and despair with a frequency of about 24 hours. Today was a despair day. I don't like those. But at least tomorrow should be good.
Murgh.
This droid needs a tune-up. A faster processor would be good. More RAM and logical circuits. At least the motivation chip doesn't seem to be able to malfunction anymore.

HA!

2010-03-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

I did it. Handed in chapter 3 at 23:40 last night (I even had 20 minutes extra!).
Now for some coding and chapter 2. That should be fairly easy though (just describing the data, shouldn't be too bad, no awesome conclusions to make or anything. Just a pretty chapter). And, after that, I only have 2 chapters left (I don't count the summary)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus editing the rest of course. But I choose not to think of that now. Those two chapters will require brain power though. So it will be tricky.

And, we're moving to Toronto! D first (when he starts his job), myself later, when the thesis is done (but I can see myself going there a few times after he has moved...)

Life is quite exciting! If I just can survive the defence........

4 Mars

2010-03-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday as well as my David-anniversary - it was exactly 4 years ago since we met at St Andrew's airport! I'll never forget that day..! One should not dread turning 30, but instead plan for fun stuff that day (e.g. flying lessons). One never knows what will happen. Since 4 is my favourite number (and comes in yet another time: the name March comes from Roman god of war, Mars (and is called mars in Swedish), but is more importantly the 4th planet from the sun), I decided to just notice this ever-so-quickly in my not so very often updated blog.
This cutiepilot of mine decided to give me a Mac Mini for my birthday. I feel slightly spoilt... :) But I love it and named it Mac Mooi (=beautiful in Dutch).
For some reason I was happy like a kid this birthday, already the day before. That's much better than to most illogically resent "turning" older. As if one could change that anyways.
I also now own my very first orchid. Flower-alms from my mother provided that. It's very beautiful, and I'm very happy about it. It's a great addition to my plant collection.
Another awesomely awesome thing was the sushi place my supervisor took me and David to in the evening - Wasabi on Grant. Not a place for students if you want to be full. But full we became, both of the most magnificent sushi, as well as of the most excellent live jazz music. I'd like to come back for that music, but will have to make sure to be full beforehand, so as to not be tempted to get too much of their fantastic food.
An excellent day, in every way.

Monday is deadline for chapter 3.

More dairy talk...

2010-01-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

If I ever get inspiration and time (no, scratch that, I never will, at least not before the summer. I have my allocated amount, and more than all of those hours should go into thesis work), I'd really like to report on the bit of life that was experienced during the Christmas and New year holidays. Fun stuff: Holland, Sweden, Canon EOS 350D for a bargain price, sleeplessness due to Dutch (lack of) heating and insulation, food, sweet food, Amsterdam, airport security of a never-before-observed amount. But for now, I'll report on one of the consequencies of said experience: Successful import of A-fil in two little bottles (small!) in carry-on. Yes. And it works. F-i-n-a-l-ly. Only with 3.25% milk though. 2% doesn't cut it, no matter how much on sale it is.

Also 5 excellent cheeses were imported (2 Dutch, 3 Swedish), as well as a bunch of chocolate (~1 kg fazermint from mum only starts the list). And pinda kaas (peanut butter), so we should be able to survive the rest of the winter. I think my Dutch improved slightly, but it didn't feel like it - all of a sudden people assumed that I understood more than I did, and the result of that was that I didn't understand a thing of the accelerated conversations. Ugh.

Yes. It's afternoon, and I should be working. Tot ziens.

The yoghurt incident

2009-12-24T10:26:00.001-07:00

Followers of this exceptional (albeit rarely updated) blog might remember my fil- and yoghurt experimentation, and how important it is to not x-ray the culture if wanting to grow it. The following scenario took place at the Trudeau airport in Montreal, after an excellent Sinterklaas weekend south of the city, visiting David's aunt and her family. They have a farm, with many cows, and the milk is simply divine. With such milk, you can also produce excellent yoghurt. They also have free-roaming, tame and completely adorable hens, here demonstrated by David:

Sound effects should be obvious... (or click the image to be brought to said sound effects...)

My mission was clear: Transport a small amount of the yoghurt back home to Winnipeg, and try to make more in my nowadays well-used yoghurt maker. Easy! I just needed a small container. Astrid had just the one - 1 dl. Or so I thought...

To add some spice to the story, I was also transporting 2 packages of energy-saving lightbulbs from ikea for my supervisor. I did check a suitcase, but it was of the soft kind, and I didn't want to have broken lightbulbs and poisonous gas over all my stuff. However, these lightbulbs not only look dangerous, I'm sure you can do dangerous things with them, if you have those kinds of inclinations. So I thought it best to ask security before I checked my bag. The security personnel turned the bulbs over and over while the creases in their foreheads turned deeper and deeper. Finally they had to call for a supervisor, who immediately said it was ok. Wow. I was impressed. Checked the bag, went back to security, showed my see-through ziplock bag with hand santizer and yoghurt. Uhoh. That container might just be too big. The girl at security looked very troubled, trying to find an indication of the size of the container. She eventually found a miniature text indicating a size of 120 ml. Well, that's out of the question. Gah! My Yoghurt! Desperate times!

"But I only neeed about 3 table spoons, can't we just take out half of it?" No, that doesn't work, it's the container that's the issue, not how much liquid is inside.

"Can I put 3 tablespoons of it in one of your ziplock bags then?" No, it had to be IN a container. David now enters the conversation - he has a red pass, which will grant him access to all Canadian airports. And pilots can bring as much liquid as they please. Would that be ok? No, only if he wears his uniform.

At this point David gets a little irritated too, and mutters something about picking up a uniform at the nearest masquerade store if that is what it takes. The lucrative store nearby sells a package of airline approved sizes, for the bargain price of 11 dollars. Grr. What to do? David comes up with the excellent idea to empty the hand sanitizer bottle and squeeze the yoghurt into it. Yey! So the next 15 minutes, I spend at the washroom cleaning and squeezing.

(yoghurt into a hand santizer bottle, that is). Good thing we had a lot of time.

Approved! Going through detectors. But then they find some suspicious coiled rectangular shapes in my backpack. Backpack is searched, lightbulbs found, turned over and over while creases in foreheads turn deeper and deeper. The superior is being paged again. But this time it's another one, who also develops forehead creases. But for crying out loud, people! I already asked. I agree, I would probably be cautious about poisonous lightbulbs myself, but what else could I have done? Well, they eventually approve them and I'm through.

Now, I'm all for following regulations. But are these regulations completely sane? I could have brought with me 3 times as much yoghurt, as long as it was divided up into 3 containers of 1 dl or less each. Personally, I'd have turned down the lightbulbs and let the yoghurt pass. I really would like to find out now - just how much harm can you do with 120 ml yoghurt (urhm, or really, with the container thereof)? It's certainly an adventure to fly, with all the excitement taking place on the ground...

Tomorrow it's time again. A trip, which at time of booking consisted of 2 quick legs to AMS (leaving at lunch time), but after no less than 4 changes (!!) now goes via both Chicago and Washington with a departure at 6 am. Granted, American customs have improved the last yeara, but I really expect anything to happen.

3D movies and awesomeness

2009-12-23T22:06:00.004-07:00

I had high expectations, mixed with a few low ones, due to some reviews I had read. But nothing was even close to the experience I just had, watching Avatar!

I'll confess - I'm a 3D fantast, and ever since I saw the adventures of Antoine de St Exupery at Fututoscope in Poitiers about 15 years ago, I've been waiting for 3D movies to hit the theatres. And finally it's here! The two movies I've seen so far, were both among the best I've ever seen. I don't know if it's only due to the 3D technique - I doubt it actually, but I guess I can't prove it. The first one was Up. What a piece of geniousness. The big bird was of course my favourite - you can't get much closer to a Lunicrax than that!!!

The second one I just finished watching, all 2h and 45 minutes of it. Not a minute too long... I know there are lots of cynical comments out there, but in my book, it's a piece of art. The message might be old and used, but judging from behaviour of humanity, we're in constant need of reminders. Oooh, there was just so much I loved in it - visually, it's simply astonishing. The nature, the ideas behind it, the flying scenes, all the little details. A favourite was the dialogue between the scientist (Sigourney Weaver) and the man behind the operations (whatever his name was) when she's trying to describe the research they've done and what amazing indications they've found. The guy doesn't understand what she's talking about, and obviously thinks the scientist is nuts. It's funny how often that happens, eh? Why should I try to learn something new, when I already know everything worth knowing? Down with the trees. Go on polluting the atmosphere. Scientists just follow their own agenda, and do it for the money (?! mighty wrong career to pursue if it's for the money, I'd say...). Well, I digress slightly... :) That's really for another post, if I ever get around to writing it.

Anyways, do go and see the movie, and let me know what you think...

The music was awesome too... I'm still totally in heaven!

And tomorrow is julafton! I wonder whether there's time to make a card... While the rest of the world is getting dumped upon, there's a minimal amount of snow in Winnipeg, despite forecasts promising the opposite.

Light

2009-12-11T07:24:00.006-07:00

Yey! Here's a cool text written in one of the blogs I follow. I think it would be interesting to everyone - for those not religiously minded for its poetic-ness and for those that are - just for all of it.

Read - slowly - the words are so beautiful... :)

'What is light?' Grandy's The speed of light - constancy and cosmos

Horror indeed

2009-10-30T14:47:00.003-07:00

Perhaps I should go as a physicist this halloween...
I just attended a colloquium of three graduate students giving talks on their research in magnetism. Two of them were brilliant Chinese students, and the last speaker talked on the Hall effect, which with the accent came out as "Horror" effect. This student had just handed in a draft of his thesis (PhD) to his proud supervisor, who introduced him - after 2.5 years. He had also published 11 papers. The effect on my already fragile self esteem was pretty horrendous...
Other halloweenish features were invented in my dreams of last night. Imagine mutated bedbugs, taking on the characteristics of ticks, in very detailed and credible dreams. Yep. I didn't have a hard time jumping out of my bed this morning. After the fumigation, life has been glorious for a few weeks, but the morning David jumped the ocean to surprise his mum on her birthday, I accidentally created a bridge to the bed by leaning the backpack to it, allowing a small bedbug to get a last supper off of my finger, before being trapped in a trap and killed with a hairdryer (no, I'm not evil, that is the quickest way of killing them!). Hence the nightmares...
Now going back to face the first horror. I don't know which is worse - finishing a PhD or bedbugs, but right now the PhD wins. IF my nightmare turns true, it might change later on...

(good thing the rest of my life is so beautiful... :)

Thesis update

2009-10-02T18:32:00.002-06:00

My life, as most of you know, has one major component, which has grown bigger and bigger the last year. I don't want to be as asocial as I am, I'd like to have people over for dinners etc (the latter has another reason though - upstairs neighbour saw fit to acquire "new" furniture, that apparently was bedbug infested. Gravity and the nature of bedbugs did its thing and yes - we got a few new pets as well. We barely had noticed it until our truly sweet and awesome caretaker called us about a spraying, but since it was just precautionary, I'm not sure if they were as thorough as they could have been. We had an intense week of vacuuming, freezing bedding, scratching, sleeplessness, and searching, combined with finding the darn bugs a little here and a little there as they were affected by the poison along the walls. Then I discovered that despite the metal bedframe, some bugs had managed to make themselves comfortable in the bed slats (wood underneath mattress). 2 rolls of duct tape later, we're now bite free, and haven't seen a bug for quite some time. van Vliets vs bed bugs 2-0 (as far as we know...). One thing is for sure - we have the most spacey bed slats I've ever seen... end of longest parenthesis I've ever written).

The thesis is getting substance, and substantial as well. I've written an introduction draft, a chapter on classification (chapter 5) and a chapter on modelling (chapter 4). I've received feedback on chapter 5, and am now back to it. But today, I started writing the data and reductions chapter (2) for some reason. Might as well, as long as I get stuff done. With these 2.5 chapters I'm already at 100 pages. I am however about 1 week behind schedule (a schedule that has already been revised twice). Some tension is the result of that, I can assure you. I am so much looking forward to the weekend's general conference to relieve some of that tension. It would be so much nicer if all the research and analysis was already done, but there is SO much to do in parallel with the writing. Some days I wonder if I'm ever going to get done. And other days I'm sure I'm going to go nuts...

At the time of writing, the smell of a banana cake, Swedish version, is filling the apartment. It smells rather divine (a new recipe I had never tried before). If it tastes half as good as it smells it's going on the recipe blog.

Now dear readers, I would like to invite you to make comments on my previous entry. I am intrigued and really would want to know what people feel about the topics presented therein. Be frank. Write anonymously if that feels better.

Eating habits

2009-09-13T08:11:00.006-06:00

When I was little, I observed my grand parents farming. They had a little farm, with cows on the fields, roaming the rocky landscape of the Swedish island Tjörn, chicken running around and hiding their eggs in some cases, making my grandmother go and look for them. She had fake eggs though, so she could trick the chicken to lay their eggs in certain spots. Being naïve (at age 12 or so), I thought that's how all farming was being done in the world. Then I grew up, realising that theirs was what was later to be classified as (very) ecological farming.

The last few years, I've taken an interest in what I eat. Especially since I live in this location, where lots of meat is being imported from the US, a place where hormonal treatment of livestock seems to be a normal thing. During this my extra-curricular research, many a disturbing story has reached my ears/eyes, and I've decided that I do not feel comfortable eating meat from a host animal that has been treated in a way with which I do not agree - i.e. a way I would not treat it. Question to readers - what are your feelings about this? And how do you justify them? I'm not asking this in a confrontational way, I am just interested.

One of my biggest issues, familiar to those who've ever discussed this with me, are eggs. The sacrifice involved in choosing a package of eggs from free-roaming chicken (a.k.a. "free roaming eggs" :) is in most cases negligible - most people can afford the extra few dollars a month, to get eggs from happi(er) birds. They are available in all stores, you don't have to go looking for them, and they have stronger shells (a sign of healthier hens laying them). So this is a case where I tend to be pretty firm - buy free-roaming eggs, people! (Question #2: do you buy free-roaming eggs, why/why not, and could you consider starting, why/why not?) (this question I'll freely admit, is more confrontational* in its nature, but please don't refrain from answering, I'll love you anyways...)

(*I am a big opponent of contention due to confrontation otherwise. It just never works. The free-roaming eggs issue is the one "luxury" I allow myself, due to the above reason - the lack of sacrifice involved. This doesn't mean I never fall for the temptation to be confrontational in other matters. It is however not endorsed by myself, and I try not to - because it never works.)

I recently came across an article about a movie taken by an employee/spy at a hatchery, i.e. a farm where incredible amounts of chicken are being hatched, to be sold on to egg-farms. Obviously only female chicken can do the job. The story's scary part is that what happens to the male chickens is rather gruesome: they are being ground alive. For the not-so-fainthearted, the story and the movie are available in links (click the word) (no, I could not watch. I love birds, the mere thought gives me nightmares)

Actually, what bugs me the most is not the main reason for the story, but what lies behind it, and here's where I'm faced again with my own naïveté: I always thought male chicken were grown to be slaughtered for food. Why are they then being killed as little yellow fuzzballs? The reason is mentioned in the article: They don't grow fast enough. Is there anyone else that finds this just slightly disturbing..? Ok, so I've heard about how chicken have been selectively bred to be as big as possible in as short a time as possible (it takes 50% less time today compared to 1950 for a chicken to reach 2 kg, which I personally find disturbing). But killing all these male chicken, because they are male and because they don't grow fast enough, is to me, a sign that the society's need for cheap meat fast has gone a bit too far (opinions?). I guess it is too expensive and unfeasible to ship them to starving countries?

(Yes, I'm obviously disturbed about the way they are being killed as well. I'm not going to go into that topic though, because that is entirely based on feelings, and is nothing I can logically argue about - everyone dies at some point, and there will in most cases be discomfort involved. It is obscene if we as humans don't choose the most "humane" way of killing animals so they would not have to suffer needlessly due to barbaric methods, when there are other options available to us, unlike the case for an eagle snatching the chick from the ground for instance - but my main issue in this particular text is that they should have had acceptable - calm and happy - lives before getting it ended.)

In all my research on this topic - diets, common sicknesses in developed countries, handling of animals, etc etc, I've come to the conclusion that people eat way too much meat. Mind you, since my own topic of research is astrophysics, I don't claim to be an expert on this. My findings are based upon research of other people, thoughts and opinions of other people, mixed with my own view of life, and attempts to see this from all different angles (the Word of Wisdom might have something to do with it as well). Thus, I don't expect you to immediately agree with all that I write. I would however love it if you do your own research (trying to see and understand all different angles available), mix with your own understanding of life, and come to your own conclusions (feel free to share those here))

I'm not arguing for complete vegetarianism, even though I'm getting closer and closer to it myself. I do however argue for a healthy lifestyle of flexitarianism, Theresa-version. This includes: Eat well, not too much and mainly vegetables**. Eat meat perhaps once a week (I try to do it even less at times, and the meat I choose is mainly fish), and choose organic/ecological meat from farms in the neighbourhood if possible (bringing down unnecessary transporting is another issue I'm not going into this time, but I think that most people would agree with that somewhat). Make your own bread (a bread machine is a wonderful tool for this) (this advice is mainly for people in north america, whose bread at best is edible, at worst is filled with unnecessary preservatives and sugar) - and avoid sugar! (Chocolate exempt of course...) .

But organic meat is so expensive you might argue. It is. Thus you will automatically diminish your meat consumption. Win-win situation accomplished.

But I don't like eating only veggies, you might say. (How do you know, I ask.) One very nice thing about the internet is the law of recipe posting: in most cases, most people don't post recipes not worth posting (unless they have a lousy taste I guess). Thus, I've never found a recipe that didn't do the trick. There's a neverending supply of amazing flexitarian recipes around. I will shamelessly advertise mine and my best friend's phenomenal site Sofias och Theresas fenomenala recept. Don't get fooled by the seemingly Swedish title and text - Our tireless translator Steve is doing a great job translating most of them, and google translate does the trick rather nicely in other cases. If not, just send us a line, and we'll tend to it. This site includes recipes of every different kind, in fact, the number of vegetarian ones is not yet so large (but they are great), so just try to get meat from nicely treated animals for the other recipes.

I challenge you to try one (1) new vegetarian recipe this week! Let me know how it goes. Let me know if you'd like me to send you one.

I was going to post a few links to good articles and blog entries in the end here, but of course I can't find most of them. Until then, here is an excerpt:

** very long article, but very much worth reading (start it up, and skip to the end if out of time): Unhappy meals

education=socialist ideology=bad?

2009-09-08T08:24:00.004-06:00

This story on bbc makes me both roll my eyes and feel uncomfortable at the same time. A few questions come to mind: Are the conservatives concerned about a) the message itself or b) the fact that the president is delivering it? If a), does this mean conservatives are against people getting an education? if b) why would it matter *who* delivers an awesome message, as long as it is good? Shoudn't both "sides" have the same goal, work for a better future, and thus embrace what the other side does, as long as it is good? Isn't in fact the president a perfect person to deliver such a message?

I do realise that a newspaper rarely delivers a full version of a story, but generally, bbc does a very good job at being rather unbiased, compared to all other media I follow. So far, the ideology of Obama seems to be sane, fair, and balanced, in my opinion (still based on newspaper reports of course) (and then again, I was once called a communist by an american while discussing health care! good memory :)). When a call for doing a good job in learning and educating oneself is seen as a step in a socialistic agenda, it seems to me that the paranoia is going a little bit too far.

The day has apparently come when I start writing about politics. I think the day is near when I will start writing about faith as well :)

update: there's a link to the actual talk in the article, and I just read it. I really fail to see what is bothersome in that talk. It's a good peptalk for not giving up, for working hard, for repenting when having done badly "... you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.", and not expecting anything to come for free. It might even help me doing a better job today!

Return of the Lunicrax Lumbago

2009-08-31T13:37:00.005-06:00

UGH! so it's time again, for my (seemingly) annually reccurring bout of lumbago. This time it came slower, and hit me as I took off cycling to the university, and had reached full power by the time I rose up from my chair about an hour later. I really should record the date. Perhaps it's the same time of the year? The same spot in earth's orbit around the sun? We enter a personalised lumbago dust cloud and the result is a few meteors and Theresa needing a cane to get out of a chair. I'd like to think that's how it works at least...

For all those worried about my fil-withdrawals, I made some kefir from a powder (not nearly as yummy as a-fil of course, but it's still fil), and will re-attempt using the yoghurt maker for making new. Buying the powder is rather expensive. I will also make yoghurt, and report on the results.

Fil - culinary experiment with unexpected results...

2009-08-21T18:42:00.005-06:00

There is a lot of foods I miss from Sweden, that I used to take for granted. All the different kinds of cheese, bread, and things there's no really good equivalent to. One of those is fil. Not any kind of fil, but a-fil (with lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria, very good for the stomach, very mild and awesome taste). Fil is milk with bacteria, with a consistency of (stirred) yoghurt, and a taste that vaguely reminds of buttermilk. My friend Steve got converted to it as well, and imported some to Scotland where he managed to reproduce it in his yoghurt maker. Encouraged by his success, I thought I'd do the same. I had, previously, gotten my hands on dried kefir culture and successfully made kefir (similar, but somewhat different taste - there is a plethora of different kinds of fil! ), so I thought it should be a simple thing to reproduce some non-dried fil!

Steve was kind enough to bring me a yoghurt maker from Scotland when he stopped by Winnipeg on his Canada tour earlier this summer, to increase my chances for success! And so, during D's and mine 2 week sejour in Sweden in August, we filled our bags with stuff to bring home. One of them: A whole litre of a-fil.

The first attempt I did with UHT milk, so as to not have to sterilize the milk myself. I mixed the appropriate amount of my fil with the milk, and added the hot water to the thermos, surrounding the container with the mixture, and waited. Nothing. Added more water, waited double the amount of time. (we're talking ca 8-12 hours normally, now turning into 24). Still nothing.

After some consultation with the expert, I started Attempt two. I used normal milk, heated it to 82 degrees, let it cool down to 24, added culture (more this time), etc etc, and waited. If this didn't work, surely my a-fil was dead. And, nothing, 12 and 16 hours later. Added the remainder of my a-fil in case some bacteria might still be alive. waited more. Worked far too long on my thesis chapter at school, came home late, and opened the thermos 24 hours after the refill, and voìla (the picure shows a 1 litre container filled with...):

Cheese!!! A-fil-cheese. So the bacteria now worked with a vengeance! What am I supposed to do with a-fil cheese? I love cheese, but I'm not sure about this one... For now, it's in the fridge, until someone can come up with some good ideas. And I'm all out of a-fil now, sob.

2 year anniversary

2009-08-18T21:14:00.004-06:00

Today I've been married to my flying Dutchman for 731 days. 18 of August 2007 feels so recent still, it's hard to realise that so much time has passed. When I was little, I used to be very scared of time passing, and felt as if I kept losing it, and never was able to catch up. Then I changed my way of thinking and started imagining that I was collecting memories instead of visualizing myself dangling on a thread behind the ever-elusive now, trying to catch it. That took away a lot of unnecessary anguish! With a deficient memory like my own, it's necessary to document this passing time in an efficient manner. So it's easier to believe the past 2 years watching photos. However, my diary writing has been lacking compared to earlier, and I really need to be better at it.

One would think that 2 years should be enough time to finish the wedding webalbum. That is not the case however. Perhaps that will take place once I've survived my defence. So, next anniversary I could link to that one. For now, 1 photo from each year will suffice. It's been two very good years.

August 18 2007: Kyrkans ängar (church meadows), Onsala

18 August 2008, somewhere above St Andrews, Manitoba

August 2009, Onsala again (I didn't manage to take a picture today)

"A home worthy of careful stewardship"

2009-07-17T14:30:00.006-06:00

Read the story behind this picture here - it's a very nice article! This is the kind of perspective we should aim for (I should!). Doesn't life seem so much more beautiful and amazing this way?

A very quick update

2009-06-04T15:49:00.004-06:00

I guess I need to update on what's going on to keep my credibility here. Deadline 1 (the poster): Finished 1 day before! The joy I thereby experienced gave me some thoughts on the value of this... (I WISH I had been able to feel this say 4 years ago, and I might have been able to keep the years leading up to this point less painful... Then again it's hard to make timelines when the work incorporated is totally exploratory, and you have no concept whatsoever on how long time it's going to take).
This joy made me very motivated to be able to finish the second deadline asap. I gave myself 1 week to write 2 chapters. Once I realised that this might not be entirely feasible (after 2 days), I also checked my timelines (I have 2, one including all the the work, and one for the writing only), and noticed that I had given ambiguous deadlines for one of the chapters. I.e. I could finish 1 chapter (the first one), and still be on track.

I also had to push the deadline forward 1 day, since I worked on research a full day. Flexibility is necessary, but I have to make sure that I do fair exchanges of the days rather than take out loans from the future - that won't go well.

Results so far: I managed the 2nd deadline, although it was a bit more on the limit (writing does that, you can keep changing things around forever...). Now I'm 3 days into my 2 weeks of pure research. And, it's going well so far! I'm very happy. The code is half done, and the immense amounts of data will be painful to extract, but I know how, and it's all ready to go. Deadline: June 15.

Now that I'm in writing mode, there are so many topics not related to my research that I'd like to write about. Gah.

The last year

2009-05-14T16:23:00.005-06:00

This is the last year, as in the final year. The year it is going to happen.

I just had my annual review. The LAST annual review before the defense (that, according to my current timeline, will take place April 10 next year. Hm. I think I might have to change that since that is a Saturday... April 9th is the new date!)

A good friend of mine has been reviewing her thesis writing progress on her blog, and it's been very inspiring to read. So, I think I am going to do that myself! After all, the thesis is what I spend about 90% of my time on. The first deadlines I have are:
May 23: A poster (second author) for a conference (that I will not attend, but I'm really just happy about that..).
May 30: Draft of chapter 1: the Introduction, including background and motivation. Also chapter 4, describing pretty much what will be on the poster - galaxy modelling with an awesome new software (not mine, I'm the user), and testing of said program with artificial galaxies.

I will keep you posted...

Live long and prosper

2009-05-07T21:40:00.002-06:00

Premiere night. And the new star trek movie is a w e s o m e!!! Although the silly black holes made me giggle somewhat... And what is it with J.J. Abrams' (the director) fascination with hovering liquid red orbs? Just a cheap way to explain the ease with which to... no. That's all the spoilers you'll get out of me. Excellent cast/special effects, and of course it doesn't hurt that Simon Pegg plays Scotty, even though all that is resembling between the two would be the accent. There was even a moment in the first few scenes, where space did not have sound. But alas, that was all that could be given. I don't mind though, this movie experience was one of the better ones I'll see this year, I'm sure.

Less impressive was the audience. Only one person was dressed up (not me, although I did bring spock ears), there was no lineup, the theatre was far from full, and where a swedish audience on the premiere day (which undoubtedly would have consisted of real trekkies) would have cheered and applauded (mainly Spock related events), nothing of the kind occurred here. Bizarre.

Another bizarre thing was that as we were leaving the theatre, 2 guys muttered "trekkies" as we walked by in the parking lot. I didn't even wear my ears! I'm quite happy to be a trekkie, so I'm not bothered, just wondering how they would have known (for the record, we were wearing winter coats, since the temperature plummeted from 22 yesterday to 1 today. Ugh.)

Climate change part 1

2009-04-22T15:36:00.004-06:00

heeheehee

File sharing and the case of the Pirate Bay

2009-04-20T20:54:00.008-06:00

I tend to not write about political stuff (or any stuff at all for that matter, judging from the amount of entries lately). But this court case is an as interesting political issue as it can become, and since my awesome brother never starts up his political blog (which he should, since he has the best political PoVs I've ever seen in anyone), I guess I'll just write some, in my limited manner (I'm not a politician!).

Wow. I never thought the court would give them such a harsh conviction. (30 million kr and 1 year each in prison) esp. compared to what real criminals get - often 1% of that sum, at most. I might surprise a few of my readers when I write that I think the judgment is insane - many seem to equalize that with agreeing that stealing is ok. Do I? No. But a) I think i can be discussed if it really should be classified as stealing, and b) I think the world is a bizarre place (which we already knew it is) when the fines go to the companies Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI - companies that don't seem to be in such a need to survive, while there are people without access to education, starving or living under insane circumstances everywhere in the world. It seems to me this political issue is a fight for market economy rather than justice.

I noted quite some distinction of bias in media btw - if you read an article covering the case on CNN, there's a strong bias in favour of the accusers (the movie companies), with lots of bad commenting about the owners of PB, quotations without context etc. If you read Swedish newspapers, for once it seems to be more unbiased, or even sometimes on the side of the defendants. BBC's story was (as usual) to the point and not choosing sides. (one of these days I'd like to write about media and their methods...).

Question: Can file sharing really be equalled with stealing? Services such as Last.fm, Spotify etc are legal - the difference is a file on your computer versus accessing it online (I know there are some finer differences in the details, esp for last.fm, but for this particular user, this difference really doesn't matter).

Here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order:

The crime these guys are being conviced for is really providing infrastructure. How is that different from e.g. Google? What is the result going to be, more than getting 4 scape goats?
History: Think back on the reaction of music at cinemas (rather than musicians playing for silent film), radio (huge issue), recording capabilities available in the homes, cassette tapes (that was a big one), and then recordable cd's, the mp3 industry, etc etc. The protests from the same kind of companies were enormous in each case. Is this so different? Still infrastructure for the same crime? or not?
The technology used in file sharing is ingenious. I showed my wonderful spouse yesterday how it works, and he was genuinely impressed. It's something that should be used and explored.
If so much energy was spent at fighting pornography on the internet, wonders might happen. Instead a technology is being fought, in the interest of the already rich (uhoh, I see why I in the country in the south sometimes get accused of being a communist...)
Are really 83% (I think this number, denoting how many that disagree with the court ruling, is even higher now) of the Swedish population so deprived (well, perhaps they are, but in this particular question?)?
50 000 kr in fines is the result of murdering children (actual case in Sweden). 30 million for linking to ones and zeros...
There is research that shows that filesharers spend their money to a greater deal on concerts (where the money hopefully goes more directly towards the artists rather than passing through the pockets of the big companies), going to the cinema, etc. In other words, it's not even proven that money is actually being lost. Many people buy what they like (to get better quality). Many artists get the attention they would otherwise not get. It's not all bad.

Proposed solution: As this is not a matter of life and death, but rather economics, it seems the best (and really, only) solution, would be for the $$-companies to change strategy in how to gain money. That's what all the photography stores had to do at the advent of digital cameras - they had to totally change, follow the technical development, or perish. It's an opportunity for learning and change, a challenge. Perhaps a new try at 3D movies in theatres (I'd be very interested!) Because - I'm not so sure the opinion of the people will change, regardless of it being right or wrong.

One unexected(?) and interesting outcome of this court ruling is the extreme growth of the Pirate Party just in time for the upcoming EU election. I'm quite fascinated..

If I had time, I would spend some of it on language and structure of blog entries. That will be a project for the future.

Wind chill!

2009-03-10T19:55:00.004-07:00

There might be a risk of me sounding slightly obnoxious in this entry, so for all residents of Winnipeg - no offence! (at least not so very much ;)

The concept of what temperature is, seems to be getting a bit distorted in cold places like Winnipeg, since people tend to refer to wind chill number as the actual temperature. So, let us look at a few case studies:

- It's -20 outside, and no wind. You stand in the shadow, dressed in a parka, feeling comfortable. Why? Well, the heat of the body warms up a layer of air closest to your skin, and you're thus slightly insulated by this. Thus it actually feels warmer than it is and you don't feel the full -20.

- it's -20 outside, and a stern wind from the north is blowing. You complain, and pull the scarf tighter over your face, since you feel colder. Why? The wind is removing the layer of air closest to your skin, which makes the skin lose heat at a quicker rate, and thus you experience the cold stronger.

- You're submerged into a liquid that's chilled to -20 (obviously not water). Byebye.

All cases have a difference in pressure of the medium around you towards your skin. What changes is the rate in which you lose heat, not the actual temperature. You'll never get colder than -20 in any of these cases (which in all cases is pretty bad for the health, because -20 is pretty yuckily cold...)

- Common winnipeg misconception: It's -20 tonight but the wind chill is -40, I REALLY need to plug in my car! Well, yes, probably, because it's -20. It won't get chilled down to -40 though. It will however lose heat at a slightly quicker rate than if it wasn't windy, i.e. it might take 1 hour instead of 2 hours for the car to get cold after it was driven (never below -20 though!). Since you're probably staying in bed for longer than that during the night, it won't make a difference at all to you.
Thus, if it's -10, and a really nasty wind, your car will most likely start in the morning anyways, regardless of if it's plugged in or not (but you will still be complaining as you fight your way through the wind to the car, struggling with the keys to unlock it and rightly so, because it's MARCH and should be SPRING ugh...)

I had an interesting experience a few weeks ago, waiting for the train in Sydney. It was +41 outside. Sitting still, my body kept me chilled, but when the wind blew at me, it got really hot. the "wind heat" dried up my chilling sweat layer, and made me feel the real temperature (+41 is really hot...), but it didn't make it any hotter than +41, just as the wind chill doesn't make it colder. It's just your perception that changes due to the rate with which your body is being affected to the surrounding temperature.

(Then we have the extra wind chill you can add on someone who's spent 5 weeks in Australia, and comes back to Winnipeg - take off at least anouther 10 degrees! It took me about a week to get used to the cold again, and the time inbetween was terrrrible, I've never had so much pain walking to the bus in my life!!)

I can understand that it is important to know how quickly you will chill off in the wind, and I can agree that using an "equivalent temperature" gives a pretty good idea. What I don't like is how easy it is for people to misunderstand it, and think that it actually is colder than it is. The meteorological sites purposely don't use units on their wind chill estimates, to emphasize that it's not a real temperature.

Bring it on...

Feeling fresh in an airport

2009-02-23T18:18:00.004-07:00

YES! That would be the most luxurious feeling - and something I rarely encounter, since most my flights are longhaul things with eternities spent between flights. I don't complain about that too much, since I really love airports. However, following the 14 hours flights from Sydney, including complete inability to sleep, with a 12 hours layover in Vancouver, wasn't my idea of having a good time. An amazing Air Canada lady took pity upon me when I enquired about possibilities to catch an earlier flight to Winnipeg (impossible when bags are already checked in, and in most cases rather hard anyways, if dealing with anyone else but this awesoem person, unless you open up the wallet..), and came by my carefully selected resting area to give me a voucher to enter the maple leaf lounge with the "elite". YES! Free food! Comfy chairs! Feeling VIP! YVR already has free internet, which is a trademark for agreeable airport, so that part was already taken care of. And in the end of my long wait, in an awesomely comfy chair, feeling the layer of muck on my outer appearance getting thicker and thicker (why is that? what is it about flying and airports that makes a person feel yuckier than going on a 3-day hike?) my eye caught the word "shower" on a sign. In Sydney, they have showers at the airport for the "common" people as well, but I suspect they might not have towels and all conveniences. So, while writing this I feel like born-again. I feel like I match the luxurious interiour of this lounge. Yeeha!

Siding Spring Observatory

2009-02-21T02:35:00.003-07:00

The above photo is taken just after sunset from the walkway around the 3.9 m AAT (the Anglo-Australian Telescope). I arrived here yesterday to observe observations in the purpose of learning alittle about optical observing. The location is beautiful. It's close to Coonabarabran, and I didn't realise the nature would look like a tahitian island. To get here, I took a train from Canberra, to Sydney, spent a night in a hostel, and then took a train and bus (in total about 7 hours) to Coonabarabran.

The AAT is located in a huge dome - the biggest one I've seen, I think - it is very high above the ground, and thus the distance up to the walkway is equivalent to a 9-storey building. Walking on this metal-grid that constitutes the "floor" is thus an experience, at least for people with vertigo, like myself. It has to be done though, in order to experience beauty of unexpected magnitude (I'll post more photos in an album). The mountains and hills are green, but seem blue in the haze and due to all the eucalypts. I have no pictures of the night-time beauty, since my tripod would just fall through the mesh. I can try to describe it though: The Milky way stretches up in a band from the south, and the southern cross is very distinct. Just beneath it, is the Coalsack, a dark area that constitutes the head of the Emu. As the night progresses, more of the emu is visible, and is, albeit a rather thin emu, distinguished by the dark parts of the Milky Way. It's interesting that the aboriginals used the lack of stars (or hidden, I should say), to depict pictures, that actually look like what they say. I can't even try to describe how beautiful it is to see the nightsky from the southern hemsiphere, with such low amounts of light pollution so it's almost hard to see Orion due to all the weaker stars appearing everywhere around it. We went out several times during the night, and I'm sure we managed to stay out at least half an hour each time, just admiring this, the greatest piece of art I've ever seen.

40 degrees and Madama Butterfly

2009-02-07T06:36:00.004-07:00

Seeing an opera in the Sydney opera house seemed like a thing I needed to do.

Puccini's Madama Butterfly was playing, and I've never heard or seen it, just heard good things about it, so I got tickets with my Italian flatmate Marta, who was keen on the idea as well. And WOW! The story seems simplistic at a glance, but the experience was amazing. I was in tears several times. The singers were great, and their acting extraordinary, the acoustics awesome, and the setting of the scene was extremely beautiful. I'm running out of adjectives. All this pulled me in, and I was spellbound. Wow. It didn't hurt either, that despite our "cheap" tickets for seats where the surtitles were covered by the seats on the floor above, I was able to see the text by sitting on the floor, because the seat in front of me was empty. This might not sound so glamorous, but it was an amazing view of the entire scene, and I was very happy about the arrangement, and that the people next to the empty seat didn't move in (which I would have done). Marta of course didn't really need any subtitles since they were singing in her mother tongue...

It was so good, that afterwards I even had trouble speaking. Then we left the opera house, and had to do some photography:

It was a fairly warm day, especially in Epping (where I stay), which is west of the city and thus not cooled down by the Pacific as much. It was 39.9 at the time I walked to the bus, and waited for the train to head downtown, which is a new record for me. The wind was hot! (winnipeggers would probably claim that it was at least 60 due to the "windheat" :P) To me, it was exotic and wonderful, and I had my water bottle, so it didn't bother me, but apparently I have an excellent built-in cooling system compared to most people, so it probably just didn't affect me as much. As predicted, downtown was cooler, and I got a quick cockatoo sighting before heading to the opera house, which in itself would have made my day.

Flexibility

2009-02-04T06:21:00.003-07:00

Some days you need to accept things and learn flexibility more than others. For instance: There is a person in my life I cherish more than most. He had managed to get 8 days off in a row, and was going to try to hop on a southbound plane. But so tried many others (about 30 or so), and he didn't even manage to leave Winnipeg. Thus my weekend looked very different than I had planned. It's weird to think I won't see him for yet another 3 weeks, but I know people who have it much worse in that respect. This is a case when heartache is a good sign, and something to be very happy about.

Of course, my location makes it easy to deal with it. For instance: I planned to go to the temple, since I knew that would make me happy and widen my horizon a few loops, and connect stronger with that cute person so far away. How about booking an opera at the Sydney opera house? The Magic Flute is playing right now. Cockatoo watching is great as well. All this would of course be even greater if shared, but on its own, it adds so much essence to my life, that I can't stop smiling. Now, I ended up visiting a synagogue for the first time in my life (very cool!), and spend 2 hours in the Apple store instead (how's that for flexibility?) (see this link for photos), but I intend to get all the rest done as well.

Update: I did finally visit the temple, and go to the opera house, but for another opera. More on that in the next note.

On a completely different note, I wish this didn't feel so accurate: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1129

Narrabri & Kangaroos

2009-01-27T11:48:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, I arrived to Narrabri, a little town about 550 km from Sydney. We flew there in a Dash-8, and got a taxi to the telescope. The lady driving the taxi had an astonishing dialect. I wish I had recorded some... I could barely understand a word!

As we got closer to ATCA, the telescope area, I was keeping my eyes open for kangaroos. I had already seen two Galahs (rosenkakduor) by the roadside. Then they appeared. About 10 at a time, standing by the road, watching us, jumping away if we got too close for comfort. The closer we got to our destination, the more of them there were. The sun was setting, and the CB cloud that had made our landing bumpy and fun, gave a great background to one of the telescopes (there are 6) as I took a fair amount of photos. I'm just adding one right now (showing some of the kangaroos, hence the washed out colours of the sky), but more will come to a webalbum at a close location hopefully soon.

After dinner and setting up the observations, I was the first one to get some sleep, which would be 4 hours - and then I mightily surprised woke up in the middle of my deep sleep. Walking outside to the control room soon cured the sleepiness - The Milky Way was clearer than I'd ever seen - and since it's the sky of the southern hemisphere, the Magellanic clouds were visible too. I took my time walking... Now I'm monitoring monitors, hoping that nothing goes wrong, since I probably wouldn't know what to do about it :P

A walk in botanical garden

2009-01-25T13:42:00.009-07:00

After 4 days, I finally got to see my first parrots, on a grey cloudy, and very comfortable (temperature wise) Sunday evening, as I was walking through the Domain and the Botanical Garden.

The first one was a rainbow lorikeet, who patiently waited for me while I searched for my camera, but, I still wasn't quick enough. He had a very sweet and mild chirp. Just after that, a disney-bird caught my eye - a kookaburra! (kookaburras are not parrots, but they are still birds worth all respect due to their looks, style and personality, not to mention the laughter...) He was not laughing, just watching me and blinking while I chatted with him... The locals enjoyed watching me and all had nice comments as they were passing by. A bit further away, walking towards Mrs McQuaries chair, I heard a loud WAAAAK, tightly followed by more very insistant WAAKs. My suspicions were correct: High up in a gumtree a sulphurcrested cockatoo was purched on a branch! And then another one came, and another one, until the tree top was filled with awesome birds, and WAAAAKs, and I was in heaven. Obviously the camera wasn't resting either.

WAAK!

My Kookaburra-friend

A sulphurcrested cockatoo posing nicely for me (sorry about the darkness, haven't had a chance to work on the photos yet..)

Kookaburras, cockatoos & astronomy

2009-01-23T13:38:00.023-07:00

Well, I haven't seen either of the first two yet... But I am sure I am about to. So far, I have experienced warmth in wonderful amounts (i.e. all the time), ocean, friendly people, the most beautiful city, awesome accent, inspirational locations for work (ATNF contains a large amount of astronomers, which all of a sudden makes your work seem more interesting and of use), and fun times with my superfun supervisor.

Some pictures from the first few days:

A sign of heat. Notice how the birds line up in the shadow of the palm tree...

Flying foxes (flygande hundar) - these bats have a wingspan of 1 m

Taking the ferry out to Watson bay

And, yesterday, Jayanne and I took the ferry back to the city instead of the train. The light was excellent. Sydney harbour bridge was impressive.

Approaching circular quay

Companions (so far):

Moi-meme, by a beach in Watson bay

Luuk (cousin-in-law) was my guide the first day when I rebooted my brain in the sunshine

Jayanne, demonstrating the funky chairs on the sydney trains :)

I did it!

2009-01-10T17:37:00.002-07:00

Tonight, David and I attended the kick-off IYA (international year of astronomy), which was held a the Forks. And we skated there! I decided when I moved to my apartment that I would skate to the Forks at some point, and now it has finally taken place! This wouldn't be such an amazing thing if not taking into account that I'm a very shaky skater :) But after having fallen once, I became more daring. The nervousness also had the unexpected bonus that it kept me very warm. The quality of the ice deteriorated closer to the Forks though, due to more skaters, so next time I think we'll go the other direction, towards Assiniboine park.

On another note: We watched Australia at the cheap seats last night (something I just had to do before heading there in a week). This is a movie I realised people would either hate or love. I loved it. Finally a movie that is a real movie! An epic, long (2.5 hrs), beautiful piece, that reminds me a lot of really old movies. Best was the intro - never has a murder been presented in such an artistic manner (this sounds wrong - it was not glorified in any way, but it definitely caught interest). Worst was getting used to the totally unnecessary enhancement of the upper lip of the female main actress. Easiest was to enjoy the male main actor (Hugh Jackman, need I say more... ;) Try to get a chance to watch this movie, without any expectations either direction, and just enjoy it, without being critical (as if those critics could to a better job than Baz Luhrmann anyways!!)

First entry of 2009

2009-01-06T05:27:00.003-07:00

It's the Thirteenth Day - which is a holiday in Sweden, but doesn't seem to be recognized here (the day the 3 wise men reached Bethlehem, and also apparently the origin of the starboys, who later on were moved to Lucia celebration). The eve of the 13th day, I did stay home. All inspired for the new year (or at least made to believe so), I woke up with headache, which escalated into a migraine, which lasted all day long. Today is however my "new day with new chances", so I'm up early (combination of jetlag, and D getting up at 4.30), and intend to get lots done today!

Following here is our Christmas greeting card. It should later be a clickable link to a webalbum of our Swedish jul-och nyår adventure.

(En kvick personlig års-berättelse följer här:

Det var ett bra resår (dock ej så bra som min mors, men det går förstås inte att tävla med). January 2008, ett återbesök till Hawaii, där D och jag hade firat smekmånad 2 veckor tidigare, och mitt första beök på Mauna Kea. Sen var det dags för 1 vecka i Sverige på egen hand i Februari. Konferens i Victoria i maj, och konferens i London, Ontario i juni. Sommar i Winnipeg, med mkt badande. Sommarsemestern sköts på till September, då vi åkte till Holland i 9 dagar, och jag lärde känna mina svärföräldrar lite bättre (äntligen! :). Men först var vi en weekend i Calgary för Alyssas bröllop, och hälsade på Candia. I november: Tillbaka till Hawaii, för 7 nätters observationer på Mauna Kea. David kom för tidernas kortaste HI-semester, 4 dagar, efter jag var färdig, vilket vi tillbringade på stranden i Kona. Suveränt. Winterpeg i 1.5 månad med rejält låga temperaturer, under -20 i ca 2 veckor, innan vi åkte till Sverige på juldagen, med ankomst annandagen. En helt underbar vecka tillbringades i Onsala, och nu saknar jag Cassie... )

A windy night on a volcano

2008-11-10T08:17:00.003-07:00

This is my second last night.

Luckily we finished our galaxies last morning, because tonight the receiver broke down in a manner we don't know (the error messages weren't very informative). This is a windy night - the gusts are up to 40 knots (45 mph, or 20 m/s). At 50 mph the dome will have to be closed so the fabric protecting the dish won't tear! I can feel the building rocking in the gusts, which makes me think of the totally awesome Australian movie The Dish (about the Parkes telescope and the moon landing)! I hope the wind will a bit more timid tomorrow night, since I would like to use the light of the almost full moon to take some outside photos. I did already, but it wasn't bright enough for my camera. 60 s exposure worked fairly well, but it could be better!

Bizarre observation: below all of the medium sized lava rocks around JCMT, lie hundreds of ladybugs. So I mentioned it to the operator, and he said that during the spring the entire ground had been covered by ladybugs - a phenomenon he had never seen before.

I'm quite ready to be done the observing run for this time. 7 nights in a row is a bit to chew down. It will be a great memory though! My bone marrow has been rather active producing red blood cells as well - I don't feel like 80 years old moving around anymore, and can even jog around!

Edit: Gusts went up to 49 mph... perhaps I'll get down earlier than expected this morning... I just came up to the control room from the kitchen downstairs. The dome was rotating, and since the control room is connected to it, as are the stairs, I had to be careful as to not touch the bottom part of the stairs when jumping up, since that is a scurity feature that will stop the rotation. The entire building is very cool. The first few nights I got rather jumpy when walking around it, with all the unexpected weird noises behind your back in the darkness and coldness.

1 night down, 6 to go...

2008-11-05T20:10:00.005-07:00

This is the view from the mountain this morning. See how cloudy it is? We couldn't measure any of our galaxies with that kind of atmospheric humidity... 12 hours work night, and some cereal, and then I was ready to sleep.

I managed to get 6.5 hours, which is MUCH better than last time I was here! I am very pleased. Despite the cold, I had no height trouble this time either, which was a relief. I felt so well, that I'd walk up the stairs at JCMT in normal speed, and then I'd speechless for 5 minutes, trying to calm down the heart and catch the breath.

Yesterday was also election day - it was kind of interesting to be inside the US to observe that. People at the astronomer's facility were rather normal about it though, although I could sense perhaps even more smiles than usual. The media coverage outside of the US was insane. Which perhaps might be the one indication of accuracy in a certain sentence I heard on the radio on the way down the mountain, in which the current president addressed the US as "the greatest country in the world". I don't aim to be contentious, but I'd like to have at least a few statistics backing up this idea, before I can agree that that is something that should be said and broadcast over the rest of the world. As far as I have seen, the US is pretty far down in most world statistics on characteristics that countries like to have. Indeed, I see Canada much higher up on the list, and the top is usually taken by a Scandinavian country, hemhem... But, thinking of it (which I haven't had too much time to do as yet, I'll admit), I've found two areas in which it can claim greatness: Amount of media coverage and petrol consumption. It also has the largest mountain in the world! Mauna Kea from base to top is actually 10 000 m, even though the part below the surface usually isn't counted. There is no snow on the summit this time, so my photos aren't as amazing as in January, but the views are still breathtaking.

Back to Hale Pohaku

2008-11-03T20:26:00.004-07:00

I'm in one of my favourite places on the earth right now. I just arrived, 1.5 hours ago, after a magnificent drive up the winding Saddle road. Big island of Hawai'i has 12 different climate zones, and you cross a few of those on the way up. Hilo was humid and warm, and up here it is clear, chilly in the shadow, very warm in the sunlight and fairly low pressure (as an airplane). I'm sitting in a comfy chair with my ibook, after a great dinner at the HP, slightly short of breath, a little bit dizzy. Most of which is due to a pretty nasty cold I acquired the evening before I left (I literally could feel it hit me during the time of about 5 minutes. Nasty. So, I hope it will disappear tomorrow before I start my osberving run. It is so wonderful to be here again!!! I look out the windows, see the flat shape of Mauna Loa, the volcano that pretty much covers half the island, and I feel so happy! Even down in Hilo, at the JAC, I can feel that awesome feeling; it's the same feeling as at the Onsala observatory. Life is good.

It's impressive how far out from the mainland Hawai'i lies. I left Winnipeg early in the morning (7 am, in an CRJ200), went to Chicago and pretty much immediately boarded a B777, that brought me to Honolulu. Just for the record, I was only 3 minutes off the winning guess of when we'd reach the midpoint, a little competition United has on the way to HI. The entire flight was 8.5 hours, which is longer than it takes to go to Europe. But, since the flight is domestic, you better bring food or cash, or you'll be hungry... haha! United also have started charging a baggage fee, for every bag that you check, even the first one. From HNL, I flew a 717 with Hawaiian airlines to Hilo. Cool plane, although I was on the wrong side for seeing the Mauna Kea summit (the plane flies on exactly that height, so you see the observatories very distinctly. My ear never really recovered from this flight, and so I've been partially deaf since then, except for a little while on Saddle road, before they popped the other direction.

Door knobs - ultimate locks or ridiculous invention?

2008-10-17T10:13:00.003-06:00

After a longer period of silence, I have decided to revive this place a bit. I'll start with a small rant: Doorknobs. Especially Winnipeg should start using handles instead. Ever tried opening a door equipped with doorknob after having applied hand lotion?
Winter in Winnipeg (not yet here, but it's coming) requires fair amounts of hand cream. It's just not compatible with doorknobs. I just found myself stuck in the ladies washroom on 5th floor (and to turn it more lady-like it is now equipped with bags with all kinds of necessary toiletries, so as to deter guys from using it - I would normally not have a problem sharing the washroom with guys, except for when said guys leave both stench and stains, yuck), trying to turn the stupid doorknob with no result.

Weekend trip to Minneapolis

2008-08-22T06:26:00.006-06:00

Swedes might think what they want about IKEA while at home, but if they'd move abroad, they would probably do like me - travel at least 7 hours oneway to the hearest one, and get loads of stuff. And cheese. And kaviar. Flatbread. Dammsugare (aka punschrulle). And at the same time be extatically happy about it. Weekend trips are nice - you get to go somewhere, but still not lose any valuable working time. This past weekend kept a steady temperature of about 30 degrees, so I was enjoying it a lot. An American asked us, upon hearing where we had travelled from: "Travelling south to enjoy some of our heat?" (fyi: Wpg had the same temp, and there's as far as I know no difference in climate between the 2 locations - but Canada has a certain reputation). "Yeah, I asked the neighbour to take care of our pet polar bear, so we could take the weekend off. And it's funny - already at the border crossing, one hour south of Winnipeg, the temperature rises from 30 to 90 degrees!" I didn't say that of course... But it would have been fun...

Commercial break: Have you visited http://fenomenalarecept.blogspot.com? The site being in Swedish is no excuse, my good friend who is Canadian and lives in Scotland (i.e. very English speaking) uses http://translate.google.com, which seems to be sufficient to create the wonderful dishes on this superb blog. And when not, the translations give a good laugh. Plus, it's a good way to learn Swedish whether you ever had that notion or not. So, go ahead, add it to your rss-reader asap.

Mark Knopfler concert

2008-07-13T20:34:00.006-06:00

One of my favourite musicians came to Winnipeg. David and I went to the concert last friday, which was given in the centennial concert hall. So despite our seats (2nd balcony, last row), the sound was pretty awesome. The seats were decent too, smack in the middle, and straight above the mixer board, which usually is a good sign. You don't get to choose your fellow audience members though, and what first looked like pleasantly empty seats in front of us, were eventually (after the pretty awesome opening number by a single female and her guitar, ressembling swedish singer Anna Ternheim quite a bit - totally great) filled by 4 rowdy individuals, complete with accompanying drinks, and a cloud of alcoholic smell. The most rowdy one sat straight in front of us. Everything about him was big - the shoulders, height, neck, and especially his voice. Another interesting feature of our seats was that the main spotlight beam went straight over our heads to Mark himself. My curiosity as to whether my hand's swift motion through this beam would be visible on stage would soon be stilled. Not by myself (I considered it, but decided against), but by mr Voluminous in front. It was slightly irritating after the first 3-4 times (he apparently didn't register that the effect of it luckily was minor, and had to repeat multiple times), not because if the effects on the scene, but because the massive amount of light reflected off of his toilet lid -sized hands got slightly distracting.
All this was soon forgotten after the music started. I always liked Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler later solo stuff, but after this concert, he's my new hero. The music was excellent in every way. I was amazed by the manner in which Mark, seemingly with such ease, plucks that music out of his guitar(-s - there was a steady stream of different guitars on stage, one following the other). The rest of the band was as impressive - the composition of it(including a totally excellent violinist, who had a prominent role), as well as their capabilities. WOW! During the 2nd song, Why Aye Man, which is one of many favourites, our mr Massive on the front row engaged in a discussion with his fellows, his voice bellowing out his opinions during my absolute favourite parts, so this time I couldn't resist my urge, but tapped him friendly on the shoulder. And, it worked (well, more or less), believe it or not! He was still acting out his stereotype for 'person you want far away from you in an audience', but, seriously, the concert was so great that I benignly could oversee it. If it hadn't been for his smell of course (aftershave applied in proportion to size of the wearer). Ugh. But, also in this area, the location helped - the air circulation in the concert hall is great, and after less than an hour, also this disturbance was as good as gone. Sometimes I envied him his voice. During applause, all I can do is shout in my high-pitched manner, which doesn't carry very far. Mr I-have-no-barriers had a voice that carried. It might have had something to do with the fact that he chose to deliver his sentiments during numbers rather than the conventional inbetween. The audience was really great though. I'd rather have that, than a bored one that can't adequately mirror my own enthusiasm for the performer. This audience were of exactly the same mind as myself. I didn't really need to learn how to whistle with my fingers, as everyone else did it for me.

Every single song was AMAZING. The concert was on the same quality level as the Sting concert I attended in Göteborg a bunch of years ago. Nothing can really ever beat Simon & Garfunkel's Friends tour in 2003 (Washington DC), But Sting is a very strong second, and this concert was extremely close, if not even on the same level. Major goosebump level.

A trunk less ordinary (update on vehicles)

2008-07-01T13:26:00.002-06:00

For about a year or so, David and I have been driving around with a bunch of clothes in the trunk, with the intention of donating them at some station for that purpose. Some clothes were from my algerian room mate, that she left when she moved back to Algeria, (and she was tiny, so I had no use for those), and some were David's old stuff. One day, upon opening the trunk, repeating the phrase that always accompanies that action ("we really should get rid of these clothes some time soon"), we discovered a black pair of pants there, that none of us recognized. david thought they were our friend's, that I had borrowed for skiing, but nope. My memory is bad, but I had for sure never seen those pants before (bad memory doesn't mean amnesia, only that reminders have to be firm before recollection can occur. Seeing the object in question is usually a good enough reminder to bring forth memories). Some days later, we were at a party, and it got a bit chilly. David went to the trunk, and sure enough, there was a hoodie waiting there for him, that neither of us had owned or seen before. We have a magic trunk. But, alas, we actually managed to dispose of almost all the clothes last weekend.

On another note: The bike next to where mine got stolen (the one that really should have been stolen instead of mine), was "finally" stolen this morning, and as I predicted only the frontwheel was left, attached to the lock in the fence. So the owner might have been innocent after all... (I feel kind of bad - my plan was to post some notes of caution on the door of our building for the bike owners that it's not safe to leave them out, and I never got around to...

Vehicles

2008-06-28T21:59:00.005-06:00

The car has been acting up for a few weeks, with increasingly lower idle, causing me to develop a probably not entirely safe driving style: Left foot for breaking, to keep the car from stalling (and this is an automatic). Picking it up for the 2nd time at the carfixingplace, we found the situation to be the opposite - acceleration to 70 km/hr, without applying gas, and 3000 rpm in neutral. The brakes were smelly when we came home, and the following night I dreamt I drove it around some hilly city, with loads of dangerous situations (such as accelerating down a curved road with mountain depths on the side etc). The next morning, my poor bike was stolen (ARGH!!!), and as I was filming a movie (being an astronomy grad student has its unexpected turns sometimes!), David was updating me with text messages on the situation of the car as he returned it to the placeformendingcars: "here now, they're working on it" "on my way home" "car broke down on Henderson, waiting for CAA" "back again, they had to exchange the computer. twice."

The loss of my bike was rather irritating. Especially since the thief didn't follow normal bike-thief characteristics. There is the petty thief, who takes a bike to use for a bit and then throws it in the ditch. And then there's the organized one who comes with a big truck and takes all the bikes in the neighbourhood. "My" thief chose my bike out of several, and also discarded a newer, probably more expensive one locked much less safely just next to mine, that had been there for weeks... I on the other hand locked the frame and wheel onto a metalfence, and the thief somehow found time to work real hard on the U-lock and twist it rather impressively (it was left on the ground). I only see two possible explanations: Either the thief was extraordinarily dumb (and strong/patient) or it's the owner of the other bike.

I can't not have a bike. So David and I went looking, first in our friends store where David bought his bike - a real bike store with good stuff. Then to the big sports chains, where they sell really cheap stuff. And heavy, bulky, weird gearswitch-device etc. Went back to our friends place to the bike I had fallen in love with, and brought home the precious. It's the same kind of bike as David's, only in brushed silver, and one extra gear on the back wheel. It goes like the wind... Barely any friction, supercomfy, large wheels, and the previously so annoying wind in the face has no impact any longer. D and I took a long bike ride in the evening to Assiniboine park, and the speed was exhilirating. Best bike ever. We also started up a conversation with a tiny prairie dog, while watching the planes on final fly over our heads.

Victoria on Victoria day

2008-05-22T00:11:00.002-06:00

I forgot the cable to my camera, so all awesome photos - later. I'm in Victoria, British Columbia, for the 2008 version of the CASCA conference (I arrived on Victoria day, hence the title). It is great. The location is great, the inspiration, the people. The nature here reminds me a lot of Sweden. The inner harbour is like a mini version of Göteborg (but prettier), and has a wonderful walk. No ugly malls, but stores along the streets, like home. Humidity - works wonders for the hair, as always. But best of all: the Pacific. Real ocean, with salt and waves and immenseness. The gardens are very Dutch (i.e. beautiful) - I was thoroughly impressed as we drove from Oak Bay along the coast back to Victoria.
So far: have had some amazing fish & chips (almost as good as the greek place in Halifax), learnt loads about all canadian telescopes and dreams of telescopes, and attended the high redshift session (it is still my favourite area of research). Since next year is going to be the IYA - the international year of astronomy - lots of the conference is aimed towards getting us inspired to contribute to that. It is indeed very inspiring... Lots of the magic in astronomy comes back to me. I hope I will be able to keep it.

A gulp of air...

2008-05-07T18:36:00.002-06:00

Oh my. Barely had time to feel happy about having the annual review talk (and questioning) behind me, before I realised that the time to finish my research for the poster (and said poster) I'm presenting at a conference, is SHORT! Then it doesn't help that the stupid photometry comparison makes no sense, and that work just seems to go nowhere, despite all those hours spent in the office... Having a perspective is good, but for once it seems to be much better to concentrate on the details, one at a time, and try not to see the big picture. Really? you ask (can't even believe I'm writing that, since I'm always extremely fond of perspective in everything). Yes, there is one case: if you have one year left of your PhD-studies and intend to publish 4-5 papers during that time. The mere thought makes me sweat and hyperventilate a bit. They are all more or less planned (ahem, more less than more, really, outlined is probably the word) though, I just need to get hold of the results for each of them, and work, neverendingly, so I can spit them out, one by one...

My usual weather rant could come in here too, I guess: What's with this May? cold and nasty. Although, I'm really just happy it's above zero.

On a fairly uninteresting note: the left back blinker on the car is broken. Since I'm an avid pro-use-of-blinker person, I find myself planning all driving carefully, so that I won't have to make any left turns. Adds a little bit of interest to the driving.

And on a sad note: I'll be missing eurovision song contest this year... (I'll be in Victoria, last day of conference, so it's not a bad deal. But missing ESC is sad. )

Spring time

2008-04-10T17:26:00.002-06:00

Some signs of spring:
- Snow melting. Not a minute too soon
- A flower outside great west-life 2 mornings ago! Granted, it was by the warm air outlet, but still
- The intriguing sensation of walking outside in beginning of April in below-zero degrees. At this southern latitude, the sun is strong, and thus the illuminated side of my body is melting while the side in shadow is freezing. Bizarre.
- Canada geese flying north. Intriguingly, they started coming early, apparently led by daylight rather than temperature. Dangerous, I'd say...
- 2 days ago I took out my bike, and went to the Forks and back. I thus sprayed my new amazingly awesome spring jacket with mud.
- Best of all: General conference, always first weekend of April. If anyone ever doubted the suitability of the new president of the church, the talks he gave at this conference really showed that he's the right person.
- Not as much fun: end-of-PhD- (timewise) -stress, emphasized further by upcoming advisory committee meeting (beginning of May) and conference (end of May) for which the abstract I submitted includes promises of things I have yet to accomplish.

As I was cycling the other day, there was a guy standing underneath one of the bridges over Assiniboine, playing his baryton saxophone (totally amazingly), and 2 geese were listening swimming in one of the few open parts (despite the warm temperatures now, there was still loads of ice) of the river. I don't know how winnipeggers can stand the long winters. It's as if one walks around in hibernation, and when spring comes, I wake up with all the nature, and things are real again. I do like the intensity of the winter, but the length...?

Birthday-tag

2008-03-03T13:53:00.006-07:00

I'm quite resistant about doing tag-posts like the one below. However, I never did a new year-review, and today just happens to be my birthday (which, for the record, should include small spring flowers outside and no snow (although, apparently it did snow in my home town today - first snow of the year..!)), which is kind of suitable for this kind of exercise. So here you go, Jess ;)

1. What was I doing ten years ago?
I'd need my photo albums or diaries for this..! Although, I have a fairly good idea. Listening to BeeGee's, Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel on my LP player until late in the evenings, spending lots of time with friends, studying 2nd and 3rd year courses at Physics Engineering, anguishing bigtime over said courses, feeling like Sisyfos, and, finally slowly beginning to realise who I was and what I needed to do. Although, that happened really one year later.

2. 5 things on my to do list today.
1. TA
2. Finish my extra check of NGC 3556 to figure out if I need to include its bulge or not in the mas smodeling.
3. Do taxes (hm, perhaps I should reconsider)
4. Find some twigs for the cage I imported so Merry and Pippin can start enjoying their new home (if I know them correctly, the first sentiments will probably be highest suspicion...)
5. Buy flowers (strict orders from my mom)

3. What snacks do I enjoy?
Chocolate, dark, expensive.

4. What would I do if I suddenly were a billionaire?
Hm. The same as now, I suppose: Save, travel, hopefully not get used to having lots of money and spend too much, and spend too much time doing that... But yes, I would get rid of CSN in my life, once and for all (i.e. student debts). Pay my brother for the Ibook with a suitable interest :) If time, build a summer house on Tjörn or perhaps buy Staregården in Onsala.

5. Three bad habits
Oh, public self examination? Procrastination of whatever reason. Just repeat 3 times.

6. Five places I've lived
Winnipeg (Canada), Göteborg, Onsala, Sweden, Tofta (or Varberg), Stockholm, all in Sweden.

7. Five jobs I have had
1. Teaching Assistant in physics and astronomy
2. Commercial hot-air ballooning retrieve driver
3. Dairy slave (in the fridge)
4. Observatory guide
5. Packaging stuff at a nuclear power plant (much less exciting than it sounds)

8. Five things people don't know about me (this is worse than the bad habits! there'd be a reason for them not knowing it, eh? Let's see if I can dig out some more pleasant skeletons from my wardrobe, pink ones or so...
1. Collected stamps (as well as everything: erasers, chocolate papers, letter paper, little stickers that smelled yummy)
2. ...
No. I can't come up with anything more than utterly silly things. People who know me, know me fairly well, nothing unknown that is worth writing about, I think.

9. 8 Fears
1. Losing hope
2. Losing love
3. Losing faith
4. Pain inflicted upon family members and other loved ones
5. Turning apathetic (probably same as 1, but I ran out of scary things)
6. Seeing as I was being chased by zombies in a dream last night (and saved by my mom driving the volkswagen van! the rest of the family was there too, but I found it interesting that she was driving it. I normally refuse to interpret my dreams, but this particular scene I think represented security), I can fill out the rest with less probably items, or silly ones: Zombies
7. Anything that would suck my blood (excluding mosquitoes, they are just annoying)
8. And, anything that brings out anger, and inability to stop the anger (that's part of the first more serious category though)

End of tag.
I won't tag anyone, but, I'll invent something back for Jess in the future, I think...

Interim report

2008-02-28T14:48:00.002-07:00

Reading week was spent with my family in Onsala. I'm back now, and I miss the humid air. All of a sudden it's hard to wear contacts and my lips became chapped in an instant. Photos will come, but first, let me give out a warning to potential travelers: On the list of airports to avoid, add O'Hare after Heathrow. O'Hare doesn't have the high taxes and fees of Heathrow, BUT, they cancel flights on a whim, and blame it on the weather. This problem is most likely less if you travel to an important destination, in heavier planes. Winnipeggers however, risk facing endless waiting at the airport, standby flights or detours, and of course bags will take at least 2 days extra to arrive. In my case, I got to greet my poor cheese yesterday evening. Luckily it seemed to have taken no damage, and I enjoyed some Hushållsost on knäckebröd for breakfast. Aaaaah...

cross country skiing

2008-02-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

I just turned into a Canadian. Or even into a *real* Swede. For the first time in my life, I've been skiing. And - I really liked it! Best were the falls when in a penguin-like manner striding up the slopes (and since we're in Winnipeg, it's safe to say that the incline of said slopes were not in any way intimidating...). My friend Lindsay is an excellent teacher, and I am happy she had a good time too. Luckily (?), there are no photos of my falling technique (although, according to L, I was falling the least amounts compared to the others she has been teaching), since my camera is still broken. I have given in after a serious attempt to fix it, which rendered it even more broken, and decided to buy a new camera. It's fun doing research on which one to buy (I'm trying to apply that kind of fun to the research I really should have been doing at the time), and I think I found the one. I still have to find some time to buy it though. But next time, there will be photos. Meanwhile, here's my latest webalbum. It was made while enjoying the vilest flu I've had ever since I was little (still working on a cough from it), so the photo comments aren't entirely coherent or informative either for that matter. I can't wait for having the new camera, I feel somewhat crippled without one.

In other news, I watched the funeral of President Hinckley today on my trusty Ibook (D's new Dell that has been working wonderfully the 2 weeks he's had it, is starting to show the backsides of its flashy microsoft equipment, and refuses to connect to my wlan... pc:s...). It was a beautiful event, and the Tabernacle choir sang something in the middle of it making all the hairs on my body stand straight up, but I don't know what it was. GBH has been the prophet ever since I became a member, and there are loads of quotes in my diaries of things he has said. He came to Sweden for our stake conference once, when he was a counsellor in the first presidency (before I was a member), and hearing him talk then, gave a huge impact on my life after. What I remember most was the sweet things he said about his wife, and how it choked up my then bishop who was translating for him. It was so simple and so fundamental, and I remember thinking that he would make the greatest prophet. Which he did... (and he always reminded me a bit of Yoda!)

Last night at the summit

2008-01-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

After 2 nights of engineering, I'm about to start my last night of observing, together with some new observers, and another operator. They seem awesome, so I'm up for a fun night, I think! Also an exciting one - Since my flight leaves unfortunately early the next day (noon), I'll have to drive down one of the cars, which I'm not allowed to do unless I get some sleep first. So I'll have to leave the summit a bit after midnight. that will be an interesting experience... Driving 4WD UP the other evening was awesome enough (done as exercise for this upcoming experience, and luckily I passed ;)
My camera is broken, and I haven't been able to take it apart yet, so no more photos, I'm afraid...
Anyways, Hawaii, byebye, I wonder when I get a chance to come here again...

Notes from Hale Pohaku

2008-01-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

There's of course loads to write, so this is just a very quick report! I finally slept longer than usual this morning (6 hours), which was great, but even though this location (Hale Pohaku, the mid-way facility with lodging and food for the owls (astronomers)) is not as high as the summit of Mauna Kea, it is still high enough to make you lose your breath if not moving slowly. So now, time for a quick dinner, and then going up to the summit and JCMT for another night (12 hours!!!) of observing. This is my 3rd night, and it's been amazingly fun to learn so much at such a short time (and to actually grasp it as well - feels very efficient). A funny thing that I didn't know before, is how projects (to be observed) are scheduled, depending on the weather. First night we actually had too good weather for our galaxies in the start of the evening! And last night, we started up with totally excellent weather (i.e. too good), which deteriorated in a rapid speed and became too bad for our project (!). This is governed by the amount of humidity in the air, and the more there is, the harder it is to get good data. Anyways, since I am starving, I'll just post a few pictures. Could you ever imagine this much snow on Hawai'i?

The lodging at Hale Pohaku. And in the bakground is the slope of Mauna Loa, the huge flat volcano in the south

On our way up to the summit, with the setting sun in the background. Obviously these photos can't really make justice to how it really looks like... :) It's rather grand, to say the least!

Upon leaving the telescope building the morning after the first night of observing... the light was just divine!

The sun is happily trying to keep you awake! And with great success - I had no wish to go to bed anymore when being blinded like this.

Here's a view a little from above, showing JCMT in the middle (the white cylinder - it contains a 15 m antenna)

If anyone wants to see JCMT observing in action, check out this camera (apparently it has won price for most boring webcam in the world - can't see why though. Especially not now when I'm in it...)

Almost Christmas

2007-12-19T15:42:00.000-07:00

My mom sent me this picture:

Safely arrived back to Winnipeg yesterday. It's pretty decent weather actually (-5 then, -9 now). I mean, it could be worse. It's a good thing there are so many wonderful people here. It is also a good thing I return to Hawaii in 2 weeks. Without David though, but hopefully I'll be rather busy.

Oahu moments

2007-12-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

View from Waikiki (1 block from our hotel - a hotel we luckily got upgraded to, since the room we had booked in the original one was broken somehow). Yesterday was a day of contrasts. Leaving this (approx -25):
And arriving to the opposite temperature here (approx +25):

Today we rented a car, visited church (the building was amazing!), and went around Oahu. My favourite place was the Laie temple, built in 1919, reminding somewhat of the Cardston temple.

We also saw pineapples at a plantation and studied the vegetation quite a bit.
It is evening time, and David keeps falling asleep due to the jetlag.

Winterpeg -07

2007-12-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

It's early December, and we have the winter I dreamt of when I was little. If there were hills, I'd surely go play in the snow. -28 this morning, and yesterday snowing without end - sounds like an excellent time to go to Hawaii. So, on Saturday, it's time.. :) All according to plans formed when I was 4. It's actually a rather special feeling, to have something come true that was planned so long ago. This morning, the sun was surrounded by icy halos, very pretty :) I ccan still see one over the tower through my window. It's Sinter Klaas day today! D and I realised we needed to combine our traditions somehow, so we'll simply do both Sinterklaas and Julafton!

In other news: LOADS of lab reports to grade.

it's an entire galaxy!!!

2007-11-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening, a friend and I decided to try out a telescope I got for the Let's Talk Science program a while ago. Since it is November, and Manitoba, being outside at night becomes far more agreeable when dressing right, so even though it was just around zero degrees, I equipped myself with three layers on my legs, and 5 on upper body (including wool, fleece and a downjacket as the crowning piece. A friend of mine let me "inherit" a pair of horse skin mittens. They are amazing - they manage to keep my hands warm, an accomplishment previously unheard of. Anyways, you get my point; it's important staying warm.
After learning the little quirks of the telescope, we managed to observe the comet Holmes (presently bigger than the sun..!) which due to its size actually was best observed through binoculars. Maiko was very impressed: "WOW! WOW! That's totally awesome!" etc. Slightly paraphrased perhaps. I was equally ecstatic about it. We also checked out Mars, the halfmoon, and M31 (the Andromeda galaxy). Now, a galaxy is cool. There's not many things cooler than a galaxy. And M31 is a very pretty specimen. From a small telescope like ours, it looks however mainly like a fuzzy elongated... fuzzball. The following conversation thus took place:
Maiko, upon observing fuzzball galaxy for first time, slightly disappointed: "That's IT?"
Heather, somewhat exasparated: "It's an entire GALAXY!" This gave me the giggles... But it turned out an eye-opener for me too. Maybe I've grown too used to what's going on in my life. What is it really we are looking at? From where? And how? Every trial of writing down that feeling of incredible awe turns out halfbaked. But seriously... it's an entire galaxy!!!!!

klag och mindre klag

2007-11-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Det är lustigt hur man aldrig hinner/orkar skriva nåt här, pga tidsbrist, och nu när jag verkligen inte har nån tid, så måste jag klaga om det. Hur ska man nånsin kunna fixa färdigt allt det här i tid? (med "det här" avses förstås hela iden att bli doktor). Mummel.

Reflection: If I communicate with someone from home, the next thing I do will be in Swedish. If someone interrupts and my brain changes language, when I continue writing, this happens.

Anyways, small interesting things going on: Yesterday we had 16 degrees, this morning snow lay on the ground. I'm going to Hawaii this winter. Twice. And home during reading week in February. Research is going forwards (YES!) but oh so slow (gaaaaah). Soon, if I can get the optical data right, I will have finished mass modeling for NGC 3556 from scratch. That is about time. It doesn't help either, that spontaneously, softwares I need to use, decide to stop working, or working in a different manner than what I am used to. The plan is to have this done by tomorrow, as well as instructions on HOW to do it written out and 14 lab reports graded. Also, I need write a thesis chapter and start a paper.

The Hawaii trips, btw, are first a honey moon in December and second observing at JCMT in January.

Och - jag har köpt en trevlig kappa.

Saker jag vill göra NU: webalbum med alla bilder från i höst. Skriva ned allt som pågått också. Måla 2 tavlor. skriva två artiklar. Vara färdig med allt mass modeling tjafs. Ha första kapitlet helt färdigt. vara förberedd för observationerna i januari. Ha tid att öva dans. Beställa Hnolulu-hotell. Göra en ansökan för en "award". FLYGA!!! Och plugga på flygandet. Det som hinns med? inget utom mass modeling, som ändå aldrig blir färdigt, och små korta stunder av vilande (såsom detta). Därav det inte ens sporadiska skrivandet på sista tiden (det blev svenska igen, för jag pratade med min far samtidigt.. )

A second chance!

2007-09-25T17:36:00.000-06:00

Monday was an interesting day, mainly because what took place in my head already before the day had started. I had this extrmely real dream, that consisted of me waking up, getting ready, working a full day at school (granted, I worked with some highly unusual stuff this day, compared to my really normal days, but in the dream it was normal, so I didn't question doing a bunch of electronics work, when I really should be writing on a paper or a telescope proposal). At about 4 pm, I finally remembered that I was supposed to have done a bunch of Let's Talk Science presentations in Astronomy at a highschool in the north part of the city, something I got booked for a long time ago, and I had totally forgotten it. Oh, the anguish! I felt so bad, I had totally left the teacher on her own, without notice, and had not fulfilled my promise. It was a terrible feeling. I complained to people about it, and tried to get myself to get hol dof the teacher, so I could apologize. "I wish I could do this day over again", I said, really sincerely wishing for it. Next thing I know, I wake up in my bed and it's Monday morning. The gratitude I felt was immense! I got a second chance! I coul;d make it all right!

I have tried to describe the strength of my feelings in the above paragraph, and remembering it all, I just shake my head. I have strange dreams (last week, my friend's car go stolen by a giant crab, as a revenge for us having (by mistake) stepped on a regular sized crab who had no business walking on the streets of winniepg anyways. In a dream, that is. just emphasizing the previous statement). So, this Monday, I kept having a very pleasant feeling of happiness, for being able to do what I had promised, while I most likely otherwise would have been fairly stressed about it, since it took a large chunk out of my day.

To all my fans out there (who am I kidding.. ;), sorry for not having updated this place for a while. Things went busy int he end of the summer; I went home, got married, went on a trip, and came back to loads of work, plus the pleasant work of getting used to a new room mate. It's all very excellent, and very personal, so I'll write more on that another time. For now, let it suffice to say, that I've been living a fairy tale for the last year, and I still am. Also, fairy tales are totally normal lives, with same amount of trouble, worry, joy and whatever (because it is always what you make it to be), but the surrounding story is one of great amazingness. It is indeed a story to be told, but... another day.

Summer and weather in excess

2007-07-30T21:46:00.000-06:00

When people think about Winnipeg, generally they'd think about something in the middle of nowhere (if they even know where it is), probably even more north than Sweden (that's very wrong - same altitude as Lille actually (just north of Paris)) and polar bears. While the first part is at least somewhat accurate, and the second come close at hand if you visit in january, noone would know realise that I right now reside in the most tropical of climates, comparable to Bangkok/Italy/Greece/Yucatan. It's been above 30 for about 1.5 weeks now (and before then it was around 25 for most of the time). 35 for the 4th day in a row now. Naturally, this is not enough for canadians. They like exaggerating, and bringing in the humidex and claims that it's actually 40-something. I'm not even going to start that discussion. 35 degrees is certainly hot enough regardless of humidity. One would think that they'd be satisfied living in one of very few places in the world that can show a dispersion of temperatures of up to 80 degrees in a year. At least I am impressed, without having to distort the temperature scale.

In fact, this place is definitely a place of contrast and surprise. One can't help but wonder what kind of people the first settlers were who came here... Having lived through a winter, next step is equally steep warm temperatures, and since this was before the age of malathion-fogging, mosquitos in cosy abundance. Let's take it from January (since that's when I arrived three years). -40. Driness of unimaginable extent. Difficulties breathing the air. Eyelids that freeze together if you shed a tear. Etc. Then comes spring. This involves rain and wind in unusual amounts. Occasional temperature hikes up to the 25's, to be followed by dips and accompanying snowstorms. In April and May. Snow has been known to fall in June and July too... Cankerworm season! Everyone's favourite. These little worms, seemingly unknown to the rest of the country (except for parts of Saskatchewan), swing themselves down trees like Tarzan, and winnipeggers soon are seen walking in middle of the road, taking wide detours around any tree. So in June, when spring has passed, the trees look ghostly dead, and almost enbalmed, by spiderweb-looking threads, and with very few leaves left, those left perforated thoroughly. I was really worried this year, which was a cankerworm maximum in the cycle, about several of the trees around the Legislature. Studying the little tree-eater online, I learnt that the trees regrow the leaves. And so they did, resulting in rather awesome looking different shades of green in July, perforated deep green mixed with light spring green. June this year was a month of heavy rains and thunderstorms so heavy that I can't describe them. One moment clear, then so much rain that you were soaked to the bone in a few seconds. Roads became rivers. Assiniboine was flooded way above the riverwalk (not as high as last spring though) for a few weeks. The thunderstorms were totally magnificent. Without comparison. The best I've ever experienced.

And then comes July, and the wild weather is being exchanged for soemthing I've only ever experienced a few days in a row, and always while being on vacation - above 30-temperatures. Needless to say, my office is still ridiculously cold. I LOVE it when it is hot. It is an amazing thing to walk out, and being met by a wall of heat. But, I can finally humour all those who think I'm nuts, and reveal that even I can become too hot. Today I suffered rather strong salt deficit, due to the heat. David forced me to eat half a bag of chips, and it actually worked. But before then, I was sweating like a pig, walking around in a dizzy haze, not being able to formulate words let alone sentences in a coherent manner, and feeling about as powerful as a jelly-fish. It wasn't comfortable.
At daytime, I need to close all the windows in my apartment and pull down the blinds, to try to keep the nights coolness in (being about 27 degrees). During a discussion about this with Jason, one of the astronomers, he described how he used to use aluminium-foiled screens in his windows. "Also excellent to prevent alien mind reading", he said. I wonder if I can use that to hide away enough so that the time anomaly surrounding my apartment can be removed (time goes faster in my apartment in the mornings than anywhere else). Anyways. please note that I am NOT complaining about the heat. I'm merely stating that I kind of understand those who do complain about it, a little bit more.

Without going into more details about the winnipeg weather-year, I'm just going to state that this is a place where you'll never be bored by the weather. As opposed to Göteborg, it's there, all the time and it's very tangible. If you don't like it, you wait a little while, and it will have changed into another extreme. Of course, in the winter time, you'll have to wait a bit longer than other times. The sun is always there to cheer you up though. And now, I'm collecting all the heat I can to survive the coming winter. There's plenty to collect. The forecast promises 35 tomorrow, and then around 30 the rest of the week, with occasional dips down to 27. That's good, perhaps I'll manage to take the bike out again then.

Ontario trip in June

2007-07-08T22:34:00.001-06:00

In the beginning of June, I went to Ontario for a week. I haven't gotten around to publish these notes until now though... Waiting for time to make the album.

Just finished up some toast with help from the budgies. They are a bit sceptical about the peanut butter and the marmalade, but they love the bread and the butter. They sit on my hand, eating from bread I hold with my teeth. That's how yummy it is. Although, I make sure not to feed them too much of it, I imagine it can't be too good in the long run for their little tummies.

It is summer. I am very happy about that. I just spent a week in ontario, first in london and after a sunday train ride to Kingston, I worked there on some annoying radio data at Queen's university together with my advisor and a collaborator. We worked hard, but I still got to explore the town a bit. It's adorable. Houses are old, and the architects seemes to enjoy an occasional turret here and there, and surprising angles. Many houses look like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. The streets are a little bit hilly, and the city is just by Lake Ontario, with see-through greenish water. It was humid and warm during my stay, and it felt heavenly. I even liked it so much, that I wasn't sad in the least when the plane that was going to take us to Toronto for further travel back to WInnipeg, broke down (a hydraulic pump in one of the engines), and I had to stay another night. Next morning I went with one of my newfound friends (from Norway!) on a ferry ride to Wolfe Island, and back again.

So, Thursday evening I was back in Winnipeg again, which is finally clear of cankerworms, and equally warm and awesome weatherwise as ontario. I miss the big lake though. I took loads of photos, so I'll try to upload a few of them... This photo should lead to the webalbum.

Month of thunderstorms and other showers...

2007-06-25T07:52:00.000-06:00

It's starting to be rule more than exception to every night wake up after an hour or two to immense lightning and thunder. And this morning it was still going. A lightning jsut struck that I saw clearly through my closed eyes, and the following thunder rattled my windows. Last week, D and I drove out to the airport after an intense dance class, when we noticed that the sky was on fire. It was a spectacular show! We watched two airplanes land just before the worst winds hit usthe sky illuminated by zigzag lightning behind the final approach of the plane (I so wish I had had my camera... and a fair bit of luck in timing I guess...), , and then we were stuck - it was impossible to look outside the window for 5 minutes, while winnpieg quickly was transforming to an big lake.

On Saturday, at dance class, all of a sudden pretty much all people I know in Winnipeg, flowed down like lava from the upper level of the studio. There were dancers, mormons and astronomers in a wild mix. I couldn't believe my eyes...! I had just walked in to dance class as normal, 5 minutes late, wondering a bit in the back of my mind how come we started on time, and not were doing technique exercises. David also came in and we were about to start dancing too, when all these people came down. A few hours of fun stuff then followed. It was the telltale bridal shower (that doesn't exist in Sweden (they only have the bachelorette party thingy), so I really didn't know what to expect), in, I guess, a somewhat different version (for instance, both guys and girls were included). D and I were forced to dance a waltz to music performed by Kermit the Frog (it was fast, I might add!), judge the dancing of everyone else to pick out a winning couple, as well as a toilet paper bridal dress fashion show (at least we didn't get humiliated ourselves which was my first fear, and more of a rule back home...). We got fed with all kinds of yummy food, and went on a treasure hunt around the studio, that finally led us to a big box, harbouring a FREEZER! Something I've wished for and missed for a long long time. The same kind of freezer I've admired at Jennifer's every time I've visited. awww! But it didn't end there, we were also provided with several really heavy gift cards, presents, cards, dance class gift cards (valid for 24 + 4 classes). I don't know how many times I exclaimed "oh my goodness" that evening, but I seriously think I should extend my vocabulary in that department. This was all the doing of three particularly amazing friends of mine, and their scheming and planning. Waking up the next morning, I was thinking back on it, feeling very blessed with these awesome friends of mine. I'm still a bit self conscious about all the gifts - that is a part I can't really get used to, even though we'll have awesome use for it all, especially for the further wedding preparations. But having friends putting down so much effort and time for you, makes this a memory I will always cherish.

I'll post some photos as soon as I get my hands on some... :)
Now... I should get out to uni, since it's finally stopped raining, and work hard for a bit. Ontario photos and story coming up next...

New office!

2007-05-29T18:53:00.000-06:00

2 days before advisory committee meeting, someone decided without notice that all the grad students were to move to a new room. My first annoyment obviously immediately moved into happy procrastination as I moved all my stuff, and threw away lots of the garbage that I totally had no need for, and installing myself into a corner by the windows in the ex-4th year lab. It's interesting how a new location can trigger lots of inspiration! All of a sudden yesterday's anguish was gone (there's still some anguish left due to the meeting of course, but at least it's not the mega-"whatamIthinkingdoingaPhD-Iamstupid"-anguish).

That's it for today. I have a talk to prepare. ugh.

Culture clash again

2007-05-08T12:32:00.000-06:00

Grr! (hm. it seems like this forum of mine has been some kind of vent for occasional frustration, making it look like I'm constantly annoyed. However, I pretty much only write here when I vent, so the frequency of my writing should be a good sign.. ;)

Anyways, today I really have no reason to be annoyed at all. It's 26 degrees warm outside, beautifully sunny, tomorrow we expect a high of 31 (SWEET), and I'm even inspired writing on a paper (how often does THAT happen?). But, the grad student office I'm sitting in is pretty much unbearable. The reason is that the AC is broken, so the air is totally non-moving, about 30 degrees warm, and it feels like the oxygen is disappearing. Now, had I been in a civilized country (most of the world except for northamerica, according the standards I'm about to present), I would simply have opened 2 windows in opposite directions and created a draught. Simple. Who needs AC really (and I actually totally detest AC, since it makes tha air dry and artificial, and usually way too cold). Now, do you think this kind of window (openable) exists in a building on this continent? right. So the effect is that, I'm slowly suffocating, thinking back on the hottest day we had at the observatory in sweden, when it was 30+ degrees. The air was flowing through the building, making cosy ruffling noises through the piles of paper. Of course, I'd sit there, nicely cooled down after the lunch-time dip in the ocean, but that's besides the point. The observatory didn't have an AC, simply because it wasn't needed. And I don't see why it is needed in Winnipeg either. Grr.

It's not only the window situation that makes northamerica uncivilized. Banking too. Who uses checks these days? I have to pay my rent with checks...!!! How do you transfer money to Sweden without getting ripped off? won't happen. According to my swedish bank, it's only Canada, US, Australia, UK. So much for british conservatism (ha, yeah, it's not only northamerica that ends up on my private axis of evil) that takes out horrendous fees for doing simple money transfers. I ended up sending a cheaper so called "money order", but that was so ancient, so instead the swedish bank had to take out a fee to handle it.

Would I like some cheese with my whine? :) (well not american cheese for sure) So why do you live there then, you donkey, you might ask. Well, priorities, right. And no, everything is not good about Sweden either. Just one example: People who sell you stuff, they must meet really nasty customers all the time. Last time I bought stuff (train tickets, groceries etc), both in Sweden and Holland, I felt like I was imposing on the sellers valuable time, I was a bug not worthy of a smile or even look. That felt weird after all the awesome conversations I end up having with all the sellers of stuff (there's got to be a word for that, but it's too hot for my brain to function right now) I meet in Canada.

Blablabla. there's no point to this rant, that's for sure. I wonder if I can find a place in my life, where all the best parts from all the countries I've visited are brought together. Perhaps that is found by the attitude with which I meet rather unimportant details of specific nations...

Unopenable windows are NOT unimportant details though. It's just plain dumb. Grr. (although, I'll admit that it's nicer to have the heat indoors than the cold).

old, but not old enough (yet)?

2007-04-24T13:16:00.000-06:00

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! I just pulled a silvery white (almost pretty, if not thinking of everything connected to it) hair from my head. It might be my old mutation though, it was superthick and totally different from other strands of hair, but STILL. So, all the signs of age hit me like an anvil falling down from the ceiling onto my approximate location in the chair. Not pretty. My only consolation is this: I went to Il Divo for free (NO, that is not the consolation!). They sang at the MTS centre in Winnipeg last Monday and my very good friend J, her little inhabitant in its large swimming pool (she's very pregnant) and I got tickets for free from some friends who couldn't go (well, the baby came in for free). I had barely heard this group, even though I have a bunch of friends who are really into them. And how much I didn't understand until afterwards... but that's another story. Anyways, so I was quite excited to visit the MTS centre, since I'd never been there, and was prepared to meet a whole bunch of cheese. It started very nicely with an awesome pianist, and then i divas came on stage, and the centre immediately transformed into a giant cheese fondue, and most people there were VERY open to every kind of cheese that was served (while I'm a bit more picky about my cheese) I kind of got used to the style though, after gulping down an enormous portion of american cheddar (the inoculation?), and surviving. Now and then, a little piece of excellent gruyere or scottish glenphilly cheddar was noticed, among the songs that to my knowledge not were covers of original cheese productions (celine dion, mariah carey, etc etc) (?), but it was often pretty soon drowned in the major divo of the quartett, who seemed to enjoy setting his intestines in resonance, and whose inbetween-songs-chatting was rather excessively.... well, I wouldn't want to overuse the expression here, but I guess "cheesy" is the most accurate adjective. And hereby I'm also able to deliver my own piece of Edam or Gouda (keeping with the theme, nationality of said cheeses of course totally intentional) - being in love is probably a prerequisite for enjoying much of the music, and I did enjoy some of the lyrics rather well. It's like cheesy poetry.. all of a sudden you don't go "EWWW" anymore, but your pupils turn heartshaped and pink, and you need a good friend to hit you on the head before you become unbearable as company. Anyways. I met one of those we got the tickets from a few days ago, a very wonderful lady, who wondered how we had enjoyed the concert. Might be one of the occasions when one gracefully keeps the totally honest sentiments to oneself, and expresses gratitude for the experience. Which I did, and the gratitude was totally honest, because it was a superfun experience, and I loved being able to spend some time with J (luckily she had the exact same opinion as myself, which made it all so much more enjoyable).

Back to the topic though. Looking at average age of audience at the concert, perhaps I'm not as old as my silvery strand of hair implies. It's gone btw. I.e. not attached to head. Instead I attached it to the wall. It's probably a vain attempt into making me more serious about time passing and work needing to be done.

ear and throat pain

2007-04-15T21:56:00.000-06:00

My throat hurts. And my left ear. I wonder if that is bad. It seems to be residue from the flu I had 3 weeks ago. D and I bought tickets for Sweden in August a few days ago :) And today it was 18 degrees. About time!

I was leading a choir practice today. Not as nervous as last time a few year ago... I seem to like to be in the dictator position. Scary. At least the population of my choir seemed to be happy. And on saturday I played chamber music (Bach and Mozart) in a quartett with a violin, viola and cello. Amazingly fun. Tomorrow is monday, and I have to finish off grading the last lab reports. And a thousand over things. Argh. Also going to see Il Divo with Jessica, she had an extra ticket. That could be fun.

Gggg

2007-03-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

I don't seem to have anything to write lately. Waiting for spring, still, and it seems to be here, now and then. Got a cold, and felt like garbage today so stayed home despite lots to work on. Slept, worked, saw a stargate episode, and redid the cycle. Twice or so, but in the afternoon I got an amazing migraine, so that was the end of that day. Yodeloo. I think I have to go and see this film btw.

Calgary, and it feels like spring...

2007-02-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

It's above zero here! Yummmm... +5 right now. Conference is done, and I'm sitting in the lobby waiting for Candia. It's pretty nice to just rest for a bit. Of course, as soon as I left Winnipeg, temperatures skyrocketed (well, went from -inf to -8). I bought a shoe shelf at ikea. And some flat bread and lingonberries. Walked a snowy walk up in the hills sothwest of Calgary and then was able to breathe outside air without pain. Visited Ed and Meg in their cute house in Strathmore, and then the LTS-conference started. It's kind of interesting to meet up with people you see every 6 months and it feels like meeting old friends. A weird sensation has occurred within me though - I'm longing to get back to Winnipeg...!

-40, and kazaap!

2007-02-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

This morning we hit the temperature where it doesn't matter if you use F or C. I haven't had this cold since I arrived here 3 years ago, and apparently I've adjusted, because it didn't bother me so much. Of course 3 layers on legs, and 5 underneath the jacket as well as 2 layers mittens and toques, helps a bit. Only toes and nose were a bit chilly. It's so cold that the last amount of humidity has frozen onto trees, and looks pretty much like sweden a chilly -4 -day in sunshine. haha.
The driness makes for some fun. Cats these days can't have an easy time. One of the astronomers at the faculty here told about how his cat Chaos approached their entertainment unit, and a big SPARK went from nose to unit, totally frying the hard drive. In general, winnipeg cats tend to pull away if someone threatens to pet them this time of the year. And when walking on top of a blanket in darkness, there's little sparks accompanying the cat with each step (this statement set me off in an unending attack of laughter at a dinner a few days ago). Wearing fleece and wool in combination is perfect, turn off the lights, touch someone's nose and there's your own indoors lightning. Haha! Sadly this also means really bad hair days... but it's funny, you get electric shocks even from plants! Slide out of a car seat and you're pretty close to electricuting yourself.
If it can only get a little bit warmer, I intend to go out skating on the river. There's a skating path and a walking/biking path along Assiniboine, going by outside my house and all the way to the Forks (via river skating rink and curling) onto Red river. D and I went for a walk there a few sundays ago, and it was supercool. As for inquiries to last post: Yes, of course Sweden too, as soon as I can get tickets for a good deal. Ideally in the end of summer, or latest at Christmas again.

Winterpeg part 2

2007-01-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's still cold. Either one can go into hibernation (very tempting), or, defy the forces of nature and take a nice bath in a hot-tub, watching the stars and get a helmet of frozen hair. There's actually proof to this claim, and I will post it shortly. It was "only" -16 that evening though. There was something else I intended to write about, but forgot. Next time... because right now, I am tireeeed...zzz....

Oh! plans! Yes! Calgary in february, Utah in the end of March, and possibly Baltimore some time in the summer. Ontariox2 in June (conferences). August Quebec?? And in December, Hawaii.... Last year was pretty ok too. I never wrote one of those fancy year-overviews. I will, but the year was a little bit too cool to just be written down without some time taken to it. The outer layers look as follows though:
Vancouver in February (LTS-conference). Turned 30! Oh, the dread - but it turned into relief. And I started taking flying lessons, which turned out to be an excellent idea. Moved to Balmoral in April. Then spring was work, and double conference in Alberta (Calgary), to be followed by 10 days in Albuquerque. Summer was dancing (actually all year) and wasps (no stings though, and no mosquitos!), and birds - Merry and Pippin. And a little bit of homesickness, cured by a trip home in the end of august and beginning of september, plus a full day of London sightseeing. Then not so much more of travelling until December 19 when I went with D to Holland 2 days, via Stockholm (and managed to cure the jetlag immediately once again, by walking in the sunshine in the old town), and then Christmas at home with Cassie (and the rest of the family.. ;)

winterpeg

2007-01-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

From superwarm (just below zero during most of the winter) to -38 yesterday.... Coldest I've felt since 2004, when I moved here. My ibook can listen to me when I speak... And today I managed to find a driver (macam) to make it possible to run my webcam. My Ibook, my precious... It is saturday, and I cleaned the apartment, for which there was a dire need. Aaaand... I got an email from a person I have longest to hear from - and he is willing to become a collaborator to my proposal. I am pretty sure that means that the proposal will get time, since he is the expert on the technique we're using, and just recently used the same technique for the same kind of galaxy I'm using it on, meaning that it IS feasible to do this project. And if so... I'll be the happiest person ever... :)
My dangerous radiator that I don't dare turn on, for several reasons: a) it most likely will explode in my face b) it will turn my apartment into sauna/tropics (not entirely unpleasant of course), woke me up at 3 this morning. Because it WANTS to be turned on, all the hot steam is whining where it's closed, in a most annoying manner. I have 3 radiators in my apartment, one in the bedroom (off), one in the livingroom (the one I just described) and a tiny one in the bathroom, that is on when it's really cold outside. This tiny one is so incredibly hot, that it manages to keep the entire apartment at a pleasant temperature (albeit with a distinct gradient out to the living room). That pretty impressive, considering leaking windows and extreme outside temperatures.
Anyways. I have more cool news, but that will have to wait until another time. Meanwhile, let me give a link to my friends Steve's awesome webalbum from the Christmas holidays in Sweden. Mine is coming up any time soon.

holidays!

2006-12-25T02:43:00.000-07:00

How incredibly accurate...
Here's a Christmas greeting to all my faithful readers... ;)

Christmas day bike ride in the sunset (Onsala).

From the mouths of children...

2006-12-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

Just had lunch after having helped out with some caroling at a mission downtown. One of my friends brought her two young boys, which was a lot of fun. While eating and talking, the 4 year old asked me where my mom is. I told him she is far away, in another country. "But..", he said, a bit upset about this thought, "You're just a baby!!!". Yup. Something to remember if I feel old any time soon!
I also got birdsitters for the hobbits, a family that has 14 birds already. Sweet. Just a few days to go now, and right NOW I have to finish a report. I am so intenesly annoyed with that report. It took me months to figure out how to do what I needed to do, and in the end it was just a week's worth of work. Grrr. Soon to be but a memory though, in 5 days I'm off. Also time to buy some milk and make an äggost for the faculty Christmas potluck tomorrow. Yum.

Monday...

2006-12-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

2 weeks left. PILES of labreports to grade. Papers to write, masses to model, birdseeds to buy. -18 outside, sunny and pretty. Need clean apartment. TAing tonight (expect gangrene in my feet after that, eek). Life is good... :) (well except for the possibility of future footlessness of course).

Recent dreams: 2 nights ago, I dreamt I was part of the Lost team. Some alterations from the original series occured though. For instance, we got off the island, and ended up in some unknown city (!). We ate food at a restaurant. Some of the crew were friends from my church (Kevin, etc). I realised that someone wanted to kill me (noone in the crew; as opposed to the actual tv-series, they were all very nice and cooperating) by elaborate means - trying to kidnap me while we were being guided around some castle, trying to run me over while I was walking down a street. The reason to the killings was that I in fact was a secret agent. I got my instructions, soon after the second attempt on my life. Q (which usually is M, although called Q in this dream, and it was actually brother Mears...) provided me with a pair of turqoise boots, high-heeled, inside which I had secret hiding places for messages. They were also never-fail boots for kicking any person wanting to kill me. I was supposed to go to a certain party (the kind where lots of gamblers and mafia-people meet), sneak in, rendez-vous with some person, get a secret message, kick down any killer, and report to Q. I also found myself wearing this amazingly turquoise full-length ballroom dress. All prospects of being able to perform this task without being noticed too much, were kind of minimized at that point. But that didn't matter. Those boots were just to die for. Sadly I woke up before anything else happened.

Last night was more obscure - medieval times, travelling down to a lake, and the village there. Sleeping at a taverna a la Lord of the rings, everyone crammed into one big room (men on one side of the fireplace, women on the other). Meeting with some people (the taverna owner, plus a prince of some sort) and making up elaborate plans for the following days tournament games. Secretly, since there of course were crooks involved one way or another as well. And then the telephone rang and woke me up.

Who needs books? Only sad part is I never get to see what happens next!

4 weeks...

2006-11-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

Where's the emission of my galaxy?? Either I'm really bad at cleaning, or there's just nothing there... so all of you who have waited for so long - the wait is not over yet.

Winnipeg is still snowless. sweet. and fairly warm. (+6 today). I am happy. busy but happy.

intermediate november update

2006-11-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't stay down for long, just a little while. One can be pretty hard on oneself. Things are just too good to be annoyed, that would be a waste of precious time. And after weeks of cloudiness, I've seen the sun two days in a row! With strong winds from south, it's actually rather pleasant just now (i.e. just above zero). I might even take out my bike later!

Most common state: Rotting away in the office. Feeling hunger. Was jsut about to wander my way through the not-so-uplifting catacombs towards some place with food (or edible substance at least), when some faculty came with a brick of fruit and juices to starving grad students. Sweet.

Good things now: Making a new Aeggost again tonight, 5 weeks till D-day (dec 19), so need find birdwatcher before then, christmas concert practicing (funfun!), dancing (took a break in October, but missed it a LOT), work going forwards, and TA-ed a class this morning for a lab about galaxies. A very nice reminder on why I am doing what I do. Galaxies are just SO COOL. I don't know how to emphasize that enough, and people don't seem to realise it, but seriously! Is there anything cooler? Us being here observing them is rather awesome too... But just LOOK at one... (NGC 2903, one of the cuties I am working on, here in optical, with a Hubble image overlaid). It instills the same feeling as flying.

Annoying thing for the moment: Where did I put my calculator?

Up and down

2006-11-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

Urgh. After having had an awesome up for a while (the climax being flying in darkness, using the stars for navigation, after a sushi meal and a dance class, on saturday evening), I decided to go dooown this afternoon. Well, it wasn't a conscious decision, I was happily preparing the lecture I was going to give in my advisor's absence (she had to leave for the airport), when I realised rather abruptly that the lecture didn't start at 2.30 as I by some odd reason had assumed the entire time (last one I did started 1.30...), but yeah, 1.30. By then it was 1:50, so it was no use rushing over. Oh, I felt so bad... I was looking forward to it a lot, and now the students wouldn't have all the info they needed. So, in short, feeling pretty much like a loser right now. On the good side of it, this will definitely never happen again, and I get to work a bit on how to not dig myself deep into regret about something I can't do anything about (or, rather, do everything I can about it, and then leave it). Anyways. First snow came a few days ago, and yesterday was halloween. Saw Shaun of the Dead, an awesome film.

Typical

2006-10-17T18:10:00.000-06:00

My advisor is going on a worktrip, and a few days ago she realised her flight left one day too early. So she asked me if I could do her lectures that day. That would be fun! ... had I not all of a sudden gotten this nasty bug and am now sitting with a terrible throat and slight fever. Half of the lectures are prepared, but I can't rest, because then I just start anguishing about them. Siiigh. Usually I'd just stay home when feeling like this (and it's my pet peeve when people don't!), but when teaching you kind of have to go. TAing this morning went fine though, even though I felt like garbage when I woke up.

dadadadaaaaaa

2006-10-06T22:13:00.000-06:00

Just came home from a concert - winnipeg symphony orchestra played Beethoven's 2nd symphony. I've never seen such an energetic conductor, at least not with that kind of personality. He made me laugh right out, and members of the orchestra had a hard time keeping from smiling too. Awesomeness. What's even better is that they are continuing playing B's symphonies, one after the other. I missed the first one, but I will definitely not miss the Eroica (3), and not 5,6,7 either. Somehow I ended up getting 5 stuck in my head afterwards thanks to my musiclistening companion. Good day, despite having to invigilate 2 mid-terms (watching poor students sweat through a test in 50 minutes - I could feel the tnesion, and ended up with a nasty headache already a few minutes into the first one. My advisor laughed at me, knowing my terror about exams). (And for all who worried in my behalf, the meeting yesterday went well, (as it usually does when I'm nervous about it)).

This weekend it's thanksgiving. This means I can eat as much pumpkin pie as I want. yes. There are some excellent things about living in the western hemisphere, and one of them is pumpkin pie. Did I mention that we have an amazing autumn btw? It's WARM (around 20) and the trees are in all colours, not only yellow this year, and it's gorgeous.

Cleaning and inverting

2006-10-04T16:47:00.000-06:00

ARGH!!! *throws monitor out of window*. Well, fantasizing about it gives same amount of satisfaction, but not having to deal with after effects. I am sure UofM would be less than cooperative about it, since they are most of the time anyways. (no, I'd never throw my little donated monitor away)

Reason to my mild amount of frustration is that I am trying to create an image out of radio data. This is probably a very simple process, if you have done it before. It's the first time for me though. The more I work on it, the more I learn, so that is good. Problem is that all the extra knowledge is still not enough for making it work. Perhaps I'm running out of patience after having worked on it continously (well, almost) for 8 hours so far today. Which is really nothing, so I don't think I'm entitled to complaining just yet.

Tomorrow I'm going to a banquet. Free food is nice.

But, the reason to why I started writing is this: Tomorrow is Thursday. Thursday is day of meeting with advisor. I cannot believe it's already been a week since my last meeting, for which I felt exactly the same as I do now (what have I been working on? where are my results? WHY are there no results? did I get abducted by a UFO without noticing it? Gaaaah, I'll not be able to get out of there alive! Please let me get abducted by a UFO!) And this despite the fact that my advisor is one of the kindest and awesomest advisors one could probably have. I guess, when you're in the middle of something, it's hard to have results ready. This is what I really don't like about being a grad student though - almost always having this feeling of being chased, never accomplishing anything worthwhile. The few occasions when you do accomplish something are heavenly. But could they not come more often?

So, I guess this rant indicates I'm not having a good research day today. next time I write, I intend it to be a VERY good research day. Everything else is quite good though. Weather is awesome, getting paid on friday (YES!!!), wonderful people around me everywhere, birds at home, life could only be better if work gave more results. Yesterday was the first TA-session of the year, which was totally awesome. My little students learnt how to classify stars by looking at their spectra.

Well, I guess step 1 would be to stop ranting here and go back to Miriad (the reduction software) and its tasks. By the end of this day, I want to be able to see a GALAXY from my data and not just concentric rings in every direction. Grmbl.

Yey for monitors in laundry rooms!

2006-09-21T23:16:00.000-06:00

Aaaaah! For the first time since I got home, I can use my computer... I went to do laundry, and noticed that there was a little monitor left on the table where people tend to leave things they think someone else might be interested in. And interested I was, indeed... So I carried it up to my apartment, connected it, and LO AND BEHOLD, I can use my laptop again (the laptop screen stopped working when I got back).

Happy.

Grrr...

2006-09-20T18:46:00.000-06:00

Wednesday evening. Research not working at ALL right now, stupid software doesn't do as it is supposed to. Yes medears, I am back, in ye olde Winnipeg. Since a week. It feels like much longer for some reason. Well, after I landed last monday these things happened: My laptop screen died. My bike got a huge chunk of glass in the tyre (one night on the airport floor in Stansted leaving its tracks (no, not for the bike, for my spelling)). Bike is fixed, laptop not. Hence no new nice photos to brighten up your day. Oh, I also wake up with a nasty soar throat every morning, accompanied by irritatingly humble sneezing (i.e. not sick enough to justify staying at home (esp not without a computer..!), but enough to not feel like biking to school these last few days of ability-to-bike-ness before winter hits us. Autumn has arrived... It actually feels totally ok. Plans on visiting the caribbean in february might have something to do with that, but I think I also am fairly happy about most situations right now. Except for the computer situation of course. And the monetary situation a while longer (my usual successful ignoring of the university administration is on a hold right now, due to school fee payments and the resultant echoing void I stare at when checking my bank account. A new astronomy phd student started here, fresh from calgary, and to my enjoyment, she shares all my sentiments about the university administration. So its not only spoiled swedish students who think it's natural to have a phone in their office and enough money to live, etc, etc. Ha!)

But in OCTOBER, I'll have as much sushi as I can eat...

Just about to fly...

2006-09-10T08:57:00.000-06:00

Aaaargh! I have to PACK! Somehow not only the amount of baggage doubled, also the size of the suitcase did. But, I am packing the small suitcase inside the bigger one (since air canada broke it, and I need to take it back to get reimbursed and it's not mine. Grmbl). I wonder if the people who screen it are going to be suspicious?

The afternoon ended nicely in the backyard, playing badminton with brothers and father, in soft sunlight filtered by the trees, among frogs and huge mushrooms.

Yes, pack, need do, now. I'm getting less and less fond of that. I wonder what is going to happen to the bag THIS time... But first mum's lamb steak dinner.

travel, lack of jetlag and home

2006-09-05T06:41:00.000-06:00

I tried out an experiment - tried to find the cheapest fare possible for going home. Thus I ended up having to fly with three different companies. Could be risky, but it worked out quite nicely. So, an early august morning, I left warm and cosy Winnipeg, for my little adventure, destination Sweden.
Air Canada obviously had to rip off the back part of my (borrowed) suitcase, but that made me content, because at least I wouldn't lose the luggage after that (statistically). Descending to Toronto, we went through the most amazing cloud formations I've ever seen, which also let me know what I had forgotten to pack - batteries for my camera... Bought ridiculously expensive batteries at the airport, and flew on to Montreal. Now, with the perspective of London, Montreal indeed had incorporated some peculiar measures of fightig the terror threat. At least in London, you're allowed to buy tax free after security. In Montreal, all travellers to London were denied entry to the tax free part of the airport (kind of boring when having a 6 hours layover). So instead I investigated a magazine store for a while. As in Winnipeg, all the drink vending machines were closed, and fridges with bottles were locked. 5 meters away, there was a Second Cup (café), and bottles of juices and pops were happily being sold. I fail to see the logic behind this... We were also forbidden to bring any kinds of creams, make up, chap sticks etc onboard. One would assume that an airport would have enough control on what is being sold after security, but apparently not. London, on the other hand, seemed more logical, after security you were allowed to buy and bring stuff. I guess that's because you're leaving, but still...???

ANYWAYS. Landed in London Gatwick at 4 in the morning after only 5 h 45 min flight. that was pretty impressive. We must have had a nice tailwind. Trying to sleep in the early morning hours at the airport was fairly impossible (got half an hour) so instead we (another phd student heading to an earth-worm conference in Poland with same amount of layover as myself) took a train downtown. And this is when I started to realise how expensive London is. HUVALIGEN! We did the warpspeed version of London sighseeing, in a few hours, and managed to cram in most of the most londonish things. Having gotten rid of the luggage at a station (eeexpeeensiiive, gah..) we got a day pass for the busses, and boarded a red "doubledecker", sat in the top front and had an awesome time. Here's the list of what we managed to visit/do:

- St Paul's Cathedral (not inside, ?9 fee for visiting a church?)
- Sandwich purchase for lunch and eating of this at Trafalgar square (in awesome sunligt - I've never seen London in sun before!!)
- White Hall, in perfect time for the change of guards
- 10 Downing Street
- Big Ben and Houses of parliament
- St James park, down the Royal Mall
- Buckingham Palace
- Green park and some memorial place I don't know the name of
- Hyde Park, including half an hour nap on the lawn(!)
- Marble Arch, Speakers Corner,
- Bus down Oxford street
- British Museum (5 minutes!, my goal was to see the Rosetta Stone, since they were renovating when I was there 10 years ago, and I then missed it - as a bonus we also got to see an Easter island statue.)
- Bus back to Liverpool station, luggage, and train (gaaah! my poor thin visa card!) to Stansted. By then it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Not too bad. Felt somewhat dizzy.

And Stansted was no fun airport. But landing in Säve (not regular airport) was even worse. We ended up in some farmhouse, and had to dive for the luggage in the carts they so unceremoniously had stuffed all the bags. Who cared, I was HOME. My father and middle brother came to pick me up, in Ye Olde Volkswagen Van, and then we picked up brother #3 at the student home, and my "lazy" days were ready to start. Now, due to all the walking around london, I woke up the next morning at 8, no problem at all (Alyssa, you should be proud of me!). Apparently all the sunlight had rebooted the brain, and no jetlag was noticeable. I was amazed.
Home... :) Last photo taken last friday, when one of my goals (swimming in the ocean) was accomplished.

weather again

2006-08-10T07:49:00.000-06:00

Third rain (I think) of the summer just occurred. And has still not ended. Since it was my plan to cycle to the university the rest of the week, I'm still confined to home. It has been raining and thundering since at least 6 this morning (that's when I woke up by it), I even had to close the window because it was just too loud. Now the head hurts and I am considering just doing everything from home today. Don't know if I should. The birds would certainly like it. Work now, and when it's dried up, I'll take the bike. Or bus if drying takes too long.

Last saturday a tornado went by, just 80 km north of winnipeg. I saw the trail of it on the way to the beach on monday, where it had crossed the highway. Thick and awesome forest, even fairly high, and all of a sudden an area where the trees were bent down like sticks, or just removed, and only the poor trunks were left. The tornado went over a camp ground and ruined quite a bit, killed a person and injured lots. That saturday we also had some really intense weather, with lots of thunder and lightning in the city. Tornados are very interesting... I have never seen anyone before, except for the cartoon version when Mickey Mouse is conducting William Tell (truly awesome cartoon, made me start listening to Rossini), so actually being in a place where there apparently are 15 tornados a year on average, is quite exotic. I'd like to actually see one, but probably not while I'm doing it... (The 2nd picture shows the end scene from the cartoon, when Donald, who's been tormenting Mickey's performance, playing his flute, reveals the 45th flute hidden in his outfit).

Anyways, now that I'm becoming such an expert in uploading photos, I have to add yet another one: On civic holiday (monday of first weekend of august) I ended up at the sand cliffs of lake Winnipeg. A perfect place, with perfect weather and perfect company.

work, walking and weather

2006-07-25T14:54:00.000-06:00

Life is calm. Work is intense. For every thing I try to do, there's a problem. I manage to override the problem, but sometimes I wonder if my solutions are good ones or if I'm just applying some kind of patch which is hiding not only what appears to be the problem, but also the murky cave of Disaster and Ickyness that harbours the actual causes to the problems...? Sooner or later they'll show their ugly faces, I assume, and I'd rather it'd be sooner than in a few years from now, while facing the defense. In other words: The velocity field of the galaxy I just managed to extract in yet another way (using gaussian fitting), couldn't be used to calculate the rotation curve, because the units were totally wrong. Now it finally can. But while working on this, I did a most daring thing. I needed some chocolate, so I went and bought a Hershey's special dark. My experience with Hershey's has so far been far from plesant. The substance they produce is an abomination and shouldn't be allowed to be called chocolate (and for anyone who disagrees, lucky you, you just haven't been introduced to the real stuff yet). It tastes more like one of the grosser ones of Bertie Bott's all-flavoured beans (not sardine, the second worst). With one exception, the peanut butter cups are actually fairly agreeable. However, with enough cocoa (>50%) apparently not even Hershey can fail. It's certainly not Cote d'Or, but it stifles the worst cravings.
But, my foot inflammation that I acquired on thursday last week (by doing nothing else than walking normally - Grr! 3rd time during less than a year that my left foot has issues. Broken, sprained and now inflamed) let me know that it was still there during the walk.
Today it is grey, and this morning, I was actually heavily rained upon, for the first time this summer. It's about the 3rd rainfall for the entire summer, so it was fairly nice. The clouds are actually lowering the temperature with about 10 degrees, so it's 25 outside right now. :)

The birds are finding their way around the apartment now, but I really need to build a tree for them. Pippin is happy to jump up on my finger whenever she is lost or uncomfortable, and is totally adorable. Merry is still cautious, but gives the awesomest concerts, and his flying skills are getting better and better.

Time to get back to my galaxies. Funny telephone conversation the other day, while at work, the owners of my building called:
Anonymous Caller: "Hi this is Galaxy Management here"
Me, interrupted from working hard on preparing NGC 2903 and NGC 4096 for matlab runs: "...aahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA hihi, hoho.,!" (etc)
Confused Person: "Why are you laughing?"
Moi, realising after a while that this is not Hildy actually trying to be funny (where would I ever get that notion from though?), nor someone I had emailed previously asking stuff about yet another galaxy: "Uuuuhm. I don't know!" (also starting to feel rather dumb)
--Profound Silence--
Person believing she's talking to the biggest moron: "so, this is about your rent.... "
And then I remembered that the place I address my rent cheques to wears the rather hybris (how make that word into an adjective?) -ized name Galaxy Management. hehe. I quickly explained what I was working on, but whatever. :)

Merry and Pippin

2006-07-17T13:23:00.000-06:00

Let me present to you: Merry and Pippin!

Verdict is given - I tested out the names on the budgies last night, and they blinked at me affirmatively for Merry and Pippin. Which would be the nicknames for Montgomery and Pequenita. So, there I have the Star Trek connection after all (Montgomery Scott aka Scotty), and Pippin is actually swedish for 'the birdie', which is gender neutral, so I definitely think it can be used for a female bird. Then we have the French king, Pippin the small/little (Pepin le bref), son of Charlemagne unless I am mistaken (will check shortly) who lived in the 700's, and Pippin is definitely small! Which, with the spanish spelling of Geoffs invented portuguese, is also what Pequenita means (feminine diminutive form of pequeno)! Merry is a very merry bird indeed, so in all, I think my birds chose the right names.

I would hereby like to thank all the contributors of names. There has been a wide variety on themes from stars to pirates to star trek to mexican food to flying related names to patriotic winnipegian names. See comments of Chirp for a few. Romy and Sofia both thought of LoTR-names, so I think I owe them at least half a dinner each. Sofia was also rather persistent about the Star Trek theme, which I really liked myself. Scotty and Seven was a close-up in the competition. Christine's suggestions should get some kind of honourable mention for their originality, and my parents ideas are supersweet as always... David's flying related ones were as well really close and kept to the preferred two-syllable structure. And then we have Jack's pirate suggestions Guybrush Threepwood and Gunpowder Gertie which just deserve to be mentioned... It might get to be their superhero alter egos. Then I got quite a few other suggestions in verbal form, which I thus of course can't remember, from Jonathan and Geoff and others (and, me deep apologies if I forgot anyone now...)

Merry and Pippin had their first flight yesterday, and they are very skilled. The first time they were however happy to jump up on my arm to be carried back to their home after a having ended up in the kitchen. In the evening however they didn't really feel like going to sleep, so it took a bit of persuasion. Pippin has no problem to be carried around perched on my finger, as long as she doesn't lose Merry out of sight, then she takes off and flies back to him. And Merry is not really interested at all in being carried around, he's too much of an explorer. But with one bird on each hand, it works well. They are then very well-behaved and jumps into the cage (the Shire) with a merry chirp.

Ok, back to work.

Chirp!

2006-07-13T17:53:00.000-06:00

Life is complete. I mean as in nothing more to wish for. Everything is back to how it should be. A real pirate cannot be parrotless. This one has been so for more than 2 years. As of today, this has been taken care of. Romy took me to a very nice petstore, where they don't clip the wings of the birds. Stamp of approval. They keep them in cages and not in aquariums. Keep them away from disturbing elements (such as people etc). Nice store in other words. And there I met several kindred spirits. And brought two of them with me home. I didn't intend to... Possibly one. But the one I chose, was such a happy little fellow, and I knew it would make him really sad to leave. But then a little yellow budgie-girl from the same cage started playing with my fingers, and shooed away any other bird who came by to do the same out of curiosity. My heart melted like chocolate exposed to the winnipegian sun (which would be fast). The result was that I came home with two budgies. They glared at me for a bit before I left them alone to get used to there surroundings, but seemed to like me a bit too. Then the anguish came. Am I crazy? But it lasted only for a little while. 3 more years here require the presence of birds. Besides, I did some research before, and it doesn't seem to be impossible to bring them with me home or wherever I go after this. (yes, I will do a big photo post in a while... :) Meanwhile: I need names! So, until Sunday, a competition will be held. Winner will, apart from the glory, receive a superb dinner in company of birds and moi-meme. Pretty nice company in other words... ;) Swedes are also welcome to participate, but dinner will then occur in early september, with other birds present.

ARR!

2006-07-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

Jubilation! Yesterday I went with a bunch of friends to the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Enjoying having a good time, we made sure to be in good time for standing in line (well, it was a substantial group of 17), with the appropriate attire. It is interesting when you go to the foodcourt washrooms to change, noticing people's glances, first feeling like a total geek, esp when remembering my age. But since I don't enjoy feeling weird, I changed my feelings into those of the happy and proud geek who enjoys brightening up someone's day a bit even if it might be in a scornful way for oneself, and immediately everything felt good again.

Anyways, what an awesome film experience. I was in heaven, it was exactly my kind of film, in all categories.

Today is saturday, and I'm sitting at home for a bit before heading out. It is very warm in my apartment, so it might soon be necessary to buy a fan.

Taste experience of the day: Yoghurt with cloudberry (hjortron) jam and fresh strawberries and cornflakes.

Ojojoj...

2006-06-28T19:18:00.000-06:00

All you can eat - sushi sounded like a good idea at first. But now I am too full to think... The sushi was ok, but I think my standards have gotten a little higher after the amazing sushi I had in calgary and albuquerque. Or perhaps I just got too full too soon.
I am getting used to being home, loving the weather, and having a really nice time. Work is good, although today I learnt that my last proposal got rejected. RATS (and other eloquent expressions of choice). It stunned me for a bit. I wonder if I shouldn't give up that project and go totally for radio astronomy from now on. But it would be so annoying just giving up on this project, considering how much time I have put into it! Well, I have one more idea... and my advisor probably has a few too. But why oh why couldn't it have been accepted..? It was so awesome! argh.

But it's impossible to stay sad when it's 25+ degrees every day, sunshine, wonderful friends around, birds, clouds, thunderstorms, a now useable river walk (all the spring mud is dug away or being overgrown with plants), dancing, amazing sunsets etc..

A day at the VLA

2006-06-18T14:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday turned out to be one of those amazing days which will put a smile on your face that can't be erased. And to show why, I am even posting some photos! We went to the VLA area, all 150 or so astronomers, packed into 3 buses. It was a fairly long trip, through the desert, up and up, (barely noticeable other than through loss of hearing), to a level of 2200 metres. I don't know why a telescope is such a beautiful thing - but it is. When reaching VLA, I glanced backwards, and there was an immense amount of cameras in position. We were divided into small groups, and went on a a tour, which felt really vip. Very Large Array is an array of 27 25-m telescopes, that can be moved into different configurations on railtracks. The only radio telescopes I've seen before are the Onsala 25 and 20 m antennas, so seeing that many of them at the same time was really neat.

Isn't it pretty... :) It was a gorgeous day, not too hot due to altitude, but the sun was strong.

We actually climbed up onto one of the antennas! My knees were shaking due to vertigo, but it made it all just so much extra exciting. Sitting there in the dish was a surreal experience, very very amazing... I'll describe this better in a webalbum to come - for now, this is all I can say: wow. WOW! YEY! YEEHAA! :)

Being hot

2006-06-15T19:06:00.000-06:00

Sacre bleu!
So, I came down with the Montreal (aka Montezuma's revenge, etc), plus some bug creating a fever competing strongly with the outside temperature. Zut. I managed to attend the lectures this morning I really didn't want to miss, but the afternoon seems more ok to skip, so in a few seconds I'll try to sleep this away. Fever dreams are intriguing. Last night I dreamt that we were to have a talent show at the summer school, and I was to participate in some wrestling (is that a talent?), which, in the dream, I was really good at (who stole my brain?). Luckily, it didn't happen, due to all the fever, I had to cancel it all. Then I entered an elevator, apparently with the love of my life (nope, don't remember any features, only that he was tall. Rats.) Then the elevator, equipped with windows, malfunctioned. In real life, that would mean that it would stop, and nothing happen (I think). In my dreams (and I have frequent elevator malfunction dreams), it means that it skips your floor, accelerates, stops in the middle, accelerates down, to some unknown basement, surviving that, it now accelerates sideways, then up, up, up, (and I notice with some amusement, while desperately trying out different button combinations to make it stop, to make the alarm go on, or the phone to work, that this building had far more floors than it looked like from the outside). Usually around floor 100 or so, it just shoots out of the elevator shaft, and then, luckily, I wake up, before it hits the ground.

It's 32 outside. zzz.

Albuquerque!

2006-06-13T22:52:00.000-06:00

2nd day in Albuqurque, after a full day of lectures on radioastronomy, correlators, polarization, etc... Going for dinner soon, which is a very good thing, since I am very hungry.

I had only 2 days inbetween coming home from Calgary-conferences, before leaving ultra early again on the monday (thanks for the ride, Angelo!!!). Had time for practicing landings, reviving plants and doing laundry, and that was about it. I was actually not even in the mood to leave. But after a long nap in minneapolis, and while heading south, I looked out of the airplane window and studied the desert-y landscape, and realized how amazing my life is. New place, new sites, new people... and no camera to document it with! (due to a certain lack of smartness last week, when wanting to change the format of my photos, but that's another story).

I just love it when you walk out of the airplane, and get a quick sense of the outside temperature and smell just when entering the tube-walkway (does it have a name?). 35 degrees of desert heat - now we're talking! I wasn't picked up at the airport as was previously announced, so instead I grabbed the luggage and took a bus to the campus of university of new mexico. It brought with it the excitement of travelling.

Some impressions:
- Sizes (people, pop, amounts of sugar in everything you might want to eat etc. I always forget, and it's always somewhat baffling...)
- Auto-mode on everything (ARGH! Why, oh why?? esp airport "restrooms". Stupid sensor stupid notices every movement, and FLUSHES when you least expect.. (well, you get the picture). One of my most major pet peeves. Then you try to magically wiggle some soap out of "automatic" soap dispenser, and almost taking off, waving your arms in front of the stupid tap. I don't get it. There are no automatic toilet doors anyhow, so why the stupid flush?).
- ID's. Apparently you can't be served at a bar unless you have american ID. French didn't work, nor swedish driving licences (there's another swede here too, a friend from Onsala!), OR, believe it or not, swedish passport. !?! Not that I care, in my case, of course, but that was the alltimehigh of stupidity... You can enter the US with the passport, but not use it as ID. (well, to be honest, some places do accept it. But only the passports, nothing else.)
- Customs! On the other hand, believe it or not, the US customs were totally nice and civilised towards me this time! First time, I think. Perhaps because I was being rather grumpy, rolling my eyes when they scolded me for not having taken off my belt while going through the metal detector? Anyways, it was really refreshing for a change.
- Temperature! YEEHAA! It's 35 degrees! Or was, right when I wrote that and finished it halfsentence, and now, at 22:35, it's 32. I haven't had this kind of heat since Italy 2003, and I LOVE it.
- Bugs. Apparently I was quite lucky with the room - it's the "coldest" one, it's one of the few with functioning internet connection, and it's not supplied with big 2/3 cockroach sized bugs who crawl along the wall in bugwarpspeed, as in one of the other rooms with sauna temp.
- camera: I bought a new camera today (hooray for low dollar value and tax). Photos from my precious will be online soon. On friday and saturday we go to Soccorro, and VLA, so I assume there will be some nice ones.

And, talks. Some people are magical, and can make you listen for 80 minutes continuously to a talk about polarization, while having fun and learning, while for others, all your energy is taken up by following the talk, and none is left for actually understanding, even thought the topic is simpler.

But, most of all, again, the warmth. Common sight during break outside the lecture building (or: how to pinpoint the scandinavians in the crowd): everyone is sitting/standing in the shade of the huge pine trees (the campus area is amazing!), except for the two swedes, standing facing the sun, leaning backwards a bit to increase the solar exposed area as much as possible, with goofy smiles on their faces, trying to save as much as possible for darker times to come.

The slowest computer in the universe...!

2006-06-09T16:34:00.000-06:00

No, it's not my laptop actually, but the computer (or something disguised as one) I'm sitting in front of in the business calss lounge of air canada at calgary airport. I ended up here after having volunteered to give up my place on my flight, since they were out of seats due to some plane malfunction somewhere... And, yeah, I get a pretty nice discount on my next flight due to that. Although, I also have to wait for about 6 hours till my next flight... fun . Luckily htere's a huge amount of food around, so I'm not starving. At all. As usual, during this week, then. I better go on some bikerides as soon as I get home.
I am quite tired after these 2 conferences, but on Monday, I leave again, for New Mexico and the synthesis workshop. Early. Indescribably early. Ok, enough of this grinding of cogwheels (I can't even see the text I am typing) - with some luck it might even be saved...

Calgary report

2006-06-03T18:41:00.000-06:00

My run of weird luck seems to be over now, which is nice..! Right now I actually have some extra time, after 3 days of conference activities. I'm in Calgary, enjoying 2 conferences in a row, first CASCA, and then AAS. The weather is nice, although not as nice as Winnipeg, and there's just too much food. They had the banquet early, already yesterday, and I stuffed myself with Salmon with saffron sauce, vegetables and looked suspiciously at the skewer with giant prawns and scallops. Since I can eat scallops when I eat sushi, I tried it out, and it wasn't too bad. Pretty much tofu consistency with mild ocean taste (it was cooked). The prawn on the other hand... I ate one, but no. Then there was dessert, chocolate decadence. Promising name. Well, despite being rather full at this time, I ate almost all of the 2 elusively thin pieces of incredibly massive chocolate cake (the first few pieces tasted divinely). Somehow I couldn't stop eating it even though I had had more than enough after just a few bits. So then I enjoyed about en hour of feeling puffed up as a marshmallowman, but massive as the previously eaten chocolate cake. Greenfaced. One can only eat too much of sushi and still feel fairly ok.

And the rest of the conference? Well, it's very nice. Some superb talks, some somewhat less intriguing ones (or perhaps I was just tired...), some very interesting conversations with people whose faces I never new before, only their names. The socializing is awesome at theses events. But most of all I have been anguishing about my research, and with lots of newfound inspiration, I actually can't wait to get home and WORK, like crazy!! I just have to get up with some good plan on how to make that urge last till I get back home...