Time to Pretend

Mon Mar 9 17:30:30 AKDT 2009

2009-03-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Friday night I took a break from doing laundry to go check out Jeremy Kane's show at the State Museum.

Ian and I went up Eaglecrest all day Saturday. I felt pretty lucky with a foot of fresh snow and lots of sun! The highlight of the day was definitely West Bowl.

Sunday I rendezvoused with Erin and Matt at Heritage for a meeting of the Physics Book Club. We're discussing Warped Passages right now.

Tue Mar 3 10:31:10 AKST 2009

2009-03-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning Alicia and I mutually motivated each other to get out of bed and go snowboarding at Eaglecrest. Kirsa joined us as well and had her first-ever snowboarding lesson, exciting!

Sunday I couldn't resist getting up early and going again (despite staying up late Saturday night to watch Defiance). This time the crew was Ian and Sarah (both rocking skis)

and me on the single-plank. I had a mostly elastic collision with a tree branch. I came out with a bruised and scraped cheek but otherwise fine.

Sunday night I went to check out Eating Alaska an hour-long film about what it means to eat locally by Ellen Frankenstein (a Sitkan!). Then afterward went to Zen for my friend Steph's birthday. Good times.

Mon Feb 16 20:44:43 AKST 2009

2009-02-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

This past Friday was laundry day, so I have nothing to report in the way of an exciting Friday night. I made this playlist for Valentine's Day which was distributed to a select few.

Valentine's Day afternoon Kirsa and I stopped by Auke Lake to take a few pictures.

Sarah made these delicious cupcakes, with everyone's initials written in huckleberries.

This wooden dress made by Dave Walker won the Wearable Arts Show later that night.

Sunday I went up Eaglecrest and snowboarded for as many hours as I had slept the night before. Matthew Brody took a break to dig a snow pit at the Eaglecrest MET station.

Thu Feb 12 11:50:44 AKST 2009

2009-02-12T12:22:00.000-08:00

2π is such a nice number! I took this panorama from Channel Drive (a.k.a. the DIPAC dock) on my drive in to work this morning.

Thu Feb 5 16:36:14 AKST 2009

2009-02-05T17:19:00.000-08:00

I might be one of the luckiest people in the world.

The view out of my office window at NSRL:

Fri Jan 30 14:04:57 AKST 2009

2009-01-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

What's the hurry Juneau?

I often wonder as I see other drivers pass me on Egan Highway (AK-7) whether or not it's actually worth it to tempt the JPD (who issued 8441 citations in 2007) and speed on the short downtown-valley commute. How much time could I actually save?

Google Maps calculates the driving distance from the intersection of Riverside Drive and Egan to the intersection of 12th Street and Egan to be roughly 8.3 mi (my odometer confirms).

View Larger Map

If we assume we don't have to accelerate, decelerate, or stop for any lights on the way then calculating driving time at the speed limit is easy.

Distance/Rate = Time, so 8.3mi/55mph = .15 hours

Converting hours to minutes, that's just over 9 minutes.

So how does speeding compare?

8.3mi/70mph = .12 hours, that's just over 7 minutes.

So, even if you were to speed at 15 over the limit the entire way you would still only save yourself two minutes if you were lucky. With the exception of medical emergencies I don't know of anybody in Juneau who won't forgive you for being a few minutes late. If you wanted to save yourself a whopping 5 minutes you would have to travel 100mph the entire way without stopping. In my opinion, it just isn't worth it. Especially if you're endangering the life of the occasional pedestrian, bicyclist, or unicyclist. :)

In the case of medical emergency, chances are you'll have to sit in the Bartlett waiting room for a good two hours before you receive any assistance anyways. But that's another entry.

Sun Jan 11 23:50:22 AKST 2009

2009-01-12T00:32:00.000-08:00

And the snow fun continued all weekend!

Saturday was a late-night trip to Fred Meyer for cheap sleds with Sarah, Ian, Jenny, and Chris who just got back in town and then lots of spills and thrills at the Home Depot Memorial Sledding Hill. Wish I had pictures to share!

Then early this afternoon there was nordic (or cross-country, if you prefer) skiing out on Mendenhall Lake. Adrienne, Alicia, Ian, and Sarah came along for this trip. So crazy to be skiing where I had been kayaking just a few months before!

This evening Kirsa, Alicia, Sarah and I crashed Josh Jones and Dave's joint-birthday at the downtown Bullwinkle's. It was a nice way to wind down after a weekend of playing in the snow.

Fri Jan 9 17:15:39 AKST 2009

2009-01-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

Missed out on work today to go to Eaglecrest with Alicia. The Ptarmigan Chair was closed for maintenance (too much snow?) but I did most of the lower mountain. Alicia joined me for some Sourdough and Sneaky action and then we went to warm up and she took one of the afternoon lessons.

Ever wondered what the best feeling in the world is? I did until today.

Listening to Belle and Sebastian while taking perfect, beautiful runs down Hilary's and Ego.

Thu Jan 8 13:30:25 AKST 2009

2009-01-08T12:59:00.001-08:00

Happiness is getting good diner food after midnight.

Here are a few of the things I saw Josh Jones eat in San Francisco.

"The Moon Doggie" with fries and a strawberry shake at Lori's Diner.

Baked prosciutto-wrapped mozzarella, bruschetta, and crab cake appetizer at Zingari.

And this delicious soup that I don't remember at Zazil.

Sat Dec 27 03:08:50 AKST 2008

2008-12-27T02:29:00.000-08:00

PDX was a crazy Sitka reunion. I'll have to backblog about that later.

Sixteen thousand geoscientists in the heart of San Francisco. I spent a good portion of my week in San Francisco at the Moscone Center North and West buildings. Which has been the host of the AGU fall meeting for several years now. The poster room, shown in panorama, was swapped out on a daily basis. There were also lectures, booths, and movies to attend.

I stayed with and housesat for my friend Ai in San Francisco. She lives on the edge of Golden Gate Park, which we walked through on my second day in the city.

The park was great. Not far from Ai's house I saw a bison, a windmill, a dolphin, and a cave. No exaggeration. Incidentally, there is also a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Nick and I snuck away from the conference during the middle of the week to check out more of the city. We took a trolley down to the piers and walked around. Saw Alcatraz from the wharf. Too cold to swim.

On our walk back downtown from Fisherman's Wharf we went up the hill to Coit Tower. Bay Bridge during sunset from the tower.

We also went out to some fancy restaurants. I'll have to write a separate blog about things that Josh Jones ate.

Later in the week I got some sort of cold/flu hybrid. It did a very good job at keeping me tired but I was determined to spend my second-to-last day well. I went to the MoMA for a few hours. Great exhibit by Martin Puryear. Saw these kids sleeping on a bench.

I stopped by The Independent on my way back to Ai's to catch The Duke Spirit and Mercury Rev.

On Friday morning I got up at about 6 am, took the bus downtown, and presented my poster.

The title says it all (most):

The Geophysical Institute Magnetometer Array:
Making Real-Time Geophysical Measurements Available for Operational Space Weather Needs

Then I headed to Seattle.

I actually spent most of my time just south of Bremerton. I rode the ferry across Puget Sound and managed to get snowed away from the airport when it was time to head back north. As luck would have it my flight had been canceled along with about 40 others due to SeaTac Icefest 2008.

Once I finally made it to the airport on Sunday evening I had to wait 8 hours in this rebooking line with thousands of other customers to see one of about five airline agents.

Airport personal handed out bottles of water to those waiting in line. Later in the night they handed out fashion blankets and pillows to the thousands sleeping in the terminal.

There was a family that gave away about a hundred McDonald's hamburgers. They wouldn't take any money from anyone.

Slept in the airport that night. Very narrowly and luckily made it to Kodiak by midday Monday.

Favorite part of Christmas? Staying up late on Christmas Eve.

Thu Dec 4 22:43:28 AKST 2008

2008-12-04T22:49:00.000-08:00

Not to be confused with Wicked Wanda (a little spider with Hollywood inside her). But my interweb has captured some fine content recently.

And by the way, PLEASE check out ALL Les Concerts A Emporter, noting especially remarkable performances by The Arcade Fire, Beirut, and Fleet Foxes.

It started when I dropped by Tiny Mix Tapes (a site where I am no longer considered a regular after discovering a way to come up with my own taste). Oh, but I do enjoy their music reviews! This one in particular is a reason to be excited about life and living:

Beirut To Release New Balkan Folk French Mexican Synth Pop Double EP In February

Scouting around for some good aurora photographs to borrow from NASA for my AGU poster, I found this medieval depiction of upper atmospheric collision:

The cover says it all, but let me say it as well, with a roll of the drum and a roll of the dice:

For those interested in the printed word, I just finished a compelling book about life Inside Iraq's Green Zone during the reign of the CPA.