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The week that was...
May. 25th, 2013 02:02 pmAs is usual, it seems, I find myself sitting down at the computer on the weekend with far too much stuff to do around the house and for my homework, but at least not needing to be anywhere else, and thus stealing time from myself to post here. Monday was a holiday here in the great wilds of Canuckistan (where we have not had a spring, but the weather engine seems intent on flipping the switch back and forth between winter and summer with nothing in between... we've had days where it was unbearable even in t-shirts and shorts, and others, like today, where it's in the low single digits of temperature with strong and gusting winds), but I spent it sleeping for the most part, and working on my physics lab writeup otherwise. Tuesday, it was back into the physics lab where I got to play with radioisotopes and beta decay spectroscopy (the week before it was superconductors... less counting, a lot more liquid nitrogen... thus much more entertaining, heh).
Wednesday was my radio show, which was a lot of fun. I am still working with Lilith, as she learns the ropes of being a radio host (she's running the show now and is nearing starting up her own show – a feminist half-hour radio show with news, interviews, and music – which I'm really excited about), and it's definitely more fun to do radio with more than one person in the studio (again, if you don't know, my show is Wednesdays from 10AM to 11AM Eastern timezone on CKCU, 93.1FM in Ottawa and area, streaming live at www.ckcufm.com, and also available 24/7 "on demand" for a few months after the show airs: http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/371/info.html). After the show, I helped Lilith work on the show "demo" she needed to submit before her show is fully approved for the airwaves. Originally, it was just going to be to help her to edit the theme for her show because she hadn't used a digital audio workstation before (her theme is snippets from the Squirrel Nut Zippers song "Put A Lid On It"), but once that was done, I suggested she do a "once through" of a whole show (she had a script ready, so why not). So... heh... she interviewed me and when it was done, I suggested she just go ahead and submit what she had just done (a "one take demo") since I thought it went pretty well. It showcased her challenges (which are few) and her strengths (which are many) and was exactly right for something like a demo. FYI, the purpose of the demo is mostly to demonstrate one's ability to put together a full-length show live, with all its warts and barnacles, just to demonstrate that the prospective host is capable of doing such a thing (the person evaluating her saw she was working the sound board for my show and made appropriate noises of approval earlier... always good to be seen learning and doing stuff). After the show, it was a quick sandwich and then back into the physics lab. I don't even remember what I did that night, but I think it involved sleeping pretty much as soon as I got home again ;).
Thursday, it was 9AM to 2:30PM working on preparing the remaining CRIPT detector cradle for shipment to the Chalk River nuclear facility. This involved muscling a 200kg (~500lb.) detector frame onto a set of carrier rails so it could be picked up by a forklift, rolling the frame onto the cradle, securing it in place with a wheel lock for transport, securing all three frames to the cradle with nylon straps to prevent them from bouncing during shipping, putting several layers of bubble wrap on the top layer (minus several bubbles... pop! pop!... heh) for thermal insulation if it turns out to be sunny the day it ships (the whole thing will be under a tarp on a flatbed truck), and then wrapping the whole thing (about 3m x 3m x 1.7m tall) in plastic wrap (over in both directions and then around and around 'til you get dizzy). The only things left to do next week (needed to wait for dry weather) is to put some primer on exposed surfaces of the steel infrastructure that comprised the lower portion of the CRIPT tower (the upper portion and the first cradle had already shipped successfully), and stuff a bunch of those metal pot scrubber pads (the curly ones) into any holes in the steel tower parts to keep small animals out of it while it's being stored (before it's assembled on the other end). The 14 tons of the iron spectrometer and supports will also be disassembled next week (I am not participating, it's all forklifts and professional heavy steel workers... it's the yellow part at the bottom only that is left to take apart), and that will be that project wrapped up at Carleton (although I might get to do some data analysis, we shall see, but that will be on a volunteer basis). From there it was to the physics lecture for three hours :P. Friday was dealing with kid issues (my younger daughter is very 17 these days... ugh... my aging process is accelerating again), doing some errands, was phone interviewed by The Charlatan about the CRIPT project, and then the 3PM meeting I went into Carleton for was postponed until next week. More errands, pizza and beer for dinner with a friend, and then home to sleep (after some homemade-from-scratch lemon marguerita... well, I didn't make the tequila, but...). I slept in quite late today, did some dishes, ate a huge bowl of Lucky Charms and a pot of espresso for breakfast (man, I'm too old for that shit, I was a jittery mess, heh), and then more dishes and the Intertubes (and this post).
Funny enough, today I spent quite a long time (relatively speaking) looking for a DVD copy of a movie I really want... only to find that it's utterly unavailable in any non-pirated manner. Specifically, I'm looking for the movie "Mind Game" by director Masaaki Yuasa (who went on to do "Tekkonkinkreet" [the link leads to an unofficial clip that I think captures the movie's essence better than any trailer or description I've read]). I did find two instances of "Mind Game" used, but the cheapest one is $130US... so no. Sorry. It is available online and I will use one of those sources (I do try to support artists work I appreciate, but if I can't, well... not much I can do other than share it with others). I'm also going to pick up a few more books and movies of dubious social merit (from the likes of Carlton Mellick, III and his nutty peers and in the genre of Pink Eiga... which, of the few productions I have seen, have actually surprised me at their quality, stories, acting, sometimes cinematography (wtf? yup), and humour). In the shorter term, I plan to go see the Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame) film "Sound City" at the Mayfair Monday, May 27th, at 9:30PM (after my feminism class on Monday), and if all goes well, the less socially redeeming movie "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain" also at the Mayfair, on Friday, May 31st, at 11:15PM, heh. It depends how I feel for that last one because I am helping my sister-in-law and niece move Saturday morning and am planning to go to a house cooling party (I'm guessing that if someone is celebrating having sold a place, that it's the opposite of a "house warming party", heh) Saturday night [my friend DC finally sold her place that I helped a bit to renovate two summers back, so there is definitely reason to celebrate].
I leave you, then, with this mindfucking clip from the movie "Mind Game", where the protagonist meets "god" after he dies and is ultimately sent back to finish what he should have finished before dying (well, being killed apparently, but...). I love this clip because it implies that the form and/or will of such a "god" would be incomprehensible to us.
Wednesday was my radio show, which was a lot of fun. I am still working with Lilith, as she learns the ropes of being a radio host (she's running the show now and is nearing starting up her own show – a feminist half-hour radio show with news, interviews, and music – which I'm really excited about), and it's definitely more fun to do radio with more than one person in the studio (again, if you don't know, my show is Wednesdays from 10AM to 11AM Eastern timezone on CKCU, 93.1FM in Ottawa and area, streaming live at www.ckcufm.com, and also available 24/7 "on demand" for a few months after the show airs: http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/371/info.html). After the show, I helped Lilith work on the show "demo" she needed to submit before her show is fully approved for the airwaves. Originally, it was just going to be to help her to edit the theme for her show because she hadn't used a digital audio workstation before (her theme is snippets from the Squirrel Nut Zippers song "Put A Lid On It"), but once that was done, I suggested she do a "once through" of a whole show (she had a script ready, so why not). So... heh... she interviewed me and when it was done, I suggested she just go ahead and submit what she had just done (a "one take demo") since I thought it went pretty well. It showcased her challenges (which are few) and her strengths (which are many) and was exactly right for something like a demo. FYI, the purpose of the demo is mostly to demonstrate one's ability to put together a full-length show live, with all its warts and barnacles, just to demonstrate that the prospective host is capable of doing such a thing (the person evaluating her saw she was working the sound board for my show and made appropriate noises of approval earlier... always good to be seen learning and doing stuff). After the show, it was a quick sandwich and then back into the physics lab. I don't even remember what I did that night, but I think it involved sleeping pretty much as soon as I got home again ;).
Thursday, it was 9AM to 2:30PM working on preparing the remaining CRIPT detector cradle for shipment to the Chalk River nuclear facility. This involved muscling a 200kg (~500lb.) detector frame onto a set of carrier rails so it could be picked up by a forklift, rolling the frame onto the cradle, securing it in place with a wheel lock for transport, securing all three frames to the cradle with nylon straps to prevent them from bouncing during shipping, putting several layers of bubble wrap on the top layer (minus several bubbles... pop! pop!... heh) for thermal insulation if it turns out to be sunny the day it ships (the whole thing will be under a tarp on a flatbed truck), and then wrapping the whole thing (about 3m x 3m x 1.7m tall) in plastic wrap (over in both directions and then around and around 'til you get dizzy). The only things left to do next week (needed to wait for dry weather) is to put some primer on exposed surfaces of the steel infrastructure that comprised the lower portion of the CRIPT tower (the upper portion and the first cradle had already shipped successfully), and stuff a bunch of those metal pot scrubber pads (the curly ones) into any holes in the steel tower parts to keep small animals out of it while it's being stored (before it's assembled on the other end). The 14 tons of the iron spectrometer and supports will also be disassembled next week (I am not participating, it's all forklifts and professional heavy steel workers... it's the yellow part at the bottom only that is left to take apart), and that will be that project wrapped up at Carleton (although I might get to do some data analysis, we shall see, but that will be on a volunteer basis). From there it was to the physics lecture for three hours :P. Friday was dealing with kid issues (my younger daughter is very 17 these days... ugh... my aging process is accelerating again), doing some errands, was phone interviewed by The Charlatan about the CRIPT project, and then the 3PM meeting I went into Carleton for was postponed until next week. More errands, pizza and beer for dinner with a friend, and then home to sleep (after some homemade-from-scratch lemon marguerita... well, I didn't make the tequila, but...). I slept in quite late today, did some dishes, ate a huge bowl of Lucky Charms and a pot of espresso for breakfast (man, I'm too old for that shit, I was a jittery mess, heh), and then more dishes and the Intertubes (and this post).
Funny enough, today I spent quite a long time (relatively speaking) looking for a DVD copy of a movie I really want... only to find that it's utterly unavailable in any non-pirated manner. Specifically, I'm looking for the movie "Mind Game" by director Masaaki Yuasa (who went on to do "Tekkonkinkreet" [the link leads to an unofficial clip that I think captures the movie's essence better than any trailer or description I've read]). I did find two instances of "Mind Game" used, but the cheapest one is $130US... so no. Sorry. It is available online and I will use one of those sources (I do try to support artists work I appreciate, but if I can't, well... not much I can do other than share it with others). I'm also going to pick up a few more books and movies of dubious social merit (from the likes of Carlton Mellick, III and his nutty peers and in the genre of Pink Eiga... which, of the few productions I have seen, have actually surprised me at their quality, stories, acting, sometimes cinematography (wtf? yup), and humour). In the shorter term, I plan to go see the Dave Grohl (of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame) film "Sound City" at the Mayfair Monday, May 27th, at 9:30PM (after my feminism class on Monday), and if all goes well, the less socially redeeming movie "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain" also at the Mayfair, on Friday, May 31st, at 11:15PM, heh. It depends how I feel for that last one because I am helping my sister-in-law and niece move Saturday morning and am planning to go to a house cooling party (I'm guessing that if someone is celebrating having sold a place, that it's the opposite of a "house warming party", heh) Saturday night [my friend DC finally sold her place that I helped a bit to renovate two summers back, so there is definitely reason to celebrate].
I leave you, then, with this mindfucking clip from the movie "Mind Game", where the protagonist meets "god" after he dies and is ultimately sent back to finish what he should have finished before dying (well, being killed apparently, but...). I love this clip because it implies that the form and/or will of such a "god" would be incomprehensible to us.
