These buggers in the Middle East creep me out! Don't click on the link if you're afraid of spiders.

I had an awesome field trip this weekend, looking at ore deposits around Bagdad with Don Burt. I put all my rocks on the table this morning, and I can't wait to have show and tell tonight.

Last night I had one of those nights. There's always one data stack that just goes horribly wrong, and since all my data collection had been going so smoothly so far, I new the smack down was coming. A stack usually takes 6-7 hours to collect, and between finding carbon in my sample, setting up the stack, and beam downtime during reinjection of the x-ray ring, I usually only get to run two stacks a day (morning and night). However, I've been finding carbon quickly, so I've been able to run three stacks per day, which is totally awesome. However, yesterday when I was starting my midday stack, I estimated that I'd be here until 12-1AM. That was acceptable, I guess. It was 5PM, and my stack would finish at around 11:30PM. Then I could set up the overnight stack. I stayed for the 7PM reinjection. During this, the beam is turned off, but the computer nows that somehow and pauses the stack, then restarts it once the beam is on again. However, there is always a little sample drift, so I stuck around to make sure what I was looking at didn't drift off the screen. It didn't, so I went to eat dinner and take a nap. During my nap, a small thunderstorm came up, and during one lightning strike, the lights in the room flickered. "Oh shit!" I thought. A power surge like that at the synchrotron can really fuck things up. The electrons that create the x-ray beams are flying around in a tightly controlled circle, and if the current changes even a little in the bending magnets, electrons fly everywhere and the beam "dumps". Not to mention sensitive equipment that could get fried. Luckily, only the beam dumped, but they didn't get it back and operational for 2 hours, which now meant I'd be up until 3AM. Well, fine! Fuck! Whatever. I get the stack started again and go out in the lobby to take a nap. But then...only after all that...the server computer, the one controlling the microscope, crashes! And it happened just after I went to take a nap! So I was fucking sleeping, and wasting my own fucking time, while the microscope was frozen. Of course by now its after 1:30AM, so I couldn't call anyone to fix this for me, and I did something I wouldn't normally recommend doing...I started clicking things. Actually, I only clicked on the program that crashed and hoped that fixed everything. It seemed to work. I had to focus the microscope and set up the stack again, which took until 2:30AM. I decided to forget about trying to run a third stack. Fortunately, this stack ran to completion and finished about 4AM, when I was comfortably dreaming in bed.

I just gave a talk here at the lab; the "lunchtime seminar". I was coerced by this guy in the administration office. He wouldn't let up until I said yes. I was nervous as hell, especially since I wasn't prepared at all. I used my old LPSC talk from March and just winged it. It didn't turn out too bad. I got to talk more about background and basic geology (what is a chert?) and didn't have to worry about offending anybody with my opinions. Plus I got free lunch and a hat!

So here's the long version of my NYC trip:

Brookhaven Labs is near the Shirley-Mastic station of the Long Island Rail Road, but there aren't any trains between 8AM and 1PM, so I had to drive 10 miles down the highway to Patchogue (pronounced "patch-ig"). From there I rode an express bus to Babylon station because they were doing maintenance on the track. If I had known, I would have just driven down to Babylon, which is only about 30 more miles down the road. At Babylon, I finally got on a train to Penn Station in downtown Manhattan.

My first stop was to take the subway down to Ground Zero. It was pretty intense staring at the huge concrete hole in the ground where the World Trade Center once stood. And it's hard not to tear up in St. Paul's chapel across the street. The have preserved inside some of the memorabilia people left at the site those first few weeks, like pictures of missing loved ones and firefighter patches.

Since I was downtown, I decided to walk down Wall Street. It was narrow and pretty boring; just a bunch of stuffy banks.

By now it was 1PM, so I decided I had time to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's by Central Park, so it was a long subway ride. The museum is a few blocks away from the subway station, so I got to walk past Park Avenue highrises and ladies walking their stupid fluffy dogs. The Met was pretty cool, and frickin' huge. There are so many cool things there, but I limited myself to European Painting, American Painting, and some Modern Art. I walked past a lot of old furniture, which is something you don't see much in art museums. They have a bunch of Picassos (who I still don't get), and I was really impressed with the Rembrandts and Vermeers. I wish there were more people today who could paint like that. There was a Matisse exhibition, but I didn't go 'cause I don't care about him. One the roof they had a special installation by Sol LeWitt that is supposed to be a modern take on the New York skyline. I heard one stupid high school girl say "You know what would be cool? Take a picture of that with this in front." That being the skyline, and this being the artist's skyline. And I'm thinking "duh!"

By the time I was finished with the tiny part of the Met I allowed myself to peruse, it was time to head over to the East Village and the Giant Robot store. Then I ate at a local dumplings place. They had the best, freshest, veggie dumplings I've ever had. I recommend that anyone over in that part of the city definitely try this place.

After dinner, it was time to start heading back to Penn Station. It's relatively close to Times Square, so I decided to swing by there instead and walk to Penn Station. Let me tell you, Times Square is fucking intense, with all those neon lights and video screens staring you down. It's worse than Las Vegas because it's basically one big enclosed area rather than a long strip. There I saw MTV studios, and people from Comedy Central were out trying to get an audience for a new show they're taping. Alas, I didn't have the time!

Back in Penn Station, it was a little confusing to figure out which train to take out of there, unlike coming into the city where there's only one train on one track. But I got it and headed out to Babylon. When we arrived, the conductor called it the end of the line, I went down to find the bus to take me back to Patchogue, but there weren't any busses. Then I realized that I must transfer to the other train at the station, but when I got back up to the platform it was just pulling away. So I had to wait an hour for the next transfer to come by. That pretty much sucked. I got back to the lab at about 11PM. It was a pretty full day.

For anyone interested in costs:
One way from Patchogue to Penn Station (off peak) = $9.50
One way from Penn Station to Patchogue (peak) = $13.00
One day "fun pass" for the subway = $7.00
Student admission to the Met = $7.00

I'm in Brookhaven Labs once again. I scheduled myself an extra day, however, so today I'm going into New York City. Too bad I forgot my camera again. I definitely want to check out the World Trade Center site and the Giant Robot store, but I haven't figured what else I want to do. We'll see when I get there. Getting there will be an adventure, since I have to take the train into the city, then transfer to the subway. But of course there is train maintenance, so I think I might be rerouted by express bus (I'm not sure yet). Also, I have to drive a few towns over to Patchogue to catch a late morning train during the week.