Back Home from the Synchrotron

I'm lucky to be back home now. There was a blizzard warning yesterday. There was heavy snowfall when I went to the Saskatoon airport and the temperature was -20 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 with wind chill)! But I guess it cleared up enough in the afternoon to take off. I'm taking the day off today to try and catch up on sleep and food. Working long night shifts really takes it's toll after a while.

Saskatoon, Here I Come!

So I'm here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and it's really cold. Not as cold as Regina, but still really freakin' cold. After finishing safety training and getting badged at the Canadian Light Source, it was only 3pm, so I decided to walk into downtown and get some late lunch/early dinner with Dominic (he flew up with me to help me share the beamtime). We found a nice Japanese restaurant, but even though they had their lunch specials out, lunch was over so we had to order a full dinner. The miso was so-so, but my katsu don was pretty good. Then Dominic headed to his hotel and I headed back across the river to the seminary dorm where I'm staying. Since I had to walk through the University of Saskatchewan campus to get there, I decided to explore a bit. I found the student union by accident and walked around inside, and discovered that there are secret tunnels and bridges everywhere on campus. Students can go from their dorms to the student union, to the dining halls, to the library, and to class without even going outside in the cold! Then I went to the geology department and walked around looking at their mineral displays. They had some pretty outstanding fluorite and calcite. They also had giant replica dinosaur skeletons in the foyer, too. By then it was getting late, so I came back here to the seminary. I'm going to go peruse the student paper and then go to sleep.

Three Days of Bitter Cold

I hope everybody had a nice three-day weekend. For us it was too cold to do anything. Kelly and I mostly just stayed inside and watched TV. We did have grand plans to go see There Will Be Blood and the Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery, but like I said, it was way to cold for us. However, we did finish the third season of Deadwood. It really sucks that HBO canceled the series after the third season because they were in the middle of a story arc, so there are a lot of unanswered questions now. I hear there are talks of making two 90 minute episodes to finish the storyline, but who knows if that will ever really happen.

In other news, I did manage to brave the cold for a quick eye exam. As I expected, I do need glasses, and I have to special order them because the perscription is too strong for LensCrafters to make them in house. We'll see how they work out in a couple weeks.

The Amazon.com mp3 music store just got more awesomer. Warner agreed to allow them to sell their music DRM-free, so now old Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins, and Radiohead albums (among others) are available for purchase as high quality mp3s with no restrictions. The last of the four big music conglomerates, Sony, is also considering selling DRM-free tracks through Amazon.com. Take that, iTunes!

LPSC abstract

I've been stressing out the past few work days collecting last minute data and writing my abstract for LPSC. Unlike most conference abstracts, this one is two pages of 10pt font with data and figures, so you can't really bullshit it. But I finshed a draft yesterday evening and now I'm waiting for edits from my co-authors.

I also wanted to mention that I had to replace the garbage disposal in my house this past weekend. It just sorta quit on us. But I bought a new one and installed it with few problems (except for the when I cut the dishwasher drain hose too short and had to buy another length of hose). It seems like something breaks for goes wrong every month in this house. It is pretty old, though; built in the '50s.

Best of 2007 - Prologue

Now that it's January and 2007 is over, it's time to start compiling my Best of 2007 music CD. Unfortunately, this year will probably only fill a single CD because there weren't very many good releases. There are some gems, which will make it onto the CD, but there were also too many disappointments. Just look at any music critics Best of list for 2007, and you'll most likely find Rilo Kiley's Under the Blacklight. This is NOT a good CD, and has disappointed a large portion of Rilo Kiley's fanbase (including me). But it's better than most music dreck, and because there wasn't a whole lot better, it has made many best of 2007 lists.

Anyway, my real point here is to make a few honorable mentions that won't be on my Best of CD for various reasons. The National came out with a great album last year, but none of the songs really got to me. So although it won't be on my tracklist, it's worth checking out. Also, The Smashing Pumpkins got the band back together and released a CD. I didn't really like any of the songs I heard on the radio, so I didn't buy it, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good songs hidden on the CD. I just haven't had a chance to hear them yet. They're a talented band, so I can't just dismiss them without giving the CD a listen.

Back to Work

The new year has begun, so it's time to get back to work. I know I have a ton of stuff to get done. I hope everybody's holiday celebrations went well. Kelly and I just had a nice, relaxing, low key Christmas and New Years. We watched a bunch of Deadwood and Sopranos episodes. Like Beth said, I think the first season of Deadwood is great, but season two is not as good (so far).