greg3d

GeoWoodstock VIII

I rather enjoyed GeoWoodstock, though probably not enough to travel across country for another one. I learned somethings and have to research some others. I am still not clear on the concept of Geocoins and travel bugs. I'm also not sure if higher price means higher sensitivity on a gps. There certainly are bells and whistles on the things. I have to read some reviews.

I spent the whle day there, arriving at 10:30 and staying till 4:30, thoough I was delayed by not being able to find my car. kind of forgot what parking lot it was in. I bought a very small nanocache which should be fun to place, and I won a medium sized lock and lock with logbook in the raffle. Now I need to find places to hide them.

I still have a fair amount of daylight. I think I will go out and find another cache.

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out and about

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A night at the opera

There was much discussion last night about the Marx Brothers movie.

Aside from that, it was nice to catch up with Barbara. It's been over two years since I had seen her. Nice to know she's moving nearby.

I don't know what it is about modern opera. There are few I have seen that I think will stand the test of time. Most of them I think will seem dated pretty quickly. Florencia in the Amazon was one that seems to me to be timeless and could be appreciated a century from now.

Amelia I'm still thinking about.. The music was powerful, but with no melodies you would remember after it was over. It had a cast of good singing actors. I liked the nonlinear first act. That had, to me, a timeless quality. The second act seemed firmly planted in the present, but that could just have been the staging and the set. The hospital scenes were too chaotic with too many people running around. I think if it had been more stylized it would have worked better. I could have done without the defibrillator. one thing that struck me was that it seemed very well put together. The last premier I saw was Dr. Atomic, and it's first run could have used some cuts. Some scenes were overlong. This one had no extraneous material. It flowed very well. It was quite moving.

This weekend went by too fast with not enough time at home. I had to leave fairly early for dinner and opera yesterday and today I spent all day in a workshop that I think could have been shorter. I think they should do one for new sponsors and a shorter refresher for those of us that have been doing this a while.

I would probably not be so cranky if this had been one of my three day weekends with a bit more down time.

out and about

Pre-opera audioblog. To tired for a post opera review.

kind of like old times

I was going to take Scott up to Sea-Tac so he could catch the link to go stay with friends, so I thought I would look up what movies were playing in the vicinity. I found two rare old movies playing at the Grand Illusion up in Seattle: Lord Love A Duck and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. Duck was just weird, a 1960's black comedy and Dr. Goldfoot was totally silly. Arthur and I used to do this kind of thing all the time. It was fun, but not quite the same without him. Still, I would like to get back into the Seattle film circuit.

The week in review

The lab is coming together. We should be fully operational soon. I'm getting used to my cubicle and it's getting easier to concentrate. The Tuesday night meeting was back to normal after a week with no teens. Wednesday was just an evening at home if I remember corectly.

Thursday I made the trip up to Seattle for the Symphony. I also met my dear friend Rabih for dinner. Barry was also supposed to be there, but he was indisposed. We had a nice dinner and a had a chance to catch up with things. It's been several years since we've all been together and I've missed them. The concert was quite good. The concerto was the old warhorse Rachmaninoff Concerto #2. They did a bang up job of it. Just as well it was the symphony, because my left lens dropped out of my frame just as I was going into the theater. I was in the second tier and could not see a thing. Fortunately I had a repair kit in my bag so i was able to fix them during intermission. The last piece was by John Adams. Parts of it I liked very much, but parts of it were minimalist nonsense and were quite annoying. I have to say though, it was a very difficult piece, but the Seattle Symphony was up for it. They did an amazing job and I have never seen them work so hard.

Yesterday I puttered outside a bit. Got some Tagro and set up my raised bed for tomatos. In the afternoon, Scott and I drove up to Port Orchard and did a fairly easy cache. The unique thing about it was that it was just up the road from the Manchester Lab where I spent 16 years.

Today I finished the raised bed. I've been catching up with laundry and woeking on picking up the house. Scott is off doing program stuff so I have the house to myself. Housework and opera go well together.

a bit closer to routine

Things are starting to come together here at Urban Waters.
Tom just stopped and asked my if Braden had passed by and I realized I am
getting to where I can tune out what is going on around me. It was very distracting
for a long time. I am right outside the staircase, so there is a lot of traffic
going past my cubicle. We have also had the ceiling lights on which are quite
bright. Today we found that by leaving the ceiling lights off and overriding
the automatic shades, the light is a lot more pleasant, and it’s easier
to concentrate.
 
The mass specs seem to be all operational. Extractions will
take a bit more work since all the tubing on the extraction equipment needs to
be replaced to accommodate the chilled water system. The pressure is higher
than it was at the old lab and the old hoses blew off when they were hooked up.
 
I’m settled in my cubicle and am finding it quite
comfortable and very convenient.
 
I think life in general is showing signs of settling down.

Hmmm, the evening did not turn out as I planned. I planned to go to my meeting tonight, which i have not been to in over a month. After dinner I stll had an hour before I needed to be there, so I decided I would take a little cat nap. Four hours later, I'm up again at the time I usually go to bed. This week just kicked my butt. I can not remember the last time I was this tired. Still, things seem to be going fairly well. The instruments have been put together and have been turned on. Whether they are operational remains to be seen. We were seeing some interfering gasses, which may take a while to bleed out of the lines. Not surprising. Most of the day was spent chasing down leaks in the helium lines. The rest of the day was spent arranging for the few things that got broken to be fixed. The building is very long and a trip to the bathroom is a hike. I will get my exercise...

organized chaos

The movers are here as I type and they are moving fast. This
trailer should be clear in no time. I’m behind my desk staying out of
their way. Yelena, Mushtaque and Leonora are at Urban Waters waiting to receive
the instruments and direct placement. We’ll see how long it takes to
unload at CUW. They might get this done in two days.
 

16 and counting

The moving crates showed up today along with the biggest
rolls of bubble wrap I’ve ever seen. The building was featured in a front
page article of the Tacoma News Tribune. We are moving with quite a bit of
fanfare. The University of Washington is getting most of the publicity, we barely
get mentioned. Maybe it’s just as well.