Several things happened last week of note.
Monday was the first day back after Thanksgiving break. And somehow with three problem sets and a presentation in the same week, I'd never been so behind on work. For Thanksgiving I had traveled to Maryland (where my mom now lives due to work) to spend the holiday with the family (Mom, Dad, Aunt, Uncle, Cousin -- in other words, all my relatives that are currently in this country). And considering Thanksgiving is usually just the three of us in a big empty house, the commotion was a welcome change and a nice bend toward normalcy for a family like mine. Unfortunately all this came at the cost of 2 full days of travel. Wednesday was 13 hours including traffic by bus, just me and my suitcase, standing in the cold and chaos of Penn Station, wondering just where I would stay the night in case all the busses ran out of room, Saturday night coming back was 10 hours by car, just me and my dad, 1 phantom of the opera soundtrack, 1 Beatles album, and a trunk loaded up with winter clothes and all manners of sustenance for the finals and final weeks ahead. Mostly junk food.
Monday night, I learned a new word: syzygy -- or the alignment of three celestial bodies in orbit. I was deep in the discussions of Rune financial matters when I received an email from my boyfriend telling me to look up.
The moon, jupiter, and venus in a right triangle. Over Kresge.
I hope you got to see this, it's a pretty incredible sight. It was bizarre like seeing two suns or something. I hear the next one isn't happening for another 20 or 30 years.
We climbed up onto a tree.
To see
The coming together of things.
Then Tuesday at 1pm I persuaded my Rhetoric class with facts and figures and a sleek black powerpoint presentation that the LHC isn't going to kill us all. So everybody should just relax. (The link is to my final transcript - complete with cues for gestures and slide changes and all - along w/ the accompanying presentation). And that would be the last assignment for Rhetoric this semester.
Also, that night I attended a physics faculty dinner hosted by the Undergraduate Women in Physics this time with Professor Rajagopal who had lots of advice for the wandering undergrads including, "apply to grad school, even if you're not sure you're going to go right away" (oops), we ate at The Asgard Pub on Mass Ave. I had delicious salmon which I then heated up and ate for left overs the next night.
Then Wednesday was a big day because after all the waiting, all the head scratching, all of the components for our new CCD testbed has finally arrived and the electronics were hooked up and configured and the new linux computer polished up and ready for action. It's hard to describe the kind of relief this brings me. Not only from being relieved of having to work on a 10+ year old sun machine running what appears to be the first version of linux ever, but even being able to do any work at all. Also, we have a totally sweet new 3-axis mount for our star plate for simulating spacecraft jitter. For real. And it came together, finally.
So Wednesday I went to check out our new lab bling, and ran some basic functionality tests on the lens/CCD/computer communications, that is to say, I took emo picture of myself through a hole in a piece of aluminum foil covering the lens which made for actually a pretty good pin hole camera.
This CCD is much bigger than the old one. You actually are seeing the inside edges of the lens here.
So much fun.
With Friday came final projects showcases in dance class. I'll post videos (maybe) when they come out depending on how they came out. I don't think they came out all that well. The space was too small for taping. But we'll see. Anyhow, it went very well, I think. And in the approaching syzygy of classes, that class is now over, too.
Confirmed: 2 down. 2 to go.
Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)
Posted by: Monkey King on December 9, 2008
Posted by: lulu on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Shady Robyn on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Edward on December 9, 2008
Thanks lulu. Good luck on finals! =]
Posted by: Edward on December 9, 2008
Posted by: 0 on December 9, 2008
Posted by: 0 on December 9, 2008
Posted by: LHC on December 9, 2008
Also, the Asgard is not Irish. I have tried to convince the MIT community of this since October. It's one of my firmest beliefs.
Love the night photos!
Posted by: Yan on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Ahmed on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Suril on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Banerjee on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Banerjee on December 9, 2008
Haha, FAILURE...thanks for correcting me! For some reason, I thought I had seen people call it the Z-center.
Posted by: Edward on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Daniel on December 9, 2008
thank you .
Posted by: jian yong guo on December 9, 2008
My powerpoint doesn't open in powerpoint? agh! Have you tried downloading it first and then opening it? That is unfortunately the only version I have. I made it in open office, and it worked on the professor's XP laptop. And that is all I know. :(
OK I've converted it into a PDF and although you don't get to click through it now and have fun unexpected things pop up, you should be able to see it.
Posted by: lulu on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Nicole '10 on December 9, 2008
Posted by: hcs on December 9, 2008
Coincidentally, we spent about a third of the class studying a piece performed by the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The title? "Syzygy."
I couldn't make these things up if I tried. ^_^
Posted by: Keri on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Bobbi on December 9, 2008
Posted by: 0 on December 9, 2008
Wonderful those Moon pictures. Over here in Mauritius, they formed a smiley
Posted by: aMIT on December 9, 2008
Posted by: Oasis '11 on December 9, 2008
Posted by: hamsi on December 9, 2008
Technically, don't the y's quantify as vowels in the word syzygy?
Posted by: Liz on December 9, 2008
Posted by: 0 on December 9, 2008
Posted by: 0 on December 9, 2008
Posted by: 0 on December 9, 2008
I think so too. When I was a kid learning the alphabet, my response to the "what are the five vowels" question was always "A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y." (No, I couldn't just take the hint from the "five" and give the expected answer.)
My poor teachers.
Posted by: Niki on December 10, 2008
Posted by: Generic Bob on December 10, 2008
Posted by: LHC on December 12, 2008
Posted by: lulu on December 16, 2008
Posted by: Cathy on December 17, 2008
Add a comment