Saturday, February 27, 2010
A Whole New Curl
Like many Americans, I have enjoyed watching this year's Winter Olympics on television. Unlike many of my high school friends, I never participated in any winter sports. The nearest I came was sledding, unless one counts a few tentative forays into the world of pickup street hockey. Neither ice skating nor skiing really appealed to me, and so I never took it upon myself to pay close attention to the Winter Olympics beyond anything but the most superficial level.
This year, however, the Olympics have provided a welcome respite from the stress of my dissertation, and I have reveled in the four or five hours of coverage that NBC provides each night. Even as I despise the constant shilling for post-Olympic programming (Anyone care to place bets on the lifespan of The Marriage Ref? How about Minute to Win It?), I have really enjoyed watching short track skating, the four-man bobsled competition, and, of course, hockey.
One sport I have not had a chance to watch is curling. I have long wondered about how this much-maligned frozen cousin of shuffleboard is played, but since matches have been consigned to CNBC I have missed out on all the rock sliding excitement.
After doing a little digging, however, I discovered that the local curling club was holding an open house to coincide with the Olympics and for a small donation, people like me could get out on the ice and see what this strange game is all about. So, this morning I woke up early and drove out to the curling club...only to discover that I should have woken up a lot earlier. There was a huge line. I ended up waiting for two full hours before actually going inside the curling club.
This would not have been so bad, had it not been for the very gregarious, but rather eccentric gentleman who got in line behind me. He was the kind of person who always went out of his way to introduce himself and then expound at length about various aspects of his personal philosophy. Some memorable excerpts (paraphrased):
-"Some people are saying that the earthquake [in Chile] was the result of global warming, but that's stupid. I don't believe in global warming. I think it's a coverup."
-"Jesus is like a train. If you follow the tracks, he can only take you in one direction."
-During a discussion of where future Olympics would be held: "What makes you think we'll be around after 2012? What makes you think you're going to be here tomorrow?"
Also, as if that weren't strange enough, for some reason,he also wanted to know the middle names of people around him.
If that sounds odd, you can imagine stretching it out over the course of two hours. Needless to say, I was quite glad to finally get inside and have a chance to get on the ice. The club had only two sheets (playing surfaces), so they brought us out in batches of 10 at a time. Because it was relatively late by the time we started, my group received only the most cursory training in how to position one's gripper against the hack, balance on my slider foot, and release the rock before crossing the hog line. I confess, that I lost my balance after the first throw, confirming yet again my lack of natural athletic prowess. (Frustratingly, my chatty line companion who, it turns out, was a long time hockey player, seemed to be a natural. Such is life.) But I had a lot of fun until after three throws I was told my time was up and was escorted back off the ice. I never even got to sweep!
Although the return on my time investment was relatively minimal, I still think it would be a lot of fun to try again. Maybe next year, I'll sign up early and take a few lessons. Until then, there are plenty of curling clips on Youtube and elsewhere. Stay frosty!
(3) comments
Like many Americans, I have enjoyed watching this year's Winter Olympics on television. Unlike many of my high school friends, I never participated in any winter sports. The nearest I came was sledding, unless one counts a few tentative forays into the world of pickup street hockey. Neither ice skating nor skiing really appealed to me, and so I never took it upon myself to pay close attention to the Winter Olympics beyond anything but the most superficial level.
This year, however, the Olympics have provided a welcome respite from the stress of my dissertation, and I have reveled in the four or five hours of coverage that NBC provides each night. Even as I despise the constant shilling for post-Olympic programming (Anyone care to place bets on the lifespan of The Marriage Ref? How about Minute to Win It?), I have really enjoyed watching short track skating, the four-man bobsled competition, and, of course, hockey.
One sport I have not had a chance to watch is curling. I have long wondered about how this much-maligned frozen cousin of shuffleboard is played, but since matches have been consigned to CNBC I have missed out on all the rock sliding excitement.
After doing a little digging, however, I discovered that the local curling club was holding an open house to coincide with the Olympics and for a small donation, people like me could get out on the ice and see what this strange game is all about. So, this morning I woke up early and drove out to the curling club...only to discover that I should have woken up a lot earlier. There was a huge line. I ended up waiting for two full hours before actually going inside the curling club.
This would not have been so bad, had it not been for the very gregarious, but rather eccentric gentleman who got in line behind me. He was the kind of person who always went out of his way to introduce himself and then expound at length about various aspects of his personal philosophy. Some memorable excerpts (paraphrased):
-"Some people are saying that the earthquake [in Chile] was the result of global warming, but that's stupid. I don't believe in global warming. I think it's a coverup."
-"Jesus is like a train. If you follow the tracks, he can only take you in one direction."
-During a discussion of where future Olympics would be held: "What makes you think we'll be around after 2012? What makes you think you're going to be here tomorrow?"
Also, as if that weren't strange enough, for some reason,he also wanted to know the middle names of people around him.
If that sounds odd, you can imagine stretching it out over the course of two hours. Needless to say, I was quite glad to finally get inside and have a chance to get on the ice. The club had only two sheets (playing surfaces), so they brought us out in batches of 10 at a time. Because it was relatively late by the time we started, my group received only the most cursory training in how to position one's gripper against the hack, balance on my slider foot, and release the rock before crossing the hog line. I confess, that I lost my balance after the first throw, confirming yet again my lack of natural athletic prowess. (Frustratingly, my chatty line companion who, it turns out, was a long time hockey player, seemed to be a natural. Such is life.) But I had a lot of fun until after three throws I was told my time was up and was escorted back off the ice. I never even got to sweep!
Although the return on my time investment was relatively minimal, I still think it would be a lot of fun to try again. Maybe next year, I'll sign up early and take a few lessons. Until then, there are plenty of curling clips on Youtube and elsewhere. Stay frosty!
Monday, February 22, 2010
A Man of Few(er) Words
Today, I traveled up to Old Ivy for my graduate program's weekly works in progress seminar. Normally, I don't attend, but this time around it was my turn on the chopping block. I submitted the chapter draft I completed last November in hopes of getting good feedback from my friends and colleagues.
In contrast to previous occasions, this one went relatively well. Granted, half the department didn't show up. Seriously, one side of the room was completely empty. I'm beginning to wonder if the emphasis on 20th century technology makes people uncomfortable. (A talk I gave as part of my graduate fellowship also had surprisingly low attendance.) But the people who did show up actually read the paper and gave polite and almost entirely supportive feedback.
Nevertheless, despite its objective success, it was a subjective...failure? No, too strong a word. Let's go for disappointment. Because although my colleagues had many good suggestions, I left the room thinking three things:
1. I have no idea where my work fits into the broader historiography...not just the literature around my specific topic, but of Cold War science, industrial research, or innovation as a whole.
2. Structurally, there seems to be no way to write about two simultaneous scientific investigations in an elegant fashion. (i.e. without resorting to a "Meanwhile down the hall in Lab B..." transition.)
3. Next time I need to make sure my chapter doesn't exceed 50 pages.
Yes, despite my best efforts, this chapter was 61 pages long (not including images).
The chapter draft I'm currently working on is 58 pages, and shows signs of going on at least another 6 or 7 more.
This is not padding. I am not deliberately trying to write long papers. But the story I'm trying to tell is complicated and I worry about leaving out details.
Unfortunately, the choice may not be mine anymore. Rumor is that the department is going to impose a 300 page limit on dissertations, partly as a courtesy to outside readers and partly to facilitate the transition from manuscript to published book.
So now, my adviser wants chapters to be 45 pages or less. This is a reasonable request, but a frustrating one all the same. I'll shorten the two chapters I've been working on...somehow. And I'll do my best to be more concise in the future.
Sadly, the past isn't always simple. Maybe when I'm a better historian, I'll be able to make events conform to these kinds of external writing requirements.
(0) comments
Today, I traveled up to Old Ivy for my graduate program's weekly works in progress seminar. Normally, I don't attend, but this time around it was my turn on the chopping block. I submitted the chapter draft I completed last November in hopes of getting good feedback from my friends and colleagues.
In contrast to previous occasions, this one went relatively well. Granted, half the department didn't show up. Seriously, one side of the room was completely empty. I'm beginning to wonder if the emphasis on 20th century technology makes people uncomfortable. (A talk I gave as part of my graduate fellowship also had surprisingly low attendance.) But the people who did show up actually read the paper and gave polite and almost entirely supportive feedback.
Nevertheless, despite its objective success, it was a subjective...failure? No, too strong a word. Let's go for disappointment. Because although my colleagues had many good suggestions, I left the room thinking three things:
1. I have no idea where my work fits into the broader historiography...not just the literature around my specific topic, but of Cold War science, industrial research, or innovation as a whole.
2. Structurally, there seems to be no way to write about two simultaneous scientific investigations in an elegant fashion. (i.e. without resorting to a "Meanwhile down the hall in Lab B..." transition.)
3. Next time I need to make sure my chapter doesn't exceed 50 pages.
Yes, despite my best efforts, this chapter was 61 pages long (not including images).
The chapter draft I'm currently working on is 58 pages, and shows signs of going on at least another 6 or 7 more.
This is not padding. I am not deliberately trying to write long papers. But the story I'm trying to tell is complicated and I worry about leaving out details.
Unfortunately, the choice may not be mine anymore. Rumor is that the department is going to impose a 300 page limit on dissertations, partly as a courtesy to outside readers and partly to facilitate the transition from manuscript to published book.
So now, my adviser wants chapters to be 45 pages or less. This is a reasonable request, but a frustrating one all the same. I'll shorten the two chapters I've been working on...somehow. And I'll do my best to be more concise in the future.
Sadly, the past isn't always simple. Maybe when I'm a better historian, I'll be able to make events conform to these kinds of external writing requirements.
Friday, February 12, 2010
A View of the Snowpocalypse
View from my window.
Saturday, February 6, 2010.
The first snowstorm of the Snowpocalypse.
More images forthcoming.
(0) comments
View from my window.
Saturday, February 6, 2010.
The first snowstorm of the Snowpocalypse.
More images forthcoming.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Snowpocalypse II, Snow Harder
The skies have opened up again and snow has begun to fall upon deserted streets that never had the chance to recover from their last wrestling match with Jack Frost. According to the evening news, in some places around the city the precipitation rate has reached 3 inches an hour and although there may be a lull sometime in the next few hours, things won't be said and done until approximately 10 PM tomorrow night. This is the Big One, the record breaker, pushing the city's snowfall totals to the highest levels they've ever reached in the century or so they've kept records of such things. Personally, I'm glad that I'm here to witness the excitement. After all, if I were still living up near Old Ivy or in the Invisible Suburb, I wouldn't be able to walk to the grocery store or to the movies. I wouldn't get a chance to see the eerie beauty of a crowded metropolis frozen into silence.
Along with every municipal building and public school, my office is closed tomorrow. Originally I was not planning to go into work on my dissertation, because I had jury duty, but the courts are also affected and I would feel bad if I didn't take the opportunity to try to get some work done. So tomorrow morning I will be braving the elements and the 50 mph winds to hike over to the office and try to finish writing about flat panel display research during the 1960s. This plan assumes, of course, that there will be electricity in the building. Should the power go out, I'm going to head home to do some reading...assuming there is electricity here, of course!
And then Thursday, it's another day. Most likely I will end up having to head into court for my jury duty, but who knows? With a storm this serious, there may be another postponement in my future.
Keep thinking warm thoughts, and I'll keep you updated. Whoever you are...
(0) comments
The skies have opened up again and snow has begun to fall upon deserted streets that never had the chance to recover from their last wrestling match with Jack Frost. According to the evening news, in some places around the city the precipitation rate has reached 3 inches an hour and although there may be a lull sometime in the next few hours, things won't be said and done until approximately 10 PM tomorrow night. This is the Big One, the record breaker, pushing the city's snowfall totals to the highest levels they've ever reached in the century or so they've kept records of such things. Personally, I'm glad that I'm here to witness the excitement. After all, if I were still living up near Old Ivy or in the Invisible Suburb, I wouldn't be able to walk to the grocery store or to the movies. I wouldn't get a chance to see the eerie beauty of a crowded metropolis frozen into silence.
Along with every municipal building and public school, my office is closed tomorrow. Originally I was not planning to go into work on my dissertation, because I had jury duty, but the courts are also affected and I would feel bad if I didn't take the opportunity to try to get some work done. So tomorrow morning I will be braving the elements and the 50 mph winds to hike over to the office and try to finish writing about flat panel display research during the 1960s. This plan assumes, of course, that there will be electricity in the building. Should the power go out, I'm going to head home to do some reading...assuming there is electricity here, of course!
And then Thursday, it's another day. Most likely I will end up having to head into court for my jury duty, but who knows? With a storm this serious, there may be another postponement in my future.
Keep thinking warm thoughts, and I'll keep you updated. Whoever you are...
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Snowpocalypse? Wow!
Apparently they're calling it the Snowpocalypse here in the blogosphere, so who am I to disagree? Based on the view out my window this morning, the term certainly seems appropriate. The snow began last night around 6 PM, just in time for the game night a few of my friends were hosting in the northern part of town. As one of the few guests with a car, I volunteered to be the designated driver because one can never tell how well the regional rail will cope with inclement conditions, even if those conditions consist of nothing more than a little bit of freezing rain.
As my friends and I ate dinner (a chicken pozole) and played Apples to Apples, the snow steadily accumulated so that there were probably two or three inches on the ground by the time we left. At that point, it was still relatively dry, powdery stuff, just wet enough to make a good snowball but not so heavy as to make cleaning off the car an ordeal. Granted, driving home on the highway was a bit of an adventure as other drivers were so eager to get home or so nervous about the apparent lack of friction on the roads to let people merge from the onramp. But eventually, everyone got home safely and I was able to place my car back in its customary spot behind my apartment.
This afternoon I can barely see my car, despite the fact that it had been cleaned off rather thoroughly just a few hours ago. The news reports that more than 17 inches had fallen by 7 AM this morning with approximately 6 more inches to fall during the rest of the day. They also note that this is the first time since 1884 that the city has had two snowstorms of similar size in the same winter, which I'm sure will please the critics of global warming. It's currently #6 on the list of total accumulation, but the winter is still going strong so I expect it to rise slightly higher before all is said and done. Rumor is there may even be a snow storm on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would be interesting since I'm currently scheduled to show up midweek for jury duty. We'll see how swiftly the wheels of justice turn when there's snow on the ground...
Anyhow, given the wind, the cold, and the snow accumulation, I'm tempted to spend the day at home doing some work. Not paper-writing per se, but reading, brainstorming, that sort of thing. I also wanted to clean up in case I decide to have people over for the Superbowl. (Oddly I'm one of the few in my circle with an actual TV. Perhaps this reflects the growing trend one sees discussed in the news of people moving away from traditional cable or broadcast networks in favor of receiving entertainment content through computers. I wonder when this will become the norm...Will television in the future be a fundamentally different type of device? Is the antenna jack going to disappear entirely in favor of the ethernet or fiber optic cable? What is to stop the computer from being integrated into the monitor itself in a larger version of the recently announced iPad?) Sorry about that parenthetical...I've been thinking a lot about displays lately due to my dissertation. Perhaps at some point, I'll discuss the parallels I see between the rise of color broadcasting in the 1950s and the push toward 3-D television today. (There are more than you might expect.)
For now though, I'm going to get moving. Just because I'm snowbound along with half the people in the region doesn't mean there isn't a lot that needs to get done.
Stay warm out there, ladies and gentlemen. Wherever you are.
(0) comments
Apparently they're calling it the Snowpocalypse here in the blogosphere, so who am I to disagree? Based on the view out my window this morning, the term certainly seems appropriate. The snow began last night around 6 PM, just in time for the game night a few of my friends were hosting in the northern part of town. As one of the few guests with a car, I volunteered to be the designated driver because one can never tell how well the regional rail will cope with inclement conditions, even if those conditions consist of nothing more than a little bit of freezing rain.
As my friends and I ate dinner (a chicken pozole) and played Apples to Apples, the snow steadily accumulated so that there were probably two or three inches on the ground by the time we left. At that point, it was still relatively dry, powdery stuff, just wet enough to make a good snowball but not so heavy as to make cleaning off the car an ordeal. Granted, driving home on the highway was a bit of an adventure as other drivers were so eager to get home or so nervous about the apparent lack of friction on the roads to let people merge from the onramp. But eventually, everyone got home safely and I was able to place my car back in its customary spot behind my apartment.
This afternoon I can barely see my car, despite the fact that it had been cleaned off rather thoroughly just a few hours ago. The news reports that more than 17 inches had fallen by 7 AM this morning with approximately 6 more inches to fall during the rest of the day. They also note that this is the first time since 1884 that the city has had two snowstorms of similar size in the same winter, which I'm sure will please the critics of global warming. It's currently #6 on the list of total accumulation, but the winter is still going strong so I expect it to rise slightly higher before all is said and done. Rumor is there may even be a snow storm on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would be interesting since I'm currently scheduled to show up midweek for jury duty. We'll see how swiftly the wheels of justice turn when there's snow on the ground...
Anyhow, given the wind, the cold, and the snow accumulation, I'm tempted to spend the day at home doing some work. Not paper-writing per se, but reading, brainstorming, that sort of thing. I also wanted to clean up in case I decide to have people over for the Superbowl. (Oddly I'm one of the few in my circle with an actual TV. Perhaps this reflects the growing trend one sees discussed in the news of people moving away from traditional cable or broadcast networks in favor of receiving entertainment content through computers. I wonder when this will become the norm...Will television in the future be a fundamentally different type of device? Is the antenna jack going to disappear entirely in favor of the ethernet or fiber optic cable? What is to stop the computer from being integrated into the monitor itself in a larger version of the recently announced iPad?) Sorry about that parenthetical...I've been thinking a lot about displays lately due to my dissertation. Perhaps at some point, I'll discuss the parallels I see between the rise of color broadcasting in the 1950s and the push toward 3-D television today. (There are more than you might expect.)
For now though, I'm going to get moving. Just because I'm snowbound along with half the people in the region doesn't mean there isn't a lot that needs to get done.
Stay warm out there, ladies and gentlemen. Wherever you are.
