I went off on holiday and fell well behind on my duties. Haven’t gotten much better upon my return, but I’ll use the excuse that this was the final week of classes. Ah, excuses. Continue reading ‘Project 22 - 21 -29 November 2007′
Archive for November, 2007
We have officially passed Thanksgiving and entered the time of the year where I make myself absolutely sick to death of The Nutcracker. Current plans are to put my tree up Saturday, give the roommate’s cat 24 hours to see how he reacts, and then decorate on Sunday. This will likely be accompanied by friends, music, wassail, and nostalgia.
Last Friday before we were to fly out to Salt Lake City for our conference, Stephanie and I made a trip to the Ithaca Mall for last minute business shopping and some hair cuts. I got a good six or seven inches taken off and finally got rid of the remnants of that last horrible haircut where the man took a “texturizer” (a.k.a. hack-saw) to my locks. I’m much happier now.
Saturday marked the first time that I’ve ever been in NYC. Unfortunately, that stay consisted of sitting in a terminal of JFK for hours. As we took off for Salt Lake City, I attempted a few shots of greater New York City at night. It was rather amazing to see how the exact contours of the land were lit.
The first day of the conference was pretty brutal for me, having arrived in Salt Lake City at the equivalent of 1 A.M. in my normal time zone. I was up early with a miserable headache and too little sleep, but I showed up in style and forced myself through plenty of talks. That evening there was a big reception during which they held a “fire show” outside. Basically, there was a ring of industrial size fans around (I assume) a jet of flammable gas and these two fellows with flamethrowers creating towering pillars of fiery vortices. The physicists loved it.
On Monday, after having made it through the terror known as My First Conference Presentation, I took a walk down to the Mormon’s Temple Square for a few photos. Later that morning, a bunch of us walked back that way to go to lunch at a lovely restaurant (The Garden, which I recommend) on the tenth floor of a nearby skyscraper. From there, I took this panorama of the western portion of the city, complete with mountains, the Mormon Tabernacle (silver elliptical building), and the Salt Lake Temple (guess).
What is Utah known for? If you answered “Mormons,” you’re right. But what else? The correct answer is, of course, dinosaurs. Knowing this, I convinced Stephanie that on the last day of the conference, we should venture across the city to the Utah Museum of Natural History after we were finished with sessions we needed to attend. We scouted out the appropriate bus route, hiked up to the museum, and spent a few hours enjoying prehistoric animals. I had way too much fun taking photos, which will undoubtedly make their way into the gallery soon. In this particular shot, we can see two allosauruses going to town on a camptosaurus. In the background, one can see the plates of a stegosaurus that’s obviously trying to get away as nonchalantly as possible, because, who wouldn’t?
This entry is brought to you by the free wireless access generously provided by the Syracuse airport. I’m off to the much-mentioned conference in Salt Lake City, and thence to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. I expect Internet availability at both destinations–the real question will be how much time I have to spend with my laptop. In any case, I thought it worth mentioning.
Hopefully this next week will have some more interesting photos, including some that don’t involve macro zoom. 
Tonight we had our second annual MAE women’s dinner, where we officially decided that we’d like to have more regular events–perhaps a regular seminar as well as informal monthly lunches. Yay! I tried taking several shots as the evening was winding down, but most people suffer from over self-consciousness when near the camera, and this was the closest I managed to get to a candid shot. It also happened to be a shot of a couple of women I know from the weekly fluid dynamics seminar. Imagine that.
As I was rushing around trying to find everyone I was supposed to be driving to this event, I discovered a marching band playing in Duffield. (They played “You Can Call Me Al”!) I tried to get a couple of pictures of them, but the lighting was poor, so the shutter speeds dropped and everything came out blurry. But it was incredibly loud and exhilarating, and I just couldn’t keep from grinning like a madwoman. I have got to go to some athletic events where the marching/pep band plays. It’s unbelievable what a good mood I’m instantly transported into as soon as I hear them.
Yesterday’s adventure was helping Joe jump his car, since I’d never participated in such a venture previously. Before we could jump it, actually, we had to push his car out of its parking space, which was pretty difficult on wet gravel and leaves against an incline. Thankfully, a friendly bicyclist stopped on his way up the hill and helped us get it moving. It turned out that people on the street were much more helpful than the people at the local branch of an auto parts store, where we discovered that the best way to get service is to arrive and then call them on the phone. They’ll leave you standing in the store for ages, but they jump to catch the phone every single time.
Having missed an opportunity to see Skynet, Cornell’s DARPA Urban Challenge vehicle, up close and personal today due to my optics lab, I decided upon returning at the end of the afternoon, that I was entitled to some quality photography time. So I grabbed my camera and headed off across campus. I got a lot of lovely photos, so many, in fact, that I had a hard time settling on this photo of McGraw Tower at sunset as today’s photo. But, in the end, it’s hard to pass up a photo of Cornell’s most prominent symbol silhouetted against a violet sky.
For Klose, the butterscotch cookies post-baking:
This is where I admit with shame that this photo wasn’t actually taken on the 12th, but I really don’t like the photo that was taken that day, and cookies are more fun, so here we are. To be fair, the cookies were a large part of how I got through the afternoon, what with 4 hours of optics and all.
My evening was spent trying to cut a 21 minute presentation into a 10 minute one. We still haven’t quite achieved that one, unfortunately, even with the vodka and pomegranate juice I resorted to at 10.
This photo update’s unofficial theme should either be food or macro. Or possibly both.
My chocolate cravings in recent weeks have been sated with dark chocolate M&Ms, but I am down to the last of my supply, shown here. Thankfully, I bought some Mounds bars at the store yesterday.
On the 6th, I decided to be brave when I got home from work, so I tried to throw together a casserole using my leftovers and bits of things I had here and there in the kitchen. This was the result. It incorporated chicken, wild rice, cream of mushroom soup, cornbread stuffing, an apple, and other such yummy things. I was pretty pleased with the result, though I did feel that it would benefit from a blast from a spice weasel.
This is one of my toys that I wish I had more time to play with. I’ve decided that it just might be necessary to take it to North Carolina with me this Christmas when I have no research to distract me from the fun.
Part of my corner of the kitchen, including my much-loved spice carousel (just like my mom’s). It should be clear that many of these photos are getting taken at the end of the day, when I have food on my mind…
This is actually the edging along my bedside lamp. On Friday (when this photo was taken), I had a craving for Indian food, which is one food ethnicity with which I don’t have much experience. Joe, on the other hand, loves Indian food. So I didn’t have to try very hard to convince him to go out for some. What does this have to do with my lamp? Well, it’s supposed to be Indian; in fact, the base is an elephant, which explains why my mother bought it for me. (Also in the background of this shot: my contact lens cleaner, the shadow of a photo of Deatheaters, and part of my autographed Frames poster.)
The cobblestones of Court Street where I usually wait for the bus in the mornings.
We’ve reached the time of year where I start craving all the treats that we always had around the holidays when I was a kid. Most of yesterday was spent suffering in PowerPoint, and, at the end of the day, I needed a pick-me-up. So I made up some rolls of my family’s butterscotch cookie dough, headed up to Joe’s place, and baked cookies. This photo actually shows a batch getting ready to go into the oven. If you’re interested in the recipe, I’ve posted it at Starving Students.
For my friends who may be curious about how the WGA strike may affect the final season of Battlestar Galactica: Ron Moore on the strike.
Also, no mentioning Season 3 spoilers around me. My boyfriend might smite you.
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