I'm in Melbourne at the moment helping some guys from Scion (ex Forestry Research NZ) with some x-ray scattering experiments. It's a brief visit: by this time tomorrow I'll be on a plane heading back home. The experiments have gone really well. The initial plan was loosely founded on some experiments I did at Stanford earlier in the year, where each scan was taking about 10 minutes to run.
At this, brand new, undulator beamline, each scan is taking 1-2 seconds. Very cool.
As a result, we have a lot more time than we were expecting, so have been able to try some more things. Like watching the wood dry, in situ. It's in a different league to watching paint dry though (which we did on a visit to SPring-8 in Japan in July 2007).
It's been a pretty cruisy time, because the three beamline scientists have been here nearly all of the time, since they are still commissioning the beamline and finding (and fixing) problems with it. So I haven't really needed to do very much...
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Travelling again
A couple of weeks ago, you may recall I was in a bit of a dilemma over the Lake Taupo cycle challenge and whether I would be able to survive 160 km on a bike. Well, it turns out I don't have to - shortly afterward I received an email from some collaborators, whom I'd offered to help with synchrotron experiments in Australia, to say that we're going to Melbourne from 25-28 November. Which means I wouldn't be able to get to Taupo in time for the 29th.
So now those dates are booked - in addition to the 1-6 December for the Synchrotron users' meeting which had been arranged a couple of months ago. Yes, it might have made more sense to stay over for those couple of days in between, but it's two separate groups paying for the two trips. So I just let it roll. Besides, it means I don't miss a Sunday kids' Christmas practise...
Already I have some concrete plans for 2009: 14-28 Jan at Stanford and then 8-12 Feb in Dunedin for a conference, followed by hosting a visitor who's coming over from the US. We'll take a few days to head up north and do the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Should be fun!
We'll be expecting views like this
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Following in whose footsteps?
I was invited to attend the Royal Society of New Zealand's Science Awards Dinner last night. It was quite a pleasant evening, but one thing really stuck in my mind. Since I'm already late for work at the time of writing this I will try to keep it short and sweet.
The theme for the evening was Ernest Rutherford; it being 100 years virtually to the day since he was notified of his Nobel Prize success. Most of the speeches had something to do with him and there was even a guy in costume who 'recounted' stories of 'his time at the Cavendish laboratory'.
One of the presentations was a screening of the winning entry in the secondary schools' science DVD competition, and a short speech by three of the students who won. The theme this year was evolution, Charles Darwin, and the Origin of the Species (it being 150 years since it was published). The prize for the students was to travel to the UK and have a tour around Darwin's birthplace, university, etc., to, quote, "follow in his footsteps".
As they told us all about their trip, one mentioned how Darwin was a 'controversial figure who changed the world'. And I thought, well, perhaps, but he was still only a man. Did they have a realisation of futility when they visited his grave? There were also a few awards presented to people working in the field of evolution (be it computational, educational, biology). As sung by Dave Dobbyn I think, do they realise evolution is just "religion for scientists"? (It can't be proven nor disproven - one has to have a measure of faith to believe that all the complexity in the world around us arose from random processes. Personally, I find it much easier to simply believe that God created everything in six literal 24-hour days.)
Anyway, as I reflected on all of this, I knew there was only one person whose footsteps would be worth following in. And I've been there. I've been to His hometown, to where He started His ministry, where He was crucified, and I've seen His tomb. It's empty.
The theme for the evening was Ernest Rutherford; it being 100 years virtually to the day since he was notified of his Nobel Prize success. Most of the speeches had something to do with him and there was even a guy in costume who 'recounted' stories of 'his time at the Cavendish laboratory'.
One of the presentations was a screening of the winning entry in the secondary schools' science DVD competition, and a short speech by three of the students who won. The theme this year was evolution, Charles Darwin, and the Origin of the Species (it being 150 years since it was published). The prize for the students was to travel to the UK and have a tour around Darwin's birthplace, university, etc., to, quote, "follow in his footsteps".
As they told us all about their trip, one mentioned how Darwin was a 'controversial figure who changed the world'. And I thought, well, perhaps, but he was still only a man. Did they have a realisation of futility when they visited his grave? There were also a few awards presented to people working in the field of evolution (be it computational, educational, biology). As sung by Dave Dobbyn I think, do they realise evolution is just "religion for scientists"? (It can't be proven nor disproven - one has to have a measure of faith to believe that all the complexity in the world around us arose from random processes. Personally, I find it much easier to simply believe that God created everything in six literal 24-hour days.)
Anyway, as I reflected on all of this, I knew there was only one person whose footsteps would be worth following in. And I've been there. I've been to His hometown, to where He started His ministry, where He was crucified, and I've seen His tomb. It's empty.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Cycling and the Christmas production
Two major things that have been going on at the moment for me have been preparing for the annual Lake Taupo cycle challenge (160 km solo or relay) and the church kids' Christmas production.
First off, the cycling: I signed up thinking 4 x 40 = 160 km, 40 km is not too bad (that's 25 miles for my US readers). A bunch of people are going up for the challenge (not a 'race'... the goal being to make it to the finish line) and stay at somebody's bach for the night. So it sounded quite fun. Then it turned out that everybody else was planning on doing the whole thing, so there was no relay team. So if I want to do it, it's 160 km or nothing. Or I could start and not finish, but what's the point in that?
I was given somebody's phone number who was apparently looking for another team member, but by the time I got hold of him he'd already found somebody else. So now it's back to square one.
Thinking back to when I did the 50-mile walk with air cadets (which is probably not that good an idea, seeing as it was about ten years ago), I survived that (just) with next to no preparation. Those 50 miles (80 km) took us 24 hours to walk: we started at 9 pm one night and finished at 8 pm the following night. Yes indeed, crazy. So is a 160 km bike ride in the same league?
Anyway the last couple of weekends I've been determined to try. Last weekend (long weekend because of Labour Day public holiday) I clocked up 43 km going up to Harcourt Park and back. A bit sore the following day, but otherwise fine.
Today I went to Harcourt Park and back. Twice. A total of 82 km, which took me just under 4 hours. And boy am I suffering now. It's mildly reminiscent of an event that happened in London: I had a soccer game in the morning, then had to bike half an hour to university where there was a badminton tournament, after that I still had to bike half an hour home. I had to default the last game of the tournament because I did not feel good at all, and was fully expecting to have to find a drain to chunder into on the way home. But I managed to make it back in one piece, at which point everything just gave way. In between lying on the bed and crawling to the bathroom (even after I got to the dry retching stage, I thought I'd better play it safe), I have never felt so far out of (chemical) balance and just wanting to die, not being able to imagine how things could ever get better or be normal again. And once things did get better, a couple of days later, I vowed never to let myself get into that state EVER again.
Anyway today is not quite that bad, but I do have a bad headache and can imagine it's because my brain is drying out like an old sponge. Ugh. And if that's "only" 80 km, how am I going to be able to do double that, in one day? Crazy, crazy indeed.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On a brighter note (and one that doesn't involve retching) the kids' Christmas play seems to be going pretty well. We've had two weeks' worth of rehearsals (40 minutes each time) and have learnt the songs and next week should be able to finish learning the dance moves. I printed off a pile of scripts for all the kids, and then left it at home. Ah well - next week will be plenty of time.
Another amusing thing for this week: I got my power bill. Last month they did an estimate and this month an actual reading, so because my power usage varies wildly depending on how much I use the heat pump system, the bill for this month was a cute $5.19. I'm wondering whether to frame it and hang it on the wall.
I've also started to make some progress on the DVD of the Kenya trip (slideshows of everyone's photos, set to music, and I'll throw in a lot of the video clips that I took just to make things a bit more interesting). When we were there I said to everyone I'd aim at having it done by Christmas - thinking it would be finished much sooner - but it could be tight even to have it done by then. It's been quite difficult to find suitable music. I wanted to use some Swahili gospel music, so it's a good message even though they won't understand it, but it's very hard to find any. YouTube and imeem saved the day though.
First off, the cycling: I signed up thinking 4 x 40 = 160 km, 40 km is not too bad (that's 25 miles for my US readers). A bunch of people are going up for the challenge (not a 'race'... the goal being to make it to the finish line) and stay at somebody's bach for the night. So it sounded quite fun. Then it turned out that everybody else was planning on doing the whole thing, so there was no relay team. So if I want to do it, it's 160 km or nothing. Or I could start and not finish, but what's the point in that?
I was given somebody's phone number who was apparently looking for another team member, but by the time I got hold of him he'd already found somebody else. So now it's back to square one.
Thinking back to when I did the 50-mile walk with air cadets (which is probably not that good an idea, seeing as it was about ten years ago), I survived that (just) with next to no preparation. Those 50 miles (80 km) took us 24 hours to walk: we started at 9 pm one night and finished at 8 pm the following night. Yes indeed, crazy. So is a 160 km bike ride in the same league?
Anyway the last couple of weekends I've been determined to try. Last weekend (long weekend because of Labour Day public holiday) I clocked up 43 km going up to Harcourt Park and back. A bit sore the following day, but otherwise fine.
Today I went to Harcourt Park and back. Twice. A total of 82 km, which took me just under 4 hours. And boy am I suffering now. It's mildly reminiscent of an event that happened in London: I had a soccer game in the morning, then had to bike half an hour to university where there was a badminton tournament, after that I still had to bike half an hour home. I had to default the last game of the tournament because I did not feel good at all, and was fully expecting to have to find a drain to chunder into on the way home. But I managed to make it back in one piece, at which point everything just gave way. In between lying on the bed and crawling to the bathroom (even after I got to the dry retching stage, I thought I'd better play it safe), I have never felt so far out of (chemical) balance and just wanting to die, not being able to imagine how things could ever get better or be normal again. And once things did get better, a couple of days later, I vowed never to let myself get into that state EVER again.
Anyway today is not quite that bad, but I do have a bad headache and can imagine it's because my brain is drying out like an old sponge. Ugh. And if that's "only" 80 km, how am I going to be able to do double that, in one day? Crazy, crazy indeed.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On a brighter note (and one that doesn't involve retching) the kids' Christmas play seems to be going pretty well. We've had two weeks' worth of rehearsals (40 minutes each time) and have learnt the songs and next week should be able to finish learning the dance moves. I printed off a pile of scripts for all the kids, and then left it at home. Ah well - next week will be plenty of time.
Another amusing thing for this week: I got my power bill. Last month they did an estimate and this month an actual reading, so because my power usage varies wildly depending on how much I use the heat pump system, the bill for this month was a cute $5.19. I'm wondering whether to frame it and hang it on the wall.
I've also started to make some progress on the DVD of the Kenya trip (slideshows of everyone's photos, set to music, and I'll throw in a lot of the video clips that I took just to make things a bit more interesting). When we were there I said to everyone I'd aim at having it done by Christmas - thinking it would be finished much sooner - but it could be tight even to have it done by then. It's been quite difficult to find suitable music. I wanted to use some Swahili gospel music, so it's a good message even though they won't understand it, but it's very hard to find any. YouTube and imeem saved the day though.
Monday, October 20, 2008
School reunion
Over the weekend Chilton had its 90th birthday/jubilee. Now for those who know me - and you don't even have to know me that well - it won't come as a surprise to know that I was a loner at school, so it wasn't exactly a fun time full of good memories. So when I left my house to head down for the cocktail party on Friday night, I had a rather strange sensation of nervousness that came over me and didn't really go until I saw people I recognised, started talking and realised that after 11 years, people don't really change, but they do.
It's not an exaggeration to say I had no friends at school. Being brainy and a Christian made me an easy target. There was a rumour about me that started in form 2 that took until form 7 before somebody had the decency to ask me if it was true or not. In 6th form, I gave up on trying to fit in in the common room after only a couple of weeks (loud music and people 'borrowing' my homework) - much to the chagrin of the principal, who rang up my parents to ask why I was weird - and relocated myself to the library, where I was allowed to use the office as a locker room. In 7th form I guess people did settle down and start treating each other a bit more civilly - perhaps the responsibility of being on the school council helped with that. I had odd times for study periods so didn't have to compete in the common room so much.
But all that almost washed away like a bad dream at the weekend, as I caught up with people I haven't seen for ages, some of whom I got on with ok at school and others, well, not so ok - but everyone seemed happy to swap stories and hear what everyone else had been doing. It seems there's an unusually high proportion who have become teachers, most of them are married or nearly so, and a few have kids. Most have travelled and/or spent some time overseas.
School days are quite a tender time in a person's life. It's a time when character is developed, attitudes founded about how far you'll compromise just to fit in with the crowd, interests are piqued and self-discipline fostered. For me, being an outcast only made me the more independent. I never really cared what other people thought of me - this is the way I am. In those respects I haven't changed. But I have changed in areas of trying to relate to others; I hope I have become more patient and able to restrain myself from saying hurtful things.
So has my time at school shaped me, or would I have always turned out this way? I don't think it's possible to say. Certainly my faith is the foundation of who I am, and I sure didn't get that from school.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Update, and the election
The last few weeks have been pretty uneventful, hence the lack of posting. I helped out as emcee at Al's birthday party and was coming down with a cold already, so I don't think having to raise my voice helped that any. It's now almost two weeks later and I still have a cough.
Other than that I've been pottering around the house, following the rugby (Wellington is on a roll this year, having won the Ranfurly Shield earlier and on track to the finals - hope they don't choke like last year), trying to do a bit of bike riding in the lead up to the Lake Taupo cycle challenge, and spending way too much time on facebook. Oh, and for a challenge of a different sort I've tried to start learning Dvorak. Although I do run into trouble sometimes and accidentally hit the shortcut to switch keyboards, carry on typing in qwerty and get something like orm.ydcbi nct. ydcov
The election: well, I can't wait until it's over. It's pretty obvious who's going to win.
Now you're wondering if I'm referring to the US or the NZ election... does it matter? Except one of them I can do something about, and one I can't.
Other than that I've been pottering around the house, following the rugby (Wellington is on a roll this year, having won the Ranfurly Shield earlier and on track to the finals - hope they don't choke like last year), trying to do a bit of bike riding in the lead up to the Lake Taupo cycle challenge, and spending way too much time on facebook. Oh, and for a challenge of a different sort I've tried to start learning Dvorak. Although I do run into trouble sometimes and accidentally hit the shortcut to switch keyboards, carry on typing in qwerty and get something like orm.ydcbi nct. ydcov
The election: well, I can't wait until it's over. It's pretty obvious who's going to win.
Now you're wondering if I'm referring to the US or the NZ election... does it matter? Except one of them I can do something about, and one I can't.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The CKC prize night... that wasn't
Well this week at CKC it was the end of term, which mean it was time for PRIZES!! The kids earn points every week for coming, doing their homework, knowing the memory verse from the week before, winning games etc. We have three prize levels: 50 points - chocolate bar, 100 points - eligible to come to a pizza/games night at my house, 150 points - I'll take them to the movies/zoo/10-pin bowling/science museum/etc. of their choice.
When we had the same system before at KBC, the pizza/games night was the highlight of the term for all the kids. There, the 150-point prize was also an aeroplane ride with me, and we had kids get to over 150 and insist that they couldn't ever miss coming to the games night, so they'd wait until they had 230 so they could do both (games night was 80 points in those days).
I'm not sure what it is - different kind of kids, I guess - but 5 of them had enough points to come to the games night and none of them wanted to.
I don't feel rejected (well, I do kind of) but I'm just wondering what to do, whether to persist with it or come up with a different prize. However, I don't want to get physical prizes because then they just end up with loads of 'stuff'; things they can eat or things they can do I think are better. Also there's the $$ to consider, knowing that the value kids place on things and their monetary value are often quite different.
Maybe playing games is not 'fun' enough for them - these are kids whom I've heard say, 'the school holidays are boring unless we go overseas'... must be terrible to be so hard-up. Back in my day going to McDonalds was a big treat, and you wore your best clothes to go to the movies. Can anybody else relate??
= = = = = = = = = =
In the meantime I had to laugh at this:
(The original, for my non-kiwi readers:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo )
Pulp Sport parody:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=vVj-EnGNiic
When we had the same system before at KBC, the pizza/games night was the highlight of the term for all the kids. There, the 150-point prize was also an aeroplane ride with me, and we had kids get to over 150 and insist that they couldn't ever miss coming to the games night, so they'd wait until they had 230 so they could do both (games night was 80 points in those days).
I'm not sure what it is - different kind of kids, I guess - but 5 of them had enough points to come to the games night and none of them wanted to.
I don't feel rejected (well, I do kind of) but I'm just wondering what to do, whether to persist with it or come up with a different prize. However, I don't want to get physical prizes because then they just end up with loads of 'stuff'; things they can eat or things they can do I think are better. Also there's the $$ to consider, knowing that the value kids place on things and their monetary value are often quite different.
Maybe playing games is not 'fun' enough for them - these are kids whom I've heard say, 'the school holidays are boring unless we go overseas'... must be terrible to be so hard-up. Back in my day going to McDonalds was a big treat, and you wore your best clothes to go to the movies. Can anybody else relate??
= = = = = = = = = =
In the meantime I had to laugh at this:
(The original, for my non-kiwi readers:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo )
Pulp Sport parody:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=vVj-EnGNiic
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Soccer: end of the season
It's a relief knowing that there are no more soccer games that might be cancelled or defaulted. But also extremely frustrating, that I played one game all season and broke my collarbone in the process.
I'm not sure what to do for next year - whether to take up another sport instead (badminton or maybe even go back to hockey) or go to another club. In the meantime I've registered for the 'Twilight soccer' tournament to be held at Fraser Park over the next few months...
I'm not sure what to do for next year - whether to take up another sport instead (badminton or maybe even go back to hockey) or go to another club. In the meantime I've registered for the 'Twilight soccer' tournament to be held at Fraser Park over the next few months...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
By popular demand
I mentioned a while ago that I'd try and help all my American friends out by supplying you with a NZ word dictionary of sorts. The list is by no means complete.
(some) New Zealand words and phrases
chocka - full, as in 'my schedule is chocka today'
jandals - what Americans call flip-flops and Aussies call thongs
chilly bin - what Americans call a cooler or ice box and Aussies call an eskie
knackered - (1) tired, feeling worn out ('I'm knackered'); (2) kaputt, broken ('my car is knackered')
cheerio - (1) 'Goodbye'; (2) a cocktail sausage
tramping - hiking
strewth - actually more an Aussie word than NZ, an exclamation meaning 'wow', corrupt form of 'truth'
having a yak - talking, gossipping, gasbagging
footy - football. In NZ and Australia this means different sports: in Australia AFL (Aussie Rules) or rugby league; in NZ always rugby union.
rattle your dags - means 'hurry up'. Originates from sheep farming...
common as muck - very common, nothing special. 'Around Stanford, BMW's are common as muck'.
hard yakker - hard work
hit the sack - go to bed
making a racket - making a noise. Note that in NZ the word 'racket' is never used of a tennis or squash racquet.
fluffing around - mucking around, causing a delay. 'Sarah's in the bathroom, fluffing around'.
stonkered - full (especially with regards to overeating)
tucker - food
yonks - ages, a long time. 'He was away on holiday for yonks'
drongo - idiot. 'Stop being a drongo'
packing a sad - pouting. 'Whenever my brother didn't get his own way, he'd pack a sad'.
piker - someone who opts out of an activity. 'We went to the beach but Joe didn't go swimming, what a piker'.
pong - bad smell
skite - (v) bragging, boasting; (n) someone who skites. 'Tom was skiting about his new car'.
sook - wuss, wimp, piker, crybaby.
squiz - to look at something. 'I had a squiz at the menu.'
blobbing out - relaxing, chilling out.
spanner - Americans call 'wrench'. e.g. crescent spanner. Distinct from an Allen key, which Americans also call a 'wrench'.
put a spanner in the works - causing complication. 'We wanted to go to town but the buses weren't running, so that put a spanner in the works.'
(some) New Zealand words and phrases
chocka - full, as in 'my schedule is chocka today'
jandals - what Americans call flip-flops and Aussies call thongs
chilly bin - what Americans call a cooler or ice box and Aussies call an eskie
knackered - (1) tired, feeling worn out ('I'm knackered'); (2) kaputt, broken ('my car is knackered')
cheerio - (1) 'Goodbye'; (2) a cocktail sausage
tramping - hiking
strewth - actually more an Aussie word than NZ, an exclamation meaning 'wow', corrupt form of 'truth'
having a yak - talking, gossipping, gasbagging
footy - football. In NZ and Australia this means different sports: in Australia AFL (Aussie Rules) or rugby league; in NZ always rugby union.
rattle your dags - means 'hurry up'. Originates from sheep farming...
common as muck - very common, nothing special. 'Around Stanford, BMW's are common as muck'.
hard yakker - hard work
hit the sack - go to bed
making a racket - making a noise. Note that in NZ the word 'racket' is never used of a tennis or squash racquet.
fluffing around - mucking around, causing a delay. 'Sarah's in the bathroom, fluffing around'.
stonkered - full (especially with regards to overeating)
tucker - food
yonks - ages, a long time. 'He was away on holiday for yonks'
drongo - idiot. 'Stop being a drongo'
packing a sad - pouting. 'Whenever my brother didn't get his own way, he'd pack a sad'.
piker - someone who opts out of an activity. 'We went to the beach but Joe didn't go swimming, what a piker'.
pong - bad smell
skite - (v) bragging, boasting; (n) someone who skites. 'Tom was skiting about his new car'.
sook - wuss, wimp, piker, crybaby.
squiz - to look at something. 'I had a squiz at the menu.'
blobbing out - relaxing, chilling out.
spanner - Americans call 'wrench'. e.g. crescent spanner. Distinct from an Allen key, which Americans also call a 'wrench'.
put a spanner in the works - causing complication. 'We wanted to go to town but the buses weren't running, so that put a spanner in the works.'
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Muscles I didn't know I had
The last few days I've spent down in Geelong visiting a friend, blobbing out between last weekend's experiments and this weekend's. Last night he took me along to rock climbing. I was trying to remember the last time I did any, and it must be at least 6 years ago.
Intellectually, I know what you're supposed to do: use your legs to push yourself up and your hands to keep from falling off. But when you get half-way up a wall and you can't see where you're putting your feet, it all turns to custard. There were some climbs where I didn't make it all the way to the top, and others that I did, so all in all it was quite enjoyable.
I'm paying the price for my efforts today though - although the good news is that my collarbone has given me zero grief over it.
On the way driving back to Melbourne, I had a slight detour to the RAAF museum at Point Cook. I thought it was excellent - well laid out and a good display of different aircraft and other exhibits.
Now I'm back at the synchrotron (internet access! yay!) and checking that all our samples and chemicals etc. we need for this weekend have arrived. The student will arrive sometime tomorrow, then it's all on. But if everything works, we should get some fantastic (i.e. immediately publishable) results...
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