The Boston Experience

1. The geochemistry labs at Boston University rock my socks and make my days. What wondrous things, these instruments that actually work!
2. Yoga in the Back Bay is really quite something. Diluvian rain kept me from trying their Yin Yoga today but the Vinyasa class I took there last Wednesday was wonderful. I'm planning to head back tomorrow for some more. And on Sunday. And on Monday. Luvely.
3. My co-Cornellian and friend Chris, who is hosting me here and whose trooper Carla I unfortunately fried in Hawaii back in 2005 is simply the sweetest, most generous guy around. Thanks for all your help and generosity, Chris!
4. Boston rain is really impressive. Persistent as hell.
5. I now have my first invited talk on my CV and under my belt.
6. Months, nay, years, of frustration and trying are now over. I can move on with my life, having put the cations behind me. I can't tell you how relieved I am.

Finally!

Greece

Folks, please find the pictures from my recent trip to Greece here.

Some Tuesday science for you all:

From today's NYTimes. I especially recommend the interactive feature.

At the laundromat

Moi and the Parthenon:



Photo courtesy of J. Lennon (no, not THAT J. Lennon!)

Trying...

... to put together an abstract for the AGU ('Mercan Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting in San Fran in December. Not sure I'll go but I want to keep the option open. But it's hard writing an abstract when there is no data interpretation ready. And the graphs I've been making, they look funny. I have no idea what's going on in them! Which of course is exciting, but I don't know if they'll accept an abstract that says: "So, I have this awesome data set from a place where no one has worked before and the data look cool but I have no friggin' clue what they're telling me. I promise to find out by December".

My head is spinning, which is no wonder considering I've been at work (and actually working!) for 14 hours. I'm gonna go home, eat the rest of my favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream and go to bed. Maybe watch one episode of Boston Legal, my favorite waste of time these days. Then get up early again (I was up at 6 am today...), go to the laundromat, think more about abstract, go pick up my new travel backpack from EMS, go home and pack, go to work and pick up stuff, maybe discuss abstract with adviser, then head for the airport. Sweet :)

Lastly, since I know I won't have time for this tomorrow: Happy birthday, dad!

Leaving on Thursday!

Yep, the ticket has been bought and all. Am leaving Ithaca on Thursday afternoon, returning on the 10th. On the way back I have a 14 hour overnight layover in Athens followed by a 10hr flight... so, should I stay up and explore the nightlife??

Nice! This will be SO nice! And a fitting tribute to my dad's b-day, which is on the 4th. I can't wait!!

Ithaca... er, no, Crete, here I come!

Funny how fast time flies when you're having fun. The time in Iceland flew by and I'm back in Ithaca. Nevertheless, it feels like I've been gone forever. And, thereby, that I was almost for-ev-er in Iceland. Gee, I got there even before we became the biggestest country in the world and won that coveted Olympic silver. Yep, I saw history happen.

The conference went reasonably well (note to self: NEVER again go to a conference without your poster ready and printed!!!), considering I missed all the talks the first two days (see note to self) and in the morning of the third day (darn printshop!). The talks I DID see were awesome (some of them even cited my 2006 paper and while they were at it I felt all self-conscious and didn't know what to do with myself, until I decided it was pretty darn cool and became all pleased with myself :)). The poster session went about as well as was to be expected, given that my topic was somewhat marginal and the poster session itself located quite am Arsch der Welt in the conference frame of reference. The fourth and last day of the conference I can't say too much about either, since I spent it sick in bed, kept company by aching bones and a headful of snot. Charming.

I'm getting a second chance to be present at conferences though, since I finally* got an invitation to attend a workshop for (odd) people interested in soils, to be held in Crete (that's right, Crete) next weekend (that's right, next weekend!!). My credit card is too maxed out after the Iceland trip to accommodate the plane ticket to Crete (2100 dollars minimum with this short notice) so I'm hoping either my department or some benevolent millionaire will step in for me and lend me their credit. Any takers??

One thing I entirely forgot this time around in Iceland: Go to the swimming pools! Shame on me. I did not forget to go to the 'Mercan Embassy and had a surprisingly non-confrontational time there. Quite luvely, actually. Although I couldn't stop myself from audibly laughing when the guy ahead of me in the interview queue answered the first question, "Why do you want to go to the United States" with an eager-to-please "Because I love the US!".

* They somehow managed to lose my application. After suffering some email harassment from me, they extended the invite last Friday. That is, a week before the hulabbaloo begins. Nice!

Iceland, here I come!

Íþaka til Sýrakusu, Sýrakusa-JFK, JFK-Keflavík, ETA 23:40 annað kvöld. Og svo saman allir nú: Húrra! Húrra! Húrra!

Embassy drama - again

Does ANYBODY know how to bypass the receptionist-on-a-power-trip in the 'Mercan Embassy in Reykjavik? As always, all the interview slots are full for when I'm in the country and my honest attempt to get past this woman and talk to someone human over there was in vain (I tried emailing the address they give for consular affairs on the embassy website and apparently, it's power-hungry woman's email). Last year I actually rerouted my travels b/c "there are no interview spots open", only to find out that there were in fact plenty of spots available during the time period I had originally intended to be at home. So, I simply don't believe that all the slots are taken this time. All she had to say in reply to my request for consideration was "I could perhaps put you on the waiting list".

Keep in mind that last year I spent an approximate 1000 dollars on rerouting my travels. Then, please read the post I link to above. Then, let me tell you that when I did in fact get to the embassy I did yell at the receptionist, I did tell her that because of her incompetence and unhelpfulness I had incurred massive expenses and that I would highly recommend to her superiors they have her fired. So, I guess it's no wonder she has no desire to help this time. But it still stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

The sun room

At the bus stop

The wrench

Hey, did any of you guys borrow the 13 mm wrench? I need it!

Stupid error

Gawd! I just discovered a VERY stupid mistake in my calculations. If I'd thought of this earlier I would have saved myself a LOT of agonizing over weird-looking data.

Do you remember the space mission that was a fiasco b/c of engineers forgetting to convert from one system of measurement to another? Well, this was on a similar scale (albeit not in political and financial consequences ;) )

Oh well. I found it and fixing it (now that I know what was wrong the whole time) is fortunately not a big deal.

Yoga goes biodegradable

My old yoga mat became musty-smelling after the moldy-bed ordeal of a few weeks ago so I invested in a new mat which arrived today. It smells funny, not your average plastic-foam smell, though, because it is entirely biodegradable. Yep, I gotta take care it won't get wet because it will quite literally break down! This beauty comes from Manduka yoga gear (the eKo) and is apparently the first yoga mat ever made that will break down completely into natural components at the end of its life. Which is supposed to be very long, as long as I make sure to keep it dry. I can't wait to try it at home tonight, as it is supposed to be completely slide-proof as well!

Library

I just went to the library. In my computer. I needed to verify some equations that I found on Wikipedia (once I didn't and suffered...), so I looked up the whereabouts of the particular reference books cited on Wikipedia to see in what library they were kept. Turns out both of them are kept in the library next door to Snee Hall but are also available online. Of course I just looked at the books online instead of actually raising my a$$ from the seat and walking 30 m in the wonderful weather to the library. No wonder people (myself included) are growing huge butts nowadays!

Friday evening

and I'm in the lab. I just took a 40 minute break and went to the local Starbucks for some hot chocolate and non-work-related reading (Pan by Knut Hamsun, in Norwegian), but even so I wasn't really taking a break since I was just waiting for the machine to warm up the next sample...

The TIMS (thermal ionization mass spectrometer) is working and I'm running samples. They take about 4 hours each and I have about 40 to do before going to Iceland in 13 days so... I better spend every waking hour in the lab! But, it's kinda fun so I don't mind it too much. In fact it feels good to know that I'm making large strides forward with my work.

Speaking of which. As some of you may remember, we've had eternal issues with equipment here and this has caused me a lot of delays in getting my samples processed (i.e., squeezing data out of them). Now I've gotten the go-ahead to go to a well-functioning lab at Boston University in Sept/Oct. I'll be able to hopefully analyze the entire backlog of ~150 samples that I have accumulated. My host is a former Ph.D. student of my own Ph.D. adviser who now is a professor at BU. I can't wait to spend a month or two in Boston! How awesome is that??? Lot's of people to talk science with and ... ratatata... the birthplace of Ravelry!!!

Venting

Note: To head off bad karma, I'm including the update at the start of the post, to avoid unnecessary bad vibrations in the universe (can you tell I've been reading Eckhart Tolle and Yoga Journal a lot lately?? ;Þ)

Update 10 minutes later: Mrs. Sugarcoat just called to let me know that The Superintendent had decided to give me a full refund. It'll take 4-6 weeks. I'm already looking forward to mid-September and the arrival of a check from the Division of State Parks!!

And here, FYI, the original post:

I just came off the phone with the Division of State Parks (DSP)in Hilo, Hawaii. Back in January I applied , via mail, for a permit to use a State Park cabin for three nights and bled 165 dollars for it. I also included a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the SP staff to send the permit to a contact on the Big Island because I was arriving at a time when the DSP office was closed. Furthermore, I included my email and my cell phone nr so that they could contact me in case there were any issues.

The day comes that the use of the cabin is to start and alas, no permit has arrived in the mail. It's on a weekend and the DSP office is closed. I make other arrangements, pretty sure that the office simply didn't have time to process the permit application, and plan to go there any day now to reclaim my check.

On the following Monday I got a hold of the DSP office and hear that they did indeed process the application, cashing my check in the process. When I asked where on Earth the permit is and why they didn't do anything to contact me, knowing that I would be arriving on the weekend and not able to contact the office myself, they had no idea. After some back and forth it transpired that they had faxed the permit to the park and not thought it necessary to let me know, even if I never once alluded to the delivery method of faxing in my previous correspondence.

At that point I drove up to the state park, sorta to see what I'd been missing out on, and ran into two staffers who told me that the fax machine had been out of ink for months and that the folks down in Hilo should know that by now. Well, so much for faxing as a sensible delivery method. They also told me that no one is around on the weekend to tend to the fax machine anyway. Another reason not to consider faxing a good delivery option.

Why am I telling you all this? Because finally, after nearly half a year of trying to recover those measly 165 dollars of mine, I got a hold of someone at the DSP office who didn't say "no, I have no idea what you're talking about" or "no, he's not in" or "no, I'm not here and I'm not on the phone with you having this conversation". She listened, remembered and with a sugary smile in her voice said "yes, I understand" too many times. She then ended the conversation saying that "the superintendent would like to ask you to be so gracious as to call again tomorrow, when the superintendent plans to have made his decision". "Wait", said a bewildered I, "what decision?" I honestly didn't know there was a decision to be made, I thought there was an action to perform. "Well, he needs to decide the amount of the refund and how it will be reimbursed". If I hadn't been left gaping and speechless at these words, I would have asked if the superintendent planned to have me pay his staff by the hour for all the time they spent avoiding my inquiries, and subtract that from the amount his office owes me (although I guess in that case, I already owe him more money than I can hope to earn in a while...).

So, I called them again when I regained my composure (another 20 minutes of busy line, which is the staple over there) and left my number (you'd think they have it by now, given the three letters and fax that I've sent them) with the sugarcoated lady. Hopefully the superintendent is gracious enough to give me a call back soon, or I will have to go out in the hall and bite somebody's head off.

Toxic perfumes

I'm sure you all knew, or at least suspected, that labeling of ingredients in comsumer products isn't really up to snuff. Check out this article to find out how right you were. The US really needs to get its act together, I dare say (and not only on the poisoning-the-citizens front).