A blog from a science nut, computer geek, sometimes philosopher, and a human. Based out of Denver, with a love of Antarctica, I seem to wander the world so who knows where I'll be in 6 months.
A few days ago I went out to Pegasus preparing for flight ops to work on a troublesome weather computer exhibiting strange networking problems. Driving back from Pegasus I got caught in a Herbie and it went from Condition 2 to Condition 1 in all of 10 seconds. During the ensuing seven hours waiting, … Read more
This is my 3rd season in McMurdo, two Summers, and now a Winter. In many ways I’m still a neophyte as compared to some of the 15+ year veterans and some things are still new to me. For most of my readers, you’ve never been to the Ice, so I want to elucidate on some … Read more
This week has been all about the sun, the moon, and the stars, well after the unexpected plane that landed here on Monday. It’s been exhausting, but amazingly fun. Some of you may have read my previous post on the mechanics of final sunset, which was an interesting research project. Following that post I went … Read more
Nope, but Antarctican’s won’t see it again for several months, so like a friend who gets lost in the wandering, we tend to forget about them. Although the sun is a big friend and it’s hard to miss our friend’s effects… so maybe that’s a fib. Unlike many who’ve been writing and showing sunset here … Read more
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, although the latter is generally tacked on. I’m the “Who,” and hopefully an older and wiser “Who” then when I started this this written journey. Having started to write again for my blog, and being more self-aware of time, feelings, motivation, and having the perspective of time, I … Read more
Last time I was down 7 years ago, I wanted to do an inventory of all the strange vehicles on station. I didn’t remember that I wanted to do that until just a few minutes ago when a friend back home asked me about the how a Pisten Bully–hereafter referred to as a PB as … Read more
McMurdo is currently going sky crazy. The sun is barely up for 6 hours now, which means we have extend periods of darkness. (i.e. walking out the door and the sun is down until I'm at work for 3 hours) We also have extend periods of twilight, close to 90 mins or more of the … Read more
This is a recent view at about 5:30pm, frankly a stunning view that happens daily. These last few days have been about as idyllic as McMurdo weather gets. We’ve had sunsets like this at about 5:30pm out my desk window (geting a little less then 8 hours sunlight these days). On Friday evening only about … Read more
For the first time in what feels like a month I feel unhindered by the feelings of lethargy, exhaustion, pain, and being brain fuzzy caused by my body’s battle with sickness. The upside is that my abs are probably in great shape from all the coughing. After getting the crud just before last flight and … Read more
So I know, I'm spoiled, but where do American get this coffee? I was "raised" on coffee over the last year an a half in Eastern Africa as except for the smell of coffee in the morning, I used to hate coffee, preferring instead hot chocolate. I thought it was bitter disgusting water, and couldn't … Read more