Bardo

southpole

John Jacobsen
Monday, January 3, 2011

Home Other Posts

Earlier post Chasing the Sun southpole

Later post Faults in Ice and Rock southpole

5402916721_83a6e80031_o.jpg

I didn’t get a post in yesterday, because it was only January 2 for a few hours, just before I crossed over the International Date Line. Not to mention the fact that there was no WiFi on the flight (though apparently some planes have that now).

My second flight didn’t take off until nearly midnight, local time. I dread the flight to Auckland more than any other stage of the trip; it feels like the bardo state from Tibetan Buddhism, in which one has died and is waiting to incarnate into one’s next form — a state of unsettled in-between-ness, which somehow passes both quicker than expected and with excruciating slowness (a little like some meditation sessions, come to think of it). I did manage to sleep a bit (breathe deeply, follow the out-breath, notice thoughts and sounds, …. zzzzz), waking at least half a dozen times, and then watched “The Social Network,” which I enjoyed but which I dearly hope will resemble the coming trip not in the slightest.

One sees “Ice people” in increasing amounts as one gets closer to The Ice (slang for Antarctica). I met an IceCube colleague from Madison in Chicago; noticed a few others at LAX and several more in Auckland. You can tell them by their clothes (take all the geeks or professors you know, and all the rock climbers you know, and imagine how the intersection of those two sets would dress) and by the little yellow penguin tags hanging off of their luggage or the red, white and blue US Antarctic program patches on their jackets. Often we don’t talk to one another, but there are all sorts of interesting people with interesting stories. For example, on the flight to Auckland I managed to sit next to the Program Psychologist on his way to evaluate the psyches of people staying over the winter at South Pole and at McMurdo, but didn’t know that (or anything about him) for the 13 hours we sat together until we landed in Auckland and finally indulged in some small talk.

In short, the trip so far has been relatively painless — by far the worst of it was the Mexican food (and service) I got at LAX, not realizing that they would have dinner on the plane despite the late departure. Now I’m waiting for my flight to Christchurch and, soon, soon! a shower and a real bed.

Earlier post Chasing the Sun southpole

Later post Faults in Ice and Rock southpole

Blog Posts (170)

Select from below, view all posts, or choose only posts for:art clojure code emacs lisp misc orgmode physics python ruby sketchup southpole writing


Home


From Elegance to Speed code lisp clojure physics

Common Lisp How-Tos code lisp

Implementing Scheme in Python code python lisp

A Daily Journal in Org Mode writing code emacs

Show at Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center art

Color Notations art

Painting and Time art

Learning Muscular Anatomy code clojure art emacs orgmode

Reflections on a Year of Daily Memory Drawings art

Repainting art

Daily Memory Drawings art

Questions to Ask art

Macro-writing Macros code clojure

Time Limits art

Lazy Physics code clojure physics

Fun with Instaparse code clojure

Nucleotide Repetition Lengths code clojure

Updating the Genome Decoder code clojure

Getting Our Hands Dirty (with the Human Genome) code clojure

Validating the Genome Decoder code clojure

A Two Bit Decoder code clojure

Exploratory Genomics with Clojure code clojure

Rosalind Problems in Clojure code clojure

Introduction to Context Managers in Python code python

Processes vs. Threads for Integration Testing code python

Resources for Learning Clojure code clojure

Continuous Testing in Python, Clojure and Blub code clojure python

Programming Languages code clojure python

Milvans and Container Malls southpole

Oxygen southpole

Ghost southpole

Turkey, Stuffing, Eclipse southpole

Wind Storm and Moon Dust southpole

Shower Instructions southpole

Fresh Air and Bananas southpole

Traveller and the Human Chain southpole

Reveille southpole

Drifts southpole

Bon Voyage southpole

A Nicer Guy? southpole

The Quiet Earth southpole

Ten southpole

The Wheel art

Plein Air art

ISO50 southpole art

SketchUp and MakeHuman sketchup art

In Defense of Hobbies misc code art

Closure southpole

Takeoff southpole

Mummification southpole

Eleventh Hour southpole

Diamond southpole

Baby, It's Cold Outside southpole

Fruition southpole

Friendly Radiation southpole

A Place That Wants You Dead southpole

Marathon southpole

Deep Fried Macaroni and Cheese Balls southpole

Retrograde southpole

Three southpole

Transitions southpole

The Future southpole

Sunday southpole

Radio Waves southpole

Settling In southpole

Revolution Number Nine southpole

Red Eye to McMurdo southpole

That's the Way southpole

Faults in Ice and Rock southpole

Chasing the Sun southpole

Downhole southpole

Coming Out of Hibernation southpole

Managing the Most Remote Data Center in the World code southpole

Ruby Plugins for Sketchup art sketchup ruby code

The Cruel Stranger misc

Photoshop on a Dime art

Man on Wire misc

Videos southpole

Posing Rigs art

Metric art

Cuba southpole

Wickets southpole

Safe southpole

Broken Glasses southpole

End of the Second Act southpole

Pigs and Fish southpole

Last Arrivals southpole

Lily White southpole

In a Dry and Waterless Place southpole

Immortality southpole

Routine southpole

Tourists southpole

Passing Notes southpole

Translation southpole

RNZAF southpole

The Usual Delays southpole

CHC southpole

Wyeth on Another Planet art

Detox southpole

Packing southpole

Nails southpole

Gearing Up southpole

Gouache, and a new system for conquering the world art

Fall 2008 HPAC Studies art

YABP (Yet Another Blog Platform) southpole

A Bath southpole

Green Marathon southpole

Sprung southpole

Outta Here southpole

Lame Duck DAQer southpole

Eclipse Town southpole

One More Week southpole

IceCube Laboratory Video Tour; Midrats Finale southpole

SPIFF, Party, Shift Change southpole

Good things come in threes, or 18s southpole

Sleepless in the Station southpole

Post Deploy southpole

IceCube and The Beatles southpole

Midrats southpole

Video: Flight to South Pole southpole

Almost There southpole

The Pure Land southpole

There are no mice in the Hotel California Bunkroom southpole

Short Timer southpole

Sleepy in MacTown southpole

Sir Ed southpole

Pynchon, Redux southpole

Superposition of Luggage States southpole

Shortcut to Toast southpole

Flights: Round 1 southpole

Packing for the Pole southpole

Goals for Trip southpole

Balaklavas southpole

Tree and Man (Test Post) southpole

Schedule southpole

How to mail stuff to John at the South Pole southpole

Summer and Winter southpole

Homeward Bound southpole

Redeployment southpole

Short-timer southpole

The Cleanest Air in the World southpole

One more day (?) southpole

One more week (?) southpole

Closing Softly southpole

More Photos southpole

Super Bowl Wednesday southpole

Night Owls southpole

First Week southpole

More Ice Pix southpole

Settling In southpole

NPX southpole

Pole Bound southpole

Bad Dirt southpole

The Last Laugh southpole

First Delay southpole

Nope southpole

Batteries and Sheep southpole

All for McNaught southpole

t=0 southpole

The Big (Really really big...) Picture southpole

Giacometti southpole

Descent southpole

Video Tour southpole

How to subscribe to blog updates southpole

What The Blog is For southpole

Auckland southpole

Halfway Around the World; Dragging the Soul Behind southpole

Launched southpole

Getting Ready (t minus 2 days) southpole

Home

Subscribe: RSS feed ... all topics ... or Clojure only / Lisp only