of interest

Cory Doctorow's brain is full of interesting stuff.

Here's a conversation where some of that interesting stuff comes out in the form of words.

Wheeler Centre talk

christchurch

Back in Christchurch! A land with fast internet. And wifi. And streaming services.
End.

departing soon

My contract is up in eleven days, at which point I will be exploring New Zealand for a brief moment before flying back to Seattle.

Here are some things I look forward to:

-Trees

-Alpine environments (and the traipsing about within them)

-Pho

-Chuckanut!

-Rock climbing

-ANY music besides my one downloaded Spotify playlist or my circa-high school era selection

-Leafy greens, avocados, fruit

To go in-depth about my stint down here feels self-indulgent, even though that is the purpose of blogs, I suppose. Instead, I propose we hang out or go for a hike or grab some drinks and I will be far more inclined to share stories and pictures.

Bring fruit.

room with a view. penguin.

A boondoggle is an opportunity to travel somewhere outside the normal bounds of McMurdo. When it gets nicer, the station offers a boondoggle called Room with a View: you drive a snowmobile out towards Erebus and then stop. Then look at stuff. Then drive back. Room with a View.

Also you get some shots of a penguin. It hung around Hut Point for a number of days, either doing not a whole lot or running along the sea ice making noise. Penguin.

Not a penguin.

The islands from left to right are as follows: Tent, Big Razorback, Inaccessible, Little Razorback (tiny guy)

words. pictures.

Two batches of photos.

First batch - 10/23/17:  

Last sunset wherein the sun dips below the Royal Society Range. It was pretty damn cold. Fingered gloves do not insulate as well as mittens. Mittens do not lend well to operating buttons on cameras. Trade offs. 

Second batch - 11/6/17.

Lake Hoare, Taylor Dry Valley. This valley is embedded within the greater McMurdo Dry Valleys.

I got to ride in a helicopter. Glaciers are neat. The Dry Valleys are more neat.

I was on the Canada Glacier.

This trip marks one of my coolest adventures to date.

Other things: 

-I was able to join the auxiliary SAR team. This makes me happy.

-The vinyl collection on station is remarkable and I look forward to spending more Sundays digging through records and drinking coffee.

-The radio station acquires three new CDs per week. There is a digital music library, and it's even kind of functional. I do not understand why they do not have a process of ingesting CDs. It makes me itchy thinking about it. Like a lot.

I am tentatively putting together an all-vinyl show in my head. That would be fun.

End.