Gifts & my workplace

Things are going well for team SBI, we installed the solar panels today which makes the gondola look much more space-craft like. On that front I decided to take a few photos of the inside of the work bays where ANITA and SBI spend most of thier time. We have been working a lot recently so I don't have any more cool hiking photos or anthing, sorry.

That said, the McMurdo store re-opened yesterday, so I checked out a few of the cool new stuff they had in stock (as well as some Mountain Dew and renting the Matrix on DVD). This is a combination of things for myself and gifts, but they have other hoodies, lots of T-shirts, hats, stickers, lighters, cards, you name it.

If anyone has a special requests let me know, otherwise I'll just be using my best judgement (cards & Antarctic Ice Cubes for all). Also, the stuffed penguins are quite cute & cuddly, a decent substitute as I can't bring back a real one.

Here are the photos, the Chicken Pot Pie was most excelent, I'm sorry I couldn't grab a shot when it was fully in tact.

12.1.06 - LDB Payload Bays & Gifts

Rations, Coffee & Christmas

First off, sorry for the lack of updates (or penguins), the wireless connection out at the field camp has been really flakey these last few days. Team SBI has been making good progress, and Bliss still has all his toes despite the martial arts demonstration. Yesterday Derrick, Marty & Terry of the LBD program headed back home after many months making all the preperations for all the science teams to launch thier projects. Thanks guys, you rock!

Many APL'ers (or is that APLiens?) remember the discussion of Alcohol rationing down here in Antarctica. Lets just say that in years past, the long hours, awful weather, small number of people, and lack of social activity lead to some pretty heavy drinking. Well, to curb that the USAP (United States Antarctic Program) instituted a rationing program. This is the result:

Errr . . . ok then! I guess thats a 6 pack for lunch, and another for dinner. Interchanged with a bottle of wine per meal, just for variety. Actually, most people just split a bottle per table at dinner, I have not met anyone who feels limited by this ration.

However, there is also a ration on chocolate and diet soda. This causes far more of an uproar even than the beer. All 3 USAP bases on Antarctica (which is most of the continenet) is only supplied once per year. This means that almost all the food, drink, supplies etc. are caarefully managed throughout the year untill January when the supply ship comes in after a few ice breakers clear a path. Diet soda apparently has a shorter shelf life than the regular stuff, and so is a premium because it is flown in from NZ along with the fresh fruits and vegetables. Apparently people have stockpiles of diet coke.

The coffee house is one of the more relaxed places to hang out at McMurdo. It looks like a bunker from the outside, but has a warm interior with couches, tables, a bar, and various board games for group entertainment. They server coffe, and coffee drinks, as well as a wide selection of wine (thus my declaration that its 1/2 a bar). Also, now that Thanksgiving is over, a few Christmas decorations have been posted around the base.

Here are some photos of the coffee house and decorations:

11.29.06 - Coffee House & Christmas Decorations

Death Star Lasers & Ninjas!

This past monday gave all the LDB (Long Duration Balloon) science teams a relief, with a break in the cloudy, windy weather for some blue skies and sunshine. This was particularly good for SBI, as our telescope looks at the sun. Clouds = no sun = vital alignment & calibration work cannot get done. So, thanks to the sun, we were able to make great progress, as well as discover how quickly no ozone layer and ~100% surface reflection will give you a sunburn. Its ok, no-one looks like a well done hot dog yet, but there are a few people around base who's faces match the color of the big red jacket.

I have posted some photos in the galleries, but by far the most entertaining event of the day was when Bliss of SBI decided to go out in front of Mt. Erebus in his full Gi (including bare feet) and practice his Tai Chuan Do Katas:


It looked very majestic with Mt. Erebus rising in the backgound, and intimidated the hell out of the other science teams. Team SBI has a ninja! They won't be borrowing our tools without asking now!

As all 3 science payloads went outside, I noticed BLAST bears a striking reseblance to the Death Star Laser:


Ok, so technically BLAST stands for Balloon-bourne Large Apeture Sub-Millimeter Telescope, and is not a space bourne death ray to destroy us all. I still don't want to stand in front of that thing, that main reflector is over 1.5m in diameter (~10 feet), so think ant-under-magnifying-glass, particularaly down here in Antarctica. Actually, the BLAST crew is a good group and comprised mainly of Canadians, so they can't be too focused on world domination now can they, eh?

Its sunny again today so another very long work day looms ahead. Here are the photo galleries:

11.27.06 - BLAST, ANITA & SBI payloads

11.28.06 - Bliss Katas in snow

Thanksgiving Dinner

Not to be confused with the Thanksgiving lunch we had earlier on Thursday. The McMurdo Thanksgiving dinner was on Saturday night (sorry for the delay in the blog, I had a turkey hangover), and it was quite the event. The food was great, particularly considering it was dinner for you and 1000 of your close friends. It was particularly entertaining to see the reaction of all the non-American's on base, and the general instructions given:

Take too much of everything, its all good!

There were 1400 lbs of turkey! (with bone) real mashed potatoes, stuffing, roast beef, all the trimmings, etc. etc. Overall, a great meal and time was had by all. A lot of the base personel dressed up, which was quite impressive. Most of the time you have no idea what half the people you work around look like because you are usually wearing a hat, not shaved, or in ECW gear.

At the end of the night all the base cooks, bakers & kitchen stall came out to a big round of applause & cheering for such a heroic effort. Its was great.

They were only surpassed by this guy:


Although you can't see it so well because of the lighting in this photo, it was a guy (or tall girl, I can't tell) running around in a bright fluorescent yellow chicken costume, complete with orange legs. I'm not really sure if it was supposed to be thanksgiving related, or some other symbolism, but it was awesome.

Here are a few snapshots from the evening:

11.15.06 - Thanksgiving Dinner