Race Around the World Pictures

The starting line at the Race Around the World.




towards the end of the race. Note the weather.

New Year's

An Epic shot of me and the drummer from the show. This one shows up on the monitors in the galley from time to time.

This was my first New Year's at the Pole. The previous two years I was here either just before or just after. I was really looking forward to it.

My band had been slated to play last out of 4 bands. I was happy with that since I knew that people would probably trickle in up until midnight. Actually, it turned out many people were just waiting for my band to play. I ran into them in one of the lounges and they asked me what time I was playing and said they would make sure to come down for that.

First off, ego aside, all the bands were excellent. It was really a lot of fun. Now, with my ego fully engaged, we kicked a lot of ass. My new nickname around station is "Rock Star".

The first band was a folky/bluegrass band. I felt kind of bad for them because by the time they went on there wasn't a large crowd. They were really great (as expected). Up next was a funk cover band. They played "Higher Ground" (Chili peppers version) and the "Superfly" theme song that really stood out.

The next band was a classic rock cover band. They played some Doors and Van Morrison, etc. It was great but they had a really long set and I was getting antsy to play.

Next up was us. First off, all the other bands were 6, 7, or 8 pieces and we were just three dudes. I felt under qualified to play. We opened with a bluesy Gov't Mule song and the crowd really started going. We then played a really funky jam on a riff that Daniel (the bass player) put together. They crowd REALLY liked that one. Then we played some Hendrix (Hey Joe and Red House). Next was Jeremy by Pearl Jam. That was a fun song since it's so much fun to sing. Next we did another jam, kind of Rage Against the Machine style. The jams were really tight--much credit to Jon (on drums) for holding it all together. Finally, we played Sober by Tool. Everyone seemed to really love it.

At this point, it was nearly midnight so we got off the stage to ring in the new year. Earlier in the day, I had helped convince a bag-piper to play Auld Lang Sine so he played the song with a Saxophonist. Afterwards people were asking us to keep playing, so we got back on stage and played some of our less prepared and more jammy songs. Eventually, it was time to join the party so we took our bows (with sombreros that somehow made their way to our heads) and handed it over to the DJ.

For the party, many people dressed up in crazy costumes. Lots of bright colored wigs, wacky 80's clothes, etc. Some of the people intentionally changed into crazier costumes for my band's set. There was even a giant penguin costume (naturally). I just wore my dinosaur knit cap. Nothing too crazy. New Year's is also fun because that's when the fancy Scotch comes out.

Today, a few people from the SPUD telescope are leaving but a whole bunch more get in. It will be pretty lively around here this week. Our "bosses" get in this week as well as the last BICEP2 grad student, Justus, who I'm really looking forward to seeing.

That Two Day Weekend

Saturday morning was the Race Around the World, a christmas tradition. It was only a 2.3 mile run but the weather was so terrible that it was very difficult. I really struggle with the altitude when it comes to aerobic exercise. I'm not designed for this. My lungs can't get enough oxygen. It's so cold out that you really have to wear something to cover your face or else risk damaging your lungs but then it's even harder to breathe. I started out the race fine, but about .25 mi in, we hit some really soft snow and the effort of trudging through it really wore me out. The rest of the race was spent gasping for air. It was really a miserable experience. I hate distance running to begin with, but add to that sub-freezing temperatures and 20mph winds and it was just the worst. Thankfully, towards the end of the race, when I was contemplating what it would be like to just drop dead, a friend of mine caught up to me and we raced to the finish. It made it slightly more fun. I would classify the race as worse than going to the dentist but better than being stabbed in an alley. Congrats to Jamie Tolan who won the race. He's a grad student on our sister telescope, SPUD or Keck (depending on where you are).

After the race, everyone gathered in the galley for brunch. I was too cold and too nauseous to eat but it was nice to see everyone out and about. After a little while, I grabbed some food, and then a bunch of us decided to hit the sauna. That was definitely the best idea possibly ever created by man. It goes 1) sauna after race around the world 2) go to the moon 3) the internet 4) sliced bread. Whatever damage I may have done to my lungs was definitely soothed by the 210 degree sauna. Naturally, after 10 or so minutes, you have to run outside. We call that "the cycle." After 4 or so cycles, I was ready for a shower.

Later that night was the famous Christmas dinner. The galley is decorated with strings of hanging lights and there is a christmas tree in the corner. There are also a few menorahs, for those interested. Dinner was beef wellington, lobster tails, white truffle mashed potatoes, baked root vegetables, and about 1000 different kinds of desserts. There were also appetizers before the meal. They had shrimp cocktails, seared scallops, baked brie, some duck dish, and spiced cider. There are three settings for christmas dinner. I volunteered to help with the second seating which meant I walked around pouring the wine. It was actually a lot of fun. I made sure that no glass went empty. I also helped serve desserts and bus the tables. I was part of the third seating, so after I finished, it was time to eat. The food was incredible. Best lobster ever. I made sure to take advantage of the wine stewards, having inside information on the job. The best part about the third seating is that there isn't a time limit. The other seatings were only an hour to make room for the next group but since this was the last, we had infinite time. I sat with a bunch of telescopers. One of the PI's from SPT was there and he was a lot of fun to talk to. He's up at Berkeley and I wouldn't mind working for him next.

After dinner came the traditional post-holiday dance party. It was a lot of fun. So many of us comment that we wouldn't be caught dead listening or dancing to most of the crap that was played normally, but down at the pole, it's all about just having fun. The dance party continued late into the night but I went to bed relatively early since I had to do a cryo transfer the following morning. That definitely put a damper on the evening, but it's what I'm here for.

This week

The past few days have been fairly quiet. Weather has been really bad at McMurdo so we haven't have many flights come in. This means that I won't get my crate of testing equipment until after christmas.

This week is christmas, or as I like to call it, "that two day weekend." Every year for "that two day weekend," there's a race called "The Race Around the World." I've never been here for it but I always wanted to do it. I think everyone who runs in it gets a free t-shirt. It's a short race, only about 2.3 miles, but I'm not looking forward to it. I hate running distances longer than half a mile or so. The stereotypical polie archetype is that of a marathon runner, so I'm probably going to get my butt kicked. The cold combined with the altitude and low pressure make running here extremely difficult. You start breathing heavily but can't get enough oxygen so it feels a little bit like you're dying. So that's probably what will happen tomorrow--I'll finish the race, then roll over and die.

Tonight, I volunteered to help out in the kitchen peeling potatoes, etc. I wanted to do it so that the people celebrating christmas don't have to worry about it but apparently I'm being a grinch for volunteering, according to two people I was talking to about it. I think they're being dumb. I also volunteered to pour wine during one of the dinner seatings. After christmas will probably be a big party but I'll have to take it easy since I'll have to do a cryo-fill early the next morning. That will not be fun.

The past few days have been fun, although nothing really remarkable happened. I've been sitting around drinking beer or wine with different people and we've just been discussing everything from science to the environment to travel to cars, etc. It's been fun. Of course, I've been staying up way too late drinking and talking, so my past few mornings have been less fun. But at some point, you really need a day or two where you stay up way too late and have a few too many beers. It's good for the soul.

I've been practicing with my band for New Year's. We've gotten almost all of our songs down. We're really trying to be a more rocking band than usual. Most bands down here are classic rock cover bands or folk/bluegrass bands. Those are fun, but after the last open mic night it was apparent that people really wanted to rock out--so we intend to fit that niche.

I love scotch, scotchy scotch scotch

To quote Ron Burgundy...


On Friday, we got a new supply of "liquids," meaning booze at the station. Whenever we get a resupply of stuff for the store (or sometimes for the kitchen), they usually make an announcement asking for volunteers to help unload the cargo. Well at lunch, I was talking to one of the people who helped unload the new "liquid" and she said she saw a few bottles of Laphroig being unloaded. The alcohol policy is as follows: each person can buy either 2 six packs of beer, 2 bottles of wine, or one bottle of liquor each day (a lot per day, I know). With this, prices are pretty much fixed. Cheap beer is usually $5 for a six pack. This would be things like Coors Light. "Good" beer is usually no more than $6 or $6.50 per six pack. This would be beer like Dos Equis. I'm actually impressed that they even have Dos Equis this year. We usually have the choice of watered down crappy New Zealand beer like Speights or watered down crappy American beer like Coors or Corona. You'd probably have to pay me to drink those. Anyway, the liquor is $30 no matter what, which means if you buy Jack Daniels, it's a rip off but if you get Laphroig, it's a steal. Because of this, really good bottles of liquor don't last long in the store. So having been tipped off to the nice scotch at the store, I lined up 10 minutes early to make sure to get a bottle. There were about five bottles of Laphroig and I'm pretty sure that the first five people in the store bought all five bottles. A lot of people who arrived just after the store opened were very disappointed to see the scotch gone.

I was very happy to get this bottle. It's a very very good scotch and for some reason scotch seems to taste better down here. There's nothing quite as relaxing as watching a movie and drinking a glass of scotch after a long day down here. The scotch came in handy as Saturday was James Brown Bingo. Last year was the first time I went to James Brown Bingo and it is quite the experience. The head chef, James Brown, always dresses up in some elaborate costume and then it's just Bingo as normal, except James Brown is a character and as the MC, makes it very interesting. I described it some last year, so I won't go into too much detail but this year his costume was that of a Viking with Norwegian flags painted on his face (in honor of our guests the previous week). James Brown Bingo is as fun as you want it to be. On the surface, you're playing Bingo (which is ok) and James Brown takes forever to call out the numbers. He always waits for the audience to call out numbers and then says yes or no but doesn't really say the number himself for a while. So it's really a test of patience. You can either succumb to the mind numbing boredom, or you can have a couple more drinks and start yelling our numbers or jokes or just random crap. This is really what makes James Brown Bingo so much fun--it's all the tables yelling out hilarious comments because we're all so frustrated with how long it is taking. The prizes are pretty good, too. They start small, like a mag-light flashlight or a gift certificate to a restaurant in Christchurch and then get bigger, like a gift certificate for some hot springs in NZ and eventually a $100 gift certificate to Kathmandu (a NZ REI type store). I actually came close to winning the Kathmandu gift certificate. The final Bingo game is blackout, where you have to have all your numbers on your board called. I had only one number left when the person won. It was a fun game this time around, and I got to share and enjoy the scotch I had purchased so it was a good time.

Eventually, a bunch of us telescope people, as well as some of the younger station worker all got together and had some beers and just talked about standard South Pole things--science, world travel, music, etc. It was a good night. The following day, I had two plans: 1) go to brunch and 2) play soccer. It was a successful day. Soccer was a lot of fun, as usual. It was fairly tiring as I'm still not quite acclimated to the altitude here. Hopefully by next week I will be back to ~100% or at least what my 100% is at this altitude.

First night by myself, first problem with the telescope

Randol, the other BICEP2 grad student down here, left on thursday which meant I was in charge of the telescope. Every three days, we need to refill the liquid helium tank and cycle the fridge. It just so happened that friday was the first time I would have to refill the helium. Liquid Helium, like all cryogens, is very dangerous if not handled properly. If it contacts your skin, it will burn it badly. If too much of it is released into the air around you, you will asphyxiate immediately. If you aren't careful about the container it is in, it will form an ice plug, pressure will build, and it will explode. Fortunately, I don't think there's ever been a death attributed to liquid helium so the procedures to deal with it are very safe and very proven. Still, it always makes me nervous the first time I have to deal with it--especially filling the telescope because if I get an ice plug, we lose a lot of time (and Helium which is in short supply) trying to un-plug it. The other major concern is that the telescope will run out of helium sooner than expected and then it warms up and again, you'll lose time and helium to cool it back down.

So my first night with the telescope, I watched the helium level as it slowly ticked down, figuring I should have more than enough to last until the morning. I go to bed at around 12:30 and at 2am, my radio starts going off that there is trouble with BICEP2. I look at the viewer on my computer that shows what all the thermometers are reading, mount position, helium level, etc. and they are all reading zero. I then check my email for the auto-generated message to see what happened. Apparently, the alarm for low liquid helium was triggered. The problem is that we should have had plenty to last the night and with everything reading zero, I had no idea what was going on. So I threw on some clothes and ECW gear and ran out to the telescope. I was nauseas from the effort but I pulled it together and checked the instruments. Again, everything was reading zero so I took a manual reading from the LHe level meter and it was reading what I was expecting. With that, I was much more relaxed. I power cycled some of the monitoring programs that we run and once everything was back online, everything was reading out normal. Thus, in the end, there was really nothing wrong. I babysat the telescope for about an hour and then went back to the station. At that point, I could maybe get 3-4 hours of sleep before having to go back out the following morning to refill the helium, cycle the fridge, and start the next schedule. Everything went off without a hitch but it made me panic for just a little bit. It was a helluva way to start my time as the responsible party down here. Since then, everything has been fine. This morning I did another fill and fridge cycle and now I'm waiting to queue up another schedule. All is well.

Some Pics

Here's a good shot of what Antarctica looks like. Taken by Scott Hut by McMurdo. Those are some Weddel seals sunning themselves on the frozen ocean.




A pic at the airstrip outside of McMurdo. Mt. Erebus is in the background.




My lab. Randol is working on the computer.




Here's a picture of my band playing on Open Mic night. Daniel from IT is on bass and Jon from the greenhouse is on drums. It was a blast!




Here's a picture of all of us with the Prime Minister of Norway. From left to right: (top row) Brad Benson (post-doc on SPT), Jamie Tolan (grad student on KECK), Prime Minister of Norway (Prime Minister of Norway), Jamie Bock (JPL scientist, PI on BICEP2 and KECK), Me (duh), Colin Bischoff (post-doc on KECK), (bottom row) Hien Nguyen (JPL scientist), Chin Lin Wong (grad student on KECK), Sarah Stokes (grad student on KECK), Grant Teply (grad student on KECK), Chris Sheehy (grad student on KECK), Randol Aikin (Grad Student on BICEP2) in the front.




Here's a shot of my ice-beard. I'll get a better one going later in the season (both bigger beard and more ice). Note my hand-made monster hat from the OB farmer's market. Thanks to Sara for buying it for me.




I'm a crazy person.




The Prime Minister of Norway giving a speech by the Ceremonial Pole to mark the Centenary of the expedition to the south pole.