Friday, October 12, 2007:
A Day in the Lab
Or rather in and out and in and out of the lab!
(continued...)
We have been so busy trying to get things up-and-running that it was a rare moment today when we were all in the lab together with the cozy familiarity of working together and apart but all for a common purpose. It is a good feeling, and helps provide some of the sense of family that we are otherwise missing. Our SCINI team is six individuals from different backgrounds that are meshing our strengths to help each other. It is pretty darn cool, and the music those youngsters play is "tight".
SCINI and Nick are our cozy kick-off photo. SCINI may have grown since the last time you saw her. She is not wearing heels. They put in an extra section to test for flooding. Nick spent most of today in and out machining pieces, and attempting two SCINI pressure tests out in the cold sea with Bob.
Bob has the geospatial maps of McMurdo Sound on his computer. He spent today in and out with SCINI and Nick at two different places, but I caught him inside without his hat on. He also worked with SCINI electronics today.
Stacy never sits still unless she is working hard at her computer. She packed boxes for the giant traverse to Marble Point, where giant rigs will haul literally tons of stuff for us about 60 miles out to Marble Point. From there, helicopters will sling it to our camp at New Harbor. Here she is delivering hot chocolate to all of us in the lab.
Bryan does stuff I don¿t understand at all. He uses four computers at a time and his eyes are being overtaken by the Elphel camera! Elphel stands for Electron-Photon-Electron and that is all I know about it. He writes code, moves tiny things around on transistors or watch-a-ma-callits, and does other stuff I can¿t explain either. Bryan also helps pack heavy boxes for the traverse in his spare time!
Marcus does stuff I don't understand either. He works on his computer or with electronics or helps pack big boxes too! I think the guys are going to need to explain what they do, as all I can say is everyone keeps very busy.
Colds have been moving around the lab too. I might have been the first culprit (forgive me). My line is that they tried to kill me at Happy Camp but all I got was frostbite and a bad cold. Some consolation. Then Bob and Stacy got the crud, now Marcus is showing signs. The young guys are holding out so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they have immune systems of perfectly working t-cells and platelets.
Signing off, with a headache and a sore throat, from the snowy south. May all your circuit boards be well-wired. Mindy