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Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
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Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
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MASSIVE Splosh withdrawal. A fantastic week away with so many awesome people just isn't enough. We are therefore arranging it again for the summer. Even with the arctic weather we managed a cpl of days climbing. The only drawback being that I slipped a couple of times and have accrued 9 bajillion cuts on my hands, arms and legs. I also enjoyed at least one cream tea per day, a visit to the Meadery which has resulted in a spectacular video doing the rounds on Facebook, running away with cows, the total destruction of 5 tents through wind (including mine), spending far too much time in only my underpants in the pub and crawling round the tin mines in Botallack.
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Comments: Do it bitch!.
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Friday, October 5th, 2007
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My god im so close I can smell it. I reckon 5 days to a first full draught and then perhaps 3 days to a week of corrections after that and I'm ready to submit.
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Comments: Do it bitch!.
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Monday, October 1st, 2007
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Friday, September 28th, 2007
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Friday, September 21st, 2007
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| Time: | 10:42 am. |
| Mood: |  pensive. |
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In a shit twist of fate I appear to be competing for the job I want with a good friend. Not only that, she's just as qualified as me. The only advantage I have is that I've almost finished my PhD whereas she is still a few months off. I'll just have to pull myself together and do an excellent interview!
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Comments: 5 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
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living back at home is going well. Its so damn quiet that im getting three times as much done as in the 'ford. I'm not doing very well at being in touch with people, but this is because I am just completely lost in work.
The weekends so far have been polar opposites of the weekdays with me trying to get as far away from technology as possible. This has worked wonders at keeping me on the level and saw me climb amphitheatre butress in the Ogden valley last week. My longest, most comitted lead yet at 1000ft taking two seconds up with me. Not hard technically by any means but a fair responsibility. pretty spanked as the whole thing took 14 hrs with the epic hike in and out.
This weekend was the Old Farts annual dinner. Nice to catch up with people and a great hotel. Some in car map reading badness in Bath where the driver intentionally ignored my directions.
This week MORE data re-analysis, bring it to me! Ive sorted a lot of problems I'd had with my data and am burning through it all. Plus im writing a short lecture course for an MSc course in environmental strategy I'll be giving next week.
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Comments: Do it bitch!.
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Friday, August 17th, 2007
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Balls. Off to work up north this week. Good thing is I get to scramble Jakes Rack and some other climbing jiggery pokery on the weekends.
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Comments: Do it bitch!.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
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I forgot how much I enjoyed working at the lab here in the US. Doing cool little jobs like prepping a new silicon C.P. detector in the det lab - all rubber gloves and being careful not to breathe on it. Then fitting the tiny thing into the plunger array, attaching the electronics, pumping it down to vacuum etc. I even like the fiddly playing about with fragile targets. I guess its all similar to a giant airfix toy.
I'm on the evening shift babysitting the data aquisition and had to fill up a detector with LN2 upstairs. I rather like the cheesy sci-fi type special effects as the LN2 boils off from the giant udder-thing used to fill it, watching from behind a face mask and thermal gloves whose bulk is more likely to create an accident than help mitigate its effects.
It appears that the accelerator just had a huge spark and everything has shut down... damn.
Tomorrow I'm off to hire a soft-top Ford Mustang and spend the weekend cruising up the East Coast. Theres a heat wave at the mo. So I bought some new aviators and got some driving music. alllright.
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Comments: 5 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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Saturday, August 4th, 2007
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Preliminary results are in from Tough Guy. I came 229th. Thats a lot better than I expected out of nearly 10,000 entrants. I was expecting just within 1000. Rowan, the machine, came 145th! we're still over half an hr off the top ten mind you. Another six months of work for the next one and who knows. I expect it gets far more competitive at the top end.
Only gutting thing is that as Dave had that amazing accident with his knee:
broken knee video linky
Our team didn't get eight of us over the finishing line. We'd have probably come in the top 10 team results. Heres our team results anyway (alfie finished with a good time its just not up yet)
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Comments: 5 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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Saturday, July 28th, 2007
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Its time to head off for Tough Guy. The other idiots are beginning to gather at our house (there are 12 of us this year) and we play the waiting game for nick and the minibus.
Life insurance - check
Camping toss - check
Fell running shoes - check
Matching spandex - check
Fake beard and sunglasses of bling - check
Death Warrant, signed - check
ALLRIGHT.
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Comments: 7 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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Back to the US on monday for two weeks. I have a paper to write and an experiment so it should be a busy time! It looks pretty hot and rather humid there at the moment, bleugh. I'm looking forward to seeing the guys over there though.
I'm staying in Kellys apartment which is sweet. cheap, and with built-in friends :)
some serious pc geeking: I upgraded my pc to run OXBASH faster then installed alsorts of home built heatsinks and fans and overclocked the crap out of it all. Still the current calc has been running for 3 days and is about 40% done. I really need something faster and with about 4GB of ram. especially as when i return ill start the big one which will take ~7 times longer.
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Comments: 9 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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contrary to common sense, what with the flooding and all, I decided to go to the peak district with a couple of friends over the weekend. The journey up was disturbing. I desperately wanted to sleep as we had left at 11pm once Chevis had finished work, but any time i nodded off the car would go BANG! and start aquaplaning as we hit another large patch of water at 80mph. Arriving at 2.30am in a tropical rainstorm at the Hope campsite I proceed to snap a tentpole and put it through the side of the tent. 5 hrs later we get up and make our way to Edale, a pretty little village from where we walk up the centre of a river for 2 hrs climbing the mini waterfalls and jumping from rock to rock. strangely absorbing all the gentle climbing moves and balancing acts. We see allsorts of beautiful natural phenomena from devils basins to cappuchino donuts building themselves in whirlpools and Iron heaps glistening away. Some fun mid-river bouldering challenges too.
At the river source starts the Peat bog. Jamie who is a mountain leader teaches us how to navigate in a desolate landscape which the bog definitely qualifies as. Crossing the peat bog is amusing. Faced with a crevasse about 15 ft wide and 20 deep, Jamie takes a running jump from the edge and just missing grabbing the heather of the bank, goes SPLAT, star shaped into the opposing peat wall and disappears bodily a foot into the loam. such crossings continue for an hour or so intersperced with various team splitting tricks to keep our bearings. regularly sinking to my waist is tough going and very muddy.
by early afternoon we arrive at Kinder Downfall next to the Pennine Way. A large amphitheatre with a waterfall in the middle. There is a route up the waterfall described as "an aquatic adventure, far too exciting if it has rained recently" perfect. We clamber over the rock piles and through some fun caves to the center of the waterfall and set up an abseil straight down the middle of the waterfall. Thank god for Gore-Tex and good boots. Unfortunately I have a large pack which combined with using unfamiliar abseil gear causes me to lean over backward mid-waterfall where the water flows up my legs to collect in my pants. Charlie and I go to climb a big tufa object around the amphitheatre that cant be reached anyway but the way we came. We back off when 6 gazillion midgies threated to siphon off the remaining blood from my already dehydrated body and stop us being able to concentrate on rope work. We scramble to a good vantage and watch Chevis and Jamie thrashing their way back up the waterfall and screaming at the cold. Quite a few hikers and some bemused sheep have stopped to watch the sillyness too. meeting up at the top we make lots of tea, pour the water from our boots at set off for the 4 hr walk back to the car around Jacobs Ladder followed by a couple of sheep clearly expecting more entertainment.
que some pub, a bottle of port and tall tales. bed at 9.30!
sunday we cant beleive our luck. it is a beautiful day. We manage four crags in the day and plenty of fab climbing. We go to Lancefield which is so pretty and get to see some guru ascending a very famous climb up an arete in the middle of a quarry lake. I second jamie on a monsterously difficult overhanging climb with some thrilling exposure at Millstone. It takes me nearly 30 minutes to second him and he has to practically winch me at one point. Spanked and full of Eccles cakes, we pick up Charlie no.2 who has been doing her SPA assessment and head home.
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Comments: Do it bitch!.
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Watch my colleague Jim Al-Khalili introduce the new series he is presenting for channel 4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijpOxdq-hvA
My huge claim to fame is that I gave him a lift to the train station whilst he was off to Las Vegas to film part of this.
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Comments: Do it bitch!.
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"America hasn't changed me" I proclaimed, lying back in my chair with my North Face trainers on the desk, a Chicago T-shirt on and and a Yale baseball cap back-to front.
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Comments: 3 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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Thursday, June 14th, 2007
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Today I am jet-lagged to buggery and practically hallucinating, sleep however is a) not forthcoming, b) for the weak.
I can tell I'm back in the UK through the mental fog because the weather is shit and everyone looks ill. Rather a large delay at the airportcoming back (meaning I missed the night flight to sleep). Added to me arriving early I spent the best part of a day at JFK watching planes potter around. Its a pity as I could have spent the time in NYC. Never mind, I'll be going back in a few weeks to do that all important shopping etc.
So far today I have sat in front of the MSc review board discussing a course verification which did make me want to sleep, and appear to be missing a meeting with someone important right now as I think he might have nipped off to Oslo for a few months.
Had an awesome weekend after the conferences though- - got introduced to Edward 40 hands, where you duct-tape a 40oz beer to each hand and have to finish them before any natural functions need tending. Ryan and I also climbed some of Whitney Gilman ridge. Went hideously off route onto some hard as nails stuff and after 6 hrs decided to ab down and retreat. Have some great pics of us on the huge wall - we take up about 6 pixels.
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Comments: 1 bitchslap - Do it bitch!.
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So now I have driven from Connecticut up towards the Canadian border with Ryan, Garns and Steve to Colby-Sawyer college for the Gordon Research Conference. Its a weird one, in that you are not allowed to use anything you see here and you can present ideas that may be completely outrageous or just plain wrong and have no repercutions.
The college is for super-rich types and only has 1000 students on the whole grounds. We were terrified that it was a dry town and so bought a trunk full of beer before hand. This is not the case and indeed the beer is actually free :)
The weather has gone from 30 degree heat to pretty cold. I feel a bit bad as I told steve he would need nothing other than shorts and sandals lol. never mind, the boy needs toughening up.
The last set of lectures was hilarious - mostly because on of the guys who had the microphone to take questions went off to the bathroom but took the mic. without turning it off. awful, awful sounds followed along with the talk nearly having to be stopped because of the laughter.
The Yale workshop was pretty good in the end - I learnt lots and made loads of new contacts which should prove fruitful in the next cpl of months. I even got to try leading CatCrack at East Craig the day after. A hard 5.10 crack climb.
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Comments: 2 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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| Time: | 11:33 am. |
| Mood: |  energetic. |
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off to the US for the Yale workshop and Grodon conf. at 5am tomorrow. Poster printed, talk sorted, all the silly details american customs ask written down for them. taxi's both ends booked. awesome. I now just have to pack my climbing gear and relax.
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Comments: 2 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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Excellent weekend. What can I say about my sister getting married and looking so happy? Right next to the Cutty Sark too. Although not any more.
Also an excellent, slightly crazy party on saturday. probably the most outrageous ive been to. There is a huge inflateable cock in a set of stocks outside still. i really have no idea.
Getting set for America next week. Everything is booked I think. Just have to write a talk and make a poster which has to be laminated by wednesday.
Paddy asked if I want to go to Triumf in Vancouver in early July to take over and set up our high speed BaFl detectors for and experiment on 112Cd. It's gonna be over the dates I was planning on climbing in Austria, but this can be rearranged. I can take a few days at the end to explore plus hopefully do some waterskiing with Scott. Maybe even do a solo mountain route depending on how much luggage i can take.
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Comments: 1 bitchslap - Do it bitch!.
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as soon as I am back in the game at Surrey I am booking flights away again. This time back to the US for a bit for some conferences. Im taking a cheeky couple of extra days to climb some big routes on Mt Cannon in NH at the end and then spend a day in NY (probably monday 11th ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) candlelight1228 ) now I just have to find time to do some work to present at the conferences. eek!
Sisters getting married tomorrow too. Should be a fantastic day :)
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Comments: 2 bitchslaps - Do it bitch!.
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