Main Square Music Festival success!
But first work-related stuff. So after setting up the interferometer, work has been kind of slow. We've got most of it figured out, but to show how effective the home-made target system is, we're going to test it against a more manufactured model. Right now my workdays consist of traveling around with the two French Mathieu's and talking to the mechanics (rather listening to the mechanics and Mathieus talk as they only speak French). So far, we progress little by little.
Arras time!
Drew Chrissy and myself arrived around 6 in the afternoon of Friday for Arras. After a walk to the campsites and retrieval of bracelets for the festival, we set up the tent quickly and then went to see the music, after joining up with Kierstin and Zak. We listened to some of garbage, and then Mir arrived, so I showed him where the tents were. Here's my thoughts on the artists. (Kind of a long and tedious list, so don't read if you don't care.)
Friday
Garbage (19:30)- They were older than I thought they were, but they put out a good sound. Not exactly my style of music and the lead singer's pants were distracting.
Brigitte (20:45)- Very French. But a lot of fun too. Two girls sang and they had very coordinated movements.
Kasabian (21:15)- They were the first real rock band. Very entertaining to watch. Good times had by all.
The XX (23:10)- Too chill for their own good. Good music, good vibes, but not exciting enough to headline.
Justice (01:10) Fantastic. I don't normally like DJ shows, but the beats and the lights were incredible. I'd forget there were other people around.
Chase and Status (2:10)- Fun show, but the best song was a cover of Killing in the Name of. Good cool-down after the might of justice.
Saturday
Skip the Use (15:05)- Very british, very punk, very fun.
Rain delay (~16:30-17:10)
not real, but for us, yes.
Miles Kane (18:00)- Good stuff, the songs just kind of sounded the same after a while.
The Kooks (18:05)- Very british again. Very nice.
Florence+The Machine (19:35)- Incredible. Everything I hoped for. Florence brought the sun out, she was fun and lively and despite what Zak says, I enjoyed her crowd interactions. Her voice is incredible. I wanted to sing along, but felt I shouldn't out of respect. It was that good. Also her performance passed by so quickly for me because of how much I enjoyed it.
Pearl Jam (21:30)- One of the best rock bands brought the rock. Even though, I'm not too familiar with their stuff, they were great showmen and had great stuff. Lot of fun.
Birdy Nam Nam (00:10)- Again a DJ show, but there were four of them, and it was incredible. The lights weren't as good as Justice, but the beats were incredible (I guess you can do that with four people).
Sunday
The All-American Rejects (15:10)- Fun concert. Definitely one of the more American feeling shows. Only drawback, they led with their proverbial left by opening with Dirty Little Secret. Just seems like a bad idea.
Michael Kiwanuka (15:15)- Surprise find of the festival. Good old fashioned grooves and blues type stuff. I really enjoyed his show.
Gaz Coombes (15:45)- Would have liked them more if I could have figured out what they were about.
Wiz Khalifa (17:20)- Great concert and show. Lot of fun, and he seemed to really enjoy himself which helps. Also kept giving shout outs to his band which was very nice of him, I thought.
Noah and the Whale (18:05)- Probably would have really enjoyed them, but I was anxious to see Incubus.
Incubus (19:00)- Great show. It was nice to know most of the songs again. I had fun with it, I just wish the crowd was more into it.
The Mars Volta (21:15)- My second favorite show (first was Florence). They were just feeling it and went crazy on stage for the whole time. Tons of fun, even though I didn't recognize any of the songs. Also produced my favorite quote from the festival. The lead singer came out and declare "I'm here to eat your cheeseburger ass. That's right, your ass is made of cheeseburgers. Now bend over and let me take a bite!"
Blink-182 (22:50)- Good for the first couple of songs, then I remembered why anyone only listens to them in middle school. Cause they just sound whiney. So we left.
M83 (23:10)- Good vibes, but we were tired, so we went to bed so we could get up at 4:30. (We being Zak and myself, as we were the only ones brave enough to handle three days of Arras goodness.)
For a quote see the one from the Mars volta.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Man food is good.
Bonjour!
Much like the song suggests, they gave me all the food I could want today and then some. All with the added benefit of having to do no work. My adviser didn't get in until 11 today, and I had a meeting at Ecole Polytechnique (the school affiliated with where I work) in which they outlined their graduate programs in a shameless plea to get us to attend them. Which made me feel nice to be wanted, but I probably won't be attending here. The graduate programs that interest me are all taught in French... and I still can't speak that language. So somewhere else for masters, maybe PhD, sorry mom. We'll see though.
The food though. That's what's important here. The food was free. And good, cause it's French food, and they don't mess around. They had quiches that were bomb and a brownie that was thick and chocolate and delicious. Plus wine, apple orange and grapefruit (very bitter) juice, sparkling water, and coffee. All for free. Which made it all better. I'm growing to love the coffee here and being able to indulge it in free was awesome.
Then when I returned to LOA (the lab where I work), there was a barbecue kind of thing. It was not like BBQ back home though. No sauce. Just chicken on sticks, some salad things, and couscous and wine again. They brought out cheeses and breads and fruits later. Then came the desserts and they just never stopped bringing them out and they were so good. All that to say, this was the first time I've been overly full after eating, so full I can skip dinner. It never happens here normally, the portions are too small. It's nice for a change, but I don't know how I eat like this back home. I hope it's something that stays with me. I feel better and healthier here. Plus I've run the past couple of days which is nice.
"Riches do not profit on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
-Old Hebrew Proverb.
Much like the song suggests, they gave me all the food I could want today and then some. All with the added benefit of having to do no work. My adviser didn't get in until 11 today, and I had a meeting at Ecole Polytechnique (the school affiliated with where I work) in which they outlined their graduate programs in a shameless plea to get us to attend them. Which made me feel nice to be wanted, but I probably won't be attending here. The graduate programs that interest me are all taught in French... and I still can't speak that language. So somewhere else for masters, maybe PhD, sorry mom. We'll see though.
The food though. That's what's important here. The food was free. And good, cause it's French food, and they don't mess around. They had quiches that were bomb and a brownie that was thick and chocolate and delicious. Plus wine, apple orange and grapefruit (very bitter) juice, sparkling water, and coffee. All for free. Which made it all better. I'm growing to love the coffee here and being able to indulge it in free was awesome.
Then when I returned to LOA (the lab where I work), there was a barbecue kind of thing. It was not like BBQ back home though. No sauce. Just chicken on sticks, some salad things, and couscous and wine again. They brought out cheeses and breads and fruits later. Then came the desserts and they just never stopped bringing them out and they were so good. All that to say, this was the first time I've been overly full after eating, so full I can skip dinner. It never happens here normally, the portions are too small. It's nice for a change, but I don't know how I eat like this back home. I hope it's something that stays with me. I feel better and healthier here. Plus I've run the past couple of days which is nice.
"Riches do not profit on the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."
-Old Hebrew Proverb.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Tuesdays are for hip-hop
Just heard this guy. Great stuff.
Short post today. Work was making a fourier transform of our data. It took most of the day, and I'm not even sure it's right. Also had to find out about the Nyquist criterion for work at home or homework, but not really homework you know.
Ratatouille is again delicious. Why does nobody ever remember that Pixar movie?
As suggested by the Chris Chapman, perhaps cyclops visor is a polarizer, which cuts the intensity of the light to a manageable degree. Also would explain why it glows red. Food for thought.
"If you smile at me, I will understand. Because that is something everyone everywhere does in the same language."
-Crosby Stills and Nash (and sometimes Y...oung)
Short post today. Work was making a fourier transform of our data. It took most of the day, and I'm not even sure it's right. Also had to find out about the Nyquist criterion for work at home or homework, but not really homework you know.
Ratatouille is again delicious. Why does nobody ever remember that Pixar movie?
As suggested by the Chris Chapman, perhaps cyclops visor is a polarizer, which cuts the intensity of the light to a manageable degree. Also would explain why it glows red. Food for thought.
"If you smile at me, I will understand. Because that is something everyone everywhere does in the same language."
-Crosby Stills and Nash (and sometimes Y...oung)
Monday, June 25, 2012
Monday Monday
Physics is a man's world.
So today I was joined by another high schooler and roughly the French equivalent of what I am. Both named Matthew (or Matchieu depending on if you say it French like or not), so the name thing should be easy. They both speak pretty good English too, which is nice. So the French go to high school, then this really intense prep school, then they jump to getting their masters and Phd. I think it takes roughly the same time for both of us though. So Matthew Sr was there first but I didn't know he was coming so I thought he was a high schooler and tried explaining very simple things, but it turns out he's very smart and attends one of the best schools in France for theoretical physics and math. He gets paid to go to school. That's how good it is. Chuh. It was kind of frustrating sometimes cause he'd mess with the set up I had built all last week which momentarily put a flash of terror in me cause he didn't know what he was doing, or I thought he didn't. It was all good though.
Today our intrepid crew really didn't do a whole lot. Rod got the motor on the target running and got it rotating so we were able to see how that affected the fringes, which was really cool, because the thing is already pretty damn stable. It just needs a little more tweaking and it'll be there. We also messed with the filter to balance the arms of the interferometer to make sure the contrast is as good as we can make it. That was the biggest thing we did today. Good day. Then I ran and ate and read Stephen King's The Gunslinger, part 1 of the Dark Tower series. It's really good.
"Long days and pleasant nights"
-The gunslinger
So today I was joined by another high schooler and roughly the French equivalent of what I am. Both named Matthew (or Matchieu depending on if you say it French like or not), so the name thing should be easy. They both speak pretty good English too, which is nice. So the French go to high school, then this really intense prep school, then they jump to getting their masters and Phd. I think it takes roughly the same time for both of us though. So Matthew Sr was there first but I didn't know he was coming so I thought he was a high schooler and tried explaining very simple things, but it turns out he's very smart and attends one of the best schools in France for theoretical physics and math. He gets paid to go to school. That's how good it is. Chuh. It was kind of frustrating sometimes cause he'd mess with the set up I had built all last week which momentarily put a flash of terror in me cause he didn't know what he was doing, or I thought he didn't. It was all good though.
Today our intrepid crew really didn't do a whole lot. Rod got the motor on the target running and got it rotating so we were able to see how that affected the fringes, which was really cool, because the thing is already pretty damn stable. It just needs a little more tweaking and it'll be there. We also messed with the filter to balance the arms of the interferometer to make sure the contrast is as good as we can make it. That was the biggest thing we did today. Good day. Then I ran and ate and read Stephen King's The Gunslinger, part 1 of the Dark Tower series. It's really good.
"Long days and pleasant nights"
-The gunslinger
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Notes on Mortality
Fleet fox time
So I visited the Musee d'Orsay and I saw some new art this time than last time, and it was incredible. Absolutely fantastic. I loved it in other words. Also mass in Notre Dame is incredible. Even if it's in a language I can't understand. When the organ plays it reverberates through you. Fantastic. Also the couple who sat next to me are related to people from Edmond. What are the chances?
I also visited the Pantheon. My advice? Skip it. Unless if you do the panoramic view, then maybe. Although I can't imagine it's any better then Eiffel. It's not that much more impressive on the inside than the outside and is costly, compared to what you get. It's roughly the same price as the Louvre or the Musee d'Orsay and has less than half the stuff. The only exceptional things are the graves/crypts of Voltaire and Rosseau. I have to wonder how they'd feel about that. It gave me the creeps. Since the internet is written in ink, let me just go ahead and get this out there: Don't bury me in stone. Don't just let me sit somewhere for all eternity decaying in some box until some future archaeologist (although they'll probably call it something else) digs me up. Ahohhno. (<- shudder noise)
Also Zak and Josh cook some mean grub.
"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."
-Albert Einstein
So I visited the Musee d'Orsay and I saw some new art this time than last time, and it was incredible. Absolutely fantastic. I loved it in other words. Also mass in Notre Dame is incredible. Even if it's in a language I can't understand. When the organ plays it reverberates through you. Fantastic. Also the couple who sat next to me are related to people from Edmond. What are the chances?
I also visited the Pantheon. My advice? Skip it. Unless if you do the panoramic view, then maybe. Although I can't imagine it's any better then Eiffel. It's not that much more impressive on the inside than the outside and is costly, compared to what you get. It's roughly the same price as the Louvre or the Musee d'Orsay and has less than half the stuff. The only exceptional things are the graves/crypts of Voltaire and Rosseau. I have to wonder how they'd feel about that. It gave me the creeps. Since the internet is written in ink, let me just go ahead and get this out there: Don't bury me in stone. Don't just let me sit somewhere for all eternity decaying in some box until some future archaeologist (although they'll probably call it something else) digs me up. Ahohhno. (<- shudder noise)
Also Zak and Josh cook some mean grub.
"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."
-Albert Einstein
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Half Weekend
Live from Paris, it's Caleb Holt!
I just wanted to say that.
I'll get to it now. Ok so on Friday, we finished our set up, and took pictures of our results. Then we used a program to analyze the contrast, or basically how good our fringes were. The dark should be completely distinct from the light parts in theory, but that's not how it works in reality. However our fringes were pretty good, especially the ones we took later in the day. It was also Michael, my high school student's last day, which was unfortunate, but I replace him next week. Hopefully I get his name right the first time. Anyway here are the pictures of what I've been working on all week
Set up (hard to explain. See previous posts.)
Fringe patterns on computer. Look nice don't they?
After all that, I got out of work a bit early, which was nice. And I discovered the bookstore Shakespeare and Company with Kierstin. It was incredible. To think Joyce had been there, and worked there was too much. But he wasn't in the actual physical building of it because the original closed down or something, but the owner of this one bought the name or had it sold to him or something. Anyway, I feel the spirit of the thing lives on. It was incredible. I bought Crime and Punishment and the third book of the Dark Tower series, which I'm now reading thanks to Zak. It's pretty good so far. Much better than the book I was reading, but I felt I had to see that one through for some misguided reason. After a lovely evening in Paris, there's a lot of those, I went to bed with plans to go to the Normandy beaches on the morrow. But fate decided against that. Or really my lack of planning led me to be dumb and get off the train two stops early. But I did get on the train which almost didn't happen due to my tardiness. Like I literally got on and the train started moving. It was awesome. Felt like being in an old Western. Except for the part where everyone speaks French. So I got off two stops early cause the place had normandy in the name. I was still like 2 hours from the D-Day beaches so I messed that up, so I did what any person would do and enjoyed the place where I was. < Kind of applies to the situation. > I discovered a Notre Dame there, and a free museum which was a bit of a let down. But the best part was definitely the rattatouille or however you spell it. Like the Pixar movie no one remembers. There were also really pretty hills there which I climbed. And two jets that decided to be awesome and put on an improntu aerial show. So that was my grand misadventure as I have termed it. Here's the proof.
The other other Notre Dame
Inside
Crazy organ
Maccaroon (delicious)
Hôtel de Ville
Awesome hill
Flowers
Flowers closer (plus bee)
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