"I Think I'll Go For a Walk Outside"

Sometimes, it really is worth it to leave the office at lunchtime. Eating at your desk only goes so far. It is especially worth it when the long absent sun decides to put in an appearance after over a week of rain and clouds.







Especially since the sun seems to have gone away again. At least, it has acknowledged that it still exists.

Bringing Things Into Focus

One of the things I really like playing around with on my camera is the focus and depth of field. I had an interesting time on Saturday shooting snaps in my parents' garden in Connecticut.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge

Despite the poor weather forecast, Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day, so I took myself and my new camera over to Mount Auburn Cemetery. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place (and a perfect example of the change in funerary customs at the end of the 19th century in America and Britain, ie. my imaginary PhD thesis.) I spent a couple of hours tooling around the cemetery listening to my audio tour and snapping photos here and there of things that caught my eye.

Speaking the Queen's English

When my Sister K doesn't understand something I have said, or, more often written (eg. in email), she asks me if what I was saying was "in British", because she doesn't "speak British".

Well, I guess I DO "speak British".

Tonight, I was casually looking at a new book by Phillip Pullman that I had purchased from Amazon.com and immediately focused in on the word "wrench" on the first page. My brain did the immediate translation - "spanner". I thought, "Something is wrong here. That word should be 'spanner.'" Hmmm. I flipped to the first few pages to find, sure enough, "First American Edition." Ha, knew it.

I still find it funny to glance back through the earlier Harry Potter books, which are translated into American English (the later ones aren't, for the most part.) It is funny reading the word "sweater", which I know would read "jumper" in the English edition. Lorry, lift, roundabout - my brain makes the adjustments. What I didn't realize is to what extent it has become unconscious.

They say that you will know when you are proficient in another language because you will sometimes dream in that language. I wonder if, tonight, I will dream of spanners, torches, and jumpers.

"One giant leap for mankind..."

In one of the more cool things that has happened to me since I started working at the 'Tute, my colleagues and I were invited to attend a portion of the programming of "Giant Leaps", the 40th anniversary celebration of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. We got to go to an interesting symposium, and we saw Neil Armstrong yesterday in person. SO COOL, and I don’t even like NASA or the space program.

It was interesting to hear these gentlemen talk about the political climate in the 60s surrounding their work and what the race to the moon really entailed in terms of building the technology. Space travel still was a big deal when I was young. I remember watching the space shuttle take off several times with my elementary school classmates. When the Challenger exploded, Sister Irene made an announcement over the school PA, and we spent our lunch time in her homeroom watching the news footage. That was the first time I remember seeing a newscaster (Dan Rather) get upset.

(A lot of people took photos during Neil Armstrong yesterday, and I didn't have my camera. But I remembered it today.)

Fun Times at the 'Tute

Photos from the 143rd Commencement of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, held on Friday, June 5, 2009.









The academic regalia really brightened up the day.

A Picture Can Say So Much

My friends JR and RH got married on Sunday in Ashland. This picture of the three of us is the epitome of 13 years of close friendship.