Jonathan Eisch’s Weblog

Some of you may be wondering about my sleep schedule, specifically why I’m always up so late. First of all, we only have limited time windows when a few old satellites slip above our horizion to provide us internet access. As much of my work depends on transfering data from one place to another, I need to be up during those time windows, which just happen to start around 1:00am. Secondly, it doesn’t really feel like I’m up late, because the sun is shining brightly in my window. You know how when you’re above the arctic circle (or below the antarctic circle) there is at least one day (24 hours) of daylight. Well, here at 90 degrees south latitude, the sun just circles. It doesn’t go up or down at all (besides the ‘up and down’ caused by the tilt of the earth). So, a couple days ago, when you in the northern hemisphere had your winter solstice, the sun was at it’s highest for us. It’s all down hill from here. At the end of the summer, the sun will just circle the horizon in one long sunset, before the pole goes into a 6 month night time. Kinda strange, huh? Anyway, the base is set up so that we can work whatever shifts we want, and I still usually get 8 hours of sleep and an afternoon nap.

Ok, about Christmas day: I got up around 10:00, and rolled out of bed in time for the “Race Around the World.” As you can imagine, I was still a little tired, so… let’s just say I didn’t win. I did get a nifty t-shirt for participation, so that’s good. After that, we went to brunch, which was good, after the 2+ mile race. As today is a holiday, and everyone has off, I avoided work, and watched the end of a two part movie with Jeff and Shigeru. It was a Japanese movie, so Shigeru (who is Japanese) and Jeff (who sometimes pretends to be) filled me in on all the subplots and symbolism. I’m still having trouble with the concept of having to think about a cartoon. I wish I had a few tapes of “Ghost Busters.” Oh well.

After that, the three of us went to the galley for coffee and had a long discussion that bridged many topics. A good thing for an easy going christmas afternoon. After that, we had dinner, which, as always, was yummy.

Things were pretty around the base after that, as many people were kinda spent after last night (can’t let that extra wine go to waste.) So, I went down to BOS (Back Of Science, where AMANDA and IceCube computers are) and talked with the guys down there, worked on some problems and shot the breeze. Did that until MIDRATS (MIDnight RATionS) at 1:00 where we had some good mexican food (I really like these battered fried chillies, I forget what they’re called). After that, I went back to my room to get some work done. I’ve been pretty productive so far, and am almost done with one of my tasks.

By the way. My family sent me a bag of goodies, only to be opened on Christmas. As you can see from my pictures (with the Santa hat), I interpreted “on Christmas” rather liberally. Anyway, now my room is decorated with a little green christmas tree and three little snow men (but I think I lost their noses somewhere between Wisconsin and here.). I also got (believe it or not) two Milky Way Midnight candy bars. It’s like someone read my mind. I really, really, like them.

Anyway, I’ve finished with my work for this evening, so I think I’m going to head off to bed. G’night!

-Jonathan

This entry was posted on Friday, December 26th, 2003 at 4:14 am and is filed under Pole 03-04. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.