it's...

happy thanksgiving! i'm heading off to Florida in a few hours, but i did stick around long enough to witness the first snowfall this year. it's amazing how quickly i can go from reserved genuflection, staring out my window at the stunning beauty of an endless blanket of white, to this skittish need to go out there and destroy it all... hopefully i'm not alone on this, or need therapy.

it's still hard for me to remember that when i'm playing in the snow, i'm really playing in a giant puddle of water. now i'm back up at Tech, pants (with rather soaked seat) drying on the radiator. eventually i'll learn, right?

in case you have no idea of what a "turducken" is... i was first introduced to it by John Madden. every thanksgiving there's football to go wtih the turkey and stuffing, and Madden (who used to call Thanksgiving day games) started the tradition of creating this massive six- or eight-legged super turkey stuffed with duck, stuffed with chicken (also known as TURDUCKEN). he'd give out legs to the best players that day. now he didn't invent the turducken, but he's likely its foremost modern-day popularizer.

in other news/gossip: i arrived at my cousin's show just as the band was ending their set. most incongruously perfect timing ever... sarah said she didn't have the greatest birthday but she must have had a little fun. she drunk dialed an old family friend from Saudi Arabia in the wee hours, completely freaking her out. i guess getting sarah more alcohol for her birthday would be a bad idea... got two real good leads on apartments in noyes/ridge area. i'm really looking forward to getting a new place. not that i don't love tim as a roommate, but i want a place that feels like my own and i think eric and i shall be really good roommates. next calendar year looks like an upswing in the general state of things... next quarter's classes: classical mechanics, quantum mechanics and general relativity. you know GR is gonna be fun cause it's on a tuesday...

when i get home i'm giving my dad a big hug.

• my sister Sarah turns 20 today. happy birthday!
  
• i have a new roommate, woot. now to find a new apartment. preferably one with a kitchen.
  
• i'm on a talking heads kick. the Name of the Band is Talking Heads is an amazing album (at least the newly released version is). i'm especially endeared to "Love -> Building On Fire"
  
• saw The Incredibles with cameron last night; it was everything i hoped it would be. i highly recommend seeing it if you haven't already. pixar just knows how to make movies. like aaron sorkin knows how to write tv series.
  
• thank you joe for leaving all your dvds behind: especially West Wing and Sports Night.
  
• i'm working public observing tomorrow night. come if it's not raining. saturn is rising early enough now that I can actually show it to people, and believe me, it's quite something.
  
• my new roommate has the same birthday as my littlest sister. also, you know we're gonna get along 'cause he's one of the 22nds.
  
• the Bulls are so bad right now it hurts. Mike and I need to relive the glory years sometime... sometime soon. (Dec 3rd we're seeing Bulls vs. Miami. it's free ski-cap night. at least we'll have something to cover our faces with on our way out.)
  
• my cousin Tim is playing a gig with his friends band The Cynics this saturday night at Gunther Murphy's Music Room (1638 W. Belmont). been too long since i've heard him wail on that trumpet of his. doors at 9pm. friends of jack get their first drink compliments of jack.
  
• very randomly i got in touch with a guy in korea who's sending me a copy of Hei-Kyung Hong's Arias, which i have been looking for ever since freshman year when i borrowed Elisa's copy and managed to break it. somehow she must have forgotten she lent it to me, so while she's never asked me for it back, i've continually been searching for a copy of it. now he's mailed me a copy of it and an extra mix cd and after i get it i'm to mail him back payment which will be spelled out on the receipt. this person has been so nice i'm suspicious, but finally i'll be able to get elisa her cd back, and just in time for her to play it for the newest Laird.

so my good friend Aaron from back in the Jeddah days is a budding archeologist who also has a keen interest in the foreign service. so he's been trolling through US government job offerings and he came across the following:

Job Announcement, Mass Graves Unit, Archaeologist
The Department of Justice is conducting an investigation in Iraq that involves the excavation and analysis of human remains from mass grave sites. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, acting for the Regimes Crimes Liaison Office of the DOJ, administers the Mass Graves Unit in Iraq. USACE is seeking qualified Archaeologists to work on the Grave Site Crew for the Mass Graves Unit. Archaeologists will excavate human remains from mass graves sites and assist in gathering and evaluating evidence to be used in litigation against members of the former Iraqi regime. The Mass Graves Unit successfully conducted its first field season in the summer and fall of 2004. The second deployment to Iraq is planned to begin in January 2005 and extend to June 2005. All Grave Site Crew personnel will be on-site in Iraq by February 5, 2005. Be advised that Iraq is a hostile, dynamic environment; extensive precautions are taken to ensure the safety of all personnel.

Successful applicants will be asked to serve a minimum of six to eight months, the majority of time outside of the United States. If an applicant cannot deploy for entire period, then the applicant must work on the project for a minimum of 70 days. Successful applicants must be available immediately (January 2005) for deployment training and orientation. It is anticipated that up to 10 missions will be completed by the Mass Graves Unit, and the successful applicant may be invited to participate in future missions.

Archaeologists must possess a Master's degree or Ph.D. in archaeology or anthropology. The successful candidate will demonstrate extensive and practical background in site excavation. Previous mass grave excavation experience and/or familiarity in gathering and evaluating evidence for legal use is preferred. A background in working with human remains is also preferred. Archaeologists will be salaried, and transportation to/from Baghdad and the excavation site will be provided. Archaeologists will be living on-site in provided tents. Daily meals and security by the U.S. Armed Forces or Coalition Forces will be provided.

Successful applicants will have to undergo physical examinations and receive permission to participate from the U.S. Army Civilian Replacement Center (CRC). Interested individuals are asked to provide a complete curriculum vitae to USACE, St. Louis District, no later than December 3, 2004.

Aaron, i don't care how bad the job market is, don't take this job.

the highlights of yesterday, a day on the set of nonsense, with deference to chronology: i actually made 6 am call and got blueberry pancakes and coffee. got to shoot the shit a bit with the grip crew while playing "stunt grip". jamie showed up and put crazies in carol's hair. somehow this made carol sound even more southern. then two unnamed producers managed to do something i didn't think was physically possible. there's a low metal gaurd rail that separates cameron's building from the neighbors. and somehow one of the metal posts managed to get wedged between the front right wheel of the van and the wheelbase. well, i was least important crew member. so i got to see if i could fix it. i still think i could have if i had had a hacksaw, but sadly in 2 hours all i managed to do was remove large portions of the metal guard rail with my new 300mm steal spanner. John Ross finally made the call to AAA. turns out all i needed was a bigger jack. the van freed, the essentials went off to the beach and i crashed on cam's couch for an hour. Arielle came in and woke me up and next thing i know i'm up in the northern suburbs looking for this "field" to go run around in as a flasher with black umbrella. by the time we found the field (which was really a forest, thank you location-scout eric) there was half an hour till sundown. cameron managed a great Ed Wood impersonation and in a flurry of one-take, handheld cinematographoria it was in the can and the day was done (and i could put my shoes and pants back on). i have a great deal of newfound respect for John Ross; he's very good at what he does. here's hoping that cam's footage comes back spectacularly.

i've always been proud of the fact that i've never broken a bone, worn braces or had to wear glasses. my lefthandedness continues to define the core of my person. and most people don't know this, but my two back incisors are symmetrically chipped. of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that my dad is on day 4 of 7 in his third round of chemo and my middle sister rachel has just come down with mononucleosis. this will no doubt create some tension (see definition 3a) at home, as my dad will be neutropenic through thanksgiving and rachel is going to be a life-long carrier of the Epstein-Barr virus. remember how dad told you not to kiss boys... (not that that's how rachel got mono). fortunately, mono isn't airborne, but rachel will still be spending the bulk of her time across the street at grandma's recovering. and my mom gets to manage things.

once things are back to "normal" at home, i'm taking her on a vacation. maybe we'll finally go diving in the keys.

alright, time for a little iraq rant.

"In Fallujah, only occasional tracer fire and the sound of crying babies and hysterical laughter played eerily by US psychological operations forces could be heard." This from an AFP report you can read here.

this has kinda set me off. i don't know why i was so naive as to think that the army wouldn't do something like this. justify it by claiming its saving the lives of american soldiers, but i can only guess at the kind of irreperable psychological damage done to the 50,000 or so remaining civilian residents of Fallujah. it's certainly its own kind of terrorism. if the army just wants to drown out prayer calls, perhaps blasting the benedictus over loud-speakers would be more appropriate.

it's not fair for me to criticize the soldiers risking and giving their lives in this assault on the city; because of them i'll probably be fortunate enough to never test my courage as they have. but i can lament what's being lost here. it's more than the Peggy-O's back home. this was once a city of 500,000. the people remaining there are either militants or have done so because they have no other place to go. many refugees have returned to the city because the US siege has lasted for months. now the times they are a-changin'; but who knows what will be left to go back to for these people. how much would it cost to build 500,000 homes in fallujah?

last night i had the strongest dream, which i keep having, about seeing my old compound being attacked by masked gunmen. well, i'll save that for another post. perhaps after i've taken the time to do a little backstory on saudia city.

back to Fallujah. Fadl al-Badrani has been doing a great job of providing eyewitness accounts throughout the recent fighting. It goes to show that you can tell the world what's going on in Iraq without being "embedded."

something worth noting from Mr. Badrani's account was the keen interest the people of Fallujah have in the results of the US elections. while i know many, many people in the US reacted strongly to that outcome, for the people of Fallujah it meant the certainty of an assualt on their city within the week. i bet they didn't share Max Cleland's affection for Kerry though: "Tonight, I'd like to let you know, that even before I met John Kerry, he was my brother. Even before I knew John Kerry, he was my friend. Even before I spoke with John Kerry, he gave me hope." yep, max, that hope is gone now. W has four more years to go tell it on the mountain. (a completely random aside: isn't it "funny" how american traditionalists always seem to have the morally umabiguous "good guys" and "bad guys" and how arabic fundamentalists always seem to have their "greater satan" and "lesser satan." also note the interchangeability of "fundamentalists" and "traditionalists")

do you think the people in Fallujah know the catchy names of all the bombs we're throwing down at them? the diasy cutter, the sparrow, the paveway, the tomahawk, the moab. and i really despise how the military gives anglicized codenames to everything. i read the main roadway to fallujah is called "michigan". me with my chicago savvy i can only assume it's been ironically titled after the "magnificent mile." i wonder if the military-industrial complex in iraq has an address on bleecker street.

well, thats my iraq rant. still the sun is burning. the arrow of time is stuck in the wrong direction, and i haven't finished my problem set concerning accretion power in astrophysics. (this blog post grows weaker by the minute. blog ammendment #1: no more posting when i should be sleeping... unless its good.) i guess you guys should know that i didn't want this to be just me ranting, so i name dropped all the songs from the Simon & Garfunkel album from whence this post derives its name (oh, the tasteless games i play). all save one: "the sound of silence." i don't know if that's something the peaceful people of iraq have come to hope for or fear, but i believe there are peaceful people in iraq - though sadly, perhaps they will not find themselves in the majority - and i believe they are due.

i finally acquired bootlegs of the Wilco shows at the Auditorium Theatre which i missed for my observations. what a great three nights of shows! the band sounds as good as ever. it really is amazing how good their music is (and how it can always put my mood right). i even find myself finally growing to like what they did to the original, endlessly-catchy version of spiders.

as my purple folder will attest, i am now officially a "general crew memeber" for Nonsense, Cameron's independent study film. it should be a good time with good people this weekend, and just maybe the proper impetus to get my work done early for once.

and finally, an amazing annecdote from last night: i was walking back from tech at around 12:30am and noticed what a nice clear night it was. orion was quite striking. then i noticed some whisps of whiteness pass by. it took me a minute but i realized i was seeing an aurora in evanston! it was so amazing to watch the archs dance about the sky. i can't help but get this really humbling sense of awe when i'm lucky enough to get caught in such a moment. of course, after 20 minutes of watching out in the cold i went home and passed word to anyone who was up at that hour. i'm very impressed that the northern lights are visible from chicago. mark this down as one of the great benefits of living up north. i can only dream of how beautiful it must have been up at sleeping bear.

well, this is a lousy start to my blog, but it was a pretty lousy night. i've just returned from a great observing run in Green Bank (despite the non-detection result of the detection experiment). this night/morning has done nothing to dispell my fatalistic hypothesis that everytime i return from an observing trip (perhaps this pertains specifically to GBT trips) some really bad news follows trumping whatever equanimity i've managed to get while there. alas, enough of this crypticism. good things that happened tonight were Barack Obama becoming the distinguished gentleman from the land of lincoln, californians approving $3 billion for stem cell research, and my "home state" of florida raising the minimum wage to $6.15/hr. "the democratic party got their butts kicked" to paraphrase carville, but just like at the end of the empire strikes back, there's a glimmer of hope as Obama and Salazar play Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca heading for Tatooine having promised Leia that they will rescue the frozen Han (played by that other 48% of america).

don't forget what we're missing...