Sarah Phillips

The Final Post of the Year

It has been quite a year.  It is interesting for me to look back through my webdiary and see all the things that I have done and been involved with in this World Year of Physics.  I feel as though this New Year's Eve really is the closing of a chapter in my life and the start of a whole new life for me, since I am coming to the close of my years as a graduate student in the next few months and am looking for a job.  With all of the funding cuts in my field, it will be much harder for me to find a job, but I am sure that I will find a good one in the coming months and meet any new challenges as they come in this new year.

Being involved in the Quantum Diaries has been a great experience, an experience that gave me the opportunity to look at myself as well as to communicate the exciting things that I do in my strange quark research and in my everyday life at Jefferson Lab and the College of William and Mary.  I have enjoyed it so much that I am planning on continuing my blog in another location, which is yet to be decided.  A search on my name will turn up whatever new chaos I am creating, I am sure.

So, thank you for reading my rambling posts about the state of my life as a physicist in this World Year of Physics.  May the new year be filled with happiness for you all.

Best Wishes,

Sarah K. Phillips

:)  :)

New Year's Eve

It is New Year's Eve, and the snow is falling thickly and gracefully here in New Jersey.  The snow is that beautiful sort of snow that falls in large snowflakes and sparkles when it reaches the ground.  Jason and I had a riotous snowball fight (I won, at least so I told him, hee hee) and then we enjoyed walking around in the falling snow.  I never make new year's resolutions since I think that the practice is dumb, but if I do make one this year, it will be to have more snowball fights in the future.

The pictures are all of the yard and woods around Jason's parents' house.  They have a little lighted tree in their yard, and since I love the way that the lights shine through the blanket of fresh snow that covers them, I decided to put a picture of that here as well.  :)

Tonight we will celebrate the coming of the new year with close friends (including Jason-with-a-K), playing games, enjoying yummy food and drink, and hanging out.  What better way to start off the new year? 

Absolutely Devilish

Last night Jason took me to go and do something we have wanted to do for a long time: watch the New Jersey Devils squash the Washington D.C. Capitals in their home arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  Our boys came through and beat them 7 to 2.  Yay!  :)  There were even a bunch of fights, the first one suddenly breaking out less than three minutes into the game.  :D 

Jason and I had a wonderful time watching the game and hanging out.  Martin Brodeur is wonderful...  And Madden got a yummy breakaway goal that was way cool.  But I have to say that I miss Scott Stevens (and Jason misses Scott Niedermayer).  Yay Devils!  I love hockey.

After the game, Jason and I lingered on the top of the parking garage for the arena, where we had a spectacular view of the New York skyline.  While we were up there enjoying the view, we chatted about all the fun we have had playing hockey (we both played together on the physics department intramural floor hockey team at William and Mary). The night was pretty clear, so we had a great view of the Empire State Building, as well as all of those other unnamed buildings clustered around in a random fashion.

As you can see in the pictures that Jason's father took of us, Jason even let me wear one of his jerseys.  This made me really happy, even if it is way too big.   :) 

Go Devils!

[Credit: Devils logo borrowed from http://www.sportslogos.net.]

Godzilla's New Job

While wandering around in Pequannock, New Jersey with Jason, I discovered that Godzilla has a new career as a sushi chef!  Not quite as much fun as wrecking Tokyo on a regular basis, I am sure, but still pretty cool. 

Stuck!

Jason is supposed to fly here today since his winter break begins today, but he is stuck in the airport since all the flights have been delayed!  At least his flight hasn't been cancelled like two of mine were while I was visiting him (not yet, at least).  I really hope that he is able to fly out of there soon today, and that I can find out when I am supposed to pick him  up in Norfolk...

Ah, the joys and stresses of traveling... 

I am really looking forward to seeing him.  I hope that he gets here soon.

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Update at 8:30pm: Since Jason's first flight was delayed by two hours, he just barely missed his connecting flight to Norfolk.  He'll be on the next plane, but it comes in fairly late (11:00pm), so I'll be working at the lab until pretty late tonight.

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Update at 9:20pm: The connecting flight he is on has been delayed...another half-hour at least!!  Blah!

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Update on 12/16/05: Jason arrived at midnight.  Finally.  Yay!  :)

Funding Cuts

Jefferson Lab is facing huge cuts, like so much of the field right now.  I am feeling really discouraged about finding a job in this field, and this feeling just gets worse as I inch closer to graduation.  This shortsightedness in Washington is so very frustrating...

Christmas at Jefferson Lab

Last night, as I was leaving Jefferson Lab to head home, I stopped and took a picture of the Christmas tree in the atrium in Cebaf Center.  'Tis the season for lovely, festive-looking trees, after all.   Fa la la la la...

Christmas at William and Mary

This weekend was filled with Christmas cheer and traditions.  On Friday, I had the opportunity to enjoy Christmas a cappella vocal music spanning several centuries as I listened to the Virginia Chorale's yearly Christmas concert, and on Sunday I enjoyed the York River Symphony Orchestra's concert filled with wonderful holiday music.  I have always loved Christmas music, so I had really been looking forward to these concerts.

On Saturday night, I went with Vince to one of the most beloved of William and Mary traditions: the Yule Log Ceremony.  The ceremony has its roots in ancient yule log traditions, and at William and Mary, the students are all given holly twigs when they arrive at the ceremony to toss into the great blaze kindled with the yule logs in the Great Hall in the Wren Building at the end of the ceremony, which symbolizes tossing away all the past year's worries and hardships. (Here are some links to news stories about the ceremony in past years...)

The Yule Log Ceremony took place in the courtyard of the Wren Building, the night illuminated by wood fires burning in iron braziers.  During the ceremony, the Vice President of Student Affairs, Sam Sadler, read "'Twas the Night Before Finals", the W&M Choir and the Gentlemen of the College sang, readings about the meanings and significance of the holiday season from many of the religious and cultural organizations on the campus, and finally, the College President, Gene Nichol, read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" dressed as Santa Claus. 

The first part of the ceremony completed, the Yule Logs were passed through the crowds of students, so the students could brush their holly against the logs.  Unfortunately, the logs didn't go through most of the crowd.  In fact, Vince and I never even saw either of them until they were carried in the doors to the Great Hall!  Then came the long wait as all of us waited in line for our chance to get into the Great Hall to toss our holly sprig into the fire.  Disappointingly enough, some of the other students were rather rude about it (I got elbowed a couple of times by people entirely too greedy about getting their good luck), but Vince and I had a good time laughing about stuff as we slowly made our way to the Hall.

After waiting in line an hour, we finally made it to the Great Hall, greeted by the dulcet strains of "Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming" sung by the Gentlemen of the College.  Under the watchful eye of Queen Anne's coronation portrait, I tossed the holly that carried all the stresses and cares of the past year into the blazing yule log fire, and watched as they were quickly reduced to glowing embers that slipped through the grate and were gone.  It was a very satisfying feeling.  May all worries and stress pass away so quickly!

After Vince and I had tossed our sprigs of holly and watched the smoke of the past year's worries curl up the chimney as countless students have done through the past century, we left the Wren building and headed to the physics building, where a bunch of our friends and classmates were gathered to play Halo2 and hang out.  There were lots of people there when we arrived, and more of our friends made appearances as the news of the gathering spread by word-of-mouth (or ringing victory cries, since those were pretty loud).  Sadly, I couldn't stay for as long as I would have liked to, since I needed to clean up my little cottage because Jason will be arriving here in Virginia on the 15th and the Yule Log Ceremony had taken longer than I had expected, but I wanted to spend some quality time chatting with and heckling my friends as they attempted to fight their way to victory in a virtual world.  Josh, Keoki, Bryan, and Mike were really dominating the field of honor while I was there.  :)  We had a grand time, and we also made some plans to have some fun and games when Jason arrives, so I'll get to play more then.

Spending joyful time hanging out with dear friends while we all gleefully try to snuff each other out in Halo2...  Isn't hanging out with friends what holidays are all about?  :D

[Credits: Holly pictures from botanical.com and BBC gardening.  The ones of the statue of Lord Botetourt and the Wren Building are my own. ]

Coolness Points for G0!

I am gleeful today, because a photograph of my experiment in the forward angle mode is prominently featured on the official 2006 calendar of the American Physical Society!  :)  I am particularly tickled since the photograph shows the lovely cable-work that a group of us (including me) did after we had built and tested all the detectors and the finished octants were installed in Hall C.  Yay!  :)

The Ides of March

The new accelerator and experimental schedule for the next six months came out today, and the schedule says that the commissioning period for the next G0 measurement will begin on the Ides of March.

I keep wondering if the Nuclear Physics Experimental Scheduling Committee is trying to tell us something, but I guess as long none of us are attempting to take control of Rome, we are all in good shape.  :)

New Highly Fashionable Footwear for Physicists

Today Rachel (the Hall C secretary) poked her head in the office door and told me that the safety shoe truck would be here this afternoon, and that I needed to go and pick out my new steel-toed boots that I need to wear while working with lead bricks (I learned all this during my lead worker training course I took last month).  I was pretty excited about this, so I zipped off to the parking lot where the truck was. 

    The safety shoe truck is pretty cool.  It is an entire shoe store on wheels!  You climb up the little steps on the back, and once inside, you are surrounded by racks of shoes and seats to sit on while you try them on.  It was really cool.  The guy working there was really nice, and he told me which ones were women's shoes, and after gleefully looking them over, I selected a nice pair that look a lot like a pair of hiking boots I once had.   I tried them on and was so excited!  I have never had a pair of steel-toed boots before.  I thought that they would be these big, heavy, clunky, ugly, yellow things, but they had lots of pretty and cool steel-toed shoes!  I ended up getting the smallest size they make the shoes in, which did not surprise me at all since I have pretty tiny feet.  After I got back to my office, I modeled them for Julie and Vipuli.  :)  Vipuli even took the picture below for me!  Thanks Vipuli!

    So, I have my new steel-toed footwear, and I am ready to move around lead bricks to stack as shielding for the glory of Hall C and G0!  :)

Pirates and Blackbeard at Jefferson Lab!

While I was taking the photographs of the fall colors at Jefferson Lab that I posted last Thursday, I spotted a really cool bumper sticker on a car in the parking lot.  I took a picture of it so you could see it here.  I am inspired!  All I need is a ship and a crew and a parrot, and I will become a terror to all ships on the high seas!  Especially the ones that carry chocolate!  Arrggh!

Actually, I did not know that there was a Hampton Blackbeard Festival, but now that I know about it, I will be sure to go.  :)

Seeing this reminded me of a funny tee-shirt that my friend Klaus wore to one of the Halloween parties that I attended this year.  He went as a pirate, and the tee-shirt that he had on had a crazy plot on it that showed the correlation between the number of pirates on the high seas and global warming.  The plot clearly shows that as the number of pirates on the high seas have decreased, global warming has increased.  :D  So we should all do our part to combat global warming and become pirates, like the person with the cool bumper sticker.  Argh, matey!!

Credits: The original pirate plot I borrowed from http://www.venganza.org/, where it was a part of an open letter to the Kansas School Board about Intelligent Design.

The Holiday Season Begins

The holiday season is off to a great start in Williamsburg.  This past weekend I enjoyed an excellent concert given by William and Mary Women's Chorus, the William and Mary Choir, and the Botetourt Chamber Singers.  Such beautiful singing really gets one into the holiday spirit, although at times I was really tempted to sing along with them, since they sang several pieces that I had learned back in my days as a madrigal singer and a member of several choral groups at MSU.

The enthusiasm and joy of the season was furthered by the wonderful contra-dance that I went to on Saturday night in the lovely old community hall in Norge.   I had a wonderful time dancing the night away with friends, including quite a few people from Jefferson Lab, and I met a bunch of new people too, including a friend of Mike's named J.R. who turned out to be a good dancer and a physics person.  I have decided that I really love the Virginia Reel.  :) 

Sunday marked the Grand Illumination in Williamsburg.  This comes from an old English tradition of placing lighted candles in the windows of buildings to celebrate a special event, such as the monarch's birthday.  Then, there would be fireworks and cannons would be set off.  In Colonial Williamsburg in these modern days, the beginning of the holiday season is signaled by the Grand Illumination, when they light all the candles and Christmas trees in the historic section and then have an amazing fireworks display.  Actually, they have three displays simultaneously: a display at the Governor's Palace, at the Capitol, and at the Magazine (where the gunpowder and ammunition for the colony was stored in the good old days).  Well, a group of us, including Lisa, Vince, Mat, Jen, and Sarin, walked to the historic section and braved the crowds to watch the fireworks and the lighting of the candles and trees.  It was well worth it; the whole effect was wonderfully magical, and a great way to start off the season.

What a great way to start off one of my favorite times of the year! 

 

One Last Blaze of Fall Colors

The trees here at Jefferson Lab are putting on a last blaze of brilliant color before they shed their leaves.  I went out this afternoon and photographed some of the beautiful trees so that I could share their vivid brilliance here.  Aren't they magnificent?