Tuesday, December 13, 2005

The New Mythologies

I love the trend of naming new celestial bodies after our pop culture icons.

Kuiper Belt Object Buffy

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Oklahoma Nutcracker

This has less to do with space, but oh well. My sister is in the Norman Ballet Company and will be performing in...

The Oklahoma Nutcracker
Sooner Theater (101 E. Main Street in Norman)
December 17th and 18th


To order tickets please call the box office at: (405) 326-9147
OR
Print this page to mail in as your order form.

Seating Chart of the Sooner Theatre

Saturday, December 17th
Sand Plum Fairy Tea Party, 2:30pm
Children and Adults $15

Ballet Performance, 2pm and 8pm
Children 12& under Main Floor $12
Adults Main Floor $15
Choice Balcony $15
Open Balcony $10

Sunday, December 18th
Sand Plum Fairy Tea Party, 2:30pm

Children and Adults $15

Ballet Performance, 2pm
Children 12& under Main Floor $12
Adults Main Floor $15
Choice Balcony $15
Open Balcony $10

"All seats are reserved and non-refundable.
To fully appreciate and enjoy these performances (and out of consideration for other audience members), the Norman Ballet Company suggests that CHILDREN SHOULD BE AT LEAST TWO YEARS OF AGE to attend the following production."

About:
"Set to the traditional Tchaikovsky score, the story has been adapted to include historical Oklahoma persons and natural treasures: the King Snake, the Sand Plum Fairy – you will fall in love with Mama Armadillo and her babies! Coming from New York City, professional dancers Juliana Scarpelli and Kyle Coffman will perform their spectacular pas de deux as the Sand Plum Fairy and her Prince. It is sure to become a family tradition for all to see!"
(from the website)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, October 28, 2005

back in OKC

I'm back in Moore safely. After sooo many security checks, you wouldn't believe and various other drama, but I'm here now. Yay!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

yeah, so...

I'm not so much "on my way" to OKC now. I'm more "sitting at ISU." Again.

There's this whole big thing with this little regional airline I was taking to Brussels (then on to Chicago, to OKC on American Airlines). They do not allow a laptop bag in addition to a carry on, unlike every other airline ever. So (even though I was two hours early) there wasn't time (or option, really) to repack, and they wouldn't let me pay for an extra checked bag. Not an option. They did reschedule my flights to be the same exact flights, one day later and for free. That was cool. So I'm not home today, but will be on Friday afternoon.

In better news... thank you so much to the guys who came out for tarte flambee last night! I know that you all had a lot of work to do on the projects, and I appreciate you taking time out to see me for (what should have been) the last time for a long while. Y'all* are awesome! As soon as I get home, I'll post some of the many many pics I took. After I post all those other pics that I need to put up here.

JSC

* This is an Oklahoman phrase that I think I never** used the whole time I was at ISU.
** Except maybe that one time when I could only speak in a raspy Southern accent.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

oh, well

Until Hello starts to work for me again (in the US, maybe?), I can't post more pictures. I'm working on a write-up, though.

Last chance for anyone to request anything from Strasbourg...

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

back for a few

I am back in Strasbourg until Thursday morning. I'll do a picture and word thing over Luxembourg and Paris... maybe tomorrow. Probably when I get back to OK. More later.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

paris

Doing the Paris thing, tourist-style. Luxembourg was very lovely. Many many many many pictures to post when I'm back in the SXB (airport slang for Strasbourg) on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Talk to you then.
JSC

Saturday, October 15, 2005

!

Okay, I just saw a French Serenity ad on the side of a bus. That made my day. It comes out here on October 19, I believe. Have you seen it yet? It's a great science fiction movie, with lots of space ships and some interesting sci-fi ideas of colonization. And the spaceships don't go "zrooom" when they're in space. It's pretty much my favoite movie ever, and I haven't even got to see the final version yet, just one of the pre-screenings in May.

Friday, October 14, 2005

...

Due to the "professional visit" to Paris and Luxembourg, I'm going to be out and away from Internet for a couple days. Don't freak if you don't hear from me. (Mom, I'm looking at you.)

Later.
JSC

Monday, October 10, 2005


In an unrelated note, we have magpies here. I just wanted to throw that in there. They're pretty cool. Posted by Picasa

The trip back was much more amusing than the trip out, because we had MC Hassan and Prof Farrow to entertain us and we were all in very good moods.  Posted by Picasa

Back out to the fancy bus.  Posted by Picasa

Once inside again, we sampled a lot of wines. Posted by Picasa

Everybody is fascinated by the grapes.  Posted by Picasa

Bunches of grapes. Posted by Picasa

We followed some grape trucks in and got to watch several deposit their booty. Posted by Picasa

Then we got to a wine place. We did go in here. Posted by Picasa

Then we headed out again. Past the Kronenbourg beer place. We didn't get to go in there, but our trip narrator gave us a short lesson in hops import/export practices. Posted by Picasa

They were really moving. Posted by Picasa

Swirly clouds started forming at midday.  Posted by Picasa

Some ISUers find temporary shelter in a tiny cave. It was really wet that day. Posted by Picasa

There's me with yet another layer of OU wear and the Mur Paien. I'm sorry I forgot about OU-Texas, and didn't send supportive thoughts that day. I'll try to do better this weekend, but I can't promise anything because it'll be the day after our Module 1 final. Posted by Picasa

There's a kinda funky looking pic of the Pagan Wall. Posted by Picasa

But those GPS work pictures were less exciting than the nice area we then took a walk. Again, watch as we get all rain-geared-up Posted by Picasa

There's the actual reason we were there... using the GPS system. Posted by Picasa

There's St. Odile, watching over Alsace and Strasbourg below.  Posted by Picasa

More pretty. Posted by Picasa

Pretty location. Posted by Picasa

It was a chilly and windy day, even with a couple of shirts on. (Note that that's an OU shirt... this was the day we won finally won a football game again.) Posted by Picasa

And on to the top of the mountain. Posted by Picasa

Up the winding mountain roads. Posted by Picasa

Coming to the end of Module 1

(I should probably break the pics up with a bit of text here)

Since the last time I wrote about ISU...
Classes continued for a couple of weeks. There were many Introductions to Space Things, and it rocked. We had lots of parties to get to know each other and hang out, and we had the first field trip. We went to the Vosges, nearby mountains, to do a remote sensing/GPS field experience. First we stopped off at Rosheim, which is a small village with the oldest bakery in France (celebrating its 400th anniversary) and the "most ancient house in Alsace" which is said to date back to the last half of the 12th century.

(This is where the picture break is here... I'll post the pictures corresponding to the rest of this post after I post the post.)

After that, it was on to Mont Ste.-Odile, the convent site and tourist stop where we did our GPS activity and compared satellite images of the area to what we could visually observe. After a couple (cold/rainy) hours to meet with the GPS folks and lunch, we took a little (also cold/rainy, but more fun) walk on the paths nearby. The paths are along the Mur Paien (Pagan Wall), a prehistoric winding wall (the largest mysterious old wall in Europe). Estimated to have been built around 1000 BC, it's about six miles in perimeter, six feet wide and nine to fifteen feet tall.

After that, we got back in the fancy bus and headed to a local winery to get a tour and sample the products in a professionally led tasting. Educational school-sponsored fun.

Eventually we made it to the bus, back on the road, through fields of grape vines and on to the mountains. Posted by Picasa

And we walked some more. Posted by Picasa

So then we walked. It's fun doing things in groups. (This was a family/friends-invited trip.) Posted by Picasa