Jorge Cham visits UAF
Although it wasn't my intention, I ended up having a very interesting night last night. I stayed in town to listen to Jorge Cham talk - he's the guy who draws PhD comics, which are funny and eerily accurate. After which, I got caught up talking to a student's friends, joking around and so forth. Theresa asked us if we all wanted to meander to The Pub with Jorge, and I'm not one to turn down subsidized beer.
I got a chance to talk to Jorge for a bit, joking around 'bout nothing in particular. After a bit, they say he wants to head out, go see the northern lights (if he can). He asks if I want to come with, and sure, why the hell not? Not like I'm around a semi-famous comic guys on a regular basis, eh? So I ask how they plan on driving up, so I can follow behind. The person who was going to drive him was pretty damn tired, and asked how many I could fit in my truck. A few minutes later, it was just me, Jorge and a Grad Student going up Ester Dome.
My truck was in fine red-neck condition. Literally. I had a saw and wolf snares in the front seat. Tools scattered all over. There are tow straps on the ground in the cab where he's sitting. There are spent shell casings in the cup holder. I started thinking .oO(Oh, god, he's going to think we're all a bunch of hicks...) But if he was thinking it, he didn't say anything. We talked about how crazy Academia is, and students with committee members from hell, and everything in between.
At one point, he asked how you kill a moose. I, forgetting that I'm talking to a Californian from LA, tell him "With a gun." This apparently didn't answer anything for him. He didn't know much about guns, and wanted to know how big the bullets were. Well, out came the shell casings... see, I keep them in there for a reason, honestly! >.> It took a bit of explaining about what you do with a moose after you shoot it - he thought we divide it in four when I said "Quartered." I don't think he got much of an understanding from our explanation.
The clouds kept getting thicker, and while he saw traces of an aurora on the cloud-free horizon, there was nothing really spectacular visible. I let him stay until he a) got too cold or b) decided chances of seeing something were very low, at which point we went to plan b. See, on my iPod touch, I have a bunch of Aurora photos from last January that came out super well...
I ended up dropping him off at around 12:30ish, and the student slightly after. It took me about 40 minutes to get to sleep, in one of those things where you can't get comfortable any way you lay. But I think in all, this totally makes up for missing him in Utah.
If only he doesn't think we're a bunch of sled-necks. :P
I got a chance to talk to Jorge for a bit, joking around 'bout nothing in particular. After a bit, they say he wants to head out, go see the northern lights (if he can). He asks if I want to come with, and sure, why the hell not? Not like I'm around a semi-famous comic guys on a regular basis, eh? So I ask how they plan on driving up, so I can follow behind. The person who was going to drive him was pretty damn tired, and asked how many I could fit in my truck. A few minutes later, it was just me, Jorge and a Grad Student going up Ester Dome.
My truck was in fine red-neck condition. Literally. I had a saw and wolf snares in the front seat. Tools scattered all over. There are tow straps on the ground in the cab where he's sitting. There are spent shell casings in the cup holder. I started thinking .oO(Oh, god, he's going to think we're all a bunch of hicks...) But if he was thinking it, he didn't say anything. We talked about how crazy Academia is, and students with committee members from hell, and everything in between.
At one point, he asked how you kill a moose. I, forgetting that I'm talking to a Californian from LA, tell him "With a gun." This apparently didn't answer anything for him. He didn't know much about guns, and wanted to know how big the bullets were. Well, out came the shell casings... see, I keep them in there for a reason, honestly! >.> It took a bit of explaining about what you do with a moose after you shoot it - he thought we divide it in four when I said "Quartered." I don't think he got much of an understanding from our explanation.
The clouds kept getting thicker, and while he saw traces of an aurora on the cloud-free horizon, there was nothing really spectacular visible. I let him stay until he a) got too cold or b) decided chances of seeing something were very low, at which point we went to plan b. See, on my iPod touch, I have a bunch of Aurora photos from last January that came out super well...
I ended up dropping him off at around 12:30ish, and the student slightly after. It took me about 40 minutes to get to sleep, in one of those things where you can't get comfortable any way you lay. But I think in all, this totally makes up for missing him in Utah.
If only he doesn't think we're a bunch of sled-necks. :P