New Den

Fortunately, this entry is going to be slightly less exciting than the last one.

The joint fox/raccoon den (with feline accessory)

Even though the bulk of the moving was done last week, I didn’t physically move until this weekend. In particular, one of the things I failed to get at Ikea was a bed, and as my old apartment was furnished (and closer to campus) I remained there for the final week – taking a few odd things over to the new place during the week, and making runs to various stores to pick up and install various things (in particular, the wireless router, which I’m now using via the laptop, as well as some extra pieces of furniture) and help organize and decorate the living area – though admittedly my roommate did the bulk of that work, since with the observing run coming up next week I’ve been trying to finish up a few pre-existing assignments as well as get ready for the observations (more on those in a later entry). I did spent one or two nights here during the week after staying a bit too late helping to set things up (making it too late to bother), but for the most part I remained at my old apartment during the evenings and at night.

As of Saturday, however, I’m completely moved out of the old place – the keys are handed in and my room empty, with everything now moved into the new apartment. I can’t say I’m really moved in yet, unfortunately, as I still lack a bed, and for that matter haven’t even bothered to unpack most of my stuff given that I’ll be leaving again in just over 24 hours. The new place is working out quite well so far – suitably decorated (although, I really need to get some more species-appropriate items, as the raccoon representation in the living room is currently quite inadequate. I still have no idea how my friend managed to amass so many fox artifacts, and as hard as I try, I cannot keep up. :)

Yes, Procyon has sold his soul for a shiney thing.

In the meantime, however, I have sold my soul and purchased a cellular telephone. With moving apartments requiring the hassle of setting up a new phone line anyway, a major trip coming next week, and work requiring me to remain in fairly constant contact in order to receive alerts about recent GRBs, I ultimately gave in to the forces of evil. I’ve been feeling less-than-enthusiatic about this since, for the most part leaving it in my room and not using it much, as I've resisted these things so long (and for good reason!) finally buying one is somewhat of an embarrassment.

On the plus side, the phone is quite shiney.

And in the meantime, I have only one more day here in Berkeley before taking off for the last, and by far the most hectic, of this year’s summer adventures, as I fly to Hawaii for 48 hours (including one all-night observation run on Mauna Kea) followed, over a window between flights of exactly 40 minutes, by a red-eye flight to Maryland for a cousin’s wedding. I’ve gone as far as to create a spreadsheet attempting to plan where I’m going to sleep endeavor, mostly to only conclude that I’m screwed no matter what I do, heh. But hopefully, the sleep deprivation will be worth it!

The master schedule for next week. Grey is night, blue is travel, and black is a very optimistic scenario for sleep.