Field Work, Music Fest, and Lots of Pictures
Submitted by MPettit on Mon, 2008-07-28 04:26.
This past week I spent from Monday through Thursday helping out with a GPS survey. The purpose of the survey is to see if the Rio Grande Rift is moving any. (This has nothing to do with my project by the way.) I was paired with Celia, a UNAVCO employee. We set up two GPS sites. The second one was located at a recreation area, so we had to sit with the equipment all day to make sure nobody touched it, because any movement would mess it all up. We would get up at 5 AM to get there before sunrise and sit with it until it got dark around 9. We did bring a tent and sleeping bags, though, so we got plenty of napping in! I also finished 3 books and 2 hats!! (LOVED "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski and would recommend it to anyone, thought"On The Road" by Jack Kerouac was just ok and almost disliked it, and found "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut to be nothing I thought it would be, but good.)
Here are some pictures from the week.
Here's some pictures of where we spent our days...
A couple weeks ago I took a tour of the USGA National Earthquake Information Center. It was pretty interesting. Here are some pictures from the tour.
This weekend I went to visit my familiy in Colorado Springs. It was a good time. We took a train to the top of Pike's Peak. I also went to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with my cousin and her daughter. ....I know I know. It's so rediculous. Throughout the entire movie I was just like, "nooooooooo, that wouldn't work that way!!!" haha. It was entertaining despite it all, though. I mean, I could watch anything with dinosaurs!!
Last weekend I went to the Mile High Music Festival with three other friends I have made here. It was a BLAST!!! On Saturday I saw Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers, Josh Ritter, Andrew Bird, Spoon, and Tom Petty & the Heart Breakers. I would recommend the first three mentioned to everyone! A lot of people haven't heard of them, but they all put on a terrific show!!! Then, my Sunday consisted of Brett Dennen, Ingrid Michealson, Rodrigo y Gabriela, John Mayer, and Dave Matthews Band. I had never heard of Rodrigo y Gabriela, but they ROCKED MY SOCKS OFF. Go watch a video on youtube if you're never heard of them. As far as John Mayber, I've never really listened to his stuff much, but he put on a really great show!! When it came to Tom Petty and Dave Matthews at the end of the days, I was so exhausted that I just kinda lied on the ground and listened from there. I'd already been there for 9 hours at that point! haha. (They were still amazing, of course!!) There were also lots of other bands there that I never got a chance to see.
Here are just a couple pictures from the festival to make you all jealous... :)
Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers
Half-naked John Mayer
And of course, DAVE
As far as other things..... I have been practicing my guitar a lot. The goal is at least 30 minutes every day, which happens most of the time. I have two Dandy Warhol songs down really well, "Country Leaver" and "Big Indian". The next three songs I hope to master are "What up?" by 4 Non Blondes, "Beer" by Reel Big Fish and "Stay" by Lisa Loeb. Flash back to the 90s much?
This coming week, I am going to be in the field again, but doing something else. I'll be hitting the ground with hammers just like at orientation! Like this past week, it will be a nice break from the computer screen. I'm sure I'll have plenty more pictures to post soon.
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VERY NICE!
As Rick pointed out at the
As Rick pointed out at the orientation, there is still some question as to the exact nature of the Rio Grande in terms of passive vs. active rifting. These GPS measurements should be able to place some important constraints on future seismic hazards in the area too. Plus, looks like a lovely place to get some extra fieldwork!
How are your receiver functions looking? Any azimuthal patterns from anisotropy?
That music festival sounds fantastic! Rodrigo y Gabriella are incredibly talented and I would have gone just for them. I've never seen anyone's hands move that fast on a guitar.