A Bike Tour - #1 - 08-24-13

The weather's amazing and my bike can't possibly stay at the wall in my room. Thus, I decided to get on the 10-miles-track in the Waterfall Glen County Forest Preserve around the ANL. Somehow, the 10 miles became 14, but I don't mind - I got a tiny little bit confused at one crossroad and why always take the path straight ahead?! So I took the other one and couldn't believe my mind when I looked on the map after some time and it just stated the position I had left about 30 min. ago.

After all, I arrived at my accomodation safely :-) and with memories of a cute waterfall (which does not represent a great concurrence to the Niagara Falls) and of many nice, quiet moments in nature :-)

A Nanoscientific Piece of Art - 08-23-13

"I've got a job for you." - Alright, that sounds interesting! "Could you reconstruct this pattern?"

Eeer, NO?!

Okay, yes, of course, finally I was able to manage that... With a super nice demo version of a mathematical software which was so kind that I could not safe the image in its construction mode. Thus, my laptop had cope with a hard time, but we survived. Furthermore we adjusted the length and width to 6.8 microns (pixel-scaled of course ;-)).

But... why?

The direct occasion were some people from Norhtwestern  University of Chicago. They build the pattern, which is a Penrose tiling (quasicrystalline structure (1)) and ran a simulation of the pattern engraved in a magnetic nanomaterial to see the magnetic domains. That's just been a simulation  - now here we are and we  patterned the image yesterday on a permalloy membrane. The observation of the magnetic behaviour will take next Tuesday, I hope.

(1) Ha, the quasicrystalline structure has been the greatest fun factor during the construction of the flower: Quasicrystalline means that there is no "brief" mathematical description like the direct, not turned repition of a small pattern. Nevertheless, a formula exists, but I had more fun to pull out all the stops in geometrical construction. And - don't you immediately recognize the "golden ratio" between the main short and the main long strokes? ;-)

If you got interested (as I hope), there exists more information about my work here.

A Taste of India - 08-18-13

The highest, the greatest, the best. That's the US.

To be honest I didn't expect one of the greatest Hindu Temples just at Lemont's village boundary. I just passed with my bike and realized a sign saying "The Taste of India, 08-18-13", just tomorrow - lucky me! Eeerr, including many other people of course: When I arrived on Sunday a car line already welcomed me. Probably my bike had found the easiest parking space :-)

The event itself was brilliant! Mainly there was a lot of food and many clothes to buy, everything accompanied by Indian music. I just had to try one of the offered culinary delights - but I could not match the names with the dish so I just guessed and got kulfi faluda, which consists of ice cream and noodles. That was really cool :-)

Afterwards I finally started my exploration of the Glen Forest Park Preserve which is next to the Argonne National Laboratory. And I met a nice company:

We glanced at each other for a long time (mh, maybe in reality just 20 seconds) until a car came which destroyed my mental countryside idyll. Nevertheless, new friends  :-)

A Brothaaa! - 08-17-13

"Thanks!", "Thanks, brother!", that's what I'd call welcoming. After now about three weeks which just span away I can understand that cyclists own a dangerous life, so once you meet another you are quite happy to see another surviving example of your species. Now I was invited to this new community on the bridge to Lemont because one whole meter was granted the bikers to be kept safe from the cars (haha, or rather: to keep the cars safe from the unasthetic scratches a bike leaves ;-)).

Two cyclists came close to me, so I had to dismount my bike. I'm sorry, I'm just too happy about getting the "Thanks"  and then this hail-fellow-well-met Thank :-)

Lemont itself is a really nice, small town or village (that's a matter of definition; the basics are just here). I just biked there and enjoyed the view on the heritage corridor:

Today's greater idea was the visit of Las Ryds Greatest Show Un-Earthed. My associations consisted of some medieval stuff, children's games and maybe a few artistic shows. To be honest, I was really scared: It turned out to be an exhibition of hearses. Those cars are probably not too scary, indeed, but the people did the job! I mean, most of them smiled and were just wearing black clothes, but then there was this Ferris wheel for skeletons and I was alone ... aaaah!

To sum up, it was interesting! :-)

A City's Dancing - 08-10-13 (or: how to get rid of 10$)

Fortunately I haven't woken up in a midsummer's night tream yet, but then it was Sunday and we went to Chicago downtown again. Then imagine 200 people of all ages and all cultures dancing in the park to music from the 50s and 60s! And add an old-fashioned band with a car-piano and a proper party stage.

Probably that's been the most fascinating event I've seen so far - in fact, we could not resist to join in and so we danced our own version of Rock'n'Roll, Discofox and Line Dance. Then we built a huge snake touching the shoulders of our forerunner (of course it's been the greatest one the band has seen in their lives ;-)). They also player "Surfin' USA" a song we sang in high school - brilliant! I think I'm a fan of my parents' music now...

The overall bouncing did not even pause when the rain set in... We started dancing in the rain.

... and another story:
Grrrr... You want to get rid of 10$? Great!! Me, too... it just hasn't been my intention: 

"Oh, may I help you, what are you looking for?", asked a slightly mumbling gentleman when we stood at the crossroads in the center of downtown waving with our street map. We just briefly outlined our problem and immediately he started telling us to follow him; he was going to show us the way. I got a very unwell feeling due to his surprising kindness and began to be busy with the street map again.

What the holy burger was he going to do with us? When we arrived at our destination he continued talking about the Magnificent Shopping mile (since I am female, I love shopping, yes... indeed... just found a sense for my life...) and about McDonald's and so on...

Until (okay, actually that's just been five minutes) he asked for his charge, 40$. I would underestimatedsay that I was alarmed. Luckily we haven't been alone and we got away with 10$ without a tumult - but with a lesson learned.

Nevertheless, we found out about the once busiest McDonald's restaurant - so please look here to trace our whole path (please scroll down then, the effort will be worthwhile).

A Social Time - 08-09-13

"Is it, like, you know, prost?!" asked one of my colleagues, when we went to the Gordon-Biersch-Company for lunch. He'd just been promoted and invited us to a Steakhouse which is famous for Burgers and Beer (of course, from Germany ;-) ; by the way, it's rumoured that you can feed babies with American beer, but that's still not an alternative to the slightly chlorinated water.).

I answered, "yes, indeed, prost! And cheers!". The translation of phrases has become a ritual during lunchbreak: My supervisor learned "Guten Appetit!", and we all had to cope with the pronunciation of the Korean version. "Schönes Wochenende!" - that's was the goodbye for today.

 

(Actually I was supposed to publish this picture at 7pm, now it's about 3 o'clock in the morning ;-))

During our sponsored lunch I was glad not to talk about Physics - instead, we talked about Steve Jobs and about all the world and his brother. I remember especially one joke my supervsior told:

"In the Eighties we used to have Johnna Cash, Steve Jobs and Bob Hope. Now Steve Jobs's dead and we don't have any cash, jobs or hopes."

I thinkt that put all pessimism in a nutshell ;-)

Unfortunately I was a little bit pessimistic about mankind, too, when I was jogging. At some time, that's probably a law by nature, I had to fall. Thus, I got scrapes on my knee, hip and hands. There was no way around going in a strange position back to my acocmodation.
And it's just unbelievable how many people driving or riding passed me without a look! Do people just not notice what's going on around them or do they not want to know? It's indeed quite late that I pick this issue up, but it's always astonishing; sometimes life seems so much easier without much cerebration.
The point is that I don't want to blame anyone, because it's so likely that I acted in the same way; I just can hope that the will for recognition exists.

A bike’s license – 08-06-13

Once upon a time I took my driver’s license to demonstrate that at least once somebody thought that I represent enrichment to the traffic; finally I (somehow) passed the practical and theoretical exam.

Waiting for so long I was confronted with quite demanding challenge: I was told to watch a video lasting for an hour and afterwards there was going to be an exam (what a surprise!). Then another form would be issued to me saying that I passed the bike safety course ESH561.

Thus, the nervous, curious intern concentrated on “Jason” who showed how not to wear your helmet, how to examine your bike with the ABC-Quick-Check and how to act when some deer might cross the street.

I clicked the button “Next” with a rising adrenaline level and read the instruction tasks how to take the exam (one passes with a score of 80%!). Again, “next”…

Question 1 of 1: “Did you watch the video and agree on all terms and conditions?”

NOO!! Of course I don’t…  No further questions, passed with 100% ;-) (Actually an interesting method for university examinations, isn’t it? You just have to end up with a Gauss distribution…)

Alright, that was indeed a cakewalk. One of the safety and security xaminations (one out of four) was challenging since I had to think about whether to call 911 (US emergency number) or not in case of emergency... 

To sum up, I have spent as much time on safety courses and instructions as on reading papers. But that'll change soon :-)