A black travel coffee mug, with a lovely wheat design inside a circle with the word "SASKATCHEWAN" across it.
My trusty Saskatchewan travel mug (which I got for being in a Sask tourism video shoot), held many flat whites while I was visiting New Zealand. But now it's returning to the real Flat White: Saskatchewan. The #ProfSamLectureTour will be fully completed by […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
#BabyGoatCountdown is at 8 days. The #ProfSamLectureTour will be officially over either tonight or tomorrow, depending on road conditions (and how tired we are).
Sending peace.
Made it back to Canada and I already tried to look for a flusher button on top of a toilet and went for the passenger seat on the wrong side of a car. But hey, there are cherry blossoms here!
Will spend a couple of days staying with good friends and acclimatizing ourselves from NZ fall to […]
A view of a rocky beach, with super interesting layers stacked up to make a cliff. There are gentle waves crashing in a bright blue ocean, under the bright blue sky, with distant islands and sailboats visible. A couple of people are walking away from the camera in the distance.
Goodbye, New Zealand!! It's been a truly incredible few weeks, I have learned so much. Thank you to everyone who taught me and everyone who made this trip possible. #ProfSamLectureTour
It'll take me several days to actually get home, but I'm about to start the first leg of the #ProfSamLectureTour return trip.
I'd like to point out that while I was here, the 3 of us friends who wrote the cow-culation paper also wrote a scicomm article […]
Everything is terrible, but I'm getting close enough to going back home from the #ProfSamLectureTour that I just added a couple of books to my library queue so maybe they'll be at my home branch waiting for me when I get back to Saskatchewan!
And lastly, Kia Ora, Tekapo!! Excited to give a talk for you later today. (It's at 4pm, not 6am, this website is wrong) happeningnext.com/event/astronomy-vs-the-b...
Now time to (politely and carefully) wander around an active sheep farm! Happy solstice!
I'm supposed to drive to the Tekapo dark sky preserve later today, to give my last (planned) talk in the #ProfSamLectureTour, but wow I am tired. It will be totally awesome, I even get to stay in a sheep shearer's trailer on a sheep station!! But... actually packing up and driving, again, after […]
Me, smiling at the camera, wearing a rainbow shirt, with a poster that also has a picture of me smiling on it with a giant reentry cartoon. The largest text on the poster says "Astronomy vs. the Billionaire Space Race"
[selfie]
Oh hey look what was in the elevator at the university
And this weekend will be the last (I think?) talk in the #ProfSamLectureTour in Tekapo Dark Sky Reserve, and it'll be a new moon! And I get to stay in a sheep shearer's hut! I'm really excited about that one. stayhappening.com/e/astronomy-vs-the-billi...
Christchurch public talk info here! events.humanitix.com/public-talk-the-beatrice... #ProfSamLectureTour
Still feeling quite underwater trying to keep track of the bazillion things I overcommitted myself to, trying to make sure I fully experience this amazing place I get to live in for a few weeks, and just reading little bits of news here and there.
This week includes: farm visit and interview […]
Also the admin person I chatted with a few minutes ago made a comment about how tired I look so... yeah. I guess I'm even more tired than I want to admit to myself.
Hopefully this trip-within-a-trip is somewhat relaxing? Because driving partway across a country I don't live in to give a talk […]
Kia Ora, Nelson! (In a few hours, hopefully, I haven't left Christchurch yet, but I'm posting now so I don't forget)
Due to unexpected very bad things last week, my lecture in Nelson got moved back by 1 week (though their website hasn't been updated, oops) […]
A couple dozen people wearing red kilts, black vests, and small black hats, all standing in a circle playing either bagpipes or drums. They are standing on bright green grass under tall green trees in a city park.
A couple dozen people wearing mostly blue kilts, black vests, black hats, and black tall socks, standing in a circle playing bagpipes. They are standing on green grass under tall green trees in a city park, with lots of people milling around.
There was a bagpipe band competition happening at the park the local farmer's market is held in, and it was incredible! I have never in my life seen so many bagpipers together, playing perfectly in tune! That was so cool. Bagpipes won me over today. #ProfSamLectureTour
Almost time to head to the lecture for tonight, but let me just say that doing 2 radio interviews in Saskatchewan (one of them live at 7am this morning) about celestial events in the northern sky while on Stewart Island, nearly as far south as you can easily go, was quite confusing.
Hopefully […]
Kia Ora, Invercargilll!
I still owe the world a few posts about my time on Stewart Island Rakiura because that was completely incredibly amazing. But the only internet access I had was through the public library, which has a Starlink antenna on top, which made me feel pretty gross.
Say it with […]
A view of a gorgeous beach behind a footbridge, with jungle-y foliage on both sides and a cloudy sky above.
Me, looking at the camera, next to a poster on the library door for my "Astronomy vs. the Billionaire Space Race" talk
[selfie]
Kia Ora, Rakiura Stewart Island! My gosh this place is incredible, I will have more to write when I have better internet access.
Will I be able to wake up, get family out the door, make it to the ferry terminal, find wifi access, log in to an important zoom meeting, convince important people at the meeting to submit a comment to the FCC (that I and a collaborator wrote for them), and check in for the ferry by 9:15am? […]
Kia Ora, Invercargill!
Rakiura Stewart Island tomorrow! Then back to Invercargill on Saturday.
Oh my gosh I'm tired. #ProfSamLectureTour
2 months ago, my family and I drove from Saskatchewan to coastal BC. A few weeks later, we flew to Aotearoa New Zealand. Today we're flying from Christchurch to Invercargill. Tomorrow we're taking a ferry from Bluff to Rakiura Stewart Island.
This will be a trip within a trip within a trip […]
Oh god I have to go to Invercargill tomorrow and then Rakiura Stewart Island the next day (which is going to be awesome but oh crap I have soooo much to do while also travelling again....) #ProfSamLectureTour
At home in Saskatchewan, I get up early and go hang out with the goats. In New Zealand, thanks to time zones being stupid, I get up early and go on Zoom.
No offense to anyone I'm about to see on this 7am-for-me Zoom call, but I really miss my goats... #ProfSamLectureTour
Interview done for Australia's news podcast "7am podcast"! Went well, but I think I depressed everyone... which I guess means I conveyed the facts well. Sigh. Time for a quick walk before buckling down for some writing.
Australian news interview about the state of Low Earth Orbit scheduled for tomorrow! #ProfSamLectureTour
I have to say that the proportion of media interviews and zoom meetings I do in my pajamas has gone up dramatically since I've arrived in New Zealand. Time zones are hard! #ProfSamLectureTour
Today is a couple of early North American zoom meetings, then giving a seminar on campus "The Kuiper Belt vs. the Billionaire Space Race", then meeting a bunch of new people at lunch (after I've gotten them horribly depressed about the dangerous state of Low Earth Orbit), then meetings on campus […]
After gorgeously perfect weather for pretty much the entire #ProfSamLectureTour, it's now pouring buckets, and now I have to figure out Christchurch transit (which looks excellent, but will still take a bit of learning). Wish me luck!
I made it to Christchurch yesterday, where I'll be based for the next 6 weeks. Looking forward to learning lots about this lovely corner of NZ.
Now I just have to be ready to give a couple of lectures this week and a live interview for Radio NZ tomorrow afternoon. And figure out where […]
Just another shout of appreciation for public libraries! Wellington has at least one good one (I strongly suspect more than one but I'm not going to be here for long enough to double check that).
Lovely place to sit and catch up on everything before heading to the south island in a few hours […]
