Donut of Misery

Things are rolling along here at McMurdo. The warmer temperatures are starting to turn the roads into muddy streams and the temperatures are approaching the 30s F (just below 0 degrees C). It feels warm and pleasant when the wind isn't blowing and we're trying to spend more time outside.

The station celebrated Thanksgiving this past Saturday with a two-day weekend and a giant, fancy meal in the Dining Hall. We celebrated with some friends, including Antz and Christine. Christine introduced me to the Antarctic Program in 1999 and encouraged me to apply (so I can alternately blame and thank her :) They mostly do winters these days so we don't get to see them very often, but they are here this summer on an Artists and Writers grant from the National Science Foundation.

Antz is known for his incredible time-lapse films of Antarctic landscapes, wildlife and people. You can see several of his videos on Youtube if you search for Antzarctica. His wife, Christine, is also incredibly creative and very amusing in the video about Condition 1. Their goal is to gather enough time-lapse footage during their 6-week stay to put together a full length film. Their website is: www.frozensouth.com

Prior to the eating-fest, we ran in the 5K Turkey Trot race. It was pretty windy so I needed to supplement my gear with handwarmers, but we both finished and Michiel did well enough to win a great t-shirt. The top 50 runners were rewarded with a shirt. You'd think that it would be easy enough to place in the top 50, but the running crowd is exceptionally competitive and the turn-out was excellent (maybe 100 runners???). I just missed being in the top 50, but I scored a shirt from a guy who couldn't wear a Medium. (It's good to be small!)

Now that the Thanksgiving weekend is behind us, the holiday season will fly by, but still...at this time of the season, people start to think about the travels after the ice and the free time and travel opportunities that are the main reasons why people keep coming back to the ice year after year.

In order to keep track of how much time we have left, someone created the Donut of Misery. The donut is a famous (around here, anyway) Excel spreadsheet that calculates the time you have remaining on station based on your contract start and end dates. Here's a screen shot.

The donut is particularly popular with people who are doing a year-long contract. They might lament that they are only at 28% when the rest of the summer population is at 48%.

I recently received a copy of an updated, slicker version of the donut, called the Penguin Timer. Here's a screen shot: