Ethan's Vivifying Adventures

You people out in the rest of the world have really been busy in the last few days.

Mad props go to James Cameron and the whole Deepsea Challenger team that got the director of such fine films as “Aliens” and “The Abyss” to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the first (solo) crewed dive to that challenging destination since 1960. They did some really cool engineering with the “vertical torpedo” concept for the vehicle, not to mention developing some new materials to enable the design to work. It was pretty exciting to sit here at the bottom of the planet working at my desk while getting updates about somebody traveling to the bottom of the ocean.

I'd like to also congratulate the people of Marion, Kansas and the other participants from hither and yon on their successful bid to set the world for the most people roasting marshmallows at a single venue. I think the estimate was somewhere around 1,400 people wielding sticks with molten sugar on the end. When life gives you a wind storm and a huge pile of debris, make s'mores. Hopefully Guinness will give them the thumbs up on the new world record (the first of its kind), and not disqualify them due to some arcane rule they just made up about judging giant marshmallow roasting events.

Peeking through the power plant plume toward the radomes and cargo berms:

Sunset colors from the roof while up doing the inspiring task of clearing bathroom and furnace vents:

Leaving ARO, with the nascent bump of its annual leeward drift:

Clearing skies yield some gorgeous colors as the sun continues its slide below the horizon. Temperatures did not fall off as rapidly as predicted last week, but a pretty big drop is possibly in the works for the next day or so. Word of developments for full-timer hiring across the contract turnover is starting to flow, but much remains TBD. This could get interesting.

“His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.”
~Aeschylus, The Seven Against Thebes