YCGL - Monday-Tuesday, October 17-18, 2022 - A Friend, A Hash and a Friend at a Museum

 Over the weekend, we worked on the closet most of the time.  We removed the shelves, took down the cardboard ceiling and replaced it with Masonite, and Erik installed the light, switch and outlet.  Monday, we started mudding the walls.  As you can imagine, (I guess you have to, I didn't take many pictures), the walls and all the corners were not flush and smooth.  The walls were still lathe and plaster which tend to be irregular anyway, and being the closet, was not done carefully.  Over the rest of the week, we applied 3 gallons of joint compound inside that little space.  There was a lot of taping for corners, filling of holes, and "making the rough places plain."  Needless to say, this is not clean work, especially in such cramped quarters, so we were covered with old dust and new joint compound by the end of the day.  

But we had something special going on that evening.  About a month ago, Erik ran into a friend, literally.  Erik joined the Cambridge Running Club not long after he moved to Boston.  Unfortunately, over the years, he has had problems with his feet, so he doesn't run as hard as he used to.  He'll still do 10 miles on a Saturday morning, but not as fast as before.  So, one day, he's running with a new girl and he has this feeling like he knows her from somewhere.  When the group got together, they did a round robin introducing each other.  She says she just moved here from Yale, but was originally from Wyoming.  Erik asked "where from" and she says "Laramie".  "Ellen!  I'm Erik Edgar."  She said "I thought I knew you from somewhere, but couldn't place it."  We've known Ellen most of her life, her parents are both professors and they are members of our church.  Ellen is about six years younger than Liz (I think), so not in Erik's crowd back then.  And since he has basically been gone since he left for graduate school at Oregon State, they probably haven't seen each other since 2004, so it's no wonder why they didn't recognize each other at first.  

Ellen came over that evening for a while after work.  She was there for an hour and a half which just flew by before we both had later commitments.  She is finishing up her PhD in International Affairs (or some semblance to that) and has lived in Istanbul for a year right before Covid and off and on beyond that.  In fact, when she heard that entry back into the states was going to be shut off, she quickly got a ticket and flew back.  Her roommate packed her belongings that Ellen had to leave and brought them back with her when she was allowed to come back into the country.  Her SO has finished his PhD in Microbiology (?) and is now interviewing for Med School.  It sounds like they have many adventures ahead.  It was great to see her and have a chance to talk.  

But we had to get going because it was time for the Monday night gathering of the Hash House Harriers that Erik and Eliza are members of.  The Hash House Harriers are an international group of runners with the unofficial motto of "a running club with a drinking problem or a drinking club with a running problem."  The club started in Malaysia in 1938 with British expats who would get together for a run and beer  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers).  Most of the Hashers in their group are in their 30s with occasional elders into their 50s.  When Erik goes to Germany for Octoberfest, he meets up with the Munich Hashers.  They are a fun group to be around although since they meet in a bar, I have trouble hearing what is going on even with my hearing aids (or maybe because of my hearing aids).  There were 12-15 of us that night, with people coming and going as necessary.  

I got talking across the table with a young lady who works in public relations for the MIT Museum.  I had wanted to go to MIT and walk around and I had heard there was a museum, so we had a fun conversation about the types of things they had there.  

So, the next afternoon, after my work in the closet with the joint compound, I decided I would go to the MIT museum that afternoon.  I looked it up on Google Map and found that there was a subway from Porter Square (a half mile from Erik's) to a station next to the museum.  Not even I could get lost.  

Except I turned the wrong way once I got to ground level and walked around the wrong building.  As I was paying the entry fee, I asked where I could find Julia in Public Relations.  That got a totally blank stare and "I think the administrative offices are on the third floor."  I got to the third floor and the hallway was behind a cardkey locked door (which I found to be true of most of the campus buildings).  As I started walking around the exhibits, I talked to a docent who said she would talk to her supervisor and see if she could be located.  Half an hour later, Julia was walking through the exhibits looking for me.  She was obviously surprised and happy, since no one had ever asked to see her before.  She couldn't take too much time, but showed me some of the things she thought were special.  So that was nice.  

The museum is laid out on two floors.  Since I met Julia on the third floor, I spent most of my time there and missed a lot of what was on the second floor, so I never really got an overview of the exhibits.  There seem to be three areas, technology developed at MIT, social awareness of science being performed and art developed to embed science and technology.  

They do a lot of genetics work there, both in developing ways of manipulating genes (the rapid development of the Covid vaccines is an example of this type of work) and using genetics to understand human population groups and movements.  One of the first things that I saw was an art installation regarding the textile industry so important to the Boston area initially and the migration of population groups integrating clothing development around the world. 

In addition to exhibits on computer development, kid's interaction models, social commentary on racial integration and diversity at MIT, and on... Julia's favorite exhibit was of kinetic art created by two alums.  

I only shot a 2 second video of this, which was a shame.  I was able to convert it to slow motion, which helps.  After you look at the picture, click once and then click the "full screen box" in the lower right hand corner so you can see the whole thing better as it runs.  I couldn't tell for sure, but I think the whole thing runs by an axle inside the back right column.

The motor is driving a reduction gear, which is driving another reduction gear, and so on through 12 reductions.  The last gear is set into a block of concrete.  I could not see the motor shaft turn, so it must have been slow, so through all the gear reductions, it may take years for the last gear to pop out of the block of concrete, hence the Big Bang.  

One more.

The wheels lift and push two rods attached to a chicken wishbone.  The rods cause the wishbone to rock back and forth and advance a step.  That pulls the carriage forward causing the wheels to turn and work the wishbone.  When the wishbone gets to the end of the track, the track spins around and the wishbone can start walking forward again.  Crazy.  

I got kicked out of the museum at 5:00 so I walked around the campus.  Of course, the MIT dome is the icon of the institution (Building-10).

MIT is interesting to me because it was home of one of the great soil mechanics labs in the country.  The senior professor there was T. William Lambe and he and one of his professor graduate students  wrote a very influential book in geotechnical engineering.  Lambe and Whitman is still one of the most highly referenced books in soils mechanics.  

This building is where the Civil Engineering office is located.

The Stata Center was designed by Frank Gehry.  It was opened in 2004 and was the location of the Radiation Laboratory, a temporary building constructed during WW2.  

That night, we walked to the Barcelona, a tapas bar in Cambridge, where we had dinner.

They do something called BeReal, where you take a picture of where you are at a specific time.  It takes both the picture in front of you and in the selfie camera, so you get both.  They are tied up with many of their Hacker friends.  

BE REAL!