Talent Show!

So, I meant to write this post a while ago, but just realized that I didn't get around to it. Last week was the annual Toolik Talent Show! It was really great to see what everyone put together. Acts ranged from a sword fighting routine and a belly dance to instrumental numbers.

Tyler, our EMT, performed a song he wrote himself. He dedicated to wondering souls, of which there are quite a few at Toolik. I actually took a video of his performance because I really liked the song and think that it is actually quite suited for my situation these days (except in the song I would be the guy). I thought you all might appreciate it.

Another amusing act was Colin and Peter, who performed the magic carpet ride song from the Disney classic, Aladdin. I was actually laughing so hard throughout this whole act that I couldn't video it, but the picture says it all.

Aleah then stole the show with her saw performance. She actually brought up her own personal saw and bow to play in camp. This is a short video of her performing the end of "Blue Skies." I love how the saw sounds. It's an earie sort of sound...

Last but by far not the least was the "Thermokarst Dynamics" group, who performed the Toolik rendition of "We didn't start the fire" or rather "We didn't start the sauna." It was such a great act! They included just about every running joke we have had this summer (and some original lyrics as well as current events including Sarah Palin's resignation) paired with pictures in a powerpoint and performed to the rhythem, rhyming scheme, and tune of "We didn't start the fire." This group took home the coveted first prize ... a 1,000 piece puzzle!

Thermokarst and Christmas!

So this has been a big week in terms of social activities here at Toolik! We celebrated Christmas a couple of days ago on July 25th! Leading up to Christmas was the ABC party (anything but clothes). The idea was to create an outfit out of found items. One of my friends, Shilo put together an amazing trash bag dress, complete with duct tape corset. She came over to the lab before the party to convince me to go and helped me put together a bench paper dress!
The 25th of July was Christmas. Everyone who wanted to participate put their names in a box for Secret Santa! We all made gifts out of found objects for the other person. It was pretty impressive how creative some people were! Examples of gifts included a moose attack survival kit, river dioramas, a puppy constructed out of cardboard tubes and springs, and even a sheep made from real sheep's fur! The person I was making my present for is really into puns so I did an online search for puns and collaged a 1-L square water bottle (which was really a washed out sample collection bottle) with all of the best (and worst!) puns that I found. I also added a couple of really funny cartoons. My favorite was an xkcd cartoon about the purity of sciences:

(from http://xkcd.com/435/)

I was pretty proud of how it turned out. Dan even dressed up as the grinch/santa and Scotty (one of the camp staff members) made a Christmas tree out of the midget willow branches!
I have a feeling this week was kind of like spring/winter weekend at Smith... or rather the calm before the storm! We are about to hit crunch period in the next few weeks. i can't believe I only have a month here left ...

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Just so you all don't think that we are only partying around here, I felt the need to post about the thermokarst site where I helped Sarah measure thaw depth, soil moisture, and soil conductivity along 4 transects. Thermokarst refers to land features (commonly slumps, fractures, and other land failures) that occur due to the melting of permafrost (frozen ground). Measuring thaw depth basically requires pushing a large pole down into the tundra until it hits the permafrost. The problem is that the pole often hits rocks or gravel before it reaches the permafrost. Although the reverberation of the pole against rocks is significantly different than the pole hitting the frozen ground, it is often difficult to find points without rocks.
So much of the permafrost had melted out at one part of the land failure caused a large cave to form. Ice was actually exposed on the back wall and the overhang was almost solely supported by roots from the tundra plants and grasses!

Solstice Party!

Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Although the sun never sets here, it means that the sun is at the highest angle in the sky. Last night we had a solstice party and bonfire. Two of the people that work at Toolik built this awesome wood structure out of pieces of scrap wood (pallets, wooden spools, boards etc.) and then lit it on fire! It was a pretty impressive structure! The lighting of the bonfire was pretty amusing since the pallets that formed the base of the structure burn really fast. As it burned it began to tilt and the crowd all said, "oooh.." a few minutes later the structure faltered and down it went! Everyone jumped back a foot as the flaming structure went down!