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comment by Devac
Devac  ·  1372 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: June 24, 2020

Looks like I'm first? Give me dry Martini with a straw, extra silly.

My cardiac ablation is next week, and recovery should take about six weeks. Ideally, I'll be under observation for one or two days and released home to recuperate. It's also when cardiologist will give me the final details about weaning off some of the meds. Pretty stoked about that. am_Unition - shout-out, as promised.

It's been two weeks of on-and-off storms, nine severe weather warnings, and humidity sometimes isn't above 80%. Parts of the country went from hydrological drought to high risk of flooding almost overnight. I've been caught in a storm that transformed streets into streams and saw lots of scud clouds dragging low to the ground while taking shelter at a bus stop. The whole thing passed overhead in twenty minutes.

Speaking of which, I seminar'd on computational physics with my peers at the meteorological institute, and they told me afterwards we might have a tornado hotspot developing in southern Poland. There's a lowering between the Carpathians and Sudety mountain ranges, which makes it easier for storms to move northward while adjacent elevation makes leeward masses of air rotate. Since CAPE seldom exceeds 2000-2500 J/kg, any helicity is unwelcome news (the non-exact intuition is that it's easier to spin-up small than a massive storm). Mechanism-wise, it's pretty similar to one going on in eastern Colorado:

The phenomenon isn't new, but it's likely to get worse around here. Frankly, I'm not too worried about tornadoes and such. It's the flooding, which we're notoriously incapable of handling, that concerns me.

We have presidential elections this Sunday, and I hope it'll finally begin the process of taking the rule away from PiS. RafaƂ Trzaskowski seemed like the best candidate for the last few years, and it's a pretty close call in the polls. (EDIT: Whoops, made a typo in his name)

I've got the green light from the chemistry department to do my degree on reduced semester quota, which roughly means the senior year will take me four real-time semesters. In autumn, I will only be taking one course, though it's a big one: inorganic chemistry - 6 straight hours of lab and 2 hours of lecture/instruction per week. Do I need that? Not the paper, but my work can absolutely benefit from going through this stuff thoroughly, having instructors and other students around helps a heap. Also, in my neck of the woods, the line between chemistry and physics is sometimes nonexistent, at least unless you feel like being an obnoxious pedant, so there's that. Plus I'd lie if I said it's not fun.

I went back to reading some books from the high school canon. Unsurprisingly, The Trilogy turned out to be a lot more enjoyable if you don't have to rush through 700 pages of archaic Polish prose per volume per week because a frustrated teacher screeched so. There's a lot to appreciate I missed earlier, and it was honestly a joy to revisit. Translations exist, but that's about all I can say for them. Parts I read at random seemed dry and a tad too literal, though IMO that's still better than if the translator decided to make it all 'ye olde' for the hell of it.

What'd you recommend from your country's canon?





am_Unition  ·  1372 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Glad to hear that you've got everything right on the horizon and ready to operate :). I wonder if you'd fare considerably worse here in the 'states; Houston has drastically scaled back on transplants, as intensive care units are basically gonna be full either today or tomorrow. Texas is one of the new top three hotspots for covid in America.

Anyway, I've been enjoying a respite from constant thunderstorm assault. Here's to hoping your elections go smoothly, and the outcome is a step in the right direction. Cheers.

Devac  ·  1372 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks! I sure hope to bring good news afterwards.

    I wonder if you'd fare considerably worse here in the 'states

Oh, please. I'd be giga-fucked regardless of covid.

am_Unition  ·  1372 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've got my fingers crossed for ya, bro. You're gonna come out stronger.