Well it is coming down outside! And it is the end of my first (half) weeks work at Argonne.. Most of the time so far has been filled with admin, but there has been some time to thing about and set a few thoughts in motion for how the data product generation will proceed for the new radar systems.. but very early days yet! Computing Environment and Life Sciences (CELS) directorate at Argonne is great! Some bug things happening here… I can see quite clearly I am going to have to learn a lot more about upper scale computing… having dealt a lot with midrange parallel systems such as the CAWCR’s Flurry Linux cluster has given me a head’s up, but I can see I have to learn a lot more about optimising my code for running parallel not only in time but in process… Will have to drop Python for a while methinks for that and move to C++ (happy for any reader to convince me otherwise!). Weekend tomorrow! No solid plans besides a sleep in… Oh and a clean up as the hotel room is getting a little full of junk!

Greetings from the Qantas lounge at Melbourne International Airport!
They’ve just called our flight so in 15 hours the Collis Family will be in LA!

We have a video camera! Scary eh? Off to Chicago Monday for a month… Brrr! Any way, Christmas Greetings to ALL!

ok.. as normal I got very slack updating the blog while I was away… I will (perhaps) get round to giving more details of ANL and Chicago… But I am back in Melbourne and back bike commuting again (YAY!!). And thinking very seriously if I want to live and work in the United States…

Nup… just can not come to me.. Very very busy day yesterday, met lots of people, lots of “Interviews” and getting to know how Argonne, CELS and ACRF works… Then gave my talk and had my first every IT disaster mid talk… Erk! What a time to happen.. oh well I forged on through until I managed to reboot the system.. hopefully it displayed my ability to work under pressure! So for those that are following who want the “update” let’s just say that it is no longer the IF more the HOW now… Any hoo, went to dinner last night at a nice place called “The place” in Lemont (close to the Argonne campus). Nice Beers (about 6 on tap, I sampled three and was no disappointed) and good food. And every few days they have live music.. and there are a variety of places along the same strip, nice! So I need to look a little closer at Lemont as a place to live. So the long and the short is that some questions are being answered, and some remain to be answered but we are slowly getting there… Oh and people around here would not know a Latte if they were swimming in it.. I think if I do come here I will need to buy a good espresso machine and learn to make them myself!

Spent today at the Computing, Environment and Life Sciences building at Argonne national Lab. This building is brand new and very impressive… Oh and BIG! Big science, big building! The design puts the offices on the northern side and flexible spaces on the south including the new Blue Gene-3 super computer. The bottom floor has a “Zen” rock garden. . Meeting with the ANL ACRF guys is going very well, formal interviews occur tomorrow where the real fun begins!

A very nice flight from Melbourne to LAX! Well by nice I mean nice for a 14 hour 25 minute flight. After some breakfast champas (after a good hydrate up on apple juice) in the Qantas business lounge I boarded the enormous Qantas a380 (on time!). The flight was about 2/3 full. I had seat 80K, picked on reviews on Seat Guru and The Australian Frequent Flyer forum. 80K has no seat in front of it, plus has a window, is protected by the two seats to the side and, best of all, is not sold as an exit row (so no extra fees from Qantas…). Service was good, and even good for Qantas which I usually experience good service from. Once again James Squire Golden Ale was served (two of those went down a treat!). Oh and the screens for the video on demand system are very nice on the a380… Very big and clear! Did not sleep much, watched a few movies and way to much Family Guy… The day dawned nice and clear and I could actually see the coastline as we came in, which is very odd for LA! The aircraft past LAX to the north give a very clear view of the aerodrome banking around past LA itself (you could see the “Holywood” sign!). Landing was as smooth as silk, barely felt it… Immigration was “interesting”. My ESTA did not go through right and an old one was stuck in the system…. A bit of an interrogation and I was let in (my policy of allowing at least 3 hours connection in LAX paying off…).. Out of Tom Bradley international and across to LAX terminal 4 (and back though security) and into Admirals club. After a wonderful shower and a quick drink it was onto a MD80 for the flight to Chicago. The MD80 made the A380 look even better, these planes are getting a bit long in the tooth. Mind you I slept most of the way… Arrived on time at Chicago and went to get the rental car. My first time driving in the US was interesting… Dark and wet and busy tollways and freeway flyovers! After some shaky moments it all went fine, arriving at the lab at ~6.30…

No time to post up pics… But I am in the Admirals Club in T4 LA… A380 flight was awesome! Super smooth, awesome flight crew, and seat 80K lived up to its rating on seat guru! Weather in LA is amazing… never seen it so clear… I could see the Hollywood sign!!

Flight is boarding to Chicago in 15 mins so gotta run… just hope my luck holds up!

*pich* no, it is still happening… I’m sitting in the Qantas lounge waiting to fly to LAX and then to Chicago to chat to some DOE (US Department Of Energy) guys about a job building a suite of radar products for the new ARM radars. Very smooth run through to the airport and I am now sitting down with some fruit and bubbly in the Qantas business lounge.. So an interesting time to follow… What are the other candidates like, what exactly are the Argonne folks looking for? What is the area like for quality of living? What exactly will I be doing this time next year??

Going to Chicago monday for a job interview… Was not seeking a job but it seems skills in weather radar are in demand! Basically the idea is: Give a seminar, chat to staff, see if my skills are desired. It is a hard thing, life in Melbourne is good, but there is so much opportunity there! Massive new project in the USA and the chance to be in on the ground floor…

On the domestic front, leg is nearly 100%… But a careless fall has left me with some chest damage (yeah I know)… Need to get some road miles under my belt as I am VERY UNFIT! Isabelle is amazing, Louise is doing stunningly well in her executive position and is off to the UK (Business class!!) in November. So busy busy, full steam ahead… Goodness I need a holiday!