(don't forget to click the photos for bigger versions if you like them)
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...such a busy week it was, I was up in the office of the "Columbia Daily Spectator" filling out caption sheets for my photos almost every night.
Thursday night was the main event for "Focus the nation" a nation-wide climate science teach-in. Luckily, here at Columbia, we have one or two pretty decent climate scientists at our disposal (which is partly why I'm here).
Gang He, from the MA in Climate and Society program... looks on, enthralled by the proceedings of the night.
I can never remember this guy's name, but he's like this in my Human Ecology and Sustainable Development class as well. Here he's complaining about the heating and cooling inefficiencies in campus housing.
Questions came from all angles... partly because we didn't have an extra mic in the centre aisle for people to queue behind like we did in some of the other events.
The panelists came from very diverse backgrounds... good thing too - the questions were probably just as, if not more diverse than even the ecclectic backgrounds of these folk.
...and we managed to get two photographers on the job. Which is pretty good... except at awkward moments like these (this would've been an awesome shot if that other photographer hadn't gotten in the way... (the photographer in question is Angela, the news editor... who knows I'm joking))
Casey Brown (my research advisor) and Lisa Goddard (one of my lecturers from last semester) answer some of the more technical questions about water management and climate prediction respectively.
Finally, on Friday, there was a blogging event, sponsored by the Roosevelt institute.
Which, desite the geeky name, was actually a very fun and interactive workshop...
Where we learned about the powerful new media methods of blogging... in fact... they called it "powerblogging"
I took some "time off" so to speak, and went to shoot a small art exhibition on campus.
...which featured a fridge and a smoke machine!
...and what better way to finish off a Friday night than to attend a Muslim Students Association dinner to celebrate Eid and the Islamic new year. (which was technically in early December... so it was a bit of a belated celebration). I was quite proud of my appearence because it was raining very heavily and I had my big blue jacket on and was thoroughly soaked when I arrived. I took my jacket off, brushed myself off a bit, took my bow tie out of my pocket and did it up (around my neck and without the help of a mirror). It was very James Bond... it's a pity girls don't dig me in quite the same way that they dig James Bond...
Oh... and did I mention that I took my camera along? (this photo made the front of Monday's newspaper)
All of the tables had these wonderfully ornate lamps on them. And the diversity of the attendees was quite impressive... but I suppose it makes sense. You can hardly say all Christians or Jews look alike any more than you can say that all Muslims look alike.
The food... oh, the food was great. Unfortunately, not present in adequate quantities to satisfy an appetite such as mine.
Zafer Tawil gets groovy on the oud...
Azhar Usman - stand up comedian who tours with the show "Allah Made Me Funny"... "thank you very much, I would just like to thank the organisers for giving me this opportunity to perform. this is the first stand up comedy gig I've ever done in a planetarium".
A very fun evening with everyone really enjoying themselves (I think).
The last shoot of the week - Sunday night... on my way to the site where it was to take place... someone spotted this, and I shot it. It seemed somewhat appropriate, considering the happenings of the week... and the next photo...
The sun was setting... the traffic was building... the bridge over the highway had a very annoying mesh fence. Totally inappropriate to take photos through that, thinks I. So I climed the fence, reached over and snapped away. Then I was chased away by a security guard who took is job far too seriously for his own good.
...and on Monday morning... seeing not one, but TWO photos that I had taken on the front... wow. (and they even got my name right!). For the record, this was much more satisfying than the Norm Siegel lead because the main photo is actually quite good (and surprisingly artsy photo for the front of a daily newspaper).
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