Stephen Skory

I have just posted the 2007 edition of A Day in The Life. The day was yesterday, Tuesday July 31, 2007.

For those of you new to this, it’s a day when I carry my camera with me all day long and take photos of stuff and people. It’s kind of a historical record of what my life is like now. I try to pick the day of the week when I do the most things and go the most places, but I don’t artificially create situations specifically for ADiTL. Everything in ADiTL is an accurate record of what it is to be me on that particular day.

This ADiTL, I got up and ate breakfast, saw Melissa off to work, went to school, went back home to retrieve my forgotten power adapter, got some work done with my colleagues, ate lunch, went back to work, went to the bike shop, tossed my camera in the air on self-timer (see above pic), went back back home, fed our neighbors fish, watered our neighbors plants, cleaned some dishes, went to the velodrome, raced my bike in a 120 lap madison (sorry, no pics of that as I was racing), went to Santana’s with Tyler and Anna after racing, and then went back home. I was so tired when I got home that I forgot to document taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and so on. But rest assured those happened as well, too.

Link to the gallery.

Yesterday, Wednesday, November 16, 2005, I did my annual (roughly) A Day in The Life photojournal project. I have done this before. My life hasn’t changed all that drastically over my last three ADiTL’s.

If I had to pick a theme for this ADiTL, it’s changing shoes. Because I went on a road ride in the morning, and used a different bike to ride to school later, I put on three separate pairs of shoes over the course of the day, changing shoes at least four times.

Perhaps the biggest change is my increased research activity. I’m spending a bunch more time in the lab working. I don’t have much to show for it yet, but I’m making progress, slowly.

I think this was perhaps the least exciting ADiTL I’ve done. But none are very exciting to begin with. I should abandon my current path and go into Alaskan salmon fishing. That would really change the content of ADiTL.

Since 2001 I have undertaken four “A Day in The Life” photo journals. I take my camera with me all day long, and take pictures during my entire day. This is my attempt at a few things:

A way to document what my life is like.

Whenever I watch Ken Burns documentaries there are the slow pans of old photos of seemingly normal things. Who takes those photos? I do.

Having fun!

My first ADiTL was February 20, 2001, while I was a junior at UC Berkeley. It was a rainy day and I spent much of it with Colleen, a good friend of mine at the time. I attended two classes, studied with Colleen, went home and then hung out with Sarah, Ruth, and Jeremy.

June 18, 2001 was my second ADiTL. I was attending the 2001 Physics REU at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. There I worked on the “New Theoretical Line List for the B 2+X 2+ System of 24MgH” using various computer simulations (you”ll need a subscription to the ApJ to see the article). But I had some real fun there. I went to an Atlanta Braves game, the Atlanta Symphony, a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concert, a Space Shuttle Launch, a hike in Tallulah Gorge State Park in North-East Georgia, and many other fun things. It is in Georgia that I really discovered riding my bicycle, and I learned that I can ride in the rain.

After a long break (too long I think) I returned to doing ADiTL on November 19, 2003, during my first quarter of graduate study at the University of California, Physics Department. I rode my cyclocross bike, went to class & did some cross training with the cycling team. But all in all it was an unexciting day.

My most recent, and fourth ADiTL took place on November 29, 2004. This was my fourth quarter at UCSD. I specifically choose this day to be one in which I was at school from 8 am to 8 pm. So I actually did quite a few things, and took quite a few photos to match. I did homework, ate food, had meetings, went to class. Exciting, I’m sure.

I hope to continue this projecct, check back from time to time.