OK, so I'm packing up my machine and taking a nap before heading off on my big Kazakhstan adventure. I am going to attempt to have email access while there, so feel free to send me a hello. If you want me to send you a postcard, feel free to email me your address. Bear in mind that receiving a postcard requires that I succeed in both acquiring access to email as well as navigating their almost-certainly byzantine postal service.
We will have a satellite phone while there, so if you really need to get in direct contact with me during the next two weeks, contact the N-1 group office at Los Alamos National Lab and ask them how to make a call to our phone. When calling, bear in mind the time difference: western Kazakhstan (UTC +5) is 12 hours later than Mountain Time (UTC -7). Also, we are not allowed to bring the phone into the reactor facility, so during local working hours we will not be directly reachable by any sensible means1.
If all goes well, I will be able to make some calls out once a day [probably in the evenings which means early mornings USA time...] and have sporadic dial-up internet access from my hotel room. If so, you'll be getting regular updates. If not, I'll be back on November 1st.
1 I'd say "$5 to anyone who can get them to put me on a phone at the facility during working hours...," but to do so would probably require some kind of amazing social engineering that would bring with it the unpleasant side effect of a heightened state of alert of BN-350, all of Kazakhstan, and the Galgamek Catholics2.
2 It's late, and I'm intentionally sleep-depriving myself so I can wrap my sleep schedule around 12 hours in a day.
