Here is Chuck Pearsall‘s account of his first day at SLAC (the Standford Linear Accelerator), where he is participating in the BaBar collaboration, which “was built at SLAC to study the millions of B mesons produced by the PEP-II storage ring”.

In our hero’s first episode, there are deer, beer, and Delroy Lindo. So, read on for his full account!

A minor update — Chuck says the website to the sushi place is here.
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– BEGIN TRANSMISSION! –
Day 1

Open: 4.30am ugh, this sucks, early morning trip to the airport. After a quick flight to Atlanta, there was a 2 hour layover. What to do during these 2 hours? BEER! yes, beer is on sale in the airport 24-7. So, 2 beers later, then off to LAX.

Slept through most of the 4 hour flight to Cali, but i nearly throttles this annoying, and I MEAN ANNOYING woman sitting behind be. In addition Del Roy Lindo(I think that is his name, the black policeman actor in Gone in 60sec and Ransom) was sitting in the same row as I was. OHOHOH, get this: it now cost $5 to get the inflight movie, to RENT the fucking headphones, how much shit is that??!!? Its a fucking travesty I tell you, and THEN the movie was that pile of shit the Weddding Planner? who the fuck would pay to see shitty j-low act like a stupid cunt in that dumbass movie???!!!??

Enough ranting…

So, then a commuter flight from LAX to San Jose, and Im in the silicon valley!!!

So, we drive from the San Jose airport, which by the way I had to climb down a fucking ladder(almost) to get off the plane, it just stopped in one corner of the concrete, and a stairway drove up and parked next to the plane. what is this? 1962? no airconditioned pedway? no automatic slidewalks? WTF?

Again, we drive from the san jose airport to the ‘heart’ of silicon valley, SLAC and the Stanford campus(adjacent,but different cities) On the way, we see headquarters for the following companies:

Intel
Apple
Compaq
Hewelet-Packard
Wall Street Journal West
Silicon Graphics
Sun Microsystems

And many others…

Impressive, most impressive isn’t it?

well, then a quick tour of the area insued, and we stopped at the Stanford Mall, yes, this is the open-aired mall owed and operated by the University of STanford, On the Stanford campus. So, more driving around towards SLAC, and we drive OVER the LINAC (or linear accelerator) which extends over the interstate. Soon we arrive at SLAC, and are ushered into the guard boot to get our dossimiters and ID’s.

dossimiter: a device worn that measures radiation levels

Next we headed into the BaBar control room, as Dr. Brown, our professor and chauffer, had to start his 4-12 shift, and it was 3.56. So, some down time akwardness as Dr B did the startup sequences, and we stood around looking dumb. But, soon we got a small tour of the facilities, as the LINAC was down. We saw a 50000 liter tank of liquid nitrogen, the multiple control systems of the BaBar detector.

BaBar: the name of a detector system for looking at high energy particles, also the name of the collorobation of scientists working on said system.

We also saw much equipment in front of the detector, we COULDN’T see the actual detector, as the radiation levels would be fairly unsafe, now that the experiment was in progress, so it was safely buried behind 1.5 meters of high pressure concrete. Nearby was the ‘farm’ of computers that run the command and control systems of the BaBar detector.

farm: a large group of computers, usually dedicated to a single, or similar tasks

So, next was the outside of the project building, and right there was a not so wild deer and her two babies.
Up, comes the camera and what? the fucking camera is now broken..wont turn on. shit, fucking digital camera broke.

Alas, soon it will turn on again, dunno why it failed to turn on earlier, dunno why i suddenly decided to start working, dunno how long till it acts up again.

But, back outside, and got the pictures of the deers. No as great as I could have, they were 10 feet away, at first when the camera didnt work, but still, pictures.

Also found out about a large herd of wild horses on the Stanford wild lands on top of the LINAC.(it is buried)

Work, work, work followed, the same shit I do at Uof L, but actually loggin on to the computers, not accessing them thru the internet.

We get a ride back to the hotel, or the roach hotel as id like to think of it, and start walking down the street looking for a restraunt.

We pass up Denny’s and some taco stand and come to Grub and Grog, which sounds promising, but still we move along. Suddenly the clouds part, a shaft of light from the heavens illuminates FUKI SUSHI! we enter, and the numerous awards and articles that litter the anteroom walls proclaim this restraunt to be the BEST SUSHI IN Silicon Valley, even Southern California, a 5 star resturant, etc,etc,etc… so, we eat, then we eat some more, then our comes my sushi plate ($22 it was) and it was the best sushi ever, in my book. it beat the best of Bonsi of Louisville hands down, Bonsi is CRAP, it sucks. This was the best!!!!!! Those 6 exclimation points aren’t for nothin! those are deliberate! I’m not the type to use excessive emphasis!!!

So, after 3 hours of feasting and splitting the bill, which was a major hassle, we trudged back to the hotel. Where we soon passed out after our gorged bellies forced us into a coma, otherwise known as sleep.

To be continued….

Fade to Black……

– END TRANMISSION –