Icy and Not So Icy

Book Review:  In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides

5 stars

I don't read much non-fiction, but this book was completely amazing.  In the late 1800's, a bunch of dudes thought it was a good idea to try sailing into the Arctic, breaking through the "rim" of ice up there, and then sailing their way across the hypothesized "Open Polar Sea" all the way to the North Pole (which no one had yet found).  Yep, seriously, at that time, the dominant theory about the North Pole was that it was located on an island in a warm sea that was ice-free and pleasant year-round.  Um...well...since we know that that idea is total and complete bullshit, you can kind of guess where this story is going.  But the details of how the voyage was designed and funded (he spends a surprising amount of time on this, but the main players are really interesting, especially the newspaper magnate who is the impetus behind the whole thing), and what exactly happened to those brave (and foolish) men who undertook this journey--it's well worth your time.  This definitely falls into the "if this were a work of fiction, nobody would believe it" category.  The story is told in an engaging narrative style that maintains the pace of a thriller novel (after the slower initial set-up of the story).

What to Wear When The Last Day of Training Occurs in a Really Warm Room -- Friday, 10/10/14

We shifted locations for the last day of training and being too cold was absolutely not an issue.  By lunchtime, I'd abandoned my jacket.  Luckily, the afternoon was a more free-form thing, and we did not have to be sitting at our computers following along with something the whole time.  So I took advantage of the opportunity to take several breaks to go back to my office and sit in the darkened room and enjoy not being overheated.

We learned during our morning session on security that the security system is fubar and that for reasons mysterious to all parties, we were able to publish to the server but not connect to the server to view anything.  But hey, it was Friday, you know!  And I was not, after days of trying to stay alive by chewing my sealskin boots away to nothing so that I got frostbite on what parts of my feet were not already destroyed, going to eat handfuls of rotten fish flakes that the indigenous people used as fuel not food and then become violently ill from eating something that is not food but continue to eat it because I am so fucking starving literally to death that I can't not eat it even though eating it is probably going to kill me.  So in all, a very successful day.

Purple striped button up shirt (thrifted, Bass)
Grey 5 pocket pants (Rafaella)
Grey leopard flats by Fergilicious
* Purple "gumdrop" necklace (Target)
--Not pictured: Olive green military jacket (thrifted, Maurices)

The men of the USS Jeannette would definitely have tried to eat this candy-looking necklace.