7.27.2008

July 25 (again from a letter to family)

So, today actually began really nicely, when in the beautifully cool early morning fog while riding to work, I saw 6 hot air balloons floating over Santa Paula. I was going to race them to my work, as some of them were going at a fairly nice clip, but then to wind stopped, so it didn't seem very fair to them. Poor balloons.

And this morning turned out to be a very aircraft-filled morning, as we saw two F/A-18s flying in formation around the valley for a bit, and later heard something that sounded like military aircraft using large loud afterburners, which we think were probably the same planes.

Today we spent almost all of the day straightening panels, which is not a very fun job, because it involves coordinating 8-14 peoples moving large aluminum structures, trying to line them up to within and 1/8 of in inch tolerance, which is not easy when they weigh close to half a ton each. However, after lunch we did have the enjoyment of finally looking out upon our great sea of solar panels, 3/4 finished, all in nearly perfect lines.

Since that was pretty much the end of our work for the week, we spent the rest of the afternoon leisurely panelizing, just me and Max and Bridget on my team, since McGarry has flown off to a wedding for the weekend. We ended up having several long lengthy discussions, since we didn't have to focus as much on cranking out the panels as fast as we could. After Max and I discussed corporate ethics for awhile, about how companies should treat and pay their workers, and how they would be responsible for some basic compensations and minimum standard of working, but might not have to do more than that unless they could convince their competitors to join them, since the rewards would be diminished unless they all pitch in together, the real topic of the afternoon emerged as we began discussing movies.
It was a long developed discussion, mainly revolving around Max's belief that movies should be a very rare activity, and from his argument supporting that, a debate over whether they were a social activity, and if so of what type and so on.
And the even longer discussion took place once we discussed whether or not they were art, and whether that art could be compared to the acting of plays, or paintings and music and such. We debated on the meaning of art, and whether there was a bond between the artist and the audience, and whether the use of technology such as a camera made it less on an art, since art is an imitation of nature, but a camera makes an image, not an imitation.

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