Introducing the Groomsmen: Gary Nielson, Best Man

Gary and Luke have known each other since Luke started graduate school at Ohio State in the Summer of 2003. Gary was a staff member with the InterVarsity graduate student chapter at OSU, which is known as CGSA. Gary remembers well Luke cutting firewood and tending the fire on the CGSA camping trip that summer.

Gary is one of several leaders and friends in that group with whom Luke has been able to wrestle with profound questions, have fascinating discussions, and see how his faith impacts his life, research, and the world around him. Luke was a leader in CGSA and worked with Gary extensively. Gary was also a great encourager and wise counselor when Luke was thinking about romance in general and one young woman in particular, who is also a member of CGSA.

Gary is currently still a volunteer with CGSA and Executive Director of Second Fiddle Ministries; his wife Peggy is Treasurer. They keep in contact with their seven children around the world and with many of the graduate students whose faith has been immeasurably strengthened and matured in CGSA.

InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministry at IU - Bloomington

The group of people in the photograph above are part of the InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministry here in Bloomington. They are one of the two Christian fellowships (the other being my church) that I have joined since starting at Indiana University.

This picture was taken after our planning meeting for the Fall Semester by Erika, the eldest child of Paula (back row, 2nd from left) and Blake (back row, rightmost). She used the camera on my phone.

Relocating

After much prayer, discussion, consultation, and thought, Kelly and I have decided to relocate to the western suburbs of Chicago in the first week or two of 2010.  This will allow me to be based at Fermilab rather than in Bloomington.  I will still have the same job working as a postdoctoral fellow for Indiana University.  For those of you who remember, this will be much like my relocation to SLAC in California while I was a graduate student at Ohio State.

The reasons for this relocation stem from the experiments on which I work, primarily NOvA.  The first full prototype of the NOvA near detector is scheduled to be assembled and commissioned sometime next summer or autumn at Fermilab.  This will be a period of intense activity and will require the presence of as many collaborators as possible at the lab, including me.  We concluded that it would be better for our marriage and my career for me to be based at the lab rather than to frequently travel back and forth between there and Bloomington, sometimes for long periods.  

We will miss Bloomington, especially the new friends we have made and the old friends with whom we have been reunited.  However, we are confident that our Heavenly Father will provide us with friends and fellowship in our new home.  

Any help moving or recommendations for house would, of course, be much appreciated.

Wonderful Weekend

My fiancée came to visit me in Bloomington this weekend with her new roommate and two mutual friends from Columbus.  A great time was had by all.

The highlights:

• Time with Kelly
• Watching Kelly and Stephanie, one of our friends in Bloomington, play softball for Exodus Church.  They lost to St. Paul's 14-10, but it was an exciting game.
• Having dinner at Lennie's, including some of the best cheesecake I've ever tasted, with local blackberries.
• Discussing our wedding, honeymoon, relocation, and other parts of our future as Dr. & Mrs. (then Dr. & Dr.) Corwin!
• Touring the Oliver Winery
• Having a BBQ at Markus & Stephanie's, which was a great meal from a team effort.
• Church at Exodus, with a sermon on Matthew 5:33-37
• An excellent lunch at Cafe Turkuaz
• Spending a restful afternoon and evening with my future wife
• Working in my office, then having lunch with her before saying goodbye on Monday
• Finding several romantic and loving surprises in my apartment when I returned on Monday evening.

Climate Change and Trust II

Let me approach this issue from another angle.  For those of you who are skeptical of climate change science or are suspicious of its political implications, I have a thought experiment.   

Let us imagine, just for a few minutes, that the following statements are true.

• Average global temperature is increasing.
• Human activity, such as the industrial production of greenhouse gasses, is the main cause of this warming.
• Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) will have negative consequences for large numbers of people during the coming decades if present trends continue.
• Conditions on this planet decades from now are affected by actions humans take now.

If this were all true, what would the proper response be by our nation and world?

Neutrino Overload

I am currently in St. Charles, IL, at the Pheasant Run Resort, where I am staying for the International Neutrino Summer School. We have had a very busy schedule filled with mostly interesting lectures. The resort is beautiful, and I am relaxing by one of the pools right now. I only wish my favorite companion could be here to share it with me.

The curriculum has been so packed with fascinating and complicated physics that I am not sure I can absorb any more, but the school is only half over. The organizers have given us the weekend off; yesterday I traveled into Chicago to see the Museum of Science and Industry. Today, I am taking a much slower pace with church and lunch with a friend my only activities so far.

Need Help Unloading a Moving Van In Bloomington

I am writing to ask for your help unloading furniture and other items from a moving van at my apartment on Saturday, July 18. My fiancée Kelly will be moving most of her possessions into the apartment then, and we could use your help hauling and re-arranging.

Her lease expires in August, and she will be moving in with friends of ours until we are married in December. Most of what she has in her apartment will not fit in the new place, so she is moving it to Bloomington.

So, can any of you help us?

Feel free to pass this along to any mutual friends who might be interested.