It seems when I am down here I get asked alot, "What do you do?" Now, I dont know if I am finally growing up and this is the norm in "adult life", but does everyone spend a seemingly inordinant amount of time justifying their existance to others? Is that what people do at their jobs? I'll try to give a glimpse of what a Cable Guy does for IceCube...IceCube is made up of many many instruments (around 5000) frozen into the South Pole ice and
connected to many many high powered and very fast computers in the IceCube Lab (ICL), all networked with large, expensive, custom cabling. These cables come in many sizes and colors and materials. Some are inside, some are outside, some are buried under the sirface of the snow (called "the firn") and some are buried as deep as 2 miles into the compacted 50,000 year-old ice. Some are short cables, only 3 feet long and others are miles long. The cable that goes into the ice is called the Surface-to0DOM cable because it connectes the in-ice instruments, mainly Digital Optical Modules (DOMs), to the surface via a 2505 meter cable (that's around 1.5 miles to those non-metric folk). At the surface, this cable interfaces or mates with the Surface Cable in the Suface Junction Box and travels along the surface, is pulled up one of two towers and into the second floor of the ICL. Surface cables range in length from under 100 m to as long as 800 m, depending on how far the hole is away from the ICL. Inside the ICL, the surface cable is installed into patch panels, where shorter "patch cables" are "patched" from the surface cable to the computer hubs that make up the brain of IceCube. These patch cables range from 25 m down to 2 m.
Any and all of the connections made, from hole to computer is made by the cable guy (or cable gal, sorry Claire). Also the preparing of the cables, to be deployed downhole, to be pulled into the ICL, to be patched, labeled, repaired, tested, etc. is done by the cable guy. So, as many questions in life, "What does a cable guy do?" does not have an easy, short, simple answer, but is more of an explaination of the processes involved. I wish it was as easy as saying, "I do cables." but it isn't that easy.
Now for the Perspective... (here's the digression, skip if you wish)
Although IceCube is an amazing project with unknown implications in the world of science and unknown possibilites and applications to the real world, my paradigm has shifted. IceCube was purpose and meaning, now it's not. It was a means, now its an end.
For starters, there is a huge unavoidable rift working in the socail experiment that is the Souh Pole Station. The community ios what you make it, but as in real life, cliques pop up, favortism rears its ugly head and you find that some people just aren't fit for society... even at the South Pole. This is most evident in my job with the alienation of non-drillers from the drillers. Dont get me wrong, its not as bad as it sounds, but it is perpetuated more and more each season. At the one-on-one level, it is almost invisable. Most (almost all) 'cubers get along and there are few, if any, signs of outward aggression or disputes. 
However there are actions and words that take place in groups that point out a clearly defined difference. It usually comes from inexperienced workers (FNGs, "fingies" or f...in new guys) or from the top, management. The FNGs do and say things without thinking about it, maybe forgivable, but still not acceptable. The management however, seem to perpetuate this rift as if it helps the overall output of the project. Gift giving, incentives, different rules... etc. Its the classic Us and Them, Bourgeois and Non (Smurfs and Gargamel???). But, if you ask a driller what they do, you get the unavoidable, "I'm a driller." What does that mean? It seems like we all need to take a big-picture look at what it is we are doing here and why each of us are here. IceCue is a large and complex network of integral parts doing what they need to do to make the project successful. The only difference I see is that if a driller fails to do their job or is injured or sick or "missing" then they can get replaced by one of 30 or so other drillers, where as if I am out of commission, I can be replaced by one or two other people.
Now for the good part...
When I started at IceCube, I knew it would be a good job. Good for me, good for the university, good for the planet, maybe even good for the universe. Now, I have no doubt that good will come of it, but the institution and organization of it has disillusioned me to the point that IceCube is just a job for me. Most importantly, my paradigm shift is due to the two most important people in my life, Christine and Mikey. I enjoy doing what I do and being with the people I'm here with, but it pales in comparison to the time I could be enjoying with my family and the future I am helping create for them and the past we will enjoy remembering...
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