Becca Stareyes

I'm going to a conference (The Division of Dynamical Astronomy -- in other words 'Stuff that Moves... IN SPACE!), so may or may not be around. Certainly not much. I'll be back on Friday.

Looking forward to seeing Colorado again.

It's also going to be my first conference talk as a grad student, where I'll be presenting something on 'How I found small stuff in Saturn's rings'*

* Not the actual title.

Sorry I haven't posted much.

News here: I got a new computer. It is very shiny. The monitor is also bigger than my TV screen (this is not really an achievement) and it can run Photoshop without making weird fan sounds. (Unlike my laptop) I also got Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, which is going back to the store, since it doesn't work quite right. I need to actually play the games I own, though -- recently it's mostly been mindless Harvest Moon playing. (Damn it, I have Phoenix Wright games I should be playing.)

I also might be going to my first conference as a grad student -- the deadline to submit abstracts is Friday, and my advisor has me working on one. I have the second draft open now. I also need to renew my membership to the American Astronomical Society, and get travel arrangements to the conference. It's in Boulder, Colorado, BTW.

I'm starting to think I need to be like limyaael and make a Things I Did Today post to remind myself that I work harder than I think I do.

I am constantly amused by the fire station near me -- I live between a fire station and a shopping center, and a graveyard and a cell phone tower, and the fire station is on the way to the bus stop. It has a sign with announcements in front of it. Normally these are things about elections or CPR classes or looking for volunteer firefighters. Last month was 'Cayuga Heights Fire Department: Saving your assets since 19xx' (there was a date there, but I forget it. Anyway, I sometimes read it as 'Cayuga Heights Fire Department: Saving your asses since 19xx', but I figured it was just because I'm never fully awake before noon, and there was no way the Fire Department intended for it to be a play on words.

But, now the sign says 'Cayuga Heights Fire Department: now with more chainsaw!' and I am forced to conclude that the person with the box of letters has a sense of humor that I approve of.

Take the letter you're given, and think of ten things that start with it that you like. It's sort of like Sesame Street. Then let others reply and play

The Letter H, courtesy yuuo
1. Hershey's Chocolate. Okay, intellectually I know that there is better chocolate out there. I usually will go for something different if I can. On the other hand, this is the chocolate I grew up with.
2. Hyperion. One of Saturn's moons, and the one I did my first summer project on. Still waiting to finish that, thanks to having to remind the Small Moons team I need data.
3. Halloween. My mother's favorite holiday. Not only would she decorate the house to look really spooky (and silly -- my mother loved things like novelty gravestones, and funny decorations like the witch she'd hang up who looked like she had crashed into our tree), but she would also sew us costumes -- anything we wanted (never mind that Mom hated to sew). I swear, that's where my love of cosplay came from.
4. Harry Dresden. The books and show are made of awesome, and I have a thing for characters with a strong narrative voice, like Harry has.
5. Hajime Kanzaka. I loved Slayers, I loved Lost Universe -- man is good at telling a story. (Damn it, I want more of the manga and novels translated.)
6. Hash browns. If they weren't horribly bad for me, and a pain in the neck to cook (at least the kind that look like peeled potatoes), I'd eat them every day.
7. Harvest Moon. I have no idea why this game is so fun. But it is.
8. Hawks. I admit it. I like birds. I especially like birds of prey, since they fly so gracefully. Even vultures -- hey, in the air, those things are pretty impressive.
9. Humpback whales. Again, I I have a weakness for marine mammals. I especially like humpbacks. True story -- I played the cello in elementary school because a cellist came to speak to us and used his cello to imitate whalesong. (Star Trek 4 was also my first initiation to Star Trek). I got to see a humpback in person on a whale-watch -- a female and her half-grown calf. (Not to mention something like a dozen Minke whales.)
10. Horseshoe orbits. Because they are dynamically neat.

It's odd. Most of my productivity goes in step. So, if I'm in a good enough mood to clean my apartment, I also tend to be in a good enough mood to write. Conversely, my normal non-writing distractions aren't 'clean the apartment', but they are 'play clicky-games* on the internet and do sudoku puzzles'. My sister cleans when stressed -- I do useless things. I think she got a better deal here.

* Clicky-games are hear defined by any game on the internet that requires little thought, and a lot of mouse clicks. Wajas' Rune Game is a perfect example. Running around Gaia Towns catching bugs to make inks is another. Gaia Jigsaws, and various puzzle-based flash games are on the limit -- they require some thought, but not much.

Yesterday, I finally cleaned my apartment -- well, mostly, but the spots I missed were because I misplaced my mop bucket and forgot to buy all-purpose cleaner. This morning I wrote a couple hundred words. I don't think this is coincidence.

So, I'm going to tell a Valentine's Day story.

When I was growing up, my mother used to give each of us kids a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day. Heck, she'd still do it when I was in college, and last year she sent me a care package with chocolate and a new purse and hat. It sent us a message about what Valentine's Day was about -- celebrating love in all forms, whether it be familial, friendly, or romantic.

So, I was a bit surprised when I got to college and discovered a lot of my single friends hated Valentine's Day. Because to them it was about couples rubbing it in their face that they were together, and greeting card and chocolate companies making money off of things.

So, I guess I just want to extend the hand of friendship to you all, and hope you have someone (or many someones) who loves you on this day, whether it be a lover, a friend or a family member.

Since I can't give you all chocolates, (and virtual ones don't taste as good), have some pictures instead:

Scientist Valentines

Astronomical Valentines

I'm in two RPGs right now, digital_dive and quaquenocte. Both are multiverse games, though DD allows original characters. I'm playing Michael Carpenter in QN, and Zelgadis Greywords, Harry Dresden, and Ken Ichijouji in DD.

( More about LJ RPGs and other online games )

Offline, i finally got around to calling Adobe Customer Service about my old Flash disk, and despite the heroic attempts of the Customer Service Rep (seriously, I am kicking myself for not writing down her name -- she was awesome for putting up for me), we were unable to track down my serial number. Flash remains expensive, but the student discount is excellent -- seriously, Adobe will sell me a $700 dollar program for $250. I'd love a free, legal alternative (if you know of any that run on Macs, please post links), since I'm all for supporting freeware, but that's not a bad deal. I could even splurge and update my copies of Photoshop and Illustrator, and get Dreamweaver and Flash for $500. I even intend it for partial use for work -- pretty animations to explain concepts don't make themselves.

( More Computer Stuff )

Yesterday, I got to go over to the computer center, where they were trying to attract scientists into using 3D projection more. Which is pretty cool -- they had a 'basic' setup, which just used polarization and two projectors to make 3-D projections. (He even took two pictures of the group and projected them in 3-D in the screen), and a really cool one that used three screens to make a projection you could walk through, with the aid of a pointer (kind of like a Wiimote) and a tracking thing on your 3-D glasses (which was broken). Among the uses were visualization of things like proteins, 3-D concept maps, and models of metal crystallization. They also used the Quake gaming engine to turn architectural models into something one could walk through. It was kind of like having a holodeck in one's office.

The weird thing is that I have very poor binocular vision, thanks to crossed eyes as an infant. However, I could really tell things were 3D -- perhaps because I don't normally get binocular vision except in an area directly in front of me, so I really notice the difference. I also discovered that when shown two different images in my eyes, my brain knows exactly what to do -- the computer operator was showing us how far apart he could set the images before our brains refused to make them match. I went seamlessly from seeing both images as a 3D image to seeing only one and ignoring one eye's input. Everyone else got headaches. Go screwy vision, go!

(I was very impressed by the whole thing, as you can tell.)

Today I am voting in the New York primary. Go, democracy in action! (I am not telling who I am voting for, mostly because I care less about Clinton versus Obama than I care about Winner versus Republican Winner.)

So, working from home today...

Pros: Do not have to brave the icy mess that is outside.

Cons: Miss an interesting lunch talk on star clusters.
Probably will get less done.

I'll probably go in, but late.

I knew this icon would come in handy someday. Expect to see it a lot over here when I make political posts. Let's you know whether to avoid them or not.

( Read more... )

Also thinking about signing up as an election volunteer in the fall. Ya know, so there's at least one non-retiree working.

Today I learned that if I tell myself 'I will take the day off from research if and only if I use it to clean my apartment and buy decorating stuff from Target', I will...

... actually clean the apartment and buy decorating stuff from Target.

I know, I'm shocked. Yesterday I learned that when my advisor goes out of town for a month, I will keep working for at least two weeks. And that when my exercise routine consists of 15 to 30 minutes of DDR, I will stick with it for at least 5 days out of 7.

So, my advisor is away. I feel proud of myself that not only did I get the most recent draft of my working report to him, but that I also have kept working on stuff after he was on the other side of the world. (Working without someone checking up on me! Hooray!) That and there's something really effing promising about one of my projects that I can't wait to show him. Mostly so he can suggest about five different mundane explanations that I didn't think about.

Now, if only a collaborator would get the data that I've been asking him for since the beginning of last semester. -_- Need to bug him about it in person during Planetary Lunch, since my emails seem to be going unread.

( A Dialog Concerning Becca's Spending Habits: In Three Acts )

That was mostly just a long excuse to say that I now have Zelda games. Go me!

I need to draw something. My writing's going fine, but I don't feel motivated to draw. Which means I need to dig out my sketchpad and do it anyway.

I just finished my 3rd draft of a report for my advisor that I've been plugging away at for 6 months. (No, not all that 6 months has been spent writing. Some of it was also spent doing the research I'm writing about and fighting with the computer. And making graphs.) It is currently 46 pages long. Half of this is graphs. At least.

Suddenly, I see how people can write dissertations as long as novels.

(Because I was curious, I pasted it in a word counter. It's currently running at only 7,600 words. Darn -- that's about 30 1/2 pages of text. So that means I have 15 1/2 pages of figures.)

I still have three more data sets similar to the one my report is about. ::trudges on::

So, anime club is starting back up again on the 26th. I'm looking over the schedule now.

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I know the plot of this, but I'm not sure if I'll like it or not. We'll see.
  
• Eureka Seven I'm surprise this made it on the schedule -- we watched the first half and most people were in the 'sitting in the hall group' during it. At this point, I just want to know what the hell is going on. (Why is it half of all mecha series have Weirdness involved. Oh, yeah. Evangelion did it.) At the very least, I don't hate it, though the main characters are just meh to me. (Setting seems neat, though.)
  
• Haibane Renmei I've seen the first couple of episodes of this -- it's a bit slow, but I want to know what the heck is up with the setting.
  
• Banner of the Stars/Banner of the Stars II Hell yeah! I'm a big Kin of the Stars fan, and I didn't think that we'd get to watch past Crest of the Stars, since the first half of that series drags. I hope Banner/Banner II are better.
  
• Utawarerumono I LIKE this series, so I'm glad to see it's coming back. Plus, I want to see how the story plays out.
  
  There are also a few movies, and the Hellsing OAV later on on the schedule. The one downside is that Utawarerumono is being shown later in the evening than it used to be, so I'll have to catch a later bus home -- and 11 PM is about when the Saturday night buses start running not very often.
  
  So, it looks like a good semester. Anyone have any comments about stuff they've seen?

I had a funny-tasting orange (or part of it) for lunch, and now I feel sick. And I need to check with my advisor first before I go home.

I am back in New York. I apologize for not updating, but it's hard to do on a dialup connection with an ancient HP machine* -- it finally occurred to me to use a journaling client my last week there. Yeah, I know, but Mom always complains I break the computer when I visit, or infest it with spyware. This time, though, I only visited journaling sites, gmail, Gaia, and Yuletide's site. So we know who to blame if I broke my mother's computer.

* If a Moore's Law turnover time is a generation, this thing would not only be giving 'back in the day' speeches, but would be complaining that the 'young whippersnappers'' 'back in the day' speeches weren't as good as its 'back in the day' speeches. My comparison, my laptop is approaching its midlife crisis, which probably explains all its duct-tape repairs, and the fact that it needs a new battery. Working for me is apparently the equivalent of a career as an NFL linebacker for a computer. (Maybe naming it 'Fullmetal-Alchemist' was not the best idea, even though it is silver and wee**.)

** "Who are you calling knee-high to an iPod?"

( Long Ramble on my life, books I've read, fairies, and New Years )

Crud, it's work time. I better go get dressed and make my lunch. Expect Fanfic Rambles after work.

I am so tempted to, after grading is done, to take a mental health day off and just use it to catch up on all my projects -- Yuletide, my MAX and mrcaex projects, and Christmas gifts. Maybe Thursday, especially if there's miserable weather.

(And maybe pick up something to hold all my CDs/DVDs)

I'm also doing 12dayschristmas, but I'm also not starting that until I leave for Christmas break. (I'm going to try to do 12 fandoms, with one getting all 12 days, one getting 11 days, and so on...)

In holiday news, the holiday party was a sucess. Sadly, only one professor kareoke'd, though several of the office staff, many grad students, and even some of the people catering dinner. (Though having Dr. Bell and his three grad students (all Martian geologists/planetary astronomers) sing 'Rocket Man' by Elton John cracked me up. Especially the second verse:

Mars ain't the kind of place you raise your kids,
In fact, it's cold as Hell.
And there's no one there to raise them, if you did.

And all the science, I don't understand, (Dr. Bell told the others to take this verse.)
It's just my job five days a week.
A rocketma~n.
A rocketman.


Dr. Bell also did "Sweet Caroline", which I have a special fondness for, as it's a song I associate with my mother's family.

(Also, apparently Dr. Bell has a Wikipedia page. My advisor doesn't have a Wikipedia page, though he's mentioned on the Icarus page.)

The grad students got a kareoke machine for our department party tonight.

^_^ I am going to dare every professor I meet to sing something. I am also tempted to do something on my own.

Expect a report tonight.

Also, I am in the mood for a political rant, which I may also make tonight. For those of you who want American politics to jump off a cliff, I will properly warn for it and cut it. (Just warning -- the US seems to treat the presidential election as as much of a sport as football and baseball. The next year is gonna be hell.)

5:00 Leave office. Manage to spill water all over my chair and the floor on the way out.
5:10 Catch bus home. For the record, it's snowing.
5:20 Arrive at home.
5:30 Realize that the power cable for my laptop is still at work. And that I can't get back until my professor picks up his cat (I was cat-sitting this week). So, I read comics.
6:10 Professor arrives (on time!) and cat is picked up
6:25 Go to bus stop. Still snowing. iPod appears to be out of power.
6:35 Bus arrives.
6:45 I arrive on campus.
6:50 Get to my office building. Help an undergrad find the mailroom and unlock it for her. Grab power cord -- it's exactly where I thought it was.
7:00 Arrive at bus stop. Snow has stopped, but it is still cold.
7:10 Bus arrives -- surprisingly on time
7:20 Arrive at home, two hours after the first time.

My feet are cold...

So, I had adventures in crafting today, as I started thinking about Christmas presents.

Part One: The Yarn Store (Yes, there are stores that sell only yarn, and yarn related accessories)
Oooh, pretty. And soft. And also expensive. Darn it, all the measurements are in metric, and my pattern's in English units. ::takes out calculator:: Wow, very expensive. But, still so pretty. Wait, do any of my friends have allergies to wool and/or alpaca? Will they know how to wash wool/alpaca without it felting up? Maybe I better hold off. I'll check the other craft store.

Part Two: The Craft Store With a Sale on Yarn.
Excluding Cheap Acrylic Yarn, this isn't much cheaper. -_- And there's no selection. The craft store at the mall has a better selection. I'll hold off.

Yes, I'm planning on making at least some presents. Which means I needed to start a couple of months ago.