Becca Stareyes

So, I have a cough. Don't know what it's from, but it's been annoying me for the last week.

Today I brewed up some ginger tea. I'm trying to decide if the ginger is what's helping the cough, or if it was the shower I had, or just having lots of fluids, or if it's just a matter of not noticing as much.

I should try an experiment.

( <i>'The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions.' </i> -- Claude Levi-Strauss )

Stomach upset. Tried making a solution of baking soda and water on the basis that if it was caused by excess acid, swallowing a base would neutralize it. I think I used too much baking soda.

For the record, I have been burping up CO₂ (I presume) for the last fifteen minutes, my stomach feels worse, and there's still an acid-burning feeling in the back of my throat. That and baking soda tastes like a mix between salt and soap, which is a disgusting taste.

So, yesterday someone in the Borders manga aisle asked me out of nowhere if it was true that Japanese was read backward -- her boyfriend/male friend/brother/some guy had just told her this and she didn't believe him. I also managed to ride on the same bus to the mall as two people I know. Yeah, Ithaca isn't that big, and I live on the downtown-mall bus route (at least on weekends -- the route changes on weekends to better swing by all the dorms instead of the part of campus with the classrooms. As a result, the bus stop where I live moves about a block.)

I had more thoughts, but I can't think of them. D&D continues to be fun. Dave is talking about running a one-shot of Paranoia, and I am temped to see how obnoxiously perky I can be while playing Paranoia.

I missed the Avatar finale tonight, but will catch it tomorrow.

I can't seem to get the hang of posting on one topic. Oh, well.

I played softball today. We had a grand total of six people show up, and we got our butts kicked. Though not as badly as we could. I still am batting 0.000, unless you count the time I got on second by fielding error. (League rules is if the opposing team throws the ball out of bounds, you can advance one extra base -- mostly to cover situations where the ball gets thrown into the bushes and it takes a bit to retrieve.) On the other hand, I'm getting better at fielding -- I managed to hold one to a double. I'm still hindered by my inability to throw hard enough to get it to the infield.

So, question for you all, blog. So, over on Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait posts a quote from Buzz Aldrin, where Buzz says that the unrealistic expectations created by science fiction makes people less interested in the real accomplishments of the space program. Phil disagreed -- he thinks that science fiction spurs us on and inspires us.

I'm biased -- I was a space nut before I learned how to tell SF from horror. Every time I saw the crew of the Enterprise beaming down to a planet, or read novels about imaginary moon colonies, I wanted to work all that more to go there. Or at least learn as much as I could about the real thing.

So, what do you all think?

So, it's been a twenty-four hour period since I burned my thumb on the baking tray. The burn hurts when I bend my thumb too far, which is why it is staying bandaged -- a bandaid wrapped around the joint of my thumb immobilizes just enough that I can't bend my thumb far enough to hurt. I did take a peak under the bandaid today and got a bit worried. So, I read that first degree burns are dry and red, second are red, can be wet, and blister, and third tend to be dry and black or white. Currently the burn on my thumb feels like normal skin, except I burned off some of the indentations. It also is red around the edges of the burn, but is a paler sort of pink in the center.

On the other hand, third-degree burns aren't supposed to hurt like hell -- I kept my hand under running water for ten minutes, because taking it out meant that my hand felt like someone had run it over. (And not just because cooling the tissue ASAP is generally a good idea to stop the damage)

Really, it's mostly that I don't remember enough about first aid. I need a refresher course -- the neext time the Fire Station near where I live offers first aid and CPR, I'll sign up.

Well, that and I am such a hypochondriac when it comes to injuries.

I wrote about 600 words this morning, and did some crocheting. I also promised myself I'd pick up some DevArt drawing memes and work on those for practice. And got more ideas for the Avatar AU fic idea that is building into another albatross. I'll wait until after this week to do anything on that -- no sense starting anything when the finale is so close. And maybe I should finish my Slayers albatross before that -- at least write the third part of the trilogy and get the first part ready for beta-ing. (Damn, am I going to start calling every novel-length work of fiction I write an albatross?)

Speaking of Avatar, I wonder how iTunes is going to handle giving me the episodes they owe me, since Nick is airing the last half-season over a week? Which... well, it's nice that I don't have to wait, but it's a bit unusual to say the least. (I guess they found the flaw in finite series -- once it's down to the wire, people don't want to pick it up, but they need to finish it or else they get lynch mobs.)

Not that I don't prefer finite series to the never-ending cartoons of my youth. (Or rather, I like having both the kind where all you need to know is the premise of the series, and the kind where it is telling one story in episodic form, and anything in the middle.)

It is a rainy, miserable day, and I want to sleep until tomorrow. The fact I burned my left thumb cooking lunch does not help -- I took some painkillers, but I still can barely move it.

( Talking about the Temeraire series, by Naomi Novik )

So, I just finished the most recent book... you might want to skip this if you want to be unspoiled for previous books.

( Victory of Eagles in specific -- spoilers for earlier books )

Dropped my glasses today while getting out of the shower, then stepped on them. As a result, the arms are bent all funny. So, now I have to go see if I can get them repaired. Thankfully, I can see without them, and still have my old pair. Also managed to sleep 12 hours -- I came home late last night and just passed out. (Yesterday, I had to stop at the mall to get a pair of sneakers.)

Incidentally, I discovered that being hit by a car took about half of the life out of my sneakers. Normally sneakers last about two years before I walk through the soles at the heels. This time, the cloth part of the left shoe ripped open -- exactly the part that hit the concrete first when I was hit by a car last August. Should have asked the insurance company for $40 for a new pair of shoes.

( Book Review: Abhorsen by Garth Nix )

Next on the reading list: Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik. I have some pretty long thoughts on the Temeraire series, so expect my review for that to be more than just 'Whee! Book #5'. I've also been putting my book reviews on , if you want to see them.

Work was fine yesterday. I'm a bit stuck, so I need to go bother my boss again. Mostly I'm trying to model some data I got, and I'm getting answers that indicate I shouldn't be seeing anything, and that it won't be as simple as I thought. On the other hand, I'm getting the hang of the problem, which is good. I had a nice grilled cheese sandwich and fries for lunch at one of the campus dining halls, because I had forgotten to bring lunch (again) -- they finally decided to get rid of the darn 'coated fries', which mostly tasted like grease and salt. (I like my fries and chips to have some resemblance to potatoes).

( Read more... )

So, I passed my exam. My committee did ask me to do an outline for my thesis, with some dates, and we discussed whether or not an earlier project I did should be included, but I passed.

Today also marked the beginning of the Cassini Extended Mission. I celebrated by heading down to a toast with all of the Saturn people (except the summer student, one researcher and Steve Squyres, whose life has been consumed by the Mars Rovers, and, thus, has done very little with the moons of Saturn). I then fell asleep and decided that heading home for the day would probably be good.

I am currently reading, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann. For those who don't know, Richard Feynmann was a famous physicist, and Surely You're Joking is a book of his writings. As it happened, the last essay I read last night was called "Monster Minds" and was about Dick Feynmann as a grad student at Princeston. He had come up with an interesting idea, and so his adviser had asked him to give the weekly seminar. And then started mentioning, "Well, I mentioned this to Dr. X and Dr. Y, and oh, yeah, Dr. Pauli is coming in from Europe, and Dr. Einstein doesn't normally come, but I asked him to this time", and Dr. Feynmann mentions being well and truly freaked out.

It makes me feel better. It's just my A exam. At least I don't have to talk about physics in front of Einstein.

(The essay had a nice conclusion -- Dr. Feynmann mentions once he started talking, he just focused on the physics and forgot about all the smart people in the audience.)

My A exam is at 10 AM. Expect a post around early afternoon my time telling people how I did.

My practice for my A exam on Friday went well -- I got a lot of questions, but thankfully most of the comments were along the lines of 'organize your talk better'. I also spoke to my advisor and got some plots on Saturday. He reminded me that I am allowed to shunt questions off if I'll answer them later, and to say 'I don't know -- I haven't done that yet' and 'well, I haven't done that yet, but if I can speculate...' (in other words, to make it clear when I am talking out of my ass and when I think I should know it). Which is funny, since that's the exact opposite of my problem with my qualifying exam -- I would just say 'I don't know' if I couldn't answer it perfectly.

My advisor also asked me to make an Important Mission Decision for Cassini. Well, not an especially important one. Seems one of the observations we're planning doesn't have enough data volume, and we can't go begging for more, since the Enceladus folks are also on that day's run and they are short as well. My advisor's cut out all the obvious things, and asked me what the best thing to do to get rid of 1/3 of the data we take without losing much science, since I'm the one who works with this kind of observation. Hee! Power!

In under 48 hours, I'll either be getting a Master's Degree (and cleared for a Ph. D) or being told to pack my bags. I am a bit scared. Better then I was, since my peers and my advisor seem to think I can do it.

So, the intramural softball season has started. The astronomy department always fields a team -- the Big Bangers. Our cheer goes like this: "Who bangs big? Big Bangers!". Because we're all secretly twelve. (The name predates most of the people on the team). Traditionally, it's mostly run by grad students and undergrad summer interns. We also have one faculty member and this year we have Adam, who is Research Staff and the husband of a faculty member. (We have a bit of a rivalry with the ultimate football team, since we both play on the same evenings, so have to compete for players.) He's also never played softball before -- thankfully, cricket skills apparently transfer, and he got used to the glove quickly. There's also enough summer interns who haven't played sports since middle school to make me feel better about my skills.

My batting record is currently 0.333, if I understand the figuring correctly. One pop out, one time being thrown out at first, and a single that turned into a double thanks to losing the ball*, then getting tagged out at third two batters later.

* League rules. If the ball is overthrown and leaves the bounds, especially if there's a fence or long grass involved, all the runners can advance two bases from where they started. So, if I was at-bat, I can go to second. One base that I probably would have made anyway, plus another to reflect that retrieving the ball is a pain.

But, as a result of today's game and yesterday's practice, I am sore. I also spent most of yesterday evening asleep, no thanks to the thunderstorm that knocked out my power. Sleeping with painkilelrs tonight!

(Stress seems to be contributing to my inability to sleep. I woke up every two hours last night, and I went to bed at 9, with no caffeine and having moved my meds to morning dosage. One week until I can sleep easy.)

So, I figured out why I was sleeping so much AND why my apartment was full of flies.

My housekeeping has gone down the tubes!

*waits for everyone to comment on my statement of the obvious*

So, today, I've been cleaning up the pit of squalor my apartment had become. I'm four hours in, and I've cleaned three of four rooms. Well, more like two and a half, since my couch, table and bookcases are full of stuff that needs to be put away correctly, and I want to take some bleach solution to the kitchen and bathroom floors once they dry from the floor soap and water.

Now, once I rest, I go to put away the mess of clothing in my bedroom, and vacuum in there.

(As for why messy rooms make me sleep, when my living room is messy, I get moody and can't sit still. So I go into my bedroom -- which pretty much has a bed and dresser, plus more bookshelves -- and usually have nothing better to do in there besides fall asleep. So cleaning my living room makes me want to stay in there and not sleep.)

So, I've been trying to track down why I'm not sleeping well -- I usually go to bed at 11 PM, then spend two hours staring at the ceiling/doing crosswords. Current theory is that me brewing tea with dinner is keeping me up. Which annoys me, since I do it because tea leaves are good for at least two refills of the pot -- probably 4-5, if you don't mind the last couple of cups being slightly brown, tasty and fragrant hot water. I don't mind weak tea in the evening, but it means drinking four cups (or two pots) before I head to work in the morning. Like I have time for that.

I tried to test the theory, but ended up falling asleep after dinner when I was waiting for my headache medicine to kick in, then waking up at 9:30 PM. As a result, I didn't sleep well for reasons having nothing to do with caffeine.

( So, Matt has started an ancient Mayan glyph-reading group.  )

Just spoke to two people from Cornell Housing (I think...). Apparently they were looking for a grad student who had been sleeping in the stairwell that leads to the roof, and wanted to speak to him and make sure he had somewhere to live and was generally okay. Since one of my officemates keeps weird hours (read: there was a time I had stayed around here until 2 AM playing Axis and Allies, and he was still in the office working when I left), they wanted to make sure it wasn't him.

( How was my weekend? )

Well, back to work. These papers won't read themselves.

http://www.wwkipday.com/

So, I found this* -- apparently June 14 is World-Wide Knit in Public Day. (Crocheters (hookers? ^_^) and other portable fabric crafts welcome). So, expect me to head out to the Ithaca Commons with a lawn chair, a bottle of water, a big ol' bag of yarn and the afghan I want to finish for my sister.

It's weird how I consider crochet as one of my geeky hobbies, despite the fact it (and cooking) are one of the most traditional, in-gender-role things that I do. (The, again, I'm one of those people who's made Harry Potter House Scarves and FMA slippers for her friends... so maybe crochet is a geeky hobby.)

* Thanks to the CrochetCrochet comm on LJ.

So, the Phoenix Landing party we had at Cornell had packed the largest room in the astronomy building -- to the point where we were out of chairs, despite the building manager digging out our supply of folding chairs. This is a room we can fit the entire Astronomy Department in, for the record. Briony and Ryan were even interviewed for the local paper, since Dr. Bell and Dr. Squyres were out of town -- in Dr. Squyres' case, it was because CNN wanted to interview him for the landing. Heck, half the people we had for the landing came back to see the first pictures come down, about an hour and a half later.

( Cut for coolness. And also Mars! )

In more mundane news, I've cleaned my apartment, except for my closest, craft corner, and the pile of summer clothing by my bed. I also discovered another cat that will eat bread -- in addition to my mother's cat, Geno, Dr. Haynes's cat, Gigi decided she was going to tear open the bag of rolls and take little cat-sized bites out of one.

So, I have suddenly taken up 'sleeping' as my next hobby.

No, don't ask. It's just suddenly my body seems to think that 10+ hours is perfectly reasonable. I'm going to have to start enforcing reasonable bedtimes and wake-up times for myself. Yes, even on weekends.

I'm also catsitting -- since I don't drive, it means bringing the cat to me, rather than going to the cat. Currently, I have Dr. H's cat, who was brought over by my advisor -- Dr. H and her husband being in Italy for the month. My advisor had been watching the cat, but he's in Boston for the week, so he passed the duty off to me. He was supposed to drop her off sometime between 9 and 10 AM yesterday. I waited around til around 12, then had to head in to work for a 12:30 meeting. After the meeting, my advisor came by and said he managed to show up just after I left, and that he left the cat and her stuff outside my apartment door. Needless to say, I was on the next bus home to get the cat put of her carrier -- he had left food and water for her, but she was quite unhappy about the whole state of affairs. I was just relieved none of my neighbors had called the cops on 'some strange guy left a cat in a carrier outside our neighbor's place, and she's being loud'.

The cat has also already managed to knock over one of my houseplants. Yay vacuuming up dirt.

Today's Outreach Meeting
Re: T-shirt designs

"I like Ryan's design, but I think we can do a better galaxy."

"I think it looks fine. Do we need to change it?"

Me: "You know, it kind of looks like a swastika."

*long pause as everyone stares at the screen*

Ryan: "Oh, crap, it does. I totally didn't see it before."

Co-ordinator: "So, Ryan's design, with a new galaxy, then?"

--

Jokes about Space Nazis filled the rest of the meeting. Well, we completed business, but there was also jokes about Space Nazis.