lots of stuff, with a few things thrown in for good measure
I've never much liked February, both for its hidden "r" and its tendency to fly by. (Unlike all the other months, which never fly by at all... oh wait... but I can blame February because it's shorter! ha!) the "extra r" thing was drilled into me in elementary school, so now I sometimes get paranoid and it comes out "Februrary." oi.
so lately in my fascinating life, I've been doing a fair amount of work at school. I like TAing, but grading is tedious and takes time away from homework that is arguably more important. I'm increasingly lazy when it comes to biking in, so lately I've just been dragging myself out of bed at the unfortunate hour of 6:30am (OK fine so closer to 7am) and having Mike drop me off at school on his way to work. in theory I get a few hours of work done in the morning this way. in reality I don't really have coherent thought processes in my head prior to 10 or 11am. which explains core math at Mudd. and fragmented sentences.
our kitties Lily and Sirius are getting along fantastically and I am ridiculously happy to have them in my life. they wrestle, play, snuggle, scarf food, meow randomly, bathe each other, occasionally attack houseplants, and use the litter box an awful lot. (but they do use it, which is good, especially after years with Alex, who perpetually preferred certain carpeted areas.)
Mike's job is going well and we are enjoying having something resembling a routine. (except for the early morning part of it.) apparently everyone in his office is sick lately but somehow he isn't. this is even more surprising since *I* am sick - I got a cold last friday - and then it pretended to go away but instead remanifested itself in the form of a lovely lingering cough. my favorite.
we've been frantically watching Battlestar Galactica episodes to catch up - the SERIES FINALE is scheduled to air on March 20 and we started rewatching all four seasons chronologically a few months ago. we're in the middle of season 3, but we're also watching the new episodes every weekend, so it's kind of like constant flashbacks. does help it tie together, though - it is one complex show. and frakking AMAZING!! every aspect of the show just blows me away by how well it is done. from acting to special effects to plot twists to "frak" to human emotions to realistic situations to "life here began out there" and "everything has happened before and it will happen again." if you haven't seen the pilot miniseries (i.e. three hour intro episode), you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. because as Mike and I always find ourselves saying... OMG BATTLESTARZ!
so, there is your overview of what is up lately. now onto randomness...
you don't expect a parking ticket from UCSD when you're just trying to not be late to orchestra but the $1 per hour parking permit dispenser machine is in the opposite direction of the rehearsal hall and you figure nobody will notice if you're parked from 7-10pm on a Monday night. cost? forty five dollars of you-were-wrong.
the ISS node 3 has a naming poll with 85% of the vote currently for "Serenity." go browncoats!
I don't know who I should work with for my thesis, and all my fellow first year grad students are slowly somehow figuring out who they're working with. crap.
USPS doesn't like delivering packages to our apartment for some unknown reason. they prefer to leave a little orange slip and then only have the post office open from 8:30-5 M-F and sometime in the AM on saturday... none of which is useful.
I saw one of those toyota rav4 electric vehicles on the road the other day, the ones they randomly made for a teeny while and then stopped, and it occurred to me that some time in the future EVs will probably be the standard, and we'll have to explain to our kids and grandkids how back in the day, everything ran on gasoline. that day can't arrive soon enough. (the explaining bit, not the having kids bit, just to be clear.)
Coraline in 3D is a great movie experience, and I was very impressed with the 3D presentation. I think 3D works best with animated films because we're not used to seeing real life images in 3D, if that makes any sense.
Valentine's Day was fun, but Mike had some surprise activity for me that he postponed due to weather and he still won't tell me what it is. *grumble* still, I took him out to a nice Indian restaurant and we went to see Coraline beforehand, so it was a great day.
I've started learning LaTeX. I pronounce it "lah-tek," thanks to numerous Mudders, but folks here insist on calling it "lay-tek," which still throws me for a loop. pronunciation aside, it was a major pain to install and get working, and it looks to be an even bigger pain to learn. I am such a WYSIWYG and shiny GUI person it is not even funny. so, any tips would be appreciated. I maintain that Word should just get buttons for all the snazzy stuff you can do in LaTeX, or have a LaTeX emulation mode, or let you import a LaTeX template, or something. alas.
we're playing Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky and some weird ethereal piece based on a poem by Debussy in the La Jolla Symphony. they both have choruses (men for the former and women for the latter) and the choral director is conducting - it's neat stuff. our concert is also frighteningly soon, as per usual.
yesterday in class we actually got shown two neat derivations that went at a pace and involved a scope of material reminiscent of Mudd lectures. it was both invigorating and nostalgia-ing. (because the latter is totally a word.) multi-v is neat because it works!
we're starting up planetarium shows every Friday in the astro department, finally. we have this small old school planetarium that rarely gets used but works pretty well. the best way to describe it would be if Dr. Strangelove had a planetarium, this would be it. so anyone in San Diego (which is like, nobody who reads this) should come by at 4pm every Friday for a free planetarium show!
speaking of San Diego, everyone shoudl come visit. like, now. Aunt Pam says she wants to soon, and I know folks like Ami and Heidi have been thinking about it for some time... DO IT!
keeping with the travel theme for a moment, Mike and I are going to Illinois for several days at the end of my spring break! we're going to visit at least four friends there (two in chicago and two in champaign). thanks to Southwest, an airline I refuse to publicly admit a liking for due to their obnoxious seating policy, we got tickets for pretty dang cheap.
lent began yesterday, and I am once again embarking on a journey of vegetarianism. I already don't eat red meat (more specifically defined as four-legged animals) as a holdover from last year's lent, but I'm abstaining from poultry and seafood as well all the way until easter. I don't know why this works so well for me as a lenten discipline... it just does. makes me rethink and examine something so basic - what I'm putting into my body. it's good to examine the things we take for granted sometimes.
I'm also wrestling with what I should do after SDSU, which presumably will finish in just over a year, unless I don't get on that whole thesis thing, which would be bad. anyway, options as I see them are (a) apply to astronomy phd programs, (b) become a teacher, (c) try to get a job in something relating to astronomy, (d) other? my problem as always is being interested in (and pretty good at) too many things but not being solely interested in (or outstanding at) any one thing to the exclusion of all others. you'd think that would be a good trait, now, wouldn't you.
goodness I've written a novel, and I can surely count on *some* people to complain about that fact. :) having thoroughly wasted my morning, I'm off to sit in an Astro 101 lecture as a TA and thus launch into the afternoon! happy February, everyone - enjoy it while it lasts.
so lately in my fascinating life, I've been doing a fair amount of work at school. I like TAing, but grading is tedious and takes time away from homework that is arguably more important. I'm increasingly lazy when it comes to biking in, so lately I've just been dragging myself out of bed at the unfortunate hour of 6:30am (OK fine so closer to 7am) and having Mike drop me off at school on his way to work. in theory I get a few hours of work done in the morning this way. in reality I don't really have coherent thought processes in my head prior to 10 or 11am. which explains core math at Mudd. and fragmented sentences.
our kitties Lily and Sirius are getting along fantastically and I am ridiculously happy to have them in my life. they wrestle, play, snuggle, scarf food, meow randomly, bathe each other, occasionally attack houseplants, and use the litter box an awful lot. (but they do use it, which is good, especially after years with Alex, who perpetually preferred certain carpeted areas.)
Mike's job is going well and we are enjoying having something resembling a routine. (except for the early morning part of it.) apparently everyone in his office is sick lately but somehow he isn't. this is even more surprising since *I* am sick - I got a cold last friday - and then it pretended to go away but instead remanifested itself in the form of a lovely lingering cough. my favorite.
we've been frantically watching Battlestar Galactica episodes to catch up - the SERIES FINALE is scheduled to air on March 20 and we started rewatching all four seasons chronologically a few months ago. we're in the middle of season 3, but we're also watching the new episodes every weekend, so it's kind of like constant flashbacks. does help it tie together, though - it is one complex show. and frakking AMAZING!! every aspect of the show just blows me away by how well it is done. from acting to special effects to plot twists to "frak" to human emotions to realistic situations to "life here began out there" and "everything has happened before and it will happen again." if you haven't seen the pilot miniseries (i.e. three hour intro episode), you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. because as Mike and I always find ourselves saying... OMG BATTLESTARZ!
so, there is your overview of what is up lately. now onto randomness...
you don't expect a parking ticket from UCSD when you're just trying to not be late to orchestra but the $1 per hour parking permit dispenser machine is in the opposite direction of the rehearsal hall and you figure nobody will notice if you're parked from 7-10pm on a Monday night. cost? forty five dollars of you-were-wrong.
the ISS node 3 has a naming poll with 85% of the vote currently for "Serenity." go browncoats!
I don't know who I should work with for my thesis, and all my fellow first year grad students are slowly somehow figuring out who they're working with. crap.
USPS doesn't like delivering packages to our apartment for some unknown reason. they prefer to leave a little orange slip and then only have the post office open from 8:30-5 M-F and sometime in the AM on saturday... none of which is useful.
I saw one of those toyota rav4 electric vehicles on the road the other day, the ones they randomly made for a teeny while and then stopped, and it occurred to me that some time in the future EVs will probably be the standard, and we'll have to explain to our kids and grandkids how back in the day, everything ran on gasoline. that day can't arrive soon enough. (the explaining bit, not the having kids bit, just to be clear.)
Coraline in 3D is a great movie experience, and I was very impressed with the 3D presentation. I think 3D works best with animated films because we're not used to seeing real life images in 3D, if that makes any sense.
Valentine's Day was fun, but Mike had some surprise activity for me that he postponed due to weather and he still won't tell me what it is. *grumble* still, I took him out to a nice Indian restaurant and we went to see Coraline beforehand, so it was a great day.
I've started learning LaTeX. I pronounce it "lah-tek," thanks to numerous Mudders, but folks here insist on calling it "lay-tek," which still throws me for a loop. pronunciation aside, it was a major pain to install and get working, and it looks to be an even bigger pain to learn. I am such a WYSIWYG and shiny GUI person it is not even funny. so, any tips would be appreciated. I maintain that Word should just get buttons for all the snazzy stuff you can do in LaTeX, or have a LaTeX emulation mode, or let you import a LaTeX template, or something. alas.
we're playing Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky and some weird ethereal piece based on a poem by Debussy in the La Jolla Symphony. they both have choruses (men for the former and women for the latter) and the choral director is conducting - it's neat stuff. our concert is also frighteningly soon, as per usual.
yesterday in class we actually got shown two neat derivations that went at a pace and involved a scope of material reminiscent of Mudd lectures. it was both invigorating and nostalgia-ing. (because the latter is totally a word.) multi-v is neat because it works!
we're starting up planetarium shows every Friday in the astro department, finally. we have this small old school planetarium that rarely gets used but works pretty well. the best way to describe it would be if Dr. Strangelove had a planetarium, this would be it. so anyone in San Diego (which is like, nobody who reads this) should come by at 4pm every Friday for a free planetarium show!
speaking of San Diego, everyone shoudl come visit. like, now. Aunt Pam says she wants to soon, and I know folks like Ami and Heidi have been thinking about it for some time... DO IT!
keeping with the travel theme for a moment, Mike and I are going to Illinois for several days at the end of my spring break! we're going to visit at least four friends there (two in chicago and two in champaign). thanks to Southwest, an airline I refuse to publicly admit a liking for due to their obnoxious seating policy, we got tickets for pretty dang cheap.
lent began yesterday, and I am once again embarking on a journey of vegetarianism. I already don't eat red meat (more specifically defined as four-legged animals) as a holdover from last year's lent, but I'm abstaining from poultry and seafood as well all the way until easter. I don't know why this works so well for me as a lenten discipline... it just does. makes me rethink and examine something so basic - what I'm putting into my body. it's good to examine the things we take for granted sometimes.
I'm also wrestling with what I should do after SDSU, which presumably will finish in just over a year, unless I don't get on that whole thesis thing, which would be bad. anyway, options as I see them are (a) apply to astronomy phd programs, (b) become a teacher, (c) try to get a job in something relating to astronomy, (d) other? my problem as always is being interested in (and pretty good at) too many things but not being solely interested in (or outstanding at) any one thing to the exclusion of all others. you'd think that would be a good trait, now, wouldn't you.
goodness I've written a novel, and I can surely count on *some* people to complain about that fact. :) having thoroughly wasted my morning, I'm off to sit in an Astro 101 lecture as a TA and thus launch into the afternoon! happy February, everyone - enjoy it while it lasts.