To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

Things I learned on my trip to a scientific conference in DC

Sun, 17 Apr 2016 04:32:26 GMT

1. Poster sessions are literally science fair for grown-ups. There's a big hall with a bunch of posters up on boards, and their makers stand by them and talk about their project to everyone who comes by. This seems like a much more sensible way to run a conference than the humanities version, where people get up on stage and read a paper they have written at the audience.

2. Many of the scientists my office supports are fun to hang out with socially.

3. I no longer have the ability to walk or stand for more than 45 minutes without SIJ/lower back pain disabling enough to require a 10-minute sit-down, and if I want to do more than two of these 45-minute sessions, I require the assistance of vicodin.

One of these things is not like the others...

Despite that, I took some nice pictures of the National Zoo (not quite a mile from the conference hotel) and the hotel itself. It was by far the swankiest place I have ever stayed, or possibly ever set foot in.

Pictures, including several of pandas Doing Stuff.

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Snowy snow snow

Sat, 23 Jan 2016 19:40:39 GMT

It's been overshadowed, as usual, by what the same storm system's doing to the east coast, but Nashville got its biggest snowstorm in almost fifteen years yesterday. We topped out at eight inches. It snowed from about 7 AM to after 9 PM, which I don't remember ever seeing down here. It was quite impressive.

I took a lot of pictures. The first several are from about 10 AM yesterday morning, when we had 3-4 inches. The middle ones are from 3 PM or so, when we were up to almost 6". The last few are from just now, when the sun came out.

Click for pics

The only downside is that I can't skate today and probably won't be able to skate tomorrow afternoon, unless there's some serious melting today and tomorrow. Poo.

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Denver photos

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 02:26:32 GMT

63 at Flickr

The ones of skating and/or with me in them are from Chandra's camera, mostly taken by Whitney, while the rest are mine.

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Iced out

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 21:00:05 GMT

Well, thank you, Mother Nature. Instead of the 5" of plowable snow I was promised, you gave me half an inch of unmelting ice, some sleet on top, and maybe snow to follow, though frankly they've been saying that for a while and it's still a sleetfest/freezing rain fiesta at my house. That's just great. I'm having visions of '94.

I'm using a vacation day to stay home from work today (some vacation), and it looks like it'll be too icy to pick up my skates from the sharpener tonight. THE IRONY.

Anyway, pictures:

See everything at Flickr.

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Several things make a post!

Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:26:11 GMT

I made it to the maintenance dose of my allergy shots yesterday! Woooo!

I think they've actually been helpful, or maybe it's all the allergy meds I take now. Either way, we've had a stray cat hanging around lately--okay, more likely it's a wandering neighbor cat who's figured out this neighborhood is an open bar--and it hasn't made me sneeze yet.

( Cat pictures )

I've watched through 2.3 of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. You were all right, it did get much better, especially Jack (and to a slightly lesser extent Phryne). He has a personality (and it's funny)! She is much less irritating! Dot and Hugh are still completely adorable, and Jane is much less trying than I expected.

Certain People Who Know Who They Are might enjoy this. It's kind of like a gender-reversed Castle mated with a BBC costume drama and shipped to Australia.

Finally, the annual Christmas Tree pictures. I upgraded this year; by happy chance, my mother got herself a slimmer, trimmer tree just as I completely overwhelmed my poor 4.5-footer with ornaments, so I inherited her slim-but-not-close-enough-to-singularity tree.

Too lazy to HTML, look at them on Flickr instead.

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Flower photos

Sat, 19 Apr 2014 03:13:04 GMT

Last Friday, I went to Cheekwood to see the 100,000 tulips they have blooming. It was...a lot like going to the tulip festival outside Seattle, actually, but that's a good thing! They were purty!

Pictures, of course, follow. I mostly left my camera on "expressive" mode, which roughly translates to "technicolor." Believe it or not, those colors are more true to life than what normal mode was giving me. Everything was quite eyepopping.

Much as I prefer to keep my photos on my own server, I just don't have it in me right now to do the HTML required to upload and post 50+ photos. So, have some Flickr sets:

Cheekwood

General spring pictures, some of which I've posted before, but I'm really proud of the pink dogwoods

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Two more photos

Mon, 07 Apr 2014 03:59:53 GMT

castalianspring and I went out to Radnor Lake today and tromped through the woods (along with, apparently, most of Nashville). I didn't take many pictures, but I liked these two:

( Redbuds )

( Deer )

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I've written almost a thousand words this evening. Woo! My main character suddenly decided a flashback was necessary and illustrative of a point I wanted to make. (She does that a lot.) I think she was right, though it's running a little long. But oh well, that's what editing is for!

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Some spring pictures

Sat, 05 Apr 2014 21:37:58 GMT

( Mostly cherry trees )

( Also one of the dog from this winter )

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Birds in a tree

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 01:48:34 GMT

It's December, which means it's time for the Christmas tree to come out!

( The usual bird-bedecked extravaganza )

And here's an early Christmas present:

It's a backpack for my skates and skating stuff. A bit frivolous, yes, and something I probably wouldn't have bought for myself, but it sure is more convenient than the reusable shopping bag I was using before. It's nice not to have to dump everything out to put my skates, the heaviest items, on the bottom when I'm packing up, and now my clothes aren't stuffed precariously on top of all the other crap in an open-topped bag, ready to fall out at any moment.

Speaking of skating, one of the girls at the rink is skating to the Aussie version of "Jingle Bells" for the show, and now it's stuck in my head. It's been alternating with the earwormy and annoying "Sisters" from White Christmas, which is part of my group's music. The two guys in our number are going to do that part in drag, because we're classy like that.

We added some nifty choreography yesterday, actually. We're doing this thing where we weave in and out between each other in a circle, and have been promised a pinwheel formation of some kind next week. While doing this, we're apparently going to be holding big snowflakes ~~on fishing poles~~ dangling by a string from a wand, which we simulated at rehearsal by holding skate guards. It was very Dada.

I am, unfortunately, stuck doing a two-foot spin again. At least I've been practicing and it's better than it was. At least I don't have to jump! My waltz jump is still unreliable, and I haven't really gotten anything else off the ground, so that would be...less than good, yes.

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Weekend of wonder

Sun, 20 Oct 2013 00:22:15 GMT

I've packed a year's worth of culture into one weekend! (Well, maybe a month's.)

Last night I went to see Bruce Munroe's "Light" exhibit at Cheekwood. I don't know that it was the greatest thing ever, but it was certainly pretty to see the grounds all lit up with fantastical formations of LEDs.

By far the most spectacular was the garden of lightbulbs. This extended quite a ways down the lawn in front of the house, using some 20,000 LEDs on stalks rising about two feet off the ground. The lights wandered through trees, along paths, and into gardens. They slowly changed colors, cycling through yellow, red, blue, green, purple, and clear over the course of perhaps five minutes. Patches of them were on different cycles, so there was always a field of yellow next to a field or red or something like that, with complementary colors dotted in each field.

I also liked what the artist did to the Japanese gardens. There were little sprays of fiber optic cable in among the bamboo, and hundreds of flickering candles in the little pavilion that looks over the rock garden.

There was also a full moon last night, which really looked cool over the lights.

( Pictures )

And today, a co-worker and I went to see the Nashville Ballet's new production of Peter Pan, which was choreographed to a collection of mostly impressionist music by the long-time artistic director Paul Vasterling. It was fabulous! The costumes were amazing, the dancing was amazing (and at times funny), the music was amazing. They used "The Lark Ascending" for Tinkerbell's death and revival, which was an excellent choice. Captain Hook had THE BEST wig. They dressed up some poor sap in a dog costume for Nana, and another less poor sap in a crocodile costume. He got to wave his tail in Hook's face, wiggle his butt at the audience, and generally had a good time.

Peter and Wendy had some lovely duets, as did Mr. and Mrs. Darling. (I remember Mr. Darling as a jackass from the movie, but he was quite sweet in this one.) At one time or another most of the cast flew on wires, and that was faaaabulous. Peter, Wendy, and Tinkerbell all did this thing where they just kept spinning as they were raised to the rafters, and I have no idea how they did that without anything to push off on. And without wires, the fellow playing Michael still had amazing hang time on his stag jumps (or whatever they're called in ballet; skating calls them stag jumps) and jetes and the like.

I also had my skating class this morning, where as expected I did not pass the hockey stop. Sigh. Damn you, monthly attack of the clumsies! Oh well, not a big deal, especially since I'm already well ahead of the usual schedule; I'll just pass Gamma and Delta next time, if all goes well. (AND THEN I WILL BE IN FREESTYLE 1 AAAAAAAAAH. That's the point where I told myself I'd start taking privates. I just didn't expect to reach it so quickly.)

And tonight I'll do canon review for my Yuletide assignment. I got the fandom I was half-expecting to receive, and I already had an idea for it. I hope my recip likes it too!

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I came to Chicago on the trail of the wedding of my friend...

Sun, 29 Sep 2013 20:41:31 GMT

Chicago pictures and commentary under the cut!

( Flowers, art, a wedding, a beach, etc. )

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Odds and ends

Sun, 21 Jul 2013 18:13:56 GMT

Well, I never thought I'd write anything that includes a scene at the Parthenon, but the opportunity arose in the not!drawerfic and I couldn't resist. Write what you know and all that, yes? I've spent enough of my lunch hours on the steps there that I know it pretty well. Sure, this is probably the first scene that'll get cut when I edit, but for now it's fun.

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Have two flower pictures from the past couple of months.

( Hydrangea, lilies )

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Western Washington in 200 photos

Fri, 03 May 2013 17:01:31 GMT

Trip report and photos below! Thumbnails are clickable to a 1024x768 size (and if for some reason you want the full 4320x3240 size of any of these, just comment with the file name and I'll send it to you; this goes for any of my photos, BTW). If you prefer to view all the pictures at once, go to this Flickr set. I'll warn you that those captions are basic and much more boring than the ones below.

Me getting attacked by a Dalek, among other pictures of that nature, will be coming in a later post.

( Day 1: Arrival, wandering, buildings, and Seattle from on high )

( Day Two: Pike Place Market, Museum of Science Fiction, Museum of Flight )

( Day Three: Cicely—I mean Roslyn, Snoqualmie Falls, Underground Seattle )

( Day Four: A bridge troll, the center of the universe, mossapalooza, and the mountain that nearly killed us )

( Day Five: Tulipalooza, windswept beaches, and sunset over the San Juans )

( Day Six: SeaTac tries to get us to Mars, Salt Lake City has impressive mountains, and I have impressive souvenirs )

Yay Seattle! I very much enjoyed my whole time in Washington, and would contemplate moving there but for a.) liking my current place of employment, and b.) knowing that the great weather we had was an aberration, and I just can't deal with gloom. But it's a delightful area. I'd like to visit again one day.

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Dec. 1 is in no way too early to put up a Christmas tree.

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:22:48 GMT

The challenge: Put all of these ornaments on this tree.

Challenge: ACCEPTED. Mission: ACCOMPLISHED.

( Evidence )

Back to space pilots. At the moment, they're about to start the dinner party from hell. I reread the relevant scene of A Civil Campaign just so I could get ideas for how to structure the schadenfreude. This should be fun! :D

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Weekend update: Yuletide, writing, silly dance shows, cute food

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 19:25:00 GMT

Yuletide update: I finished my assignment and a treat! This is awesome! I had a plan for another treat, but it went down in flames. On the other hand, this morning I woke up with an idea for yet another treat, which should be fun. And I may yet find another way to write for the fandom of the Doomed Treat.

In the meantime, in space pilots news, I've plotted out all the new stuff I want to happen to them on their journey, which is still going to make a very short novel, but nevertheless, the pacing should work better once I write all of this and insert it. To get myself back in the mood, I'm reading Atlantic Fever, which is mostly about the publicity surrounding Lindbergh and his competitors as they prepared and made attempts to cross from New York to Paris. Highly relevant to my interests!

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I finished all ten episodes of Bunheads last week. It definitely has flaws--you rest the entire emotional payoff of your midseason finale on a reference to someone else's movie, really?--but I've somehow fallen in love with all the characters, annoying as they can be in their own ways. This show got me to care--nay, to angst--about a teenage romance! (It was Boo and Carl, like that's any surprise when they were basically playing out an iteration of every Astaire/Rogers movie ever made while also doing ballroom dance--although I question whether anyone behind the scenes actually watched the movies, if their "Fred and Ginger Dance" is a waltz. Everyone knows their stuff was mostly foxtrot-based! Um, for subsets of "everyone" that exclude "people who are not dance geeks.")

Anyway, cuteness! I look forward to its return in January, especially since Fringe will be ending around the same time.

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Since I haven't taken/posted many pictures lately, have one of my cute food:

( Teeny tiny turkey sandwiches )

Also have a photo I'm calling "Post-Apocalyptic Patio with Scarf."

( Here. )

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Le Pooch

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:58:34 GMT

One day, I will get around to uploading the campus pictures I took. That day is not today. Instead, have some recent dog photos:

( Under here )

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Identified Flying Objects

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 13:47:13 GMT

I remembered that the third season was where Farscape got very into plot arcs and even more into crack than it was, but I'd forgotten it was also the season where they basically turned into as close to BDSM as you can get on basic cable. Well, "Won't Get Fooled Again" aside. This has never been an image I needed in my head.

Also, they abruptly decided they were a horror show. Gaaaahhhh, "Eat Me" is going to give me nightmares for weeks. Also, it starts the Two Johns arc, and...I'm not sure I can wade through that again. Maybe I can skip some parts when it starts dragging.

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Picture from yesterday evening:

( The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas )

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More hydrangeas

Fri, 25 May 2012 01:21:00 GMT

All colors this time! (Fun fact of the day: for the variety of hydrangea most commonly cultivated, unless you get a white one, you can change the color from pink to blue and vice versa by adding or subtracting aluminum from the soil. The actual effect also depends on how acidic the soil is. Blue = more aluminum, less acid; pink = less aluminum, more acid.)

( But first, a picture from my walk this evening. )

( Now the hydrangeas. )

( And finally, another couple dog pictures. )

In other news, for some reason this NX fic has gotten more than 250 hits in the past three days. Needless to say, this does not, as a rule, happen for my fic, and it especially doesn't happen for tiny ficlets in even tinier fandoms. I'm desperately curious to know where they're all coming from.

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Studies in blue and summer

Sat, 19 May 2012 04:42:23 GMT

I walk the dog in the evenings now, often just around sunset. This neighborhood has zillions of big, old trees, and so no matter the season or weather, it's always pretty, but in the early summer it's especially stunning. The western sky burns orange, and when the clouds are big and puffy, with crepuscular rays bursting over them, it really is like God or something is right there, holding court just beyond the fluffy curtain. The honeysuckle is still smelling up the neighborhood, and pretty much everyone does some mild landscaping in their front lawns, so there are always new flowers to see. The local wildlife also gets more active at dusk, from birds to squirrels to the truly amazing amount of rabbits we have this year. I usually walk a mile, maybe a mile and a quarter depending on the route I take, and recently I saw five rabbits in one evening. Just tonight, one of my neighbors had four rabbits in their not-huge front yard. Four! I didn't even know Eastern Cottontails were that social!

Speaking of pretties, I put the flowers-and-glassware ones I promised earlier today up in their own album on my website, because there were almost 40 and the prospect of hand-coding that was too daunting for me. Basically, it is a celebration of hydrangeas, glass, and the color blue.

Studies in blue.

Captions are at the bottom, so you may have to scroll.

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Doggie excitement

Fri, 18 May 2012 21:00:32 GMT

I have a bunch of flower and interesting glassware pictures I'm going to put up later today, but I wanted to post this one of Fiona first.

( Cuteness. )

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Fiona the huntress

Mon, 07 May 2012 20:10:50 GMT

Argh, my website is down again. Definitely moving a different hosting company when this year's account runs out.

However, Photobucket will do in a pinch, for adorable dog photos must be shared!

( Fiona with her toy. )

( Flowers and a bird. )

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Make Way for Ducklings

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:44:37 GMT

Centennial Park has a batch of ducklings!

( Ducklings. Also squirrels and flowers. )

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Roses and birds

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:51:07 GMT

( Neighborhood roses )

( Sparrow )

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Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:04:18 GMT

I don't even remember how I got linked to it, but have a classic Sesame Street clip: The Martians discover a telephone.

I only vaguely remember the Martians from my days watching Sesame Street, but even without nostalgia glasses, that's hilarious. HI-LA-RI-OUS. Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip!

More Martians here. I'm also fond of the ones where they discover a fan and a leaky faucet.

Um, now I want fic. Kind of a lot. Who are these Martians? Why are they on Earth? Why do they have control of a spaceship when they seemingly can't even identify space without a book?

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I was hemming a dress today and decided to play around with the pincushion. ( Picture under here )

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Dolly goes on tour

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:30:58 GMT

pezprez sent me a humpty dumpty doll from Little Tokyo in LA! In addition to being adorable, it has a weighted bottom so that it rights itself whenever it gets knocked down.

[Pause for the obligatory refrain of "Tubthumping" that is now going through everyone's heads.]

I've been wanting to add some variety to my flower pictures, so I decided to do a photoshoot with the doll. Click any to embiggen.

While I'm here, have a nifty link: Animated wind map of the US.

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