So, I'm on a mild dose of SSRIs for anxiety. (Thankfully, what side effects from the drugs have on me went away with use -- for the first month I was dead on my feet in the evenings, thanks to the drowsiness. Now I'm not even noticing it. Well, I still have the vivid dreaming, but I kinda like that.) I think I've forgotten my dose for the last couple of days. And, this morning, when I was answering RPG posts*, I was watching myself posts and noticing that I was a lot more anxious about how things were worded, and not being mis-interpreted. Which is pretty much classic anxiety for me.

* The main RPG I'm in is in a big climactic battle. Four of my five characters are involved -- the fifth deciding that wherever the fighting is, is where he doesn't want to be. Having one selfish character is fun, but he's a pain to get involved in plots.

In conclusion: I need to remember to take my bloody meds.

I am pleased that it's not showing up in my work, despite the fact my model is refusing to work. (I think I can fix it, once I give it a bit more thought.)

So, I set the date of my A-exam (the date where I take an oral exam to get my Master's Degree and the right to start my Ph. D. dissertation) -- July 1. I've started reading up for it, and soon will send around the form that tells the grad school I'm taking it.

In happier news, I got a Tegaki-E blog, so see web-doodles

I finished a fanfic. One I've been writing on for longer than I've been in grad school, I'll add. Came out to 20,00 words -- the sequel, which I did for NaNoWriMo last year, is around 50,000.

I'll need some work to make this a stand-alone fic. As of now, it needs a less abrupt ending. And editing. Massive amounts of editing.

Herein lies reviews. And also My Thoughts on Romance.

So, this time, I'm reviewing Blue Moonby Lori Handeland, Naked in Death by J D Robb (aka Nora Roberts), and The Sharing Knife: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold.

( Read more... )

And, in the time it took me to write these reviews, I already read two other books. And need to reshelve all of mine. And maybe find a spot for a new bookshelf.

I swear, I spent most of Friday and Saturday asleep. Part of it was because my right knee was hurting any time I had to walk anywhere, so lying in bed all day sounded like a good option. Part of it was just exhaustion.

Now my sleep schedule is all messed up. -_-

So, about half of these I got thanks to buying two books of short stories -- My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding and My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon and reading them on the bus when I visited my friend Katie. I had mostly bought them because Jim Butcher had thrown in a Dresden Files short for both of them -- Wedding featured the wedding of Billy and Georgia the werewolves and also Murphy meeting Bob, and Honeymoon had an adventure with Harry and Miss Gard (Johnny Marcone's supernatural security consultant).

The short story books themselves were decent -- there were some hits and misses in there, but it had a wide variety of authors, generally centered around the urban/historical fantasy and romance. So, I picked out a few authors I had liked the work of, and bought their books. (Well, ordered them through Paperback Swap -- I had a bunch of credit stored up.)

Between that, some recs form fiends, and a new book in a series I read coming out, I had plenty to read when I visited Colorado.

( Long Reviews are Long )

And, I'm turning this in for now. More later!

Well, I'm home. The conference is good. I also went to the end of semester anime marathon.

Things I learned (that are not scientific related):
-- I can read more than one book a day when traveling. (I think I polished off two and a half on Friday, two on Sunday, and two on Monday through Thursday)
-- The internet check in thing is amazing -- it means I only have to stand in one line, especially when I have my pilot's case and backpack as my only suitcases. Which I can totally do if I'm only traveling for a week, and don't have to lug along shampoo. Seriously, I showed up at the Denver airport at 11:40, and was at my flight at noon*. And that included time to get to the gate, and pick up a slice of pizza.
* It doesn't save much time at Ithaca, since the airport is tiny.
-- I spend a lot more eating out than I thought. My meal expenses were over $100 -- that's over twice my normal grocery bill. I have a report for reimbursement.
-- Boulder reminds me a lot like Ithaca, only the city is flat, with mountains right out of town. It makes walking around nice. They also apparently have snow in May. (WTF)

Expect book reviews later. I read a lot, and want to tell you all about it.

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.

Also, I've been forgetting to cross-post stuff from Insanejournal. So, if you really miss me that much, head over there and read some of my recent posts. http://beccastareyes.insanejournal.com.

I really need to just set up a feed on one place so I can update once and be done with it. Thanks to OpenID, members of one site can leave signed comment on the other, and it's not like I lock most of my posts (except teaching ones).

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.

The weather this weekend is awful. Coming home on Friday was like wading through ice water -- there was enough snow that it and the rain created a slushy mix that combined the worst bits of ice and cold rain. I also managed to leave my umbrella at work today. I didn't go back for it, because I was worried I'd miss the bus. Bus was late, and the rain started getting bad as I waited. Not to mention that all the ice on the trees has made the power flicker.

Not sure what else to say.

So, here are two pictures I saw today. Both were taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, orbiting Mars. And reconnoitering.

And it found an avalanche by accident. It's spring on the northern hemisphere of Mars, and the ice caps are receding. Which means that you can get landslides. And this one happened to occur when HiRISE was looking.

(Statistically speaking, since we have crazy amounts of pictures of Mars, it had to happen sooner or later.)

And this, which is not Mars. Yes, that is the Earth and Moon. Yes, it was taken from Mars. Isn't that cool?

(Sadly, when we take pictures from Saturn of the Earth, it looks like a pale blue dot. NASA loves Mars more. ;_;)

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, the anime club is showing Eureka 7. It's famous for only barely surviving the voting at mid-semester to get outed -- a lot of people use the excuse to go into the hall when we show it.

I have a love-hate relationship with Eureka 7. On the one hand, if you get past the goofy premise (mecha that surf on air!), it's not a bad show. On the other, it has moments of just head-bashing stupidity. ( Review follows -- spoilery bits blacked out )
So, there you have it. I'd like Eureka 7 a lot more if the gender roles didn't make me want to throw things.

This happened on my first full day of being 24.

Names have been changed, and all that

Scene: One of the games on Gaia. There is a chat feature.
Person A: why did you pick the name you did?
(Innocent Bystander B) enters the chat.
Me: It's an old internet handle. I've had 'stareyes' for nearly a decade. And Becca is a RL nickname.
Me: Hello
IBB: hi
PA: a decade?
PA: gtg
Person A leaves the chat.
Me: ... Apparently being online for a decade makes me old.

I didn't get anything I wanted to do done over the weekend. Bah.

Oh, and there's also an initiative to map the light pollution in the sky this fortnight (today until March 8, while the Moon isn't visible in the sky). And you all can help, provided you can find Orion in the sky. Go here for more info.

I want you all to do this. It'll maybe take an hour of your time, and it's a good excuse to go stargazing and learn one constellation.