Life Update

Have I mentioned how much I hate my allergies? Because I do. Even on Claritin and a decongestant*, half the time my middle ears are clogged and I get pain/pressure in my left ear. And also sinus headaches. Yesterday, I spent most of the evening lying down and I overslept today because my normal recourse to headaches is take painkillers and sleep until they kick in.

Work goes well. I mean, I'm pretty close to submitting a paper, which means my dissertation is half written. And the other stuff is mostly done, but... well, I could easily pick at it forever if people let me.

Also, the job market is terrible and I don't want to talk about it. Add in that NASA's planetary science budget -- at least the one Obama proposed -- is terrible. (Mostly, the money going into old missions that are moving into cheaper parts of the mission aren't getting put into developing new missions. If the budget stays the way it is, that means NASA will not only be unable to do any big planetary missions, but the little ones will get less frequent. And ESA is pretty annoyed at us because NASA has to drop a couple of joint missions we said we'd help with.)

I'm working on an afghan and doll clothing and drawings and writing and roleplaying, so I'm keeping busy. And... really, I don't know why I've been silent. Besides late winter blahs. I'll try to update more than once a month.

* You know, one that you have to sign and show ID for, because somehow this prevents you from making meth from it. I mean, I assume this is somehow going into a tracking database...

Well, no. I assume it's actually Security Theater where someone decided making my life a little more complicated shows they're Tough on Drugs.