It's trovia is Awesome Day!!!
Go subscribe to her on AO3!
post a comment
| Date: | 2016-03-18 11:50 |
| Subject: | HAY EVERYONE! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | exhausted |
Yeah, I have been woefully neglecty. I've been struggling all term with my depression / anxiety and trying to get medication straightened out again, and it turns out that trying to still teach microbiology decently while doing that takes all you've got.
ANYWAY!
Today is safenthecity IS AWESOME DAY!!! Miss you, lady!!
Celebrate according to the custom of your people.
*dives back into end-of-term grading cave* (on the plus side, this time next week I will be flying to Hawaii and meeting N there!)
1 comment | post a comment
- Childe Morgan (Katherine Kurtz)
I totally picture toddler!Alaric as looking like my most-adorable-kid-ever nephew, only with blonder hair. :-) This installment is better than the first, with still my grumblings about too many Deryni. Reads a tiny bit like a checklist leading up to Deryni Rising et al. Finally, I'm pretty sure this is a reread--there's almost no way I didn't read this when it came out in 2006--but I didn't remember anything, which was kinda nice. [01.01.15]
- The King's Deryni (Katherine Kurtz)
I feel the need to point out that there was an eight year wait for this trilogy to be finished. I think KK might have had Real Life things happening (she moved to the States from Ireland), but yeeeeesh, at this rate I'm never getting the sequel to Lammas Night.
This book started out with promise, but ended up being pretty disappointing. It really needed more build-up to the confrontation at the end--as it was, it was a rather sudden drop-in of "Swords Against the Marluk" virtually unchanged from 1977. The fateful magical battle between Brion and the Marluk was less than a page! If you're going to incorporate an old story into a new novel, wouldn't you flesh it out / lead up to it better? Like, I don't know, maybe mention the Marluk once or twice earlier in the book?
Looking back over the trilogy, I wish that the first book would have had less Alyce traveling back and forth as people who aren't in the later books are gradually killed off, and more of Alaric's early childhood. Then book 2 could have been Alaric's coming of age, and book 3 could have had more of how Brion and Alaric grew close. As it is, I feel like a lot of time was wasted with characters and places who never show up in the later books (all the Morganhall/Lendour/Cynfyn stuff, I'm looking at you) at the expense of what could have been deeper setup for the Chronicles of the Deryni and Histories of King Kelson that come afterward. I would have liked to have seen more of Vera training Alaric, Duncan, and Bronwyn; more of Alaric, Bronwyn, Duncan, and Kevin growing up and becoming close; more of Duncan's vocation; Nigel and Meraude courting; Nigel growing into the trusted brother/uncle; Duncan's ordination; and especially Brion and Alaric becoming close. That last one was sort of the point of this trilogy, wasn't it? I sure didn't see much of it.
Two things I did like: Almost no Camberian Council in this one. And Alaric referred to as Alaric and not as Morgan! [01.11.15]
- Deryni Rising
Deryni Checkmate
High Deryni (Katherine Kurtz)
- Little Brother (Cory Doctorow)
- Starfighters of Adumar (Aaron Allston)
The world misses you, Aaron. [02.15.15]
- Homeland (Cory Doctorow)
It's scary how easily this could become real. (If it hasn't already.) Crazy scary. Open your eyes, sheeple!
- The Alienist
The Angel of Darkness (Caleb Carr)
I still really want a book from Sara's POV, darnit.
- Uglies
Pretties
Specials (Scott Westerfield)
Interesting world-building!
- Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Diana Gabaldon)
I netflixed the first part of the new TV show, and then wanted to keep going with the story.... [07.05.15]
- Dragonflight (Anne McCaffrey)
It's been a while, but this book is like an old friend. [07.10.15]
- Dragonquest (Anne McCaffrey)
Yep, still in love with F'lar. [07.11.15]
- The Martian (Andy Weir)
This book was AMAZING! A fast read, but that's because it was very entertaining. I like how Weir doesn't skimp on the science. I kept wanting to go to my favourite Mars mapping database to follow along! Also? FUNNY. I saw the movie trailer before reading this book, so it may just be hindsight, but Matt Damon is *great* casting for Mark Watney. [07.14.15] And then I read it AGAIN in August because (a) awesome, (b) very excite for movie, (c) planning a planetarium show about related Mars stuff.
- The White Dragon (Anne McCaffrey)
[07.19.15]
- Dragonsong
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums (Anne McCaffrey)
I realise these were published in the seventies, but Anne was a groundbreaking author (in terms of being a successful female in scifi)--I wish Pern wasn't so male-dominated. [07.25.15]
- Dragonsdawn (Anne McCaffrey)
I had totally forgotten about Sallah/Tarvi. <3
- Lammas Night (Katherine Kurtz)
The day has not yet come when this book does not make me cry. I love it so.
- The Renegades of Pern (Anne McCaffrey)
I almost skipped this one because I didn't remember it having any Weyr characters in it. Glad I didn't, since it has a lot of setup for the next book! I am not ashamed to admit I did not care about the new characters. I just want stuff with Lessa and F'lar and Robinton and N'ton and those guys. (notice that I skipped the Moreta books in this reread!)
- All the Weyrs of Pern (Anne McCaffrey)
I know a little too much about planetary astronomy now, so a few things didn't work for me like they did in the past. Minor details, but still, things that would have been easy to look up. And I'm going to stop here, because I remember well enough that this was the last Pern book that was any good at all. [08.20.15]
- Janeway's Immunobiology
summer brush-up on immunology. I had way too much fun (again) with the chapters on the receptor proteins. Why yes, I AM a nerd! [08.21.15]
- Anathem (Neal Stephenson)
Stephenson's latest was checked out, but this one was available, and I needed something to read while waiting for things to move up in my hood queue at the library. Once again, a bit of a learning curve with the vocabulary, but once you get into the world it's just so interesting. The idea of science and math being revered and scholars isolating themselves from the rest of society in communities of their peers. Also, hints of a very interesting history. Great world building!! [09.13.15]
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Ashlee Vance)
A fascinating look at the life (so far) is a brilliant thinker and entrepreneur and yes, let's also call him an engineer, and at the rise of SpaceX and Tesla. It cannot be denied that Musk has probably done more than any group of ten people you could name at bringing us into The Future. It's somehow not at all surprising to learn that he even pees fast. And I want a Tesla so damn bad....build that Gigafactory faster, dammit! [09.18.15] (May I also recommend this series of articles. Long, but really, really good.)
- Seveneves (Neal Stephenson)
I...only read about 3/4 of this. After the time jump, everything was telling and not showing, and I just couldn't get into things. That being said, though: the premise? Sort of terrifying.
- The End of All Things (John Scalzi)
More Old Man's War universe stuff! Creative / snarky / highly entertaining, as usual.
- The Alloy of Law (Brandon Sanderson)
Getting ready for the new book!
- Shadows of Self (Brandon Sanderson)
I wasn't really as engaged by the story / mystery in this one. I still adore Wayne all to pieces, though. I kinda wish Wax would get over the thing with Lessie already. (I get that he'd got PTSD about the whole thing. Maybe he should address it instead of letting it continually cripple him.) [11.12.15]
- Operation Arrakis (Terra Group)
I read the main body of this last year, but I still had to finish the Epilogue.
post a comment
| Date: | 2015-12-19 11:22 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | impressed |
AHHHHHHH YOU GUYS THE FORCE AWAKENS IS SO GOOD YAY
6 comments | post a comment
Seriously, though. I hate that man's stupid face. (And by "hate" I think you know that I "I can't even") I wish I liked wine, because I think I'm going to need it tonight. AND IT'S NOT EVEN THE WINTER CLIFFHANGER YET *FLAIL*
2 comments | post a comment
Because apparently I needed a new fandom (I really didn't)...I have started watching Arrow. Inhaling it, really. This is all the fault of atom1cflea on Tumblr. No, I haven't joined Tumblr (other than running one for our biology department) -- she does hilarious recaps of Outlander, and is also a big Arrow fan; trusting her excellent taste in historical fantasy, I tried out Arrow. Aaaaaaannnnnnnd couldn't. stop. watching it. (I have to be very strict with myself when there are papers to grade!)
Usually excessive muscles are REALLY not my thing, but with Stephen Amell, I am very much on board. That's a lovely face. I enjoy the parkour and other badassery. And archery yay! And let's face it, he's got a Batman vibe (rich guy with badass moves and a self-chosen mission to improve his city) but with a family, AND also a bit of a Robin Hood vibe. Add vulnerability beneath his strength? I am IN.
I also have an executive suite aboard the good ship S.S. Olicity. It's atom1cflea's fault that I boarded before we even met Felicity, but 'sokay, because I ADORE her. And also Diggle. #OriginalTeamArrow4Lyfe!
When I was about halfway through season 1, a friend from back in the AFW days mentioned on Facebook that she was waiting for an episode where no arrows were shot...and so then I had to start counting arrows. And also how many episodes have a shirtless Stephen Amell, because why not? I'm still catching up with these, so there'll be a gap in the middle for a while (sometimes when I'm not allowed to watch a new episode because there's other work to do, I'll rewatch one from season 1 while I'm eating and fast forward through Laurel scenes).
( Arrow stats because how nerdy can I be?Collapse )I'll try not to flail all over (hey, time spent posting to LJ is time I could be watching the next episode!). Thankfully, eventually I'll be caught up and will only get 1 new episode per week. That's going to hurt, but will also be good for my productivity and, um, mental health ;-)
Then again:
(As un-feminist as it is, the guy rescuing the girl is one of my Hopeless Romantic Hot Buttons.)
post a comment
*throwing confetti*
It's trovia is Awesome Day!!1!
No less than Herself could get me to break a long posting silence. (I'm lazy, people.)
Have a great one!
post a comment
| Date: | 2015-03-28 18:37 |
| Subject: | bsg fic pointer |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | accomplished |
[Edit 01.01.15: this was post-dated to keep it on top of my journal, but I don't see myself writing any more BSG fic, so I might as well let it post this year for reals.]
I really didn't think I was that into BSG. But it got me writing again, amazingly enough, after ~5 years in grad school just writing science. (Plus, now I'm writing just canon characters and in present tense--two things without precedent.) I suppose I should acknowledge this. My fics have been posted elsewhere, so here's the handy pointer for Those What Are Interested:
( BSG FicCollapse )
3 comments | post a comment
Just finished the latest book (and the first one in eight damn years) from my favourite author (The King's Deryni by Katherine Kurtz) and...I'm pretty dissatisfied. Maybe 8 years was too long between books; maybe something else. Anyway, it's sad when you're disappointed by someone you adore and look up to.
However, that can be overlooked because I'M AN AUNT AGAIN! SQUEE!
( so much cute!!!Collapse )
7 comments | post a comment
Am up at the parents' lake house, as usual! It snowed All! Day! today, so now it's even a White Christmas (better late than never)! Christmas with the cutest 3-year-old on the planet is pretty magical, let me tell you. (he is fully in "Why?" mode now. Scientist Aunt is enjoying that a bit too much.) Baby brother is due in two weeks, squee!
I hope everyone is having a good time with friends/family/pets/themselves.
And now, an End of Year Reading Meme, challenged by falafel_musings! (My "Books read this year" entry should auto-post on Dec. 31 as usual.)
( Read more...Collapse )
An assortment of memorable things that happened in books I read this year: A planet was removed from the main solar system pantheon. A servant became a god. An astronaut confessed to a fear of heights. Things were blown up in many interesting and creative (but scientific!) ways. The bad guys who weren't devoured by faeries were eaten by the Loch Ness monster. I jumped out of my sixth-story dorm room window to the wing of an X-wing piloted by Wedge Antilles. Whee!
7 comments | post a comment
| Date: | 2014-12-08 15:32 |
| Subject: | Day two |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | accomplished |
Because you all should get to share in the joy, too:
( if only there was a different way to ensure the students get what I want out of this assignment...Collapse ) Finally, today:
Final postlabs plus the final exam left, but that's cake, baybee!
Also, pubquiz and cider tonight. \o/
3 comments | post a comment
| Date: | 2014-12-06 20:47 |
| Subject: | my day |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | exhausted |
(today's quota: 20 lab project reports. And I had to add 2 that I didn't finish from yesterday's quota.)
(I did a new set of assignments this term geared toward giving them practice at parts of the report. I don't feel like it was all that helpful.)
(Good God, I have to do another 20 tomorrow. *whmper*)
7 comments | post a comment
Last Friday a local TV person came to the planetarium and shot some stuff for morning local news. It aired yesterday!
Difficult to get the theater on camera (it's dark in there!), but super excited about the publicity!
(aaaargh, video embed not working! gotta go back to work grading exams...)
post a comment

Hey hey heeeeey you guys! We landed a spacecraft on a COMET!
(by "we", I of course mean "humans".)
(Actually, considering that the harpoons didn't fire, it bounced a few times. We seem to have landed three times.)
( SPAAAAACE!Collapse )
2 comments | post a comment
Sitting at Study Day not expecting many students to come ask questions (the one who does has already been through), so I could maybe post something, eh?
I am SO VERY GLAD this term is ending. My health-majors cell bio class was one of those classes who make my job not fun. They just would. not. engage. I build questions into my lecture to encourage my students to think about what's going on, and sometimes it takes classes a few days to get comfortable with the interactions, and admittedly there's usually just a small core of students who do respond, but NO ONE would in this class. The WHOLE ELEVEN WEEKS. oof. I'd even lead them into it, and UGH. (When you ask them "what happens to the amount of the product as a chemical reaction keeps going?" and get silence--and then tell them you're seriously worried that nobody seems to know the answer? Yeahhh.) (I know that most students don't like being called on, which is fine because I don't like calling on them anyway, but JEEZ.) So anyway, good riddance to them. (They totally didn't deserve me giving their last quiz yesterday in the planetarium and then showing them "Cell! Cell! Cell!" afterward.)
The majors cell biology was better, though I did have several students drop, and several students switch to audit. This means less stuff to grade, but pretty small classes at times. But they did get into the groove and asked some REALLY GREAT questions just from their own curiosity. YAY! they DID deserve me skipping the last four slides of the last chapter and showing them the planetarium movie. :-)
So I am really (really, really) ready to sit on a beach and do nothing for a few days. Unfortunately, the best ones would involve a long drive or a long plane trip, either of which make me want to stab things through my head. So I compromised and rented a little cabin in Sandpoint for a few days next week. Still a 3+ hour drive, but hopefully Lake Pend Oreille will be peaceful! (and given that I got nothing but phone calls for both parents for Mother's and Father's Day, I do need to go visit my parents...which I'll do on the way home.)
Let's see, what else?
Last month was ASMCUE, the microbiology educators' conference. In Boston this year, which I've concluded is just too far to go for a weekend conference before school gets out. It was a great meeting as always, but I was already tired, and the long damn plane rides did not help. On the plus side, I did blow off Sunday morning's program and walk around downtown Boston a bit (maybe I'll get some photos posted?) and then met some dear friends from college for lunch. (they're finishing up post docs at Harvard, and had a baby last fall!) Next year it's in New Orleans, and I think I might skip it (and save my faculty development money for the planetarium conference!)
It may not have helped that I gave myself extra stress by holding the premiere event for our new planetarium movie ("Dynamic Earth") the day before I left for Boston. The Associated Students gave us the money to buy it, and it's a gorgeous movie narrated by Liam Neeson about global climate. I invited a few climate scientists from PNNL and a local business owner who does solar hot water heaters and other environmental stuff, and we had a panel discussion after the movie. It was a great event and it sold out despite us not doing much publicity, so yay!
I did get a little bit of zen back at DANCE CAMP the weekend before last. Oh, I miss those people so very much. The weather was perfect, and the food (as always) was wonderful, and I actually managed to dance most of the Scottish workshops without my knees wanting to murder me! Of course, more evidence that I'm a fool: the last Faculty Senate meeting was the morning I left to drive down there, and someone else actually was willing to be Secretary, so YAY! I dumped that little job! ...and then at the Heather & Rose Membership Meeting, I volunteered to be Membership Chair. (DOH!) I do have some organizational ideas (hello there, Google Docs) that will hopefully make it not much work. Plus, I really do want to be more involved with this group....someday (I keep saying) I will start my own branch here! First, I need a handful of local friends who would actually do this sort of dance....
Next month (OMG IN LESS THAN 30 DAYS AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH) we're having an afternoon camp for 8-10 year olds in the planetarium. I waver back and forth between thinking it should be fun and panicking about trying to get 30 grade school kids to do science. (E chose the age group!)
Summer's already starting to fill up, between camp, and the planetarium conference, and hopefully going on a road trip with my mom to Vancouver Island, and camping in Central Idaho (one of my favourite places on Earth!) with the fam. Still have to find a time that I can drag some of my friends up to Vancouver, too, because VANCOUVER! And Meg is directing The Tempest for Bard, so I definitely want to see that. (They're doing Midsummer Night's Dream, too, which is always a fun one.) silmaril! turnberryknkn! Come over to V-town!
It's cherry picking time, and almost blueberry time, too! YAY SUMMER!
5 comments | post a comment
| Date: | 2014-03-27 19:59 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
I spent part of my tax return on an iPad Air! Whoa this thing has a friggin beautiful screen! And is really amazingly light...especially when you're coming from a 1st gen like I was! Poor Datapad, it still worked fine, but was becoming occasionally crashy. It was still a little emotional wiping it and trading it in.
However, the Smart Cover that I got for Datapad2 is forcing me to work in a new orientation--i.e., with the Home button on the left. It's really throwing me off! I've been using iPads since they came out, and I'm used to having my home button on the right and the volume buttons on the top!
I know, I know, #firstworldtrauma.
Hey, check out today's XKCD! It's one of those that not only made me laugh, but also say to the screen, "Yes, yes, yes!"
Here's hoping that the weather will cooperate next week so I can fertilize the lawn over spring break! It's not going to be that much of a break--lots of prep for spring term, plus planetarium stuff to take care of--but it's nice to be on a flexible schedule with no classes to teach or papers to grade for a little while. :-)
6 comments | post a comment
Wow, has it been that long since I posted to my LJ? Well, OK, it's not like any of us are surprised by thiis. I will admit that I've switched to Twitter quite a bit, because it's short and you can read just a few things at a time if you've just got a few minutes and also BOBAK FERDOWSI REPLIED TO ONE OF MY TWEETS OMG but I definitely don't get the same stuff out of it. Twitter is a good way to stalk watch people I think are interesting, and occasionally vent about something, but it's definitely not the same sort of thing as LJ.
...
So recently in my life: the world lost Aaron Allston right before my birthday. :-( My favourite memorials here and here.
I am Not Okay with this, universe. The world is a poorer place without his wit and kindness. I am thankful for the extraordinary grace of all the lives he touched, and the wonderful stories he left for us to keep.
...
*pulling up bootstraps*
And now what I really came here to write about: OMG Y'ALL VERONICA MARS MOVIE!!!1!
I am proud to have jumped on the historic KickStarter in the first day, before they hit their $2mill goal (IN ELEVEN HOURS). So I've been following this for a year. And things even worked out, without me planning them this way, for me to have only a few students finishing up their lab projects on Thursday, so that I could drive up to Spokane / Newman Lake to see the movie on Opening Day (since it wasn't showing in Tri-Cities)!
They sure showed a lot of trailers that I was not interested in at all. But the one interesting one was for The Fault in Our Stars, so that was a squee moment! (I have, BTW, also become a Nerdfighter recently (after watching all of Brotherhood 2.0).)
But, you ask, how was the Big Movie? (I can't call it the BigDamnMovie...that title is always and forever reserved for another.) It was GREAT!!!! It had basically everything that makes VMars VMars. But bigger and better and YAY!
( A few spoilery commentsCollapse )
I enjoyed giving "Kickstarter High Five!!"s to people who were wearing backer T-shirts outside the theatre yesterday. :-)
I do wonder how the movie works for those who aren't fans of the show.I have a feeling that they'll enjoy it if they can get past the very exposition-y beginning. I hope that's not a detriment to the success of the movie. It IS pretty exciting that it was also released on digital download / on-demand yesterday. I also hope that goes well, since it's a new risky thing for a studio to do! (it was #3 on iTunes earlier today...couldn't find its Amazon rank.)
As a backer, I got a free download...but I still want it to do well in theatres! (Get it on screens other than at AMC theatres so I can take some friends!) Plus, Mom and I took my nephew to Spokane's little children's science museum yesterday morning. He is still SO DAMN CUTE!!! So, totally worth the trip.
8 comments | post a comment
|
 |
|
 |
 |