The Blog

   *snoozes*...

Subconscious decided that after a full day's work and 3.5 hours of tutoring sleep would be overrated, so now I look like a panda.

The workshop was severely overrated (I have no idea what they're talking about, so am going to hit the wiki and ask it). But I think it won't be too hard to catch up enough that I can understand tomorrow.

I wrote 500 words for yuletide, which is a huge improvement over the 0 I had yesterday (hooray for not understanding the workshop and being bored). Sure, it needs entirely too much editing, but it's the first writing I've done for any fandom other than DP for about 3 years, so I'm glad I'm writing at all.

Anyway, dinner now, then tutoring, then catch ups for tomorrow. And maybe I'll have a chance to do the research I need for my fic too. Sleep is for the weak and the tired, after all.

Labels: astronomy, losing sleep, yuletide

   Back to work today...

Not that the thought of going back doesn't make me into a gibbering wreck, but we have to fight past that if we want to succeed (and go on that long-awaited round-world trip when I get the PhD). So, it's a new day and I'm going to fight on.

James has taken charge of my iBook, and yesterday he pulled it apart enough that he was able to get it charging. With two full batteries, it looks like he might be able to do a full backup of the hard disc, which would be great. And if we're lucky, when he puts it all back together it might just work. Otherwise, we'll apply money to the problem and see what Apple has to say. I've only had one good experience with Apple servicing my machines (*huggles the replaced iPod, named Haruka for the curious*) and a couple of bad ones with respect to the laptop, so we'll see what happens.

The toe's almost completely healed up, which is great. Still hurts sometimes when a shoe presses on it in the wrong direction, and doesn't quite have full mobility, but it's close enough.

The conferences are mostly done; I just have to do a set of final updates to the websites with photo galleries and the like, but I'm hoping that will be sufficiently fun that it doesn't particularly stress me out anymore. Oh, and I have to make a naked set of web pages for the WA peoples who are hosting it next year, remembering that I need to put in a few pranks, to see how long they propagate in the system.

Anyway, I'm going to go catch a bus now. Hope this finds you all in great health and spirits, and that you've all kept out of mischief while I've been away. I will be catching up on everything soon, I promise.

Labels: astronomy, conferences, iCatherine

   No, I'm not really here...

But I got to thinking too hard about things, and then I got confused. So I thought I'd take my query to the few readers of my blog.

Is the phrase "stellar astronomy" redundant?

I thought it was, but then I found that it had its own (albeit a stub) wikipedia page. I mean, I get what they're getting at, that astronomy has branched out and everyone needs a category these days, but still... It confuzzled me when I started thinking about the words themselves.

Labels: astronomy, don't ask about the commas, uni, wasting my life, yes I am dumb

   So, at the end of three years...

I have:

• 1.5 (draft) chapters of my thesis written;
• no real results to speak of (though I have duplicated the results of others, which I'm told is a good place to start);
• only 1 year left in which to get this bitch done.

Is it any wonder I'm depressed?

Labels: astronomy, freakshow, hating myself, latex ftw (but not the fun sort of latex), never going to graduate, phd, thesis ftl, wasting my life

Ghostwriting...
Well, maybe not, but I thought I'd better continue on with my list of everything that has been going on with my life. So, where was I?

Oh yeah, I was up to friday.
So anyway, there I was on friday morning, getting up blooming early and dashing into uni by 11am (so early... *giggles*) so that I could hunch up in an uncomfortable seat in the Mason theatre and watch Niea under 7, which rocked! Although, I must admit, 13 episodes is a few too many for any given sitting. But I got a lot of my knitting done. I'm almost finished the scarf I'm working on at the moment, which is the same colour as my shawl that almost everyone is always bagging out but I love.
Anyway, James and I stayed in at uni, bought ourselves a pullapart for dinner and then walked over to the observatory. (Long walk when you're that tired) to work my night away. But only six people turned up, to everyone's absolute astonishment! And they didn't even stay to 8.30, which is our normal closing time (though we're often there til 9.30-ish if the grown-ups want to hang around longer, but we mostly cater to families).
So that was when Jeff (who was in charge since Lesa was elsewhere) asked if we wanted to have a go mucking around with the Meade (16-inch) and look at stuff we wanted to see... So of course we said yes. And that is where the title for yesterday's post came from. We got to observe each of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto through the telescope, and although they really didn't appear to be more than just bright points of light, we did get to see colour (well, not in the case of pluto, but anyway) and it was all very very cool. I've never seen the outer planets before, and it's just a shame that Saturn was below the horizon. I would have to say that James and I playing with the big telescope was one of the best things of my holidays. I hope I get the chance to do so again one time.

I'm rambling and this post isn't nearly as good as I had planned it to be, so I think I will quit my yawning and go to bed. Goodnight all ye who visit here.

Labels: astronomy, this was before tags

Uranus, Neptune, Pluto - No Action
Grrr at the lack of dubbed Sailormoon in my life. Just when I thought I would finally get video copies of 67-68, Channel ten is showing garbage. But anyway, moving on to an account of the past few days in my life...

On Wednesday, I did have to go into uni for fun and not-profit. Yup, the observatory was open to a bunch of vacation-care kids who all wanted to look through the telescopes at pretty things. Well, actually, because it was the middle of the day, we started things off by taking them into the planetarium, because it's fun and because in the planetarium they get to see stars even at lunchtime (which it was). Once again I didn't do the presentation, but that's okay, because I love watching them and it is always a lot of fun. The little girl sitting next to me was scared of the dark, so I had to hold her hand throughout, but she was okay and ended up feeling brave enough to whisper to me about what stars she knew and how her mum had shown her how to find Libra and Gemini. So kawaii!!!!
Anyway, after that, we did walk the group over to the observatory, doing the scale model of the solar system as we went. It was fun also, for the kids enjoyed running around holding stakes with the names of the planets on them and one boy especially enjoyed calling out "I am Uranus" as he ran across the field. It was all kinda amusing really. Then we got to the observatory, where Geoff (according to Lesa his name is pronounced "Ge-Off" which pisses a bunch of us off) had set up the 16-inch telescope for observing of venus. Now Venus is absolutely gorgeous at the moment, half-phased, and full of shining planety goodness. And of course, once someone points it out to you, you can see Venus naked-eye during the day. Very, very nice.
As we were all gaping at Venus, James, my uber-sexy boyfriend, had set up another telescope for observing the moon, which is also half-phased at the moment. And everyone loves staring at the moon, which I'm sure will come as a shock to Lesa, who always insists we find lots of globular clusters to show people when they come to the observatory. But anyway, they could see craters and things and it was very exciting.
Ooh, and as I was helping James with showing off the moon, Lesa set up her 6-inch telescope with the uber-cool filter on it so that we could observe the sun! Don't try this at home without the proper equipment, but looking at the sun through a telescope was definitely one of the coolest things ever. Even James being afraid his eyeballs would be fried was cool. But yeah. Sunspots are pretty...
So, after the chibis went home and we packed up, I headed off to James' house, where we curled up watching Sailor Moon for a few hours... More than a few actually, but that's beside the point.

Thursday...
Umm, I watched some more Sailor Moon with my boy. We got through a lot, right up until Endymion is captured by the Dark Kingdom. *whimpers softly* But yeah, lots of fun. And there was chocolate and coke to be consumed. Oh, and pancakes too! I love pancakes, as James can now doubt attest to. *grins* But yeah, it was so much fun. And his mum is a good cook. I should steal more of her recipes, I think. *smiles*

*yawns* Actually, it's past my bedtime now, I believe, so I'm going to leave you. I'll finish bringing this up to date tomorrow or something.
Goodnight world.

Labels: astronomy, sailor moon, this was before tags