What's up?

[pumpkinpi]

Apparently there is an important 50th anniversary coming up this summer.....So we're celebrating the "Year of Apollo" with all things space all around the museum. And every good museum has a good museum store. Now, I've been wearing spacey clothes and jewelry for YEARS. But we're a part of a natural history museum, so there are only 3 of us who are actually inherent astronomy buffs. Everyone else tends to the biology/nature side of things. So it's been fun to see our store manager buying so much space stuff, and everyone in the office going crazy over it. Case in point: she just brought in a printout of a galaxy scrunchie that she's going to stock, and everyone freaked out!

[SciFiFisher]

Just remember... you were an astro geek before it was cool.

[Rommie]

Can I place an order for a galaxy scrunchie?

Do you know Startoralist? It's an astronomy meets fashion blog. They set up a booth at the American Astronomical Society meeting and I spent WAAAAY too much money there... but how was I supposed to turn down a radio astronomy antenna dress?!

[SciFiFisher]

Can I place an order for a galaxy scrunchie?

Do you know Startoralist? It's an astronomy meets fashion blog. They set up a booth at the American Astronomical Society meeting and I spent WAAAAY too much money there... but how was I supposed to turn down a radio astronomy antenna dress?!

Obviously, you were not.

[pumpkinpi]

Can I place an order for a galaxy scrunchie?

Do you know Startoralist? It's an astronomy meets fashion blog. They set up a booth at the American Astronomical Society meeting and I spent WAAAAY too much money there... but how was I supposed to turn down a radio astronomy antenna dress?!

Yes, I literally know Startorialist. Emily Rice was a part time planetarium presenter I supervised in Maryland. She's awesome. She's gone on to be a research astrophysicist, doing outreach with the Hayden planetarium, and fashionista. I've never been to a conference where they had a booth but I've bought a lot of the things they advertise in their blog.

Funny story. I had a Kepler starfield necklace that I bought through their blog. I wore it in memoriam a couple months ago, on the day the Kepler team announced that the mission was over. And the starfield fell off the chain. And because of the appropriateness of the day, I wasn't upset.

[Thumper]

Fabio turned 60 today!

[Rommie]

I'm sure I said this already but holy hell writing your PhD thesis is boring. I am crunching hard here to get the first draft of my paper done this weekend just because I'm so tired of this chapter at least I'll be in the next stage of things on it. Nice thing is I just met with the boss, and he took a glance at all my sections etc and says obviously he has to read it but he doesn't see any major sections missing, and it might even be enough for a paper on its own by the time we are done with it.

So, not a special milestone in itself, but pulling in the right direction at least! Was also a bit nervous because my sister invited us to DC for Easter and I bought tickets lest they get too pricey, but of course everyone tells you don't dream of doing anything but your thesis 24/7 when you're trying to finish. Now I have decided those stories are probably from people who had far fewer time management pressures than I did during their PhD, and/or have some unexpected time pressure from an external force (like delays outside your control, or having to start a job). But then, I guess we knew my finishing my PhD was never going to be the most stressful part of my PhD.

[pumpkinpi]

I'm sure I said this already but holy hell writing your PhD thesis is boring. I am crunching hard here to get the first draft of my paper done this weekend just because I'm so tired of this chapter at least I'll be in the next stage of things on it. Nice thing is I just met with the boss, and he took a glance at all my sections etc and says obviously he has to read it but he doesn't see any major sections missing, and it might even be enough for a paper on its own by the time we are done with it.

So, not a special milestone in itself, but pulling in the right direction at least! Was also a bit nervous because my sister invited us to DC for Easter and I bought tickets lest they get too pricey, but of course everyone tells you don't dream of doing anything but your thesis 24/7 when you're trying to finish. Now I have decided those stories are probably from people who had far fewer time management pressures than I did during their PhD, and/or have some unexpected time pressure from an external force (like delays outside your control, or having to start a job). But then, I guess we knew my finishing my PhD was never going to be the most stressful part of my PhD.

I've been following a friend's dissertation (teaching science with data visualization) writing progress on fb. (March 26th defense)

"Research is spending 6 hours reading 35 papers, so you can write one sentence containing 2 references."
"I’m going dark to finish my dissertation. If you see me here before Jan 31, then things aren’t going so hot."
"APA style can bite me."
"is the main purpose of a dissertation to realize just how much you don't know?"
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how ... e-universe

[Thumper]

I'm sure I said this already but holy hell writing your PhD thesis is boring.

Should we be worried that what you've spent the better part of your life on, and what you may spend the better part of the rest of your life doing, you find boring?

[Thumper]

Night lights, a 3 watt bulb. I get up before anyone else in the house and get ready in the second bathroom to try not to bother Mrs. T. I don't turn any lights on. There's a night light in the bathroom that apparently is bright enough to allow me to find the toothpaste, tooth brush, and everything else. It was burned out this morning. I couldn't do a thing so I had to turn the light on. After the shock wore off I finished up. Then turned it off and tripped around the rest of the house because I was now blind. Amazing how much I can see with a 3 watt bulb. Hopefully remember to replace it when I get home tonight...

[Thumper]

I'm watching live coverage of the spacewalk at the ISS (They're swapping out some batteries on the truss). I'm completely depressed reading the live comments coming in. They're ignorant, insulting, and moronic. All while some of the greatest human minds are accomplishing astounding feats. So yeah, typical reader comments. But why come to a NASA site when you're clearly an ignorant conspiracy theorist, a sexist, a racist, or all of the above?

[geonuc]

I'm watching live coverage of the spacewalk at the ISS (They're swapping out some batteries on the truss). I'm completely depressed reading the live comments coming in. They're ignorant, insulting, and moronic. All while some of the greatest human minds are accomplishing astounding feats. So yeah, typical reader comments. But why come to a NASA site when you're clearly an ignorant conspiracy theorist, a sexist, a racist, or all of the above?

What website are you watching the feed from?

[Thumper]

It's a feed through youtube.
Um Yeah, that may explain alot...

[Thumper]

Just switched to a NASA TV feed.

[Rommie]

I'm sure I said this already but holy hell writing your PhD thesis is boring.

Should we be worried that what you've spent the better part of your life on, and what you may spend the better part of the rest of your life doing, you find boring?

Well normally you actually plan out what you want to do, not just throw yourself into the one project on hand with data. And normally you can at least do fun stuff like submit an abstract for a conference or attend said conference, go to a seminar because you find it interesting, teach, etc etc.

This is a minimally interesting project and I have absolutely nothing to do except keep working on it, so the combination of the two things is really what makes it boring.

[Thumper]

I was wondering when Pumpkinpi was coming back from Great Britain. We haven't gotten any updates in a while. I hope her leg held out and didn't bother her.

[pumpkinpi]

We just arrived back from over the pond! Thanks for thinking of me.

The trip was actually about the best thing that could have helped my leg's healing. I was forced to stay active, and it got noticeably stronger throughout the week. I look forward to walking in to work again next week.

I'll post updates after a good night's sleep. (I couldn't figure out why spellcheck was telling me the word "udpates" was wrong. It looked fine to me.)

[geonuc]

We just arrived back from over the pond! Thanks for thinking of me.

The trip was actually about the best thing that could have helped my leg's healing. I was forced to stay active, and it got noticeably stronger throughout the week. I look forward to walking in to work again next week.

I'll post updates after a good night's sleep. (I couldn't figure out why spellcheck was telling me the word "udpates" was wrong. It looked fine to me.)

Looking forward to your trip report.

And you're on Instagram now!

[Thumper]

Screw spellcheck. We spell how we want!
Welcome back.
Glad you had a good time.

[pumpkinpi]

We just arrived back from over the pond! Thanks for thinking of me.

The trip was actually about the best thing that could have helped my leg's healing. I was forced to stay active, and it got noticeably stronger throughout the week. I look forward to walking in to work again next week.

I'll post updates after a good night's sleep. (I couldn't figure out why spellcheck was telling me the word "udpates" was wrong. It looked fine to me.)

Looking forward to your trip report.

And you're on Instagram now!

Yes, and I have to admit I don't really know how that works. I don't have facebook on my phone so I didn't check it or post at all during vacation. But I do have instagram, which I use to follow my niece's art and Celeste Barber. (Check her out, seriously.) I also follow my college roommate and my sister, so I figured I'd post some for their sake. But I guess instagram and fb are somehow linked, so people I'm fb friends with can find my instagram?

I don't have fb on my phone for security reasons, so I guess I shouldn't have instagram either.

Anywhoo, pics to come....

[geonuc]

We just arrived back from over the pond! Thanks for thinking of me.

The trip was actually about the best thing that could have helped my leg's healing. I was forced to stay active, and it got noticeably stronger throughout the week. I look forward to walking in to work again next week.

I'll post updates after a good night's sleep. (I couldn't figure out why spellcheck was telling me the word "udpates" was wrong. It looked fine to me.)

Looking forward to your trip report.

And you're on Instagram now!

Yes, and I have to admit I don't really know how that works. I don't have facebook on my phone so I didn't check it or post at all during vacation. But I do have instagram, which I use to follow my niece's art and Celeste Barber. (Check her out, seriously.) I also follow my college roommate and my sister, so I figured I'd post some for their sake. But I guess instagram and fb are somehow linked, so people I'm fb friends with can find my instagram?

I don't have fb on my phone for security reasons, so I guess I shouldn't have instagram either.

Anywhoo, pics to come....

Facebook owns Instagram but I don't think FB friends automatically get IG access.

[pumpkinpi]

We just arrived back from over the pond! Thanks for thinking of me.

The trip was actually about the best thing that could have helped my leg's healing. I was forced to stay active, and it got noticeably stronger throughout the week. I look forward to walking in to work again next week.

I'll post updates after a good night's sleep. (I couldn't figure out why spellcheck was telling me the word "udpates" was wrong. It looked fine to me.)

Looking forward to your trip report.

And you're on Instagram now!

Yes, and I have to admit I don't really know how that works. I don't have facebook on my phone so I didn't check it or post at all during vacation. But I do have instagram, which I use to follow my niece's art and Celeste Barber. (Check her out, seriously.) I also follow my college roommate and my sister, so I figured I'd post some for their sake. But I guess instagram and fb are somehow linked, so people I'm fb friends with can find my instagram?

I don't have fb on my phone for security reasons, so I guess I shouldn't have instagram either.

Anywhoo, pics to come....

Facebook owns Instagram but I don't think FB friends automatically get IG access.

Then I'm not sure how various people that I've never reached out to on IG, but are my fb friends, are following me. But whatever. I signed up to be fb's product so they can do with me what they choose!

[pumpkinpi]

And sorry for the delay in pictures. I haven't found an easy way to get them posted here. What I've done in the past is opened each in Paint (yes, I still use that) and resized them to meet the 600 pixel maximum. I have to be on the right hardware that has Paint. Is there another, simpler way to post pictures? That's not a big deal for one, but I have multiple that I want to share.

[SciFiFisher]

And sorry for the delay in pictures. I haven't found an easy way to get them posted here. What I've done in the past is opened each in Paint (yes, I still use that) and resized them to meet the 600 pixel maximum. I have to be on the right hardware that has Paint. Is there another, simpler way to post pictures? That's not a big deal for one, but I have multiple that I want to share.

I have used picmonkey.com in the past to resize pictures online and then upload them to websites. They allow you to do that for free. Since they are online I can usually use it from any machine/platform I am on.

[Thumper]

I'll have to remember that because I've been having big trouble with photobucket.