In which nothing was set on fire, despite of many misgivings

Due to circumstances that don't need to be explored at this juncture, I picked up Anna and Victoria yesterday and we went over to Kate's place, arrived, and was "babysat" by Lusine, who was very blue and prone to freezing, leaving us with impressions of facial spasms and weird robotic intonations where half of every third word appeared to be missing, swallowed by the wasteland of non-space in the internets. Our theory was to blame the internet connection, which may or may not be related to the trouble Victoria had with cellphone reception and the fact that Foster City appears to be built on a marsh (where the two castles that sank prior to this one didn't put anyone off at all) (kidding, but all the oceanic names in the region is pretty funny). Then Kate fed us and introduced us to the wonder that is Xbox Kinect, which is very creepy because only not does it have avatars that mimic your every motion (so long as you stand in the right area), but the sensors capture random photos of you mid-play, as well. Kinect sports was pretty fun, but it's Kinect Adventures that (surprisingly) required the most amount of exercise -- one of them essentially had us doing sort-of jumping-jacks from squatting positions while flailing around wildly with our arms. It's astonishing that no one got injured when we did side-by-side playing with two-people teams, given the amount of flailing. The most important thing about this gaming system, however, is that it is hilarious to watch others play.

(Kate also introduced us -- by which I mean Christine, Anna and I, since Victoria already has this -- to the wonders of vacuum-sealed stuff animals. Seeing all that fuzziness deflated and squished together like a giant bag of vacuum-sealed grocery was a bit disturbing, but oddly enthralling.)

We watched the movie 2012, pausing around midnight for the Times Square thing (that bit was fun, there were party poppers and champagne and everything), and the movie was really awful. We were waxing sarcastic over the atrocious science, because the movie started with the premise that increase in neutrinos (yes, that neutrino, as in same root word as neutrons, as in very small thing with no charge that we get bombarded with every single day with no effect of whatsoever) (why did they not use positrons? They are charged, they'll explode--well, sort of--if you put them together with electrons and so make more sense for exciting apocalyptic scenarios, and positrons deserve more love in the realm of pop culture) from solar flares will cause the earth's core to melt from the inside out. And the science gets worse from there. The sub-plots -- emotional family bonding type thing -- complete with boyfriend, girfriend, ex's, jealousies, and vindication--made us groan. The protagonists all displayed a shocking lack of common sense and self-preservation. Any character that remotely caught my interest all died.

Christine, who arrived via her parents, suggested that we watch 2012 for our 2012 get-together. I'm still debating whether the ironic humor is worth putting myself through it again. It caused me pain. And it's long.

The wind-chime from Kate's neighbors, when heard through the walls, sounded like the alarm going off in the lab down the corridor. Despite of this I managed to sleep, woke up way too early (think 7:30am), went to bug Christine (who didn't sleep at all), and ended up finishing part I of a copy of TESS D'URBERVILLES that I found, over tea. (It was a much faster read then ATLAS SHRUGGED.) Then Kate fed us again (she did so love to order us about; it was funny) and everyone trooped out.

The weather seems to be getting steadily less promising since then. The weather here for tomorrow has changed from shower to rain but at least the weather in San Diego has changed from shower to partly cloudy, so there is hope yet.

I have returned the books to the library and am now packing.

My parents are periodically shoving food at me. Such is the nature of parental affections.

I will head out first thing tomorrow morning and endeavor to make the full length trip between bay area and San Diego in one day. Cheers.

Standing up and make some noise

Remember the issue with the parking permit I mentioned last time? A classmate of mine did start a petition. An online petition. That, seeded through our department's list serve, gathered over 200 votes within the first two hours and is now spreading throughout the campus. We are allowed to leave our personal comments and the departments that we represent when we sign electronically, so just by glancing at the petition (over 700 signatures the last time I checked, and this petition started at noon, today) we have people spanning all stages of academic career, from undergrad to techs to grad to staff and tenured professors. We have a lot of people from my program and biology, quite a few from chemistry, biochem, bioengineering, and a handful from physics, economy, engineering and political science. We have more lighthearted comments such as "Thanks for giving me the weekend off" and we have mini-essays. I got almost everyone in my lab to sign, including the PI (who gave me a brief lecture on the history of parking lot economy and how it apparently dated back to Reagan --yes this is what my PI tends to do) and have forwarded the link to a few others who have indicated interest, including the vivarium staff.

I'm quite excited about this now because a) we're sending this to the chancellor, and right now it looks like there are enough people who are upset about this that the administrators can't just ignore it and b) this is a good chance for me to see how much power the student/staff body really do have, when it comes to changing regulations and policies.

It's amazing though. Every time I click on the refresh button on the e-petition link, new signatures show up. Even if I click it every two seconds.

...

Unrelated: got my SfN session appointment! Anna's presenting on Monday morning in November, Lis (the other one presenting in my lab) is on Monday afternoon. I'm on Wednesday afternoon, and I forwarded my notification to the PI with a note about whether or not this meant I get to skip lab meeting that week (we have it on Wednesday afternoons). He "supposes" so. People have been giving me tips and advises and things to see about the conference so now I'm getting all hyped up about it too. Should be fun!

Prospects ahead

I came up with a vague outline of my dissertation at around 7:15 this morning (those thoughts are immediately followed by "wow it ate my brain, clearly"). I'll need to check with my adviser to see how plausible it is.

Mostly I just feel like writing right now and can't afford to spend hours on it. I've slept lots last night (about ten hours -- great, isn't it?) and it (well, and the prospect of tea immediately after this) has put me in a chipper mode. (I think we can safely add "sleep" to the list of things that makes me happy.) I thought I should make a post with the images I've saved up this week while a) I still remember b) I still have the right laptop open and c) before incurable cases of brain disorder suck all the optimism out of me. (I could've chosen leprosy instead, and peripheral neuropathies, but it's hard to take something with armadillos seriously.)

Right. First of all, there was unexpected thunderstorm in SD on Wednesday. I was outside, eating lunch, when I noticed it getting darker and darker. Then it started sprinkling, and I thought, "Okay, well, odd SD weather, it'll probably pass because it's CA and it doesn't rain here in the summer." Shortly after that there was thunder and a downpour. I spent the rest of my break bemusedly trying to dry my glasses on my shirt in the bathroom.

I took two screencaps of my gmail, because I have the tree & sky background on and I've never seen a thunderstorm there before:



I do have my cell images on Ivy, too, but it's a) unpublished data, technically, and b) very large file so I'm not going to upload it.

Conferred with Lucy on who might be coming this summer (hi Victoria! I got the thing in gmail) and will be scrolling through more ads for housing this week to try to find a place and figure out the details for move-in when I do find the place. An option (if they're okay with partial rent and the rent is, in fact, cheaper than my current place) is for me to pay double rent for a month and a half, which will a) give people two places they can stay (hmm someone still need to bring an air mattress or sleeping bag or something; I have one spare cot mattress and a sleeping bag, that's all) at when they come down to SD and b) give me more time to move so that I can pack / move a little bit of stuff each day in the time after lab and c) still leave myself with enough time to clean up this place so I won't my deposit. (One of my classmate tried this last month and it seemed to work out okay with her.)
But yay, people! (Lucy, I think I have further proof that I should list each person as an individual item.)

Okay, tea and project.