hey love, I'm an inconstant satellite

What a fine day this has been. I had excellent brunch with marzipan_pig at Julia's: bacon-mushroom-cheddar scramble, skillet potatoes (well browned and cooked through, which is better than I can do at home, and without any unpleasant spices, which is better than restaurants normally do), and a big cinnamon roll (light on the sugar ribbon and with raisins in).

Next, pottery studio! I haven't been able to go outside of class time before, and it was even more relaxing and meditative, and really productive. Um, I threw fourteen pots. Six small bowls (these came from the same size starting clay and were meant as a set but none is remotely matched, it is to laugh), two medium bowls, two large bowls, and four proto-mugs of various shapes (no handles yet). Considering that I'd never made a bowl before today, and that I only ruined one at the wheel, I did awesome. I fully expect to ruin a bunch of these trimming and such. I was a bit grumpy to find that the pieces I'd put in for bisque firing on Monday were nowhere to be found so must not be done. I couldn't find my glaze test tiles, either, which were meant to be fired yesterday, but if I had nothing to glaze this was less of a problem.

And I met girls! N is very tall, possibly taller than my mom; B has very short hair; and M has a gap between her teeth like Beautiful Cousin #1. They all seemed very interested in my research, so I wonder if I was looking unusually cute for some reason.

After therapy Wim and I went to Boom Noodle, which I continue to really like. The Tokyo ramen is not quite as wonderful as its Tampopo counterpart at Samurai Noodle, but the citrus eggdrop ramen I had last time was fantastic, and the fresh juices are marvelous.

We folded laundry and I am about to do some cell counting, so there is virtue today as well.

Had a grueling but potentially productive conversation with PI the other day. Shockingly, my poor health is affecting my work! I'm also not interested in the project she initially had me working on, though I felt pressured into it and thought I could develop an interest. I managed to tell her again what I still really want to do, though sadly we agreed there's no real way to do it. And I outright laughed at her at one point when she got that Taken Aback look she sometimes gets, and even told her why, and it was okay. Still an exceedingly difficult relationship, but we're working on it. (Maybe next time she will realize that putting the very detail-oriented person onto a high-throughput has-to-be-done-half-assed project is not going to go well? I live to educate through my mishaps!)

My next big project will be a pottery class starting in October. I did weaving last fall; maybe I need an organized way to do productive handwork occasionally? I just hope I actually don't suck at pottery. Usually I'm good at handwork, so it'd be disappointing if it turned out really difficult. (Also I want to make something to remind me of the first-quarter moon I've been admiring, though it could never be nearly so beautiful.) Brother-out-law warned me that he thinks this class is where his devoted potter dad caught the bug. I think my innate dilettantism will win out, though. I'm excited!

So far my verdict on the progesterone-only birth control is: Not Fun. Hopefully the side effects will settle out soon. PMS-style headachey and hot with extra dizziness is not how I want to spend my life. We'll see if it even helps with anything. It's the only idea we've got for ameliorating the abdominal pain without exploratory surgery, since there are still no theories that make any sense for wtf is going on.

Evidence suggests that dancing behavior is induced primarily by 80s music. "Billie Jean" was the first big draw, followed immediately by "Dancing Queen" (yes I know 1976). The Eurhythmics were popular, and of course there was the one that caused me to leap up, rip off my sweater, and run to the floor: "99 Luftballons"! The Germans and I sang along.

What-were-they-thinking selections included Journey (air guitar was observed, dancing less so), Bruce Springsteen, and a raft of new stuff I didn't know or much like. The winner of this category was Suzanne Vega (yay) with "Luka" (a song about child abuse wtf).

I had a good time, even on post-cross-country-skiing knees, but I still think Wim's Lascivious Science Dancers would've been an extreme improvement on the weird wedding-DJ people with two Mac laptops, a Dell, and a stick of stage lights.

This should really be "what plant molecular signaling biologists will dance to". Anyone else have further evidence from other accessions?

(Hi! I disappeared halfway through IBARW! I am still alive, and here are the links I've been squirrelling away.)

1. On being literal, which I am (sometimes to the point of problems):
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/aspergers-diary/200811/joe-and-the-mega-sized-smoothie-language-and-aspergers
(from supergee, I think)

2. On government-organized health care:
http://libertango.livejournal.com/357829.html
from ?

3. Katamari goodness at Boingboing
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/29/katamari-damacy-wedd.html
(needs more cowbear)

4. The stereotype of the fat woman speaks:
http://clawfoot.livejournal.com/896283.html

5. Privilege quiz result:
Y .................................................................................. (+35)
N ...............................................
Some interesting comments at link.

6. Dear NSF,
Learn to do a mail merge already. (m_pig can help!) I do not need to apply for the GRFP again this year because I AM ALREADY AWESOME KTHX.
Love,
K.

7. http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/08/06/the-new-cover/
YAY.

8. http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/05/21/human-interaction-as-chemistry/
Wonderful science-promotion video from the EU.

9. http://notesfromthegeekshow.blogspot.com/2009/08/open-letter-to-john-c-wright.html
A little overwritten, perhaps, which is what I thought of Vellum, but it picks up partway through, which is not.

10. New favorite nonsensical/menacing web command (from Picasa): Sign in to like this photo.

So far, the raised-bed kit from Lee Valley has been a hell of a lot of trouble, and I still don't have any raised beds to put my vegetable starts into. Sheesh. Anyone know a good place to get 12" x {something reasonable} pavers not exceeding 2" thick?

Biking to school is fun and fast, but there are many benefits of walking. I swear I saw morels in someone's front yard a few weeks ago (none today when I checked back), and yesterday I saw not only an apparent bud-sport of black clover on a green plant (collected some for attempted rooting, as it was in a sidewalk crack anyway) but an actual swarm of honeybees. No queen was visible from a prudent distance, but there were at least 500 honeybees within about 25 cubic feet, moving along the sidewalk very slowly.

Still nowhere near unpacked, but we do have a guardian of the not-unpacked state around.

Super-busy, whee. (Of course now is the time to become obsessed with how I'm doing on my 50books_poc count. No I am not going to count up all my reading lists from the last year! Not until I'm done grading exams, which comes AFTER the presentation Thursday and AFTER teaching two lab sections and AFTER my actual research. Bad brain, quit bugging me.)