Trilobite Pachinko

Just lucked into remarkably good sick-with-cramps-and-headache reading this week off the library shelf.

Evernight by Claudia Gray has a well-deserved cover blurb by L.J. Smith. If you are a Smith fan, do not read anything further about this book, just hurry up and jump in. There is a moment of great and ridiculous excellence for which you should not be spoiled. Think Night World, and don't think too hard.

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews is an example of why I keep picking up paranormal romances. The obligatory romantic elements are present and cliched but take a seat way in the back of the bus, making visible the actual worldbuilding (approximate postapocalypse due to alternating waves of magic and technology), well-written action scenes, and pleasing folkloric plot. Also, for some reason I love the idea of were-hyenas who leave odd sex toys lying around, but that could just be me.

Okay, that was just about the best thing ever. Had a good time with labmate M, watched video selections from almost all the main-series FF games on a giant screen, heard live orchestra and choir performances, and got to see Nobuo Uematsu (somewhere between biker and monk in attire; head-bandanna with grand piano design representative) bounce and grin and sing in the choir. Also, big-band style chocobo theme! I did wish they had repeated less of the game footage between numbers, but overall it was wonderful. Rush tickets for students and seniors were $25, and we got reasonably good seats on the orchestra floor.

In other news, cats appear to hate ginger ice cream.

Broke a pinkie toe last night. (Just a bad angle on a random stub against the door frame, not even a good story.) Last time I broke a toe it was because the foot went on one side of the antique spinning wheel's leg and the toe leaped for the other; the two breaks turn out to behave very differently, though I recognized the ache when it persisted all night and into the morning. Also, I do not have ski lessons scheduled this time. Taping and occasional ice are helping.

Tomorrow night is Final Fantasy music at the Seattle Symphony! I'm planning to head down at 6 for student-and-senior rush tickets, as they are far cheaper and there's still a whole lot of space available. Anyone else want to come?

I hit my 50books_poc goal at just about halfway through the year. A list is in the works, but so are a lot of things.

The mysterious volunteer plant in the planting strip turns out to be a gigantic evening primrose with about a zillion buds despite a light case of powdery mildew. I love volunteers.

My ongoing exhaustion and light-headedness are better on a lower dose of my migraine preventive, though it's been interesting riding out the regularly scheduled anxiety and depression in afternoons. Seriously: 5pm? Time for formless dread! Whee! No full-blown migraines so far, though plenty of threat-feeling. I'm considering reducing the dose further, but I want to wait a while and even my keel further.

As demanded: hair pic. Also cute outfit with shirt altered by me (still needs work) and awesome Elise necklace (difficult to seat correctly but fabulous).

Dear Shojo Beat Subscriber,

We're sorry to inform you that VIZ Media has discontinued publication of Shojo Beat magazine. While we regret the news, we are happy to complete your subscription with Shonen Jump.

Or I can write to them for a refund.

How weird. I always thought magazines died more gradually, and the last issue seemed to be planning ahead as much as ever. Well, I'll let you all know how Jump is. I'm not expecting much from Yu-Gi-Oh, but Shojo Beat had some lame stuff too.

(Does this mean translated volumes will be coming out faster?)

1. Having dark hair makes my sloppy self-haircut much more noticeable. Days of wonky fringe behavior ditto.

2. The two colors must fight! Black is washing out rather quickly as the red uprising gains momentum.

Swimming with manta rays is totally amazing. The story is that years ago a hotel out on a point near Kona had so many lights that it caused vast nocturnal plankton congregations, and manta rays, not being completely stupid, congregated also, to enjoy the plankton buffet. The hotel went under, but boats had started taking tourists out, and brought their own lights. There's a hotel again, boats still go, the tradition is carried forward. (More specific story.) The tour we took was literally a five-minute boat ride from the site, and they were pretty great. (Videographer's web site.)

Socially this was a slightly awkward outing. I had talked it up a lot, but our whole group did not go, which is to say that the ones paying for the trip did not go. I felt a little weird about it, especially since I was not completely gracious about not getting to dive rather than snorkel. But, hey, I can only be perfect some of the time, right? I did spearhead our getting a DVD of our swim and sending it to our benefactors, so I felt okay with it overall.

I have fewer photos than I wanted and attempted, because the underwater camera was very odd and started malfunctioning during the swim. Sheesh. Mostly I just gawked. Because, dude, manta rays.
( 3 decent photos out of a whole lot, with comments )

In conclusion: Do this if you get the chance! I had wanted to see mantas since I was a little kid, and they exceeded even my high hopes. I want to do it again.

Overall, I am feeling far less depressed than I was earlier, but the world was a better place before I knew there were hideous Lilo and Stitch sequels in it.

Get off bus at NEIGHBORHOOD LIBRARY. (Soon to close for refurbishing! Ack!) Return giant ugly tote bag of books. Pick up more books and a few videos. Cackle inwardly over the names of the books on the "we can't be bothered to catalog these" rack.

Go for ginger ice cream at MOLLY MOON'S, where a cute Bettie-Page-styled server earns herself an extra tip for singing along with Cyndi Lauper. Become her new karaoke partner.

Walk home along the street with the AMERICAN CHICKENS, who live in a triangular prism of plywood &c. with small patriotic flag on top.

Notice that apparently the garden thing to do right now is coordinate the PEONIES with the ORIENTAL POPPIES, since they bloom at the same time here. Madness.

Be pleasantly reminded that this street also contains a charming CHALK PORTRAIT OF BATMAN on the sidewalk near home.

Smell wafting loveliness from ROSES and MOCK ORANGES for the last few blocks.

HOME!

(Mess about in OWN GARDEN instead of coming in to do schoolwork. Attempt to mitigate offense by posting confession to Livejournal.)

The good news: My blood panel and urinalysis results were all totally normal!

The bad news: Totally normal results do little to explain six weeks of lightheaded spells and exhaustion. I'm coping a little better now that I realize I need to compensate for my brainlessness and get work done, rather than just wait to feel well again, but I would still like to actually be healthy now please. (Acupuncture is helping, at least.)

Next step: See the neurologist about my migraine preventive possibly becoming bad for me. Maybe more so in hot weather, hazards the GP? but it seems like perhaps the tropical island of HAWAII would have felt worse than it did, then.

Well, immediate next step is: whine, apparently.

Giant sharp spork.

In other news, I am feeling light-headed and incompetent, a failure for acupuncture yesterday.

Doom heaped on doom, partially mitigated by using THE WEEDWHACKER to DESTROY today.

Favoritest: I love Eon far, far more than the (admittedly quite good, and Tiptree winning) Knife of Never Letting Go, which I read a while ago at rachelmanija's instigation. I think Flora's Dare still beats out Eon, though. (Despite its being Alison Goodman! Singing the Dogstar Blues Alison Goodman! Eee!)

Still really great: The Alchemy of Stone, which I had thought would win. Machine intelligence, hell, we get created beings' gender and sexuality, and it is HOT. Also a bit twisted in interesting ways.

Vaguely unsatisfying: Shadowbridge has a great setup, but Lord Tophet gets meta in a way that didn't quite work for me. I think I didn't catch (probably), or there were (maybe), not enough clues to the end dropped earlier.

I am over it: "Pride and Prometheus" and the Austen pastiche genre as a whole. The crossover is pretty nifty, but the end is incredibly frustrating. Go back in your pigeonhole now, interesting person! I suppose it's no more depressing than Daughters of the North.

Non-starter: I pretty thoroughly failed to care about A Princess of Roumania so am not about to read the other books barring rave reviews from people whose taste I share.

Still to read:

• The other winner: Nisi Shawl, Filter House


• Christopher Barzak, The Love We Share Without Knowing


• Jenny Davidson, The Explosionist


• Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels


• Ursula K. Le Guin, Lavinia


• John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In


• Ali Smith, Girl Meets Boy

Want to nominate retroactively: Jo Clayton. Currently reading her Wild Magic trilogy, which has transfolk including gods as well as her usual unusual men and women.

More info on the wonder that is the Tiptree Award: http://www.tiptree.org/ (where the current award info is in the sidebar right now)

1. Flashy presentation bits are nice and may lead to compliments, but to really impress people (and not get lectured by PI) don't forget that the Relentless March of Logic must always be in charge.

2. Sunburn to skin delamination: 8 days. Not the best day to wear the scoop-neck t-shirt, peeling chest girl. At least I don't have the creepy super-tanned overskin peeling off to reveal red that I saw on one chick in the airport.

Poll #1388556 last day of vacation
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

This morning, I set out wearing knee-length cargo shorts and a tank top and walked west for a couple of hours. Where am I sunburned now?

At least it wasn't the:

But tonight I SWAM WITH MANTA RAYS. How awesome is that?

After over a week of waiting for it, I finally had the opportunity to make the best ridiculous internet/SF pun ever. See, pizzelle turn out to have no dairy, so I brought some home for hattifattener, and of course they were immediately pronounced as "pizzle" because we are thirteen. A couple of days later, the joke occurred to me, but I needed the right situation. I waited and waited but he never offered me one. Until, finally, on the last one, he asked if I wanted it, and even cajoled me a little. I had thought I wouldn't get to say it, so it took me a moment to bust out with, "Women do not revere the lemon pizzle as men do." (It is okay if you don't agree that I AM AWESOME, but I totally am.)

Also this week: had teriyaki with a wombat skull.

Still no NSF news. But I did get to do nine hours of microscopy today!

Well, I finished my grant app that's due today. Still no word from the NSF, so I will turn it in and if necessary bow out later. I am also itchy and snotty and sneezy, which was not helped by my walk up to the art building to print some proposal pages in color. I am probably not allergic to the cherry trees on the quad, and they don't wind-pollinate anyway, but if they were going to make me sneeze today would be the day -- the blossoms are all open and perfect, and they've barely started to fall. The Olympics were stunning, too, but one can't see both at the same time.

Iowa Supreme Court holds gay marriage ban unconstitutional. The article mentions other ways in which Iowa has led the way in human rights issues, which I didn't know about. Go Iowa go!

Ada Lovelace Day recognizes women in technology. (I wonder if the reason men don't need male role models isn't because there's no shortage of them, personally.)

I haven't seen her on my friends list yet, so please recognize the technological awesomeness of Rear Admiral Grace Brewster Murray Hopper, discoverer of the first insect "bug" in a computer and legendary balancer of checkbooks in octal (oops). Wim and I determined that to be a memorable scientist I ought to come up with something quirkily distinctive to do in lectures -- he remembered that Hopper used to pass out 1-foot lengths of wire to represent nanoseconds, and of course Sewall Wright and the guinea pig erasure are one of my favorite stories/legends/controversies.

I love that there is a ship named after her!

It is too early to expect the results of my NSF application yet. But I have to apply for training grants, but if I get the NSF I don't need them, but I have to work on them. But, although several seconds have gone by, it is still too early to expect the results of my NSF application yet.

I'm going to email the person who looked up the dates for the last 5 years and see when they were. Last year it was early April, this year it's supposed to be --> early April. BUT IT COULD HAPPEN ANY MINUTE. And what about the stimulus money? The presentation at my conference last week only accounted for about a third of that $3 million. Give it to us!

SIGH.