Notes from a Fiery Nest

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Oh, what the heck...
Meme time again.

Reply with whatever song(s) (or mix(es), or album(s), or artist(s), or DJ(s)) you associate with me, if any; if you have a specific reason, I'd be interested in knowing that too.

Current Mood: amused

World hunger solved
Or at least,

soul_diaspora and I have solved our hunger, thanks to a visit with her parents to that bastion of Southern classics, the Cracker Barrel.

Starting at the biscuits and continuing right through to the end of dessert, we went right past "OM NOM NOM" and on into "MWOF MWOF MWOF".

Fed now. Sleep soon. Maybe movie between:

soul_diaspora acquired a DVD of National Lampoon's Summer Vacation.

Did I mention that when I take holidays from work, I aim really high on the culture scale?

Current Mood: full
Current Music: digestive gurgling

...and arrived!
We have safely arrived in Virginia. Our layover in Chicago was whittled down from a comfortable 2-hour lunch break to a 15-minute brisk walk, so we're hungry, but aside from that, the trip went smoothly. I did have a few concerns about the Embraer's landing gear making funny noises on the second leg, but it held up okay on the landing.

We didn't even get too much hassle at the luggage inspection point, although the fellow operating the X-ray machine for our suitcase did have to check with his supervisor about something.

Current Mood: hungry

Re-departure
Well, after a very pleasant and social long weekend at one cottage, I'm off to another, this time with my in-laws... I'll still be on LJ until Saturday, though!

Ah, la dolce far niente!

Current Mood: cheerful

Interesting article
An article about women leaving tech fields in their thirties and forties, related to recent discussions. The article's main point is good and seems pretty sound to me, but there's a line that's tossed in about "the hostile macho cultures — the hard hat culture of engineering, the geek culture of technology or the lab culture of science" which doesn't get any further discussion. What are your impressions or experiences of that, and why is it one of "[t]he top two reasons why women leave" work in STEM fields?

Ganked from

dracodraconis.

Current Mood: intrigued

that time of year
Happy b-day in advance,

cristofcanada!

3 things meme
Three things I've done that I doubt anyone on my friends list has:

1: Been paid to operate a 1950's-era teletype;
2: Served at an episcopal ordination (i.e., the ceremony in which a person is made a bishop); and
~~3: Successfully taken off and landed a full-motion aircraft simulator.~~

xiphia is a pilot... I didn't know that!
3a: Taken the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and back.

As per standard, if you've done any of these, reply and I'll come up with a different one.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Lionrock--Snapshot on Pollard Street

Life
Life? Is awesome.

The past weeks have been extraordinarily intense, and mostly in a good way. Work is busy, of course, but it's much bigger, and better, than that.

soul_diaspora and I have been exploring new sides of ourselves and our relationship, and that's been terrific. She's leaping out in several directions at once, including LJ-land (although I think most of her stuff is still flocked). I've had more new experiences, spiritual and otherwise, in the past few months than in any similar period over the preceding 5 years.

I'm realizing now that since terminating the PhD, I am showing a lot less signs of stress, and that's coming out in a very intense social life. To you folks I've been spending time with over the past few weeks, thank you! It's been amazing, and shows promise of keeping on in that vein. (I'm running out of synonyms for "great" here...)

(Also, to you folks I haven't been spending that time with: poke me if you want me to spend time with you; I certainly don't mean to leave anyone out. I've simply been following somewhat of a path of least resistance, and spending time with the people who make it plain that they want to spend time with me, and participate in creating opportunities to do so.)

Yes, I know I'm not being long on specifics here; I may put up a flocked/filtered post with more details, though. (The fact that that's the case may give the curious some clues, but if you don't already know, you'll likely have to ask!) One thing I'm actively working on is being more open and sharing more personal things about myself, so that would be a part of it. It's something I've been a bit reluctant about until now, and a number of events and people lately have synchronistically led me towards breaking out of that habit. I think it's a coping strategy that has outlived its usefulness, since I don't have to be quite as terrified of hurting the people around me with my wants and needs as I once did (or thought I did, at any rate).

Again, to all of you who've been close to me and to

soul_diaspora over the recent little while, thank you again, very much. (If you have to wonder to yourself whether you're included in that group, then you probably are. If you are

soul_diaspora, then you're at the heart of that group!) It's not often that I've felt this happy and at ease, and a lot of it is due to you.

Current Mood: awesome
Current Music: Glide--Space Van

Milestone: W00t!
A watershed performance test on my latest new product prototype passed on the first attempt last night!

Not that there weren't hassles in getting ready for the test, or that there aren't any design changes to make, but a hyooge part of the project just became a fairly straightforward project management exercise, rather than a science project.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: Vic Latino--Ultra Dance 06 Mix CD 1

That time of year
Happy b-day,

trippingpossum!

Quick question:
Anybody have inside info on how good or bad working for EMS Satcom is?

(comments screened)

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Matthew Good--In a world called catastrophe

Scary shit
George Orwell, come on down: Big Brother gets things rolling in Eastasia.

Remember the military-industrial complex? It has mutated, and the resulting beast is terrifying. I saw the early signs of this years ago at a conference called "Aerosense," since renamed to the Defense And Security Symposium, but it's grown beyond my nightmares: this is a $200,000,000,000 industry, and people will do a lot for that kind of money.

Ganked from

theweaselking.

Current Mood: worried
Current Music: Matthew Good--Pledge of Allegiance

PhD? What PhD?
I have officially terminated my PhD program. My supervisor and I discussed what remained to be done, and having come to the conclusion that it's somewhere between 1000 and 2000 hours, and that this would require me to spend some 10 to 20 hours per week for the next year to two years in order to complete it in a reasonable time, it's not going to happen.

How do I feel about it? A bit sad, but a lot relieved. That thing has been stressing me out quite a bit, and now it's gone. It closes a few doors: I'll probably never teach at a university quite the way I originally had in mind, for example. However, I am pretty well-established in a successful career, and I like managing, so I'm not too badly hurt. As much as anything, it's a blow to my ego, but one which I can weather.

What now? Well, I've decided to take a few months to rest and let the facts settle in, rather than leaping onto my next project. I'll start thinking seriously about my next major undertaking in late July, after my vacation.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Black Science Orchestra--Hudson River Revisited

YouTubes!
Three videos, less than 5 minutes each:

If you haven't heard, Bill O'Reilly flipped out on his Inside Edition show (clip and commentary by Steven Colbert is available here). Well, now there's a techno mix of O'Reilly's little episode!

Next up, Adolf Hitler has discovered just how "popular" he is on teh interwebz.

And finally, here's a very well-executed trip-hop track and video built out of Disney's Alice in Wonderland fragments.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: The Irresistible Force--Nepalese Bliss (DJ Food Remix)

Recent reading
Kim Stanley Robinson - Sixty Days and Counting: ( Read more... )
Eddie Goldenberg - The Way it Works: inside Ottawa: ( Read more... )
Lisa Tuttle - The Silver Bough: ( Read more... )
Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward - Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership: ( Read more... )
William Gibson - Spook Country: ( Read more... )
Guy Gavriel Kay - Ysabel: ( Read more... )

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Ambient Popsicle (Internet radio station)

Hey...
Anyone interested in getting together this evening?

[ETA: Booked!]

Current Mood: Stir-crazy
Current Music: Solicitous--Furthermost

RoboRally Sunday!
The votes are overwhelmingly in favor of Sunday afternoon, starting at 2:00 p.m., so that's what we'll do; otherwise, usual protocols apply. RoboRally newbies are welcome, but should arrive at 1:30 for a basic rules explanation.

Non-RoboRally-ers welcome to come and join for hanging out, more gaming and/or dinner; we will hopefully be done the RR game around 6:00.

RSVP, etc! Reply here with questions if you have any!

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: De Phazz--Devil's Music

Robots! In! Spaaaaace!
I will run the playtest for my CanGames RoboRally game this weekend! If you're interested in playing, please let me know which of Saturday and Sunday you're available; I'll go with whichever day I have more takers for as of Thursday. I expect it to take about 4 hours, and we can do a dinner excursion and/or more gaming afterwards.

Current Mood: slightly frazzled
Current Music: Global Underground 021: Deep Dish in Moscow (mix) (CD2)

Thesis
Yes, the crowds are muttering "huh? what?

ironphoenix actually meant it about his thesis?" I hear them now...

I tried out some of my latest ideas on handling the acoustic side of my thesis experiments this weekend. There were a couple of surprises involving the dynamics of periodically driven pendulums and acoustic impedances, but even with all that, I have a way ahead. Hopefully, this summer, I can get the balance of the experimental work done and then write the thing this fall. I might end up taking a week or so of time off work for the experiments; first, though, I'll discuss strategy and requirements with my supervisor.

In other news, for those who have been assailed with news of the open-source boob train wreck, here's a pretty good take on it by Ursula Vernon.

Current Mood: accomplished