sepdet: (Leaves)
California impressionist piece is finished!
Here's the final painting plus progress pics..

(Click my user name at the top of that post to see previous paintings as well, including an exercise who's finished result frustrates me, but that's because it's hard to drape a cloth gf exactly the way you had it five weeks earlier.)

Blergh. This is migraine weekend, and today is a nasty one. Time for my second attempt to knock it down with maxalt.
sepdet: Samhain worshipping the veggies. Oooommm. (Okay, yes, catnip was involved.) (Default)
Ladybusiness' Gender discrimination in SFF awards has the hard research and numbers breakdown.
Abstract:
"This project demonstrates that SFF books by or about cis women are less likely to win awards than books by or about cis men. Trans and nonbinary authors do not win awards at all, and trans or nonbinary protagonists are extremely rare. Overall, there were more award-winning books written by cis men about cis men than there were books by women about anybody. While there have been recent gains in terms of diversity in awarded books, this is likely part of a cycle of gains and pushback that has repeated itself throughout the history of SFF awards. SFF awards have a problem when it comes to gender: they privilege cis men and the cis male experience over that of cis women and trans and nonbinary individuals."
sepdet: Happy Sam rolling in the dirt. (dirt)
Imagine one of those shows you loved as a kid. Two years, five years, seven years. However long it ran, there came a day when it was over, or, on that rare show that didn't get canceled, it moved away from the characters or story styles you loved.

Now imagine you just discovered a cache of ten more years worth of episodes. Good, bad, ugly, who cares. The actors snuck off and made more, and the writers listened to them to make sure their characters were right. It's the show you remember, only they've fixed some of the problems (sexism!) with the luxury of hindsight.

It's like finding more Narnia books, or more Dorothy Sayers. BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE. I've found a way into Lucien's Library from The Sandman, for at least this one shelf!

I was listening to yet another episode last night, and it was a perfect popcorn-quality story (not great art, but with all my buttons pressed and Favorite Characters Being Awesome), and I found myself literally waving my hands in the air with pleasure.

Afterwards, I sat up writing for an hour or so. We'll see how long that lasts, but it would be a lovely side effect if my ever-so-dead creative writing muse finally stumbled awake.
sepdet: Samhain worshipping the veggies. Oooommm. (Okay, yes, catnip was involved.) (Default)
"it fell off, so I ate it." -- my dad
sepdet: (Uhura)
I think the best bit about watching the 50th anniversary special in the theater was looking around and seeing all these kids who weren't born when my Doctors were on the air.

I remember the day a friend came into the dining hall in college to tell us that Doctor Who was cancelled. "But they can't!" we said. "They just can't!"

They couldn't!

Also a delight seeing it start with the opening sequence of the first-ever episode redone in color and 3D. (Not to mention the original opening credits.) And of course the cameo(s).

I suppose I should really sit down and catch up on the new series, with their manpain, "sexed up" companion-Doctor ships and all. I'm so out of touch; I hadn't seen Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's daughter, and she's great.

Oh Joy...

May. 30th, 2013 05:22 pm
sepdet: (humbug)
... budding musician in the apartment complex across from my home office is learning to play the clarinet.

I approve of musicians and understand that drills are necessary, but I am rapidly becoming less fond of "Sakura, Sakura" than I was a day ago.

Also, I have rather frequent headaches now due to eyestrain, so... rrrrrgh.
sepdet: Mars Curiosity Rover's head (Curiosity)
I really really REALLY wish I had a camera I could clamp onto a good telephoto lens AND tripod, or else a camera that fit my ancient backyard scope.

Holding a point-and-shoot camera against the scope's eyepiece and trying not to breathe yielded these:

(Contrast boosted on most of them to try and make it more visible)


It seemed awfully dim after the first bright snap (top left).

Then I looked at the nearly full moon, and even it seemed awfully dim:



What was going on? Oh, right. Clouds. This is what I saw when I stopped trying to leave the shutter open long enough to collect a little light:



I'll have to try Saturn again on another night. Still can't expect much without the right equipment, but it's at a really good angle right now to catch the sun on the rings.
sepdet: (morningcomes)
I really, really need a camera for astrophotography.

Holding a point-and-shoot camera over the lens of my wee beginner telescope is not, repeat, NOT the way to do this. So these photos are not great. BUT!

It's a comet.

my Pan-starrs photos )

Taken at Orange County Great Park, almost exactly 8PM. I heard coyotes howling in the distance, which I find beautiful.

(black strips are some sapling treetops in foreground, which I was using to help me find the comet after spotting it with binocs.)
sepdet: Samhain worshipping the veggies. Oooommm. (Okay, yes, catnip was involved.) (Default)
Monday's earthquake was wimpy, but useful.

An earthquake early warning system being tested in California gave seismologists in Pasadena up to 30 seconds to prepare for Monday morning’s temblor in the desert of Riverside County.
“It was right,” said Kate Hutton, a seismologist with Caltech. “I sat really still to see if I could feel it and it worked.”
-- LA Times

This system can't predict earthquakes, but it can transmit an "Earthquake... incoming!" signal out from the epicenter faster than the ground waves propagate, giving people more than 20 miles away enough seconds to drop and cover, hit the brakes on the train, move away from the window, etc. Japan has had a national system like this for several years, and California is looking into implementing one.

By the way... for those of you who don't live in earthquake country, this is Dr. Kate Hutton:


She is southern California's Earthquakes SpokesExpert. Whenever a quake triggers news coverage, whether it be national TV or a local radio broadcast, chances are we'll hear the reassuring tones of Captain Kate explaining it all to us.

Outside of entertainers, she's probably one of the most visible out lesbians in the world. Unsurprisingly, she is a dyke icon in California.
sepdet: Mars Curiosity Rover's head (Curiosity)
So I went out to the Great Park tonight to look for Comet PanStarrs, after failing last night because of fog on the ocean. I even got a new app, SkySafari, which lets you look up comets and everything else (Comet C/2011 L4 = Panstarrs)!, and then it draws a green arrow pointing to whatever the heck you're trying to find. IT'S OVER THERE, YOU TWIT!

Pannstars is tricky. It should be naked-eye by now, but it's hanging so close to the sun that there's only a very short window after the sun goes down and the sun-glare fades before Panstarrs, also, sets.

I had nearly given up when, suddenly, through the horizon haze, I spotted it (or so I thought) with binocs. YES! YES! THERE IT WAS! Fuzzy little ball with faintish wisp going up.

Except that after writing my "I saw Comet Panstarrs!" post, I found this photo taken five days ago, and now realize that I accidentally a different comet. What I saw looked more like "Lemmon" in this picture: the distinct snowball on the end.

Comets-Yuri-Beletsky
By Juri Beletsky, Observatorio de Las Campanas, Chile [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons


Nevertheless, comet Panstarrs SHOULD be visible to the naked eye this week -- barely -- and quite visible with binoculars.

How to find comet PANSTARRS (visible March 10-20 or so) )

I will be trying again all week. There's an astronomy club demo at the Great Park on Friday with big telescopes, but the lines are always looooong. So, we'll see.

I sure hope comet ISON survives its close encounter with the sun later this year and puts on a show for us in November. If it doesn't melt away completely during its swing around the sun, it should be easy to see with the naked eye. Unfortunately, it's cutting the turn really fine -- only 100,000 miles above the sun's surface! -- so it could get vaporized. But if it survives, it may be the brightest comet since the 1600s.

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sepdet: Samhain worshipping the veggies. Oooommm. (Okay, yes, catnip was involved.) (Default)
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