Posted by barb on Apr 13, 2007 in
Random Thoughts,
Thesis/Grad Life Why am I doing the happy astrophysicist dance? Because my paper was accepted to The Astrophysical Journal this week! The paper is now listed in the Future Articles section of the ApJ website, but you need a subscription to see the preprint.
I’ve also posted it to astro-ph, so you can check it out if you want: Possible X-ray diagnostic for jet/disk dominance in Type 1 AGN, by Mattson, Weaver, and Reynolds.
[Cross-posted at Galaxy Girl]
Tags: grad life
Posted by barb on Mar 21, 2007 in
Random Thoughts I can’t think of a better way to start a chilly first-day-of-spring-stuck-in-the-office than to listen to Dancing Queen by ABBA.
Tags: music
Posted by barb on Mar 20, 2007 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts 
Spring starts this evening at 8:07!
When I got home from the dentist this morning, I saw these white flowers had poked through our brown front yard. They must be ready for spring as much as I am.
Tags: comfort, photography
Posted by barb on Feb 27, 2007 in
Random Thoughts Is there some beauty advice floating around that if you have thin lips, just put lipstick where you want your lips to be, and it’ll look great? Well, if there is, cut it out. It looks ridiculous. Sure, the world will be staring at your lips, but they won’t be saying, “wow, what lush, full lips.” No, they’ll be saying, “what an idiot – doesn’t she know where her lips end? She really could use better lighting in the morning…or a cup of coffee.”
Tags: rant
Posted by barb on Feb 22, 2007 in
Random Thoughts I’m listening to the perfect song for the day: New Shoes by Paolo Nutini. I’m wearing new shoes today, working on E/PO stuff, and feeling much better about my job for once. Sadly my boy is gone for the week, but I can’t have everything.
Tags: music
Posted by barb on Feb 19, 2007 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts Much of what we did and talked about this weekend is classified, but I can report that Mushi and I had a BIG TIME!
Our first order of business, after dropping a little cash in a local scrapbooking store, was to get ourselves inked. Mushi’s friend had recommended someone, Tony at No Regrets Tattoos, and had warned him that we would be coming by today. He had an artist coming in to interview, so when we stopped by the shop a bit before 1, he told us to come back around 2:30. That gave us a chance to hit B&N to look up animal tracks to help finalize Mushi’s tattoo design. We had to wait a bit after we got back, and got started around 3:30. I went first, cuz Mushi wanted to see the color he used on my vine (see pictures), which she was considering for her tat.
My last tat was done over 10 years ago, so I couldn’t remember how much it hurt, but I remember that it hurt. Also, the one I got today was on my ankle, which I was a bit worried about, since it’s less “fleshy” than my back/shoulder where I had my last one. So, yes, it does hurt. It feels a bit like someone taking an exacto knife and scraping up your skin. The ankle was definitely worse than the shoulder, since as he went around, he hit a bony spot and there seemed to be more nerves closer to the surface in places. I’d often get the “funny bone” weird, hurting as he was doing one bit or another.
Read more…
Tags: build-a-bear, friends, trip report
Posted by barb on Feb 16, 2007 in
Random Thoughts 
I now have mixed feelings about taking trains. Many of you who know me remember the infamous train ride I took from New Mexico to Minnesota (with a stopover/change of train in Chicago). I refused to take the train for years after that incident. (Those of you who have not heard the story, speak up in the comments, and I’ll make a post about it later.)
Back in July/August, I took the Acela up to Boston – the Acela is all business class and even has a “quiet car” where cell phone conversations and loud conversations are banned. All rows have a plug-in so I could use my laptop for longer than the battery lifetime. Plus, the ride was relatively smooth, so I could get real work done. The ride was rather pleasant, and a nice change from wrestling the security-heavy airlines. Maybe I was ready to forgive the train.
Today, I took the Carolinian from Alexandria, VA to Cary, NC. Business class was relatively full, so I took the first available seat I found (there were maybe three other available seats). Turned out I was next to a very talkative man and across from another pair of talkative people. Actually, things started out alright. I pulled out my laptop and started working on my paper for ApJ. Unfortunately, each row of seats has only one plug, and the other guy was already using it. He offered to switch off when my battery got low, but I was finding it hard to work on my paper, and was feeling a bit shy about asking him to plug in so I could play my game. Instead, I packed up my laptop and worked on some sudoku puzzles.
The conversation started when he came back from the cafe car about an hour and a half into the trip. He started to tell me about the conversation he’d had in the cafe car about Iraq. Great. I should have had my headphones on by then, but I didn’t. Stupid me.
Read more…
Tags: build-a-bear, trip report
Posted by barb on Feb 13, 2007 in
Random Thoughts I’m going to visit Mushi next weekend, and one of our missions is for the two of us to get tattoos (we’ve been planning to do this for about 5 years). I have a crescent moon and stars on my shoulder already that I got about 11 years ago, and I’m ready for something new.
The new tat will be on my right ankle, and it will feature a dragonfly. I’m still deciding about the exact design, though. My first thoughts were to have an anklet, but I’m now waffling on that one. Here are a few pics I’ve found of designs that I like:
This one caught my eye because it could easily be turned into an anklet, and it would be fairly subtle. However, it’s a little cutesy, and I’m not sure that’s what I want on my ankle.
Candidate 1 [Photo removed – 1/2014]
This one could also be turned into an anklet fairly easily. I’d certainly choose different colors – probably blues and purples.
Candidate 2 [Photo removed – 1/2014]
But I’m now thinking I might go for a more realistic-looking dragonfly, and not make it into an anklet. Here’s one on that order:
Candidate 3 [Photo removed – 1/2014]
And now that I’m looking back through these, I’m not sure which one to choose. I think the decision is between something like the second or something like the third one. I know that the tattoo artist will make these designs his/her own, so mine won’t look exactly like these pictures, but it’s the overall style that I’m thinking about: anklet versus not and realistic versus a little cartoonish.
Any opinions/thoughts out there?
Posted by barb on Feb 4, 2007 in
Around DC,
Pictures It’s 9 AM. You have a free Saturday that you’d like to fill with something fun. It is 25 degrees outside. The high for the day is 35. What’s the first thing you think of?
Why, the zoo, of course. The outdoor zoo.
I’ve been talking about going to the National Zoo for a while. I’ve really wanted to see the baby panda, and I’ve been worrying that it’s too late to see the cute guy as a a cute guy. (Not that pandas aren’t cute all by themselves, but there’s something about baby animals.)
So, we bundled up, hopped the metro, and went to the Zoo. Many of the animals were inside (who can blame them?), but we did get to see some of my favorites – pandas, big cats, and seals.
Tai Shan is still a little cutie – he tumbled around his mom and was just a curious little guy. I have a little video, which may or may not appear below.
Tags: video, zoo
Posted by barb on Feb 3, 2007 in
Around DC A couple weeks ago, while walking through Union Station.
Andrew: What is that up there?
Me: I dunno. Maybe a giant colon.
Andrew: No. It couldn’t be.
Me: Okay, maybe a giant aorta. It looks like some internal body part.
[Getting closer]
Me: It IS a giant colon. Why did I know that?
Andrew: I don’t know.
Tags: life in the city