Posted by barb on Nov 18, 2006 in
Random Thoughts We’re currently watching Dr. Who from last night, the episode titled <cringe> The Impossible Planet. All I can say is that the science is gawd-awful. Whoever is giving them astronomy information should be fired (or the person who decided to ignore any good astronomy device). Fired and slapped. Fired, slapped, and kicked in the pants.
Let’s just say that I threw my newspaper at the screen within ten minutes of the show beginning. The science has only gotten worse since then.
Astronomers have enough trouble getting people to believe that black holes are not the giant vacuum cleaners of the Universe without respectable shows (sort of) getting the the basic details of black holes clearly wrong. For example, it is not impossible for a planet to be in orbit around a black hole – stuff can certainly orbit black holes, just so long as they don’t cross inside the “innermost stable orbit”. It might be unlikely for a planet to remain in orbit after a black hole forms, but not impossible for a black hole to capture a planet.
And don’t give me this “nothing can escape the gravity of a black hole” crap. There’s a huge caveat to that statement. Nothing can escpae the gravity of a black hole once it has crossed the event horizon. Black holes don’t just “suck up” everything in the Universe – there is nothing special about their gravity.
Give me a fracking break. And if you can’t get it even in the vicinity of right, then just shut up on the science. We have enough trouble with science literacy in this world without introducing crap science.
Tags: science, tv
Posted by barb on Nov 8, 2006 in
Random Thoughts …on Gilmore Girls? How weird.
Tags: science, tv
Posted by barb on Oct 31, 2006 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts As I said earlier, I love Halloween! As usual, I dressed up the yard a bit tonight:
Carved pumpkins (four words, people: battery operated pumpkin carver – this thing was awesome!):
Jo and Felicia wanted a front row seat, so they camped out in the front window to watch trick-or-treaters:
I dressed up as Violet Hunter again…this time without my Sherlock Holmes. Oh well.
We ended up with 63 trick-or-treaters. We gave out 29 books. The first trick-or-treater came at around 6:05 PM (for reference next year – every year I try to remember what time the first kids com around so I have the pumpkins out and my costume on in time). The last came at around 9:15PM (after we’d turned off the lights and doused the jack o’ lanterns…we didn’t open the door).
Now all that’s left is to clean up the yard. Sigh, and I’m off to Philly for the day tomorrow…hope it doesn’t rain until Friday at least.
Tags: halloween
Posted by barb on Oct 31, 2006 in
Random Thoughts …if I even hate my job in my dreams?
I dreamed last night that I woke up to the alarm, and just hid under the covers, telling my husband that I just couldn’t face my job. I forced myself out of bed, and got ready for work, all the while in a big funk because I really, really, really hate my job.
Not exactly one of those dreams that’s real hard to interpret, huh?
Tags: dreams, work
Posted by barb on Oct 29, 2006 in
Concerts,
Pictures 
The fruit of all my costume-making labor came to fruition this evening at the Marvin’s Halloween Monster Mash concert at the Kennedy Center. Our picture was snapped by someone from WASH-FM, a local radio station, but we haven’t seen the gallery up on their web page yet. There were lots of kids there, many of them in costume. A few adults were in costume, too, though not a huge number. Our costumes, in my humble opinion, were among the best there tonight.
The concert hall was decorated up for the occasion. All the doors into the Hall were decked with spider webs. The stage had a pile of carved pumpkins, a couple enormous bats and spiders. There was also a skeleton choir. The decorations set a great mood for the concert.
The opening piece was a spooky-sounding string quartet, during which the other musicians paraded through the audience and made their way up to their seats. This was a great chance for us to check out their costumes. The musicians’ costumes were all top-notch. There were the normal suspects: pirates, witches, a punker, a Nat’s player (or fan), etc. Of note, there was a mad scientist, a sumo wrestler, a old, fat Elvis, an Indiana Jones, and a Raggedy Ann with a knife in her belly. There was, however, one witch that looked exactly like the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz (or Elphaba from Wicked). The best costume was the “balloon guy” – he was dressed as a headless guy (i.e. with a jacket that went up over his head), and then in place of a head, he had an enormous, helium-filled, round orange balloon decorated like a jack o’ lantern. Oh, and the best part of the balloon guy’s costume was that he could make the balloon rise or lower, so for a while it was hovering well above the rest of the symphony.
The entire concert was great. Here are a few notes:
- There were a few movie pieces, from King Kong, Psycho, and Harry Potter.
- They performed a couple of numbers from Wicked: The Wizard and I and For Good. The soprano who sang the part of Elphaba in the Wicked pieces was fantastic. Sadly, I didn’t really like the other soprano who sang the part of Glinda in For Good – she didn’t sound as natural in the part, singing almost too deliberately for a Broadway song.
- They played a tango from The Addams Family, after which a girl dressed as Wednesday Addams came out and chided Hamlisch for vilifying ghosts and goblins, her friends. She then sang a sappy love song, which I can’t remember the name of (and isn’t in the program). While the girl did a great job with the song, I couldn’t believe that Wednesday Addams would sing such a song. She’s all about being morbid, and the song didn’t ring true.
- The finale was two numbers from Phantom of the Opera. The singers did a great job with these numbers, but I’m not sure I’m a fan of Phantom. Maybe I should actually see it one of these days.
Overall, this was a great concert. Andrew and I are going to have to look more closely at the Pops schedule and see if there are other concerts we would like to see.
Tags: halloween, music
Posted by barb on Oct 26, 2006 in
Crafty Me Andrew is going as Sherlock Holmes, and I’m going as Violet Hunter. Violet is a character from a Sherlock Holmes story and is reported to be the female character who got the closest to marrying Holmes of anyone (I think — Andrew is the Holmes fan, I have yet to read any).
Sadly, the pictures do not do justice to my costume. The main fabric of the bodice and skirt is shiny, so if we use a flash, it ends up having weird shadows. Andrew snapped a couple last night without flash, but they’re a bit grainy (and the seam up my bosom just looks wrong).
I decided to forgo the bustle pillow, though looking at the pictures, I might be better off with it. I figured that I have enough butt as it is, but the bustle might sit better with the pillow under there. Oh well — that will have to wait until later.
We have the Halloween Pops concert tonight, so everyone sent good costume-staying-together thoughts my way.
Tags: halloween, sewing
Posted by barb on Oct 24, 2006 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts 
Anyone who’s read this blog for a while knows about Felicia, my “PhD bear”. I got Felicia at Build a Bear the night of my PhD proposal defense. She’s working on her PhD in astronomy, just like me, and has accompanied me to grad-student type places over the past three years (such as AAS meetings and talks I’ve given).
So, when we went to Build a Bear last weekend for my birthday party, I knew I needed to pick another friend that somehow meshed with my personality. Jo was born. She’s more of an arty type than Felicia. In fact, Jo is currently writing a novel, though she won’t tell any of us what its about. I’m still getting to know her, but the part of her personality that has been emerging is quite different from Felicia. She’s much girlier, picking an outfit with fairies on it. Her chosen Halloween costume is a Tinkerbell outfit; her reason was that she really liked the wings and the cute little ballerina-type slippers.
Oh, and notice the sweater she’s wearing in the picture – Sweetie knitted that for her along with a matching scarf.
Anyway, I just wanted to introduce Jo, since she might be showing up here from time to time, just like Felicia.
Tags: build-a-bear
Posted by barb on Oct 24, 2006 in
Memes, Etc. P.S. Party reports and pics as soon as I finish my costume…
Tags: dumb fun
Posted by barb on Oct 21, 2006 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts The big 3-5!
Sweetie flew in last night, so she and I headed off this morning to pick up balloons and ice. (I bribed her my noting that there was a Starbucks next to the party store – this got her going without too much cajolling this morning.) When we got back to the house, Crash and Mushi had arrived (a 4-6 hour drive for them, which they did this morning…yikes!). We used the tall boys to help us decorate for the second phase of the party; though, some things were better left to us girls.
Next we took off for lunch and a quick stop at the Hello Kitty porn store (as Mushi calls it), since Mushi wanted to see what new stuff they had. From there, we headed off to Tysons Corner for phase one of the party.
The girls convened at Build a Bear Workshop, while the guys went off and did whatever. Our party leader was great with our bunch of crazy, fun-loving, more-kid-than-adult adults. Oddly enough, none of us actually picked out a bear at Build a BEAR – there were four bunnies, two puppies, and a giraffe. We all danced while we stuffed our “bears”:
Read more…
Tags: birthday, build-a-bear, friends
Posted by barb on Oct 20, 2006 in
Random Thoughts Wondering why things have been quiet ’round here? I’ve been cleaning like an idiot so that we can have PARTY this weekend. A birthday party to be exact…for me! I’m not sure if it’s really sad that I’m throwing myself a party or not, but I frankly don’t care. My best friends are coming into town for the day, and, of course, friends from the area. The girls are starting at Build a Bear, and then we’ll all be at our house for dinner, cake, booze, games, whatever.
I’m soooo looking forward to tomorrow! (And tonight, since Sweetie gets in tonight…w00t!)
[Update (2:40pm): We have cake!!!!]
Tags: birthday, friends
