Random wibblings of an insane science fiction fan

 
So. As of today, I am 38. I'm getting to the point now where my age is starting to seem like a totally meaningless number, but I guess maybe in a couple of years I'll feel differently.

Labels: bits of my life

posted by Betty at 5:34 AM [14 comments]

 
Aaargh! Zombies! They're everywhere! It's the freakin' zombie apocalypse, man! I'm going to try to hold them off with my giant metal wrench, but if you don't hear from me by tomorrow, assume I'm already out looking for tasty brains to munch on, and for gods' sakes, don't come looking for me!

(Well, OK, not really. But yesterday my sister told me that this blog was "too boring" lately, so I figured I'd try to spice it up for ya. Zombies are exciting, right?)

Labels: about this blog, bits of my life

posted by Betty at 4:40 AM [11 comments]

 
Current clothes: White t-shirt from the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo. It has a picture of a space shuttle in front of the Earth and the moon. They are very much not to scale. Short-sleeved blue deinim shirt over that, unbuttoned. Blue jeans. White socks. Black belt. No shoes.

Current mood: Not too bad, actually. I was feeling a little bit groggy and out of it, thanks to my current messed-up sleep schedule, but after a nice lunch I feel a bit perkier.

Current music: Nothing at the moment, really

Current annoyance: Primarily aforementioned messed-up sleep schedule, I suppose. I've been trying to keep 26-hour days in order to rotate myself forward from night shifts to day shifts. This can work very nicely, but when you keep waking up after six hours for some stupid reason, it becomes problematic.

Current thing: Keeping wacky hours.

Current desktop picture: The Jellyfish Nebula.

Current book: The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown. And, man, "harrowing" is right. Books like this can certainly give you a sense of perspective on your own problems. Even on the worst days of my life, at least there was never any cannibalism. Also, I believe I now understand why people in California are crazy. Anybody who would make that journey in a covered wagon is certifiably insane. Presumably this is genetic.

Current song in head: Nothing at the moment, but Brain Radio's been weirdly hyperactive lately. I had "Particle Man" stuck in my head for two days earlier this week.

Current DVD in player: The season 2 finale of The Pretender. I was listening to the commentary track.

Current refreshment: Lemon-ginger tea.

Current worry: That my stupid feet are never going to stop giving me problems. Bah. I'm really going to have to see a podiatrist. Probably very soon.

Current thought: My foot hurts, and it makes me pouty.

Labels: currently, meme

posted by Betty at 1:28 PM [2 comments]

 
My car is working again! $25 for a new battery cable, and I'm back in business and can cross one major worry/annoyance off my list. Hooray!

Labels: bits of my life

posted by Betty at 10:22 AM [3 comments]

 
Farscape DVD News: Complete Series Coming from A&E: Announcement about a new Farscape DVD megaset, to be released in November. May possibly be of interest to some of you.

50 Reasons No One Wants to Publish Your First Book : A very amusing list. Although I would read a book about vegetarian zombies.

Vanishing Head Illusion: Freaky fun with your blind spot!

Giving up my iPod for a Walkman: A 13-year-old's reactions to having his iPod replaced with a vintage Sony Walkman. Made me feel kind of nostalgic, even though I only ever had a cheap Radio Shack knockoff, not an actual Walkman. Ah, kids, today, they don't know how good they have it.

Baby bat eating and care: Little orphaned baby bats! I honestly don't know how people can think bats are ugly. These little guys are the most adorable things ever!

Labels: random links

posted by Betty at 2:53 AM [4 comments]

 
I have decided I do not much like holiday weekends. They're like some sort of engraved invitation for things to go wrong. Now my roof is leaking again, my car has died, and I seem to have lost my work key. None of this is necessarily disastrous, but it's all deeply annoying, and, of course, there's not a thing I can do about any of it until Monday.

Sigh.

Labels: whining

posted by Betty at 11:36 PM [4 comments]

 
Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!

Also, here's an interesting trivia fact from my astronomy wall calendar: the Earth is at aphelion today, meaning it is now at its farthest point from the sun: 152.1 million kilometers.

Only now I'm wondering if it's somehow unpatriotic to use the metric system on Independence Day. Y'know, that's one area in which I wish we were a little less independent.

Labels: current events, science

posted by Betty at 7:09 PM [0 comments]

 
Dear comics,

Naming your aliens by spelling your friends' names backward is not clever and cute. It is distracting as hell and snaps my suspension of disbelief into tiny little pieces. Please stop it.

Love,
Me

Labels: whining

posted by Betty at 4:46 AM [6 comments]

 
Dear television,

Astronomers do not wear lab coats, as there is very little danger of accidentally spilling a galaxy on your clothing.

I hope this information is of some use to you.

Love,
Me

Labels: random thoughts, tv shows

posted by Betty at 9:27 PM [2 comments]

 
Aaargh! I just filled up the last of my bookshelves in the computer room! This happened slightly sooner than I was anticipating, due to the annoying domino effect you get when a thin book bumps a thicker book off onto the next shelf, and it bumps a whole bunch of thin ones, which then bump off a thick one and some thin ones... Stupid long-winded Stephen King. Stupid long-winded J.K. Rowling.

Well, my initial thought for when this happened was that I'd add another small bookcase, sticking into the room at a right-angle, but the more I think about it, the more I think that's an annoying solution. It'd make the room more crowded than I'd like, and would only be a fairly temporary measure, anyway.

Much as I tried to get out of it, I suspect a major re-organization is called for. This is actually kind of traumatic to contemplate. I'm used to my books where they are! But where they are just isn't going to work indefinitely. Sigh.

So, OK, here's the plan: Hardback fiction gets moved into the dining room, where there's still plenty of wall space. (I'll have to move a picture off the wall, but I'm sure I can find somewhere else to put it.) Five full-sized bookcases should fit in there quite easily, and, having done some measuring, I'm 99% certain I can accommodate the medium-sized one as well. That gives me an entire five shelves worth of expansion room for the hardback fiction, which should last me quite a while, and there's even room to add another five-shelfer when needed, assuming I find somewhere else to put the telephone. I'll have to move the CD rack, but that is comparatively small and can go almost anywhere.

The Star Trek and Doctor Who books currently in the dining room will migrate to the bedroom. Unfortunately, the ancient folding shelves the Trek novels currently reside in are on their last legs and will probably not survive the relocation. So I'll replace those with another five-shelfer. Unfortunately, that'll be about half a shelf too small for what's currently on there, so the hardbacks will have to go somewhere else. I think what I'll do is replace the three-shelf case the non-fiction Trek books are currently on with another five-shelfer, which will not only accommodate the overflow, but will give me extra shelves which could be used for any number of things in the future.

The non-fiction currently in the bedroom will move into the big bookcases currently in the computer room. That's a straightforward migration: from four bookcases onto four bookcases, and there's already a lot of expansion room built in there. Two of the big cases in the bedroom will stay there, and two of them will swap with the smaller ones from the dining room. That will leave me three large bookcases to buy and put in the dining room for the hardback fiction.

The paperback fiction, mercifully, can stay right where it is. Otherwise, it's basically one big rotation of books from room to room. And the results seem like they should actually be something of an improvement: the embarrassingly large number of media tie-in books can live discreetly in the bedroom, the non-fiction will surround me where I do most of my typing and thinking and writing, and the hardback fiction will be in a public place where people can exclaim, "Have you actually read all of these?!" as they seem to inexplicably enjoy doing. And the To-Read Pile stays on the shelves in the utility room like the work-in-progress that it is.

Which is all well and good, but holy crap, I'm not looking forward to doing all that.

Labels: bits of my life, books

posted by Betty at 4:55 PM [7 comments]