Thursday, November 09, 2006

Another Month, Another Meme

Current clothes: A blue t-shirt with... I dunno, it's not exactly a tie-dye pattern, as there are none of those big circles, but it's something similar. Blue jeans. White tube socks. Black belt. Black sneakers.

Current mood: It wasn't too bad until the "current annoyance" thing popped up a few minutes ago. Now I'm, well, annoyed. But I'm sure I'll get over it soon.

Current music: I haven't actually been listening to much music lately... Mostly my auditory input has been podcasts. Most recently played: Escape Pod, Planetary Radio, Penn Jillette's radio show, Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica commentary, and The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe.

Current annoyance: I just got this long, incoherent political screed in my inbox, sent to me as a private message from someone I don't know via a non-politically-oriented website I have an account with. I immediately reported their ass to the admins. Now I feel kind of guilty, as it was probably just some stupid kid who felt passionately about sharing that message with people. And I feel really annoyed with myself for feeling guilty, as spamming is never an acceptable option for sending any message, and people who do it ought to be discouraged thoroughly and immediately. Damn it.

Current thing: Turning into a crotchety old netizen, apparently.

Current desktop picture: This depiction of "Supernova 1993J and its fourier transform," which received an Honorable Mention in NRAO's recent astronomical image contest. Not only is it a cool picture, but I feel a certain connection with it, since my job, basically, is to turn one of these images into the other. (Well, OK, my job is more like operating the machine that does the first step in that process, but close enough.) Also, I recall being really, really annoyed by how difficult that particular project was to do, and how many times it had to be done over due to various problems, and saying something along the lines of, "This had better be the most interesting damned supernova remnant in the history of astronomy!" Well, it may or may not be, but at least I have this pretty picture to show for all my grief and hair-tearing.

Current song in head: David Bowie's "Life on Mars." See "current DVD in player" for the reason.

Current book: The Book of the Still, a Doctor Who novel by Paul Ebbs. I am very, very slowly working my way through these Eighth Doctor books, and I think I'm finally getting close to the end of the series. I've only read the first chapter in this one, but it looks like it's going to be really interesting.

Current DVD in player: Most recently watched was Daria: Is It College Yet? I never could stand Beavis & Butthead, but the spinoff was much more appealing, mainly because its protagonist actually had functioning brain cells. Also sitting in a player is a disc with a couple of episodes of the British show Life on Mars, about which I'm sure I will have some things to say when I'm finished watching it (other than the fact that it's resulted in the Bowie song being stuck in my head).

Current refreshment: I finished my morning coffee a little while ago, and am thinking that I really ought to scare up some food.

Current worry: We're going through some reorganization at work which basically requires me to learn an entirely new skillset on top of the old one. I won't say I'm actually worried about this, as I'm sure I'll pick it all up. But I think the transition is of necessity going to be messy.

Current thought: I am hungry. I want a nice, big breakfast, with bacon and eggs and hash browns and juice. Which I probably won't actually have...

6 comments:

  1. White tube socks????

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  2. Um... Yes. They're warm, and they match anything. And men's socks fit my big ol' feet nicely. :)

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  3. Your current worry doesn't have any connection with this http://tinyurl.com/yzq6ch does it?

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  4. Yes, but not directly. We've been facing budgetary problems for a long time now, as a result of which (along with some technical advances which make it easier to do) we're combining a couple of departments into one.

    That particular bit of news is new, and was indeed worrying to me when I first heard it, but my understanding right now is that the odds of us getting the outside financial assistance we need is actually extremely high.

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  5. Thank goodness for that. It seems silly to close something that's working well.

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  6. It would be tragic, IMO, but science -- and especially space science -- is so far down the government's priority list that we pretty much have to fund everything with the spare change they find under the seats in the Capitol. Sigh.

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