2006 Review of Books

Last year, I read forty-four books. Not my best year, but not too shabby. Here are some of the standouts, in the order in which I read them:

• Archangel - Sharon Shinn - This is the first of the Samaria books, which deal with a world in which angels are real. Despite that description, the books are definitely science fiction, and I enjoyed this book enough to seek out a great deal of Shinn's other works.
• Spin - Robert Charles Wilson - This is a very strong book. The characters are all quite intriguing and the extrapolations dealing with the science were fascinating.
• Memory - Lois McMaster Bujold - Thanks to SarahP, I tore through the whole Miles Vorkosigan series this summer. Although I would not recommend this book as a jumping off point for a new reader, I found the character development in this book to be the most beautiful. Bujold is soooooooo very good when it comes to creating characters to love. There is not a wasted character in this entire series.
• A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit - Alan Lightman - This is a collection of essays, some more autobiographical than others, dealing with science as a human pursuit. As I've noticed so often in my students, the perception of science and scientists is cold, stolid, rigid, passionless - nothing could be further from the truth, and Lightman does a good job of conveying this.
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party - M.T. Anderson - If you have not read this, drop what you are doing and go to a bookstore or a library NOW! Really, I'm hard-pressed to come up with a better writer right now than M.T. Anderson.

I'm looking forward to what 2007 will bring!

Urp

I just ate a chocolate chip cookie the size of my head. Oof. Bad Lisa.

Ew!

I swear, I just found boogers on an assignment I have to grade. This is college, people! Argh!

The first week of classes

Perhaps if you've failed my class two times, we are not meant for each other. Move along.

I'm sorry that you are a senior and desperately need an override into this class where we are already violating fire code due to crowding. Perhaps you should go back to your counselor and ask why they advised to you put this 100-level course off til your last semester.

I'm sorry math isn't your friend. Prepare to get chummy.

Your telescope's clock drive emits a frequency that attracts bats to mate with it?

Stressed

Going to the conference last week left me behind in my prep for the Spring semester, which starts on Tuesday. There have also been some events beyond my control that are affecting my prep, and it all just makes me cranky. I'm a mild control freak, and I hate hate HATE the fact that I can't clean this particular situation up on my own. Argh. Feh. Blah.

Home

I presented our paper at the conference today, had yummy clam chowder with Carl, and chatted with a retired physician/aspiring mystery writer on the flight home. It's good to be home, although reality will hit tomorrow with all the classroom prep for next Tuesday.

Almost there

Today was more mellow. I decided to sleep instead of attending the morning talk. My body thanked me. Then went to a session of talks about intelligent design, which was so well-attended that we hand to change rooms from one that seated about 50 people to one that seated over 300. The talks were good and the q/a period was only moderately painful.

For lunch, Carl and I walked the half hour each way to go to Salumi, where we ate bread, cheese, various salamis, and gnocchi that was being made by an old lady working at the front window. I spent an hour and a half wandering through the posters and that was followed up by two talks - one on the Stardust mission results and one on high-redshift supernovae and the accelerating universe. Both of those were excellent talks. I harassed various grad students from my university about not being at the posters (mean Dr. Lisa!) and then had dinner with Carl and Dr. Bob, which was really nice.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and I'll be presenting a poster. Whee!

Blur

• Particle physics lecture
• Judged four grad students
• Quick hug from Robert as we both rushed to talks
• Talks on Tunguska, Einstein, dust in galaxies
• Planetary formation lecture
• Piroshky Piroshky with Carl
• Intelligent design talks
• Hundreds of posters
• Free cookies
• Judged four undergrads
• Talks on covariation in intro physics courses
• English pub with Carl, Ravi, Seth, Karen, and Greg

Two more days to go. Whew!

Judgment

Today was the first full day of the conference. I actually made it to the morning talk; I can wake up for an astronaut - Kathryn Thorton gave us her overview of human spaceflight. I'm also an award judge and I interviewed eight undergrads today (1 male, 7 female).

Along with the AAS meeting, a wedding show was being held at the convention center. If I might be somewhat judgmental, those two demographics have very little overlap.

Who are these other people?

Oh, it's like some astrology convention or something.

My most profound judgment, though, was that the tomato soup and Flagship Grilled Cheese sandwich from Beecher's make a damned fine lunch, and Carl and Ravi agreed.

I'm a geek

I took the Monorail to the Science Fiction Museum today. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

Oh, it's definitely winter

On the flight to Seattle, I noted the reason why the Eastern U.S. has no snow - it all fell out West. Whoa. No snow in town, but lotsa rain.

Ate crepes at the Public Market, indulged in asian fusion tapas with Carl, and got some work done. Oh, and I fell madly in love with my hotel room. It's fancy. There's even a switch which lowers darkening shades on the big wall-sized window. Good for sleeping, but I'd hate to obscure my view of Elliot Bay during the day. I don't know how I ended up in this room, but as I type in my fluffy white robe after a bubble bath in the soaking tub (separate from the glass shower stall), I'm sure enjoying it.

Winter request

For those of you who think that winter never comes to Arizona, here are a few pix from our weekend in Flagstaff:

That mountain has a rock on Mars named after it:

Glittery snow:

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I don't usually ask for love, but I have a cold and need to catch a flight to a conference in the morning. Please send healing vibes to my eardrums!

Lakes on Titan

Nature presents an article today outlining the best evidence yet for liquid on the surface of a solar system body other than the Earth. Here is the link to the Cassini news release.

In with the new

Greg and I are celebrating the New Year up in the crisp cold clear air of Flagstaff. There has been much good food, warm beverages, and walking through the snow. Flagstaff is a mellow place to ring in the New Year - I am very content to be here.

I set some modest goals for 2006. I came close on some and succeeded in a few others, so I can't complain. In fact, I'll roll over a few of the goals into the new year. This upcoming year will see some big changes, and I'm both apprehensive and optimistic, if that makes any sense at all.

I hope that you all look back at 2006 without regrets and look forward to 2007 with hope and dreams. Happy New Year!

Perfect fit

Greg had this quote generator on his blog, so I gave it a whirl. Hee hee.

Many Bothans died to bring us this lisa.

Which movie was this quote from?

Get your own quotes:

Happy Holidays!

I hope y'all are as spoiled and cozy and well-fed and loved as I am.

From Hubble:

36

Today's my birthday - thirty-six years old. I have no complaints. I talked to friends and family, received wonderful gifts, went out to dinner (burger and fries!), and remained generally cozy. The weather even gave me a nostalgic treat - fog! Just like growing up in Northern California. Not a bad way to spend the day at all.

Oops. Gotta go. Greg is taking presents out of his stocking while I'm distracted by typing!

Remembering Carl Sagan

Today is the Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-thon. I've actually been meaning to write about Sagan for quite some time. I have students today who are as enraptured by Cosmos as I was as a child. I caught some of the episodes recently and the music brought me to tears, it resonated so deep within me. I spent so much time watching Cosmos and read the book over and over again. What a magnificent gift that was to all of us.

I think of Sagan and his wonderful gift for communication often when confronted with pseudoscience and intelligent design. (If you have not read Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, do so immediately.) I sometimes ask myself, "would these ideas proliferate so easily if Sagan were here to refute them?" Sagan, with his simple way of conveying the most complex ideas...surely he could help us. He is sorely missed. There will never be another Sagan, but we do need someone to step up and be the Great Communicator of Science again. Who will be next?

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Check out Celebrating Sagan for more to remember Sagan on the tenth anniversary of his death.

Winklies

Sparkly, winkly stars - LH 95, from Hubble

Recovering

The semester is over. Yay! To celebrate, I shall display one of the most beautiful images I've seen recently: aurora over Finland, by Vesa Särkelä