Aiming high?

Overheard while walking across campus: I took 17 units last semester, and I only failed one class!

The view from here

Now that the weather around the country has more or less gotten back to normal, I feel less guilty about posting this image of my neighborhood that I took last weekend:

From Jan 2009

Those islands are in Mexico, by the way.

Pigs are flyin'

Hell has frozen over. The end is nigh... The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl.



(photo from CNNSI)

Review of Books - 2008

Due to sudoku and Battlestar Galactica obsessions, I only read thirty books in 2008. The quality of the books was good, I'm happy to report.

In terms of non-fiction, two books stand out:

• Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan - This book makes me want to grow all my food. Fascinating insight into the food industry and how much corn we eat with every bite.
  
  
• The Varieties of Scientific Experience - Carl Sagan - This is a collection of lectures that Sagan gave on natural theology, to understand god without invoking the miraculous. A wonderful book, reminding me of all the reasons why astronomers were snapping up these Sagan posters at AAS last week.

  

  The generation of astronomers who belittled Sagan as a "popularizer" is being replaced by those of us astronomers who exist because of him. He is still so missed.

Two of my favorite books of the year are debut novels by good folks I'm happy to know:

• The Magic Thief - Sarah Prineas - Aimed at middle-grade readers, this story is engaging and fun. A warning, though - do not read while hungry, or you'll end up making the biscuit recipe in the back of the book, just like I did. Yum!
  
  
• Superpowers - David Schwartz - College kids develop superpowers and deal with the consequences. This book manages to be both fun and poignant.

I have a few more books to recommend:

• Life As We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer - This book is aimed at a YA audience, and it's all about the end of the world. I appreciated that the author managed to pull off a satisfying ending, well within the scope of the protagonist.

• The Necessary Beggar and Shelter - Susan Palwick - These two unrelated books are engaging and possess deep emotional power. The first is more magical, the second is more science fictional... they've both helped Palwick become a must-read author for me. More books, please!
  
  
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves - M.T. Anderson - The language of this book is so luxurious I just wanna roll around naked in it. Not an appropriate response to what is supposedly a YA book, I know, but the word-for-word prose is just stunning. Anderson has crafted an amazing look at the plight of slaves during the Revolutionary War, and there is as much, if not more, there for adults to read, just like all of Anderson's books.

Happy reading in 2009! (Doh, new BSG is on in two hours!)

Space Stuff

I very much enjoyed my time at the AAS meeting last week. I used up my social quota for the year, having conversations with: Judit, Benjamin, David, Victor, Carl, Greg, Ravi, Russell, Seth, Mike, Robert, Ryan, Eli, Steve, Sumner, Rogier, Hwi, Amber, Beatrice, Hu, Paul, Rolf, Matt, Melissa, Joe, Violet, Fred, Eric, Anthony, Jason, other Lisa, other Steve, Scott, Tyler, Kristin, Kaz, Nimish, other folks at the education workshop, among others. Besides hanging out with folks, other highlights included:

• An excellent teaching workshop
• A great talk on the intersection of astronomy with art, history, and literature
• An introduction to WorldWide Telescope, currently just a Windows app.
• A poster on eclipsing binaries that don't eclipse anymore, which makes me wonder how many other objects that we've cataloged as one type have changed over time.
• Concept phase posters for a proposed new telescope that, if it gets the go-ahead, could be as revelatory as Hubble

All in all, not a bad way to start the year!

Interaction

I spent the past two days in an intensive workshop about training teachers. It was a fascinating way to look at our own methods of instruction in our classes. I got a lot out of the experience and enjoyed collaborating with new folks. Now, though, the real conference begins. The Winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society kicked off tonight, and there is a lot on the schedule this week. Given that the meeting is in Long Beach, I'm not so much tempted to play hooky. ;)

RIP Senator Pell

Retired Senator Claiborne Pell died yesterday. I just wanted to pay my respects to this man, who helped me and so many others go to college. My students are usually surprised to hear that I worked my way through college, with help from scholarships, loans, and grants, such as Pell grants. I think students expect their professors to have had it easier than they do. Senator Pell made it easier for a lot of us.

International Year of Astronomy

The International Astronomical Union and UNESCO have designated 2009 to be the International Year of Astronomy. You can find out information about projects celebrating astronomy at the official IYA website: http://www.astronomy2009.org. For those of you who enjoy podcasts, check out the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, which you can subscribe to via iTunes or RSS feed. If you're feeling social, here are the Facebook group and Twitter feed.

Although every year is a Year of Astronomy for me, I'm trying to think of an event or two that I might get approved for my campus. But most importantly for all of you, take some time in 2009 to look up at the sky and appreciate the universe.

Happy New Year

I hope 2009 will bring you much beauty and joy.

from Hubble

Nice day

My Christmas consisted of yummy meals, lots of books, cozy socks and more. I hope y'all had as nice a day as I did!

Christmas Eve

Fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, rainy weather, an apartment festooned with lights, presents under the tree... I'm ready for Christmas morning.

May you all enjoy the holiday season!

- from Hubble

38

Today is my birthday, number 38. As Greg has noted, I've now known him for half of my life. He gave me a good birthday - made me breakfast, took me to bookstores to buy birthday presents, walked along the ocean with me, took me out to dinner. Afterwards, I opened my wonderful gifts. (I waited til 8 pm this year; that might be a record!) Now I'm about to indulge in birthday cake (with chocolate-amaretto frosting. Mmm....) Thanks to Greg and to all of you for making this a great birthday!

The Soup Master

Chicken noodle soup

Beef Noodle soup

Frankensoup

Navy Bean and Ham Soup

Irish Lamb Stew...

There's been a lot of cooking going on around here by my very talented Soup Master Greg. It's been wonderful. Although I love cooking, it's been nice to have so many meals ready for me to eat during the rushed end of the semester. I'm glad to be the beneficiary. Tonight's chicken noodle soup was especially good; I'm getting over a cold and if ever there was a healing batch of soup, this was it. Mmm... thanks, dude!

Quick Note

If you feel compelled to email me, asking "Did I pass your class?", you should not be surprised when the answer is "no."

Lights

I really don't like Las Vegas. The insulting amount of lights, the men on the streets clicking little "escort service" cards as you walk by, the smoke-filled casinos, the disconnect of walking from Egypt to Medieval Europe with country western music blaring in the background, the $4 sodas for those of us who don't walk around with yards of margaritas or two beers at 10am... it's all so repugnant. So why did we go there this weekend? Because I wanted to see Nine Inch Nails again and Greg was nice enough to accompany me. I knew the seats would be decent, but I didn't realize we were in the third row, just left of center. The third row. Unbelievable. I only got to see two shows on this tour (which was outstanding - Wired did a good article here), and as there are hints that the next round of shows may be the last, I'll be desperately trying to best third row seats next year.

One thousand and seventy

I drove up to Sacramento on Friday and back today. That's 1000 miles total. The long drives were worth it to spend my mother's 70th birthday with her. My sister, brother, nieces, and I conspired and came up with 70 little gifts for Mom, and she didn't know I was coming for the weekend. We managed to pull off the surprise, and we all had a good time. I was thinking of how long it's been since I'd gone home for Mom's birthday, and I'm embarrassed by the large number I came up with. Now that I live closer to home, I need to get up there more often.

My youthful memories of the cold and damp winter of Sacramento are quite accurate. I'm glad to be home, where enjoyed Greg's homemade ham and navy bean soup, which was spectacular. I hope y'all had a good weekend!

Rest easy now?

The semester has been going fairly smoothly. I never got behind on grading. My prep work has been getting done in a timely fashion. In fact, I'm even a bit ahead; I might not have any work that absolutely needs to be done over Thanksgiving Break. Great, right?

No. It's been making me insane. I've been living with a low level of background terror that I've forgotten something important. I've taken on extra responsibility at work, so there is no way I should be on top of things at this point in the semester. What am I forgetting?

Then I figured it out: I only have one job. You see, ever since the last year of my Ph.D. program, I've been working two jobs - full-time at the community college and part-time at the university. Even when we moved to San Diego last year, I was still coordinating six TAs, 16 lab sections, and almost 400 students at the university from afar. That stopped this semester. For the first time since 1999, I only have one job, but I've been working at the same pace as usual.

I can sleep easier now, methinks.

Variations on a theme

As Greg has pointed out, we voted against Proposition 8, but we didn't do anything else. We both feel guilty about not donating, but frankly, in the current economic reality, we were constrained. We donated to Obama's campaign and nothing else. I still think it was the right thing to do, if we had to pick just one. I just wish we'd had more money to spread around. For the immediate future, though, efforts to repeal Prop 8 will be a priority for us.

If you're curious about who donated for or against Prop 8, the SFgate website has a good searchable database: http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/
Bring up various states, then bring up Utah. There's an interesting tale there. I also, naively, didn't realize that you could contribute donations to a proposition in a state other than the one in which you live. If foreigners are prohibited from donating to presidential races, why can someone from Arkansas donate to an issue affecting another state? (If you'll look at the Arkansas data, you'll know why, among other reasons, we don't go to Wal-mart!)

And there is another reason why I'm choosing Arkansas. I've mentioned before that the people of Arkansas passed an initiative (Act No. 1) which bans people who are co-habitating outside of a valid marriage from fostering or adopting children. This law isn't getting nearly enough attention, so I will note Dan Savage's column in the NYT today. This law has the potential to be much more dangerous than Prop 8, because it sets a precedent that disallows unmarried couples (gay or straight) from having children. Greg and I couldn't adopt there... what if I needed to take in my great-nephew in the case something happened to my niece? We'd be prohibited. But more ominous, what if you've already adopted or fostered a child? Is this the first step in taking children away from gay couples? A horrible, horrible precedent and one that should be discussed, feared, and reviled. As I've always thought, there is nothing more anti-family than the "pro-family" movement, nothing more without values than the "values voters".

I spent sometime today talking to a student of mine who took a few weeks off school to canvas for Obama in Nevada. (And yes, I'd have been fine with it if he were campaigning for McCain.) He spoke to me of experiencing racism... having seen swastikas and the n-word painted on their campaign office, seeing Confederate flags flown in their faces, watching white volunteers being treated differently than African-american volunteers. As a young white male, this was an important lesson for him to learn: the playing field is not level, racism still exists, thrives even in parts of the country. He'll never forget this. He'll also never forget the times where he felt he made a difference, the voter here and there whose vote swung or at least teetered because of his words. He also spoke of being down with how the canvasing was going, but being inspired by an Obama visit. Michelle Obama, to be clear. He said she was absolutely inspiring. So we'll take the lesson here: bigotry still exists, but hope will prevail.

Graphic Views

The L.A. Times has done a great job breaking down the demographics of the election in California. Once again, I am reminded of why how much I love the Central and Northern coast of California.

And this illustration makes me tear up every time I look at it. Via Greg:

Roller coaster ride

I am so upset that bigotry was made constitutional in California. My much beloved Kirsten has expressed the argument against this hateful proposition so eloquently that I'll let her words stand for my own. Just let me get this on the record: if you voted in favor of this proposition or any other banning gay marriage, it is my sincerest wish that you are forever prevented from being with the one you love. Since you think it's fair for you to cast judgment and place limits upon someone else's relationship, I get to do so, too, right? Also, to the people of Arkansas who passed an initiative making unmarried couples unable to adopt children, you have convinced me to never go to your state for any reason if this law goes into effect.

Tuesdays are my long workdays. They start at 8am and end at 10pm. Greg and I arrived at our polling place about 15 minutes before it opened, so we could vote before I had to go to work. Because of the hectic nature of my Tuesdays, I couldn't keep up very easily with the election coverage and as I went into my night-time astronomy lecture the results of the election were just starting to come in. My students were nervous and excited, hoping for change and for tolerance. Around 8 pm, I could see all of my students get distracted as their phones started buzzing with the news that the presidential election had been called. I even picked up my phone and had students say hello to Kirsten who was at an election party. I let class out soon afterward. The students went out into the night overall pleased with the new president-elect and they wanted to see the results of the ballot propositions. As I could tell from discussions I heard today, the students have been on the same roller coaster ride as I've been on, as so many of my friends have been on. How can an election make us so happy and so sad at the same time?

One more comment about the election: the youngsters were really interested this time around. This is the third presidential election while I've been a full-time college instructor and I had never seen this level of interest or inspiration. For example, one of my students has been absent for the past two and a half weeks. Why? He's been in Nevada, on the ground for the Obama campaign. He'd been just spending weekends there, but wanted to give his all to get his candidate elected. And last night we saw the results of his youthful enthusiasm. Even in the bitter news of the propositions, the light of youth shines in the demographic breakdown of the vote. The change we sought last night is not complete, but rather has only just begun.