OR IN MY BEDROOM THANKS

Boy owning a carousel is a great excuse for learning lots of things I otherwise might not. Today it’s sandblasting and air compressors.

Happy Halloween from my Untitled Desk Goose 🎃

We went to a smaller festival this month and thought it was such a shame the #SkyhorseCarousel is too hard to bring to small events, so we bought a coin operated horse for next time 😂 It has fabulous hair! We’ll repaint it when we get started on the carousel scenery panels next month.

I love getting manuscript review requests that fall outside my area of research because it's something I can say no to without feeling guilty 🙃

Always feels good to get a proposal out the door.

Opened up to scan my timeline and all I have to say is that Avi Loeb is a blight upon a modern media addicted to sensationalizing garbage under guise of avante guard and completely disinterested in the inherent richness that unadorned scientific knowledge brings society.

Celebrating some (unfortunately still secret) good news tonight with a liqueur I only use on the most special of occasions. Cheers y’all!

I keep getting ads for advent calendars on my social media even though it’s not even November yet and you’re not supposed to open them till December. But on the other hand, it’s been a shitty year so I’ve decided to just embrace Christmas already. Maybe I’ll get an advent calendar for both months.

Literally one of the coolest comet pix I've *ever* seen: Comet Lemmon seemingly wrapped in the debris tail from a meteor! badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/amazing-im... And hey: I bring you stuff like this three times a week in my newsletter. Please sign up when you visit! 🔭🧪

Boy I love Halloween but y’all, when you put decorations of black cats all over your yard the neighborhood dogs are going to react!! Fable just injured me freaking out in surprise over a yard filled with no less than five fake cats, come ooonn.

Pretty spectacular clouds tonight, hard to fully capture their iridescent pearl quality in the photo. #SkyhorseCarousel

When you’re middle aged packing for a festival camp out and worried that the cops might mistake your thousand daily vitamins for drugs 🤦‍♀️

Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day! Here's a couple of interesting videos on how the roads, landmarks, and cities in modern LA are built upon the Native footpaths and villages they displaced. www.tiktok.com/@beachboyz2m... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb1D...

End of an era! I've been at JPL for the last 10 years! Two years as a postdoc, and then after moving to @psi.edu I kept my office to continue work with collaborators. Current projects have ended and I had to hand in my badge today, a bit sad but new plans are in the works so I'm sure I'll be back :)

"Seminar" is a strong word for this despite the heading, it was very informal. But it was fun to share about some of my art projects with colleagues! #SciArt #SkyhorseCarousel #FrameOfReference

At least a third of my book (in progress) is just me having fun explaining the humor in Frost’s astronomical poems, but this one is different. The tone goes from contentious to sad. Note, the “far star” is a galaxy. 🧪🔭

Ahhhh! I am sitting on some VERY exciting personal news which I am just BURSTING to tell you 😁 Hopefully soon!

It is mind boggling to me that the template NASA made for the Table of Work Effort in proposals does not fit within the prescribed page margins… Also their biosketch template eliminates half of what is supposed to be included.

“Dear Dr. Colleague…” Well that’s a new one.

oh my god, when I get pinched nerves in my neck it causes my shoulders to itch uncontrollably and I am absolutely dying today. I would so much rather have pain than itching, why is this my life.

Sunday

Somebody is so happy to be home on her own couch after such a long time away 💜 (Hint: It’s both of us.)

Yes, it was a very big dust storm, but we all survived. Hell of a week! But it still brought all the joy, creativity, community, whimsy, possibility, and love we go out there every year to be a part of.

Well, it’s not Burning Man if something doesn’t go wrong. Always nice when the crisis happens before you leave instead of after 🙃

PHEW. Finished my manuscript JUST in time to send to coauthors to review while I'm on vacation :) Glad I won't have it hanging over me. I'm excited about the paper! On work I've been doing modeling fatigue fracture formation in returned samples from asteroid Bennu.

We did brunch and a tour of the Gamble House yesterday for Ian’s birthday (today). It was cool! It’s huge, incredibly beautiful woodwork and art glass. Doc Brown wasn’t at home.

I got my work inbox to zero ahead of my trip but my personal inbox is full of a thousand to do list items 😅

Meanwhile the latest Covid surge is in full swing. We are being extra cautious before we head to the desert, don’t want to spoil our vacation.

I was able work out keeping Cassiopeia in the mix and it’s looking a bit better now I fixed the spacing ⭐️ The paper you see hanging is one of my handy reference diagrams. #SciArt #FrameOfReference

Ahhh, Scorpius looks much better too! The problems with its shape were subtle so I couldn’t place it at first, but now it looks just 🤩 Sorry don’t mind all the reflections- figuring out how to take good photos of lights is on my list?!

Ok I should wind down now, full day tomorrow 😴

Cibo Matto keeping me company 🎵

Coooool! I love scorpions! But definitely not when they’re inside my house and it’s dark! 🦂😨😮‍💨

OMG Ian just randomly brought this home from the card shop for me and it’s amazing 😂😂😂😂 I love that “Crime” is a skill and that all classes have both Life Points and Drama Points. A+ description of LA, dreamy photos of David Boreanaz. I can’t stop laughing 😂😂

First time walking this route with my dog since the Eaton Fire, strange to see the empty lots. They are cleared now, so at least they are less grisly to behold, but they still bring sadness.

I’m extreme analog programming right now, the downside to using plug-n-play timers lol. You set an OFF and ON time per cycle, and I’m exploiting the fact that you can force it to begin during the OFF segment by unplugging it partway through. Using four timers I’m able to cycle three sets of lights 😂

I’ll never forget a favorite Twitter moment when I complained that it was 100 deg and 100% humidity immediately after a monsoon storm and a friend responded “But it’s a dry humidity!” 😂

I opened my weather app and thought good lord, 105?! Then realized it was still on Tucson lol. I don’t miss that part of living there 😅

Today is my 10-year PhD Defensiversary! I guess I’m “officially” mid-career now :) I always like to reflect on my thesis dedication on this day, though I’ll note that if I wrote it today the language would be more non-cis inclusive.

We hung Scorpius, I am in love ⭐️ I’ll take some more pics and video later once it’s fully dark. #SciArt #FrameOfReference

Headed home from the Planetary Science Institute annual retreat 🪐We’re a primarily remote research institution, so it’s always wonderful to talk science with colleagues in person. Having a strong and close culture despite our geographic diversity is part of what sets us apart in our field.

[NEW IN THE SHOP] Rover wheel necklaces to satisfy your relentless #Curiosity 🤖 Inspired by the wheels of the Curiosity rover, including the secret JPL Morse code 😎 Available in brushed silver and matte black: 🔗 sciencesocks.co/coll...#Curiosity👈 Please repost! ✨🔭🐡🧪🎨

Back in grad school stomping grounds this week, in Tucson for a work retreat. I always like visiting and I’m looking forward to seeing friends.

The Lonesome Crowded West indeed.

Preliminary test with the frame went well, though I need to adjust the heights and tweak some things. I ordered some matte black spray paint to see if I can reduce shine off the cables, I’m aiming for 3 constellations on a rotating timer if they aren’t too visually messy. #FrameOfReference #SciArt

Date Night ;)

I was anxious the constellation wouldn’t come across. One thing about #SciArt is that when working within the constraints of data it’s hard to know what it’ll look like until it’s done and you have limited control over the outcome. The whole point is to see the data in another way. #FrameOfReference

The hawk pair that lives in the eucalyptus next door are out and wheeling about today. They hover just feet above the yard—wish I could capture a photo for you but they’re too fast for a phone camera. I love watching it! Sometimes the crows harass them and I’m honestly surprised they put up with it.