So. Freaking. Hosed.

[ultranos]

Currently working on the setting for "Pirates of Dark Matter". It wants to be more serious than I originally thought, which means extra work for me, dammit. At least it's just the setting and not mechanics, since I think d20 Future (off of d20 Modern) should work. If I end up liking the setting enough, I might figure out where I can post it (I'm writing it in .tex, so it'll be a .pdf). I guess this will mean I get off my butt about actual webspace.

The other campaign I'm apparently writing is still searching for a system to use. Who knew steampunk with magic was so freaking hard to find.

End of term cannot come soon enough. Yeesh. Also, I wish the trees would stop trying to kill me.

Tagged by abyssinia4077...

Leave a comment and I will
a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
g) In return, you must can post this in your LJ.

Comments

[beanpot.livejournal.com]

Oh I'll play!

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

a) Tell you why I friended you.

When I was new around here, you friended me first. I went "wha?", looked at your journal, realized you were the person who wrote the story about Cam trying to get the macaroon recipe from Granma Mitchell, and kind of boggled a bit. Basically, I thought you were really cool. :)

b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

The "reading is sexy" icon. And now Dar.

c) Tell you something I like about you.

That you keep me from living inside a bubble, with your link posts to news articles and your analysis and response to them.

d) Tell you a memory I have of you.

That you were the first to congratulate me when I got back to MIT. :) I was so freaking happy that day.

e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Why did you start running, in marathons and the like? (I've got messed-up knees due to two injuries, so what you do I find really amazing.)

f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

I like your new "I freaking love coloring one". The kid's adorable.

[beanpot.livejournal.com]

I decided to quit my gym and thought - Oh I should start running. As I know I'm lazy, I signed up for a 10 mile race to motivate me. I loved the race, I loved the running (most days), and I've just kept going.

I haven't done a full marathon yet, but will be doing a half one in September.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Meme me, baby!

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

a) Tell you why I friended you.

I swear we just did something like this. :) I was poking around the Stargate fandom, came across you, thought you were cool, and clicked the button. :) Still think you're cool.

b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Stargate gen, actually. I feel like it's kind of cheating, but for me, you've got the entire "team love" thing going. :)

c) Tell you something I like about you.

Your sense of humor. (Also, that you seem to be amused by my strange digressions in rl that I end up posting here.)

d) Tell you a memory I have of you.

Various Redial chats. They've all kind of blurred together, though.

e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Just how did you guys come up with the idea for Redial?

f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

I do love the "coporally challenged" one.

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

I still think you're cool too. :-)

The not so abridged redial_the_gate history:

Hmm, after season ten ended (and actually on occasion before), some of us missing the show talked about how we should rewatch the show from the getgo. Many of us hadn't been in fandom when we started watching and/or we came into the series at different times and/or watched as it aired v. dvd. An organized rewatch and renewed squee discussion could be fun.

abyssinia4077 took the bull by the horns from a couple of these comment discussions and started making the outlines of the comm. A few of us who had been enthusiastically chatting about it with her said we would pitch in and help. So,sg_fignewton and pepper_field and I joined together and bounced ideas of how to do it since we'd never done anything like it before. And our amalgam of ideas formed into the comm.

We were hoping it would be a few more people than just the four of us gabbing to each other. Like twenty would be great. Now the comm's over 200 strong with such an enthusiastic response has been surprising and very gratifying. (well, surprising to me, anyway. Heh)

(Ironically, the forum I'm a part of indepedently started coming up with their own rewatch, so it may have been the vogue idea...or I hang out with really smart people. Yeah, probably the latter, heh.)

P.S. moonshayde made the Daniel icon. I totally stole it from her.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

end of term is almost there ! You'll make it!

*pokes at meme*

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

a) Tell you why I friended you.

I was lurking around your journal for a bit, and then you asked for some Sam love. And then the science thing, and also liking "Gemini" thing, and I had read "Eroding", and, well, I was a lost cause. :)

b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.

Science geeking. And the Sam and math icon.

c) Tell you something I like about you.

That you also understand the "being a female in a scientific field" thing. That I have someone outside of my rl friends and housemates that I can try to puzzle out the science in science-fiction shows with (it helps me believe that we aren't really that insane). That you get my absolute fondness for Sam Carter and all that she kind of represents, flaws and all.

d) Tell you a memory I have of you.

Has to be the AIM conversation of Doom about the radiation poisoning thing. That had no real relevance to our original question but was awesome anyway.

e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Maybe I asked this before, but why chemistry, and now, why the earth sciences (I think?) for grad school?

f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.

I like the Sam and math one, but your default is one of my favorites, because it's an awesome shot, and because it speaks on so many levels about Sam and about you.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

it helps me believe that we aren't really that insane

Well, to be fair people from my undergrad tend to get along with and have a lot in common with people from your undergrad, so I wouldn't discount the insane thing.

Maybe I asked this before, but why chemistry, and now, why the earth sciences (I think?) for grad school?

Phew. Okay.
So I've *always* been really good at math and good at science (you know, how the science-brain works). When I was in 5th grade I decided I would be an astronaut and to do so I would get my PhD in astrophysics and to do so I would get my undergrad degree in physics. I did all sorts of science extra-curriculars growing up - did classes at FermiLab and the Adler Planetarium, worked at Argonne's physics department. I was All Gung-Ho about physics.

Then I went to college. And Physics? SUCKED. It made math ugly. It didn't make intuitive sense (mechanics and my brain? Are Not Friends). I struggled and cursed and cried and angsted because I'd spent 8 freaking years in love with physics and now it looked like physics wasn't where I fit. I also paid more attention to...the subculture of physics and realized I didn't really like it.

So I needed a different major. My school had a grand total of 6. Math was out - not practical enough and not sure what I'd do with it. Computer Science was out - don't want that much time in front of a computer and prefer hands-on labs. Biology was out because I have a stubborn stupid thing about feeling like I'm *supposed* to be a biologist and thus refuse to do it. Engineering I...didn't really look at seriously. And physics wasn't working.

But chemistry? Chemistry I was loving and kicking ass at. And then I realized that the parts of physics I liked (atomic physics and quantum and stuff) are really chemistry in disguise. Plus my school had a kick-ass, usually ranked #1, chemistry department. And chemistry didn't have the nasty subculture. So I became a chemist. And Organic chemistry kicked my ass and made me cry. A lot. But the rest was great.

But then I hit graduate school, staying in chemistry because I was a chemist, and was bored and uninspired. I realized that as much as I liked exploring problems and doing chemistry and gaining knowledge, I needed to feel like there was a point to my work beyond expanding scientific knowledge. I started thinking that maybe I should have been an engineer.

So I left. I did other stuff. The new field (technically environmental studies) works for me for a lot of ways. I love interdisciplinary work and this will let me use physics and chemistry and math and ecology and geology and geography and also policy and sociology and law and economics to. It lets me work on real-world problems and try to find real-world solutions. It lets me be in the field and in the lab. And I'm working for a super-respected environmental engineer who got her degrees from MIT, so I can end up billing myself as a scientist or a policy person or something else.

I love science. I love solving puzzles and figuring out how the world works. But what I've found is that my biggest talent as a scientist is that I can bridge the communication gap between scientists and non-scientists. I care deeply about the environmental field, and I think it's a field that can really use people with that skillset.

Um. Yeah :)