-I finished my Biological Psychology assessment, woot!  Now it’s crunch time for the Human Biology final exam.

- The weather improved this week finally, so we spent time in the sun: walks on the seafront and trips to the park.  Today I noticed they were filling up the paddling pool at the lagoon, heralding in the summer season. Fingers crossed it’s a nice one!

- We’re picking my mom up from the airport Friday morning!  She’s staying with us for three weeks!

“And for my next trick… counting to five!”

Moo amazes me daily.  This weekend I went to work and then came home to a little girl who could count to five, and my heart swelled.  She’s been picking up a lot lately, smiling proudly as she does all the hand motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider and I wonder where my little baby went, because it’s so hard to believe she’s almost two.

After dinner one night this week I managed to steal her daddy’s popcicle, punctuating the insult with “pwned!”  At which point Moo stopped licking her own popcicle, turned to look at Daddy, and simply said “…pwned.”  My offspring, ladies and gentlemen.

Today she and I developed this new game I call “zombie.”  I say, “Moo… do zombie!” and she tilts her head back, crooks her neck, and growls “braaaahhhhhggg.”   She watched me do it once, maybe, and it suddenly became her thing.  I promise, video of this to come.

This or That Thursday

A few Instagram shots from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.   Uninterrupted sun, trips to the park, and drinks with friends (and work… boo!)

- The bloom after the rains. (Instagram)

- Into the countryside! (Instagram)

- Wine at the pub with Alicja. (Instagram)

- Self portrait. (Instagram)

- Blue skies after nearly three solid weeks of rain. (Instagram)

- <3 New Scientist.  Weekly enjoyment. (Instagram)

- Hipster baby loved Sesame Street before it was cool. (Instagram)

 http://naptimemomtog.com/ -  http://www.theboyandme.co.uk/

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries is a book about the universe by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and intellectual badass.   In this series of essays, Tyson combines his passion for astrophysics with an easy-to-read style that enables virtually anyone reading to understand the key concepts presented without burdening the non-astrophysics major with too much technical information.   THIS book was what I was looking for one dark night when I took a wrong turn and ended up with particle physics in Greene’s The Elegant Universe.  Death by Black Hole is about the MACRO universe: planets and dying stars and radiation and well… scary but mindblowing space stuff.

The great thing about this book is it combines everything you’ve ever wanted to know about SPACE with answers.  It’s organized mostly on topic, and each topic typically covers a brief history of knowledge in the field, HOW scientists have come to know this knowledge and the tools they used, and what it tells us about the universe as a whole.  Topics range from how scientists calculate the size of bodies in space, how we know when planets are orbiting a star by its “wobble,”  black holes, radiation, elements found on earth and elsewhere, the possibility of life elsewhere, what asteroids and comets are made of, dark matter, star fusion…. the list goes on and on.  Not once did the material extend beyond the layman’s readability and thus provides a great starting point for anyone interested in the cosmos to pinpoint topics they are most interested in for further reading.

I loved this book because I finished it smarter than when I started.  I love how the information is presented so eloquently and accessibly that I will remember enough of what I read to relay to someone else.  And I loved this book for the journey I got to go on, into space, into that void of ignorance I had on many of the topics covered, and I got to experience a small but satisfying portion of the sheer wonder that comes when you consider just how small we are in comparison to everything else.  I’d recommend this title to anyone, and I know I will be picking up more of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s books in the near future.

Read and Write Friday

(via)

BLAH, is all.  It’s how I feel right now as well as a fairly accurate description of the last week.  Blah weekend into blah weekdays with unproductive hours and the feeling of anxiety in the evenings.  I work Saturdays and Sundays, did I ever tell you that?  It’s not something I readily bring up, mostly because I’m disappointed in myself that, at the age of twenty-six, I STILL have yet to complete university and follow a career of my dreams and instead I spend the ungodly hours of the weekend mornings jockeying a phone in a call centre.  I cried at work this past weekend, an embarrassing situation borne out of the feeling I’m trapped in an unfair system with no reprieve, with my ideas that took hours to put together in coherent form having been, in so many words, dismissed.

Crying at work is a game changer for women:  you cannot take it back, you cannot erase it, and it will hang there forever as the pink elephant in the room, your emotional weaknesses on display forever.  I wish I could be stronger, like that episode of Sex and the City where Samantha gives Richard a piece of her mind and, even though she can feel the tears building, she walked out of the room and to the elevator without crying, before letting it all go the moment the doors closed behind her.  Comfort comes in knowing this isn’t my “forever” job, that I WILL have that valuable piece of paper one day, one that will open doors in the sciences, getting me out of the politics of business.

And it’s really only gone down hill from there.  I hate watching a friend struggle with some tough decisions I cannot help her with beyond a few words of advice,  I hate knowing I have so much to do and not finding the motivation to do any of it, I hate trying to entertain Moo indoors all day on rainy days, I hate this persistent stress I feel,  I hate this feeling I’m coming down with something.  I wrote about the pressure I felt with my coursework as one class starts to culminate into the final exam  and the other simply demanding a massive assignment.  And yet, where do I stand?  I had finished the Human Biology assessment, planning to then power straight through the Biological Psychology assessment so I could devote the month to exam prep but I lost steam halfway through the essay (as part of the larger assignment)  and haven’t returned to it since.  Now we’re almost ten days into May and there it is, still unfinished, still half an essay (good luck Nicky on picking up where you left off mid thought a WEEK LATER) staring me in the face, still no exam prep started.  I cannot seem to work up the motivation to do much of anything, let alone an essay on axonal growth in neurons (or scrub toilets, or cook meals…).

 Last night I started feeling ill, like there was a virus hanging out just on the periphery, ready to strike me down.  It’s that body-achy feeling, that threat that sickness is inevitable, but if I’m completely honest I don’t know if I’m run down or have reached a new level of BLAH.  I feel sleep deprived, enjoyment deprived, and… well…. blah.  The rain, the indoor recreations with a super active toddler, the workload without the motivation… I’ve not even felt inspired to create much of anything lately, my camera sits collecting dust.  Ennui at it’s finest, folks (first world problems, eh?).

I NEED to shake this funk.  Mom comes to stay with us for three weeks in a week and a half, and I am so looking forward to her visiting, to our time together.  We’ve got a lot of fun things planned, including a small trip for my birthday coming up at the end of the month which is sure to be loads of fun.  And of course that means lots of prep over the coming week, including finishing coursework and starting the exam prep.  But for now…. BLAH, is all.

A little photography, a little magic, a lot of photoshop.  Images of the cosmos courtesy the Hubble Telescope.

Sweet Shot Tuesday - WW Project Alicia - This or That Thursday

- Moo and the morning sun. (Instagram)

- Found this amazing play place only a five minute walk from our flat!  (Instagram)

- New Kindle case bought on Etsy. (Instagram)

- Book and bubble bath. (Instagram)

- Green pastures. See full size here.

- Prepping for the final has begun. (Instagram)

- Finished the book nook makeover this week.

 http://naptimemomtog.com/ -  http://www.theboyandme.co.uk/

This or That Thursday – Leap into Spring

Finally finished the Book Nook makeover, nearly a month after starting!  I posted a guide previously on how to paint flat packed furniture, and this was the motivation for doing so: painting the shelves white really brightened up the space.  I made the picture on the wall using Adobe Illustrator, although the quote is something I grabbed off a t-shirt.

Equally exciting is the fact the loft room is now cleaned up, as this little project of mine has dominated the available floorspace for weeks.  When I first found out I could paint the furniture I thought I’d do Mark and I’s desks as well, now not a chance.  It was a lot of work which took up a lot of time (letting the unit dry before turning and painting again) and I don’t intend to do it again any time soon.

Glad to be done!