Today

I've gotten out of the habit of using this journal as a journal. Which means that I'm only chronicling big events, usually the bad ones. For instance, I wrote volumes on the car theft but I said not a word on the fantastic trip that resourceress and I took last month when we spent our fifth anniversary at the Greater World Earthship Colony in Taos, New Mexico.

In an attempt to get back to journaling, which was the purpose of starting a journal here, this is what happened to me today:

There was a blood drive at work, and I was due to give again, so I made my umpteenth donation. April will be eight years since I conquered my fear of needles enough to start making donations. I would like to know how many gallons of blood I have given in that time. Probably could call the New York Blood Bank and the Heartland Blood Center to find out, as all of my donations have been through one of those two organizations. I'm getting better and better at mastering that fear; I don't even wince or bite my hand when they puncture me anymore. Anyway, now I'm done for another eight weeks.

One pint of blood later, I went to a talk about a new model for Type Ia supernova evolution. It amazes me that we still don't have successful supernova models. For those of you who don't know, all the supernova computer simulations fail. They don't explode. Actually, I hadn't known before today that the Type Ia SNe fail, too. Most of my experience (i.e. my thesis work) was with core-collapse supernovae, which are much less regular than the Type Ia (which explode via a runaway thermonuclear reaction).

After leaving work, I drove into the city for the weekly meeting of the Chicagoland Anarchist Network. Since nobody else wanted to facilitate, I stepped up to the role. I think I did a good job of it; the meeting was very productive, split between external planning of projects and internal organization of CAN. I really like working with this group. The next couple of months are going to be insanely busy; there are so many events being planned. And Mayday is coming, with two or three days of events being scheduled. This is going to be fun, but exhausting!

Also along activist lines, I have been invited to be a part of a group from Chicago that is driving down to Urbana in April to give a sexual assault awareness workshop. I'm really quite honored to have been invited. Yes, the issue is hugely important to me, but I wouldn't have thought of myself as somebody who has much to actually contribute on the topic. Anyway, I'm really, really, really looking forward to that, especially if it can make some sort of positive difference.

At home once again, I'm going to bustle for a few hours, doing housework, physics work, and reading comics before heading off to bed. I'm still stuck in a nocturnal phase and haven't fallen asleep before 4am (usually 5am) in over a week. No reason to expect tonight to be any different.

Oh, and the plaintive meows at the door remind me that I have to pet the kitties. But they wouldn't let me forget that. Ever since I got home from Phoenix last week, the little furballs have not left me alone. I go to sleep with five cats cuddling on the bed with me; I wake up with five cats cuddling on the bed with me. When I am awake, they follow me throughout the house. It is getting to the point where I feel guilty for doing anything other than petting a cat. But, seriously, it is great to be home with them again -- especially after being gone for a full month -- and I am lucky to have such affectionate felines in my life. Clearly cheshcat and I did something right in raising the babies...

Today

I've gotten out of the habit of using this journal as a journal. Which means that I'm only chronicling big events, usually the bad ones. For instance, I wrote volumes on the car theft but I said not a word on the fantastic trip that resourceress and I took last month when we spent our fifth anniversary at the Greater World Earthship Colony in Taos, New Mexico.

In an attempt to get back to journaling, which was the purpose of starting a journal here, this is what happened to me today:

There was a blood drive at work, and I was due to give again, so I made my umpteenth donation. April will be eight years since I conquered my fear of needles enough to start making donations. I would like to know how many gallons of blood I have given in that time. Probably could call the New York Blood Bank and the Heartland Blood Center to find out, as all of my donations have been through one of those two organizations. I'm getting better and better at mastering that fear; I don't even wince or bite my hand when they puncture me anymore. Anyway, now I'm done for another eight weeks.

One pint of blood later, I went to a talk about a new model for Type Ia supernova evolution. It amazes me that we still don't have successful supernova models. For those of you who don't know, all the supernova computer simulations fail. They don't explode. Actually, I hadn't known before today that the Type Ia SNe fail, too. Most of my experience (i.e. my thesis work) was with core-collapse supernovae, which are much less regular than the Type Ia (which explode via a runaway thermonuclear reaction).

After leaving work, I drove into the city for the weekly meeting of the Chicagoland Anarchist Network. Since nobody else wanted to facilitate, I stepped up to the role. I think I did a good job of it; the meeting was very productive, split between external planning of projects and internal organization of CAN. I really like working with this group. The next couple of months are going to be insanely busy; there are so many events being planned. And Mayday is coming, with two or three days of events being scheduled. This is going to be fun, but exhausting!

Also along activist lines, I have been invited to be a part of a group from Chicago that is driving down to Urbana in April to give a sexual assault awareness workshop. I'm really quite honored to have been invited. Yes, the issue is hugely important to me, but I wouldn't have thought of myself as somebody who has much to actually contribute on the topic. Anyway, I'm really, really, really looking forward to that, especially if it can make some sort of positive difference.

At home once again, I'm going to bustle for a few hours, doing housework, physics work, and reading comics before heading off to bed. I'm still stuck in a nocturnal phase and haven't fallen asleep before 4am (usually 5am) in over a week. No reason to expect tonight to be any different.

Oh, and the plaintive meows at the door remind me that I have to pet the kitties. But they wouldn't let me forget that. Ever since I got home from Phoenix last week, the little furballs have not left me alone. I go to sleep with five cats cuddling on the bed with me; I wake up with five cats cuddling on the bed with me. When I am awake, they follow me throughout the house. It is getting to the point where I feel guilty for doing anything other than petting a cat. But, seriously, it is great to be home with them again -- especially after being gone for a full month -- and I am lucky to have such affectionate felines in my life. Clearly cheshcat and I did something right in raising the babies...