Tuesday, October 23, 2007

923 MB is a lot


I’m slowly (barely perceptibly) getting my (beloved!) machine set up to run Polyworld. This is what I’m doing instead of finishing the reading on Buddhism for my ethics course (hey, when the procrastination also looks pretty substantive, it’s all good). First, locate OSX disk and install some developer tools (um, that took a bit longer than expected)(I’d actually put it in the case marked “Mac CDs” – go figure); next, check for the tenth time or so what, exactly, I also need to download and install; register as an Apple developer (HA!); then download things and install them.

The download running at the moment is rather large; 923 megs, in fact. I am slightly less charmed than I might be.

I will have to boogie out of here soon to go study with my fellow inmates/no! I mean classmates. There’s a bio midterm next week, and all 250 or so people in the class are in varying stages of freak-out. I got home from lab last night at 11:15, and I’m dragggggging. It was fun mashing up the ant abdomen and centrifuging and measuring spectra on chlorophyll and all that, but wow, Tired Now.

So it’s been a week, loads of things going on as usual. Brought middle child to a camp-out thing, and had to be Mean Mom to oldest and say no, you may not bail on your obligations. The crystallizing, new experience there was that I knew what dh would have said. And so I used that, and leaned on it pretty hard and felt absolutely clear about what needed to happen. It was a strange but nice thing.

I’m playing with LEDs and resistors and things to make a light-up thing for a jack-o-lantern. I knew I didn’t have all the parts, and was putting things together and just tinkering to see, you know, like you do, and I got frustrated and took out the resistor, and then the capacitor, and just, er, stuck the LED wires directly into the 9 volt battery. Um, bang. Small (very small! really!) flame. A little bit of smoke. Quite dramatic. Note to self: this is why there are such things as resistors and capacitors.

I also went to Rhinebeck this weekend, which was good in a different way than usual. Stayed at my sister’s house, which was lovely (thanks, S!), and got pretty tired by Saturday night. I’m not really an extrovert, and I’d met lots and lots of people and it would have been really cool and all to go to the ravelry party ‘til midnight (perhaps chat up Kilted David) but I just couldn’t deal, so I went to dinner with sis and her boyfriend and a bunch of other people and then fell asleep. The great, great thing was seeing people, especially Mel and Lorena – yay!—who I hadn’t met in person before (hi! Hi to the gang, too!). And funny and great to see Ruth, Lucia, Amber, R. and M. and J-M and all those homeschooling folks and it is so damn strange to have to go 200 miles to see people who live around the corner from me.

Fiber acquisition did occur. Pictures later, along with pictures of lovely view from sister's porch. Also links. Blah. Lazy, bad, tired weasel.

This is blog post #204! Gee! Not lazy enough, apparently. Later, you guys.

8 Comments:

Blogger Carole Knits said...

I'm so glad I bumped into you, even if it was for just a moment.

4:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Liz, I'm sad I didn't see you! I only met one quarter of the people I had hoped to talk to.
Next year?

4:56 PM  
Blogger Jena said...

Liz, darling, though I appreciate the value of a handmade item and learning to make things oneself, you do know that they make jack o'lantern lights that they sell for about $3, right? :) ;)

I'm trying to convince Dave that he wants to go to Rhinebeck next year... here's hoping. :)

8:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

An astronomer I happened to be married to was building and instrument in grad school. He introduced me to the term "smoke test." What's a little flame between jack 'o lanterns?

9:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Strike the fourth "d" from my comment, please! Gah!

9:55 PM  
Blogger Mel said...

You most definitely should have come to the Ravelry party and chatted up kilted David. He's a good guy.

And it was so nice to finally get to meet you, too. Next we need to get you up this way for Spa. It's in Freeport this winter.

10:29 PM  
Blogger Ruth said...

While my parents were here helping out after WB's birth their neighbors came by for a visit. My parents and their neighbors live in Iowa. They had to go 1300 miles to go out to lunch with the folks who live right next door. So the 200 or so miles to Rhinebeck isn't that bad.

I'm glad we got to hang out for a while on Saturday, and that the rest of your weekend went well. I hope to see you soon ...

7:14 AM  
Blogger Lucia said...

Are you going tonight? I'm dithering, but I'll go if you will.

And SPA in Freeport? My parents live 10 minutes away, and (concert schedules permitting) I am totally going.

12:50 PM  

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