Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2008-01-20:

"An alien anthropologist, armed with only our bestseller lists, might conclude that detectives rule the earth. This alien could easily inspect novels for months and never work out that humans do scientific research...If fiction is a mirror held up to our culture, scientists are its vampires. They lurk in the shadows, casting no reflection." -- Jennifer Rohn, from a PODium editorial in the Nature Podcast for January 17, 2008, bemoaning the fact that our popular culture has very few good fictional representations of scientists doing believable science.

http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/archivetranscripts.html]

(submitted to the mailing list by John S. Karabaic)

Yesterday was a start and stop and start and stop and start and stop kind of day. Got started on getting moving, getting ready, then needed a break, started moving again, faded out and had an hour get away from me, took meds, waited for them to take effect, got distracted, got organized, got tired again, got my second wind, broke a nail (badly enough to require emergency cyanoarylate action rather than just clipping it off and saying a few naughty words), got moving again, worried whether I really had enough spoons, finally got out the door.

Got to Balticon very late and things seemed to have already started settling down for the night. Got to say hello to some folks I see too seldom, and collect hugs -- it felt good to get out and be social -- and spent a while making music with friends. Got tired, came home while I could still drive safely, now trying to decide whether I saved enough spoons to be up to heading back up there for the rest of the afternoon, or if I should stay in, watch the Indianapolis 500, and try to get caught up on dreaded beaurocratic stuff. Or take a load of laundry to my mother's house.

Took a cane with me last night. Felt silly part of the time because I didn't feel like I needed it, but at other times I was glad of the bit of extra support. And it wasn't a simple matter of starting out not needing it and then getting tired -- I went back and forth between feeling like it was just another item to keep track of and actually using it and having it feel like it helped. It does make managing a guitar and the woodwinds case at the same time more tricky.

A few of the folks I ran into, I hadn't seen for several years. (Also found myself pulling out songs and chord progressions I hadn't played in several years. Not sure there's any connection though.)

Got some thoughts about effects of different sets of choices for gender on forms and surveys, and different degrees of 'othering', inspired by a recent kerfuffle I caught descriptions of after the main participant had already flounced and deleted the community it all occurred in. Will try to wrestle those into coherent form later, but I should decide whether to try to get back to Balticon before I dive into that.