starting early today

Another post on food.
I am breaking out the chocolate early today.

But I'll balance it with an apple.

As an aside, this hunk of chocolate was broken off of a 'typographic chocolate slab' made by dynamo that Julie gifted me for my birthday. At one point it said "best day ever" but now I think I'm down to just "er"...
Needless to say, the chocolate is super delicious and super necessary for this time in my life (thanks Julie!).

Brain Food

This is what I am eating right now.

I bet you are super excited that I shared such good information. I have had two days of eating the most unhealthy foods, so I figured it was time to remedy that. Plus my mom told me I need to stay healthy. The package for my nut/seed/raisin mix is labeled Brain Food, but I've heard it referred to as woodland creature food, which I think I prefer.

Fun fact: I wrote this whole post with one hand, since my other is currently the designated eating hand!

saving tabs for later

Often, I see an article that looks interesting, but don't have time to read it right away, so I just open it in a new tab and save that tab for later. It usually is not a problem. Sometimes really long articles take a long time to get through, so the tab lasts way longer than it ought to. Last night, I needed a break so I checked out a video I had tab-saved.



It ended up being a lot longer than I even remembered, but it was just so awesome. I love that Brother Guy Consolmagno is a scientist. I also like how he said at the beginning that he is both a "nerd and a fanatic" that he is "crazy about his research" and "a nerd about his religion". Awesome, Brother. Way to show those stereotype-makers.

I actually bought his book God's Mechanics for Greg quite a few years ago (after a priest in Snowmass kept referring to it during a homily while I was there for a science conference). I started to read it, but never finished it. Now I feel inspired to pick it up again and get through it this time. Or at least, that is what I plan to do once I get a few things off my plate.

I really liked when he was asking people how they chose the religion they chose. And one scientist said something like "well I'd obviously never choose something that was obviously false." And apparently there are two main religions that many people feel fall into that category... Super interesting. One of them (oddly enough) that scientists feel is obviously false: Scientology. Who would have guessed!

Words* I use on a daily basis that are not included in my computer's dictionary.

auroral
dayside
nightside
poleward
substorm
dispersions
equatorward
upflowing
magnetosheath
intensifications
situ** (as in in situ which is technically Latin)
stackplot
downtail
upgoing
overplotted
plasmas
magnetotail
magnetospheric
Bursty
Imager
versa**

*Note that this does not include words that take the name of a person, nor does it include acronyms. Both of these things get the red squiggle.

**Blogger (or is it Firefox?) also does not consider this to be a word.

ACV

I'm not sure when the last time was that I wrote about hair-related things. For awhile, I had been on the no-shampoo routine. I really like the idea of not putting weird chemicals on my head, but the new routine just didn't work for me. I couldn't get consistent results. One day my hair would look and feel awesome, the next day, not so much. And as my hair got longer, the problems were amplified. So I started using shampoo again. I read that it is the lauryl & laureth sulfates that are really bad. So I figured I would avoid those (which means spending a bit more on shampoo) and call it a day.

Except that that didn't really work either. The routine was definitely more consistent. The one thing I am really glad for is that ever since I did the no-shampoo thing, I have continued to not wash my hair on a daily basis. That was a seriously awesome decision. However, the yes-shampoo decision does not quite seem to be working for me either. I keep trying different shampoos, but the main problem is that I have a very sensitive scalp. And everything I use dries my scalp out like mad.

So my latest idea is that I will use regular, non-sulfate shampoo and conditioner, and then finish with an apple cider vinegar (ACV) rinse. Pouring diluted ACV on your head can be scary for your eyes, but it makes my hair and scalp feel really quite awesome. Then I got to thinking about the rest of my dry skin. Usually after a shower, my face is SO dried out that I have to put mounds of moisturizer on within 5 minutes of getting out of the shower. I have stopped using soap on my face altogether, because I learned that drying out my face even more is anti-helpful. So secretly, I was thinking, hey this ACV that is running down my face (and back... I always have a dry back after a shower. Hopefully that isn't too much information.) is probably helping the situation! And then yesterday, I read on a blog that using ACV as a facial skin toner is a new thing. The cool kids are intentionally doing what I was doing by accident.

The thing I am wondering about is the comment that blogger maid about the ACV needing to be raw. They also posted a picture of Bragg's. Which makes me think that my Shurfine ACV is sub par. I don't really know, but I am pretty sure I can't spend any time looking this up today. Anyone (ahem, Allison?) have any words of wisdom on the difference between raw and not-raw (cooked?) ACV?

Aurora stories

One thing that is great about studying the aurora is the stories people share about their experiences seeing the northern lights. Last night at the contra dance I must have been feeling particularly chatty, because I ended up getting stories from two (or more maybe?) people.

First was from Annie, who grew up in Minnesota, and therefore had some good experience with seeing aurora. She told me about the best aurora she had ever seen which she described as totally white with no colors, and all pointing up to one point in the sky directly above them. It is good to have reminders that what I am studying is more than just plots and data. The aurora is both a fascinating science, but also an incredibly beautiful thing to behold.

The second story was from Ray, and this one was more along the comedy line than the wonderment line. The really funny thing was that he was telling me the story while we were dancing, so he'd say a small bit of his story, and then the dance would have us with neighbors, so the story would pause, but then we'd go back to our partners, and he'd give me the next bit. Very entertaining. Anyhow. So, his story was from the 70's when he was in college. He said he had a friend who was a pretty heavy drug user, but Ray was a pretty straight-laced kid. Well one night those two, along with some others, were out at the football field, and he looked up and saw this beautiful aurora. So he pointed it out to the others, and the drug-friend said "you see it too?!?!"

That cracked me up quite a bit. Mostly because I wasn't sure where the story was going, and the telling of it took so much longer because of how it kept getting broken up.

I'm glad I didn't have anyone tell me they've heard the aurora, or ask if it was true that you can hear it. The question is always posed in such a child-like manner with wonder, awe, and hope all over it. I just hate to burst that bubble.
(:

By "tomorrow" I meant Saturday

Curious to know what might be on the other side of the window that is in the closet that I now call my office?

It is this spooky dungeon-like area.

I guess it doesn't really look too spooky when I use the flash. It just looks like some sort of unfinished building. But isn't it strange that this is in the middle of a building that actually is finished? What a waste of space! If I was more like Pippi Longstocking I would turn it into my clubhouse.