Exercise, update, knitting
It's not actually spring break anymore, but the class I'm taking doesn't start until next week and the lab I'm TAing doesn't meet until next week either. So, I have a handful of seminars and otherwise it's a lot like spring break. I need to put together a lit review/research update by next Monday, and am going to try to get what I can done over the next week. Parts for my INSTRUMENT showed up, so I can start building soon!
In research, I am trying to re-learn E&M so that I can model some things in matlab. It is sure a process, not helped by the book I had been going off of having some doubtful information. I have some more books but need to actually use them.
Tangent: We're integrating by a dummy variable and want to end up with units of length^3. The denominator of the integral includes (s + a)^2\sqrt{(s + a^2)...}. The dummy variable is $s$, and $a$ has units of length. I don't think this is valid, even in physics.
I am still working on Hanami and am about 75% done. I'll have photos someday but right now I'm just knitting. The basketweave part sure was done mostly during the end of the quarter and finals, and I finished the rest of it as quickly as possible to be done with it afterwards. This backfired slightly when I missed a yarnover in the transition chart and had to rip 4", but I made it up. This is one reason I like lace--when I make a mistake like that, it is very obvious within three rows. The organic-looking blossom lace is not nearly as easy as geometrical patterns because it is so unpredictable, but it is very pretty. I want to be done while there are still a ton of flowers around, and at this rate I'll be done in a week or two. Next up is the bright yellow Aeolian with orange beads.
It is spring in Seattle and it is amazing. My standards for awesome weather have changed dramatically, but it hit 60 degrees last week and there has been sun for most of the past two weeks and the city is covered in flowers and new leaves. It is amazing, and the sun is *back* and even when it rains it is not freezing and doesn't feel like it will rain forever. I mentioned my standards for awesome weather have changed? The cherry blossoms and the daffodils are fantastic though.
Aikido class starts back up tomorrow and I am very excited (I might get a gi now!), even if I expect to feel super-rusty. I have been at least practicing falls and rolls over the past 2 weeks which is better than nothing. I have also been doing weight training in the meantime (roughly following some workouts on Stumptuous). Today's accomplishment is bench pressing as well as squatting with the big barbell (45 lb) (so did Amanda! Woo!), along with doing 2 sets of 5 x 85 lb standing lat pulldown. I still have some arm/back strength from climbing, apparently! Pullups may not be so far off, and I would like to make active progress towards them. I'd like to keep lifting even once class starts up and will have to figure out what a good balance is. I suspect that focusing on upper-body work during the week (on aikido-less days) may be a good idea since falling down and getting up over and over again still does good work on my legs and core. Though come to think of it, squats will still be a good idea since my knees had been giving me problems a few weeks ago and the muscles I use to get up from falls may be weirdly specialized.
Squats tend to make my legs very stiff, especially the hamstrings. I've been breaking out the PT stretches some, and I find that koho tento is a surprisingly useful, gentle, dynamic stretch for back and legs. (And if it's a stretch to do the forward movement then ouch, I'm stiff.)
I've been on a not-entirely-ridiculous upswing for the last *counts* 2.5 weeks at least. Not all of it has been super up and competent (though probably a week or so of it all told?), but it's made a nice change.
This has been on my Twitter, and... this post from Seanan McGuire is a really inspiring response. I didn't even know I was queer in high school and mostly had a "well, of course it's ok (but a bit weird. huh.)" attitude, with (much) less and less of the "weird" over time as I found that various friends and family were gay or lesbian. Weirdly enough, compared to college and onwards, I don't think I knew anyone who was out as bi in high school. A lot of that acceptance comes from my mother, and I am deeply grateful for it. She wasn't perfect on bisexuality, and polyamory was not at all on the radar in any positive sense (though she gave me the "bi doesn't *have* to mean one of each gender (sic)" meme, I could have done with less "and shouldn't"). But still, pretty much all the middle/high school sex talks started with "when you find a boy (or like 10% of people, a girl)" and that was so... normalizing. I want there to be more out there that kids can find that says "well, yes, that's an option, and here's what it might look like." Thanks to Seanan for standing up on this.
In research, I am trying to re-learn E&M so that I can model some things in matlab. It is sure a process, not helped by the book I had been going off of having some doubtful information. I have some more books but need to actually use them.
Tangent: We're integrating by a dummy variable and want to end up with units of length^3. The denominator of the integral includes (s + a)^2\sqrt{(s + a^2)...}. The dummy variable is $s$, and $a$ has units of length. I don't think this is valid, even in physics.
I am still working on Hanami and am about 75% done. I'll have photos someday but right now I'm just knitting. The basketweave part sure was done mostly during the end of the quarter and finals, and I finished the rest of it as quickly as possible to be done with it afterwards. This backfired slightly when I missed a yarnover in the transition chart and had to rip 4", but I made it up. This is one reason I like lace--when I make a mistake like that, it is very obvious within three rows. The organic-looking blossom lace is not nearly as easy as geometrical patterns because it is so unpredictable, but it is very pretty. I want to be done while there are still a ton of flowers around, and at this rate I'll be done in a week or two. Next up is the bright yellow Aeolian with orange beads.
It is spring in Seattle and it is amazing. My standards for awesome weather have changed dramatically, but it hit 60 degrees last week and there has been sun for most of the past two weeks and the city is covered in flowers and new leaves. It is amazing, and the sun is *back* and even when it rains it is not freezing and doesn't feel like it will rain forever. I mentioned my standards for awesome weather have changed? The cherry blossoms and the daffodils are fantastic though.
Aikido class starts back up tomorrow and I am very excited (I might get a gi now!), even if I expect to feel super-rusty. I have been at least practicing falls and rolls over the past 2 weeks which is better than nothing. I have also been doing weight training in the meantime (roughly following some workouts on Stumptuous). Today's accomplishment is bench pressing as well as squatting with the big barbell (45 lb) (so did Amanda! Woo!), along with doing 2 sets of 5 x 85 lb standing lat pulldown. I still have some arm/back strength from climbing, apparently! Pullups may not be so far off, and I would like to make active progress towards them. I'd like to keep lifting even once class starts up and will have to figure out what a good balance is. I suspect that focusing on upper-body work during the week (on aikido-less days) may be a good idea since falling down and getting up over and over again still does good work on my legs and core. Though come to think of it, squats will still be a good idea since my knees had been giving me problems a few weeks ago and the muscles I use to get up from falls may be weirdly specialized.
Squats tend to make my legs very stiff, especially the hamstrings. I've been breaking out the PT stretches some, and I find that koho tento is a surprisingly useful, gentle, dynamic stretch for back and legs. (And if it's a stretch to do the forward movement then ouch, I'm stiff.)
I've been on a not-entirely-ridiculous upswing for the last *counts* 2.5 weeks at least. Not all of it has been super up and competent (though probably a week or so of it all told?), but it's made a nice change.
This has been on my Twitter, and... this post from Seanan McGuire is a really inspiring response. I didn't even know I was queer in high school and mostly had a "well, of course it's ok (but a bit weird. huh.)" attitude, with (much) less and less of the "weird" over time as I found that various friends and family were gay or lesbian. Weirdly enough, compared to college and onwards, I don't think I knew anyone who was out as bi in high school. A lot of that acceptance comes from my mother, and I am deeply grateful for it. She wasn't perfect on bisexuality, and polyamory was not at all on the radar in any positive sense (though she gave me the "bi doesn't *have* to mean one of each gender (sic)" meme, I could have done with less "and shouldn't"). But still, pretty much all the middle/high school sex talks started with "when you find a boy (or like 10% of people, a girl)" and that was so... normalizing. I want there to be more out there that kids can find that says "well, yes, that's an option, and here's what it might look like." Thanks to Seanan for standing up on this.