I Can't Get Next to You---Severus

So Seattle is in some sort of Snowpocolypse but I still got to see Harry Potter 7-1. I liked it but this brings me to a song I love. Have you heard the song "I Can't Get Next to You" by the Temptations? I like the Annie Lennox version but the point is, the story is actually beautiful in a kind of melancholy way. It is about a man (or in the case of Lennox, a woman) who has all the power in the world (magic and otherwise) but still can't be with the one he/she loves.....or lusts for. I think that concept is very prevalent in the last Harry Potters. You know, you can't create love, you can't bring back the dead and even if you have magic, no one is safe. Even though it is depressing, I find it kind of freeing.

Well Currently I am listening to NIN Pretty Hate Machine and Trent Reznor totally makes me think of Snape. I love Snape. I guess the song makes me think of Severus.

Fake Mustaches

So, it is a common knowledge that mustaches are funny. Fake mustaches are hilarious.

My husband has a drawer of fake mustaches you buy from 25 cent vending machines in grocery store entrances because "you never know when you might need one." I know this sounds very very creepy but remember when you were a kid and you wanted a quarter so so bad so you could buy that piece of candy, cheap ring or huge sticker from the vending machine. That is what I think these fake mustaches are to him. He has yet to actually use one.

On a trip away from my family, I was talking to him via Skype. This is the year of growing facial hair because he feels it makes him look older. I was staying at a friends house where the resident five year old wanted to talk too. This five year old was very interested in the idea of buying mustaches for 25 cents. Then he pointed at my husband on the computer screen and excitedly asked "is that a fake mustache?"

Are fake mustaches on robots funny? Well, here is a picture. If the mustache is part of the robot's design, is it fake?

Adventure!

Hello Lonely Blog,

I had an adventure today, well as much as I can have one. Though it did not have to due with Robots, I assure you they were in my thoughts...completely.

I started the day at 6am getting dropped off at the Seattle Piers and rode the clipper in a state of half awake. I pretty sure I bought food and tasted the most disgusting coffee EVER made.

I had two goals as I walked off the vessel onto the streets of downtown Victoria for the first time (alone): Find an obscure French comic and get to the Observatory on my own. So I have been to Victoria many times but this was the first time I pushed aside my many illogical fears and just started walking.

Recently I have become obsessed with a comic called "Clues" by a French cartoonist, Mara, I found on deviant art. here is the link

http://kyla79.deviantart.com/

Apparently she got her comics published in France a few years ago and it is a series. However, you can not get them in the US but you can through Amazon Canada....Although, I hoped that since her last post was in 2008, this had changed. Maybe the comic had made it to the New World. It was still in French but I would just make my husband translate them. I wandered the streets for 2 hours, going to 5 books stores. No one had heard of it. This kind of made me sad but I can still order it from Amazon.

I ended up at a great "hole-in-the-wall" Chinese place with free wifi and recorded some thoughts for a robot book...why not?

I took 2 buses (which was way way easier then I thought) to an obscure college and then to the bottom of a small mountain. I walked the 1.5 miles up hill avoiding crazy drivers coming down a winding road. I hate listening to my own thoughts but this time it wasn't so bad. A lot of Robot book thinking.

Next time...maybe a drawing of a robot.

GI Joe but No Robots

So I was just talking to a friend about GI Joe. It isn't about Robots but it sure is nerdy. We all know the phrase "..and Knowing is Half the Battle..GI Joe!" But what the hell is the other half? When will we ever learn it? How will we win the battle without the other half? No wonder the new movie tanked. It was missing something...maybe it was this allusive secret or maybe it was a plot.

Are there any robots in GI Joe?

Paranoid/Neurotic Robots

Hi Fellow Dorks,

I am feeling like we need a new post. Let's talk about paranoid and/or neurotic robots. I really thought the idea of one was original and funny. Then I realized that there are a lot of them. There is C3PO and Marvin from Hitchhikers. There is the one I love, from Futurama, who blows up each time he is startled.

Why do we love Robots that are pretty much just F-ed up humans? I guess it is because we can relate. I sure can. What other robots did I miss?

Let's take a Break

What a difference a day can make. I have decided that taking a month off thesis stuff is what will make me more sane. No talking, thinking, or doing PhD thingys. Also realizing that graduating in Spring isn't so bad. I will do it before I am 30 at least. So this blog has now reverted back to "Just for Fun". We will talk about my thesis at the end of June but till then.......

Did you hear about the synthetic life? Sounds like robots to me.

11 weeks to & A BREAK DOWN

Hi,

I kind of suffered a break down this week. My body is telling me "no more". Or that is at least what the doctor said. I have headaches that won't go away and major fatigue. I don't know how much more I can take. She said something has to go..the job or the thesis. I am very worried. I did send in 6 pages of one chapter to my advisor though so I am technically on schedule. I am sorry to be a downer but I just feel like crap. Don't worry though, I still have robot gossip for you.

Robot Talk:

I take back everything I said about Robots in Space! I didn't know our astronauts would have to hitch rides with other countries and we would NEVER have any transportation of our own in the near future. That is lame. We aren't moochers....at least I don't want us to be. (I am kind of a food moocher)

So I was wrong. If this new Obama plan makes our astronauts "Space Hitchhikers" (even though that is a cool name), I want no part of it.

What do you think?

12 weeks to go & Taser Robots

Taser Robots?! Yes, that is how we will start this week. The link will explain.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/308073/april-27-2010/current-events---taser-armed-robots---meth-sheep

It is a little long but damn funny!

Week 12:

I have sent my advisor a schedule (that I can share will you, my loyal followers) and wrote a couple more pages of the chapter. I must adhere to the schedule or All Is Lost! These dates are when I send my advisor rough drafts of each chapter.

May 17th -- Intro to Shapley Supercluster & Data Reduction

May 31st -- NGC1533

June 14th -- Introduction

July 12th -- Data Analysis for 10 Galaxies

July 26th -- ESO325-G004

August 7th -- Total Rough Draft with brief conclusion and future work

13 weeks to go and Living Armor = Magic Robots!

13 weeks to go and I didn't get as much done as I should have last week! I need to get my ass in gear. I mean, I was even putting off this post since, my ambitious 15 page goal turned into 4 pages.......I couldn't even get to 5 pages yesterday so it would be a multiple of my initial goal. That is how nerdy and lazy I am. I am currently watching "Roman Holiday" to relax. Now, on to the Robots and achievable goals.

Living Armor = Magic Robots

I am taking this week to bring attention to a cross roads of two nerd genres, Robots and the fantasy realm. My husband pointed out that my 1.5 year old (who loves Robots....she makes a mother proud) pointed at a knight in a cartoon and said "bot bot", her word for robot. This made him say "I know what you should do your post on this week." We, as adults, know the difference between Robots and Knights in Shining Armor but I can see how she was confused. If anyone has watched more than one Anime, there is a lot of magic infused armor sometimes called "Living Armor." Also, I know some of you love D&D (ok, maybe just me), and to get some sort of technology, you use magic. To get Robots (or constructs), you use spells. I just find it hilarious that even when people write about a world with no electricity, they still need/crave Robots. I guess we all love them.

Can you think of any other examples of Robots minus technology......Steampunk maybe?

Thesis....week 13!!!!

Ok, so 15 pages was a bit unrealistic (well, it still could be with figures). I still need to do some data analysis and write the rest of this chapter. Here is the plan:

Step 1: Find distances of galaxy clusters to get better turnover magnitudes. Once we do this we can get a better number of GCs (using corrected N = number from data file).

Step 2: Merge final from previous project with this project.

Step 3: Write more and finish a rough draft of this chapter!!! (fill in the blanks with info from papers you should be reading) DO IT!

Thanks for all of your help.

14 weeks to go & A Robot Inventing Farmer!!!

Hello Everyone,

Thanks again for being so supportive and here are the updates and Robot gossip.

Robot Gossip:

So my sister told me a story about a Farmer who has no formal education making robots in China. He has made almost 50 that can do things from just walk to pour tea. Here is a short video of him from this year.

http://shanghaiist.com/2010/04/21/robot-farmer-shanghai-expo.php

He is my hero! I mean I do have formal education in physics and have actually taken electronic courses but don't have the balls to make a robot. Maybe I should. If you are really interested in him, watch this next link that was done in 2007. It is nice to see how much he has grown in his craft and how much more recognition he is getting.

http://gizmodo.com/287492/mr-woo-the-chinese-robot-farmer

Stay for the end of the video.....it is pretty cute.

Last Week's Progress and Next's Weeks Expectations:

So, I did get those distances and wrote 2 programs to get me a total number of GCs (Globular Clusters). I felt great because I also wrote 2 pages of one of my thesis chapters. Thanks to my lovely sister and her boyfriend, for taking me in all weekend and playing with my kid, I got a lot of work done.

Next week I hope to finish a rough draft of this chapter. My goal is around 15 pages. I think that is going to be really, really difficult but still doable. Please, cheer me on.

15 weeks to Rough Draft a PhD thesis & Burning Robot Questions!!!

Hi Loyal Followers,

I am posting this as motivation and a cry for help. I want/need to write a rough draft of my PhD thesis by August 7th. If I announce it here, I think I will be held accountable. You, my wonderful geek brethren, can help me by words of encouragement and possibly advice. However, it won't be all, boring posts about globular clusters (GCs), galaxy profiles, and data reduction; I will also post, EACH WEEK, a fun fact or controversial robot question to satisfy your nerd needs.

Robot Question:

What makes a robot? Is Data from Next Generation a robot or an android? Is an android just a subset of robot? Does a robot need to be in a humanoid form (2 legs, 2 arms, head..etc) so are those machines on a assembly line not robots?

Week 1 - Get Distances & Find Total Number of GCs:

I need to collect distances to 11 galaxies in the Shapley Super Cluster and use those distances to get a Globular Cluster Luminosity Function (GCLF) and to find the total number of Globular Clusters (GCs) surrounding each. I need to figure out 'Specific Frequency'. This section is more for me....holding me accountable. Don't worry if you don't understand anything...I am having trouble too. However, if you totally know what I am saying, send me a comment and help me out.

ROBOTS IN SPACE!!!!

So if you are a dork like me, you may has been paying attention to the "Obama's new Space Program" news. Well, it does relate to a couple of my favorite things, robots and space (which is what my research is about). There are a lot of people that are mad that President Obama would favor Robots in space over going to the moon, again, with people. What most people don't understand is that traveling in space is dangerous. Not only does bad stuff happen in the launch but there is radiation, bone and muscle loss. I mean, I know that sending humans in space is exciting but we just don't have the technology right now for a safe flight to Mars. Click on the link to read about the radiation dangers.
http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/2122/how-safe-is-travel-to-mars

Also most people don't even know that we have something called "The International Space Station (ISS)" where astronauts from all over the world do experiments (switch out people every few months). They are helping medical science and doing work to better understand how humans will react to a long space mission...maybe to Mars. However, it takes time to figure out ways to correct the affects of long term space travel. The one cool thing is that we are sending up Robots..ROBOTS..to the Space Station to help with the experiments. Check out how human it looks. He looks buff (picture and link included)
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30604

My point it: I would love to send humans in space (and by the way we are sending them to Live In Space on the ISS), but I do not want a premature Mars mission where everyone gets cancer and has a hard time getting back and I also do not want to go back to the Moon, just for the hell of it. If we were building an amusement park there like Futurama, then that would be another story.

What do you think? Do you think Obama made the right decision?

Emerald Con, Sakura Con..Pros & KAHN!!!!!

So I just got back from standing in line at Sakura Con for 4 HOURS!!!! (If you don't get the Kahn joke, please go look up Star Trek II). That's right, I spent more time in line, to get the tickets, then in the actual Con. I took my cousin and we spent the time, in line, taking pictures with people and dealing with the theft of her old Gameboy DS.

My sister, who helped me with the title, urged me to tell the story. We figured around hour 3, standing in the line, that my cousin's DS was gone. After yelling "HAS ANYONE SEEN A WHITE BeDAzzLed DS?" for a good 15 minutes straight, she had lost hope. Plus, she was embarrassed that I shouted her DS was Bedazzled. I was determined NOT to start the day like this. Finally, a guy 6 people behind us started shifting his eyes to the left mouthing, "That guy. He took it." I mouthed "Which guy?" "The guy with the stroller, " he answered. I confronted a large (as in fat), very stereotypical-looking nerd and flat out asked "Do you have the white DS?" He acted very surprised and said "Ooooh yeah, here it is," and gave it back. My cousin thanked him and I did too, briefly. Who steals a Gameboy from a 13 year old in a 4 hour line at an Anime convention...while taking care of a kid? Crazy! Anyway, the line took so damn long because they were printing out name tags for everyone and taking an address, email & phone numbers per person. Very crappy registration! The good part is that we got to we watch some anime in a big room and saw lots of great Cosplay (Truly, there weren't very many bad ones and we actually felt out of place because we weren't dressed up). The only Robot I saw was a little toy robot called Tofu Robot (picture included). That surprised me. This place was supposed to be celebrating everything that is Japanese and there were no robots...Booooooo.

So the Emerald was a few weeks ago and my sister told me that she would buy me a 2 day pass if I dressed up. So I did. I dressed up as Harley Quinn (Joker's Girlfriend). I couldn't go more then 3 steps without someone wanting a picture. One picture is included with me and a Ghostbuster. At that point I totally could understand why people dress up and do the convention circuit. I actually saw the same Batman & Superman at both Cons. Oh and the line to get tickets at this Con......10 minutes. It was smaller in crowd but it had a lot more booths. There were a large amount of local artists which was uplifting. I really wanted to see Will Wheaton. I don't know why. We actually saw him up close but this does remind me of a huge flaw in my Robot list from the last post. Anyone who loved Star Trek: The Next Generation, like I did, will notice that Data wasn't mentioned on the list. I am so sorry. However, when a robot gains weight over the years, it does ruin the fantasy.

Bottom Line: Cosplay is fun when done properly.

Top Ten Robots

I am in Victoria, BC right now, trying to finish my thesis so I can finally be a Dr.....Like all the super villains before me. You know, the professor kind, not the medical/useful ones. So while I am here I thought, why not write another post for my loyal one follower.

So my sister suggested that I post my Top Ten Robots. I really need to think it over....but instead I will just wing it while I should be doing research. (Note: I do not watch Battle Star Galactica so I have not included them).

10. Hal from 2001. He was scary but really just a red light. I didn't care for him much but he is so recognizable I had to include him.

9. Anyone in an Issac Asimov book. They all turn out to be Robots.

8. Optimus Prime!

7. That Honda Robot in the commercials. The one that dances and was designed to help the disabled or elderly. (Speaking of Japanese Robots...I am going to Sakura Con this weekend. Need to write a Con Post to cover both Cons.........KAHN!)

6. Roberto the Robot from Futurama that is very troubled and stabs everything. I love him because I feel sorry for him. (Really any robot on Futurama is kick ass...like the one that blows up every time he is surprised...priceless).

5. Any Terminator. I like the melty ones.

4. WALL-E

3. The robot I had as a kid that played cassette tapes.....I loved him.

2. Bender! Futurama's robot is the most identifiable Robot. He is damn hilarious.

1. Daneel from the Asimov Bailey Series. If you haven't read this series, go out to the library and get it now. I would suggest you stop at book two unless you really, really heart Robots.

I am sure I forgot some but you are free to correct me in the comments.

Lisa's Wedding

I don't know if you remember this episode but Lisa's Wedding is a Simpson's episode that tells the story of Lisa's first love, while at graduate school, in the year.....wait for it.....2010. Like any good high school physics teacher, I let part of my class watch the start of this episode today. Come on, it was an in-class work day. Anyway, I was floored on how I watched this episode when it came out, in high school, only to watch it 15 years later..almost to the day in high school again. Wait....March, I guess I was in 8th grade. The point is, I am old. By now you are asking, "But how does this pertain to robots or even nerdiness?"

If you have thought this question, you need to train your geekiness by watching some old Simpsons. First off, this episode starts with the Simpsons at a Renaissance Faire which is awesome and nerdy all in itself. Also, that most of Springfield is also there, is so funny; Chief Wiggum saying "......it's an Esquilax" referring to a Horse born with a head of a rabbit and the body of...a rabbit. I was made fun of non-stop about going to a Ren Faire and apparently it is just a normal thing to do in Springfield. My people.

Secondly, Robots...By now there should be Robot Librarians and Robot British Servents. Also, the video phone referenced in the show is basically Skype. So all-in-all I think we are pretty close to the Simpson's forcast, hologram trees, 40 Jim Carrey Movies, the British saving our ass in WWIII, surviving cryogentics........(It is so hard to type sarcasm).

The Future is NOW!

If you are a Nerd, raise your...wait I got to finish this level.

Soooooo, I started this blog so I could comment on my friends blog. However, I thought it would be fun to comment on everything nerdy that I enjoy. Right now, I am playing Harvest Moon "Another Wonderful Life", a game that is about 5 years old on a retired game system. I am playing with my cousin who is much younger than me (I am a adult, she is not) while writing a worthless blog. This makes me happy. Especially not actually playing the game but running through cheat after cheat and giggling over who to pick as your spouse.

I think we don't grow out of these nerd urges, we just hide them more as we get older and only let them surface when we are around trusted/like company. I think there are secret dorks/nerds/geeks everywhere. That guy in the office who is good looking and popular hides the embarrassing truth that he plays D&D once a month. Or maybe that well adjusted twenty something secretary spends a month out of the year handcrafting her Cosplay outfit for the next convention. All I know is that people seem surprised when they find out my silly obsessions with a popular canceled scifi show or my love of robots but maybe they aren't. Maybe they want to scream out that they love them too. Come to think of it...sometimes they do (or maybe they are secretly a robot).

This blog is dedicated to Nerds everywhere....I know I saw you at Emerald Con 2010. I was Harley.