It's All Just a Bunch of Rhubarb

Snow day!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:45:00 +0000

After several other parts of the state got snow this winter, it was finally our turn for some. It was fun while it lasted! And I'll take it over those nasty ice storms any day.

Here's a short video of the snow from last Tuesday. This was shot from the roof of my building during one of the heavier snowfalls.

I've also uploaded a few photos to Flickr too.

Happy New Year!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:39:00 +0000

I'm not formally making any resolutions this year, but I'm definitely planning to do more blogging!

Splat!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:21:00 +0000

The second and third watermelons chucked off the roof of my building today:

How things have changed

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:18:00 +0000

I was looking for a photo the other day and came across this one of my desk in my office at UT from around 1996:

And here is the same desk now:

There is actually a large CPU under the desk, which is what the monitor is attached to (it's not connected to my laptop). A BIG change from that old Mac II Plus!

So long summer!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:05:00 +0000

... and don't let the door hit you on the way out! We didn't hit the record for most 100F+ days (fell one short), but the average temp was the highest on record for Austin - 89.1. The scary thing is that is an average of the high and low!

Although it will definitely still be warm from time to time for the remainder of the year, the worst is finally over. Right on cue for the first day of fall, we had a nice cold front come through central Texas and drop the afternoon (yes AFTERNOON) temperature in to the mid-60s. I've always loved fall, in part because the summers in Texas can be so brutal and the relief from that first cool-down is almost indescribable. Unfortunately we don't get a huge amount of fall color here because of the dominant types of trees - one of these days I'm going to treat myself to a "leaf peeper" trip to New England in the fall - but it is still a nice season in Texas.

Maybe now I'll get that little extra spark of energy that usually comes with the cooler temperatures and get some more blogging done! I've got some material saved for a new "occasional series" now that the entertaining spam subject headings have dried up. :)

I knew this weather was driving me crazy

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:55:00 +0000

I had a conversation with a few people a couple of weeks ago and I hypothesized that the endless heat and lack of clouds was causing a form of the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) that usually is associated with cold northern climates in winter. Well... this article came through Twitter from the Austin American Statesman today:

Meltdown! If you think the heat is making you crazy, you're probably right
By Helen Anders
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

...

A University of Arizona study found that the hotter it is, the more likely you are to honk your car horn at somebody (and, one must assume, the more likely that person is to return a salute of his or her own.)

And a University of Michigan study concluded that the hotter it is, the more Major League Baseball batters get hit by pitches.

We don't need a study to tell us that heat prompts us to make excuses for practically everything. "It's too hot," we say, to work out, cook, walk the dog, join a friend for lunch, shop ... you name it.

What we're suffering from here is cabin fever on the scale of a North Dakotan winter. We hunker down in the air conditioning. We emerge only to get into our cars, turn on the air conditioning, go to our air-conditioned jobs, return home and re-hunker.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness calls the syndrome seasonal affective disorder, whose acronym is the highly apt SAD. Most cases happen in winter, but the alliance says 10 percent happen in the summer. People get depressed, can't sleep, don't want to eat and get all agitated.

Full article

A room with a view

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:50:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I was at an all-day retreat for the Staff Council (I represent Astronomy and McDonald Observatory staff) at the football stadium. We got to use some of the luxury boxes as break-out rooms, so I snapped a photo.

Peekaboo

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:58:00 +0000

More fun with screen captures

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 01:00:00 +0000

As promised, here are the screen caps from another Simpsons take on Tudor history this season. The plot of this one was basically The Simpsons' take on "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" with Selma as Elizabeth I, Homer as Sir Walter Raleigh and Marge as Bess Throckmorton.

Fun with screen captures

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Mon, 25 May 2009 23:51:00 +0000

First, two shots from "Cosmos" showing how my main interests in life - Astronomy/Science and Tudor History - can sometimes combine in interesting ways.

In this episode, Sagan is in a hall in Cambridge and you can sometimes see the portraits on the wall behind him, including a giant one of Henry VIII (top) and one with Mary I (bottom). The episode would have been filmed sometime in the late 1970s, so I'm not sure if these portraits are in the same place now. The one of Mary I looks like the portrait done by Antonio Mor, which is now in the Prado in Spain, I believe. However, it is possible (or even probable) that this is a copy. The painting of Henry is one of many of that same style, so I'm not sure which particular one it may be.

There also appears to have been a Tudor thing going on at "The Simpsons" lately. They did a great send-up of Henry VIII a few years back, but in a recent episode, Homer decides to help Bart build a matchstick Westminster Abbey and has some weird dreams when he falls asleep trying to finish it. Because it was Westminster Abbey, Henry VII got a mention, even though Homer accidentally carves an effigy of Henry VI (and it really was Henry VI when they briefly showed it - I was impressed!), but I couldn't resist a screen shot of Homer on his tomb (I guess Elizabeth of York didn't make it into Homer's dream):

And Anne of Cleves (the only of Henry VIII's wives to be buried at the Abbey) and Chaucer float along to talk to Homer:

They could have gone with some better known Tudor-era figures - Mary I, Elizabeth I or Mary Queen of Scots, but instead we get mentions of Henry VII, an image of Henry VI and a talking Anne of Cleves. Interesting!

There was also some Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh stuff in another episode this season, so I'll have to grab some screen caps from that as well.

Pigs in Space!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:59:00 +0000

pigsinspace.jpg
Originally uploaded by Rhubarble

The original "spam in a can" - a drawing for a pig capsule from the "To The Moon" exhibit currently over at the LBJ Library

Here's my Flickr set from the exhibit (including a few photos from the rest of the library, which I hadn't been to in a long time!)

Also comes in white!!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:26:00 +0000

A nice snarky variation on the everyday "Wash Me!".

This might just be my new favorite LOLcat ...

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0000

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

New camera!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:06:00 +0000

A side-by-side comparison of my 2003 Canon point-and-shoot and my new 2009 Canon point-and-shoot (model SD780IS) that Dad bought me for my birthday (thank you again!). Finally I have a camera I can throw in my purse and not feel like I'm lugging around a lead weight!

We are Wizards

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:02:00 +0000

I've been hearing about We are Wizards (a documentary about Harry Potter fandom) for a while now and thanks to Hulu, I was finally able to watch it. And, if you're in the US, you can watch it too!

I had two 'double-take' moments while watching it. The first was pretty early in the film when I realized that the footage from a live PotterCast they used was the one I attended! The second was while watching the segments with Brad Neely and I recognized that he was driving around my hometown of Austin, Texas. It's still a bit weird for me to see places or people I know on TV or in movies... which happens a lot more often than I would expect.

Darwin cake!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:33:00 +0000

Last Thursday was the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, so the Austin Skeptics Society celebrated accordingly. The cake was courtesy of Taysia and the Darwin finger puppet is mine (from the Darwin exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in NY in 2006).

News via computer in 1981

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:53:00 +0000

I think the most awesome part of the video is the line "the approximate 2 to 3 thousand home computer owners it the Bay Area".

Where I wish I was right now

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:53:00 +0000

It will be crowded and cold, but I still wish I was there.

Happy New Year!

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:44:00 +0000

2008 was an up and down year for me, so I'm ready to head into 2009! Lots of big anniversaries are coming up in 2009 - 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of a telescope and the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne. So that pretty much touches almost every aspect of my life - science education, astronomy and Tudor history. It's going to be a busy but fun year!

A Texas Christmas dinner

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:59:00 +0000

Apologies to the vegetarians...

We decided to do Christmas a little different this year... TEXAS STYLE (in my mind I'm hearing LBJ at the BBQ for the Mercury astronauts in the AstroDome in The Right Stuff). We were tired of turkey after the birdzilla from Thanksgiving and we do ham at New Year's, so we decided to do a big BBQ feast instead. I should have put something in the photo for scale, since you can't really get an idea of how large the platters were... that was a lot of food. A lot of yummy, yummy food. :)

(Thanks to Dad for the photo!)

Remembering Majel Barrett Roddenberry

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:33:00 +0000

The First Lady of Star Trek has died at the age of 76 from leukemia.

From "Number One" in the original Star Trek pilot through to the voice of the computer in the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie, she has been a part of the Star Trek universe in every incarnation. I'm happy that I, like many other Star Trek fans, had a chance to meet her at a convention. She will be missed.

Back in business

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:21:00 +0000

I finally got all of the posts restored over on my science and skepticism blog... so I guess that means I don't have any more excuses to not generate some new posts over there now!

Something's broken...

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0000

So, if you've tried to go to my science blog (which I don't think anyone does, but just in case) - you will now be greeted with a WordPress installation screen. I think something has gone wrong with the "behind the scenes" stuff since all the files are on my server like they are supposed to be. But anyway, I'm trying to figure out what is wrong and if there is anything I can do about it. Figures, I go to write a real post about something other than a "Picture of the Week" and it goes belly-up on me.

RenFest 2008

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:59:00 +0000

We made the annual journey east to the piney woods and the 16th century (or rather, facsimile of the 16th century). I didn't take a whole lot of photos this year and for some reason I mostly ended up with plants. It's not huge, but you can click on the horse above and go to the whole set on Flickr.

Ahhhh... an extra hour of sleep

rhubarble@gmail.com (Lara) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:14:00 +0000

I have a love/hate relationship with time changes. I love the extra hour of sleep this time of year, but I hate losing an hour in the spring. :)

Yeah, nothing profound in this update, but I have some sinus pressure tonight and I think I'm going to take an antihistamine and enjoy my extra hour of sleep!

It's All Just a Bunch of Rhubarb

Snow day!

Happy New Year!

Splat!

How things have changed

So long summer!

I *knew* this weather was driving me crazy

A room with a view

Peekaboo

More fun with screen captures

Fun with screen captures

Pigs in Space!

Also comes in white!!

This might just be my new favorite LOLcat ...

New camera!

We are Wizards

Darwin cake!

News via computer in 1981

Where I wish I was right now

Happy New Year!

A Texas Christmas dinner

Remembering Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Back in business

Something's broken...

RenFest 2008

Ahhhh... an extra hour of sleep

I knew this weather was driving me crazy