Geekery - Daft Concepts' awesome dice and dice accessories Kickstarter

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Ten reasons why I'm constantly watching Science Channel space documentary series

1. Context - No matter how dire or important or amazing or terrible things here on earth seem, it's good to be constantly reminded that we're just a Pale Blue Dot (like above), and we're one world in a solar system of eight (currently official) planets and who knows how many planetoids, one solar system out of hundreds of millions or more, one galaxy out of billions. We need the broader view to see that things that we're destroying ourselves over aren't really all that important and maybe we should all just cool our tits for a minute.
2. Beauty - Everything out there is gorgeous. Like, the prettiest thing you have ever seen, and more beautiful than anything you could have thought of. Science is constantly bringing us more things that are beautiful in new and alien ways, and it's just wonderful to have a universe so full of unabated beauty.
3. Knowledge - I firmly believe that no knowledge is forbidden and no knowledge is bad to have--all knowledge is enriching*. And because of that, I think that it's sort of a duty of a sentient, reasoning being to try to understand how everything works. On top of that, I'm a fact-collector. As a writer, you never know when you'll need to know something, and there's so much to know about space!
4. Transcendent Experience - I'm not the least bit religious, but I am spiritual, and if you can't look at the stars and feel a little transcendent, I don't understand your thought processes. The more I know, the more it inspires Wonder of the big-W sort, the kind that people get from religions and dream-quests and stuff. I never understood the idea that science and religion are opposite things: science shows us how complex and strange and wonderful and beautiful the universe is, and why would anyone deny an all-powerful being of the skill to make something like this? Why would they assume they just automatically know how to build a universe from scratch better than what we can see and prove and grasp?
5. Hope - We're constantly bombarded with how bad things are here on Earth. Whether this is a total truth or just a sort of zeitgeist idea of the truth doesn't really matter, but if we can find other worlds to live on, we can answer a lot of the problems we're faced with right now--overpopulation causing too much environmental damage and too much competition for resources? Move a chunk of population to another world. Go willingly, even. Giant asteroids coming too close and threatening all known life in the universe because we're basically it as far as we know? Move people out and around and spread out that life so that one cosmic event can't wipe it out. Progress leading us to the conclusion that one world is too small? Go out there and see what else there is!
6. Ideas - I'm a specfic writer. There are piles of ideas just laying around in the sheer facts, not even getting into the speculation!
7. Diversity - No matter how different one human is from another human, we're all basically the same if we look at other planets and starsystems and think about how life would be there. Also, if we think about living there ourselves, how different would that experience be from anything we could get here on the homeworld?
8. The Future - Space is the next logical step. Or the second-next, if we decide to, like, colonize the oceans or terraform Earth first. We're a species with a genetically-enforced restlessness, a need to see what's over the next rise, to go there, to get used to it, to move on. There's little to no chance that we won't go into space eventually; I don't see why we can't own that and make the choice to do it before there's some desperate need to.
9. Adventure - Anything and everything having to do with space is adventurous. 
10. Weirdness - A planet made of diamond? Starlight letting us literally look back in time? A cloud of alcohol that formed on its own in the middle of the galaxy? The universe is packed with weirdness, and it's really just the flip side of Wonder.

And so I watch these videos and shows as often as I can. The ones by Brian Cox are especially wonderful, not just bare facts, but an appreciation that the universe is amazing and we need to pay more attention to this amazingness right before us.

Are there any shows you watch over and over again? Why? What do they move in you?


*It's the application of knowledge that can be good or evil. Just knowing something only expands your horizons.

Words to Live By - 20 Places to Educate Yourself Online for Free

20 Places to Educate Yourself Online for Free:


The link is fabulous, and something everyone should have on their radar, whether they're in school or not. Probably more if they're not, since not having the structure of school makes it harder to actually learn stuff.

'via Blog this'

Right now I am...

Waiting on the bottles so I can make the next round of nail polish and maybe make some income to help me Do Life Things.

Restarting a novel I was 12k words into, when I thought I was more like 3k.

Trying to decide what color I'll paint my nails today, because they've been naked for, like, two weeks since I peeled off my graduation color at the end-of-Rez party.

Feeling kind of crappy today because the weather is shifting again, storms coming from the other direction this time, and the air pressure getting all crackly in my ears.

Wishing I could afford a new bangle--it's been over a year since I could afford one!

Trying to figure out what new things I can put dirt into so I can grow some fall veggies in my porch garden.

Marvelling at how well that milk-crate compost thing works. It's been going for a little over a month, I just switched the top and middle crates, and it's already pretty gone to dirt on the bottom of the crate! And I didn't even chicken-wire it or cover it or anything.

Excited about the Tor.com Five Years of Stories ebook they're letting people download. Five years' worth of every story published on Tor.com. Brilliant! Some of my favorite shorts have come from there.

Avoiding cleaning my room.

Wishing I was napping with the cat.

Debating making some tea even though it's stupid-hot.

Wishing for fall, but knowing it'll be another month and a half, at least, before the heat breaks.

Looking forward to BLTs for dinner.

How about you?

Top Ten Tuesday - Things that are wildly unfair

1. The bites of baby bugs are just as itchy as the bites of adult bugs
2. Benedict Cumberbatch is never making out with me
3. November has so many new episodes of shows I love and is still so far away
4. Cats are allowed to sleep wherever and whenever they want and I'm not
5. Whoever designed the kitchen in my apartment was probably an orangutan
6. Thinking doesn't make me thinner, even when it's exhausting
7. I wait for summer for months, only to miss cool weather
8. It's past 4am and I'm still awake
9. There isn't an unlimited supply of chocolate in the house
10. Benedict Cumberbatch still isn't making out with me

Thyroid Diet - Update 1

Overall, I feel pretty good.

Last time I weighed myself (which I didn't post here, for whatever reason), I was down almost a pound and a half despite the point in my cycle I'm currently in. Since I didn't lose any weight and even, some weeks, gained weight no matter what I did for over a month before this, I'm inclined to think of it as proof of how it's working. It's still early days--I've only been on this diet for less than a month--but it's something, and it's encourageing, and it makes me want to see if it'll keep getting better.

As for the other things I'm seeing if I can fix without medication...
- My mood is generally more stable. I had a big disappointment early in the week and it ruined my day but didn't linger for the rest of the week like previous disappointments have. I'm still figuring out motivation, but I feel better enough to plan stuff now; before, I was having trouble even getting that far.
- I'm still sleeping way out of sorts, but I got some chamomile tea and that helps me get sleepy when I should be and stay asleep better once I'm in bed.
- My hormones are still all over the place, but random floating pains caused by it are down to almost nothing--and that right there is amazing enough to make all this thinking about what I'm eating worth it! Beforehand, I was hurting all over in alarming ways, and now almost all of that is gone! I also have clearer skin and the afore-mentioned evener and more positive emotions.
- And my overall energy levels are up.

Here's what I've been doing:
- Taking vitamins and a few herbal suppliments
- Switching white carbs for brown ones, and generally trying to avoid sugary and fatty foods, especially when both are together
- Getting the thyroid-friendly foods into rotation: seaweed, lean proteins, whole grains, fresh veggies and fruits, coconut oil, omega-3s
- Avoiding the whole cabbage family unless it's cooked real well, trying to avoid corn and soy (almost impossible, but I can minimize), trimming gluten
- Taking ACV daily as a general tonic, ands drinking more green and oolong tea instead of just black tea.

And even though it could be placebo-effect, I feel a lot better.

So, all in all, not bad for only a few weeks and a little shifting of diet without a whole lot of exclusions!

How about you guys? Anyone on a diet, or trying to fix something with food instead of medicine? How're you doing?

Top Ten Tuesday - Ways To Save Money

1. Get used to having tousseled hair and spend less on styling products or give them up all together.
2. Adjust your personal clothing style to be more timeless than faddish, then find a thrift shop near a good part of town and buy things there.
3. Eat what's on sale and what's in season, and mealplan based on weekly sales at your local grocery store.
4. Give up meat once or twice a week-- you'd be surprised how much meat costs!
5. Find free cultural and community events to attend instead of paid ones.
6. Make your own lotions and things when you can.
7. Use coupons for everything.
8. Get rid of the disposable-life mentality; things aren't useless just because a newer model comes out, and you want something new--that's brainwashing at work, not reality. Save jars and bottles and boxes, and reuse them. Patch up clothes. Share things that aren't totally necessary to own yourself.
9. Actually save money--when the receipt says you saved three dollars, put three dollars in a jar and don't use it.
10. Cut back or remove money-eating habits like smoking, Starbucks, daily sodas, needless cab rides, paying for services you don't use.

How do you save money?

This Week's Lesson From Life: Don't just trust things will turn out all right; make sure they do

I had plans to visit a friend, and I didn't do my usual round of checking on all the details and educating myself in how it works. And then I waitied too long to book transport and look at all this stuff, and now I can't go.

Lesson learned. Next time, I'll plan more carefully, make sure I know all the details, and book well in advance.

What lesson did you learn this week?

Music Monday - Waffle Stompers all play Gotye on one Uke

Top Ten Tuesday - Cutest Things Dogs Do

1. Shaking water off their fur so hard they kick their feet off the ground.
2. Putting their chin on your knee and looking up at you.
3. Wagging their tail so hard their butt bends back and forth.
4. Wiggling their butt before they launch into motion.
5. That doggy-smile when they're having fun.
6. Herding babies to keep them safe.
7. Being afraid of silly things like cats that live in the same house, or jello.
8. That head-tilt when they're trying really hard to understand you.
9. Giving hints that they want to go outside, like dropping their leash and ball on your feet and putting it back there when you move it.
10. Dreaming with the little whimpers and foot-kicks.