Monday evening I and a friend attended Dr. Stephen Hawking’s public lecture in Pasadena, Why We Should Go Into Space. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen one of Dr. Hawking’s lectures, nor the only time I’ve seen him in person; his frequent visits to Caltech and my past inability to escape that campus’ gravity well and/or event horizon meant that like many other former Caltech undergrads I’ve seen him around campus, and also, when his assistant came to the computer department to get email set up for him, I was the person to activate the account for at least one of his visits.
It’s humbling to see the lengths he must go to in order to communicate, regardless of the import or impact of his ideas.
Of course he’s a scientific genius, and he has a lovely, gently dry sense of humor that tends to sneak up on the unwary.
It’s also very neat to know that the new Pasadena Convention Center was packed to capacity for a scientific lecture. That says something fundamental about the community.
It also says something fundamental about science and public science communication that, both in his presentation and in the other presenters remarks bracketing his talk, there were many, many references to Star Trek. “To boldly go where no one has gone before” has become so embedded in the psyche of everyone who works and dreams of humanity’s future in space. Gene Roddenberry’s hopeful vision of our future, the idealism that embodies, the wonder of exploration, and the depiction that just about everyone can make some kind of a useful contribution to that effort… these concepts capture the imagination of science geeks and science fans and everyday people in ways that are difficult to describe, and difficult to quantify, but it provides a shared philosophical vocabulary shorthand that we all collectively speak.
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I found myself in a strange situation a couple weeks ago, of needing to define the term “sysadmin” for a new friend who is not computer-inclined. I’ve surrounded myself too much over the past few years with people who exclusively live, eat and breathe IT buzzword and acronym bingo, a situation I intend to bring to a close as quickly as is convenient.
Here’s how I explained what I do for a living to an interested, intelligent, non-computer-inclined person:
You were curious about my work…
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Yes, I’m finally relocating from shakal.org to adeleshakal.com. Pull up a comfortable chair, have a cup of tea and be welcome.
Tea makes everything better. In fact, here’s a link to my favorite tea shop: Infusions of Tea
I’m still moving some of my older content from both my shakal.org site and my LiveJournal, but since almost all of the content from shakal.org is now in place, I’m directing visitors here rather than the older site. I’m up to October 2002 in moving content from my LiveJournal, please pardon the construction dust…
If you’ve linked to or bookmarked any of my pages on shakal.org, please update your links and bookmarks, and accept my apologies for the inconvenience. After more than a decade, this website move was really necessary… but if it’s any consolation to those updating links, it’ll probably be at least a decade before I move again.
Thank you for reading here!
While I was doing all of this website spring cleaning, I’ve also heeded the grumbling some of you have sent my way that I didn’t have any photos of myself publicly viewable on Flickr. Fine, fine… I still have a bunch of more recent and some older photos I need to upload there, but here are at least a few so y’all can stop grumbling at me.
flickr.com/photos/naturedance/tags/adele
Current music: Oysterband - Milford Haven
(I used to have this on an About Adele page on my old website, and in this new site, a shortened About page is more appropriate and modern. I’ve decided a blog post is a more appropriate place for this, anyway. Sometimes, it helps to write out my beliefs, my priorities, my activism, my soapbox… and other times, I just need to get out in the fresh air and hike alone with the rocks and trees and open wind. And other times, I just need to go for coffee with a friend. Today is one of the soapbox days, I guess. The original version of this content was in part inspired by NPR’s This I Believe.)
I live passionately, and I focus intently on activities at home and at work. I am a perfectionist endlessly fascinated by life, the universe and everything. This also means that I am endlessly striving for one of those “work-life balance” things I’ve heard so much about.
I believe in imagination. I believe in hope. I believe that the journey to explore ourselves and our world is infinitely engaging.
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I have to spend time in the open air with green growing things. Wild spaces tend my soul.
I love tending plants, and I love visiting gardens, parks and farmers markets.
I’m a member of The Nature Conservancy, The Sequoia Natural History Association, and Descanso Gardens.
I also enjoy visiting the Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles County Arboretum and the Huntington Gardens.
my garden
I’m currently living in an apartment with only the opportunity for indoor houseplants (Christmas cacti, at the moment, though I’d like to have a spider plant as soon as I figure out the best way to hang the pot from my ceiling) and a small container garden on the balcony.
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Southern California Sites
- Geology Underfoot in Southern California by Robert P. Sharp and Allen F. Glazner
- Wild Southern California - great site, lots of info and links
- Plants Blooming Now Outside The San Gabriel Mountains - from Introduction to Field Guide to the San Gabriel Mountains and Hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains Websites
Death Valley Sites
- Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley by Robert P. Sharp and Allen F. Glazner
- Death Valley National Park official site
- Death Valley National Park: Resources & Nearby Attractions (DesertUSA)
- The Dancing Rocks of Death Valley
- Smithsonian Magazine’s 1999 article
- The Mystery of the Rocks on the Racetrack at Death Valley by Lena Fletcher and Anne Nester
- Fletcher, Lena and Nester, Anne, The Mystery of the Rocks on the Racetrack at Death Valley, Smith College geology paper, 1997.
- Messina, P., Stoffer, P., and Clarke, K. C. “Mapping Death Valley’s Wandering Rocks.” GPS World April, 1997: p. 34-44
- Reid, J.B., Jr., Bucklin, E.P., Copenagle, L., Kidder, J., Pack, S. M., Polissar, P.J., and Williams, M. L., 1995, Sliding rocks at the Racetrack, Death Valley:What makes them move?: Geology, v. 23, p. 819-822
- Sharp, R.P., and Carey, D.L., 1976, Sliding Stones, Racetrack Playa, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 87, p. 1704-1717
- Sharp, R.P., Carey, D. L., Reid, J.B., Jr., Polissar, P.J., and Williams, M.L., 1996, Sliding rocks at the Racetrack, Death Valley: What makes them move?; Discussion and Reply: Geology, v. 25, p. 766-767
- Stanley, G. M., 1955, Origin of playa stone tracks, Racetrack Playa, Inyo County, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 66, p. 1329-1350.
Mojave Sites
- Calico Early Man Archaeological Site - California Online Highways
- Barstow California - California Online Highways
- Barstow Region - Digital Desert
Angeles National Forest Sites
- Hikes in the San Gabriel Mountains and the Angeles National Forest
- Index of San Gabriel Mountains Reports by Jane Strong - Observations about the Natural History–Weather, Rocks, Plants and Animals–of the San Gabriel Mountains with Links
- Echo Mountain Echoes websites from the Echo Mountain Echoes newsletter site
I learned to crochet precisely two stitches while in college, the chain and the double crochet. A few years later, I picked up a few more (it’s all your fault, Janis, and I will get even! *grin*). I do mostly yarn crochet, but have tried thread crochet just a tiny bit.
As always, more works are in progress… and I don’t seem capable of creating small projects for myself.
Afghans are portable hugs. Many of these afghans use a star-stitch pattern I learned from Leisure Arts A Year Of Q-Hook Afghans Book 2, the June pattern.
Now, if I can just untangle my fingers from all this yarn strewn about, I can tell you about my crochet projects… or you can go see them in my Crochet set on Flickr.
yarn barnage
This is a list of all of my completed projects, plus a few which are currently in progress.
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Dad and I had an adventure in May 2006…
- Travel to Burbank (LAX Airport to LA Union Station "FlyAway Bus" Service, Layover in Union Station, Connecting with Adele, and then Union Station to Downtown Burbank commuter rail service via Metrolink)
- Camping and Hiking Plans
- Getting back to LAX after the hike
- Trip Photos on Flickr
Mom tried to teach me to knit three times, once as a young child, once as a young adult, and again within the past few years after my friend Janis tried to teach me once. The lessons never seemed to make sense or stick in my mind. I have a handful of books about knitting; I have friends and relatives who knit; I tat and crochet and sew, and my roommate spins and colors yarn and crochets with yarn and thread and tats and quilts and knits the most absolutely amazing things… so we pretty much constantly have textile goodies and books everywhere around… but I just didn’t get knitting.
Until one day in spring 2005.
Suddenly, out of the blue, It All Made Sense.
I picked up a mess I’d started years before, and just started making motions with the needles and thread that felt right. At first the stitches were twisted, but within a few moments, after Janis showed me what “the stitches are twisted” meant, I had an “Oh! Aha!” moment and I’d gotten it. I set aside the mess, picked up a circular needle and some yarn waiting to become part of one of my crochet projects, and after a quick check in one of the books to make sure what felt right (which I think I remembered from watching Mom) was actually one real way of casting on, I was off and running. It took Janis and I a bit of flipping through our books to figure out that there’s a name for the method that came naturally to me; it’s not the way most folks poke the needle or wrap the thread, apparently. But suddenly, she can show me a stitch once and I understand it, try it a time or two, show it back to her to make sure I’ve got it, and then I can just run with it.
So I’m knitting.
I can’t seem to put the needles and yarn down, actually.
I’m knitting!!
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Places you must see if you are in the Indianapolis area…
- White River Gardens in every season of the year
- The Childrens Museum including the theaters
- Indianapolis Muesum of Art and its gardens
- Indiana Repertory Theatre
- Indianapolis Civic Theatre
- Phoenix Theatre for edgier plays
- Clowes Memorial Hall for all sorts of performances
- Connor Prairie Living History Museum and its upscale dinner restaurant
- Old Metamora (go for a ride on the barge and the train)
- Clifty Falls State Park
- Turkey Run State Park
- Brown County State Park (watch out for lots of deer and chubby and clever raccoons
- McCormick’s Creek State Park
- Mounds
State Park - Shades State Park
- Spring Mill State Park (watch the blacksmith and buy some fresh stone-ground corn at the waterwheel-powered mill)
- The Eiteljorg Museum
- Monument Circle lit for the winter holidays (the lighting ceremony is always the day after Thanksgiving)
- The Indiana State Museum including lunch at the L.S. Ayres Tearoom by reservation, and the IMAX theater