Natsilani’s blog

Viewing my blog after a long while and erasing the bogus comments. I can’t believe some of the stuff the spammers left, see for yourself:

“Hi this is a very informative site”
“Keep going, thanks. I found exactly the information”
“Your website is appealing. Be encouraged to do the work of the Lord”
“It is healthy, I shall come on your site more often, thank”
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems”
“Thanks bro! Real good work!”
“Hi people! We just opened our cool site same like this: “

About 200 of those, closely followed by links to crap. They just seem too funny in the context of gnymphs… But I must agree, encouraging masturbation is truly doing the work of the Lord, and very healthy besides! There have been studies…

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So. It finally happened. I finally graduated. Seems kinda hard to believe, really. After all that, it’s finally done. Feels a little empty, and relieved at the same time. Not that I will have more time to play now. Gotta look for jobs, try to make a living, fun stuff. But I’m really going to miss taking classes, even though I won’t miss the stress. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep away for long. Take of a couple of years off, then go back to grad school. We’ll see how industry life treats me.

I’m probably the polar opposite of Ada, when it comes to graduation traditions. Personally, I found it rather fake and almost bohring. The speeches had a very “give us money now” kind of flavor, and everybody looked the same. Most girls had bleach blond hair and were in clutches of giddy, photographing, cell-phone talking friends. I knew one person there, and maybe two or three aquaintances. Most of my friends are grad students anyways, but it was a little unsettling. I felt very out of place. At the same time, it was a moment to be proud of everything I did, so I’m glad I went. I challenged the readers by putting my full name on the card, and they didn’t disappoint me. Even pronounced my middle name right! Some of the Asian students’ names sounded like Klingon to me, and apparently they were read well too… I was impressed.

Still doesn’t seem too real to me… I guess it will hit me when I finally hold the certificate in my hands. Whenever they feel like sending that.

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hmm, it seems I’ve trained my eye too well, taking Entomology and Ecology (it involved lots of botany) this semester. Every time I see a dead insect, I’m trying to think what family or order it might be. And every time I see a tree (around here or even on tv) I try to identify it by the bark or by the way it holds itself. Creepy. I did the same thing after my Ornithology class, and my obsession has carried through until today - three years and running! I’ve even had to go out and buy $300 binoculars. “Had” being the operative word :P.

Eek - I’m going to be the crazy old bug lady with 20 cats, who has an overgrown garden and two raptors in the shed that will be terrorizing the local yippy dog population. hey, actually, that might not be so bad…

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I just watched King of the Hill, the episode where Peggy gets to substitute for the sex ed teacher (who quit because she got death threats). I’ve never been down further south than Urbana/Champaign in Illinois (and San Diego doesn’t count, because it’s in CA), and perhaps that’s a good thing. I would be stoned to death, at the very least. My evidence: “shame? What’s that???”… In fact, even here in wisconsin, I startle people with my talk of penis during a group study. Sure, it may not be exactly “appropriate” by normal standarts, but it’s funny seeing all the homophobic boys run for cover.

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Eep! It’s December! That means finals, projects and graduating… *stress* I have some catching up to do too.. Soon it will all be over. That is if I manage not to fail.. eek.

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So now that my first set is up, I can finally write about it! It was done, as you can see, in an ice-cold creek off the side of a road (let me tell you, making my way through all those weeds in my clothes was very complicated). We actually had to redo it from the first version, because at first the resolution of the pictures was too low. At that first location, the water was a lot more murky, and fish kept nipping at my butt. But then we found this spot, and it looked absolutely perfect. I guess pictures just can’t convery that, they need to be in 3D.

The water was cold. After about 30 minutes in it, I lost feeling in my limbs and developed mild hyperthermia symptoms. Even my photographer got cold, and he was only in knee deep. But it was a lot of fun nonetheless. The special effects are all real, the fog was done with about 20lbs of dry ice, and the fire shot turned out to be at exactly the right moment. A few times I actually stepped into the dry ice at the bottom - ouch. Yes, yes, it does float, but not when it is weighed down by rocks :). I’m hoping to perhaps do part 2 of this shoot in the spring, in the same place, perhaps when it is not so cold out. I like how this idea turned out, and I think it may be worth expanding.

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Hmm, my instrumentation professor seems to be the embodiment of the uncertainty principle - ask him a very specific question, and he will ask you what you think, and then give you a vague notion of something you already knew. But ask him a vague question, about the homework in general, for example, and he will explain to you in detail how to do it. I guess it’s no wonder he teaches instrumentation..

He’s actually a physicist, and blundered into the chemistry department on accident. It shows.

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*giggle* I had lab in the same classroom today that my next shoot happened at. I couldn’t stop grinning to myself when I had to use some of the same equipment we’ve photographed only two days ago. I’m such a naughty chemist…

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The amount of keys on my keychain has just doubled for my new shoot. This is going to be really interesting - I got access to some chemistry equipment that is over 60 years old! I’m not quite sure yet what some of the pieces do, and I’m really looking forward to tinkering with this stuff. Our physical chemistry department is thinking of donating these things to a museum, so this may be their last chance to have a moment in the spotlight, so to speak. I’m going to spend most of tomorrow preparing for the shoot, but I’m really exited to play with the gadgets. It’s really neat to see what chemistry was like before computers and digital instruments… Most of these don’t even require electricity, and if they do have some electrical components, they’re gigantic, by modern standarts! Hmm, I wonder if this might do something for my lab grade..

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