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After years of construction and months of testing, the LHC is going to get fired up for real tomorrow!! That's the Large Hadron Collider outside of Geneva, Switzerland (and under France). I can't pretend to really know exactly what the thing does, but I get the gist. I love the sciencey stuff, not enough to do it myself, but I think it is fascinating to read about, once its been translated for the masses—me. I like to know how to make stuff. Including the universe, that's interesting, too.

Aaaaanyway, there's finally a super duper particle collider that will answer some questions I guess have been pestering physicists for a while. For me, that means a ginormous interesting machine, and tons of fascinating science articles in my future after they fire it up and analyze the terabytes of info they get out of it every second or so (eek!). (And no, its not going to implode the planet, in case you were worried. Well. As if I know, but that's what I've read from the people who should.)

Incidentally, we were going to make an even bigger one of these here in the US—in Texas, of course—but our government decided it was too expensive to fund that and the International Space Station simultaneously in the early 90's, after they had already done a fair amount of digging. I can actually remember being disappointed when I read about it's being canceled.

Wait, how much have we spent on Iraq so far...I forget.

I wouldn't have even mentioned this minor fetish of mine, but some of the multitalented geeks at CERN have made this wonderful educational rap about their project. Enjoy!!

YouTube directly



More information is available at the LHC homepage, and the Wiki about it.

One of the great things about being a graphic designer (though you'd never know it from this site), is that I get to learn about what other people do, how things are made, and all kinds of obscure stuff about different industries. I've also been employed by a couple of software companies that did very different things, where I had numerous dealings with the technical staff, some of whom were academic refugees of the 80s government research funding cuts in the sciences. Interesting people. Turns out, I like to learn about all kinds of stuff that I was positively allergic to during my school years. I'm a dilettante, and proud of it.

I'm off to see if I can find another video on the human genome project. Or epigenomes!

Here we are in the field corn and soybean sea, whiling away the hours. Its actually delightful. I took some pictures and tried to make a little movie of lightening bugs last night. The kids were practicing the age old catch and release method of firefly tag. When I was little we were more bloodthirsty—if you pull off their abdomens and stick them to your forehead, you can have a tiara. Kinda grosses me out now.

Thing 2 and I are participating in violin lessons locally with Cricket's daughter, Sweetie Pie. Her violin instructor is wildly different from ours, and I like it. I wish I could alternate between the two. Sort of hip young instruction balanced with grandmotherly guidance instruction. That would be great. The airfare would really suck though.

Because it is summer, there is the endless in and out of the various portals to the house, with myriad short people whinging about the lack of entertainment outlets. Puleeze. Soon, we will be locking the door and forcing them to drink out of the hose, just like our mom did. Yeah, its good to be Queen.

My parents are visiting. They've come from Phoenix, where they winter like geese.

I don't think I could talk them into flying here from IL, their real home where they spend the balance of the year. In fact, I'm surprised I talked them into flying this time. Usually they drive the 7 hours. Fate, for some reason made the flight last almost as long, since they had a few hours delay on the ground in Phoenix. I think my Dad was pleased to be able to crow "we'd of been here half an hour ago if I drove!". Possibly.

But then I would have missed the pleasure of driving to Burbank to retrieve them, its nice to wait for someone else at the terminal for once. And I got some sock knitting in while the boys plane-spotted through the Beluga sunroof while we waited on top of the short term parking deck. It was a lovely day in LA today, not too hot, not too cold, the sun was a pleasure instead of something to hide from, there was a breeze. We're taking delivery of a bespoke sectional couch next week, so I'll be spending the weekend cleaning and getting the area ready. The couch is earlyish, so I am pleased. This is also the weekend I intend to nail down the whole photo importing thing on the blog. Baby steps.

...something unpleasant and relatively toothless, but necessary. By the very slimmest of margins I have escaped serving on a trial. A truly wonderful thing for me. Not so good for Mr. Not Guilty of 13 counts of kidnapping, assault, extortion and impersonating a police officer. It would have been an interesting defense, I'm sure. I'm just as happy to not know the gory details. (Mr. Text Messaging, who attended a party at which the prosecutor was present, was excused first thing this morning. Louse. The cardiac specialist was still stranded when I left. The universe is strange.) Thank you to the LA Metro Bus line for a delightful and stress-free commute. As if being released from jury duty was not a glorious enough experience for one day, the Socks that Rock 2007 club box was on the step when I got home. In the middle of the day. Alone. So I could indulge in the wonderful woolenness and craftsy pleasure of its contents totally uninterrupted for over an hour. With a beer. Life, is good. At some point in the not too distant future I will post a photo of the most incredibly cute key fob ever (once I figure out how, and negotiate with my SysGuy for write priveledges on the precious linux box). It is destined to be the only thing I will have ever hung from my rear view mirror. I will be true to the opal sock until completion; I already have too many ufo's circling the airport that is my nimble fingers. I will, however, lovingly hand roll a luscious ball of monsoon this evening. Kinky, no? I got to pick up my kids after school in the normal fashion, and in celebration we went out for ice cream. They were flabbergasted at my extravagance. Usually, after school snack nagging is only good for an apple and/or a cheese stick from the self-serve drawer in the fridge (formerly known as "the rotter"). What can I say, sometimes I'm a rebel. This momming thing is really hard. I'd much prefer to spend every afternoon curled around giant bowls of ice cream, watching cartoons till their Dad gets home from work. They'll have to wait to get in that habit when they get their own apartments, just like I did. Hopefully, by then I can remember how.