Zubeneschamali

If you follow me here or on Twitter, you know how much of a Cubs fan I am. I've talked before about how important the Cubs were to my childhood, or at least their failures. >.< But that's something you have to understand about why them winning the World Series (THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!) is such a big deal. It's not just that they hadn't won a championship since 1908, the longest any U.S. sports team has gone without by a good forty years. It's not just that my grandfather went his entire life without seeing them win, and my dad has gone 75 years without seeing them win (like the tons of other people being spontaneously honored on the bricks outside Wrigley Field), and that watching and listening to the Cubs with them was such an important part of my childhood. It's not just that there are sweet stories like David Ross, the oldest player ever to be in the World Series, hitting a home run last night, or the rookie Carl Edwards, Jr., starting to pitch in the crucial bottom of the tenth inning, or that the emininetly shippable Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo (known as Bryzzo because they're best buds and bat one after the other) collaborated for the last out.

It's that after decades, even a century, of Cub fans going for years without even a shot at the playoffs and then having their hearts broken by ALMOST getting there but not quite, we've learned to protect ourselves. Like late-series SPN fans, we don't get our hopes up that we're going to get what we want. We have low expectations and are happy when we beat them. We see things start to go downhill, just start to decline, and we loudly proclaim, "Told you so! That's why we can't have nice things!" and give up hope. If we actually fall behind, we just want it to be over quickly so we don't have to watch.

And yet.

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Hey......so....it's been a while. Thought I'd try and get myself going again with the following questions snagged from fireheart13 and alexisjane:

1. Do you like blue cheese? NO. Gross.

2. Have you ever smoked? No.

3. Do you own a gun? No.

4. What is your favourite flavour? Butterscotch and/or caramel.

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I was in fifth grade. It was the end of the school day, and the principal made the announcement over the intercom while I was sitting in Miss Beezley's classroom. The Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded, and all of the astronauts were lost.

I remember riding the bus home thinking it had to be a mistake, or an awful joke of some kind. Things like that didn't happen. There was a teacher on board, for goodness' sake, not just astronauts. Why would the principal say something like that when it couldn't possibly be true?

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I gave my final exam today, and despite it being held at 8 AM when class normally meets at 10, I think everyone showed up. Eventually. Now I get to grade 6 short answer questions 107 times ha ha ha FML and its dedication to good pedagogical assessment.

Nevertheless, I'm in a good mood because Mr. Z is coming home tomorrow. :D

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Hi! Thanks so much to everyone who has offered to visit their local quilt shop (or send a friend to do so) and get a Row by Row pattern for me. I really appreciate it, and a little something is forthcoming to show that appreciation. :)

I looked through the Facebook pages associated with the hundreds of stores participating in this event, and I found a few that I really must have. Some of them for tentacle reasons, some because they're just gorgeous, some because I want them on the wall of my office. I'm sure I won't actually get them all, but if anyone lives in or near these places or will be passing through before September 8, would you be willing to pick up a free pattern for me?

( List below the cut... )

Bonus: If I get one of the tentacle patterns (marked with ~~), I'll make it as a donation for the Wincon auction. (If not in time for this year, then next year.)

Well, the good news is, I correctly self-diagnosed why my foot's been hurting when I run. Thanks, Internet!

( Posterior tibial tendinitis )

I said I was going to finish this, even if it takes to the end of January. Grr.

( Five golden riiiiiiiings..... )

Happy weekend-after-Christmas! Hope Santa was good to you and that everyone liked the gifts you got them.

Seven foods that I dislike. Well, last week I disliked pretty much all foods, because I had a sudden, excruiciating toothache that drove me to the dentist, where they took one look at the x-ray and said, yep, that's a decaying nerve under that tooth, come back on Monday for a root canal. So the weekend before Christmas was spent eating the softest foods I could find, taking as many ibuprofen as I was allowed, and waiting in eager anticipation (seriously) for the root canal. Now that it's over and my jaw has stopped aching from being propped open for the procedure, life is much better. I'm so grateful that it happened after the semester was over (though I did have to grade one class's term papers with a raging toothache, but they almost all got As for their final grades anyway, so wev) and before Christmas so that I could enjoy the day with Mr. Z and the 'rents.

( Seven swans a-swimming... )

Embarrassing confession: I literally can't remember the last time I read a fiction book (that I hadn't read before). I was a voracious reader as a kid, but now with fanfiction and the Internet and whatnot, sitting down to read a piece of fiction when I know nothing about the author or the characters has seemed surprisingly intimidating and time-consuming.

BUT. I saw a rec on tumblr from xcziel that intrigued me, and so I gave it a shot. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie won last year's Nebula Award as her first novel (!!) She also won the Golden Tentacle Award for best debut novel; I did not know such an award existed, and now I WANT IT. *ahem* Anyway, I put it on my iPad next to my collection of Big Bangs and had at it.

It was interesting and well worth the read. I suspect I have read better fanfic, but it was certainly quite good. She did some really intriguing things with POV and language and show-don't-tell that got me thinking about how we write speculative fiction and introduce world-building and all of that. To my mind, her creativity came in those elements rather than in characterization or plot or themes, but that's not to knock her creativity. (You have to appreciate a book that uses "she" as the default pronoun.) I don't want to put any spoilers in the post, but I would love to discuss the book in comments if anyone has read it. And I would recommend it to you sci-fi geeks out there!

Bored. Bored, bored, bored. I have so much to do in terms of work and fic and running and quilting that I don't want to do any of it. As an aside, I've noticed that I can be disciplined about any two of those four things at once: I did great churning out the fic this spring, but now I'm burned out on it. I've been better about running more often and for longer, but I can't seem to get myself to work even though it's summer and my only deadlines are vague, far-off ones. Of course, that could be the problem; I work better under pressure, I guess.

Way back at the start of the year, I had this post-a-week idea set up, and then I stopped doing it. I still have a lot of suggestions to answer, so I'm going to start with xcziel's question:  maps! Top 5 things you love about them + 1 time you maybe were a little bit of a map!geek.

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There are still plenty of weeks left to fill, if you have questions you want to ask!

I find it really hard to believe that we've been here for a month already. Feels like we just got here! On the other hand, New Zealand seems forever ago, and Melbourne is starting to feel familiar. There's only seven weeks to go, one of which will be in Sydney, so it also feels like it's all going to be slipping away soon. :( I don't know if I can handle going back to a place without five cafes on every block, and worse yet, a place where they don't have flat whites. There's no brewed coffee here, just espresso (short black), espresso with water (long black), lattes, or something like a cappuccino but with micro-foamed milk (flat white). So coffee is always freshly made and always really flavorful. And it's everywhere. Sushi bars, Thai restaurants, fried chicken shops, pizza parlors, ice cream shops, etc. I decided early on to set myself the challenge of having coffee from a different place every day, and so far I haven't had to deviate more than a block off my usual walk to campus. :D

So I'm loving the coffee, and I'm loving living on the 16th floor overlooking the city and one of the many parks/gardens that fill the city (and are great for running in; thanks to pedestrian overpasses and riverside paths, the distance you can cover without having to cross more than one or two streets is incredible), and I'm loving that I'm missing one of the coldest and snowiest winters the Midwest has ever had (sorry not sorry). Here's the view from our bedroom, followed by two shots from the balcony:

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I haven't been keeping up with the post-a-week, but since I have nowhere near 52 weeks' worth of questions, I figure I can cut myself some slack. :) And also ask for more submissions!

The lovely deirdre_c asked me to share my most and least favorite things about running.

( When it goes well and when it goes poorly. )

Last Sunday, I was shivering in Minneapolis in negative (Fahrenheit) temps while it snowed and blowed enough at home to send dozens of cars into the highway ditches. Yesterday, I went for a run and ended up wearing just a t-shirt. Gotta love the Midwest.

Wed. is the day we take off for the second semester of sabbatical! First is the 31-hour plane trip, assuming all goes well. *fingers crossed* Then there are a little over two weeks in New Zealand, which should be awesomely fun and beautiful and leading to lots of excellent photos. And then from Feb. to mid-Apr., both Mr. Z and I will be visiting the University of Melbourne, doing research in our respective areas.

Which leads me to the question cassiopeia7 asked me: what's my field/discipline?

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If you have questions about me you'd like answered, there's still plenty of room on the calendar here.