I had a Dream (by sarah)

Actually I've been having lots of very vivid dreams which doesn't bode well for sugar levels but I haven't got the results of the Glucose Tests back yet - by this time with Jean's pregnancy I had gestational diabetes. But then I often have vivid dreams - many of them are what is termed lucid and I have some sort of control on them. Part of this is the fact that when pain levels are high I don't actually go to sleep properly so I am in a sort of resting trance. They have benifits but it makes it harder for you body to repair itself from injuries - this isn't mumbo jumbo this was out of the Drs mouth at the pain clinic when they attempted to medicate my sleep when we lived back in Essex.

Anyway I thought I really needed to share lasts nights dream. It starts with me trying to get to a PhD interview at Reading University - the PhD is about modeling other solar systems and exo planets etc... I have no idea if Reading does this sort of thing but it was Reading in the dream - the only issue was Alaric was running late so instead of having a nice sedate drive to the interview we had to high jack a state of the art plane from the local army base type place.

As we took off I noticed the tail wasn't actually attached to the plane but the whole thing was segments held together a bit like a kite - the tail itself looked remarkably like a cray fishes or something lobstery only in shiny metal.

We get to the university and I am late - I haven't read the notes on what the things is actually about but they agree to see me anyway as there is only one other candidate - a UG astrophysics girl. I then proceed to think on the spot and tell them that they need to reassess everything. I tell them that what they need in a lovely large database with a nice archive mode - this is sort of a giant wiki with the ability to pull meta structures from the data such as phase diagrams. You see I don't just want to make a database of the planets and the physics but why not add all of mineralogy and astronomy?

Why not had layers where people can choose the data to run their simulations and the like? In the dream I'm in a pale yellow room with aging equipment and they are like - we don't have the money to pay the programmers and our stuff never quiet works.

Of course it doesn't I crow - your not programmers and you just use which ever language you happen to have picked up. Then I tell them not to worry - I'll make the database - I'll make the initial system and we can have people adding their own stuff!

It would be massive and everyone would argue about things added which is were the archive system would come in - they could just take an previous theory ect... With this we could easily extrapolate the composition of planets around other stars. It could have the ability to swap between notations so no more issues over what a Chemist calls a metal compared to a Geologist compared to a Astrophysist etc...

I have to say at this point there was decent in the interviewers - there is of course a problem of who the data belongs too and would we have to pay and keep it secret - that would hamstring the project - it would kill alot of their grants dead etc... alter the peer review system. Subjects that I have touched on before whilst awake!

But then I point out that it would have commercial applications and launched into a whole thing about the gaming industry being a growth sector and how you could build games engines on this thing! (again this is something we are sort of doing anyway in the real world but not with real physics).

I point out that scifi authors and the like would love to get their mitts on such a database too - for it would make world building a lot simpler and you could make smaller custom ones.

They were still like but we need someone to make all this and we just wanted a data monkey to enter numbers into spreed sheets. I laugh and say I can build it for them (I can't but I'm planning on using an advance version of Alaric's Ugarit.).

Anyway it ended with me negotiating to mainly work from home and stuff.

Part of me is now going - this needs to become real! We need to have this database - an extention on an idea I had a few years ago! And Alaric was like that is exactly the sort of thing the archive mode of Ugarit would be good for. The arogance of me in the dream was a suprise though. Besides last time I had a PhD interview I told the person their project was recording the wrong things - which didn't go down too well :/ And this dream is just that rite large - plus there is no way I am going to be doing anything academic for a while either - but it was a cool dream non the less!

Jean’s Dino Extravaganza! (by sarah)

Saturday saw Jean's fifth birthday and it was dinosaur themed!

I haven't got all the photo's yet but here are a couple to be getting on with 🙂

Mum made Jean a triceratops outfit from Sew a Dinosaur a book I picked up in a charity shop 🙂 It is a fantastic outfit and came out better than in the book (she made some adjustments!).

We had dinosaur biscuits 🙂 Jean made!

And a Dinosaur and Volcano cake!

Jean announced that I am the Bestest Baker in the whole world when she saw the cake 🙂

We also had volcano cupcakes!

Food wise there were also over 90 dino cupcakes with either flintstones or jelly dinosaurs on them! And dinosaur shapes sandwiches and little dino chocs me and Jean spent three days making!

Me and Jean also made Hama dinosaurs as decorations 🙂

Jean also decorated lots of cardboard dinos as decorations 🙂 These also appeared in the Dino make and do along with stickers and cloth party bags for the kids to decorate!

We had a pre-historic safari where we found a mother load of dino goodies 🙂 (even if the kids didn't believe that Alaric was a real trail leader especially once Rob turned up in his National Geographic gear!). There were a few party games and the Land Before Time I, II and III for the kids to watch in the evening 🙂

I was a little bit behind with putting the food out and forgot I had made Jelly and ice-creams for the kids but think it went well 🙂 Jean liked it anyway 🙂

Dino-Art (by sarah)

I'm 'live-blogging' the process of produce my next piece of Palaeo-Art on Salaric Craft.

Palaeo-Art (by sarah)

Recently I found this intresting guy on twitter called the Flying Trilobite who is an artist inspired by science - I really liked his drawings so followed him.

Anyway he then tweeted about submissions for palaeo-environment pictures and lo! I found Art Evolved and their time capsules full of palaeo-art!

Anyway it turned out the next time capsule was palaeo-environments and they wanted pictures along that theme. Unfortunatly it was very close to the deadline and I wasn't sure how to entire or if I could - even though on a later inspection of the site I saw all the instructions in plan sight!

Anyway I basically only manage to get a quick biro sketch done which wasn't composed properly or anything!

My topic was an Upper Ordovician benthonic community - yep you got it - basically it was another of my seascapes 🙂

Anyway its here if you want to see it 🙂 I'm in the middle bit of the time capsule.

Of course being me the first thing I did was sit down and read a few chapters of various palaeo books I just happen to have lurking about 🙂

Anyway I am really excited about this as I've been searching for art and science cross overs 🙂 The next time capsule is on the Therizinosaurs which I think are like beaked dinosaurs I think! I need to do a bit of reading up on these - at the moment the only book I have that mentions them is my Vertebrate Palaeontology book :/

Sorting things out (by sarah)

I'm currently sorting things out for a fun weekend of family wedding and meeting up with people - there have been a few hicups already ie getting the wronge weekend for the wedding in Al's diary and concequently issues with his dad's visit!

A friends just had a baby so I'm bring some things down for her as well and have made the wedding presant and card.

I have also been sorting out paper work and my craft supplies and through talking to the local arts and craft people have been instilled with the idea of selling the cards I've been making.

Generally I've had people saying I really should be displaying my art work and things but I just don't know how to do this and have no money to join anything or hire galleries etc...

As Alaric said in hind sight giving up the art classes and writing group to go back to my course right at the point lots of things fell to pieces for me (Alex dying, mum's last lot of cancer and the realisation that we had miss understood/miscalculated money issues plus the situation with being stuffed by my main client) was a bad trade off.

I'm not even sure if I blogged back in the autum that one of my pictures was on display locally thanks to the art teacher.

This is leading me to thinking though - I love science and geology and feel it is part of me but it is easier with pain flare ups and tummy stuff to be at home writing, making websites and doing arty things - but what will make me happy?

I have never react well to having to choose between the two Art and Science. They are not even distinct in my mind but then I have a slightly odd take on things and veiw it all as creative.

I want to try and finish at least the first year of my course but it means more money we don't have but on the other hand if I don't we loose that money already invested in it.

And then the art world is so uncertain - publishing is going through the mill at the moment - big changes the industry are failing to cope with and so traditional avenues are closed but I have noticed new ones opening up - but I am beginner at this game and have no idea how to muscel my way in.

I interact with an extended communitee of writers on twitter but mainly we discuess our kids and the like. I also have science friends on there and a healthy dose of computer people and a few arty crafties but this is only making my dissusions harder.

I am all of these things but modern society doesn't really allow for Jack of all trades especially one who has intermitent health. And so by not choosing I risk achieving nothing.

But I don't think I can choose - my life feels unbalance when I do not have a mix of things.

And at the same time I feel that the house and Jean are priority - I get sick even for a few days and the house descends into chaos and I can not really allow this and so I feel an instinct to nest build until it is all easy to maintain with out me looking over everyones shoulders all the time.

I started this post thinking I was going somewhere and that I had sorted part of my life out but realised as I was writing it that it is all still open questions and discuissions to be made.

The Dr pointed out that I was one person and one person only - I am trying to take this into account with what I plan to do next.