Alien Spouse

Deadly Mermaid Cover.

I was really tempted to buy this book, purely because of the fabulously camp cover art.  A questionable red head, wearing an acid-yellow off-the-shoulder dress AND holding a freaking spear gun?  That is just the epitome of pulp fiction, isn't it?

In the end I settled for just snapping a couple of shots, because after I'd read the back cover blurb I knew I wouldn't actually read the book itself, and I didn't want to deprive someone who might appreciate that pleasure.

Academia Zombie Chic.

One of the best parts about working at a University is the dress code of "smart office wear" is very ambiguous. I'm not able to get away with Threadless T-shirts, but apart from that it's fairly easy to have some fun with my wardrobe.

For example, I felt the combination of a neckerchief with a cardigan was looking a bit twee, so I pinned my faux-silk scarf with a badge that said "I Love Brains" with a little cartoon brain in the middle (Nut and Bee, of course!).  It was mainly because the colours worked well with the pattern on the scarf, but also because I like zombies.

My manager spotted the badge the moment I walked in the door, and said "You should give that to me!", because she's a neuro-scientist.  Well, this brain is mine; but I may have to order more Nut and Bee goodies, so I'll probably get one for her then.

Alan Turing Gets His Apology.

I was at work this afternoon when Stephen Fry mentioned on his Twitter feed that there was breaking news about the petition for Alan Turing's official apology.

SO naturally I skipped over to http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20571 and there was a statement from Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying the treatment of Turing had been appalling, and he actually said sorry.

Go Gordon!  That was nicely done sir.

You can read the whole statement after the break.

Turing.

Alan Turing.

He's synonymous with Bletchley Park and the breaking of the Enigma code that ultimately secured the Allies' victory in WWII.  To give you an every day example of the effect his work still has in the modern world, when you leave comments on a blog you might be asked to complete a CAPTCHA, that is when the site displays a distorted word and asks you to re-type it.  This is based on the Turing Test for artificial intelligence.

Turing was also gay, and in 1952 he was convicted for that.  As though this wasn't humiliating enough, he was chemically castrated and also had his security clearance removed, meaning he could no longer work on cryptoanalysis for British Intelligence.  A man who had been instrumental in code breaking in the fight against fascism was suddenly deemed an unacceptable security risk because of his sexual orientation.  Don't Ask, Don't Tell indeed.

Two years later Turing died of cyanide poisoning, and it was likely suicide.

If you want to learn more about him you can read the Wikipedia page about him, or watch the BBC production of "Breaking the Code" which Derek Jacobi is amazing in by the way, or there are websites dedicated to him.

Mainly though I think you should sign the Turing Petition, which asks that the British Government issue an apology for the prosecution that many people believe lead to his death.

I think Alan Turing should really have that apology, even if it is 55 years too late.

We Are A Two Pod House.

Doc C has been assimilated. Over the weekend his defences weakened, then today the Borg Nanoprobe arrived and identified it's target.
By which I mean The Doc has finally bought an iPod Touch.  Squeee!

I've been telling him pretty much since I became assimilated myself six months ago, how fantastic it is so I am very excited.  First of all because I think Doc will really like it and find it useful, but also because the 3.0 software update allows iPod Touches to communicate, so you can play games together.  I have no idea why I am so thrilled by that development, but I really cannot wait to try it out.

Doc decided he wasn't bothered about getting his iPod engraved, so he chose to get a refurbished model because that was a bit cheaper.  He gets very Catholic (Quick clarification: Doc is Agnostic, but was brought up in a good Portuguese/Irish family which provides a healthy dollop of Catholic guilt) about buying stuff for himself, and I have to convince him that he has worked more than hard enough to earn himself the odd treat.

When we got home Doc immediately unpacked his refurbished friend and attached it to the desk top to get it acclimatised to it's new home.  I helped him with the initial set-up, and then left him to it.  It was very quite in the study for about an hour, and then he called to me.  I couldn't hear what he was saying, so I went running into the study.
Doc had a massive grin on his face and he said "I'm addicted!  This is addictive!"

He'd already downloaded a few applications, but he was really most excited by being able to download hours and hours of philosophy lectures.  Oh goody.  I really cannot wait until our next long trip in the car now that my husband has HOURS of philosophy lectures he can play to keep us entertained.

I really did not think this one through.

The Key to Acrylic Laser Cutting.

I'm still looking into getting my tattoo key turned into acrylic charms for a bracelet.

As I mentioned that I had found a seller on Etsy who offered custom laser cutting, and I sent them a black and white photo to get an estimate.  They wrote me back very promptly and asked if I could send the image as an .ai file instead of a .jpg.  I explained that I wouldn't be able to convert the file to .ai, because I didn't have Adobe Illustrator, to which the Etsy seller replied asking what program I had used to draw the photo.

Well, I was a bit stumped by that question frankly, and it wasn't until today that I noticed that the Etsy sellers are in Bangkok.  Now I understand that something has clearly got lost in translation here, and considering it was a really basic preliminary query, I'm just not sure I have the energy to get into the more intricate aspects of the commission with a language barrier.  Plus it seems really odd to outsource such a small job.

Instead I googled "custom laser cutting, acrylic" and soon found a company in the States who offers exactly that.  They have a nice clear website, and I'm very reassured by the examples of previous projects they have posted.  The cherry on top is that they are in Vegas!  I'm going to e-mail them this week and see if they can give me a quote.  Very exciting.

The Sleep Pattern of The Justice League. Probably.

Yesterday I found an interesting set of articles about sleep, in particular how to sleep well and get up early each morning.  I'm actually not bad at that, having commuted for years I am fully aware that I need to be asleep before 11 if I want to feel human at 5.30 the next morning, but it's nice to have some back up information on that sort of thing.

The blogger then went on to try experimenting with polyphasic sleep, which involves napping for twenty to thirty minutes six times a day.  It sounds fascinating!  I wouldn't want to try it because the adaptation period of the first week or so appears to be hellish, but after that it sounds like you free up bucket loads of time.  Could be useful when my carefully constructed alter-ego is finally a solid enough cover for me to take on my crime fighting persona.  I may have said too much...

Really though, I'm thinking Batman, Spiderman and Buffy etc., all must have developed polyphasic sleep patterns, because otherwise how could they patrol all night and also hold down a day job?  That has always bothered me, and now I have an actual real world explanation I feel a lot better about things.  I like my sci-fi fantasy to have some sort of connection to the reality, even if it's a tenuous one.

The Science of Cleaning.

The cleaning frenzy is finished! Just in time to go to work tomorrow! Yay!

My most successful cleaning experiment this weekend was getting the annoying orangey water marks off the bath, these are because we are on well water and there is a lot of iron in it.  They are really quite faint, but I know they are there and they will not come off with conventional methods.  So I tried making a paste of baking soda and vinegar, and then used a spatula to ice (American translation: Frost) the whole bath with it.  That was left on over night and then this morning I sprayed more vinegar on to it to get the baking soda to fizz up again whilst I scrubbed.  That worked in a most satisfactory manner.

The most ridiculous outcome of all this experimentation with household science projects involved some borax as a pre-wash soak for an otherwise unremarkable pale wash.  After the machine had run it's cycle, I took out the clothes and was momentarily confused by finding a pair of unfamiliar white trousers in there.  Then I realised that it was my pink check pyjamas, just minus the pink.  The top was exactly the same, as was one green t-shirt that I am pretty sure is just a shade or two more yellow.  I feel quite daft, because I had no idea that the borax would bleach out colour like that!  The weird part is that it was only the pyjamas and t-shirt that the borax had that effect on, apart from that everything else is fine.***Wait I retract this! It wasn't borax, it was a whitening booster for getting grubbiness out of white clothes, so this was totally stupid of me on several levels***

All in all, it's been quite a productive and educational weekend.

Oh, I almost forgot! Edith has been behaving herself beautifully over the past couple of days, but when I had cleaned both litter trays, and re-filled them with lovely fresh litter, I put them in the hall so I could clean the bathroom.  I scrubbed everything down, and told Doc C he could mop the floor whenever he wanted to.  Before he wanted to, Edith waltzed in and peed on the floor.  Doc was annoyed, but I think that's pretty good actually.  At the very least it suggests that she is now fixated on peeing in the bathroom again, that is progress of a sort.  I suppose.

Cleaning Report.

The first task for today was for Doc and I to thrash out a deal over which areas I would clean and which bits he would do.  Essentially if it's on a flat horizontal plane Doc C will be handling it; so he's mopping floors, cleaning the kitchen work surfaces and vacuuming.  I'm doing sinks, toilets, litter trays, baths and showers.

We did have to shop for fresh supplies mid-way through, and I had carefully researched cheap but non-toxic alternatives to nasty harsh chemical cleaners so we went nowhere near the cleaning aisle.

We bought:

• Baking Soda (2 large boxes)
• A large bottle of hydrogen peroxide (3%)
• A large bottle of white vinegar
• A large bottle of lemon juice
• a medium sized bottle of really cheap vodka

We already had borax, so we're well on our way to a thoroughly clean house but with no worries about any of the fumes or residue hurting us or the kitty cats, who are apt to eat anything bad for them through sheer cheekiness.

Sulphur Blackened.

Doc's wedding ring has been through some more changes.

The story so far is this:

1. Doc used a ring he already had when we got married, because he liked it.
2. The ring turned out not to be silver and turned his finger green.
3. We bought him a $10 replacement ring.
4. The cats lost it.
5. I found him a vintage cigar band silver ring on Etsy, with a lovely patina to it.
6. It was too big.
7. When we took it to be resized, the jeweler kindly polished it.
8. This made it too shiny.

What to do next?  Obviously I turned to the internet, it is the modern "Enquire Within Upon Everything", and I discovered that you could blacken silver by putting it in a ziploc bag with a hard boiled egg.

I had to try that one out!  I mean how could you possibly read that and not want to see what happens, but I kept forgetting about it; until last night. I was already in bed (watching "Death Note" on Hulu.  Ohmigod, I love Hulu!), so I shouted down to Doc.  He promptly hard boiled an egg, cut it into quarters and put it into a snack sized ziploc with his ring.  This morning I got up to feed the cats, and I retrieved our little experiment from the fridge to find:

 

Wow!  I would definitely call that a successful result.

It's the sulphur in the egg that reacts to the silver and blackens it, which is the scientific explanation for what is otherwise clearly MAGIC!

I rinsed off the eggy smell before presenting it to Doc, and he was very pleased with the effect.  I particularly like the one little blob that didn't turn, I think because it was actually touching the egg.

Doc is wearing it as it is already, but I'd like to polish the inside of the ring back to silver, and maybe lightly rub the outside with some wire wool to get a brushed effect.  Whatever makes my Sweetie happy really!

Mmmm... Spicy Jewellery...

The director of my department is also a neuroscientist, and when she goes to conferences she sometimes brings us back cool presents.

Like this fantastic brain brooch which she gave me!  It goes with everything!

Not Logical.

This morning I got up a bit later than normal, and fed the cats.  Then I went back to bed for a bit, and I got up again about an hour later than I usually do, and I got ready for work pretty much as usual but we actually left the house slightly earlier than normal.

Somehow I must have slightly bent the space time continuum.  It's the only explanation.

How Bettie Page Saved Christmas NaBloPoMo.

Bettie Page saved me from skipping a day of NaBloPoMo posting because I was so sad to read that she had died that I posted first thing in the morning, which is unusual for me.  I meant to post after work as well, but we were going for drinks at a friends house, and I was so tired (is it just me or has this been a really long week?) that before we left I opted to take a nap.  Doc said he'd wake me in 10 minutes, but acually I got in 25 minutes of Zzzz Zzzz Zzzz before he came to get me.  It was a lovely nap.  

In case you have ever wondered about my position on napping I can tell you that I am in favour of them, and I particularly like to curl up fully clothed on top of of the bed covers with an extra pillow and a light cotton throw for maximum napping efficiency.

I read a very interesting article about napping here.  I have since taken the advice to heart and will nap on the sofa in Doc's office at lunch time occaisionally.  It's not ideal, because it's a two person sofa, and I really am more of a three-to-four person length woman so there is some small difficulty in getting optimum comfort.

Anyway, so after my nap I just had time to get changed, put on some lip stain (Benetint: Making me look less washed out since 2006) and rush out of the door.  It was a great to be out on a Friday night and we were introduced to some really nice people, who I believe I will be facebook friending later today.  It was so much fun, but by the time we got home it was almost one.  So if I hadn't posted that morning, this experiment in blogging keepie uppie would have ended in failure.

And that is how Bettie Page saved Christmas NaBloPoMo.

Glowing Cat Pee. It's a Thing.

Doc C picked up a parcel for me from our PO box today, inside was a small UV light from my step-dad Stu.  I can confirm that cat pee does indeed fluoresce, as does cat poop, and cat puke.  It's fascinating!

I checked the entire house, and I can also confirm that they have been very good cats.

Exterminate! Exterminate! Extermi... Cat Pee? Yuck!

We went shopping today, for a weird little mix of things that had become necessities:

• Wellies (1 x pair)?  Tick.
• Black Converse (1 x pair)?  Tick.
• Two torches (one battery powered and one rechargeable)? Tick.
• AC Charger for the iPod?  Tick.
• Enzyme cleaning spray to deal with little kitty surprises? Tick.
• Small cat litter tray to facilitate toilet training?  Tick.
• Vegetable stock cubes?  Tick.
• Hippy butter (That's what Doc calls the butter spread with no trans fatty acids in it.  And he won't eat it.)? Tick.
• Drawing pins?  Tick.
• Portable UV Light?  Cross.

I could not find a UV light in our local hardware supermarket, or Radio Shack (purveyors of fine electronic geekitude); where else would you get one from?  I didn't think it would be this hard to find one.

You may wonder why I even need a UV light, which is a fair enough question.  Well you know how in all of the "CSI" series they are forever spraying luminol around to check for blood at a crime scene and it makes it glow?  Well, apparently UV light does the same for cat pee.  I am pretty certain the girls haven't been peeing anywhere that I don't know about, because they are usually very good, but after Nancy's little protest last week I would like to be 100% positive of that.

I quite honestly think the best thing to do now would be to order a Sonic Screwdriver on-line, that way I could combat both cat pee and Daleks, and I am all for multi-tasking. 
Unfortunately I can't buy a real Sonic Screwdriver, however much I want to believe in their existence, but you can buy a pretty cool toy one that comes with a pad of psychic paper.  One end is an invisible ink pen, and the other end is a UV light that makes the ink glow.  Which, cat pee aside, sounds pretty damn cool doesn't it?

Friday! Friday! Friday!

I cannot believe it is Friday already, this week has flown by.  Bob started driving back to Boston today, because he'll be taking a couple of days to get there; unlike our fourteen hour marathon last time we went.

This weekend I shall be getting some more wool to finish off the scarf I am crocheting for Doc C and to start off the one I've decided to make for myself.  I shall also be positioning stickers, and using them to paint polka dots on the fabric for my bag flap.  The piece of cordura arrived this morning and  extremely thoughtful people at Courierware have even chalked in guidelines for me, so that I don't polka dot anywhere that's going to be hidden.

Apart from that I am intending to sleep a lot, but I don't know if that's going to happen because I drank half a litre of coffee at this morning's breakfast meeting.  That was at 8am, and I am still feeling wired.  I drink tea every day, or I might have a latte once or twice a week, but half a litre of strong filter coffee is clearly not a good idea for me, and yet I manage to forget that and do it again every five years or so.

Note to self:  This is your brain on too much caffeine, Eeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dilated Pupil.

Alien Spouse Sees All!

Unless it's far away, or really close up.  Anything in the mid-range though.

A New and Potentially Exciting Cleaning Product.

Yesterday when we were food shopping I waited until Doc C was distracted with selecting some salmon and then I snuck off on a secret mission of my own. 

I was determined to investigate the cleaning products aisle more fully. 

The Doc hates spending more than thirty seconds in the cleaning products aisle, because he finds it boring.  Well, don't we all?  But sometimes it is necessary to investigate what cleaning inovations are out there.  In particular I wanted a better shower/bath cleaner, because the fumes from the one I had been using were making me cough every time I scrubbed the bath and I also was not 100% happy with the cleaning results.

I didn't have a lot of time before Doc C noticed I was missing in action (my cover story was I had gone to get some dishwasher powder), but fortunately I honed in immediately on Method's Daily Shower Spray.  Essentially the idea is that you spray the cleaner on all surfaces of the shower immediately after showering.  And that's it.  In theory you will then not need to scrub anything, and, even better, Method products are cruelty free, non-toxic and biodegradable. They use high percentages of naturally derived ingredients, and ensure that they are sourced from preferred sources whenever possible.  (I cut and pasted that last sentence directly from their website, it sounds really good doesn't it?)

So I talked Doc into buying a bottle (It was $6, but it's cheaper online) and we started using it this morning.  Well I say we, Doc very candidly admitted that considering he's only just getting the hang of drawing the shower curtain closed after he showers, it seems unlikely he's going to remember to spritz the cleaner around.  That's fine, I can take on spritzing duties if it means I don't have to scrub things. 

Ooh, and it smells really nice, our bathroom is now fragranced with ylang ylang which I rather like

I'll keep you updated on this cleaning adventure, and if you want to play along at home you can buy Method stuff in the UK and the US.  No promises though, I have no idea if this stuff is going to do what it says on the tin yet.  Fingers crossed.

The Doc's Creation.

By the time Doc C came downstairs this morning I had an entire speech worked out.

"Doctor!  Thank God You are here!  the experiment has been successful! 

It's alive, I tell you!  ALIVE!"

This was delivered while pointing dramatically at the fridge.  When Doc eventually cottoned on and opened the fridge door, this is what he saw:

This is exactly why the Doc's use of Lock and Lock's is monitored so carefully. 

What on earth is that stuff that has grown a rudimentary head and appendages, so that it now looks sentient and apparently attempting to claw it's way out of the fridge?  That stuff is pizza dough.

Can You Trust YOUR Hairdryer?

I've been meaning to write about my hairdryer since I bought it back in October, but I kept forgetting to take a photo of it.  I think because my camera is digital (and therefore not water proof at all) and the hairdryer is mainly used in the bathroom when I've just had a shower, so the two never happened to be in the same vicinity at the same time.

Then I started reading the archives of Que Sera Sera, and found that Miss Sarah Brown had done the whole hairdryer in bathroom thing back in 2002.  So I thought maybe I'd skip it, then I thought well hang on a minute she doesn't have pictures, or an ion switch!

So here is my hairdryer.  Enjoy.

I particularly love the tag on the cord, because it's so hysterical, and because the cartoon hairdryer looks as though it's hovering menacingly over the water, ready to strike.

Hairdryers:  The Silent Killer.

Of course I appreciate what the little tag is trying to warn me against, but then in the UK we simply do not have electrical sockets in the bathroom.  Of course there are light bulbs and special tiny sockets for electric shavers, but proper full power electrical sockets?  No.  It's taken me a while to get used to drying my hair at the sink, and I do like it because it is convenient, but it still seems really odd.

Finally my hairdryer has an ion switch on the top.  I didn't go looking for that especially, but apparently all the best American hairdryers have them now. Sometimes I switch it on, but I can't say I've really noticed that much difference, but I do like to imagine it's the sort of thing Colonel Wilma Deering would use.

"Oh Buck! Don't touch my hair, I've only just ionised it!  That's how I get such tremendous volume when my hair is down despite having worn a helmet all day at work as an elite starship pilot."