This was my first usericon and my first default. I had very few pictures on my computer at the time, and this was from one of my wedding pictures that I'd scanned in. It was taken of me and my husband at our reception/huge party in Belgium. Not the best quality image, but a good picture of me.

I've posted with my current usericon, which, in a lot of ways, is a similar kind of picture. Of me, all dressed up fancy, with a big grin. This one was taken of me at the party my parents threw for my son's second birthday. I was all dresssed up in a sari as well. Hmmm... I should really show the whole pics, I'll see if I have them.

Anyway, I like my default to be a nice picture of me. Not sure why, just 'cause I want people to know who I am when I post or comment, I suppose. I'll use other icons when I'm inspired by specific topics, etc. But I think it's because the internet can be so impersonal, I want to clearly indicate who I am. Maybe because I'm very conscious of who I am, I want others to know. I suppose I've never really tried to be all that anonymous online, and now that I think of it, when I'm online, no one can judge me for not being white. But I've never tried to not be me online. Weird.

Ah well, here are the whole pics:

This isn't as good a picture of me as the one I used for my userpic (can't find the original at the moment), but it's Tom and I on the same day:



Note Sean sleeping in the back on our coats at his own birthday party.  What can I say, it was time for his afternoon nap, and he had it!  He was awake for the beginning and the end though!  ;-D

My best friend for let's see, over 20 years now, dragged me onto LJ. I posted a bit, but since she was my only LJ friend, it was a bit weird. I then discovered a lot of people on the Lois McMaster Bujold email list (see www.dendarii.com) had LJs -- so I hunted them up and started posting a bit more myself. Though the amount waxes and wanes quite dramatically depending on real life situations! :-D

Hi everyone!

I got back from this big scientific conference I was presenting at on Sunday. Now that I'm back at work and not going on vacation or anywhere else until September -- I can relax. Means I have plenty of time to dig in and do lots of work, but don't have to drive myself crazy doing it.

I'm hoping for lots of work and play rather than all work and no play. Which means, you might see me here a bit more often for a change! Yay! :-)

Today's update:
I started up some cells today and met with the Masters in Research student that I'm supervising (unofficially). One of the things that has made me so busy the last few months that I haven't been able to be on LJ much is that I've been training 4 people to do the procedures that I do. It's amazing how much time it takes to train other people. Plus, I think I've been letting the M.Res. student dictate a bit too much when we discuss things. If she has a question, she wants to discuss it when she has time, right then. I tend to just go along, even if I really shouldn't, because I can't spare the time. Now I'm going to try to be more firm with her. It worked today. I set up a meeting with her at 3 pm, and when she came around at 1:30pm saying her work was done, could we talk then, I said, no, 3 pm. And got my work done the way and timing I'd planned it. It was a half hour meeting, so I could have met with her first, but I'd have been so behind in my work (the way I'd planned it), I'd have gotten even more discouraged and depressed than I already was at that point. This way, I got some work done, met with her, then finished my cell work. Then felt like I could relax a bit, because I was done. On other days, I've talked with her, gotten behind on my schedule, which somehow makes me get more behind than just the amount of time spent talking to her, because I'm behind on my planned schedule. Does that make sense? Not following my planned schedule (even if it's just in my head, and flexible) gets me antsy and depressed. Then I don't get things done until late in the day and I'm late meeting Tom and Sean and make them wait, which I really hate.

Anyway, think I've solved that problem and the others I've trained are more independent, so I should be good for the next few months. And now I need to go meet the aforementioned Tom and Sean!

See ya! :-)

And yes, I'm a much better husband than I am wife. This is not a surprise -- in my household I fill many more of the male gender categories than my husband and vice versa. Not that I don't love being a mother and I do think I'm a good one and I pull my weight with Sean -- but I'm horrible when it comes to things like housework -- cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. I'm very bad -- Tom does most/takes most responsibility for most of that. :-( But I'm much better than some husbands on that stuff!! ;-p

59 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

134 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Oh, and I'm totally behind on reading my friendslist. I'm thinking I might have to give up on trying to keep up. I'll be reading occasionally when I can, but keeping up with everyone all the time is just not happening these days!

So if you have something you want me to see or you mention my name in one of your posts, feel free to drop a comment here or on any of my posts even if it's not relevant to let me know! I'll always see comments!

I still love you all, honestly! I just don't have the time or energy required to keep up all the reading! :-D

In case you don't know, there exists a wonderful author named Lois McMaster Bujold (her web site: http://www.dendarii.com/author_info.html). There also exists an email list to discuss her work at: http://www.dendarii.com/mail_list.html.

I'm a fairly active participant over there (time dependent) and actually know a lot of people on LJ (and sometimes even have met a few in real life) from that list. Recently, I've started a new thing over there and thought I'd let people on LJ know, since some of them do participate on the list, but on and off like most of us.

The new development was started to encourage more on topic conversation on the list. I thought it might work to pose questions to the list that get answered and discussed on a regular basis. The questions are submitted to me by anyone and I organize and post them to the list twice a week.

So far this has worked well to promote on topic discussion on the list and has been really interesting. I've definitely noticed a lot of lurkers and new people getting involved again and people seem pretty pleased. So I thought I'd post something here and maybe on lmbujold to see if anyone who doesn't know about it might want to join in now.

If anyone's interested, I've compiled the archival URLs for the emails that I've sent out already and put them behind the cut. Feel free to send emails to the list replying to any of them, because they officially don't run out and can continue to be discussed as long as anyone wants to.


By the way, in case anyone doesn't know, Lois' new book in the Sharing Knife series: The Sharing Knife: Passage, is out soon. April 22nd, I believe in the US. :-D


( archival URLs of emails )

'Cause I like polls. Well, actually, mareklamo liked my posts about South Indian clothing and wondered what I'd do next. She's going to maybe do something similar, sharing her common knowledge about the Philippines, which I think would be cool.

I had a difficult time thinking what sort of thing I might do next. I thought food, perhaps, since most Indian restaurants in the US and UK don't serve South Indian food. I could look up pictures and recipes and talk about traditional ways of eating, etc. Since they're a bit different.

But I thought I'd put it to a vote. And see if anyone had any other suggestions.


Poll #1149444
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Now that I've looked at South Indian clothing, what should I cover next?

Saw this link in patgund's LJ:

http://tw-babiez.livejournal.com/

I don't think I know Torchwood well enough to quite enjoy it as others might. ;-p

I was really tired yesterday (due to less than 6 hours sleep the night before, no doubt!), so I assumed I'd be able to fall asleep easily. But just as a precaution, I also had a bit of Bailey's in my decaf coffee last night.

I'd discontinued the practice of having Bailey's in my coffee this last week sometime, because I'm still getting over various bugginess that has left me with a neverending supply of mucous in my throat and a throat that dries up easily. So I end up having coughing fits as I drop off to sleep.

Of course, the coughing fits are not as bad as not falling asleep for a whole hour, so I think I'll stick to having Bailey's in my coffee at night!

Anyway, I was so tired that last night I pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Don't know if it was the tiredness or the Bailey's, but it wasn't a problem!

Thanks for everyone's suggestions though! I'll definitely keep them in mind if things get worse. Or I feel the need to drop the alcohol out of my system and falling asleep gets harder again!

Lately, I've been having a really hard time falling asleep at night. I've cut out any possible caffeine consumption after 2-3pm.

I've previously had problems where I'd have a coughing fit just as I was about to drift off. But recently, that's not been the cause. My mind has been racing and I've been feeling generally not tired.

I have been catching up on sleep and not sick anymore, mostly. And falling asleep at night has generally been a difficult thing for me. But last night, for example, I went to bed around 11pm and wasn't asleep until just after midnight. My normal fall asleep tactics didn't work. And they usually do.

Any suggestions on calming down the brain running on and on? I think that's the biggest problem.

I don't think getting more tired is a really viable way of trying to sleep when the general idea is to sleep more and be rested, and mostly get up earlier in the morning!!

Let's see, I posted about South Indian clothing for women, and then started on one men, but didn't finish it. Those are here:

women's clothing

the first part of the men's

The women's one, I linked to pictures on the internet. The men's one, I actually used pictures of my family and extended family that my parents took or had taken in India. I've again included small versions of the pictures here, but just click on each to see the bigger version, and again to see an even bigger one.

Here are more pictures from my dad's 60th birthday/wedding celebration/puja/ceremony (check out the first part of the men's clothing post to see an explanation of what that is exactly)

( small pic behind cut )

This one's actually got more women's clothing examples. The two girls in salwar kameez on either end are my first cousins. The one on the right's a year older than me and married with two kids, but is wearing a salwar kameez rather than sari. The one on the left is 5 years younger than me, the sister of the other, and is married, but didn't have any kids yet at that point. So some "adult" women of my generation will wear salwar kameez even on really dressed up occasions. Though I wouldn't. Perhaps it's because they're married now, they feel more free to wear what they want!

( Another small one )

This one's almost the same picture, but my one uncle's joined in on the right. He's my mom's age, but at this dressed up occasion is wearing a nice shirt and pants. Typical. Only my dad, who's the star of the show, is wearing the more traditional men's wear. My other uncle you can see a bit better as well, and he's wearing pants and a shirt too.

( my parents with an elephant, just 'cause )

My parents with an elephant. Part of the ceremony, hee hee!

( another small pic, priest )

Notice, the priest performing the puja (religious ceremony) is wearing the traditional clothing in an everyday manner. The dhoti (white fabric wrapped around) is not as fancy as my dad's special one with gold embroidery. Actually, it's pretty messily stained. But yes the priests are the one set of men who do regularly wear the traditional garb --- white dhoti wrapped around the bottom and a bare top, with a towel draped around the neck. My husband's Belgian family thought it was the weirdest thing that the priests were naked from the waist up when they were at or saw pictures of our wedding. ;-)

( another elephant pic! )

Yes, the elephant is trained to bless people. So my parents are getting blessed by the elephant. You'd think they'd use more cows if they were the holy animals, but you really get more elephants in religious ceremonies and on special occasions. I think they're cooler, anyhow!

( another small pic )

Another picture from the same occasion. The young girl's wearing jeans and the other younger one sitting next to my dad is wearing an Indian-styled top and skirt. The boy on the other side of my dad is wearing a shirt and probably pants or shorts on bottom. All the men, my dad's age or my age (don't know them all), are wearing shirts and pants as well. Again, my dad's the only one in traditional clothing. I'm afraid those kids are my cousins', but I just don't recognize them anymore. Will be really good to go back to India in Dec./Jan.

( the last small pic )

This is the outside of the place they had the ceremony/puja. Perhaps it's a temple, I'm not sure, but it looks more like a "wedding hall" than a temple. And the writing above the door makes me believe that it's not a temple as well.

Anyway, as far as clothing, my dad's wearing a turban. That's something that they'll do for fancy occasions in my family as well. But not normally. Some of the poorer people you see in the streets might wear them, or ones working in the fields. They tend to wear the more traditional clothing as well. Long lengths of fabric folded in various ways are pretty cheap.

And there's actually a little girl wearing a pattu pavada, like I showed in my first clothing post! My male cousin, 5 years younger than me, is on the left of the door there and he's wearing pants and a long shirt. And you can see another little kid wearing pants and a shirt as well. My female cousin, on the left of the door, is wearing the more traditional sari, she's about 3 years younger than me. So it does vary a bit for my generation in the tradition that my family comes from.

Well, that's it for now. Let me know if you found the men's bit interesting! :-D

I filled it out and probably wasn't very useful since I don't actually read much fanfiction and don't write it. Especially since I don't know/have favorite authors or stories. At least, not so I know them.

So if you do fill this out, have your favorite authors/stories names and links handy, because she asks for them! :-)




A master's student at Georgetown is working on fan fiction for her thesis. There's a survey and she needs as many people from as many fandoms as possible to complete it so that the diversity of fan culture is represented.

If you have a minute, please check it out and send the link to your friends. The survey can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1idSovixsYIF7EpKO2EGpQ_3d_3d .

I've agreed to help spread the word, but if you have any questions/concerns, you can email her at kem82 @ georgetown.edu.

I'm so excited about this!! I had to show everyone in my office (4-5 girls standing around my desk to watch!).

If you don't remember, Manu's a friend of mine that I've known since we were kids (see icon). He has always been a very talented singer and performed lots when we were growing up. He was the lead in one of the musicals that I was in in high school (South Pacific, I was one of the many in the chorus), as well as many of those I wasn't. I had a crush on him for entirely too long (he was my first crush when I was 11 and he was 12, he totally turned me down at the time). Oh, and we were in Show Choir together in high school, and I got to sit on his knee in one song. I was thrilled. ;-p

In any case, Manu's made performing his career. He went to CMU and got a degree in music, but he actually got a job singing before he'd even graduated! He was the understudy for the lead in the traveling version of Miss Saigon for a few years (from before he graduated and for a few years after that), was the lead in "Bombay Dreams" on Broadway, and has generally been acting and acting/singing before and after "Bombay Dreams" in the NYC area (some in Connecticut, Philadelphia, wherever he could get jobs, I'm sure.).

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier (check my tags for "Manu"), he's landed a role in the movie "The Love Guru" which was originated by and is starring Mike Myers. When I posted about it before, it was to say Manu was in it and to list some of the other actors, but I couldn't be sure from his message to me how big a role his was going to be.

Today, I found the trailer on YouTube -- and Manu's in it quite a lot!! Who knows, the scenes in the trailer might be most of his appearance in the movie, but WOW!!! Apparently the trailer's on TV in the USA already. I can't wait until the movie comes out and we can go see a friend of mine in the movie theater!!! WOW!!!! I was excited enough to see him on national television (he did a bit part on LO:SVU a few years ago).

Anyway, trailer behind the cut, and I'm so excited! :-D

PS I'm not sure it's going to be that great a movie, but I don't care. Tom and I are going to be at the theater the day it premieres in the UK to see it! Wow. Manu on the big screen!!!!!

Here's the direct link to the YouTube for those who don't wish or can't watch the embedded version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLB1r9lh7gY

( The Love Guru trailer on Youtube embedded behind the cut )

Well, last time (link to that post) I talked about what women in South India wear growing up, at least traditionally. ataniell93 wondered about the men.

I realized that even though I don't have any pictures on the computer from my own visits to India, I've got a bunch from my when my parents visited about a year ago. They had a "60th wedding" ceremony, which is something that they do in the area my family comes from. When the man turns 60, they hold what might be a called a renewing of vows ceremony here. The cutest explanation I've heard for this is that it's the wife's care for her husband that allows him to live until 60 (pretty old for India traditionally, I'd guess), so they celebrate the wedding that brought them together.

I'll start with a picture of my cousin Uma (left), my brother Jayaram (middle), and her husband Maran (right). My cousin's a few years younger than me and wearing a salwar kameez. She works in Madras in computers, so she's fairly cosmopolitan. She's even worked in the US for a few months at a time on contracts for her company. Notice her husband is just wearing a shirt and a pair of pants. Typical for males in India to just wear Western clothes all the time. My brother's more American than I am, so don't pay any attention to him. ;-p

(click on any of the pics to see larger versions!)

( small pic behind the cut )

The next picture is my mom with a bunch of our family. Four generations included in total. My grandparents being the oldest and my cousin's daughter (born on the same day as Sean, but in Australia) being the youngest. My grandfather, far right, is mostly wearing the most traditional of men's outfits. A long white piece of fabric wrapped around his torso (dhothi) and well, a t-shirt on top. But nothing or a towel or another piece of white fabric on top would be the most traditional. Next generation down, my uncle on the far left standing, is wearing a pair of pants and a top and a horrible toupee. So yeah, wearing traditional clothing on a daily basis is limited to my grandfather's generation, and he's turning 80 this year. Plus, he's very comfortable in pants and a shirt as well and has many of those in his closet too, I'm sure. That's all he wore when he visited us in Pittsburgh for a year while my grandmother wore a sari the whole time. Anyway, my uncle's son, below him, is also wearing a shirt and pants.

For the women, from the left is my aunt, my mother, my grandmother, my cousin, and my cousin's daughter. Again, all saris to my mom's generation, my cousin who's quite a few years younger than me (8?) is in a salwar kameez and her daughter in a dress with a little denim jacket.

Just to clarify, in the picture are my grandmother and grandfather, their son (my uncle) and his extended family, and my mom. My uncle and his wife, their daughter and son. Also the daughter's married, so she and her husband (behind her, barely visible, and tragically, now dead) and her daughter.

( another small pic behind the cut )

The next is actually a bit more distant family, but they live in Orange County, CA, about halfway between LA and San Diego. So I thought you might find it interesting. The picture includes 3 generations: my grandfather (in the prev. pic)'s brother, his wife, his daughter, daughter's husband, their daughter and son. My great uncle and his son-in-law are wearing traditional dhotis but shirts on top. That's a fairly common way to dress up traditionally for men. But only for fancy occasions, and you won't catch most people of the son-in-law's generation wearing one often. But this picture was taken by my brother at a very traditional ceremony. I can't remember what though. I'm thinking something similar to a 60th wedding, but he's not 20 years younger than his brother. Maybe it's his 70th birthday and therefore they had a 70th wedding ceremony. Yeah that sounds right. :-)

Women, saris for the older ones and salwar kameez for the younger. Poojita's at college these days. Her mom's about halfway between me and my mom in age.

( yet another small pic behind the cut )


my mom and dad at the 60th wedding ceremony

( still another small pic behind the cut )

My father's brother-in-law is on the far left, my cousin Uma again this time in a sari next to him. My father's sister, my mom, my dad, and various others I know and don't know/remember that I won't name.

Again, older men, my dad and his brother-in-law wear the dressed up dhoti (the fabric wrapped around the waist). My dad's wearing one with gold embroidery and the fabric around his neck is gold embroidered as well. My uncle is also wearing a nice new dhoti and shirt. But the rest of the males are in shirts and pants. And the women are all dressed up, so in saris.

( last small pic behind the cut )

I'm very tired and should have gone to bed an hour ago. So I'll post and annotate the rest of the pictures from my dad's 60th some other time. Now I'm off to bed! :-D Next time, elephants! ;-)

PS No, Tom and I and Sean weren't there. Nor my brother.

I was just in the way of the guy who actually bought the antibody I was using. I was joking around saying I was stealing his antibodies.

What I had the urge to say was:

IZ IN UR FRIJ STEALING UR SEKUNDRZ!


No picture to illustrate it though. Besides, he wouldn't understand. ;-p

( I'm an old school one? What's a new school one then? )

Does sound a lot like what I believe. Especially the freedom bits, is that from someone's speech, anyone recognize it?

Seriously though, what's the difference between an old school and new Dem?

1. It starts with the continuation of the last episode. When do they start "Previously On" segments? Anyway, right back in the middle of the action -- and a convenient use of the cross that Angel gave her. Interesting that she wears it right away, perhaps she's already attracted to him, even though she's mostly acted annoyed to see him. Or she just thought it might be practical. You'd think she'd be used to wearing one by then.

2. Buffy gave up on Jesse pretty quickly and the credits roll. Unlike her, but of course advances the plot. I guess she hasn't developed her dogged loyalty to her friends yet. Then again, he's only a potential friend.

3. Blah blah blah, Giles. The exposition was more fun the first time. ;-p

4. The Master is annoying, more silly-looking than scary. Very irritable. "I'm your dog" Somehow it didn't come off all that well.

5. I love Willow. She's just concentrating on breathing, a good thing and a much more typical reaction to vampires than any other.

( the rest of it! )
22. Classic Giles: the Earth is doomed. Oh and his positive excitement looking forward to the next menace. Silly man.

Overall a decent end to the first 2-hour ep. And a decent first 2 eps. We've seen all the main characters and have a feeling for who they are as well as the overall tone of the show. We don't know about the creature feature of the week yet. But that's coming up next time, isn't it?

Time for bed. Good night!

Well, I finished Red Lily a day or two ago. I have to agree with consensus on my previous post about the typos and say that this one just doesn't hold up as well. I enjoyed reading the book, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed the first 2 in the trilogy (Blue Dahlia and Black Rose). It's a shame, because I think those two are close to her best, while the third just doesn't quite rise up to the challenge. That leaves me feeling the whole trilogy is a bit of a disappointment, even though the first two are so good.

The ghost, whose story weaves through the trilogy, plays a much larger role in the third book. The ghost is an interesting plot device, but just doesn't hold through with enough interest to pull through to the third book. I finished the book, and though having enjoyed it, didn't feel the warmth of contentment as with the first two. There's just too much time spent covering the ghost and dealing with it rather than on the relationship between the two romantic leads.

I do find it interesting that Nora has such an interest in gardening. I think that really comes through for the whole trilogy, even if her intros to the books didn't give it away. Amusingly, I just (and Tom neither) have no gardening knowledge. We don't even take care of our yard and hire a gardener. Given, we have no time and energy. But I guess it's not something that either of us finds all that fulfilling. I'd like to do more, but I just don't know anything about it and have no time and energy to try. Tom has no interest. And no time. Maybe this year we'll do a bit more. Ha ha ha.

( Blue Smoke and violence, etc.  )

Just goes to show that I'll accept a lot of things if the humor and characterization are the best. Which they very often are with Nora Roberts.