Snow

Thursday the Chicago area received our first serious snow this winter thanks to Winter Storm Nemo.  About 8 inches (20 cm) fell where I work.  Saturday morning I passed this in front of an electronics manufacturer: 

The snowman is built around the trunk of the tree and is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall.

Insulated wiring is the hair.  The eyes, nose, mouth and buttons look like some kind of parts for what they make.  The belt is strapping tape.  The shiny red heart is a wonderful touch.  Unfortunately, it's raining today.  Bye bye, snowman. 

The same storm dumped more than 2 feet of snow on New England Friday and Saturday.  Here is my friend Laurie's  view of the storm from Massachusetts.   

NASA Gangnam Parody

NASA's student interns get all the cookies.

Sick, but I Has New Music

I'm home from work today with a bad cold.  The damn thing ambushed me on Sunday, wrecked my day on Monday, so here I sit with a bowl of chicken noodle soup and the internets.  I may continue my final edit pass on Rising Tide v3.  More likely I'll take a nap.

I'm worn out from buying music online. 

I now have Richard Thompson's latest CD, Electric:

It was released TODAY!  I haven't heard all the tracks yet, but what I've listened to so far is classic awesome Thompson guitar.  And there are good lyrics in there, too.  This review  says the body count is lower that on most of his albums. 

In my iTunes investigation I also found Suzanne Vega released four CDs I didn't know about.  I downloaded those, too.  She re-recorded many of her songs in a more acoustic, intimate way that suits both her and her work and organized them by theme. 

I has me lots of new music.  Lots and Lots. 

Fictional Biology

I am astounded by some people's lack of understanding of basic human biology.  The mens who think wimmens can control fertility and not get pregnant if we don't want to.  And THIS GUY, who thinks wimmens have tiny dead babies in our wombs.  

Ladies, we are carrying the future zombie apocalypse!

One day the signal will pass among the wimmens.  Those dead babies will be born.  Wimmens will use their magic necromancy powers and turn all the little dead babies into Tall Hot Zombies.  (Of course they'll be Hot, we wimmens aren't dumb.)  The Tall Hot Zombies will then eat the brains and junk of those mens who lack an accurate understanding of human reproductive biology.

Now I see why these mens are so afeared of us wimmens.

Storyboard for my novel?

Some of you are familiar with the storyline for my WIP, Rising Tide.  My daughter, who (to me at least) knows all things Internets, showed me this:

Created by gingerhaze HERE

My lovely daughter pointed out Noelle has illustrated my novel!  I pointed out that the hero and heroine do NOT run off on a motorcycle.  Hero pointed out he has one that I just wouldn't let him use in the novel.   *sigh*

But, OMG you guys!  Heroine is a scientist and has a white lab coat.  Hero doesn't pull off his shirt when she gets the helmet, but is not wearing a shirt when she brings up the subject of a helmet ...  close enough!

Science Fun

Came across this in my daughter's tumblr feed (click on the image to make it bigger):

It's from The Electron Café, which is written by a research scientist.  Oh, my, I have lived this.