beginning aftermath

the night before my big day... just after i had finally gotten to sleep, a gigantic thunder boom woke me up and completely scared me! the storm last for a while, dropped texas-sized hail and the wind blew the trees around like crazy. i couldnt get back to sleep.... until approximately 6am! turns out that the storm knocked down trees and branches all over town, killing electricity to over 20,000 austin residents! as i walked thru campus the morning of the big day, the atmosphere felt like a twisted fall season where the leaves forgot to turn colors before they fell off the trees to the ground!


i was feeling pretty nervous before my talk started.... but ready to go and get it all over with!!!


insert a successful talk and 1.5 hour closed door session... and then i'm off to the bar to celebrate with my wonderful family!!








tonight is my official party night! cant wait!! woohoo!

reality of doctor-hood is slowing sinking in. what an absolutely amazing feeling! not only the satisfaction of the accomplishment, but the clarity of thought as my mind finally connects all the pieces of info together from all the things i’ve learned and studied over the last many years!

thanks to everyone for all the kind words :)

just call me doctor!

dr. bauer

dr. astropixie

dr. banana

aunti doctor

doctor amanda

keep 'em coming! i'm so thoroughly thrilled and extremely exhausted. incredible!!!!

tomorrow is *the* day!

the big day... defense day... i cant wait for it to happen... and be over! i'm excited and nervous and anxious and ultimately.... ready!!!

many family members are coming into town to support me and celebrate with me, which is so humbling and exciting! thanks to everyone for all the encouraging words. i'll be back to my regular blogging frequency soon!!! yippee!

everything's bigger in texas

yesterday, i saw some texas-sized hail!!




it was a nice (loud) break from this....


(the work, not the beer.)

space walker on colbert

current international space station resident, astronaut Garrett Reisman, spoke with stephen colbert recently in an excellent interview. and just so you know stephen... my offer is still open.



thanks universe today!

grin and bear it!

an intersection about a mile from where i grew up in cincinnati, ohio.

eat food, mostly plants

a couple things i've learned from my own experience and from micheal pollan, author of in defense of food:

i enjoy real food! i love eating with family and friends. i'm most satisfied when i cook my food!!!!

i try not to eat anything my great-grandmother wouldnt recognize (i read ingredients... if there are more than about 5, i usually dont know what they are!)

i dont eat on the go... in a car.... while walking... i like to sit down and appreciate my food!

when i moved back to austin, i joined a locally-grown food delivery service called greenling. every week they deliver a huge box of veggies and fruits, grown on central texas farms to my front door!!!! i absolutely LOVE it! the fresh food tastes wonderful, i pay about $35 a week for whatever has been harvested in the last week, the food lasts me the entire week, i think my allergies have reduced immensely due to eating local foods, i've learned how to cook many new foods that i never would have bought on my own at the grocery store, i havent been sick since i moved back, in general i feel healthy... i must say its one of the best things i've ever done!! and since i am carless, it's amazingly nice to not have to grocery shop with a backpack to carry stuff home!

i walked to the farmers market when i lived in chile and enjoyed learning about new foods that were grown at farms just down the valley, and now i feel like i'm getting a glimpse of what farmers in my area around austin are actually doing. it's great.

anyway, here's micheal pollan speaking at google. the video is an hour long, and it's completely worth it...

dissertation word cloud

an excellent suggestion from chuck, the lab lemming, inspired me to create a word-cloud of the last chapter of my dissertation... in its current state.

actively assembly black blue centers chapter citep citet density downsizing evidence evolution faber07 feedback formation function galaxies gas growth holes identify imaging increase lower mass massive mergers models morphology number observed process provides quenching rate red redshifts samples sequence sfr since spectroscopic ssfrs star star-forming stellar structure study thesis understanding

created at TagCrowd.com

i take it as a good sign that only one reference creeped in there, although the latex command i use for calling references, citep, sure did! can you tell i study galaxy formation and evolution?? thats another good sign!! one week and a few days left until the defense... thanks for the distraction, chuck!

i used tag crowd to create my word cloud.

battlestar democratica

its a clear play on the clever battlestar galactica summary of the first three seasons called what the frak is going on?... nonetheless, here is a 7 min video that summarizes the democratic race to the official nomination...

what's up in may?

from JPL news...

James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti

no words...



how does this ever happen? awesome.

carniva of space - anniversary edition

an amazing selection this week at the one year anniversary of the carnval of space hosted by why homeschool.

i contributed the discussion of some fantastic images of saturn and iapetus.

enjoy!