work, walking and weather

Life is calm. Work is intense. For every thing I try to do, there's a problem. I manage to override the problem, but sometimes I wonder if my solutions are good ones or if I'm just applying some kind of patch which is hiding not only what appears to be the problem, but also the murky cave of Disaster and Ickyness that harbours the actual causes to the problems...? Sooner or later they'll show their ugly faces, I assume, and I'd rather it'd be sooner than in a few years from now, while facing the defense. In other words: The velocity field of the galaxy I just managed to extract in yet another way (using gaussian fitting), couldn't be used to calculate the rotation curve, because the units were totally wrong. Now it finally can. But while working on this, I did a most daring thing. I needed some chocolate, so I went and bought a Hershey's special dark. My experience with Hershey's has so far been far from plesant. The substance they produce is an abomination and shouldn't be allowed to be called chocolate (and for anyone who disagrees, lucky you, you just haven't been introduced to the real stuff yet). It tastes more like one of the grosser ones of Bertie Bott's all-flavoured beans (not sardine, the second worst). With one exception, the peanut butter cups are actually fairly agreeable. However, with enough cocoa (>50%) apparently not even Hershey can fail. It's certainly not Cote d'Or, but it stifles the worst cravings.
But, my foot inflammation that I acquired on thursday last week (by doing nothing else than walking normally - Grr! 3rd time during less than a year that my left foot has issues. Broken, sprained and now inflamed) let me know that it was still there during the walk.
Today it is grey, and this morning, I was actually heavily rained upon, for the first time this summer. It's about the 3rd rainfall for the entire summer, so it was fairly nice. The clouds are actually lowering the temperature with about 10 degrees, so it's 25 outside right now. :)

The birds are finding their way around the apartment now, but I really need to build a tree for them. Pippin is happy to jump up on my finger whenever she is lost or uncomfortable, and is totally adorable. Merry is still cautious, but gives the awesomest concerts, and his flying skills are getting better and better.

Time to get back to my galaxies. Funny telephone conversation the other day, while at work, the owners of my building called:
Anonymous Caller: "Hi this is Galaxy Management here"
Me, interrupted from working hard on preparing NGC 2903 and NGC 4096 for matlab runs: "...aahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA hihi, hoho.,!" (etc)
Confused Person: "Why are you laughing?"
Moi, realising after a while that this is not Hildy actually trying to be funny (where would I ever get that notion from though?), nor someone I had emailed previously asking stuff about yet another galaxy: "Uuuuhm. I don't know!" (also starting to feel rather dumb)
--Profound Silence--
Person believing she's talking to the biggest moron: "so, this is about your rent.... "
And then I remembered that the place I address my rent cheques to wears the rather hybris (how make that word into an adjective?) -ized name Galaxy Management. hehe. I quickly explained what I was working on, but whatever. :)

Merry and Pippin

Let me present to you: Merry and Pippin!
  
Verdict is given - I tested out the names on the budgies last night, and they blinked at me affirmatively for Merry and Pippin. Which would be the nicknames for Montgomery and Pequenita. So, there I have the Star Trek connection after all (Montgomery Scott aka Scotty), and Pippin is actually swedish for 'the birdie', which is gender neutral, so I definitely think it can be used for a female bird. Then we have the French king, Pippin the small/little (Pepin le bref), son of Charlemagne unless I am mistaken (will check shortly) who lived in the 700's, and Pippin is definitely small! Which, with the spanish spelling of Geoffs invented portuguese, is also what Pequenita means (feminine diminutive form of pequeno)! Merry is a very merry bird indeed, so in all, I think my birds chose the right names.

I would hereby like to thank all the contributors of names. There has been a wide variety on themes from stars to pirates to star trek to mexican food to flying related names to patriotic winnipegian names. See comments of Chirp for a few. Romy and Sofia both thought of LoTR-names, so I think I owe them at least half a dinner each. Sofia was also rather persistent about the Star Trek theme, which I really liked myself. Scotty and Seven was a close-up in the competition. Christine's suggestions should get some kind of honourable mention for their originality, and my parents ideas are supersweet as always... David's flying related ones were as well really close and kept to the preferred two-syllable structure. And then we have Jack's pirate suggestions Guybrush Threepwood and Gunpowder Gertie which just deserve to be mentioned... It might get to be their superhero alter egos. Then I got quite a few other suggestions in verbal form, which I thus of course can't remember, from Jonathan and Geoff and others (and, me deep apologies if I forgot anyone now...)

Merry and Pippin had their first flight yesterday, and they are very skilled. The first time they were however happy to jump up on my arm to be carried back to their home after a having ended up in the kitchen. In the evening however they didn't really feel like going to sleep, so it took a bit of persuasion. Pippin has no problem to be carried around perched on my finger, as long as she doesn't lose Merry out of sight, then she takes off and flies back to him. And Merry is not really interested at all in being carried around, he's too much of an explorer. But with one bird on each hand, it works well. They are then very well-behaved and jumps into the cage (the Shire) with a merry chirp.

Ok, back to work.

Chirp!

Life is complete. I mean as in nothing more to wish for. Everything is back to how it should be. A real pirate cannot be parrotless. This one has been so for more than 2 years. As of today, this has been taken care of. Romy took me to a very nice petstore, where they don't clip the wings of the birds. Stamp of approval. They keep them in cages and not in aquariums. Keep them away from disturbing elements (such as people etc). Nice store in other words. And there I met several kindred spirits. And brought two of them with me home. I didn't intend to... Possibly one. But the one I chose, was such a happy little fellow, and I knew it would make him really sad to leave. But then a little yellow budgie-girl from the same cage started playing with my fingers, and shooed away any other bird who came by to do the same out of curiosity. My heart melted like chocolate exposed to the winnipegian sun (which would be fast). The result was that I came home with two budgies. They glared at me for a bit before I left them alone to get used to there surroundings, but seemed to like me a bit too. Then the anguish came. Am I crazy? But it lasted only for a little while. 3 more years here require the presence of birds. Besides, I did some research before, and it doesn't seem to be impossible to bring them with me home or wherever I go after this. (yes, I will do a big photo post in a while... :) Meanwhile: I need names! So, until Sunday, a competition will be held. Winner will, apart from the glory, receive a superb dinner in company of birds and moi-meme. Pretty nice company in other words... ;) Swedes are also welcome to participate, but dinner will then occur in early september, with other birds present.

ARR!

Jubilation! Yesterday I went with a bunch of friends to the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Enjoying having a good time, we made sure to be in good time for standing in line (well, it was a substantial group of 17), with the appropriate attire. It is interesting when you go to the foodcourt washrooms to change, noticing people's glances, first feeling like a total geek, esp when remembering my age. But since I don't enjoy feeling weird, I changed my feelings into those of the happy and proud geek who enjoys brightening up someone's day a bit even if it might be in a scornful way for oneself, and immediately everything felt good again.

Anyways, what an awesome film experience. I was in heaven, it was exactly my kind of film, in all categories.

Today is saturday, and I'm sitting at home for a bit before heading out. It is very warm in my apartment, so it might soon be necessary to buy a fan.

Taste experience of the day: Yoghurt with cloudberry (hjortron) jam and fresh strawberries and cornflakes.