One of the things that I really like about Diana Wynne Jones' books is her use of ordinary magic. Magic that isn't sweeping and large, stories and uses for magic that relate to people's daily lives. I also enjoy seeing the magic subtly woven into the everyday in Ellen Klages' short stories.

Do any of you enjoy this in particular? Anyone have other examples?

I have made a webcomic! It is called Math in the Margins and it is over at tumblr here. There will be another one on Pascal's Triangle at some point but for now - it is up! Hooray!

Happy National Poetry Month! The Joke Issue of Stone Telling is out and I have a poem in it, along with many other silly, mermaid-y, rhyming poems! It is a nice burst of fun and I quite enjoyed the whole thing.

"The Dryad to the Woodcarver" appeared in Niteblade in the March 2014 issue. It is eligible for Rhysling Award Nomination

I went and saw Interstellar last night. My thoughts are: too few female characters, an excellent number of black holes. If you're watching for the characters, they're okay, I guess. If you're watching for black holes, yay black holes!

And I went and read about the science in it and apparently the black hole that is portrayed in the movie is as far as they can tell what a black hole would look like (same with the wormhole). So cool! They used a bunch of equations from Kipp Thorne's research and plugged them into the special effects software that they wrote for the movie. Once Kipp Thorne saw it, it clarified many things about black holes for him. Yay! There are going to be papers written because of this. I really like when science and research and art inspire one another, so I liked that part of the movie. And I really hope it inspires people to do more research into space and black holes.

Yesterday was lovely. It was the best temperature, warm enough that I didn't need a jacket but cool enough that I could wear layers and long sleeves. It was sunny and bright and clear out too, and I went to explore the local gardens.

I'd been there before, but not to the parts of the gardens that are outside, as I'd only gone in winter when the conservatory is the best place to go. Turns out they are lovely! There were many paths and a Thai Pavillion, and pools and a large variety of plants. I sat down and wrote quite a bit at one point. At other times I would sit and read my book (A Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane book).

It was cold on Thursday and Friday, and I enjoyed that too. I really love fall, especially the smell of it.

Anyone have magical realism recommendations? I'm especially looking for short stories, but novels are good too.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts was decked out for my birthday Art in Bloom again this year and I spent the day wandering in those halls. It was lovely. So much there that is familiar. I spent my 8th and 18th birthdays there too. For my 8th birthday, Mom administrated my skipping school to go to the museum. The school happened to have a half day on my 18th birthday and there was another mother-daughter trip planned. This time I went by myself, visiting all my MIA-friends, Jade Mountain of course, but also the gold frogs in the Mesoamerican section, and the Veiled Lady. And the scholar's study.

Then I went home and had cake.

I'm reading my circa-2009 posts and wondering at them. Some of them are rather poetic in word and phrase and I seemed to find so much more in my everyday life to write about. I suppose there were more people on here writing snippets of their lives down then. I still do have people on here whose journals I read but it is less essay-like life snippets and more daily processing. I wonder where all the other LJ holdouts are hiding. I tell people I still have an LJ and they are all rather surprised. Looking at all the icons under the youtube video the other day, trying to figure out what sites wanted us to share it on them. "LinkedIn (Who shares videos on LinkedIn?), LJ (That still exists?!)"

Today I sat by a river and watched youtube math videos. I poked around with a stick and found sparkly rocks. I went to a friends house and drank bourbon milkshakes and watched videos about robots. I danced up the path to their house, leaping and tour-jeté-ing. Last night I walked in the rain, looking at the lake and the glow from people's windows. Many months ago I saw the hallways and dermestid beetles of the Field Museum members' night behind-the-scenes.

I still do similar things to 2009-me. Perhaps I should note them down more here (or in paper journals. I kept paper journals every day in 2009.)

This icon is my glowing icon. I haven't had that glowing, amber-trapped feeling in this journal in a while. I'd like to bring it back.