#gpoml

[asterroc]

Happy National Bird Day from me and my beeb, Kappa. I love her little growls near the start.

Video description: a small green parrot sits on a person’s chest. She makes assorted noises including growls/purrs and squeaks/yells.

[asterroc]

Vaycay!

I’m going to be on vacation in Maine next week, so if I don’t talk much, that’s one reason why, but I should have the queue well-stocked. 

[asterroc]

Today’s my 41st birthday and a friend had a space themed baby shower and trivia party. My team got all the space trivia questions right (we were unsure on a couple of them but logicked it out together), but we missed a few of the baby trivia and sci-fi trivia questions, so we got 12/20, which was the most questions right. We split the space cake with a team that got fewer questions but more bonus questions. They also had a rocket ship cutout for photos. A fun afternoon!

Not pictured: my black hole T-shirt, space aes skirt, space aes leggings, and constellation socks. Any birthday I get to wear space swag and attend a space party is a good birthday.

[asterroc]

I am/was watching How the Universe Works and I just found out about ultramassive black holes??? It's mind blowing. Like I can barely comprehend the size of our sun, let alone our galaxy's supermassive black hole only to find out that there's bigger stuff @_@;;;

So funny thing is I actually study quasars, which are really big galaxies with really big supermassive black holes (SMBHs), and I actually hadn’t heard of ultramassive black holes before you sent this ask.  The SMBH in the Milky Way (our galaxy; the SMBH is called Saggitarius A*) is around 4 million times the mass of our Sun.  But SMBHs in quasars can reach as high as a billion times the mass of our Sun.  Ultramassive black holes it sounds like are 10 billion times the mass of our Sun, so more than 1,000 times bigger than Sag A*!  

Thanks for this ask - I’m hoping to defend my PhD within the next year or two, so looking up the mass of SMBHs is good practice for that.  :)

[asterroc]

21 Questions

I was tagged by @asamandra​ to answer these questions here.

While I’m posting, a couple announcements.  (1) I’ve been doing more reddit lately than Tumblr.  LMK if you want my reddit username, it’s not the same as this one.  (2) I’m going to be busy with the MIT Mystery Hunt this weekend (a puzzle-solving competition hosted at MIT), and then I go right back to Spring classes.  While I’ve got a queue, it might run out while I’m busy.  (3) I’m still on AO3, though I haven’t posted anything in forever.  Currently working on a Tony Stark & JARVIS The Time Traveler’s Wife AU, working title “The Time Traveler’s AI”.  

Rules: answer these 21 questions, then tag 21 people you want to get to know better

Nickname: Acey

Height: 5′7″

Last movie I saw: Into the Spiderverse (in theaters) or Terminator: Salvation (on Netflix)

Last thing I Googled: “easiest fish to care for” (at least on this device)

Favorite musician: This rotates so frequently for me I don’t really feel like I have a single answer, so just see the next Q.  

Song stuck in my head: I’ve recently been listening to The Mountain Goats’ Lovecraft in Brooklyn on repeat, and been thinking I should see if anyone’s written a Stucky songfic to it.  

Other blogs: Not that I’m sharing, lol!

Do I get asks: I wish I had more!  

Following: 198 

Amount of sleep: Around 8 hours, but I always want more.  

Lucky number: e

What I’m wearing: Purple T-shirt from my partner donating blood, heathered blue zippered hoodie with Portland Maine stuff on it, Target sleep pants in dark blue with golden stars. 

Dream job: Professor at a state school with a 3/3 teaching load and the rest research!  

Dream trip: Australia

Favorite food: I’ve been craving fancy ramen lately.  But for my birthday (Jan 26) I’m going to be going to a shabu shabu (hot pot) place, so that’s awesome enough for me.  

Play any instruments: I sing second soprano, I can play a little rhythm guitar (like four chords), I know how to get noises out of a flute. 

Languages: English.  I took 4 years of Latin in high school, and 1 year of Spanish in college, but they didn’t really stick.  I can read subway signs in Spanish and French, and that’s about it.  

Favorite songs: Here’s the first screen’s worth of my current musical rotation...

Random fact: I bought my bird Kappa a cat toy, it’s this brightly colored plastic ball with holes and a bell in the middle, and she won’t stop playing with it, except I can’t tell if she thinks she’s mating with it, building a nest with it, or attacking it.  

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: I decided to just make myself a mini-moodboard. 

If you’re interested in doing this, count yourself tagged.  I’d be interested in @eustaciavye28 @yawpkatsi @flange5, but if you don’t wanna, you don’t hafta!  :)  

[asterroc]

Birthday

FYI I’m turning 40 this Friday (Jan 26).  I’ll take pictures of sexy MCU actors of all genders, cute bird photos and videos, fanfic/fanart/fanvids, fanfic/art/vid recs, well wishes, or nothing at all, whatever strikes your fancy or doesn’t.  :-P  

And I’m a total adult: I decided to take my birthday off work for the first time ever.  The adulting comes in the fact that I get three personal days a year and have never taken any, so I went and told my boss and secretary before the semester even started, built it into my syllabus, and am even writing an alternate assignment for the students. 

[asterroc]

I'm delighted with my haircut, it really shows off the color in a flattering way. Asian haircut, bubble tea, and a hot dog meat pie, what a delightful Chinatown Sunday morning! @lipstickyourway

[asterroc]

Bleached my hair Monday (Manic Panic Vol 40) and tried dying it gray (Pravana Silver), but my hair didn’t really take the gray bc it wasn’t bleached enough. Today I bleached it again, with the above result. It’s bizarre, I think this cotton candy orange-pink is a result of the gray being in there even if I couldn’t see it. I actually like it, so I’m going to keep it for a bit, but I do want to try and get the gray (or failing that, then galaxy hair) before classes start in the Fall (Sept).