SpaceMika

Now I am a Master of Disaster, I’m regaining the ability to stay independently organized, removing the primary motivator for this site. Therefore, spacemika.com is getting revamped to reflect the top reasons people seem to come here:

Random Web-Searchers come looking for…
1. Disasters (particularly landslide runout modelling)
2. Crafts (particularly rigid heddle weaving patterns)
3. Science and Science Fiction (particularly Stargate, of course!)

People I know come looking for…
4. Travel/Adventure blogging.

Luckily, the newest version of WordPress allows for more independent-yet-interlocking structured topics, which fits this redirect quite nicely. The whole site will be taken down shortly while I get myself reorganized, but I’ll be back soon!

Yesterday’s Walk for Memories to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research and caregiver support was a blast. I’m amazed that the several thousand people who showed up didn’t merit any news coverage (as far as I can tell); one of my Rambling Relatives was shocked the video crews didn’t collect snippets of people explaining who they were walking for.

Alzheimer’s steals memories, a nasty disease hard on both the individual and the people who care for them. While he could still communicate, my grandpa Frank stayed charming, telling us how delighted he was to meet us, and that he was sure he’d be just as delighted to meet us again later. When I tried to waltz with him, he was actively uncomfortable, not quite sure who I was or who granny was, but quite certain he shouldn’t be dancing with another woman. My granny Helen was equally polite, her curiosity possibly enhanced by not remembering she’d already asked only a few minutes earlier. I walked for them and their memories, but also, selfishly for myself and my family I walked to raise funds to support caregivers, for group meetings where they can lean on each other, and hear that it’s okay to sometimes be frustrated or sad, for workers give them a day off without guilt. I walked to raise funds for research, with the hope that something can be found before my parents, aunts, and uncles grow older, and before my cousins, siblings, or self find ourselves eye-to-eye with the nasty beast.

News statistics say over 70,000 people in my province are impacted by Alzheimer’s, and that the numbers are expected to multiply dramatically over the coming years. I’m glad the Walk for Memories is our newest family tradition.

Last year, I celebrated by knitting in the sun and cheering on a rubber ducky.

I am so going for a Yip Yip monster some year.

One of the many joys of YouTube is being able to pull up the three of the most delightfully Canadian music videos with ease. From west to east:

• Home for a Rest by Spirit of the West
• Truck Got Stuck by Corb Lund & the Hurtin’ Albertins
• Lukey cover by Great Big Sea & the Chieftains

What truly classic Canadian music videos am I missing?

Have you see the NYT interactive results for how people use their time? I don’t want to loose thesis-momentum by getting distracted by an in-depth analysis, but I’m fascinated by toggling between those with a Bachelor’s degree and those with an Advanced degree. The distribution seems roughly identical, but the task-boundaries are a lot more bumpy. Is this from rapidly switching tasks, or from having a more flexible schedule so people can pick the time they do something (say, eat lunch) instead of being synchronized, or is it reflective of the huge diversity of fields (and thus styles of work and the resulting schedules) associated with more and more specialization

The bluffs of Barwon Heads are aeolian calcarnite — solidified sand dunes. As rain fell on the sand dunes, the top surface is cemented as calcrete. More dunes formed on top, and more, and more, with layers of hardened calcrete topping each set of dunes. Now, those hardened layers act as failure planes, leaving hazardous overhangs.

Coastlines are landscapes of constant change. Near Wonthaggi, Australia, the shore is stabilized by extensive rock platforms and high rock-cored sand dunes. Small erosion patterns etch into the sand as the ebbing tide drains off the beach, and a river mouth periodically opens and seals from longshore drift, but luckily for the proposed desalination plant behind the dunes, for a dynamic environment the coast is relatively stable.

At Settlement Point east of Melbourne, extensive basalts and tuffs of the Older Volcanics form the cliffs and shore platforms. The spherical weathering occurs as water penetrates along joints and fractures, decaying the rock layer by layer like onion skin. At this site, the weathering has progressed until basalt cobbles are encased in fully decomposed clay.

The white sands of Friendly Beach, Tasmania, Tasmania, squeak under every step. The sand is nearly pure silica, originating in quartz-baring rocks, eroded into sand, compacted into sandstone, and re-eroded into fine, smooth, rounded grains. The black rock shore platforms are part of an extensive dolerite formation dating to the breakup of Gondwanaland. The dolerite is weathering into tiles with a honeycomb texture.