It’s been ages since I’ve felt, even a little, like blogging. As I believe I mentioned a few months ago, I’d been wanting to learn how to sew, so, that is exactly what I have been doing. I haven’t sewn much in the way of clothing, just yet (working on a couple things there), but I have managed to complete a couple fairly complicated messenger bags, along with a few very uninteresting things to learn on. Of the bags I have made, this one is my favorite. The Whovian fabric, I got at Spoonflower. It looked so much fun, I could not resist. There are a lot of amazing geeky fabric designs at Spoonflower. Too fun.

Anyhow, I am exceedingly proud of my efforts with this bag. I’ve already been commissioned to make a few more; though I doubt I’ll make a habit of that, since there are other things I want to make and these bags are a bit time consuming. But, I am having a blast.

I need some practice with the whole braiding thing, but not bad for a first try! It isn’t low carb or low fat or low calorie…but it is delicious!

I have but one real goal for 2012 – and that is to learn how to sew. Haven’t done any sewing since high school home ec class, and I didn’t really pay attention, because I figured I’d never be interesting in making my own clothes and didn’t really see other uses for the skill. I’m still not really interested in making my own clothing in general, but learning to alter store bought clothing would be a valuable skill, I think, as it can be difficult to find clothing that actually fits me well. Mostly, though, I have recently become interested in costume design and period clothing (particularly the Regency Era through the first couple decades of the 20th century) and hope to gain the skills necessary to make some creations of my own. I’ve been needing a new hobby and I hope that this will do the trick.

So, anyway, Happy 2012 Everyone!

I had the honor of hearing him speak once at a conference in DC a few years back and I’m sad that I won’t have that opportunity again. Suddenly the world seems a little too quiet.

We were fortunate enough to make it to TAM this year.  We had such a good time at TAM6 that we greatly looked forward to being able to go again.  It took us a couple years, but we finally made it to TAM9.

We got into Vegas on Thursday afternoon so we had a bit of chill time before things really got going.  At the welcome reception Thursday night, we found there were over 1600 registrants this year.  I think TAM6 was around 1000 or so.  On Friday, we were told that of the 1600+ registrations, 40% of them were women and 50% were first TAMers!  Very exciting indeed!

The speaker lineup was nothing short of Amaz!ng and my husband and I had a wonderful time.  One thing I didn’t do this year was take pictures.  We sat at the front of the second section of seating all weekend and the lenses I currently have for my camera don’t do very well at that distance and I didn’t want to walk to the front at the beginning of every talk so I just hung out and listened.  I did get pictures of me with George Hrab, The Amaz!ng Randi and Phil Plait.  I always feel awkward asking for pictures with people…I’m not entirely sure why, but I do.  But I managed those 3 anyway.

I’ve been sitting here this morning, in my quiet hotel room, trying to decide which pieces of TAM to talk about.  All the speakers were fantastic and the panels as well.  I don’t think I could talk about all of them and do any of them justice.

Of everyone, my two favorite speakers were Pamela Gay and Richard Wiseman.  I never did get to thank Richard for getting that “Obama’s Elf” song stuck in my head.  He’s my kind of evil.

Anyway, Pamela Gay talked about how she was inspired to become an astronomer and how science is nothing short of an inspiration.  Funding for space exploration and research is threatened and she urged everyone to talk to their congress people and get their voices heard and save science funding.  I was nearly moved to tears by the end of her presentation, she was so good.  And she’s right – if we make our voices heard, we can make a difference.

Richard Wiseman, being the evil evil person he is, not only showed some photo illusions that he’s featured on his blog, but he also showed a video of an animated elf on Obama’s shoulder singing “All By Myself”, except displaying the words “Obama’s Elf”…and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head!  Thanks Richard.  He did another song – O Fortuna – as well, that I’ll never be able to listen to the same way again.   His presentation was hysterically funny and it’s great that there was so much laughter.

Another super awesome thing about TAM this year, was the vaccination drive.  305 people, including my husband and me, got tDAP shots.  I really think they could have given a lot more (they only had 305).  Many much deserved kudos to the Women Thinking Free Foundation for putting this together — it was awesome.

There were so many great speakers at TAM, there is no way I could do them justice.  Where do you start with speakers like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, or Richard Dawkins?  Not to mention the gazillion other really amazing people?  I look forward to the TAM 9 DVD’s because I’d love to relive all of it.

Hopefully, we’ll get to go to TAM 10.  I can’t imagine what they’ll come up with to top TAM 9, but the JREF has such an amazing group of people, I have no doubt they will top it.

**Edit** I don’t know for sure if this is the O Fortuna video he showed, but I recognized some of the lyrics and either way, it is damn funny!

“If I take the Catholic out of me, which is hard to do, then absolutely they should have these rights”, Grisanti said.

Now if only California and the other 43 states would join the 21st century.

For those opposed to gay marriage, I have only 2 questions:

1. What, exactly, is it you’re afraid of?
2. Taking religion out of the equation, why should gay marriage be illegal?

New York, I’ll say it again — I am proud of you!  Well done!

My surgery was 3 days ago and I’ve had no redness, no discomfort at all past the first day, and that was minimal, and my vision is still crisp.  I haven’t even felt like my eyes have been dry like the first time around.   I’ll still be on a massive regimen of eye drops for the next week at least, but if all is going as well as it seems to be I should be able to taper some of that after my next follow up (next Tuesday).

Honestly, my biggest hurdle has been that I’ve caught myself on a few different occasions going to rub my eyes – that is a big no no for the next few weeks.  Since there is no scratchiness or discomfort, the only reminder I really have that I just had surgery is the series of reminders I have on my phone telling me it’s time for one of the eye drops.

Technically, last night was the last night I *had* to sleep with the goggles, but I think I’m going to sleep with them on for at least the next 2 or 3 nights, just to be safe.

One thing I haven’t actually done is test out my night vision.  I’ll try to get out after dark at some point this week.  I expect that I’ll see the halos around all the lights for the next few months, but as long as I can see, I can live with that.  The halos should lessen with time.

What does bother me is that he actually managed to convince some people that his delusions were true.  Sadly, there are always people willing to believe this stuff.  These people gave him money.  These people sold their possessions.  I feel badly for them.   For Harold Camping, however, I feel nothing but contempt.

So what were you doing when the Rapture was suppose to happen?  I was in a car on my way to a friends graduation party; something worthy of celebration, I think.

The procedure was a little different this time around.  They did not have to re-do the Intralase portion (where they cut the flap).  Instead, they just loosened the existing flap and folded it back and then let the laser do its thing.  The advantage of that is that I have no redness at all.  My eyes aren’t even the slightest bit bloodshot. Also, this time, they put non prescription contacts in my eyes because they said I would be more comfortable.

When I got home yesterday, I had a bit of food and I decided to take the second Valium and I added in 3 Advil PM’s and a Tylenol (because I didn’t want the Tylenol 3) and took a nap.  Even with all that I could only nap for about an hour and a half.  Thankfully, I didn’t have disturbing dreams this time.  Then I spent yesterday watching the telly rather than reading or playing computer games.

I had my first follow up visit today and they removed the contacts, which I am extremely happy about.  I don’t like the cloudy vision effect I get by sleeping in contacts.  Drives me a little crazy.  Now that the contacts are out, I can feel a bit of scratchiness, but it’s not all that bad.  Oh, also, I’m 20/20 again, which is fantastic.  I do hope I don’t regress this time, as I don’t know if I would be able to get the surgery a third time.

At the moment, though, I am happy.  I go back for my next followup visit on the 31st as long as everything stays like it is.  If I regress again, I’ll go back sooner.