This Is Beautiful: Solo Conference Trips

 Alright so I've been a PhD student for a while, I've been to my fair share of conferences. The pandemic has reduced that number, for sure, but I've still been. During my postbac I went to the fruit fly meeting, and I've now attended a few conferences virtually. Last week though I went on my own to a smaller, in person conference, and it blew my mind how much I enjoyed it.

In the past I've only attended really large conferences with hundreds of people, this one was much smaller. There was only one session going on at a time, maybe 2 during lunch, and the poster sessions had maybe 20 posters being presented at once. This is small, the fly meeting had hundreds of attendees! It also was a conference that I went to on my own, none of my other lab members came with me and I didn't know anyone who would be there. (I ended up running into a collaborator, but we just chatted and didn't like hang out or anything.)

The result was I felt much more energized! Usually I practically destroy myself trying to get to every session, but this time I skipped whatever I didn't want to see and wandered around the city (Madison, Wisconsin, I'm sure I'll write about it eventually) or just took a break. And since I knew no one there was no pressure to do everything or look like a slacker. It could be more of a vacation than work.

I need to do this more often, it was so fun and a really lovely way to balance work and travel. And I really like traveling by myself so it wasn't that difficult for me. Time to start looking for next semester I guess!

“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers

This is a three part novella that I also grabbed from Tor.com (I know I’m so behind, I really do) all of which are science fiction. This first one isn’t long, maybe a hundred pages or so, and I thought it was a super cute story.

The plot follows Sibling Dex, a monk who decides to leave the monastery and become a tea monk, basically someone who listens to people’s problems and gives them tea. This choice is made almost on an impulse, they’ve had no training whatsoever. At first they’re in over their head, but they master their craft and soon excel at it. But eventually they’re unhappy with this job too, so they decide to head into the wilderness. There Dex runs into a robot called Mosscap who has been tasked with initiating contact between the robots and the humans. History there is that the robots one day all gained consciousness and left the humans to live on their own. Surprisingly, the humans respected this and haven’t tried to make contact since then. Mosscap wants to go around asking humans what they need, to figure out what the relationship between these two communities can look like.

They end up travelling together, both learning about each other’s cultures. When they get to their destination in the woods, Dex finally admits that they don’t know what they’re doing in the woods and have no plan going forward but still feel so unhappy. Mosscap responds by performing his own tea monk service for them. They then head into the human villages together to start Mosscap’s work.

I really enjoyed this story! The idea of monks serving tea and travelling around the different villages is super cute, and the descriptions of Mosscap are honestly adorable. I also really liked seeing their relationship change and blossom. The two of them have a number of conversations about nature, being, and purpose and having the clash of viewpoints between the two of them was enlightening. Mosscap’s whole point is that humans are animals, we don’t have a purpose any more than a bear does. And robots, while being constructed things, are like that as well. While humans are made of genes and cells, they are made of metal and solar power.

Mosscap’s whole philosophy actually falls nicely into what you would call subjectivism in theories about the meaning of life. It’s my personal favorite, so I’m a little biased here. Subjectivism is the idea that you could pick anything you want to be the meaning of your life. That could be sitting in your backyard and counting every blade of grass, it does not matter what it is and it’s different for every person. The robots have an almost identical version of this where robots are known to go off into the woods and spend years watching stalagmites grow and things like that. Dex falls more under the category of objectivism as well as nihilism at points. Objectivism is the idea that some purposes in life are better than others, that you should pursue good things like being nice to people and stuff like that. This is actually what most philosophers agree with these days, in the interest of creating a functioning society. When Dex is freaking out trying to become a good tea monk and serve their god, they are aligning with objectivism. And nihilism is the idea that there is no purpose to life at all, you can do whatever you want and it simply won’t matter in the end. Dex’s crisis over not knowing what they should do aligns nicely with this idea, although they don’t wallow in it for very long. The story actually serves as a really nice primer for these ideas!

My one issue is that there’s a bit of a loose end that doesn’t get wrapped up. The best way to describe Dex’s rationale for leaving is that they want to hear crickets chirping. They don’t find any by the end, and it doesn’t even get mentioned while they’re in the wilderness. Which can be easily explained by saying that it was never really about the crickets, but still feels strange to not address it.

Loved reading this story, definitely would recommend it if you’re looking for something short and sweet!

This Is Beautiful: Rick and Morty season 6

 Rick and Morty just came back for its 6th season and the first few episodes have been amazing! I'm really excited to see what comes out of the rest of the season. 

The first episode was a great episode that was part of the overarching plot and serialized. Lately these kinds of episodes (as in the past few seasons) have felt overwhelming and like the writers are just relying on throwbacks to be compelling. This one felt really tight, which is saying something as there were multiple story-lines playing out.

The second episode was then much more episodic and a one-off. Both the A plot and the B plot were really good, with the A plot focusing on Rick and Morty being stuck in a video game and the B plot being Summer ripping off Die Hard. Both were really funny and excellently done.

I'm really excited to see what the rest of the season holds, I think it'll be a really good one!

”Middlegame” by Seanan McGuire

This was a free ebook that I snagged off of Tor.com and I recognized the cover immediately and was thrilled to start reading it. The premise is that alchemists have been working on converting what is essentially the instructions and equations for the whole universe, the Doctrine of Ethos, into knowledge that a human can have. The way they do this is by splitting it into two parts: language and numbers. (Yes this is a bit of an oversimplification, but bear with me.) They then put those into a set of twins and have those raised in the world to see how they develop. If all goes well, then they will have a huge weapon at their disposal to make and remake the world as they see fit. Of course, the man developing these kids is Reed, a construct from the late alchemist Baker, and all he wants is power and he doesn’t care who he has to kill to make that happen.

The book follows the two kids destined to embody this Doctrine: Roger, who cannot get enough of words; and Dodger, a math genius. They find themselves able to talk to each other telepathically early on in their lives and help each other out. The story then follows as they meet each other, and fall apart from each other, continually trying to beat back Reed’s forces as they learn what they are. This involves time travel, as of course the equation behind the universe can reset time, and they keep trying to get it right. Part of the mystery is figuring out that this is what they are doing, almost subconsciously, altering time and going back again and again.

It is such a compelling story. Despite the fact that half of the characters aren’t really people, they’re constructed by alchemists, they are incredibly believable. To me half the fun was seeing how the idea of math would present itself in a person versus language. Dodger was always more aggressive and hot-headed with little regard for her future (and didn’t have very good depth perception) while Roger was more personable and quiet (and color-blind). They also compliment each other really well, you can tell in all of their interactions with each other and other people.

Throughout the story there’s references to Baker’s children’s books that are basically her ideas distilled down so that children can understand them. I feel like I’d have to reread them to get all of the parallels, but it ends up being essentially Roger and Dodger’s story laid out. The books are similar to The Wizard of Oz, which comes up as well, and it’s a nice reference to fiction we in this world would be familiar with.

The book is the ideal mix of confusing, since we are thrown into the world of alchemy, and familiar, with Roger and Dodger heading to grad school together and normal occurrences like that. It’s a great read that I want to revisit and see if I can pick up on more patterns.

This Is Beautiful: UK Ace Con 2022

 This past weekend was the 2022 UK Ace Con! It was my third year being part of the organizing team and I had a lot of fun. There were a number of challenges, it was after the semester started so I was really busy, the Queen died that week so the UK organizers were unsure if we should postpone at the last minute, and of course there were tech issues. But at its heart, this was a weekend spent with fellow aces talking about really important issues within the community and it was full of affirmations and community.

I had to get up really early both days to be on UK time, the first day I was part of the intro to talk about accessibility for the conference, and from there went straight to an Ace 101 presentation. This was new this year, but I think it really helped some attendees. After that I led an anti-racism workshop with another ace, and that gave me a lot of anxiety, would there be trolls, would I mess up the slides, etc. It ended up going really well, the discussion went long but a lot of good comments were had. I hope that this can be a regular part of ace spaces, to help us combat the whiteness and racism in the community.

Second day had to get up early again, first to lead a conversation on non-romantic relationships. I took a backseat on this one since I'm not in a platonic relationship, but the conversation was really cool and different from previous years. Then had a trans/non-binary aces conversation, it was something like my 3rd time leading that haha! Always good every year though. And finally led a discussion on child-free aces. This was another new topic, and I think it was cool to highlight that aspect of the community.

All in all, a busy weekend but a really nice one! I hope that next year it isn't during the fall semester but I'm always excited to be a part of it.

“The Eyre Affair” by Jasper Fforde

I picked up this book at the recommendation of my partner, who is a big Fforde fan. It’s a really delightful book, I could see how it easily became a successful series. The story takes place in an alternate England where time rifts are common, dodos have been resurrected as pets, and the ability to travel within the pages of a novel has recently been developed.

The protagonist is Thursday Next, a LitraTec detective who handles literary crimes such as fake Shakespearean plays and things like that. When the original manuscript to Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens is stolen, she’s on the case. Unfortunately though there’s no clues. She then gets approached by the higher-ups about how her former professor at university is now a master criminal, practically undetectable, and he likely stole the novel. He fakes his death and no one believes Thursday, who is still after him. His next target though, is Jane Eyre. Thursday ends up having to go into the novel, and slightly altering  the ending, in order to ensure its safety and get home.

Thursday is a wonderful protagonist. She’s bold and clever and dedicated to her work. She’s also a veteran of the war in Crimea with Russia, there’s a sub-plot where she works to stop the fighting and deals with losing her brother in the war as well. This book isn’t that old, early 2000s I think, but since it’s written by a man I would have definitely expected a protagonist like this to be male as well, instead of female. I’m so happy with the result though, Thursday is perfect the way she is.

I realized partway through the book that it’s basically fanfiction. With a really elaborate premise. Really Fforde wanted to write about Jane Eyre and Rochester in particular, so he came up with an original character and plunked her into it. It’s rather clever and honestly kinda cute. I’ve never read Jane Eyre in my life and while there are parts that assume a certain familiarity with the text (the fact that the ending is altered though the course of the novel for instance) I got through it alright. It is very clearly written for lovers of literature though.

The Thursday Next series has something like seven installments, I’m really looking forward to further literary adventures in the rest of it!

This Is Beautiful: Teaching

 I started teaching this week and I think I really like it! It isn't so different from running a rehearsal really, you still have to get the students to do a thing and understand the thing. And the effort that they put into it really impacts what comes out of it, more so than what I'm doing. It's really cool, and while I'm sure I still have a lot to learn I'm really enjoying it!

Chicago

Finally made it down to Chicago this past weekend! It was a really fun trip, I can’t believe I haven’t managed to check it out yet. We took the train down and had a hard time finding somewhere to stay, but eventually snagged an AirBnB on the south side by the University of Chicago. That meant that we had to take a train into the city and back out, but there was barely anywhere else we could go without spending a lot of money.

The first day we stayed down by the University of Chicago and checked out the Museum of Science and Industry. I really enjoyed it, science museums are always overrun with screaming children and this was no exception. But they had a whole exhibit dedicated to genetics and I can’t say no to that. There also was a really cool miniature train set simulating how cargo gets from Chicago to Seattle. There were a lot of miniatures in general, like a miniature circus and a fairy castle, neither of which I could figure out why they were there otherwise. We also walked over to Promontory Point, which had some amazing views of the city and the museum. I had wanted to check out the Renaissance Society, a small art gallery that’s part of the school, but it unfortunately was closed.

The next day we took the train to the center of Chicago to do all those touristy things. Like getting a picture with the bean (formally known as Cloudgate)! We also went to the Art Institute of Chicago which was probably my favorite part of the trip. They have an amazing collection! I particularly loved the impressionist section and the contemporary galleries. There was also a really cute miniatures wing here (more miniatures???) with all sorts of different architecture styles in it. After that we went across the street to the Chicago Cultural Center to get a taste of more local art. It was definitely a good idea to get the feel for both sides: famous and local art. Then we walked along the Riverfront to the Navy Pier, which had more great views of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Last museum of the day was Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. It’s a small gallery but has a neat collection of self-taught artists primarily. Around the corner from there is Time Out Market which had a milkshake bar that was really delightful.

For the final day I wanted to check out the Jane Addams’ Hull House and the National Museum of Mexican Art, but they were both closed. So instead we went to the Aquarium! They had a pool where you can pet the sting rays and a lot of really cool exhibits about local waters and fish. Plus belugas, dolphins, and penguins are always a hit. From there we went to Chinatown for lunch and to walk around a little before leaving.

Chicago is interesting, it’s very similar to New York City in it’s layout with the numbered streets. But I would honestly say that the infrastructure of NYC is better, we mostly only took the Chicago subway on the last day in town. Chicago does feel more integrated though, there’s less cultural enclaves which is really nice. Chicago is patchwork in it’s own way, the only subway line that goes south is the red line and that clearly cuts off communities from downtown, but you get much more of a mix in the majority of it.

There’s just so much to do in Chicago, so many museums and fun activities. I really want to come back soon to check it out, and to check out some of the music scene there. I still feel like I didn’t quite get a handle on the pulse that Chicago runs on, possibly because it’s so big and contains so much. I hope I’ll be back there soon!