Sauntering Vaguely Downward

Once again, the talented Mia has made one of her latest works available on Redbubble to purchase on a number of items. “When Dragons Speak” manages to be both beautifully detailed and adorably cute.



I have in my possession a set of 16 glorious dragon postcards. If you would like me to send one to you, please provide an address that will reach you, either by leaving it in the poll below or in a DM. Please note the following. First, I’m happy to send outside the UK as I have a stockpile of international postage. Second, if you provided your address in the last poll, you don’t need to leave it again. Just say, “Yes, please” or equivalent. Links to my previous Prinsesa post are: DW and LJ.

I still have a couple of Prinsesa postcards left, by the way, so if you’d like one of those and didn’t request one in the previous round, please say so. (All earlier Prinsesa requests should have been fulfilled - let me know if you didn’t get yours.)

The nominees for paid account time on Dreamwidth have been put into the virtual hat, and the Random Thing Picker has chosen the winners.

These are:

12 months of paid account time for cosmolinguist and
6 months of paid account time for aella_irene.

Thank you to all those who participated!

I don't have the energy to participate in Chatty December, but I do have the energy for some Seasonal Giving. Here is Part 1, in which I'm offering the following:

• Six months of paid Dreamwidth account time
  
• One year of paid Dreamwidth account time

To nominate someone for either of these, please enter their username in the following poll. Other points to consider are:

• I don't need to know, interact with, or have anything in common with your nominee, so please don't worry if they don't overlap in our Circles.
  
• Self-nomination is absolutely OK. I won't know anyway, because the poll is anonymised.
  
• Sharing this entry is absolutely OK.
  
• If you would like to identify yourself as the nominator of a user (e.g. "I put in so-and-so's name") so that, if they're selected, they know their donor's name, you can do so in the screened comments on this entry. Please don't feel obliged to do this.
  
• I will be drawing the two names out of a hat after the poll closes (next Friday 12 December).
  

One caveat: Seed Account users won't be included in this round of Seasonal Giving, as additional account time wouldn't be of use to them.

It occurred to me recently that a decade or so of working in and around space science has allowed me to amass an interesting collection of swag. The swag lives in, on and around my desk, depending on size, current relevance and preciousness.

One item that rocketed to the top of the list (and thus currently holds pride of place) was a gift I received at the end of my service at Space Camp in Austria in July. It is a piece of Genuine Space Rock. Observe its Certificate of Authenticity, which is lent additional gravitas (at least to me) by virtue of being in German.


[Image of Asteroid belt detritus]

Next time: pin badges galore!

My parents departed this morning after a hectic last week with us. We had people over for supper on Monday night. I flew to Madrid on Tuesday, attended a two-day meeting wherein the work bled over into the supposed down time, and flew back again on Thursday night. We had more people over for supper on Friday night, and then a third set of people over for Saturday lunch and tea. I would happily spend the next three weeks with a duvet over my head not seeing anyone, as that week consumed the social energy I normally expend over three months. Sadly that's not going to happen.

On the plus side, our new, kingsize bed is arriving tomorrow. We have been sleeping on the bloke's (terrible, ancient Ikea) bed (which he bought in the first year of his PhD) since we moved in together. Last week I decided I'd had enough of the squashy mattress, so we went to Middle-Class Retail Mecca (aka John Lewis) and bought a bed. Additionally, I decided to give up on the wrestling match I've been wrangling with my internal Frugality Monitors (aka the spirits of my dead grandparents) and hired some cleaners. They pay their first visit this Wednesday to do a spring clean and take care of the horrors in the corners that we keep saying we're going to get around to and never do.

My apologies for poor management of the Dreamwidth points giveaway; I'm extending the deadline to next Friday (13 June) as a result. To the person who nominated "Myself": Please could you reply again with your username, as the poll results are anonymised and I don't know who you are?

By the way, I got my comeuppance with regard to last Friday's Unscientific Poll. I ended up having to give the presentation and no one got the Spaceballs joke.