ellestra: (winged)
2012-12-15 11:57 pm

Bye

I'm all packed and start my journey home early tomorrow (early because after they switched my flight to Chicago 3 times I ended up with 5 hour layover there - I have to stop connecting through Chicago as things like that keep happening). This means this is probably my last post for a while - maybe even till next year.

I'm leaving you with a short movie and a parody.

Tempo from Red Giant on Vimeo.



This Gangam parody is worth watching just for the "Hey Science Lady, hey it's amazing..." part.
ellestra: (sunrise)
2012-12-02 11:56 pm

Shouldn't we actually use palms?

I have trouble believing it's December already because after few cold days and nights with temperatures below 0 when I woke up to frost covering everything we have once again short sleeve weather. It's been 20oC and it's too be even warmer in next few days. It's felt so weird when I went shopping yesterday and there were Christmas trees  and the smell reminded me of the holiday but I was standing there in a t-shirt. It just felt so out of place (time?). The fact that for me this is way too early - November just ended - most of those won't last another 3-4 weeks. I wondered about that and one of my German co-workers (in Germany like in Poland people get Christmas trees just before the holidays) that some people here get two trees - one now and another just before Christmas. I can also see the lights and trees visible in people's windows when I walk around and seeing people in shorts at the same time this weekend is just wrong. Of course, this winter, even though it haven't officially started yet, is already colder then the last one and a few warm days are normal around here. So, unlike last time when we went straight from autumn to spring and magnolias bloomed for Christmas this year might be actually be cold. Good I'm going home for Christmas this year and judging from recent forecasts for Warsaw I should even see snow during my stay. With typical Polish cloudy weather that shortens already very short days all the lights are so much more appealing.

And since I'm doing follow-ups this week here are some awesome comics reactions inspired by the recent bout of Fake Geek Girl by Meghan Danger and Jemma Salume. But you have to appreciate a publisher taking stand on the whole thing with the official DC merchandise with this Super Fake Nerd:
ellestra: (telamon)
2012-11-22 11:57 pm
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Instead of watching TV

I ate (too much). I played with cats (not mine, unfortunately) and kids (not mine, fortunately). I even talked to my family (because I was at home during late afternoon and they got my package). I even bought something today. So I think this qualifies as celebrating Thanksgiving. I'm starting to feel like I'm getting good at it.

Now I'm tired so I'm just sharing my latest webseries obsessions. Between this and the H+ I'm starting to feel like all the good SF in on the web.


ARG/viral campaign for something from Google that has a really cool concepts (reminds me a little of Charlie Stross Laundry series). This is the start. Tracking the whole thing can become an obsession.


And of course the first 4 webisodes of BSG:B&C are out.
ellestra: (tiger)
2012-11-11 11:54 pm
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Look another picture

Back at home this was Independence Day but as this is the official end of WWI it's celebrated around the world including here. Mostly by sales from what I can tell but it seems the way all holidays are celebrated her. Memorial Day sale, Columbus Day sale, Veteran's Day sale. Back at home it's state holiday so all the big stores are closed so at least the sales people have the day off.

I just enjoyed the few sudden days of warmth. It was so sunny and nice - the temperature in the 20s during the day and even during the night there is no danger of frost. It's supposed to end tomorrow but it is November after all and even though it's colder then my previous ones here I was overheating in a t-shirt today. Not very November weather. I wish we would have that in Poland for the holiday. Even though, from what I saw, the weather was pretty nice for today it was still not a very holiday weather. And the day are so short already. I understand the significance of the day but this is the worst month for any celebrations.

I went for a walk, did laundry and cleaned up and then I started drawing and this is just what popped into my head:

Yellow Eyes by *elluranee on deviantART
ellestra: (winged)
2012-03-08 08:00 pm
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It was never about the flowers

Wszystkiego Najlepszego z okazji Międzynarodowego Dnia Kobiet/ Happy International Women's Day



I used to dislike it but ever since it's been reclaimed as Fighting for Women's Rights Day I'm feeling more and more attached to it. This year's UN theme is Empower Rural Women — End Hunger and Poverty. Back in Poland there are annual demonstrations in major cities called Manifa - here is the theme of the Łódź one. This post from last year has nice map showing why we need it (see that blood red spot on the see of green?)


Wszystkim tym, którzy byli, a tudzież jeszcze planują protestować - Dziękuję bardzo.
ellestra: (sunrise)
2011-12-24 01:11 pm
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The 21st century Christmas

I'm marathoning my family on skype today so I just drop by for a moment to leave you this:

(last year's snow in North Carolina)
ellestra: (winged)
2011-12-20 10:42 pm

Apparently I'm spending my Christmas with BBC

Since I'm staying far away from home once again this year and there will be no family to occupy my time I need something else. And It looks like this year it will be BBC America as this is what they are going to have on Friday:


This is on on Saturday:


And of course Sunday is time for this:


Don't worry, I'm meeting some friends too.
ellestra: (Default)
2011-10-28 11:43 pm

Just like turning a switch

Yesterday was sunny and warm. It was 26 during the day and the night started so warm I was overheating under mu comforter.  It was like summer decided to go with a blast.

When I woke up today it was autumn. Just like that it was November outside. The air was chill, the sky was covered with clouds and the tress become more colourful overnight. The highest temperature during the day was 10C and then it started to drizzle. Or maybe it was just fog. Or something in between. It's supposed to rain for real tomorrow and then when the clouds will go away we are up for the first frost as the temperature can drop below 0 tomorrow night. This made me remember what time of year this is. Just before the 1st of November. I felt like I should be on cemetery. This weekend is for visiting graves. Is it weird that I miss that?

I always liked All Saints Day (and the weekend nearest to it). I like the cemeteries full of lights, blazing in the night even from afar. And so full of flowers. But what I really like, as I suppose with every holiday, is family time. Both walking together in cold November and lighting lights and the sitting with hot tea and cookies in warm rooms after. But I think I have a soft spot for it because it was one of few times of year we were allowed to play with fire as kids. We got sweets and balloons. And there were squirrels.

This need a little explanation. I saw cemeteries here in US and they are completely different then the ones in Poland. There are no walls. And they really look like a big lawns with small vertical stones coming out of the grass. Here, there is one that is just across the street from a pool of an apartment complex. I never was afraid of cemeteries but this kind of creeped me out. It's probably because water go into and dead humans are something I was taught to avoid.

In Poland cemeteries are completely different. They had to be fenced and the ones in the cities are behind walls. The graves stick above the ground and are mostly made of some type of stone. There are often flowers growing on or by the graves or even rose bushes. And on the old cemeteries there are a lot of old trees. This means a lot of cleaning up the leaves this time of year but it also means that they are like a park. With much less people then parks usually get except of course this time of the year.

This means there are a lot of animals living there. My family is buried in one of the old, big Warsaw cemeteries. We would take walnuts with us as we went there and feed the squirrels (the red, European ones with tufted ears I miss too). If you stayed still enough with a nut on your outstretched hand they would come and grab it from you.

Halloween just lacks any positive childhood connection for me to care about it. It's just something I saw on TV.
ellestra: (bsg)
2011-06-01 10:18 pm
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Feel like a kid today

Today is International Children's Day and I bring gifts. I discovered The Mary Sue and all the wonderful things they link to like:

Who really is behind Star Wars prequels


Rigamortis - A Zombie Love Story - a musical - this is the kind of zombie story even I can like


And Micheal Sheen reads Twilight fanfiction
ellestra: (sunrise)
2011-04-24 06:53 pm

Happy Easter

I've been eating and talking all day so in other words real Polish Easter. It was nice but it also made me miss home so much more. As with all holidays all I really ever cared about was spending time with my family. And now I'm so far away and I just miss them and I miss all the things we used to do together and I feel like being left out of the real life that is happening back home. And I started to think I was over the homesickness and got used to being here.

The thing I like about Easter is also egg painting because I like painting in general.  My parents send me both dyes and a heat shrinking film for eggs so I could at least have some fun with colours. So here they are - my eggs:
ellestra: (sunrise)
2010-12-24 03:30 pm
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My first Christmas away from home :(

Santa Claus published the Carolome: Functional Imprints of Culture Memes in the Global Genome - finding codes for popular English language carols in proteins (protein single letter code).

To celebrate this milestone discovery* here are some Christmas songs:






*The article linked above is a joke. I say it because unfortunately this kind of stuff is often used by wackos as a proof of existence of God/Intelligent Designer or something like that. It is not. In this line of thought the name of God is AGATA (that's how we write it in Polish) as it is spelled constantly in genetic code. Here I proved God is a woman. And the thing with Mary means she's a lesbian :P

Have a Merry Christmas or at least Happy Holidays :)
ellestra: (Default)
2010-12-23 03:54 pm
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It's coming so better prepare

The instructional video of how to deal with Zombie Apocalypse on Christmas by girls from Team Unicorn:

ellestra: (winged)
2010-12-22 05:22 pm
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Christmas from behind the scenes

The life on the edges of history is though as this intreview with a certain innkeeper shows. All the fame and glory goes to someone else and you end up cleaning manger after the child. Nothing but troubles and the importance of things can only be seen in hindsight.

Scalzi also sums up the year in film sf - the interesting, the successful and the nerd vindication.  This was not a very exciting year. Maybe just doesn't look that good in comparison with 2009 but I didn't really care about any of those except Inception. And maybe Tron:Legacy but I haven't seen it yet.

A propos Tron sequel, what would you say about Starman 2? Jeff Bridges is interested. And it's not because he doesn't get work.

And today is first day of winter and the days will start getting longer from now. It's not as important here as it's back in Poland as here days are so much longer I keep thinking it's March but it's still a nice though.

EDIT: And here is another interview. This time with Christmas Bunny. Yes, Christmas. It's a franchise.
ellestra: (sunrise)
2010-12-06 04:58 pm
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Mikołajki

Today is St. Nicholas Day. Where I'm from today is nameday for Nicholas. The names connected with a particular day are of that day patron saints. Today's most important patron saint is Saint Nicholas (here better known as Santa Claus) and it is a day when he brings small gifts, mostly sweets. As a kid you find them in your slippers when you wake up. During my phd there was a friend who left a small choclate Santa on everyone's bench. A sort of rehearsal for Christmas. True start of the holiday season.

But who cares about the rationale - it's presents that matter so here have a 10 minute Inside Game Of Thrones piece:


EDIT: Some more gifts as HBO put some wallpapers from the Game of Thrones for download.
ellestra: (Default)
2010-11-30 09:37 pm

I suppose I need to decide if I want one soon

Europe has been freezing and been covered in snow in past few days. It's the coldest November on record in England and temperature is suppose to drop dow to -20C in Poland tomorrow. There have been some airports closed and generally everyone is a little unprepared as it's not suppose to be so wintery so soon. However, looking at pictures of snow covered landscapes I finally started to feel that Christmas are just around the corner. It's good as people here are already bringing Christmas trees and putting lights on. It surprised me at first as in Poland it's just for the malls. We put ornaments on Christmas just before the holiday. My family usually does it on the weekend before but some do it on Christmas Eve but then we keep the tree for weeks after, sometimes even till the beginning of Carnival (and sometimes that's February). Here in US it's the opposite. They put it on now and then throw the tree out right after Christmas, sometimes, I'm told, even before New Year. My Polish friends who live here for a while said they just combine it. They have to buy the tree early because later there are non and then keep it for at least two weeks of January.

Here weather got worse on Thanksgiving (last Thursday). First it rained and then it got cold during weekend (it was still +10C but the air was chilly and it felt colder) so almost all the leaves are down and trees are bare. It finally looks like November ( which in Polish is called listopad - leavesfall). Just in time for the last day.
ellestra: (sunrise)
2010-11-01 09:34 pm

November is cold

I was told almost as soon as I arrived here that one of the most important event here is The Halloween street party. They told me thousands of people come and walk the streets in costumes so I just had to go and see. After all I've only seen such things in movies. In Poland this is the time of visiting graves and although the partying did come as all other traditions that can up the sales and give excuse to drink it's mostly confined to pubs and kindergartens. After all most people don't feel like doing much after whole day spent on cementaries. And the weather doesn't encourage dressing up either. It's usually cold and it rains (although this year it was 15C or even 20C in the sun) and getting out in skimpy costumes doesn't really sound appealing. Frankly it wasn't all that warm here either. I was kind of impressed with how little some people wore. It was only about 10C. and was getting colder. In fact the forecast for this week says soon it will be 10C during the day and below 0 at night. But for now just enjoy the photos:





More under cut )
ellestra: (sunrise)
2010-06-01 06:23 pm
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Happy Children's Day

Today is International Children's Day. Back in Poland there's no lessons in schools today and on last weekends there were a lot of festivities for kids everywhere. My nephew was dead tired after all that celebrating, I'm told, and it's not an easy feat to tire him.

I always loved this holiday. The weather was usually nice, the schoolyear was ending and you got presents. And since we are all someone's children all are life
Happy Children's Day to You All


And to celebrate with a happy child - the boy who hears his mother's voice for the first time in his life: