Astro Jax

After completing my MSc courses in astronomy (which were a bitch btw but totally worth it) life as a grad student is dope. For starters, my deadlines are my own, which is v cool. I submitted a proposal last week for telescope time at Gemini North and will hear back by the end of the month as to whether it was accepted (but it should be; it was only 1.5 hours and 4 objects so I think we are in good shape). This is the first real analysis on my own astronomy data that I will get for my thesis project. I have been feeling as though I am just doing what everyone tells me to, and not really doing as much in astronomy because it’s data mining and some orbital projection of stars around the galaxy but someone else developed it, not me, and I have been worried that I really am not doing anything astronomy-related in a nutshell. BUT NOW I’M GONNA GET TO ANALYZE SPECTRA AND DERIVE RADIAL VELOCITIES OF MY STARS and it feels like real observational astronomy instead of working with datasets. Super excited. Hopefully we can trace out some streams from globular clusters and I can whip out a dope paper by 2020.

Secondly, THE CONFERENCES. I was able to go to CASCA in June which was in Montreal and I had never been before. That was a really fun time, especially for how casual it was. I had many many many problems with getting my poster there in one piece and not looking stupid and being able to articulate my project effectively. I didn’t really have a good way to explain my project until after I wrote the proposal last week. I guess that’s how to tell if you are missing components of the basics of researching something; if you can’t articulate it, you don’t understand enough about it. But now in October, I also get to go back to Strasbourg, France for a CFIS/UNIONS conference, at my old observatory where I was an intern AND GIVE MY FIRST TALK. My old supervisor and friends will be there. I am so stooooked. Plus, I’m taking a week off beforehand to be in Amsterdam and Cologne (since it’s also Oktoberfest ;) so I HAD to spend time in Germany). I have also convinced my supervisor to send me to Madrid, Spain for a Data Analysis course hosted from the ESA (European Space Agency = Europe NASA) who will be using Gaia data and machine learning for the tutorials and it’s just really really relevant for my studies. So excited.

He laughed at her wearing shorts, saying that it made her thighs jiggle. I suppose she wasn't a stick or anorexic like his idealization. He always wanted me to be skinnier. But it really fucked me up and I told him "But that's just what legs do...that's what MY legs do."

And of course he was an asshole and asked me why I had to make everything about me when he obviously wasn't talking about me blablabla. But seriously not only was it so unnecessary and hurtful and judgmental, but if that's what you say about other women, what is it you tell your friends about me?