la_belle_laide | Snow, good science news and a pic meme

Huge snowstorm! NIIIICE! Except that I doubt the snow will still be around by Christmas day. It will, however, be around tomorrow, which is the Winter Solstice and thus for me, the true holiday. ^_^

SB came by yesterday on his way home from one of his finals, and I gave him his b'day gift which was a scale model of Flea's blue Modulus bass. He really liked it and I was glad. Every year I try to find the perfect, absolutely perfect gift for people. Sometimes I fail, but once in a while I hit the jackpot. ^_^ I think I did pretty well with Crimbo gifties this year, too, but we'll see.

Monday I am going out with Lao Shir, The Lady Chrysanthemum, Snarklit and another lady who used to train with us, to toast the holiday and just chill out at a pub for a bit. I can't wait because I haven't seen two of those people since the summer. I foresee that it's going to be one of those all-around pleasant evenings.

Here's some really good news for today: Obama names 4 top members of science team. Here's why the news is so good:

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's selection Saturday of a Harvard physicist and a marine biologist for science posts is a sign he plans a more aggressive response to global warming than did the Bush administration.

John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco are leading experts on climate change who have advocated forceful government action. Holdren will become Obama's science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Lubchenco will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees ocean and atmospheric studies and does much of the government's research on global warming.

...
"It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology," Obama said in announcing the selections in his weekly radio address.

The president-elect said promoting science means more than just providing money, but also is about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.

"From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier because we had leaders who paved the way," Obama said. "Leaders who not only invested in our scientists, but who respected the integrity of the scientific process."

I read the words of the scientists he had chosen and I was so heartened and so glad. This is a huge freaking pole-vault in the right direction, finally.

So anyway. Soooo I've got my gifties wrapped (well, bagged really,) and my house clean, all the birds fed, laundry put away and grocery shopping done for the week. Should I really, really sit in front of the TV and re-play RE4 for the rest of the day? Really?

^_^

Oh! And here's a photo meme I remember from about three years ago, but I don't remember who I gacked it from. Sorry. >_<

Post your favorite photos of the year. They can be of anything. They can be taken by you, or can have you in them. Whichever. Here are mine,

These are my top three:

Okay, okay. That was actually from a few days before the new year last year. But it's so close that it still counts. Besides, I couldn't leave it out. It is so absolutely one of my favorite pics ever.