Birds Annie re-joined the flock on Sunday and moved back inside Monday. We thought it was just one bird (Pig, an apt name) pecking her, but it seems that at least a couple others are also guilty. (We brought Pig in when we took Annie out.) She was supposed to go back out again tomorrow with some Vick's on her head to keep the other birds from pecking her, but today when we got home she'd made an absolute mess of her cage and banged her head up again, poor thing. I think a mouse made its way into our basement/walls and the sound of its claws spooked her. So now she's sitting on the arm of the couch and eating bits of dorito out of my hand. (We spoil her when she's inside...) I know she misses her feathered friends, but I don't know if I want to risk her getting pecked up again before her new injuries heal completely... Life Things have felt off for whatever reason lately (probably a combination of stress, too much work, and trying to take care of the people and animals in my life). Today I finally regained my motivation for technical writing, so I'm trying to finish up Yet Another Floating Point Explainer for my students to read. Recently cracked open my Pictures for Sad Children archive and wow, that has just gotten better with age. I hope the author is doing well, wherever they are now... Edit Been thinking about my two project cars out in the barn (well, one project, one accident repair) and wondering when I'll have time to get them moved to the basement and fixed. I especially feel bad for the project car, as its body is in great shape but the previous owner made an absolute mess of the engine. Shame to see it sit and gather dust. Research I have an undergrad student assistant! I have no idea what I'm going to have them work on! I desperately need to take some time to do actual thinking about my work, but I doubt I'll be able to do that this week. It's frustrating to know exactly what I need to do next and to just not have time to do it. I spoke with my advisor about publishing on Arxiv.org and she liked the idea! Hopefully I'll be able to get my paper up there soon so people can finally read it.