Kimberly Hirsh

Every time I call myself “Miss Kimberly” in my head, I immediately correct myself with “Doctor Kimberly.”

Me, listening to an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation with my eyes closed: “Is that Harry Groener? It sounds like Harry Groener.

opens eyes, looks at screen

Narrator: It was, in fact, Harry Groener.

Finished reading: The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien 📚

Listened to the audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis, which I think made it much more enjoyable than when I read it in print 20+ years ago. Highly recommend.

What’s the most fun thing you’ve done in the past 2 years?

🍿 Watched The Company of Wolves. Peak 80s gothic fantasy with a gorgeous score and the grossest werewolf transformations I’ve ever seen.

There’s been some hard stuff this week, but I also went to the pool and had dinner outside on my gorgeous deck with my gorgeous family and that was really great.

💬📚 “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

I slept for 9 hours instead of 10 last night (what a luxury, I know, believe me that I give up a lot of leisure time to sleep this much and I don’t like it) and my body is punishing me I guess by giving me brain fog.

A body should not require this much sleep.

But mine does.

Okay, Internet. What’s the best way to D&D remotely?

The Jiminy Cricket or Frog (of Frog and Toadl in my head: “If you do X, the whole week will go more smoothly.”

Me: “Nah, I’m gonna try and finish up Return of the Obra Dinn.”

Did not finish: A Little Life: A Novel by Hanya Yanagihara 📚

Beautifully written. After 400+ pgs of almost non-stop trauma, this book was actively making me unhappy so I set it aside. Definitely search around for content warnings before reading.

Working on the deck in summer always feels like working in a treehouse.

Picture of the view from my deck didn’t seem to actually end up attached to the post about working from the deck. Whoops!

Went to apply for passports for myself & M today and the passport person just wasn’t there, didn’t contact the people with appointments to reschedule or anything and I’m rather angry and frustrated because this is not a quick or easy process.

💬📚 “This was not what he thought acting would be, but what had he known about what acting would be?” - Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

💬📚 “It was impossible to explain to the healthy the logic of the sick, and he didn’t have the energy to try.” - Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

Is there space for robust research-practice partnerships in the time of COVID, or are people too tired for this kind of long-term collaboration?

My legs started getting medically-restless by 4 pm today. I didn’t have caffeine after 2 or so, took a warm bath with epsom salt & essential oil, took 900mg magnesium orally & 400 topically None of it seems to have helped. All tense & tingly. Chronic illness is for the birds.

M. styled my jewelry for our morning playdate. The earrings are stylized bats. He was going for “spooky and pretty,” which, as W pointed out, is what I’m usually going for, too.

💬📚 “He experienced the singular pleasure of watching people he loved fall in love with other people he loved. - Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

That feeling when your favorite people meet your other favorite people and everyone gets along.

💬📚 “He felt in those minutes his body’s treason… that he would be betrayed by it again and again, that he could expect nothing from it and yet had to keep maintaining it.” - Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

💬📚 “…he was an optimist. Every month, every week, he chose to open his eyes, to live another day in the world.” - Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

I ventured into the world of Duolingo fanfiction looking for Odile/Melissa stories because they’re a very cute couple, but what I found was… Not what I was looking for.

🔖 Read The Big Bang Didn’t Happen.

I know very little about cosmology, but this makes some good points about the limits of academic funding and publishing and the value of public science communication.

I cannot adequately convey how much I appreciate that Duolingo accepts “y’all” as the correct translation of the second person plural.