Dunheasa FAQ

I've been getting quite a few questions about Dunheasa so here's a list of the most commonly asked questions.

Q: How do you promise Dunheasa?
A: doon-che-a-sa (note that the "oo" is like "loon" or "moon" and the "ch" is the German "ach" or the Scottish "loch" not the "ch" like "chair"). Alternatively it can be pronounced as doon-hee-a-sa. Also, note that the "ee" isn't as long as the "ee" in "cheese" but it's somewhat shorter, a cross between "ee" and the short "e" in words like "bet" or "get".

Q: What language did Dunheasa come from? And what does it mean?
A: It was inspired by Scots and Irish Gaelic. In the actual languages, it has something to do with shadow and darkness, but in the mythology of my writings, it's more like "shadow-land".

Q: Are any of the characters based on real people?
A: Yes! A few are actually the people themselves, albeit in the future. Most of the characters are composites of several people I know. I even make a bit of a showing in both versions of the story.

Q: Are Cylithera Eaglestrike and the Eternal Huntress the same entity?
A: Yes. In the mythology of my stories, there's a deity known as the Eternal Huntress who has taken on many incarnations as the pantheon shifts around thanks to great heroes and villains. The current incarnation is Cylithera Eaglestrike (and no, that's NOT the same one as me!). Speaking of which, I picked my pen-name as Cylithera Eaglestrike after this character.

Dunheasa Revision and Other Stuff

I've done a bit of a revision to Dunheasa, mostly in the Prologue and with Captain Greywolf. As always, comments are always welcome. Out of curiosity, which version works better? I'm a bit torn about dealing with Captain Greywolf -- any takes?

Also in the works, not sure when I'll finish & post them:
-- A quasi-sequel to Dunheasa revolving around the three "kids" in the final chapter. I won't say too much yet because it's still very early, but I can promise any linear combination of the following elements: random parodies of some of my favorite pop culture icons, deeds of derring-do, bizarre transformations and/or sheer nerdiness.
-- A full-blown Killer Parakeet story where he's the shining star. 'nuff said.

And now back to the regularly scheduled thesis work!

Small May Update

Just thought I'd put a little blurb. It's really feeling like a TIN model where the resolution (or frequency of posts) varies with how much stuff is floating around in what's left of my brain.

First... Keeping the Ranger in check has been helping a lot with my work, but it's also taking its toll on me in the form of greatly increased caffeine intake.

Second... Depending on how fidgety I get as I keep working on my thesis, I may be posting a revised version of Dunheasa. Thanks to all of you who've given me input!

Third... I've got another Do Not Attempt At Home story. So what happened was I decided to take advantage of some insomnia I got hit with and was working on trying to develop a method of differentiating soil from vegetation pixels for the tram data. Only thing was, I didn't realize that the insomnia would be very much like a binary system. I put on a bit of music, only had 4 songs in my queue for whatever reason -- Whap-Pa and Dulce by Radu Sirbu, and Nu Ma Las De Limba Noastra and Noapte Fara Somn by O-Zone. Anyway, I fell asleep while working up the data and I got called really early in the morning. Let's just say whoever was on the other end was very confused and it wasn't until after the other person hung up and just sent me an e-mail indicating that I was singing "in some really strange language" when I picked up the phone... along with some random stuff he wanted to tell me about river ecology. Moral of the story: Don't fall asleep while listening to something THAT catchy!

Journey to Dunheasa: First Draft

And now here is my very first draft of Journey to Dunheasa. This was pretty much inspired by a lot of stuff that's happened in the last few years, including my own research experience, (mis)adventures, and most of all, the fascinating cast of characters I've met over the years.

Feel free to either e-mail or leave comments, I can always use a bit of input!

Orthogonal Thought-Chains

Thought #1 is another "Do Not Attempt At Home"
Basically I got really stressed yesterday and decided to make some comfort food in the form of some Indian-style curry. I had 2 bottles of curry sauce from Trader Joe's and tons of frozen meat and veggies. Being hungry, tired, and aching from jogging about 3 miles on a treadmill, I decided that the best way to make something yummy was to boil the chicken strips first and then add the sauce and then the veggies. Only problem was I was really impatient and didn't wait for the chicken to thaw out properly so I could separate the pieces. So I have this huge chunk of chicken that's taking forever to cook, so I'm thinking "I'll add more water and by the time I drive the water out, it'll be thoroughly cooked". Not quite, especially since when I tasted the result, it was kinda bland so I added some cayenne pepper to the mix. About an hour and a half (and about half a pound of salad) later, I had curry. Now keep in mind, I added A LOT of cayenne pepper to this mixture, so it was hot. But it's still good, just that I need to have rice and a lot of water (or other appropriate drink) with it. And that reminds me of a saying I once heard in my lab: Spicy food is hot twice, going in and coming out...

Thought #2 is a more introspective one...
One thing I'm learning these days is that there are some things that just won't go away... especially the part of me known as the Ranger. Now that I've gotten hooked on archery, martial arts, and all things that involve making myself physically tougher, it's getting pretty darned hard to concentrate. Even with me doing the last bits of Journey to Dunheasa and getting a lot of the Ranger out of my system, there's that bit that just won't let go. Speaking of Dunheasa, it might be a bit longer than I thought before I post that one. It's really frustrating when I'm trying to read up on latent heat models or when I'm trying to do intelligent models based on both vegetation indices and micro-met data and I just feel the outdoors calling out to me. What have I done to myself by rediscovering my old strength by picking up the bow again and learning tae kwon do?!

Thought #3 is are pet peeves I've got that have been making me swear excessively...
1) Applying excessive cosmetics in the locker room or anywhere (semi)public. Hey, as much as people like to think otherwise, gas molecules DO travel and when there's a lot of perfumes, lotions, etc being applied, some of us start having trouble breathing! And how the hell could someone pay so much attention to their appearance, especially as a student?!
2) Skimpy clothing in/near a chemistry or machining lab. Can we say, safety hazards?
3) Gym classes getting pre-empted by non-essential stuff like various business fairs on campus. Enough said. Can't they find somewhere else to go and NOT interfere with our few opportunities to actually try to keep ourselves healthy?!

Creativity = F(stress, deadlines)

For some really weird reason, the urge for me to write non-technical stuff is strongest when I'm under serious deadlines and when I really need to work on more important stuff like my research. So I've been having trouble concentrating on my thesis and instead I keep visualizing acts of derring-do and brave archers in the wilderness. Not good when I need to finish and defend soon! Maybe I should start modelling my random thoughts instead of evapotranspiration... although for some reason, I don't think that'll quite cut it for my thesis (aka my ticket to freedom from CSULA)

And got a few words of wisdom...
-- Elbows are great until they don't want to turn outwards while doing archery Olympic-style with my non-dominant hand (standing straight with a recurve and holding the bow straight... ouch!).
-- Shooting at very short-distances on a target with lots of hard spots is really scary
-- It's a lot of fun cranking up music in the lab late at night when there's nobody else around, but when there's a class very close by and the walls are paper-thin, someone will be pissed. For some reason, people don't seem to quite appreciate Etno (Romanian/Moldovan folk music) or bagpipes very much...

SpecNet and Random Brain Fart

I recently found out that the paper I had accepted into the SpecNet special issue of Remote Sensing of Environment is finally getting published after things moving slower than Cal State LA bureaucracy. I'm waiting eagerly for the proofs to show up so I can see what my paper will look like in all its glory... and I'm even more eager for when the publication actually comes out with all of the papers that have been accepted! I can't wait to see what other efforts have gone into SpecNet.

And then there's also hope for Project Argonium (which I've temporarily removed from my webpage until I can find a more "permanent" home for the musical side of Project Argonium) moving somewhere besides in circles. So for the last several weeks I've been writing bits and pieces as time and stress levels allow me. I've tentatively titled this current work Journey to Dunheasa. I won't say much more about it just yet just to keep my readers in suspense. I might also write another story about Killer Parakeet -- it's been far too long since my last Killer Parakeet story! Stay tuned for more...

Thesis and Research Thoughts

I have no idea why but the topics for today: my research and thesis. I don't know what it is about doing a thesis but whenever I mention it, people seem to look at me as if I had just told them that I was some mad scientist. What's up with people thinking that doing research is something scary and intimidating? Granted, I've been doing it for the last 3 years and it did take some getting used to, but I still have trouble understanding what is there to fear.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm doing research on exploring the utility of remote sensing in modelling evapotranspiration. To be more specific, I am looking at various reflectance features in the visible and near-infrared range to see how they tie in with plant ecophysiology. My current (and soon to be wrapped-up) project (aka my thesis) is to develop a simple remote-sensing driven model that also incorporates micrometeorology data to model evapotranspiration in chaparral. Why? Basically I wanted something that's simple to implement along the lines of straight linear regression-based models but still captures the dynamics and mechanics of the ecosystem along the lines of popular models like SEBAL or SiB2. In other words, a model that explores more of the nuts-n-bolts than an empirical remote sensing model but doesn't have hassle of dozens of variables that have to be modelled themselves.

Anyway, enough spewing about my research for now... and is it me, or is there some kind of social stigma attached to doing ecological research, especially when it involves ecosystem process modelling?

My brain's starting to groan at me again, but it's a bit too late at night and the weather's not quite up for my natural stress relief. I really need to spend more time shooting -- my hunting instincts are driving me absolutely batty and I miss the caress and eagle-like authority of my trusty bow...

March Madness

Things have been extremely hectic these days so I haven't quite been keeping up with this and I didn't even get to do my usual finals-mania ranting! I don't think I'll be doing too much work here for a while because I am under super time pressure to do my thesis, but I thought I'd put something up for whatever reason I'm feeling like doing so. I have officially committed to the PhD program in Interdisciplinary Ecology at the School of Natural resources at University of Florida.

I had something in mind but I completely forgot after repeated phone calls from random criters. I'll probably post it when I'm absolutely sick of working on my thesis, which I'm not somewhat behind in...

... And now time to keep the ranger in me in check long enough to actually finish my thesis!

Second Nibble

Two major things have happened since the last post...

1) I got my car stolen from my apartment parking space. Whoever did it, I have to admit, did a very good job since they left the parking space nice and clean without any broken glass or any other crud. But still... having to rent a car and file all that paperwork is just a real nightmare, especially to someone who's desperately trying to pass all her classes and make progress on both her thesis!

2) I got my second acceptance notice from North Carolina State University! Now I have 2 choices, although I'm still waiting for a few more responses. At this point, University of Florida is in first place in my book, but that may shift after I visit or it may just completely blow all the other schools out of the water. I won't have my verdict until I visit. But let's just say my chances of going to UF for my PhD are looking pretty darn good.

Anyways... I should be working on my genetics lab reports and my sociology term paper, but I'm just feeling too darned excited and antsy about visiting University of Florida as well as just wanting to go do some serious archery since it's been a week since I last went shooting. The "Ranger" in me is almost overwhelming, as are my fighter instincts!

First Nibble

Got my first real nibble as far as my quest for getting into graduate school goes! I found out that I got into University of Florida, courtesy of one of my potential advisers there. I was so excited when I got the e-mail that I literally inhaled lunch and started choking from the excitement. I also could barely sit still or concentrate during my genetics quiz as well! I feel much better now that I know that I have at least ONE choice... and to be honest, University of Florida is one of my top choices, making me all the happier! I'm still jumping around knowing that my three years of "penance" at Cal State LA are finally paying off!

Let's see how my other choices, especially Stanford and Oregon State University, pan out :) I can't wait to find out where I will be spending the next 5-8 years of my life and finally leave Pasadena/Los Angeles, and hopefully, big cities as well...

January Update

Basically, I'm still plugging away at my usual academic business (thesis, grad apps, classes, etc) and trying to get in everything else as much as I can. Done with all but one application for grad school which is within sending range once I'm happy with the last bit of punctuation and phrasing but now I've got all the financial aid and grant stuff to worry about.

Still moving very slowly, if at all on side-Project Argonium, which has now shifted to include my writing. My ideas in general have changed for Side-Project Argonium. Just for the hell of it, I feel like writing a bit of an overarching statement of purpose for Side-Project Argonium: I seek to sweep my readers and listeners away from the daily grind of reality into a world of fantasy and to immerse the surroundings with the power and beauty of the three musics. Whether Argonium is engaged in song or story, I hope to invoke engaging images and thoughts. I'll have to ponder over this a lot more, but hey, it's a start. I'm hoping to get some writing out soon now that I'm down to the classes I've been trying to avoid in the vain hope that they'll no longer be required by the time the time arrives for me to take them. I've got some geek-tales and light-hearted adventures in my mind right now, but let's see what really comes out.

As for my archery, I haven't been shooting anywhere as much as I'd like, but then again, I don't think I could shoot enough until my arms are hurting and I can't draw my bow anymore. As much of an academic geek as I am, I don't think I could ever just be indoors all the time... I already miss being at the range, being in the forest, and most of all, the coastal redwood forests near those rocky beaches that always remind me of how powerful and beautiful nature is.

Enough rambling. Time for me to go back to my awful genetics lab assignments.

Spur of the Moment Craziness

It's been a while since I've last spewed anything out -- Finals really left me dead and grad school applications didn't help me any.

So a friend and I decided that it would be fun to see if we could get any contact information for Dan Balan. For those of you who aren't familiar with popuclture, there used to exist a Moldovan band called "O-Zone". The three members were Dan Balan, Arsenie Toderas, and Radu Sarbu. Anyway, my friend, Elena, who was lucky enough to see them live in concert while she was in Moldova and even luckier to have met Arsenie in person, decided to try to do a search for an address or a phone number. We heard rumors that Dan Balan was somewhere in the LA area, so we started searching. No real luck and I didn't quite have the guts (or the funding) to invest in a real search to confirm/deny any possible hits we found. It would be fun if we could get into contact with a celebrity like any of the members of the now-dead band, O-Zone. Who knows, maybe we'll have some luck...

And who says that aspiring professors have to be mature?

Edition 2 of Finals Rant, Part 2 of n

Actually this has been a fairly quiet finals week, cold symptoms aside.

I just want to get them over and for some reason all I've been wanting to do is archery, but unfortunately, I also need to think about my academic future. Plus it's been a bit cold, and although I'm almost impervious to what people in LA call cold, being sick and sleep-stressed does make things a lot more difficult.

Anyways... here's what I really felt like posting:
Let x1= # species on Island 1
x2= # species on Island 2
M= immigration rate from mainland
E= extinction rate
c= rate of exchange between islands
x1=x1(M-Ex1+cx2); x2=x2(cx1-Ex2)
Find and classify fixed points
∂x1/∂x1 ∂x1/∂x2
A=
∂x2/∂x1 ∂x2/∂x2

This was the fake introductory slide I used for a biogeography final presentation as a joke :)

Edition 2 of Finals Rant, Part 1 of n

It's finals again! This time it shouldn't be as bad as the last round, but who knows...

First a few words of wisdom:
1) Cold medicine + too much chocolate + too much coffee + too little sleep = hallucinations and spazz fits. Trust me. Don't attempt this!

2) Adding lime juice to a latte = BAD idea

I just can't wait to get finals overwith, preferably with decent grades this time and getting my grad school applications done well. And hopefully I can "earn" a shot at an upcoming local archery tournament a week from tomorrow... :)

My brain is letting out lots of steam, almost done with my application to Stanford and my final project for remote sensing seminar. More on finals later. I just felt like goofing off a bit.

Ouch ouch ouch -- Do Not Attempt This Stunt!

A few random words of wisdom that hit even closer to home than before...

1) Stretch thoroughly before attempting anything strenuous or extensive flexibility
2) Bone is hard... and being hit by something hard hurts!
3) Shins are very vulnerable to ouchies and are not the best shields against a nice solid foot or another shin!

So basically... I learned these lessons from Tae Kwon Do earlier tonight. I did some pretty aggressive sparring and managed to take a lot of blows to the shins, mostly from bumping shins with fellow white belts who are just as clueless and/or klutzy as I am! And then there was the whole not-quite-stretching enough before class. I think I pulled something in my left leg and I'm now hobbling about... I just knew something wasn't quite right when I was about to deliver a nice solid hook kick to my opponent and then I suddenly felt everything in my left leg tense up... and then I just kinda curled up in pain. At first it wasn't too bad since I did try to take care of it in the locker room after class since it did occur towards the end of class, but as if that weren't enough, I ended up practicing that same kick at home, thinking I was still pre-stretched... and then in another flash of luck and brilliance, I bumped my leg in the shower -- the same one that's already kinda sore... OUCH!!! So my poor left leg is now all tenderized and bumpy. And I still have a bump and several bruises on my right leg from using it as a shield...

Thank goodness for my hiking pole or I'd have to look even more foolish with a cane or worse! And thank goodness for all my experience with ouchies like this to know when it's just ugly as all hell and just a minor inconvenience to be treated with a bit of TLC and some hot towels and a massage... or if it's something I need to haul my tail to the doctor for.

Anyway, enough ranting here and back to work...

GRE Biology Exam

So this past weekend, along with many other aspiring graduate students, I took the GRE subject exam in biology. The overall comment, as my friends would say, was SN-2. For those of you who don't know organic chemistry, it's basically a reaction mechanism also known as "back-side attack". In other words, one molecule rams another one from behind and at the same time knocks off the leaving group and the effect looks a lot like an umbrella being turned inside-out. It was a pretty tough exam, especially for someone who doesn't generally memorize things very well. But I have to admit, the experimental/data interpretation questions were a lot of fun just trying to deduce answers on techniques I had no clue on. I don't know how I did, just that I'm glad that it's over and I pretty much did all I could to survive it! I still have tons of stuff to do for the rest of my grad school application stuff, but at least the tests are over!

And to be really honest... I'd much rather be out at the range with my trusty 30lb Martin X-200 recurve or working on Project Argonium than being cooped up on campus, but I've got to do what I've got to do to get into a really nice graduate project.

Time to Build Up More Muscles

One thing I've been wanting to do for quite some time now is bow-hunting. Only thing is, to hunt anything of a reasonable size and take it out humanely without too much suffering, I have to be able to pull 40 lbs bare minimum, preferably 45 or 50 lbs. So I decided to try my hand at a 45 lb compound bow, not realizing that unlike a recurve or a longbow, the compound bow is very hard to pull initially and then it's easy to hold up at draw length. I'm used to a recurve, where it's easy to pull and then the real effort is in holding the pull. I can pull 35 lbs reasonably well on a recurve without suffering too much and 40 lbs is doable but my aim suffers and I do have to rest periodically... as for 45... well, let me tell you what happened... Having a bit of an ego, I decide to try my hand on a 45 lb compound bow. I try to pull and my face is turning red and I'm straining pretty hard to get it to move. All the while, the store-keeper (who knows me pretty well since I've gone to hunter safety training and generally get the bulk of my archery supplies form there) is wincing and grinning at the same time.

The recommendations when I asked about different compound bow models and technical specs?

1) Shoot more! A lot more, even if it is on a lighter bow!
2) If I can't go shooting, then go weight-training.
3) Go for one of the more aggressive bows by Bowtech (www.bowtecharchery.com) after I can comfortably pull a recurve about 5-10 lbs heavier than my intended compound weight.

So yeah... I'm kinda sore from attempting to pull that 45 lb compound bow today. Oh, it didn't quite help that my ego drove me to try something else kinda stupid at the archery shop today. I tried shooting a nice 45 lb take-down recurve. I was able to do it with a fair bit of effort just to prove to myself that I'm not a weakling. Let's just say that's as much as I'm able to pull safely without killing myself. As if that weren't enough, I actually do shoot a few arrows with it and sure enough, my aim sucks. Ouch. Here I am now, wishing that I had someone to give me a nice shoulder massage after these acts of ego-driven idiocy!

Side-Project Argonium News

It's been a while since I've done anything with Side-Project Argonium, but I might finally be able to make some progress on it now that I suddenly have a tiny bit of extra time. I've upgraded from my little Sharpsicle harp to a much nicer Ravenna 26 by Dusty Strings (pictured on this entry). The ony thing I do like about the Sharpsicle is that it weighs about 1/3 as much as the Ravenna, but the tradeoff with the much more beautiful sound and full set of sharping levers is worth it.

So basically, most of the songs I'm tinkering with are either various Celtic pieces I have or songs by a band called O-Zone. However, there's also a few other songs that I'd like to play with, including the theme from Mononoke Hime and Spirited Away. If I can ever either make more room or find a nice place to get my stuff hosted, I'll try to post up more samples of what I'm working on. Right now, my website is a bit crammed and I need to remove a lot of stuff from it... more updates when the opportunities come...

Weary of LA

Seems like whenever I have some kind of academic deadline where it's pretty much "do-or-die", I get the urge to write something else... anyway, I'm feeling very much like just spewing out random thoughts now, mostly revolving around this insane restless urge I'm feeling.

Recently, I've acquired an unusually strong dislike for being in the city for whatever reason. However, I've been to a few cities that hasn't triggered my "I hate big cities" instincts: Vancouver, British Columbia (or to people in the USA, Canada) and Victoria, British Columbia. There's just so many things about these places that really attracts me -- the abundant forests and hiking trails just within an easy drive or even walk/bus trip away, the relatively clean air, the proximity to the sea, and the climate. They're still cities but they don't have the same kind of stifling feeling as Los Angeles, CA or even San Francisco. Some may argue it's what I make of the place, but there's just something very deep inside of me that makes me really want to return to Vancouver and Victoria. I didn't get that same tugging inside of me about Montreal for some reason. Must've been something about where I ended up staying for the ESA-INTECOL conference not too long ago and being in the Palais de Congress for that week...

Anyway, all I really want at this point is just to be able to roam about freely outdoors away from crowds, cars, smog, and admittedly, both Caltech and CSULA, which have dominated my life since 1997. Archery at the various places I've been finding has helped me tolerate life in LA a lot better, as well as the occasional sneak-retreat I take into some random wilderness location, but I know deep inside I need to leave LA as soon as I'm done at CSULA. I suspect that it's also this feeling of stagnation as well as my natural wanderlust and strong dislike for the cities that's driving my intense desire to leave LA. On the positive side, this weariness of living in LA is spurring me onwards to work on my PhD applications and I look forward to visiting and interviewing at the various schools. What adventures will I find outside of LA? And what will I find in my remaining time in LA?