I appologize for the pun, by the way. But it's amazing how hard it is to come up with a name for a webpage that doesn't sound incredibly inane. I recall Trent Reznor discussing how he named his band. He wrote down a bunch of ideas, and after a week, the only one he could still stand was "Nine Inch Nails." What does it mean? Who knows? But it does have a certain ring to it.
Well, with that behind us, let it here be resolved that:
We, the authors, have undertaken to redesign and implement this website, even though, according to certain objective criteria, we have absolutely nothing useful to say.
And really, that seems to pretty much sum it up.
Far be it for me to leave it at that, however. What good is a vanity website without a little vanity? So, since you asked (implicitly, by coming to the site), a few details.
My name is Tabetha. I'm a grad student in astronomy. I like studying stars, how they evolve, and how they die. I have two cats, one whom is beautiful and calm, but was getting a bit bored, and a new one who generally has too much energy and would be more trouble than he's worth if he didn't also have an indefatiguable purring motor. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, though I guess I consider myself a transplanted East-coaster. I was born in Nigeria, and have lived in California, Rhode Island, Maryland, Ohio, and Boston. Before I came here, I worked in the calibration group for the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a NASA satellite like Hubble. I drive a crunched-up Ford Escort stationwagon that I bought the summer before my senior year in college, and in which I drove 20,000 miles across 39 states and three provinces in about eight weeks. I live in a condo next to the UW-Madison Arboretum. I occasionally go running, when it's not too dark or two cold, or when I'm not too lazy. I have two parents, the same ones I was born with, who have remained an intact pair for just about 40 years now. They live in Maryland. I also have a sister. She is an art history grad student at Princeton. My family is Quaker on both sides for many generations, though I've never really attended Meeting regularly myself. But my spiritual side is important to me, and I have started going to the Meeting here occasionally. I do not really feel comfortable calling myself a Quaker, though if there is a religion I could belong in, it's the Society of Friends.
Whew. Let's all stop to catch our breath. Good. I feel better now.
In addition to the above links, and the links to the side, you may also choose to visit my UW-Madison Astronomy Department webpage. I keep it separate, theoretically so I don't have to worry about my professional peers reading things like this, but mostly because I can. It's one of those Geek Cred things, like knowing the most up-to-date ways to position graphical elements on a webpage that no one will read.
If for some reason that torrent of text has not quenched your thirst for knowledge, feel free to email me. Unless it's spam. Then I would politely request that you go back to the hell from which you were spawned, demon poisoner of all that is good in this world.
Have a nice day!