*Geekling's Guide to the Galaxy
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*Geekling's Guide to the Galaxy

Travel with purpose

Explore STEM & Arts in southern california and beyond

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Latest Posts

Geekling's Guide to the Galaxy
Santa Barbara Beaches 41 to 49
Santa Barbara Beaches 41 to 49
Santa Barbara Beaches 31 to 40
Santa Barbara Beaches 31 to 40
Santa Barbara Beaches 21 to 30
Santa Barbara Beaches 21 to 30
Santa Barbara Beach 11 to 20
Santa Barbara Beach 11 to 20
Santa Barbara Beaches 1 To 10
Santa Barbara Beaches 1 To 10
My #sbbeaches2018 Challenge: Visit All Santa Barbara County Public Beaches In One Year!
My #sbbeaches2018 Challenge: Visit All Santa Barbara County Public Beaches In One Year!

I set myself the challenge of visiting all of Santa Barbara county’s public, accessible beaches in 2018…49 in all!

How Do Tides Work
How Do Tides Work

You might remember that tides happen because of the moon, but how? Why? Geeklin’gs Guide to the Galaxy explores the finer details you may have forgotten!

UCLA Meteorite Gallery
UCLA Meteorite Gallery

Explore's UCLA's collection of ROCKS FROM SPACE! Also, learn that not all meteorites are created equal...Holy variety, Batman!

Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles, CA)
Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles, CA)

Whether hiking, exploring, or star gazing, you can't go wrong with the Griffith Observatory.

What Do Pokemon Go and San Francisco Have In Common?
What Do Pokemon Go and San Francisco Have In Common?

Or perhaps most importantly, did you know there are ships buried under San Francisco?

 
 

Make a SMALL impact.

Change the world.

 
 
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Places To Visit

Geekling's Guide to the Galaxy
UCLA Meteorite Gallery
UCLA Meteorite Gallery
Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles, CA)
Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles, CA)
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
 

Did you know?

Geekling's Guide to the Galaxy
How Do Tides Work
How Do Tides Work
What Do Pokemon Go and San Francisco Have In Common?
What Do Pokemon Go and San Francisco Have In Common?
What's So Weird About Pineapples? Everything.
What's So Weird About Pineapples? Everything.
 

PRODUCTS Recommendations

Geekling's Guide to the Galaxy
How We Survive Car Trips
How We Survive Car Trips
"Photo Doodles" Wins My Vote for Best Doodle Book
"Photo Doodles" Wins My Vote for Best Doodle Book
 
 
 
 

Have STEAM, will travel.

STEM+Art

FOR A

SMART START

Spoiler: It's about your brain.

TRAVELING MATTERS,

EVEN IF THEY

"WON'T REMEMBER IT"

 
 
 
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See what we've been up to lately...

When was the last time you felt you won as a parent? (Or a caretaker or a sibling or friend?) While I hate the adjustment of changing the time, I do love having more light in the evenings now. I decided to be impulsive and take advantage of the light by bringing dinner to the beach. I was rewarded with this gorgeous sunset! Plus, my daughter asked to bring her book to read at the beach, so I know I'm doing something right as a parent! She's loving the 5 Worlds graphic novels.
Does noise bother you? I swear my two children sound like bag full of hyenas the second I try to do something. I can tune it out when I read but it’s more of a struggle when I write. That’s one activity I just have to save for school days and late nights!
Happy St Patrick’s Day 🍀 * QOTD: what’s your favorite thing about spring? For us in SoCal, it’s wildflower season! There are fields and fields and fields of these happy little yellow flowers, I wish they stay all year round 😍 * I’ve been on a reading slump, so I put aside all fantasy novels and picked up some contemporary romance candy 😉
QOTD - Daylight Savings Time: Friend or foe? We've had a topsy-turvy kind of week. First there was this whole silly time change shenanigan, which I'm pretty sure was invented to make parents of small children miserable. And then, just to really shake things up, our school has early dismissal this week. I imagine there's an evil superintendent out there who was like "HOW CAN WE SPREAD MORE ANARCHY?" and then he decided to schedule a whole week of early dismissals right as the time changed. Instant chaos! Everyone's waking up cranky! Schedules are out of control! Everyone’s crying!
I was attending a SCBWI writing conference over the weekend, and one of the panelists was author Lee Wind. Something he said really blew my mind, so I wanted to share it with you. The topic of sensitivity readers came up and he mentioned disliking the term "sensitivity reader." He argued that the terminology implies that underrepresented groups are guilty of being easily offended. He suggested that we should instead call it "cultural competency readers," since it's the writer's job to represent their culturally-diverse characters in a competent way. This shifts the blame from the reader to the writer. Which is so right!! * Looking into it further, it looks like the term "cultural competence" is already used in a lot of medical and nursing articles and papers. Can we please bring this to the writing world?
What’s the last book you picked based on the title? * The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone was recommended to me by a friend and I was sold on the title alone. And the cover gives just enough taste of fantasy (there's an epic pirate ship on the back) that I was totally in. The voice of Bronte Middlestone was absolutely fantastic, you gotta love a brave, no-nonsense middle-grade heroine. I definitely recommend it for all ages! It was just the perfect mix of absurd and harrowing. * The sequel came out a few months ago so I must get to it soon! It also has a great title, of course... The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars.
I've been thinking about starting a blog on my website just as a place to put a little writing out into the world while I whittle away at this MG novel of mine. But then again, I tend to start projects that I don't upkeep. What do you think? Are blogs worth it for anyone not pursuing blogging as a be-all and end-all? Are blogs dead? All my previous blogs certainly are dead. Help! WHAT DO I DO!! 🤯😜
Let’s talk kids, but let’s skip to the fun stuff: how do you punish them? 😜 Whenever my 8yo is starts to act like a brat, I make her watch a TED talk and give me a summary of what she learned. Since they’re often about behavioral or cultural topics, it seems like the perfect reminder on how to be part of a greater community. And when I saw this book, I thought it would be another perfect “punishment.” Act snotty and you get to read a chapter about women entrepreneurs. If that doesn’t inspire you to be your best self, i don’t know what will! * Do you have any creative solutions when your kids start acting like brats?! Or, if you don’t have kids, did your parents have any outside-the-box punishments for you?
It's been a long time since I've done an introduction post, so I thought I'd show my face (this is my "cheers to editing" face, if you couldn't tell) and share some random facts about me. 1) The best way to get me to do something is to tell me that I can't. (This also works great on toddlers, so now we all know I'm really 3 years old on the inside.) I may have gotten a Masters in Computer Science just because no one pegged me as a computer person. HOLD MY BEER. 2) I consider myself a jack of all trade. There's a certain stigma attached to that (master of none), and I wish I was really amazing at one thing rather than just kind of good at lots of things. I tend to obsess over one hobby and move on to the next when there's no longer the fun of surmounting that initial steep learning curve. 3) I'm an Elon Musk fangirl. Is there a support group for that? 4) I consider myself a Michaelango, but my family thinks I'm a Raphael. But look, I don't have an anger problem, just severe RBF. 5) My dream as a kid was to become a helicopter pilot. I still intend to make that happen one day... maybe when we're empty nesters in 5 gazillion years. * Share a random fact about you!
Oh no, you died! Your gravestone is engraved with: “Here lies {your name}. He/She was {title of current book}.” What does it say about you? * “Here lies Ariane, she was Einstein’s Dreams.” It sounds like a pick up line. Girl, you must be Einstein’s dreams because you’re more special than relativity. Or... Girl, you must be Einstein’s dreams because space-time isn’t the only with that’s curved. 😜
It snowed in Los Angeles yesterday, what is happening!! It didn't snow where I am in Santa Barbara, but I feel equal parts excited and outraged by proximity. #climatechangeisreal dude! * In unrelated news, I crossed a huge milestone in my manuscript yesterday. I finished drafting the dreaded "middle" of my novel! The ending I already fleshed out when I started this writing project last year, so it shouldn't be too hard to bulk it up a bit. Then the only thing left after that will be drafting a quick denouement and voila! (I used two French words in one sentence so now you know I'm a fancy lady.) Almost there!
Man, you really can’t get more poignant middle grade than Katherine Applegate, can you? I’m totally okay with murderous fantasy, but I’m a total wimp when it comes to real-world kids dealing with real-world problem 😭 * QOTD: What author outside of your preferred genre always delivers the feels for you?