*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...

Drumroll, please . . . I started a blog! Yay! Party! Celebration! 🎉 * As if I needed one more thing to keep updating! Good grief, what was I thinking! But as I gear up for my next book project, I decided I wanted a space where I can chat about the craft of writing and the great resources I find and share my own writing process. Essentially, it'll be a more elaborate version of what I post here. Sounds fun? Then go read the intro and say hi! (Link in bio.)
Last time I asked you guys for future naming trends. Now, let's go into specifics! I have an all-girl crew of characters who all need names. What are some of your favorites girl names??
This is going to be an odd question and totally unrelated to this photo, but stay with me...What's the future of names? What kind of names will people give their children in 100 years? * I've narrowed down my next book project and I am so excited to begin! It's going to be a Middle Grade Sci-Fi set about 100 years in the future and there will be space travel and space pirates. Because OF COURSE THERE WILL BE SPACE PIRATES. Now I'm trying to define my characters, which got me thinking about this naming question. Will names roughly stay the same in the future? (After all, they really haven't changed that much in the last 100 years.) Will entering an age of manned space exploration bring forth a slew of little Novas and Lunas or will it backlash into environment-themed trend of little Rivers and Meadows? Will cultural globalization lead to more or less naming variety? Let me know what you think!
QOTD: Do you make decisions quickly or do you um and ah over choices? I tend to be pretty impulsive. But I sent off my manuscript to a freelance editor which gives me about a month of downtime and I can't decide what to work on in the meantime. My brain's all like: YA Romance? MG Fantasy? Sci-Fi? Historical Fiction? Magical realism? In the future? With magic? In space? With pirates? Can I somehow work in a joke chicken-shaped dinosaur nuggets? * So I spend my days brainstorming and hesitating and brainstorming and hesitating, and OH LOOK! SQUIRRELS! I could write a book about squirrels. * SAVE ME!
Do you sometimes pick books based on the title alone? That's why I ended up picking this book... it's also how I choose wine bottles, honestly. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. But either way, a good title always makes me smile. In this specific case, The Name of This Book Is Secret worked out well, it was pretty fun!
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." (Mitch Hedberg) Do you agree? * Today can we all just give a gold star to my 8yo daughter for sitting through the entire Winternight trilogy as a bedtime read-aloud these last few months? I'm amazed by how much she loved this complex story with political intrigue, religious tones, Russian vocabulary, and about five million characters who went by multiple names and nicknames and honorifics! * This child of mine is wild and spirited and also did I mention wild?? That's why I wanted to read her Vasya's story, a girl who was also wild but had the misfortune of growing up in a time when girls didn't have so many options. I wanted my daughter to appreciate how far women's rights have come and why we must keep fighting. Sometimes she'll pick up some ditzy girl-talk at school or from movies and I'm like DON'T YOU DARE. I hope reading about Vasya's fight for her freedom and family gave my daughter some perspective!
What tropes are you totally tired of right now? I've been in a bit of a reading slump, starting a lot of books and not finishing them. You guys, I love my YA fantasy, but I swear I'm going to break something if I have to read another "the chosen one" or "I have to save the world/country/kingdom" story. There are many, many excellent books along these lines and I love them dearly, but I just need a break. You know? So I read What If It's Us, and it was so refreshing. Both because it involved no ill-fated kingdom, but also because Ben and Arthur's foray into relationships felt entirely relatable. Not perfect insta-love. I was rooting for them to find each other and fall in love, but at the same time, surprisingly, also rooting for them NOT to find each other and fall in love because it was clear they had a lot of self-healing to do before they could be good partners in any relationship. It was a fun read!
When even the cat thinks your writing is trash 😂 QOTD: Favorite Easter/spring treat? I have a soft spot for Cadbury Mini-Eggs. And by soft spot, I mean I will eat them until I feel sick because there’s really no stopping with mini-eggs, is there? And then I’ll end up looking as nauseated as my cat in this photo.
How do you get your mojo back when your brain starts doubting the value of who you are? This is a feeling that's ubiquitous for writers, but ultimately it happens to everyone at some point. * I went to a seminar on writing with Maggie Stiefvater last weekend and I think I'm having an emotional crisis now. The seminar was great and she's a fantastic speaker. But she's awesome and successful and writes amazing dark, moody books and I wish I could be/do all of those things too. So I came back thinking I just need to practice being more epic. I've been spending the last few days channeling broody thoughts so I could pour my heart into beautiful prose on the page. Alas, I can't make it through two sentences without establishing I'm clearly on team sillypants. It's like I'm aiming for espresso, but all I get is chocolate milk. I've gone through the stages of grief over the death of my shortlived 3-day career as a Serious Writer, but I'm ready to accept that my voice is one that makes people laugh, not cry, and that's okay too.
How do you stay fit to counterbalance all this sit down reading time? Me? Tuesday: Started a new ballet class for adults. Wednesday: Went up and down the (extremely) long staircase to the beach, twice. Thursday + Friday: What are legs anymore?! I only have two wobbly noodles. #bookstagram #middlegradefiction #bookobsessed #booksaremagic #momswhowrite #momswhoread #womenwhoread #seekthesimplicity #smallmoments #smallmomentsofcalm #theartofslowliving #ofquietmoments #capturequiet #mybeautifulsimplicity #simpleandstill #visualcrush #quietinthewild #booksoutofdoors #readingspot #readoutside #beachreading #booksinthewild #booksinnature #booksonthebeach
This is going to be an important question, so watch out... What do you eat for lunch? I'm trying to get away from a default boring sandwich, but that means I often default to boring salads. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone here. I feel like we're letting lunch down, you guys. I tried to spice things up with a smoothie bowl and that was most exciting, but I need more ideas. How do you jazz things up?
Are you a dog or a cat person? I swear, I get up for 15 seconds to get a piece of paper and I come back to this. She's not only sitting on my seat, but she's holding on to that cushion like it's a long-lost friend back from the dead 😒 Where am I supposed to sit now?!