Who knew the internet would lead to this?

Many, many years ago, a stranger from Australia left a comment telling me that I was mistaken and included a link to updated data to contradict my opinion. She did it in such a pleasant way, and the research article she referred me to was so well-done, that I emailed her back my thanks. We kept in touch via email and our blogs over the years.

I learned that she earned a living as a technical writer/editor while pursuing graduate studies in medieval  history.  I'm a scientist with more than a casual interest in history.  She was a historian with more than a casual interest in science.  The Internet is a great way for people on the long tail to meet like-minded individuals.  The best part is, we're similar, yet dissimilar.  That way, we can learn new things from one another instead of being ditto heads (option 6) in an echo chamber.

Graduate school was put on hold after she got a fantastic job opportunity.  But that job abruptly ended through no fault of her own.  She took advantage of forced time off and accrued frequent flyer miles to tour California.

This is her third visit with us.  On this trip, she brought her aunt (in the safari vest), and six Style Arc patterns.  She took a panorama shot of us at the Getty Center after the marine layer crept in.  We look like typical under dressed tourists who don't know that the California coast is usually cold during the summer.  In our defence, we began the day at the inland and much warmer LA Zoo.

After they toured around San Francisco, they flew to San Diego, where we picked them up and went for a drive up the coast to La Jolla.  Can you tell the difference between a seal and a sea lion from this distance?  I can't.  But it sure was fun to see them clamber back up on the rock after swimming.

Hopefully, this means she can return to blogging and we can enjoy learning from her again. Meanwhile the patterns await while I deal with some RL issues like family work, job applications, and brushing up on statistics and programming with books and MOOCs.