Syd Andersen
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smandersen.bsky.social
Syd Andersen
@smandersen.bsky.social
82 followers 77 following 180 posts
(They/Them) Astronomy PhD Student || Opinions Are My Own
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smandersen.bsky.social
Beebs Please Go a Month Without a Health Problem Challenge
A tortie cat sitting with her tail curled up under her chin. Her pupils are large and she’s looking down, away from the camera. The same tortie cat from a slightly different angle. She looks off to the right and has huge pupils
October 31, 2025 at 6:22 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
I mean, yeah
Excerpt from Authority by Jeff VanderMeer. Two characters are exchanging dialogue. "As a physicist, what do you do when you're faced by something that doesn't care what you do and isn't affected by your actions? Then you start thinking about dark energy and you go a little nuts.” "Yeah, it's something we think about: How do you know if something is out of the ordinary when you don't know if your instruments would register the progressions? Lasers, gravitational-wave detectors, X-rays. Nothing usetul there. I Got this spade here and a bucket and some rubber bands and duct tape, you know?"
October 26, 2025 at 9:26 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Astronomy on tap was a nice break from my last week of work and a warm up for grad school… in retrospect I should have recused myself from trivia.
A selfie of a non-binary white person holding a huckleberry wine slushy
August 28, 2025 at 4:16 AM
smandersen.bsky.social
Code/Astro Day 3!
A selfie of a non-binary white person, holding up a name tag. The name tag has a purple Northwestern and CIERA (center for interdisciplinary research in astrophysics) lanyard. It says “Sydney Andersen, University of Washington, they/them” and has the logos for Code Astro workshop and CIERA.
August 6, 2025 at 1:54 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Cat cleanse
A tortie cat with a white chest and paws looks off to the left. Her ears are forward and her whiskers are spread out. She’s laying up against her out-of-frame human’s thighs with her paws on their knees. The same tortie cat as the previous image in the same pose but she is looking at the camera.
April 11, 2025 at 7:17 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Bunny stack!
A tortie cat with white paws has an indignant expression on her face. She has two stuffed toy bunnies stacked on her head. A tortie cat with white paws and chest looks away from the camera. She has two stuffed toy bunnies stacked on her head. The image is blurry and the bunnies are about to fall.
February 25, 2025 at 4:28 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Turning 30 less than a month into my graduate program like
Steve Buscemi on 30 Rock wearing a backwards baseball cap and holding a skate board. Caption text: “How do you do, fellow kids?”.
February 24, 2025 at 7:52 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
BLESSED
A tortie paw with white socks rests on a white human’s palm.
February 15, 2025 at 8:06 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
A screenshot from King of the Hill where Hank is talking to an IT person. The text says “I don’t want to save to The Cloud. I want to save to My Documents, on the computer, that I own, that’s in my own house.”.
February 14, 2025 at 6:35 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Absolute bangers all around
A cropped page from Legend of the Galactic Heroes Volume 4. Text reads: Within its nation, a military was the largest violent organization. "Hey, Julian. It's usually not my style to say this kind of thing, but if you say you're going to become a soldier, there's something I don't want you to forget: the military is an organ of violence, and that violence comes in two types." "Good violence and bad violence?" "No, not like that. There's violence for the purpose of rule and oppres-sion, and there's violence as a means of liberation. A nation's military..." Yang drank down the last of his considerably cooled hot punch. "...is by nature an organization of the former. That's unfortunate. but history proves it. When rulers have clashed with their citizens, it's been rare for the military to side with the people. In fact, in a number of countries in the past, militaries themselves have turned into authoritarian organizations and even ruled the people through violence. Even last year, we had some people who tried to do that and failed."
January 22, 2025 at 5:36 AM
smandersen.bsky.social
I love this series
A cropped page from Legend of the Galactic Heroes Volume 6. Text reads: But even as Reinhard brought about universal peace and prosperity by force of political suggestion, people were getting used to relinquishing their own political power to others. Yang couldn't abide by this. Perhaps it was idealistic of him, but there had to be a way to broker peace among the different galactic factions without blindly supporting even the most well-meaning regime of despotism. Yang wondered if the good government of a tyrant wasn't the sweetest drug when it came to one's awareness as a citizen. If people could enjoy peace and prosperity, knowing that politics were being justly managed without them having to participate, express themselves, or even think, who would ever want to get involved with something as bothersome as politics to begin with? The obvious downside to such a system was that people grew complacent. No one ever seemed to exercise their imagination. If the people were troubled by politics, then so was their ruler. What happened, for instance, when he lost interest in politics and began to abuse his limitless power to satisfy his own ego? By then, it would be too late for anyone to devise a suitable counterstrategy, for their ingenuity would have already atrophied beyond the point of no return. A democratic government was therefore essentially just compared to an autocratic one.
January 22, 2025 at 5:30 AM
smandersen.bsky.social
She’s getting me through the week/month
A tortie cat with bright eyes and a bald chin is poorly framed by the camera so you can’t see her ears. She is loafing on a person’s stomach - the person is sitting with their knees up and is wearing navy starry sweatpants.
January 21, 2025 at 5:14 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
It’s got WEIGHT
A pale hand holds a triangular prism - not many details are obvious but you can see a window reflected from the other side of the room
January 5, 2025 at 7:17 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
The full list! All titles (some subtitles removed for space) included in alt text.
A graphic showing the covers of all books read this year, cataloged on story graph. The Couple's Guide to Thriving with ADHD by Nancie Kohlenberger, Melissa Orlov Contact by Carl Sagan Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 5: Mobilization by Yoshiki Tanaka Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty Fun Home by Alison Bechdel No Bad Parts by Richard C. Schwartz Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton System Collapse by Martha Wells Impact Parameter and Other Quantum Realities by Geoffrey A. Landis The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells Cold Dark Matter by Alex Brett The Lost World by Michael Crichton And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 1: Dawn by Yoshiki Tanaka The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton Alien Vision: Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum with Imaging Technology by Austin Richards Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 2: Ambition by Yoshiki Tanaka On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden Pregnant Butch by A. K. Summers Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 4: Stratagem by Yoshiki Tanaka The Possibility of Life by Jaime Green The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall Network Effect by Martha Wells Neuro-queer by CJ DeBarra Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Vol. 3: Endurance by Yoshiki Tanaka The Little Book of Exoplanets by Joshua N. Winn Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes, Mariame Kaba Exit Strategy by Martha Wells Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maia Kobabe Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty.
January 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Crushed my reading goal last year (30 books!)
A story graph summary of books read in 2025 by sydbean. The first read was Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. The last read was And The Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts. This was also the longest books while the shortest was Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maia Kobabe and Dr. Sarah Peizmeier. Total books read was 38 and total pages read was 11,506. The top genre was Science Fiction at 16 books, Sith LGBTQIA+, Classics, Science, and Graphic Novel as the next most read genres. The top authors were Yoshiki Tanaka, Martha Wells, and Caitlin Doughty.
January 3, 2025 at 5:56 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Train pictures! It was a blast!
Picture of the train platform at Seattle King Street station between tracks 5 and 6. The LCD screen says “Empire Builder No. 8 To Chicago. Status On Time”. A blurry picture of some mountains in Glacier National Park with evergreen trees in the foreground. The mountain is most bare with some patches of snow and the sky is cloudy. A blurry picture of snow-covered trees somewhere in Minnesota. The sky is cloudy and the ground is blanketed with snow. The observation car on an Amtrak train. Blue seats face windows with additional windows overhead.
December 30, 2024 at 8:32 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Beebs why?
A tortie cat looks at the camera with a blank expression. She has her back legs planted on the arm rest of a blue couch. Her front paws are extended so they’re standing on the couch seat cushion.
December 7, 2024 at 5:06 AM
smandersen.bsky.social
Oh to be a cozy kitty with no responsibilities
A tortie cat lies wrapped in a mint green weighted blanket. Her arms are stretched out in front of her and her eyes are closed in contentment.
November 24, 2024 at 10:25 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Organized my to-read pile (partial list)
Books on a black shelf. The titles are as follows: “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen, “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, “Mary Tyler MooreHawk” by Dave Baker, “On the Origin of Species and Other Stories” by Bo-Young Kim, “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler, “Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer, “This is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, “The Deep Sky” by Yume Kitasei, “Writing Down the Bones” by Natalie Goldberg, “Teaching to Transgress” by bell hooks, “The Last Stargazers” by Emily Levesque, and “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan
November 19, 2024 at 5:07 AM
smandersen.bsky.social
Friday Mood
A tortie cat sits in a pile of freshly clean clothes with a blank expression on her face. She’s a little high on gabapentin.
November 15, 2024 at 6:16 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
Gonna just keep posting cat pics to self-soothe
A tortie cat lays on an orange floral quilt with one arm outstretched towards the camera. She has a blank expression on her face. A tortie cat sits on a wood kitchen table, looking innocently up at the camera. A tortie cat is curled up on a pile of laundry with an innocent expression on her face. A tortie cat lays in a window bed curled up like a shrimp. She’s surrounded by two stuffed bunnies.
November 5, 2024 at 10:21 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
The family group chat follow up
A screenshot of an iPhone group chat named “Family Friendly Group Chat.” The picture from the previous post was set at 7:22 am with the text “she had [sic] no concept of what day it is or what elections are, I envy her.” The reply from Trevor is “Ignorance isn’t a choice, it’s the absence of one. Read to your cat, stay informed.” A screenshot of the response to the previous text that says “Damn you’re right, I’ll fix that” and a picture of the same tortie cat still on the human bed, now pictured next to a copy of “Teaching To Transgress” by bell hooks.
November 5, 2024 at 4:47 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
She doesn’t even know what a ballot is, living blessed and unbothered
A tortie cat with a purple collar lies on a pillow with a white sheet. Her eyes are mostly closed and she’s laying flat
November 5, 2024 at 3:41 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
She wants to know what I’m reading
A tortoiseshell call looks at the camera with a worried and inquisitive expression. Her head looks big because of the angle
October 25, 2024 at 11:22 PM
smandersen.bsky.social
She woke me up at 5 am for food (reader, her bowl was full!)
A tortie cat’s face is tucked into her person’s hand. Her front paw is curled up, covering part of her sleepy face.
October 16, 2024 at 4:27 PM