The Basics

Howdy all, as my title states I am Dillon/@starsandspectra.

I am an astrophysicist by trade—in particular, I study the atmospheres of habitable planets using either our own Earth or atmospheric models. Astronomy and physics have been a passion of mine since I was quite young. The way I ended up pursing this specific field is a long and tedious story, perhaps for another post!

I've grown up in the United States my whole life, and at this point in my career am pretty regularly moving from state to state every couple of years or so. I grew up in the southwestern deserts, went to school in the Pacific northwest, and now reside on the eastern coast for work. I've lived in quite a few distinct climates and cultures within the States, but I've yet to live outside my home country; I'm hoping that might change in the near future! I'd love to live abroad for a while.

Hobbies

I have several hobbies, so I'm going to list them out instead of haphazardly summarizing them in an awkward coagulation of interest and winding exposition.

Knitting & Crochet

I've been knitting and crocheting for little over a year now, and I love it! I started learning as a way to relax after work and when I needed something tedious but productive to focus on. I'll be the first to admit my counting ability is still a little shaky (I'm quite easily distracted, and counting apps have yet to help me much), but I've made quite a few exciting things since starting out.

Programming

I've been programming both as a part of my work as well as for personal projects and fun since my early college years. I started out with and frequently use Python, but now am comfortable with FORTRAN (mostly for work, I'd not recommend using it for fun...), C++, and to a lesser degree Java and Ruby. I'm always interested in learning the pros and cons of various languages, especially how they might compliment each other to produce optimal results.

Machine learning, especially evolutionary machine learning and neural nets. I've only been using the latter for a couple years now, so I'm still learning but continuously excited by what these processes can do!

Baking & Cooking

I absolutely love making food from scratch; my friends know me for being willing to try making anything at least once! My favorite things to make are various breads. Anything from flatbreads to fluffy loafs and I'm down! I've made a variety of things throughout my life, and for the past year I've been challenging myself to make as many of my grains and meals from scratch as I can feasibly manage. Thusfar it's worked out pretty well, and every Sunday my home smells heavenly with the bread and crackers I'm whipping up for the week ahead.

Storytelling & Poetry

I've been a Game Master (GM) for just under 11 years now—I started when I was 13, and have been doing it ever since. I've led games of Dungeons and Dragons (every edition but 2 and 5, not that I hate either!), Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Everyone is John, and others I can't think of since I only ran them once or twice. I generally write out my own adventures/campaigns for the games I run, and they are usually set in an original universe the modifies common lore (i.e., I will use the generic species and such, but invent the politics and historical lore). I can't say I was a fantastic GM when I was younger, but I'm relatively confident and know enough tricks of the trade at this point to help everyone have fun!

That storytelling style has naturally influences the prose I write, and I've written a few short stories shared within my friend groups and writing groups. I also frequently write poetry, and hope to publish some of it on here to get feedback from people beyond my current audience.

Visual Art

Let me get this out of the way: I have never been a serious artist when it comes to the visual arts. Generally, I make art for myself and while I would love to take a technique class sometime I haven't gotten the chance yet. That being the case, I still love experimenting with geometry and color in the paintings and drawings I have done. I'll include a couple here.

What I plan to write about here

I'm here to write about news and topics in astronomy for the most part, but don't be surprised if you see me posting about any of my other hobbies here. This community, being younger than other social media platforms and having a unique twist on the concept of quality and community interest, seems like a wonderful place to start creating and sharing content. I've lurked a bit before, and wrote my first article on the challenges of and strategies for finding and analyzing exoplanets. That may have been a bit backwards compared to the standard intro and then posting, but c'est la vie!

Let me know if you share any of my interests, or if you just have something you'd like to say!