Best laid plans of mice & men

There were a number of things I was planning on doing over spring break, including a massive spring cleaning, studying chemistry, reading a Pacific Northwest Geology textbook, going on a hike, and generally laying about in bed.
However, two days into spring break, my retina detached.
How awesome is that?!
It's fairly amusing actually - the timing is perfect (three days after my last final, and probably completely recovered from surgery by the first day), and the location is perfect (at my parent's house, with people to drive me about), I have insurance (we had thought it ended at 23, but it goes until 25!), and the only downside (other than, um, surgery and a possible permanent decrease in vision) is that I already used up my correction coverage getting glasses, so I'll have to get new lenses after the surgery. Luckily, my optometrist mentioned the risk of this at my appointment last year, so, when I saw flashes, I knew what was what, and got to the doctor 16 days sooner than the average American.
Booyah, average American!
The reason this happened to me is because I'm horribly, horribly near-sighted in one eye, and, while they're a bit unsure of this, it stretches the retina, which causes tears (I have 5 - jackpot!) Eye fluid then creeps behind the retina, and pushes it away from the back of the eye. It's a bit odd for a 23-year-old to have this happen, as it usually happens to old people.
Frankly, I'm going to blame last week's study marathon.
So, they're going to fix the holes, and then attach my retina to a piece of flexible plastic called a scleral band (a lot bigger than you'd think!) placed behind my eye. (Or above. Not entirely sure. Don't really care, as long as it works.) Which is some crazy, vaguely repulsive medicine.
I'm going to ask them to take pictures.
Speaking of pictures, this is a picture of my retina, before it went AWOL:

(This is a picture of what my retina looks like now:

Picture from here, as I neglected to get my doctor to email me a copy of yesterday's picture.)
That whole missing section on the left is where the retina has detached - just like mine. You can't see out of that portion of your eye - meaning that 1/4 of my vision has gone blind.

I'm just hoping that, afterward, I get to wear an eye-patch to class.
Might buy a pirate hat, too.

I live on a glacial garbage dump.

Geologic Map of Tumwater

My house lies on the Qgo section:
"Vashon recessional outwash—Recessional and proglacial
stratified, moderately to well-rounded, poorly to moderately
sorted outwash sand and gravel of northern or mixed
northern and Cascade source, locally containing silt and
clay; also contains lacustrine deposits and ice-contact
stratified drift. Some areas mapped as unit Qgo may instead
be advance outwash (unit Qga) because it is difficult to tell
the difference between the two without the presence of an
intervening till."

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In other garbage-dump news, a fellow is Tacoma is building condos on the foundations of an old copper/arsenic plant, now a Superfund site.
This is apparently old news, but I only found out today, via Text Message from a Toxic Waste Site on the Stranger.
Recovering viable land from our past mistakes seems like a noble ambition (despite being aimed only at the rich) however the ecological aspects are slightly concerning.
My knowledge of the issue is, admittedly, fairly limited.

Crystal House

A fellow named Roger Hiorns has created a giant sculpture he calls "seizure".
He covered the interior of a house with giant blue crystals.
But god, all the glue-gunning sounds so exhausting.
So, instead, he sealed the house, and poured in from the top ~90,000 liters of copper sulfate. A few weeks later, he drained the house. (I'm presuming it wasn't as dramatic as, say, opening the door and letting a flood of blue flow out.)

Personally, all sarcasm aside, I think it's a pretty cool project. It reminds me a lot of photos from the Poles, with the ice crystals clinging to everything. It also is a cool example of how substances bond into crystalline shapes, and lord knows how I love bonding.

More details here and here.

(via apartment therapy

Cueva de los Cristales

Um, wow? This is a shot from a cave discovered in 2000 in Mexico by some miners. Definitely on my list of Top Ten Caves to Visit.
For a better description, head to Geology News.