iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 7h

Guess washing the sheets has to wait

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Nice! Next week is looking good for us with cooler nights

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Shhhhhhh (it’s not for a bit yet! Just have to print stuff early!)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

just for funsies, a literal decade ago, a 2 TB drive was $100 then dropped to $70 for 2019-2022, and has been increasing slowly since

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

(and $70 in 2022. I buy a lot of hard drives so have a long string of price histories)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

yeah, I was able to get a 2 TB drive yesterday (laptop Time Machine drive) for $140. That same exact 2 TB drive was $87 in 2024

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

probably not recently! data centers have drive up the price of hard drives and ram

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

but the bad news is that I was hoping my new grant money would show up faster than it did when I submitted the abstract, so I don't have an abundance of stuff to put on the poster. But it's fine! That's why it's a poster

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

gotta make my DPS poster early so it can be printed/shipped instead of having to take it with me. The good news is, my last DPS poster set the bar quite low (I tacked up some stuff printed on a normal printer. In my defense, I was too busy being SOC chair). So this one will have to be better 😂

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

no, that was the total for 3 drives! The 5 TB was $230 which is ridiculous. The rest was a 14 TB and a 20 TB drive (my research requires a lot of disk space sometimes!)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Which does remind me that it’s time to replace my personal drive as well. Ugh. At least the work drives (which have to be stupidly large) come out of my grants budgets. But I’ll still end up spending probably $300-400 on a new personal drive

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

yeah, they've more than doubled. I have literally spent $1300 on just external drives in the last two weeks. I try to stick to a 3 year service period to avoid failures. The Time Machine drive failure is the first actual failure I've had in a while. It was *just* 3 years old

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

At least I should be set for a while! $1300 later.... (these things were budgeted into my grants, just at prices from like 6-12 months ago. It's fine, I can still pay for it off the grants, just annoyed at how much prices skyrocketed)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

(I already spent more money than had been budgeted on hard drives the last two weeks to ramp up new simulation projects, then my Time Machine drive failed. So had to buy yet another drive...)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

My computer just bitched at me that the new drive I bought for its Time Machine backups is too small (it thinks the drive should be twice as large as the main hard drive). Like dude, have you *seen* the hard drive prices lately. Take the 5 TB and be happy about it...

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I used an electric blanket at my sister’s house!

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

It is October, the sun is down. And yet it is still pushing 95 in Phoenix. Ugh

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

My new gate is maximally far from the cupcakes! But it was a big cupcake so I’m good. And that maxes me out for coffee. Needed some to be ready to drive home after the flight, but I do want to sleep when I get home!

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Booo. I stepped away to use the bathroom right before boarding was supposed to start and come back like 2 minutes later to find they gave our plane away to a different flight and mine is now delayed.

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Needed a coffee and the only not crazy coffee place in the terminal was the cake place. This is dinner I guess 😂 (I did pack some healthier snacks for my flight, but I couldn’t say no to a cupcake)

A strawberry cupcake in a box with a fork. Some of the cupcake has been eaten

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

My sister’s cat clearly isn’t comfy around me at all 😂😂

An orange tabby cat sprawled across my lap with his belly up and paws lazily draped wherever they happened to fall

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Fingers crossed it’s an actual trend!

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

That is a problem with newer cars! It took me a while to figure out how to minimize lighting to drive up to the observatory years ago. Now I’d just have to arrive before observing because it’s not zero lights

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

lol, Land Rover. It really is a very nice car otherwise. But honestly it’s - *lot* of newer cars that are like this

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yeah, my 2018 VW was the best at the mix of having all the buttons plus a screen, but newer cars just keep leaving off more and more buttons!

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Nice! I do love having a screen for Apple car play. But I want climate control, lights, etc to be things I can feel for without looking!

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This damned thing has way too few buttons. I looked through the screen menu assuming it would be there then just had to google it. It’s a really nice car and lovely to drive. But I wish for real buttons

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I miss physical buttons in cars. Just had to google how to turn off the “fun” colored interior lighting in my sister’s new car because I couldn’t see out the damned side windows at night with them on. (Touch and hold a spot, not a button, on the thing on the roof by the rear view mirror…)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

No matter where I go, I get trapped by cats

An orange tabby cat is curled up on my legs

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Reposted by Kat Volk

Dr. Jessie Christiansen @aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ummm until yesterday there were actual deadlines listed here 👀 (Maybe this is just the previously discussed move to rolling deadlines, but it seems ominous when bundled with all the rest of the new "The Astro-Core program is anticipated to be especially competitive in Fiscal Year 2027" guidelines.)

Screenshot of the NSF MPS Astro core program solicitation page, which has, under 'Full Proposal Deadlines', the highlighted text 'Proposals Accepted Anytime'.

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Though to be fair, she’d probably also hate my good stuff since I buy comfy stuff in whatever color is on sale 😂 only my very limited selection of show clothes are coordinated at all

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

(I’m going to leave most of the riding gear I take there so I don’t have to lug it every visit and so my sister can borrow stuff to see if she can ride again without her back killing her. So it can’t be my good stuff!)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Packing to go visit my family. Since they bought my niece’s lease horse, I can finally put a training ride or two on him and give her some lessons. But my style conscious niece is probably going to be horrified at my attire 😂 (least fave shirts/breeches, worn out half chaps, ugly back brace)

A suitcase with neon bright sports shirts and big black back brace on top

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Ugh! I hope they speed it up and you get lunch closer to on time!

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

At least they did throw in some egg rolls as an apology

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

(This is a secondary reason beyond the $$$ price for why I mostly cook my own food. But I am getting ready for a trip and don’t have food at home so alas here I am hungry and inconvenienced)

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I question the point of being able to specify food pickup time when ordering in a fast food place’s app, getting a text message confirming it’s ready 5 minutes early, then arriving at the pickup time to find out lol, it’s not. It’ll be another 10+ minutes

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Kat Volk @katvolk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026