• Who am I?

    I am Qrystal; or at least, that's my dot-name! Har har. (My name is really Crystal, but that's not as internet-searchable; hence, switching the C for the little-used letter Q.)

    I am here because I enjoy writing. I do this mostly for myself, but I also have a passion for helping others learn things from the things I write. Now that I am done my Ph.D. in Physics, I am stepping away from academic research so that I can indulge in some creative ways to share my knowledge and inspire the appreciation of scientific thinking in others. I am also working as a tutor, which is one of the jobs I've most enjoyed doing in my life so far.


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    • Webmastering

    Losing my naïveté about the world of blogging…

    Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

    So I got my first pingback today, and although I was being cautious, I’ll admit I was a bit excited about it. Someone noticed me!! And without me having to insist to one of my friends that there is something of value on my site that they just have to check out! (Hi, Paul!) I [...]

    Glass lettering in GIMP

    Thursday, February 7th, 2008

    I had a vision for my logo for BeautifulPhysics.com: I wanted the letters to look like they’re made of glass. Maybe, someday, I could even make it look like there are beams of light shining through the letters, complete with refraction and reflection and dispersion effects, but like so many things, starting simple is best. [...]

    Setting up to expand my blog empire…

    Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

    I am probably far too new to blogging and wordpress to have such lofty goals, but I honestly feel that I need to persue this idea passionately. My history, my personality, and my goals are all so in line with blogging, that I can’t help but want to take every spare moment and put it [...]

    LaTeX LimeriX

    Friday, November 9th, 2007

    I just had to post this limerick, because I found it hilarious.. and because I want to play with WordPress’ ability to handle LaTeX expressions. [tex]\int_{1}^{\sqrt[3]{3}}t^{2}dt\cdot\cos\frac{3\pi}{9}=\ln\sqrt[3]{e} [/tex] (Hint: If you “speak math”, just say the expression out loud and it will fairly easily fall into the rhyming scheme of a typical limerick. If you don’t [...]