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Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

Went Fishing

Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Had fun fishing. Thought up lots of story ideas while trolling the lake. Did not fall in.

Non-typical wildlife observed on this trip:
— a black bear galloping across the road
— loons and loon chicks
— Merganser ducks
— one heron, Great
— two Trumpeter swans and their four signets
— deer, grazing
— a fox, sprinting
— lake trout, swimming
— terns and/or gulls, I can’t tell them apart
— a bald eagle nest, but the parents were away and the chick was having a bit of a snooze

Also, I learned that reeling in 550 feet of steel fishing line takes ages and is not for the weak of arm!

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Gone Fishing…

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , on July 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Literally. Time in the great outdoors will be good for all sorts of reasons, and we’ve even had reports of bald eagles nesting near the fishing spot. Have a great weekend!

 

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Ooh, Pretty!

Posted in Likes, tagged , , , , , , , on July 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

For reasons involving transnational calls, scheduling conflicts, and one very pissed off chipmunk, my brain is taking the rest of the day off. Here’s a pretty picture:)

 

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Dreaming of Curry

Posted in Food and..., tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Things learned while perusing Tasmanian recipes for the Vietnamese beef curry I will not be having for dinner (why must you torture me with your delicious culinary aromas, o neighbor who is also an excellent cook?)

  • cassia quill == cinnamon stick
  • telegraph cucumbers == English cucumbers
  • punnet == basket as for berries (small? large? woven wood or pre-formed plastic? still so much to learn!)

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Museum of Lost Things

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on July 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Ah, Friday! I am coming to the end of this week’s work and so have the time for efforts of a less, shall we say, prosaic nature. My project for this weekend will be to build a Museum of Lost Things.

I imagine it will be just as difficult and interesting as one might expect:)

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Getting From Here to There

Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It’s the middle of the week and I don’t know about you but Friday, and finishing everything on my list, feels pretty far away. Must be time for an inspirational quote and fabulous photo. Like… so!

You can’t get a suit of armour and a rubber chicken just like that. You have to plan ahead.
— Michael Palin

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Maya Angelou (1928–2014)

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 28, 2014| 2 Comments »

Maya Angelou, Poet, Activist And Singular Storyteller, Dies At 86

This is such a loss. And yet…

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
― Maya Angelou

I still remember finding a battered, much-read copy of Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings on my parents’ bookshelf, and meeting her singular voice. That woman knew how to live.

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If E.T. Does Phone, Then What?

Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

In today’s installment of awesome, NASA has released a book on how to communicate with extraterrestrials. Unlike the Pentagon’s zombie apocalypse scenario, Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication is not meant as an implausible training exercise. With chapters by more than a dozen scholars, this book uses analogues (or at least clues) from archaeology and anthropology in an effort to think about how to communicate with radically different life forms.

As editor Douglas A. Vakoch explains,

The evolutionary path followed by extraterrestrial intelligence will no doubt diverge in significant ways from the one traveled by humans over the course of our history… Like archaeologists who reconstruct temporally distant civilizations from fragmentary evidence, SETI researchers will be expected to reconstruct distant civilizations separated from us by vast expanses of space as well as time. And like anthropologists, who attempt to understand other cultures despite differences in language and social customs, as we attempt to decode and interpret extraterrestrial messages, we will be required to comprehend the mindset of a species that is radically Other.

Also, and let me just put this out there, science fiction might be helpful in this regard as well:)

P.S. The NASA in Your Life site is a fun read as well. NASA’s research and technology spinoffs have played influential roles in moving innovation from Rockets to Racecars and more…

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Zombie Warfighting

Posted in Funny, Entertainment, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2014| 1 Comment »

Today I’m reading up on ways to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, as one does. How, you ask (as one would)? Why, by studying the Pentagon’s own zombie preparedness manual, CONPLAN 8888, of course!

Yes, it’s tongue-in-cheek, but not entirely. The planners behind this gem of a training tool realized that zombies would be a great way to engage trainees in threat assessments and creative problem solving in the field, all without running afoul of an actual constituency. After all, pick a real country as the subject of your war plan and it’s a quick leak away from a serious misunderstanding (and no one wants to piss off Canada again, amIright? Canadian Bacon, people!). And what’s more fun than fighting zombies?

See for yourself, and watch out for those space zombies!

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Live Streaming Planet Earth

Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

ISS HD Live Streaming Earth
Sometimes the cameras are off, but when they aren’t… wow.

Viewing Notes:

Black Image =  International Space Station (ISS) is on the night side of the Earth.
Gray Image = Switching between cameras, or communications with the ISS is not available.
No Audio = Normal. There is no audio on purpose. Add your own soundtrack.

For a display of the real time ISS location plus the HDEV imagery, visit here: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ForFun/HDEV/

On watching orbital sunrise, from NPR:

Circling Earth at 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) every 92 minutes, the crew members aboard the International Space Station “experience 15 or 16 sunrises and sunsets every day,” NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) Project Office describes.

“The whole station glows with the light of dawn,” Canadian astronaut and former ISS commander Chris Hadfield told NPR in a recent interview. “You can see the dawn come across the world towards you.”

“Then you go back to work and wait another 92 minutes, and it happens again. It’s not to be missed, and I tried to watch as many sunrises and sunsets as the work would allow,” he said.

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