August 2012

Books!

By in 3+2 Things, book lists

My summer reading bug has finally kicked in, just a few months late. After my last progress report on the “reading a new book a month” thing, I made up for lost time by reading THREE books in ONE month. I was so proud of my reading prowess–until the significant other pointed out, “They are children’s books. And look at the size of the type.” 
Yes, I read The Hunger Games trilogy. The first one was good, the second one seemed to repeat the first, and the the third one got even more violent and didn’t wrap up political parts to my satisfaction. 
But at least I’m reading again. And in the spirit of summer books, I’m keeping everything non-challenging. These are the two I currently have from the library: 
Yes, that is the tenth “novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes” and yes, I have read the rest of them. 
This is about going to college, but it’s Magic College and there’s a lot more swearing and no scarves and it’s set in New York, so it’s nothing like Harry Potter. Nope.
Anyway, to sum up, I’m reading books. Oh my gawd!

Animal Cams

By in Uncategorized 2 Comments

This has been making the rounds but it’s really worth a watch: Tuna fishermen went out with a remote controlled underwater camera and ended up filming dolphins swimming along. You get a dolphin’s eye view and it’s really cool (starting about 1:50). Dolphin Cam!
 
And it looks like I waited too long to post this (viewing season is winding down until September) but explore.org had a live cam on the river showing brown bears fishing for salmon. Bear Cam!

Tuesday Project Roundup: Baby Steps

By in knitting, Skyler, Tuesday Project Roundup

The knitting lately has been more of the “sneak in two rows here and there” variety than the “sit down for two hours of a movie and go for it” type, but I’m making a little progress.  
The fake socks/boot toppers are nearly done: 
And I got a swatch going for the nephew’s sweater, to figure out what size I should make. 
 
Turns out it’s the “stop growing, kid, you’re nearly a toddler and when did that happen?” size:

Monday’s Deep Thought

By in poems

It’s Monday. Get your Zen on: 
The Real Work 
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Hippie Quote Thursday

By in hippies, quotes

There’s an ongoing “let’s plan!” vs. “let’s not plan!” debate between me and the significant other. Ironically enough, the hippie quotes seem to be supporting his (decidedly non-hippie) view:

When we stop trying to control events, they fall into natural order, an order that works. We’re at rest while a power much greater than our own takes over, and it does a much better job than we could have done. We learn to trust that the power that holds galaxies together can handle the circumstances of our relative little lives.

More Mars Stuff

By in space

Here are a couple more odds and ends from the Mars Curiosity landing, found via Bad Astronomy and my friend Jason’s blog:
Here’s a map of where all the parts ended up, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:
See what research tools Curiosity have on board and what they do right here. (Best artist rendering EVER, by the way.)
And that famous first image I posted Monday has already been turned into a meme. What was really there? Monoliths. 
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