Friday, January 21, 2005
I dare you to cheer me up!!
Okay, not really. But I'm having a hard time sleeping because I was just hours ago told that yet another relative died and it's so sudden and so close on the heels of the other death and..it's my birthday and I'm not planning to remind anyone of that fact. It's not a particularly tragic death or momentus in the grand scheme, but it is upsetting and I can't stop weeping long enough to sleep. I bought some of those Two-Bite Brownies (they are not quite as good as my homemade, of course, but I don't like making my own brownies for myself for some reason) and that will be my one concession to the cancelled celebration. I will either be consoling others or letting others console me tonight and then more of the same during the predicted Big Storm of '05 tomorrow. So much for treating ourselves to sushi, which was my original plan. Ah, well. Sleep would be nice. Happy birthday to me.
'night.
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'night.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Taken from a plane in 1969, courtesy of APOD
The eensy, weensy spider went to the Bermuda Triangle. Doesn't look real, does it?
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
I love Saturn
March 7, 2003 courtesy of Space.com
Not everyone has a favorite planet, but Saturn has always been mine. I've always been fascinated by its rings and bands of color. I used to draw pictures of it, imagine dancing on the rings, create fanciful societies to live on the surface. I felt a bit cheated upon finding out it wasn't the only planet in our solar system with rings but gratified that none of the others is nearly as spectacular.
I haven't drawn any pictures recently, but I've never lost my affection for Saturn or new photos of it. This week has been so exciting for me with the landing of the Huygens probe and publishing of actual photos of Titan's Landscape. How cool is this??
'night.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Mount. St. Helens, still
I've been checking on the beautiful Mt. St. Helens Volcano Cam since last October and recently noticed this on the site -
"Please note that since October 11, 2004, Mount St. Helens has been in a constant eruptive state."
I don't know that a three-month-long-and-counting eruptive state is a very good thing at all. The stuff of nightmares...and I haven't heard from my friend who lives in the area for some time, either. Connection? Possibly.
'night
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"Please note that since October 11, 2004, Mount St. Helens has been in a constant eruptive state."
I don't know that a three-month-long-and-counting eruptive state is a very good thing at all. The stuff of nightmares...and I haven't heard from my friend who lives in the area for some time, either. Connection? Possibly.
'night
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Amazing book
They say the internet is isolating and self-promoting. It certainly feeds on itself (that's called surfing, right?). In my case, it promotes other media - movies, books, etc. It cuts down on my encyclopedia usage, I'll admit, but it does send me to other resources on a regular basis.
Case in point: while searching for odd trivia, I found the book entitled, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and just *had* to borrow it from the library. (Was he carrying her around on his head, or was he continually trying to hang her on a hook? I will report back when I find out.) On visiting the library (via their web site, of course) it turned out that the book was written by Dr. Oliver Sachs, the man who wrote the heartbreakingly sad Awakenings, which was made into an equally heartbreaking film of the same name. This piqued my curiosity further and one thing led to another until I ended up reserving five books from the psychology section. I was still finishing up Sue Grafton's latest (only eight more letters left in the alphabet. Bummer.), so I only just started reading the one written by an autistic woman, Temple Grandin (with a forward by Dr. Sachs).
OMIGOSH. This has to be one of the most fascinating books I've ever read in my entire life and I'm not even halfway through. It's called Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life With Autism. This woman, like many autistics, has plenty of intelligence. She just learns differently and experiences differently than others. What truly differentiates Ms. Grandin is her motivation to learn and grow and communicate and the fact that she is actually doing it - to the extent that she is finally learning how *we* think and how to write about her experiences so that we can understand it. Unbelievable. See for yourself! Not only that, but she has a public speaking career (I hope I can get a seat sometime) and has designed approximately one-third of the cattle- and hog-handling facilities in the entire country. Ms. Grandin's career achievements are amazing but I'm more impressed by her successes as a member of society and her ability to share the difficulties of autism from that perspective. It's like having space explain itself. Wow.
'night.
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Case in point: while searching for odd trivia, I found the book entitled, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and just *had* to borrow it from the library. (Was he carrying her around on his head, or was he continually trying to hang her on a hook? I will report back when I find out.) On visiting the library (via their web site, of course) it turned out that the book was written by Dr. Oliver Sachs, the man who wrote the heartbreakingly sad Awakenings, which was made into an equally heartbreaking film of the same name. This piqued my curiosity further and one thing led to another until I ended up reserving five books from the psychology section. I was still finishing up Sue Grafton's latest (only eight more letters left in the alphabet. Bummer.), so I only just started reading the one written by an autistic woman, Temple Grandin (with a forward by Dr. Sachs).
OMIGOSH. This has to be one of the most fascinating books I've ever read in my entire life and I'm not even halfway through. It's called Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life With Autism. This woman, like many autistics, has plenty of intelligence. She just learns differently and experiences differently than others. What truly differentiates Ms. Grandin is her motivation to learn and grow and communicate and the fact that she is actually doing it - to the extent that she is finally learning how *we* think and how to write about her experiences so that we can understand it. Unbelievable. See for yourself! Not only that, but she has a public speaking career (I hope I can get a seat sometime) and has designed approximately one-third of the cattle- and hog-handling facilities in the entire country. Ms. Grandin's career achievements are amazing but I'm more impressed by her successes as a member of society and her ability to share the difficulties of autism from that perspective. It's like having space explain itself. Wow.
'night.
