Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Starry-Eyed Thena

Not only does this shot feature Thena being cool, it also includes a cameo by her namesake.
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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Shapes in Fog

Foggy morning.  I took some pictures because I love fog, but photographs never seem to really capture the spirit of foggyness.  Here's the best I was able to do:


So, fog.  I guess the thing about fog is, when you're looking off into it, you feel like that's what the whole world is ultimately made of.  Things fade in from their native substance and melt away just as readily, like the figures you think you see moving in the dark, right after you turn out the lights.  That tree in the distance?  That's no more real than a cloud-shape.  Look at it long enough, and it might turn into something else.  And, walking through the fog, you know that the people you pass see you only as one more evanescent shape in that gray limbo, so you get to be otherworldly as well.  That's fog.
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Thursday, March 11, 2010

The New Time Travelers

Just finished The New Time Travelers, by David Toomey.  Time travel is a fun subject,  the ultimate rule-breaker's fantasy.  Overcome cause and effect, and surely you can do anything.  Consequently, it would be really easy to go wild with a book about time travel.  While the author of this book allows us to indulge in that fun on many occasions, he keeps the narrative grounded in the work of real physicists.

Not being a physicist, of course, I can't really say how well the author captured the meaning of all that esoteric math, but I can say that the book was engaging and accessible.  I really felt like I was learning something and it was full of inspirations for the science fiction writer, including some trippy speculations about how time travel could explain the origins of the universe.  In addition to describing several interesting theories of time travel, Toomey fills us in on the personal background of the physicists who came up with them and walks us through the development of their ideas.

So... there it is.  Good book.  Go read now.
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Monday, March 08, 2010

Unclear

I was just asked to decipher a bit of my boss's handwriting for someone else in the office.  The word she couldn't make out was "clearly."
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Friday, March 05, 2010

Sweet Delicious Light

Running down the avenue
See how the Sun shines
Brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mister Blue Sky is living here today!
(hey hey)
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