Friday evening, I received a press release from NASA. The reason? The twenty-fifty anniversary of Voyager 2’s closest encounter to Uranus. Voyager Celebrates 25 Years Since Uranus Visit Jet Propulsion Laboratory January 21, 2011 As NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft made the only close approach to date of our mysterious seventh planet Uranus 25 years ago,Continue reading “On 25 Years Since Voyager 2’s Uranus Encounter”
On Writing, Morning and Noon and Night
I wish I could draw. I can't. Oh, I'm sure that I could, if only I would pick up a pencil, put it to paper, and practice day after day after day. Except that I don't think that, even with practice, that I would be able to etch out something that looked like anything. IContinue reading “On Writing, Morning and Noon and Night”
On Wordle Artwork
For those who care about such things, I’ve made Wordles — pictures of my words — of the last week’s worth of blog postings: And of the letter I wrote to my sixteen year-old self last New Year’s: It’s just a fun thing, to see how words look. I love the font on the latter.Continue reading “On Wordle Artwork”
On a Month Until Farpoint
I realized today that we’re a month away from Farpoint. Farpoint is a science-fiction convention held north of Baltimore every February (right next to the building where I work, actually), usually right around Valentine’s Day. This year it falls the weekend after, beginning on February the 18th. I’ve been attending Farpoint since 2006, and thisContinue reading “On a Month Until Farpoint”
On the Repeal of Health Care Reform
Today, the House of Representatives will be voting on the “Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law Act.” This bill, written by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, would repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that was passed by the last Congress, and, despite some requests that, in the wake of the Tuscon shootingsContinue reading “On the Repeal of Health Care Reform”
On the Beetle, in Snow
Note: This isn’t really a blog post, at least not in the way that I conceive of blog posts. During my train commute, many mornings I will write. Sometimes, it’s writing for work. Sometimes, it’s drabbles or other fiction. And sometimes, it’s just whatever happens to be on my mind. I’ve decided to present someContinue reading “On the Beetle, in Snow”
On the Silence of Winter
The world is strangely silent tonight. Despite a main highway, there’s been little traffic, and not just because of the holiday. The world is taking a breath as a winter storm moves in. Snow began falling a little while ago. The back walk, which had been cleared since the last snowfall, now has a quarterContinue reading “On the Silence of Winter”
On Cat Pictures and Facebook Profiles
I don’t know who said it first, but I think it’s true — the Internet was made for cat photos. 🙂 Last week, Facebook upgraded my profile to the new profile page design. I’d heard wailing and gnashing of teeth from friends who upgraded their profile pages immediately after they were announced; I was contentContinue reading “On Cat Pictures and Facebook Profiles”
On This Week’s Scottish Musical Discovery
Every few months, I’ll discover a new and interesting band on Vic Galloway’s Scotland Introducing podcast for the BBC. While the main point of interest this week for me was two live tracks by The Seventeenth Century from Ally McCrae’s BBC Introducing in Scotland show, the podcast kicked off with a track from Aerials Up,Continue reading “On This Week’s Scottish Musical Discovery”
On My Childhood Superhero
I suppose it was inevitable that my life would end up surrounded by superheroes. My first job was in a comic book shop. I write about superheroes most every day of the week at work. Some would find this surprising, knowing how little of Marvel Comics’ output I read (right now, just Thor, and I’mContinue reading “On My Childhood Superhero”