quick note

Moon Report: 90% full. waxing gibbous.

I love the astro-sciences. There are always cool things to discover that do well to remind us that we are just dots on the epic scale of the cosmos. Like the article I found today about stars.

There are three rules for writing the novel.

Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

--W. Somerset Maugham

My writing 1000 words per day is still ongoing. Not always am I faithful (even as a new resolution), but I do write more now than I have done in a long, long time. I like it.

today

MOON REPORT: full moon. 100% full.

my moon news: When I first saw the moon yesterday evening it had lifted itself beyond the horizon and held a pale gold glow. It really looked more like a harvest moon--I imagine blood red as it rose. I like moons that rise with enormity and look about to swallow the world. But the eclipse happened on a moon that was so high it looked like a dime. The shadow passed leaving the moon a greyed burnt orange as it went.

Eclipses, whether you attach meaning to them or not, are amazing. They remind us that we are a part of a much larger living system which we should not take for granted. As Neil deGrasse Tyson reminds us, the universe is trying to kill us. Best to pay attention.

See the entire interview by Mark Molaro.

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Well, the moon has been used for centuries by creative minds and idiots alike to express all sorts of notions. And the Writer's Almanac lists four writers born today: poet W. H. Auden, novelist David Foster Wallace, diarist Anais Nin, and the poet Ha Jin.

wrap ups and possibilities

Moon: new moon. 0% full. Every end is a beginning.
Solar Eclipse: not seen here. See articles: TimesOnline, The Age, ABC News Australia.

Also, the odd weather continues. Tornadoes in Tennesee, Arkansas, Alabama and Kentucky yesterday did huge damage--killed some fifty (maybe more?) people. In FEBRUARY. Now, after the almost fifty degree weather for the last two days we are being slapped with a nasty snow storm. However, I think Wisconsin and Chicago will get hit much harder. We expect only two to four inches...I heard Milwaukee was expecting something like fifteen.

I've been doing geneological research lately. Most of it is on my dad's side--my aunts got us traced back on their father's side to 1792 and their mother's side to 1698. Doing my own research, I've gotten us back to 1499 in Tintern, Wales (see Wordsworth). [This could have explained my English major to my parents.] It is amazing the information on the web--especially old information--some from archives, some from others searching the same geneological lines. Now that I've got the dates, I am going to try to put together lives--especially of family members that made the journey from England, Wales, and Germany. Hmm...perhaps I have found a new obsession?

I also stumbled across a dating site for scientists or the scientifically inclined. Brainy men are sexy. I love science--I like the stories: where we come from and where we could go. So many possibilites.