Swimming on the Moon

It appears there is water on the moon....

Read why this is amazing and important here.

The universe constantly surprises me.

In news of a more personal nature...

I had a health scare this summer, which after a couple of nasty invasive tests, turned out to be nothing. My daughter took me to one of the tests as I would not be able to drive home afterwards. I said to her : "this is weird, I should be driving you to the doctors. I'm your mom!" To which she replied " I think this is where the switch begins".

Shoot me now. I am not ready for this elderly stuff.

And this is incredibly cool as well....

My dear friend Beastie brought this to my attention...

Seems some pre Stonehenge ruins have been discovered. I got to go to Stonehenge in 1973 before they put the fence around it. I was able to touch the stones. It was spectacular. This latest ruin was discovered underground merely 25 miles from Stonehenge. The earth reveals her secrets constantly. Can't wait to find out what this will have to tell us about my ancient ancestors.

This is so cool.

These sorts of things make me unreasonably happy:

In short there is evidence for an ancient lake on Mars. This means that the possibility for life there is even more... well... possible.

If it turns out that life existed on Mars would your view of reality change? And in what way?

Random stuff

If it doesn't stop raining soon I am packing and moving to the desert. I am growing gills. The dogs are becoming moldy. I need sun.

So I entertain myself by getting overly involved in reading stuff on the computer machiny thingy .

Here is a guy who is reviewing Star Trek one minute at a time. He's hilarious, but doesn't love the movie. I love the movie.

Here is a picture representing a design style that I really think I could grow to love. A steam punk laptop.




I am somewhat stunned that I never heard the term steam punk before. The computer machiny thingy is truly an educational device.

I am reading a fascinating book about Lincoln's struggles with Clinical Depression. I highly recommend it. It's called Lincoln's Melancholy. I bought it at the bookstore that is just to the right of this statue :

I love standing at the Lincoln Memorial Steps. I always think of Martin Luther King Junior and remember being twelve years old and watching his speech on television and getting chills and having it change my life just a bit. It's a great place to visit. At least it didn't rain when we were there on Sunday.

After I finish reading about Lincoln and his depression. I plan to read a novel that has been recommended to me by my friend Rob Weirsema who wrote a novel of his very own called Before I Wake. It is a lovely little book that I was happy to contribute to in a very small way. Rob is one of those friends unique to this time period. I have never met him but we have communicated a lot over the past ten years and he has fabulous taste in music ( which is to say, of course, that it is identical to mine).
Anyhow, he recommends that I read this book :

So, I shall. Anyone read it?

Have a lovely day. I think I see the sun coming out and I need to go out and stare at it ( but not too much) before it goes away for another week or two.

Live long and...

I am a proud Trekkie and have been since the first episode aired in 1966 when I was 15 years old. My crush on Leonard Nimoy's Spock was epic. I had friends make fun of me for my silly obsession- friends who were obsessing over shows like "Peyton Place" instead.

"Peyton Place", anyone remember that? I didn't think so.

Forty years later and my little obsession has become part of the mythology of a culture. And tonight we saw the newest version- an incredibly fun reboot of the entire series. And to this I say : Forty More Years!!!

Check out the reviews here and don't pay any attention to that silly Anthony Lane - he's no fun at all.

Advice

Mountain Dew mixed with vodka is *not* a particularly good beverage choice. Even if you are serving it at your BSG finale party. And also, I have discovered, some people really hate spinach- even in a yummy dip form. The octagonal crackers went over ok though.

Random stuff

My hand is still messed up but somewhat better.

I am still a geek( always and forever) and in true geek fashion obsessed with what may be the best Science Fiction TV series of all time which ends tonight. Here is an article about why it is so damned good. Here is where you can find the special presentation at the United Nations that the cast and creators of the show participated in. Look in March 17th's 2009 archive for the broadcast. It was wonderful - but be aware that if you haven't seen the show or are behind a couple of seasons, the webcast is rife with " spoilers". And this is a show that is so full of surprises that it is best to remain spoiler free. Suffice it to say that the United Nations thought it was important enough to center a panel discussion about human rights around it. Tonight the series finale will be broadcast and my husband, geek daughter and I will be drowning our sorrows in ambrosia and cornerless crackers and algae dip. So Say We All.

Because I am , in fact, a bit of a geek....

..and major science fiction fan since I first saw the original Day The Earth Stood Still on TV when I was about eight, I have to comment, at this juncture, THAT......last night's episode of Battlestar Galactica had me screaming at the television set - in a good way. Good adult science fiction that does what good SF should do- comment on universal themes whilst blowing one's mind with fascinating ideas-is rare. BSG is very good science fiction indeed. My only objection to what has been a brilliant piece of television for the past few years, is that there are only seven more episodes before it all ends. What a great ride. Fabulous characters, brilliant allegory, incredible acting. Mary Mc Donnell and Edward James Olmos continue to do some of the best work of their careers and continue to be essentially ignored for this work because no one takes Science Fiction seriously. Curses on the mainstream world! A pox upon you and your dumb crime shows and doctor shows and ....all that boring crap. This is good stuff. Makes me proud to be a nerd.
For those of you out there who haven't seen this show and think you might be interested... I highly recommend starting at the beginning with the mini series and watching it all on DVD. Do NOT watch these last episodes until you watch all of the previous stuff. And do not let anyone tell you what happens. This is essentially a very long novel- like LOST except a zillion times better.

I am way too old to get excited about such stuff. Aren't I?

Random stuff

After the inauguration the lovely husband took me to the new Air and Space museum in Virginia which is where they apparently put stuff that doesn't fit into the old Air and Space museum in DC. There we saw the *real* Enterprise- The space shuttle which was named Enterprise due to a campaign of Star Trek Geeks long ago. That was fairly cool and yes, there was a tourist dressed in a Star Trek uniform ( vintage "The Next Generation") visiting with her husband. How much you want to bet they met at a Trekkie Con? We also saw the model used for the mother ship in Close Encounters of The Third Kind- very amusing- there are all sorts of little jokes that the model builders added to it such as a mailbox, R2D2 and a few other little goodies. It's fun to look for them.


I've been watching LOST on the telly and I wished I liked it more. I have watched on and off ever since it started - catching up here and there. I don't love it. It seems like something that I would love but, although I enjoy it, I don't like it as much as most fans seem to. I think the problem for me, is that the characters are not really all that interesting- or possibly that there are so many that it's hard to get into any depth with them. "Battle Star Galactica" ( the new cool one, not the old silly one) gets much geek love from me because it is so intensely character driven. I like that in a geeky show... a little technobabble, some interesting philosophical issues, and some major angst. I don't really care about any of the characters on Lost - except maybe Hugo. Hugo rocks.

The days are getting longer - I am liking this fact a lot indeed. I have been swimming a lot at the local Y and that feels really good. Swimming never feels quite like exercise to me as one does it lying down and one does not feel oneself sweat. How can it count? Does it count? Tell me it counts.

Have seen a couple of movies. I was underwhelmed by the "Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" - It reminded me very much of "Forrest Gump" which is not a film that I like even a little teeny bit. Also saw "Revolutionary Road". The book is powerful, I read it a while back, the movie...not so much. I am not sure why. I wanted to like it. After it ended my eldest said " damn, those people take themselves seriously". Maybe that's why. However, "Slumdog Millionaire" knocked my husband and my socks right off ( not great in this weather ) - what a blast. As much a paen to the power of film making as it is to the resilience of love and quiz shows. At one point I got all teary, not because of the plot ( although there is much to get misty over there too ), but because I could feel the joy the director had in making the film. It's a blast. Don't miss it. Our audience burst into applause when it ended.

In the meantime, it is deeply cool to watch our president talk about restoring the role of science, wanting to be guided by facts ( Facts! What a concept!) and looking adorable. I really don't think I have ever used that particular adjective to describe a president before. There's a first time for everything, as my mother was fond of saying.

Twilight

I read Twilight last weekend and I would like to say that I am immune to its charms but, in fact, I read it straight through , stopping only for bathroom breaks and the Ricky Gervais Special on HBO. My husband, the middle school teacher, tells me that every girl in his class is carrying around a copy. It's not as good as Harry Potter, but it is fun and I liked that the author references some writers that girls who read this might investigate (kid- lit as Gateway Drug). I think my main problem with it is that it suffers from a decided lack of spaceships. My niece tells me that there is vampire sex coming later in the series so I may need to continue reading. One can never have enough vampire sex.

My favorite book when I was a middle school yoooot was this

My eldest kid's favorite middle school books were these

The youngest kid was more into these and that reminds me of Anne Hathaway who I just saw in a rather great movie by Jonathan Demme called " Rachel Getting Married" which I highly recommend even though it contains no vampires nor spaceships. Hathaway is brilliant in it and it has a wonderful soundtrack that includes music by the oft overlooked Robyn Hitchcock who I very much enjoy. Here is he singing about that which I love above all.

Drat

 ...drat drat and double drat....

There I go and develop a school girl crush on the star of "Dr. Who" and he up and quits the show. He has been the star for three years but still- I feel I am somehow to blame. Was it my wildly inappropriate crush on this guy who is twenty years younger than I am?         

 At least he is doing four more "special episodes- and he is playing Hamlet with the RSC and  his quitting the show increases the chances  he will bring it to New York. I wanted more Who though.        

 But seriously, look how geeky cute he is-I just want to eat him up. 

My mom used to say that about George Clooney in her old age. Must be genetic.   

Sigh.

bleeeechhhh- bwahhahhahhahha

    I hate this. I have a weird immune system and get little illnesses frequently- especially when I forget that I am indeed ancient and run around for three days on little sleep, less food, and lots of enthusiasm. After Baracking the vote all weekend and managing to work in some hiking as well, I collapsed in a heap on the couch and slept most of yesterday. Today I feel a bit more human but I soon will look very seasonally appropriate as I am about to sprout three very hideous cold sores.

  Which reminds me of a movie called "The Hideous Sun Demon"  which scared me to death when I was a horror movie worshipping kidlet. And that, in turn, reminds me of a very cool little documentary that I caught on IFC called "The Science Fiction Boys". It's a little film about special effects guys, particularly those that made that wonderfully silly stop motion animation flicks  that Ray Harryhausen and guys of his ilk were known for.In short, it was a film about my husband's childhood. The husband did not go on to become the Stanley Kubrick of his generation as he has planned or even the Ray Harryhausen of his generation, which he hadn't planned but which would have been cool. He quit the movie biz and became a science teacher. But somewhere deep in a closet he has a bunch of super 8 masterpieces waiting to be put on DVD. Titles like "2001- What Really Happened" and the like. All made when he was about fourteen years old. I must remember to set the TIVO to watch that documentary for us if it shows up on the telly again.  The husband  will love it.  It  showed scenes from "The Crawling Eye". They just don't make 'em like that anymore. 

       I should mention here that the husband actually did make an award winning student film called " Confessions of a Beatlemaniac" that was judged, in part, by Stanley Kramer. Now *that's* kinda cool. I should also mention that when I first met said husband he was working at an indie theater as the manager and in his office there was a teabag stapled to his bulletin board with a sign on it that said " Cybil Shephard's Tea Bag". Oh, and he once yelled at Mel Brooks.

Ok. I'll shut up now.