(no subject)

My family has had these since I was a child. They were always my favorites, like pink soap bubbles with snow on them, and I loved finding them as we opened the ornament boxes every year. It used to be a set of three or four, but gradually over the years, they succumbed to dropping, kittens, and other hazards. This one survived my kids' babyhood, but not something falling from an upper shelf onto the box of ornaments. Bye-bye, pink soap bubble. *sniff*

Putting away the decorations
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
07 January 2009

(no subject)

My family has had these since I was a child. They were always my favorites, like pink soap bubbles with snow on them, and I loved finding them as we opened the ornament boxes every year. It used to be a set of three or four, but gradually over the years, they succumbed to dropping, kittens, and other hazards. This one survived my kids' babyhood, but not something falling from an upper shelf onto the box of ornaments. Bye-bye, pink soap bubble. *sniff*

Putting away the decorations
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
07 January 2009

(no subject)

At my SF/Fantasy book group last night:

Angus: (Coming back from the kid's section during a pause in the conversation, walking halfway around the circle of folding chairs till he was opposite me and announcing rather loudly) "They didn't have ANYTHING I liked; but I have these. Mom, where are you?"

This caused everyone to crack up - he had observed where I sat before going, but apparently walked around the group most of the way before he bothered to look up. He forgets sometimes that he needs to listen to see if other people are talking before he just announces whatever's on his mind, and he needs to lower the volume a bit. However, I am glad he's venturing off to do things on his own, although if he wants to do it himself it's much easier. He still gets a little freaked when I need to leave him for a minute, as in a half an hour later, when I needed to use the restroom and asked him to stay and read for a few minutes where he was (even though Gareth was there too).

Anyway, his latest book to peruse everytime we visit the bookstore is the D&D Monster Manual, and since one of the other members was an old school D&D player, he kept bringing it over to him to ask questions about various monsters. I don't think Aaron minded, but I always worry he's bugging people. At the same time, I've never liked the adage about children being seen and not heard, and I don't like just squelching him.

Meanwhile, Gareth was paging through a copy of Weird California (a book I'd like to pick up sometime, but it's an expensive coffee table book - and I don't have a coffee table I'd like to put it on at this point). Instead of just blurting things out, every so often I would feel an soft but insistent poke in the back because he wanted to show me something. And of course, he wanted to show the group the pictures of the Fry's Electronics store in Burbank, since we had been talking about cephalopods and the store has a theme of 50's/60's SciFi movies. He asked me later when he could actually join the group, and I told him as soon as he was up to reading the sort of book we pick out every month. He reads juvenile chapter books now; at present he's reading a book about the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII.

The book for January was Making Money by Terry Pratchett (a Discworld book), which I am only starting, having only been able to pick it up on Saturday. February's will be The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, and for March, Nova Swing by M. John Harrison (although I may have to read Light first), all of which look interesting.

Before deciding on the March book, Deb turned aside to me and said, "You know, I'm finding I like my science fiction to be more homey; all these galaxy expansive stories make me tired."

(no subject)

At my SF/Fantasy book group last night:

Angus: (Coming back from the kid's section during a pause in the conversation, walking halfway around the circle of folding chairs till he was opposite me and announcing rather loudly) "They didn't have ANYTHING I liked; but I have these. Mom, where are you?"

This caused everyone to crack up - he had observed where I sat before going, but apparently walked around the group most of the way before he bothered to look up. He forgets sometimes that he needs to listen to see if other people are talking before he just announces whatever's on his mind, and he needs to lower the volume a bit. However, I am glad he's venturing off to do things on his own, although if he wants to do it himself it's much easier. He still gets a little freaked when I need to leave him for a minute, as in a half an hour later, when I needed to use the restroom and asked him to stay and read for a few minutes where he was (even though Gareth was there too).

Anyway, his latest book to peruse everytime we visit the bookstore is the D&D Monster Manual, and since one of the other members was an old school D&D player, he kept bringing it over to him to ask questions about various monsters. I don't think Aaron minded, but I always worry he's bugging people. At the same time, I've never liked the adage about children being seen and not heard, and I don't like just squelching him.

Meanwhile, Gareth was paging through a copy of Weird California (a book I'd like to pick up sometime, but it's an expensive coffee table book - and I don't have a coffee table I'd like to put it on at this point). Instead of just blurting things out, every so often I would feel an soft but insistent poke in the back because he wanted to show me something. And of course, he wanted to show the group the pictures of the Fry's Electronics store in Burbank, since we had been talking about cephalopods and the store has a theme of 50's/60's SciFi movies. He asked me later when he could actually join the group, and I told him as soon as he was up to reading the sort of book we pick out every month. He reads juvenile chapter books now; at present he's reading a book about the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII.

The book for January was Making Money by Terry Pratchett (a Discworld book), which I am only starting, having only been able to pick it up on Saturday. February's will be The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, and for March, Nova Swing by M. John Harrison (although I may have to read Light first), all of which look interesting.

Before deciding on the March book, Deb turned aside to me and said, "You know, I'm finding I like my science fiction to be more homey; all these galaxy expansive stories make me tired."

(no subject)

Nifty! Forwarded by a co-worker.

The brownsnout spookfish has been known for 120 years, but no live specimen had ever been captured.

Last year, one was caught off Tonga, by scientists from Tuebingen University, Germany.

Tests confirmed *the fish is the first vertebrate known to have developed mirrors to focus light into its eyes,* the team reports in Current Biology. "In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes - how to make an image - using a mirror," said Professor Julian Partridge, of Bristol University, who conducted the tests.

See here for more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7815540.stm

Very cool - this is one of those fish that I've only been aware of as a line drawing in a Peterson's Field Guide and wondering what they were actually like. And to have seen one actually alive must have been something.

(no subject)

Nifty! Forwarded by a co-worker.

The brownsnout spookfish has been known for 120 years, but no live specimen had ever been captured.

Last year, one was caught off Tonga, by scientists from Tuebingen University, Germany.

Tests confirmed *the fish is the first vertebrate known to have developed mirrors to focus light into its eyes,* the team reports in Current Biology. "In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes - how to make an image - using a mirror," said Professor Julian Partridge, of Bristol University, who conducted the tests.

See here for more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7815540.stm

Very cool - this is one of those fish that I've only been aware of as a line drawing in a Peterson's Field Guide and wondering what they were actually like. And to have seen one actually alive must have been something.