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Two posts in one day. Weird, huh? I think this is only the third time I've done this. Still watching Cosmos between bouts of writing. Earlier episodes mention that we are parts of the cosmos that have become self-aware; we are all a way for the cosmos to know itself. The Lives of the Stars, the ninth episode, gently reminds me of when I was younger and read that we are all star-stuff; other than hydrogen, every atom was fused into heavier elements by a star. I remember that ridiculous fragile wonder I felt reading that; this episode reinforces it and, later, rephrases it. "Our ancestors worshipped the sun and they were far from foolish. It makes good sense to revere the sun and the stars. Because we are their children." ...I think my mind just got blown. What is this joy? I keep feeling like I should damp it down, crush it, hide it, cover it over. But... dude. I don't care if it's hippy flower-child stuff. That may be the most awesome three sentences I have ever read. And yeah, I did see the latest XKCD. Interestingly, Sagan wasn't quite as impressed by the moon landings as he was by the other things, if I go by the chapter in "A Pale Blue Dot" where he goes over them. Tags: other people
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I'm watching " Cosmos", Carl Sagan's short television series, on Hulu. It's good. Some of the stuff is sort of outdated, but it was produced in the seventies, and all things considered it's still pretty sound. I like Sagan. Even if he was a bit of a mammal supremacist. (Early mammals evolved at about the same time as early dinosaurs. Dinosaurs took over all the awesome roles. We didn't get anything exciting until after all the big dinosaurs were dead. If those roles were reversed, I might now be some sauro-avian typing in irritation about how everyone assumes the hairy animals were inferior just because they don't dominate the earth anymore.) Notably, " One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue" (is that an awesome title or what?) has one of those animated evolution things going from microbes to man. And! The end product is female! This pleases me to no end. The "evolving out of the water" charts always have a male end product. It's a small sign of our screwed-up gender issues. Male is always the default, female is this weird accessory thing instead of, I don't know, half the damn species. *cough* Good series, anyway. Sagan's all right.
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 The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire Five years after Endor and the death of the Emperor, the Empire was in bad shape. There had been successors who had ruled the Empire, or tried to. Pestage, the Tribune, Ysanne Isard. Under them it splintered, warlords like Teradoc and Zsinj splitting off on their own to fight them and the New Republic. The Empire just kept losing people and worlds, rarely if ever winning any important battles. "I am Grand Admiral Thrawn. I have been away, but now I have returned. I know some of what has occurred. You will fill in the details of the rest when I come aboard. Rejoice, Captain, for the Empire will rise again." - A Grand Admiral Returns ( We haven't been defeated, merely slowed down a bit. )Next up is Dark Force Rising. Tags: books, comics, star wars
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I believe that I am ill. It is not fun. Having just napped for about three hours, I'm not too sleepy right now, but I feel floaty and disconnected. There are vague aches everywhere, pale fluid sensations behind my eyes, my whole body is constantly cold, particularly my hands and feet. The cats think I am a space heater. Typically they don't lie down on me like this. My eyes, at least, aren't aching right now. One of the most reliable things, though, is that I've had an earworm all day. I get songs stuck in my head all the time, but they typically leave before too long. When I'm ill, I tend to get obsessed with something. And now it's an annoying song. Just as I promised last time, I'm trying to think of it as cyborg flu, but the lack of rather dark dreams and a really persistent delusion is making that exercise not so strong. Hopefully this is a short illness. In other news, my dad drove me back to Adrian yesterday to pick up something I'd forgotten to take with me last spring. See, I hadn't known I was transferring, so I'd left some things there. Since Adrian people are awesome, they boxed stuff up ad left it for me. Also, Pi put one of my porcelain skeletons in the Student Show, and apparently people like it. Visiting there again was both heartening and very sad. On the one hand, apparently I knew a lot of people. And they liked me! And a dragon I put up on a blackboard which is pointing and has a speech balloon has not been erased, although people have put new words in its mouth and change them often. When I went there, it generally got erased every few weeks and I'd put a new one. On the other hand, there are all these changes already, and walking around seeing them made me feel old. And people liked me there and knew who I am. My student advisor and my boss looked out for me. Eastern's not like that at all. I always get the feeling that everyone at Eastern sees me as a number, a set of variables. Aw, man, now I'm crying. Damn cyborg flu is making me sentimental. Sick tears don't taste like normal. It is some kind of nonorganic lubricant. I'll focus on that. In other other news, I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Tags: real life
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