Last night a couple of good friends and I had a snowball fight. I don’t know when the last time they had the opportunity to throw snowballs at people,but it was my first time actually getting into an all out snow war ever. I’ve seen snow before and played in it and made snow angels and all that other jazz, but never have I taken part in basically the beaches of Normandy-style snow projectile battle. Twas Jeff and myself(Team OO ESS AYE) against Jeff’s sister,whom I will refer to as Beav, and young cousin Krista(Team France). From the start we knew who the victors would be, but that wouldn’t stop Team France from attempting to give us what for. Most of the time, Jeff would be posted up behind trees, coming out every now and then to throw Team France off their game a bit. Meanwhile I stayed back and would lay mortar rounds, using the top of my truck as the strike point, showering snow into the faces of Team France. Team OO ESS AYE took their licks but kept on coming. The battle was coming to an end as the snow supply in the back of my truck was running low and both teams had already exhausted the supply of snow on the grass. Jeff decided it would be a good idea to take out the snow mound we had been using as cover because…well because it was there and it was something to be destroyed. First a flying sidekick was landed right into the broad side of the mound(which hardly moved it). Then, from what I saw, was a somersault/tackle which completely decimated the structure. From then on, both teams started chucking large semi-frozen chunks of snow and it was starting to get a bit dangerous. Team France took the final blows as I ran up to each team member and dropped a mortar round of the white stuff all over their heads. Exhausted, cold, and wet, both teams knew who was the victor. Who will win the next snow battle? Only time will tell
Snow in Las Vegas 2008
I really like QuickPress
I mean, it’s cool. I can put any random idea I want here. Though it could be more like a wordpad instead of making what I type a regular post. There should be a box on the side with all of these in it. A bulletin board! That’s what I meant earlier, not notepad. Anyway, I need to figure out something to write about. Been in a haze lately.
ISS
I was sitting on the roof again earlier this evening and I got to catch a glimpse of the Internation Space Station in orbit. It had a magnitude of about -3 which is pretty bright. It took 3 minutes to transit the sky in a NNW to SSE fashion. F’n savage.
On Friday night (Saturday morning) at 1:06AM MST, a humongous fireball lit up the skies over Colorado Springs. Astronomer Chris Peterson photographed the fireball at Cloudbait Observatory using an all-sky camera dedicated to studying meteors.
“In seven years of operation, this is the brightest fireball I’ve ever recorded. I estimate the terminal explosion at magnitude -18; more than 100 times brighter than a full moon” The negative symbol might throw you off, but thats how the magnitude scale works. A full moon has an apparent magnitude of -12.6, whereas Pluto, at its brightest, has an apparent magnitude of 13.65
Fireballs this bright are known as superbolides. Superbolides come from meteor-class asteroids that can be anywhere from 3 to 10 meters in diameter and have hundreds of metric tons of mass. When they reach the Earth’s atmosphere, start breaking up, and create the signature “shooting star” type flash, these meteors won’t burn completely and will most likely leave you some nice sized space-rock chunks to pick up(if you’re anywhere close). If they’re big enough to set off seismic detectors and satellites that scan Earth’s surface for nuclear explosions, they better be so nice as to leave you something to bring home.
This short video will show you just how beautiful things like this are. All you have to do is look up and you’re bound to see something.
As I put this story together, I’m realizing what exactly I saw last night. Around the same time as this fireball came into the atmosphere, I was sitting atop my roof with a pair of binoculars and 4 layers of clothing. I started to tell myself it was too cold to be outside and that it was time to go in, but just as I made my mind up, I looked to the north and saw 5 shooting stars within a matter of seconds. I now realize that those were more than likely pieces of debris from the same superbolide as I was just writing about!
Man….I love space.
everything is…is everything
you are the sun and the moon. you are the stars and the planets. you are the blue sky dotted with clouds. you are the green of the leaves, the brown of the bark. you are everything and you are nothing. we are all connected. you cant tell where your nose ends and the universe begins. sitting outside on a beautiful day like this makes a human think “what more is there to this life? a 9 to 5 job, a wife, 2 kids, and an SUV. thats all i need, right?” wrong
excuse me for not using capitals or proper grammar to the fullest extent that i should be, this is just flowing. which is to say theres no time for me to think about this comma going there, or what-say-ye
we humans are so caught up in our drama, our reality TV shows, our fashion magazines telling the ladies “you arent beautiful until you weigh exactly this much, have this color hair, have this color eyes, have this handbag, have these jeans, have these sunglasses, have this top, work here, live here, shop there, smell like this” forget all of that. be your own person. i promise you, the people that are worth your time dont care about any of that.and the people that do worry about things like that, get them out of your life in a heartbeat because they cant be trusted. their minds have been corrupted by these ideals set by people JUST SO THEY CAN MAKE MONEY AT YOUR EXPENSE.
for real though, who cares how much money your purse costs? you wasted that much money just so you could have something to put your $1000 phone, your $30 sunglasses, and your $80 bottle of body spray. you could be using that money to give to charity. (OR TO HELP ME START THE ‘BUY ICELAND’ FOUNDATION)
in closing, im appalled by the amount of people in the world that are so disgustingly materialistic. dont turn your TV on anymore, not even the news. the news is more whack than any magazine you could pick up. and if you absolutely must turn the TV on, put it on the Science channel.
expand your mind, become one with everything. well, you already are one with everything, you just have to realize and embrace it.
oh oh and on December 21, 2012 something is DEFINITELY going down. heres proof
http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm
read it, enjoy it. catch you later, readers.
Contrary to what you may see, this luminous pair of stars are nowhere near the colliding galaxies of Arp 273. The stars are located within our Milky Way galaxy where as the runaway galaxies actually sit 200 lightyears behind the pair of stars. They will still look exactly the same for millions of years after we die. This is what we get for being stuck on this planet; two dimensions everywhere but here. I guess we have three dimensions if you count time(even though time is an illusion)
For those who can’t see the stars behind this absolutely amazingly brilliantly beautiful collection of atoms and matter and what-have-you, this is The Great Nebula in Orion, the hunter. This nebula can be seen by looking at Orion’s left “leg”. There are 3 points of light, the middle point being a fairly visible cluster. If you look at it through binoculars or a telescope you would easily see the stars that make up nebula, just not the different colors of the gases. It almost looks like there’s another Orion inside the nebula. Only this one is equipped with a bow and arrow. This being the case, you might be able to see the 3 points of light that could make up this Bizzarro Orion’s belt. You might be able to see each of those points of light as clusters of stars. Yet another illusion due to our 2D perspective. Give your eyes a chance to focus on the picture as a whole though, you’ll notice Bizzarro Orion squinting eye. You can see his arms stretching his bowstring as he waits for the opportune moment to strike. Everybody, watch out for this Bizzarro Orion in the future. For he may bring our end.
It Is
imagine what makes up all the different parts of your body. cells that take up different tasks, change their shape, change their function, just to make sure that you yourself function. all the different pieces that makes up each cell. each strand of dna, each atom, each quark, each gluon, each positron.
now look at us, human. in a sense, we are the pieces that make our planet tick. each of us performs a certain function to ensure that the rest of us survives, and in turn, the world survives(as we know it, at least). so we are the atoms that make up our world’s body. each planet, each meteor, asteroid, etc is a cell that performs its function to ensure the system its in functions as its supposed to. each system performs functions to ensure that the galaxy its part of functions the way its supposed to. each galaxy does what it does to make the universe work the way its supposed to.
and there is way more than one universe. to be able to know that they exist, to understand them, and to accept them, one must WAKE UP and see. all the signs are there, you just have to know where to look and what to look at.
Food For Your Eyes: Deep Space
NGC 6751
NGC 6751, also known as The Glowing Eye, resides in the constellation Aquila. The star at the center of the ring of gas burns at 140,000K on the surface. The nebula sits about 6,500 light years away. Researchers say it was formed thousands of years ago when a star collapsed and threw a ring of gas out in the universe. Humans wouldn’t be able to see the color of the ring because it is only visible as ultraviolet light.
This picture was taken with false-color imaging to accentuate the many different areas in the amazing piece of the universe. The Cygnus Loop, also known as the Veil Nebula, or the Witch’s Broom Nebula, is the remnant of a supernova. A supernova is a star that has reach the end of its life and instead of peacefully expelling its energy source at a steady rate and becoming a neutron star, it becomes unstable. The weight of the gas on the surface becomes to great and makes the star implode, creating a massive explosion that can be seen for millions of light years. The Cygnus Loop is a perfect example of a supernova remnant. Note the intricate patterns created by the inertia of the gases still moving around after millions of years.
It starts with a young boy. Actually, let’s back up a little bit. If we started with the boy, I would have to create some huge fantastic lie to get the boy to a point where I could begin a story with him. But you, the collective you, wouldn’t know whether I was telling you the exact truth or omitting facts or anything other than what I’m laying out for you. Besides, its not your story, its mine. You’ll just have to trust me.
From one, came all. this is all I can say about the very beginning…but that might be a little too far back. Fast forward.
A couple stands in an open field in the twilight of a pleasant mid-August day. To their right, about 20 meters away, is a stretch of open highway. The terrain is flat and you can see every vehicle that comes down the road. Above the couple, a partially cloudy sky hangs like an expensive painting. A patch of clouds swirls and bends and contorts to create the outline of a dog with it’s head bent, drinking from a stream. Or a bowl of water. Whichever you prefer.
The couple stands there, watching the sun slowly melt into the horizon in absolute silence aside from a random car speeding by. Both know that the forces at work are far greater than any single being on the planet. Not in the sense that there is a higher being, but in the form of laws that are older than the big blue marble they reside on. Older and more powerful than time itself.
The woman breaks the beautiful silence with a sneeze. “Oh, excuse me. That totally killed the moment, didn’t it?” she blurts.
“Bless you, and no it didn’t kill the moment. I started kinda going into a trance right there” the man chuckles as he turns to face the woman.
“Celia, can I ask you something?” The silence is no longer a factor in the equation of this couple’s existence at this time. “Go ahead” she replies.
“What do you think really goes on out there? Like..behind that big curtain, do you think there’s really someone watching over EVERYTHING?” he asks with a skeptical tone.
Not expecting the question, Celia pauses for a few seconds to gather an answer. “It’s hard to say, Adam. Sometimes I think it would be a lot easier to believe there is, but you can never be sure. Though, if there was, we’d have to live in fear every day and make sure we don’t do anything wrong. That just seems a little overbearing, don’t you think?”
An semi-unfulfilled “Yeah..” escapes Adam’s lips as he gets lost in a thought of his own. “We should probably get back before it get’s too dark”
Watch out for Part 2 some other time
On the Occasion of Wet Snow..
Not really, but these posts could easily turn into a flowing Dostoevsky novel at any point. I’d like to take some time to thank a few gizmos and gadgets and other inventions fueling the fires of civilized human interactions. First is the internet for being so gracious with its “you can literally find anything, all you have to do is look” nature. Example: search the letters “ifvd” (I slammed one hand on the keyboard, then hit search). The 4th link tells us that IFVD means Immunity Free Vacancy Diffusion. I don’t know what that even means but it sounds complicated. Next, I’d like to thank the XBOX360 (or any personal computer for that matter), for its ability to cure any sort of depression, but at the same time make you want to kill yourself and many other people (with grenades, rockets, whatever). The refrigerator, for keeping my food cold and fresh. I guess there are more things I should be thankful for…but we’ll get to those another time. Time to figure out something else to write about.
