Item The First: Heads up! (Literally.) I’ve seen several folks on Twitter talking about how they’re seeing bright ISS passes listed for their cities in the US this week. Check it out, especially for Halloween night. If you’re already out and about with the kiddies, setting your phone to go off a minute or so early will give you the “heads up” you need to see a pass.
Here in Los Angeles, there was a pass last night that I didn’t think I would see because of the heavy clouds. But I happened to be taking Jessie out at the right time and found some holes in the clouds to see the VERY bright ISS blinking in and out through the gaps. Spectacular!
For the rest of the week, at least for Los Angeles, there are passes this week tonight (Tuesday, the 29th) at 18:22 and 20:01 (the first pass is higher and brigher), Wednesday the 30th at 19:14, and Thursday night (Halloween!) at 18:23. The Thursday night pass is supposed to be especially bright, rising in the WNW with a maximum elevation of 47.2 degrees, a magnitude of -3.2 (which is much brighter than Venus), and setting in the SSE. You can’t miss it!
Item The Second: Yes, the central scientific idea in my October 24th Flash Fiction story is similar the idea in Larry Niven’s “Inconstant Moon”. Yes, while mulling over the random title I got (“Fire On The Sea”), I did think of Niven’s story as a source of the fire, since I wanted to do something other than just telling a story about a guy in a burning boat or oil rig or something. That’s how my thought processes go. I don’t want to do the “usual”. What else could be on fire on the sea? An oil spill? A large explosion of some sort? Maybe an asteroid impact over the horizon. What about the sun? What was that Niven story? Maybe the guy in my story is dealing with something similar. He’s looking east, waiting for the sunrise, so where does that put him. Jersey? Virginia? Florida? I don’t want to do the “usual”, so let’s make it Africa. OK, that works, so what’s this guy doing and thinking in that situation. (By the way, if you haven’t read “Inconstant Moon”, go do so immediately. It’s a classic and most excellent.)
Item The Third: So far, neither Rocky, Raquel, or “the kids” has managed to pry the screen off of their hidey-hole. Sorry, Pat! But I’ll keep an eye on it. They’re up there on the roof every couple of nights, there are plenty of half-eaten oranges left around, and the dog’s water bowl is occasionally quite muddy from where they’re using it to wash their food – but they haven’t reclaimed their hidey-hole. Yet…
Item The Fourth: Two thoughts on the media’s changing reaction to a certain couple of pieces of music. First, I thought that it was interesting to see Filter’s “Hey Man, Nice Shot” being used as the background music in an episode of NBC’s “The Blacklist” a couple weeks ago. A few years ago, when the song came out, I remember quite a bit of protest about it and folks trying to get it banned. Ditto for “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats, which I heard on a middle of the road, “classic rock” FM station the other day. Back in the day, I remember folks hollering for KROQ’s license because they dared to play it.
The second, equally upsetting thought, was the realization that “Hey Man, Nice Shot” came out in 1995 (eighteen years ago) and “I Don’t Like Mondays” came out in 1981 (thirty-two freakin’ years ago!!), so when I casually think to myself that it was “a few years ago”, the only one I’m fooling is myself, I guess. It’s not just a river in Egypt any more…
Item The Fifth: Which NFL team is undefeated at 8-0? Hmmmmm? Face it, coming off of a terrible year in 2012 at 2-14, this year we sincerely hoped that we would be better. Most folks were praying for an 8-8 year, and a few brave souls thought we might get to 9-7 and squeak into a wildcard playoff spot. To say that we need to reassess those goals and expectations is the understatement of the year. I don’t think we need to be reserving hotels and airfares to New York just yet. But it’s much, much better to be 8-0 at this point in the season than it was being 1-7 last year!
Item The Sixth: I swear, someone in the neighborhood has a kookaburra. I hear it almost every night, right around an hour before sunset. It’ll sound off repeatedly, sometimes a dozen times. I have no idea if it’s caged in someone’s house or if it’s on the loose (like Lester), but I would love to track it down and see it, take a few pictures, maybe some video. If nothing else, just to prove that I’m not hearing things and hallucinating.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 