Spell World Backward
First day of classes went OK. Tuesdays are going to be long days this semester; my first class begins at 10:00 AM and my last class gets out at 7:20 PM. Each of my English 2010 classes are inexplicably filled with my 1010 students from last semester. Didn't they learn enough from me the first time? Having repeat students is kind of like going to a high school reunion (not that I would know what that's like; I've avoided my class reunions at all costs); you see a lot of familiar faces, and you feel like you should ask how people have been and what they've been up to, but then you realize you don't care that much and start looking for people who don't already think they know you, so you can loosen up and have a few drinks without risking a spot on your reputation. But at least it will be easier to remember their names this semester. Meh.
Anyway, here are some items of interest from my recent web voyages:
I don't know how much longer this link will be active; I'm guessing at least until late Saturday. I was tempted to just copy and paste this onto the blog; I liked it that much. But you should read this short essay when you get a chance. It's a short excerpt from a forthcoming memoir by Bernard Cooper. It brilliantly mixes the humour and poignance of watching a parent grow old. The last paragraph gives me chills every time I read it.
If you live in the western United States, this weekend offers a rare opportunity to witness the descent of a returning spacecraft. The Stardust mission will be returning collected samples from a comet and barrelling back into the Earth's atmosphere faster than any previous spacecraft. Should be quite a show. In the Mountain Time Zone, the descent will occur just before 3:00 AM on January 15. You'll want to get away from city lights, but I imagine the re-entry trail will be very bright and visible just about anywhere in the viewing area with a clear horizon. Go here to see if you are in range to see the descent.
Eerily enough, the Stardust's path of descent will take it directly over my hometown of Crescent City, California. It occured to me while I was reading about Stardust that I now live in an area where I could have seen the final descent of the space shuttle Columbia. Had I been living here at the time, I'm sure I would have gone outside to look for it. But in hindsight, I'm not sure how I would have dealt with witnessing the bright bursts of light as the orbiter was breaking apart. I never thought I would see another shuttle disaster on that scale in my lifetime.
Apparently, the FAA is taking steps to prevent any potential terrorists from boarding a spacecraft anytime soon, so we can all rest on that count. Seems like most terrorists worth the name would be more interested in blowing up a rocket on the ground while it was still full of fuel and, you know, near lots of potential victims (like that creepy religious extremist in Carl Sagan's novel, Contact). Plus, why would a terrorist fork over all that money for an orbital flight when there are plenty of nuclear power plants with unlocked doors near major cities all over the U.S.? You gotta hand it to the FAA, though. They are all about insuring their own job security and making us feel like the skies (and now, orbital trajectories) are safe for everyone. Nope, you will never see any more terrorists wearing space helmets! Take that, Ted Turner!
Finally, it's nice to see that Larry Miller is preserving Utah's well-established reputation as a state full of fag-hating bigots and movie-going shitheads who don't like having their values challenged by seeing films that might actually contain a new idea or two. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing how CleanFlicks deals with Brokeback Mountain. Maybe this?
Anyway, here are some items of interest from my recent web voyages:
I don't know how much longer this link will be active; I'm guessing at least until late Saturday. I was tempted to just copy and paste this onto the blog; I liked it that much. But you should read this short essay when you get a chance. It's a short excerpt from a forthcoming memoir by Bernard Cooper. It brilliantly mixes the humour and poignance of watching a parent grow old. The last paragraph gives me chills every time I read it.
If you live in the western United States, this weekend offers a rare opportunity to witness the descent of a returning spacecraft. The Stardust mission will be returning collected samples from a comet and barrelling back into the Earth's atmosphere faster than any previous spacecraft. Should be quite a show. In the Mountain Time Zone, the descent will occur just before 3:00 AM on January 15. You'll want to get away from city lights, but I imagine the re-entry trail will be very bright and visible just about anywhere in the viewing area with a clear horizon. Go here to see if you are in range to see the descent.
Eerily enough, the Stardust's path of descent will take it directly over my hometown of Crescent City, California. It occured to me while I was reading about Stardust that I now live in an area where I could have seen the final descent of the space shuttle Columbia. Had I been living here at the time, I'm sure I would have gone outside to look for it. But in hindsight, I'm not sure how I would have dealt with witnessing the bright bursts of light as the orbiter was breaking apart. I never thought I would see another shuttle disaster on that scale in my lifetime.
Apparently, the FAA is taking steps to prevent any potential terrorists from boarding a spacecraft anytime soon, so we can all rest on that count. Seems like most terrorists worth the name would be more interested in blowing up a rocket on the ground while it was still full of fuel and, you know, near lots of potential victims (like that creepy religious extremist in Carl Sagan's novel, Contact). Plus, why would a terrorist fork over all that money for an orbital flight when there are plenty of nuclear power plants with unlocked doors near major cities all over the U.S.? You gotta hand it to the FAA, though. They are all about insuring their own job security and making us feel like the skies (and now, orbital trajectories) are safe for everyone. Nope, you will never see any more terrorists wearing space helmets! Take that, Ted Turner!
Finally, it's nice to see that Larry Miller is preserving Utah's well-established reputation as a state full of fag-hating bigots and movie-going shitheads who don't like having their values challenged by seeing films that might actually contain a new idea or two. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing how CleanFlicks deals with Brokeback Mountain. Maybe this?
posted by Chazzbot at 3:37 PM
1 Comments:
Bwahahaha! You know, Larry H. Miller looks curiously like a muppet. I think you may be on to something here.
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