Back from Danny’s birthday party… Typical for him, he had a pokemon theme, as his 40th b-day also as usual, I enjoyed the kids much more than the adults. (excepting Dan, of course) Denise, a 11 year old Chinese girl just here 6 months, and a *total* sweetheart. She and I drew pokemon characters on a sketch pad, and she did a fine job of capturing the likeness of pikachu and charzard…. while my squirtle and bulbasaur were sorely lacking. We swapped drawings and I think I came out ahead.

Sara was the other little girl, maybe 12. not as graphically inclined, but spent most of the evening chatting and gabbing and speaking and talking…very chatty….gabby enough to hold up both sides of the conversation, but charming enough to not make you mind.

Made a lot of small talk with the grownups, but nothing worth any real mention… Most of Dan’s pals aside from myself seem to speak mandarin or cantonese, sometimes both.

I ate a copious amount of sheet cake, appetizers from the relish tray, and cheese… ack… totally bad for me, but it’s a party, right? I think I’m entitled to splurge once in a while.

After the party, Dan and I went out to the Mai-Kai (instead of dave and busters, away from the show, just the Molokai Bar off in the corner) for a couple of rum drinks and quiet conversation… we both reminisced for a bit, and gabbed about our assorted woes, neutrals and good times. We’re going to head to D&B’s later on this week, when we’re both more up for the noise and hubbub.

Well, it’s time for Scotto to go help Danny with his Birthday party… we have about 20 people to feed, and entertain. Not really in the mood for it, but It’ll be more fun once there, I hope. Newtie will have to hold down the fort while I’m gone… I think he’s up to the task. I’m moving at Ent-speed today. Hoom. Hum. *shuffles & trundles off*

See you kids before sundown.

Well, between light pollution and a cloudy sky, I was mostly out of luck with the eclipse. Using a pair of 7×50 binoculars helped some and I caught a slight change of shading, but overall vision was poor. The upshot was that it was warm enough to walk outside in my shorts and a t-shirt. I can’t reccomend binocs for an amateur skywatcher enough… you don’t have to set up as much as with a scope, and with something like the moon or other bright sky objects, I think they are actually easier to use.

One of the better sources for info – http://www.earthsky.com/ – a well put together site.

Chapter IV
Treebeard
The Ent and the Ent-wife
396 KB

‘There was an Elvish song that spoke of this, or at least
so I understand it. It used to be sung up and down the Great River. It was
never an Entish song, mark you: it would have been a very long song in Entish!
But we know it by heart, and hum it now and again. This is how it runs in your
tongue:

The Moon’s dance around the Earth and Sun paints a different face every night. In the early morning of Sunday Dec. 30, one usually invisible transformation will reveal itself, when the Moon dips its southern edge into the Earth’s shadow. This will make a dramatic penumbral eclipse; a subtle intersection of the Earth and Moon, seen in the Americas, across the Pacific to Eastern Asia.

“If casual observers get up at 5, they’ll notice the lower left-hand side of the Moon is dimmer than the upper right hand side,” said Fred Espenak, an eclipse expert at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

The effect will be the most subtle of three types. There are a variety of eclipses because the Earth throws two shadows. There is the darker umbra, the exact silhouette of the Earth carved out of the sunlight. Then there is the penumbra, which is a larger cone of diffuse shade, where the Sun’s light and the Earth’s shadow mix.

In a penumbral eclipse, the Moon passes through the partial shadow of Earth. The subtle change in lighting on the Moon is usually visible only with a telescope. An umbral eclipse on the other hand, is quite noticeable and varies in degree by how much the Moon drops behind our planet. A total eclipse is the most dramatic and rare, when the moon is fully behind the Earth.

Although Espenak said a penumbral lunar eclipse is, “the least scientifically interesting,” he did agree this particular event will be special because of its strength.

“This one, as far as penumbral eclipses, is a very deep one,” he said. “The Moon will move very deeply into penumbral shadow, almost to the edge of umbra.”

The moon will dip itself 92 percent of the way inside the Earth’s penumbral shadow at 5:29 a.m. EST, 2:29 a.m. PST.

Back from my trip to the galleria mall… or as I’ve dubbed it today… “midget village”. Midget village is populated by a tiny, yet numerous throng of people, each of whom are easily at least a foot shorter than I am. As I lumbered and meandered through that ant hive, the vast sea of miniscule madness generally parted before me, allowing ample passage to get to the stores I needed to visit in record time. I managed to pick up Dan’s birthday present quite quickly at the suncoast video…LOTR soundtrack on CD, and a blank tape to dub it to for listening in the car. It’s marked the first time in an age that I’ve actually picked up music at a music store, instead of online… the last time was the Enya CD for my dearest one, and before that, who knows? I’ve grown spoiled by mp3 servers.

While there, I got the remainder of Dave’s Christmas Prezzie, too (which I won’t mention here, in case he’s reading it) I stopped off at archives for a cup of hot chocolate, but they were closed… so instead I treated myself to an order of nathan’s french fries and a pink lemonade, and headed to the bus stop… the first time in a span that I’ve been on the bus, too. Things haven’t changed much…. though it seems a bit more crowded now that season has begun. Read on most of the trip back, and scouted a few places to take pictures of on my time off. The strip mall of gluttony, comprised of only take-out and dine in food joints is one, especially the south wall, with all the graffiti on it. The Pompano Beach graveyard is another, not to mention lighthouse point and the gateway theatre.

A lot of different memories dancing in my mind….I look forward to hitting a museum or the imax during break… it feels like a minor chunk of my knowledge base is lacking, or underused… I wonder if the ft lauderdale aquarium is near to being finished yet? I think that’d be a fun place to poke my nose, and a lot closer than the key west aquarium, which is a great trip. Avoid the miami seaquarium, which was very run down the last time I went…maybe the most dumpy florida attraction, ever…and I’m counting Xanadu, house of tomorrow on that list. (I loved Xanadu when it was open… now it’s a shut down sigh of yesterday. I’ll miss it, unlike the tupperware museum, once right down the road, long gone now.)

Newtie greeted me with a friendly mer and loving headbutts upon my return, so I’ve been playing with him these last few minutes with my feet while my fingers type. I think I’m going to take some more Kitty-comfort now, before wrapping the gifts, and maybe read some.

Whee!

I got my first Christmas giftie from my amazon wish list today, and it completes my Robert Anton Wilson library. Thank you so much! I’m not sure if you want to remain anonymous or not,(so i’ll err on the side of privacy, if at all) but I know you read my journal… Thankee! New book to read! 🙂 Newt also thanks you for the new box, and plastic “factory air” that came with… it made medicating him quite simple this morning. He just say in the fresh box, and let me give him his pink antibiotics.

For any kiddies that dig flash animations check out http://www.hoogerbrugge.com/ … it’s got some wonderful stuff. I enjoy an artist that puts himself into his work. I’m especially fond of #51, “nervous”. in the modern living series.

Sometime today I have to go out and pick up Danny’s Prezzie. It looks like a shower and walk are forthcoming after all.

How to diaper a monkey.

I take pride in bringing people the knowledge they need, even if they didn’t think they wanted it.

Newt took his medicine like a good boy tonight, unlike the “woohoo, chase me all over, it’s a game, it’s a game” gig this morning. I’m estimating there’s another weeks’ worth of this stuff left, and It’s actually getting to be more routine. I wonder if newt’ll ever get so used to it that he’ll miss it when it’s gone? I’m glad he doesn’t seem to resent being held by the nape and having droppers of pink goop poured down his throat.

BB king is playing at the pompano beach ampitheatre tomorrow night, and it’s cool enough to open the windows… I wonder if I’ll be able to hear the music as well as my old apartment?

i’m all for finding out… I hope so… they get good music when tourist season kicks in.

Hmmm… I noticed today at lunch time that the methadone clinic up the street has closed down, and is now for lease… I wonder where the people that used to go there are now, especially at this time of year? I know the homeless population jumps in south florida when it starts to get cold… if you don’t have a roof over your head, you may as well not sleep in the snow.

also, frighteningly enough, http://www.coincidencedesign.com/ is apparently a “legitimate” business… making money by creating dossiers on innocent people… that’s got to be one of the most repugnant type of company I can think of… including advertising. some place that makes money by basically stalking someone for you? Not someone who has broken any laws mind you, nor even suspected of such, but they root through your trash, interview your old employers and loved ones by means of deception to build a file on you, in order to let some desperate, yet wealthy scumbag (not sure what else to call someone who’d pay for that sort of service.) use that knowledge against you and forge a totally false relationship grounded in lies.

How gross is that?

ah well… solace can be found in thoughts of so many true loves out there…

Going on a vacation in a week or two, not far from home, but I’m going to pick up a digicam and go on walkabout… day-trips into the city or country, and take pictures of what I see…

random ramble – something I like about my life –

I can pretty much sleep and read whenever I like. work hours make staying up late, or going to bed early very possible. I highly reccomend a mid-day work schedule.

Thinking of my beloved today… her visage and voice echo in my mind, bringing me warmth, comfort and pleasure… I’m thinking of us soaring over a soft winter landscape, covered in the snugglesome aspect of bedtime blankets and napping in a rainstorm.

Newt was bad about taking his meds… I think he looks at it as a game, “chase me!” so I had to sort of wear him down a bit before administering them.

straight dope about milk duds.