Public Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The featured image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is presented in three colors chosen for scientific interest. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second. Discovery + Outreach: Graduate student research position open for APOD

Never fear to write.
Fear inhibits creativity.
Your ability to write
words, unencumbered,
is hindered by shyness
or risk of embarrassment.
To have your words
taken out of context,
can be fearful.
Just write the words,
few or in abundance,
to make yourself heard,
by taking a chance.
You may be surprised
by the response
you receive.

Carpe diem.
Seize the day.
Don't procrastinate.
Do it now,
lest we forget
what life is about.

I long for the days
of the past,
of slow dancing,
picnic at tables
in the Taneum Creek area
and breathing, sans mask.

Ah, the days
of tricked up cars,
Smitty's mufflers
with large, echo cans,
all chrome and noisy.
Racing on country roads.
No money involved,
just wanting to win.

Where does time go?
Where do days hide?
When will you say?
When will you decide?

The need to endure,
when reaching a space,
in the annals of time,
attainment of grace.

Stand and reset,
an animal cry,
for resistance
you'll live not die.

Writing simple rhymes,
is what I try to do.
My writing is more simple
and why I love you.

Asher Brown Durand (1796 -1886) was an American Engraver and painter of the Hudson River School. His reputation as one of the country's finest engravers was established with his 1823 engraving of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence". His bank notes engravings were used as the portraits for America's first postage stamps.

His main interest changed to oil painting about 1830 concentrating on landscape painting. He spent summers sketching in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, making hundreds of drawings and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished academy pieces which helped to define the Hudson River School. He was an advocate for drawing directly from nature with as much realism as possible. Durand wrote, "Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity... never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth."
Biographical source: Wikipedia

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Perihelion for 2023, Earth's closest approach to the Sun, was on January 4 at 16:17 UTC. That was less than 24 hours after this sharp image of the Sun's disk was recorded with telescope and H-alpha filter from Sidney, Australia, planet Earth. An H-alpha filter transmits a characteristic red light from hydrogen atoms. In views of the Sun it emphasizes the Sun's chromosphere, a region just above the solar photosphere or normally visible solar surface. In this H-alpha image of the increasingly active Sun planet-sized sunspot regions are dominated by bright splotches called plages. Dark filaments of plasma snaking across the solar disk transition to bright prominences when seen above the solar limb.

Photo by Barden Ridge Observatory

Help me, please.
I won't pretend,
my literary skills
are at an end.

No matter how.
No matter the time.
Why do I write,
to have words rhyme?

Could I not
write words whole,
which moved your spirit,
while helping your soul?

Perhaps I'll try,
to remake myself
and avoid being,
placed on a shelf.

A shelf of words,
covered in dust.
My mind, once sharp
has begun to rust.

I see you in the morning.
and in the evening too.
Why oh why,
do I still love you?

From out the heavens,
there came a new star.
Use all your courage,
you will go far.