Tag Archives: astronomy

So Many Teeth, Bunches of History, Scifi and Comic News, and Good to Help Balance Out the Bad

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This entry is part 68 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Right now, a bunch of people I know are out on the West Coast at San Diego Comic Con.

Another few are bouncing around various European countries.

Still more are heading off for two weeks of Pennsic War.

And, in another month, some mix of those same bunches of people will be heading to Dragon*Con.

I won’t be doing any of those things. It’s just not possible. Won’t be for a while.

That makes me a little sad.

But, things are what they are, and only time will open some doors again.

(I should also be asleep right now…. speaking of time…)

Here’s the feed…

Just a Whole Lot of Stuff

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This entry is part 58 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I meant to update Thursday… and even Friday… but… well… it was a holiday weekend and I figured I’d use it to catch up on things.

And by “things”, it turns out I meant all those games I bought during the Steam sale. Because I really didn’t do much else for most of that long weekend.

The feed from Thursday features a bunch of music (via YouTube) because I was in a classic rock kind of Throwback Thursday mood.

Then there were all sorts of questionable political things that went on (or kept going on, as the case may be), as well as some astounding (both in good ways and bad ways) social stuff.

So, this extra long rundown is a real mixed bag. Kind of like life.

Star Wars Stuff, Perspective on Numerous Levels, Cool Looking Hobbies, and (of course) Politics

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This entry is part 51 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I’ve spent far too long reading stuff and watching YouTube videos. Between that and hitting a meeting down in Silver Spring proper after work tonight, my “free time” has all but vanished, leaving me, once again, at the “Oh, crap, I should probably be going to sleep now-ish” point.

My “normal” sleep schedule really doesn’t fit well with the “normal” world. There’s really nothing close to normal about it. It rotates oddly if I’m left to my own devices. And, while I’ve found plenty of documented cases of variously odd natural sleep schedules. documentation doesn’t really help solve the problem of it not at all matching with a typical work schedule. (Let alone when anything else is going on.)

This has been the case for pretty much as long as I can remember.

And it really shows no signs of changing for the better. No matter how much I try to tweak it.

So, here’s the feed from today and the weekend. Enjoy it. I did. 🙂

Birdman, Open Source Cars, Facts of Life, Fashion WTF, an Awesome Ghostrider, and Bunches of History

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This entry is part 45 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Was just on a trip down memory lane with a friend I met long ago in a hotel.

She’s one of the handful of people I’m still in touch with that I met during Key Club conventions in high school. Those weekend-long conventions were some of the best times I ever had in high school. Definitely some of the few times I was really able to start figuring out who I really was back then.

Only a handful or so of those meetings turned into friendships. A few of them faded over the years… but some, despite some periods of prolonged silence, have held strong and show no signs of really fading.

In fact, because of things like Facebook, I’m interacting with these scattered kindred spirits more now than I have… ever.

This is why I dig the Internet so much.

It makes stuff like this possible.

That’s why I so badly want everyone to have it… and for it to remain as open and wild as it is right now.

Anyway, here’s the other highlights from today’s feed… mostly news that I wouldn’t have heard otherwise for days, if ever. (Another point for the Internet!)

FCC Overloaded, Rough Road to College, Red Velvet Mites of Love, Genderless, and Slenderman Delusions

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This entry is part 39 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

One of the strangest bits of news that came through today (amid a crazy work schedule and some really annoying Facebook problems), was the story of two 12-year-old girls who stabbed another 12-year-old “friend” of theirs in an attempted murder.

They did it, the article said, to gain the favor of the Slender Man and earn the comfort of getting to hang out with him in his mystical mansion in the woods.

In a word, that’s crazy.

For those who don’t know, Slender Man is a meme that kind of got out of control. Started in a “make something creepy” flavored thread on an online message board. He’s kind of taken on a life of it’s own, growing far beyond the confines of that one thread and making appearances in videos, art, and even computer games.

Apparently now he’s a focus for human sacrifice, too.

And that’s just sad.

Delusional is as delusional does, but at least most delusions in the past have been based on things that aren’t as easily dismiss-able (or searchable) as being, well, genuine fakes. Angels, demons, aliens, even most other urban legends, all have their origins buried in generations of ambiguity. Slenderman’s creation is documented on a Wikipedia page that’s one of the first things that comes up when you search for him.

If these kids can’t make the distinction between something that obviously made up and reality, it’s no wonder they have no problem with the idea of killing someone they called a friend.

There’s no connection to reality, let alone real-world cause and effect or empathy, to be found here.

At least not yet.

Maybe something more… human… will emerge if the case proceeds and the media covers it with any sensibility.

The one vaguely positive thing here is that it’s not the media fishing for a cause… this whole Slender Man motivation is apparently what the girls explained when they were caught.