out of the blue

My internet was completely dead today. It made me sad. But I will return one of these days in a blaze of fiery light. And goodness. Look for me.

I'm in the apartment, surrounded by three different directions of sound. From my open bedroom window come the sounds of thunder from the storm that is passing to the North. From the kitchen, the sound of a kettle softly warbling as it turns to a full boil. From the window by the couch, the sounds of rain and of cars splashing down the street. Josh is on the couch reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I'm in the brown chair reading War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull, and the mood fits.

Josh and I are ensconced in our new apartment. I was going to post this from campus, but Josh was ready to go back before I had the chance. Then, when I reached the apartment, I realized that the internet had not come disconnected. The Gonzaga wireless network still had a couple bars. I realize this is cheating, but I'm not going to complain.

I took some pictures of the apartment today, but I am not going to put them in this post. Later. Be patient.

Those of you in Spokane: talk to me; make plans to impose your presence upon me.

Here are some recent and forthcoming books that the Spokane Public Library has either on its shelves or on order, and which I will reserve at my earliest opportunity:

Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky

A much-talked-about book on group dynamics with the power of the internet, and the ability of groups to transcend traditional organizational structures.

Jhegaala, Steven Brust

The new Vlad book. Fantasy assassin with biting humor. Not set at the end of the timeline so far, but bound to fill some of the holes in the Vlad narrative. And be hugely entertaining, of course.

Saturn's Children, Charles Stross

A new book in the Accelerando universe, Young Adult space opera. I have read no synopses or reviews, so I'm not sure what to expect. Except Strossy goodness.

Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi

John Scalzi's contribution to Young Adult, in the style of a Heinlein Juvenile, taking place in his Old Man's War Universe. To be released July 19.

The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman

A riff on The Jungle Book, except darker and spookier. Neil Gaiman says it's the book that he wanted to write for a long time, but never felt good enough. Then he decided that he'd never feel good enough, so he might as well write it. He sounds quite proud of it. Due for release September 30.

A few other books that I plan to reserve, but aren't notably new:

Stand On Zanzibar, John Brunner

I just read The Sheep Look Up, his classic book about the ecological apocalypse, and loved it. This means that I will be looking up his other well-known books and making my way through them. This is the most notable of those. (Except the Spokane library doesn't have it… Must find elsewhere.)

In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma was pretty good. This focuses more on processed food and the American diet. Amazon quotes what may be a seven-word synopsis of the entire book: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

War for the Oaks, Emma Bull

Emma Bull's debut urban fantasy novel. Rock music and faerie. So far I'm only familiar with Bull for collaborating with Steven Brust. Reading this should remedy that situation.

If you want to watch meteors this year, check out the Perseid meteor shower tonight. It's probably going to be the best one of the year. Although the moon is rather large (83% of visible disk illuminated), it should set around 1:01 am, leaving the darkest part of the night undisturbed. The sun should rise at 5:43 am, but it will begin to (slightly) lighten the sky two hours before that. The sky should be completely dark by 10:17 (technically, that's the end of astronomical twilight, the least [or greatest] of the twilights). The darker the sky, the more meteors you'll see and the brighter they will appear. So go watch them from 1 to 4, if you have the chance. Try to get away from cities. The shower will be visible from Portland and Seattle, but not nearly as good as, say, a mountaintop in Eastern Oregon. Look towards the north-eastern sky.

I am still in Pullman, which means I can drive ten minutes and be away from nearly all light pollution. There is a completely clear sky with only a faint breeze. In other words, perfect viewing conditions. I hope you are as lucky.

Today's xkcd is excellent.

So my flickr image "Survey Marker" just received a comment:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called USGS Geodetic Survey Markers, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

I wouldn't mind contributing to such a random group, but only members can add to the pool.

Sarah and I drove to the Snake River last night. On the drive there the sun blinded me at intervals, but I managed to stay on the road. By the time we arrived, the sun had set and the moon was perched on the lip of the valley. Sarah set up her algae collectors. Then we walked around looking for a place to watch the sky. We decided on a dock right on the river where we wouldn't have to worry about the sleeping bags getting too dusty.

When I was a kid, my family went to the Oregon Star Party nearly every year. My dad made his own eight-inch Newtonian reflector, and a few years after that we made a smaller four-inch scope for me, complete with a polished wooden tripod. Star parties play host to one of my favorite environments: late at night when everyone is huddled over their star charts with their red-cellophane-covered flashlights, or up on ladders next to the giant forty-inch reflectors hoping not to fall, or simply reclining on lawn chairs like me, falling slowly asleep with the constellations laid out above.

The best part about it is the murmur. A crowd of fifty to two-hundred people, all out there for the purpose of looking at the stars. Finding some of those more obscure galaxies and nebulae is a challenge. You have to rely on reference stars, intuition, and a hefty measure of old-fashioned searching — panning the telescope back and forth across the general area until you stumble across it. So people talk, about theory, about life, about science, about what to look for next. And they are doing it all over this tree-less mountaintop. There's a sense of community about it, an undemanding community built around simple appreciation of the universe. People gathered together to admire the majesty of the night sky.

So Sarah and I lay beneath the stars for a few hours, watching for shooting stars and talking and just being together. We watched Jupiter set and Cassiopia set, we saw Scorpio linger in the southern sky and then drop beneath the horizon. We watched Cygnus fly against the light of the Milky Way, and the Dippers (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) swing around Polaris. We fell asleep.

When we awoke, the sky had grown lighter and the stars dimmer, although you couldn't tell that the light was coming particularly from the East. Cygnus had spun around and now flew in a different direction. The Big Dipper was nudging the sides of the Snake River Valley. The Pleiades glimmered faintly, but soon were lost to the lightening sky. Sparse herds of high clouds wandered in from the south. After eating some bread, cheese and a peach, we gathered our sleeping bags and pillows and headed back to the car. We climbed the twisting highway out of the valley and wound our way back home. The dawn gathered and threatened to break over the Palouse hills, but we reached Pullman and dropped down to Sarah's place before it happened.

We were safely asleep by the time the sun peeked through her windows.