a quick news round-up

Sometimes I feel like all I do on the internet lately is signal-boost. Sorry for that, guys - I promise I'll be around for some actual updates sometime soon.

* A quick post with links to Help Japan, and the Seattle PI's current update on the situation with the nuclear reactors over there. Related to this: Phil Plait's take-down of the overreaction and downright asshattery going along with the problems over there.

* A post by Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, dealing with congressional climate change denial.

* Link to Forbes (yes, Forbes) gacked from from seachanges, discussing how the Governor of Michigan is setting dangerous new precedents in his actions against unions. An excerpt:

Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all – whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that.

Except it does. The governor simply has to declare a financial emergency to invoke these powers – or he can hire a private company to declare financial emergency and take over oversight of the city. That’s right, a private corporation can declare your city in a state of financial emergency and send in its Emergency Manager, fire your elected officials, and reap the benefits of the ensuing state contracts.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go stick my head under the sand for the last twenty minutes of my lunch break, and hope that things around the world start settling down and getting less awful soon.

in other news - a GOOD THING

Astronomy Picture of the Day to the rescue! (Link gacked from galeni)

WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW. You will not regret it.

From their explanation: What would it look like to approach Saturn in a spaceship? One doesn't have to just imagine -- the Cassini spacecraft did just this in 2004, recording thousands of images along the way, and thousands more since entering orbit. Recently, some of these images have been digitally tweaked, cropped, and compiled into the above inspiring video which is part of a larger developing IMAX movie project named Outside In.

♥♥♥

It's a big universe out there, and we're just tiny. I don't know about you, but that makes me feel a hell of a lot better about a lot of things.

mental shift

Ever have that experience where you're working on writing a (non-original) character you've never written before, but you have a strong mental image of in your head... and about halfway through writing, you think "well, it's been a while, I'd better watch a few clips to make sure I'm getting their voice right and all." So you pop in the DVDs, watch a few bits... and are immediately taken by the shocking realization that although technically your mental image of them was correct, you had somehow completely neglected to remember about a zillion little details about them, and they actually look a hell of a lot different than how you'd been recalling them?

...Yeah. That's what I get for starting to write fic in a fandom I haven't touched in a while without getting the DVDs out first.

The irony is, I'm pretty sure my voice was right all along. I'm just kind of boggled by how wrong my mental image was, physically. Very strange.

Also, I cannot find my home headphones. I know precisely where the pair at work are (on my desk, where they always are), but the pair at home has vanished. So much for my plan of listening to faintly embarrassing YouTube videos and such while I write... of course, at the moment, my brain is still reconstructing what I'm writing and considering the possibility that I have a highly revisionist hind-brain. Seriously, what is it about B5 in particular (for that is the fandom in question) that causes literally everything in it to be remembered in my mind as about 50% more awesome and attractive and visually appealing than it really was? Is it some kind of magic? And, if it is, can I borrow it? I can see how magic like that could come in seriously handy...

And then, if you're me, you're left wandering around vaguely wondering if you've misremembered other things, and muttering things like "I could have sworn he was taller than that." Bit unnerving. ...And very confusing to one's fiance, when one tries to explain why one is wandering around in a vague state of confusion.

What I have decided: is to borrow a line from that beloved children's book, The Velveteen Rabbit, about how when you love something, it's real. When you love something, it's just that much more beautiful in your mind than it "really" is. The sets often appeared to be made of cardboard and the costumes were often couch fabric, especially early on, and the guest actors often chewed the scenery (hell, so did some of the main actors), but I love this damned show so much that in my head, it is absolutely untouchable. In my head, it is myth and legend and sheer beauty. ...Even if, occasionally when I go back and look carefully at the details, the ink is a bit runny and the pages are more than a little careworn. And possibly someone scribbled a bit in the margins. That's okay. It's good. It's been loved.