moon phases

Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.

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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death)
[me, on a bad day]

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WRITER'S LINKS
Absolute Write Paypal donation button:

Absolute Write is one of the leading sites for information on writing and publishing, especially the scam versions thereof. It has a broad, deep online community with an enormous message base going back years. Now it needs help. See the details and discussion here
Preditors and Editors
Everything you wanted to know about literary agents
On the getting of agents
Writer Beware
Miss Snark
Writer's Net

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(and my Wish List)

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Out of the Closet  
December 27, 2005
The Secret Histories of Dresses, pt. 1
http://www.dressaday.com/2005/12/secret-histories-of-dresses-pt-1.html

January 21, 2006
Secret Lives of Dresses, No. 2
http://www.dressaday.com/2006/01/secret-lives-of-dresses-no-2.html

February 23, 2006
The Secret Lives of Dresses, Vol. 3
http://www.dressaday.com/2006/02/secret-lives-of-dresses-vol-3.html

April 16, 2006
The Secret Lives of Dresses, Vol. 4
http://www.dressaday.com/2006/04/secret-lives-of-dresses-vol-4.html

July 16, 2006
The Secret Lives of Dresses, Vol. 5
http://www.dressaday.com/2006/07/secret-lives-of-dresses-vol-5.html

August 8, 2006
The Secret Lives of Dresses, Vol. 6
http://www.dressaday.com/2006/08/secret-lives-of-dresses-vol-6.html

August 30, 2006
Secret Lives of Dresses Vol. 7
http://www.dressaday.com/2006/08/secret-lives-of-dresses-vol-7.html

September 13, 2006
Secret Lives of Dresses Vol. 8
http://www.dressaday.com/2006/09/secret-lives-of-dresses-vol-8.html

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 12:01 am

 
A Test for the Speed of Your Connexion  
A Test for the Speed of Your Connexion
A wonderful resource with, among useful things, many images just beautiful to look at, the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog.
It includes some digitized images from a 1910 printing of the first comprehensive book on design, Owen Jones' "The Grammar of Ornament", originally published in 1856.
Also images from a rare 1923 edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren.

They're also running a drawing course.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:29 pm

 
Spring hailstorm in Sydney  
There was a hailstorm in Sydney this afternoon
Other Peoples' Pix
Sydney white-out snaps - News - smh.com.au
www.smh.com.au/ ftimages/ 2006/08/15/ 1155407800541.htm

My picture — looking out my little window on the world



More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 5:53 am

 
Burial  
Burial

It would be a good place to stay for a long time, to watch the leaves curl and uncurl each year, watch the branches thicken and lichen invade fresh territory. I lay beneath a clump of mistletoe today and the breeze kissed me. Gray bark plates and cynipid wasp galls, swelling: I would like to be planted beneath one of these one day, to have this flesh turn to a pulse of deepening green in spring leaves, to have ground squirrels burrow in the softer ground that I become, their hearts beating between my ribs.

faultline.org/index.php/site/comments/mold

Thoughts like mine about being buried at Towrang. From Chris Clarke's blog 'Creek Running North', always recommended.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 12:51 pm

 
Other Germanic news, but sadder  
Sadder Germanic News
Someone who isn't Dan Brown demonstrates the most common use of 'Renowned' at the start of a sentence (and, indeed, a paragraph, or even a whole story).
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5243582.stm
Renowned German soprano Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf has died at her home in Austria at the age of 90.
BBC Video Obituary (approx 1 minute)

Video Obituary (??)
I hope this means we get a few good full-length arias played over the next few days/weeks, but I suspect there'll just be snippets. She was very a good singer.

Digital Domesday
From parchment to pixels as book hits web
news.bbc.co.uk/ nolavconsole/ ifs_news/ hi/ newsid_5240000/ newsid_5244300/ nb_wm_5244332.stm

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:36 pm

 
Going Fourth  
Going Fourth
Trying to live as normally as possible. Not getting much blogging done, though. But I spotted these bands in my nails, showing the effect of the last three chemotherapy doses.



More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:50 pm

 
Doctor Who Review: short but effective  
Doctor Who Review: short but effective
(from www.neilgaiman.com )
Good Fiction
[Friday, July 28, 2006 - 8:47 AM www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2006/07/good-fiction.html ]

... I watched the final part of this season's Dr Who last night with Mike and Maddy* (and our friend Sarah). Maddy watched the end of it with her head on my chest, and it was only after it was over that I discovered that my tee shirt was soaked with her tears.

I love that Russell Davies and his team have built something I can watch with her, that she cares enough about to shed tears over...

[* one of his daughters — other is called Holly. Does the Oz tendency to -ie/-ey nicknames stem from British ancestry?]

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:48 pm

 
The Shipwreck News  
The Shipwreck News: Graf Zepplin
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5223514.stm [small map; clear if less detailed; gives overall location]
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2287104,00.html [small map, good detail]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060728/ap_on_re_eu/poland_nazi_shipwreck_1 [US version]

On 12 July 2006 a ship belonging to the Polish oil company Petrobaltic found a 265 m long wreck close to the port of Łeba (BBC report says 55 km north of Władysławowo) which they thought was most likely Graf Zeppelin. On 26 July 2006 the crew of the Polish Navy's survey ship ORP Arctowski commenced penetration of the wreckage to confirm its identity, and the following day the Polish Navy confirmed that the wreckage was indeed that of Graf Zeppelin. She rests at more than 264 feet (80 metres) below the surface.

www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/germany/pages/aircraft_carriers/graf_zeppelin.htm has photos of her launching.
[Do you know this site? The Maritime Quest home page describes it as: "A quest for the photographic history of the worlds ships. A quest to bring to the forefront little known tales of the sea. A quest to uncover the history behind the worlds greatest ships."]

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:46 pm