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
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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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Dust Day (23rd September, 2009) in Sydney  

I raced up & took some photos from my flats' roof, trying to match some of the views I've taken on clear days, plus a few more that I thought looked good. It did have this strange effect — the feeling that "either there's so much stuff in the air it can't get into my lungs, or there's something missing from what is getting in" on my ventures out
that kept them brief.

Here's the link to the Flickr set
www.flickr.com/ photos/ sketchesbymez/ sets/ 72157622437316334

One of the pictures has become quite popular, which is pleasing and terrifying in equal measure. (In this Flickr Gallery by Tom Coates, and two ABC slideshows) I've had trouble with my image editor, so didn't put a watermark on any before I uploaded, which means it doesn't always have attribution (snarl). This has spurred me to getting a dedicated little watermarking program. It's like backing up data; so many people don't really get it working until they've had that first really bad experience.



There are a lot of other pictures and descriptions online. The Terrorgraph had a whole multipage supplement about it the next day.

Adelaide is *seething*, 'cos they've been getting days like this for years and haven't had nearly so much attention <sound of
sulking>, and Melburnians are pulling out their memories of the spectacular cloud that hit them back in February 1983, a week before the Ash Wednesday Fires — see Australian Bureau of Statistics (www.abs.gov.au) on Natural Disasters.

Health Update: Friend's Stroke
Alex is definitely improving, but until they put in a different tracheotomy setup, still can't talk. He can write, but poorly, and is exercising his working right side. I assume there's some physiotherapy for the leg & arm he can't move voluntarily. They've been able to put him into a sort of super-armchair on wheels so he can go out into the lounge near the lifts to get a change of scene, look out the windows (the ward ones face blank wall) & have 'private' talks. He still gets frustrated & depressed, understandably; as do I, & his other friends.

History Tour Links
Last weekend, a friend helped me get through an ABC-linked history walking tour. This is the photo album on the 702 ABC Sydney Facebook account (702 ABC Sydney) [open, public, you don't have to sign in or be registered on FaceBook], called Slurry Hills and Razorhurst History Walk; also a note on their blog. Good, but laid me up for 2-3 days — mostly recovering Just In Time for Dust Day.

Labels: friends, health, medical, photos, stroke, Sydney, weather

[permalink] posted by Mez at 9:34 am