Wandering through E-Space

D.W.Q.M.: "Eurkea!" -the Third Doctor Persephone, Northern lights take 2 was a success!!! Yay!!! I went outside tonight (thursday) around 7pm EDT to wait for Persephone, Heather, and Jon (the four of us were going to dinner). I step outside my apartment, and notice that just above the roof, the sky was looking redder than usual-not 'the-sun-is-setting" red or 'hey-there's-a-fire!' red, but red as in 'northern lights' red. I couldn't believe it, since we've been disappointed the past couple of nights. So quickly ran around my building so I could get a better look, and lo and behold, I was seeing the aurora borealis!!! The northern lights! Here in Cleveland!!! I was soo excited-I gave Jerm a call 'cause a promised him I would (i hope he was able to see it from his apartment-there are an awful lot of trees in the direction of the display i saw) When Persephone, Heather, and Jon arrived, I began waving my arms around and ...

D.W.Q.M.: "Oh, by the way, talking of eggs, I want a four-hour scan below the hydrogen line tomorrow; I'll give you the precise wavelength later." -One of the astronomers in "Terror of the Autons" I'm sure some of you will hate me, but I have to say it, I just have to say it: "Stupid warm front!!!" There, that's better. The warm front that came through last night also brought clouds and a few sprinkles-not good if you're trying to catch a glimpse of the northern lights!! According to NOAA there is going to be plenty of solar activity over the next few days. The active regions(there are currently three active regions-486, 488, and 484) of the sun are likely to produce more major flare activity (although probably not as big as the X17 on Tuesday). Yesterday region 486 (same region as the X17) produced another flare-X10. 486 has been the most active, with 488 looking promising also. 484 flares have been C and M class. I...

this is an update on the Aurora Borealis, as well as a test to see if I can get my blog to republish correctly! ;) Around 4am EDT, there was a reported sighting of the Aurora Borealis in Watersville, OH (near Toledo)!!!! Chances are good that we might actually see something, provided the weather holds up. (of course, as with most astronomical events of this type, we might see something, we might not. Here's hoping for the best!)

...Can you picture that? ;) D.W.Q.M.: "One day we'll know all the mysteries of the skies, and we'll stop our wanderings." -Susan Foreman Ah, the Sun is at it again. Last week we witnessed a solar storm that many hoped would trigger the aurorae (northern and southern lights). Well, I don't know about you, but it was too cloudy here in Cleveland to see anything. Sounds like there wasn't much to see, anyway. Never you fear, Aurorae lovers! We have another chance-and a much , much bigger one at that. First, a little astronomy lesson (I love this stuff!!!) Solar flares are classified as C (weak), M (moderate), and X(strong) with a corresponding number-the higher the number, the bigger the flare. Last week's solar flare was classifed between X1 and X5, according to SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The one that was emitted yesterday was classified as X17!!! That's the third largest one ever recorded!!! Now, this doesn...

D.W.Q.M.: "I know it's irrational, but human beings are quite my favorite species." -the Fourth Doctor Before I begin, I'd like to say 'Hi!' to Carol from New Zealand! I came across her blog after I had updated my own-the name 'Aragorn' caught my eye (LOTR, need I say more? ;) ) Carol is originally from the U.K. and is currently taking a career break(from the police), working(with horses and other animals) and living in NZ. I've been reading her blog since August, and finally decided to drop her a line-she was delighted to have another state-side reader. :) This weekend P^2 and I took a trip down to visit Sasha and her family before they move to VA this weekend. Before we headed down, Persephone and I canvased Coventry Village in search for the perfect going-away gift. Since Sasha loves gargoyles, we decided to try High Tide and Rock Bottom first. We walk in, and we see this skeleton dressed in a black cloak and red glasses wit...

D.W.Q.M.: "I often think dimensional transcendentalism is preposterous, but it works." -the Fourth Doctor I'm sorry I haven't written anything lately-I've been too lazy at home and during my lunch hour to write! My Halloween decos are finally up, and I even have a new building for my Spooky Town village! woo-hoo! It turns out that my sister is starting a Halloween village-she's collecting Spooky Town houses, too. I didn't know where she was getting them, but when I talked to her, she started describing a building that I had in my collection! Ah, yes, she is truly my sister. :-D We're both really excited, and it'll be really cool to see how she sets hers up! (hmmm...better tell her to take a picture) There's a section in the Spooky Town home page where people send in pics of their set ups-boy, they can be really fancy!! Maybe I should look into getting accesorries (like people, trees, pumpkins, etc) rather than houses, to make my ...

D.W.Q.M.: The Fourth Doctor: "Should we try using our intelligence? Leela: "Well, if you think that's a good idea." Breakfast cereal of the day: Captain Smack Puffs- 'the heroin that smokes like a joint' Brought to you by Paul. :) Interesting gadget of the week: A coffin that, with the press of 2 buttons, explodes into a jet ski-MacGyver style, of course. :) Most Exciting Sports moment of the weekend: the Fourth Inning of the 2nd Boston Red Sox/New York Yankees playoff game. Cleared the benches! 'nuff said. Goal for the Week: To finish putting up all of my Halloween decorations! Well, I'm over halfway there-99% of my lights, 95% of the halloween garland and 100% of the wall and window decos are up. I just have to arrange a few Halloween figures around, and find a place for my lighted Halloween village, and then I'm all set. I love lights-just ask anybody who has been to my apartment. ;) Things are pretty slow here at the li...

D.W.Q.M.: "There's no point in being grownup if you can't be childish sometimes." -the Fourth Doctor Ahh..inner childhood... My inner child is ten years old! The adult world is pretty irrelevant to me. Whether I'm off on my bicycle (or pony) exploring, lost in a good book, or giggling with my best friend, I live in a world apart, one full of adventure and wonder and other stuff adults don't understand. How Old is Your Inner Child? brought to you by Quizilla We could all use a little break to discover our inner child. :)

D.W.Q.M.: "I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow." -the Third Doctor THANK YOU, PAUL!!! He fixed my modem problem!! I'm online at home again! Well, at least for now, until the next problem. LOL, look at me, I'm sounding like, as Col. O'Neill put it, 'Mr. Glass-is-half-empty.' ;) Nah, it'll be alright, if the same problem should arrise, Paul showed me what to do. When Arthur asked what he did, Paul said he did the software equivalent of 'taking the screw out and putting it back in.' For those unfamiliar with the story behind that statement, when Paul's vcr was acting up, Jer looked at the vcr, took out one screw, then put it back in, and it worked!!! :) Now, if only we could solve the mystery of the disappearance of my Network Neighborhood icon from my desktop.... :-D This is Romanadvoratrelundar checking in from home! Yay!

D.W.Q.M.: "I see, Captain Yates. So the Doctor was frozen stiff at the barrow, then revived by a freak heatwave. Benton was beaten up by invisible forces, and the local white witch claims she's seen the devil. Apart from that, it's been a quiet night?" -the Brigadier No, I didn't forget the 'r'. I really wanted to use the word 'Boing!' in the title...for the lack of a better one. Before I begin, is there anyone out there who knows a thing or two about modems? My new modem started acting up-it wouldn't talk to the computer or something. I tried to reinstall, got it to work once, and then my computer crashed, and I haven't be able to make it work since. We've pulled it out, plugged it back in, the main trouble is every time I try to delete the current drivers(so I can reinstall them), I get an error message saying there's an application that trying to use the drivers. I have no idea what it could be, since it won't...

D.W.Q.M.: "Chap with wings there...Five rounds rapid!!" -the Brigadier, issuing the most ludicrous order in military history. ;) Forget the IHOP, I wanna go to A.J.'s Country Kitchen in Anola, Manitoba! Ah, the playoffs-gotta love baseball, gotta love statistics, gotta love so called sports analyzers/commentators with their predictions and their so-called knowledge. The Twins suprised everyone(well, I suspect mostly Yankee fans and sports analyzers) Tuesday afternoon when they beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, 3-1. It was almost a shut-out, but they let a Yankee run sneak by in the bottom of the ninth. So Thursday night, it was Yankee this, Yankee that. What will the Yankees do if the Twins beat them tonight?!? Might be the end for Joe Torre, are they still the fabulous team they once were? blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc. Enough!!!! PLAY BALL, PLEASE!!!!!!!!! (to be fair, I also dislike it when they talk about the team i'm rootin' fo...

D.W.Q.M.: "The trouble with computers, of course, is that they're very sophisticated idiots." -the Fourth Doctor My modem got fried Friday night...well, at least we think that's what happened. After celebrating Jerm's birthday just a little early at Buca di Beppo's (I did survive...no reprocussions for surprising him...yet... ;) ), the four of us (me, Jerm, and P^2) decided to play some euchre at my place. There were some pretty heavy storms that night, and lightning struck somewhere very close to my apartment. That sound that the thunder makes just as lightning hits close by is enough to make your heart stop!! When that happened, we all heard something in the dining room pop (that's where I have my computer), and we saw a flash-a quick intial check lead me to believe that nothing was amiss...so we continued playing. The only other exciting event for the night was the power went out for a couple of seconds. The next day I try to get online...

D.W.Q.M.: "Eureka!!!" -the Third Doctor I interrupt my originally planned tvshow review entry to bring you the following: When I got into work this morning, a printout of this article was waiting for me at my desk-left behind by a kind co-worker who knows of my obsession with this particular British scifi show . ;) Can it be? Can it really be? After more than a decade? DOCTOR WHO IS COMING BACK TO TELEVISION!!!!!!!! Grant it, it's not until 2005, and as far as I know, only the BBC1 will be carrying it, but still!!! There is always a chance! Maybe BBC America will pick it up...of course, that means I have to get a cable company that actually has BBCA in their lineup-but I can still dream, can't I? Who knows-maybe PBS will pick it up again! (boy, I'm really dreamin' big here) I I can't wait to tell my mom! Don't you just love cult television?!?! :-D Here's to the longest running scifi show in the world!! Cheers! :) *Roman...

D.W.Q.M.: "A question! Isn't anybody going to pay attention to that computer over there?" -the Third Doctor For about three years now I've been listening to WCLV in the morning-one of the few radio stations with morning programming that doesn't annoy me, plus, I get to hear the BBC news every weekday. ;) Well, I also get to hear the Wall Street Journal report, and they reported something that really disturbed me... (no, it's not the economy...) What was it that bothered me so much? Apparently sometime next year, the film company giant Kodak will begin to start concentrating more on digital products, instead of "traditional" photography products. Now, I know digital is cool and all, but I have never been a true fan of the digital camera-I will admit, they are kinda cool, but at least for me, they take all the fun out of photography. What skill are you showing when all you do is manipulate an image to make it look perfect? I'm sorry,...

D.W.Q.M.: "Great jumping gobstoppers, what's that?" (from 'the Krotons' with the second Doctor...not sure who said it though....) 3 for 1! Basically these are reviews for CBS's Tuesday primetime lineup. ;) Disclaimer (thought I should add one...): The views here are made soley by me, unless otherwise stated. ;) Series: Navy NCIS Episode: Yankee White-pilot episode Original airdate: 9/23/2003 "What, are you guys like CSI or something?" "Only if you're dyslexic." Ahh...a brand new show to get hooked on...a JAG spinoff, in JAG's old time slot. The Navy version of CSI (maybe CBS should change it's letters to CSI.... ;) ) I decided to watch because the characters introduced in JAG interested me. (my fave characters are 'Duckie', the M.E., and Abbey-a lab techie who is a total goth chic underneath her white lab coat, and adds 'color' to the lab by adding pictures of a bullet trail through th...

D.W.Q.M.: "I'm a tiger when my dander's up!" -Jago (a character from the episode the Talons of Weng-Chiang) As promised! here's the first edition of the tvjunkie files! ;) Series: Enterprise Episode: The Xindi Original airdate: 9/10/2003, season premiere. Yah, i know, way late-and my review won't be as in-depth because of it. Okay, first of all, if you want to improve the theme for a star trek series, you do not add a faster drum beat interlaced with some gitar. Now, I was never a big fan of the Rod Stewart song for the enterprise them (come on, it's Star Trek!!) But when the faster beat and gitar was added, it took all the magestic (sp? too lazy to look up) feeling out of it. This might take longer to grow on me than the original did. My main problem with Enterprise is it's entire premise-100 years before Captian Kirk. I guess I'm not very fond of prequels-they lead to too many inconsistencies. Plus, the ship is en...

D.W.Q.M.: Sgt. Benton: "Do you know what it's all about? " Jo Grant: "Not really, just that it's aliens from outer space. " Benton: "It always is." The question of the day is, what the heck is a metadata librarian? Okay, so we have this new position open, a position for a metadata librarian. We were told it was like Jean's old job (Jean retired almost a year ago) but not. Jean cataloged videos, dvds, microfilm, original cataloging of books, reclassifying some of the deweys. When she retired, her work was divided up and given to others. Now, before I go on, a little history of the interviewing process at the library. When I interviewed for my full time positition, I gave my resume to Human Resources and filled out a form there. I was called in for an interview, and for less than an hour, interviewed with one person-the supervisor of the department. After that, I had a follow up at HR about a week later, and we set my start d...

D.W.Q.M.: "Well ... it is a fact, Jamie, that I do tend to get involved. " -the Second Doctor I haven't been doing many community service projects lately-I did quite a few when I was in high school, especially when I was in Key Club . In college, I only did a couple of things here and there. So, when the President of C WRU (*heehee*) announced the first (and hopefully annual) community service day , I decided to jump at the chance and do something. The 'day' (actually, it was only a half a day) started off on the 17th, with checking in with our project leaders, and receiving our blue tshirt and a box lunch. The President said a few words, and then we met up with our group to be transported to the site. I was assigned to paint the home of an elderly gentleman. There were 22 people in my group, and that wasn't including the contractors who were on the site with us. When we got on the bus, our group leaders decided it would be a good idea to...

D.W.Q.M.: "How about a trip in the TARDIS? I'm just off." -the Fourth Doctor Woo-hoo!! It's only September, and I already have my flight for Christmas!! Yay! Non-stop to MPLS, and it's less than $250!! I still can't believe it!!! I had travelocity watch some fares for me, and usually it's not very helpful (the flight times are bad) but I hit the jackpot!! I'm sorry i'm so bubbly, but I was a little worried-last year my flight was over $300, and when I started looking last week, it was in the $349-375 price range (yikes!) *whew* I am quite relieved. :) And coming soon to a blog near you(hopefully): the tvjunkie files! I was thinking about reviewing some of the stuff I watch on tv here (for those of you who know my tv habits, don't worry, it won't be everything -just the season premieres and a few episodes here and there. They would be my opinions, plus the added comment from people who watch them with me. ;) I was going to st...

Matt. 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Rom. 12:21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."