OK, right, it’s been so long since the last post that even my backup program is writing me off as too far gone. Too bad, Updraft, back to work, you lazy batch of code.
True, some comets hare off to interstellar space on hyperbolic orbits. However, two or three things:
1) There’s much to be said for the sweet homey stability of an elliptical orbit.
2) On a hyperbola, there are two arms, and who’s to say if you’re on the right one?
3) My top speed is less than 2 m/sec whereas an escape trajectory on Earth demands moving at about 11,500 m/sec.
4) I’m not actually a comet, I’m a human being who is interested in comets both as astronomical objects and as metaphorical images.
5) That’s four or five things.
Redlining on a hyperbola. Aieeee!
Stuff happens, and it’s not exactly a huge crime to neglect a blog that no-one is reading. Last year, I whined about the inconveniences of having a broken arm. Well, there’s worse stuff than a broken arm. Besides, I needed time to read other people’s websites. Like catching up on the doings at Gunnerkrig Court. Like reading anything about robots that turns up on IEEE Spectrum. Or reliving grad school days on Jorge Chan’s Ph.D. comic. Or vacillating between reading Allie Brosh’s hardcopy book or her online stories at Hyperbole-and-a-Half.
In the meantime, I’ve managed to keep up a little better on the easier-to-maintain Facebook & twitter side of things, under the Pixel Gravity moniker.
But it’s time to dump more stuff out on the world and see if anyone who isn’t a spammer notices.
Here’s the deal: I’ve got a year’s worth of science projects for kids that I want to share. Maybe they’ll be a book too, some day. (Insert self-knowing laugh here.) I’m a year behind on delivering my Grand Canyon stories & pictures, which I promised my fellow-travellers would be “up” by the end of last summer. But there’s other stuff I want to address as well. So there will be a little discipline applied, in a way that would help any of my imaginary readers look ahead for the next entry in a category of interest.
First week of the month: One “Messy Monday” project
Second week: One “Grand Canyon” entry–either a half-day of storytelling or a photo album.
Third week: Science & fiction stuff–the science fairly topical, the fiction
Fourth week: An extra week to play catch up, first on the Grand Canyon, and later on Messy Monday, but also a piece of flexible time for interesting stuff of the moment. For instance, Memorial Day Weekend will yield four days of BayCon 2014.
Next up: Comets in orbit…