We can all start colonising stars eating tulips and marygolds! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7351437.stm

Heck, people who know me know that I wish space development had not stopped like it did, because the child inside me still dreams of going off to faraway galaxies. I could easily be lured to work on such an idea, too.
But when the radio headline says we can colonise the moon now because we can grow marigolds… I think there’s a couple steps missing

Today I saw this glove, carefully stashed in the branches of the hedge by the sidewalk. It’s a rather funny sight, then you think that someone might be upset to have lost their glove. Then you realise that some kind person has obviously found it and put it as safely as possible somewhere where it would be visible yet stay clean.

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We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.

John Wheeler died yesterday - I nearly got tears in my eyes reading this tribute: http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/04/13/goodbye/

I’m sadder than I can quite understand about this. Partly because of the tribute, and partly probably because of the part of me that still hasn’t grieved the loss of my dream of science. What it describes here is the inspiration, wonder and excitement of research is the reason I went into physics in the first place.

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Stats show I have 10 regular readers! Who are the 5 new ones, the same people from work?

This blog used to have a lot more back when i was following games & silentpc in a bigger way, and there was the AGHL crowd. But from these days remains still quite a bit of google power, it seems, and that means hundreds of people come here hoping to find information about a product or something. Sorry. At best you’ll find a paragraph why I liked whatever it is you are looking for.

Now most of my input happens elsewhere than my site, which is strange. And wrong. Must fix this site and use it more again.

EDIT: after checking analytics I have over 30 returning readers (not counting me) - I’m quite puzzled as to who they are now, cant think of 30! Leave a comment!

Right now the blog is a bit of a mess, while I figure out where i want to take the design. All parts of the site should be functional, but it lacks a bit of polish. Still, I like the texture I created for it so I will make it work!

At the moment it only uses 2 images, and yes, the menu needs making up, so does the footer (needs a bar around it, of some kind, i think) etc. And it looks a lot nicer on a large screen, on low res that pattern looks weird.

The new working title of the blog is the lst line from the poerm “what the dog perhaps hears”, one of my favorites just read from Lisel Muller

What is it like up there
above the shut-off level
of our simple ears?
For us there was no birth cry,
the newborn bird is suddenly here,
the egg broken, the nest alive,
and we heard nothing when the world changed

It’s a simple whimsical poem - full text online here http://plagiarist.com/poetry/3139/

Of course the title on this blog will probably change again…

dog illustration by vgfreddy on deviantart http://vgfreddy.deviantart.com/art/the-faithful-dog-82171082

I had never heard of her but her poetry is full of a sense of wonder, curiosity, and often a touch of the mythical - I think.

Here’s a bit of “why we tell stories”

Because we used to have leaves
and on damp days
our muscles feel a tug,
painful now, from when roots
pulled us into the ground

and because our children believe
they can fly, an instinct retained
from when the bones in our arms
were shaped like zithers and broke
neatly under their feathers

and because before we had lungs
we knew how far it was to the bottom
as we floated open-eyed
like painted scarves through the scenery
of dreams, and because we awakened

and learned to speak

see the full poem at http://plagiarist.com/poetry/3140/

She’s now on my list of books to snatch, i have to read more

Some links
short bio http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/85
interview after she got the pulitzer http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/april97/mueller_4-14.html

I’m about to start a photoblog at blipfoto

This is a very slick photoblog site with the constraint that it only allows one photo a day, and it has to be from that day. This is an interesting challenge, which forces one to maybe look at the same things in a different way to keep taking a picture day after day (although you dont have to have one every day).

Like every blog, some people use it as a photo diary, some as a way to allow far away friends to keep in touch, and others are pure art

Mine is http://www.blipfoto.com/iphigenie

It’s amazing what you leave behind, in the online world

While recently cleaning my mailbox I went through the “community” folder where I store all my registration emails from forums, websites etc.
I decided to start using some of these again, make the effort again… If you use any of them, hook up with me to keep me there!

using:
claimid - iphigenie - openid, validated identities, and it warns me if my key pages go offline.
friendfeed - iphigenie - summarises a few of the following, if people want to spy on me
librarything - iphigenie - always been there but started swapping messages and recommendations. 1500 books catalogued!
emusic - zenaide
last.fm - iphigenie - joined in 2006, used it for the first time today. Too bad it cant read my emusic lists :(
mybloglog - iphigenie - kind of a network of bloggers within yahoo
diigo - iphigenie - nice bookmark and notes sharing service. works in opera.
spurl - iphigenie - another one, not as funky as diigo in the web2.0 department but better on the management of bookmarks side. Also pre-tags your bookmarks if the site is already known, and adds pretty screenshots. Great import/export too. I mostly use this and diigo for stuff I want to find later (like from work to home) rather than something really worth looking at, but who knows?
my.opera - iphigenie

trying:
notefish.com - I had quite a few pages in there!
flickr - superiphi -the ole image thing. a bit ugly.
twitter - iphigenie - who knows, maybe one liners interest someone
pownce - iphigenie - a bit like twitter but prettier, more private, and i already have friends there
facebook - bored of it but some real people use it
delicious / magnolia / yahoo bookmarks / simpy - alternatives to diigo/spurl/linkagogo which i already use
horsesmouth - must make the effort for that one
livejournal / wordpress - maybe ill actually post somethng there, all those things that dont fit here

not sure:
wincustomise.org / deviantart / photo.net - if i ever get the guts to post something on any of these :S
smugmug - iphigenie - very nice but not cheap, and i only uploaded like 6 pics. Like it better than zenfolio, which i also tried. Even though zenfolio galleries are faster to browse, a huge advantage
chow - http://www.chow.com/profile/163243 - foodie site
explode - cant remember doing anything on it and i have 2 unknowns as friends??
slashdot - been a member since 2000, cant be bothered to sift through the mess
webshots - been a member since 2000, never done anything. Have a 10’000 images quota so really should try it
whynot - totally forgotten about that one! Must check it out again
gather - not sure i want to sift. same problem with digg, newsvine and others
technorati / digg - cant seem to bother

a good dozen or more gaming community sites, about 20 technical/development sites, i’ll list them later
and a huge list of forums I stopped visiting, through no fault of their own

It’s incredible all we leave behind and forget, it’s 10 times worse on the web than in real life