For The Last Couple of Days...

I have spent the vast majority of the last couple of days working with a program called Stellarium. It shows you star and planet positions throughout the ages, including into the future. Space movement is all math, so I assume that this is fairly accurate. You might ask why I am using an astronomy program to look at star and planet positioning. Good question. It's actually about the sequel to Night Cries.

You see, part of A Night Borrowed takes place in present day in upstate New York, among other locales, and the reason that part of it is set in New York has to do with an article I read in a FATE Magazine compilation of articles called Out of Time and Place: Amazing accounts that challenge our view of human history. I bought the book on a whim at Barnes&Noble during one of my forays there. It was on clearance.

Anyway, in this book is an article about Druids in New York. The whole of that article is basically re-published here, but the following was the part that made me go, "Hmmm....":

In Fahnstock Park located bear Putnam Valley, New York are two chambers very close together. One chamber, the smaller one is oval and because there is a slab of rock near the back wall large enough to place a human body we named it the tomb. Out side this chamber is a large flat rock placed in the earth with carvings that clearly show an astronomical conjunction involving the crescent moon, and the planets Jupiter and Venus. It is possible that someone tried to make a record on when the chamber was built or perhaps the time it was used to place the body of a very important person. Using a planetarium program at the observatory in which I was a staff member at the time, I went back in time to find out when this particular alignment of the two planets and the moon took place. The dates I got were 1423 A.D, 1500 B.C and 2772 B.C.

But, actually, the guy was wrong about the alignments. Even after searching the whole of the year 1500BC, I wasn't able to find it, but I did find it happening on August 8, 1423. I took a screenshot of the event, which was more than just Venus, Jupiter, and the moon:

You can see where Mars was right there, too, as was Mercury, and even Saturn was in the Western sky at dusk that night. In fact (though I couldn't get a good screenshot of it), Uranus, which isn't visble with the naked eye, was lined up. After finding this, I went and looked all over around the year 1500BC, and didn't find anything, and I was starting to think, after three hours of doing this, that the 1423 alignment was a "one-off" phenomenon. But, out of curiousity and sense of thoroughness, I went and checked 2772BC. It didn't take me long to find this:

It would have happened below the horizon from a vantage in upstate New York, and about 4 in the morning. It would have been visible from South America. Anyways, in that shot, you can see that it is exactly the same alignment, just not visible from the ground. It's EXACTLY like the one I found in 1423.

So, I went back to 1500BC, looked some more, and came up empty. I decided - since the whole point of this was to see what the alignment looked like - since I couldn't find a picture of the inscription on the stone - and to find when (for my book's purposes) the alignment happened again. I started at 1423, and started going through the years, month-by-month. I found something similar in 1482:

... but it is not EXACTLY the same. I kept looking. I found another alignment that is exactly the same in 1626:

I don't remember where Mars was in that shot, but I think it was there, like in the 1423 one, just way far away, so it is exactly the same. Well, based on this information - that there was 203 years between the 1423 alignment and the 1626 alignment - I skipped 203 years ahead from 1626 to 1829. Nothing. Looked all around there. Nothing. Finally, I went back to the month-by-month examination, and, three hours later, found the alignment again - more to the south, this time, though - in 1837:

But the moon isn't quite right. It's in waxing crescent phase, but it is not aligned to make a triangle with Venus and Jupiter. It's close, though.

So, I went back 1626, and started going month-by-month again. I found another similar alignment - two hours later - in 1757:

The alignment of the moon is much closer to what I saw in the 1423 alignment the author of the article described, so I am torn as to which date is the correct one. I know that it happened on August 8, 1423, and again on September 23, 1626. The time between those two occurences is 203 years. If the 1757 alignment is the correct one, then the time between alignments is 131 years. If the 1837 alignment is the correct one, then the time elapsed is 211 years, which seems closer to me than the other.

Of course, there is nothing saying that it couldn't be BOTH dates, meaning that if the alignment happened in 1626, and then in 1757, and then again in 1837, the time between the last two I found is only 80 years.

Now, I am pretty sure that no one who reads A Night Borrowed is going to be as anal as I have been in figuring this shit out, but I want it to be as accurate as possible; however, for the purposes of the story, I am thinking that saying it happens about every 200 years would be logical. What do you think?

Today, I am going to see about making karaoke CDs for the karaoke people at the Stateline; they said they'll pay me $1 per song. And I am going to see when other planetary alignments took place. I am actually enjoying that. :)

Memorial Day & Stuff

Yesterday morning, I wrote a recap of the show "The Tudors" for a new web site (you can read it here), and I wrote a parody song for the band's message board. I cleaned up the bathroom today, too. I suppose I should go practice the piano or write something, but so far, I don't feel like it.

Flawed Thinking

I recently read a blog post about the new movie in the Terminator franchise. The blog writer said that she didn't like the movie because she had a hard time suspending her disbelief because of continuity problems. Specifically, she mentioned that, in Terminator: Salvation, that the machines already knew John and Kyle Connor would be important to the resistance even though, at the time the movie takes place, they aren't important yet. I cannot speak to this, as I haven't seen the film, and, based on reviews, probably won't 'til it comes out on cable. However, I would speculate that the machines sent back messengers to that point in time to tell the other machines.

Now, don't get me wrong. I liked Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and I also like Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The other movie(s)? (Was there more than the abyssmal Terminator 3?) Not so much. The Mythology keeps changing. But there has always been one thing that bothered me about the whole concept of machines launching a nuclear attack that is at the foundation of all the films, and it is this:

It's hard to suspend disbelief when the catalyst is a premise that makes everything else that follows implausible. I mean, given that Skynet has become self-aware, it boggles the mind to think that ultra-intelligent machines would then decide that the best course of action for eradicating mankind is a nuclear bomb. Assuming that the machines know what we know or have put into their databases, then, certainly, Skynet must know that a nuclear blast would cut all electricity, among other, horrific side effects. Given that at the time of Skynet's supposed first attack, the Big Bad Machines were, basically, just a computer sitting in a room, who, exactly, would have had the knowledge, manpower, and wherewithal to restore the power grid?

I believe that the writers of The Sarah Connor Chronicles attempted to address this paradox (machines blow up mankind, blow up themselves and their power sources in the process, hence, no man-like machines could ever be built), by spending at least one episode in a power plant in southern California (see Season 2, Episode 2 of TSCC, entitled "Automatic for the People").

I suppose that one could theorize that Skynet was smart enough to know that it would need power, and avoided precisely destroying certain, pivotal power plants so that it could build more machines (using other machines, I would guess, but who would program those machines? Skynet?), and that might also explain how anybody managed to live through the nuclear blasts (world wide, I further assume) and the radioactive fallout.

But this actually brings me to another point: if it was Skynet that programmed the other machines to build human-like androids, how did it do so? Because most computers used to tool machine parts are not connected to databases, but are instead programmed locally to a dedicated hard drive... at least, in my experience with them. There may be some computers for this purpose that are connected to networks, but that actually seems a bit counter-productive to keeping one's designs from being hijacked, so, even if those computers were networked, it would probably only be within the company where those computers were housed and not connected to a wider, world-wide network like the Internet. Machining designs are quite proprietary. Therefore, one would have to assume that Skynet would be able to access those computers another way, perhaps through electrical outlets that the machining computers are plugged into, but that brings up two problems: the first is what I started writing this post about (the power problem, post-nuke, not to mention the physical damage that the machines would have to avoid with their nuclear blasts, thus sparing more people in order to spare facilities); the second would bring us in to Tesla territory, which I am neither qualified nor inclined to talk about, except to say that it's pretty scary to think that someone out there might be able to figure out what you're up to, what you're using, or even what's on your hard drive due to the nature of the electrical ground plug.

Then again, perhaps I am wrong altogether about this. After all, I am not a nuclear scientist, and don't really know that much about it. Maybe power grids and machines could continue to work through massive electro-magnetic blasts and the force created by a nuclear explosion.

But I don't think I am wrong.

Okay, Break's Over!

I have a list of things to do:

• Write a synopsis for A Night Borrowed and write that in June instead of July
• Put together a disc of songs for Dad for his birthday
• Mop these disgusting floors
• Clean out the porch (will need help with this)
• Find someone to mow my fields and lawn
• Put together sheet music for the new covers
• Finish the record by August
• Finish writing Devil's Handiwork by the end of July
• Finish writing A Night Borrowed by the end of June
• Edit both books in August
• Get A Night Borrowed to the printer by September
• Start querying Devil's Handiwork in August
• Move my office to the porch by the end of September
• Finish the record cover and printed material

I Think I May Be Getting Sick Again

Why do I always start to come down with some God forsaken cold whenever I am about to record? I started feeling sick again today, with a little bit of congestion, sore throat, painful tonsils, fever... the works. I feel better now, but I sure didn't this morning, so I stayed in bed much of the day.

I had e-mailed the gal about the wedding to set up a time to get her set list requests and sign the contract and look at the venue, but she never called. Got an e-mail tonight saying that she had been in Montana Tuesday for work (and is every Tuesday). At any rate, my next availability, I think, is Sunday.

I wish I had my car back. I have so much shit to do and so little time to do it in and no way to get there, either. I need to start with the cleaning of the house soon, but, in doing the mental inventory of what needs to be done, I realize that it is not as big of a job as I had first anticipated. Most of the work is in sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming floors. Dusting is a huge job, as well. And the kids' rooms? I don't even want to think about it. But, I figure, I can get the house kicked into shape within four days or so, so, why not put it off a while and relax? So, that's what I am doing.

I finally got an idea for A Night Borrowed that might sustain the storyline for 300 pages or so, which is a Very Good Thing, considering that I don't like filler material. Plan to get started on that soon, and write the manuscript in July. Book should be ready by September-ish, which is about the same time as Moonshine Valentine will be done. In the meantime, I plan to finish up the rough draft of Devil's Handiwork and then do re-writes through June. Somewhere amidst all of this, I will be cleaning the porch and converting it into my office. For this, I will need some money, because I plan to put up blinds, and those cost money.

So, I am working on a project for my cousin tonight and tomorrow, might go out Thursday - not sure yet - or will work on piano parts if not. Friday, I am in the studio, Saturday is band practice (now with new songs!), and Sunday is food shopping and the wedding meeting, if the bride is agreeable to such things.That's all I got for now. I hope all of you are doing well.

So...

...now that school is over until the end of August when it resumes, I seem to have some time on my hands. First things first: I went out Friday night and had three drinks and sang some karaoke. There was some sort of incident there - prior to my arrival - when some gal apparently caught (or thought she saw) her boyfriend doing the horizontal mambo with another gal in the parking lot. I heard about this incident A LOT throughout the course of the evening. At any rate, I didn't relax a whole lot, because apparently, the people at the bar missed me or something, and I was being talked to and asked to play darts and be a shoulder to cry on and sing karaoke. Which wasn't bad or anything, mind, but it is hard to relax when you are so popular (LOL... because I am not popular... at least, not as popular as my friend, Duff, who cannot go out into public without everyone bogarting his time... it's like being friends with Britney Spears!)

So, I thought that we would go out Saturday night, to really have some fun now that school is over. Well, we did, and we were, until a couple of moronic jagoffs decided that Kenny's car looked like a cop car (and it does, because it was one), and decided to sprinkle the car with sugar water from a hummingbird feeder. This, after asking the bartender what it would take to get 86'd from the Legion and staring at me and my aunt all night. Well, my aunt caught them sprinkling the car, and confronted them, Kenny right behind her, and they acted all, "Oops" when told that he wasn't a cop, but then proceeded to be even more annoying when they left, as they pulled their truck in right behind Kenny's car and acted like they were going to ram it or something, but we thought they might try something like that, so pretty much everyone in our party was staring outside at them, so they didn't really dare.

So, anyway, now that school is out, I plan on cleaning my house. Monday, I am dealing with the floors. Tuesday, I am going to tackle the clothing in my room. Wednesday, I am re-arranging the porch so that I can have my office out there. Thursday, I am dusting. Yeah, it is an all-day job, considering that I live next to a landscape yard with a dirt driveway and this pellet stove's ash is microscopic, and settles EVERYWHERE.

I have band practice this afternoon at 4, and I need to go see my Mom, being that it is Mother's Day, and all.

I'm Done!

I am finally finished with school!!!!

The Flatu-Cat

My daughter's cat is the world fartiest cat. I swear, this cat smells like it lives on nothing but baked beans and cabbage. Sometimes, I'll just be sitting here at my desk, minding my own business, when the odor of festering garbage and just-lit matches hits my nose, and all I can think of is, "Dear God! What is that smell?!?!?!"

This cat farts all day and all night. It farts when it is happy. It farts when it is upset. It farts when it is playing with the other cats (which sends them running in the opposite direction, too, and you know just how hard it is to gross out a cat!). It farts when it is sleeping. It farts when it is eating. I swear it farts to annoy me. No, seriously. It sleeps in the chair behind me when I am sitting at my desk and just farts up a storm (which, for this cat, is not difficult). When I turn to see if the cat is there, it always is, and it smiles at me (if cats can smile), as if to say, "Wow! that was a good one!"

It is also Camo Cat. It is the same color and pattern as my couch, and the cat likes to sit in the far corner, where no one ever sits, and then it likes to fart as soon as we sit down to watch TV. And you don't know where the smell is coming from for a while because the cat BLENDS. It is like a deer hunter in full-on "hiding-from-deer" attire when it sits on this couch, like the afore-mentioned hunter in a tree stand... except when this mythological hunter farts, there is no one to gag except himself. When this cat lets one rip, the room clears.

If this cat drank beer, its transformation into an uncouth hillbilly would be complete.

So Glad School's Almost Over

School ends for the semester on Friday, and I have a 3-page paper due on Friday, and four more postings to do on the message board, and I am done for the summer. I already had to register for Fall classes, though. One of those, I will have to drive into Spokane on Thursday nights from September to December. BUMMER! But it is a required class. But I have two 4.0s from the classes this Spring, so I am okay with that. But I am really, really glad that school's just about over. I am getting burned out... seriously.