SCIENCE! Planets, Moon, and Stars, OH MY!

Sunrise was at 6:37 am, sunset will be at 6:04 pm. Getting closer to equal daylight and nightlight. It's been great to see the sky still light in the west as late as 7 pm. I've been picking D up when he's finished at work and we've been walking home in the daylight, as the sun starts to go down. Happy happy happy to have more light in my days!

The night sky's been so amazing lately - have you had a chance to watch as Venus and Jupiter come closer and closer to each other? Soon, well, relatively soon anyway, there will be another crescent moon stacked under J and V and the Pleiades above all like a bunch of grapes. The skies have been so clear (except for today-this photo was taken just as the sun was going down, it's hazy, but the planets are so bright!) that the planets seem to pin the sky to the vault above.

The moon and Mars are putting on quite the show, too, tonight, just turn and look the other direction. They are going to appear to be quite close and Mars should be a pretty good size! You can go here for pictures and more information.

I wonder how the massive solar flares that occurred today will affect the electrical grid when they hit the earth tomorrow. Will we see aurorae? Will there be ripples of light across the night sky? I don't know if we'll notice anything tomorrow during the daylight except for power loss or static, but maybe we'll see some night sky action. Will birds be affected? Will the flares have some sort of magnetic field effect? I'll have to keep an eye on the cat, see if she notices anything that will make her act differently.

Ooh! Science!

This would be a good time to re-read Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker. I've been thinking about it all day. It isn't out yet, but you definitely need to put it on a list ASAP.

It's about a girl whose family is beginning to fall apart just as some sort of massive world event has slowed the rotation of the earth. It's been slowing for awhile but it's now obvious that the days and nights are getting longer. Julia's worried about it but not as worried as she is about getting a boyfriend or filling in her bra or her parents breaking up. Nobody's able to sleep because sometimes night-time isn't dark, school is sometimes in daylight, sometimes not, and the magnetic field is screwed up so birds have to walk to migrate, but life goes on even so. A brilliant book about being able to adapt to brutal times, especially if you're waiting for your first kiss.
(Random House. $26.00. May 20, 2012.)

Why Books?

It was a dark and stormy night...

Most people would find this kind of night perfect for curling up with a book and a cup of tea, a perfect chance to read to your kids, all warm in their fuzzy jammies and slippers, propped up by pillows and stuffed animals, surrounded by a sliding stack of books to choose from. Those kids will grow up literate, able to spell and read more easily than the kids who won't be exposed to books and being read to.

Many children who don't have the opportunity to have books at home to read whenever they want, or to parents who have the energy to read aloud after a long day, will always be at a disadvantage in their schooling. Well, Page Ahead is working to change that.

The night that the Page Ahead Book Awards committee met at the Washington Mutual building featured an absolute downpour, a lot of rain even for Seattle. There were buckets of rain, bouncing knee high as it hit the streets, it was hard to see through the windshield, wind twisting the sheets of water sideways as I drove through the cross streets. The light in the streets was that yellow specifically featured in old movies, the rain glowing as the streetlamps came on all at once. Stormy, while inside the car it was cozy, dimly lit.

The Page Ahead meetings are held on the 48th floor, the Perkins Coie floor, and my ears always pop at 44. The windows in the office where we meet face the Sound and the ferries, West Seattle and the islands, and they shudder when gusts hit. It seems we are often just above jets as they fly in from the north to land at SeaTac. As awful as the weather was outside, it was warm and comfortable being in a room filled with people talking about choosing the best books for children.

Eight pages of books for us to peruse and choose from, we are looking for the single best book for children ages birth to 12: the best multicultural, read-aloud, and science books for at-risk kids. Page Ahead gives new books to kids who may never be able to own their own and studies show that children who own their own books are much better readers and so become much better students, and who knows where they will go from there?

So, we set out to choose books that could change a life, might inspire someone to become a teacher, a scientist, an astronaut, show that books can entertain as well as teach. Giving books to kids helps them to learn skills that will enable them to navigate the big, wide universe, to realize that there are other worlds out there than the ones they're in, that with what they learn they can make a difference in their lives, in others' lives.

I was from a pretty un-wealthy family and I can tell you that a library card and a mom who let us all buy books from the racks at the grocery store with the little bit of leftover money made a huge difference in who I grew up to be. Owning my very own books, books I could go back to over and over whenever I wanted, was like having a map of how to grow up.

I was given two books on my 9th birthday: A Wrinkle in Time was the very first, but not the last, time in my life that books showed me how a plain girl in glasses has power, and To Dance, To Dream showed me that grace and joy can belong to everyone (and that being a strong woman is really cool). Every child should have the chance to see themselves as heroes in their own lives.

So, here we are, feet firmly planted in the twins' broccoli patch, getting ready to send someone off onto an unending adventure, one that starts with the breathless opening of their very own books.

One Door Closes....

Sunrise was at 7:07, Sunset will be at 5:40.

In a time of tumult, it's calming to look at how big things like sunrise and sunset still happen. The world still turns, the ground beneath us still holds tight to the hillside, birds migrate, the waves roll on. It connects us all, this turning of the earth and the rising of the sun, and it's comforting to me to know that, wherever you are, we will still experience it together.

I haven't written in a while: I've been laid off and so am taking the time to do all those laid off things one must do when one is not actually being paid a wage, like updating profiles and sending job requests and signing up for unemployment. It's daunting and uncomfortable most of the time and I look forward to the sun setting (or at least its going down - we haven't had a sunset since last Tuesday; and what a sunset it was on that Valentine's Day: it was raining, the sun was going down and there was a triple rainbow) so I can do those other things not related to a computer like making dinner and doing the laundry; just leave the computer and feel righteous in not looking for a job for awhile.

Sitting in a chair in front of a computer taking online courses isn't particularly hard work, but it's certainly not exciting! Even so, it's amazing how quickly time slips by while sitting here. Eventually, I get antsy, that restless leg thing takes hold, and then I have to get up and go downstairs for a bit, think about doing something else, look out the window and contemplate moving the hummingbird feeder.

It helps to keep me focused when the weather has been uninviting, to say the least: wet, cold, gray. It's misty today and the buildings downtown are only a darker shade of gray than the water in the air. It's cold in the house and the cat's been sitting as close as she can to the computer's heating vent without stepping on the keyboard. Her little paws are radiant.

So send me happy thoughts and job opportunities! Something with books and/or children would be great but everything will be appreciated!

I'll get back to writing about books in the near future; I haven't been reading a lot recently but I'm sure that will change soon...

Unraveling

Sunrise is at 7:34, sunset will be at 5:13

There is something elemental about getting up before most other people, cleansing. My eyes were tired, my brain was wide awake.

I got up long before D's alarm went off at 4:45 (that's a.m.) - just couldn't sleep for the I Could Walk 500 Miles refrain cycling over and over in my head. I've cleaned the meat off a chicken carcass, made (and drank most of) a pot of coffee, made lunch for D., made the bed, folded and put away my clothes, fed the cat, put out the recycle and garbage, got dressed, took D. to work...all before 6:30.

The drive downtown and then back home was gorgeous. I love the stream of headlights into the city, a beautiful ribbon of light in the clear air of this morning, and coming over the hill to Rainier Avenue from Boren is the broad southern vista of the Rainier valley, lights twinkling as people start to get up and out. The sun was coming up and the mountains were silhouetted against the transparent indigo of the lightening sky. Stars everywhere! And now the Olympics are pink, the fog is violet, and the sky is going to be clear. Seagulls, little popcorn birds, it's noisy out here.

The sun is up, orange light bouncing off the windows of the houses facing east and the day feels kind of common now that everyone is up...it's a Friday like the others (except for the clear and warming up part).

I was up late last night finishing Unraveling, by Elizabeth Norris. Janelle is going into her junior year, she has a popular boyfriend, a great family (except for her mom's bipolar disorder which seems to be getting worse), and a best friend named Alex.

Everything is great until she's hit by a truck while walking home. Her brain is shutting down and her life is flashing by when she is ripped back to sensation and vision and sees one of the stoner kids from her school standing over her. She is certain he saved her life but he won't admit it and there's nothing to prove that anything was ever broken or that she actually died.

Janelle's never really noticed Ben before, just that he was a part of a small group of loners and stoners, but now can't stop thinking about his role in her world, especially, since she met him, her life as she knows it is ending.

While sneaking into her father's FBI files to find out about her accident, she finds connections to her case and a count down clock, some sort of weapon, radiation poisonings and these connections may be leading back to Ben.

Fun, funny, great dialogue, interesting discussion about parallel universes and physics. It's got good drama, good romance, smooching, and great friendships. I really want to have the loose strings tied up but that wouldn't happen in real life; I'm not holding out any hope that there will be a sequel but I'd love to see what happens next. Age 13 and up. (Harper and Collins. $17.99. Available April, 2012.)

DFTBA

Sunrise was at 7:38, sunset will be at 5:08.

The days are surely getting longer and it didn't rain yesterday, nice weather for the hundreds of people waiting for the John and Hank Green Tour de Nerdfighting concert and book event at the store.

That was the most fun EVER! Hundreds of people chanting, playing ukeleles, all of them filled with awesomeness, willing to wait up to 3 hours to get in the store, 3 more hours to meet the boys one to one, the best book concert ever.

The excitement rises as the venue fills, there's a little plucking of acoustic instruments going on, voices rumble, call and response of DFTBA, the wave happens (appropriate since Seattle is where it was invented). The astonishing roar of all those throats yelling when the curtains move. There's dancing in the aisles during Hank's songs, everyone is riveted to the stage, and you could hear a pin drop - a big pin - when John was reading from TFiOS. So many boys in the audience, so many adults reading his books, tears, shaking girls, boys who have found characters they can identify with, and all of the phones and cameras spitting light and capturing the moment.

Thanks, Boys.

Snow and The Age of Miracles

Sunrise was at 7:51, sunset will be at 4:49. Snow.

Okay. Now I feel like I've made the correct decision about staying home today. The reports on the news are that buses are hard to get and not getting where they're going anyway, and it has snowed at our house continuously since it began at around 4 am. We have 5 inches of snow in the yard, the birds are flocking into the bushes, and the neighbor's squirrel feeder has been completely emptied.

It's so pretty and looks so cold. The wind is beginning to pick up and snow is dropping off trees and power lines.

I am spending the day writing up reviews on Goodreads, updating my book list, and sorting books, crap, and stuff to donate, give to schools or to sell. It's an "extra" day, a day to do things I don't normally do because it's such a special one, a free day. I may even take a nap after hauling stuff around. I WILL finish the Christmas wrapping of the presents that still need to go out to the family today and I WILL get them mailed by Saturday. The snow inspires me to do so.

I read this GREAT book last night, thanks to one of our Random House reps, David Glenn! It was on my desk yesterday morning and I was up late finishing it. It is called The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker, and is an interesting look at what might happen if the earth's rotation started to slow.

One day, not too long from now, scientists announce that the earth's rotation has started to slow and that the days, and nights, will start to get longer. Within days, people are able to see the changes, a news crawl along the bottom of the tv screen announces how many more minutes are in each day, people begin to feel symptoms related to the slowing, birds start walking their migration routes, and whales beach themselves in long rows where the waves end.

The government institutes a 24 hour clock day, one that doesn't necessarily follow the light and dark of the earth's rotations, and those who want to follow circadian rhythms are ostracized and vilified. It's an amazing description of the effects of a slowing earth - the children who go to school are sometimes waiting for the bus at what might be (in old time) 2 am. Periodically, daytime and nighttime activities correspond with the clock day hours and people can party in the dark and walk to school in the daylight.

In a world that is constantly changing, 11 year-old Julia just wants her best friend back and to be noticed by Seth Moreno, a cute skateboarder with a dying mother.

Julia's family is pretty standard, a California family, two parents and a child, who begin to fall apart during the slowing. It's funny, in a way, how adaptable we all are to destruction. When the days reach 48 hours in length and people are beginning to crack under the pressures of being awake for 24 hours in a row, we still look for love and acceptance and justice.

Julia has lost her best friend and is trying to navigate the dangerous waters that make up her middle school. She wants a bra (and the bosom to fill it), a boyfriend, any kind of friend, but she's a quiet girl who doesn't want to be too noticed, so she watches the negotiations that make up the lives of the other teenagers in her cul de sac as the world rolls slowly to a stop. As the slowing continues and becomes a part of daily life, everyone continues on, breaking up, falling in love, going out to dinner (no matter that the sun may have just come up) eventually figuring out ways to adapt to an environment that is increasing dangerous to be in.

I loved the descriptions of their town as the dark goes on and on, the cold and the noise of the insects, the heat as the light time goes on for 60 hours, melting asphalt and giving sunburns. It's a very quiet book for all the violence and drama surrounding this family, it feels very much like a memory being repeated, like an old photo or postcard, graying and soft around the edges, easier to recount each time it's remembered.

Such a true look at how we live, even in the midst of our world's destructing, we still want to find someone who'll love us, someone who will still love us after we screw up, we still want to belong to someone or something, we want people to know we were here.

The Age of Miracles will keep you up late and then make you wonder at how neatly we all fit into the world, how dependent we are on everything else being exactly as it is. It will make you want to notice each sunrise and sunset and the precise distance between each, preferably with someone you love close to hand.

I like that the book is written from somewhere in the future, our Julia is writing about this time in history from a farther place, and I would really like to know what happened to her as she made her way there.

This would be a great read for YA audiences. The main character is a tween and the storyline is so very cool! All that science, too. (Random House. Available 6/26/12.)

Happy New Year!

Today is the 3rd of January.

I've been thinking about my goals for the year, for the decade; you get to be this age, your resolutions need to be longer than a year. Mine are pretty standard ones: Eat better, lose weight, figure out money. It sure seems that everyone I hear talk in re: resolutions, talks about those three things. Why is this so hard to get under control, so hard to change? Habit? Emotion? Too big to get your mind around? If I need to lose 50 pounds, why is it so hard to lose that second 5 pounds? Why is it so easy to just say, I'll be good tomorrow? Why do we use judgmental terms like good and bad?

Arghhh. So, here it is: I'm starting small. I avoided the pizza at the gym last night (yeah, I know, pizza in the gym once a month) - I looked at each one, the smell of melting cheese and hot tomatoes are a couple of my food triggers - but I closed the lids and walked on out.

But, here's the thing: I went to the gym last night. I took my clothes and told myself that it's only half an hour. Once my shoes were on, I was good to go. It's getting the shoes on that's so hard.

I am going to drink more water. I'm sure that most of my cloudiness at work must be due to something in the air, the fluorescent lights, the dust, so I don't need to amplify those things by being dehydrated.

From there, the world's my oyster: that first step on the treadmill will eventually lead to a 5 or 10 K "run" by the end of next year; that first drink of water will lead to feeling fuller earlier so I won't be as hungry for solid food so that first 5, then the second 5, pounds will be a little easier to handle.

I'll deal with the other things as they come. We are already choosing to eat out of the pantry rather than shopping every day for things to put together into a meal. We've made meals out of the stuff in the freezer. I'm going to keep the slow cooker on the counter rather than putting it out of sight. We are thinking twice about spending money on impulsive buys- if we still want it in a month, well, we'll think about it then. We are taking lunches to work.

I want to make an extra house payment a year. I want to go on a real vacation. I don't want to eat dog food when I'm too old to work. That's going to take a lot of thoughtfulness and work so small steps: Eat lunch in. Put 100 dollars aside when possible. Learn how to use eBay and sell stuff rather than donating. (Yeah, I know that donating is a good thing but sometimes we need the cash rather than the tax credit. That's even if we remember to keep track of the donation.)

Oh, one more thing! I am going to learn how to use the machines and materials D. has accrued in 30 years of geekery and make cards and framed gifts out of the decades of photos we've taken of the families. I've made one photo, so far, with way too much help. I will learn how to do it on my own!

I am also going to be better about posting reviews on Goodreads-I love that widget they have about reaching book goals. Last year I read 150 books and I got started in March. This year, I am planning to read 200 books and review them, not just list them.

Well. There you go. Aim at losing 50 pounds. Save 100 dollars a month. File paper. Read, list and review 200 books. Simple words, hard to do, but small steps to a larger goal for a more stress-free life.

Good luck to you all with the changes you are making in your lives!