April 27, 2008

Hawaii Mountains Silhouetted by the Moon

By xgravity23 in science 3 Comments

Man, is this beautiful. Because the atmosphere is a bit thinner at 13,500 feet, space shines through more clearly. Maybe this is something that Rocky Mountain-dwellers are used to, but the Ozark “Mountains” I grew up in never afforded an image like this. Silhouetted mountains; a bright Moon and sparkling Venus; and clouds, lit up by the moonlight, make for a breath-taking image, even when viewed on a computer screen. I can only imagine how beautiful it must have been in person.

(Frayed Laces, maybe you can tell us!)

April 25, 2008

Twitter Saves

By xgravity23 in cool technology No Comments

On Monday, I told you about Twitter, how I use it for advertising this blog and interacting with Facebook. Today, Charity forwarded me a CNN story about James Karl Buck, an American journalism student who sent a one-word tweet—”Arrested”—when he was arrested while covering a protest in his adopted home, Egypt. That tweet alerted his friends to his fate and set in motion his release, thus proving that Twitter has some serious uses, other than telling the world what you’re doing, marketing your blog, and updating your Facebook status.

April 21, 2008

Twitter Guest Post on A Fool of Myself

By xgravity23 in cool technology, guest posts 3 Comments

Let me share a little email I got from Sarah:

Hey, how would you feel about doing a guest post about Twitter? I’m thinking about jumping on board…convince me!

And here was my response:

Sure!

Actually, my true response what much more detailed, as I was unsure of whether I should write the post. By the end of my email, though, I had convinced myself (and hopefully Sarah!) that I was ready to write it, but that it would not be much like any other other posts I’ve read about Twitter.

So, without further ado, you can read my first guest post on Sarah’s blog, A Fool of Myself.

April 20, 2008

A Marathon of a Different Kind

By xgravity23 in science No Comments

Messier Objects

Messier Objects

A couple weeks ago, I announced my bid for the upcoming Berlin Marathon, and yesterday, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a marathon of a different kind.

In the 1800s, Charles Messier, a French astronomer, dedicated much of his time cataloging objects in the sky that he and other comet hunters might incorrectly identify as comets. Most of these items were deep sky objects, like nebulae and galaxies. He cataloged 103 objects in the sky, and this astronomical marathon challenges amateur astronomers to view all 110 Messier objects (7 were added to Messier’s list).

April 13, 2008

Possessed: Does Your Stuff Own You?

By xgravity23 in personal 4 Comments Tags:

Take a moment to watch this short film, called “Possessed,” which

enters the complicated worlds of four hoarders; people whose lives are dominated by their relationship to possessions. The film questions whether hoarding is a symptom of mental illness or a revolt against the material recklessness of consumerism. When does collecting become hoarding and why do possessions exert such an influence on our lives?

April 11, 2008

May Day is a Big Day This Year

By xgravity23 in cool technology No Comments Tags:

Okay, I’m with you… I can’t wait until May 1 either! Not only because it is a school holiday in Germany (WAHOO!), but also because it’s the first every RSS Day!

Here’s a preview of some of my favorite reasons for clicking on those little orange buttons so often.

  • There are many feed readers out there, buy my preferred reader, Google Reader, makes it easy to email an article to a friend I think will enjoy it!

April 10, 2008

Can You Sum Up Your Entire Life in Six Words?

By xgravity23 in personal 3 Comments Tags: ,

This idea has been around for quite a long time. In fact, its most famous version is from Hemingway, who wrote not a six-word memoir, but a six-word novel:

For sale: baby shoes, never used.

This most recent iteration was sparked by SMITH Magazine’s book called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure. NPR even has an enjoyable slide-show to accompany the six-word memoirs they have collected.

April 9, 2008

My Running History P.S. Fitness Test

By xgravity23 in personal, running 2 Comments

I forgot a second announcement I meant to post alongside my “I’m running the Berlin Marathon” announcement. So here’s a little post script on yesterday’s post.

Remember those Fitness Tests I and so many others failed in high school? I’ve decided that I do not want have that failure hanging over me anymore. (Not that it is something that has been bothering me since 11th grade or anything…)

I’m more physically fit than I was then by a long shot, so I think I can rank at least in the “Good” category.

April 7, 2008

My Running History is MY Running History

By xgravity23 in running 2 Comments Tags:

Linden at the end of the Giessen half-marathon

Linden at the end of the Giessen half-marathon

I have been telling you about who helped me believe it was possible for me to start running and who helped me continue being a runner, but today I’m going to try to tell my part of the story. Well, at least the most relevant parts. :)

When I started training for that 2005 Chicago Marathon, Rob and I had one car and we lived just north of Grand Street. We both worked at Bed Bath & Beyond. This means that both of us spent lots of hours at Border’s waiting for the other to get off work. I spent most of my time reading about running, and I started with Hal Higdon’s marathon book.

April 6, 2008

My Running History is Sarah’s Running History

By xgravity23 in running 3 Comments Tags:

Sarah and Linden after the Frisco 5k (March 2007)

Sarah and Linden after the Frisco 5k (March 2007)

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about how Beth encouraged me to take the first few running steps down my path as a life-time runner. Today, I’ll write about how a girl who I never thought I’d know more about than her and her fiancé’s names and wedding date the first time I met them pushed the runner in me and started down the “Road to the Marathon” with me.

I met Sarah long before we became friends: I registered her and Chris at Bed Bath & Beyond. Then we met again in Pummill 401 (the English Department‘s Graduate Assistants office). We kind of started being friends the first semester of grad school, but our friendship really began when we started running together in the spring semester in McDonald arena. I think she needed someone to boost her into running longer distances, and I needed a running partner to help get me out of my slump, although I didn’t know it at the time.

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