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It was quite a lovely evening.

I was looking forward to our regular 1st Monday of the month poetry reading, which was held on the 2nd Wednesday this month, to accommodate a visiting poet from Australia.  I had an epic length poem which I’d worked hard on and was eager to present.

Jane Williams, poet

I was at home with the kids, wondering if Helena would get home early enough or if I’d have to choose between being late and leaving the kids home alone for awhile.  They are at that age: old enough we can leave  them home by themselves for awhile, if need be, and we have done, for over a year already, but they are still young enough that it makes me uncomfortable.

But, she called just after 6 with an alternate suggestion: that we meet her at the Chinese for dinner.  I could go to my poetry reading from there, and her and the kids could come on home.  I questioned the timing, but figured I could just have spring rolls and a cup of tea and still make it on time.  When we got to the restaurant, I went ahead and ordered a meal and still was only about 15 minutes late to the poetry reading, which is the same as on time because, as with most events in Prague, the listed start time is not strictly adhered to.

I was worried that, with the schedule change, there wouldn’t be many people, but I was wrong.  Apparently the featured poet, Jane Williams, has some fans.  She was good; some nice poems, some sad poems, some about Australia, some about Ireland.   I was impressed with one about a couple of dead bodies washed up on the beach, called (I think) ‘Every Grain of Sand’ and one called ‘Arrow’ which was pretty and funny and based on an incident when someone mistook her for someone else, a woman named Arrow, and the poem was imagining what kind of life she might have if that actually were her name.

There were about 10 people in the Open Mike section, all men unfortunately.  The usual mix, some good, some not so great.  There was a new guy there who writes very nice, rhyming poetry about love which was doubly impressive as he is Ukrainian(but writing in English).  That was probably my favorite.

Then it was my turn.  The poem didn’t sound quite as impressive on the stage as it had in my head and I felt it was falling flat, but several people came up to me after to say they liked it, and that does not always happen.  So, it was a great night.

There’s a rumor that J.K. Rowling is planning another Harry Potter book.  Personally, I don’t think that would be a good idea.  The series is pretty close to perfect, all loose ends got wrapped up, all the denouements were denoued.  I suppose it could be the adventures of Harry Potter as an adult, or whatever.  A prequel would be really lame, as that stuff has already been covered.  Seriously.  They  used that pensieve so often they might as well have had a Tardis.  Not to mention Tom Riddle’s diary.)

I hope J.K. Rowling continues to write detective stories.  I’d be thrilled if she were to try another fantasy, with completely different characters in a completely different universe.  She could write books full of gardening and recycling hints.  It doesn’t matter.

Her niche in the literary pantheon is secured, she’s got enough money to be a huge philanthropist and still be rich, she’s on top of the world.

If she does write any more Potter books, I’ll read them, I’m sure.  But it strikes me as one too many times to the well.

(Well, just read the Guardian article.  Upshot of that is, it’s sort of true, sort of not.)

The rumor started when Rowling tweeted “Cry, foe!  Run amok!  Fa awry!  My wand won’t tolerate this nonsense.”  One astute (or obsessed.  or both.) fan figured out that that was an anagram for “Harry returns!  Won’t say any details now.  A week off.  No comment.”

Dang.  I like the woman’s books, but some of these fans  are dedicated.

Anyway, J.K. said, in effect, nice try but no cigar.  She said another  fan who unscrambled the letters to get “Newt Scamander’s History of New York Fauna: One town, my tale” was closer.  This is still in the Potterverse, but it’s not another Harry Potter book.

It’s sort of like Star Trek, where they continue to use the same ship, the same alien species, but all new characters.  And, undoubtedly, there will be a film at the end of it.

James Franco said he shaved his head

for his role in a brand new movie

I suspect it’s more about poetry

and he’s trying to look real groovy

Michael Phelps got a DUI, so he got suspended from competitive swimming for 6 months and will miss the next world championships.  Is it my imagination, or is swimming a bit stricter than the NFL about these things?

Top story of the night:  Reza Baluchi may be barking mad, but you’ve got to respect the man.  He’s got guts, and he’s an original.  Every time it appears on my facebook feed, I see a lot of comments like ‘fuck him, I hope he has to pay for the rescue’ or ‘why not just let him drown and win a Darwin award.’

Baluchi in the Bubble

Negative vibes, people.  Not cool.

First, Reza Baluchi is a man of tremendous political courage.  He got arrested and eventually kicked out of Iran (which is actually working out real well for him, I suspect) for having anti-Islamic views.  He ate during Ramadan.  That’s not something you could do as an oversight.  Restaurants aren’t open.  Nobody else is eating.  So, it was deliberate, and ballsy.

Then, as an American immigrant, he runs around the perimeter of the  country,  which means he probably did more miles than Forrest Gump.  He does this kind of stuff to raise money for charities and world peace and shit like that.  So, stop hating on Reza Baluchi.

O.K., so his goal of walking from Florida to Bermuda in one of those fun bubbles like you see at the beach, a distance of over 1,000 miles, turned out to be a bit unrealistic.  But, I think I see the problem.  Walking and pushing the wheel around is a lot of effort.  Put in a seat, some bicycle pedals and a chain running around the bubble, maybe even a little motor, and it would be a whole different ball game.  Some day, this will be the preferred method of crossing oceans, and Reza Baluchi will be remembered as a pioneer.

I don’t remember exactly what year, maybe ’92 or ’93, I decided to head back to school and take a couple of Junior College courses.  One of them was astronomy, because I’m a serious science fiction fan and always enjoy reading stuff about space, and the search for extraterrestrial life, and stuff like that.  Well, astronomy turned out to be a lot more difficult, tedious, and math-centric than I’d imagined, so one course was all I took in that field, but the professor I had was the best kind of professor: someone who is totally in love with their subject and eager to teach anyone who will listen absolutely everything they know.

Blink to click

One thing he said that stuck with me was that astronomy was responsible for the rapid advancement in camera technology.  This was in the early 90s, so cameras are not only better now than then, they are barely the same thing, but he was right and it’s just a case of the march goes on.  His point was that no matter how clear the shot, astronomers were always going to demand something clearer, and they were a constant, dependable market for whatever was better than anything that had gone before.

When I read this, I thought of that.  German neuroscientist Aldo Faisal has invented a device for manipulating a computer just with your eyes.  Of course, he’s not the first, but the models now on the market cost about 25,000 euros and his device, which he built with the camera from a computer game and some low tech adjustments, will sell for about 15 euros.

The original intent, and one possible early application, is to make it possible for paraplegics to use a computer.  Definitely a worthy goal.

Personally, technophobe that I am, this may not have any application for me.  I reckon computers are too sensitive as it is, always popping up with ads just because I accidentally put a cursor somewhere near them.  But, I applaud the effort anyway.

It brings us one step closer to the merging of the internet with actual human minds and, when that happens, look out, world.

Today  I saw the headline ‘Thousands of Hidden Mountains Discovered  Under the Sea.’  Were they really hidden?  Well, I suppose hidden from human eyes, by the vast depths of the ocean, but it’s not as if they were hiding.  They have always been there and are making no more effort to hide their existence than any other inanimate object.

The universe is generally indifferent to human interests.

It does not surprise me that the ocean bottom is covered by mountains, some of which are volcanoes.  Nobody expected it to be completely flat.  In fact, out of sight, out of mind, so I’d never really thought much about it at all.  But, it’s good to know.  Science is being advanced, and I’m sure this knowledge will come in handy somehow.

One thing is, I think, that by the time we get the ocean’s bottom completely mapped, we will have a complete record of the contents of Davy Jones’ locker, we’ll have a list of shipwrecks and just be able to go down and examine them at will.  We will find lost cities, ancient treasure,  and the answers to many a mysterious shipwreck.

Maybe, because of all the plate tectonics going on, which is causing mountain  ridges to rise, we will also figure out how to predict earthquakes,  which would be awesome.  If you know when it’s coming, you know that you shouldn’t be in  any building that are likely to collapse or driving across any bridges at that time.  Property damage will still happen, but we could get deaths from earthquakes reduced to zero if we we could predict them.