Life Quest (and other stuff)

Nice!* I would like to think that I am a nice person. Yes, there are times that I am not moon beams and cheese curls, but in general I think I am nice. It seems however that being called nice has almost turned into an insult of late. In movies, the “nice” guy seldom gets the girl. “That’s nice” often is used as a sarcastic remark. “It’s nice” almost borders on meaning mediocre in day to day conversation. The truth – being nice is something great, something to aspire to. When did the world become all about standing ovations and gold medals? Why do we often feel there are no points for second best? And why do we believe that being nice is second rate? (I have a theory on why I sometimes fall into this trap, but I would like you to figure this out for yourself.) So let’s go back to basics, the dictionary. Here follows a few definitions of the word “nice:” pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance decent: socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous

It was International Observe the Moon Night this past Saturday. Although threatened by clouds, we still managed to see the moon and show it to anyone interested. The moon as it was on the night. Taken with a Canon 350D prime focus mounted on 10inch wide, 1200mm long dobsonion  telescope, f4.8, ISO100, shutter speed: 1/8sec. The photo was taken by my hubbie. Read and see more about the InOMN on  www.psychohistorian.org  or the Cape Centre Facebook page .

This past Saturday there was a Moon-Venus occultation. There was no dark magic involved, it simply means that the Moon passed in front of the planet Venus, and therefore Venus disappeared from the sky for a while. Here in Cape Town we were ideally positioned to see this occurrence and hubbie and I was standing by with the camera. Venus moved behind the moon at 14:15 from the dark side of the moon, making it look like it just disappeared from the sky. About an hour and a half later it popped out on the other side. But, although seeing the occultation itself was very special, the fact that I could see Venus during the day was enough to get me excited. As a friend says, once you’ve seen it for the first time, you want to kick yourself that you've never looked for it before. The following photos were taken mostly by hubbie, with at least one (possibly two) by me. We used a Canon 350D attached to a 10 inch, 1200mm long dobsonion telescope (f4.8), no tracking (moved by hand from ti

I had every intension of taking the time and improving my photography "eye." Being able to see the shot before it's taken and spot the good shot when I see it. Okay, so maybe learning that in a week or two is on the ambitious side, but I was hoping to at the very least pay attention. I didn't really. Somewhere along the line I got distracted with astrophotography, and my 365 challenge almost bordered on a chore every now and then. But that said, I still think I got a few pretty beautiful shots with my Samsung Jet cell phone. Here are my favourites of the past couple weeks: Day 39 - Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder - a staged shot Day 44 - Good morning, sunshine Day 46 - The streets Day 50 - Sunset Day 51 - The field I'm also very glad to have inspired Lee with this challenge. She has put her own, rather wonderful spin on it and you can find it at Ponderings from the Cape . The link is for Day 1, but she's almost two weeks into