23

 We should look after and enjoy our world. 'Cause  this is it. Even if there was by some fluke another, we would never reach it. 

The nearest star is distant at over four light years. Alpha Centauri. It's actually three. But we only see one. They think there's a couple of planets but these are inhospitable. A big gas giant and one that doesn't rotate so one side burns and the other freezes.  There are many hazards out in space. One obstacle you don't hear often is how would a space vessel slow down upon getting there. Slowing down takes as much energy as accelerating. Then there is our need for gravity. Our bodies just stop working after about six months and there is no way to reverse it.

Some people think there is alien life and they visit us in space crafts now. There is a lot of photographic evidence for inexplicable vehicles in the sky. Maybe they are drones that began there voyage here thousands or millions of years ago. Though they probably couldn't send a message back quickly. Nothing is supposed to go faster than light. That's about 300,000 km a second. 

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'

[Verse 2]
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions

etc..

Success is not a destination but a journey; enjoy every step.

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour;
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It's a hundred thousand light years side-to-side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand lightyears thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand lightyears wide.

We're thirty thousand lightyears from galactic central point;
We go round every two hundred million years.
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go--the speed of light, you know--
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
'Cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth.

22

 O death! how welcome your sentence to the weak man of failing strength,

Tottering and always rebuffed. with no more sight, with vanished hope...Sirach.

Stripes?

In

Out

20

 Had a good weekend? I cut the lawns and took a car load of stuff to the tip. Because I 'recycled' some old electric things I got charged half the normal fee. Off to Wainui soon to pick up the work mate. Thanks for the certificate TC. The Pater Nostre is quite easy. It's that one at the end of the rosary I never mastered...

"O God, whose only begotten son....." then the bit that goes "imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise"... never get that right!

Time to go...

Stars don't compete with each other, they shine together.

Dies Saturni

 Today is Saturn day. Not the planet but the god. A Roman god. The Romans got most of their gods off the Greeks. So far I have corrected Google spell check four times. 

Time for another coffee, or is that a latte. Yes I will have a latte instead. But without the frothy layer. Which I guess is really just a coffee with milk. A bit like asking for a cocoa and getting hot chocolate in TC's comic video wot he posted in his latest blog. Most chocolate bars aren't chocolate anymore. They are confectionary. That happens when the cocoa content falls below a critical level. Whittaker bars are considered chocolate. Cadbury bars are not. Chocolate breaks but confectionary immitations bend. Chocolate also melts in your mouth, people say that of foods that are cooked or made well. Though strictly speaking meat doesn't melt in your mouth despite claims it can.

I'm back with the coffee. I've added some Waireka honey. I hadn't planned to. It's nice. L and I buy our honey from the Waireka shop. It's yellow. About twenty minutes from Feilding. I also ate two slices of pepperoni salami. They were nice. Spicy. Soothing on my throat. 

Last night I packed my car ready for today. No I'm not going to Feilding. I'm driving to the Silver stream rubbish collection centre. Google just split Silverstream in half. AI has the potential to be irritating and also long winded. Think of the most boring person you know. That's AI. Just watch some of the many AI generated videos on Youtube. Frustratingly annoying to watch. Always the same narrative style. Never get to the point. Speaking of which...

In two hours I will go to the one and only true Church. I will join a small group of people and say the Holy Rosary. Then we will participate in the amazing Catholic Mass. I won't go to the sacrament of Penance. I did that during the week at St Mary of the Angels. The priest listening suddenly exclaimed in an incredulous voice "That's not a mortal sin...did you intend to offend God?". I still chuckle when I think back to that. I like him. Can't remember his name. About my own age. Evidently some of the ten commandments don't apply to pensioners I thought at the time. I can live with that I thought. Like how oldies aren't required to kneel or fast. It's a health thing I guess. Though it is likely my poor knowledge of and/or Catechesis (instruction). Bit like that famous last dilemma in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn where Huckleberry must toss up between handing in his friend, the escaped slave, or what he erroneously believes in his own mind, going to hell. Often we need someone elses take on a situation.

Stars can't shine without darkness; accept your shadows.

Frigga's day

 Or day of Venus. Goddess of love. Which ever way Friday is named after a woman. Coincidentally I am working my way through Sriracha in the OT. 

What has Sriracha to say about women in today's reading?

"...love your wife or partner. Buy them good Whittaker's chocolate. Not Cadbury rubbish."

Have a good Friggaday. I'm off to clean the Frigga(ing)  Creche! I was asked to be there at 4 am. I said no. Reading the Bible and blogging is matters more. 

"Stars are born in the darkest of nights, so are you"

Thor's day

 I don't expect any thunder. In fact it will be a nice day. 17C! No heating required this morning. 

Does hell have physical fire? It will certainly involve separation from God and all that is loving.

I took a shed apart yesterday. It was an old one in the drive. Luckily it had screws not rivets. It came apart easily. It is now ready to go to the tip. The tip is really a place to dump rubbish. The act of depositing the unwanted waste involves a tipping motion. So we call it the tip. A proper noun. Take it to tip would be more accurate. "The" is a definite article referring to a specific person, place or thing.  It is also comparative or an adverb if it occurs before a verb. The run, not that run! A lot of foreigners use 'the' wrong. 

Have to run, or drive, to the Winuiomata.

Stars are born from chaos, welcome your inner storms.

Woden's day

 Wednes is the middle of the week. If Woden is the God of wisdom does he read 'Wisdom' in the  OT? Sirach has a lot of wisdom too.

"Desire not a brood of worthless children...exult not in them if they have not the fear of the Lord....rather die childless than have godless children". Sirach. 

I wonder what wise things Woden said. Nothing came down to us. I suspect Woden was really wooden, something carved by human hands. A bit like barrelman. 

"The statuette is widely associated with the highland city of Baguio. Local lore suggests the original carving was created as a subtle prank or protest against American colonizers who displaced indigenous communities in Baguio in the early 1900s. Woodcarvers reportedly took inspiration from dime-store caricatures and crafted the figure to poke fun at Westerners."

It's all quiet on the blogging front. "The extended Prowse Whanau" on Whatsapp has more news these days. It says RBB had a visit from D and they discussed where I was born and how many steps my parents house in Garden Road had. Earlier we had an abstract from a presentation nephew K had delivered on the origins of White Island. I wonder if blogging has run its course.

Better run, or drive, have to pick up a fellow worker.

"Sometimes the greatest growth comes from the deepest pain".