Author: dave Page 33 of 75

We’re almost at the winter solstice, which is either the shortest day or the longest night of the year, spending on your mood. That might not get a lot of people excited, but one benefit of all that darkness is that you get a chance to check out the night sky without having to get up in the middle of the night.

So if you’re out for an evening walk during this holiday season, you might notice that Mars is the brightest star in the sky. Today, it’s the closest it will be to the Earth until 2016. This photo was taken by the Hubble telescope recently. Space.com has links to some videos and tips on viewing the red planet. Here’s an excerpt from their article.

The red planet is now the brightest “star” in the evening sky, easily visible by mid-evening until dawn. It comes closest to the Earth today at 6:46 p.m. EST, when it will be 54,783,381 miles (88,165,305 kilometers) from us.

Mars looks like an orange star to the naked eye, but it’s revealed as a disk with many features in modest telescopes. It will put on a good show all month.

So if your kids or houseguests are getting a little rowdy over the holidays, send them outside to check out the skyscape. There’s nothing like a nice walk on a winter evening to unwind those tense holiday-ready muscles. Or, if you’re in a horse-drawn carriage, you might feel as Robert Frost did.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

If you’re looking for some new Christmas music for the holidays, you’ll want to check out a free download from Magnatunes, via founder John Buckman’s blog.

For the next couple of weeks, they’re giving away a Christmas compilation they’ve put together from Magnatune artists. There’s a good selection of stuff and it will be great to have playing in the background at your Christmas party. (I haven’t got my invite yet, by the way.)

When you head to the download page, you’ll notice right away some of the features that make Magnatunes such an interesting place. For one thing, their motto is “We are not evil.” That’s a good start.

The next interesting factoid is that their music is all DRM-free – always. And you have a wide variety of choices in how you want to receive it. You can get a CD (and pick your own price) or you can download the music in a variety of formats. And if you ever lose the file, you can always download another copy for no cost.

It’s an interesting place. I recommend taking some time to look around their website after you download your free Christmas music.

And if you’re into books and looking for some alternatives to the traditional way of buying and selling your collection, check out Bookmooch, Buckman’s latest creation. Here’s an interview that helps to explain the concept.

Happy listening!

I’m a closet opera fan. In fact, I’m so far in the closet that I don’t even own any opera recordings, except for some Pavarotti songs I picked up after he died.

But I secretly yearn to be a fan. Remember the scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts to the opera and tell her that if you cry you’ll get it – and she does? (I’m hopelessly mangling that scene, but if you remember it, you’ll know what I mean.) I cried when I watched that scene, so I think I qualify. (Of course, the fact that I cry during movies like Pretty Woman probably indicates other things about me, but let’s not go there.)

Long story short — I want to point you to a blog post by Mr. Andy Ihnatko over on the wonderful CWOB (Celstial Waste of Bandwidth) website that I just know you’re going to love as much as I do.

Andy is probably my favourite blogger – an absolute must-read. (He’s worth following on Twitter too).

Right now, he’s running a series called Itunes Advent Calendar, in which he offers up a juicy morsel from Itunes for each day of Advent.

But enough from me. Go ahead and read his post, watch the video and see whether it makes you cry. Then you can join the club.

I’ve been away for a long time (some of it work, some of it vacation) and I’ve neglected my blog.

I’ve got lots of things to say, but for now, let’s just savour the moment.

Did you watch the Grey Cup on Sunday? THE RIDERS WON!!!

Although I don’t live in the province anymore (except for a month each summer) I’ll always be a Rider fan, like virtually every other ex-pat I’ve ever met. We’re a loyal bunch and while we’ve suffered over the years, that was all wiped out yesterday. How sweet it is!

I was a reporter for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix when the Riders last won in 1989 and I wandered the streets and bars late into the night gathering colour for my story on the fan reaction after the game. What a feeling.

So I can only imagine how good it felt last night in the Queen City.

Congratulations to everyone in Regina — and to Rider fans everywhere. It’s been a long wait, but it was worth it.

What are we to make of Stephen Colbert’s campaign for president?

If you’re a fan of The Daily Show, you’re aware of Colbert (the “t” is silent), who first gained fame for his reporting skills on that esteemed fake news show.

More recently, he’s been the star of his own show, and it was there a couple of weeks ago, that he announced he was going to be a candidate in South Carolina on both the Democratic and Republic ballots. He says he’s running on the favourite son ticket, since he was born there.

OK, so he’s not for real, right? It is a phony campaign, put on by a comedian. And it’s not unique. Anyone remember Pat Paulsen, who ran for President six times?

But while Colbert’s campaign may be a comedy skit, there’s no denying that he’s starting to have an effect. Some people think his campaign might even be illegal.

Last weekend, he was a guest on Meet the Press. This week we learned that a Facebook group called 1,000,000 Strong for Stephen J. Colbert has racked up more than 1 million members in less than a week.

This campaign has caught the public’s imagination and it’s going to be fun to watch it unfold.

Unfortunately, it could all come crashing to a halt in just a few days, since the deadline for getting Colbert’s name onto the ballots in South Carolina is looming in early November.

For those of us here in Canada, we can only look at what’s happening in the Presidential campaign with envy. While we might be poised for a federal election here, there’s no sign of any levity around the battle of wits (?) between between the politicos up here.

What we are in desperate need of is more fun in politics. Remember how much fun the Rhinoceros Party of Canada used to give us with promises like these?

Repealing the law of gravity
Paving Manitoba to create the world’s largest parking lot
Providing higher education by building taller schools
Instituting English, French and illiteracy as Canada’s three official languages
Tearing down the Rocky Mountains so that Albertans could see the Pacific sunset
Making Montreal the Venice of North America by damming the St. Lawrence River
Abolishing the environment because it’s too hard to keep clean and it takes up so much space
Annexing the United States, which would take its place as the third territory, after the Yukon and the Northwest Territories (Nunavut did not yet exist) in Canada’s backyard, in order to eliminate foreign control of Canada’s natural resources

Those were the good old days, weren’t they?

And of course, who could forget the Natural Law party? (Disclaimer – I voted for them, along with about 12 others.)

Hmmm…I wonder what it would be like if Rick Mercer ran for PM?

Darn. Looks like even our comedians get all serious at election time. Scratch that Draft Rick movement.