I love my iPhone! Anyone who knows me knows it’s the third lobe of my brain. And now I can blog on my commute, instead of playing numerous games of Texas hold ’em.
Some quick thoughts: (more…)
Author: Michael J. Martinez
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The Betelgeuse brouhaha
She's gonna blow! Eventually. Is the star Betelgeuse about to go supernova? Will Earth get a “second sun” for a few weeks? Will night turn into day? And did the Mayans (or Incans, Nostradamus, Egyptians, crystal-clutching New Agers) predict it all, just in time for the 2012 faux-pocalypse? (more…)
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Good eats: White bean and bacon flatbread
This is so very, very true. I’m a very firm believer in bacon. I even have a t-shirt to that effect. So when I saw a recipe for white bean and pancetta “pizzas” in Food & Wine magazine, it was a must-try. And lo, we had a new standard to the household eating repetoire. In fact, it was dinner both last night and tonight. Yes, it’s that good. (more…)
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Vive le France!
The Eiffel Tower and the Moon, with the reflection of our boat on the window. Kind of a cool shot, totally taken by accident. A week ago, I was…well, I was asleep. But I was asleep in Paris, and that’s just better.
My wife had heard this NPR story about an exhibit by an artist whose work was created — and displayed — on iPhones and iPads. My daughter uses the same app to draw whenever she appropriates my iPhone, which is often. In fact, one of her iPhone pictures was displayed at Rockefeller Center this Christmas as part of the building’s children’s art program for the people who work there. (more…)
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Catching up
It’s been a busy week or so, and thus the blogging has suffered. And I’ve got about 15 minutes before I have to hustle the child off to school. So for now, we’ll have to do with a bunch of random thoughts. Such as: (more…)
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Twitter jitters
My wife got me this t-shirt for Christmas. It fits, in many ways. I’ve made a new writing contact, and she happens to “tweet.” For the uninitiated, that means she uses Twitter as a social network medium. She keeps track of her clients this way, announces business-oriented things, and generally uses it as a platform to further her career. And she does it in 140 characters or less, each time, a couple times a day or more.
I can’t do anything in 140 characters. OK, that’s not true, as I just managed to say I couldn’t do anything in 140 characters by using just 40 or so characters. That’s probably my first mental block — that I have nothing worth saying that can be somehow squeezed into 140 characters. (more…)
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Go Seattle Seahawks!! (Seriously.)
Why not? And why not? Why can’t a 7-9 team knock off the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints in the playoffs? Why can’t a 36-year-old quarterback who never quite reached “elite” status throw for four touchdowns in a game where he’s nursing a bad hip? Why can’t a cast-off running back from the Buffalo Bills — yes, Marshawn Lynch was traded by the Bills, who, kindly put, suck — break out a 67-yard touchdown in which eight Saints defenders failed to bring him down? (more…)
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This is why winter is cool
Yeah, sure. Shoveling is a pain, though I admit, I like the exercise. And traveling in snow is a bigger pain. Commuting is a hassle. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s slippery.
But this is my new house, with perhaps the prettiest snowfall we’ve had this winter. And it makes me pretty happy to be here.
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Birds falling from the sky? Cue the R.E.M. song!
Mapping the mysterious animal die-offs It all seems rather biblical, doesn’t it? You’ve got birds falling from the sky in Arkansas and Louisiana — and even Sweden — and millions of dead fish rolling up on shore everywhere from Maryland to Thailand. There’s even been an incident of mass bat deaths in New Mexico. (more…)
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What an astronomer’s memoir can say about writing
It’s pretty rare for me to take a book review to task, especially if A) it’s not my book being reviewed; and B) it’s in The New York Times Book Review. I mean, seriously, it’s The New York Times. In my experience, they tend to know what they’re talking about.But this past weekend, I saw a review that I really disagreed with — and in the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t even read the book yet (though it’s on my list). Instead, I was surprised that the reviewer didn’t quite seem to grok the kind of book he was reviewing. (more…)
