Biography today

I’m having trouble sleeping, so I might as well blog about my day’s work on the biography.

I coded a few documents, but my primary task was to go over the folder of newspaper clippings Isaac had on the February 26, 1979 total eclipse of the sun. What made that eclipse special is its path intersected the location of the Stonehenge replica near Maryhill, Washington. A great gathering of pagans took place, to create a spiritual intersection at the same time as the astronomical one.

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Epiphany 2

I spent about an hour last night writing a long blog post about research techniques. Why did I bother?

At the time, I thought it was because I’m still processing all I learned, and it would help to set it down. Late last night, I realized that there was another reason:

Isaac would have loved this.

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The gift of the magi (or something)

A friend of mine calls me today. They ask, “Have you read any Jules Vernes?”

It’s not a question I get asked every day. I pause a moment then answer, “I’ve read his most popular works: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mysterious Island, From the Earth to the Moon, Journey to the Center of the Earth. Why?”

They respond, “How about the Morte d’Arthur? There’s a new English translation.”

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Calendar scanning

I've completed scanning Isaac Bonewits' calendars. I thought the process would take longer, but I followed the advice of : Put on some music on full blast when no one else is around, and the task will pass quickly. I should have known. This does not remove the need for calendar parties. It means that they can…

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Two steps forward…

...and one step back. Isaac Bonewits' big wall calendars take twice as long to scan as I thought they did. I thought an entire page could be scanned by my big scanner at once, but the images are chopped off at the top or bottom. I'll have to rescan those calendar pages in the flipped orientation so…

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I wish I had a choice

I have to vote for Barack Obama in 2012. The Republican slate consists of people with such an anti-intellectual stance that I cannot vote for them. But with the President's decision not to veto the NDAA, I dearly wish there was a Democratic contender running to oppose him.

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Finally, physics

My subtitle for this blog is “Musings of a physicist, a witch, and a gamer.” I’ve posted on wicca and gaming, but I’ve never said much about physics until now.

I have been reticent to talk about physics because what I physically do is sit in front of a computer terminal and type (and occasionally think) all day. But evidently someone thinks that the work I do is interesting:

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Why I game

This. It's why I've been post those game reviews, and why I struggle to schedule Argothald every month, and why I played World of Warcraft, and why I played in two LARPs for 14 years.

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