Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Getting that habit started

The interesting things that I have read, seen, done, or thought about this weekend.

First off, there's the whole bit of excitement over Huygens. Wow. All I can say is that I am really impressed. This is just awesome. ESA deserves a lot of kudos. NASA too for making it possible. I'd have to say that a series of rovers, balloons, and dedicated orbiters are definitely in order now. If I were NASA, I'd consider taking the follow-on to the JIMO - Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter - to Saturn with balloons to map and explore as much of Titan as possible. It could carry the balloons to be released and landers and/or rovers for specific targeted areas. Possibly even submersibles! Woo!

My wife and I picked up some board games. We played the heck out of chinese checkers and it was her first experience with it. She's really good. She LOVES to play too. We've also been playing Risk, chess, checkers, and numerous others. She spots patterns really quick. The reason we picked up the games is that she is REALLY pregnant. Our baby (tentatively Aurora) is due on March 27th. My wife is a pretite woman and the baby has been a lot rougher on her than planned: she's gained 50% of her prepregnancy weight and been sick a lot: hormone poisoning, not transmitable stuff. Even so, we're both really excited, if a bit scared.

I've been obsessing a little over Neal Stephenson's _The Diamond Age_. Well, specifically over the Primer. I think it's just become feasible. I'd LOVE to have one ready (ha!) for my daughter at age 4. It's a possibility for a business at least. We shall see. My wife loves the idea.

I finished _The Complete Roman Army_. I'm reading _Collapse_. An engaging read. We'll see where he goes with it.

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