31 Days of Planets: Discworld!

Day 23

Discworld is awesome! It is one of my favourite places of all time. It goes like this...

"In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part...

"See...

"Great A'Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination.

"In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, He thinks only of the Weight.

"Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad and star-tanned shoulders the disc of the World rests, garnlanded by the long waterfall at its vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven.

"Astropsychology has been, as yet, unable to establish what they think about..."

-The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett, the man

Terry Pratchett, a brilliantly eccentric gentleman of great writing prowess, created this fascinating and wonderful world - a disc which sits on top of four elephants which sits on a giant sea turtle which swims through space - it's brilliant. Just brilliant.

I hope to meet Terry Pratchett. Sooner than later, preferably. 

In conclusion, go read Terry Pratchett.

Pictures from here and here.

2012: The Year of Doing Things

I don't think I will make it to the Moon this year. In fact, I think it is highly unlikely that I will even get to space. There are a number of other things, however, that are completely within the realm of possibility. Since it is New Year's, I probably should be making resolutions, but I believe that if I can't make myself do something any other time during the year, why should I try now, especially when it's cold outside? So instead, I have come up with several things I would like to do at any point during this year:


Hang gliding. It's like flying, but since I don't have wings, I have to piggyback on something else that flies through the air, and I doubt a bird would very much appreciate a stowaway.


Breathing. I would like to keep breathing incessantly for the next 366 days. It might sound like a lot of effort, but I think I can keep up with it. I will give myself a little leeway--I can stop breathing, but not for more than two minutes.


Ride on a train. Trains are stupendous. I've always wanted to be a train engineer, and one day, once I've saved up enough money to go to train engineer school, maybe I will. For now, though, I will just have to satisfy myself with just riding on one. I'd like to ride on a train whose tracks traverse Mars or Titan, but I think that is just as unlikely to happen this year as reaching the Moon. So I will have to settle for Vermont.


As far as the end of the world: I doubt it. But I bet generator sales will increase in November. I hope you all have a good year, full of food and breathing, and absent of zombies and nearby exploding suns. Come visit NH, and good luck with your New Year's resolutions!