There are a lot of things from the 2006 Stanley Cup run that I hope to always remember. The beauty and wonder of a game just discovered but already engrossing. The brilliance of Cam Ward. The sound of grown men celebrating an achievement they'd dreamed about since childhood. The sight of Rod Brind'Amour lifting the Cup while an entire city cheered.
Of course, that last one seems especially easy to pull from the memory banks today as the news comes out that we have seen Rod play his last game. Rod Brind'Amour has retired from professional hockey and is moving to a "suit and tie" role in the Canes' front office. I have no doubt that we will see #17 raised to the rafters this coming season.
It's times like these that I find words fail me. To say "thank you" doesn't seem strong enough for a man who gave everything he had to a team that many thought wouldn't make it. To say "he'll be missed" is too morose. Stats don't adequately explain what he means to the team, awards and records don't scratch the surface. Rod is so much more than a player on a hockey team in a city.
How do you explain the look of intensity in his eyes when he lined up for a faceoff? How do you chronicle a work ethic so intense that it's a standard by which all must measure themselves? How do you even begin to compile a record of the stories from his career? How do you convey the meaning behind the words "In Rod We Trust"? How do you make people understand that he'll always be the captain?
Short answer? No matter how much you want to, you can't. All you can truly do is offer him your thanks, your respect and your admiration. Thank you Rod. Thank you for everything.
An interview with me appears in the inaugural issue of Valent Range, which publishes science and science fiction poetry. Editor Scott A. Kelly is giving these issues away for a limited time! More info here.
"Pele's Wandering Fire" appears in the June 2010 Of Poets And Poetry (Florida State Poets Association). Back in April, the poem received second prize in the FSPA's Spring Fling contest (theme: Hawaiian culture), free verse category.
I'm giving two workshops at Ancient City Con next month -- one in character and plot development, one in speculative poetry.
Links to all 30 of my science poems for April appear in this entry listing submissions to the 2010 edition of Open Laboratory: an annual anthology of the best science blog posts, dated Dec. 1, 2009-Dec. 1, 2010. Science-themed posts from general blogs are eligible.
She Nailed A Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror is now available for pre-order here. Official release is set for October. The "alternate timelines" and "wild-eyed, drug-crazed prophets" in Erin O'Riordan's blurb fit my story "Judgment at Naioth," which takes its cue from the book of 2 Samuel and the rape of Tamar.
What's appeared to me...
I had a terrific lunch with Kathy Nappier and Tracy A. Akers yesterday. Kathy spotted this Palamedes Swallowtail through the window behind me. So of course I had to whip out my camera, swing around, and take a shot at full zoom.
Papilio palamedes, Family Papilionidae. For a Palamedes, this individual was downright sedate. "Flutters wings constantly," says Bugguide, but I didn't see any of that here. My other shots of Palamedes (with dorsal views) date from April 2006 and September 2006.
The Palamedes Swallowtail has a wingspan of around 5 inches (11-13 cm). It ranges through the southeastern United States, extending into central Mexico. Its season spans from March through December in the northern part of that range (2 flights), with a third flight in the southern part of its US range.
I spotted this Southern House Spider in the bathroom the other night. Kukulcania hibernalis, Family Filistatidae (Crevice Weavers). Thanks to Eric Eaton and Jebus31 at Bugguide for the ID.
Says Bugguide, "Females are frequently mistaken for small tarantulas or trapdoor spiders. Males are often mistaken for recluse spiders (Loxosceles). This is a totally harmless species that builds 'messy' webs emanating from crevices, often on the outside of homes."
(I at first mistook this one for a wolf spider, then wondered if it was a wandering spider.)
According to the University of Florida, females range from 13-19mm in length (not including legs); I guessed this individual to be around 20mm, a body length of roughly 3/4 inch. Says UF, "Although the webs tend to accumulate debris and may be unsightly to some, this harmless spider is beneficial and captures many pest insects, including house flies, horse flies mud daubers, cockroaches, and May beetles." Females can live for up to eight years.
Genre: Depressive Suicidal Black Metal + closely related genres. Quality: 192-320kbps mp3. About: In these past 10 months since I made Vol. 1, I've found I'd only scratched the surface of what is actually a very deep and varied genre. I want to let the world know that, while I discover it for myself. There are countless clone bands: Fast blast beats, screaming nonsense, no melody, sounds like it was recorded with a tape recorder from a dollar store on the other side of a brick wall........ That is what this collection aims to avoid.
I wanted a collection of unique yet similar sounds and ideas, with a production value that can at least be appreciated and doesn't hamper enjoyment of each song. I personally believe I did a pretty good job. I also kept it limited to 74 minutes, the standard for a CD. (Especially hard since songs of this genre tend to be so long!). I also created a cover which will be used for all future entries in this series.
I hope you will find as much enjoyment out of these songs as I do.
1. Lantlôs - These Nights Were Ours (Kind of obsessed with this song and I think its a good playlist opener. My #1 song of 2010 and I don't see how anything can top it.)
2. Happy Days - Don't Go (Really emotional song ending in what sounds like a wolf howl. Just chilling. Since I stupidly used their cover for Vol. 1 I figured I should put them in here.)
3. Apati - Sömnlösa Nätter (Just found this "black rock" band and instantly love them. Apparently their new album that just came out is even better.)
4. Monarque - La Vallée Des Larmes (This is what I was talking about when I said "unique" sounds.)
5. Mortuus Infradaemoni - Mortuus Et Prodeunt Infradaemoni (Raw yet clear song and I just love the riff. You'll know which one I'm talking about. Not technically "depressive" but come on, it is. So underrated I had to put them on here.) 6. Silencer - Taklamakan (No idea what this song is about, but it just gets into this awesome jam part where you want to bang your head.)
7. Shining - Krossade Drömmar Och Brutna Löften (I won't argue if you say they're overrated, but this is a heartfelt completely acoustic guitar track that's melancholic and sad and a great interlude.)
8. Walknut - Come, Dreadful Ygg (Another unique band I just found and need to devote more time to.)
9. All the Cold - Coldly to Heart (Essentially the last song of the "Children of Failure" split, one of the few albums to seriously make me feel like crying as the songs are so emotional. It just keeps beating you down harder, you need to get it if you don't have it.)
10. Austere - To fade with the Dusk (This band split up recently but with this song you can hear how amazing they were. Really the classic DSBM sound but they do it so perfectly and clearly.) 11. Sad Legend - The Reaper's Song (From the newest album, it seems like something is missing but that only makes me like it a little more, I think.)
Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)! (In this case, click Donate in the top right if you liked it.)
Shown here: Boxes of donated hair, fur, and nylons, from as far away as Pennsylvania and Ohio. Business card info is more legible here.
On June 18, 2010, I joined other volunteers at a BoomBQ held at the South Tampa Puppy Palace. Thanks to the Puppy Palace for hosting, to Renee Adams of ProWay Paving for coordinating and running the event, and to my fellow volunteers!
BoomBQs are associated with Matter of Trust's Hair for Oil Spills Program. I've been collecting hair and fur to send to volunteer warehouses, which is one step on the way to boom production. My most recent pickup came from Best Friends Grooming Salon, whose donation is in the black bag.
More info and links to resources here. You can see more hair and fur contributors here.
The warehouses are currently full as of this writing, so I'm waiting to hear when I can make the next shipment of donated hair and fur. The booms are currently being used in Alabama and Florida. BoomBQs have been held in those states plus Louisiana. Check out Matter of Trust's press release page for the latest info. BoomBQs are listed on their Twitter and Facebook pages.
Boxes of donated material are in the foreground. Booms are in the back.
More boxes of donated material are stacked up inside our workroom.
My first boom!
This volunteer drove in from Orlando to make booms. She traveled about the same distance I had, approximately 85 miles one-way.
Several of us pose with our booms. Renee, the event coordinator, is at left in the top shot. She had moved to Florida for the beaches. Now she's fighting to help save them.
Some of that liquid on my shirt is plain water because I'd splashed my face down a couple of times, but mostly it's sweat. There was plenty of bottled water on hand, along with latex gloves and face masks, all of it donated from local businesses. I was glad I'd brought a face cloth to wipe down not only my face but also my arms, because fur residue settles on just about everything.
All told, we were a handful of people on Friday, still a work day for many. The BoomBQ continues today.
I hold up horse hair that came to us from Pennsylvania. When I first reached into the box, I marveled at how silky and luxuriant it was. At first I thought I was handling human hair from a salon. But I couldn't imagine one person having that much hair, and it had an animal odor that I couldn't place. Renee took one whiff and said, "It's horse."
And, yes, I was sweating steadily by this point. Even though there were only a few of us, we made more booms than we could count -- each takes only about a couple of minutes to put together. After an almost two-hour drive back home in a car with no A/C, my shower was downright rapturous.
Below my outstretched arm in the shot is a short section of black plastic pipe. To make the booms, we first rolled up legs cut off from nylons and placed them over one pipe end. We stuffed hair and fur into the nylons through the other pipe end. The filled nylons gradually expanded until only a bit of the open end remained, which we then knotted. You can see the Matter of Trust video on how to make hair booms here.
A pile of newly-made booms. Kudos and thanks to Renee's sons Niko and Stefano for hauling the booms into the warehouse, hauling empty cardboard boxes to the recycle dumpster, and copying down the addresses of everyone who sent donated materials. And for holding up through a hot, labor-intensive, and messy but truly satisfying day!
Genre: Atmospheric/Depressive/Suicidal Blackened Shoegaze Quality: 320kbps MP3 About: Yesterday I discovered this came out, and since I had listened to their album and demos before and liked them, I thought ok I should get it. But if someone had ran my face over with a steamroller I would not have been more surprised. This is a band who has matured so much over the past 5 years, from an almost blast-beat-fest on every song, to... this. Every song brings this wave of emotions, varying from anger to introspective to sad. The musical content varies along with it, there are moments of the fast aggressive black metal everyone loves, then there's passages with progressive-sounding beats and also minimalist parts. I don't know what more to say except it must be heard to be believed. New song of the year: "These Nights Were Ours."
Recommended A must-listen for all fans of the genre, in fact the multi-instrumentalist creator of Alcest is the permanent singer for this band now, and the artwork was done by a member of Les Discrets.
Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!
My team may not have been in the playoffs this season, but that doesn't mean my hockey season ended in April. For me, not watching the playoffs is unthinkable even if the Canes are playing golf. And I consider those of us without a dog in the fight to be the luckiest of all fans-we get to watch whoever is playing just play. No gut wrenching OTs, no season ending penalties, no expectations dashed in a second. We just watch...and mock those still playing mercilessly without worrying about karma biting our team in the butt later.
It is out of this newly liberated sarcasm that this blog post was born. It all started as just a random bit of Facebook status humor at the expense of Dan Boyle. But people had such a strong (and positive!) reaction to it that I continued tracking teams' and players' errors, blunders, and misfortunes through my FB status for the duration of the playoffs. And now I've put them all together in my own version of a playoff tribute that includes no inspirational music or uplifting images. Instead, you'll find good ol' fashioned sarcasm dripping from every post. Enjoy!
April 19th: If you think your Monday is going badly, just remember you could be Dan Boyle right now.
April 20th: If you think your Tuesday is going badly, just remember you could be Jaroslav Halak. Or Roberto Luongo.
April 21st: If you think your Wednesday is going badly, just remember you could be ANY of the New Jersey Devils' many donut wranglers right now. Impending first round exits are the kind of sting that it takes dozens of Krispy Kremes to cure.
April 22nd: If you think your Thursday is going badly, just remember you could be Carey Price who for all intents and purposes can never show his face in Montreal again.
April 23rd: If you think your Friday is going badly, just remember you could be Craig Anderson. It's hard to oogle ice girls from the bench.
April 24th: If you think your Saturday is going badly, just remember you could be either one of the LA Kings' goalies.
April 25th: If you think your Sunday is going badly, just remember you could be Antti Niemi's dignity.
April 26th: If you think your Monday is going badly, just remember you could be the Kings. First round eliminations are never funny. Unless it's happening to Brodeur.
April 27th: If you think your Tuesday is going badly, just remember you could be Ryan Miller's porn stache. Why do the good ones always die young? So many facial hair styling questions will never be answered now! April 28th: If you think your Wednesday is going badly, just remember you could be a Phoenix Coyote. No not the team. A real one like the one a fan was wearing ON HIS HEAD. April 29th: If you think your Thursday is going badly, just remember you could be Bruce Boudreau's blood pressure medication. It was already in an uphill battle, but now I fear it may be futile.
April 30th: If you think your Friday is going badly, just remember you could be Joe Thornton. No one's seen him in weeks!
May 2nd: If you think your Sunday is going badly, just remember you could be Antti Niemi. Being violated on TV? Bad. Getting pulled after giving up 5? Really bad.
May 3rd: If you think your Monday is going badly, just remember you could be Sidney Crosby's hockey stick. So young, so defenseless and now so broken, never to experience the joy of scoring a goal.
May 4th: If you think your Tuesday is going badly, just remember you could be Roberto Luongo. 1:30 from a 2-0 series lead just to see it all evaporate at the hands of...Verbeauty?
May 5th: If you think your Wednesday is going badly, just remember you could be Jaroslav Halak who, despite his Roy-esque game, came to the realization last night that he still plays for the Montreal Canadiens and should therefore expect to face 30+ shots a night while his team puts up 18.
May 6th: If you think your Thursday is going badly, just remember you could be Roberto Luongo. Sorry Wellwood, but pie does not, in fact, make everything ok.
May 7th: If you think your Friday is going badly, just remember you could anyone not nicknamed the Mule. But then again if your nickname is Mule and you're not Johan Franzen, odds are your Friday ain't too hot anyways.May 8th: If you think your Saturday is going badly, just remember you could be Alain Vigneault. Throwing All-Star goalies under the bus is tiring, both mentally and physically.
May 9th: If you think your Sunday is going badly, just remember you could be the NHL marketing staff. What do you do with 4 commercials worth of Pens-Wings "revenge is a dish best served cold" footage? Oh well, I guess it joins the ECF Crosby-Ovechkin showdown ads.
May 10th: If you think your Monday is going badly, just remember you could be Sami Salo's...errr...ummm well you could be Sami Salo. Yeah that pretty much says it all.
May 11th: If you think your Tuesday is going badly, just remember you could be the Boston Bruins who have clearly caught a case of San Jose Sharksitis. Hopefully a cure will be discovered soon because the Flyers carry a whole other group of diseases.
May 12th: If you think your Wednesday is going badly, just remember you could be Bobby Lou who's probably looking for a bus to step in front of (you're in luck Bobby-your coach has had one picked out for days now). You also could be Sami Salo who's still looking for a golf cart with an extra padded seat.
May 13th: If you think your Thursday is going badly, just remember you could be a cop car in Montreal. After last night, they don't stand a chance.
May 15th: If you think your Saturday is going badly, just remember you could be the Boston Bruins. As the Thumb said "no excuses". May 17th: If you think Monday is going badly, just remember you could be Jaroslav Halak. He has to spend the whole day in Philly! Oh yeah and he may have gotten pulled last night...
May 19th: If you think your Wednesday is going badly, just remember you could be the Carolina Hurricanes' coaching staff. They must be kicking themselves for letting Leights go.
May 21st: If you think your Friday is going badly, just remember you could be Michael Leighton. Sorry Leights, but there are just some things you don't want 5 of. And goals against is most definitely one of them.
May 22nd: If you think your Saturday is going badly, just remember you could be Evgeni "leaky as a sieve" Nabokov.
May 23rd: If you think your Sunday is going badly, just remember you could be the Montreal Canadiens. 1 SOG in 20 minutes of hockey. Yeah so about that tee time...
May 24th: If you think your Monday is going badly, just remember you could be Duncan Keith. Reporter: "Duncan, you just won the Conference Finals in 4 games! What are you going to do now?!" Duncan: "I'm going to the dentist!!!" May 25th: If you think your Tuesday is going badly, just remember you could be Jaroslav Halak who must feel like you know what after giving up that first goal last night.
May 30th: If you think your Sunday is going badly, just remember you could be the coaching staff for Philly OR Chicago. Because any time 11 goals are scored, you know the coaches went to bed with serious heartburn.
June 1st: If you think your Tuesday is going badly, just remember you could be Jeff Carter. To have to call Dan Carcillo a teammate is bad, but getting laid out by him on national TV has to be worse.
June 2nd: If you think your Wednesday is going badly, just remember you could be Aaron Voros's Twitter account. From the highest of all highs to the lowest of all lows.
June 3rd: If you think your Thursday is going badly, just remember you could be Brian Boucher. To lose the starting job (AGAIN) is awful, but having to sit next to Dan Carcillo for the entire 3rd period and OT is almost too much to handle.
June 7th: If you think your Monday is going badly, just remember you could be Chris Pronger. You played like crap last night, didn't get to steal the game puck and 95% of the hockey watching world reveled in it.
June 11th: If you think your Thursday is going badly, just remember you could be my Facebook status. For the next 4 months, you're going to be dull, largely ignored and have nothing to do with hockey. Kinda like a certain hock...oh come on that's too easy. :) Congrats Chicago!
This Great Egret was enjoying a drink at the retention pond near our post office. Its black legs differentiate it from the Great White Heron, whose legs are yellow.
Says www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumbe..., Great Egrets (Ardea alba) were formerly known as the "American Egret," "Common Egret," "Large Egret," "White Egret," "Great White Egret," and "Great White Heron." Says eNature: "[T]his bird's official name in North America is now Great Egret. One of the most magnificent of our herons, it has fortunately recovered from historic persecution by plume hunters. But it is still not out of danger: The destruction of wetlands, especially in the West where colonies are few and widely scattered, poses a current threat to these majestic birds. Like the Great Blue Heron, it usually feeds alone, stalking fish, frogs, snakes, and crayfish in shallow water. Each summer many individuals, especially young ones, wander far north of the breeding grounds.
There are a lot of things from the 2006 Stanley Cup run that I hope to always remember. The beauty and wonder of a game just discovered but already engrossing. The brilliance of Cam Ward. The sound of grown men celebrating an achievement they'd dreamed about since childhood. The sight of Rod Brind'Amour lifting the Cup while an entire city cheered.
How do you explain the look of intensity in his eyes when he lined up for a faceoff? How do you chronicle a work ethic so intense that it's a standard by which all must measure themselves? How do you even begin to compile a record of the stories from his career? How do you convey the meaning behind the words "In Rod We Trust"? How do you make people understand that he'll always be the captain?
