Pluto Nixed and other

In case you haven't heard, Pluto has been demoted. It is no longer a planet in our solar system, it is a dwarf planet. From BBC news: "There is a recognition that the demotion is likely to upset the public, who have become accustomed to a particular view of the Solar System." Heck yeah, we're down to 8 planets. Here's a full article, tells all about it. Take note, Miss Mark, your textbook will be wrong because the decision was made too late to publish the new 8 planet information. Does anyone else find this slightly disturbing that these folks (the astronomers) didn't have a working definition of a planet until now?



I finally saw "Crash" and understand why it came so highly recommended. I particularly enjoyed Thandie Newton's performance. I can't remember feeling so emotionally drained after a movie. It's a bit embarassing, at one point there were these sort of hiccuping sobs. Yeah, for real, intense. I loved it. I love the truth being told. It's good for us to see our own hearts and sin in the characters, shows us again how much we need the precious, priceless blood. As my dear friend Kristin would say, that movie ripped my face off in a good way.

Also, we had some guests in town this past weekend and it was great fun. We saw "Little Miss Sunshine", which was good, but would be on the "recommended with caveats" list. It's a dark comedy. My favorite line was delivered by the dad, who was played by Greg Kinnear: "Everybody just pretend to be normal, okay?"

I've started working at Kaldis on Demun for the time being; come on over sometime and say hidely-ho and get some tasty mctasterson Highlander Grogg.

Lastly, this is beautiful and moving. I never knew that this was a tradition--paper lanterns are released into bodies of water all over the world in memorial of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, which were August 6 & 9, 1945. Haunting, lovely. It's probably a good thing to rember this. I remember reading the book "Fat Man,Little Boy" in high school. It was graphic and awful, but much like "Night", I'm glad someone assigned it to our young, impressionable minds. Photo from Yahoo.