And it just makes me cringe to see other people fail at it so spectacularly. Especially if they are supposed to be the people in power – the ones that we’ve elected to RUN THE COUNTRY. You know, the most responsible job there is. The economy is in the crapper, Greece is about to go bankrupt, and here the dutch politicians are bickering over things to stupid to even mention. I don’t even want to talk about it. It makes me want to go “LA LA LA I can’t hear you” every time I hear something about it on the news. (The irony over how childish that is is not lost on me, btw…)
It just goes against everything I’ve been taught and raised on, against the values that I set myself. I just want to bitch slap all the politicians and tell them to man the fuck up and be polite to each other. What the hell are we paying them for? Fuck, this is not some internet forum or Youtube where teenagers are hiding behind screen names to troll each other! If you’re in a position of responsibility, you should man the fuck up and be responsible. Otherwise don’t DO it.

Maybe it’s just that nobody is able to man the fuck up and be responsible. If no one would do it, we wouldn’t have anyone to run the country… a little bit like Belgium.
I’m beginning to wonder if that might not be better. And yeah, those are not good thoughts.

And then we noticed that the pink-red mists were shifting somewhat over time (think an hour). Despite the fact that it was rather pretty to look at, we of course began to crack jokes about apocalypses and doom. It was kind of weird and vaguely worrying, so Olli did get up to send an e-mail to our local astronomy club, asking them what was up. Turns out we had been looking at the Northern Light, which had been visible that night… a very rare occasion.

Today in the car I heard that this northern light in the Netherlands is caused by solar flares that have a cycle of twelve years between occurring. So we’re up for another one tonight. I don’t think that the greenhouses in Nuttyville and the big city to the west of here will allow us to see the Aurora Borealis tonight, which is a pity.

But if you are in a more rural area in NL, be sure to check it out. I hope it’s visible!
I remember it being very pretty back then.

so much for the eclipse

If there’s always been one thing I got a kick out of, it was stars and planets and the universe. At the age of seven or eight I could name all the planets (and most of their known moons) in our solar system, and knew pretty much all there was to know about them. I simply loved that shit.

That fascination is now more of a simmering heat instead of a blazing sun, but I have to admit I still love the snot out of it. Goes to figure of course that with every kickass solar eclipse we have here, I miss it because it’s clouded. I saw a partial one when I was in my early teens, but that one was only about 38% or something (it looked like someone had taken a bite out of the sun ), but when the big one came in 1999 (98% eclipse here in Holland) it was too clouded in Hoorn to actually notice anything.

I was at that point painting my new house – august 1999 – I remember it clearly, and I’d positioned myself next to the window so I wouldn’t have to miss it. I still did. It was very clouded, so I hardly even noticed it getting darker. My dad, who worked in Amsterdam, reported he’d seen the whole thing at the roof of his work building, and that it was pretty spectacular. I was bummed about missing it.

So this was I saw today of the 75% eclipse that occurred during sunrise.
Yeah. Sucks to be me. AGAIN

Update an hour later: I stand corrected! By now the sun is up & brightly shining, there’s a bite out of it… but I am unable to take a pic this way. It’s too bright. Nearly blinded myself by checking it out  *dances* I don’t care… I take everything back, hahaha