... but I stopped. Now I'm a dad, and may blog again...

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

166: A raging geek-on

Another morning struggling to wake up before 9am in preparation for the return to work later this week.  Standing bleary-eyed in the kitchen filling the kettle I catch a surprising glimpse out the window and over the snow-covered rooftops.  To see snow in January and so soon after the snowiest December in the entire history of ever is not really that surprising, but I thought the cold cold sky had it all purged from its system.  I have no specialist knowledge on the subject of weather and weather prediction and as a result my opinion has no value.  If I was that way inclined I might use that last sentence to segue into a rant about religious Americans and disbelief in evolution, or New Age ‘alternative’ medicine quacks.  But that doesn’t sound like the sort of thing I would do.

12 hours later and I’m about ready to begin the second paragraph.  Just finished watching the second episode of Stargazing LIVE and I have to confess I’ve got a raging geek-on that just wont quit.  I need a telescope; I need it, I need it, I need it, I need it, puh-leeeease, I beg, I beg, I beg, please, please, please.  Etcetera.  Dara O’Briain and Prof Brian Cox make a lovely couple; great chemistry between them, and their mutual disdain for astrology and other woo-woo makes for a refreshing change on the BBC (with its tedious emphasis on balance).  More science and scepticism on the BBC please, and keep it free from religious representatives, alternative medicine dicks, and other frauds, psychics and people suffering from mind-so-open-that-their-brains-fell-out.

I am now officially looking at telescopes on Amazon.  Forget saving for a wedding, house, driving lessons, car, kids, &c; I’m going to build a wall of books around myself leaving a window in the top to stick my telescope out of.  I’ll also be needing a bottle of whiskey for company and a jar of olives for sustenance.  I could live in my dad’s allotment, sleeping in the shed and shitting by the compost heap surrounded by nettles.  Ahh, that’s the stuff dreams are made of.


I wonder if I can use a BA to gain acceptance onto an MSc and turn my Arts graduate un-employability into a career swimming in tropical waters observing octopuses by day, and discovering extrasolar planets by night.  I don’t want my name in lights, I want it in New Scientist.  Never going to happen, actually no it might.  Not as a scientist obviously, but as a writer.  OK, let’s get on it; there is writing to be done, money to be made and success to be had.  And when I am racking in the writing money I will be in geek heaven, doing what I like and writing about it when I like.

I might get a bit repetitive in this blog, dreaming about professional success and the sort of life I want for me and my wife-to-be, but unless I focus on the goal I’m unlikely to ever get there.  It’s one of those mantras that ‘business gurus’ and self-help people go on about; imagine where you want to be, keep your eyes on the prize, that sort of thing.  Just remind me to actually work towards the goal and not just dream about it.  Better get started.

Photo taken from NASA website Astronomy Picture of the Day archive.

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