Autumn – Page 3 – Into the West

MiddleMoot Announced for October 2018

Signum University, the Mythgard Institute, and the Tolkien Society of Kansas City are proud to announce the inaugural MiddleMoot 2018, a one-day symposium addressing the role of Nature, Man, and Industrialization in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien on Saturday, October 6, 2018, at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. A mixture of paper presentations, panels, and discussions will be offered along with a keynote address by guest of honor Dr. Corey Olsen, “The Tolkien Professor.”

On his teaching website, The Tolkien Professor, Dr. Olsen brings his scholarship on Tolkien to the public, seeking to engage a wide and diverse audience in serious intellectual and literary conversation. His website features a series of detailed lectures on The Hobbit and recordings of the weekly meetings of the Silmarillion Seminar, which worked its way through the Silmarillion chapter by chapter, as well as more informal Q&A sessions with listeners. His book Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, was published by Houghton Mifflin in September 2012.

Cost is $40 per person, and will include a light breakfast (coffee and pastries), and gourmet boxed lunch. You can select your preferences on the registration page. Registration and information table opens at 8:30am with opening address to start at 9am.

If you wish to be considered for a paper, panel, or presentation at MiddleMoot, please send an abstract of less than 250 words to tolkiensocietykc@gmail.com on any of the above topics related to Nature, Man, or Industrialization (more information to follow on Signum website).

Please help the Tolkien Society of KC as we endeavor to make this moot waste-free!

‘Every tree has its enemy, few have an advocate.’

– J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 241

Official Signum page: https://signumuniversity.org/event/middlemoot-2018/

To Serve Quietly (or Not) Against the Dying of the Light

This morning I woke early, as I nearly always do, but with a melancholic mood fogging my mind. Two Hallmark movies and a cup of hot tea later and I still could not shake the malaise. I turned off the television and grabbed the closest half-finished book handy and continued my perusal of Cosmic Discoveries with David Levy. The subtitle for chapter nineteen was a quote I’ve heard many times but which I had never read the original source. Since the chapter also started with another quote from the same work with a byline to the poet, I decide there’s no time like the present to read the original poem.

My tablet was charging across the room so I grabbed my smartphone and searched on the phrase and poet and got a crazy amount of hits – no surprise. I read the Wikipedia article first to get some background on the poet and the when and partial why he wrote his now famous and often quoted poem. Next, I returned to my results (from Wikipedia) and selected the first hit that contained the complete short poem.

I read it three times, because I read somewhere or was told by someone you should always read a poem three times. I didn’t make it through the third stanza of the first reading before I couldn’t see my screen for the tears. Damn poets! And at one point in my life I actually aspired to be a poet. But life pretty much crushed the creativity out of me so I just enjoy those who had more courage than I to pursue their creative spark.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

— Dylan Thomas, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night‘

Reading this poem today reminded me of the sometimes quiet, always courageous sacrifices willingly given to us by our military service men and women. Their continuing fight against the dying of the light allows me, my family, my friends, my acquaintances, my coworkers – all of us living in this great country that is the home of the brave and the land of the free – because of them.

Thank you, veterans, for your service.

Thank you for not going gently into any night and raging against the dying of the light to keep us safe and free.

Thank you.

Monochrome Mania

A friend and work colleague of mine who also happens to be a photographer started posting snapshots in her Facebook feed last week. The challenge was to take a photo a day from your life with no people featured in them and provide no explanation. Oh, and they must be black and white photos.

This intrigued me as my first camera back in the early or mid 70s had been a small inexpensive fixed lens camera that used small rolls of black and white film. My dad had a dark room at home but I don’t think we ever developed film that I shot in my camera, at least not until I was much older and part of the yearbook staff in high school.

I decided to revisit my youth and took up the challenge. I also happened to be on vacation this week so I had plenty of time to think of what sites in and around my home would lend themselves to good black and white photography.

Here’s the seven I posted daily on my Twitter and Facebook feed:

And here are all the photos I took in the last week that I used as the pool of photos to choose from:

11.11.16 ~ Honoring All Who Served

Veterans Day 2016 ~ Courage

Thank you to all the Veterans who have served with honor and courage.

God of peace,
we pray for those who have served our nation
and have laid down their lives
to protect and defend our freedom.

We pray for those who have fought,
whose spirits and bodies are scarred by war,
whose nights are haunted by memories
too painful for the light of day.

We pray for those who serve us now,
especially for those in harm’s way.
Shield them from danger
and bring them home.

Turn the hearts and minds
of our leaders and our enemies
to the work of justice and a harvest of peace.
Spare the poor, Lord, spare the poor!

May the peace you left us,
the peace you gave us,
be the peace that sustains,
the peace that saves us.

Amen.

November Novel Noteables

I spent a couple of hours last Saturday volunteering at my local library. You can find me most Saturday afternoons helping out behind the front desk. About halfway through my scheduled shift, I realized that the stack end cap across from me had changed since the last time I’d been in (see photo right). This time of year, the last two months, and the first month or so of the upcoming year, breeds lists, especially of the ‘best of’ variety. Until I saw this end cap, I didn’t realize the State Library of Kansas had been producing a curated list annually for the past ten years:

The Kansas Notable Books List is the annual recognition of 15 outstanding titles either written by Kansans or about a Kansas related topic. The Kansas Notable Book List highlights our lively contemporary writing community and encourages readers to enjoy some of the best writing of the authors among us.

A committee of academics, librarians, and authors of previous Notable Books identifies quality titles from among those published the previous year, and the State Librarian makes the selection for the final List. A medal awards ceremony honors the books and their authors.

Kansas Notable Books is a project of the Kansas Center for the Book, a program of the State Library. Throughout the award year, the State Library promotes and encourages the promotion of all the titles on that year’s list at literary events, and among librarians and booksellers.

Continue reading “November Novel Noteables”

Backyard Observing

20161021_175740 — Friday evening setup: tarp (to catch falling bits and pieces in the dark) and the base.

All last week, I looked forward to the weekend as a chance to get some astronomical observing accomplished. The weather forecast seemed too good to be true: Sunny and clear, highs in the mid 70s and lows in the 50s, with dew points in the upper 40s and lower 50s. My astronomy club hosted a club star party, but I did not want to lug the scope to Louisburg and share the observing grounds with a previously scheduled private party. Continue reading “Backyard Observing”

Day 18,995

I did not get a good night’s sleep overnight. According to my fitness tracker, I slept about four hours (between 10 pm and 2 am), a quarter of that being light sleep. Then I woke up and stayed awake for an hour, eventually falling back asleep shortly before 3 am and hitting snooze on my 5:30 a.m. alarm once.Preview post

First thing I did after stumbling downstairs was login to download two new releases I’d pre-ordered as ebooks: Crosstalk by Connie Willis and The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu. By then it was already five minutes to six o’clock. It takes ten minutes to make tea and about the same time to dress so I started boiling the water in the microwave (four minutes) and went to gather my work clothes. I put two teaspoons of Irish Blend loose leaf tea in my reusable steeper, dunked it in the almost boiling water and set a timer for five minutes. I dressed and packed my lunch and my electronics.

Continue reading “Day 18,995”

Banned Book Bonanza

Libraries around the country celebrate “Banned Book” week during the final week of September (or the first full week of Fall). My local library, the Lansing Community Library (LCL), decided to extend this celebration of reading freedom through the end of October, to give patrons a longer window of opportunity to explore this year’s top challenged books.

Interview with a Librarian

I asked Emily Stratton, one of LCL’s Youth Services Librarians, a few questions that I had about banned or challenged books and with her permission I’m sharing her answers here:

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a librarian?

I’ve always been a reader. Growing up as a military brat, reading was always something fun to do when we hadn’t made new friends yet or had our house items delivered to our new home. Though I received my bachelor’s degree in photography, I never stopped enjoying reading. I applied for an opening at Lansing Community Library after graduating college and began working there as a Circulation Technician in January of 2015 and fell in love with the job. A year and a half later, I’m now the Youth Services Librarian and plan on starting my Masters in Library Science next year.

What are your hopes for the program?

With our display and Banned Books Week, we’re hoping to get others excited celebrate their freedom to read and access to information. So many are surprised to find that their favorite book or a classic novel they read in high school has been challenged to be removed from an educational environment. Hopefully the displays we’ll keep up will spark conversations about why these are challenged and whether or not they agree. Maybe it will even introduce some new books to someone!

How long will the display remain up at the library?

Continue reading “Banned Book Bonanza”

Autumn Arrives and Adventures in Astronomical Observing

Autumn arrived mid-week here in the Heart of America, but you wouldn’t have known it by looking at the weather forecast: Mid 90s and moderately high humidity. Also with the change of the seasons, I retired my FitBit Charge (or rather it retired itself by falling apart) and upgraded to a Samsung Gear Fit2. The new fitness tracker is spurring me on to be more active, although my sleep pattern hasn’t improved much. I can safely blame work (10 pm to 4 am conference call on a Saturday night/Sunday morning) and astronomy, which requires, well, dark skies, for my reduced snooze time.

Speaking of astronomy, I’ve upgraded, finally after two years of paralysis analysis, from the Meade ETX 90, gifted to me by my father in October 2010 (also, unsurprisingly the birth of this blog site), to an Orion SkyQuest XX14G. Continue reading “Autumn Arrives and Adventures in Astronomical Observing”

A Deer in the Headlights

It’s not bad enough that my Texas trip was cancelled at the last minute. Or that I haven’t seen the sun since before Thanksgiving and that Kansas City is experiencing it’s fifth consecutive day of rain and drizzle (more rain today as it’s slightly above freezing). Or that I gave up my day off to voluntarily drive the vanpool to work because I believed both my back drivers had requested this Monday after Thanksgiving off. Surprise! Both of them rode in the van this morning.

Nope, it couldn’t possibly get any worse, right? Until I remembered as I got off the parking garage elevator and walked to the building elevators and saw this:

Continue reading “A Deer in the Headlights”