You know, there was a time when I used to get excited about every space shuttle launching, every space probe whizzing past planets, every eclipse. I remember one summer in grad school I was working for the State of CA and there was a partial eclipse that day and I made a point of going out on the office patio and squinting up at the sun just to see if I could see the little bite the moon had taken out of it.
I remember walking out to the patio, passing all the worker bees in their Dilbert cubes thinking, “This is a major event! Look at you people, so intent in your work like that’s somehow of any importance at all compared to this!” Uninspired drones.
And then somewhere along the way, I stopped paying attention to any of that stuff, too. Maybe it just became so commonplace. Maybe the opposite–maybe there wasn’t enough exciting astronomical events out there and I gave up hoping for it. Or maybe it’s just, in the past few years, I’ve been less into the sci-fi and wanting to see it become real, and more into the fantasy/horror genres. Who knows?
Lately, though, there has been a flurry of new!fun!space news. Privately funded space ships. Probes whizzing past Saturn’s rings. I may yet become again the girl who stayed up all night watching the latest fuzzy images of the planet Neptune.
Oh and that meme thing…. which says I’m apparently a wimp lurking in the shadows.
You are an SRDF–Sober Rational Destructive Follower. This makes you a font of knowledge. You are cool, analytical, intelligent and completely unfunny. Sometimes you slice through conversation with a cutting observation that causes silence and sidelong glances. You make a strong and lasting impression on everyone you meet, the quality of which depends more on their personality than yours.
You may feel persecuted, as you can become a target for fun. Still, you are focused enough on your work and secure enough in your abilities not to worry overly.
You are productive and invaluable to those you work for. You are loyal, steadfast, and conscientious. Your grooming is impeccable. You are in good shape.
You are kind of a tool, but you get things done. You are probably a week away from snapping.
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
star gazing
As a kid, I loved all sorts of space news too. Even as an adult, I still tend to read about this stuff whenever the mood hits me. But I guess a lot of the magic went out of it for me the day the Challenger blew up. I was watching the shuttle launch in class and we saw it happen. I was still in grade school at the time, so the shock was pretty bad. Suddenly, outer space exploration wasn’t just cool and full of wonder – it was dangerous and difficult.
I find it fascinating when things I learned as gospel truth growing up have turned out to be untrue in recent years. Like there are more than 9 planets in our solar system and we technically have three “moons.”
BTW – I love the new look of your LJ.
Re: star gazing
The Challenger explosion only disheartened me in the sense that I worried it spelled the death of the shuttle program, and hence the space program, because it was the only game in town at the time. That didn’t turn out to be the case, but the space program was never what it was or what I wished it could be. So I lost interest because it seemed America had lost interest. But things seem to be changing a little. The world as a whole has more interest.
Masq in the party room in Chicago
Re: star gazing
The Challenger explosion only disheartened me in the sense that I worried it spelled the death of the shuttle program, and hence the space program, because it was the only game in town at the time. That didn’t turn out to be the case, but the space program was never what it was or what I wished it could be. So I lost interest because it seemed America had lost interest. But things seem to be changing a little. The world as a whole has more interest.
Masq in the party room in Chicago