Puccini's Birthday on This One Fine Day

Giacomo Puccini
Italian opera composer
(22 December 1858 - 29 November 1924)

The MP3 below expired on 01-13-2013.
Click here to play the current selection.

James Last
- Summchor aus Madama Butterfly(Puccini)

Winter Solstice, 2012

Lat: 37.7° N
Astronomy:

December  21, 2012       Rise:        Set:
Actual Time            7:15 AM PST  4:49 PM PST
Civil Twilight         6:46 AM PST  5:18 PM PST
Nautical Twilight      6:13 AM PST  5:51 PM PST
Astronomical Twilight  5:41 AM PST  6:23 PM PST
Moon                  12:34 PM PST  1:11 AM PST

Length of Visible Light 10h 32m
Length of Day 9h 33m

My New Retractable 4 MM HAND Stylus

My collection of styli for my Apple mobile devices and the Kindle Fire
My new retractable green color HAND stylus arrived yesterday. It's a first cabin trip for this stylus. It's the most expensive stylus I've owned to date  (handstylus.com).

At a cost of $29.95 for the stylus, I also ordered a six-pack replacement tips at $9.95. Including a required two-day USPS priority shipping charge for $5.00, toss in a sales tax of $2.89, the total came to $47.79 USD for this gadget.

I liked the sturdy, well-balanced, and all metal construction of this handsome stylus. Its 4 mm retractable tip and the removable pocket clip features are one of its kind in the deep bin of styli. Functionally, the ability to tap this stylus tip iside the confine of any key on the virtual keyboard (in portrait display) on the iPhone is really the best feature of all. No more unintentional fat finger tapping on the wrong keys!

If one has an iPad polyurethane Smart Cover, the stylus's magnetizes to it; the inclusion of the pocket clip will strengthen the hold much more. For this to work, the Smart Cover must be closed over the iPad. My other styli with a metal pocket clip would magnetizes similarly on a Smart Covered iPad, but they don't look as nice as the HAND stylus. This all-purpose Smart Cover magnet even holds my Zaggfolio keyboard.

The HAND stylus writes and draws smoothly on my iPhone 4S Note Taker app; it does equally well on iPad's Note Taker HD and Evernote's Penultimate. My only other stylus which comes close in second place on these two iOS writing/drawing app is the black Targus. For it I paid $20.00 at Best Buy(see the close-up picture of all my styli).

One more thing, Steve. My using this new stylus should reduce the smudge footprints my touch-screens.

Close-up look at the tips of my four styli

Moon Flying Towards Jupiter Tonight

Photo: Planet Jupiter, lower left corner;
the moon with its two plumes of cloud near upper right

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS
Date and Time - 2012:11:27 20:57:05 PST
Shutter Speed - 1/8 seconds
Aperture - F 5.78
Direction - Eastern Sky
The planet Jupiter (lower left corner of this picture)is nearing its opposition to the sun. It will happen on 2-3 December. As a matter of course (pun), we have our November full moon tonight, 27 November. Keep your eyes peeled between tonight through 3 December. You can see Jupiter, by jove, in the eastern sky and will not mistaken it as a bright star.

Sing with Nature Our Thanksgiving Psalm

Thanksgiving
Kate Seymour Maclean
1880


The Autumn hills are golden at the top,
And rounded as a poet's silver rhyme;
The mellow days are ruby ripe, that drop
One after one into the lap of time.

Dead leaves are reddening in the woodland copse,
And forest boughs a fading glory wear;
No breath of wind stirs in their hazy tops,
Silence and peace are brooding everywhere.

The long day of the year is almost done,
And nature in the sunset musing stands,
Gray-robed, and violet-hooded like a nun
Looking abroad o'er yellow harvest lands:

O'er tents of orchard boughs, and purple vines
With scarlet flecked, flung like broad banners out
Along the field paths where slow-pacing lines
Of meek-eyed kine obey the herdboy's shout;

Where the tired ploughman his dun oxen turns,
Unyoked, afield, mid dewy grass to stray,
While over all the village church spire burns—
A shaft of flame in the last beams of day.

Empty and folded are her busy hands;
Her corn and wine and oil are safely stored,
As in the twilight of the year she stands,
And with her gladness seems to thank the Lord.

Thus let us rest awhile from toil and care,
In the sweet sabbath of this autumn calm,
And lift our hearts to heaven in grateful prayer,
And sing with nature our thanksgiving psalm.

Veterans Day 2012

An Elegant Love Paradox

The MP3 below expired on 12-22-2012.
Click here to play the current selection.

Duncan Galloway, vocals (2002)
- Where or When (Rodgers & Hart)

The Lymond Chronicles, Book 5

After almost four months of slacking since I began this book in July, tonight I finished reading this most excellent Book Four of the Lymond Chronicle, "Pawn in Frankincense."

And how could I love my leman without longing?

When the soul has what it loves: it is without longing.

With medieval literary gems such as the preceding two lines strewn about in Book Four, I long to begin reading the next book in the chronicles. So onward to Book Five I am, "The Ringed Castle."

Jiro Persimmons Before Harvest

Picture of Jiro (Fu Yu) Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana)
Moments Before Harvesting
4 November 2012, 1324 Hours
iPhone 4S

October Goes

October Goes
Virna Sheard
1917

October goes, and its colors all pass:
At dawn there's a silver film on the grass,
And the reeds are shining as pipes of glass,

But yesterweek where the cloud waves rolled
Down a wind-swept sky that was grey, and cold,
Sailed the hunter's moon,—a galleon of gold!

And now in the very depth of the night
It is just a little flame, blown and white,
Or a broken-winged moth on a weary flight.

But the steadfast trees at the forest rim,
And the pines in places scented and dim,
Still wait for one hunter, and watch for him.

And the wind in the branches whispers, "Why?"
And the yellow leaves that go rustling by,
Say only, "Remember," and sigh,—and sigh.