Tthe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center said the sun erupted Tuesday evening, creating a solar flare that is the biggest in six years. (AP Photo/NASA)It’s always amusing to wake up to the sunshiny smart voices on NPR’s radio show” Morning Edition”. Generally, there is some nice little tidbit about politics, books, movies, the state of the state, even sports. “Morning Edition” is the way I brace myself for the day—grounding in it’s regular format, the calm presentation, the intelligent reporting, the odd story that I feel the need to note before rushing into the drinking coffee and driving cars part of the morning. “Morning Edition” is a lodestone for every morning since college for me…a friend and a dependable rock of information, stories, and news. Solid solid.
However, this morning, I was shocked into wakefulness when these normally salient people started talking about the solar flare being predicted for today—possibly knocking out electrical grids, and messing with the communications at airports etc. It sounded straight out of a mid-century Japanese SciFi Godzilla movie—with flares, electricity, torrential rain, possible plane accidents. Was it April 1st? Were they slipping some kind of “funny” our way just to brighten our days (beyond the amusement of Rick Santorum and the Newt)?
No. Truly, Planes are being re-routed—and we are all buckling down for the sci-fi predictions around weather, electricity and and the possible cosmic show (ushering in a rare opportunity for those of us lower on this spinning globe, to experience the glorious Northern Lights). Word is:
“A strong storm can lead to problems with power grids, GPS systems, and can be a danger to satellites and astronauts, but this storm has produced no such problems, scientists said.
Physicist Joseph Kunches with the Space Weather Prediction Center likens the challenge of forecasting these events to hitting a major league pitcher’s fastball.”Like a hitter we try and figure out if the pitch is coming down the middle of the plate or is low and outside” said Kunches. “The problem is the pitch comes from the sun from 93 million miles away.”
So, as our team of electrician and plumber and I gabbed this morning, this solar news surfaced and somehow got linked to the wonderful Mayan end of times planned for 12.21.12— with tales of customers who are planning for end of times, even here in the magical land of TrUlysses. We are talking of folks putting in hand pumps for their wells (a great idea, I think) to the full fledged survival kit with months of food, water and electricity set by for emergency. What is a solar flare to those of us in wait for the Rapture!
Strawberry Swash, Q. Cassetti, 2012, Adobe Illustrator CS5Little veggie picture for today. Yep. Little strawberry swash… I am full bore onto produce and Farmers Markets as imagery to learn more about illustrator, vectors, brushes etc. I woke up at 3 a.m. last night thinking about brushes. I am intrigued by where the edge of brushes to custom swatches, to then the opportunity to pattern and frame. I am also revelling in my new heavy duty drawing process prior to squaring up, applying my digital tape and rendering these pictures.
I have been watching a few Lynda.com videos on brushes, textures and textured brushes. I hope this might loosen up some of these pretty bold vector images. You will see what happens if we get anything interesting. I have a very things I would like to try…and I am reluctant to ask a friend as sometimes when I try to discover how to do this sort of thing, I learn a ton more just with the hunting and pecking to try to get there. So, I am learning a lot about filters, about Smart effects etc. More on that front
Yesterday was the last winter CSA at Sweet Land CSA. It was a balmy, early spring , early evening. It was a sweet time with moms and their littles all playing together, grabbing carrots and eating them, building little projects in the pile of sawdust. It was tall rubber boots, bags of turnips, kohlrabi and kale, and the feeling of hope and promise as the next time we will be at Sweet Land will be the beginning of the Summer CSA, heaven on earth. I will be helping them to think out communications strategies as well as polish up their brand as it stands. Should be a fun process to have a monster CSA (hundreds of members), versus my smaller farmers (less than a hundred).