Asa Jay's weblog

I asked a friend at work today “Guess what I looked at last night” to which she replied using a blank stare. I said “Saturn,” and she perked up with interest and said “How many and which models?” Hehehe, I had to laugh, so I said “The one between Jupiter and. . .” I never finished my sentence as it dawned on her.

Last night was a very nice cloudless night near Spokane. I live out on the West plains. It was cold though and I had reservations about taking my new telescope out on the deck to get a look at the sky. I put on a stocking cap, a field jacket and took to the night air. The telescope went up and the notebook computer sat beside it. I don’t have a connection cable to allow the notebook computer to control the telescope, yet, so I used the provided controller already attached.

The first thing I need to do was align the scope. Since it was cold, and I as mostly dinking around anyway, I selected the “Easy” alignment method. Leveling the scope tube and pointing it North I started the procedure. The scope then automagically turned to point at Sirius. Unfortunately it was a bit off so I had to fine tune it by hand, this was part of the alignment procedure. After I got Sirius centered, I pressed [Enter] to continue and it proceeded to seek to another star. I can’t remember the name and I’m not sure I was even pointing to the right one, but I centered what looked good and continued.

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I have a wonderful wife, who likes to get me nice things.  This year, she knew of many different items I “wanted” but didn’t really need.  One of those at the top of my list was a good telescope.

After Christmas last year, I had a couple of friends who ended up with new telescopes and I have to admit I was a bit jealous.  I’ve had a passion for space since I was a little kid and I just could never really see much using binoculars or small telescopes.  Mind you, I’ve not been interested in much Astronomy, but I would like to be able to get out and enjoy the stars a little more, get a little closer to some of those constellations I can’t see too well, things like that.

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To be exact, March 2 is my birthday, which is tomorrow.  I’m past 40 now, going on 42.  I didn’t get married until I was 34, and didn’t have a child until I was 39.  I’ve owned my 1971 Mach I Mustang for 20 years, that’s more than half it’s life to date.  I have my own home, my wife and I built it ourselves, with a little help, in 2002 moving in at the end of 2003.  I have a good job, it pays well and doesn’t create a lot of stress all the time.  I’m again going to school, aiming for a Bachelors in Organizational Management.  I’m doing okay.

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I’m painfully reminded why I’ve never taken a social science class before, it’s very non-technical and involves too much “emotion.” That’s my knee-jerk impression after attending my first night of class for the sociology of death and dying. Why in the world would I take such a course? Mostly for very good reasons, I need to fulfill a social science requirement for graduation and this class appeared to be just as good as any other in the sessions I could choose from. I just don’t think it’s the right class for me.

To start with, the class has 20 people in it, that’s almost twice as many as my last class. The room feels crowded to me, and with so many people I don’t feel the urge to participate, though a portion of our grade is going to be on class participation. My last class I participated in real well, but this one is going to be more difficult.

The second problem, as it relates to class participation, is that I probably have much different beliefs about death and the grieving process. Most folks are big on funerals, viewing the deceased in a casket, making a big deal, crying, wailing, etc. I can understand a bit of emotion tied to the loss of a loved one, it’s happened to me; however, I sometimes wonder if I am more comfortable in my faith because I look at death (of others) as a release from the burdens of this life, a victory which none of us living can truly understand. For me, a funeral is a celebration of life, not death.

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I’ve had a blog on MSN Spaces for quite some time, though I really don’t use it. Today when I went there just to see if my blog was still there, I thought I had accidentally been re-directed to an Ubuntu website. What? Hmmm, yea, interesting.

If you look at the new logo for MSN Spaces, you’ll see it has a remarkable resemblance to the logo for Ubuntu. It’s so similar in fact, that I’m sure there is a case for copyright or trademark infringement here, the only questions being who was there first, or has it been trademarked?

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