Dream On, More Really Cool Rockets, and KickStarter

Dream On: Over the weekend wifey and I went to see one of our favorite Christian music performers Jake Hamilton and his band The Sound play at a local church. Hard to define his genre but it’s a combination southern gospel, rock, blues and sometimes hard hitting and edgy. 

We met his family at the table where they sell CDs and such. Jake has written and illustrated this book titles Dream On for his amazing daughter. 

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Every little girl has a dream. Maybe it’s to be a princess, a pilot, an astronaut, or a ballerina. But some dreams require a little more effort and a little more time. But no dream is too big and no dream is impossible. The story of Gigi, a little girl with cerebral palsy won't let her physical disabilities limit her dreams. She knows that anything is possible. Join Gigi and be reminded of your dreams, no matter how young or how old you are. 

The book is such a delight I wanted to take a moment and share it. If you know someone with a child with special needs this is an amazing book they could share with that child. 

Jake Hamilton

Jake Hamilton’s credits include work with the Jesus Culture Movement music and sound tracks for the Darren Wilson’s DVDs Father of Lights, Finger of God, and Holy Spirit. 

Amazon 

Website 

Amazon DVDs 

After a little research I saw Darren used KickStarter to help fund his work. For those of you wondering about KickStarter and other such organizations, check out this clip of Darren Wilson doing a shout out for this funding platform for creative projects: KickStarter 

Now That's A Rocket!!!

Did You Know: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) was scheduled to attempt to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating barge in the Atlantic for the second time Sunday, but the launch has been scrubbed because of issues with a first stage transmitter and a range radar. The launch has been postponed until Monday evening. Reference 

A successful landing would mean SpaceX would be able to reuse the rocket in future missions, which could save millions of dollars over time. No more space junk. No more reentry back to Earth and crashing into the Pacific Ocean. This is huge, especially in the private industry where financial accountability to shareholders and investors is high priority. So stay tuned. Deep Space, here we come! Private industry such as SpaceX will more than likely lead the way. 

Fun Fact: SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and space crafts. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. You have to have vision, folks. And the founder of Space X, Elon Musk, has no shortage of that.

Don’t believe me? He also started up PayPal and Tesla Motors. Deep space, here we come! 

Finally: If you haven’t checked out last week’s post on Space Telescopes at the A to Z Website, go ahead and click on Einstein’s face at the top of me left side bar. Go ahead. He likes it. 

Finally Part Deux: Finally: Check out my 2015 Celestial Calendar Tab above, or CLICK HERE. Its a treasure trove of really cool celestial events, most of which can be seen right from your backyard with the naked eye, binoculars, or an average store bought telescope.

Way Cool Space Telescopes, Weekend Follies, Stephen Hawking (sort of) and Leslie Nielsen

Hubble Space Telescope

Hi everyone, I’m still getting a few Blog Blitz comments trickling in. Thanks again. This totally made my week. Today I’m posting over at the A to Z Blog on Space Telescopes CLICK HERE. 

Most people know about the Hubble Space Telescope. But did you know there have been dozens and dozens of space telescopes launched since the Uhuru (Swahili for freedom) in 1970. Do yourself a favor and go over there and check it out. You’ll be glad you did. 

Then come right back for the Weekend Follies, this time spooking Dr. Stephen Hawking in the teen-movie Superhero Movie. Or watch the video first, then CLICK HERE for an awesome post on space telescopes. The language is a bit crude (what do you expect from a teen movie) but hey, it stars Leslie Nielsen and that’s good enough for me. 

NASA Image

As we head into a new year, 2015 promises to be an exciting one for astronomy buffs. Many rare and notable celestial events will occur our night sky that can be seen from your back yard with the naked eye, a decent set of binoculars or an average telescope including: 

* Missions to Visit Three Dwarf Planets Ceres, Pluto, and Charon 
* Planetary Events and Conjunctions 

* Solar and Lunar Eclipses 

* Meteor Showers 

* Comets and Asteroids 

* New Government and Commercial Spacecraft Launches and Current Missions 

There will be surprises when we visit the three dwarf planets as we can only speculate as to what discoveries we begin to unfold about our universe. So hold on tight as this year will be full of awe and wonder as we explore our solar system under an incredible cast of heavenly wonders.

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IWSG, Hurricane Crimes, Kepler Space Telescope, Rob Lowe, and More!!!

Blog Blitz: First I’d like to thank DL Hammons and everyone participating in the Blog Blitz. I even picked up helpers for to help me co-host the 2015 A to Z Challenge. If you have yet to join Blog Blitz and want to be a part, check it out HERE. 

IWSG: Okay, for this month’s ISWG, I’m going to try and do my cover art FOR Salem’s Daughters by myself using and various images in Photoshop. I’ve come up with three ideas and will post them soon for your review and critique. I’ll choose one using my gut feeling and the feedback I receive. I had my very talented nephew do the cover art for my three Chase Manhattan books. But I want to give it a try myself this time around. I’m a bit nervous, but think I can pull it off. 

Book Review Chrys Fey: Last week Chrys Fey had an event on Goodreads promoting her book Hurricane Crimes. I’m reading a lot of novellas these days and this one seemed like just the ticket as we spent a day at the beach reading. At fifty pages Hurricane Crimes was a great fast read that I’m glad I downloaded. At $0.99 you can’t beat that with a stick. Check out my review on Amazon HERE. 

Artist's Rendition of Kepler

Kepler Space Telescope: Kepler is named after Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler. NASA launched this space observatory March 2009 to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover dozens of Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. 

The challenge now is to find terrestrial planets (i.e., those one half to twice the size of the Earth), especially those in the habitable zone of their stars where liquid water and possibly life might exist. Results from this mission will allow us to place our solar system within the continuum of planetary systems in the Galaxy. Just last month, Kepler discovered its 1,000th alien planet, further cementing the prolific exoplanet-hunting mission's status as a space-science legend. Reference 

Okay, I saw this on Facebook and couldn’t refuse ….. 

Blogging A to Z Challenge: Still wondering if you should sign up for the 2015 April A to Z Challenge? Check out this link for more info. There is almost two months remaining, plenty of time to pre-post your blogs. Pick a theme and keep each post to 100 words or less and you’ll do just fine. 

But Wait, That’s Not All: Thursday I’ll have a post at the Blogging A to Z site Thursday. Just click on Einstein’s head at the top of my left side bar, put on a tin foil hat, and prepare to be transported through a wormhole directly to the post. There will be more on Space Telescopes that is so bind boggling fascinating interesting that you may never want to watch TV again. Except for the Big Bang Theory. 

Also on Thursday the Weekend Follies is up and running. Always good for a few good laughs as we wind down the week. 

Question: Do you find all that we are discovering and unraveling about our universe fascinating? Then check out my 2015 Celestial Calendar at the tab above or CLICK HERE.

Super Bowl, Deep Space, Kepler, Help Wanted and More

Tom Terrific

Super Bowl: Congrats! To the New England patriots for their fourth ring. Loved the look on Tom Brady’s face when Jermaine Kearse mad that incredible juggling catch at the end of the fourth quarter. Brady must have seen ghosts of Mario Manningham and David Tyree trying to rob him of another Super Bowl ring. 

As usual, the commercials were great. Well, most of them. The Nationwide Insurance commercial was a real downer and I’m surprised an exec there signed off on it. 

Did You Know: Deep within the bowels of our Milky Way Galaxy, there is another solar system that is like a miniature replica of our own. Except this planetary system is just a tad older — by about 7 billion years. This is an incredible study thanks to the Kepler Spacecraft. More on Kepler in Wednesday’s post that you’ll definitely want to come back for. 

Kepler Space Telescope

Of course, when discoveries like this are made, the search for intelligent life beyond Earth heats up again. That assumes that there is intelligent life here. Reference 

Fun Fact: Space X Mega Rocket: Now this is a rocket! Space X is competing with NASA on a new generation of rockets that will take mankind into deep space, then return them back to Earth to use again. Checkout this quick video.

 

Help Wanted: Want to be more than a participant of this amazing yearly blogging challenge? You can by joining the A to Z Team and helping us. 

No heavy lifting required. Each co-host has the responsibility to visit a certain block of participants every day of the event. This way, everyone is visited. This is important as those who sign up later and are at the end of the sign up list are not forgotten. 

So we’re looking for people who will help us visit these participants. For example, I’m looking for helpers to visit a minimum of five blogs each day of the event. That's all. Just five. You can keep the same five or have five new ones each day. 

This will be a great way for you to meet new people, expand your social networking, and gain additional exposure.  So if you're up to this, leave a comment or email me at stephen.tremp@yahoo.com. 

Finally: Check out my 2015 Celestial Calendar Tab above. Its a treasure trove of really cool celestial events, most of which can be seen right from your backyard with the naked eye, binoculars, or an average store bought telescope.

Question: Have you signed up for A to Z? Want to help the A to Z Team? Glad the Patriots and Tom Terrific

18 Thoughts, Did You Know, Fun Facts, and the Weekend Follies

18 Things: (I know, I'm late) Hosted by Jamie Ayres to celebrate the release of 18 Thoughts the third installment in the My So-Called Afterlife trilogy. Each person participating will post a thought (belief) that has defined their life, their way of thinking. Post up to 18 if you’re feeling adventurous and post any time between Jan. 21 and Jan. 28. I’ll pick 2-3 winners each day. 

My thought is to follow your passion. For me it’s writing. Writing is far more than just a hobby. I go into this as if each book could become a movie or Netflix series. That’s how serious I take writing and why I have an editor. I could not imagine lying on my death bed and wondering, “what if.” Regardless of what happens, if anything, follow your passion and at least once in your life give it your best shot. 

See the little satellite above Asteroid 2004 BL46?

Did You Know: Asteroid 2004 BL46 that passed by Earth about January 6th has a moon? That’s right, asteroids can have moons! It’s not uncommon for an asteroid to trap a satellite and bring it along for the ride. In 1993 asteroid Ida, almost twenty miles across, had a moon (Dactyl) about a mile wide orbiting it. About two dozen asteroids have been identified with their moons. 

Fun Fact: Asteroid 2004 BL46 is a Near-Earth Object (NEO), NEOs comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood. Usually they're just passing through. 

But once in a while they hit us head on. Just look at the moon, unhindered by wind and erosion, as an example of all the activity buzzing around us.

Composed mostly of water ice with embedded dust particles, comets originally formed in the cold outer planetary system while most of the rocky asteroids formed in the warmer inner solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status as the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the solar system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago. NASA Reference 

Weekend Follies: Okay, time for a quick clip from the movie spoof Superhero Movie. Enjoy the laugh and have a great weekend!

 

2015 A to Z Challenge Announcement, Near Earth Orbit Asteroid Today, Murcat Manor's New Name

The Bed and Breakfast Murcat Manor

New Name for Murcat Manor: Thanks everyone for your suggestions and feedback regarding a new name for my book. There were so many great ones. And the winner is Salem’s Daughters. 

I really needed to get the word ‘Salem’ in the title, and since the thirteen antagonists are the daughters of the women hung at the Salem Witch trials, the title seemed obvious. Thanks again for your help! 

When I Grow Up I Want to be a Cat from Salem's Daughters

Looking For A Few Good Cats: I’m developing three cover designs for Murc .... errrr, Salem’s Daughters. And I need thirteen images of domestic cats, preferably short hairs I can use for the cover. 

So I’m asking you, if you have a cat and you feel so inspired, email me photo of your cat standing, sitting, or laying and staring directly into the camera at stephen.tremp@yahoo.com. I will then Photoshop the felines into the main picture for the cover art for the book. 

If I use your pic, I’ll give the kitty and you credit in the beginning of the book. I have a few examples so you will know the pose I’m looking for. 

Cats from Salem's Daughters Wear Collars Like This (BTW, We Want To Kill You)

I'm Posing But Not Liking It

Can I Leave Now?

Asteroid Alert: Look out for that asteroid! Okay, so you probably heard there is another large asteroid making a near Earth orbit visit Monday. Lots to say about it, but not to worry. It won’t smash into Earth. This time. 

But Asteroid 2004 BL86 will be back in about a thousand years and could pose a serious threat as different planetary alignments such as Jupiter or an object we are not aware of could slightly alter its orbit a lot closer to us next time around. But let’s let an expert explain (no, not the CNN reporter):

 

2015 A to Z Challenge Announcement 

Please read and follow the sign-up instructions outlined below so you sign onto the list correctly!

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behavior.) And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, blog about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. You can use a theme for the month or go random – just as long as it matches the letter of the alphabet for the day.

The A to Z Challenge is a great way to get into the blogging habit and make new friends. For more details and its history, go HERE

We recommend short posts, turn off Word Verification, and visit five blogs (or more) a day beginning with the one after yours on the list.

Blogs must be on an open platform – no Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. – and comments enabled.

To streamline legitimate blogs from advertisement blogs, the Co-Hosts will be visiting each blog on this list throughout the Challenge. Blogs on the list showing no activity once the Challenge starts or miss five days in a row will be removed.

Please note your blog name and number in all correspondences. Remember that as blogs are removed, your number will change.

There are categories for those looking for like-minded blogs. Select ONE category code and enter it after your blog’s title/name. The code applies to your blog, not your theme for the Challenge and is purely optional. See the first few blogs on the list for examples. However, if your blog has adult content, you MUST mark it (AC) or it will be removed from the list. Codes are as follows:

ANIMALS: (AN)
ART: (AR)
BOOKS/REVIEWS: (BO)
CRAFTS: (CR)
CULINARY: (CU)
EDUCATION: (ED)
FASHION: (FA)
FILM/MOVIES: (FM)
GAMING: (GA)
GARDENING: (GR)
HISTORY: (HI)
HUMOR: (HU)
LIFESTYLE: (LI )
MEMOIR: (ME)
MUSIC: (MU)
MYTHOLOGY: (MY)
PERSONAL: (PR)
PHOTOGRAPHY: (PH)
POLITICS: (PO)
SCIENCE: (SC)
SOCIAL MEDIA: (SO)
SPORTS: (SP)
TRAVEL: (TR)
WRITING/STORYTELLING: (WR)
ADULT CONTENT: (AC)

Be sure to grab the badge and display it in your sidebar so we know you are participating and link to the A to Z Challenge Blog.

For more information we recommend you follow the A to Z Challenge Blog and the hosts:

Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out
Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Jeremy @ Hollywood Nuts
Nicole Ayers @ The Madlab Post
Stephen Tremp @ Breakthrough Blogs
Heather M. Gardner
AJ @ Naturally Sweet
Pam @ An Unconventional Librarian
Matthew MacNish @ The QQQE
Zalka Csenge Virág @ The Multicolored Diary
S. L. Hennessy @ Pensuasion
C. Lee McKenzie @ The Write Game
Joy Campbell @ The Character Depot
Susan Gourley @ Susan Says
John Holton @The Sound of One Hand Typing
Lisa Buie-Collard, Author

We also have a Facebook Page

Email address is contactatozteam@gmail.com

Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge and Twitter id is @AprilA2Z

Sign up below and join us for a month of alphabet fun!

New Horizons, Dawn, and the Super Bowl

Spacecraft New Horizons and Pluto

The New Horizons Spacecraft: launched by NASA in January 2006, is approaching the dwarf planet Pluto. Last month, the probe woke up from a very long nap designed to save reduce wear and tear and lower operational costs along the nearly 3 billion mile journey. 

The probe sent a weekly signal back to Earth, and is woken up every six to 10 months to assure that it is still operational. New Horizons will also visit Pluto’s largest moon Charon and a few other objects in the Kuiper Belt. The closest approach will take place in July. 

Spacecraft Dawn and Dwarf Planet Ceres

Four other space probes have traveled as far out into the solar system as New Horizons, including Voyager I and Voyager II. It will be the first space probe to make a close approach of Pluto, coming within 7,767 miles of the surface. 

New horizons will continue on past Pluto and into the Kuiper Belt which is an unexplored asteroid-rich region of our solar system that might have thousands of small, icy, rocky planets similar to Pluto. Studying the Kuiper Belt could offer scientific insight into how our solar system formed. 

2015 is shaping up to be a spectacular year for astronomy. In march the spacecraft Dawn will approach the dwarf planet Ceres

Super Bowl: New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. I’ll go with the Patriots because Tom Brady went to the University of Michigan. It’ll be interesting to see the Vegas odds and the over under. 

Finally: I posted a Robin Williams video on the previous post. If you need a good laugh, take a couple minutes to view it.