Elizabeth...likes Air Ships

hi kids, how the heck are you! Happy Fall-like weather to everyone. i am behind in all things (especially emails, bear with me!). i scored a seasonal temp job that is swing, w/ overtime. that's a bit of a lousy shift; it doesn't leave much time to do things more easily taken care of when one is unemployed. :P and i have to spend the more creative night hours sleeping--what a concept!

before i do the explanation about how i ink stuff, i realized i needed to do a post about brushes first. so i've yet to take pictures of that. i'll get to that eventually. i know there are plenty of people who know how to work with brushes (thanks to art school/classes), but i do take into consideration that many folks have yet to be introduced to them.

so instead of the inking post, space news!! i'm always ready to talk about that. ;)

everyone should know by now that Ansari has arrived safe and sound at the international space station. she had some space sickness apparently, yet is fine. ah, barfing! i know that's something i would do, and quite often, if i were to go up. here is her Blog: Ansari's Space Blog. i'm excited for her because she gets to see this:

and this:

and if this were a couple of years ago, she'd see Mir Space Station:

hey, where is it? crap, i uploaded the wrong picture. anyway, that's a ghost image of my patio doors in that pic. no, it is not an angel sighting. ;) these natty pics were taken of my telly as i played the dvd, 'EARTHLIGHT', one of my favorite ambience dvds.

while Ansari is *being* an astronaut, X-PRIZE CUP, oct 9th, in Las Cruses, New Mexico will have the very first Rocket Race. yes, you heard correctly, rockets!! the Rocket Racing League intends to race about 4 planes--next year will be the full load of ten. i intend to be there in 2007. i don't want to pick a winna, but i do want to pick a fave of the X-Racers. :D the Trixie in me says, 'Go Speeeed!!'

or, 'Stop that, Chim Chim!!', depending on the circumstance.

the benefits of being able to race is not only for the simple, thrilling fun of it (because think: what *is* the purpose of NASCAR and Rally Racing??), but for testing and improving the aircrafts. ROCKETS FOR EVERYONE (who can afford it), not just for people signed up to be hotshots in the military. :D that's what i like. as far as i know right now, none of the rocketeers or suborbital developers have military contracts. which is why you don't see me mentioning NASA's new Moon Rocket plans. who did NASA give that contract to? Lockheed Martin. am i dissing the people who work there? sorry, but besides the other stuff you make that benefits people, you're defense contractors. and you buried chemical waste where it's possible for me to get cancer. thanks.

Rockets: you don't have to be a trained bomb dropper to fly one :D.

so i'll see you in Las Cruses, New Mexico, 2007!!

(New Mexico also hosts the big annual Balloon Race. I need to get me some tourist info. )

and on the flip side of speed, here is one of the most elegant solutions to chemical or flammable fuel sources, which i greatly admire:

this is SMART-1, which impacted the Moon a week or so ago, as launched by ESA--the European Space Agency. SMART-1 ran on an Ion Engine. read about it here, because my ability to relate simple science is on a par with Chim Chim's:
ESA's explanation of the Wonder of Ion Engines

i LOVE the ion engine because its solar power resource is infinite, and its acceleration is accumulative. it's not the testosterone rush (and thrust :P) of rocket power; objects with Ion engines fly leisurely through the universe, riding the flow of the universe, if you will, and will get 'there' when it gets 'there'. we may all be dead by then, but it will keep moving just as everything else keeps moving when we blink out anyway. ;)

see you in the skies!!

best of All Worlds,
~e