Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

As a child, I dreamed of being an astronaut. Of seeing our planet from space, walking on the moon, leaving behind everything down here on earth. I wanted to explore, to travel, to see sights few others had ever seen with their own eyes. I wanted to know what it would feel like to be out there, floating in the darkness of space, weightless, far away from everything I had ever known or would ever know. These days I only dream of being an astronaut when I'm asleep. Yet others turned their childhood dreams into reality. American astronaut Scott Kelly is one of those people. He doesn't live his dream alone but shares it with the world, giving all of us down here on earth a glimpse of what life in space is really like. I can say one thing for certain - the photos Scott Kelly shares amaze, awe and inspire me. Our planet truly is an amazing place! For an instant before sunrise, the space station glows orange. #GoodMorning from @Space_Station ! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/FEXx8...

This photo by Will Gater reminds me of a Vincent van Gogh painting. How cool and amazing and stunning and beautiful is the universe we live in?! Down below on earth, we fight and argue, we kill and destroy, we rape and pillage. Yet far above, far away from our little lives, there is the sun. Older than any of us, older than our earliest ancestors, even older than the planet we call home. Right now, I'm taking a moment to appreciate that big light in the sky, to look at this image and remind myself that compared to the sun, big and vast and old yet so immensely powerful, we are but babies. Here's a white-light solar filter pic of the sunspot causing all the excitement today (AR2371) http://t.co/4n3KJpbFmS pic.twitter.com/wFBX4JL0M9 — Will Gater (@willgater) June 19, 2015

“It isn't all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.” “The Strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.” “If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear.” “Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.” “Reality is incredibly larger, infin...

Being of the Field by Traci Harding My rating: 5 of 5 stars There are some authors whose next book you simply must read no matter what, because you enjoy their work and the way their minds work. Traci Harding is one of those authors. I've been a fan of her writing and her thinking for over a decade now (fourteen-ish years? Seriously? Wow!) and while sometimes a character makes me wonder if maybe they're not too perfect (and good at almost everything to boot!), it is the story that keeps me coming back for more with every book. Traci Harding takes her readers on an amazing adventure that I hope will continue through many more books, stories, characters, countries, worlds and universes. I enjoyed getting to know Taren, Lucian, Zeven and the rest of the crew of AMIE. They were new characters yet felt like old friends - books two and three explained why that was, exactly. I actually squealed and couldn't stop smiling upon realising where these books were taking me. The ideas t...

Just imagine having a bad day on Mercury... Some say men are from Mars and women are from Venus... Today I'm mighty glad that we (women!) migrated to earth a long, long time ago as a bad day lasting almost 117 days is so not my idea of fun!  How long does a day last elsewhere in the solar system? #Space #Astronomy pic.twitter.com/2zHD17wQEn — Upper Atmos (@UpperAtmos) February 21, 2015

Puts the briefness of human life into perspective. One year to Pluto is generations to us! ""Pluto will complete its first full orbit around the sun [since it's discovery] on Monday, March 23rd 2178" "Tell your kids to tell THEIR grandkids to throw Pluto a birthday." Post by I fucking love science .

While browsing the web today looking for location names (not) to use for a story I'm writing, I came across the following bit of info on Wikipedia . How totally cool is this! "Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-world nomenclature of plains (planitia) and other features on Saturn's moon Titan. To date, Arrakis, Chusuk, and Sikun have been used."