Worlds Beyond Rittman Photography Blog

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Of Nothing In Particular

I wanted to get a blog in before I break for Christmas. I'm a state employee. We break for Christmas, ya know. It's true what they say, state pay is average to slightly below average. However the benefits are pretty darn cool.

Coming Soon: Death of the Arcade; A Photo Essay If you were a teen or pre-teen in the 80s and shoveled what seemed like millions of dollars, one quarter at a time, into the likes of Tempest, Defender, Asteroids, and other such earth-shattering advances in modern technology, you're going to like this photo essay.

One last thing: Have you ever seen one galaxy punch another? It's a bit hard to comprehend (and explain), but you can see the photo to the right.

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy. The main galaxy is the purple-ish blob in the lower left. The companion galaxy is the smaller purple-ish blog diagonal.

A jet of particles generated by a supermassive black hole at the center of the main galaxy (blue) is striking the companion galaxy. The jet is disrupted and deflected by this impact.

I think often about the nearly unimaginable size and nature of the objects within the universe. I also think often of my little girl and the nearly unimaginable complexity of the human body. If that's too much for you, maybe just start with the complexity of, say, just one eye...or your big toe...or your response to a cold...or the processes in the body that happen after you get a paper cut.

From what I was taught in school, it all started with a really big explosion. Bing, bang, boom, eight gazillion years later I've turned from a piece of carbon to having the intelligence to write/post a blog.

Yeah, I don't think so.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Presence of the Hammer

There are very few things that I really desire in this world when it comes to material

possessions and/or experiences.

Sure, I like my gadgets and such. Not really what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about a desire so deep that when you belch, faint sounds of Livin’ Lovin’ Maid are actually audible.

One of those desires passed by last night. There really wasn’t any possible chance that I could have ever made it, but it’s nice to dream.

On December 10th, that band that many would rank as the greatest of all time reunited for the first time since Live Aid in 1985. Even then it was only Page and Plant.

Enough talk. Look at the shots and check out some of the video.

Setlist:
01. Good Times, Bad Times
02. Ramble On
03. Black Dog
04. In My Time Of Dying
05. For Your Life
06. Trampled Under Foot
07. Nobody's Fault But Mine
08. No Quarter
09. Since I've Been Loving You
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway To Heaven ← You knew that they had to do it.