Q is for Quasar

Quasars are a "very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus."  Interpret that as you will.  They are among the most luminous objects in the universe.  Aaaaand that's about as much as I understood of the Wikipedia article.

P is for Pinwheel Galaxy

PanPastel and acrylic ink.

O is for Wubbo Ockels

Why, yes, that is his real name.  First Dutch citizen in space, blah blah blah, mustache, Wubbo Ockels.

P.S.  My sincerest apologies, my lovelies, for the ridiculous delay.  I've had a lot of complaints about my "hiatus" (mostly from my brother,) so here's to me getting back on track.  

N is for Nebula

This is the Pillars of Creation nebula and the Horsehead nebula, smushed together.

P.S. This one lost a lot of detail in scanning, so I might upload a photo of it later.

M is for Mars Rover

L is for Laika

Astro dog.

K is for Klingon

J is for Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.  It is an oblate spheroid (my favourite shape name,) same as Earth, meaning it bulges at the equator.  There is a visible storm on its surface called the Great Red Spot, known to have existed since at least the 17th century (bad ass.)  Also, it has at least 63 moons, the largest of which (Ganymede, one of the four discovered by Galileo) has a diameter greater than that of Mercury.

Pretty cool, Jupiter.  Pretty cool.

I is for Imagined Things

H is for Ham (the chimpanzee)

G is for God

Drawn maybe 1993-94.  When asked about his brooch, I explained that that's his "God" pin so that everyone would know that he's God (bit like a nametag, I suppose.)  Note the laurel branches.

F is for Fruit Flies

Fruit flies were the first animal in space (in 1946.)

E is for Earth

This reminds me of the "Don't tread on me" banner from Buffy the movie.  Hayley, you know what I'm talking about.

D is for Dehydrated Food

Fact:  Astronauts don't eat bread in space-- they use tortillas instead (fewer crumbs.)

C is for Constellation

B is for Roberta Bondar

Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space.  I've had it drilled into my head since kindergarten that she's an Important Lady, so she couldn't be left out.

Space!/A is for Asteroid

"But that did not really surprise me much. I knew very well that in addition to the great planets-- such as the Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Venus-- to which we have given names, there are also hundreds of others, some of which are so small that one has a hard time seeing them through the telescope. When an astronomer discovers one of these he does not give it a name, but only a number. He might call it, for example, 'Asteroid 325.' " (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)


Welcome to month number five: Space.  I have posts lined up so that at very least the first week is daily (so check back!)... let's see if I can maintain that pace.

Z is for Frank Zappa

Woooooo!  That's month four done!  Didja have a favourite one?

I'm lining up posts for next month's alphabet, because I'm going to try really hard to make it daily.  "A" goes up Monday!

Y is for William Butler Yeats

Painted&drawn on an unprimed board-- this scan looks really weird, so I'm going to try to swap it out for a photo.

X is for Professor Xavier

I hate this one.

W is for Steve Wozniak

V is for Lord Voldemort

Because he was maybe the most gifted student Hogwarts ever saw... y'know, before he started up the whole genocide bandwagon.

U is for Ung-Yong Kim

This one is taken from a photo of Ung-Yong solving a differential equation on Japanese television age SEVEN.  He is believed to have the highest IQ of any person alive (210.)

"He began speaking at 4 months, could converse fluently by 6 months, and was able to read Japanese, Korean, German and English by his second birthday. At the age of 4 he solved a calculus problem on Japanese television.


Kim was a guest student of physics at Hanyang University auditing courses from the age of 4 until he was 7. In 1970, at the age of 8, he was invited to the USA by NASA.  He finished his university studies, eventually getting a Ph.D. in physics at Colorado State University In 1974 (age TWELVE,) during his university studies, he began his research work at NASA and continued this work until his return to Korea in 1978."

T is for Nikola Tesla

When Tesla died (age 86,) he was working on a death ray.  A death ray.

S is for Bruce Springsteen

R is for Mark Rothko

Q is for Q

Y'know, like from James Bond.

P is for Terry Pratchett (with a bonus Neil Gaiman!)

Terry Pratchett made himself a sword out of meteorite.  Also, I have read 98% of everything he's published.  Multiple times.

O is for Otto Octavius

N is for Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered

and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms

I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.

How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.

And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.

The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.

My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.

My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.

We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.

My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.

Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.

Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms

my sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer

and these the last verses that I write for her.