Interesting Winter Sunset

This sunset reminds me of the German flag...

Am I imagining it?!

A quick Google search...

Yup!  Same colours - just in different order! How random is that!

Jupiter... A Cosmic Vacuum Cleaner?!

I always thought it would be interesting to know more about stars and planets.

I remember having to learn the names of the planets and their order of closeness to the sun.

After all these years, I do remember a few things:

• Earth is the third closest planet to the sun.
• Mars looks blood red, so it was known, in ancient times, as the planet (and god) of war.
• Saturn is surrounded by pretty colored rings.
• Jupiter is the largest planet.

With the creation of bigger telescopes, the field of astronomy has developed so much in my lifetime. I never paid much attention - distance calculated in millions of light years was too much to comprehend...

So imagine my surprise, when I heard - last month - that Jupiter, acting like a giant vacuum cleaner, was hit by a comet. The moment of impact was caught by the camera of an amateur astronomer.  (Both photos to the left show the same image, but one has a filter.)

In fact, the article said that Jupiter regularly protects the earth from being hit by comets and asteroids... Some estimate that Jupiter is hit one to five times a month...

I didn't know that!

Light years are beyond me - but I'm very familiar with vacuum cleaners!

Maybe it's time to give planets a second thought! When expressed in terms I can comprehend (i.e., vacuum cleaners) events occurring in space are pretty amazing!

Enneagram Personality Tests

A friend recently told me about an enneagram personality test she had taken with her work colleagues. I looked it up online and did a free version (which you can access by going to the website link above.

How was the enneagram different from any other personality test I've ever taken?

I'm still trying to figure that out...

The book, the Four Tendencies, which I read a while back, divided people into four main personality types. The enneagram system divides people into 9 different types - and the test found on the link above, determines a person's strongest three of the nine.




Terry agreed to do the test, too - and (of course!) we're completely different. Don't they say opposites attract?!

Why am I doing this? Terry asked... and, of course, I couldn't give a reasonable explanation...


Don't you find it interesting to see that your "faults" are sometimes part of your personality package? That's what I find so interesting... Knowing that, I blame myself less for the characteristics that I have that I don't like...

Once, years ago, at work our coordinator had us all do personality tests. That test grouped people in "colors," not descriptive works.

Later we sat together and talked to the people who had the same personality type as we did. I found the people in my group to be the most interesting people on staff!

If I learned anything from that workplace exercise it was not to expect everyone to act or think the same as I do. Every organization needs people with different skills, with different strengths and weaknesses. That said, we may not enjoy spending time with all our colleagues equally either.

(It's also interesting that different personality types appear in families, too!)

Interesting Information about ... Mirrors!

My daughter is taking an introductory optics class - and is learning about more than glasses! Take mirrors, for example!

How big a mirror do you need to see your whole body? she quizzed me after one class... (Hmmm, that's actually something I've wondered when shopping for mirrors in the past!)

How big?! I asked...

Half your height - but you have to place it so that the top is mid-forehead.

(I think this door mirror is placed too low!)

And have you ever wondered why objects are closer than they appear in rear view car mirrors? she asked.

I have...

The mirror is curved so that it captures a wider view. But the objects in the mirror are smaller - to fit in. 

Our brains register "smaller" as "farther away."


So logical!  Why was I never aware of these things?!

Shaving... The Way It (Sometimes) Was!

I did a double take when I saw this photo of shaving... with an axe! It accompanied a barbershop ad... Not that they claimed to use an axe for shaving!

Probably just taken for the ad, I thought... I mean, could an axe be that sharp?!

But when I googled shaving with an axe, I even found instructions!! It appears the angle of the axe - as well as its sharpness - are important.

So loggers shaved with axes back in the day... ?!

(Did they shaved often? I wonder...  I think most had beards!)

Hard to believe it was really that way - in the backwoods - back in the day?!!