Meteor Shower in Early January

Looks like there will be an impressive meteor shower in early January 2011. The Quadrantid Meteor Shower is expected to peak during the night of January 3-4, which is expected to be dark. We should look in the Northeast after midnight below and in between the Big and Little Dippers.

All this from the 28DEC10 episode of the NASACast Video Podcast - What's Up for January.

Here's the link: What's Up for January 2011?

Good luck and Happy Viewing!

Aquarium Quandary



I have loved tropical fish since the dawn of time. I had freshwater tanks since I was a kid and had three tanks going simultaneously when Biz and I were first married. Then we stopped running a tank for various reasons that are not important here.

Biz pulled a great big surprise for Christmas this year and got a used, nice 30-gallon tank with a stand for me! I was thrilled, but it brings with it a quandary. Cichlids or Black Ghost Knife Fish? They are both awesome fish, but not compatible because the cichlids are mildly to very aggressive and the ghost knife fish is not. Here are some visuals and thoughts.

Black Ghost Knife Fish

Cichlids

There are hundreds of kinds of cichlids. Here are a few of my favorites.

Julidochromis marlieri

Frontosa

Lemon (or Electric) Yellow



Numerous cichlids.

And there are many more that I can't remember names of at the moment.

So, I need to decide which way to go, Black Ghost Knife Fish, or a variety of cichlids. Your thoughts?

Prologue

Welcome to my first Blog. I intend to add interesting and thoughtful posts here to provide insights into what I'm thinking about and what's going on in the life of my family.

The first event described here is Christmas of 2010. I love Christmas for several reasons. The most important two are the celebration of the Birth of Christ and the time I get to spend with my family. We enjoyed a nice Christmas at home and spent some time visiting with friends.

I visit a lot of local families in my current church volunteer work. We've been sharing a great video lately called The Nativity (sometimes called Luke 2) and sharing our thoughts and feelings about the Savior's birth, life and mission. I was going to post a link to it, but I can't find it except on YouTube merged by someone with a very nice song by Amy Grant. I'm not sure about the legality of that, so I won't post it.

The main gift Biz and I gave the family was a new iMac computer. I have never used an Apple computer other than an iPod before and this is a new adventure for me. I have a hard time navigating it, but will get better as I get used to it. Biz is expert at it now and can help and we'll attend the one-on-one training sessions at the local Apple store beginning Saturday. So, wish us luck! I'm sure it will be fine.

Here's what it looks like: http://www.apple.com/imac/

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and that you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!