Last updated 8/22/2007
These links represent some of my other consuming interests.
I can't spend all my time on things Celtic and medieval, so here are some ways to avoid actual work.
I don't know a lot about astronomy, but I am fascinated by JPL and NASA's research. You can see the images from Galileo here. Don't miss the super images from the Hubble telescope. One of my favorites is this amazing image of a star birth in galaxy M16. There is a fascinating pictorial essay on the Crab nebula here. The NASA/JPL Imaging Radar images are incredible.
The image enhancing technologies developed by JPL, NASA and the space program have given us new tools for studying the past; like non-invasive archaeology. LANDSAT images from JPL and the participation of NASA scientists helped archaeologists locate the lost city of Ubar in Oman, which was located using radar imaging. NASA and JPL researchers have also helped with preserving and studying the Dead Sea Scrolls and medieval manuscripts.
I thoroughly enjoy watching hummingbirds sip nectar from feeders and flowers on our balcony. Here are Wernher Krutein's pages of hummingbird information and Hummer images. You can see pictures of Abigail Alfano hand-feeding hummingbirds here. I also like Donald Burger's pages on Hummers in Texas. Mr. Burger has a wealth of information on how to attract and feed hummers. Or there's the Hummingbird Organization. The James River Reserve has a web cam mounted at several hummingbird feeders here. My brother Scott has some great bird pictures here.
Diotima: Women and Gender in the Ancient World is a marvelous site on women in Greece, Rome, and related ancient mediterranean cultures.
It's been fun having a bit of free time to read books that have nothing to do with my dissertation, or that I'm not getting paid to read. I've finished the ninth volume of C. J. Cherryh's series from DAW about the Atevi. It's some of the best SF I've eve read, and I can hardly wait for the next book, if there is one. Cherryh's is not just my favorite SF/Fantasy writer, she's one of my favorite writers.
I also recommend the historical novels of Dorothy Dunnett, both the six volume Lymond Chronicles, and the related eight volume series about the House of Niccolo. The eighth novel, Gemini was published July 11, 2000. It is unfortunately the last of Dunnet's books.
You may have noticed that I am a bit enthusiastic about the Macintosh in general. I even have a few of my favorite sources of Macintosh information and software linked. Mac OS X is gorgeous, very fast, and 100% Unix under the hood, with a Mac GUI.
For those who, like me, have geeky interests, I recommend the comic strip "The Daily Static," hosted at Userfriendly.org. The Daily Static is a bit geekier than Dilbert, and a bit more twisted. Speaking of twisted, The Onion, while very funny, and frequently witty, is always twisted, and is not for the faint of art. As an antidote, do look at Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet (thanks Jasmin!).
For some intriguing writing, an SF universe populated by people more than gadgets, and gorgeous artwork, take a look at Jenn Manley Lee's Dicebox.
I'm looking forward to the day I can buy a codex version to read offline, but in the meantime, I'm glad she's letting us peek over her shoulder.
Kip Manley's City of Roses is a wonderful series of chap books, and a serialized Web story about the Fey in Portland, Oregon. Manley has a rich prose style, and gets the Fey and the nature of the Other and the Otherworld in a way that very very few writers of urban fantasy do.
I spend a lot of time as a mod and a member on the Absolute Write Water Cooler, a collection of forums for people interested in writing and words. Absolute Write is owned by MacAllister Stone, whose blog Stones in the Field is here. I'm also a staffer at The Greenman Review, a review zine about books, music, and films, that are connected to traditions, recent and modern.
If you're still looking for ways to spend time, take a look at Michael Cohen's Web site. He's got some amusing and very odd cartoons, and a few bits and pieces of writing, including The Quaalude, a nifty parody of the beginning of Wordsworth's Prelude, and some intelligent things to say about digital text.
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© Copyright 1997-2007 by Lisa L. Spangenberg
medievalist@digitalmedievalist.com