Six Amazing Photos from Space According to Me

Astronomy has always awed me.  I have a minimum tolerance for Science in general, except for astronomy, which never cease to amaze me.  I might not have the patience to remember the difference between and meteor and a meteorite, or even an asteroid, but I am always overwhelmed with the grandeur of the entire universe.  

So while browsing the internet this morning, I chanced upon this website featuring 12 gorgeous images from space (see here) by Katherine Gray.  The pictures there were taken from the NASA website (check it out here).   My four-year-old kid was looking at my monitor when I was browsing this, and he seemed genuinely interested when he saw the pics.  I then explained about stars, about the earth's rotation, and the outer space, and I'm sure that even if he only understood bits of what I told him,  he would remember them and ask me again about it some other time when his neurons are able to comprehend these concepts more.

In order to complete OUR viewing pleasure, I checked out NASA's website and saw jaw-dropping pictures that I could really not believe are real.  They are THAT amazing.  So I'm sharing some photos with you. 

These are dunes in the Noachis Region, Planet Mars.
Image Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Techonolgy
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

This is Cat's Eye Nebula which lies 3,000 light years from Earth.
How far is that?
Scientists say that this is quite near the Earth. Hmmm...
Image Credit: NASA

Butterfly wings? Nopes. This is the Bug or Butterfly Nebula, a dying star.
The colorful image is that of gases in a state of turbulence
 that are heated  to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Enough to toast a planet in one second, I guess.
Image Credit: NASA

Two cosmonauts on a spacewalk, taken on Feb. 16, 2012.
Image credit: NASA

These stars carve deep cavities in their surrounding material by
unleashing a torrent of ultraviolet light and hurricane-force stellar winds.
The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars;
the green from the glow of ofygen; and the red from fluorescing hyrdogen.

Image and Caption Credit: NASA

Interacting Spiral Galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163.
Looks like "owl eyes" to me.
Image Credit: Hubblesite (hubblesite.org)

Looking at photos like these reminds me that I am really just a speck in this universe.  This also reminds me that there is a God up there who made all these; and man is just here to capture all the universe's beauty. 

I would have wanted to post more, but I leave you to search on your own.  For fantastic photos, just check out these websites: http://www.nasa.gov, http://hubblesite.org, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov.

For parents out there, if you have some time in your hands, I believe this is the best way to capture your kids' attention and introduce them to the concept of space, astronomy and the universe.  The pictures are really a visual experience, so unlike the white dots that see up the sky at night.  This allows them to enhance their imagination of out space. Who knows, through this, you might be rearing a future Einstein!  

Peace!

Anagon's Collection

I was browsing thru blogs the other day, looking out for giveaways/contests for February, when I saw a twit giving a link to this site.  I immediately clicked the link and was brought to a page in multiply that offers accessories/trinkets for sale.  These accessories are made by fashion blogger, Ana Gonzales.

Her creations are unique and really elegant. As an accessories designer myself, I know quality work when I see one and Ana's creations sure are quality stuff.

Here are a few items that she made:

Very Crafty Love Bracelet for Php200

Aren't these to-die-for? Wire Collar Necklace for Php380

Bracelet for a very luck girl named Trisha. See the wirework?

Love Love Love this!!!Php100 only

So if you want really artsy, crafty and very original accessories, browse thru Ana Gonzales' blog here and make sure to check out her collections at http://anagoncollection.multiply.com.  

Happy online shopping!

(Photos are from Ana's multiply account.)

                                                   

Delicious Summer Giveaway from Mich Eats and Shops

Mich will be giving away a set of Forever 21's Love & Beauty Lip Gloss Set.

To join, make sure that you go to her Facebook page here.  Follow the steps in her FB link and you're good to go.

The giveaway is open til March 10, 2012. So, join now.

Ooops, make sure that you read your blog post here.

Good luck to all of us!

Flowers in the Jakie's Garden

Since I posted some of my amateurish pics of clouds recently (please see here and here), I thought, I might as well post some of the pics in our garden, that I attempted to capture in camera (though pitifully),

Since flowers are beautiful per se, I don't really care that they are not as beautiful in the pics, I just wanted to share them.  

So please check them out, if you have time and maybe you can identify them.  If you do, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

sing - sing pari - what are you doing?

from the gladiola family?

wild flower

ang makahiya, bow!

they call this gabi-gabi (a relative of the gabi plant)

from down here looking up there

bromeliad

a view from outside

wild flower

a relative  of fortune plant?

  

Okra Flower

Ampalaya flower

don't know what this is -from a hanging plant

wild flower 

Sili flower

wild flower

Kangkong flower

Alugbati shoots?

Isn't nature beautiful?

Pre-School

Leading the prayer

I was hesitant to enrol my baby to preschool. (He’s in nursery, his first try at school, and in two months, he will be able to finish his first school year!yey!!) It was my papa who is soooo eager to send him to school already. Thinking and believing that he is ready for school – he can communicate well enough, his speech is straight, he completes his sentences and he knows a lot of stuff already – I enrolled him because I think school would really help his development.  

To my surprise, he can read now! Well, not the difficult sounds, but he can read words now (vowel sounds, and some consonants), and his teacher told me he is a good reader (but he often refuses to write).  He can count too, write a part of his name, and some other things.  Wow, he really is learning a lot! And I thought all he did there was play. Haha.

My baby started school at 3 ½. Before enrolment, he was really, really snobbish.  He still is a bit of a snob when he is not in the mood, but his social skills have tremendously improved.  And I credit that to his interaction with his classmates in school.    

Well anyway, I write this blog to tell the mommies and daddies out there that you will really never be sure if your baby is ready for school. But ready or not, your baby will really have to go to school and what’s important is that you will be there for your little one every step of the way. There will always be those pangs of anxiety and “lazyness” but that’s just because your little one is still small and is, right now, contented with the thought that life is a bliss because of mom and dad and everyone around.   But they have to grow up and learn new things and re-learn some old tricks, and school will help them with that, and of course, with your guidance.

So the next question, should you enrol or not?

It’s up to you. Parents know best. :)

Sleeping time!

Clouds Part II

So, there was I, taking pictures of the clouds while on the plane. (Please see my previous post here. When I got home, I tried tinkering with the pictures, using only Windows Photo Gallery (haha) and Microsoft Paint (for my signature on the photos).

And here are my experiments! (Note: I only adjusted the brightness, contrast, tint, saturation and color. Some photos I cropped to emphasize the parts I like.  Hope you like them.)

colors were inverted thru Paint

I know, I know, it's very amateurish, but they're not so bad for a point-and-shoot camera, right? And don't they remind you to look up and check out the sky right now and see for yourself their "often overlooked" beauty?

Clouds

I have always been mesmerized by clouds.  No day passes by that I don't look at the sky and marvel at whatever cloud formation is up there for me to see. 

A recent trip to Cebu all by myself made me focus all my attention to the clouds as we were traversing the sky.

Pretending that I was a photographer (with a point and shoot camera-haha), I clicked and clicked on my camera until I drained its battery.   Here are some of my pictures. (Note: Some of the pictures were fixed using the edit feature in windows feature gallery.  Only the colors, the size, brightness and contrast were edited.  Some were just autofixed.)

Looks like im taking a shot from a plane that's flying higher than that other plane, huh!

Shot from the plane's window

Looks like the clouds parted in the middle to let someone pass by

my baby asked me, "mommy, is that snow?"

So tranquil

I wonder how the birds manage not to get dizzy while they are turning mid-air

looks like three angels are standing up with their arms raised forward

A giant cloud popcorn

this reminds me of baking- cream butter and sugar until fluffy and looking like clouds

it's almost dark

I was trying to catch the sea, peeping between clouds.
 Then I spotted this cloud formation, that looked like a crocodile swimming out of the water

Top gun shot eh?

My trip gave me that much needed "me" time and allowed me to reflect on the most basic pleasures in life  - my family, the world where we live in, and the thought that  somewhere up there, someone watches us from behind the clouds.