Chester Bennington

Back on Thursday, it was reported that Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Linkin Park, had died; the cause was suicide via hanging:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40676530

Soon afterwards, there was a huge outpouring of grief on social media. Many people, including a large number of my friends, had been touched by the music Bennington had sang with Linkin Park; the band's music frequently contained references to depression and personal pain, as influenced by Bennington's own experiences. As such, Linkin Park's music was highly relatable for many and helped people with their own troubles.

In my case, Linkin Park were among the musical acts I first heard when I started listening to the radio back in late 2004, as that was when "Numb/Encore", from the Linkin Park/Jay-Z mashup album Collision Course, was released. My brother has Linkin Park in his music collection but we both like the band.

The BBC has an obituary about Bennington, which can be found here.

The two course choices

In the days before Dad's death two years ago, my mother and I had been communicating by email about which Access course I would be taking at Central for my then-next academic year. I had made up my mind between two but was heavily leaning towards the one I ultimately chose; a few hours before Dad died, Mum emailed me links to these two courses, not knowing that they were the two I was considering.

This is a mostly-forgotten occurrence from that day, as it was obviously overshadowed by Dad's death. I only remembered because I read my emails from that time and saw that Mum and I had been talking about my next course.

And the choices? Social sciences with humanities or a law course. Mum reckoned I be interested in both of them because of the writing involved. She was correct and I ended up going with Social Science and Humanities, as featured History and Sociology. Law didn't interest me anywhere near as much; I later found out that the Law class was less than half the size of Social Science and Humanities. Having a bigger class was preferable, in this circumstance.

Gone for two years

Dad has been dead for two years, as of today. I went over to visit Mum and James yesterday rather than today, whereas this afternoon I worked a little on my upcoming projects for the next university term. This is what I said about Dad elsewhere:

"Exactly two years have now passed since Dad's sudden death. While there's so much to tell him if it were possible, many a times it's small things that I want to talk about. The other day, I was watching a cartoon that he, my brother and I have all seen loads of times (ReBoot); in it, I observed a tiny detail that I hadn't noticed before. If he'd still been here, I would have told him about it, he'd likely have been fascinated and we'd have watched a relevant clip so that he'd spot it, too. 

Alas, the days of these particular tiny pleasures are no longer. Still, new ones can be formed while the old ones with Dad can be remembered fondly.

Steve Irwin - ten years later

Nearly a decade ago, I wrote this small tribute to Steve Irwin:

"Steve Irwin invested millions in lands. He did this to protect the environments that wildlife lived in. He should be remembered for that, and the other great achievements he did."

I cannot believe that it has been ten years since Irwin's death. I remember the day as though it were yesterday - I read the news in the morning and by the time the afternoon came around (on the US West coast, where I was located at the time), the Internet was almost impossible to navigate with all the people who were logged on at once reading up about Irwin.

When Irwin became famous, he often received criticism for emphasising entertainment over conservation but he used the former to aid with the latter while remaining true to his principles; Australia Zoo is part of that legacy as is the awareness he raised/people he inspired to become involved. He was most certainly a positive force in the world and he went too soon.

All these years later, thank you, Steve Irwin, for your conservation work and thank you to Terri Irwin for continuing it.

"Hi, Billy Mays here"

The other day, I stumbled across this tribute video to Billy Mays:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb9vOp7wCqQ

I remember Billy Mays from the early/mid-2000s when he starred in infomercials promoting OxiClean. He promoted a whole range of products, such as Awesome Auger, Gopher and Zorbeez but he was most famous for his OxiClean promotions. He was also known for his booming voice, which became his trademark, along with his catchphase, "Hi, Billy Mays here".

Mays died in June 2009 of heart disease. I hadn't seen him on TV for a few years by then but I remembered him well and I recall being saddened by his death.

Good deed, sad end

I read this article about the good deed that Matthew Jackson performed for Jamie-Lynn Knighten:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3336516/Man-dies-day-pay-forward-good-deed.html

Less than a day later, a car accident killed Jackson. I honestly don't understand it when people who are genuinely kind seem to die young whereas people who have been vile to others appear to live beyond the average life expectancy. This is a generalisation, of course, but it's a pattern I've noticed.

A familiar face

Today, I rode the Rainbow One bus route to Kimberley, a town to the northwest of Nottingham. From there, I walked along some public footpaths, then to Giltbrook and then to a town called Eastwood. I had a great afternoon out, exploring places I hadn't yet visited.

Still, in this sea of new lands I found a sense of familiarity: As I walked back into Kimberley from Giltbrook along the border of the two towns, I saw, at one of the bus stops, a lady who frequently rides on the same morning buses that I do and occasionally in the evenings as well; we live in the same town.

I was surprised to see her and I think she was equally surprised to see me. It's understandable for us to be on the same bus together on some mornings in our own town but to encounter each other some 15-20 miles away from where we both live...even in a localised area the odds are unlikely.

We acknowledged each other through smiles, which is, as far as I can remember, our first interaction, unless one of us once motioned for the other to board a bus out of politeness.

The burial

I conducted some gardening for my grandparents today. When I was nearing the end of my work, I noticed a frog in the garden waste bin. I extracted the frog from the bin and placed it on the ground; sadly, the amphibian was dying from an injury. When I brought my grandfather around to check it, the frog had died.

I am uncertain if the frog was already wounded or if I somehow caused its death. Either way, I was upset and so I ensured that the frog received a proper burial. It was not my intention to leave the frog's corpse out in the open; it deserved to be respectfully buried.

Thanksgiving 2013

So what am I thankful for in 2013? Well, just like last year, I'm thankful for my immediate family and my relatives, for my friends, my good health and that I live in a good home. Not really much change there, as they're all reasonable things to be thankful for every year.

I am also thankful this year for a specific friend of mine. I can't go into too much detail as to not violate their privacy, but I am thankful that this person is still alive. They underwent a massively traumatic experience this year and were lucky to survive it. I've never met this person face-to-face, given their residence thousands of miles away from me, but we've been close friends online for well over two years; to say that I would have been extremely upset if anything had happened to them is an understatement. As such, I am thankful that they are still living and breathing on this Earth. I truly value our friendship.

I hope that you have all been enjoying time with your families and friends. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The helicopter baby

Remember a post of mine from several months ago where I wrote about a train baby? Well, here's a similar story...the Royal Navy rescue helicopter baby:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-24362419

I love reading about the birth of a baby; it makes a pleasant change from the endless supply of bad news.

As a side note, I briefly misread the article as "Isle of Sicily" rather than "Isles of Scilly". Sicily is an island and a major region of Italy, whereas the Isles of Scilly are an archipelago off the coast of Cornwall (Cornwall is a county in South West England). Before I read the title again, I wondered why there was a Royal Navy rescue helicopter in Italy delivering babies!

The accident

Unfortunately, our diversion in Leicestershire yesterday morning was caused by a fatal motor accident. Dad heard on the radio and read this article that a motorcyclist had lost control of his bike and crashed into a tree. The rider, Anantkumar Morjaria, was declared dead on the scene.

As much as I enjoyed our exploration of rural Leicestershire, I feel bad that it occurred from someone losing their life rather than through our own choice. I wish the best to Morjaria's family during this difficult time for them.

The train baby

A light post for tonight; I spotted this article about a baby girl who was born on a train:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-21708466

I agree with the part of the article where a Twitter user said that the baby should be entitled to free rail travel!

Michael O'Hare

Two days ago, the actor Michael O'Hare died during a coma stemming from a heart attack. He was 60 years old at the time of his death.

O'Hare is notable to me because he starred in the lead role during the first season of my favorite childhood television show, Babylon 5, as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair. Sadly, the Babylon 5 cast has suffered a number of deaths in the past ten years, with Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, and Jeff Conaway all having died; in addition, a main actor from the series' pilot, Johnny Sekka, died in 2006; and a prominent guess actor, Tim Choate, was killed in traffic accident in 2004.

Besides Babylon 5, O'Hare was a stage actor with experience on Broadway. His part in the play Shades of Brown earned him a nomination for an AUDELCO Award for Best Actor; the AUDELCOs celebrate African-American excellence in theater, and O'Hare was the first white actor to be nominated. His other on-screen credits include L.A. Law and Law & Order.

A short memorial video has been uploaded to YouTube. It contains a fitting line of his from Babylon 5 and has a farewell message at the end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TA2LjpfTcdg

Michael O'Hare

 May 6 1952 - September 28 2012

Boy finds mother with Google Earth

Another news piece for today's post. I had mixed emotions about the following article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17693816

On one hand, I was delighted to read about a man in India who had re-united with his mother thanks to his use of Google Earth. Twenty-five years ago, at five years of age, he went out with his older brother but ended up taking a nap then erroneously boarded a train he assumed his brother was on...only to return to sleep while on that train and awaken fourteen hours later far away from home. While he was in a new place and frightened, he was clever enough to survive, ended up in an orphanage, and was adopted by a couple in Australia. In the last year or so, he did his research using Google Earth to work out what town he originally came from, then he was able to return there and see his mother again.

The part of the article that saddened me was the bit about his older brother: it was awful to read that he was discovered a month after the younger boy had disappeared...and it was his remains that were found. It is not known if his death was an accident or a deliberate killing. It must have been devastating for the mother to have one child missing and the other meeting a brutal end.

Overall, it was a positive article, and it is refreshing to read about a missing child re-unite with their parent(s). Thousands of children go missing worldwide every year, and too often those children never see their families again.

Newark fire and rescue

I was impressed with this article:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/newark_mayor_cory_booker_taken.html

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, saved a woman from a burning house in his neighborhood, and in doing so he put himself at risk. Both Booker and the woman he rescued received burns, but fortunately his were minor and she was reported as "stable" while in hospital.

What disappointed me was then reading through a few of the comments on the above article. While the vast majority of people were positive about Booker's actions, I was astounded to see that a few managed to find something to complain about. To me, this was a "human" issue, and politics should not cloud the fact that Booker saved another person's life and could have been killed himself in doing so: I think that he, along with others involved in the rescue, should be commended rather than suspected of committing some sort of "publicity stunt".

The significance of "Fur the Color of Dark Grey Skies"

Fur the Color of Dark Grey Skies was written in September of 2002, two weeks before I wrote Colors of Tabby. While Colors of Tabby was about our cat Tinker, Fur the Color of Dark Grey Skies was about our Smudge, our other cat. That the title uses both an American-spelt word and a British-spelt word was likely an oversight, but now I think it actually works for the poem.

There are no nonsensical verses for "filler" in Fur the Color of Dark Grey Skies: each line is about a different aspect of Smudge. For example, the title is a reference to his fur, which was a grey color; and "Feral though domestic" refers to the fact that his mother was a feral cat, although Smudge himself was domestic. When we lived in Patterson, California, one of our neighbors came across Smudge's mother and litter in her yard, and she took them inside her house to look after them (the kittens anyway, I am not sure about the mother). All of the kittens were given new homes, and we were the family that received Smudge (and it was my Dad that named him).

Smudge had a different personality to Tinker, but he was still very good-natured and a character; while Tinker was happy to meet people, Smudge would hide in either mine or my brother's bed; it took him time to get to know someone new, but when he did feel comfortable with them coming to our house he would greet and even purr for them. Whenever he was given a brush, it took at least two of us to get the job done (he was a large, strong cat, likely because of Maine Coon ancestry in him); if anything, he preferred being bathed to being brushed. He often came into my room and my brother's, and was happy to sleep on either of our beds. Smudge did not have a near-constant purr: he only purred (and it was more of a "rumble" than a purr) if he was in a really good mood or was on someone's bed or lap. One of his habits involved dipping his paw in water and licking it off himself, and later in life found he preferred fresh water (he would lick the bathtub and its curtains, the sinks after recent use, and drink from cups). As for Tinker and Smudge's relationship, the cats did get on well: they would often play and sleep together, as well as occasionally pull some silly stunt that would either confuse or amuse us.

He died on March 6th, 2009, and would have been thirteen years old that May. As Tinker was dying Smudge had developed a serious problem with his kidneys; the condition was critical, and at his age it would have been very difficult to treat him. We were devastated to lose both our cats within a month of each other; as with Tinker, Smudge's life was happy, long, and eventful.

The significance of "Colors of Tabby"

I wrote Colors of Tabby in September of 2002 about our cat Tinker. Tinker was a tabby cat whom we brought with us from the United Kingdom to the United States. She was one of two cats we had while we lived in the United States; I posted previously a rhyme about Smudge, our other cat, here.

Most verses in the poem are about Tinker, although a couple are nonsense purely for rhyming purposes. For example, "Colors of tabby, Partially flabby" refers to the fact she was a tabby and somewhat overweight; "While braver than voles, She’s chased by lizards and forced into gopher holes" is a reference to her hunting voles in the first couple of years or so of life, but at the time of the poem's writing she had completely lost interest in hunting other animals (she backed away from lizards).

As for a bit more about Tinker, she was a social cat: she would often greet people when they came over...there was one time when she had not seen my grandparents for two years, yet when my grandmother entered our house and started talking, Tinker remembered her and came bounding into the living room to enthusiastically greet her. Tinker loved being brushed (especially by me), playing with Smudge, wanting food whenever one of us went into the kitchen or she heard us open the fridge door (she did this more in her later life, and it was our food she was after, not her own), and looking out of open windows (she became an indoor cat when we moved to America, and she came to prefer looking out of open windows to actually going outside). She was a happy cat, as she was near-constantly purring, and it took a lot to anger her.

Yesterday, February 12th, was the third anniversary of Tinker's death, and I decided that a fitting tribute to her would be to post a poem that I wrote a long time ago about her. Tinker's death can be put down to old age, as she was fifteen years old, and would have been sixteen in May of 2009. She had been losing weight for the six months prior to her death, but she had been behaving normally during that time: in fact, she was more active than usual in her last six month of her life until the final two weeks.

It would be great it our pets lived as long as we do, but sadly, they do not. The most we can do is to ensure that they are given the best and happiest lives as possible in the time that they have: Tinker had a good, long, and eventful life.

On Kepler-22b and space travel

Over two weeks ago, it was announced that the first Earth-sized planet located within the habitable zone of a star the same type as the Sun (both are class G stars) had been discovered. Currently, it is still not known if Kepler-22b is rocky, liquid, or gaseous...it could be a place completely hostile to life, but even so, the discovery of a planet both similar in size to Earth and a similar distance from its star as Earth is to the Sun is fascinating and important: I have always been interested in extrasolar planets and space travel.

The only thing that does disappoint me with the discovery of thousands of planets outside the Solar System, especially the ones capable of supporting life (we may not have found them yet, but we will), is that we will not be able to visit them. If it is confirmed that Kepler-22b can support life, being 600 light-years away it would take 600 years to get there just at light-speed (technology that humanity does not possess at present). Even our closest star besides the Sun, Alpha Centauri, would take four years to get to at that speed. The Moon is the only place outside Earth that humans have been to so far, and I am enthralled by that, but saddened that we have not gone to it since the 1970s.

While humans are unlikely to be able to personally travel to extrasolar locations for the foreseeable future, at least we have plenty of places within the Solar System itself to visit long before then. Granted, I doubt I will be able to visit a base on Pluto (although I would be delighted to), but I remain optimistic, even with cuts to space programs, that in my lifetime trips into space (and possibly the Moon) will be commonplace and Mars will have been visited by humans

I strongly think that one day humanity will be able to travel to these distant places and beyond. In the meantime, I also think it is important to care for and protect our current residence in the Universe: the Earth.