edging out rivals
can make onlookers edgy
when over the edge
weak knees and cold sweats
reveal a fear of edges
no cliffhangers here
brave trailblazers know
what lies past horizon’s edge
it’s an illusion
kat ~ 10 September 2016
For TJ’s Household Haiku Challenge, prompt word, “edge”.
Happy Friday! It is, of course time to have a look at Dictionary.com to see what the Word of the Day is. “Lucida”. It comes from the Latin phrase, “stella lucida” meaning “bright star”. It can also be traced to the Latin verb “Lucere” which means “to shine” and comes from the word “Lux” meaning “light”. The English started using the word in the 1700’s.
Of course after learning this new word, I was curious to know which star is the brightest. Here is a bit of information for you to store in your brain vault of random facts. It might help you win a trivia game one day!
The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, also known as the “Dog Star” or, more officially, Alpha Canis Majoris, for its position in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius is a binary star dominated by a luminous main sequence star, Sirius A, with an apparent magnitude of -1.46. Sirius A’s apparent brightness can be attributed both to its inherent luminosity, 20 times that of the Sun, and its proximity. At just 8.7 light years away, Sirius is the seventh closest star to Earth.
In 1844, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel suggested that the star’s slightly wavy path through the sky, compared to that of background stars, indicated a fainter companion. Alvan Clark confirmed the companion’s existence in 1862. Now known to be a white dwarf, Sirius B is easily spotted in a large telescope, but contributes little to the system’s total apparent brightness.
And here is my haiku…nothing fancy…just a jingle to help me remember
Sirius, you dog!
Aren’t you quite the lucida
outshining our sun!
kat ~ 9 September 2016
Having a bit of fun as usual with TJ’s Household Haiku Challenge. He gave us a Theme: Retro and a Prompt: Reflect. I wondered to myself if there was such a thing as a “Retroreflection” and to my surprise, there was! It all has to do with lights and lasers and prisms and reflections. Basically it is when light bounces off the side angle of the inside corner of a prism to the other side and back forming a reflective ray that is parallel with the source ray. I also learned that it is the science the behind the reflective paint used for street markings and traffic signs! Who knew?
At any rate, here’s a little diagram for you and my Haiku. Have a lovely Tuesday! 🙂
This diagram is from Edmund’s Optics Worldwide’s webpage titled: Introduction to Optical Prisms. Click HERE to learn more!
Retroreflection – A Haiku
Retroreflection…
prismatic parallel rays
yes, it is a “thing”!kat ~ 6 September 2016
The aftermath of a derecho. The tree was in my neighbor’s yard; it’s upper branches soon to fill my back yard past the second floor of my house! Fortunately it only took out our fence and two pine trees that we wanted to remove anyway. 🙂
This week’s Haiku Horizon Challenge word prompt is “Bend”. I have seen what damage can be done when trees stand too rigid against the wind. And I have seen what can happen when a friendship is tested requiring one party to bend too far. In this case there is a fine line between helping and enabling. A good friend knows the boundaries. 🙂
Here are my Haiku then…one about bending and one about knowing when to stand firm. 🙂
Bending…The Rules
good friends will often
bend over backwards to help
but not enabledeeply rooted trees
may only survive tempests
by learning to bendkat ~ 6 September 2016
Happy Friday! Today’s dictionary.com Word of the Day is Gaposis! I could not find a lot of information about this word. It is a facetious term coined in the 1950’s that describes someone who suffers from clothing so tight that there are bulging gaps between the buttons or snaps.
These days the gaposis afflicted may be seen congregating at Walmart. These late night creepers might imply that gaposis has spread to epidemic proportions! But fortunately they seem to be isolated to the deep dropping sales aisles. I’m not sure why. Just an observation and fortunately, it does not appear to be contagious.
The worst cases of gaposis to be documented in modern literature and film are the Incredible Hulk, Alice of Wonderland after one of her unfortunate growing spurts…and last but not least, poor Violet Beauregard of Willy Wonka fame. You may know of others…
I don’t believe I’ve ever suffered from gaposis. But it might be said that I have the opposite -osis…if there was a word for it…tentosis. The propensity to wear loose fitting clothes. What can I say? I like to be comfortable…and covered!
At any rate, here is my haiku. Have a great weekend!
Photo credit http://www.tumblr.com
Her bulging gut proved
she suffered from gaposis…
She was no size 5!
~kat 2 September 2016
like mercury colliding... 