It was 36 years ago today that humanity first set foot on an alien world. We were supposed to have Moon colonies by now and be well on the way to exploring Mars; instead, we’re down to a three-Shuttle fleet, and can’t launch until NASA is able to solve an intermittent fuel tank sensor problem (intermittent problems are always difficult to solve, of course). But someday, we will be back in space and on our way to the future.

For the Eagle has landed; tell your children when.
Time won’t drive us down to dust again.

(From Hope Eyrie, by Leslie Fish)

I made the mistake of deciding to read a few more pages of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before going to bed. When I next looked up, I had finished the book, and it was 11:30pm. Definitely recommended (not that you needed me to tell you that!). I think that this is the strongest book of the last three, although it doesn’t have the same pure charm of the very first book. And I am eagerly awaiting Book 7 and the final battle.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I got an e-mail from Amazon on Tuesday morning telling me “We’re happy to let you know that we’ve begun preparing your order for
‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ for delivery.” I looked at the headers, and the mail was stuck somewhere in Amazon’s systems for five days — I’m glad it was the e-mail which got stuck and not the physical book!