Stargazing in Alaska

[layla]

Freebird comic of the day, brought to mind by this week’s cold snap + vividly clear, beautiful stargazing weather. (Obligatory shill: Freebird can be purchased here, and maybe EVENTUALLY it will have the “look inside the book” option — I’ve uploaded the files for that, so … *crosses fingers*)

I had the bright idea today of doing a “winter holiday gift box” option for Freebird, containing the book and some touristy Alaska swag, like keychains and mini Alaska flags … those cheap little things that local gift shops sell. Maybe a little piece of original art in each one. And then wrap it up nicely in holiday paper. Would people buy that? I guess that if I’m going to do it for this Christmas, I had better get right on it.

In other news, apparently an election happened. I suppose that it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me just exactly which way my general thoughts are trending on the way that things went nationally (*thumbs up*) or locally (*oh noes*). I am delighted beyond belief that marriage equality passed by popular vote in three states (and another one voted down a discriminatory amendment). And now I am looking forward to seeing how the next four years goes, and meanwhile, I’m infinitely glad to have the uncertainty behind us — not to mention all the political ads!

I’ve been reading election post-mortem posts and articles with interest, but the only one I’m going to link to (at the moment, anyway) is for reasons having nothing to do with the election: John Scalzi’s post Meanwhile in Darke County is currently hosting an absolutely fascinating discussion in its comments, starting about halfway down, on pre-industrial disease epidemiology, rural-urban migrations and birth control via infanticide. (Uh, well, I’m a total history geek, so it’s interesting to me!)

Originally published at Layla's Wordpress blog. You can comment here or there.