Downhill Slide Begins

Steel Force and Thunderhawk roller coasters at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         Has this year seemed to be going extraordinarily fast for anyone else besides me?

          We've hit July and that means we're at the top of the roller coaster and on the downhill side.  Yikes!  There's a wild ride ahead with summer (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) wrapping up and a parade of holiday seasons to follow.   Many schools start back in August now.  So much for those long drawn out summers like I used to have when I was a kid.

          Before we know it Halloween will be history and cooler weather will be gusting in--a welcome respite for many who have been experiencing record high temperatures this year.  I'd say more than a few are looking forward to snow and colder weather.

          Of course that colder weather brings NaNo November for the writers, Thanksgiving for those who love to eat, and all of the December holidays for all of the rest of us.   And then it's another year--2013!   The next A to Z is just around the corner it seems.

           Maybe we need to slow down and get back to July.  Oh, sure, we can keep stimulating the A to Z brain for ideas for next year.  Perhaps a few of you will even start writing a few posts as flashes of inspiration hit you.  That's fine, but that flying time has got to be grounded.

           How about a walk on a mountain trail?   Head for a glacier I'd say.  Or bask at the beach if the sun and salt spray is your thing.   Drift on a lake or down a river in a canoe or kayak.  Visit the zoo or an air conditioned museum.   And speaking of AC, there's always the mall.  So much to do and a lot of it can be found right close to home.

         Of course, you could do like I'll be doing for the next few weeks.  My wife and I will be driving cross-country to spend a few days with a daughter in Houston, Texas and then heading on for a few days with relatives in Orlando, Florida.   With about eight 12-15 hour driving days and other days filled with family activities, I have a feeling that I won't be doing too much on the computer during that time.

          And here I thought I was going to be doing some serious writing this month of July.   Well, there is August.  I hope I can manage to keep that month under more control.

          Hope you're having a great summer--or winter if that's what it's like where you are.

           What are your summer plans?   Anybody just staying around the house and doing things there?   Are you going anyplace unusual?    Are you ready to do an A to Z Blog guest post?   Let us know if you are.  We've got some open dates to fill.

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Alphabet Soup - Looney Last Names

The following activity is brought to you by Nicole from The Madlab Post...

It’s time for Alphabet Soup - The Word Scramble Puzzle of A to Z Champions!

For every person who has a funny, strange or embarrassing first name, there are probably just as many with unordinary last names. If one strange name isn’t awkward enough, just think of how hesitant some people are to answer to roll calls or fill out a form when their full name causes other people to snicker. It reminds me of the male nurse named Gaylor Focker in “Meet the Parents” and who could forget the female banker named Marcy D’Arcy on “Married with Children?!” So today, L is for Last Names, particularly where movie titles are concerned.

Unscramble the following movie titles that end with a Letter L word. The first commenter who is able to correctly unscramble all or most of these movie titles at best wins this weeks’ Alphabet Soup game. Answers and the name of the winner will be posted here at the A to Z blog during next week’s “Friday Fun Time.”

1. LoeaotLhdtsnf________________


2. etoLosgnothNi________________


3. inneLhlTBeiu________________


4. hTeaLmaorpustseLferot________________


5. edoLfsBoyi________________


6. ffmoienaIitLtio________________


7. izroyaeLutSdCvp________________


8. e8tya2rsDaL________________

EXTRA CREDIT: What are some of the strangest names of people you’ve met in the workplace, school, casual outings, meetings or on vacation?

Sign your blog up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly group blogging series that inspires discussion about entertainment in a whole new light and provides recommendations for your DVD, on-demand or theater fix. New topics are posted every Monday!
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NICOLE
Blog: The Madlab Post
Also @MadlabPost on Twitter

The Higgs Boson

The Higgs Boson In light of the exciting and amazing and awesome news coming out of CERN, I thought I’d post some highlights from an article from Reuters concerning confirmation of the long sought after Higgs Boson. And it only cost about $10 billion dollars!

(Reuters) - Scientists at Europe's CERN research center have found a new subatomic particle, a basic building block of the universe, which appears to be the boson imagined and named half a century ago by theoretical physicist Peter Higgs.

The discovery of the particle is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe. Scientists see confirmation of this theory as accelerating investigations into the still unexplained "dark matter" they believe pervades the universe and into the possibility of a fourth or more dimensions, or of parallel universes (now we're talking my language!). It may help in resolving contradictions between their model of how the world works at the subatomic level and Einstein's theory of gravity.

CERN's Large Hadron Collider is the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions around the 27-km (17-mile) looped pipe built under the Swiss-French border before smashing into each other. The collisions, which mimic the moments just after the Big Bang, throw off debris signals picked up by a vast complex of detectors and the data is examined by banks of computers.

Large Hadron Collider (see the man standing in the center?)

The Higgs theory explains how particles clumped together to form stars, planets and life itself. Without the Higgs boson, the universe would have remained a formless soup of particles shooting around at the speed of light, the theory goes.

We will certainly get into the conversation of God and science in future posts!

It is the last undiscovered piece of the Standard Model that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe. The model is for physicists what the theory of evolution is for biologists.

What scientists do not yet know from the latest findings is whether the particle they have discovered is the Higgs boson as exactly described by the Standard Model. It could be a variant of the Higgs idea or an entirely new subatomic particle that could force a rethink on the fundamental structure of matter. The last two possibilities are, in scientific terms, even more exciting.

We do live in exciting times and I’ll have more to post on this matter in the days and weeks to come. Stephen Tremp is author of the Breakthrough trilogy. You can visit him at Breakthrough Blogs.