The Age of Stars

© NASA -- Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy

I'm a bit of an astronomy/cosmology enthusiast. Due to my sieve-like memory, I will not be able to impress you with a bunch of random facts (like that our current telescopes allow us to see back to a universe that was only 380,000 years old; that the first three elements formed were hydrogen, helium and lithium (which formed 3 seconds after the big bang); that iron is poison to stars; that in 4 billion years our galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy and (according to some astronomers) our arm of the Milky Way will swing right through the heart of our galaxy and we will be so close to the massive black hole in the center that if they some how find a way for us to be immortal, I will eagerly volunteer to hop into its center for the sake of science -- check out this here blog at that time for my status report). Okay, any other day, I wouldn't be able hash out a bunch of facts, but I've been juicing on astronomy hard core this week so don't mistake this incident for a commonplace occurence. I come from a family of Alzheimer brain mush... I've long-since accepted the fact that my memory isn't going to win any medals.

© NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas; and A. Mellinger

With that said, one of the more profound things about the universe is how many incidents had to line up (and are still lined up) in order for us to exist. Typical discourse usually revolves around the Big Bang and how life was formed on Earth, but we gloss over the fact that a planet with Earth's conditions, seems to be a rare occurence. Though we (and by we, I mean incredibly smart astronomers who figured it out without my assistance) have discovered a few potential planets that could support life in other systems, it's a small fraction of all the planets that have been counted for (out of 885 planets that have been discovered, maybe 4 or 5 meet the conditions required). But did you also know that someday the sky will fade into darkness and that no new galaxies and stars and planets will ever form again? We live in this golden age of diamond skies, of heated gas and violent explosions but the sky continues to stretch apart and one by one the stars will go out and the universe will eventually cool into a dark nothingness.

© NASA --The Rose

We live in this Age of Stars, of life, of you and me and this brief millisecond of our existence. I've so long struggled for meaning, for purpose. I wanted to leave this permanent mark upon the world, but nothing I do, nothing anyone has ever done or will do, will last. The human race will die out and with us, all traces of our existence.

So instead of worrying about an Earthen legacy, about material possessions, about hate and anger and misery -- think instead of happiness and love and those things that will give you the energy and light to exist in an inevitable darkness; to power your own star in an infinite beyond.

With love from 2013 A.D.,
MK

P.S. Some of my favorite astronomy reads and recommendations:

       

Spring Awakening

You ever get an email on Friday or Saturday that just ruins your weekend? I feel like I get one every Friday, on the dot. It haunts my dreams, steals my smiles and weights me with dread. I really have to lighten up, huh? 

Anyways, there's nothing that de-stresses like the Michigan coast -- the land of clear skies, lush earth, sandy beaches and endless waters. 

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My Michigan favorites: 

Beach runs

Skipping stones for easily-impressed children

Sunsets and starry skies

Wireless headphones for kayaking and washing puppies

Palisades Park and summer cottages! 

Not tipping over in the kayak and dying of hypothermia! 

A wet suit is officially on my birthday wish list. 

Climbing sand dunes and rolling back down

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There's nothing like a little manual labor to get your mind off of your electronic woes. Opening cottages is never a fun task, especially when you're playing housekeeper to the winter visits of frisky rodents and cleaning up dead spider carcusses that you bug-bombed in the Arachnid War of 2013. But we trudged through-- a little sweat, a lot of dirt and cobwebs, and giant bloody blisters from raking a fall forest's worth of leaves down the dunes. Cottage 2 of 2 is officially ready for summer cocktails, late night giggling, outdoor showers, and the crisp, upbeat licks of alternative 80s music spilling out open windows for all the forest to grove along to. 

It's incredibly satisfying to not have to depend on others to get a job done. No middle men. No computers. No 21st century worries.  

Sand dust and lake smoke, 

MK

P.S. Dear Midwest -- watch out for the lime-disease infested, creepy crawlers-- a.k.a. the tick! I just pulled 25 of those nasty little, blood-sucking, egg-laying heebee-jeebees from my little puppy. 25! It's a world record for gross-ness. I'm probably exaggerating their evil powers in this blurb, but when you have that many in one go, it just makes you want to molt (I've been watching too many cicada videos at the gym this evening -- I think my fellow treadmillers were a bit put off; anyways...good luck to the Eastern states this season -- you might want to invest in some noise-cancelling headphones).  

Photos © 2013 MK

Garden of the Gods

A place very aptly referred to as the 'Garden of the Gods'... 

MK© 2013

End of Days: A Sunset Chaser

First kayak ride of the season. It was cold, wet and windy and my eyes were like two swollen blobs in the middle of my face the next morning, but it was entirely worth it. My body was drenched in the just above freezing water but we stayed at it for hours, listening to some good-feeling tunes, paddling harder when the cold threatened to outweigh the fun, warily watching dark clouds creeping over the skies, and chasing the sun as it settled into the horizon. 

Bring on the summer. 

The Gentle Reprieve

 

I've managed to get a small reprieve recently and lose myself in the wandering, nameless roads of the midwest countryside. Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri --  the large stretches of untouched land are peaceful and calming. It's so much easier to be present and self-aware when you get away from everything...if only because the stars are more blinding and all-consuming.

There's something about the south that just tugs at my heartstrings. If it weren't for the heat, I would've scattered there by now but alas, I'm a creature of the winter and summer heat is suffocating and dense enough in the north, I'm sure the south would eat me alive. But I'll never say no to a road trip through the deep-fried, double-baked charm of the south. If you have a problem with patience, there's no better way to learn than the lands of molasses and honey, where familial conversation with strangers fill the long waits and the clock ticks just a little slower. People are cool at first, but get them going and they're like a freight train that takes many miles to bring to a stop. The smell of burning tobacco lingers around the local watering holes, a taboo habit in the urban sprawl -- an everyday comfort in the rural stretches. A sea of flannel and pickup trucks, not a pretentious display of hipsterdom, but a practical choice for a man who lives by his heart instead of his head. The rural worker -- a timeless fixture in our society and the muse of pure functionalism.

I'm fast in love with the slow countryside...

I have a theory that one's heart must be fickle if they love to travel. It must be eager and naive, impulsive and starved... because these moments are fleeting and can only be enjoyed if you leave your heart open with the knowledge that it must be broken when you leave.
And that the only way to mend a broken heart is to travel and love again. 

Your country bumpkin, 

MK

Spring Fancies

It was a perfect day - one filled with flocking puffs of clouds, vibrant blue skies and sunlight weighted with warmth. It was the first true day of spring, the air sweet with budding green and the promise of hot summer days. The winds tugged at my soul and the dogs and I danced across the fields, twirling like dandelions caught on a breeze.


Happy Spring, sleeping world!
Happy Easter, darling friends!

Caught in the clouds,
MK

The Female Scoutettes (a.k.a. the Girl Scouts)

Side project I'm working on for the Girl Scouts (aka the Female Scoutettes). I haven't done anything in Illustrator in a long time and so it took me about 6 hours just to do the one girl below and about 9 hours total for all three. I was horribly frustrated and angry towards Illustrator at first but I re-claimed my good spirits towards the program and remembered why I really do like it.

On a side note, my dog is wearing doggie diapers and it's the both the most ridiculous and cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. Post-surgery complications, but gah- at least all this medical drama is disguised by pink and blue bone-covered diapers!

 I've been saying my dog is like a newborn post-surgery, I guess he's really taking it to heart :)

Girl Scouts Forever,

MK

Against the Storm

My forever-young aunt Linda, at the greatest lake of all the Great Lakes- Michigan. 1961

I'm currently working on making Willie into an interactive children's book! It has a bit of a learning curve but it's a lot of fun. I kind of just want to do this for the rest of my life. But anyways, it takes a lot of my free time, so I apologize for the lack of new posts. 

Since I don't have much in the way to offer for random projects, here are a few things I'm likin' that you should maybe check out... maybe:

*House of Cards

Love this new series from Netflix! Kevin Spacey is a gem. And it's not so addicting that I can't function, though don't mistake that as a reflection on the entertainment value of the show- it's really awesome. I'm excited to see what Netflix does next and moreover, how the rest of the media industry adapts.  

*The Morning Miracle

So now that I've confessed to enjoying the occasional self-help book, I recently read a good one called 'The Morning Miracle' that has really transformed my mornings. 

*The Nexus 10

I've been not so patiently waiting to own my own tablet for years now. Lots of people didn't see the value when they first came out, some still don't, but I've always known that I could definitely make it fit into my life. I actually had wanted the iPad for the longest time. I didn't even really considered other tablets, until the Nexus came out. It's fast, powerful, has a fantastic Google ecosystem, a better screen display than the iPad and all the advantages of the Android platform that I've since been without in my life. I love playing with new gadgets- and the iPad is just an extra-large iPhone, which I am overly-familiar with- this was something brand new for me to try. Best part- it's $100 cheaper than the iPad! 

*Fooducate

I was just introduced to this one last night. This is a great app for people who like to be more health-conscious about what they eat. If you've used MyFitnessPal or something similar- it's like that but better. When you're shopping, you can scan in foods and it will give you a letter grade (like school). It will warn you about certain things, like GMO, sugar content, if it's highly processed, etc. And the coolest feature is that it will suggest better alternatives in that category. The database isn't as large as others... yet! You can easily submit foods to them to add though and I suspect it will grow in popularity as more people learn about the additional awesome features. 


Your greedy consumer,
MK

Tomorrow's Delight

© 2013 Marie King

Darling World,

Is it that time once again.

Breathe deeply, sleep soundly, and dream wildly.

Always and forever yours,

MK

Our Forever

Photo © 2012 Marie King

Some days test you... they wrench your heart, they crash your plans, they try their damned hardest to break you.
But we will not give up. We will not surrender. 

We will fight for the life we deserve, 

and for the moments that make

it all worthwhile.

Cheers to this small part of our forever,

MK

Up the Rabbit Hole

Hi guys! First, Happy (belated) National Margarita Day! 

Second- I'm sorry I've abandoned you. I've been re-working my life. I was going through my library the other night and found this tiny, little book snuggled into my self-help section (please don't judge- I just love how self-help books make you feel like Superman(woman) when you read them) that I've never seen before. It was written back in the 80s (and it looks the part- slightly yellowed paper, neon lettering, comic-style cover) and has completely changed my view on life. It's called 'Doing It Now.'

I've always been a major procrastinator (especially in my personal life) and several years ago I was diagnosed with ADD. It's been a challenge to deal with since I stopped taking the medication (I was told organic was in and of course to be a hip, trendsetter, you need a fresh, sizzlin' drug-free brain; check 'er out boys ;) ). 

But anyways- FOCUS, MARIE! - I found this book, right? I don't know how it snuck into my library or where it came from, but I was feeling miserably unfocused and it was happily sitting there when I most needed it. I read one chapter before I fell asleep and the next day I woke up completely re-wired (at 5 am in the bloody morning! who just basically climbed Mount Everest? ME!). I cleaned my entire room, yoga'd it up, dressed up in some fancy threads for work (I work from home, so my usual outfit consists of sweatpants and old college t-shirts -- boy were my dogs impressed today), made myself an awesome b-fast, and took said dogs out for a stroll through the urban jungle. That night, I gobbled up one more chapter of the book before bed and the next morning, with a clean room, I started re-writing the beginning of my novel. And so it has continued – each day I check more and more things off my list. I'm a-blaze with energy; I'm a shooting star, the atomic bomb, the big bang! I'm alive!

I feel so much better! I can't tell you what this weird, little 80s books has done for me. Perhaps I was just at the right place in my life and this book wouldn't have worked otherwise, but it is the little miracle I always needed.


Climbing up the rabbit hole,
MK

P.S. Anyone else go to the Chicago Auto Show this year? How about those minivans, eh!? Just kidding... kind of. But seriously, that new Corvette Stingray was absolutely luscious (and will be available at a Chevvy near you this August!).

(<--I love this app! If you are as into over-processing photos as much as I am, you should definitely check it out, it's called 'Tiny Planets.' When you've applied your unnatural manipulation, take your finished product over to Instagram to get that final over-edited touch your photo needs)

Stuck in the Pages of My Love

Today is Valentine's Day! I don't mind that it's a highly commercial day- so what if Hallmark makes a few dollars? It's a day to celebrate love- in all its forms.

So today- I'm going to dedicate this shout-out to my library, whom I love very dearly. I designed and built my wall of shelves to help with the stacks of books that were growing on every surface of my bedroom. My consumer priorities have always been books then food, then everything else - so I have acquired a decent-sized collection over the years. With these new shelves, I thought I'd have a place to put them and have more room to keep growing. Well unfortunately, it was completely filled as soon as they were done and the stacks around my room are growing again.

Sometimes at night, I like to lay back and look at all of them and think of all the people who I read them with and the places they've been with me. I've sprinkled a few treasures from my adventures and travels in there as well- a buffalo horn from Colorado, an old WWII flask from a trip with my Grandfather, a birdhouse I built with my dad when I was 10, my Outstanding English Student award from High School, a painting from one of my best and oldest friends, 3 of my favorite beers (a Scottish pine ale, my favorite pumpkin beer, and an Alaskan ale), a deer jaw bone from a hike through the Michigan dunes, etc. It's my monument to everything I hold dear.

Valentine's day is about loving people- those we see every day, those who are far away, and even those that are stuck in the pages of novels. I hope you all know how dear you are to me!

Happy, happy love day!
Hope it's as sweet and sugary and wonderful as it should be.

Your Valentine,
MK

We've Got the Lights, Dear

Another page from the children's book. It's not finished and I've removed the text... you're going to have to read the book to get all that. 

I'm not the best photo manipulator, but I have learned a few tricks in the two years I've been doing it. As such, for any of you who want to get into it, or would just like to become more familiar with Photoshop, the most effective way I learned was from doing tutorials- actual projects. Going through a book of this is what this tool does and that's what that tool does, just doesn't click in my brain the way an application does. PSD Tuts+ is my favorite site, but there's a lot of great tutorials out there. What I like to do is carefully read the tutorial, thoroughly understand it and the new tool information, and then apply it to my own design concept in a similar fashion (instead of just copying what they've done, step-for-step). That way, as you learn, you have something to show for it that's all yours.

And the real secret: experiment. Most of the time, it's those weird random accidents that you end up loving.

Again- I'm not an expert and I wouldn't dare try to pretend that I know what I'm doing, but perhaps it will help.

Always yours, 

MK

Our Wild Youth

© Marie King 2013

I love soft dreamy words... stars, universe, woods, lost, youth, wilds, adventure, wonder, infinite, rupture, innocence, delicate. They turn my insides into goo. I suppose they are rather in vogue right now... I hope they stay that way forever. 

"There will be no edges, but curves.

Clean lines pointing only forward."

—Tracy Smith—

Also, while we're on the topic of soft, dreamy words, I just read a wonderful book of poetry titled, Life On Mars, by Tracy Smith. It was everything I was looking for, more than I imagined, and profoundly touching. I suggest you at least take a gander at the cover... it's exactly as it should be. 

Bonne nuit mes amis,

faites des beaux rêves!

MK

P.S. Hoping everyone on the east coast is staying safe and warm post-blizzard!