#Perseverence

[longreads]

“We pretend at certainty all of the time, even in the stumbling that life almost always is.”

In our latest feature, longtime Longreads author Devin Kelly returns with a new essay that explores overcoming shame and inertia to discover the beauty of learning something new. 

Read Stumbling Can Be Lovely at Longreads. 

[sluggoonthestreet]

The emergence of Vivian, who doesn't remove his bunny suit until every jellybean has been found and eaten:

[adventuresofalgy]

On Saturday afternoon, as dusk was falling, Algy had observed that a box marked "Urgent Live Plants" was delivered to his assistant, too late in the day for her to do anything with it other than put it in a safe place until the morrow. Upon enquiring what was in it, Algy learned that it was a consignment of snowdrops "in the green", and that they needed to be planted in the garden without delay, for they were living, growing plants.

As his friends will already know, Algy is particularly fond of snowdrops, for they emerge from the darkness as heralds of the spring to come, and their resilient flowers brighten up the start of the year when little else in the wild west Highlands of Scotland shows any sign of life at all.

And so, on Sunday morning, Algy volunteered to help plant them out, as there seemed to be rather a lot of them and there was evidently no time to lose. Wrapping his scarf around his neck against the bitter wind, Algy set to with considerable eagerness, doing his best to dig a hole in an area of dry ground beneath some trees and shrubs where the snowdrops were destined to grow, but he soon discovered that not only was the soil full of matted roots and very difficult to work, but a fluffy bird is apparently not at all well adapted to the tasks of digging and planting.

As he struggled on, wondering how on earth he could possibly manage to plant ten of the snowdrops, never mind two hundred, an inquisitive robin hopped over to see what was going on, for there are few things which interest a robin more than a wee bit of digging. Perceiving that Algy was experiencing some difficulties, the robin sang a snatch of a motivational poem to encourage him, safe in the knowledge that he could not be asked to assist as he was too small…

Algy muttered something unintelligible and decidedly un-fluffy under his breath, but then looked up and smiled sweetly at the robin… and tried again, repeating the robin's song…

When you’re up against a trouble, Meet it squarely, face to face; Lift your chin and set your shoulders, Plant your feet and take a brace. When it’s vain to try to dodge it, Do the best that you can do; You may fail, but you may conquer, See it through!

[The robin is quoting the first verse of the motivational poem See It Through by the 20th century British-American populist poet Edgar Guest.]

[wyztereo]

[allthedesiredusernamesaretaken]

" Sometimes things aren't clear right away. That's where you need to be patient and persevere and see where things lead. "

- Mary Pierce

[demon198012]

(sofa king dope)

[flowersandspacestuff]

Nothing can keep me down anymore

[dancecoaster]

So these happened today! A beautiful reminder of who I am today after going through abuse from my mother and adversity and how it shaped me into who I am now.

[thisdarkdecrepithouse]

I write to dig them out

every single piece of myself

I had buried unknownlingly

to accommodate and to be accommodated

I peel away, layer by layer

until I find the raw core

and rebuild from there

beyond the firmaments

towards heaven

[whirligig-girl]

Ayo has NASA ever shown any pics of Mars moons in it's sky? I NEED TO KNOW

a couple asks ago i showed an example of this. here’s a few more:

annular solar eclipse/transit of Phobos across the Sun from Curiosity.

transit of Deimos across the Sun from Curiosity.

Occultation of Deimos by Phobos as seen by Curiosity.

The telephoto cameras used for navigation on Mars are also capable of being used as weak telescopes. (I do not know how they safely get photos of the Sun, though. Even at Mars distance that would still fry the sensors--so i assume they must have put a solar filter on the instrument specifically for this use case.)

While looking for images I came across this really cool one from Spirit:

The bright moon-like glow is Phobos. The dimmer dot is Deimos. Towards the bottom of the image is the Hyades cluster, and the bright star Aldeberan. In the lower left is the Pleiades cluster. This is an approximately naked eye-like view (well, maybe 2x or 3x magnification), except that with the naked eye Phobos would not look overexposed.This is really striking to me because this actually feels like a view of the night sky on Earth, yet with alien moons. Really cool.

Here’s a labelled, overexposed version:

I don’t think there’s been any color pictures of this done because Mars rovers are not astronomical observatories and because there’s not much color detail actually visible in the moons. And I assume aside from the solar eclipse pictures these images were all taken at night, with pitch-black skies and nearly black horizons.

This evening or afternoon image depicting Phobos as seen by Curiosity is a composite image--Phobos is probably much brighter here than it would really look during the day on Mars.

Deimos is visible in this poorly white-balanced shot of Mars from Perseverence. The sky is green here but Mars’ sky is really more of a yellow or brown color.

Here is almost the reverse--seen from an orbiting satellite, here is Phobos against the limb (edge of the visible disk; horizon) of Mars. I believe terrain looks weirdly flattened and a little distorted here due to lensing from Mars’ atmosphere--you can see how the effect gets worse closer to the limb. A similar effect, but more significant, can happen when looking at the limb of the Earth from space. Space probes use multiple color filters to take color photos, but when it comes to fast moving targets it’s not possible to switch colors in time, which is why this image is in grayscale. Notice also how dark Phobos is--it’s almost black. It only appears bright against the even blacker space. This is also true of the Moon, incidentally, but the effect is even more pronounced with Phobos.

[bobapril]

Thanks to the wonders of free streaming channels, I'm finally watching Babylon 5 for the first time. But every time they mention the first four stations, all I can think of is this scene...

[one-in-boots]

Seeing aquatic fauna out of water is so cool every time, especially if I'm the guy responsible. Like God never meant for you to be out here. You contrast so heavily with the dry world. Your camouflage does the opposite of what it's supposed to in this place.

Being the one who got you here feels like I have defied the will of the universe. I have conquered nature. Millions of years of evolution in YOUR environment, and I still win, even as an outsider. I can't even fucking breath down there. I had to equalize to even make eye contact with you, bitch. Most of what you do is reflex, and I still have faster reflexes than you.

It might say something about me, getting an ego boost from proving I'm better than a fish, but I AM BETTER, and nothing you say can stop that from feeling good.

[changed-lore-au]

Narrator,do you have anything to say?

[amalgamgooze]

fervent wind - oppressive gale

It's always exciting when the weather app shows "wind" as the weather for the next hours.

I mean, to watch rain buffet and trickle down the windows while unseen thunder accents your cozily-lit (or cozily-unlit) bedroom vantage point during a storm, or to gaze out upon a squall of fluttering snowflakes as the world is covered in white powder during a blizzard, perhaps while sipping hot cocoa and sitting by some source of warmth (be it a space heater or a fireplace)... while those are both incredibly cozy, they're not quite like windy days.

When it's windy out, you can take walks in the wind.

Enthralling, no?

...

I get it. There's a lot of charm to watching rainfall/snowfall. It's nostalgic to even think about it--all the times I'd woken up and looked out at a newly snow-covered world or the late summer nights accentuated by the soft pitter-patter of rain as I stayed up until ungodly hours playing Terraria on my 3DS.

But wind is different.

Wind isn't cozy.

It's exhilarating.

It doesn't matter if the wind's blowing from in front of you or behind you. Either way, you'll still feel that same rush.

Strong, oppressive headwind makes you feel purposeful. It makes you feel as if you're fighting something--and winning. Yes, you may face oppression in the form of the gale rushing past you, but you're still making progress. At best, this headwind is a child clinging at your ankles, a pitiful ball-and-chain, only barely hindering your forward progress. In fact, the dust and debris it blows in your face is probably the worst part about it. You're conquering nature when you march onward in the face of oppressive gales.

On the other hand, immense, empowering tailwind makes you feel hopeful. It's the rush of nature on your side--the wind carrying you to your destination, Mother Nature cheering for you from the sidelines of whatever battles you might be fighting. You feel enhanced in tailwind. It's almost as if you resonate with the winds on a deeper level when it blows from behind you.

And tailwind after headwind is just more exhilarating. The battle's been fought, the campaign is over. Once adversaries, locked in combat, now friends, perhaps sharing a drink at the local bar. A gentle reminder that our "enemies" in this time are just friends in another.

And when the headwind gets so immense, when it kicks up so much dust you can't help but look down and shield your face, *that's* evocative. It's like the rush from riding a rollercoaster--"Haha, I feel threatened! I might be in danger!". However, wind is no meticulously engineered novelty ride--it's the uncontrollable (as of now) pressure gradient between two different systems, it's beyond the puppet wizardry of mankind's hands--again, for now.

Wind gets me riled up. It excites me. Especially the warm, sticky summer wind. After a long day of programming abstract, so-far-removed-from-actuality bullshit statistical analysis algorithms all day, these incredible gusts prove their worthiness of my appreciation through their rejuvenation of my spirit.

...

Have you ever felt the winds blowing in your face, as you stand on a bridge high above the rushing currents below? As you gaze out at an empire built of steel and concrete, as bikers and cars whizz past behind you?

It's existence. It's the proof of my existence. It's small, pitiful, and meaningless on a cosmic scale, but on a smaller, personal scale, these valiant winds blow past a hero fighting their own personal battles.

I've fallen before, but just as the winds die down and return stronger, I too don't go down without a fight.

...

The winds fill me with fervor. What do they do for you?

[frisiunia]

Scarf

A little hurtful for the eyes, huh? I wanted his scarf to have colors of Sofia and Natalie souls, perseverence and justice. But having their original colors is a pain. I think I'll change these colors for the sake of beauty!