If you enjoy gazing at the night sky, you’ll love Celestia. This wonderful “free-space” simulation will take you to thousands of objects and locations in our vast universe, all in color and 3-D. The menus are easy to navigate and the experience is pretty darn close to what you’ll find in many physical planetaria.

A great way to get started with Celestia is to view the Demo (you’ll find it on the Help menu). Then I recommend reading the “Readme” file (Click Start > Programs > Celestia > Readme). This short text file will explain the basics on the use of the program and its many powerful features.

Celestia features virtually every object in the known universe including stars, planets, moons, comets, asteroids galaxies, nebulae and more. As more objects are discovered, they can be added to the Celestia database simply by downloading add-on modules.

Celestia is completely free to download and use, and you’ll find it right here.

Our great nation was founded, built, and stands protected today by an extraordinary group of people, the vast majority of whom will never be fully appreciated for their hard work and selfless sacrifices. Most of these great patriots recognize and acknowledge the fact that the freedoms we Americans hold so dear were granted by our Creator, not the government.

Gifted artist Jon McNaughton has created a true masterpiece entitled “One Nation Under God”, a marvelous painting depicting some of the true heroes of our country as well as a few who aren’t. Click here to check it out, and be sure to hover your mouse pointer over each person to read about his/her historical significance.

I would like to extend a special “thank you” to my brother Glen for sending me the link to this wonderful work of art.

Auroras offer some of nature’s most spectacular “shows”, but really enjoying them in person usually requires being outdoors at night in one of the most frigid locales on the planet. But now, thanks to Finland’s famous Hotel Kakslauttanen you can experience the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) in all their colorful glory while relaxing at room temperature in the comfort of a glass igloo.

The glass igloos at Kakslauttanen’s Igloo Village offer visitors the opportunity to sleep with an unobstructed view of the Scandinavian sky devoid of light pollution, and you’ll do it in the comfort of a climate-controlled, bathroom-equipped glass structure for an experience that is the closest to being in the great outdoors that you will ever find.

What’s more, come morning you can take an invigorating dip in frigid water by jumping into an ice hole (this part of the “experience” isn’t for everyone of course).

I have marveled at photographs featuring the Northern Lights since I was a small child, but I have never really had a desire to freeze to death while witnessing them in person. Well, now we don’t have to. All we have to do is catch the next plane to Finland!

For more information visit Hotel Kakslauttanen’s website.

If you’re like me, there are few things in life that you enjoy more than sitting down to a meal of hot, fresh pizza. Whether it’s Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa Johns, or one of the thousands of local varieties found in towns and cities all across the USA, for the most part any pizza you find will be quite good.

Yep, pizza is one of my favorite foods, but when it comes to the frozen “grocery store” variety there is just one brand that I really like: Totino’s. Most grocery stores stock dozens of brands of frozen pizzas ranging in price from around $1.00 to as much as you would pay in a sit-down pizza joint, but in my opinion the $1.25 Totino’s Classic Pepperoni is the cream of the crop. For such a small price one would expect a rather small pie with just a mere sprinkling of toppings on it, but Totino’s pizzas are larger and contain more toppings than many of their much more expensive counterparts. Of course they’re also greasy as all get-out, but all good pizzas are, right? (Note: You can always dab a lot of the grease off with a paper towel).

If you’ve never tried a Totino’s frozen pizza, pick one up and give it a whirl. Like me, you just  might be surprised at what $1.25 will buy these days!

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year, and since Cheria and I live here in rural southwestern Virginia we get plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy it. Once the leaves start changing colors we like to go for walks on the local trails and dirt roads, camera in hand, ready to capture the spectacular beauty of every little splash of color on the Lord’s majestic fall canvas.

Although fall is definitely in the air, the trees have yet to start turning for the season. But this afternoon I discovered this wonderful picture by photographer John De Boer depicting a fall scene much like the ones I remember seeing year-in and year-out here in the southern Appalachians.

In my mind’s eye I can see myself walking down that dirt road, alone in my thoughts as the sights and smells of autumn take me back to my childhood. I loved those days spent playing in the woods and the nights lying under a blanket as the sounds of the frogs and crickets wafting through the open window “sang” me right to sleep. Those were good times back then, and I find myself thinking about them often.

Of course autumn is still a great time to be alive now that we’re well into the 21st century, and God has blessed us Americans to no end. The economy is in the tank, and our politicians are running amok under the guise of trying to fix it. But problems and all, it’s still a great time to be alive.

By the way, did I happen to mention that I love fall?

If you’ve been visiting this site for a while, you probably noticed the “new look”. I felt it was time for a newer, brighter theme, and after a couple of hours’ work this is the result. I hope you like it!

LiveScience.com has a wonderful primer on many aspects of weather related phenomena. Various sections explain in easy-to-understand language how weather fronts, snow, rain, lightning, hail, tornadoes, hurricanes and several other weather phenomena form, grow and move about the sky and/or the earth’s surface. It is quite comprehensive and a very interesting read. Click here to check it out!

Today’s semi-final match at the U.S. Open between defending champ Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic had plenty of exiting moments as one would expect from a tennis match at this level, but even the amazing Federer was astounded at the “shot of a lifetime” that put him just one point away from the victory.

Every tennis player who has ever picked up a racquet has probably tried the old “between the legs” shot, and on occasion the ball does indeed make it back across the net. But the spectacular fashion in which Federer pulled it off earlier this afternoon will surely go down as tennis legend. Check out the video below to see it for yourself – and prepare to be amazed!

Update: YouTube has pulled the video in response to a Copyright complaint. I hope they are able to put it back online as soon as possible.

Cheria and I took a short drive down to Backbone Rock this afternoon to take a few pictures, and I couldn’t believe how nice the weather was. It was a beautiful sunny day and the definite crispness in the air sure reminded us that fall is upon us. By and large the leaves were still green, but there was just something about the smell and temperature of the clean mountain air at “the rock” that just screamed AUTUMN!

This is the time of year when summer tries its best to hold on for just a little while longer while fall tugs at the rope with all its might in a valiant attempt to take over just a bit early. I really love these beautiful, mild days and crisp, cool nights, and it wouldn’t hurt my feelings a bit if they hung around until springtime.

But as always, autumn will eventually give way to winter, and the amazing colors of the season will all too soon be replaced by the dull, lifeless grey of dormancy. I recommend getting outdoors as much as possible and enjoying these wonderful autumn days before they take a notion to leave for their annual winter vacation.

Circuit City used to be America’s 2nd largest retail electronics chain, but they abruptly closed every one of their stores for good just a week after filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy last November. I hated to see Circuit City go under because of all the places I have ever shopped for computers and electronics items, they were the most honest in their dealings with me.

A couple of years ago the TV cable entering our house was hit by a direct lightning strike, and the resulting power surge took out over $3,000 worth of computer equipment and other electronic devices. My HP laptop was one of the devices that got fried, but after searching the house from top to bottom we failed to find the receipt showing that we had purchased a 4 year extended warranty that covered lightning damage.

Expecting to be told that I was simply out of luck, I carried the dead laptop into our local Circuit City store and explained what had happened. Within minutes I had a copy of the original receipt in my hands and the PC had been logged into the system for repair. A couple of weeks later I had the laptop back in fine working order after they replaced virtually everything inside the case. No hassle, no fuss – just the best customer service I have ever received from any company. Compared to the unethical treatment we have always received from Best Buy over warranty claims, my experiences with Circuit City were simply wonderful – hence my consternation when I learned of Circuit City’s demise.

Well, much to my pleasant surprise, I found out earlier today that Circuit City is alive and well on the web at CircuitCity.com. It seems that as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the company sold its online operations to a company called Systemax which has now “re-opened” CircuitCity.com as an online electronics and computer retailer. I briefly checked out the site and the prices appear to be extremely competitive, so if their customer service is of the same high quality as that of the former Circuit City retail chain I’ll probably be giving them a lot of business in the coming years.