I haven't been around as much as I used to. My last few posts have been scenes on Mars because I've been spending more and more time there. I spend the day looking at pictures from the orbiters and imaging the microscopic items, using my imaging skills in another place. I've been spanding a lot of time in the forums same face different place. I haven't had hardly any time for writing as a result. I have been getting some great images that bait the question as to whether life existed there or continues to... woooooooooo. Like this one of a sliced martian blueberry... rock.

Hmm, so you've been spending a more and more time on Mars, eh? Surprised I haven't run into you. I've had those Martian blueberries and I think they leave a strange after taste. I really prefer their grapes. :-) I'm one that is of the opinion that where there is liquid water, there is life. At this point I would actually be surprised if there had not been life on Mars, and would even be a little surprised if there isn't life there still, hiding under the permafrost. I doubt that it ever got much beyond the simpler forms (microbes, mosses, lichens and such) but a lot can happen in a billion or so years, so who knows. I don't think anyone made pyramids and face sculptures though. Have you ever read the Red - Green - Blue Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson? It's my favorite SF series. Fascinating stuff, and well researched. Keep on posting here when you have time. I always enjoy reading your stuff. jon

I think it's pretty arrogant to think earth would be the only experimental lab for life. Whatever force creates life (no getting into religious argument here) surely wouldn't be unique to this planet. I'm hoping there are really amazing beings somewhere. Not those drab little skinny grey things but something beyond our imaginings that swoop in and gather Martian blueberries in light baskets for picnics bathed in light from another sun. Glad to see some familiar faces posting in the last day or two. I miss you guys. Even when I don't understand what the message is, I feel massaged. (Anyone know what I'm referring to?)

Personally, I didn't know we had spare time. I think someone must have stolen mine... ...okay, so not really. I've been under the weather, and so the temptation to play the Sims expansion (Makin' Magic) my husband got me for my birthday has actually been overpowering my more usual pasttimes. Every so often my collection of freestuff downloads calls to me, "do something with us! make cool images!" but right now it's pretty ignorable which is a strong indication that I'm not healthy again yet. Not that I ever seem to get as far as the "make cool images" part. I love playing around with the 3D graphic toys, but there just isn't any strong motivation to finish things, so I hop from project to project without ever completing anything, just like I used to do with my writing way back in Jr/Sr High School. (The Eyes of Infistar --> 11866 words since February 17th)

Actually I was posting today trying to designate a species for what I was seeing. When the same item is in all the pictures and it keeps agreeing with the size and discription of a terrestrial form at what point do you cry "Ecco la!' I feel like writing a story about a martian blueberry...Let's see "It was a pink and dusty day..."