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It wasn't a total solar eclipse in the Philippines, but nevertheless, the partial Solar Eclipse today (July 22) still elicited some excited giggles from my female colleagues, some expressions of awe and wonder, and some feelings of minisculity. I half-ran back to my office after a meeting, glancing at the sun, but just hurting my eyes in the process. I stopped and squinted to see if there was anything happening up there, only to be betrayed by my eyes, tearing up from the glare. When I got to my office, I found a couple of my colleagues had taken out some x-rays of pipelines (I work in a refinery) and were using those to watch the ongoing eclipse. When I got my turn to look, I was hugely disappointed! It was already 830AM by then and all I could see was a small chip on the upper-left portion of the circle that was the sun, so small it was virtually unnoticeable! Bah! But I was sure that it was going to be amazing. So sure in fact that I did not, could not, stop watching, waiting fo...

Bring your solar filters and cameras, a Total Solar Eclipse, one of the rarest celestial events on Earth is happening on Wednesday, July 22, 2009! It will be visible between around 8AM and 9AM on that day (at GMT+8hrs, just compute for your own country's time! ;p) in the following countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. The moon's shadow will then blot out our sun in Japan's Ryukyu Islands before hovering over the Pacific Ocean and eventually disappearing. The solar eclipse will be partially visible for the most of Eastern Asia (including the Philippines! woot! woot!), Indonesia and the Pacific Islands. Packaged Tours are available in places in the world where the eclipse will be completely visible, like in India , where they will witness the "100% solar eclipse with diamond ring." It is only the third total solar eclipse to be visible in India in the past 15 years and one has to wait for another 78 Years, to witness such a spectacle again....

I was on leave from shutdown duty yesterday! And from the looks of things, my weekends will be back for good... well, until the next shutdown. I needed the break badly, and the 2 hour trip to Manila was so worth it. My gf told me I was even talking in my sleep about work! I had planned to sleep until late morning, but I woke up at 7am and couldn't go back to sleep anymore. I got a haircut. I took my car to the vulcanizing shop where they took a screw out of my left rear tire. I watched "21" on DVD (it was okay, except for the weird ending). Had too much to eat (veggies!). Had 3 cups of coffee. And spent quality time with my gf and my family... ******** On Tuesday, March 10, it will be the 27th anniversary of the most amazing planetary alignment in recorded history . "On March 10 their apparent positions, as seen from the Sun, will be closer together than at any time in the last 179 years..." Then on the midnight of the 11th, it will be my 27th birthday. :p I...