Celestia Sleeps In--Chapter 5 notes

First off, a big shout to my pre-readers: my parents, Woonsocket Wrench, and Humanist.
A correction--Humanist pointed out (after I posted) that Geiger counters are not regulated, and are readily available. A brief search of Amazon.com proved that to be the case, and probably also put me on a government watch list (if I'm not already....). Dale probably doesn't know that, though.

I actually interviewed someone regarding the moon landing. I was of the belief, before I wrote this chapter, that it was a huge, life-changing event, like the JFK assassination, or, more recently, 9/11. I was wrong (although it probably was a big deal to sci-fi buffs). I took copious notes, and Dale's memory of the event is fairly close to my interviewee's memory.

According to Wikipedia, Opportunity is still roving.

The idea of the Faraday cage, VHS tapes, film cameras, etc., comes from Spamotron via the comments.

A shout out to the reader who's posting links to my updates--I've gotten like a bajillion hits.

Finally, story submitted to EqD on Monday. Judging by their easily-understood matrix of story standings, I'm either 71 stories down in the queue, 177 down, or summarily rejected without an email. Time will tell, I guess.

Due to one of my obligations being on vacation in Hawaii, Chapters 6 and 7 are well underway, and, barring misfortune will be posted on schedule.

Comments

[KMCA]

I just remembered something.

There was the flag of his country flying proudly on the surface of the moon. Sure, it was a bit passé—planting flags seemed more of a climbing-a-mountain or reaching-the-south-pole kind of event—but there it was. If aliens ever found it, they would know it was us, not those filthy communists who had landed on the moon first, and claimed it as our own.

This is untrue. The moon flag at this point in time is completely white, all color being bleached out by the sun a long time ago.

[Admiral Biscuit]

2461513

I doubt Dale would know that.

[KMCA]

2461537 I agree.

But if you didn't then you've still learned something, my grandfather was a firm believer that if you learned nothing over the course of a day then you wasted that day... Have you learned something new yet today?

[Admiral Biscuit]

2461543

I didn't know that, so I have learned something new today! And it's still early

[KMCA]

2461582 yep! Another successful day successfully started!

I should go to sleep for work tonight... but I don't think it's going to happen until I finish re-reading the entire story. what's the worst that can happen?

Fire? (had one 2 weeks ago)
Trespassers? (I average 1 incident a month)
Patrol drivers trying to make me look bad? (well the last attempt at that blew up in his face)

Yeah, I think I'll try to sleep after finishing CSI rather than reading through OtPP

[Admiral Biscuit]

2461585

I should go to sleep for work tonight... but I don't think it's going to happen until I finish re-reading the entire story. what's the worst that can happen?

I'm working my way through To Love a Pony. Fortunately, I've been able to restrain myself to only reading one chapter a night.

[KMCA]

2461720 Don't try that with Austraeoh... You'll never catch up.

[Jordan179]

The first Lunar landing will be popularly remembered when only specialized historians take any cognizance of the assassination of JFK or the occurrence of the Vietnam War, because it will have been our first major step outward into the Solar System.