Poets Are From Earth, Haiku Go To Mars

So NASA emailed me to say my haiku had arrived on Mars…

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There’s a sentence you don’t read (or write) every day.  And what’s great is, it’s true!

Truth is relative, of course.  NASA did email, as they do every day; I’m subscribed to their website.

I did write a haiku, however, and it did go to Mars…along with thousands of others submitted to their competition.  NASA put all of the entries on to a DVD in case the Little Green Men like Japanese poetry.

According to the website:

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered Mars’ orbit at 10:24 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21, where it now will prepare to study the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere as never done before. MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars.

It doesn’t say anything about my haiku but I guess they’re kind of busy with all the, like, sciency stuff and that.  Go figure.

But hey – I can say with absolute truth: my writing is out of this world 🙂

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Martians Read English?

A chance to go to space!

Even better: a chance to go to space without leaving your computer.

No, not on Richard Branson’s £200,000 ticket to the atmosphere with your laptop as carry-on luggage, but through a request from NASA (via Sky News):

Nasa Wants Three-Line Poems For Mars Mission

The space agency is inviting the public to send in poems to go on a DVD that will be carried on a new Mars mission.

Nasa is inviting the public to send in their name and a poem to be put on a DVD that will be carried aboard a Martian-bound spacecraft.

The disc will be in the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, scheduled to launch in November.

Every name submitted will go on the disc but the space agency also wants people to write a short haiku poem.

A haiku is a form of writing that originated in Japan and is usually made up of three lines and around 17 syllables.

The three best poems, as voted for online by the public, will end up heading to the Red Planet.

People who send in their names for the DVD will be able to print off a ‘certificate of appreciation’ to record their involvement and the deadline for entries is July 1.

The voting for the three best messages begins on July 15, with the winners announced on August 8. The MAVEN mission itself is expected to blast off in late 2013.

See here for details (there’s something I never expected to Google: Nasa poetry competition…).  

And remember, if you win, to link back to this blog.  Martians read Laughing Housewives, I’m sure.

 

Women Are From Mars

While we’re on the subject of space, a kind lady from Mars came out of the blue, offering to fill a Malteser-sized hole in my tummy with the next best thing: new Galaxy Bites.  

I am under no obligation to tell you they are gorgeous.  But they are.  A chewy caramel centre covered in Galaxy chocolate.  Heavenly. 

We had three packets between four of us – Tory Boy was home for the weekend, to watch City’s triumph after a morning in Knutsford bungee jumping. 

I think he acquired a taste for bouncing on his head, as a baby: I was a little over-zealous with the baby oil on more than one occasion…picture him as an infant in Julia Robert’s escargot spoons, flying into the arms of a convenient waiter…’Slippery little suckers’ said the Pretty Woman, just like the nervous mother squooshing her baby out of the bath and onto the carpet, like a seal pup flopping onto the ice but with less padding and no moustache.

Just as with the biltong and the Niknaks, the Galaxy Bites were measured out into bowls so that no one, especially no one who happened to be doing the dividing in the kitchen by herself, could pop an extra one into her mouth when no one else was looking.

The unanimous verdict was Yum, with the corollary that they would be an acceptable substitute on Malteser-free days.

I’m having a few of those Malteser-free days at the moment:

• no blog-reading visitors of late
• Hub not needed to apologise for anything
• not been in a bad-enough mood to need cheering up
• and the pressing need to go on a bit of a diet

When ‘slapping thighs’ doesn’t mean Christmas pantomime, but can’t get into your pants any more, you know it’s time to give up the…well…erm…um…wine!  I’ll give up wine!  I’ve got half a bottle left over from Christmas in the fridge which needs chucking out; that should do it.

Now, how about some chocolate to celebrate my weight loss?

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To celebrate the launch, Galaxy Bites is holding a Twitter hashtag campaign asking chocolate lovers to reveal their favourite moments of bite-size indulgence.  Pop on over and check it out.

Disclaimer: I have not been paid to write this review.  Opinions are my own.  As always.