January 05, 2002

Welcome back! It looks like at least a couple thousand of you Schlockers were unable (or unwilling, although I find that difficult to imagine) to read the strip regularly during the holidays, but the server logs tell me you're all back, and you've all gone and caught up on what you missed.

I guess now would be a good time for me to reiterate a couple of things I've said before. First, I'm really thankful to have readers. It's flattering and it's fun to know that there are over 5,000 of you out there reading this strip. Thanks for coming back again and again.

Secondly, I think I should restate my commitment to you, my readers: New schlock here, every day without fail, forever (or until I die). It's gotten a little more difficult to keep up lately, but you guys are worth it. No hiatus, no interregnum, no comicus interruptus to pissus offus the masses.

Now, then... it's been a while since I posted a cool link, and boy howdy is this cool: the Astronomy Picture of the Day site has a new photo up every day with descriptions. The descriptions are richly hyperlinked, so you've got a productivity-killing pantload of free-association click-through for you to partake in. There's a complete archive online that goes back to June of 1995 (do the math: that's 2,392 cool pictures to look at). The picture that got my attention was this shot, which was taken with a 35mm camera and a telephoto lens from the International Space Station. It's a horizon-shot of the Himalayas, as visible only from really high up.