Thunderbolts and Lightning

Long time, no see. Like, a lot longer than usual.

Turns out I didn’t post for our whole six weeks away in St Louis, Las Vegas, New York and South America. It was a very awesome and exhausting trip. But sorry to leave you hanging.

Luckily, good times were had by all, and were well documented, so there are a ton of cool pictures and videos to share with you. Spoiler alert: Brazilian fans are very awesome.

At this exact moment, however, I’m jetlagged to buggery, and will share with you just this one amazing thing.

On our flight from Rio, Brazil to Santiago, Chile, Justine tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the window. (She is a window sitter and I am an aisle-ist. Is there any more perfect marriage?) Outside, somewhere over Argentina, was a huge anvil of clouds, its structure revealed by the lightning flickering and flailing within.

It was a very big and violent thing to witness, especially from the fragile vantage of a flying machine. But any nerviness was totally outweighed by old-fashioned awe.

My iPad camera I managed to capture a fraction of what it looked like:

Pretty intense, right? But go look at it bigger on YouTube.

More cool stuff soon. Promizes!

162 thoughts on “Thunderbolts and Lightning

  1. Glad that you were all safe. Thanks for sharing the video.

    Due to your blog title, I’m now singing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, which I assume was your intention, Galileo, Figaro…

  2. I hope your trip was enjoyable! I understand your jetlagged-ness. One of the problems with traveling.

  3. Icy view! Storms while flying are the bubbliest- as long as there isn’t extreme turbulence and no one gets hurt.

    Also, I finally got to reading Shay’s Story (school was evil to me and I had literally no time to read for pleasure since I had 2-3 books a week for my lit class). And David’s letter to Shay – just wow. I had to stop reading and just thought about the whole tril and wow. That was painful. Can’t wait for Cutters!

  4. That storm’s quite something. How do you think Deryn would have responded to that? Awe, or worry for her airship’s safety? (it’s pretty close to what happened in the book…)

  5. Barking spiders! That would be terrifying! And also really exciting….sigh….I haven’t been off the ground for five years and counting….

  6. ooh, air travel! always gets me. i just have to watch the takeoff and landing, and be alert of the clouds and turbulence no matter how many times that day i’ve already seen it. airman instinct.

    wait whoa you were in New York and i didn’t know about it??? Scott, you need to tell us this stuff! NOOOOOOOO i missed my chance!

  7. Haha, that looks epic. I love airplanes…. I can’t really explain why, it’s just kindof a strange fascination…

  8. YESSS! i’m sure TrueUgly will find this interesting: i begged and pleaded for the Uglies so guess what my holiday present is? a brand new, shiny, boxed set of the Uglies. yay! now i can finally read them and not have to deal with the stupid library! MINE. ALL MINE. 😀

  9. You’re lucky, Scott! I love flying through storms cuz i never get sick so while everyone else is like UGH TURBULENCE i’m glued to the window like “oooh look at all the pretty lightning!” 😀

  10. You’re still alive! I was starting to get worried! Sorry to hear about your jetlag-ness. And that’s an awesome video!

  11. If I had seen this when I was 8 I would’ve died of a panic attack (I used to hate lightning) but now I just wish I was there cuz that looks pretty frikin’ awesome.

  12. Also Scott, don’t disappear for so long ever again! I thought some secret ninja organization had captured you! I was worried sick! 😉

  13. @14: You’re not the only one who’s read Uglies. I have, too. I just haven’t read the rest….Because then I started rereading Goliath….

    By the way, if anyone here is on DeviantArt, do you know what’s wrong? I keep exiting and coming back, logging in, going back to bookmarks, etc., but everything comes up in a really weird view like different lines and links that are usually there (create a muro, create a journal entry, etc.), but it’s nothing like dA at all and I can’t see any art….HELP!

  14. @20- you must read the rest. Prettiest is my favorite (just cause I’m a total sucker for Zane.) it is absolutely mind blowing.
    I’m working on reading Leviathan, but I’ve been really busy lately…

    @21- I know right! Not a day passes that I don’t think about the series!

  15. @21&22: I haven’t read it all because a) I got it from the library and I only checked out the one, b) I have too much homework, c) I have hundreds of other books that I actually own (not really hundreds but whatevs) that I need to read, and d) I reread my favorite parts of Goliath way too much….XD it’s mostly my fault, but I can’t help the rereading book. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND ONCE YOU FINISH THE BOOKS. Now THOSE are books I think about every day….
    OkaystopmeI’mgoingtostartramblingandgiveawaytheentiretrilogy. My comment signature on dA is bad enough….Maybe I should put it in Portuguese….(It’s from the Bonus Chapter, which got translated into Portuguese a while back. ^^ Only on the blog, though….)

    Leviathan people fill in the blanks if you can: Deryn was [blank blank], really, and [blank] worth throwing [blank] an [blank] for. Maybe that was too many blanks….blank=one word. If you get it, DON’T SAY WHAT IT IS. IT GIVES AWAY THE ENTIRE TRILOGY.

    Oh, on the subject of dA: It’s back to normal; I have no barking idea what happened.

    (Ooh! Uglies people: With reading Leviathan comes awesome swear words, too!)

  16. @23 your blanks were a little too easy, at least for me. but i won’t spoil it for the poor people who still haven’t read LBG

    @24 gotcha. i’m trying desperately, but spare time has gone extinct in my world.
    🙁 *sigh*

    @25 no not floods! i hope you’re safe now! but even if you’re not you still have Westerblog 😀

  17. Hey guys! I’m sort Of thinking about making a book trailer for Leviathan, only I can’t decide on the soundtrack. Any song suggestions??

  18. @26: I know. It’s so easy….I could quote so many LBG things at you, like, pages. And pages and pages and pages. And now I’m supposed to be memorizing two quotes from Lord of the Flies for our essay test tomorrow and I’m like, “EET EZ IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!” Favoritism can be crippling. XD

  19. @27 Young Pilgrims, by the Shins. I don’t really know why, but that song reminds me of Leviathan. Deryn mostly.

  20. @27: “The Minnow and the Trout” by A Fine Frenzy. It reminds me of when Alek and Deryn met, and the whole alliance between the Clankers and Darwinists.
    *checks playlist again*
    WhydoIjusthaveDaleksongsXD
    “Starlight” by Muse maybe. Maybe that’s too Dalek based….I can’t think of a good overall theme….I have too many songs for individual scenes. XD

  21. @31: Hello! how are you doing? i’m scrambled over all the work we’re getting before winter break! does your school torture you with this madness, too?

  22. Anyone here Pentatonix fans? I went to their concert on Tuesday!!! It was awesome, needless to say.

    Christmas break starts tommorow!! Although with basketball it’s not completely a break.

  23. that is so intense i love air travel. one time my plane got struck by lightning on a unrelated note i will have been obsessed with this blog for a year on christmas

  24. @32
    Psh!! I went on break last week xD all my finals are D-O-N-E!(: also, I got a 101.53% on my Algebra 2 final(: lol sorry I kinda wanted to show off xD

    @33
    What are you talking about crazy? We text like all the time lol(:

  25. hey everyone look at what i just noticed: we’re all posting comments on the 21st! screw the Mayans, looks like we’re all still here!

    @32 i get out for break today… this afternoon… T-minus 8hrs. 14minutes 28seconds and closing… i can’t wait any longer!

  26. @38- psh, no. I totally died when the world ended and now I’m part of the Zombie apocalypse! Haha

    @37- NICE! And it was sarcasm, my friend lol

  27. Hello, all. It seems that we’ve survived the apocalypse. We should tell all the little ones our epic survival stories when they grow up and just be like, “You were too young to remember it but…” or, “You weren’t born yet, and…”
    It will be amusing.
    Anyways, I trust you’ve all had a nice week or whatever. So some of you have had finals, I can see. Both of our school days for finals were cancelled, so we have two extra days of Christmas break, and they won’t be until the ACTUAL end of the semester. So none of my finals are done…
    *laughs* I remember Algebra II. *laughs some more* *fist pump* Got an A!
    Also, HI DEREK!!! (a.k.a. Daliz)

  28. @41: I had an A for like a day. Then she put the quizzes in and I went down to a B-. Again. Maybe I’m too much of a perfectionist, but I used to LIKE Algebra. I have no idea what happened. I do all the work right and somehow my answer is wrong? I don’t understand! I’d rather just calculate how many inches of water spread across the Leviathan’s membrane equals eight tons. (One inch, but it said so in the book.)

  29. I’m just wondering:
    Is anyone else DYING for Leviathan to be made into a movie? Because I think that would be just the best thing ever!

    I think everyone would have to be unknown actors, at least Alek and Deryn. And everyone would have to have their appropriate accent.
    I also think it’d be cool if they actually had everyone speak in the actual languages they’re supposed to (since most of it’s in English, anyway), with subtitles!

  30. So I went on a walk today to survey all the damage from yesterday’s apocalypse and some of the wreckage was pretty awful. I even saw a crack in the road and a patch of dead grass.
    😉

  31. I just saw the Life Of Pi movie. It was totally AMAZING.
    Does anybody know if the tiger was actually a real tiger??

  32. @45: YESYESYESYESYESYES
    They should totally do what they did for The Da Vinci Code, which was cast actors that were actually the correct nationality of the character. And yes on the languages and just YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

    By they way, I just saw The Rise of the Guardians. Did anyone else? IT’S SO CUTE.

  33. I want to see Rise of the Guardians AND Life of Pi (wanna read that one too)!

    @47 Person With Hat: You. Are. Awesome. lol. 🙂

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