No, I'm not making predictions for the success of Eclipse or any technology in 2009.
The idea is simple: you cut a length of lead solder and heat it, in a steel spoon, over a candle or other tabletop flame, thus:
Once the lead is completely molten and flows freely, you pour it quickly into a bowl of cold water to chill it instantly. In the resulting sculpture, you see a shape, figure, or other graphic indication of what the year holds in store for you (rather like cloud gazing):
As you can see, my first attempt didn't show much and was actually spoilt by pouring too rapidly. Am I having puppies? Or are these tears? As this attempt failed due to a bad pour, I tried again, with a smoother and steadier hand:
That's more like it. I can read something into this! I see ... on the right-hand side ... a frog? Yeah, a frog. It's sitting on a stick, readying to jump into the water. The stick is jutting out of the water from right to left, like in so many creek-paddle scenes from my canoe tripping.
Looks like Mother Nature has another great canoeing season in store for me!
