Old-Fashioned Prognostication

No, I'm not making predictions for the success of Eclipse or any technology in 2009.

Another new year has arrived, and to usher it in I once again engaged in the timeless German tradition of Bleigießen:  the divination of one's future (for the coming year) in the pouring of molten lead.

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!