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Aug 13
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 We took another day out of our busy schedules to play tourist again, but it was Seattle, how could we not? We saw the Space Needle in the center of town. Then we saw the hypodermic needle floating in the public toilet.
Seattle has an international flavor, at least the tourist spots where we went did. We started in the City Center where we parked the car for the day in a relatively inexpensive garage. Apparently parking spaces in this town earn more per hour than the federal minimum wage.
From there we took the monorail to the West Lake Plaza. Round trip was $4, which works out to about one dollar per block. From there we strolled down to Pikes Place for breakfast. We started at the evil empires birthplace, the original Starbucks, established in 1971.
Since first launching their bid for world domination, they have progressed to the point of making all their cups and lids recyclable. I am hoping that sometime within the next three and a half decades they will begin recycling them.
Once we had our drinks in hand, it was off to Piroshky Piroshky for the main course. This small take-out bakery is run by a Russian family (not the Russian mafia), who know their business, and their business is delicious cheap food in a breaded wrapping.
For dessert, it was on to The Confectionals Cheesecakes for a cheesecake truffle. These were a bit more expensive, being about one dollar per bite, but they were worth it. Then again they were only about one cent per calorie!
Having satisfied our gastronomic decadence, we wandered around the market place a bit longer before walking back to the monorail for the return trip to the City Center. Here is where they keep one of the city’s treasures: the International Fountain. Nestled within its own crater, like a fallen meteorite, is a giant steel dome from which the waters pour forth.
Did I say pour?
They shoot out from many different outlets in an unpredictable pattern to the rhythm of the music played through the sound system. The young and sometimes older are enticed into dancing around the fountain tempting a sudden soaking and every so often, when the music is right, two giant spouts leap dozens of meters into the air and fall with a thunderous crash. It was one of the most awesome sights we witnessed that day.
After enjoying the fountain for a time, we retrieved our car and went to see the troll under the Fremont Bridge. He crouches under one end with an old VW Bug clutched in one massive hand. Despite having lived under a bridge and in Seattle, the Sun must have caught him at some time since he has been turned to stone. Now he is just something for tourists to climb on and have their picture taken with, if they can find a place to park.
See Christine’s previous post about our day of Marathon Sightseeing.
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Aug 09
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When Christine and I finally made it back to the west coast. Our first stop was at my Aunt’s house. She lives in an old San Jose suburb where houses are packed in as close as possible to one another. When my grandfather bought their house back in the fifties, he filled up the several-acre back yard with trees and orchards.
The front yard, which had a wrap around driveway, was filled up with olive trees and herbs. Flowering vines were trained up the fences and over the carport.
While neighbors were busy putting in up to six houses or small apartment complexes in their backyard acreage, my aunt’s place remained intact. Foliage keeps it hidden from the street and when one steps into the backyard, one is completely sheltered from the mad city surrounding this sanctuary. Life just naturally slows down.
A large brick patio surrounded by citrus trees provides an exterior living room with a table in the shade for meals, working, or just hanging out. Several chickens roam at will. Vegetables are grown. Walnut and fruit trees display their bounty. Snacks can be picked right from their branches. There is also a small workshop and guest cottage.
And yet it is close enough to walk to almost any kind of shopping one might desire. To my way of thinking, the property is worth much more as-is than the millions of dollars infilling with houses would bring.
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Jul 11
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Yes, I just had a birthday on Thursday. Forty-one is the number. I guess I am no longer a teenager, but I still feel like one sometimes. Thank the gods I don’t act like one. To my way of thinking, twelve is the right age to act. But I blend that with mature responsibility when called for.
When I was twelve, I spent most of my day working. For amusement I would carve and read. On Sunday afternoons which I had off I would usually go hiking in the woods. I was also working on my first book, which never reached completion.
Now that I am forty-one I spend most of my days working. When I have some free time I usually carve wood or read. Whenever I get the chance I go hiking in the woods. I also write books, some of which get finished and published.
I also still climb trees, go to amusement parks to ride the roller coasters, and have as much fun as I can. I enjoy each day that comes my way to the best of my ability. Along with being the best person I can be and doing what I can to make the world a better place for all living things, this is the meaning of life for me.
The world is a wonderful place and all its creatures are creatures of God, however they envision or fail to envision Him/Her/It.
Enjoy this life and stop worrying about what comes after. That is a mystery which will reveal itself in its own time.
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Jul 08
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Once again the great Harry Potter takes center stage as movie number six is about to hit theaters everywhere. But what causes these stories to be so popular? Why such a wide appeal? There isn’t even anything new or unique about them.
If you are looking for a school of wizardry why not try LeGuin’s Rork? Or Pratchett’s Unseen University?
Witches on brooms date back to the persecution of pagans in Europe.
Wizards with wands are as old as performing magicians who used them to hold the eyes of their audiences while their other hand was performing the tricks.
Dragons were a part of the oldest saga written in English.
Centaurs pre-date Greek writing, as does the orphan hero character.
Perhaps the reason these stories are so popular is precisely because they are so well known. We can identify with them. Jung would say they are a part of our collective unconscious.
What makes them even more appealing is that Rowling brings them into a modern and familiar setting, at least for English readers. The boarding school with houses competing against each other in sports and academia is an established part of England’s youth, complete with sinister teachers and castle like buildings.
These settings may be a bit more exotic for American readers, but the death struggles against Voldemort are still only secondary to the main adventure of trying to survive the growing up process and reach adulthood. Little do they know how much still awaits them after reaching this goal.
I applaud Rowling, not for her unique stories, but for how she can make the same old hat fresh and exciting.
Who wants to read about stuff they can’t relate to?
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Jul 05
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 Last Wednesday, we had a couple of days free between events, so we drove up into the Big Horn Mountains National Forest to get some work done. It was wonderfully relaxing and adventurous.
The drive up gave us some worries because it was a long steep grade. Our energy efficient vehicle could only pull our Geekalicious Gypsy Caravan at a very slow speed, but we made it in the end.
Our first stop was beside an alpine stream, snow fed and icy. We took the pups for a long ramble which we all enjoyed. Christine especially finds rushing water very healing.
Soon after we returned to the caravan, a ranger came by to make sure we weren’t camping where we were parked. We had planned on it, since the woman at the information station said it was “disperse camping.” But he was kind enough to tell us where we could go.
We found a nice spot within an Aspen grove.
I walked and climbed and explored. By the time we left, I felt several years younger. The best part happened the next morning when I was walking and carving. A moose wandered up so I ran back to our trailer to get Christine, who is a mooseaphile. But she probably already told you all about that.
She watched the moose graze until a second moose came up (above). I kept my distance a ways back, but she crept up silently, hiding behind trees to get a closer look. Behind one tree, she found this tiny beauty sleeping (left). It took this little guy a moment to realize she wasn’t his mother, and with a squeal of fright, he ran away on wobbly legs.
For me there is something special about walking through the wilderness, especially the woods. I feel much more connected with the world. I remember that I am a part of all creation. Because of this I become more creative.
It is where I do my best writing.
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Jul 04
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During Egypt’s New Kingdom, if I am not mistaken (actually let me check on that and get back to you), Amenhotep II ordered giant monuments of Egyptian pharaohs and gods to be built on their border with Nubia. Also included were temples covered in bas-relief images depicting the royal ass-kicking the Nubians would receive if they messed with the Egyptians.
Think also about when the fellowship of the ring entered the ancient bounderies of Gondor. This river passage was also marked with immense statues carved into the mountains depicting stern kings, also a warning to invaders and a display of the kingdom’s might.
Now consider Mount Rushmore, carved into a cliff side in the heart of Indian territory according to the original treaty. I find it hard to believe that this was anything but a deliberate reminder of who the new overlords of the ancient Indian lands were.
South Dakota talks a lot about Mount Rushmore, but the real monument is the Indian response to this deliberate affront. The Crazy Horse Monument, which is still incomplete as only a face, is 87.5 feet high as compared to Rushmore’s 60 foot high busts. When finished in the round, it will be 641 feet long and 563 ft high.
It was begun in 1948, and if it seems like it is taking a long time it’s because it’s funded completely by private sources, primarily the ten dollars per-person visitor’s fee to go see it. Rushmore, on the other hand, was a government funded construction which lasted from 1927 to 1941, at which time government funds ran out and the monument was declared complete as-is. Only about one third of the intended carving was completed. The Indians are still working away at theirs, so they are way ahead of the great white fathers on that score.
According to the treaty of Fort Laramie, Mount Rushmore is actually Lakota territory. Before being renamed after a gold prospector, it was known as Six Grandfathers and was considered sacred to the Lakota people.
Somehow I don’t see the U.S. giving it back any time soon.
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Jun 01
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I heard or read somewhere, I don’t remember where, that there is an initiative in the works by someone who’s name I don’t recall, to paint roofs white in order to combat global warming. The validity of this information is currently just below “Some guy in the pub said…” but I promise that as soon as I finish indoctrinating you with my witty opinions I will thoroughly research the issue.
First of all I must acknowledge that the idea has merit. One function served by the ice caps is too reflect heat back into space. As the ice and snow melt, less heat is reflected and so more ice and snow melts away.
Putting a white roof on your house is like having your own unmeltable reflector. This provides an additional benefit for those of us living in warmer climes by making it easier and therefore cheaper to cool a house. This in turn produces less of a carbon foot print. If your house has dark roofing material then it absorbs more heat and will be more expensive to cool, creating more of a carbon footprint.
Speaking of heat absorption take a look at our asphalt roads. Pure heat absorption coloration, and the material used holds the heat in. They are the main reason cities and towns are several degrees hotter than the surrounding countryside.
Concrete on the otherhand is very light in color so reflects much more heat. It is also much more durable so is much cheaper in the long run. The only reason asphalt is used at all is because it is a cheaper short term solution, and most neighborhoods and towns have an annual budget and quick fix philosophy.
So there you have it. White Roofs would be a good idea, but white roads would be even better.
Post Script:
It turns out that Nobel Laureate Professor and US energy secretary Steven Chu and proposed this initiative at a Nobel Laureate symposium. He also mentioned the roads, so I could have saved us both a lot of time by just sending you his link.
PSS:
Our Kindle 2 contest ends tonight at 11:59, so get those entries in!
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May 30
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What is this compulsion humans have for describing their miseries? People, sometimes even strangers, will describe at length how they slipped in the shower and hurt their third lumbar vertebrae and what their doctor said and how their movements are restricted and how their conversational skills have suffered and how it is impossible for them to ever stop talking about
it to anyone too polite to run away or bludgeon them with their own crutch and so on and on and on and on and on.
Those of us caught as listeners can only nod and fake sympathy until there is a pause long enough to let us co-opt the dialog to describe our own current or past injuries.
Why do we do it when we know our listeners are only pretending interest to hide their boredom until they can start talking about their own pain?
At this point in the blog, I would normally start offering possible explanations hopefully humorous and definitely bizarre, but I can sense that you are obviously bored and only reading out of politeness while you wait for your chance to add a comment, so I will shut up now.
Two more days to enter to win a Kindle! Contest ends at 11:59pm on 6/1.
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May 10
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Imagine, if you will, having a signed first edition of a famous author’s very first book. How could you get such an item? You ask.
Well there are two ways.
First, you can buy one for thousands of dollars when it becomes available for purchase at an auction. Alternately, you could start collecting signatures. New and aspiring authors are always around promoting their books with signing events. Why not start a collection? Obviously many of those authors will never become famous, but you never know.
Being a recently published author myself, I have been learning a great deal about what has proven to be a fascinating business. In less than half a year, I have already lost count of the number of signings I have attended, but I know I have signed well over a thousand copies of Rowan of the Wood.
I have always been a lover of books but never really considered collecting signed copies until I started signing them myself. It made me realize what I was missing. Now my collection is growing swiftly.
The benefits of acquiring a signed book is four fold.
First, you have a new book to read. This is always a positive for me. One can never have too many books, only too few shelves.
Secondly, it expands your collection of signatures. This not only increases your bragging rights, but also increases the probability of a potentially valuable acquisition. I have actually had a serious collector buy five signed and dated copies of the first print run of Rowan of the Wood.
The third benefit is that it provides an opportunity for you to talk with an author. The more famous authors don’t have the time to chat with fans at a book signing since there is usually a long line waiting for their attention, but many lesser known authors are happy to talk with their readers if no one is waiting in line. Writing can be a lonely profession, so it is very rewarding for an author to get feedback from people who have read and enjoyed the fruits of so much hard work. This makes authors very open to discussing their works or their writing process (sometimes even their pets or whatever). It is a good way to learn about the creative genesis of a work.
The fourth benefit lies in the way it supports and promotes literature in general. Our culture is becoming increasingly homogenized. Too much of our literature is narrow, mass-market fodder presented for the widest audience. Supporting the lesser known authors increases the variety of available literature. It takes literature beyond variations on a theme and allows for more truly original thoughts.
So get out there and start collecting. I predict that you will be pleased with the results. (Feel free to start with an author-signed, first edition, first printing of Rowan of the Wood!)
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May 05
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The Department of Homeland Insecurity raised the threat level to chartreuse yesterday based on information they received about a biological attack. According to Colonel Nutjob, the communist terrorist group responsible for this act released the statement “Four legs good, two legs bad.” They are still working on decoding this message. In the mean time, every screwball anchorman with a news show is offering their interpretation.
The particular biological agent released, known as the “Swine Flu,” was developed by the pigs themselves within the factory farms where they dwell. The factory farm is a form of farming without actual farms. The livestock are kept in warehouses under very cramped conditions. One witness claims it is almost as bad as her apartment complex.
Massing so many pigs together allowed them to not only organize a communist underground, but also to develop their unique biological agent. Their stated goals are to drive the humans from the factory so they can take over. Afterwards they will bring in some sheep to use as sweat shop labor for the manufacturing of lead based painted toys.
The security council is recommending that the population goes shopping for Duck tape since many senators have recently received big payments from the 3M lobby.
Reverend Bigot on his popular talk show “Send Me Money or go to Hell” declared that the flu was “God’s judgement against sinners.” He did not specify which sinners.
However, when asked to elaborate during a private interview, he admitted that they had “apparently picked the wrong Leviticus verse to enforce.” Rev. Bigot explained, “We never really took the whole not eating pigs thing seriously.” Originally founded back in April 2009, his sect extensively discussed which Leviticus verse to focus on. “We considered crusading against mixed fabrics, but it’s so much easier to hate actual people, so we went with the homosexual crusade. Boy is our face red.”
The Department for Disease Prevention says it will probably become a pandemic, but not to panic since Cuba has offered to send us 1,000 relief doctors to help with their country club dues.
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Ethan Rose is a theologian dedicated to the worship of Fern, the god of noxious plants. He is also a Senior Correspondent to the New York Times, Silly Department, but they have yet to print any of his articles. Oh, and he’s also an author.
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