Another busy day

Just scrambling with clean-up details still. Some rain, some sun today but I was too busy to look for rainbows.

The buds are starting to swell on the fruit trees so I'll have to gear up for spraying again soon.

Got a bunch of interesting books on alchemy from the library while I still can, oh and one by John Stossel; he's funny and makes you think.

So many interesting things happening in the world right now. Reprap has been making some great progress in the last few weeks. I'm not gonna dive into the politics except to say it still blows my mind that illegals are driving armored vehicles full of dope across the southern border and no one in our government seems to care.

Hope everyone's day is going peachy-keen.

Busy, busy

Ungh, numerous aches and pains. Spent the day doing a lot of stooping and hauling so many sore muscles in unusual places.

Lots of stupid stuff happening in the political world and the media but I'm too tired and sore to care. They can all go hang.

Hope your day or night is full of comfort and happiness.

A day of flame and smoke

Torched off lots of debris today. Also finally managed to get the fence line spraying done, should help keep down the weeds for a while.

Rain is supposed to come in tonight, nice change of pace. Although I have really enjoyed the sun and sky. With the big greenhouse up and cleaned out rain will be no impediment to work.

Have a fine and restful night or a fine and active day, which ever is appropriate.

Sunny monday

Long day, hard work, back hurts.

Nighty night, sleep tight.

Sunday even'

Got the greenhouse up and running, sorry no time to get pics.

Was a lovely day. Some sun, some clouds. It was a burn day so I had lots of fun setting the torch to things and just generally cleaning up. The first couple of trays of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and etc. are doing well. We'll buy some earlier stuff from Greenleaf Industries next week to get the jump on the season and then switch to our own plants when they reach size.

Well, I'm sleepy so I will wish you all a fine and feathery night and get on with my evening.

For the ladies

Found this at Sandmonkey, typical stupid web-meme vanity virus thing. But funny....

Guy's Name Is Too Too Sexy! :) Your name scored 209 in the "How Sexy Is Your Name Test"

How Sexy Is Your Name?

Sunday working

Trying to get the big greenhouse back up again but now the inlet hole has filled with water for some reason. So I either have to move the inflation fan to one of the other (outlet) ports or I have to come up with some way to drain the inlet. Started digging some trenches that will help keep any future rains out of the inlet but still have to come up with something more affective than bailing out the inlet which will only work temporarily. Thinking seriously of just buying a big extension cord and moving the fan; might be easier.

An easier and more rewarding Sunday to you.

Sunny=busy

Just some big patches of fog and cloud left up there. Lots of sun already flooding across the farm, so this'll be a short post. If I get a chance I'll put up a pic of the cool looking snow patches up on Mt. Fielder.

Hope your day is as light-full as mine.

Health Care

Rae Ann had some interesting things to say about universal health care in America in this post. Which has really had me thinking about a lot of the problems people face.

I got to talking with my dad specifically about the health care issue and right in the middle of our conversation an Aricept commercial came on tv. Yeah, it's great for alzheimers if you don't mind risking internal bleeding. My dad summed the whole conversation up like this:

"The medical and pharmacy system in America is like taking your car to the mechanic because you've noticed a knocking in the engine. The mechanic says 'yeah, we can fix that' and then he sells you a pair of ear plugs."

0% Unemployment?

An article at TCS Daily points out something I've been asking for years. Why is it necessary to have such high unemployment rates in America? Alan Greenspan kept commenting on the link between labor and inflation, especially through the 90s and I always thought "this dude is so out of touch, automation and computers readily absorb far more cost than is imposed by higher earning rates."

The article goes on to point out that this is even more true today with the outsourcing of labor to other countries that goes on. Inflation is no longer intimately tied to labor costs. Therefore, every American should be able to get a higher paying job; even those kids flipping burgers should get paid more.

Snow covered mountains

Wow! the valley is so beautiful today. The snow has melted a tiny bit off the hills bringing out just enough contrasting color. Not that it wasn't all really glorious in the fresh fallen snow but I guess every day is wonderful if you just look for the wonder.

Had a delightful breakfast with my friend Del this morning. If you're ever in Grants Pass, do yourself a favor and head down to the Powederhorn Cafe on 6th street. They have some really good biscuits and gravy and if you're there for lunch their pies are to die for.

Well, gotta go get back to work cleaning up in the barn. My uncles Arnold and Bill will be stopping by for a visit around the 10th of March and it isn't that I want to put up any sort of false front or anything, but it's a good excuse for getting some long standing maintenance jobs finished.

Hope your day is lovely.

2000+ words about snow

Here's dad clearing the snow from the carport:

A merry ol' prankster

Here is a delightful article about Stewart Brand who used to tour with the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead and who ran the Whole Earth catalog and helped to setup The WELL.

Oscars destroy life on earth

Can you imagine how much "greenhouse gas" was released transporting all those people to the oscar awards ceremony last night? How many CFCs were released manufacturing and dry cleaning their dresses and tuxedos? Oh, but they're going to save the rest of us from ourselves.

I am a trained scientist and I can tell you how to save mother earth, if each person will just send me 19.95$.

It's worth a try; if people are gullible enough to call Algore's scifi movie a documentary they'll believe just about anything.

3:10 am lightly snowing

Al Gore should do the planet a favor and hang himself; that much less hot air in the world.

Just got through clearing a couple inches of snow off all our "soft" out buildings like the small greenhouse. Fired up the computer to check the weather images. Imagine my cursing when I saw several more hours of rough weather coming.

Got go see if I can get a couple more hours of sleep before getting up and doing it again.

Happiness in the face of adversity.

Global warming my ass

Spring is only 26 days away and it's snowing here again. Cold, blustery weather plagues the entire country. I don't see evidence of any global warming much less anthropogenic global warming. The Greenland iceshelf slowed its retreat for the last couple years and India's glaciers are untouched. Global warming is a farce and it saddens me to witness how gullible my countrymen are to buy into it.

snow and rain

The mountains surrounding our little farm are decorated with an abundance of snow. The stark white texture sends a chill down my spine. The air has that sharp, sweet sort of metallicy smell which tells me the rain which is falling here has melted from the snow that is falling above on its way down into this warmer air. So glad to be inside, dry and warm on this Sunday morning.

I had a rough time sleeping last night, only one seriously weird dream about werewolves a strange river in a bed of black stone and the house I lived in when I was 14 out near Hugo.

Breakfast pizza is rapidly restoring my inner balance though, so I shouldn't have any trouble recovering from a spotty night's sleep.

Keep dry and be happy.

Codex Hammurabi

Wikisource has the Codex Hammurabi! This is the oldest written law known to mankind. As such it holds precedence over all that follows it. I especially like this one:

5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.

#1 answerer of questions

This fella is amusing, check out his blog.

Great quotes

Hope you are having a happy day.

My friend, Del, pointed out these great quotes. I hope they delight you and make you think, for they are good thoughts.

Politics and causes of death

Near the end of last year's sales season I had a couple of democrat customers show up who were lividly George Bush haters. Now, I don't agree with many of GW's policies, especially his immigration policy, but I don't hate the man. However, my discussion with those customers was a learning opportunity. They were singularly focused on the war in Iraq and the loss of our soldier's lives as the cause of their hatred. At the time I remember being subdued in my responses, because I couldn't find any perspective relative to their's.

However, now a recent article has enlightened me. It turns out that more American are killed every year by illegal aliens than soldiers have been killed in the entire Iraq war.

Not that this is a big surprise, after all violent crime in America isn't exactly absent. Our soldiers are probably as safe in Iraq as they would be in many American urban centers. However, the fact points out an inconsistency. If we are to be outraged over the loss of our soldier's lives in Iraq, shouldn't we be more outraged over the needless loss of our citizen's lives here at home? If it is so important for our democratic congress to stop the war in Iraq, shouldn't it be even more important for them to stop the killings here, in our own streets and homes?

Once more we see that government has lost the trail of doing what is right for those they govern.

Floor space

Am reveling in new open floor space that has come about as we've hauled away several loads of junk from the barns, shop and greenhouses.

Mt. Fielder is wearing a cap of snow although most of it around here has melted away.

Gonna go to sleep early tonight as I'm sort of tired. Apparently driving to Medford twice in one day is more taxing than it seems. Was fascinated by the enormous variety of trash that ends up in a landfill transfer station. We dropped a lot of stuff in the recycles, newspaper, assorted plastic, aluminum etc. But had half a truck of mixed junk/trash and when we dropped off our garbage there was so much construction waste and weird scraps laying in there. One dump truck was completely full of dry-wall. Yoiks! I thought, that's pure gypsum; I could've used that on my soil. Oh well, that ol' saw about one man's treasure.

About 28 days until spring, how strange to feel winter winding down like this.

Hope your day has been pleasant.

Condor journalism

Sometimes my dad can be so freakin' funny.

You know how there's all this damned news coverage about Anna Nicole Smith on the big media channels? My dad says "They've got their big ol' twelve foot wingspan spread out and are floatin' on hot air just looking for a dead body."

With full respect to her family, I wish someone would tell the media that this isn't the great big whoopin' crane of a story they want us to think it is. Nobody out here in peon land cares! Leave us go on to something that is actually NEWs.

Blogger sentenced to 4 years for being honest

A fellow blogger has been sentenced to four years in prison for speaking his mind.

out! out! darn snow

We've had about three inches of snow fall since last night. Got up around 2:30 am and raked off the greenhouse, carport etc. had to let the big greenhouse down again.

So as you can imagine, I'm grumpy today. The brunch burrito I just got through eating is cheering me up a little, however.

The snow continues to fall and melt. Although we've had several inches come down only an inch or so has accumulated. It is very squishy out there.

Hoping any squishiness you encounter today is fun squishiness.

Storm mess

Evil lookin' clouds come down out of the west as I drove home from the library.

It's starting to rain now.

Big mess in my barn from cleaning up; from chaos, order?

Dad and mom and I been talkin' about this maybe being our last year of farming. All our backs are achin' and the times been a-takin' their toll. Leaves me feeling really weird, the future uncertain, as it has always been, but now uncertainty more starkly lit.

Gotta get back out to the barn, it's a burn day and the fire will go well with this storm.

Hope your day is warm and dry.

The Purge

Spent today getting into the massive grind of a full scale clean-up. Borrowed my brother's truck while he's away in Idaho on a welding gig, put side racks on it and started a process of "survival of the fittest" that is, whatever we can't fit in the truck will survive ;-)

This weird changing weather is giving me aches and pains. I've been grumpy and jumpy all day. Supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. When we're done with the run to the dump I'm gonna spray the fence lines between showers if I can summon the courage.

Hope your day has gone/will go smoothly.

lazy Sunday

wonderful sunny day

Only 30 more until spring. I can feel the pressure starting to build and already my back hurts. Gonna have to start doing sit-ups again.

Today was a burn day in Jackson county. Hooray! Or as Beavis would say, "Fire! Fire!"
Torched off a huge mound of old cardboard and crate scraps and another big pile of grape and blackberry trimmings from last year. The jets of flame and pillars of smoke were glorious. Al Gore $h!t a brick as we rocketed past our "carbon cap". Three cheers for global warming, I can't wait until I can grow pineapple here.

No important animal sightings today although my black cat did come down and visit me in the field as I sat meditating besides the last smoldering embers of the blackberry pile. I could hear one of the turkeys, probably that ol' Tom chortling somewhere up the hill. I got into one of those still, peaceful states of mind wherein you can almost see the shadows moving, the plants growing.

Wishing you that same peace.

Suicidal congressmen

Henry Waxman (D-California) stood on the floor of the House of Representatives today and firmly tied a noose around the neck of every American. "What we now have in Iraq is a defeat." he said. What he was saying to our enemies was "We're a bunch of cowards, would you please come and kill more of us." Count on it my fellow Americans, just as it was in a Salt Lake City Mall so shall it be everywhere. Our brave new democrats are making sure that we have all the rope we need.

John Dvorak on politics and blogs

I have enjoyed reading John Dvorak's writing since an article way back in "80 micro" magazine (a Trs-80 sort of precursor to PC magazine back in the early 80s) He has an interesting article about why politicians will try and fail to corrupt the blogosphere in the upcoming 2008 election. I agree with his assessment: this should be, if not hilarious, at least worth quite a few giggles.

awful night

Glad to be up and about. Little sleep and poor.

Had several vicious nightmares last night. Strangely, woke up feeling rather detached and even indifferent. The silver lining was that I loitered part of the night away watching the Annanberg CPB show about sedimentary rocks and then the one on metamorphic rocks. The perfect antidote to macabre machinations of the dark.

My back got quite sore from all the pruning I did yesterday. Over half the apple trees are finished now and I'll probably finish the last yellow delicious today and start on the biggest tree in the middle of the orchard tomorrow.

There are now 19 wild turkeys grazing on our farm. They rushed me as I came out of the barn this morning, that was kinda scary. The one big ol' Tom has a beard about 9 inches long and the most spectacular bronze colors on his feathers. I quick grabbed a couple of dried corn cobs we saved from last season and broke them out some feed. It's things like that which always makes me laugh at the environmentalist's rhetoric against the farmer. Farms make more wildlife than those idiots could ever comprehend. But they're always railing against us and our fertilizer run-off and pesticides. As if any farmer still in business would waste fertilizer or pesticide so as to create run-off. Duh! Somebody tell them it ain't the '50s anymore.

Have a great and restful day.

A lovely late winter day

Started the day with a hearty breakfast at the Powderhorn Cafe in downtown Grant's Pass, thanks to my fine friend Del for the food and good company. Gave Del a little help with his computer and then made my way home through an assortment of errands for mom.

Got home and slacked for a while, reading etc. while the last few showers passed. Then finally got out and started pruning in the apple trees. That's pretty much all I've gotten done today, what a bum!

Last night I had a few interesting dreams. An ominously rumbling flying saucer covered most of the sky as I rode the lawnmower down the driveway. The funny part was upon awakening I realized that the "flying saucer" looked like the bottom of my dad's 8mm film projector which he had taken off for repairs. Even in my dreams UFOs are fake.

I've been reading Dinesh D'souza's book "The virtue of prosperity" which I have found interesting. Mr. D'souza seems to have the interesting distinction of offending both far left and far right sensibilities. Look him up on the web and you will find fevered attacks upon him from both camps. Sort of delights me; he must be saying many truths if diametrically opposed people dislike him. I find him thoughtful, thorough and insightful. His critics seem to be shallow and closed minded. The truth hurts they say and apparently Mr. D'souza is something of a mental sadist.

Wishing you all a thoughtful and insightful day.

Valentine's Day

I wonder how many people "celebrating" this holiday are aware that it is dedicated to a man who was killed for marrying people against church policy.

Taoism teaches that the universe is composed of complementary opposites. I've always figured that somewhere, somewhen, someone out there was a nice lady who is/was/will be my compliment. Despite the impossibility and futility of the thought, I'd like to wish her a happy Valentine's day. Sorry no chocolate, neither of us needs the calories ;-)

As for the rest of you, I wish you happiness and contentment in your hearts.

Off topic- Utah gunman was muslim

I normally try to keep this blog centered on my farming and events around this local area but I've been so disgusted by the mainstream media and government's cover-up efforts that I just had to post something here.

Over at Hyscience is a whole collection of links pointing to the fact that the shooter at that mall in Salt Lake City was a muslim carrying out his own personal violent jihad.

Sorry to post such downer stuff here but sometimes these things are necessary.

A lovely day

Spring has made its first influences known. Today was a sublimely delightful day. The sun radiated from between clouds of ominous color and shadow. The verdant hillsides seemed to ripple with a strange new strength. It was almost a buzz just being out working beneath the open sky again.

We got the big greenhouse blown back up and all was well. Some minor holes were punched in the plastic but no serious harm done. So nice to have that big, warm space ready again. And we got the northern section of deer fence up too. So all things considered a pretty good day.

Hope your day is/was/will be just as productive and happified ;-)

Cloudy work day

No significant dreams to report, only one fragment of one where I was trying to jump across the driveway which was covered in ice or running water. No idea what that was all about.

Done with my tea and crumpet. Just gotta get on my work shoes now.

Should be a good one for work today. Supposed to be partly cloudy today so blowing up the greenhouse this morning will be nice.

An interesting side note, D-wave devices is supposed to be demonstrating the world's first 16 qbit quantum computer today. If true that is a dramatic jump in our ability to use quantum mechanics for computing. I'll be keeping my eye on developments and will try to keep you apprised.

Have a great day.

Twilight weirdness

Just after having dinner with mom and dad in the main house I was trudging out to my barn with laundry. It was dark and raining and I had left my jacket outside. In the distance, to the west, a murder of crows was cawing a ruckus chorus of crow laughter. The bastards! they couldn't see me but they knew I was getting wet while they were safely tucked away beneath limbs and branches.

Oh well. I guess crows need a little humor now and then too.

The last few nights I've had intense and portentous dreams which leave me with rich and delightful after thoughts so I am looking forward to tonight's episodes. If you read this before Tuesday morning perhaps my mind will draw upon your consciousness to form new and interesting reflections.

Good night and good dreams.

Gordon Smith on Cspan2

We've been listening raptly to a rather in-depth speech by our good senator Gordon Smith detailing the betrayal of Oregon by our federal government. This is part of the egregious program of social diminishment started by president Clinton that has led to the upcoming closing of all libraries in southern Oregon as well as the extreme reduction of all other government services: road maintenance, police, fire protection, etc. etc.

If you have a chance to catch it now, it is quite revealing. Otherwise I think you can get it from the Cspan website or catch it on re-run.

Back to work

Not much rain today so it'll be back to work for me. My two month long weekend is just about over with, the next few weeks are gonna be sort of like getting ready for work Monday morning. Getting your socks on, warming up the car, packing your bag lunch etc. as we put together all the stuff we need. Seed orders have to go in, the greenhouses have to go up. I'll start setting my alarm a little earlier each morning. If we have 3 or 4 dry days in a row we'll start plowing and finish the deer fence.

My only regret is that I didn't get the fractal scanning software I was working on with Paul finished before this winter was over. Always nice to have the loose ends tied up before changing gears, if you don't mind a mixed metaphor. Oh well, just something to putter around with until next winter.

Wishing you all a productive and rewarding day.

Pat Sajak freakin' rocks

No wonder Ed Grimley liked him so much...

The Big Thaw, Part 3

The Broken Pipes Variance.

It took three days for the ground to thaw enough for water to finally flow again in my barn. Today the true consequence revealed itself in a small fountain of water in the driveway. So we shut the water off to my barn at the well and I started digging between rain showers. It's this sort of thing that taxes a guy. Instead of working on getting the last ropes across the greenhouse I'm fudging around with mud and muck.

The crows have been making fun of me all day. They must have seen this coming.

Wishing you all a day free of broken things.

Rain !?

Every forecast I could find yesterday had today just partly cloudy with the rains coming in way late today. But this morning it is just pouring down out there. So much for getting the big greenhouse back up today. Darn!

Couldn't sleep well last night so I sat up reading some "Dresden Files" the books are much better than the shows and the shows are pretty darn good. Consequence of late night reading: weird fragmented dreams. Which is sometimes better than weird coherent dreams.

Here in the basement, cocooned by the soft sussuration of rainsong, I can momentarily feel safe and warm. The world's mad dash towards god-only-knows-what is attenuated and my heart rests easy. For now.

Wishing you a warm, fuzzy and delightful day.

I like this

Hey, I found another great blog. A bit preachy and politicy but also some great clear thinking, enjoy.

Song of the wind

Today was a fine day beneath the clouds and blue sky. The sun played hide-and-seek all day. Another hawk came by a little after noon. She screamed that high pitched screech from very high in the sky. The thermals must have been great for riding around today. She wasn't a red-tail, her color was all white and gray pinions from below. Still beautiful.

The wind sang to me quite a bit today. Often I noticed her voice like some long forgotten friend. Even before the day started, right after I woke up I thought I heard someone calling my name, but I was alone.

Dad and I got the rest of the fence posts on the north side of the field driven in today and then we hooked up the terracer and dad plowed the dirt back into the greenhouse trench. If the rain holds off until tomorrow evening as it is supposed to we will finally have the big greenhouse back up and running.

Hope you all have a fine and happy day.

The voice of rain

As I was walking in the rain today I listened to the voice of rain upon my umbrella. It whispered to me of far away and secret things. The clouds swirled and mist flowed across the top of Mount Fielder. I breathed deep the faint aromas of winter. The air was clean, pure. The smells were faint ghosts, echoes of summer lawn mowing and watermelon seed spitting. Pines battered by the wind gave up a perfume of different memories.

The road had become packed by the few days of warmer weather before the rains came. After the frost it was loose and smooshy, thank goodness the rains held off a couple days. As it is, only a little sand and clay has washed to the bend in the driveway where dad and I cut a waterbar diverting the rivulet beneath the redwood trees.

We didn't get the greenhouse up before the rains returned but we got everything ready for the first good day. All we have left is to drive the tractor along the south side to bury that edge and pack it down and to tie off a few more retaining ropes. Then we will turn on the fan and return to our 140 by 35 feet of glorious artificial spring.

Yesterday morning when mom, dad and I took Sparky for a walk there was a gorgeous red tail hawk riding a thermal rising from our neighbors pasture. When we first saw him he was only about a hundred feet off the ground but in only a short while he ascended on spirals of sun and air to almost vanish in the blue sky. Then, just before he was too high to see, he dove out of the thermal and sped away to the southwest.

Free speech continues its descent

Along with Ted Kulongoski suppressing the free speech in Oregon, now 5 students have been fired from their positions on Long Island Collage campus for expressing themselves. Admittedly their video might have been in bad taste ( although the protest of muslims seems a bit ironic ) but they are still entitled to their opinion in this country.

Orblogs not so bad

I was forming the perhaps mistaken opinion that Orblogs was a liberal dominated oppressor of free speech but they've uplifted my faith in their service by highlighting Mover Mike's very interesting blog in their "popular" section.

Global worming

My state's gots worms and its name is "Ted Kulongoski"

My misuse of english in that sentence is no worse than the misuse of science which is currently going on in the Oregon state capital. It seems the King governor of Oregon, Turd Kulongoski, has decided to fire our state climatologist because he wants to be scientifically accurate and professional.

It is interesting to note that one of Canada's top climatologists had this to say on the subject of global warming. Or as the Sunday Telegram put it in yesterday's Grants Pass Daily Courier:



Now don't get me wrong, I'm totally in favor of reducing emissions and getting off the use of petroleum. But lying to the public about scientific inquiry is not the way to do it.

The Great Thaw, part 2

It's really getting nice out there. Almost all the snow is gone and the puddles have even begun to drain away. Quite a bit of the earth is still frozen but dad and I are thinking that the 2 main fields up here on the hill might actually get dry enough to run a disk over them by Tuesday. That would be so glorious, to smell fresh turned soil again. I just can't hardly wait. If all goes well I might be planting peas by this time next week. I'm getting giddy!

Hope you all are doing well and happy with life's little vicissitudes.

Mark (up) of the beast

Quite literally. I've been chilled and disgusted to find that once again our so-called government has instituted a pogrom of heinous proportions. I don't normally write about these sorts of things, but since this one directly pertains to farming I felt it appropriate.

There is a federal mandate to place RFID tags in all livestock in the United States. The program is called "NAIS" and will be paid for by the individual livestock owners. This includes you even if you just own one chicken or anything else that can be construed as livestock. This even extends to many pets due to the way the law is written.

This is another hidden law passed in the dark of night the only purpose of which is to help the government to control our food supply. Since the tag database is not available to farmers, scientists or anyone else but government officials it can serve no useful purpose. It is only to track the dollar value and location of the entire livestock supply of America.

More details here. We're one step closer to that horrible and inhuman scenario that everyone senses but refuses to think about.

The big thaw

Finally! After about a month of frozen conditions the weather has began to change. I could tell right off this morning when my wisdom teeth started to ache like someone was twisting them with a ratchet. That always means the air pressure is dropping. In most parts of the world an air pressure drop coincides with a temperature drop but around here it means a new front is moving in off the coast and that is usually accompanied with moisture and a more energetic air mass. Consequently in winter it often brings an actual increase in average temps.

The snow has started turning to slush in the driveway and is generally diminishing everywhere else although much of the surrounding soil is still hard frozen. Hopefully these conditions will sustain for enough days for the entire mass to thaw out. Then I can really get back to work.

Despite the agony of my wisdom teeth/sinuses I am overjoyed at this change. I'll see if I can find some herbal remedy to help with the transition and if nothing else is available there's always naproxen sodium.

Hope you all have as fine and more comfortable a day.

Some good reading

Charles Krauthammer is an excellent writer and makes some very thoughtful and significant points in this piece about who's to blame for the chaos in Iraq.

The Dangers of insomnia-Mooninite mania

For quite a number of years I have been struck with minor boughts of mid-night insomnia. Consequently I often sit up at 2 or 3 am in the morning and watch the Cartoon Network's AdultSwim block of "edutainment" especially the now notorious Aqua Teen Hunger Force which recently shut down Boston.

I've been checking out many other blogs this morning and laughing my butt off. I just can't help myself, I know I should be sympathetic, concerned and patriotic but I just can't get past what a bunch of asses the Boston authorities are being about this.

We live in a dangerous world wherein a drawing of muhamud can invoke riots and mooninites can bring an entire city grinding to a halt. What artwork must we fear next? Will the Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David go on a killing spree? Are we all doomed to be memetically infected by the Andy Warhol soup can pandemic?

Let's all take a moment to laugh at ourselves; life is short and we need the exercise.

Canary in the coal mine.

Or maybe a candle in the wind.

It's official, our neighboring county of Josephine will be closing its libraries soon. And the Jackson county libraries may be following them shortly into oblivion.

These are the signs of chaos folks.

We've got a government that has flushed 500 billion dollars down the toilet of Iraq (some of which has gone to pay for weapons used to kill our own soldiers no doubt) and to add insult to injury now we have a congress dedicated to stopping our last chance to win in Iraq. The democrats are selling us out to special interests and the republicans are selling us out to big business. Neither party is interested in representing the well being of the run-of-the-mill American.

We've got enough geothermal energy to provide almost 100% of our electricity needs for 400 years but is anyone in government or business interested in pursuing that? No, just give us the status quo, never mind killing the price of oil and stopping our enemies dead in their financial tracks.

In Boston they're jumping at shadows, a couple of 1 foot square plastic placards shut down the entire city. But do any of them care that the southern boarder is more porous than cheese cloth? Heck no we need all that cheap illegal slave labor. Meanwhile millions of Americans are out of work and millions more are also homeless.

Chaos abounds. Tiamat's eye shutters open and Ctullu heaves a deep sigh of contentment while Kingu, Hubol and a thousand other bloody gods stir the cauldron of discontent. Human flesh is their favorite meat and bones burn to heat the stew.

Ok, I admit I'm being melodramatic. But come on people, does any of the stuff that's happening in this world today make sense?

Another lovely day of frustration

The sun is bright and warm, the air sweet with a gentle winter breeze. The ground is frozen hard like the heart of a vicious frost giant. Lovely crystals of ice decorate the driveway and orchards and I hate it.

The beauty is wonderful but it is just killing my ability to get done the serious jobs I have to do. And I'm sick and tired of spinning my wheels with make-work and trivial chores. It's too frozen to work on the equipment and even pruning is difficult with 2 inches of hoar-frost to contend with.

Sorry to be whiny like that, I sometimes forget how wonderful a life I have and what great luck to live in this land of freedom and choice. It is kinda funny and ironic though that things can be simultaneously so great and also so irritating.

Wishing you all a smoother and more melodious day.

My light cone

The speed of light produces some very interesting consequences. One of these is the concept of a "light cone" the sphere of causality bounded by how far light will travel from a given point in time.
This website Will allow one to enter a date (preferably a birth date) and obtain details of the cosmos within the light cone from that date.
I'm not gonna list all the stuff in my light cone, but here's the most recent elements:

Coming: Rho Cancri (3 months away)

Rho Cancri is 40.9 light years away and only 3 months from the outer surface of your light cone - your ever-growing sphere of potential causality - which began its expansion from Earth on Guy's birthday.
80. 85 Pegasi

85 Pegasi is 40.5 light years from Earth. It was enveloped by your light cone 2 months ago.
79. Beta Trianguli Australis

Beta Trianguli Australis is 40.1 light years away.
78. HR1925

HR1925 is 39.9 light years away.

Some of that stuff gives me weird "astrology" vibes.

Another frozen night

A lot of us around here have been noticing that this is the longest our yards have remained frozen in recent memory. The snow which fell over two weeks ago is mostly gone from our fields but up the hill here amongst the orchard and between the barns several inches of white stuff remains. I say white stuff because I don't think it is snow anymore although much of it is just as fluffy. On the darkside of one of our metal storage buildings the ice crystals have grown into huge almost feathery proportions.

This is a mixed bag, good for the apples and other dormant fruit but quite difficult on the long list of work which is backing up behind the frozen ground, so to speak. Even the big fields are frozen at night and turn into smooshy mud slicks during the day as the ice crystals which heaved the soil melt away and leave something with a totally glue like consistency.

The weather is supposed to mellow this weekend so dad and I are preparing ourselves mentally for the onslaught.

Hope everyone out there is having a great time.

Farberware scissors suck

Fellow buyers beware!
Dad bought mom a 4 pack set of farberware scissors for Christmas at Fred Meyer's and mom just finally got around to breaking them out to use on some stitching she was doing. Out of the four only the tiniest pair was worth a darn. The other 3 were useless, the largest shear type being unable to even cut denim.

This is part of a disconcerting trend that has become evident since many American manufacturers began moving their production over seas. It is especially noticeable with products originating in China. Chinese factories will regularly make products which look nearly identical to an American made product but which completely fail to perform the task for which the device or product was intended. These items then displace locally made items from the shelves of our stores due to the larger profit margin that the store can make from them. The end result is we throw away money for a product which has no value what-so-ever regardless of how cheap it is.

Still a little messy

Need to spend a little more time zip-tying all the cables together but this new desk is pretty rock'n. Gonna enjoy doing all my computer stuff from this new vantage.

The Guy is back online

Hi Everybody!

Dad and I finally finished the clean-up/remodel and desk build for my computer room. I'll get you a pic a little later today. It feels like being on the deck of the starship Enterprise ( Lqtm ) Will take a little while to get used to but I like it. A very nice Christmas gift from mom and dad.

Well, gotta go out and do some stuff while the sun is out.
Have a lovely day.

My kinda pie

Thanks Rae Ann for virusing me with this amusing concept, one of many reasons I enjoy your blog, for the mental infections I might get.

Guy is Apple Pie

You're the perfect combo of comforting and traditional Those who like you crave security

What Kind of Pie Are You?

I'm still mostly offline for a couple more days while working on the room, be patient.

Bloggish interruption

I'm embarking on a project to repaint and generally remodel the room I do my computer work in so I'll be offline for about 2-3 days as I disassemble, renew and reassemble my working space.

Hope everyone out there has a super fine time while I'm gone.

Bloggers Beware

To all people who blog on American soil:
Our new democrat controlled congress is adding to the march of tyranny by attempting to remove some of your first amendment rights. Buried deep in 9000 word bill before congress right now is a provision which will criminalize certain blogging activities. Claims have been made that the provision is tightly restricted to only one tiny class of bloggers but if you look into it the wording is quite vague and could apply to many people who blog regardless of political affiliation or income (although the specifications do seem slanted against more successful bloggers)

By some measures of this bill, my encouraging you to contact your congressman to help prevent this becoming law would be construed as committing a crime. But since it isn't in place yet, for heavens sake, contact your congressman or woman and get section 220 of this bill struck down.

No member of our blogging community should be silenced, regardless of their income our political bent.

More details available here

melting snow, busy work

The recent storm reset a whole bunch of our projects and set us all off on tangents. Dad has been winnowing onion seed today, managed about 120$ worth already and I've been rummaging through piles of old tasks that got sidetracked when the weather was better. Getting ready to remodel part of the basement and etc. Snow weather is great for inside clean-up. We've also started on the second round of seeding and sprouting for when we get the greenhouse up. Even started some tomato seeds, how's that for ambitious?

Just got through feeding mom's birds. Boy have they been busy. The thousands of tiny bird tracks in the snow look like some incredible book of unknown origin. If only I could decipher it what wisdom might I find?

Wishing you a fine day and warm toes.

Snowy day

Just some pics. Snow lane, Sparky chasing a ball in the snow and Dad knocking some snow off the roof of the barn.

Cold, good work day

Pruned grapes, cut firewood, did some clean-up and lots of other trivial stuff. Tired now.

early to bed, early to rise, yada yada ....

Hope everyone is doing well, being well and thinking well.

21 degrees F

Another lovely morning in the Pacific Northwest. The air so chill it makes me thirsty. The sky a livid blue like some otherworldly influence. The ground frozen so hard it is dry and not even slippery on the icy patches. The frost has grown enormous in the night air, like living things from the dark and ancient past returning to haunt the world of today.















And there are even some icicles, first time I've seen those around here in about 8 years:















Hope this day treats you to something just as beautiful.

17 degrees F this morning

Brrrrrr......
Huge crystals of hoar-frost grew on the snow remaining from the night before last. It looked really cool but my rotten HP digital camera wouldn't capture a good image of them, sorry.

Dad has a roaring fire going in the basement stove so the big house is really comfy. My loft in the barn is being kept a tolerable temp but I hate to think of the electric bill.

Gonna get crazy and go out there to prune some grapes shortly. It has reached about 27 degrees now and I'll be wearing a load of layers so it shouldn't be too bad.

Wishing you a safe and comfy day.

Hooray for China!

According to this article at physics news China's blogging population reached 20.8 million in 2006. Still a pittance of their 1 billion plus population but a heck of a good start. So glad to have all you wonderful people join us in the blogosphere.

Mt Fielder Erupts

Well, it looks like it anyways:

Shout out

Just checking my stats. A big Boo-Rah! to Netanya in Hamerkaz. Thanks for stopping by.

Good day of chores

Had a fine day beneath the hanging bed sheet of fog today. Never once saw the top of the mountain but temperatures were cool to moderate and I managed to get some stuff done. Sawed some branches off the yellow delicious apple trees, cut blackberries and pruned grapes in the vineyard. Mom was in town with a couple of routine doctor's appointments so I did the dishes and made supper for her. Dad was driving because of her cataract (the second appointment of the day was pre-op for that ) so I pretty much had the farm to myself. Peaceful.

Spent a little time putting together the components for another experiment. Combining biofeedback with the quantum entanglement of electrons and coherent photons. Should have everything assembled in a couple days. If you haven't read Rudy Rucker's "Master of Space and Time" give yourself a couple good chuckles and a brain cramp if you can get it at the library.

Off to flick through the channels a couple times and then to bed. Have you noticed how totally sucky with advertising TV is getting? I'm thinking seriously of building my own TiVo. Now that multi-gigabyte hard drives are cheap it shouldn't be too difficult. I even saw that a Terabyte drive will be out shortly for less than 400$ what a deal.

Wishing you a warm, dry place to sleep, a full belly, freedom, and peace.

911 mysteries

Couldn't sleep last night so I sat up and watched a show called "911 mysteries" which was on one of the public broadcasting channels. I kept an open mind and watched attentively as a whole string of facts and conclusions were laid out for me. When it was over my eyes were really opened.

Opened to how easy it is to employ the same propaganda methods used by Hitler and Stalin. I was reminded again of all the advertising coercion techniques I've read about and the memetic control methods such as cognitive dissonance which play upon how our perceptions are formed.

911 mysteries was definitely just such a piece of propaganda. Numerous statements are presented as "facts" without anything to back them up. Fact: cats can fly. Yeah, if you put them in a catapult first. The most egregious bit of visual programming was when they showed a number of steel columns cut at a diagonal and claimed that the picture was from moments after the collapse of the WTC. According to the filmmakers this was evidence of the use of explosives. Anyone familiar with steel working could tell that those beams had been cut by oxyacetylene torches and left to stand in open air for weeks. I guess when it comes to getting out the "truth" the ends justify the means, especially if it means lying. And that is just one example, I might have let it slide if the entire thing hadn't been put together in exactly the same fashion.

The only mystery behind "911 mysteries" is why the people who made this pointless fabrication aren't laughed off the face of the earth. 911 mysteries is a poorly executed attempt at insulting our intelligence and besmirching the good name of serious workers by grand standing attention hogs who's only excuse is utter and contemptible ignorance. The funniest part to me was the last few frames wherein the makers encourage everyone to "question authority" and not to be afraid as we all find our way through "The Keyhole of 911" Alright, I question the authority of the makers of 911 mysteries; they should all get a job at McDonald's or Wal-Mart instead of faking documentaries.

I can see clearly now

The rain is gone. All obstacles seemed to just disappear. Or something like that.

It is a wonderful out there right now. The sky has cleared to a deep almost azure color and the clouds make a counterpoint of cheerful free whiteness caressing the mountain tops and dancing in a gentle winter breeze. It's a Sunday and I'm not even going to recriminate my own laziness. Just too damned nice of a day.

Wishing you all the same ten times more.

Cheap electricity from lightning?

Was reading some articles at my favorite open-access science website, IOP new journal of physics when I came across this fascinating bit of thinking. These gentleman from malaysia have an idea for triggering lightning using ultra short laser pulses. And as if that weren't cool enough they also have a proposal for capturing and storing some of the electrical power present in the lightning stroke.

Weird dreams, poor nights

Lost about 2 hours of sleep last night because the weird dreams wouldn't leave me alone. For only the second time I can recall I saw fire in my dreams. This is very odd because it has only happened in the last couple of weeks. This time it was quite spooky because the fire was threatening to engulf the kitchen. Last time it was just a tiny spot on the carpet easily stamped out. Sat up watching "Adult Swim" on the cartoon network and flipping channels rather than tolerate that crap.

Many other odd and eclectic dreams filtered through my mind last night only a few seemed connected to anything that would actually come from my own experience. Many were laced with what I label as "outside influences" whatever those are. Most of these occurred once I went back to sleep.

Today I'll mostly be pruning and cleaning up. It is cold and windy outside, 32F and much colder with the wind chill factor. The mountains around the farm are masked by fog but snow can be seen everywhere just a few hundred feet above us.

Hope your day is restful and free of worry.

Strange Dreams

Had a pretty good night's sleep but was quite haunted the last few hours by peculiar imagery in my dreams.
First I was working in a metal recovery/recycle plant cutting up large metal pipes, 8-12 inch diameters, which seemed to weigh nothing at all. Then I saw my old friend Tom Scott a couple of times though for some weird reason he was calling himself Tom Paul. Spent a good bit of the dream wandering in steep, hilly woods and over streams with moss damp boulders. Got in my car and zoomed around roads that were similar to but quite distinct from the local roads I travel here in southern Oregon. Firs and pines with lichen covered branches dominated the terrain and in flat places small houses squatted like little bear dens. Then Tom buzzed up besides me on a scooter and handed me a slip of paper that had all sorts of words and numbers on it. They were coordinates he told me after I pulled over and turned around to catch him.

There was more, all obscured now by memory and oppressive weirdness. I used to lucid dream quite a bit but since I gave up trying to consciously influence the course of my dreams much of that skill has faded. I found that waking awareness would always intrude on the eventualities of my dreams when I tried to control them. It is quite tricky to strike a balance between volition and creativity.

Off to have breakfast with a friend now. Hope you all have a delightful day exercising your freedoms.

Strange day

Just got through watering the cabbage and lettuce in the sprouting room. So nice and warm in there but a little close on a rainy day like this. The wind came up earlier and set motion across the terrain but now things have calmed a bit.

Spent a good bit of today cleaning up in the barn. Found an old box of personal papers and etc. from way back in like 1994 or so. Found digging through that more taxing than any of the other work I had to do today. Some old letters from my friends Scott and Steve and some of my musings from back then including a partially finished novel. Might turn that into another blog thread, better than just throwing it on the burn pile. The letters were easy enough to dispose of, they had no content of historic significance. But to reflect upon the writings of an earlier me was a bit like getting hit in the head, without the pain.

We're starting to get the seed orders ready and make our plans for this upcoming year. Dad and I will be hauling equipment over to Bro's shop for repair and rebuild. Especially the corn seeder and mound maker/plastic mulch layer. I'll have a chance to do some more welding. Very meditative work that. The plastic mulch layer is just being repaired but the seeder is in need of a new fertilizer attachment and that will be a challenge to fabricate.

Wishing you a peaceful, rainy day like the one I had.

Happy Perihelion

Our closest approach to the sun for this year. 3% closer than at aphelion in July. Whooped dee-doo!!

You sure can't tell here, it's pouring down rain. Already over half an inch has fallen since last night. Wish a few percent of this had gone off to Australia instead, they could use it more than us.

Hope you all enjoy the extra solar influence.

Happy 2007

Happy New Year my good fellows!

Had a lovely nights sleep after dwindling the evening away until midnight. Many of our amusing redneck neighbors fired guns into the air; to scare away the evil spirit I suppose. Just glad none of the bullets came down on my barn.

The land and sky had a strange, almost ethereal or spooky appearance this morning. Cold, frozen, motionless. Nary a car on the freeway. A falling leaf was all I heard as I scurried into the warm central house to have my coffee.

A new year is laid out before us. Let us all hope and pray and work to make it a great one.

Gimme a clone burger please

Reading over at cnet news and I was struck by what a bunch of sissies the blogosphere is apparently made of. According to the article "Cloned meat? Yuck Factor prevails" people around the blogosphere have said they wouldn't eat meat from cloned animals. Leaving aside the fact that due to its expense cloning will only be used to produce breeding animals not animals for slaughter, it still wouldn't bother me to eat directly cloned meat. As a matter of fact I would prefer it.

Humans have been eating cloned fruits and vegetables for at least a couple thousand years. Many varieties of fig, grape, artichoke, the list is too long to bother, have long been cloned as their only form of cultivation. No one even blinks an eye about that; why should it matter with animals?

The only reason that an animal would be cloned is to acquire milk, meat and leathers of the highest quality with the least environmental impact and that's for me. You sissies can go back to sucking on wheat grass sorbet while me and the other carnivores move on to conquering the stars. See ya!

Good weather, no bloggy

Without the rain to keep me in I've been too busy to make any entries.

We've almost got the big greenhouse back up after it was blown down a couple weeks back in the big storm that also knocked out power up and down the pacific northwest. In a couple days I'll be planting the greens and lettuces I've been nurturing in the basement under fluorescent lights. It's about 30 degrees F out there right now so it'll be a bit 'til we go out and do anymore digging on the greenhouse trench.

I've also been busy working on getting dad's slides all scanned in and a bunch of graphics editing to clean up the damage to them. Got Dad a dvd burner for Xmas so installing that is another job waiting to be done. Difficult to find the driving ambition to do those things as winter wears on.

Off to have me a good cup of Yuban coffee now. Hope you all have a wonderful day of freedom and joy.

Merry Christmas

A lovely, rainy morning at the farm and home. Fed mom's birds first off this morning, can't have the little critters going hungry.

Had some tea and toast, opened the stockings and unwrapped presents. Mostly got some really nice clothes from mom and dad and a brand new desk for my computer to sit on, excellent! Also a very fine 1 million candle power rechargeable flashlight. Will be so nice to be able to see what is in the orchard at night. Spooky taking a walk in the evening in this part of the world, bears love to come down for the remaining apples.

I won't make a list of the stuff mom and dad got, all stuff they were happy with though. Again, mostly clothing.

Well, I hope everyone else is having a fine Christmas day. God bless you all, stay alert and be happy!

Rain, wonderful rain

Ahhhh.....

It's a comfy 50 degrees F outside today. Showers are blowing through and I feel fine.

A very Merry Christmas season to all my visitors.

Been working on some fun fractals again. Here's my latest favorite:

Cluttered Day

Nice change in the weather here. 45 degrees almost all day let me get some grape and apple tree pruning done. Only a couple hours though, frittered away a lot of the rest of the day on programming, wrapping gifts and reading pointless stuff on the web. This time of year all the tech and science websites are full of dross. Spring, just before graduation and late summer, as the pre-Christmas tech is being rolled out are the best times for reading about new developments. Fall and winter are slim pickin's.

None-the-less, I feel sort of tired. A day full of trivia and bluster can wear a guy out.

Also a little worried about my uncle and his family who live southeast of Denver a ways. Dad spoke with them yesterday and their heating system is all electric. If it gets too cold he can go to his son's house and stay there or he can also just hunker down in his motor-home. My uncle isn't blazing rich but he ain't poor neither. But I really feel sorry for the folks hold up in the Denver airport. A little prayer for them. A great big prayer for all the folk in Darfur and Iraq who have us all trumped for misery.

Hope life and season are treating all the rest of you well.

Even Frostier

The breeze was blowing down out of these frozen hills in advance of the warming storm front that could just barely be seen on the western horizon. One quickly grew chilled and the throat took on a metallic taste from breathing air so dry and cold.

This morning's walk with Mom, Dad and Sparky was perforce quite rapid and no one had to debate coming inside or making another round. A mile was long enough in that bitter wind. On the hill to the south one could clearly see the inversion layer that forms here in the valley. A band of frost cut across the terrain for several miles topped above by an obviously warmer thawed layer. The fog and frost were trapped beneath that warmer layer last night and deposited heavy white docking (or is it flocking? whatever) of hoar-frost on the trees. I tried to photograph that huge band of white but only one region turned out well.

How would you like to be standing in that region with only a cotton shirt and pants on? Yikes! I almost climbed back under my electric blanket at the thought of it.

Frosty Trees

Brrrrrrrrr....

It's about 32 degrees here right now, started the day at 27, that's like about -2 to you celsius people. Dad and I went to Medford to finish our Christmas shopping and there was hoar-frost everywhere, looked like it had snowed. Here's the trees on the hill just east of mom and dad's house:

Beautiful but very chilly. The air is dry and has that peculiar metallic cold tange to it. Really looking forward to the rains supposed to arrive Thursday. Gonna get brave and go back out to prune some grapes for as long as I can stand it.

Wishing you all a lovely day.

Dark days of winter

Brrrrrrrr.......
It is frozen and oppressively cold here. The fog finally blew off around 1pm after mom and I got back from running errands in Grants Pass. I've got all but 1 of my Christmas gifts boughten. The sun was really nice while it was out but of course didn't last long.

This season has been merry enough on the farm, but for some reason none of us have the energy we had last Christmas. I could make a list of reasons but why bother?

Hope you all are doing well and have a happy winter season (unless you're south of the equator in which case happy summer & etc.)

A dusting of snow on the mountain

Didn't feel so good yesterday afternoon so I took it easy, drank a lot of water and went to bed early. Feeling much better now.

Last night's storm didn't do too much damage although power was out for about 5 hours. Dad shut down the air inflated greenhouse about 9pm, just prior to the power outage. I was already conked out so I missed the excitement but apparently the plastic was really whipping around. This morning didn't reveal terribly much damage although some plastic around the air-lock door frame was torn and one of the vent holes collapsed a bit. Otherwise I think it survived ok. Will reinflate it once we're sure the storm is passed.

Mom and dad went in to see the newest family member today. They were going to go yesterday but we were all feeling so sickly we just hunkered down. I think a lot of it, other than bad diet, was the tremendous surges in air pressure change that were blowing through. My family has always been sensitive to that sort of thing.

Here's the mountain pic:

Laney Josephine

Is the name of my new great-niece. Both she and her mother are resting comfortably in the hospital and great-grandma will be stopping by tomorrow for a visit after which I will have more details.

Wishing you all a magnificent day.

It's a Girl !!!!!!

Glory Halleluah!!

My eldest niece, Charley Jean, had a baby girl this morning. Cigars and Scotch all around!! And a big hooka bowl for you other weirdos that I know....

Charley had to have another cesarian this time but the doctor did a real good job I'm told, even fixed up some scar tissue from her last one. Whew, uhg! that kind of stuff makes me almost faint, I'm getting dizzy.

God bless you all and rejoice at another human life added to the great mystery.

Oh! the Shame

I just found out today that it is official, our libraries, the entire Jackson County Library System all 25 branches will be closing in April.

What a nightmare, what a disaster. The first taste of chaos as the American system comes unraveled.

The Jackson county libraries started out with a Carnegie library in Medford and grew over the decades, feeding the minds and bodies of this community. Now they will be no more.

Some idiots around town say, "Oh, we don't need libraries anymore, we've got the internet." Nevermind that less than 50% of this community have internet access or rather that the only access they had was through the libraries free internet service. This area is subject to frequent multi-day power outages too and on top of that, there are endless examples of material not available on the internet that were just a quick stop away at the reference section. In my own life the Chilton engine manuals come to mind. I've lingered over electrical codes, mineral maps and engine repair guides of every sort there. Now all of that and untold more will be denied our community.

And all for what? So that the federal government can keep more of this state's money for itself. The funds being denied our cities, towns and counties all come from timber fees which are still being paid as well as fees paid in the past of which we received back only a pittance. The county tried to pass a levy to support the libraries but this community's heart was ruled by greed and suspicion. Now instead of the 100 dollars per household that would've kept the libraries alive we will have thousands of dollars worth of ignorance and economic set back.

I've lived up and down the west coast, from San Diego to Seattle and visited libraries in almost every city in between and I can say for certain that this was amongst the finest, most frugally and efficiently run library systems. There will be a lasting and vicious consequence from losing them. We will certainly need the fire department and police levies which were passed as we can definitely expect more fire and crime.

A little global social responsibility

I don't usually make many gestures on this blog, just describe my daily struggles and triumphs and leave the world to go on its merry/scary way. But this article at TCS Daily about the egyptian student who was arrested for blogging struck a note within my cramped and narrow mind so I felt compelled to mention it. This bit really hit a nerve for some reason:

They even insisted he reveal his opinions on the Darfur crisis. Amer would not retract his blogposts, so prosecutors threw him in jail - and laughed at the human rights attorney present, openly mocking the concept of standing up for individual rights.

Worth a read and heads up to all you bloggers who have the misfortune of living in such intolerant, backwards and irrational societies. If only the tyrants of belief could see that we are all headed for the same grave and it is how well we treat each other in this life that counts.

Forgot to blog

Been sort of busy even though it is raining. Cleaning up the barns, getting the greenhouse ready to plant. Yesterday I struggled most of the day with getting dad's computer running. Rebuilt the operating system again and finally found all the drivers I needed at ibm.com so everything is working great on that. Dad and I even managed to scan in the first 3 of his slides and get everything ready to do the next 2 or 3 thousand.

Also the software package that Paul and I have been working on is really starting to work great. My half is still a little glitchy, consuming system memory a bit more than I'd like but I can now test and breed around 10,000 fractals before anything goes haywire. Saturday night was the big breakthrough when I implemented a tournament breeding routine which delivers some very accurate approximations of the best fractals compared to the target image. Here's my first really cool image:

The target I was using to find this was the sunflower below:


Not a bad match I must say. Only took about 12 generations to arrive at that. That's 100 individual fractals per generation with the tournament breeding routine in between. What do you know, I can even farm mathematics.

Foggy, foggy, foggy

Had some fun last night with my laser level and the fog. That is really cool looking, I pointed it down the hill and walked to where it was about a foot above my head. It was a bright red cylinder of sparkly brilliance with neat swirly fog patterns.

Today it is gray, damp and slightly oppressive. I would love this if I didn't have work to do. We will be putting posts in the holes we dug yesterday for the new deer fence around most of our fields here at the old farm.

Later dad or I will get on the roof and clean the chimney so mom and dad can finally have a nice, cozy, warm woodfire in the basement stove. Their house holds heat for a long time once the basement gets warm. Very efficient. Will be nice not having the smell of kerosene in the house anymore.

One more trip into town and I'll have all my Christmas shopping done. If I have some cash left over I'm gonna buy myself enough lan cable to reach the barn so I can blog from my laptop.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Condolences for the Kim's

My heart felt sorrow and condolences go out to the family of James Kim who was finally found today. The cold and harsh conditions of the Oregon mountains took his life sometimes in the last few days. He had to be a truly courageous man to set out in desperation of finding help for his family.

A bald eagle flew over

About 2pm today mom and I were taking Sparky for a walk when a stunning white and black bald eagle flew over from northeast to southwest. Darn but I didn't have my camera.

This morning dad and I went Christmas shopping in GP. Mostly at Wal-Mart though we did visit a few other places. We were delighted that several of the gifts we bought today were actually made in America!

Dad spent the afternoon over at farm#2 getting the last of the knock down finished with the one-way disc-plow. I frittered much of the afternoon away on software engineering and a little general clean-up around the place. All in all the software engineering was more productive and mentally rewarding. The fractal evolver package I've been working on with Paul DeLeeuw is coming along stunningly well. I dropped in a picture that a high school friend drew long ago and let the thing run all afternoon. Paul's fractal engine ran great and my evolver gradually assembled the most incredible collection of parameters, each a little more similar to the target image. I'll have a version available for download sometimes next week.

On a somber note, tonight I am praying for someone I don't even know. The Kim family got lost in the Oregon mountains near Merlin this last week but the mother and children were recently found. However Mr. Kim (I haven't even caught his first name yet) is still missing in those mountains. I've spent a night or two in the mountains around Merlin and let me tell you, that is some inhospitable country especially in cold weather. I've never been much of a believing man but my relationship to the infinite aside, I've still got to pray that Mr. Kim is found whole and alive. I don't think he'll be "hale and hearty" after a week in those woods but please, oh powers that be, let him be ok.

And on that note I will wish you all the best; if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.

Cirrus Warning

The world was dark and cold when I got up from a rough night this morning. Bleary eyed and shivering I dashed into the main house for a cup of tea and to put the remains of last night's homemade pizza in the oven to warm. Mom makes some great homemade pizza with her bread machine and it is even better the next morning.

Drove mom into town for groceries on roads that were just starting to thaw. All was not white with frost but there were plenty of ice crystal everywhere anyways. The windshield looked like some crazy white puzzle.

People in Grants Pass were of good cheer. I helped one little retired lady get some dog biscuits down from a shelf she could not reach at Wal-Mart. It would've been the usual modern thing to do to feel imposed upon but I reveled in spiting the cruel universe by being cheerfully helpful and wishing her a very merry Christmas. If it was our good will the islamists had to contend with the battle would be over and everyone a victor.

The sky is putting on a show and warning us of tomorrow nights increasing chance of rain. These are what I think they call cirrus clouds. So beautiful I had to try to capture them in pictures:

Autumn desolation

Got some good work done today, tearing down fence wire and pulling up posts at farm #2.
It was windy and the air had a cold bite that left me feeling a little ill but we persevered and got most of the job done. Just have to mow the old tomato plants, pull up the plastic mulch, roll the drip hose and load the field fencing wire that we rolled up today and that part of the autumn chores will be done. Then if the weather stays dry as it is supposed to we can disk the field down one last time, probably Sunday, and all will be ready for spring.

Here's a pic to help your visualization:

The posts with birdhouses we left up at the request of our landlord Charlie. I agree they look too cool to take down. Not to mention thinking of the little birdies.