The Portal

Asian Art and Odd-Ball Films

2011-07-18T15:05:00.001-07:00

[This blog is out of sequence due to constraints on time and sleep while traveling with friends]

Day 7 of The Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis

PART ONE - Asian Art Museum

I had always wanted to go the the Asian Art Museum here in San Francisco but for some strange reason I'd never taken the time to go. After what I saw there today, I now know why... The place has so much art that I'm interested in I could just hang out there for days! The exhibition on Bali was to die for. I was not allowed to take pictures in the Bali Exhibition but the permanent exhibits were just fine as long as I didn't use flash. Well that was all well and good but I had never learned how to use my flash controls and thus how to turn off the flash. I fiddled with the controls as best I could but after a few tries I was still using the flash (and I'm happy that one of the docents didn't see it and rat me out or chew me out). Well, at least the iPhone didn't have a flash built in and it's camera was OK... not great, but OK. I took a slew of pictures from the iPhone but downloading them will have to wait until I get home and can sync my iPhone with my Main Media computer.

The permanent exhibits had examples of artwork from all over asia that was put in both chronological order and by place of origin. The entire exhibit divided the asian continent up with first India, then South East asia, then Tibet, China, and finally Japan as well as giving examples of the different religious philosophies and movements that had developed in asia over the centuries. I must have spent 5 hours at least in there. There was simply now way to see and digest intellectually all the parts of that museum. But, when I get the pictures downloaded at home, I'll be sure to post them and discuss them both here on my blog and on Facebook.

I had been standing all day from a very practical point of view and I needed to take a break. I hoped out of the museum and onto a #5 bus to head back to E.F.'s place. No soon had I just take a seat on the bus than E.F. called me and said he was home with his friend Katrina. I told him I was on the way and would be there in 10 minutes. When I got there, Katrina and I started talking. From my recollection, it was the first time I had ever met her but I had heard about her from E.F. plenty of times in the past. I think this was just the first opportunity for us to ever meet face to face. We started discussion hockey and our love for it, the finer points of the game, our injuries, and so on. Then it was time to get dinner before a treat (at least for me but surely for them too) which was a chance to see a set of archived films (yes films, on film and not tape!) at something called The Oddball Film Festival. It sounded fascinating.

We started out to pick up E.F.'s friend Johnny and his wife Giselle out on Haight. When we got there in just about 15 minutes of walking, it turned out that their new little puppy was acting up and Giselle was just too tired. So we set of without her and the four of us headed down into the Mission District. Along the way we grabbed some Indian food and relaxed then continued into the lower Mission until we reached this very, very nondescript building that if I had to find today to save my life I couldn't.

PART TWO - Oddball Film Festival

So we go inside, up this set of stairs, have to get buzzed in past this black metal door, scurry up even more stairs until we meet this gentleman who tells us it's $10 for a ticket. The place is a film vault and repository of all manner of films from 40's thru the 70's and 80's. It's evidently used by film makers as a place where old archived footage can be accessed and used in all manner of ways. The place where the films were being shown was fixed with a very small round stage and a huge part of the wall behind it was for the screen to see the films. A somewhat flimsy sound system was in use and sometimes one of the speakers would cut out. The intent of the evening was to showcase the work of this one film artist who had used the archives as a source for putting together old films into a theme which in this case was networks and communications.

The films were interesting. They were everything from old commercials with Bill Cosby talking about the virtues of Green Giant green beans to a film about the history of the telephone and the future of communications with satellites from the 1960's and Bell Labs. I hadn't seen some of these images since my childhood and it was fascinating to watch them. This is one of the things that I really love about coming to visit with E.F. in San Francisco. Every time I come there is something new and fascinating happening somewhere.

The return home was a long trek from the Mission back to Johnny's place then home. We stopped of at a corner store where Katrina got wine and I got Milano cookies and some milk (a secret passion of mine). We joined up in the living room and kept talking and eating until well after midnight. What a good day....

The Black Sword roams in The Mission

2011-07-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

[Due to constraints on time and computer access, the blog posts will be out of order. Day 7 will be posted ASAP]

Day 8 - The Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis

PART ONE

It's one of the strange things that sometimes happens when you get very busy just doing what you do that there just isn't time to keep up with the writing that you had every intention of keeping up with. As such I'm actually writing about Day 8 before I could write about yesterday's adventures in the Asian Art Museum... Oh well, just try to stay with me friends.

After getting up and doing my usual computer and mobile device work, E.F. and I decide to do The Mission District today. We get our breakfast at The Blue Jay on Divisadero then walk a few blocks to the #22 Line which takes us into The Mission. After getting off the bus at 16th and Mission, E.F. has the idea to make a kind of M-shaped route down Mission, then back to Valencia and then back to Mission as these are the two main streets that make up the business life of the area. We put on our packs and we're off.... It's nice to have a tour guide with me this time.

The shops are the most incredible assortment of groceries, chain stores and kitch that could possibly exist almost anywhere. The area probably had it's heyday in the late 60's and early 70's but as you walk down the street and look at the marquees of all the shuttered movie theaters and the worn awnings over the shops, it's hard not to get this somewhat decrepit feeling about The Mission. The languages on the street come fast and varied with everything from Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, and Indian dialects that I couldn't identify if I had to. It is a most fascinating melange of a place.

We keep walking until we get to a somewhat secretive place for book stores and take a back way into Valhalla Books, a neat but smallish book sellers place. After checking the stacks for a time, E.F. gets a few titles and I almost get a first addition text , but decide better not. We're back to walking and finally get to a couple blocks past 26th Street when we decide to stop at El Rio for a drink, some sit down time, and a great shot of Jameson..... More in a bit.

PART TWO

E.F. has a restaurant that he wants to try with my called Radish up farther on Valencia (actually at the corner of 19th and Lexington but it's really close to Valencia) so we start off up the sort of second main drag of The Mission to see what we can see. There are more shops that we stop into than I can reasonably write about here but one worth mentioning is Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids. This place is a science teachers wet dream I swear.... Butterflies, skeletons, rocks and crystals, science glassware, and the list goes on and on and on.

Katrina finally texts us almost right after we sit down at Radish. She's in Oakland at the Oakland Museum of California seeing a retrospective by Michael C. Macmillan who used to do work for films in the day. We tell we are already eating and she says she'll see us later...cool. After finishing, we continue up Valencia toward our final goal of the day, Brendan Lai Martial Arts supply store near 15th and Mission.

This is a store I have visited for years but they moved since I visited last which was a few years ago. We walk until we get to 13th street... What the hell and where is the store.p? Did we somehow miss it by being distracted? We double back while I look up the address again on my iPhone. Nope, we are in the right area...oh, the store is boarded, closed and no sign of Brendan Lai's. They must have gone outta business during the downturn. Damn.

We make our way back to E.F.'s place after catching a #22 bus on 16th Street. It's incredible that, as I watch some homeless and almost decrepit lady with her cart rolling past who catches a quick place to sit at the bus stop before moving on, the richest country in the world and we still have the problem of not solving homelessness and mental defects on the streets (I'm referring to people walking down the streets with auditory hallucinations, not politicians). We get back to E.F.'s flat and collapse. Both of us are beat. When Katrina arrives, we have a great time watching some British comedy that E.F. has at his place. The wine flows, people laugh... life is good.

In the Interum

2011-07-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

It was a FANTASTIC time at the Asian Art Museum... I literally could spend days there just looking at, well, everything. But, I must not be that much of an ubergeek since I couldn't even figure out how to turn off the flash on my digital camera. I finally had some help and figured it out but not after I took most of my pictures from my iPhone. That will have to wait until I get home but I'll try to transfer a few pictures from it to the laptop as soon as I can.

So, as you might have figure, this is not really my Day 7 blog but a stop-gap. I did spend most of the day at the Museum when E.F. called. Luckily when he was home, I was on my way back to his place. I got there and his friend Katrina from Sac was there. We all headed on down to The Mission District to eat (good Pakistani and Indian food, yum!) then went to a showing of archived films (yes, actually films on a projector!) at an event called The Oddball Film Festival even further down in the district. It was fun, but we didn't get home until close to midnight. I swear, E.F. and Katrina are half billy-goat. But, my legs survived and now it's time to get the day started here... Later.

In the Place of Tall Buildings

2011-07-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

Day 6 - The Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis

PART ONE

I have to be honest. E.F. and I had almost.... almost too much of a good time last night and I partly paid for it this morning. To thank him for letting me crash at his place and explore The City, I took him to wonderful restaurant and bar known as Absinthe in the Hayes Valley area. The food was delicious and I had one of the best Uptown Manhattan drinks I've ever had. But, you know there's always a 'but' in there, he took me to this literally hidden treasure of a bar called Smuggler's Cove. Wow. They specialize in rum drinks so I ordered a Naval Grog. Oh my... I think if anyone had lit a match around me I'd have been like a flame thrower at close quarters. To make a long story short, we slowly walked home and crashed for tomorrow. Thank goodness I had finished my blog for yesterday already.

Today I find myself in Downtown and the Financial District. E.F. gave me some reading material on the architecture of the area as a kind of self-guided tour of the most prominent buildings in San Francisco's past. So far as of this writing, I've visited and photographed the Wells Fargo/Crocker Center building, 111 Sutter Street, the Crown Zellerbach Paper Co. building at One Bush Street, and the Hobart Building on Market. Some of the examples of building in The City are impressive. The Wells Fargo one was actually cut down by several stories and a rooftop garden open to the public was put in it's place; really cool public space with a cool view. Several of the places I couldn't photograph inside because of security. A shame but I understand the need for security and privacy of clients in the buildings. I'll make sure to post them all on Facebook as soon as I can.

About 11:15 rolls around and I get a text message from Angie reminding me that she and the Seans are going to be having lunch today in San Francisco at the same Absinthe restaurant E.F. and I ate at last night. I catch the #5 bus up Market to McAllister and Gough then walk the couple of blocks to the restaurant where they are waiting for me. I'm starting to get my walking feet under me finally after about a week of walking everywhere. We have a delightful lunch and try a couple different absinthes than I am used to. Interestingly enough, the locally produced absinthe from St. George's Spirits is really good and smooth. I don't have much to eat as I only just got done eating breakfast at Eddie's Cafe up on Divisadero so I order an appetizer and a great brown ale. My friends wanted to specifically have lunch at this place since their calendar project involves a shoot of a Green Fairy ( which is the slang for absinthe) and the webmaster for the restaurant had 'liked' their project. Monkey brought the manager a poster, post card, and other stuff to the restaurant as a thank you for their support.

When we part I head back Downtown on the #5 bus again, get off at Montgomery and head up to catch my next building at 100 Sutter Street called The Shell Building. I turn down Sutter on the wrong side of the street and realize that I need to sit down and write. Taking the opportunity, I duck into this place called Bread and Cocoa on the corner of Sutter and Kearny to grab a drink, sit, and catch up on the blog... And here we are so far. I need to mention that the young staff here are just a great bunch. They are friendly, bubbly even, and just fun to talk to when they aren't slammed with customers. That is one of the sort of down sides to this part of The City is this almost frenetic pace that everyone seems to be in. I find it both exhilarating but also a bit impersonal and tiresome. It's meeting the people in the shops that seems to make it all worth it.

PART TWO

It's about 1:30 p.m. when I get back to my architectural scavenger hunt in the Downtown/Financial District of S.F. I'm only about half way through my list of buildings so I get right to it. Before I leave the little shop, I realize that I'm gonna need to take a couple ALEAVE even though I don't want to. I've been trying to take it easy in my walking but the arch of my right foot is just starting to get annoyingly painful unless I slow way down and there is just too much to see in this place to do that. So, I suck it up and keep truckin'.

Next stop is supposed to be just across the street. It's the Hallidie Bldg. At 130 Sutter Street. I walk on down, seem to miss the address, mistake one building for it, cross the street, and sure enough, it's completely covered for restoration work... Great. At least the building NEXT to it seems just as interesting but I'll have to wait until the work is done to see it and who the he'll knows when that's gonna be. OK, check that one now what's next?

The list has 100 and 130 Bush Street next. Hmm, I wonder if they are right next to each other? So, off I go. I arrive to find I'm right. But the two buildings are way cool in their own ways. 130 Bush is termed the "Narrow Building" and when you see it you might be tempted to either giggle or just say, "Cool!" at how it looks. The guide states, " 20 feet wide, 10 stories, Gothic revival, 80 feet deep. One of the narrowest buildings in San Francisco. Originally a garment manufacturing building... Converted to offices in 1929."

The address next door is much more majestic and when you see the ornamentation near the apex of the building you understand why. Called The Shell Building for obvious reasons it was the last of the great Art Deco buildings to be constructed in San Francisco and was finished in 1929. Sepia-colored terracotta skin with jutting projections of shells at the apex of the building, man this is really cool. I jet over to the interior and ask the security if the building allows interior photographs... Sadly, no because the interior is guilder in golden art deco shells and other adornments which are great examples of the style of the time.

I head back to Montgomery and my other important but much more modern building which I've been next to before but not in decades... The Trans-America Pyramid. The building is a bit overwhelming but what is almost the prettiest part of the place is the public park that is at the base of the place located about the middle of the block. The park has a great grove of Redwoods with a pool and fountain that has bronze sculptures of jumping frogs in various poses. The park has lots of space to sit and nice built-in benches and in typical San Francisco fashion there is a plaque commemorating two beloved dogs of the area in the 1860's named Bugger and Lazarus. I'm a dog lover and thought that was especially cool.

But mentioning dogs at that point, well, my dogs are especially tired as well from all the exploring of the past six days. The arch of my right foot is just not gonna be able to explore any more... Time to make my way to Market and the #5 bus and some rest time. I slowly trudge down Kearny to Market, bop onto the bus, put in the ear phones, and zone out for the remainder of the trip. The bus hits my stop at Pierce and McAllister and I abuse my feet just enough to get in the door and put them up.... and fall into a much needed nap. Ahhhh. Rest. What a concept.

Tonight, when E.F. gets here, we'll see what's up for the remainder of the day and evening...

Pacific Heights, The Marina, and Geek Heaven...

2011-07-13T19:06:00.001-07:00

Day 5 - The Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis

PART ONE

The girls have flown the coop home and now it's just E.F. and me left to have time together. We all finally recovered and got up at about the same time, said our goodbyes and that left me to prepare for the day ahead. Showered, shaved, dressed and I'm off to Eddie's for breakfast. The ladies all give me their hello's and ask me why I'm coming in so much. I tell them about my travels in The City and how I'm blogging about it. It's so cute. The main manager asks, "Are you writing about us?" and I tell them yes but only good things which makes them laugh. I then give them my URL for my blog and invite them to read about it. The breakfast is good and I'm on my way, drop back to the flat after I remember I need a small USB cable, then it's back to Divisidero to catch the bus...#24 Line to Pacific Heights and the Marina districts.

While I was at breakfast I had to take care of two other things. First, I just had to take some ALEAVE to take care of my walking pains. Oh well, I'm not 25 anymore you know. Second was a complete surprise. I got a friend request on Facebook from Jackie Jones. Now I had a familiarity with that name but it had been a long time. Suddenly it hits me that it's a former student. I accept the request and it hits me again how many students I've taught in my life.... In the next few years it will be almost 5000!

I find the stop for the #24 Line bus, climb on with music from my iPod in my ears this time around, and cruise on down Divisidero to Jackson and Fillmore in Pacific Heights. Right at the stop is this little coffee shop named Tully's Coffee.... Ah, perfect place to stop, plan and write. And so here we are....

PART TWO

Fillmore looks like it's kind of a main drag for traffic so I head off on Jackson street. This is the bedroom part of Pacific Heights as I see street after street of upper middle to upper class apartments until I start to get toward the top of the hill. Almost there and at Jackson and Octavia I spy a road with bricks instead of asphalt with huge planters of brick and concrete in the middle of the street. The residences are huge, beautifully manicured, and no doubt worth millions. The flowers growing on the edges of the properties are lovely.... And yet even here I find a place that looks as though it has been in somewhat of a state of abandonment and disrepair.

I decide to head on up Octavia until I reach Washington. Here I find Lafayette Park. The vies are spectacular but the fog has still not burned off yet. People are in the park even now though walking their dogs and letting them play together. A puppy of a German Shepard ambles on over to me. I put out my hand, he sniffs, wags his tail, and off he runs away to play. Cute.

To live in Pacific Heights I'm pretty sure that the closer you get to the park the more you have to have a last name like Rockefeller which I just don't even dream about being able to live in this part of San Francisco.

I wind my way around to Gough, twist on down Broadway for a while, down Laguna, turn on Vallejo, down Franklin to Union. Now this is the part of The City on the border between Pacific Heights and the Marina District that seems to be really hopping! I've strolled up to Van Ness and then down the other way to Webster. Along the way I stop to talk with this Red Cross volunteer named Sarah who is a recent transplant from Chicago. We have a fun time talking about Chicago and her move to San Francisco evidently only 6 months ago. We talk a little bit of the politics of charity and giving. I try to help her out by saying I'll post her picture in her Red Cross vest and asking friends to give before a disaster occurs.... She can't because she's not an "official" representative of the organization. That's kinda hinckey as far as I'm concerned. I say goodbye and I'm off again.

Finally I stop at this little shop called Cocoa Bella Chocolates and have the BEST hot chocolate I have ever had in my life! Seriously, no hyperbole intended. Whipped whole milk, whipped dark chocolate in it with raspberry flavoring.... I'm in food heaven. It's been good so far. Perhaps it's time to stroll down to The Marina for lunch...

PART THREE

Worked my down to The Marina District for lunch. I've never really strolled off the beaten path down here. It's usually been that I go down to the water and muck around down there. But, here I am on Chestnut and Divisidero at a restaurant called A16 having a fabulous time talking with the bartender after eating a great lunch. I get the Zuppa di zucca, a fantastic Italian Red wine and we start talking about how he came out here to San Francisco from Salt Lake City. The discussion invariably turns to how The City has changed his outlook for the year that he's lived here. The talking reminds me of some of my readings and studies on the nature of cities ( see my blogging on The Triumph of the City and The Rise of the Creative Class). Well, it's 2:30 almost and I need to explore some more before getting home to finish the blog and post before my friend gets back from work.

PART FOUR

I decide to stroll down Divisadero to get to the marina proper but as I near Beach Street, I look left and there’s the Palace of Fine Art. Oh holy crap. The Exploratorium is there. If I go there now, I’ll be spending hours being a geek in a geek store. Ah! What the hell. I start down the street and every step takes me closer to the domed colonnade of the Palace grounds where the Exploratorium awaits.

When I get to the Exploratorium, I get my ticket, walk in and just do what geeks do best for the next two hours. Displays on vortecies, making giant smoke, rings, massive lenses, weird doll houses with wacked out perspectives, and too many fun things to even recount here no matter how hard I’d try. It does dawn on me that I should keep track of when the Exploratorium is moving and see if I can somehow finagle my way into getting at least one Honors Science field trip to the place next year.

I look at my watch (dammit) and realize it’s 4:15. Time to leave. I check my iPhone for location and time of the next #22 Line bus and where the nearest bus stop is, then make my way about 8 blocks to Fillmore and Beach. When I get there, I run into this couple of tourists from New York who ask me if this is the #22 bus and the right bus stop and I reassure them it is. We start chit chatting about the differences in the cities and the coasts and they assure me that they have decided they like California much more than New York. I smile inside.

The bus ambles on over the hill as it makes its way to my stop about 25 minutes later at Fillmore and McAllister. Two more excruciating blocks, open the door, come in and collapse. The dogs are really barking this time. E.F. arrives not long after and we start talking, showing photos, and I get him to let me take him out to dinner at Absinthe restaurant down in the Hayes Valley area. We make the reservations and then start seeing if maybe we’ll do Bourbon and Branch tomorrow. It’s good to be with a friend in The City.

A Black Sword, The Stein's, and Trolley Cars

2011-07-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Day 4 of The Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis

The day has consisted of mostly being with my friend Dena and Eric’s mother Dorothy. Eric is working this week, of course, and so he leaves before we wake up. So today we lounged until about 9:15 and decided we’d go get breakfast and then head out to the SF MOMA to see the Stein’s Collection Exhibit.

The standard good place to get breakfast is the little breakfast shop on the corner of Divisidero and Fulton is Eddie’s which serves breakfast all day. Coffee, juice, and eggs and pancakes with good conversation is such a nice way to start the day. Dorothy is 81 and so, even though she’s in great shape for her age, we need to plan where we’re going to go and be careful of how many hills we might need to climb (I should be doing so well at 81 if I live that long). We get done and head up the street to catch the #5 Line to Market Street and 3rd Street so we can walk on down to the MOMA.

We chit-chat on the way up to the bus stop. Dena is such a kick to have around and I sure as hell hope I can be good enough to keep Dorothy’s sense of humor when I get to be her age. When we finally get to the bus, it’s kinda crowded but we stand for a while then finally get Dorothy a seat. Eventually we all get to sit down as people come and go off the bus. There’s this one point where Dena seems to have lost her mind as she is making the weirdest faces. Then I see that a little girl in a stroller is making faces back at her and just having a blast. When we round the corner onto Market, we get off a little early at the corner of 4th and Market and slowly walk to the MOMA. Yesterday has not been kind to my legs and feet and I’m still feeling the adventure in the Richmond District. As a friend I know might have said,”Boy! The dogs are still barkin’...” and as we keep walking the barkin’ keeps getting louder. Ouch. For those who have lived all their lives in San Francisco, I have no doubt that they are just plain used to this kind of constant physical exercise. But coming from a town where the car reigns supreme, the pedestrian calisthenics that the streets and hills of San Francisco can put you through have just about done me in yesterday and today.

We get to the MOMA, get tickets, and go straight to the 5th floor. We take a look at the exhibit there on the Last 10 years of Modern Art and part of it has this exhibit of sonic sculpture called Sonic Shadows that is just fascinating. Dena and I stand in the middle of the exhibit and close our eyes and are treated to this sonic experience of white sound and oddly melodic noise that zips past us on our left, then right, then above, the left.... and it’s a really cool effect.

We finish the 5th floor, take the elevator down to the 4th, and give our tickets for the Stein Collection. It’s crowded even for a week day and we slowly make our way through the exhibit. The Matisse and Picasso work along wit some other lesser know artists is incredible. I must admit both some admiration and a touch of disappointment at both the Matisse and Picasso selections but I chalk that up to having seen a number of those along with other artists in Paris so any disappointment is just temporary.

The tour takes almost 2 1/2 hours and by the end my feet and legs are screaming at me to sit down again. We exit the MOMA and head back to catch the F-Line to allow us to get Dena’s jeep which Karen has let her park at her condo’s parking garage. The F-Line is a trolley line which is occupied with trolleys from San Francisco’s and other city’s past. We get on an island egress terminal in the middle of Market and here comes a blue and gold 1940’s Sand Francisco trolley. Cool.... but it’s packed to the gills with tourists. Oh great. Somehow we squeeze on and Dorothy finds a seat. We’re set.

Like the modern bus rides, people are squeezing on and off and we get a seat as it curves from Market to the Embarcadero and finally we get off at Sansone and Chestnut, walk to Karen’s condo garage and get ourselves in the jeep. A quick ride later and we’re parked and back at E.F.’s place in the Western Edition. A brief refresher and we’re once again on our way to an enclave at the end of the Western Edition called Hayes Valley. Basically, where Hayes and Gough streets intersect is this wonderful collection of shops and restaurants. We bop around there for another couple of hours where I pick up a cool set of antique cufflinks for a decent price and then drag ( no exaggeration this time) back to E.F.’s place. No sooner do we settle down then he comes home and the decision is made to go out for dinner while we all have any strength left. We trudge to the Japan Center for some outstanding ramen soups at Suzu’s Soups in the Kinokuniya Bulding at the end of the Center.

The conversation is light and playful as usual with our company.... but we’re tired and the Saki is flowing so it’s slow going home. We stop for ice cream for dessert ( Dryer’s Green Tea for me... yummm) and finally walk inside the door with only one thing on most everybody’s mind; go to bed. And that friends is pretty much the way the day has ended with me the last man standing and writing to you while stealing a neighbor’s internet and getting the last pictures off the SIM card from the digital camera. Enjoy the pictures and I’ll be writing to you tomorrow after I figure out where I’m off to next. Later.

The Black Sword in the Richmond District

2011-07-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Day 3 in the City of Saint Francis

PART ONE

I'm a solar powered individual.... The Sun comes up and I'm up too. So I drag my sorry carcass outta bed, plug in and charge the mobile devices, and then shower. I check the house.... Steve forgot the hoses. I hate to call him so early in the morning but they gotta be moved for the gardener to mow. Poor Steve sounds so groggy but faithfully answers, begins to profusely apologize and I try to reassure him it's OK. We work it all out that morning and I thank him for taking care of my place again... Here's a secret, Steve's actually a super hero incognito.... Ssshhhh. No telling!

E.F. and company are still asleep so I leave a note and head out for breakfast a couple blocks away at Eddies Breakfast place on Divisidero. E.F. and I eat there plenty of times. Good eats, nice conversation, close, and reasonable prices. You can't lose there. I strike up a conversation with a guy at the counter named Ronnie. It turns out he's a youth counselor for troubled you and we get into the whole education in California topic. I have a great time asking him questions about The City then say good bye and jet on down to the Richmond District to explore on my own.

I catch the 38L line and settle in for the ride. This is one of those accordion buses that makes limited stops. I get out my iPhone and start looking at maps and decide to stop somewhere around 40th Ave. to start my explorations around Geary. It turns out that once you get past 27th on Geary it's mostly residential so I stop at 33rd and start walking down Geary. Around 26th I decide to take a side trip and start walking down Clement street. At first it seems residential but then another street filled with business, restaurants, and shops materializes before my eyes. "Cool. I've never been down this part of the Richmond. My first new discovery." It's a blast walking when I realize two things... 1. I need to write about yesterday and 2. I need to start the blog for today! I settle into this little cafe called Angelos's Cafe. A cup of coffee and a nice table to sit at and I start writing. Life is good.

PART TWO

So I've trekked my way back up Geary to 26th Ave. and the back and legs are telling me to take it easy and sit down again. On the corner is a coffee house so I stop to sit and write. Billy Joel's "Piano Man" is playing on the radio and there's a grand upright piano in the place... Yup, this is a good place to stop. I think it's time to avail myself of those two Aleave tablets so I can keep trekking along.

Walking down Clement was cool and I made it as far as Presidio Park before I decided to S-walk my way up and down Geary again. The walk down this part of the Richmond strikes several chords in my head... First, it seems that the Asian cultures are ubiquitous in San Francisco ( as it should be) but pit hits me in a way that I don't think I've every been conscious of before. As I talked with my friends yesterday and other people I've met today, one of the hallmarks of The City is how diverse the languages and cultures seem to be. It is hitting me as the most intriguing of mixed salads of urban living I've ever been privy to experience.

The second thing that strikes a chord is how distinct the individual areas seem to be. Some have a similar SF flare but the spice of the neighborhood is distinct and unique. I know I don't hear most people talk about this area so that's one of the things that brought me out here today. As I continued the walk, I realized I'd left my good writing pens at home. As luck or chance would have it, I come upon a small stationary and office supply store on Geary called Gables Office Supply. "Hey, what the he'll, this is kismet." and I go in. After a quick stroll and not seeing the good pens, I ask the proprietor and he points them out to me. I grab a couple good Uniball black pens, go to the counter to pay for them, and strike up a friendly conversation with the owner. He asks me where I'm from and I tell him of my exploring of the city's neighborhoods. I get some great info on where to go in the Richmond. Then, as chance would favor it,, he gives me directions to Green Apple Books. Well hello! That's like pointing out a pile of candy to a fat kid. Yeah! After this stop to rest,I'm off to bibliophile heaven.... Later.

So I make my way eventually back to 15th and Clement after walking down both sides of Geary and then I'm off to see the rest of this part of the Richmond. It's too bad that more people don't know more about this part of San Francisco. I'm sure the natives do and perhaps they like the situation like this because it's striking me that this is almost a suburban environ for S.F. Quiet, bedroom like, and probably a fairly nice to have kids. The shops are mostly groceries and a number of different shops but one that struck me was the place that had action figures of Japanese and Hollywood Hero figures.... I know about a hundred 8th grade boys who would go out of their minds there. I actually liked this one of the Kendo fighter since that was one of the martial arts I studied. I make it to Green Apple Books and Music eventually and, yep, I'm in heaven.... So many books is this mindless mantra that keeps playing in my mind over and over. I spend about an hour there until I realize that my back and feet just don't seem to be able to take it any more. I gotta find a place to sit down.

I mozie on down the road and feel very fortunate to find a great Turkish restaurant on Clement and 5th Ave. known as Troya. The waiter is there immediately and I ask if they have Turkish Coffee. He smiles a delightful grin and says yes. I must seem like a kid because I guess the way I asked for it delighted him to give a little chuckle. It is a welcome respite as I finally have some time to rest and write and eat since I suddenly realize that I haven't eaten for hours in any substantial way. I have a lentil soup and a meatball wrap that is just wonderful and now I feel like a human again. Finally I realize it's starting to get damned breezy and figure I better work my way over to Geary again to catch the 38L bus.

I walk to the end of Clement and turn right on Arguello to get to Geary. I start walking down Geary looking for a bus stop for the 38L. I keep walking... and walking... and walking. I'm tired but there's a kind of rhythm I've gotten into. I keep truckin'... Before I know it I'm at Geary and Masonic and then stop to look at the Muni map. Oh Hell! I'm only 3 blocks from Divisidero! I might as well just finish walking back to E.F.'s place. I get back at a quarter to 4 and Dena and Dorothy are home. The exploration for the day is done.

The Black Sword, Friends, and the Waterfront

2011-07-11T19:47:00.001-07:00

Day 2 in the City of Saint Francis

E.F. was great to see again but we didn't have much time to talk in the morning at his place. We had been invited to brunch with our friends Karen, Dena, and Amy down in the Northeast Waterfront area so we had to get ready and hustle. The brief trip required a run on the #5 line down McAllister to Market then taking the F Line to the Embarcadero and finally to Karen's place on Lombard. E.F. was kinda stoked to take this line because they were all old trolley cars from decades past and he had never taken it as far as we were going. Appropriately enough, we ended up on and old wooden paneled Italian trolley that the city had purchased and it was a blast. It had this somewhat jerky way of moving as it rolled down the tracks and the signs were in Italian and English so that was cool.

We get off at Sansone and Embarcadero and walk a block to Karen's. She lives in a great condo in a gated complex whose other taller building has a roof-top garden and incredible views of The City... I took a slew of pictures which I'll post soon as I get how to transfer them from the SIM card to my laptop. Karen had some great croissants and latte's for E.F. and me and when the girls came out it was like being back in high school again ( sans a crap-load of the pimples, drama, and insecurities of that time). Finally walked on over to the waterfront and went to a great restaurant named Butterflies. The view was great with big glass windows looking out onto the bay. Karen informed me that that was. The place to be when the America's Cup races come to San Francisco in 2012. Let me put it plainly, I am SO THERE.

A wonderful brunch done, we get to Karen's place, the girls change into walking shoes and attire and we're off to explore Telegraph Hill. Karen and E.F. take us on this great trip up these series of stairs, up Grant street and round to Coit Tower. This may seem crazy but in all the years I have been coming to San Francisco, I've never gone up to Coit Tower. The views are hard to describe but let's just put it that they are breathtaking. I'll be posting plenty of those pics as well. The tourists were thick so it seemed like a bad time to try to get to the top of the tower but I'll do that again before I leave if I can swing it.

We ended up going down a series of other stairs with wonderful gardens and quaint homes as we made our way back to Karen's again. The rest of the day was walking down the Waterfront and then back to Karen's again where we settled down after miles of walking. I'll end here only because I really want to write mostly about my time exploring on my own. But, man, what a great day.

The Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis - Day One

2011-07-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

July 9th. A Black Sword in the City of Saint Francis

Day one of my explorations of The City and I find that I'm starting with some somewhat familiar territory .... I'm sitting in a cafe in the Japan Center and watching beautiful Japanese women and men walk by, having a decaf coffee ( what!? No tea? Yeah, yeah... I figured I'd be an iconoclast a bit and have coffee in the heart of Japan in S.F. So shoot me...) and waiting to decide on my next move. It was much less hassle to get to San Francisco than I had anticipated this time. Even though I packed large as I usually do, the taxis in S. F. make it much easier to get around and be a wanna be Sherpa with luggage when you remember to go do Powell Street Station which is right near a major hotel so the taxis are always hovering in the vicinity. $7.15 later and I slip the guy a ten note, tell him to keep the change, and thank him for the conversation. I'm at the inimitable E. F. Kohler's house for the duration gut he's not home. "Oh yeah! His mother Dorothy's in town for a few days too! Ok, I'm sure he's out spending time with 'mom' so its up to me to explore.... Off I go." More after I spend a few more hours out and a'boot.

Well, the shops are starting to close in Japan Town and so I slowly make my way back to E.F. Kohler's place in the Western Addition. It's a cool walk over the pedestrian bridge that spans Geary Blvd. and the views are great of the clouds just over my head. I pull out the camera and take a few pics.... I'll upload them as soon as I can. I spy a dad teaching his son the finer points of pitching at one of the local parks. I say, " Yup, 10,000 hours of practice." He spys back and says, " Yeah, you got that right." and I smile and keep moving. There's this great house only a block or two from E.F.'s place which is just this incredible example of turn of the century 19th-20th Century kitch architecture. The place is gilded with gold trim and is an interesting purple color. Gaudy is the word that comes to mind.

I get back and sure enough E.F. is there and his mom Dorothy whom I haven't seen in ages. We chit-chat and have a great time catching up when some relatives of theirs from Michigan call and say they'd like to have dinner. It's a nice trip across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. I can't remember the last time I did either... It's a small italian restaurant that we are in just a block off the water front. The food is vacuumed down by me when I realize that I hadn't eaten too much since I started this trip.

The return is nice and I get some idea even at night of where I wanna do some more exploring later in the week. We're all pretty tired by now. E.F. sets up a very nice air mattress and it's off to slumber land. More adventures tomorrow.

The Summer Vacation, Part One

2011-06-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, so far the vacation has been very non-hectic. It seems that when I loose the structure of the work day I get pretty inertia filled and sleep a lot. Don’t hate the vacation.... become a teacher! [ Just remember that for every up, there are a more than commensurate number of downs... hey, life’s a balancing act. You have your ups, I have mine.] At this very moment, I am working on my blog, starting the first-draft of Chapter One of my new novel In the Garden of the Warrior Monk, and have finished a series of projects in my garden (said inspiration for the aforementioned book) including plantings, landscaping preliminaries, and the back-yard is now set to be automatically watered along with the water cooling for the roof of my house when I’m home. So far a good, relaxing, and yet productive time.

I still have various projects to get to such as: [1] Getting the robots back into shape for cleaning chores. [2] Finishing the automation of the Front Yard [3] Finishing working on some weapons projects and starting the first forms of my own Bushido Kyo or Kai (I haven’t decided which it should be) [4] and some home projects like finishing the painting the living room and replacing the iMac with a new Intel-based iMac. But I have time... so far no calls for interviews from the boss so we’re still up in the air as to what the department is going to look like at the beginning of the Fall Semester. With the State of California’s Budget, is it any great surprise? And finally, I have a great party for mid-summer planned with Tessa Evans singing for my guests for about 3 hours. I hope everyone I’ve invited can make it. But now, this instant, the novel’s the thing where in I’ll catch the conscience of the King!

First thoughts of Summer

2011-05-26T12:04:00.001-07:00

So, as usual, it's taken me about 5 to 6 days to get into the swing of things again. That first week off is mostly just for rest and catching up. I have to rest that much just to get my creative juices flowing again. In the mean time, I've been seeing friends, having fun at home on the computer and in the garden, and starting to get my idea factory up and running again. A sampling of some random thoughts may give you and idea of my present state of mind:

• "Everybody lies all the time." This was a statement from one of my main characters (Det. Gorrin on Law and Order: Criminal Intent) that just struck me. It's a survival mechanism that is effective but what a heavy price it takes on the one who uses it.

• I know that one bought of weather is not enough to be definitive proof of the effect of Anthropogenic Warming and Climate Change (climate is the average over decades) but my anecdotal experience makes me lean towards that conclusion. Consider the last two Spring seasons we've had so far. Hmm......

• Sis gave me some irises that I need to plant.... BUT, I have such a bad back that I think I need to plan on taking some ALEAVE ® ahead of time as a prophylactic measure as I dig them apart and plant them in the margins of the back garden.

The Tiger and the Mantis - A Zen Tale

2010-11-03T16:49:00.001-07:00

"The Tiger and the Mantis - A Zen Tale"

The Tiger was well known in the deep forests of China for being the fastest animal. He could rush out from from any hiding spot at a great speed. He could almost out race his own growl and roar it was said. All the creatures of the forest feared the speed and ferocity of the Tiger. The Tiger was very proud of his strength and stamina. There were none in the bamboo forests that could defeat him.

One day while walking through the tall, dewy grass in the morning to track down his breakfast, he caught a sound that he had not heard before. The buzzing was not something he recognized... and it grew louder and louder each second. Suddenly, a Mantis landed upon the Tiger's nose. He was panting from having flown in the heavy morning air and was dripping with dew drops on his hard shell body.

"Pardon me, Lord Tiger for landing on your nose but I have been having difficulty flying in the heavy morning air and..."

But before the Mantis could finish his explanation, the Tiger yelled, "Get off! Get off me now!" Then he shook his head so hard the the Mantis was flipped up into the air. Proud of his strength as usual, the Tiger began to smile. But while flying through the air, the Mantis effortlessly somersaulted in mid air, spread his six legs and landed upon the Tiger's left ear.

"Please wait, Lord Tiger and let me ask a gracious favor that I might..."

"Get off, insolent insect!" and shook his might head again now from side to side. "Get oooofffff!" he yelled again.

But this time the Mantis held on with his forelimbs and said again, " Mighty Lord Tiger let me ex...."

Too late. The mighty Tiger began to run through the grass. The blades struck the Mantis as the Tiger ran. But the Mantis held fast. Faster and faster the might Tiger ran and every time he sped up, the Mantis dug the tines of his forelimbs deeper and deeper into the Tiger's left ear.

"Oooooofff I say!" the Tiger kept yelling. The Tiger ran through one field, then a grove of trees, then another deeper field and on and on. The Elephants stopped dead in their tracks as the Tiger ran past them. The Water Buffaloes scattered and the Deer fled but were amazed that the Tiger was not after them. Faster and faster and faster he went.

"Please off me! I'M .... GETTING.... TIRED!!" he yelled again and again. " JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" he yelled like a child... and all the while the Mantis was firmly attached.

Finally the Tiger slowed and stopped.... panting heavily with each moment. And then...

He just fell down on all fours in the tall, dewy grass trying to catch his breath and exhausted from the fastest running he had ever done in his life....

And still the Mantis was there on his left ear.

After a moment, the Mantis let go, deftly scrambled over the Tiger's head to his nose, turned and looked him in the eyes. Then, he bowed a deep bow, and said, "Oh Mighty Lord Tiger, my apologies for what must have startled you. I merely wanted to ask permission to dry myself in your lustrous coat of fur so that I might remove the heavy dew that was keeping me from flying off and had put me on your nose. I meant no disrespect of your might form."

The Tiger was astounded at the grace and courtesy of the Mantis. He now felt bad about being so short with the Mantis. "Is that all you desired? I would gladly have let you had I known you were such a gracious insect. Why had you not told me so?"

Still gracious, the Mantis said, "Lord Tiger, I did try but perhaps you could not hear me over the wind in your ears. Perhaps I should have spoken louder but that is not my way."

Now the Tiger felt quite sheepish and that he had done the Mantis a great wrong. "My apologies to YOU Great Mantis. I had perceived you as a problem and was running to get rid of you."

The Mantis, now dry from the wind from the Tiger's great run, bowed deeply once again, spread his wings, and prepared to fly away. "My Lord Tiger, I am a Mantis, with arms that catch the fastest fly and climb the highest trees with no fear. You cannot run away from me any more than you can run away from any problem in life."

And with this, the Mantis flew off into the morning light of dappled shadows in the forest canopy. The Tiger remained in the grass... meditating on what truth the Mantis had just revealed to him.

The Warrior Monk

2010-10-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am once again after a long time of work and meditation with some thoughts and updates on life and living. It's been a very interesting few months to say the least. Where to begin... at the beginning.

I had a great summer with friends and time to myself to read and think of many things. I started reading a lot for one thing.... I had made many promises to myself that I intend to keep and one of them was to catch up on as much reading as I could. I tend to read nonfiction works. That's probably because of my science training. "What's the Matter with Kansas," "SWAY," and "Unscientific America" were just a couple and now I've started reading "Guns, Germs, and Steel" along with "The Moral Landscape" by Sam Harris. I have this drive and need almost to learn as much as I can before it's too late. And then that brings me to another happening... my diving back into my Zen studies.

I've been practicing the Tea Ceremony for almost 8 years now. The more I study it the more the Tea Ceremony (Chado) becomes more associated by me with the Way of Peace. Now this is a bit odd since I am also trained as a warrior in the Martial Arts and one would think that the two ways are antithetical.... I don't think so and that perhaps such a point of view is a bit immature. Who would desire the Way of Peace more than a warrior who knows that his way could mean his end and the demise of others? This lead me to finish reading "Kishido: The Way of the Western Warrior" and that combination of East and West resonated with me. Why? Because I am a combination of the East and the West and though I love the ways of the Japanese quite often, let's be straight, I am not Japanese (Nihonjin de wanae). But what am I then? More on that later...

I had promised myself that I would go back to the martial arts.... but, I have been injured and I was not sure how well I would do physically back at the Aikido dojo. I also have some very seriously different views on life than King Sensei and I thought I should reconsider the way of the sword like Kendo. I finished with Kishido and decided to try a Western martial art. I started Saber Fencing and I have enjoyed it tremendously. I will work my way into doing tournaments I suppose eventually but right now the physicality of practice and of competing against another human being has been great. And then I got a visit from Sam.... and I had been thinking of her. Amazing that she keeps getting more beautiful as the years go by.

It started me thinking of a story I started during the summer which I think is a wishful biography of myself in a sense... a work of fiction that I had not really intended to write but just appeared in my consciousness. I have titled it "In the Garden of the Warrior Monk" and I think it tells me a lot about myself. With the life I have been living, I feel very much like a monk and the sohei were an integral part of Japanese history. I often suppose that if I were alive in Japan in the 12th century I would have been a warrior monk. Interestingly enough, though my story has Zen in it, the Zen sects of Japan were not warrior monks but I have a chance to use some writer's prerogative to change that a little bit. The story revolves around a teacher-student relationship between the mysterious new teacher in a rural town in southern California central valley who had lived there before, become a monk, then returned to teach and a young female student who is of a prominent family but is mentally anguished and abused. The two meet and he teachers her life lessons as they tend his garden.... the garden of the warrior monk.

More to come...

Some Current Events

2010-06-08T06:30:00.000-07:00

So after some time to cogitate about coming events I came to a realization that it was time for some more blogging. But what to write about... Ah, current events... Current events for me and NOT just the world.

To begin, I have been getting ready for a great (hopefully great) party at my house this weekend which I have titled "Scotch and Sonatas." It is pretty straight forward. About 16 to 18 friends gather at my house for two things: 1. To learn about the great single malt scotches that the land of my ancestors have to offer (at this point its 16 single malts for tasting from the 5 major regions of Scotland) and how they are produced and 2. To enjoy some classical, new age, and jazz music performed by yours truly. As a result I have been increasing by a few bottles my collection of Scotches (hell, I even got a deal by accident when I realized after leaving that I somehow lucked out and got 3 bottles of Scotch for the price of 3 at the liquor store... providence smiling upon me I guess ). I have been practicing a lot as well and I think I have at least enough music for an hour and a half with some breaks in-between. I hope everybody enjoys the performance.

Next has been my time in the garden... making up for LOST time. I used to spend a great deal of time in my garden but when work started again, I lost the desire to be outside. I guess I went through a serious phase of caving when the weather started getting colder and work was just a bit overwhelming. But NOW, I have been back to putting the garden back into shape with new plantings of roses, mini-roses, and ornamental grasses and fuchsias to round things out. It will take me some time to get it all together in the backyard before I can start on the side of the house mostly because of the reduction in pay the teachers in my district are going through due to the economic times we're going through right now. Even with that, give me a few months and the roses should all be looking good, the fuchsias will be planted, and most if not all of the ground cover should be in so that I can finish the season with the making of lots of hanging pots for pansies for the fall and winter. If it works out the way I want, more parties should be going on at my place later in the year.

Finally, I hope to get the house and the computer network running the way I want... BUT, the purchasing of new equipment has had a major setback as planned. Again the economy has put a major kibosh on the whole process as I had planned it (complete with 3D timeline and calendar warnings and entries). Oh well, I just have to reevaluate the timeline, change the calendar entries, At least I still have a job is the best I can do when the disappointment of the delay in plans hits me... but I have to keep a balanced perspective. It's either that or risk going nuts..... later.

A Feminine Discovery

2010-05-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

As my close friends will tell you, I am a total sucker for the feminine wiles. I will freely admit that I love the feminine form in all it's incarnations from the ballerina to the Marilyn Monroe curvy figure ( not that any of you really care but what the hell,it's MY blog)... But in all these I have a few features that I really 'go for.'

1. A beautiful face. Everything else is essentially negotiable but a face I like to stare at and drown in is a must.
2. Brunette hair. Hey, each person is different and we should all know and admit what we like... brunettes are my thing ( and the blacker the hair, the better I like it... my blog, my tastes... don't like it, the door is there).

This preface is all to introduce a model I just mysteriously "ran into" while on Facebook: Francoise Boufhal

Rarely have I seen a lady of such beauty of face and luscious curve of frame. I just am entranced by her. look her up on YouTube and listen to her dreams and ambitions. I like someone who is willing to take on the notion of the waif model and advance the motion of the 'curvy' look that I like so much. I think I will be writing about her more in the future.

Francoise Boufhal

Been a while...

2010-05-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

As any reader of my blog knows, I only blog when the time seems to be right...Now is just such a time. I finished my 23rd year of teaching and promoted another class to the high school... but somehow this one seemed different.

Maybe it was the smallness of this class. Maybe it was the length of time I've been teaching. Maybe it was the fact that 15 fellow educators retired this year. This was mostly due to the financial crisis in the nation and California in particular. It was a good time to retire I think... and I will miss a large number of those people ( despite the way some of them would drive me nuts).

You need to understand that with these retirements I know become one of these senior staff members at my school. I'm only in my forties and I'm just not quite ready to be a "senior" member of the staff. I feel two conflicting and opposite feelings... Young and old at the same time. Consider that as I write this blog I am doing it on an iPad in a coffee shop called The Naked Lounge... like I wrote before, young but old. Funny what the passage of time can do to our perspective.

And now the anger rolls like a wave...

2010-04-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

As a follow-up to my impassioned blog a couple of days ago about the case of Phoebe Prince, it turns out that the political and legal anger has begun to build like a wave... hopefully to transform into a tsunami. I include an interview and story following what happened to this young girl from NBC's Today show... the interviews and the preluded story is instructive:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Who will speak for Phoebe?

2010-03-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

I don’t write in my blog as a daily practice. I write when the issue or related topic moves me to write. This time I feel compelled to write. I have no other real weapon to use for the sake of Justice. And so, I write.

On January 14 of this year, a young irish girl who had just moved to this country ended seeming months of torment, harassment, and seemingly endless physical and psychological abuse from a self-appointed nobility of students at her school by hanging herself in her closet. She was 15. Her lifeless body was discovered by her 12 year old sister. But finally, very finally, the abuse and the anguish and the mental and physical torment had stopped. Was it a permanent solution to a temporary problem? Have you ever been bullied? Until you have, don’t judge. I know... I was Phoebe once. How long can you handle the abuse and torment from people who seem to be immune to consequences? How often have you told the adults around you only for the abuse to get worse? Who will stand up for you? Who will speak for Phoebe?

In his Boston Globe article on the death of Phoebe Nora Mary Prince, writer Kevin Cullen writes of the abuse the young lady took at the hands of self-appointed “In” crowd girls who partied like it was 1999 2 days after Phoebe’s death, continued to bad-mouth her, intimidate other students with impunity when they were interviewed about it, and act with complete remorselessness and callousness that they had nothing to do with her death . How long could you handle the abuse? We train our soldiers to resist torture to the best of their ability but we always think of physical torment not just the mental aspects of abuse. How much abuse could you take before you had to make it stop? Stop it any way you thought possible... event if it was permanent... too permanent. Have you experienced such torment and abuse? No? Go ahead... try it sometime then tell me with a straight face that “those things happen when you’re in school and you just have to learn to live with them.” Go ahead and suffer through drinks “spilled” on you every day and your head and body slammed into lockers each day. Go ahead and feel that you have to walk the other way and avoid being around certain “It” crowds of students because to go past them invites more abuse, ridicule, and physical and psychological torment. Go ahead and live in an almost constant state of fear and self-loathing that seems to never have an end to it. Go ahead and tell the adults and watch nothing change but in fact get worse for being a ’snitch.’ I hate that word... snitch... it’s a cowardly word. The reality is that there’s no such thing as a snitch but only people who are too cowardly to do the right thing and use the force of authority to make the situation better and stop the abuse. Cowards... the adults are cowards. And as much as the students responsible for the abuse should be held responsible, the adults are just as culpable. Perhaps even more so. Phoebe did nothing wrong from all accounts except cross the often invisible line of clicks, the hidden lines of the cast system of high school to date a senior... and then the Mean Girls,who are at every school, decided to make her pay for her insolence. They say they did nothing wrong. They say they aren’t responsible. I’m sure they have parents and lawyers even on their side to be their advocates and speak for them. Who speaks for the abused students they treat like serfs who live to serve them at their beck and call? Who will stop the abuse? Who will stop the bullying? Who will speak for Phoebe?

I teach. I teach in Middle School. I have for 23 years. I can’t count the number of times I have heard people exclaim,“Oh! You teach 8th grade? That was such a hard time for me. I don’t know how I survived it.” Yes, it’s true that it is a hard time... the awkwardness of growth, hormones, trying to fit in, wanting people to like you, trying to be special... but not too special. It’s like the Japanese saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down,” was meant for Middle and High School. And so putting up with mean kids is just a right of passage in school; we all have to put up with it. Really? You try it sometime and then come back and tell me how you feel and how well you sleep and how every step in the crowded halls of the school fills you with dread. Every step leads you through another level of your own purgatory... or perhaps levels of hell. Ask Phoebe Prince how she felt... oh, that’s right, you can’t. She is dead.

What do we do? How can we change this virus of ill behavior and tacitly accepted abuse? We take advice from Confucius. We have two ways to proceed: We can sit students down and attempt to educate them of the consequences of their actions and hope the lessons take hold. Or, we can punish the perpetrators and the adults whose non-fessence allowed this malignancy to destroy the body of education over and over and over.... Until the abuse stops or they perpetrators leave and their parents have to pay for private education as the penalty for not teaching your children well. That’s how we handle the perpetrators. Then the adults must be dealt with. Hold the administrators, counselors, and teachers responsible for not reporting and then dealing with this. “But the state’s laws don’t give us the power to act on this,” the administrators will say. That’s a vapid and hollow response.... I might say even cowardly. It’s amazing the power a principle has to deal with abusive students. Its time they grew a pair and started dealing with it when students, teachers, and counselors bring it to their attention. Your job as an administrator is not as valuable as the life of a young person. Any other response is cowardly. Finally we need to have district attorneys willing to prosecute abusers and those who help facilitate their behavior: students and their parents. Use the statutes, show a spine, make examples of them in public whether you can win the case outright or not and make it financially and socially costly for such behavior to occur without consequences. Then make the district attorney act as the law allows regardless of the politics or let them suffer the consequences as well and vote them out of office. It may not stop all the abuse but will hopefully bring a modicum of justice to the abused. Thats right. Not a right of passage but abuse. And we in this society must stand up and say, “No more,” to all those involved. Make them pay the price of their actions. In the end, this Mean Girl crew will have plenty of defenders to fend off their attackers... but who will speak for Phoebe?

Follow-up March 31:

It turns out that the outrage over Phoebe's treatment has made some progress. 9 students have been charged with crimes as a result of their behavior in the Phoebe Prince abuse case. Please read the following article from the New York Times.

Trying to be impressed...

2010-02-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Part 1 - I tend to be a teacher who tries to give my students the benefit of not comparing them to other classes of students. I mean, hey, come on! Every group and the dynamics of each group are different. But being the first Honors Science teacher here, I can’t help but keep all the classes that have come before going through my mind as the year goes on. I remember my first class especially... which to most is probably not a surprise (and if you’re reading this Rachel that was YOUR class.... Make me proud with your life choices!).

And so I am in a bit of a bind. I don’t want to compare my students this year with other years (or even class periods to each other) but it inevitably happens... And I am not impressed with the bunch this year. That DOESN’T mean that I don’t like the kids that make up this year’s class; they are a pretty nice bunch. But as for mental acumen and desire combined with curiosity... I’m trying to be impressed. Now remember, there will always be students who as individuals will impress me... But I’m waiting for the group to live up to the title of Honors Students.

Part 2 - I am a technophile. I freely admit loving machines and technology... But sometimes it can drive me nuts. I’ve come to the conclusion that you have to treat the computer(s) you have like the car(s) you own. First incident today was not being able to get my iSight camera which watches the backyard to work. I unplugged and replugged the camera into the computer, restarted the application, restarted the computer.... Nothing. I finally gave up and hope to handle the problem later. Before that I had taken my older PowerBook G4 into the Apple Store and the Mac Geniuses to check the hardware. They tested it and it passed. Why do that? Because the sound had stopped working. So I do the typical trouble-shooting and get it working again... But only temporarily before it does it again. As the Genius said at Apple, “Time to Archive and Reinstall the OS to fix the software issue.” I love technology... But SOMETIMES.........

New Ideas in the Year of Light

2010-02-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

One of the great joys and burdens I have in being a technophile is that I’m always in a learning mode. I discover new applications and new technologies to make my abilities expand, my job better, and give me greater creativity and enjoyment... but the time requirements are tremendous. Luckily I have a few tricks up my sleeve such as Twitter, Facebook, Mac New Network, and other various video and text blogs that I run past each day to help keep me abreast of happenings in the technology world. Still, every time I have a new application to use I have new abilities I have to train myself to master or at least become competent at doing. This can be such a hassle. For instance, I am typing this blog on my new MacJournal app so that I can do it when I have no internet or when getting on the internet is a hassle (such as at work - no way in hell I’m gonna use their network and be bound by their restrictions of internet usage... no way in hell). I’m doing the typical Mac user thing of just trying it out without reading about it much... I’m sure that I’ll have to find a tutorial or a user’s guide and dissect it when I get to the more powerful parts of the application but so far it seems to be a great journal... so far.

I also hope to have a personal website built in the next few months. I’m not going to go fast as I wanna make sure I do it right, plan out each page well, and take the time to learn how to use iWeb. It seems pretty straight forward (as are so many things that Apple produces). But going quickly and producing a piece of shlock is just not my style. The I have a new scanner (Neat Scanner... way cool) but I have to take the time to get all my bills together for this year, scan them, and then learn how to organize them and export them to things like my TurboTax. It’s a lot to learn.

Feeling the pain...

2010-01-18T21:28:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days have been interesting with friends. Two instances happened this weekend where friends either lashed out or just fell apart either in front of me much to my amazement. I have been deep in thought for them. What put them where they are? What is the pain that they haven't dealt with? They might read this post so I'm a bit hesitant to go into much detail. What is it that drives people to put the pain so deep that they let it fester and boil up like some ulcerating sore when they least expect it? Is the human psyche so fragile that there are truths that it just can't handle... of course there are. I've seen it before. But in two days to have this froth of self-doubt and self-loathing boil over in person and over the phone... it has left me deep in thought. Then I started looking at my favorite videos on YouTube and Sarah McLaughlin gave me the answer in song:

Anno Lumina - "The Year of Light"

2010-01-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

I had been contemplating for the better part of 4 to 5 months what this new year would be like for me. Of course the answer is that it all depends on what I do and how I handle myself; truisms have a way of slapping you in the face at the most in opportune times but none-the-less it made me consider how I was going to handle this coming circuit around the Sun.

Light. I chose Light (proper noun) as my theme. I have always been fascinated by the time of the Enlightenment and consider myself a student and, to a certain extent, a product of those times. Science found some of it's greatest minds at this time and the notion education, exploration, erudition mixed with a certain type of genteel approach to relationships has always been an inspiration to me. I started off my day as usual with my computers and newspaper. But now, I started the day with Beethoven's 7th Symphony filling the house with a hopeful joy and optimism. I have made commitments to myself that I plan to keep. Projects have been planned that I plan to keep fulfilled and brought to fruition. I have neglected my health both physically, mentally, and emotionally and that I plan to rectify. I can say that every serious resolution at the beginning of a new year that I have made in the last decade I have kept. Perhaps that is achievement enough for most people... not me. I plan to keep that record for as long as my breath passes my lips and the light shines into my eyes and my mind.

This is Anno Lumina - The Year of Light. I'll listen to Beethoven all day, work on the computers, practice the violin, do the chores with glee, and bring the light of knowledge and understanding into my house. I will make it truly the Glen Anam - Valley of the Soul. But not some vapid, hollow notion of soul - a life force which is separate from the body. No. The body and mind are the soul - the seat of intelligence, of understanding, of wisdom, of light and enlightenment. I will open my house to like minded people and make it a place of light and learning. I will send light from my mind to the very best of my abilities. Rather ironically I am reminded of the quote from the Gospel of Luke - Illuniare his quis in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedent: "To bring light to those who dwell in darkness and sit in the shadow of death."

Ave atque Vale - Hale and Farewell

The History of Christmas

2009-12-25T08:16:00.001-08:00

The Roan poet Virgil once wrote about "...the remnants of an ancient flame" ( veteris vestigia flammae) and those words ring true about the origins of Christmas which started as an ancient Roman holiday (The Saturnalia); a time when slave and master would change places for the day ( though I prefer the Roman custom of voluptates corporis). As one of my many varied sources of information, The History Channel has a lot of things going for it and it is here that I present to my readers the truth behind many of the Christmas traditions and practices which are far more recent in their origins than many who practice them would realize. The use of the Christmas Tree is less than 200 years old and German in origin not English but even newer in America. So here, my readers is Christmas Unwrapped:

Merry Christmas on and all.

The Morning Dazzle of Ring Around the Planet

2009-12-21T08:49:00.001-08:00

So I'm tweeting and doing my Face Book schtick when I come across a tweet by Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer and his blog on the Discovery Magazine website. It turns out that someone has done me a great favor - a BIG favor. It never fails that when I'm teaching my astronomy unit that when we get to the planet Saturn, the following question always comes up:

"What would it look like if the Earth had a ring around it like Saturn?"

Well, thanks Phil, he and others have found the following video on YouTube that evidently went viral not too soon after it was posted. It is fantastic:

The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

2009-12-20T13:24:00.001-08:00

So I'm listening to D.J. Grothe and the Point of Inquiry podcast (and trying to catch up on all the podcasts I've missed when school started again). Then I come across the one titled "What is the Worst That Can Happen?' and it inspires me to go to YouTube to see this guys video. You watch this video and you come to realize that practically all of the arguments that are used to deny Global Climate Change are the equivalent of whistling in the dark to keep the robbers away while walking down a street you should never have taken. Greg Craven is a high school science teacher from Oregon and an activist on Global Warming. He makes a set of arguments that just are not easy to try and shoot down. But don't take my word for it. Watch for yourself and try to shoot it down... this is in fact what Mr. Craven asks us to do... so do it:

Oh Brave New World...

2009-12-13T18:57:00.000-08:00

So I'm done with blogging today (or so I thought) and decide to sit down and watch the news and 60 Minutes to keep informed. Then, after and interview with President Obama, they come on with this article about 'regenerative medicine.' Now I'm somewhat familiar with the ability of a certain subset of vertebrates to be able to regenerate limbs like salamanders and newts and the tails of some lizards, but not in humans... until, possibly, now. Most of the time when the damage to a human body is too great even for sort of "shop mechanics" surgical techniques, we are left only with amputation of a damaged limb or the need for the transplantation of whole organs (heart, liver, etc.). Then there are all the people who can't get organs in time and die while waiting. If we just had a way to trick the body into regenerating that tissue then many people might not face the amputations or total organ failures to their doom. But we haven't figure out how to do that yet... until, perhaps, now. I ask all my readers to click on the link and to take the time to watch the episode of 60 Minutes. It reminds me of that quote from Shakespeare and the Tempest: "Oh brave new world that hath such people in it." I suggest listening to the segment while listening to "Shapeshifter" from the album Octagon by the group Dilate for the full effect. Check iTunes please.

Hypocrisy and Safety

2009-12-13T09:52:00.000-08:00

So I'm getting ready to start my blog for the week, still in my comfey, sleeping clothes, when Steve calls and says, "Whatcha doin?" and says that he's gonna be there in 15 minutes to go to brunch with Sean and Jeanne.... crap. Sunday is for blogging, relaxing, and tweeting with anyone (bloggers, news people, scientists, porn stars, the whole lot) while trying to wrap my mind around ultimate answers to hard questions. Like "Why do people believe in such bull-shit as God created man" (and what about woman... that always bothered me even though I'm male so you'd likely think I was cool with that notion... nope). Any ways, I get my act together (barely) then it's off to Roseville.

Sean looks much better after the back surgery and Jeanne is such a trooper. After we're done, we walk out (a major accomplishment for Sean) and everyone's words seem to get lost in the rain.. the rain... it makes me contemplative. Then I realize after finishing my work at home how dark it gets so early in Winter. I come back to my sanctuary of a home and begin to realize that my friends have it better than I do in one large regard... they can profess who they are and their belief in NOT believing. I don't dare do that at my work or near my place of employment. If I did, I'd risk being terminated by a crazy, religiously fanatical parent. I use subterfuge and use my Zen Buddhist goings as my out. "Oh no, I'm not a non-believer; I'm a Zen Buddhist." The Buddhism statement is true, but the 'not a non-believer' is not.... I feel like such a hypocrite.

My friends regularly tell me that they understand my situation but it still gets to me. How can I be the co-founder of an Atheist and Non-Believer group but not come out to support it. I let certain friends know but sometimes I just want to shout to the world, "I don't believe in ANYTHING, especially your bullshit notion of God because there isn't any God!" But no, I stay in the 'closet' so-to-speak and let my friends take the brunt for being one of the last and most hated minority groups in America. Someday.... it just sticks in my throat. I hate it.

Then I come across a Science Blog which tries to say the things I want to express. Please read this Blog.

Sunday at the Naked Lounge

2009-11-29T16:31:00.001-08:00

First Observation: I can't stop looking at women. I tell you honestly, I love the looks, the sound, the motion, the smell of women. Does that make me a womanizer? I don't think so... perhaps I just have a more acute sense for the feminine form in life and know that attraction to it can just be a manifestation of the creative impulse. That's the optimist in me looking at things. If I were a cynic I'd say that I was just trying to justify my own particular view of women and not seem so lurid. But I'm a realist... I just like women.

Second Observation: I've spent the day fairly productively and noticed a couple things: [1] I can get a lot of planning done in a fairly short time. I've completed a 3D Timeline for my computer work in Annos Luminos and it I stick to it, the office should become a hub of research and as powerful a small library as there can be. I still need to finish off the Mind-Map but it's close... a few more days and it should be done (just a little bit of research left to finish). I still need to figure out how to increase the shelf space in my office to it's full potential in order to get more books into the collection... but that will come in time. [2] People are idiots when they're shopping... plain fact that I can demonstrate at least anectdotally . I went to get some shopping done for bedroom and bath today. I arrived at the store and found an item that was close to what I wanted... just the wrong color (only white available but I wanted black... of course). I walked, and walked, and walked.... ad nausium for assistance. The place was understaffed and too many people were grabbing at the staff's attention at the checkout stand. "Fuck it!" I said in frustration, and walked out. I check out how bad the malls were for my next stop.... madness. I kept on driving to the Naked Lounge and didn't look back. I ended up ordering everything I wanted on-line... is it any wonder that the brick and mortar stores are suffering sometimes.

Third Observation: I have come to the conclusion that I am not as educated as I want to be and have started to put a plan into action to try to remedy that situation. I need to continue my education as earnestly and consistently as possible... every day I can. But here's the rub... I think that I can demonstrate that most people will consider that going through school like college and earning a degree makes them educated. Bullshit. Yup, you read it correctly. Male Bovine fecal excrement! It used to be that a person who was also educated was in the gentlemanly class. Now I know that doesn't necessarily make an individual a gentleman (not by the definition then or mine now... I agree), but the understanding was that education put a person at a level above the vulgar crowd; the mob. But as time moved on we democratized education and made it compulsory. The intent was to make the country a place where democracy would come to full fruition and that an educated populace could make better decisions....Nope. Nice try. It didn't work. Oh education made the country more productive and it has increased our wealth but at what political cost? I am not a big fan of democracy. Yup, I don't like it... but from a practical point-of-view it is the only system that really has the potential to work for the greatest number of people. The fallacy is that it assumes an educated populace. We're not. It is at this point in my ruminations that I just can't help but consider most people plebes like those of ancient Rome. Bread and Circuses! Entertainment and sex... just give the mob what it wants and you can rule the Republic (or the Empire if you like because we can be considered a de facto empire in many respects). Caveat emptor et vendi! Now, aren't I bordering on a kind of arrogance? What makes you so special? Well, I'm not sure that I am special... just questioning. Perhaps that is where the change needs to start....

Influenza - The How's and Why's

2009-11-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

So I get home, plop down in front of the computers, check my Tweets and Facebook lists, and there is a link to the best article I have seen in weeks from a science point of view; thanks to Brenda on Facebook. So, I click the link to the NPR story and see the best video rendition of what a virus does to the body. I'm gonna use this with my students. I know it will induce a whole series of questions but it's important that they understand the workings of a virus and get out the their heads some of the mystery surrounding how disease works in the human body.

Thanksgiving Ruminations

2009-11-27T15:53:00.001-08:00

It was a wonderful time with family and friends (though many of my friends are with their families right now and so things are not hopping as much with friends until they make their ways back to Sacramento). My parents are in good shape, my niece is growing into a wonderful young lady, and my nephews fiance is all a twitter about her impending marriage. And here I am... I'm the dependable uncle, son, brother whose life is ... rather unknown to them in actuality. And I've been given to thinking about the upcoming new year.

There seems to be a convergence of events ready to occur with me... I've been looking for a life's partner and so far nothing. My work is coming along but I hate certain duties of being a department boss. And I have caught myself realizing that I'm getting much closer to 50, my plans for house, computers, music are all starting to come together, and to add more interesting stuff... it is the Year of the Tiger next year. "My Year" in a chinese manner of speaking. The start of the school year left me a bit drained of energy and now that it's approaching the 1/2 way mark I am just now starting to get the hang of it. I'm hoping that the upcoming year will be my Annos Luminos - my 'Year of Light' and that I can make plans now that will all come to fruition.... more thoughts later. Thanks for letting me vent.

Refusing Flu Shots? Maybe You're a Denialist...

2009-11-07T10:48:00.001-08:00

Listening to NPR as I do every day in the morning I heard a great discussion between Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon and Michael Specter a reporter for The New Yorker magazine concerning his new book just out titled Denialism. In the talk he discusses how a group of island residents have stopped vaccinating their children against childhood diseases and how 40% of the children at a school in Marina del Rey got exceptions for vaccinations. His arguments are cogent and timely and make us confront the way we see the world. I am constantly confronted in my work with the insanity that parents and media foist upon our young people (" Is the world really going to end in 2012?" or "Is it true that we came from monkeys?".... Oh come on people!). But Michael Specter's point boils down to the threat that our irrational and denialist thought has for our well being and our continued existence. But why should I try to state the points when the author can do that for himself:

More Technology with Google

2009-10-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

So I get this e-mail from my dad today. Now my dad loves to keep track of the rumor mill surrounding Apple and the Macintosh computers and the Mac OS platform. Today he sends me this picture of an article from MacRumors about the new Google Navigation App for the Motorola DROID phone (the app is currently in BETA mode but still sounds cool). The article tells about how Google hopes to have this free app be a great part of the mobile OS that it calls Andoid which comes standard as part of the DROID phones when they come out in the next few weeks. This is a competitor to the Apple iPhone but I think it will be more different than competitive to the iPhone since the interfaces will be different to a degree. YouTube has a great explanation video for the Google Navigation App and can do a better job of explaining it than I ever could:

Appreciating Music

2009-10-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

It has been one of my pet peeves that we are surrounded by so much music today with our technological instruments that it seems that most people behave as if they know a lot about music. And I make this statement not just to bring to light that opinion or musical tastes is not the same as knowledge of music but that people who don't play music very much seem to miss the subtleties of music and the important parts of musical production and performance by not being a performer. As an example, listen to the discussion on NPR of one of Beethoven's more difficult pieces of music and why it is not played very often but how interesting it can be to listen to it once you get informed about the piece and it's significance:

[Personal Note: sorry for the long lapses in writing. I get busy with my regular work and there are times when writing is the last thing on my mind... I endeavor to improve.]

New Writing Technology

2009-07-31T16:02:00.001-07:00

Everybody who knows me knows how much I love technology (I know, I know... others would say I have an obsession with widgets, doohickeys, thing-a-ma-jigs, and whatchamacallits), but I really get crazy over anything that can make me more productive and help me with my failing memory as I get older (No comments, peanut gallery). And as such, for several months I have been looking at the product that is pictured to the left which is known as a Pulse Pen and comes from a company called LiveScribe which I think you gadget freaks like I am should really check out. Basically it's a small computer that records everything that's being said around you while you are writing on your paper and thus can play back the conversation or lecture by touching the areas you wrote at the time you wanted to hear what was being said. The small videos at the company website are much better at an explanation than I am but I got mine, have been practicing with it, and it's really COOOOOOOL. Anytime you start up the pen, as you write on the special paper, it remembers what was being said as the writing was going on. Now, you can also take that information and put it on your computer and have it looking just like your notes. THEN... you can play back the conversation/lecture just as if you were there! I got the 2 GB version because I know how long winded teachers can be ESPECIALLY when they are in administrative meetings. The paper, however, can't be just any paper but special paper that allows the pen to know where ON the paper the information was being written. In addition (again) the information can be exported as pdf's and there's free transcription software that you download that allows for the changing of the notes into a printed format. Totally cool. Go ahead! Check out the site and see what technology can do for you!

Monday Morning Musings

2009-07-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

I'm just sitting at the table listening to NPR about the Comic Con in San Diego while thumbing through Facebook and following my Twitter feeds. So, I start reading about the changing tactics about getting Gay Marriage legal again in California. It reminded me of the only Republican I've read or listened to so far this year (and I used to be a Republican when I first started voting then quickly came to my senses and found out that I HATE political parties... sorry but I just can't drink their Kool-aide no matter how hard I try... I'm just to independent a thinker): Megan McCain. I know, I know. You read that and do what my dog does when I send a nonsequitor his way; cock his head to the side and give and audible 'urhh?' But she has reminded me that if change is to happen it typically comes as the generations change. Go see this little article she wrote about posing for the "No H8 Campaign"

I also like that she told 'Joe the Plumber' that he is a 'dumb-ass' and just ripped Ann Coulter in her blogs. I'll defend anyone who speaks her mind like that! I have hope for the future more than I did before.

A Capella

2009-07-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me well or even in passing knows that I am a musician and an avid lover of all things musical. I remember getting caught one time by my sister as I was conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, 4th Movement... It was only in my head with a great stereo system at the time and a music stand, conductor's score, and a baton. Yeah it was a bit embarrassing but the next birthday of mine she gave me a picture of a conductor in paper cutout with his hands up and a huge note on a blue background.... and I still have it hanging in my house. But just today, my father sent me a wonderful link to a YouTube video of an A Capella group from Slovenia whose performance of Africa by the group Toto... totally cool:

One small step...

2009-07-20T20:39:00.001-07:00

I've been watching the newscasts and history channel and other channels presenting really cool programming on the this the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. It was really great to watch a re-enactment of the moon launch up through the splash down 5 days later. I remember where I was that day even though I was only 7. My family and I were driving back from my great aunts cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains and so I couldn't see the landing but we were listening to the radio as live broadcasts were going on even on the radio and not just television. I still have several of the newspapers that my father bought for that day and I hope to get some type of plastic protector for them (I think more for sentimental reasons than anything else... I know I'll never part with them until I meet my end). I suppose the only thing I find distressing is that such a phenomenal achievement will get only a day or two of some newscasts and most people will go about there way and then promptly forget all about it while someone like Michael Jackson got weeks of seemingly non-stop coverage after he passed away. People's priorities and sense of history is totally screwed up....

The Heretic and the Infidel

2009-07-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of definitions I think we need to work with before I explain my position on naming myself. Let's begin:

[from the New American Dictionary On-Line, color emphasis totally my own]

her·e·tic

NOUN:
A person who holds controversial opinions, especially one who publicly dissents from the officially accepted dogma of the Roman Catholic Church.
ADJECTIVE:
Heretical.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English heretik, from Old French heretique, from Late Latin haereticus, from Greek hairetikos, able to choose, factious, from hairetos, chosen, from haireisthai, to choose ; see heresy

her·e·sy

NOUN:
pl. her·e·sies
1.
1. An opinion or a doctrine at variance with established religious beliefs, especially dissension from or denial of Roman Catholic dogma by a professed believer or baptized church member.
2. Adherence to such dissenting opinion or doctrine.
2.
1. A controversial or unorthodox opinion or doctrine, as in politics, philosophy, or science.
2. Adherence to such controversial or unorthodox opinion.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English heresie, from Old French, from Late Latin haeresis, from Late Greek hairesis, from Greek, a choosing, faction, from haireisthai, to choose, middle voice of hairein, to take

in·fi·del

NOUN:

1. An unbeliever with respect to a particular religion, especially Christianity or Islam.
2. One who has no religious beliefs.
3. One who doubts or rejects a particular doctrine, system, or principle.

ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English infidele, from Old French, from Latin infidlis, disloyal : in-, not ; see in- 1 + fidlis, faithful (from fids, faith; see bheidh- in Indo-European roots)

Now with these definitions firmly out of the way, I am please, nay, proud to say I am a Heretic and an Infidel (and they are capitalized because for the purposes of this essay I consider them proper nouns... more about this after a moment). I take my pride (if it can accurately be termed pride) in calling myself these things in the same way that the homosexual community has usurped the meaning of the word 'gay' for their own purposes. So too do I usurp the churches terms for my own purposes and take pride in being and Infidel and a Heretic. I reject all religious doctrine, dogma, systems, and principles... I have no use for them and I choose (see 'heresy' ) to find the truth for myself absent of any faith or orthodoxy. Now why do I reject orthodoxy? First define your term again:

[from 1. Wikitionary and 2. Ecce Romani latin course and dictionary]

1. Etymology

From Late Latin orthodoxus, from Ancient Greek ὀρθόδοξος (orthodoxos), from ὀρθός (orthos), “‘straight’”) + δόξα (doxa), “‘opinion’”).

2. From Latin "doxus" to opine, have opinion, or think.

It is one of the fallacies of religion and the nature of orthodoxy that it requires that you think in a particular way; that you have 'straight thinking.' In a word, bullshit. I have always thought that the one of the unstated reasons that people so fervently cling to their faith and religion other than the social aspects is that it tells them how to think about the world bu require that you stay within the rigid framework of the dogma of the faith. In short, your ability to reason outside of a certain 'box' is stunted and so is the growth of your mind. I reject this proposition completely, utterly, and emphatically.

I am forever grateful for the process of science that has freed my mind from the trap of dogma and orthodoxy. Despite all the effort he put into it, my Methodist pastor grandfather was never able to convince me that his church (or any other church) with any type of orthodoxy was a living, growing entity concerned with anything except the perpetuation of its own existence... It reminds me of the functioning of a virus.

I state again proudly and for the record: I am a Heretic and and Infidel.

Bon Anniversaire au Le Republic du France!

2009-07-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note, but 220 years ago today, the Bastille in Paris fell to a mob of angry Parisian citizens. Oui mes amis cet est Le Jour de Bastille! Happy birthday France! Though we are in the 5th Republic since that day, France is still doing well and the republic is strong.... yup, I'm a Francophile and I freely admit it. Though I'm still working on how to speak well in that most poetic of languages I keep trying and get a little better each attempt I make. So raise a glass of champagne, mes amis, and wish the grand old lady a happy birthday! After all, she gave us Le Marquis de Lafayette and the Statue of Liberty. I think it's the least we can do to say, "Merci beaucoup, France."

Mental Machinations

2009-07-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

I'm reasonably sure that most people who are thinkers in any sense of the word go through similar days and moments as I am having right now, but how they deal with it I can't say... me, I blog... or at least attempt to blog. Several things have been happening in and around and even totally peripherally to my life but the combination of circumstances, people's tendency toward idiocy and lack of self reflection, and the general media environment have left me a bit shell-shocked and not quite sure how to proceed.

[1] The state legislature of California and the governor are locked in this mess about how to come up with a budget that works and have been at impasse for weeks if not months while the common person suffers.... and yet, in a very real sense, it is the common person who has put us here. It all began with Proposition 13 in the late 1970's and then continued on with such things as Proposition 98, etc. As such, the initiative process which was supposed to put more power back in the hands of people and force the legislative process forward when politics intruded into vital areas of concern. Nice idea, lousy results. The average person in California can't balance their checkbook much less should they have any input into the budget of the 8th largest economy in the world! But they people of this state (like so many other states in the nation) have bought into the false claim that you can lower taxes and still get the same services from government that you always had up 'til then. The citizens of California were sold a promise they swallowed like a hungry Parana then have the hubris to get angry at the government when they don't have the funds to do the work they would normally do if the taxes were there to lend them the money FOR such purposes. You idiots! This is a pay to play system! You want the services, PAY FOR THEM! This childish crap of listening to fascist political pricks say "Government is the Problem," believing them, voting them into office, and THEN being surprised that they are ineffective at the job has GOT TO STOP. Whoever said that democracy was a great idea was an imbecile; democracy sucks... except there's no better system to take it's place. Look in the mirror folks.... In short California.... grow the fuck up.

[2] I hate it when you meet nice people for dates, you've put time and effort into knowing them, and then they don't see you the way you'd hope they would. I just can't stand the saying,"Let's just be friends." It's not a particularly bad phrase. It has a direct and fairly pleasant intent.... so why does it leave such a crappy taste in my mouth? Now, I'm a big boy and I try to just take it for what it is. But.... I suppose I hate it that both she AND I didn't come to this conclusion earlier in the writing. I get the feeling sometimes that I'm just not quite a typical member of the human race... more a demon in human form or a machine wrapped in human flesh... Where are all the women who can keep up with my geek, are good looking, like to get physical, and can play chameleon as well as I can? Just gonna keep looking...

[3] I love the place I'm living which is why I've been there for SO LONG. But, even so, I have a right to at least a few bitches: {a} The place doesn't have enough electrical outlets for what I want to do {b} the cabinets in the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom need some major work and finally {c} IT HAS NO CENTRAL AC... yup, in central California and no central AC. I've done what I can to compensate by having lots fans moving the air and having them computer controlled, putting water on the roof (but it only gets done when I'm home), and darkening the house in the daytime as best I can with dark curtains and sun shade screens outside the house. But on days over 100 degrees F.... brother... Today is one of those days and I'll probably end up at the end of the day restricted to the upstairs where the small window AC is and watching the tele through my Slingbox on my computer.... I gotta get Norman to get a second AC downstairs... just gotta.

Concoctions 1

2009-07-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

I have been having fun with my friends lately and we've had a great time having our weekly Sunday Brunch. Last Sunday, while waiting for a table at Capitol Garage, we all decided to walk over to Zocalo's. It was a great idea. I love Mexican cuisine and they also serve one of my favorite mixed drinks; Death in the Afternoon. Originally from Ernest Hemingway (as the legend goes), I discovered it recently and just can't get enough. But as time has gone on, I decided, "Why don't I make one of my own?" and give it a cool name? Hey, if Ernest can come up with a good one, so can I. Here we go:

Death after Midnight

(working title)

Take the following in this order and put into a fluted champagne glass

1/2 oz. Chambourg Raspberry liqueur

1/2 oz. Pomegranate Juice

Fill remainder with Gran Spumante

Enjoy (But note it is very sweet so if you don't do that kind of drink, pass on this one)

Mind Control and the Force

2009-07-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

So I'm watching (or I should say catching up on) my viewing of my favorite technology blog, GeekBrief.tv, and listening to Cali Lewis talk about a bunch of stuff (mostly for me it's ho hum) when she talks about this toy which uses "mind control." Mind control? WTF? So I start watching the rest of the blog and she shows this toy called The Force Trainer which is made by Uncle Milton Industries (with Mattel coming out with a competitor toy around the same time) and which should be out near the end of the summer costing about $130. Bull Pucky! I couldn't believe my eyes.... The toy reminds me of the mind control trainer from that old sci-fi flick from the 50's called The Forbidden Planet which had an alien race called the Krell who had developed a machine with no mechanisms for control... the mind did all the controlling (if you've never seen it, check it out on iTunes sometime).

Essentially, you put on a headset that monitors your Beta Wave functioning and as you concentrate a ball rises up a tube and the more you concentrate the higher up the tube it goes. The Beta Waves of your brain are the waves produced when your brain is in an intense state of concentration. the technology was evidently first developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) who are the folks that gave us such things as GPS and Night Vision but is now being used commercially by a company known as NeuroSky. The potential applications are almost inconceivable:

All the world's a stage...

2009-07-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

So a couple of days ago I was sitting at the Naked Lounge with my friend Steve and we were just shooting the breeze when the Muse hit me square between the eyeballs. I started listening to the Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (which also happens to be my iPhone ringtone) and images started coming into my mind. I then started searching the net like a maniac for images that had an emotional impact on me as I looked at them. I wasn't sure of any one theme but more for the feelings that it elicited in me as a means of my understanding how I see the world. Once I had started, it's as if the small project took on a life of it's own... how many images I like could I put into the span of time that the "Bitter Sweet Symphony" would play. A few hours later, I had an essentially finished project. I leave it to you, my dear readers, to be the judge of what it means to you: The World's a Stage

Helios Alive!

2009-06-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

In sunny California it is almost unheard of for people to not have AC in the summer. I also have AC.... BUT... it's not central but a single small window unit in my upstairs. NOT ENOUGH... especially on days when the temperatures are in the triple digits. I do what I can ( I have plans to insulate my windows on hot days I hope to put into action today) but there are times when I just have to retreat to one room with my dog and hope that I can stand the noise.... Thank goodness for Sling Box so that I can watch the downstairs TV on my computer upstairs.

I love the Sun; it just doesn't always like me (skin cancers, sun burns, heat in summer, etc.). But it is an amazing site when you see the surface for the first time (which I was trilled to be able to see as a child one of the first times I looked through a friend's telescope). Consider a few factoids:

1. The sun converts 600 million tons of Hydrogen into 595 million tons of Helium EVERY SECOND and it has been doing so for the last 4 1/2 billion years.

2. If you could capture and use all the energy that the sun emits in ONE SECOND, it would be greater than all the energy ever used by humanity in it's ENTIRE HISTORY.

3. Compared to other stars, the Sun is classified as a yellow dwarf star. Dwarf? YES. The largest star I know of is the star VV Cephei which is so large that if you put it in the same position in the Solar System it would be larger than the orbit of the planet Jupiter!

Belated Reminder...

2009-06-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

So why is the date of June 28th so important to the LGBT community in the United States? I had wondered about this when I heard someone mention the Stonewall Riots. Riots? When? Where? I had heard of the Madeshene Society (spelling) which was an underground organization of homosexual men in the first half of the 20th century... But what were the Stonewall Riots? Here's where Wikipedia comes to the rescue and I spent about an hour reading about the riots in New York on June 28, 1969 in the Greenwhich Village area after a police raid on a gay nightclub and bar (incidentally run by the mafia) where the patrons had had enough and fought back against the police. I ask you to read it as well: Stonewall Riots

I must apologize to my readers for not having written this blog at the appropriate time which would have been yesterday.... my only defense is to say that friends, lack of sleep, and a house in California without central AC has taken my attention other places than writing. I also point out a phrase that my father once told me and it has stuck with me since I was a young man: You can only oppress and marginalize people so much before they fight back. For all my LGBT friends, this is your time and we will gain you the rights that you have been denied since time immemorial.

Of Human Reasoning and A.I.

2009-06-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

9:07 a.m.

Chris Anderson is the Editor of "Wired" magazine which is usually a good read if you're a member of the tribe of geek as I am. He has started a new video blog on MSNBC titled IT/IO and has some great interviews with people who are leaders in the information technology community. One of the more interesting interview is one I stumbled upon at the MSNBC website and it's with Marvin Minsky who is well known as an american cognitive scientist at MIT and the co-founder if it's Laboratory on Artificial Intelligence. I found the couple of small videos fascinating especially when he discusses what he is interested in in the study of how humans think and how he distinguishes human activity from activities that can be found in the behavior of all animals of a certain complexity. Take a look at the two interview segments:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Financing and Computer Power

2009-06-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 1:11 p.m.

Quick Post:

So I had to take my poor PowerBook G4 into the Apple Store and get it repaired. I had forgotten how old the beast was and when they told me I had purchased it in November of 2005, I just about shit a brick... 3 1/2 years old! No wonder it finally gave up the ghost and needed a new logic board. I have taken that machine back and forth to work, SF, NY City, Santa Barbara, LA, and so many other places as well as using the crap out of it this year after I got the SmartBoard for the class. I finally came to realize that I just had to have a more robust machine and one that was more powerful. So many things have happened since the Intel-Macs cam out that I need at least one and I may as well start out with the new laptop.

BUT... I didn't plan on spending the dough to get a new computer for travel and work. I DID plan on getting one for the living room dedicated to music and gaming that I can access from the net as well so I was planning on using the Vizio 42" TV for the monitor, my bluetooth mouse and wireless keyboard and I'd have a great machine for the music and games that I'd wanted. So the new laptop came at a bad time. LUCKILY, Apple has a financing deal with Juniper VISA through Barclay Bank that gives you 0% financing for 12 months on the first purchase with Apple over $1000! OK, I did my last laptop the same way... I went on-line, filled out the application and ..... APPROVED... but... I have to wait 7 to 10 days before the card arrives before I can make the purchase.

I hate waiting....

Cool Customer

2009-06-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 12:38 p.m. PDT

So I'm at home getting some computer work and robot maintenance done when POTUS (president of the United States) comes on the tele at his news conference today. As is usual in a press conference, he gets peppered with questions which at first blush may seem simple... but anyone who has been around the block once or twice knows that the real world just doesn't work that way... And so does our president. I sat there watching President Obama being like some of the best teachers and professors I've had in my life being precise, clear, broad in context when necessary, humorous when he could.... but to the point and not holding back. The press kept at him often asking questions like a simple answer would do (so like the press to want a simple answer like a child who is too impatient to actually learn the lesson) but he never lost his cool. "No Drama Obama" just seems to be a great phrase for this administration so far. I contrast this with the previous president (who shall never be named again) and how he avoided the press and would get flustered and complain the the questions were "hard" or "difficult." Boo Hoo... nice to finally have a grown-up in the White House again.

Of Logic Boards and iPhones

2009-06-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday 4:46 p.m.

So having been without a laptop computer for a time, I have been remise in getting my blog out until now. But in the end I have decided to get a new laptop which is intel processor based even though I have my older laptop back and it seems to be working just fine. The problem is that I have used my laptop so much this year in my classes that I just have to have a machine that is more powerful and reliable. More on this later...

Sunday 9:00 a.m.

Well the new iPhone has some really zonker new things it can do with the new OS 3.0. If you have a Mobile Me account you can do even more. While talking with my friend Bob yesterday at the Naked Lounge, we tried out the location service on Mobile Me for an iPhone. I did it with mine this morning and giving it a few moments it pretty much nailed the location. Then, and this was really cool, I was able to send the phone a message which was was able to be seen with a sound and vibration even though the phone was off. Then, and this is a final resort, if the phone message doesn't get the phone returned, you can remotely wipe out the data and applications essentially putting the phone back to factory reset (but it doesn't turn off the service to the phone). I'll keep updating everyone on the new computer tech as soon as I find new things...

P.S.

While I have my laptop back and that's fantastic, for some strange reason the Mobile Me sync settings were turned off. I don't know how this happened but it may have been part of what was necessary to replace the logic board.... hmmmm.

iPhones and Technology

2009-05-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

Those who have read my blogs, know that I typically have a picture for each entry... Not this time ( so far) because now I have the ability to do it on my iPhone which is how this entry got done. I hope for more running commentary with the help of iBlog. Also, I hope to do additions to blogs through the day as events warrant.

On another note, kudos to the Cyan Co. For coming out with MYST for the iPhone. Myst was... Is a mystery game with clues and puzzles.... And is addictive! Now, if they can only come out with Riven as well, it would be fantastic...

To Blog or Not to Blog (You know the rest...)

2009-04-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately... I agree, for me that is always a dangerous proposition but hey, what the hell you gonna do? If I reflect carefully on how this happened I think it all started with some serious "discussions" with a friend who also happens to be a colleague. But to make this less cryptic, let me give a little background.

Donald (not his real name... I know, chicken shit... I admit it) and I got into some very heated discussions about current events. I was trying to point out how difficult it is to deal with people who are fanatical about their religious position especially fanatical Muslims or Christians. This discussion came about due to the news that I had in the newspaper next to us that the Taliban had gained control of areas that are only 60 miles from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Without too much more detail, I agreed with him that our dealings with the Taliban have been pretty lacking in wisdom in the past ( we support them against the Soviet Empire but leave them out in the cold developmentally after the soviets leave in '89... bad move). Then I tried to point out to him that it was entirely within reason to suppose that the Taliban would take the capital of Pakistan within a few years if nothing was done to help the Pakistani government.

He was adamant that would never happen because it was "too secular a society" and "the Taliban are not a real organized group and as such not a threat." Further he said that in essence we were reaping what we had sown and that only talking with these people would help the situation. Now to be honest, these may all be valid points ( he still wouldn't take my $20 bet that Islamabad would fall in 5 years... chicken shit!) but that's not what struck me so hard.... it was the extreme pacifist vitriol that was spewing (yup... spewing ) out of him that slightly shocked me. The "I'm right and nothing you can say will change my mind" type of fanatical froth seething out of every orifice was just too much. It reminded me of the First Law of the Fanatic which states, "When you obsess over the enemy, you become the enemy."

My head has been swimming ever since that encounter. I thought I knew the man... I was wrong. But now, I have had some time to analyze the encounter and it has left me with two conclusions: [1] I have been an apologist for my friends failings and not brave enough to forcefully confront him about them and [2] I am being driven by such encounters to blog more and, as such, get my blog read by a larger audience than the two people who follow me right now (and you, my faithful readers are much appreciated!). Yet, I have a problem of psychic or psychotic proportions to overcome (take your pick).... while working I have little time to contemplate the weighty flow of the Universe often enough to write each day with wit, originality, and consistency. And so, I come to that famous question first posed by Shakespeare's Hamlet (modified for my own purposes): To Blog or Not to Blog...

Write me friends and give me your feedback: Write more or just keep on doing what I've been doing OR keep on doing it just more often. As for my friend and my cowardice in not confronting him, from a purely tactical P.O.V. I know that he will be retiring to another country by the end of the calendar year so the cost-benefit analysis just doesn't add up to any long term benefit in that course of action. Next time, he spews like he did I will just have to get up and walk away; cut my loses and go. As for my blogging, I await you sage feedback... Take care.

Brief Blog - "Just How Stupid Are We?"

2009-04-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

While doing a bit of quick research on Amazon.com for a friend, I caught sight of a recommendation for a book. Amazon is famous for this... they analyze your previous purchases and make recommendations for purchases based on this data. I usually just take a quick glance at the texts, see the title or author, check to see if it's Kindle available, then move on to other things. After all, I have a wish list that is over 40 web pages long on Amazon.com alone (not to mention other places and my wish lists there) and so most of the time the recommendations don't mean much to me.

Then a title caught my eye in a serious way: Just How Stupid Are We? Now with a title like that, well, I decided a second look was warranted. The author is a historian, a New York - Times best selling author of Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History and a commentator for MSNBC and CNN and has produced programs on history for TLC. He even has his own blog as well. Having glanced at it and digested a few paragraphs, it seems to be aimed at the need for accuracy in the debate of the body politic and he seems to do a good job. On his blog, he states the following:

Dunce Cap Scorecard: It would be stupid to say that the American people are stupid--as stupid as saying the American people are smart. It's impossible to generalize--and silly. But our politics are often stupid. And there are times when no other word, harsh as it is, seems to capture the essence of the turn politics have taken.

But what do we mean by stupid? To help determine whether a debate is stupid or not I have devised a five-part test. Call it the Dunce Cap Scorecard.

On the blog I rank debates by how stupid they get. One or two Dunce Caps is normal for any debate. Five Dunce Caps and you know you're in a deep pile of stupid.

Now this I can appreciate. I have always looked at the topic of "stupid" in a couple of ways. One - the way I have to deal with 8th graders; keep it simple for them and stick with "The Forrest Gump Rule": Stupid is as Stupid does ( with 'stupid' capitalized for you English snobs and minutiae creeps because I consider it a proper noun in this context). Then, two, that I don't trust democracy as practiced today in America (or for that matter anywhere else on the Earth). I explain this by realizing that the power and effectiveness of democracy lies in the education and reasonableness of the constituent population - and quite frankly I don't trust any of you with my welfare when it comes to being able to reasonably pick representatives to hold public office (the new mayor of the town I live in is a perfect example - oy vay!!).

Well, time to read the book some more and get back to you later... peace and Good Luck.

Monsters in the Stomach

2009-04-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

I can't be sure but I think that I'll have to be more careful with the food I store in the refrigerator since I have been about a week of feeling like I have had a creature like the baby alien spawns from Aliens working its way through my gastrointestinal system on it's way to burst through my chest... AAAAAAGGGGGGGHH...... I know, I know... not exactly a pleasant thought to put forth in a blog but, hey, what the hell... it's been on my mind and my morning constitutionals for a while now.

I suppose I can chalk this up to one of those hazards of being a bachelor and not always taking the time to be as careful about what I eat as I should. I suppose I should take a wax pencil to my Food-Saver® containers and Glad® containers as well and mark what day I put the food in there... good idea I need to follow through on. Those of you with a wife or husband or significant squeeze don't have quite the same problems to deal with with food (others to deal with granted, just not the same as mine).

I had every intention this year of eating a bit better since I love to cook.... I'm usually missing one absolutely vital ingredient most nights however... you guessed it - Time! I even have the white board in my kitchen with the schedule of what type of food to eat for which night like a menu at a restaurant (yeah, yeah, yeah.... sick and organized; I can hear it now). But without that vital ingredient, it usually comes down to fixing what I can, with what can, when I can OR going out and spending more money that I shouldn't be spending. The results are predictable.

So about a week ago, the Wild Things decided to take up residence in my colon and stomach and have a party... yuck. I don't cherish sitting on the Lu every 20 minutes and not being able to go out on a Saturday night. All I knew that might give me some relief was Pepto-Bismol®, sleep, and a small breakfast with some fruit and cereal and a touch of yogurt to try and get my bacterial fauna back into balance. The strangest thing resulted from this gastrointestinal extremism was a bit of melancholia.... wishing that I wasn't a bachelor and that I had a significant other, girl-friend, wife, main squeeze to be with and have someone to watch over me a bit. It has me a bit down and watching too much porno than is good... so I went back to diving into the geek-factor and keeping my mind busy. So far that works... temporarily at least.

I hope E-Harmony® comes through before the summer gets too far along....

I love technology!

2009-04-10T13:21:00.001-07:00

For some time now I have been slowly but methodically been planned to put webcams in my place to keep track of things. I suppose this desire and planning traces its origins back to an attempted break-in several years ago and as I have been accumulating "stuff" (OK, OK, I'm guilty of being a vulgar materialist and capitalist... I admit it... now move on) I felt a need to keep track of my domicile. I can't get an alarm put into my place (long, way long story not suitable for this blog) so I started to formulate a solution. Automation! Yup that was the key.

Last summer I upgraded my home system and started to use a Mac Mini with Insteon Modules and Indigo automation software to fool people into thinking I was home when I wasn't and to be able to have the lights turned on when night came and I might be late coming home (I was taking classes at the local community college at night and the winter semester gets pretty dark at 9 p.m.). Then the summers would allow me to turn off and on fans and the cooling system which wasn't centralized and that was a big help. Later on, with the system up and running, I came home from work and heard more than my dog in the house... yeah... I stood still and thought, "What the hell is going on?" I opened the door, confronted two German shepherds that had broken through the back fence and followed my dog into the house through the dog door! The confrontation was pretty easy as I had picked up a big wooden sword near the door (don't ask) and the dogs probably thought, " Holy Shuzzbud - get the frack outta Dogde!!!" and were pretty much gone in 20 seconds. My dog was OK, freaked out, but OK and that was cool... but the place was trashed with mud and all the dog food containers were ripped and spewed crap all over the house. After spending hours cleaning the devastation, I thought, "I won't get caught off-guard again!" and thus came a plan.... web cams.

After much research and many emails to Ben and Spencer at Bensoftware.com, I got Security Spy (THE premier security software for the Mac... and NO F@#*€‹·°king way am I using PC unless I have no choice... more on that later). Serendipity is a great thing as well as Fry's is dumping their stock of Airlink101 network cameras and I got mine for $99 instead of $250! Today I install the last one until I upgrade to 8 cams instead of just 4 on Security Spy (click the link and check it out!) and have the ability to check out the house on my cell phone (way too cool as well)... It's good to be a geek!

Then, I get up this morning, start watching the MSNBC newsfeed and come across the story of a woman who is watching her house get burglarized (Yeah, check it out!). She calls 911, tells that that she's watching her house be burglarized before her eyes, the police surround the house and haul away 4 would-be burglars one of whom happens to be her next door neighbor (now that's slime if ever I've heard of one). I have no doubts now... never again... I love technology!

Oklahoma is DOOMED....

2009-04-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

While going through my usual morning reads of the Tweets, Blogs, and messages from my Facebook buds, I went to the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and came across this. It has to be one of the most asinine political moves that anyone has done in that state since.... oops, my bad. I forgot... I'm writing about a midwest state like Kansas. Remember the book titled "What's the Matter with Kansas?" Read the whole article on this idiotic resolution against Dawkins speaking on evolution at U of Ok. and maybe that will jog your memory.

Then I get a different article after reading the above one on the legislative resolution. The thought that some dim-witted politician from Oklahoma of all fucking places would decide that free speech needs to be "investigated" just about pushed me over the edge to wanting to do violence! (No, no... don't worry. I won't go there). But finally Dawkins had his say:

Squeaky the Chicago Mouse

2009-04-08T18:20:00.001-07:00

While watching the news show Countdown with Keith Olbermann, I was introduced to the news that Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a letter in response to the fummings of Bill O'Reilly of the Fox 'Noise' Channel. Now when you read this it may seem pretty standard fair but be patient and read to the very last paragraph or you'll miss the punch line:

To: Bill O’Reilly
From: Roger Ebert

Dear Bill:

Thanks for including the Chicago Sun-Times on your exclusive list of newspapers in your “Hall of Shame.” To be in an O’Reilly Hall of Fame would be a cruel blow to any newspaper. It would place us in the favor of a man who turns red and starts screaming when anyone disagrees with him. My grade-school teacher, wise Sister Nathan, would have called in your parents and recommended counseling with Father Hogben.

Yes, the Sun-Times is liberal, having recently endorsed our first Democrat for President since LBJ. We were founded by Marshall Field one week before Pearl Harbor to provide a liberal voice in Chicago to counter the Tribune, which opposed an America war against Hitler. I’m sure you would have sided with the Trib at the time.

I understand you believe one of the Sun-times misdemeanors was dropping your syndicated column. My editor informs me that “very few” readers complained about the disappearance of your column, adding, “many more complained about Nancy.” I know I did. That was the famous Ernie Bushmiller comic strip in which Sluggo explained that “wow” was “mom” spelled upside-down.

Your column ran in our paper while it was owned by the right-wing polemicists Conrad Black (Baron Black of Coldharbour) and David Radler. We dropped it to save a little money after they looted the paper of millions. Now you call for an advertising boycott. It is unusual to observe a journalist cheering for a newspaper to fail. At present the Sun-Times has no bad debt, but labors under the weight of millions of dollars in tax penalties incurred by Lord Black, who is serving an eight-year stretch for mail fraud and obstruction of justice. We also had to pay for his legal expenses.

There is a major difference between Conrad Black and you: Lord Black is a much better writer and thinker, and authored a respected biography about Roosevelt, who we were founded to defend. That newspapers continue to run your column is a mystery to me, since it is composed of knee-jerk frothings and ravings. If I were an editor searching for a conservative, I wouldn’t choose a mad dog. My recommendation: The admirable Charles Krauthammer.

Bill, I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician?

That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection!

An Absence...

2009-04-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well I've finally come back to the blog... it's been a very busy time since my last post (which to be honest I can't remember when that was without looking it up). The time since has been filled with politics both internal to work and external, learning French, taking care of the Science Department as a new department chair (and so learning the ropes), learning new music, and updating the automation of my house while keeping up with the SacFAN group (Sacramento Free-thinkers, Atheists, and Non-believers) and the new Science Forum that a member and I have promised to organize. All in all, a very busy time.

My readings have increased dramatically as well as I try to keep up with Chado studies, martial arts reading, preparing to go back to Kendo, and then trying to have a love life in the process. One of the highlights of my time away from writing was to see the Taiko group KODO from Japan live on stage.... It was absolutely impressive! I have caught myself telling friends that it ranked up there as one of my top 5 live performances to have witnessed. The picture that goes with this entry shows two of the members playing on the O-Daiko (Great Drum) for what seemed like forever but was more like 15 minutes... but STILL!

Finally, I have been expanding my applications for research and have kept my Internet radio station going most days even though I am really the only one who is listening most of the time and Mom listen in occasionally. I have also accomplished the final stages of automating my house with security cameras (only two more left to install... one now and a more sophisticated one a couple months from now) so that I can keep track of my dog and my place from a distance considering the strange things that can happen. As an example, two months ago I came home to find that 2 German Shepherds had somehow found a hole in the fences and followed my dog through the dog-door into the house. After chasing them out, I was left to deal with a trashed house and mud tracks and splatters I am still finding today. I vowed to do something to stop that from happening again. After the landlord got it together to fix the fences, I put together the plan for surveillance. I can even watch the house on my iPhone... ain't technology wonderful? More about these developments in later blogs.... it's good to be back!

The Beauty of Galaxies

2008-10-12T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've been away from the blog for a few months now and need to get back to business. I just got a program called Jing which comes for free for Mac users from the Jing Project (google it and you'll see). Was playing around with it's functions and found this:

Comes straight from my Flicker account. Pretty cool eh? More later.

A Tribute to George Carlin

2008-06-24T08:35:00.001-07:00

I remember going to see George Carlin in person, Live at the Universal Amphitheater when I was going to school in Long Beach and studying engineering. I was already starting to come to my current view of things as I had had several close calls when down in the LA area and friends die. I just couldn't handle the absurdity of life and living at the time. Then I saw George who made me realize that the absurdities were something that you had to laugh at to get through.... Thanks George. You will be missed:

Showing up the Boys...

2008-06-23T12:25:00.001-07:00

I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes... You go girl!

Ball Girl Makes Incredible Catch - Watch more free videos

Don't you dare say "Seeing is Believing"

2008-06-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is a crazy fast rendition of what a true Photoshop Pro can do with enough time and motivation... pictures cannot be trusted ever again.

The First IT Pro - I work with people like this...

2008-06-22T08:32:00.001-07:00

I know that for a certain type of person, the use of a computer is a bit intimidating especially if you never grew up using one or don't consider yourself very technically adept (which is a convenient cop-out for not being a person who wants to learn anything new - yes, there are utterly uneducable individuals in this world). But I just can't help but think that no matter what the technology, some people are just too stupid to live. Imagine the invention of the folded codex which eventually became known as a book... just go with it and watch (you'll get it and hopefully a get a good chuckle too):

Political Satire at it's best!

2008-06-19T08:42:00.001-07:00

This is self explanatory... just listen and laugh! Then ....VOTE!

Astronomy 101 - Lesson 3: Mars

2008-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

After having studied the two inner planets, Mercury and Venus, we move to the last of the inner planets - Mars the Red Planet. After this, we will return to the Moon and Earth and study some of the mysteries of each. Take good notes - yup, there is a quiz after the next few lessons.

Mars, the Red Planet Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

A Dog's Best Friend...

2008-03-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

I love to use my Google Reader account to look at my favorite blogs and one of them is the GeekBrief TV where all kinds of cool, geeky stuff is talked about with a cute gal named Cali Lewis. Well, I came across the following YouTube video that had been posted by the GeekBrief TV Team and just LMFAO!
I have a dog who is just like the Dachshund who just has to play and play and play. There are times when I have wondered if he is lonely when I am gone. Where can I get one of these for my dog... Google search time:

Astronomy 101 - Lesson 2: The Inner Planets

2008-03-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

OK, boys and girls, here's your next lesson in planetary astronomy. The solar system can be divided in two ways depending on location or composition of the objects in question (this is when discussing planets, the sun and moons of the solar system are a different story). The location divisions can be done as follows (from the sun outwards): Inner Planets, Asteroids and Minor planets, Outer Planets, Kuiper Belt Objects. Each one of these locations also have the majority of the objects in these areas composed of a particular material (i.e. Kuiper Belt objects are predominantly made of ices from such materials as methane, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, plus a smattering of silicate/rocky materials mixed in). So, mes etudiants, listen up:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Astronomy 101 - Lesson 1: The Moon

2008-03-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

I have been contemplating lessons for all my readers in the science of astronomy (yes, you , my two readers out there, can get a free education in astronomy - the princely discipline of science). As such, from time to time, I will be posting lessons on the main topics of astronomy (take notes, there will be an exam on this in the end... or you won't get your certificate of completion and you won't get to join the junior space league...). The best place to begin in my experience is to examine the most visible of the night sky objects, the Moon. Have fun and I'll give you more later:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

The Devil's Handiwork

2008-03-17T08:52:00.001-07:00

Well, it's a vacation time for me and it's nice because I have time to think for myself and enjoy the erudite pursuits... like YouTube. I came across an outstanding comic: Lewis Black. His best rif is on what is titled on YouTube as "The Devil's Handiwork." Now I am a scientist and am constantly having to define and defend it's findings from crackpots I come across (some of whose children I have to teach and what they are doing to their kids is just plain abusive to their mental faculties). Now Lewis Black does a fantastic job of putting forth what it is that makes me just nucking futs about these people... enjoy:

A Time for Change

2008-01-06T11:06:00.001-08:00

Let me state before hand that I am a skeptic. I don't take much for granted and I don't take many people's words at face value without some type of proof to back up their statements. So, as a result, my politics are very independent and I don't like political parties (I tend to agree with Thomas Jefferson that they are not good for the body politic). But sometimes, just... sometimes, a person comes along who gives me some small hope that perhaps a time of change would come along. And this time, it's a generational change... at least it feels that way. I have never like the generations of politicians who have come before mine. The 'baby-boomers' are a selfish, uninspiring, hipocrytical, bunch of generally uninventive boors that I have never had much time for. It's perfect examples are George W. Bush and both of the Clintons and many others. It's time that they stepped aside and left the conflicts of the 60's and 70's in the past so that the newer generation that doesn't see race as mattering but senses a need for new perspectives as being paramount. Perhaps, just perhaps, now is the beginning:

Technorati Tags: Obama, History, Politics

Resolutions and Theremins

2008-01-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

• So as I am starting my new year, I am using some new ways to post my bogs here on blogger.com by using a hopefully useful little Firefox add-on named ScribeFire. Let's hope I can used to all the bells and whistles this thing has and how to use it effectively. I have put on several add-ons that have so far proven their worth, here's hoping this one does as well.

• It's raining and the wind is howling. Not as bad as it was earlier this morning but 20 to 40 mph winds are still nothing to sneeze at. I am kinda stuck at home hunkering down with my dog and considering my new year's resolutions. Some will seem pretty standard such as getting back into shape (but in my case it's been about a year and a half since I tore 2 muscles in my back and I will have to get them back into some working order before going back to the dojo) but others are more inspired and inspiring. I have been a somewhat musician since I was 8 and have practiced mostly keyboards and violin. This last year I discovered the 'Theremin.' Invented in 1919 by Leon Theremin from Russia, it is the first known musical instrument but is unusual in that you don't touch the instrument when you play it. The most famous player is Clara Rockmore who invented the manner in which to play the instrument and helped Theremin improve the design of the instrument to make it more useful to those playing it. I have fallen in love with the thing.... it sounds like some otherworldly voice and with the addition of other effect from pedal sources, it has great potential. I want one... I want to learn how to play one... I want to perform with one. OK, that's resolution #1. Here is an example of what it can do:

• Resolution #2: for the longest time I have wanted to be able to find and play a Lyricon. It is a Wind MIDI device that was used very effectively by the new age group Shadowfax and I just love the sound of the thing:

And so I have resolved to get another instrument... but the Lyricon, unfortunately is no longer manufactured. What do I do? I research and find the equivalent today which can do even more - The Yamaha WX5 Wind MIDI Controller:

To play it also requires a VL70-m Virtual Acoustic Tone Generator or some other MIDI controllable tone generator, but at least I can get them both from Guitar City and Skips music has one in stock right now. Now comes resolution #3....

• Resolution #3 - I will get a MIDI keyboard that works with GarageBand on the iMac and start to produce my own music that I have sat on for almost 40 years, record it, perform it, and then start to sell my own music (I think I'll need a copyright lawyer to help me). OK! So my mony for the year is now spoken for... hmmmm.

Technorati Tags: theremin, electronica music instruments

Wonders Never Cease...

2007-12-02T09:52:00.001-08:00

While stumbling through the internet in the 'Astronomy' search mod, I came across a phenomena known as "noctilucent clouds" or NLC's for short. this is a phenomena where the clouds form in the mesosphere of the earth at altitudes of between 80 to 100 km in height (essentially it is on the border between space and the workable edge of the Earth's atmosphere). The picture shows a view of some of these clouds as seen from Earth after the sun has already set and as such they are only visible because they are so high that the observer is on the non-sunlit portion of the Earth while the sun is still able to illuminate these clouds from around the curvature of the Earth's surface. Here are some links that may help for those with a bit more than the average curiosity:

[1] Noctilucent Clouds (Wikipedia article)

[2] NASA Article : Strange Clouds

[3] Video Clips (copyrighted) of NLC's

Some of the speculation is that the possible causes are due to meteoric dust that the Earth sweeps up as it rotates and revolves around the Sun (since the particles are just the right size for proper nucleation to occur) while others speculate that it may be an indication of global warming. These clouds seem to have first been noticed shortly after the eruption of Krakatoa whose eruptions of gas and dust caused spectacular sunsets for decades after words. I tend to ask if there might not be a correlation which is demonstrable between the first noticing of such clouds and the upsurge in the industrial revolution. I never have been one for coincidences so I think further investigation is very much warranted. At least for my readers, enjoy the pictures... they are spectacularly beautiful.

Stumbling the Net

2007-11-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Several months ago (perhaps even as much as a year ago, I'm a bit fuzzy on the details), my friend Richard introduced me to an add-on for the Firefox web browser known as 'StumbleUpon' which does as the name implies... you can stumble upon websites that you never knew existed and then blog about them and keep them listed for future references. Now, there are many more things that the StumbleUpon community can do, but the joy of this add-on is the ability to have a program to get you to places that can be as almost like presents at Christmas for a computer geek like me. Here are some of my favorite places that I have found in recent months:

[1] The Element Song by Tom Leher

[2] Tea - wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia_sinensis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea

[3] The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures

http://www.terebess.hu/english/oxherding.html

[4] The Classical Music Archives

http://www.classicalarchives.com/

[5]The Skeptics Annotated Bible/Quran/ Book of Mormon

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/

[6] The Ethical Atheists Ten Commandments

http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/ten_commandments.html

[7] Northern Lights from Iceland

http://www.iww.is/art/shs/pages/thumbs.html

[8] Space Telescope Images

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/screen/heic0717a.jpg

[9] Perfectly Timed Photos

http://beachestatelagunareal.com/Perfectly_Timed_Photos.html

[10] The Sphere and the Moebius Strip

Sam Harris at the AAI '07 Conference

2007-11-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

Sam Harris has been one of the most articulate speakers on the case for atheism and takes atheists to task for their inability to find an intimate understanding of the need for the contemplative state of being. Here is Sam in his own words:

Part 1

Part 2

In Defence of Science

2007-11-23T08:56:00.000-08:00

In 1633, Galileo was convicted by an Inquisitional Tribunal of the religious crime of heresy. He was sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life for having argued (correctly) that the Sun was the center of the solar system and not the earth. He was forced as part of his sentence to:

"Galileo was required to recant his heliocentric ideas; the idea that the Sun is stationary was condemned as "formally heretical." However, while there is no doubt that Pope Urban VIII and the vast majority of Church officials did not believe in heliocentrism, heliocentrism was never formally or officially condemned by the Catholic Church, except insofar as it held (for instance, in the formal condemnation of Galileo) that "The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its place is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scriptures", and the converse as to the Sun's not revolving around the Earth."

You might be forgiven if you think that we would have progressed since that time to where science is no longer on trial by religious idiots and bigots... you would be wrong. Witness as proof of my contention the Dover 'Intelligent Design' trial as diligently shown by the PBS science series NOVA:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html

Note: you must have Quicktime installed to watch the program. Also, it is a two hour program which comes in 12 parts but I implore you to watch all the segments to get the full story before you think you can make any judgements as the the veracity of the program. Here is a preview of the program:

Here is some information from BBC Video about the Intelligent Design controversy:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

The Evolution of Suicide Bombers

2007-10-07T11:22:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted and thus I offer my apologies to my readers (all two of you) with more from the Richard Dawkins Foundation. Recently, there was an international conference of atheists in Washington D.C. with the "Four Horseman" of modern atheism in attendance (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens) and numerous other scholars and academics addressing many issues important to everyone in the world. Professor Andy Thompson of the University of Virgina gave a lecture on the origins of suicide bombers and suicide bombings from the ancient times to today which he titled "We few, we happy few. We band of brothers" from Shakespear's Henry V play. Here are the lecture and the Q and A sessions that came directly after the presentation:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3: Q & A

Godless Awe and Inspiration

2007-09-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

I am reminded today, for what reason I am not entirely certain, that religion is not a necessary requirement to be inspired by the Universe. Ah, yes, now it comes to me. One of the young girls who is at my coffee shop while I write this is going to a catholic high school and studying the world's religions. It can be a fascinating study in anthropology... but I have been through that and found every one of them lacking the inspiration that the real Universe gives me.

I lost my 'faith' a long time ago when the contradictions of the ideas of faith came crashing into the reality of the Universe as revealed by science. I am not the only person who has had reality dissolve their faith away. Even Mother Teresa experienced this:

From TIME Magazine Article, August 23, 2007 -

"On Dec. 11, 1979, Mother Teresa, the "Saint of the Gutters," went to Oslo. Dressed in her signature blue-bordered sari and shod in sandals despite below-zero temperatures, the former Agnes Bojaxhiu received that ultimate worldly accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize. In her acceptance lecture, Teresa, whose Missionaries of Charity had grown from a one-woman folly in Calcutta in 1948 into a global beacon of self-abnegating care, delivered the kind of message the world had come to expect from her. "It is not enough for us to say, 'I love God, but I do not love my neighbor,'" she said, since in dying on the Cross, God had "[made] himself the hungry one — the naked one — the homeless one." Jesus' hunger, she said, is what "you and I must find" and alleviate. She condemned abortion and bemoaned youthful drug addiction in the West. Finally, she suggested that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind the world "that radiating joy is real" because Christ is everywhere — "Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive."

Yet less than three months earlier, in a letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an absent one. "Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."

The two statements, 11 weeks apart, are extravagantly dissonant. The first is typical of the woman the world thought it knew. The second sounds as though it had wandered in from some 1950s existentialist drama. Together they suggest a startling portrait in self-contradiction — that one of the great human icons of the past 100 years, whose remarkable deeds seemed inextricably connected to her closeness to God and who was routinely observed in silent and seemingly peaceful prayer by her associates as well as the television camera, was living out a very different spiritual reality privately, an arid landscape from which the deity had disappeared.

And in fact, that appears to be the case. A new, innocuously titled book, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday), consisting primarily of correspondence between Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years, provides the spiritual counterpoint to a life known mostly through its works. The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as the book's compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, "neither in her heart or in the eucharist." "

The article goes on to say:

"Not all atheists and doubters will agree. Both Kolodiejchuk and Martin assume that Teresa's inability to perceive Christ in her life did not mean he wasn't there. In fact, they see his absence as part of the divine gift that enabled her to do great work. But to the U.S.'s increasingly assertive cadre of atheists, that argument will seem absurd. They will see the book's Teresa more like the woman in the archetypal country-and-western song who holds a torch for her husband 30 years after he left to buy a pack of cigarettes and never returned. Says Christopher Hitchens, author of The Missionary Position, a scathing polemic on Teresa, and more recently of the atheist manifesto God Is Not Great: "She was no more exempt from the realization that religion is a human fabrication than any other person, and that her attempted cure was more and more professions of faith could only have deepened the pit that she had dug for herself." "

I must place myself fully with this camp of atheists. We are creatures of habit and I can only guess at the Mother's inner views for sure, but the implication is clear to a skeptic... she lost her faith and could not come to terms with it. I'm sure that she is not the only one. Perhaps, obliquely, it is not unlike the older generation of people who are in fact homosexual but unable to come to terms with it and thus they repress the notion and end up in men's rooms in Minneapolis airports looking to satisfy their mental, emotional, and physical desires that they repress... but this is, again, just speculation.

Here, I speak only for myself. I am fairly certain, upon reflection, that my liberation began when I was about 8 years old. I received a small telescope from my great-uncle Arthur and a book to go with it entitled simply Stars by H.A. Rey. I read about the 'Great Nebula in Orion' and after learning the positions of the stars, one cold December night I took my new instrument on my first tour of the true Heavens. Before my eyes swirled a ghostly green apparition the likes of which I will never forget. If I were a person of 'faith' I might have thought poetically that I had 'glimpsed the face of God.' I did not... instead, I got my first true glimpse of reality. Faith was no longer necessary. Instead, logic and curiosity became my constant companions and they have never failed or abandoned me (unlike a mythical god from the mythology of our primitive neo-cortex that we have yet to abandon as a species). I offer as exhibits to that wonderment and inspiration the preceding pictures at the beginning of this blog. The awe and inspiration of such pictures as these from the Hubble Space Telescope are a greater testament to Nature and the Universe than any work of man... and yet it precisely the work of science and of our minds in search of reality in the raw that has made them possible. It brings to mind the quote some attribute to Christopher Marlow's The Tragic Tale of Dr. Faustus where the doomed wizard states "Vi veri universum vivicus vici"; roughly translated: "By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the Universe."

I'm confused... aren't you?

2007-08-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm looking through my favorite blogs and come across a great YouTube video courtesy of PZ Meyers at the blog Phyrangula , which is a blog on science and politics and anything marginally related. So tell me how you feel after this; are you confused because I am?

The Music of the Times

2007-08-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

So I got up this morning and found a cool tool for my iTunes. Apple lets you use some HTML code to let people know the kind of music you have been buying. Ah Oh! Now my secrets are out.

The Elegant Universe - Part 3: Welcome to the 11th Dimension

2007-08-12T10:21:00.001-07:00

And finally we come to the main problem with String Theory - how do you test it? The basic tenants of science demand that all explanations be testable and if they are not then we usually don't include them in science (philosophy is more the venue for such a notion, but not science). Will we be able to test this theory in the not to distant future? That's the $64,000 question. But, for now, we are able to approach the Universe in a way that was never possible until string theory cam along and that opens up exciting possibilities:

Part 3/1 - Welcome to the 11th Dimension

Part 3/2 - Welcome to the 11th Dimension

Part 3/3 - Welcome to the 11th Dimension

Part 3/4 - Welcome to the 11th Dimension

Part 3/5 - Welcome to the 11th Dimension

The Elegant Universe - Part 2: The String's the Thing

2007-08-12T10:05:00.000-07:00

And so the unification of all the fundamental forces of the Universe has become the "Holy Grail" of theoretical physics, but the job of doing this has been illusive as a phantasm in the night. Then along comes string theory and seems to fit the bill. But why bother? Why not just use Gravity and Quantum Mechanics as needed? Well, that's what we have been doing... and it turns out the conflict between the two is not allowing us to explain the places where gravity must work on the very small level like the atom.... string theory does. In case you don't know it, searching for such answers led us to the computer and information age in which we live because of the work originally done with quantum mechanics back in the 1920's and 30's because it allowed us to explain how we could get semi-conductors to do what they do and that is the basis of the microprocessor. So, now for the 2nd part of The Elegant Universe - The String's the Thing:

Part 2/1 - The String's the Thing

Part 2/2 - The String's the Thing

Part 2/3 - The String's the Thing

Part 2/4 - The String's the Thing

Part 2/5 - The String's the Thing

The Elegant Universe - Part 1: Einstein's Dream

2007-08-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

Some of you out there may have heard of the new theory in physics termed "String Theory" but may also be asking "What is it? What do you mean 'strings'?" Ok, well on of the best books I ever read on this new theory is The Elegant Universe. The author is Brian Greene from Columbia University and he did a great job of explaining it. Ok, ok... you don't want to read some 'dry' book on physics... just explain it to me without all the math and such. All right... thanks to the beauty of the internet, I give you The Elegant Universe with Brian Greene:

Part 1/1 - Einstein's Dream

Part 1/2 - Einstein's Dream

Part 1/3 - Einstein's Dream

Part 1/4 - Einstein's Dream

Part 1/5 - Einstein's Dream

Ever wonder about the Moon?

2007-08-11T13:28:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest new explanations in recent decades in astronomy has been the ability to use the Apollo data to surmise a possible mechanism for the origins of the Moon. Now with the advent of super fast computing platforms, we can give you a sped up version of the process in the comfort of your own home:

Deepest Space

2007-08-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

I am reminded of a quote from William Blake when I see videos like the following:

"To see the world in a grain of sand,
and heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour..."

The first video shows you where the image was taken,

this next video shows you the galaxies up close with time to reflect

The Hubble Deep Field Image

Feeling small... and rightfully so.

2007-08-11T09:38:00.001-07:00

The following is a Youtube video of the relative size of planetary and stellar objects as we know them in the Universe so far today. We start with the planets in the Solar System (in order of size from smallest to largest) and then work our way up to the Sun. From there, we go to stars that are higher up on the Main Sequence to the blue giants, the orange and red giants and then to the super giants such as Betelguese in the constellation of Orion the hunter. Feel small.... very small... because you are:

What a Teacher Makes

2007-08-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

I have a good friend that is also a teacher at the college level and the extended conversations we get into about our profession can be quite enlightening as well as frustrating. But here is a great video he stumbled to me... you'll love it:

A Brief History of Disbelief (Part III)

2007-08-10T15:39:00.001-07:00

The Final installment of a roung history of atheism shown on the BBC known as "A Brief History of Disbelief":

Online Videos by Veoh.com

A Brief History of Disbelief (Part II)

2007-08-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is part two of the BBC's series on Atheism (Sorry for the delay) with parts three and four to follow quickly here after:

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Return Time...

2007-08-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

After finishing the school year, I went into a kind of chrysalis/hibernation mode. I felt the need to just read (4 rather substantial books so far), put plans together for my computer network, bringing the plans to fruition, and then a bit of travel to the City. I had to change my workout routine and switched to bicycling in Downtown as opposed to running to much in the park. But some sciatica problems cropped up and only now are they better. Sleep is becoming more problematic (I need a tempurpedic mattress and a tempurpedic pillow between my knees) and that has made me a bit more cantankerous than normal. I know it seems like drivel (which it is) but it brings you, my two readers up to date...

I have also been learning some new music and trying to memorize it and have found a new hangout after 6 years at what used to be my favorite coffee house.... now I spend my time at a wonderful tea house (Yummm!). After that, I ordered a cleaning robot that will help me when I have to go back to school (I have to continue my education to keep my salary at it's peak) and purchased some new software for studying languages (and I am impressed with it).Then, the uber-geek got to help his elderly parents set up and learn from how to use their iPhone (that was fun). A few more purchases and the network at home will finally be complete. I hope to get an iPhone for myself at least by April when my contract with Verizon is done but it's a great temptation to just go out now and spend the money!

I have a friend who is in a fine relationship (it's the early stages so this could change) but was able to find his lady through E-Harmony and convinced me to give it a try. If I start getting more responses, I might just bite the bullet and get a membership. He worked at dates and meeting people for about a year before his efforts bore fruit so I am figuring that I should take at least as long once I decide to "bite the bullet." And so I have returned to my blogging after a small sabbatical. More to come...

Framing Science: a teachers viewpoint

2007-04-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a contention of mine for a long time that "professional" scientists (say ones who do research at an institution like the University of California where I live) do some great science. But I get lambasted by my colleges when I recommend that some of my students NOT go to the undergraduate programs at the UC. "But these are such great institutions. Why wold you make such a recommendation?" My answer is pat, "Because they are not interested in the teaching of the average undergraduate student. These professors are researchers and the higher end UC campuses are really only suitable to self-starting students who can handle a Chemistry Lecture with 200 students and hopefully have good teaching assistants. The professors are not hired to be instructors but researchers. This student needs to go to an institution where the professors have honed their teaching skills and put an emphasis on their skills as an instructor. Many, far too many, don't do that." I consider the problems of most scientists in the public arena to be a similar to this situation; they do good science but are poor at educating the public and capturing their attention.

One of the major practicalities that scientists must learn to embrace is an ability to communicate with the general public on an emotional level equivalent to a preacher but not with the same agenda as a preacher. I think a good example of an early scientist who might fit the bill would be the late Carl Sagan. His COSMOS series was a great introduction for a vast number of people to the joys and vast majesty of astronomy and evolution. It is a point of fact I will contend that most people are not reasoning individuals for a myriad of reasons but that the catching of a person's curiosity and sense of serenity, majesty, and wonderment is the"back door" which can allow science to overwhelm the 'greatest story ever told' with "THE GREATEST STORY OF ALL" that science has to convey.

Perhaps the best place to start is a the blog of Matt Nisbet who is one of the co-authors of the Framing Science hypothesis. From there, follow the discussions and consider what the Framing Science hypothesis has to offer. Philosphically, I have a problem dealing with anyone who attacks the goals of science, but practicality tends to override my own emotions since the goal of putting science ahead of religious belief is paramount.

A Breif History of Disbelief (Part 1)

2007-04-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

The first time I read or saw Johnathan Miller was from his work "The Body Human" which was subsequent to and concamatent with the television series of the same name as shown on PBS when I was in college. I found if fascinating. But, and this should not be surprising, I was not taken aback that Johnathan Miller is also an atheist like I am. I find it almost an inevitability that the free inquiry into the physical universe will leave one to the conclusion that the notion of 'God' is ludicrous. A few years ago, Johnathan Miller then came out with a set of programs on the beginnings of atheism for the BBC. They are outstanding and very much in the vane of his earlier work. And so, for those who may have an atheistic streak such as I, listen and learn:

A Breif History of Disbelief (Part 1):

Online Videos by Veoh.com

George Carlin on Religion (Cover your ears!)

2007-04-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

George Carlin remains one of my favorite stand-up comedians. I remember being in college in engineering going to Cal State Long Beach and going to see him in the fairly new Universal Amphitheater at Universal Studios. It was 1982 (OK, I admit, I just dated myself) and I was never so hard up for air and the ability to breath as I was the night I saw George Carlin for the laughing I just couldn't stop. Here he takes on the notion of religion. His logis is witty, scatalogical at times, utterly profane and exactly the way that most atheists I know tend to see the world. The second video is his take on the Ten Commandments (and here I remind my readers that a previous blog of mine has a list of the New Ten Commandments that I tend to follow). So, here we go... enjoy:

[Warning: Plenty of profanity here.... you have been warned!]

George Carlin on Religion

George Carlin on the Ten Commandments

The Selfish Green

2007-04-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

In 2004, an annual convention of wildlife photographers and videographers termed "Wildscreen" met in Bristol in the UK. Before too many of the participants got into the viewing of the films, a discussion pannel was assembled by the BBC Channel 4 with one of theier journalists as moderator. The pannel consisted of Richard Dawkins, Sir David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, and Richard Leakey. The first clip starts off with the introduction of the participants and their respective achievments in their fields of study and carreers then moves on to the discussion itself. The entire set of clips is near an hour in length but portends some of the news that has lead us to the notions of global warming and the politics that go along with it today. It is a great discussion to watch and I encourage all of you to listen intently to these learned people if only to inspire you to become involved in the world of which we are all a part:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

E.O. Wilson accepts TED Award

2007-04-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I read a book by the eminent Harvard mymerchologist and evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson titled Consilience. In it, Wilson made the case for combining the Natural Sciences (Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geology, Astronomy, etc.) with the Humanities (Art, History, Politics, Psychology, Economics, etc.) by a process he refered to as "Conscilience" or a unity of the knowledge bases of the world. Wilson's contention is that what makes the sciences different from most of the humanities is that the disciplines of the natural sciences are based on 'foundational principles' which the humanities lack. For most people, the term foundational principle may not ring a bell. But, if I tell you that the basis of all chemistry is the idea of the atom, you'll probably go, "Oh, yeah, that's right - I remember that in chemistry." The same type of notions are found in Physics (the 4 fundamental fources), Biology (Evolution by Natural Selection), and Geology (Plate Techtonics) where as the same cannot be said of the humanities (I mean, what is the foundational principle of history?). This outlook changed radically the way that I instruct my students in science and why I agree with Wilson that new approaches to the humanities must be looked at so as to allow the humanities to be incorporated into the natural sciences with their foundational principles. I'll write more about Consilience later...
Just last month, E.O. Wilson was awarded a TED Award in Monterey, California. In his acceptance speech he outlines what he considers to be a most important goal for the survival of life on Earth:

The Stars Like Dust...

2007-04-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

While watching a science video with my students, the narrator was discussing the odds of finding life in the Universe and how we have been at it for a very short period of time. Then, the narrator states, "For every grain of sand on the Earth, there are a million stars in the Universe." I was stunned at trying to comprehend such a truely incomprehensible number. To say that it is mind blowing is an understatement of monumental proportions. I remember answering this question once,"How many stars are there in the universe?" and the only answer I could come up with was, "There are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on all the Earth." Even this statement is somewhat understated when one sees pictures that come from the Hubble Space Telescope and the ability it has to peer deeply into the Cosmos. The picture I include here is from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and was taken over 40 hours in September 2003. There are about a dozen foreground stars but the rest of all the "dots" in the picture are galaxies. Dozens upon dozens of galaxies in an area that at first seems to be blank and devoid of any bright objects. Incroyable.
And now I am sitting in my house listening to Jon Serrie's song for a planetarium show... space music... "The Stars Like Dust".... The Universe is a mystery sometimes.

New Horizons at Jupiter

2007-04-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

I am an avid blog reader and one of my favorites is the Bad Astronomy Blog by Phil Platt (I've even used his Q and BA podcasts in my astronomy units with my students). I wake up today and there is a fantastic photo from the New Horizons spacecraft of Io and Europa orbiting around Jupiter while the craft was on its way to Pluto in 2015. The views are just stunning. You can see a huge volcanic plume near the north pole of Io and a crescent shape to Europa. Now, neither Phil or I can take credit for this picture as it comes from the Planetary Society web site and there is where you can find the best explanation of what it is you are looking at. I also invite you to go to the Planetary Society website and look around. Though I have let my membership lapse (oops.... my bad) I visit it quite often... I don't think you will find a better place for planetary astronomy on the web.