Left Coast Observatory

Have you ever tried to describe a photograph you've never seen to a stranger over the phone?

I have.

I submitted one of those disposable cameras to my local grocery store for photo-finishing. A week later, still no prints. No one at the store seemed able to either find them or tell me where they were.

After calling the actual service that does the work, we were able to finally discover the problem: the envelope I filled out was empty by the time it got to them. The self-seal on it had come loose and the camera had dropped out.

They must get a lot of these because they still haven't been able to match my film to me after nearly a month.

How is it done? I'm supposed to describe the pictures I took to someone on the other end who is looking at the pictures. I'm not sure how long we've even had this camera, or what we took snaps of. I'm pretty sure about the last few, though.

So we got a sample of what they thought I was describing, and although it was close it wasn't spot on. With any luck the next batch they give me will be the ones.

That's okay, soon I'll have a digital camera and will be able to do it myself. No more developing fees!

My attention has been absorbed by a new addition to our family: a bull-mastiff puppy.

Now when you think puppy you might picture a cuddly, helpless little mite. Not this one. Gren is a year old and (eighty) 80 pounds of muscle. He needs all that muscle to hold up his enormous head. Since he'e still just a puppy he's got some more growing to do.

He's a good little doggie. Smart and full of pep. The thing is, since we can't physically constrain him very easily we have to outsmart him or gain his respect so that he can fit in with human society. Unlike a cat he's big enough to wreak some real damage if he's not controlled.

So we are trying to learn how to communicate with him, and he's trying to learn how to meet us halfway. So far so good. In a couple of weeks he's already got a few basic commands down, and we can see that he's intelligent enough to do whatever we need him to do. Just making that clear and consistent is our mission.

We took him up to the river last weekend and it may be the first time he's confronted a large body of water. he was a little freaked out by it. He wasn't sure about getting into the water himself, and seemed awful worried about us when we went in. It was kind of embarassing when all the other dogs were jumping in, and even little human babies showed no fear.

I hope he comes to love the water, because it's a very efficient way to exercise a big dog. And sometimes it's nice when he's tired. we all get some rest.

I was working on my hobby website and was Googling it so I could test the links when I saw a couple of entires.

What's this?

Apparently on a fan forum one poster to another suggesting my site and providing a link! Cool!

It's thrilling to have created something and have someone look at it on their own and appreciate it. So much so they recommend it to someone else, who also likes it. A real Sally Field moment.

As I read over the thread I realized there wasn't anything mentioned on the topic that I had not already covered. That felt good as well.

I have been chipping away at my website and am now feeling like it is useful. My friends whom i have strong-armed into visiting say nice things about it. But having an unsolicited testimonial is the best thing that could have happened.

Like I said-- I need some things to make posting pictures easier.

I do have a scanner, but i broke the glass in a tragic accident. A 5 pound dumbbell fell on the thing, and even though the cover was closed the shock shattered the glass.

It's an old scanner, so I could probably buy another one for what it'd cost to have the glass replaced. I considered cutting a piece of glass myself, but worried about the quality of the glass. Is stuff for one's windows of the same as used for optical scanning? I somehow doubt it.

Meanwhile I have yet to get a digital camera. It'd be so convenient for this sort of thing. Even a second-hand one of last-years model would be a vast improvement.

Somehow my projects always involve my spending of money. Why is that?

I've watched a lot of television over the years. And seen a lot of movies.

Not more than everybody else. But enough to get that feeling that I can predict what's coming up. What this character will say next, what suprise will upset whose plans, which one is the real villain, et cetra, et cetera, et cetera.

Then there's the bad scripts that you feel like you could have come up with fresher dialogue or a more original plot twist. It's unusual for a film to suprise me, and I appreciate it when a movie brings me something new.

What all this tells me is that I should be writing these scripts. I swear I could do a better job than half the people out there. Rather than remain the arm-chair script-doctor, I decided to do something about it. I started my own screenplay.

It happened rather spontaneously: I was reading a book, and it occurred to me that it could make a good film. I read a few books on screenwriting techniques and began to write.

There are a lot of methods recommended to writers. One that I tried involved 3X5 cards (which didn't work for me). Some wanted you to come up with detailed character histories that would never enter into the story (I didn't even try). But some of the advice seemed good, and I took it.

Now I have a pretty good stab at a first draft. I'm convinced it could be good, it could be big.

But I do understand that Hollywood is drowning in scripts. Every cocktail-server and busboy in town has a script they want to sell. All over the world people like me think they know about making movies from watching them. The difference is my story is good, even if the actual script needs a lot of work.

I'm now pondering ways to present my story for greatest impact. But maybe I should do a couple more rewrites first.

Things haven't been going extraordinarily well for Americans as far as money goes. There is less business investment than in 2000 and millions fewer jobs. And there are dark clouds on the horizon: the housing bubble is ready to burst, unsustainable trade deficits, negative household savings rates for the first time ever. Even the vice-president is uneasy about the future.

Maybe that is why the administration isn't getting credit for the economy: most Americans feel that blame is due. When times are good, presidents say it's their brilliant policies that brought it about. While when things go sour they whimper how little power they have. But that's politics for you. If you're looking for substance you're almost sure to get spin instead.

Money troubles are cited by most couples as the primary cause of their divorce. A faltering economy is going to have mor far-reaching impact than simple money matters. Families are at stake. Ominously, the Defense of Marriage Act says not one word about the #1 cause of divorce in America. You'd think it would at least get a mention!

But that's just another way politicians are different than you and me. If I had a problem to solve I'd think it was a good idea to start with the number one cause.

But that's just me.

Oftentimes I'll scan the headlines before I post and came across yet another bit to add to the mountains of evidence for evolution. Finches on the Galapagos islands are observed evolving right now. Darwinian evolution expects it and explains it.



By coincidence I happen to be reading a book entitled Why Intelligent Design Fails edited by Matt Young and Taner Edis. The book patiently tries to make sense of the claims of Michael Behe and William Dembski (the two most prominent proponents of ID) and then to discover what scientific value these claims might have.

Behe's main argument seems to be that some structures are 'too complex' to be the result of evolutionary mechanisms. An anolgy is the common mouse trap that will not function without a certain minimum of parts working in concert. It used to be the supposed impossiblity of the evolution of the eye that creationists got excited about, but since that has been very well explained new examples had to be found. Two examples he cites are bacterial flagellum and the blood-clotting system. The authors seem to find the concept of 'irreducible complexity' to be vague and incoherent, his biological examples not very puzzling, and even that his mouse-trap analogy doesn't work.

Dembski's arguments seem to boil down to his belief that it is highly improbable that the specified complexity he finds in nature can be the result of evolutionary mechanisms. Sadly, Dembski has published very little in any peer-reviewed journals. Perhaps it is lack of trying, or perhaps it is a vast conspiracy. But, even if it is allowed that it is highly improbable does not make it impossible. After all someone wins the lottery, however astronomical the odds.

Though we don't see much research on Intelligent Design, evidence for evolution keeps piling up every day.

It's kind of scary, I feel like it's out of my hands. So I watch as my bank account goes down and there's a certain relentlessness to it. But I also do direct deposit of my paycheck, so maybe there's a balance now.

Still, it's a different thing when the balance gets lower and lower than when it perks up.

This is an experiment to see if I can unclutter my schedule and stop writing so many checks and needing so many stamps and stop having to remember to deal with the bills and trot them down to the post office in time!
Organization's never really been my thing, so maybe this is a way of ordering things that doesn't have be be done over again every single month.

I left work a little early and went up to the mountains today to hang out by the riverside.

The temperature wasn't too hot, but it was still nice. The sun shone, the water was clear and cold. I dove in the pool and stalked a big fish with my snorkel and mask.

It wasn't too crowded either. I like people, but something about being in nature makes me want to escape the crowd. So I could hear the water flowing over the stones, the breeze in the trees, and the birds all around.

I'll post some pics when I can.

(I finally figured out how to get the pictures on the site!)

These are canyons of volcanic rock carved out by the river, with lots of pebbles to make up the river bed. It's not slimy like a lake, but either gravel, pebbles, or solid rock. This is taken from a pebbly beach looking upriver toward a rockshelf that borders one of the deep pools.

Not really as blue as all that.

Actually have been devoting a little more energy to my hobby web page, and it's looking better. It just doesn't look as good as it possibly could- only as good as I can make it given my skills and the paltry amount of time I've devoted to it.

Maybe the Thing to Do is hire someone with a little expertise to help with the layout. With a framework in place, it would just be up to me to color within the lines.

But then I won't learn much, and I'd be giving up some measure of ownership of the thing. At least now I can say it's mine... all mine! I've also gotten some encouragement along these lines from a knowlegeable friend. It always help to get an outside perspective from someone whose judgement you respect.

Really the Thing to Do is to devote more time and energy to my web site, and make the best I can do even better!

Today's meditation is on secrets.

We've all got them. Sure, we sometimes spill them. Often those we share them with can't seem to keep them. But there's stuff that can embarass or harm us that we don't want others to know.

Take the recent spate of secrets exposed by those agencies entrusted with them, like the laptop cases. Sure, it's an accident when sensitive information on thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of citizens is compromised because a computer is lost or stolen. But it makes you worry that the people who use this material isn't treated with more respect.

Then there's stuff like the recent revelations that our government is out and out spying on us. Whether you use a phone, email a friend, or read a book they're keeping track. I guess 9/11 really did change everything: it changed us from a democracy to a dictatorship overnight. Of course the government has to keep its activities secret from the public.

Even if we can justify to ourselves the collection of such data, it is inevitable that it will be misused by those who have access to it, revealed to the public by their incompetence, or hacked by those to whom it is an irresistable lure. The mere existence of such databases are a clear and present danger to all of us.

It seems like there are more and more secrets out there, and they make us more and more at risk. It used to be if you were going to be robbed, at least they had to take it from you directly. Now they can just assume your identity and steal from you without your even knowing about it.

We keep our secrets in hopes of making ourselves feel more secure and in control. Ironically, they make us more vulnerable and at the mercy of those who discover them.

"Hi! My name is Newbie, and I'm a political junkie."

That's how the meeting would start. Me and a lot of other guys would sit around telling war stories, how much they missed it, and trying to convince one another the new things they fill their time with really replace the thrill of politics.

Sure there's backsliding. Secretly sneaking a peek at the headlines. A rant to the spouse about the latest political flap. Maybe a letter to the editor.

But it makes you feel dirty. Used. You tell yourself never again. But you come crawling back.

Maybe there will be a day when I can overhear something about the latest scandal and not feel that flicker of interest that grows into an insatiable need to know more, and an irresistable desire to try and do something about it. To right the wrongs and keep the bad guys at bay.

When I saw the film with Noam Chomskey Manufaturing Consent I came away with a feeling that I was merely a news consumer. Either get in or get out, I said to myself.

So in the last presidential election I got more involved. I followed the twists and turns of the campaign, and tried to educate voters about what was at stake.

Despite all the heat and the noise it came down to nothing. As important as I, and the people I was arguing with, thought the election was little more than half of the eligible voters actually voted. And it was close! Well, close enough.

The evidence for massive fraud in the last election is disheartening for those who believe in representative government in America. After the 2000 vote it was to be expected. What was unexpected is the apparent indifference with which the news is treated. The most powerful nation on earth subjected to a criminal coup and no one seems to care.

The great experiment of our Founders has come to a close. Can a government of the people, by the people, and for the people long endure? Apparently not. Complacency has won out over patriotism.

Had this happened in virtually any other country the people would spill out into the streets in protest against having their birthrights stolen from them. But that can't happen here. We've still got our bread and circuses, thank you very much.

So, do you get in deeper or get out? When half the people don't even care to vote when the nation's very soul is at stake and more people care about vote fraud on American Idol than in a presidential election, I'm getting out. And I hope I don't miss it too much.

But I may slip now and again...

Not sure exactly why, but I woke up this morning thinking about those 'Intelligent Design' folks and their campaign to undermine education in the United States. Things are hard enough for teachers without outsiders creating false controversies based on simply contradicting the pains-taking work of scientists all over the world. And yet these nay-sayers are a political force, distracting educators from fulfilling their mission and draining school dollars into lawyers' pockets through frivolous lawsuits.

It would be one thing if they honestly believed what they put forth. While privately agreeing on the creation stories found in the book of Genesis, publicly they shroud their real agenda behind a supercilious veil of scientific language and bleatings about 'fair play'. This is the famous Wedge Strategy through which these fanatical ideologues hope to take control of the nation.

If any further evidence of evolution is needed, just look at how the just plain Creationism of Scopes Trial fame evolved into Creation Science, and when that was revealed to be nothing more than simple Creationism in Scientific clothing, evolved yet again into Intelligent Design in an effort to trick people into thinking it wasn't Creationism at all. Though a fascinating example of protective camoflage, no one was fooled.

But this won't stop the Culture Warriors who wage a never-ending battle against Reality. After all, this is their bread and butter. These guys raise millions of dollars from their sadly misled followers in an uphill battle against common sense. And what easier job than to simply sit at one's keyboard and simply contradict the hard-won facts of science? You never even have to look out your window to be a Creation Scientist! After all, everything you need to know is in your handy Bible.

These pious frauds are always looking for a way to make a buck without breaking a sweat, and sadly, they'll always find suckers to support them.

Well, I guess I had to do it. I broke down and read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I'm not ordinarily the person who has to see the hot new movie or read the book everyone else is reading so I can stake my place at the watercooler.

But I have to admit-- as a bit of a controversialist-- that my interest was piqued by all the high dudgeon aroused by the thriller. So I thought I should take a look at it before the movie came out. I purchased a copy at a locally-owned bookstore in town.

Now I have done some research on the Grail and the Templars on my own in the 'non-fiction' section of the library, so I was familiar with a lot of the stuff they used as the MacGuffin in the story. None of it came as a shock or surprise to me.

The book was well-plotted. Not well-written. Engaging enough to hold my attention, despite a few hackneyed turns of phrase (like this one). The meaning and significance of things were explained well enough. I wouldn't say it was a book that will last forever as a classic.

It seems to me that whatever long-lasting impact it will have is cultural: will the ideas used for the story become more widespread? Will the alternate history presented in this work of fiction grab hold of people's imaginations and cause them to look at the orthodox story with just a little more skepticism?

I think it would be healthy if they did. There's already far too many 'true believers' in the world to make it a safe place to live.

Technorati Profile

Not necessarily in any order:

• make a career I love
• never compromise my integrity
• realize my time's importance
• don't look back
• guilt is not an option

I can see by my list that there's a lot of regret crowding my mind. But with it a determination to be free of regret in my future life. The most positive item is to do something that is meaningful to me. In part that is also a reaction to the jobs I've done over the years:

I think my first job was working in a factory, where I prepped auto-parts for teflon-coating. The parts arrived packed in grease, and I dipped them in a vat of boiling acid to remove the grease. It made me dizzy working over the hot fumes. Whew!

Another early job was working in the kitchen at a bar. I'd also change the kegs when they blew. I got my first on-the-job injury there, slicing my left ring-finger so badly it took seven stitches to hold it together. Boy was the boss mad he had to interrupt his conversation to see to it I got to the hospital. Do you think he realized I'd rather cut off part of my hand than make another order of onion rings?

There were lots of other restaurant jobs. A few construction-labor jobs. A couple of temp office jobs. Jobs that meant only money to me. Like my current job.

Sure, I try to take pride in being the best dishwasher or busboy or casual laborer I can be, but there's only so much pride I can wring out of that. And worse, only so much money to be had. I do have some ambitions for myself, and some feeling that I'm better than all this.

More and more I need to look at what I love doing, and seeing how it can become a career.

It's just that easy!

At first I thought it was military jets buzzing the city, as they occasionally do. I'm not much of one for air shows, so I wouldn't be surprised (it being a national holiday and all). But when I went out front to scan the skies, I saw the lightning that went along with the thunder. Pretty spectacular, too. Nature's own fireworks display.

Once again it looks like a cloudy, blustery and wet Fourth of July. It seems like summer never really starts until after a soggy fireworks show. Then we can count on maybe six weeks of hot weather, then back to the usual routine.

What I look forward to most about summer is hanging out at a natural swimming hole. There being mountains all around, and rivers, there are a lot of places to visit. The problematic issue being whether it's hot enough to not only make jumping into a cold pool of water enticing, but to make the water not so cold that you can't bear it.

But the water up in the hills is clear, with a good current to sweep away debris and that stagnant feeling that comes from a lake or pond. I enjoy seeing the fish as I swim by, and the birds and wildlife all around. It's peace-inducing to lounge on the banks of a river all day, diving and swimming and sunning. At the end of the day I descend back into the hazy valley and home.

I've let some summers pass without making the time to go up. And I think I need to make sure it happens. It's so good to get in contact with something so real and so good and so natural.

This will be the second time I've quit smoking cigarettes. Maybe it sounds more permanent to say 'the last time'. Or does simply 'I've quit' sound best? The thing is I used to smoke and now I don't. Really.

People say that to quit cigarettes is one of the hardest habits to break. They compare it to getting off of heroin. Maybe I'm exceptional in some way because I didn't find it particularly difficult. I just did it cold turkey, and hardly miss it now. Really.

Perhaps I was never really addicted to the nicotine or whatever chemical or combination of chemicals that people get hooked on. It didn't seem like a physical thing for me at all. It's more the fussy physical habits and the psychological rewards that I crave. Of course, I wanted to look cool.

The reason I started wasn't 'peer pressure' in the sense I usually understand it. My peers at the time did smoke, and I wanted to be like them. But they didn't apply the pressure. I did it myself. So I practiced in private --sometimes with a mirror-- before my public debut as a smoker.

Whenever the moment was right I could whip out my pack (a really cool brand, of course) and draw out a cigarette. Holding it casually in my mouth I would light it and draw the first dramatic drag. There was a time when I experimented with how to light them: a lighter, or a match? Which was the best method? Striking a wooden match was pretty dramatic in its own right. But lighters won out. Then it was zippos versus butanes and on and on.

When the point of smoking was mostly image driven, it costs more because off-brands weren't allowed. Thus as the government taxed and taxed again, cost skyrocketed. Smokers being society's pariahs, we were chased from restaurants and bars. Forced to huddle in alley doors in the rain. Pretty soon you didn't want anyone to know you smoked. And as a closet smoker, you'd hear the vitriol of the non-smokers and wonder why they hate us so?

But the real reason I quit was the harmonica. I wanted to play and didn't have the wind for it. Cigarettes were in the way. So it wasn't my health, or the wasted money and time, or the filthiness of it, or the jaundiced eye the general public cast on smokers that did the trick. It was just I couldn't both be a smoker and play this instrument. It wasn't a bad trade.

It being the beginning of July we'll soon be celebrating the Declaration of Independence. What it means around here is barbecues, fireworks, and maybe a parade. I've also managed to get Monday off, so that makes a nice four-day weekend for me. The downside of so much time off is that there'll be that much more work to get done on Wednesday when I finally get back on the job.

I don't know who started the idea of parading, but I imagine it must have been pretty early in civilization. Maybe even before that: can you imagine hunters coming into camp with their kill? Or gatherers coming home with the harvest? But it's generally the paraders who are being honored and the lookers-on applauding them. I'm not much of one for parades. The last ones I enjoyed were years ago at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It was much more lively than the usual boring march.

Barbecues I believe came to us from the Caribbean (at least the word does-- it's hard to imagine that most cooking wasn't done this way before pots and pans came along). I like the food and the informality of it. I don't like the flies, the bees and the ants. The wind can be annoying, too. But overall this is the best thing about summer holidays: a picnic or backyard barbecue with plenty of good food and good company.

Fireworks come in two sizes: humongous ones done by highly paid experts for the crowds and little ones shot off by neighborhood kids outside your bedroom window in the middle of the night. While I do enjoy the look of a well-done firework, I pretty much get the idea after a few are set off. Since I'm not partial to crowds either, I tend to avoid the big firework spectacles put on by the local government.

Now the squibs shot off by the locals are a more intimate matter. I've done my share of them when I was young, but have since abandoned the practice. Like any reformed person, I'm especially sensitive to those who cling to the vice I've given up. So the noise, the smell, the mess left behind by people's personal fireworks shows irritate me. The trash from last year's gunpowder orgy still litters the ground and now I'll have a new layer to look at. Charming.

Lest we forget, we have the immortal words of the Declaration:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

That is what makes the Fourth of July a holiday worthy of special respect.

I've recently done a spate of online bidding on Ebay. It has been fun to even browse through the stuff people are selling. I have a music collection and some videos, and have used it to add to them. Obviously, sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. GRRRR.

A few times I've been online watching the auction as the time for bidding draws to a close, and that is exciting. I've even nudged my bids up to snatch things away from others at the last minute. Cool!

I find that I do tend to be willing to spend more on an item on Ebay than I would if I were standing in a store. $20.00 for this record? Unlikely I'd reach into my pocket and pull out real money like that. There's something about using PayPal that makes it a little unreal.

Actually I probably would spend the money on the dic pictured here: Revolver Reloaded: MOJO Magazine Tribute to the Beatles Revolver Album. Not the usual cover artists and not the usual arrangements. Also, since it's covering the whole album there are songs on it which are rarely covered (like Love You To and Dr Robert).

Then there's the shipping. Sometimes that's more than I spend on the item itself! It feels like a 'hidden' cost because the bidding is for the item itself, so the focus is on that number. You have to remember to add it to your calculations as you go.

And the waiting. I'm impatient. Sometimes it can take weeks for the item to get here. I've even had a couple of occasions when the seller seems to have forgotten I've already paid for something. But I've never yet been completely ripped off.

But I have gotten a few things that weren't completely as advertised. Some albums have different track lists depending on where they're released, so I'm expecting one set of songs and get an album missing something I was specifically seeking. So it can be disappointing.

But I'm getting better at it. I've learned (a little) from my mistakes and finding myself more satisfied with my Ebay adventures.