One of
the reasons for this blog is to be a journal in which I can express a
few of my inner thoughts and experiences to my close friends. Over the
years, people from various parts of the world have read this blog and
found something in here that rings a bell, strikes a chord, or in
someway stimulates a response. I am happy that there are, in here,
connections between some of us that span distance, age, and culture.
I thank my
motivator and mentor, Marian, for encouraging me to write a journal. I
write this in the same way that I have written letters and stories to
her, except now I can illustrate with my photography, or items and
images of interest that I find on the internet, and I have learned how
to design the page so that it retains some of it’s graphic balance and
integrity in the email version on her Windows PC.
I ran across an article in Scientific American that stimulated the gray matter beneath my graying hair. (Article)
It reminded me of my first encounter with public schools, or more precisely, with one specific public school teacher.
I started
my immersion into academia at Wrights Academy in Allentown, PA. It was a
place where children were encouraged to be creative, and, after some
time adjusting to unfamiliar surroundings, I responded with enough gusto
that I was promoted early to the next grade. I flourished in the
encouraging and stimulating environment. I really enjoyed school at the
academy.
It was
when we moved to Emmaus, PA to occupy the house my dad had built to
accommodate every ones needs, according to age and interests, that my
mother decided she didn’t wish to drive me to the academy 5 days a week.
So I was enrolled in the local public school.
It was there
that my teacher, Mrs. Peacock, stubbornly wouldn’t accept my ability to
write, read, and solve mathematical equations that were beyond what she
was teaching her second grade students. My solution was to
under-perform in classroom math, stop writing cursive and print all
capital letters.
Reading
was my own private world. I could get all the books that I wanted to
read at the public library, where, after a few weeks, I earned an adult
card once I had read every book in the children's and junior section.
So, library good - public school, pretty much a waste of my time.
I found
a couple of kids that liked to read comics and we would draw
collaborative stories in comic strip form. This would start with one or
two frames with one character saying something, (in a speech balloon),
while leaving room for one or more characters to be drawn by the next
budding cartoonist.
We would
pass this page around until class was over, sometimes finishing the
page, or adding more in the next class. I continued playing this
cartooning game during class in every school, (including catechism), I
attended in Pennsylvania, California, and Texas, until I went to
college.
I met many talented artists and cartoonists throughout those
years by playing a game that kept our creativity alive.
I have had
many jobs over the years as an artist, cartoonist, graphic designer,
and art director. I think that cartooning game had a lot to do with the
development of my artistic skills.
“The
intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful
servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has
forgotten the gift.” - Albert Einstein
Last night
I got to enjoy one of my favorite treats; a bowl of Trader Joe’s French
vanilla ice cream. Oh yeah, there was also aebleskiver fresh out of the
oven, and even whipped cream.
Tonight is one of those dark and stormy nights, when the wind howls and the rain beats against the window pane.
Earlier this gloomy, windy evening I headed out to Trader Joe’s to replenish my supply of apple pie, (and aebleskiver).
One had to be really careful and paying attention when driving under these conditions.
While traveling
to the store, there were three, extremely lucky, people who stepped out
of the darkness on the wet dark streets, and nearly became mangled by
walking right in front of my moving car.
Had I not been paying attention
at that very moment, maybe looking at the clock, talking to a
passenger, eating a burger, texting, or daydreaming, there would have
been a most unfortunate encounter between a 4000 pound moving vehicle
and a crushable human being.
Just one
close call like that, would’ve been enough to set a person on edge, but
tonight, I had to expertly avoid hitting three different geniuses, in three separate events. They were on different streets, dressed in different shades of
dark clothing, but all three thought it would be better to cross the dark road in
traffic, than to walk a few extra yards to a lighted crosswalk.
So
I made it back home without anyone successfully committing suicide by
walking in front of the Buick on the dark slick roads, and it feels real
nice to be here, out of the wind and rain. I avoided being a part of a
tragic situation, thanks to driving skills I have learned, and a great
big, much appreciated, helping of grace.
It was
so dark and rainy in the late afternoon, that I had to use a flash to
get pictures of the flowers in Dorothy’s garden. It was hard to get nice
compositions, so I tried out one of the new toys that I got to play
with images. Its called ShapeBox.
I think
it is kind of cute and fun, to have photo applications that are just
for silliness, and not necessarily for professional results.
And speaking
of exquisite, professional results, I ran across some really nice
images of some ingenious sculpture. The sculpture was made from broken
CDs by an artist named Sean Avery. (Site)
I look at
that little hummingbird, and wish I could do something so clever.
However, sculpture made from broken CDs, is not one of my talents.
I am happy
for anyone who has talent, for it is a wonderful gift that allows us to
personally be a part of, and share with others, something magical and
special.
On Friday,
House Speaker John Boehner called for President Obama to agree to build
the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring about 700,000 barrels of
oil per day from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
What has
been deliberately left out of the Keystone argument is; The tar sands
oil, (if the ill advised Keystone pipeline is ever constructed), has
already been purchased by China. That’s right folks, China is the
majority investor in that venture, and as such, will determine who gets
the product, and profits.
The United States
is currently, (2/25/12), exporting 900,000 barrels a day to other
nations, because our refineries can get more easy money this way, rather
than saving the oil for Americas future. You might have noticed, if you
looked at the number of barrels a day, that we are exporting more
refined oil than the Keystone pipeline will produce.
The people
spouting the false stories about the pipeline, are counting on you to
limit your intake of information to that which is administered by the
right wing owned and operated, network news. (Even those stations we
used to trust like CBS, ABC, and NBC, are running the same stuff as Fox
News and ‘talk’ radio).
Our nation,
as well as others in this world, have the responsibility to protect
this planet that contains all the necessary ingredients which have spawned and
supported life as we know it. The wanton destruction of habitat, just to
obtain profitable resources is the most egregious criminal act of all.
It has to stop, or everybody, and everything that makes life on earth
possible now, will have no future.
We need
to nationalize and sensibly regulate our energy industries to protect
our country from those who cannot see the downside of their lust for
more money.
We certainly cannot continue to elect, so called, ultra-conservatives who have become nothing more than snake oil peddlers.
Nicer Stuff
Except for the pictures of MT Lassen and the Daffodil, the flowers you see here were all appearing in Dorothy’s garden.
Yesterday,
I ventured off the beaten path, onto a less beaten trail to the MT
Shasta mine. There were so many wonderful sights and sounds that were
captured, I am still sorting through them to present the essence of an
uplifting experience on this blog.
What
a wonderful, blustery, beautiful day. The flowers were dancing in the
wind, and the trees were singing the song of the breezes that blew. (To
paraphrase Van Morrison)
I filmed,
(videoed), some items that were dancing in the breeze; flowers,
feathers, and leaves. I can use that as the backdrop to a song that was
in my head that I have yet to write and record. At least I got the video
footage ready to go.
I hope
that some of you had the opportunity to see the evening sky around a
quarter to seven. Mercury, the moon, Uranus, Venus, and Jupiter, were
all in a row in the western sky. I didn’t get a picture because I was on
my way to Lulu’s for the Thursday night blues jam. I wasn’t set up to
take a picture that would’ve done justice to the celestial spectacle. Night Sky Site
I wandered
around behind building, “A”, earlier in the afternoon, and found a few
little flowers popping up in Dorothy’s garden. I also found teeny, tiny
flowers in one of the other gardening beds, and some wild ones out by
the tool shed.
I am
fascinated by the little bitty flowers and all of the apparatus that
they have for making pollen and seeds and attracting pollinators. It’s a
wonderful magical world we live in.
I saw
my neighbor Jo Anna and her dog, Brandi, while I was out on the western
end of the driveway taking pictures of Mount Lassen and the crows
flying overhead.
We discussed
the price of gas, and I explained that no matter what they’re saying on
cable news and talk radio, it’s not Obama’s fault. It’s not Iran. It’s
our own crazy, greedy, fossil fuel companies, and Wall Street speculating gamblers.
I informed
her about our country having such a great surplus of gasoline right
now, that the refineries are selling it to other countries for a greater
profit than they would get selling it here. There is no oil shortage of
crisis proportions, no reason for new drilling, or high prices, except
greed.
She wondered
why she hadn’t heard anything about it, and I said that’s because she
watches cable news, and mainstream, corporate controlled media.
When I got back to my apartment, I e-mailed her a link to a story in the Christian Science Monitor addressing that very subject. (Story)
It’s my opinion
that we should nationalize our countries energy. That includes fossil
fuels, solar, wind, and all the rest. This would take the temptation
away from energy companies who would sell out their own country because of an
insane lust for bigger profits.
Today’s Somewhat Appropriate Video (Made using an iPhone!)
It has
been a great time to take pictures. I have been taking more pictures
than I have been posting lately, but I think that’s great. I hang on to
the foolish idea that I will have a treasure trove of material to draw
upon for future stories and photo illustrations.
John finished the finish for the iPod Touch stand, and even put a cork bottom on it. I
started taking some pictures of it to use in an upcoming pt 2 video
about the stand. The finish has more life than what appears in this
image, so I will try some variations of lighting until an image shows
the energy radiating from within.
The volunteer
daffodils that grow out of the gravel on the west side of ‘A’ building
have bloomed in the past two days. They add a nice splash of color to
the gray rocks.
The next image
is of me, eating mandarin orange chicken. One of the women working at
Trader Joe’s was stocking the freezer section with packages, and
suggested I try it.
It sat
in the freezer, here at home for a week or so, until I was shopping at Trader Joe’s when, for the third time I encountered the same woman. She
asked me for the third time if I had cooked it. So, when I got home, I took out the
bag and read the instructions. It had frozen battered chicken chunks and
sauce packets inside.
The sauce
packets contained stuff I wouldn’t want to put in my system, so I threw
them out and poured half the bag of chicken chunks onto my combination
pizza and baking pan. I preheated the oven to 400, put in the pan of
chicken, (actually corn and suffering in the shape of a chicken), cooked
it for 19 minutes, and discovered it was pretty good.
I will eat the other half of the bags contents some other time, maybe.
At first
I walk right past them. I look very carefully at the ground, trying to
find a spot of color. Just a tiny flash of blue or red or orange to let
me know there were some little flowers blooming on the ground.
I begin
to spot bits of color and look closely. They start to reveal
themselves. Little delicate flowers, leaves of many colors, shapes, and
textures.
I realize I’ve been walking right on top of the little flowers the whole time. They are everywhere once I see one or two of them.
Even within
what appears to be the same plant, there are different shaped flowers,
leaves that are different colors, and different textures.
I thought
that I might have run out of colorful flowers once all the roses were
gone. But it seems that I just needed to open my eyes to see this
ubiquitous, tiny, flowering world of vibrant beauty at my feet.
I raise my eyes from the ground and look to the East toward Mount Lassen. There, I see even more beauty on a massive scale.
What a beautiful and wondrous world I get to live in.
Life is good for me in the here and now.
The Viola iBook Project
Chapter 3 cover page
The book
for the iPad is nearly complete. On Friday I photographed and recorded
the third musician, Katherine Conway, that has played the new viola that
John made.
I now have
only two pages to complete; The glossary, and the thank you-credits
page. After editing and proofreading, the book will be ready to publish
in iBooks.
