Saturday, January 06, 2024

Endings and Beginnings


 My first photo of the year was the New Year's Day sunrise as seen from Jetty Road at Moss Landing as we waited for AAA to come and deal with a flat tire on my friend's car. It must be noted that I also managed to lose my lens hood somewhere in the soft sand, the softness being the primary factor that made me miss the sound of it dropping from my lens. Despite this inauspicious beginning to the year, it was a beautiful day. Hidden in the photo above are some Brown Pelicans. While there, I counted 1433 of them as they commuted from east of Highway One toward the ocean. I'm sure there were more. I also must note that, in addition to the issues related above, we were in the wrong place for a planned rendezvous with our Christmas Bird Count group. Eventually, our problems were solved, and we joined the count. I ended the day seeing 91 bird species. 

The year dawns. Will I write much here over the next twelve months? Time will tell. 

Saturday, July 08, 2023

Little Free Library Surprise

 I ordered some books online recently, one of which was Alasdair Reynolds' Eversion. I've long been a fan of his somewhat more realistic take on the whole "space opera" genre. The realism no-doubt comes from his day job as an astrophysicist. 

I mention this particular book purchase because Jeanine saw it on the bed yesterday and had a deja-vu moment, along the lines of "I just saw that book somewhere recently." 

It turns out somebody had put a copy of it in our Little Free Library in the front yard. So, I could literally have walked out the front door and picked the book out of the library and it would have taken less time than clicking the keyboard button to order it. Not to mention less money. In my defense, usually when new stuff shows up in the library it's self-help for the helpless, religious pamphlets, or some other similarly unreadable tripe. I'm glad at least one nearby person has some taste. I just wish I'd noticed sooner.

We took a little trip to put some books in another free library today as well, mostly because Jeanine had noticed one that needed filling. 


Tuesday, July 04, 2023

Outraged Equals Engaged

 I don't know much about how the various social media and news algorithms work when it comes to the creation of personalized news feeds, but I have a sneaking suspicion that once the powers that be, whether they are human or AI, know which buttons to push, the user is fed a steady diet of outrage. Does a certain topic royally piss you off. Here, have some more! Sure, there is plenty to be outraged about, but when one's go-to news source or social media feed becomes like a nail in the foot, the whole thing becomes inconducive to mental health. 

I bring this up because I clicked on a link today that was the opposite of outrage. Instead, it was a bunch of stories about how teachers go above and beyond for their students, often in heartwarming ways. It was a powerful reminder that amongst all of the teeth gnashing and finger pointing, there is inspiration and humanity. Sure, these "suggested for you" articles are clickbait, but I'm excellent at tuning out ads. The point is, after reading the article, I felt better. 

Being a teacher (well, technically a para-educator), I found inspiration. I already know from personal experience that teachers have a lot of power and education is crucially important. I've lost track of the number of times that parents have approached me and shared how their kids sing my praises, not to mention the letters students send after coming to our science camp program. 

On the outrage side of the coin is the current right-wing attempt to dumb down education, to sweep so much of our history and diversity under the moth-eaten carpet of ignorance, to squish all of the variously shaped pegs into the round holes of the dominant paradigm. 

I will continue to do my small part to fight this attempt. Despite what some people think, we are not a Christian nation and most definitely are not a playground for angry white men. I've never considered myself a patriot (at a national level, the concept is just too abstract to mean much) and I've never paid much attention to the 4th of July as a meaningful holiday, and this year is no exception. The only difference is that with each passing year it seems like I have more company in feeling this way.

The antidote is to continue to find positive inspiration and continue to act on it. Be kind to each other and to yourself. We're all in this together.

Typed to the tune of:  Teleplasmiste "Science < > Religion"

Saturday, June 24, 2023

Night of the Living Bread

 I went to Safeway today, and I was walking past the meat counter at the back of the store when an unfamiliar voice spoke some very familiar words, "they're coming to get you, Barbara!"

It's funny how at first one tries to put things into context. Did I mis-hear? Was Barbara's order ready? Then I remembered I was wearing a Night of the Living Dead T-shirt. They guy behind the meat counter obviously approved.

Best unexpected laugh of the day so far. 

Friday, June 23, 2023

Another Moment in Time

 I've mostly ignored this site lately, but on occasion, I hope that I'll find the inspiration and the time to post more regularly. I've always preferred posting on a blog that nobody reads to posting on social media. I almost wrote that I'm not sure why, but that wouldn't quite be true. I like to leave a trail of words that meander like a single-track dirt path to nowhere in particular rather than post a few short lines that inspire some sort of response from the ready-made audience lurking on social media. Why? Because I'm an introvert by nature and social obligations, even something as simple as replying to people's responses, are oddly draining. 

At any rate, at this point in time I'm in the thick of another season of summer camp. Week 2 of 9, to be precise. The Summer Solstice has just passed, and the days are slowly getting shorter again. The trip home today was lengthened by a detour up a narrow road called Redwood Gulch as construction crews put in a temporary bridge on Highway 9 so they can refurbish the existing bridge. 

Everything is generally going okay. Music and wilderness continue to inspire. 

Happy Solstice to everyone. May the darkness return!


Sunday, December 25, 2022

Musical Coincidence

 As I tend to do when I have time off, I was just scrolling back through old posts here. It's nice to see what I was up to, say, 10 or even 20 years ago (which reminds me, the 20 year anniversary of this blog passed by unremarked earlier this year), and coincidentally enough, I just noticed that I listened to the same 3 CDs in the same sequence almost exactly 20 years ago. To wit, Mekong Delta "Pictures at an Exhibition", Mercyful Fate "Return of the Vampire", and Metallica "Garage, Inc." The observant among you may have noticed that all of the band names start with the letter M, which is due to my habit of periodically relistening to music in the order it has been shelved. 

Yuletidalwave

 It's Christmas Day, and we're still hours away from celebrating our secular version of the holiday. Much of the country is currently being blasted by arctic winds and snow, but I see mostly blue sky out my window. Rain is forecast for tomorrow night, and is likely to linger for the rest of the coming week. 

Typed to the tune of: Loreena Mckennitt "Under A Winter's Moon"

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Like Letters Never Sent

It's not a drought-breaker, but it has been raining all day. The trees I can see from my window have been dancing, a few gulls have lazily circled underneath a gray sky, and a soggy neighborhood cat crept along the fence earlier. I do love looking out the window at rain.

I'm having a nothing day, where I laze around the house, listening to music. I also watched a DVDr of Conor McGrady's somewhat abstract Entering the Forbidden Zone, featuring a foreboding soundtrack by Nurse With Wound, put some clean dishes away, and put some batteries in the charger so I can take my blood pressure later.

But mostly I listened to music.

I've been spending time with a regular group of people most Sunday mornings, going out birding. We're heading out tomorrow, despite the chance of lingering showers. I'm toying with the idea of focusing on writing about these excursions here, but I don't know if that will actually happen. It would provide a much-needed focus to this blog (yeah, I know that blogs have passed their sell-by date by a decade or so... but keeping one is still better than the wading through the shitshow that is social media). 

I have one more week of work this calendar year (but still much of the school year to go). As usual, I'm late with holiday gift shopping.

It just occured to me that these posts are sort of like letters never sent. I don't usually tell people about this blog, and I don't know of anybody who reads it (kind of hard to keep interested in a blog with such long gaps of silence), so in all likelihood this will go unnoticed and unread, until it fetches up on somebody's beach like a bottled message.

I hope this message finds you well, hypothetical future reader.