Eclectic Arcania

Scripture of the Day - Jesus Christ

2012-01-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

~ Matthew 24:6-8

Quote of the Day - St. Francis of Assisi

2012-01-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words." ~ Saint Francis of Assisi

*Note: this is often attributed to St. Francis but that is unverifiable. I believe he probably said this or otherwise something similar unto it and this being merely a paraphrasing.

White & Nerdy vs. Ridin' Dirty

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

I have long adored Weird Al Yankovic since I was a kid growing up in the 1980's. I thoroughly enjoyed his parodies of Madonna and Michael Jackson in particular. As time has progressed since then Weird Al has remained culturally relevant producing ever more clever material over the course of the 1990's and 2000's. In the mid-2000's he achieved arguably his greatest artistic and critical coup with a brilliant parody of "Ridin'" (Dirty) by Chamillionaire featuring Krayzie Bone. Yankovic's parody is entitled "White & Nerdy". The song went platinum and deservedly so. For purposes of comparison I have placed both videos below for your edification and enjoyment. Please do compare and contrast them. Do note the superior wordsmithy demonstrated by Yankovic not to mention the superior quality of its accompanying music video in contrast to that for the other song.

Quote of the Day - Enemy Mine

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

"You are alone... within yourself... you are alone. That is why you humans have separated your sexes into two separate halves with the joy of that brief union." - Jerry (played by Louis Gossett, Jr.) in "Enemy Mine"

Gratitude

2012-01-25T22:06:00.000-08:00

Alan Simmons Fire Videos Are The Bomb

2012-01-24T22:45:00.000-08:00

In the mid-1990's I became aware of Alan Simmons Fire Videos through the Firefighters Bookstore (in Huntington Beach, CA) catalog during a time I contemplated getting into firefighting. It was love at first sight with the first one of his videos I watched. At the time I was already a connoisseur of storm chase videos such as those by legends like Tim Marshall, Bill Reid, and Dean Cosgrove. I was even a connoisseur of disaster-related documentaries which included a good many NOVA videos as well as Weather Channel videos. A bit later on I acquired nearly entire television series like Wrath of God on the History Channel as well as U.S. Forest Service stock footage videos.

I also would tape live coverage of disasters on television when they happened as I did with the Northridge Quake and the 1993 and 1996 October Southern California firestorms. Of course, back in those days it was all VHS cassette for both what I purchased as well as the format in which I recorded. Later on by the late 1990's I began taping my own storm and fire videos in Hi-8MM format but never liked my own work nearly as much as that of others and elected to leave that to the professionals and instead stick to my strong suite: still photography.

Over the course of the 1990's into the first half of the 2000's I accumulated the following Alan Simmons fire videos on VHS: 1990 Universal Studios Fire, 1992 Los Angeles Burning: Fires of the 1992 Riot, Los Angeles Area Multiple Alarm Fires Volumes 1-6 including Volume 3 which features 1994's Northridge Earthquake (much footage in this was featured as stock footage in scores of documentaries ever since). I also acquired the first six volumes of his East Meets West series. Best of all, I added all three of his California Firestorm volumes '93, '96, and '99. Add to that his Hot Shots video and I owned (and still own) copies of 18 of his videos in VHS format.

As I am now finally and reluctantly fully transitioning to only DVD format in my video library I am about to get rid of all my VHS cassettes (fire videos and otherwise) and give them all to my mother. I am now left with only Alan Simmons' more recent fire videos on DVD that I have accumulated over the past decade which are as follows: West Coast Fires Volume 1, Firestorm 2003 Volumes 1-3, Firestorm 2005, Firestorm 2006 Volumes 1-2, and Firestorm 2007 Volumes 1-3.

On my agenda is to at some point acquire the following Alan Simmons fire videos on DVD: Wildland Fire 2008, October Firestorm 2008, November Firestorm 2008, Firestorm 2009 Volumes 1-2, Station Fire: August 2009 Volumes 1-2, Southern California Fires 2010, and finally, the digitally remastered 1992 Los Angeles Burning on DVD.

Although I do not intend to purchase this video I did notice that Simmons is already offering Hollywood Arson Fires: 2011 New Years Eve Weekend. As you can see he is on top of things and continues to produce timely and relevant offerings.

Something else you have probably noticed by now is how many more firestorm videos he has produced in the past decade than in the decade previous. The times they are a changin'... as is the nature of fire in California. If you are a fire buff or disaster buff or California history buff or all of those things as I am you cannot claim to have a decent video library without having at least one Alan Simmons fire video. I cannot overstate how highly I recommend Alan Simmons fire videos. Not only are they great for your own video library but they make a wonderful gift to others as well.

For the record I have no financial connection to Alan Simmons and have never met him or contacted him other than to order a video by phone and that was long ago. Given this fact and the fact that I have acquired and seen many other fire videos from other sources over the years to which I can compare this I am able to impartially and accurately judge this product.

Below are two wonderful samples of Alan Simmons' work.

Picture of the Day - Tornado Alley-Looking Sky

2012-01-23T23:59:00.000-08:00

A cloud formation that resembled a wall cloud with suspicious-looking cloud filaments dangling below it passed just north of the Cuesta College North County Campus this afternoon. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

Scripture of the Day - Solomon

2012-01-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." ~ Proverbs 12:13-14

The Real Deal On 'The 99%'

2012-01-21T23:15:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of talk over the course of the past year regarding the "1%" versus the "99%" as embodied in the "We Are The 99%" slogan of the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Those persons whom talk in those terms actually make up less than 1% of that "99%". Most of the "99%" don't wish to be grouped with that "1%" and many in the "1%" started out in the "99%". That tiny segment of Left-wing shit-stirrers be they community organizers or union apparatchiks or easily-manipulated college students or fellow traveler artist types or professional anarchists, et al, DO NOT speak for most Americans and DO NOT speak to most Americans. They tend to speak only into the echo chamber of their own narrow little 1% of the "99%".

In reality, our nation is divided in a much more complex fashion than the simplistic and now hackneyed "1% versus 99%" paradigm promulgated by Occupy Wall Street. The "1%" is divided into various shades of Liberal (limousine liberal) and Conservative (country club Republican). Some are dick-heads and some are very cool people who do a lot of good with their money, more good per percentage of their wealth than most other Americans. Many/most elites are somewhere in between those two types of elites.

The Middle Class in which I used to inhabit is likewise rifted with various shades of Liberal and Conservative but more and more they are self-identifying as being in the Middle not just socio-economically but politically as well. Increasingly they espouse neither the Democratic nor Republican Parties in a phenomenon known to political scientists as dealignment. Nor do they much cotton to the increasing militancy of Neo-Conservatism and Neo-Liberalism that dominates the political party duopoly that dominates our political landscape. The Middle Class is the hardest working and most productive class. However, they find their wealth leaving their level and traveling both up and down the socio-economic pyramid as their productivity supports both the Elites and the Poor both of whom do not pay taxes at the rate the Middle Class does.

I am currently living below the poverty line and have been thus over the course of the past few years of the ongoing economic malaise known as the Great Recession. Consequently, I have acquired a life-altering education into how it is to be poor in America. It has been one of the best experiences of my life and my only regret is that it did not come sooner. During this time I have had the opportunity to observe the American poor and how they live and act given that I have been one of them living amongst them.
Strangely enough, in the context of my ongoing poverty I feel more like a gonzo journalist/tourist visiting a strange country from which I intend to one day leave and return home to the middle class.

Following years of careful observation I note there are basically two types of poor people in America. There are the temporarily poor who have experienced one or more shocks in their lives in a relatively short period of time that have knocked the pins out from under them or are new immigrants but whom in any case through hard work and pluck will lift themselves up out of their current condition. Then there are the chronically poor be they native born or new immigrants for whom poverty is essentially a choice given their persistent self-limiting behavior patterns that make it an inevitability they will remain poor their entire lives as they milk the welfare system at each level of government. The former are victims of Fate or perhaps even their own mistakes from which they will learn and move onwards and upwards. The latter are their own worst enemies as well as enemies of those who are productive and are supporting them through their own labors. The chronically poor possess agency in their affairs and deliberately choose to never adapt and learn and improve their station in life but instead elect to freeload while wallowing in a degraded and abased existence.

I self-identify as being in the former category and have great respect for my fellow men and women in this honorable fraternity (I use that last word in the neuter, of course). For whatever reason(s) we find ourselves in a tight spot but we are self-starters and ambitious and entrepreneurial and will fully exploit what opportunities Providence will place before us as inevitably happens to everybody, including the chronic poor who either fail to recognize Providence tapping on their shoulder or deliberately elect to thrust away the hand of Providence.

I met a married couple through a mutual friend a couple of years ago. They lived in Paso Robles in public housing (or publicly-assisted housing) in an apartment complex. Both were morbidly obese because they didn't take care of themselves and both were diabetic. They used their food stamps and other welfare monies to acquire food that was excessively fattening and they shoveled it into their mouths. They cached non-diet sodas all over the kitchen counters by the bottle-full. They used their welfare money to purchase a Wii gaming system with all the fixings and played it all the time, including most of the time I was visiting with my friend. The man of the house at the time I met him had just undergone surgery for testicular cancer (paid for by the public treasury, of course). Quite recently his staples had come out so he had just come back from the hospital. He complained that while he was in there the staff did not wish to take the time to check his blood sugar as he had requested. He had the temerity to wonder why the obvious and complain. Since he didn't care about his blood sugar enough to eat and drink right and was a recurring nuisance visitor to the hospital why should they care any more than he did? In a broader context why should the public treasury be funding this sort of cluster fuck of a wretched publicly-subsidized and non-productive existence? By what factor can this couple's case be multiplied to represent a true picture of the American landscape at the bottom of the socio-economic pile?

I used to spend a lot of time up in the Willits, CA, area both before I had a girlfriend there and then while I was with her. This gave me a lot of exposure to how the White Underclass lives. The picture I observed was dismal and dismaying to say the least. The entire town is covered with some sort of dark cloud of bad karma and in the town are a lot of bad actors to use a counter-terrorism term. Dependency upon public subsidy is rampant in the Little Lake Valley in which Willits resides as well as in the surrounding forested mountains inhabited by folks who could easily be cast as extras in any remake of the movie "Deliverance".
Having traipsed all over Northern California for much of my life I can say that while Willits is a bit of an extreme example there are plenty of places like it spread over the state. Add to that all the poor urban black areas as well as poor urban and rural brown areas across California and indeed across all of America of all ethnic extractions and you get a clearer picture of how big a problem this sort of deliberate impoverishment is and how expensive it is to society as supported disproportionately by the Middle Class.

The chronically poor of their own agency and volition choose to live lives that are frequently degrading and uninspiring. So many poor folks I have met could immediately be in a better station in life if they consistently made better decisions and lived more enlightened and elevated existences. The following is my short list of common bad habits or catastrophic setbacks of the chronically poor.

Getting pregnant (or getting someone pregnant) early in life - limits options and costs a lot of money.
Having too many kids - for chrissakes replicate within your means - failure to heed this is expensive.
Getting a criminal record - limits options throughout life.
Drug use - undermines productivity, limits options and costs a lot of money
Smoking - dirty and unhealthy habit that costs a lot of money.
Regularly heavy alcohol consumption - undermines productivity and costs a lot of money.
Tattoo collecting - limits some employment options and costs a lot of money
Pimp rides - spending all that money on something as utilitarian as your transportation is dumb.
Electronic gaming - in excess it limits productivity and costs a lot of money - get off your lazy ass!
Processed food consumption - it costs more than preparing your own food and is less healthy.
Associating with rabble - in any human grouping, everybody goes to the lowest common denominator
Failure to network - build a network of helpful associations and fully exploit that network.
Lack of personal initiative/entrepreneurial pluck - get off your ass, use your head and get after it.

One disclosure I must make is that am receiving both federal Pell Grant money to help me go back to school as well as California's Board of Governors is fully paying my tuition. Essentially my society is investing in me and betting that by helping me out right now I will later on be productive and paying taxes into the treasury that far exceed the sum of money invested in me by my society at present. I have accepted that challenge and intend to prove society right. I work hard and do my best and get good grades. I am achieving. I am productive. I will eventually pay back what was given me and not only to the public treasury but the aforementioned now-ex-girlfriend invested in me, too. I will prove her right in her investment as well. I say all this to clearly define and differentiate between my smart-bet subsidy and the sort of dead-end subsidization of the chronic poor that is the epitome of throwing good money after bad as perpetrated by the U.S. Federal government as well as state and local governments across the land.

Caliente Ridge Rockhounding Recon

2012-01-20T23:59:00.000-08:00

This morning I drove out to the Carrizo Plain with my friend and hiking buddy Mike. En route there I noted more traffic than usual on Highway 58 and once the highway burst out onto the plain I saw all the construction activity relating to the new and controversial Carrizo Energy Solar Farm being constructed there on private land. The location of this facility is actually at the northwest end of the plain in the most populated and man-altered sector of the plain and not near the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

It felt weird seeing all the activity after spending so much quiet time there in the 1990's and 2000's healing my soul and my mind. That period of my life was followed more recently by then not visiting the area hardly at all the past few to several years due to profound changes (albeit mostly positive) in my life. I hope the new activity out there does not spoil the spirit of the place. It certainly was pleasant renewing my acquaintance with my old friend the San Andreas Fault which certainly won't be in any way changed by anything Mankind does out there.

We turned off Highway 58 at Soda Lake Road and passing through California Valley (originally Simmler) and CalFire Station 42 located there we headed into the national monument. We drove up onto Caliente Ridge and parked at the trailhead and then proceeded to head east and up the ridgeline toward Caliente Peak which is actually relatively high for the area at over 5,100 feet in elevation. However, the threat of impending rain turning the road into a quagmire forced us to turn around before reaching the summit and head back and down off the mountain. Along the way I did my usual rockhounding and photography bit and found the following images... and rocks.

Caliente Ridge Road with Soda Lake in the Carrizo Plain in background.

Soda Lake with approaching Winter storm.

Eastern Soda Lake with dirt road to Selby Campground and Caliente Ridge Road leading up the mountain from the paved Soda Lake Road.

Soda Lake in middle background with Caliente Ridge Road visible on spur ridge in middle foreground.

Selby Campground as viewed from atop Caliente Ridge. Note the linear rock formations.

Soda Lake in the Carrizo Plain and the Temblor Range in the background.

View looking west and downhill along Caliente Ridge Trail. Note: no vehicle traffic allowed on this segment.

Carrizo Plain in middle foreground with Temblor Range in background. San Andreas Fault surface trace visible at far edge of valley at base of the hills appearing as long, low scarp parallel to the hills running left to right.

Southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, and San Emigdio Mountains in order left to right in background with Temblor Range and Carrizo Plain in middle foreground and Caliente Ridge in near foreground.

San Andreas Fault trace runs along the linear low hillock in middle foreground running up the Carrizo Plain.

View looking east and uphill along Caliente Ridge Trail.

Detail of cluster of interesting rocks exposed by blade of heavy equipment that graded this fire road.

More interesting rocks were found in this other cluster of exposed material in the near foreground.

View of the Cuyama Valley from Caliente Ridge.

Although relatively high up above the surrounding terrain Caliente Ridge is by no means steeps with a few exceptions.

My biggest discovery of the day: a platy nodule of quartz and calcite.

Detail of my quartz-calcite platy nodule showing quartz at left with calcite at right.

Slickenslided sandstone material

I Am Second - Brian "Head" Welch

2012-01-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool XXXXI

2012-01-18T23:59:00.000-08:00

It is 2012 and a new year has broken forth. It finds this space experiencing a notable increase in readership. I am grateful for the interest and participation. One of the two primary reasons for this increase is the growing inventory of columns here that cover a growing range of topics. Consequently, various search engines function as a net bringing in many of those searching any particular topic covered here. I have noted that many/most topics covered here have one or more entrees in the first ten entries in a Google Search for that given topic. Needless to say, Google is a friend. Another significant reason for the significantly growing readership is that I now regularly share my content on Reddit which has opened up this blog to a much younger and hipper audience. Yahoo Groups where I have been since the beginning is an older and more mature audience whereas Facebook where I'm also heavily involved overlaps into both Reddit and Yahoo Groups' markets.

Autumn 2011 Semester Results

Last semester I took 10 units in three classes. In my 3-unit History 207A class I earned an A. In my 3-unit Economics 201A class I earned an A. In my 4-unit Spanish 201 class I earned a B, the first grade less than an A that I have received since returning to college.

Spring 2012 Semester Has Arrived

Today I start classes at Cuesta College for the fourth semester since I started going back to college a couple of years ago and for the first time this time around I will be a full-time student with 14 units. I was able to schedule all four of my classes at the North County Campus on Mondays and Wednesdays in order to accommodate my work schedule. This past Monday was a national holiday and thus the semester began for me today. I am taking a 3-unit dumb-dumb Math 7 class because it has been 22 years since I was last in a math class and have forgotten much. This class was the one I fell into based upon my placement exam results. I did better on my English comp placement exams results and fell into a 4-unit English 201A class. I am continuing my Spanish studies with another 4-unit Spanish 202 class with the beloved Yolanda Solis. Last but not least I am continuing my romp through history with Dennis Judd taking the only remaining class he teaches that I have not already taken which in this case is History 207B. That class is a 3-hour ordeal on Monday nights.

Things Are Getting A Wee Bit Better

I'm still poor as a church mouse but things have gotten better for me in a year's time. This time last year, indeed, at the start of even the last semester I was not in a position to purchase all my books right at the beginning of the semester as I was able to do today as well as pay all my fees and permits which amounted to $48. Not only is my financial act together more to start this semester than at any time previous but I got motivated to sign up for my classes earlier than at any time previous in the past two years so that despite taking more classes and units this semester than the previous three semesters I did not need to crash any classes to get in as I did the previous two semesters by the skin of my teeth.

On Another Positive Note

Last week I finally managed to bestir myself into action on finishing the landscaping in my tiny backyard and the results exceeded my expectations. I utilized a bunch of eucalyptus logs my mother generously donated for the cause. Next up, Winter plantings for the Spring. Already, I have noted after trimming trees in Atascadero that up in the tops of fruitless mulberry trees there are already buds forming ready to burst forth. The warm days are tricking some plants into believing it is early Spring, bitter cold nights nothwithstanding. This was even recently noted in the Southern California news media market.

Rain Schmain

This has been one of the driest recorded rain seasons in California's history. It has also been one of the most climatologically consistent Autumn/Winter periods I can remember. It feels as if for months on end it has been brutally dry producing pleasant days with a quick warm-up into the 60's once the Sun rises but once it sets the temperatures plunge into the 20's and sometimes down to the upper teens. Rain is predicted for the end of the work week into the weekend but I'm a Doubting Thomas... I'll believe it when I see it. In the meantime, the fire season has been creeping back into California wending its way even as far north as North Ops. Wildfires of increasing size and in increasingly frequency have been breaking out in recent weeks. For the first time in a few years Santa Ana Winds have been a regular visitor to Southern California and to a lesser extent Diablo Winds to Northern California.

An Ominous Quiescence

This seemingly extended period of no significant earthquakes occurring in California won't last forever. It has been weighing on my thoughts with gradual but inexorably increasingly gravity over the course of the past year or so. I so wonder where the next significant quake will strike California and how great it shall be and what it shall do and where I shall be when it happens. This is the calm before the storm.

On Another Ominous Note

Has there ever been such an anemic group of candidates as the current crop of Republicans vying to topple an otherwise impotent President? What should be a routine firing of a feckless President might not even happen given this crop of losers. Paleo-Conservatives in their zeal for ideological purity are turning off the Great Middle and assuring the reelection of the current President. Thanks, Assholes!

Picture of the Day - My Botryoidal Orpiment

2012-01-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

This is the latest addition to my collection - botryoidal orpiment with barite recently purchased at Quartzsite for one-third its $92 price tag... my splurge for 2012.

This specimen comes from Paloma Mine, Castrovirreina Province, Huancavelica Department, Peru.

Picture of the Day - Tonight's SLR Meeting

2012-01-16T23:59:00.000-08:00

John McCabe gave a presentation tonight announcing the Santa Lucia Rockhounds will be adapting the AFMS's Future Rockhounds of America youth program which he will spearhead in the club as the V.P. for Education. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Rock Photography Set IV

2012-01-15T23:59:00.000-08:00

This weekend I captured these images for my ongoing Rock Photography Set at the first Santa Rosa Gem Faire of the new year while helping my friend Dave in his Rocks & Relics booth.

Smokey quartz point from Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Peridot beads

Golden quartz beads from India

Beads of various beryl types from Brazil

Carnelian beads

Faceted quartz beads

Dogtooth calcite crystal embedded in an amethyst vug from Uruguay

Smokey quartz carving from Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Arkansas quartz crystal clusters with Indian druzy quartz stalactite clusters.

Druzy quartz stalactites

Polished carnelian pebble

Polished ocean jasper pebble from Madagascar

Amethyst stalactite end segment from Artigas, Uruguay

Tabular quartz crystal from Brazil.

Arkansas quartz crystal cluster

Amethyst from Artigas, Uruguay

Fossilized ammonite from Madagascar

Arkansas quartz crystal cluster, Congolese malachite, & Indian stilbite.

Detail of an Arkansas quartz crystal

Carved quartz skulls from Brazil

Fossil megalodon teeth from Northern Florida

Creedite from Mexico

In My Seat

2012-01-14T23:59:00.000-08:00

Picture of the Day - Flamingo Dawn

2012-01-13T23:59:00.001-08:00

Annuale For Women

2012-01-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

An Object Lesson From A Mouse

2012-01-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

Last week I was driving through a neighborhood in Atascadero one evening after dark and was forced to stop my car by a drama of life unfolding in the street before me. A cat was attacking a mouse in the middle of the street, or rather was attempting to do so but the mouse was doing most of the attacking in the form of a furious counter-assault. To my astonishment I witnessed this little field mouse lunging up and nipping the cat's nose which seemed to unnerve the cat which was only half-heartedly attacking the mouse now as much in self-defense as not. Normally I do not interfere in such happenings preferring to let nature take its course and not interfere with the Natural World doing its thing. However, I was so impressed by this little field mouse that I proceeded to move my car slowly forward which forced the cat to retreat and gave the mouse the opportunity to make a run for it. We all could stand to learn something from that little field mouse about not only courage but determination as well.

Picture of the Day - Tonight's OMS Meeting

2012-01-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight the Orcutt Mineral Society convened its monthly club meeting in Orcutt, CA. As this was the first meeting of the new year and with a new president (although she has served four previous stints as president, although not consecutively) and many members were absent having gone to Quartzsite therefore the meeting was a bit disjointed and out of sorts as one would reasonably expect. Incoming President Debbie Hood led the meeting while Past President Wayne Mills conducted an audio-visual presentation on agates which was the theme of the show and hence his display below.

Member and Past President Wayne Mills' agate display.


Member Geary Sheffer was awarded a life-time achievement award from the club for all his service over the years. Note: please pardon the poor photo quality as it was rushed so as to capture the moment for which I was unprepared.

Underworld: Awakening

2012-01-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite movie franchises is the Underworld series of movies featuring Kate Beckinsale as my favorite vampire Selene. Opening in ten days is fourth movie in the quadrilogy, the third in which Beckinsale appears. I liked the first two movies quite much, never watched the third one which was a prequel and did not feature Beckinsale. I am hopeful with trepidation they don't dumb down this fourth one as I fear given the poor track record of fourth movies in a movie franchises. I plan to go see it in a theater, a rarity for me, as I usually do not go to movies but wait for them to appear on DVD and watch them at home. I shall report back on my impression of the new movie upon viewing it later this month. Below in order are trailers one and two for this movie.

Quote of the Day - Wise Young Child

2012-01-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

"But Daddy... we ARE the traffic!" ~ Wise Young Child

This gem of existentialist wisdom, this "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings" moment flashed into our universe when a small child spoke to his father cursing the highway traffic in which they were stuck. This has always stuck in my mind as one of the most insightful comments ever made by a human being. I'm glad the father took note of it and shared it with Paul Harvey on whose radio program I heard it back in the 1990's. We all would do well to listen to our young children just as they listen to us. In some regards they are wiser than we just as we in some regards are wiser than they.

One More Tohoku Tsunami Video Of Note

2012-01-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

While searching for another tsunami video I came across this raw footage which was new to me and worthy of appearing on this blog. It features a view of the tsunami coming into a port and completely overwhelming it leaving only larger warehouses and giant cranes for loading and unloading ships. It is from such a crane the videographer shot this footage.

Top Ten Most Dramatic Tohoku Tsunami Videos

One More Indian Ocean Tsunami Video Of Note

2012-01-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

When I compiled my Top Ten Most Dramatic Indian Ocean Tsunami Videos column I couldn't fine this one at the time although I remembered it and wanted to add it as a bonus video at #11. I finally found it and share it on this blog. It features a beach with normally ocean-covered rock outcroppings fully exposed as the ocean has receded. European tourists are seen milling about in the subtidal area out of foolish and naive curiosity. This occurs even as large, white, frothy waves approach in the distance across the entire arc of the horizon over the ocean. One sees Thai Navy patrol boats react to the approaching tsunami waves and nose into them. The videographer speaks in an unknown tongue but seems a bit more skeptical of the situation and by the end of the video is running for his life.

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An Unwintery Winter's Hike In The Shadow of Black Mt.

2012-01-05T23:59:00.000-08:00

The last time I bothered to capture any images along the Friis Trail in the Santa Lucia District of the Los Padres National Forest in San Luis Obispo County was back in Spring 2009 when I was somebody else and living another life both of which have since ended. Today I elected to capture the following images of the place now in a different time both in my life as well as in the context of the time of year as this is the Dead of Winter when that other visit was in the Fullness of Spring. I took my little monster Tequila with me and hiked with my buddy Mike. This time we decided to park at the top of the trail and hike down to Friis Campground, the inverse of how we usually conduct this hike. We felt Friis Trail was too short a hike so we elected to hike a significant section of the Fernandez Trail for the first time. The trail intrigued us so next time we plan to park in Friis Campground and hike Fernandez Trail all the way to Fernandez Road in the Red Hill area south of Highway 58. For reference and comparison purposes please check out my previous posting about that other visit here nearly three years ago.

View from the upper trailhead for Friis Trail on a saddle upon which Black Mountain Road wends in route to the top.

View from Friis Trail of the start of the switchbacks as Black Mountain Road commences the steepest part of its ascent.

Above is Black Mountain Road and below it in the foreground is Friis Trail.

A Santa Ana Wind engendered gorgeous warm and windy weather for our trek.

The trail wends its way beneath the trees on the lee side of a long spur ridge off the south flank of Black Mt.

Digger Pines (Gray Pines) abound.

View of the saddle at the head of the canyon from about halfway down the canyon on the south flank of Black Mt.

Granitic southeast rampart of Black Mountain.

Friis Trail passes through a mix of oak woodland and chaparral.

Oaks become more abundant along this trail with decreasing elevation.

There was much evidence of wild pigs along particular stretches of the trail in an area of the forest known for them.

At this section the oak woodland disappears and chaparral becomes dominant.

The trail wends its way through fuel beds I would not wish to be caught in when fire ultimately revisits this area.

Evidence of the last time fire was here (Highway 58 Fire in 1996) abounds.

Mature trees like this did fine in the Highway 58 Fire 16 years ago.

Normally this waterfall is active this time of year... but not this year.

The lower trailhead of Friis Trail in Friis Campground.

If I didn't know better I'd say this was a mistletoe tree.

This oak acts like an archway inviting the hiker to enter Fernandez Trail.

The upper trailhead of Fernandez Trail looking back into Friis Campground.

This eastern rampart of Black Mt. looms over the upper section of Fernandez Trail.

The trail starts out in a mix of oak woodland and chaparral...

.... but soon becomes just chaparral.

More evidence of the 1996 Highway 58 Fire that consumed 106,668 acres.

View west towards Black Mt. with the main peak being the one that appears lower to the right of the cone-shaped peak.

More headstones of the Highway 58 Fire.

The far distant ridgeline contains Black Mountain Road so we are never far from where we started

We stopped for lunch at this bench/tool depot used for trail maintenance... and then turned back.

In the center of this image running vertically is what appears to be a faultline.

This part of the trail wends through heavy 16 year-old fuel beds of chaparral.

Granitic rocks dominant this region otherwise dominated by sedimentary rock formations.


Digger Pines are generally viewed as ugly but they are one of my favorite coniferous trees.

A local mountain biking club placed numerous jumps like this one along Friis Trail.

By the time we neared the end of our trek the shadows were getting longer.

View from back where we started when we were done.