Merry Christmas!

from Arthur and the Amboy Zimmermans

Pink Sky In Morning?

I didn't touch-up this picture.

Five Things About Me

1. When I play an engaging video game, I almost never blink. Tears streaming down my cheeks sometimes alerts me to the problem.
2. The muddled nature of my brain is something that I thought would go away when I reached adulthood. I wish that were true.
3. I can think of a lot of flaws about me, but we won't go into that. My friends seem to like me anyway. (Thanks guys!)
4. I call almost everyone "guys", even gals. (Sorry gals!)
5. Five has long been my favorite number. Ever since my fifth birthday celebration in Raggedy Ann preschool. I once called roulette for a friend, by suggesting the number 5, then changing to 25 (5x5) before he bet. He won $35 on the number 25. True story. I also won several times with a toy roulette wheel by betting on 5. I never wrongly bet on 5; kind of creepy. Those are about the only two experiences in my life with roulette.
   

One More Off The Risk-List

In case any of you are anxious about an earth-collision with asteroids, you will be relieved to here that one more has been found to be not a risk:
http://space.about.com/cs/asteroids/a/asteroidimpact.htm

Update
It appears that we dodged a bullet this time with asteroid 2002 NT7. NASA's Near Earth Object Program released this statement:

"With the processing of a few more observations of asteroid 2002 NT7 through July 28, we can now rule out any Earth impact possibilities for February 1, 2019. While we cannot yet completely rule out an impact possibility on February 1, 2060, it seems very likely that this possibility will be soon ruled out as well as additional positional observations are processed.

..."An object of this size would be expected to hit the Earth every few million years,”...

Jamey's R2 Birthday Cake

by Julie Lynch 

Christmas Shopping Nearly Done

Whew, I got up at 4 this morning and by 7:30 had nearly completed my Christmas shopping for the year. United Parcel Santa should have everything here on time for the big day. The kids will hopefully really like what we're getting them. Robots were on the top of their lists this year, and I think I found just the ones to thrill them.
Robots, in general, provide me with a fair degree of excitement. I think that within the next 20 years or so we should see some amazing things in robotics. Of course, within 100 years nanobots will have turned everything into a smooth grey slurry, which isn't as exciting. But in the meantime we should have lots of fun.
I've also managed to pique Jamey's interest in hydraulic exoskeletons for humans, which I read about several months ago. Perhaps in the near future we'll be able to buy these types of devices to assist in heavy labor. The dexterity of a human with the power of a forklift!
Yes, Heidi, I have nearly finished shopping for you too. And I bought stocking-stuffers. No, I won't tell you what I bought you; it's a surprise. :)

Snowfall, Take Two

 

The First Snowfall of the Winter

a light dusting, but still pretty. 

It's That Time Again

This year we tried an unusual approach to Thanksgiving by avoiding traditional get-togethers. That choice was bound to come with some unhappy consequences, as it means we missed getting together with family that we really enjoy seeing. However, with our calendar looking like blackout-bingo for the past several months, and again in December, it almost had to be done.

We hope everyone had a terrific time and can't wait to see you all for the coming Christmas celebrations.

Which brings me to my point: The Annual Christmas List!
We took the boys to Finnagan's and Toys R Us yesterday, to get a feel for what tickles their fancies in the world of toys. They both appeared content with roughly every second thing they saw.

Jamey is most excited about Moon Shoes; mini trampolines you strap to the feet for extra jumping action. He's hoping he can jump into his bunk-bed with them. And secondly, he craves a Robot with "supplies", which we haven't entirely defined yet, but we get the general idea. It is to be a very capable and useful robot. At Finnagan's he seemed most taken with Marvin's Magic Set for Young Magicians. It has 125 pieces and directions for performing many magic tricks. He is also interested in a Glow-in-the-dark magic wand that comes with 15 tricks of its own.

Arthur has a tendency to mimic Jamey's list & so I'm not as clear on what appeals to him, personally. However, he is still keeping the robotic dinosaur that we discovered shortly after last Christmas high on his list.

Things that Heidi and I think they would like include a buildable framework for routing marbles down ramps and such. Lego Star Wars II for the XBox (aka "the babysitter"). I'd also like to get us all a telescope. Despite my typical reluctance to hang about outside in the cold, it seems a practical necessity to retain a high-powered optical device.

Heidi is into Fabric, Yarn and Knitting Needles.

My ideas for my own list can most easily be summed up as "Gadgetry". Accessories for my camera, like a 1-2GB Ultra Compact Flash card, a new flat-panel monitor, which would allow me two monitors, since my 5 mo. old Dell supports that. I'd like to get some kind of science project kit, like an electronics, or robotic kit that I could work with the kids on. I'd like to get started on a projection-based home-theater, perhaps with a screen. I'd love to be able to project our DVDs and XBox games on a giant silver screen. Then there's the wireless internet radio device for listening to music in any room in the house.

However, when all is said and done, what I'm most excited about this year is getting together and having some excellent conversations and trying to make it super-special for everyone that I can.

Star Wars Strikes Back

There are a lot of great things about The Empire Strikes Back, and it is tremendous to be able to enjoy it, and the other Star Wars movies, with my two enthusiastic boys. However, I never realized, as a child, how heavily the plot relies on the repeated failures of the Millenium Falcon to make the jump to light-speed to move the plot forward. I guess that isn't a horrible condemnation, but it surprised me, as an adult, how many minutes of this movie are spent on the struggle to fix the hyperdrive.
Nevertheless, this series is such a classic; I love watching how excited the boys get over it. I also love understanding every part of the dialogue. Yoda's wisdom is not quite as mysterious and profound, but is still high-quality and enjoyable. I'm somewhat amazed that the same mind that invented ewoks and Jar-Jar Binks was able to conceive all of the other, lovely details of this universe. The romantic tension between Han Solo and Princess Leia is also a little more aggressive, than I remember. It's a bit unsettling, actually. However, it resolves fairly well and their affection seems genuine, despite the lack of onscreen evidence for it.
This post is not cohesive, nor informative. I know it. But I'm going to post it anyway, because I want to express my euphoria over relishing a favorite movie raised to the power of 2 Star Wars-loving boys. Someone in euphoria can be excused for be incoherent. Right?

New Music

These are not recommendations or reviews. It's more of a "news-alert" to those who are interested in these artists.

Solomon Burke - Nashville
A country-flavored album by an old soul veteran

Willie Nelson - Songbird
Willie Nelson & Ryan Adams collaborate, with some unusual results. My favorite track: Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Established Independent-label band goes major with this Capitol release. The title is based on a Japanese folk-tale.

Three songs that aren't necessarily new, but I've bookmarked them recently, while listening to pandora.com:

Laudanum by Letters To Cleo

Lisa's Song by Allison Crowe

Venezuela by Dayna B. Kurtz

Soap In The Eye

Do you remember when you were a child, and getting the Johnson&Johnson "no-tears" shampoo in your eye made you cry like your cat just died? Then, growing up, you realized, hey, this stuff is rather mild. Eyes get tougher, or rather, desensitized, as you age.
Enter Selsun Blue.
This stuff has Selenium Sulfide in it. Now, I don't know the exact properties of Selenium Sulfide, but my understanding is roughly this: the skin on your scalp is whining and complaining about some irritation or other, so you send in Selenium Sulfide, which basically says "You want me to give you somethin' to cry about?!!" This is one bad dude. In just a few minutes of contact , you get no more whining from your scalp for at least a day. Now, as adults, we have graduated from the days of sloppy shampooing. We can sense where our hairline ends, and have the advantage that it is further from our eyes each passing day. We can get it all sudsy, without missing spots OR getting any in our eyes. That's just one of the perks of adulthood. How-ev-er....there are those infrequent accidents that remind us of childhood trauma.
Several years ago, when I first discovered the usefulness of Selsun Blue, I also discovered the curiously strong cap on the cap of the Selsum Blue bottle. It's stiff to open, requiring considerable thumb-strength and stiffness. They do not want children opening this product. Fair enough. And it's not just the latch which is stiff, the hinge on that cap is also quite robust; give a little push and it'll snap shut like a venus-flytrap. Always close your eyes before doing this. On that day, years ago, which I still remember vividly, I was unaware of this rule. One tiny droplet of the soap launched from the cap, directly onto my cornea, triggering sensations similar to the ones I experienced when I sprayed flat-black spraypaint in my eyes, or the time I had my corneas scratched by an ice-laden snowball. (I mean shards of ice, not to be confused with the microcrystals in snow, which couldn't scratch corneas.) So, from that day forward, I have diligently closed my eyes immediately preceding the closing of the Selsun Blue cap. (Forget what you hear about needing to hear something 15 times before you learn it; that's not always true.)
Last night, as I lay in the tub (imagine a Northern Pike in a sardine can) shampooing my hair, with Selsun Blue, I let some ride the water droplets down into the corner of my left eye. This brought back all those old memories and furnished me with some of the finer details that I had forgotten from my first experience, which I will now relate to you.
All the pain was still there, nothing new to add on that score. Here's what I had forgotten: hazy vision! For several hours after flushing out my eye with water, I found the vision in my left eye to be impaired as though I wore a pair of slightly foggy, or grease-smudged glasses. "How long is this supposed to last?" I asked myself. And, "How many more chances will I get, before this effect becomes permanent?", I added.
This morning I can still feel tenderness in the area where that most impressive concoction of a shampoo penetrated my eye. I don't know whether to blame or cheer animal-rights activists. In any case, the animal-testing has been done, the results are not hazy: avoid getting this soap in your eye.

Nov 2nd Heat Used

This year's first day of using indoor heating was November 2nd. Almost a month later than last year. (We had workmen leaving the door open all day last year) Our indoor temperature never dipped below 64 degrees prior to using heat.

Also beginning Nov. 2nd: a rain storm. According to my weather-station, we've had 7.39 inches of rain since the 2nd. Almost half of that (3.49 inches) has fallen in the past 24 hours! The creeks will be rising. Greetings El Nino.

Update: in the past two minutes we're now up to 3.51 inches in the past 24 hours. You see where this is leading, right?

This One's For Lief

C3-PO, R2-D2 and Han Solo, frozen in carbonite.
Brix Blox baby! 

Moody Photo

Using Picasa, I feel more free to do crazy things with photos than before. Picasa makes automatic backups before saving any altered version of a photo. So I am less inhibited about trying radical processing techniques on a photo, it is easy to undo all changes and even undo a save!
Here, I increased color saturation dramatically before using a filtered black & white effect to get the best contrast in the elements of the picture. Along the way I increased fill, highlight and shadows as well.


Here is another version, although I think I prefer grain over blur:

Mushroom Hunting

We started out looking for diamonds, but soon expanded that to "whatever we can find" in the forest. As it turned out, mushrooms were a conspicuous novelty at this time of year. Arthur and Jamey turned out to be experts at identifying new varieties. I followed them around, playing photojournalist. You can see the results of the expedition on my Botanical photostream .

Halloween revelry culminated in the Fargher Lake Grange Halloween Party. Costumes of some of the guests are on my flickr photostream.

More Bragging

Last night the temperature (outside) dipped to 26 degrees and stayed there for 11 consecutive hours! Meanwhile, inside, the temperature never fell below 64 degrees. All of this with no indoor heating except for normal activity and whatever the sun shines in.
Nothing less than 38 degree differential, sustained over 11 consecutive hours with no interior heat source. Sorry if you all are tired of hearing this refrain, but this stuns me. I only wish I knew what the temperature inside was when it all started. It was probably between 71 and 74.

The sun is shining brightly again today, so there is no question that we can withstand another night, thus achieving our goal of not using heat until November. And, we never suffered a temperature lower than 64 inside while waiting for this goal.

Jamey's Invented Super Robot

Name: Blaster
Things he can do:

1. Transform into a ship that can shoot
2. He can blast pink stuff out of him
3. He can Zap
4. He can control
5. He can shock to make things unlock
6. He can shock so he can make robots hold still
7. He can make people disappear with his zapper
8. He can dig under the dirt and then kapow up
9. He can zap things out of his eyes at you and KILL you!
10. He can pick up stuff without using his hands. He just looks at them and wherever he looks the thing goes.
11. He can break trees down.
12. He can pick an Earth up. He would stand on a star while doing this.
13. He could break anything. He could even break our stucco wall. He could break the whole planet into half.
    
14. He can cut through with his cutters
15. He can break a human into half
16. He can make you have a bloody head
17. He can go to the market and buy anything he wants! But he doesn't have any money. (chuckles) Markets let him have food without any money because he doesn't have an owner and robots can't buy. So they just give him it.
18. He can touch a sun without even burning hisself; or hot lava.
19. He can smush anything
20. He could twist your head off.
21. He can stab a really sharp thing into himself without even getting cut.
22. And, he has guards. Flying ball guards that fly in the air and shoot.
23. You can find him wherever you go! But sometimes you can't find him.
24. He can do a perfect cast all the way to the market. Really far fishing cast, farther than the lake.
    
25. He can turn colors into slime.

Friend in Spain

A friend of mine is taking an extended trip to Spain and is blogging about it. His writing is interesting and witty. I'm reading it to get a little vicarious trip to Spain, but it's probably worth a read just because he's a good writer.
The Pope of Chilitown in Spanish:

El Papa de la Puebla de la Chili

http://chilitown.blogspot.com/

Still Warm Enough

We have had some nights in the 30's and still, we haven't become cold enough to turn on either of our furnaces. It has been as low as 66 in my office, which was yesterday morning. But yesterday was also clear and sunny all day, so the greenhouse effect brought us up enough so that this morning it is 70 in my office. Also, interestingly, on a very windy night, the temperature never dipped below 54. I guess we got a little flavor of those Santa Anna winds. Today is very clear again, so I suspect we can gain enough heat to last us most of a week, which means we will probably make it to November 1st, in comfort, without using heat!

The Forest

Each step crunches twigs
I'm self-conscious,
guilty almost,
as though they were
bird bones

On the edge, between
forest and clearing.
The trees grow quiet
and still when I come.
Hold their breath,
wait for me to leave,
to continue their
whispered conversations.

It is a great, dark lung,
breathing imperceptibly,
soundlessly and windlessly,
drawing me in,
expelling me,
rhythmically

The bright, open clearing
is near; it welcomes me.
But the tangled,
mysterious forest
invites me.

Bursting

Bursting
Originally uploaded by King Cnut.

Arthur's Smashed Finger

Arthur smashed his finger by dropping a five pound weight on it. Almost took him to the doctor for it, but the on-call nurse said if it can move in the morning there's probably no problem. This actually looks a lot better than it did last night. 

Invincibility

Arthur and Jamey rediscovered invincibility this week and they have been thrilled by it.
It is a setting on their Xbox game Lego Star Wars, which we acquired many months ago. They apparently didn't understand it at the time or else forgot (like me) that we had it. This time around, when I rediscovered it in the menu system, they instantly apprehended the value of it and have been drunk with power ever since.
Arthur fooled me into thinking he learned to read, by methodically selecting and testing the menu-system until he discovered which ON/OFF toggle was associated with the word Invincibility.
We're now just one level away from earning the right to play the hidden level, which supposedly includes scenes from the original Star Wars movie and access to the adult Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia characters. Oh, and we've acquired over 3.5 million "monies" as the boys call them.

Strangely Spotted Acer macrophyllum

Jamey found this interestingly spotted maple leaf while we were hiking near the Upper Lewis River this past weekend.
A closer look at the leaf is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ZimFam/Botanical/photo#4981429874041421842

Trees And Mist

I enhanced this photo by applying a gradual, grey tint from the top, giving it moodiness. I was trying to use my AEB, but didn't realize I had to press the trigger thrice, so I only got this one shot. 

Owl in Our Tree

Since this owl only comes out at dusk, it is hard to get a nice picture of him. I've done my best to pull detail out of darkness, and remove the inevitable speckles. 

Attempt at High Dynamic Range

I'm trying to figure out how to shoot and process for the utmost in high dynamic range. That is, take a picture that has as many tones between black and white as possible, without going completely white or black. Translation, the entire picture is full of detail.
To this end, I'm trying to adopt shooting in RAW format. Picasa supports RAW, but I was surprised to see that it is apparently correcting for brightness, which is disturbing for me.
At any rate, just attempting the objective is getting me better pictures than I used to get. 

Latin Party Music

Heidi heard this band on NPR yesterday and played it for me. It is really rich with flavor.
http://www.yerbabuenamusic.com/

This page at the end of this link plays their music too!!

Moon in Scattered Clouds

Moon in Scattered Clouds
Originally uploaded by King Cnut.

The clouds were so jagged, and there was some color to them, so I rattled off several shots. This one impressed me.

Breathing Earth

This interesting site shows in animated graphics, the cycles of birth, death and CO2 emissions over the planet.
http://www.breathingearth.net/
It's perhaps interesting to note that the US emits 1000 tonnes of CO2 more frequently than it does one human baby.

Cows In The Garden

As if constant raids by deer aren't enough, today we woke to find a herd of cows in our garden. Bye bye corn, nice knowin' ya.

Dirt Moved

Three generations of Lynch men helped us by moving considerable quantities of dirt from the west side of our house to the rest of the sides over this past Labor Day weekend. Grandpa Bill brought is 50's flatbed with hydraulic dumping to move replace the dirt. Son Craig, did a little of everything, but spent a lot of time scraping with his tractor and a blade, shaping the new road, er...yard. Grandson Bill, logged many, many hours aboard the Kubota backhoe, chewing up the mountain like a cookie.
I disassembled several cascara trees, which previously had limited the view from our south windows.
The result of the weekends efforts are extensive flat areas around the house, an expanded parking area and a widened driveway in the apex of our turn, which should help larger rigs make the loop. Furthermore we have a much improved view and light coming in the south and west.
By next summer we hope to spend some quality time picnicing in a lawn of soft clover anywhere around our house.

Pei Mei

 

The Destination aka HIghway 504 Spur

 

The Source

 

Moving Dirt

Today we're moving dirt in an attempt to create more flat area for a lawn around our house. Once it's done our plan is to plant white clover, in and attempt to have a lawn that doesn't require watering.
We'll probably also remove a couple of the cascara trees from in front of our south windows. We're hoping that we'll enjoy the view better, but are a little apprehensive because of how many nice creatures visit those trees. The consolation is that we still have a considerable quantity of the cascara, so I don't think these two or three will be missed.

Meet The Teacher

We all went to meet Jamey's Kindergarten Teacher
She told him he choose which table to sit at:
by either of two doors, near one wall or another
or, by the window.
I was this close to advising him to sit in the front,
(to start a habit that will serve him well in any school)
but I was interrupted just in time,
and he chose the window seat.

Fresh Whole Grain Mixes

A few weeks ago we visited Goldendale and picked up some bread mixes made by Four Mountain Milling. We really enjoyed the Fry Bread and have yet to try the Waffle mix. They recommend refrigerating their products because they are whole-wheat and can spoil. I find that a refreshing concept. A food that could actually spoil if left out. Wow.
Anyway, here is their link.
http://www.fourmountainmilling.com/cart/Results.cfm?category=2

Or, if you're like me and you just get a hankering for some Fry Bread and Indian Tacos
Frybread recipe
Indian Taco Recipe

I'm not vouching for the recipes, since I haven't tried them, but it's really hard to go wrong with either.

Garage Sale Finds And Boys with Toys

 

Garage Sale Finds

 

Arthur's 4th Birthday Cake - by Julie Lynch

 

Rust and Goldenrod

Rust and Goldenrod
Originally uploaded by King Cnut.

Taken at the Flying-L ranch in Glenwood Washington.

Copy of Previous Photo: Luminosity Curves Enhanced

 

Hillside Along Carson-Guler Road

 

Shakin' n Bakin

Last night two minor earthquakes eminated from an epicenter not far from here. 1:29 am and 3:25 am. Both woke Heidi and I from our sleep, though they were only 3.6 and 1.9 magnitude.
They were very quick, just a second or two of rattling and then done. Just enough to get a shot of adrenaline to the heart.
Here's a link to the news of it:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Quake.html

And it looks like it's going to be warm and clear through the weekend.

Speaking of Novels

I have discovered a valuable resource that was previously considered only waste.
spam. Yes, the hated junk-mail that collects in your e-mail's junk/bulk/spam folder hawking vljagra and p n!s en!arg m e n t has value.
Don't open these mails. Simply review the names of the senders and take the ones you like for your own Great American Novel. How many hours have would-be novelists agonized over inventing the perfect names for their characters; perhaps giving up in frustration?
Here are a few of the beauties that have shown up in my box in the past few days:
Quinlan Percival
Cobus Veitch
Inger Turner
Gandalf Hubbell
Katya Stickles
Destinee Kucera
Ulric Teets
Goliath Linnell
Aviv Reinwald
Juventas Dove

Who is the genius coming up with these? If these are simply generated by algorithm, I'd say it is a sign that the singularity is upon us.These names are laden with character. If you don't already have a story in mind these names could help you form one.

The Wayward Bus

I found a first-edition John Steinbeck book for less than a dollar. It's not in great shape, it's dusty and worn. But it is in one piece. Here is a picture:

The Answer

At the risk of disappointing those who haven't had a chance to guess, here are the answers to the questions posed in the previous post:
Year: 1957
Publication: Signs of The Times

Signs of the Times is a magazine produced by the Seventh Day Adventist church.

Admittedly, the contest wasn't entirely fair, since the perspective of Signs of the Times might not have ever been 'mainstream'.

But anyway, since Mimi was the closest, she wins. And the prize, as determined by our pseudo-Rogue-style judging panel, is:
*
(32 gold pieces )
(You have achieved the level of 'Hero')

Rebellion

Can anyone guess in what year this girl epitomized rebellion? How about the publication?

Four Kittens

Our only surviving adult cat, Flower, gave birth to 4 kittens over the weekend. There is an orange striped one, two calico and one black with white toes. They are small, but I still don't know how she had all four of them inside her. She's not very big either.

Hottest I can remember

107 degrees at 2:57 today. Hottest I can remember in W. Washington.
Inside my office it is a cool 79, with no AC. 28 degree differential, with no AC! I'm loving it.

Too busy to turn around

Much less publish blog entries.
I feel bad when I get my hitcount update and see that there are approximately 4 die-hards out there that keep checking up on me even when I'm silent.

I installed a rain-drip watering system yesterday for the portion of the garden that is out of easy reach of our other irrigation. It is actually extremely easy and I would recommend it to anyone trying to grow plants. Other techniques I've used include sprinkler and manual watering. One's wasteful, the other time-consuming. Rain-drip is neither.

Last night, I saw a doe devouring the heads off a patch of fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) growing by the house. Before that, when I was watering the garden, a 3-point buck bounded past me close enough I could have squirted him with water if I set the nozzle to Jet. I set the nozzle to Jet, actually, because I was a little nervous at the speed, size and the 3-points all in such proximity to my relatively tender little body. I was prepared to defend myself with a water hose if he decided to get aggressive with me.

Jamey at Gymnastics