Thursday, July 31, 2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Surf Instruction
Out and about a bit late to pursue the thought to return to Huntington Beach Pier to see daybreak surfing, and when I approached Harbor and GG Blvd. I was uncertain...it was still early, and I thought, 'maybe catch a train' and crossed the street thataway, and then thought 'no, stick to first thought' and went back to Harbor 43 stop....influencing my thinking was that in checking I had mistakenly opened the bus schedule book to Route 59 instead of Route 173...59 goes to the depot, 173 to Huntington (after transfers from 56 and 43 respectively)...seeing my mistake, I thought, maybe it isn't a mistake, but a subconscious intuition...there's a word for these intuitions that come from the blue, and when I got home I had to look it up again in my book of Symbols and Signs (I had bought this book to lend support to my wow quest dream blog, which is in sometime mode presently!)...the word is 'cledon'...brb, wiki should have it....
quote
An example of cledonism occurs in the Odyssey, Book XX. Before taking vengeance on the suitors, Odysseus asks for a divine sign, and Zeus answers with a clap of thunder. This is immediately followed by words from a servant-woman, asking Zeus to "let this be the very last day that the suitors dine in the house of Odysseus."[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cledonism
unquote
hmmph...didn't know it was an 'ism'...
quote
Known as cledon, these symbolic fragments of speech that seemed to answer a question or give advise were usually uttered unwittingly by strangers, children, or passer-by.
p161
Signs and Symbols
unquote
When I happened on this word first perusing Signs and Symbols, I thought, 'oh, that's what those are', and what came to mind was an interview with Alec Guiness...he was reminiscing about a Hollywood Party he was attending and James Dean was there, and there was talk about Dean's new car, and Alec relates that it suddenly came into his head to go over to Dean, who he didn't know personally, and tell Dean not to drive his car that night...lemesee if I can find that...brb...
quote
Many at the time thought the Porsche Spyder was too high-powered for him and, indeed, days before he died Alec Guinness, the actor, had a premonition that he would die behind its wheel. Dean had bumped into Guinness at the Villa Capri, a local Hollywood hangout. He was so proud of the car that he insisted upon showing it to Guinness. Dean, a self-confessed speed freak, laughed off the suggestion. There was no way he could have known that Guinness's warning would become a chillingly reality. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1499176/Revealed-the-truth-behind-the-crash-that-killed-James-Dean.html
unquote
there's a whole bunch of web pages with this recollection!...premonitions are one of those things I call 'curios' that I gather in...didn't think so many others had gathered this one about Dean!...and maybe that says something to my own almost daily hourly moment to moment wariness of cledons coming out of the blue....everyone does this!...and it's part of the Deerslayer posts which are in the works for sometime :)
sunnyblueblue hot...not sure what the Dory Fisherman's Fish are (Thornyfish and Black Cod ?)...I ended up at Newport Pier, the 47 Bus came along before 173 on Victoria, and I thought, I'm hungry, so hopped on envisioning Chocolate Croissant at Newport, and maybe the Wedge will have surf...surf was like one foot this Morning, so, so, didn't miss anything at Huntington, and maybe the Train tomorrowmorrow!...Oh!...my iphone has a compass...Newport Pier points 193 degrees South...and swell was coming from the southsouthwest, ssw, I think...if Pier is noon, swell was coming from 1-2 O-clock!
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Surfers
Yesterday, I rode the Train from Santa Ana Depot to San Juan Capistrano...came back by Bus...and this morning I thought to ride the Train again...Amtrac ticket I can buy at the ticket window, which I did yesterday...and MetroLink tickets are vended from machines...I couldn't figure out the machine yesterday for Metro, so took Amtrac...determined to figure out the Metrolink machines, I rode the Bus to Orange Station, and tried again, and failed!...I was close, I think, putting my ten dollar bill in the slot over and over again as the Metro Train rolled in, paused, and rolled out, in mocking mimicry of my ten dollar bill!..hmmph...no ticket...tried again to buy ticket for another train, but didn't push the time frame button, I think...this a reflective thought I had after giving up and getting back on Bus Route 56 which took me to Bus Route 29 and Huntington Beach Pier, where I thought to salvage the morning with a fisherman pic, and some pics of the US Open Surfing Contest which is now underway...there was some okay surf, but long time between wave sets, and I felt sorry for the contestants, as they had little opportunity to show their skills...contestant sets are twenty minutes long, three contestants each, and I stood at Pier Railing with the Throng, and watched two or three sets...photogs about, most professional ones on the Beach, which didn't look like the best spot...where I stood first, where no one else was really, seemed fine...this before the Lifeguard Tower with a Jumbo TV Screen...there's a lot of hype...an announcer patters aways...and the audience is a special sort, as audiences go, at least those on beach, as that's where they just like to be even if there is no contest! (a mutual appreciation audience!)...sometimes overcast sometimes sunny hot, surf wind blown, 1-2, maybe a 3...Huntington's funny, the best break is where the contest is, south side of pier, always has been, and I'm guessing the sand bottom is affected by the pier...and there's an outside break, and an inside reforming of the wave with a shore break, and the waves break easy, often too smoothed out to ride...a beach for surboards, where Newport is for bodysurfers...brb...The 38th Annual World Bodysurfing Championships...August 16th and 17th, 2014....maybe I can figure out the Trains by then!!!...I haven't much taken pics of surfers before, but I'm impressed by how photogenic surfer and wave are together!...tomorrowmorrow I'll lug the tripod along...the best waves are at daybreak, before the wind comes up, and I'm thinking the contestants will be out then on their own...brb...
quote
Hey there, this is Jonathan with the report for Tuesday afternoon.
http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/hb-pier-southside-southern-california_4874/
end quote
...dude, who is Hernan?...brb..
quote
BRIEF OVERVIEW: Small overlapping swells all week. The current/primary SSW groundswell will fade out into mid week, while minimal NW windswell mixes in. Tropical Cyclone Hernan will deliver a small pulse of SSE swell that peaks on Wednesday. Then a new mix of SW-SSW groundswell and NW windswell will show for Friday and the weekend.
http://www.surfline.com/surf-science/vans-us-open-of-surfing---official-forecast---forecaster-blog_112291/
end quote
well, Hernan's swells will be best daybreak tomorrow!
Monday, July 28, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Cement Dolphins
It was sunny and blue while I waited for the Bus Route 1 in Newport Beach...cyclists pic...Dolphin pic is from just before on side of Fashion Island building...but when I hopped off in Laguna Beach, it was "gloomy", word used in newscast when I got home reporting Lightning Bolts from the Blue in Venice Beach, which is a ways up North, but the Sky in Laguna looked capable of same...walked about one of the Art Shows...there's three major ones going on, each with admission prices...show didn't allow photography, or I'd have my fish pic for the day, as a lot of art of Sea Creatures...Cement Dolphins will have to do!...it was a kinda Cement Sky day too!...have Rudyard Kipling's Kim along...was re-reading it to try and find where I left off in my tent at Young's Lakes four summers back!...hmmph...one purpose of the Bus ventures is to toughen myself up, so I can go backpacking again...chapter I'm at is the Curio Shop and it's curious proprietor, Lurgan Sahib (based on a real person just as curious), and where I get snagged here is the mind trick he tries on Kim...Lurgan lures Kim into breaking a large jar, and while Kim is looking at the broken pieces and dripping water on the floor, he causes, somehow, Kim to hallucinate and see the Jar become whole again...but Kim fights the hallucination by switching from thinking in Hindi to English and reciting a mathematical table in English to himself...Lurgan is puzzled why Kim doesn't fall for his trick, and Kim keeps what he did a secret...
quote
You sent him to me to try. I tried him in every way: he is the only boy I could not make to see things […] Under my hand, as I told you. That has never happened before. It means that he is strong enough...
http://www.shmoop.com/kim-rudyard-kipling/lurgan.html
end quote
from comment site
Reading as far as I have, it has become apparent that Kim is being trained as a British spy, and looks forward to having a Letter and a Number! The emphasis in the story is acuity, how aware Kim is of his surroundings and near events, which is an emphasis in the Deerslayer too...hold that thought for my Deerslayer posts!...(I'm trying to sort out if Deerslayer had an influence on Muir)...Teddy Roosevelt says somewhere that Kim was his favorite book...and there's a game taken from the Curio Shop chapter called Kim's Game that Boy Scout's Play...
quote
The younger Kermit Roosevelt noted today that the tradition of naming boys Kermit, without a differing middle name or a Jr. or a Roman numeral, could be confusing. He added that alternate Kermits were also known as Kim, and that was the case of his spy father.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/us/kermit-roosevelt-leader-of-cia-coup-in-iran-dies-at-84.html
unquote
Kermit Roosevelt was Teddy's great grandson, and a spy...one of Teddy's sons flew with the Lafayette Escadrille...
quote
His youngest son Quentin, a pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines on July 14, 1918 at the age of 20. It is said that Quentin's death distressed Roosevelt so much that he never recovered from his loss.
from wiki
end quote
quote
Despite his health issues, Roosevelt remained active to the end of his life; he was an enthusiastic proponent of the Scouting movement. The Boy Scouts of America gave him the title of Chief Scout Citizen, the only person to hold such title.
from wiki
end quote
lemesee if I can find Kim's Game...
quote
Kim's Game is a game or exercise played by Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides, and other children's groups.[1] The game develops a person's capacity to observe and remember details. The name is derived from Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel Kim, in which the hero, Kim, plays the game during his training as a spy.[2]
from wiki
end quote
sheesh...in trying to find Roosevelt quote about Kim novel being favorite, I find site that lists favorite books of all the presidents, and under Teddy Roosevelt is this one:
quote
Book: Influence of Sea Power Upon History by Alfred Thayer Mahan Teddy Roosevelt found himself something of a kindred spirit when Alfred Mahan published his cornerstone of naval history in 1890. Roosevelt was in New York at the time, working on the Civil Service commission, but that didn’t stop him from writing to Mahan and beginning a relationship that would last for years,
http://www.buzzfeed.com/daveodegard/the-favorite-books-of-all-44-presidents-of-the-united-states
end quote
I was just reading about Mahan the other day...and I can't recall at the moment why...brb...oh, no!..it wasn't Mahan, it was someone who too wrote an influential book of Navy history, James Fenimore Cooper...
quote
On May 10, 1839, Cooper published History of the Navy of the United States of America. It was a work he had long planned on writing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fenimore_Cooper#Service_in_the_navy
end quote
hmmph...
quotes
And yet—this is not widely known, even in New England—Kipling wrote The Jungle Books, Captains Courageous, and many of his most familiar poems on the crest of a hillside overlooking the Connecticut River, with a view
... ... ... ...
Kipling sees empire as something a civilized country reluctantly assumes as a duty. He predicts that the “savage wars of peace” will engender nothing but hatred for whatever benefits they bring: “And when your goal is nearest / The end for others sought, / Watch Sloth and heathen Folly / Bring all your hope to naught.” Teddy Roosevelt, to whom Kipling had sent an early copy of “The White Man’s Burden,” approved of the sentiments but judged it “rather poor poetry.”
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115694/rudyard-kiplings-poems-reviewed-christopher-benfey
end quotes
quote
Kipling, observing the events across the Atlantic in the Spanish-American War, sent this to then-governor of New York Theodore Roosevelt as a warning regarding the dangers of obtaining and sustaining an empire. Roosevelt would then forward the poem to his friend Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, commenting that it was “rather poor poetry, but good sense from the expansion point of view.”
http://www.gradesaver.com/rudyard-kipling-poems/study-guide/section16/
end quote
quote
In 1901 he published what many critics believe is his finest novel: Kim, the story of an orphaned Irish boy who grows up in the streets of Lahore, is educated at the expense of his father's old Army regiment, and enters into "the Great Game," the "cold war" of espionage and counter-espionage on the borders of India between Great Britain and Russia in the late nineteenth century.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rudyard-kipling
end quote
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
The last stanza is all wrong, but the second to last is very good...wanted to quote just that one, but the poem is made in such a 'what's next..' fashion, the tale teller's knack, that I can't snip from it!...from poemhunter's site
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if/
lol!...and while editing the post, Anderson Cooper is scuba swimming with Nile crocodiles on tv...maybe that counts!!
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Dorymen
\
Out and about late, like 9:30am, and thought to make a short day of it, and went to Santa Ana Zoo at Prentiss Park...on return, looked to catch 43, but just missed, and, wth, I caught 43 going the other way, to the Beach,,,I needed a 'fisherman catching fish' pic!...not a single fish at the Zoo, not even in the gift shop...a plush toy would have sufficed!...much weary from day before, and wanted a nap!...but I thought maybe the Dorymen would be at Newport Pier...last two visits there it had been their days off...and when I got there, sign said their hours were from 5:30am to noon...hmmph...it was like 3pm...but I espied a few still about cutting squids for bait...asked to take pic...and the fishermen volunteered for another pic...very cool...paddled out to the end of the Pier...Seal about...overcast to sunny hot...
Friday, July 25, 2014
San Pedro
Well, discovered how to get to San Pedro...OC Route 60 to Route 121 Long Beacn to LB Route 42...hopped off just a short walk from the USS Iowa...and then walked from the Iowa to Cabrillo Beach Aquarium...I was about done in on the way back, and bagpipes began to play (clip), which put some pep back in my steps!...and just a short ways later, the Red Car showed up and took me to Ports of Call and 42....walked out the Cabrillo Beach Fishing Pier too...no one catching anything, so no 'fisherman catching fish' pic....pic of museum display will do!...whole Marina was remarkably quiet...it's filled with boats, and has wide sidewalks, plenty of benches, tons of parking spaces, but like a ghost town...maybe on weekends...overcast early on, clearing to hazy warm to hot...I'm walking back to the house on my street, and sighted my neighbor's poodle...been wanting to get pic of poodle on the putting green lawn, and asked...'sure!'....poodle, Bridget, wouldn't stop barking, but is friendly, and neighbor told me, with no prompting!, her fishing story...husband and her went out from Dana Point 20 miles last Wednesday (thereabout water temp changed from colder to warmer) and caught a big Dorado, and like twenty Yellow Tail...they have a big boat on trailer...the story is a kinda 'fishermen catching fish'...so...today success!...I'm really tired, and my feet are protesting all the cement and asphalt!
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Huntington
Out and about around 7:30am...took the new folding chair along, but didn't use it...pretty much a just there and back morning!...back by 1pm...more Little Fish out at the end of Huntington Beach Pier...Mackerel being caught in pic...Mackerel at all the Piers everyday...and Lizardfish...don't know but the Lizardfish must be annoying, as they take bait before better eating fish come along...sunny blueblue hot...at the Swap Meets one sees these really cool wagons, like kids' wagons, but with inflatable big tires and wooden stake sides...I was contemplating getting one to haul fishing gear...an ostentatious figure I'd be walking out to Pier's End with such!...thinking more on this, I realized such a wagon wouldn't fit in Silver, so shelved the notion...but, but, yesterday in Big 5, I saw a folding version of just such a wagon, advertised to be used to haul camping gear to campsites...a must have...along with fishing gear, I can put the inflatable kayak in it I'm thinking, and transport that to the water too, a problem which has kept The Merganser deflated!... hopefully the foldable wagon is "rated" for the 30-40lb. weight of the inflatable kayak!!!...and everything is going to fit in Silver!!!...hmmph...review of the wagons, lots of brands, suggests the wheels are weak...and some reviews of inflatable kayaks suggest one is better off with solid kayaks...which led me to look at solid kayaks on trailers, and roof racks, and, sigh...sometimes nothing seems to work!...too pricey reason for much...I have a sixteen foot sailboat in the garage...been sitting there for...14 years!...and on a nice trailer...it's a double ended Boston whaler type with lanteen sail...very neat...like new...thousand bucks at the santa ana Wednesday night auctions...an impulse purchase if there ever was one!...can still hear the chuckling...'now you've done it, bought a sailboat..' from the other auction goers....is it Wednesday?...once having acquired the auction impulse, it never goes away!...well, I googled images to try and find pic of my boat, it's manufactured fiberglass, like a dory, not Boston whaler I guess, but I picture in my mind whale boats, and the fishing boats in Captains Courageous...Norska it's called, I think...it's so covered up with stored tenant's stuff, I can hardly see it!...hmmph...here's site about Norwegian double enders...being Norwegian descent is likely why it appealed to me!
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?121426-Small-open-Scandinavian-double-enders
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Newport
Rummaged around for my watercolor paints and brushes...packed up a few things, and out by 9am....chocolate crouisant and coffee at the foot of the Pier...very nice donut shop and inexpensive...when I reached the end of the Pier, oh,,,this is Newport Pier today!...fisherman was reeling in some small Mackerel...got out the D10 quick...."no no no no pictures!" fisherman protested...I obliged, saying, "I just want the fish!" and he kindly set them across a couple buckets, and I took pic, thinking if things are slow, this might be all I get pic wise...haven't given it thought, but realized the regulars on the Pier are bedeviled by photogs and tourists with phone pics...railing crowded, but found a spot to looksee, and big school of anchovies or sardines below...further out Terns were diving, and near the Pier a Seal...see clip...Little Fish were everywhere....and two fishermen reeled in their lines....jigs they had, the little green feathers, and each had three or four fish...one fisherman's set was Mackerels...but second fisherman's was Bonito...see pic...the second fisherman I recognized from last visit to Newport Pier...he had been on the Bus and 'first one there' that morning....he's very good, and reeled in two more sets while I was there...other fisherman were using same rigs, but kept getting Lizardfish and small Mackerel...much fun watching Seal chase Little Fish, and sometimes hooked Fish being reeled in, which was a concern...lots of lines out, lines getting tangled, one bystander getting hooked by rig...but a good time...content with the fisherman catching fish pic, I picked up...for another time the painting!...sunny bluemediterraneanblue and hot....arriving in late morning, many more beach goers about, and the shops open...looked for a beach chair, no luck, but back at home, I couldn't resist, and went to Big 5 and purchased an ocean pole with spinning reel, a crab net, a creel like I'd seen, fishing gloves, tackle box, croakies for my sunglasses, a folding chair-Big 5 emblazoned on it, and tent stakes to replace the ones missing for my big camping tent..there was more I wanted, but I need to slow down the impulse!...it's fun to catch fish, and to take pics of fishermen catching fish!...the pole was a set that came with a small tackle box and some basic tackle, but that's what more I need most...that and some study on how to use the crab net...ever since I saw them being used at Crescent City, it's been a thought to have one and bring up critters to take pics of...these nets bring up a lot of different critters...I can take the pole and chair on the Bus, they're small enough for that...it would be a bit much to gear up like the fisherman on the Bus...he has one of those walker combo chairs, and everything attached somehow..bucket pole tackle...and he's small, and fits in the Bus with everything!...happens a lot that folk try to get on bus with the fold up rolling shopping carts, and they block the aisle, and have to get off!...I could pile everything into Silver, and just drive to the Ocean, which I'll do, soon as I've finished this daily quest grind I've embarked on!...apparently when the sun comes up, and the day begins, the vagrants begin congregating at the Bus stops, and there is shouting, or shouters I'd say...one shouter was at Harbor, another at Victoria, and the worst right at the little plaza at the Pier...these shouters are demented for sure, mind broken from substances...and they shout out terrible and scary things...the one at the pier was lugging a large suitcase on wheels, and scenes from bad movies came to mind...but I'm unfamiliar with these street level goings on, and a bit of a dilletante, insomuch I can just transport myself everywhere in Silver...I say this, because most everyone else takes the shouters in stride, with aplomb...the shouting is like x rated Charlie Sheen...one was even using the 'loser' refrain...I overheard drivers talking and saying Los Angeles busses have become a kinda nightmare...werewolf movies came to mind too...the vagrants have no where to go except the public places and public transportation...most are okay...when I get panhandled, I shoo them away...I cant see that money is going to help...I don't know what manner of charity can help...one lovely woman was a caregiver for her handicapped child on the bus...slow step by slow step she guided her daughter from the bus and along the sidewalk to their destination, both dressed very neatly modestly and decently...I pondered that word 'decently' 'decent' awhile...it's like under attack everywhere by trolls and taggers and spammers...hmmph...
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Balboa
Geared up around 8am, and reached the end of Balboa Pier after another long wait at The Triangle for Bus Route 71..almost picked up thereabout, sitting in the sun, but the Bus came along...breakfast at Ruby's...one fisherman caught a small Mackerel...no pic...no one else having any luck...paddled over to the Bay with the thought to look for fish poles in stores, and where one might fish on the Bay...took the Ferry across to the Island...enquired about a break down pole, pole in sections small enough to carry on bus..."yes, I have one for 300 dollars"...storekeep was having some fun with me, I think..."ah, that's a bit much..."...and paddled back outside, and walking about I found a public pier, and Egret thereabout intent on taking fisherman's bait...clip and pics...little pier has a fine view of the Pavilion, and thought is to join the thousands that have done a pleine air painting from thereabout...for sometime...in fact, I've been wanting to take my watercolors along, but I'm too worn out when I've been getting home from the ridearounds that I haven't put the paint set together...Dog was at the end of the Balboa Pier...took note of the chair...with sun shade...looked into the half day fishing boats...fishermen with fish pic...sunny blueblue hot....on returning to where 71 arrives in the parking lot near the Pier, I sat waiting and reading in the shade of a tall palm....was contentedly reading when a commotion, a dust up between a pedestrian and a car that pulled into one of the bus parking spots, started up...it was about the car going across the sidewalk crosswalk at the parking lot entrance without stopping...pedestrian had run after the car, and was swearing a blue streak...car driver was putting up a dogged defense...the two of them nose to nose through the half way rolled down window...it went on awhile, no one nearby giving much heed...a large homeless gal, dressed in a yellow chiffon like dress, was stretched under her large umbrella on the bus waiting bench, an American flag flying from her loaded shopping cart, and her hands were waiving while she was swearing too at someone on her cell phone...and a family was standing quietly aside the curb waiting for the bus, unconcerned...I took the D10 camera out, and started the video, so to record the talking, just in case...and went back to reading my book!....I felt some sympathy, as it was just yesterday I woofed at cars not honoring crosswalk...but geez, the pedestrian was really going off...c'mon, ya want part of me!'...and he was a skinny sorta jogger...the car driver finally backed up and pulled away, under much duress...not just me, with my cameras, but everyone now with cell phones, has the ability to record misdeeds, with remarkable ease...and on ride home I was thinking maybe it would be good thing if a 911 like system for video and sound in real time was in place...one could upload dustups and dangers immediately to watchful authorities...and while doing the blog pic uploads, John Walsh came on tv with a commercial for emergency cell phone...sighted the neighborhood Brown Squirrel nearing the house...first time since last sighting about a year ago!
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