Lobster Trap Set

Rolled out to Crystal Cove, and paddled to the Bench on the Bluff, and sat awhile...Lobster Boats setting traps...pic and clip...too hot to walk down to the Beach, and was getting too hot just to sit, and was about to pic up, and hoped for Osprey came by at eye level...but sun in wrong place for good lighting...Osprey flew towards the Cottages, but I didn't get pics, that time...somehow, Osprey got north of me again, and came by just like before, and I followed flight, taking pics this time...not sure where Osprey goes, or comes from...next time I'll set up by the Cottages...can get a cool drink there...told passerby who asked if I got bird pics, 'yes, saw Osprey twice, but enough, too hot, going to get a cool drink!'...mid-afternoon hot clear light breeze...right when I arrived, Pelican formation came by north to south, but same back light...

Balboa Crabs

"Have you an Octopus?" I said in answer to the vagabond's request 'anything for the homeless?'...he looked up, and seeing me, smiled, 'oh...remember that'...I looked up too from peering in his giant blue bucket, the kind like for laundry with white nylon rope handles...it was half full of water, and nearing that of Mackerel...I smiled, and moved on...this was at Pier's End, which had just a few fishermen...a Monday evening in late September, and windy, but warm clear...further on, a crab net was coming up with a few small Crabs...peered in the white bucket, which was filling up with Crabs, some maybe keepers...Crab fishermen were keeping all, and one was kind to hold Crab awhile while I tried to get the auto focus to respond in the low light with the 70-300...this can be a real problem if something is fleeting...and often happens in my dreams!...shutter wont shutter...should have used the d10 with flash...earlier I took the Ferry over to the Island and back, after a snack, fish and chips at the BBQ place by the Ferris Wheel...on the Island, sat a bit and took pics and clips of Piper catching Tiny Crabs...Sherriff's boat motoring by on return...and Pier Parking Lot Palms doing their sunset show, which brings all the photophones up!...maybe like nine people on the Beach, both east and west of the Pier...pics and clip of Sanderling on the Beach trying to stay out of the Wind in a small Sand Hole for sometime...Cormorant was on the Beach too, just surrounded by sand foot prints, head tucked down, trying to sleep in the Wind....

Welcome To Balboa

Pic and clip from  Balboa Ferry Ride, 9/8 (see link for history)...didn't get out today...oh, went to Target...noted not many, or any, Parrots about...Two or Three Parrots I hear in the mornings...clear warm light breeze...I was up latelate leveling Picketpin to level 32, mostly in the bgs...I'm not a very good rogue...but the bgs (battlegrounds, Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch) have been nerfed, or something...everyone pegged at same ilevel, like 14, 24, 34, so on...better games, but some players still, through deserving know how, tricks I don't know!, can still dominate...but win loss looks like fifty fifty between horde and alliance...and much fun when a close game!...rogues, my rogue anyway, once out of stealth, and against more than one, is like toast!...I'd link some clips of the battlegrounds, but they're easy to find on youtube--lots and lots!

Hawk Overhead

Everyday, over Denny's Corner, the Pigeons have been flocking and circling, resting briefly on the Signs, then taking off for another go around...thought I saw Hawk too thereabout yesterday...last week, I did see Hawk, Redtail, above the Two Tall Palms across the Street out front, being mobbed by Crows, and way back a couple months, saw Hawk while at stop on Brookhurst and like Edinger...Hawk flew to a Palm Trunk, and traffic began to move before I got camera out...and this morning, at the Donut Shop Pond, while I was noting not much around, Coot and Canada Goose, sighted Hawk way high soaring against the Puff Clouds, and Hawk was Cooper's Hawk, pic up, maybe same as Hawk in the Bald Cypress pics...didn't have camera set, pic taken at 1/60 ss and 1600 iso, shutter and exposure I used at the Wedge evening...clear warm light breeze...there were some Puff Clouds with dark bottoms this morning, but soon burned off...oh...didn't get out today either...worked on my wow monk, Firbear...just an hour, I thought, and four hours later hunger moved me out to eat, and back now, I'm wondering if my rogue, Picketpin (a dwarf!...update: a gnome!!),  has enough gear to do some dungeoning!...oh...got in gnomeregan at very last, but won engineering plans for pet bombling...lol!

Balboans

Pics too dark...from yesterday at the Wedge, and not posted yesterday because too dark...but posted today because I didn't go anywhere!...played wow...Deerdolphin is at level 26 now...running dungeons as healer is tough...I seem to be able to heal the other four in the group okay, but overlook my ownself, and an agro crab took me out in Wailing Caverns...learned a headsup--keep an eye on your group's healer's health bar...not a big problem, always enough in groups nowadays with heirlooms to get past rough spots...clear warm light breeze...got a phone call from the camera shop...new canon powershots are coming in...these cameras have meant so much to me!...and this one has a 65x optical zoom...they started out at 12x...its digital crop in zoom, which is fine for web and blog, must be past 200x some...Boat is the evening Harbor Cruise...nice venue to have dinner on!...for sometime...

Wedge Pipers

Rolled out to the Wedge...parking no problem, found a spot right there...while taking Sunset pics, noted the couple, and, wth, snuck a candid pic, which I thought likely I wouldn't post, until I saw during upload review, boy was a photog...photogs are fair game!...thought was to take Piper pics and clips in the sunset lighting, and took a desultory few...arrived too late sorta, wasn't settled in...Wedge is a special kinda place, things converge...ancients would have set up a Henge!...picked up and went back to the Pier...paddled out to Pier's End, and thought to perch at an outside table for a snack, but skeleton Ruby's crew busybusy, and paddled back to Balboa Bakery for a turkey sandwich and sabe...and snacked in the Plaza...which is a kinda convergent spot too!...clear warm light breeze...earlier in the day, I'd thought to roll out, and tried to empty Sliver of stored loot and gear, thinking to find my fishing license, which has gone missing...and I got to messing with the soft top's back window, the zipper of which has been stuck since I got Silver...saw on TV or web, that windex works on zippers, tried that, and it did!...but too well, as the zipper unzipped behind the zipper... cursor?..what is that?...anyway, zipper unzipped on both sides of the thingy that slides and opens and closes it, and fussing with it some more, the plastic window all but dropped out of the soft top...the soft top is only a deterrent to thieves by looking closed...and with no back window, it wasn't looking closed...so I fussed, and looked for clues on web, and finally rolled over to the Dollar store for big safety pins, my only dreamt up solution, but passing the tools shelves, I spotted tie wraps...'why didn't I think of that?...I have those'....got the pins anyway, big safety pins can be useful...rummaged through my tool boxes for a punch, and fastened the top of the plastic window to the soft top with tie wraps...tie wraps worked fine!...could have made it cleaner if the holes I made were grommeted....can still do that...and now I'm thinking to put big grommets at the lower corners, and close the bottom with padlocks!...looks are everything!...that done, I took a nap...and so rolled out late...and I don't know where my fishing license went...it's on a string I wear around my neck usually, and often I wake up in the morning with it still on, having forgotten it was there...it's somewhere!...zipper thingy is called the 'slider'...hmmph...but 'interdigitate', what zippers do when they close, now that's a word!...'near the surf on the beach, the young couple interdigitated before the setting sun'....oh...Piper's leg isn't injured, that's how Piper stands 'squarely' on one leg...

and Oh!!!...facebook has a long come on ad about some secret new technology apple has...'get in on this new stock purchase now!' ...curious, I did an 'interdigitated' search, and then, remembering the ad, an 'interdigitated microbattery iwatch' search...haven't read yet what that brought up...brb...

quote

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a microbattery array which employs 3D electrodes. The claim is that these batteries are much powerful than even the best supercapacitor and are capable of charging 1000 times faster than current batteries. The 3D electrodes have small intertwined fingers that reach into each other thereby increasing the surface area and bringing the anode and cathode closer, so that the ions and electrons do not have to travel far.

BATTERY! What the future holds for battery technology 0

By vicky on May 16, 2014

http://www.technotification.com/2014/05/battery-what-future-holds-for-battery.html

end quote

:)

Two Sandpipers

Pic and clip from 8/26 at the Wedge...I was sitting with the Manfroto gooseneck attached to the five gallon bucket with sand, which I think I mentioned in that day's post!, taking pics and clips of the surfing, and these Two Sandpipers were having a dustup, or a dance...Sandpipers would be the post up for that day, I thought, but got diverted...clear warm light breeze...didn't roll out...cable tv is gone hereabout, kid took it with I guess, though he's half the time here, and half somewhere...and I've thought to sign up, but I can get network shows a day later on the web, and a lot of cable shows on youtube, and, that'll work...today an afternoon tv session watching new season Goodwife, Person of Interest, and NCIS...in a moment here I'll watch a couple more!...Person of Interest is interesting...Samaratan(Skynet) is trying to suppress it's predecessor of last season, The Machine, which has gone underground...I ordered up and have Gog, the fifties sci fi, but haven't re-watched it...reading wiki's take is scary enough!

quote

If we learn to communicate with animals, there is some hope that one day we will learn to communicate with each other.

Ivan Tors

unquote

Car Wash

The Jacaranda has been growing a lot!...neighbor's on the right too...these two Jacarandas are the only two real Shade Trees on the block...not sure why that is...not that many Shade Trees in the whole tract really...lots of Palms, a couple Pines, Clark's house still has their Persimmon Tree looking just like it always did (Clark's look to have sold and gone)...I still have an original Persimmon too...tract was built on an Orchard that had Orange, Plum, and Persimmon Trees, and the builders kept as many as they could...we once had three Plum, five Orange, and the Persimmon, I think...I think one of the Oranges is left, but bedraggled...and there are some new Oranges and Plum, but bedraggled too!...I've got a tenant provided farm of  Dragons...anyway, did the laundry, mowed the lawn, washed the car, breakfast at Denny's, napped, and stayed the heck away from my tenants cleaning up least I slow their momentum in a moment of pique!...and their momentum is plenty slow already!...hmmph...clear warm...tomorrowmorrow I'll roll out somewhere...

quotes

The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings

....

Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable for their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism. All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration, though clear social levelling is seen in personal adornments.

...
Archaeological records provide no immediate answers for a center of power or for depictions of people in power in Harappan society. But, there are indications of complex decisions being taken and implemented. For instance, the extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artifacts as evident in pottery, seals, weights and bricks. These are the major theories:

• There was a single state, given the similarity in artifacts, the evidence for planned settlements, the standardised ratio of brick size, and the establishment of settlements near sources of raw material.
• There was no single ruler but several: Mohenjo-daro had a separate ruler, Harappa another, and so forth.
• Harappan society had no rulers, and everybody enjoyed equal status.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization

end quotes

I was doing search to try and find something I remembered reading about ancient India...they had a building code that required each home to be surrounded by a garden for growing, or something like that...in this search I find another layout, connected units with a courtyard and walls facing the outside...think the Romans did that too...the standardizations of a civilization, a culture, what the road builders decide on for road sizes, and the sizes for home land plots, all that, is really really important!...one can hope that the world wide standardizations, like for air travel, can bring some order, some maat, to things...Newport Balboans would give much I suspect to have a Shade Tree to wash their lamborghinis under!...oh, routine of late has been to check on the Wedge post ups on youtube, it's like another facebook with comments and such, thought I haven't gotten but one!...anyway, one surfer posting youtuber has it probably right...to have an epic blog one has to do epic things!...but, no, I'm not going to turn daredevil and jump off or out of things...I'll leave that to 42!

Cooper, Muir, Twain, and London

This is just a text post!...didn't get out...started another wow character, Deerdolphin, a paladin draenei...all day to get to level 15, much of it sorting through heirlooms, and purchasing heirlooms, and making enchants...well, I'll post a pic of the toon!

I cant really describe playing wow to someone who hasn't, and those who have will follow my comparison here immediately...

As the Valley was to me, and to Muir, Glimmer Glass was to Cooper, the Mississippi to Twain, and the Klondike to London...

quote

This is the school where the literary landscape painter should study; all the secrets of the art are here. From page to page the dangers present themselves naturally; there is no attempt to set the stage. You yourself seem to bend down, under the great trees, to mark the print of a moccasin. The perils spring so directly from the accidental features of the landscape that you examine attentively the rocks, the trees, the waterfalls, the bark canoes, the bushes. It is impossible to separate the earth, the trees, the waters from the incidents of the story which excite you. And the characters become, as they really are, of small account against the great scene which you scan without ceasing.
James Fenimore Cooper -- A Re-Appraisal
Papers from the 1951 James Fenimore Cooper Conference
Cooperstown, New York
Cooper Beyond AmericaWillard Thorp*
(Princeton University)

Published as New York History, Vol. 35, No. 4 (October, 1954), pp. 522-539.
(Special Issue -- James Fenimore Cooper: A Re-Appraisal)

http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/articles/nyhistory/1954nyhistory-thorp.html

unquote

Balzac wrote the bit being quoted, and that quote illustrates my idea okay, but Balzac had another which I can't find, that went like  "if Cooper could do characters the way he does Glimmer Glass, he would be the master of all us writers"

Well, Cooper lived much of his life by Glimmer Glass, it was his home, and Yosemite Muir's, the Mississippi, Twain's, and the Klondike, London's...oh, they all moved around, but it's plain where they felt they belonged...authors relate often their "one true place"...as close as Verne could get to being Nemo was to live on his own yacht...Cousteau had Calipso...and Disney...well, had Disneyland!...and that makes perfect sense to me having worked in the maintenance department thereabout for seven years, and grown up, and lived off and on, within earshot of the Mark Twain, and Fireworks...come to think of it, I haven't heard of late the Mark Twain's whistle...hmmph...

and then there's wow...if you find yourself at the end of a session of gaming, and hearth back to Darkshore, and ride your Celestial Stead towards the Moon, then these things make a kinda perfect sense...(Moon wasn't up for pic, but CedarHawk howled on cue!)

DolphinWords

Peeps

"Peeps" Sanderlings are sometimes called...and usually in a group running along the surf line...just one Sanderling pic up...tried for group pic and clip this evening at Magnolia Beach, but a desultory effort...was hungry and wolfing down Subway pastrami sandwich, and then the napkins blew away...chasing them down I happened on another beach toy rake...more loot!...sunny clear warm light breeze..."loot" is from playing wow...when one finishes a quest, one receives loot, and puts it in one's "bags"...and one must play the game to understand this!...lol...and new players, inexperienced players, are called "Peeps"...brb...oh...no...I guess in game it just refers to, and is short for, people, people 'peeping' through their computer screen at the game...thought it referred to "noobs"!

Noob/Newb/n00b/nub etc

A basic, derogatory derivation of; "newbie" - someone new to the game, applied to a new player that does not know what they are doing. A player that "sucks" at playing their class. Someone who can not win any duels. Can also be applied in jest to someone who has made a mistake or error that new players often make. Commonly used as a synonym for morons, idiots, imbeciles, or as a general replacement. (See also 'Scrub')

oh, and on my facebook scroll tonight...(I'm in the routine of linking post to my facebook page, where it quickly evaporates!)...on the scroll tonight I find Yosemite's facebook page..wait...I think I linked it back in 2011 when it looks to have started, but not sure...anyway, it's lasted and grown and one can scroll through its posts with the comments, and see links and such...facebook is improving, or becoming more bloggy, as one's pages make more sense of late...I don't post to it, just link...now and then I link and embed a wimp!
https://www.facebook.com/YosemiteNPS?fref=photo

link is on the mast at right now too...don't know, but it looks a bit like older Tree in the Door posts!..noobs...

Under The Pier

 

 

 

Took the tripod with, and thought to get some after sunset pics of Balboa's Piers End...lower pics...while waiting, pics, and clip of photogs under the Pier taking posing pics, and Skimboarders...had thought to take some Piper pics and clips with the 70-300, but Pipers didn't come around until after sunset...another time, maybe tomorrowmorrow...clear warm hardly any breeze...Saturday crowded...during the week not so many...really a crowd of fisherfolk on the Pier...and a few days back looking for Wedge clips on youtube, I happened on this Wedge Skimboard Clip...it's gotten over a million views...never know if those counts are accurate, but the clip is worthy of that many!...very well done...

Path to Trestles

No pics today...only rolled out to the gym to try and get my legs and lungs going...basketball game to ref tomorrow morning...but I want to keep the string of recent postups going too!...after the bus rides, I thought to make a bookend of 30 visits to the Coast with Silver...and that has lapped over into being simply a daily Coast visit routine going on indefinitely!...missed this evening...but I have been wanting to do the linking of the writers Cooper, Muir, Twain, and now I've added, London...it's an odd thing, but they do link and very closely...for sometime still, as I've opted to post up the Trestles Path pics...Tuesday's Trestles post was getting too long, so I saved them...the pic of the Surfing Contest Stands is at what is called Lower Trestles...the Beach there is cobblestones...I know that because I watched it on the web..two or three contest sets...contest is one stop on the Pro Surfing Tour...waves looked the same as day before when I was there at the northern beach...the Pond I wanted to go sit by, see what Waterbirds about, but too frazzled by the heat...the Path starts at the State Beach's Parking lot, where I could use my free pass, on the inland side of the Freeway...this is next to Carl's Jr., and also by the furthest south Orange County Transit bus stop...this is where I missed two small bus shuttles to the San Clemente Pier when they went inexplicably off duty when they pulled up...had the misgiving that the drivers thought me a vagabound...which wouldn't surprise me...there's a lot of them around thereabout...the staff of the Carl's Jr. is beset, and grumpy...walking the Trestle Path, I realized they likely hang out in the River Bed's vegetation...the Path is like half a mile, dusty, and goes under the Freeway, graffitt of interest thereabout!, passes the old Highway One, now a fine bike path, and goes under the Train Trestle, which is a redo with the Trestles letters imprinted in the cement, and the landmark for the name Trestles....while I was walking, the alarm went off at the Power Plant...no one looked alarmed, likely just a test, but I found the low sirens' moan alarming and ominous!...today hereabout clear warm light breeze...from Surfers, elitist irreverence is kinda refreshing!...and the ones on the tour are certainly a privileged bunch!...oh...a wheelchair bound beach goer was stumped by getting over the curb to the Path, and a passing officer pointed out one can take the road over the freeway, and from there the bike path to where I saw it...

Almost Whale

Late roll out...Sun almost down while I was putting on my hiking boots, my shoes I call them in town!...took some sunset backyard pics...engine block has moved to a rolling platform, but hasn't moved far, nor most of the accumulation...and nothing moved in the garage...so my bluff, if I want it to be, is being called...move it or move out...a week's time was given...a few days left, and I'll add a couple for the heat...hmmph...rolled out to Balboa...still some light in the sky...top pic...and settled in at the Pier's End tables with snack of hotdog and hot chocolate...a young cute couple arrived and first thing unfolded and set up a directors chair...this much to the amusement of the more weather beaten sorts about, including me...couple's fishing poles and reels looked brand new too...but both were deft when setting up, and within ten minutes of both lines in the water, they had reeled in four or five Mackerel...with one catch, the girl laughed as her pole bent over, and backed up trying to bring in the line, and then pulled it up hand over hand...don't know, maybe reel wasn't reeling...they knew enough to have thin plastic food handler glove, and  the ever present salad tongs to grab flipping Mackerel...while watching their effort, all of a sudden a shout out, and rush to the railing..."Whale!"...I hurried, looked into the darkness, D10 camera video on, but no luck...almost....clear warm light breeze...I could almost feel an Autumn coolness last evening at Magnolia Beach, and this evening, waiter thought it cool, and his being out at Pier's End often, he may have it right, Fall has begun...it was still summer warm to me!...Fall is morning ice in the sierra cup in the Mountains...from the fishermen at the railing: 'did you see it?'...'yes'...it was a big whale!'...the couple saw Whale too!...hmmph...oh...Whale was going South...brb....Grey Whales begin South from the Bearing Sea in October...oh...and from the railing fishermen: '799'....'huh?'...'one Mackerel'...'huh!?'...'799 casts, and one Mackerel!'...'oh'...

Almost Opera

Rolling back home from Denny's breakfast this morning, I heard add on radio for 'opera at Santa Monica Pier'...searched web for looksee, and it was an Opera to be broadcast free at the Pier on a big lcd screen...had time, even though this evening, and bought online free ticket, dollar for processing, and four dollars for donation!, and then lost time playing wow...hmmph...rolled out with just enough time to get to Santa Monica, and thought to make final decision to go when I reached PCH...and reached Magnolia Beach...and set up the blue chair, towel, and radio 'on'...had stopped at the gym to shower and change, and changed into my new swim trunks...so sitting at the beach, swim fins by my side, I thought to dive in, but waded in to see how cold...and warm enough, but I didn't have coat or hooded fleece with to get back warm again while drying...another time for the plunge!...but with trunks on I could sit right next to the surf line on the wet sand, and try for pics....Pipers clip for sometime...and for the sunset pics, I fiddled with the fisheye, and 'wild colors' settings...I don't use the special effect settings, but I can I guess experiment with them now and then!!...sunny clear hot inland, warm at beach, light breeze...wet beach sand footprints must have been mankind's first 'post', precursers to the dusty 'step' on the Moon!...Angels are trouncing the Mariners....Division win night maybe...