Happy Halloween!

The White Dog

The White Dog prefers the neighbor's front yard for p&p, and on the course there, invariably pauses to give Silver a sniff...I sit on the front step, contemplating, and keeping an eye out for passerbys on foot--Pooch, (the White Dog doesn't have a name, so I call her Pooch, like I call all dogs without a name) is excitable, bursting into woofs that make her bounce at the approach of strangers, bounding after them with each woof...and Pooch isn't housebroken...but the small clean ups from the hard wood floors have been a minor thing...I woofed once about it, but regret it, as it's a minor thing!...anyway, the thought of carpeting the floors seems problematic...carpeting gets grungy quick too anyway...we used to joke about the carpet critters at Last Chance...management seemed to think it good to get rid of it, and installed tile, which is best in a restaurant...one I worked in, Orange Coast's Captain's Room, carpeted the kitchen, thinking I guess the clean up would be good discipline for the cooking students...at least two of the bedrooms need to be sanded...but I'd like to do all the floors as the stain I used before is dark, and I'd like to lighten things up a bit...the bedroom I'm working in is like ten by ten, and after having worked on one foot and a half strip, I have an idea...it is going to take 'oceans of time'!!!...if I do a strip a day, it'll take like ten days--a Ten Day Daily Quest line!...hmmph...I forgot to get paper breathing filter masks, and when I do tomorrow, I'll ask about renting a floor sander...the instruction video has it that one can just turn the hand sander on, locking the switch in on position, and let the weight of the sander do the work, sliding backward and forward with one hand holding it...no...one does the work by standing on one's knees, holding the switch in on position, and pressing down with both hands, going with grain left and right sideways in front of one...it's an awkward stance, and I need to give my muscles time to get used to it...day started out sunny and clear, but clouds are coming on, and the Donut Shop had it 'it might rain'...'we'll see'....Pond level was down, that happens in anticipation of rain...Pond very quiet...Coots about...a curio is how in olden days wooden ships were sanded...they were a marvel of woodworking...brb...

quote

The US Navy has it the term may have come from the fact that 'holystoning the deck' was originally done on one's knees, as in prayer...
...
Holystoning is referenced in Richard Henry Dana, Jr.'s diary, the 1840 classic Two Years Before the Mast, in what he calls the "Philadelphia Catechism":^[9]

“Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able,

And on the seventh—holystone the decks and scrape the cable.”

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

unquote

But holystoning isn't quite sanding a floor clean and smooth, and for that old woodworkers used planes and scrapers, and the old Egyptians may have used stones...I have two planes from the stay in the Valley...I bought the second forgetting I bought the first...the Cabin was settling, or being raised up by the Cedar!, and the door frame was all out of whack...thought to take the door off the hinges and plane it down, but never got around to it...to do the floor with a plane, I'd need the biggest sort, I think...but tomorrowmorrow will try the jack plane...leastwise it'll be quieter!...oh!...searching youtube for 'refinnishing hard wood floors', and the like, bring up some good clips...here's one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSMLFggsApY

oh!...and while editing the post, I got to thinking of the stone use...and of flint scrapers...and here is wiki's take on the first scrapers...likely the first tool!...hmmph...wiki link doesn't bring up page...google flint scraper, or maybe prehistoric technology!

Painting And Floors

"an epic game seven!"

Giants win...:)

Pic up from a couple days back...woodwork and walls done in the living room and one bedroom...tomorrowmorrow, a quick trip to home depot for ear protectors...new belt sander I'll be using to do the first bedroom floor is a bit noisy...painting is nice, quiet, and I could listen to the series!...and it'll take awhile to do all the floors, I know, having done it before, but thanks to youtube instruction video, I have a better idea how to do it this time!...sunny clear warm...today, I did the bedroom closet, and the linen closet in the hall...a lot to paint, and out of sight, but, they just had that look of needing painting!...I've become a 'completionist'!

quote

Each recipe and achievement has its own instruction for obtaining/fulfilling. There are however some key factors which all players who could be called "completionists" should possess:

• A decent ability to solo
• A mediocre to large sum of money (especially important for recipe-completionists, for buying stuff on the Auction House)
• A good social network, such as many friends or a helpful guild (for helping out, alerting, etc)
• An ocean of time (for grinding, checking the Auction House, etc)
• Persistence and patience (what didn't happen today may happen tomorrow - or perhaps next Christmas)

http://wowpedia.org/Completionist

unquote

along with Bumgarner!

Pelican Pier Diving

"How about that Anthony Davis for the Pelicans?"

Laker game had started up while I started working on post, and announcer was going on about a player for the Pelicans, who won this evening...Laker's lost, and while listening now, have lost a new rookie player to serious injury...not a good Laker night!...'as bad as opener as you can have'...yep...Giants lost too...started the rollabout to Balboa Pier when World Series game began..and...usually two innings gets me to the parking lot...this time two innings got me around and about the Pier, with pics and all!...seven zip at the end of two in favor of the Royals...ten to zip when that game finished up...hmmph...Two Pelicans were diving from the Pier Railings...kept trying for pics, but Pelicans out of frames...and slide show pics up, while framed, were very dark, and had to over process to lighten...maybe Pelicans will be diving next time...I could get really close, like right next to Pelican...Pelican has bands on each leg...Pier quiet...fishermen about quiet...made the Bay circuit and really quiet...kinda fall winter no crowds feel...hot dog soda chips snack, and returned, still listening to Giants game...sunny clear warm...Sun setting over Catalina now...lens flare in pics...for sometime...

Election Day

Changing California voter registration from one county to another...

The answer how to do this, is to just re-register once you've moved, and here is one site for that:
http://registertovote.ca.gov/
and avoid the rigmarole I went through in the lengthy tale below!!

quote

Voters who have moved within their county without re-registering to vote. The voter's name is not on the polling place roster because they moved within the county but did not re-register to vote. This also happens when a voter updates their driver's license with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) but the DMV's computer system doesn't update the voter's registration information, as it is required to do by law. In either instance, the voter is entitled to vote a provisional ballot at the polling place based on their current address. The elections official is required to count the ballot if the voter's signature on the provisional ballot envelope matches the signature on the voter's prior registration form. The elections official is then required to re-register the voter at their new address for all future elections. (Elections Code sections 14310, 14311, 15350, 15100 et seq.)

unquote

Morning started out routine enough (Morning starts for me like after Noon!), showered shaved brushed the teeth, and was sitting on the back porch step, contemplating the Backyard after tying my hiking boots...and Brown Squirrel showed up...got the long lens, but Squirrel gone...took a seat in the yard awhile, maybe Squirrel would re-appear...took Sparrow pic...and sighted Hawk, Donut Pond's Cooper's Hawk, I'd say...high up faraway pics...something for the blog, I thought, seeing how I'd be about the day interior wall painting, again, and no rollabout...I really don't like house painting...anyway, before picking up the paint roller, I thought to call up and find out why I haven't got any voter info in the mail for the upcoming election...I suspected something happened in the change of address from Mariposa County to Orange County...and I thought this had been taken care of when I did my change of address send in forms at the Post Office in the Valley...but no, I was told over the phone by Orange County...no record of me...'that can't be!' I protested, 'after all, I should be on a State list'...'we don't have that list, just our County's' the response...'let me talk to supervisor'...same response...and I learn that the 20th has passed, and I can't register (in time for 11/4 election)...'but I am registered!' I kept saying...'we have no record' they kept saying...'I can't vote Nov. 4?'...'you're not registered, we have no record'...a co-worker at Last Chance, from the Deep South, once said on review of a dust up with the boss, 'they were making me hot!' with a for me treasured memory of the intonation on the word 'hot'...I was getting hot...and layed out that I was a US Citizen, and have the right to vote...'we have no record'...I left off, and thought a bit, and then called the California Secretary of State number...'we have no record'...nearly an identical conversation!...'I'm a US Citizen, and I hope to hell this conversation is recorded'...'you can fill out a complaint form...we have no record of your changing counties'...I left off, and thought..and called Mariposa County...'we removed you from the rolls when you moved'...repeatedly to all I tried to explain the cards I filled out when I changed address...'so you know I moved, didn't you inform Orange County?'...'we don't do that'...'isn't that supposed to happen, like the card said?'...'card specified that you must tell the new county of your move and re-register'...'that's not what it said, as I recall, but if so, it's my error....how can I correct it, how can I vote?'...'register in your county'...'I cant, it's too late for this election, why didn't you tell them?'....'it's like registering a car at dmv, it's up to you to tell dmv when you move'...'no it's not, I protested, that's apples and oranges...this is about my voting right, I'm a US Citizen, I carry that where ever I go, and the State should have a list!'...'we only have our county's records...'...'I can't vote..,I'm disappointed in all this...'...'I'm sure you are...'...and I left off for the third time, and thought...DMV...I changed my voter registration location at DMV too, I recall...so I called DMV...fifteen minute wait...'do you have record of my changing my voter registration address?'...'let me check...(this took awhile and the DMV gal went out of her way!)...yes, Feb. 2014'...'Orange County was informed?'...'yes'...this made sense, as Mariposa knew I had moved, but why Orange County didn't I hadn't fathomed yet...'thanks so much!'...'you're welcome'...left off, and called back Orange County...'we have no record'...'DMV says Feb. 2014'...'we have no record'...'let me talk to supervisor'...'I have it that DMV informed Orange County of my move in Feb. 2014'...'we have no record'...supervisor answers...'but sometimes things get lost'....now, with the talk of the Post Office notification, it always came back that I was to blame somehow, or the Post Office lost the mail, somehow, and my only recourse was to re-register in Orange County, with the implication that I'd miss this election...'you can vote with a provisional ballot in this coming election' supervisor says...so, so, now that I inform Orange County that the ball was dropped between them and DMV, and likely dropped form Orange County's hands, somehow, I am given the provisional ballot...no one previous had said anything about a provisional ballot...and there was a lot of talk back and forth about how I could vote...but at the mention of 'provisional ballot' I cooled off immediately...and so supervisor gave me polling place address, and apologized!!...remarkable...somethings to note:  the quote above, found when martialing arguments from the web...and the fact that there is a state wide list of registered voters, and why the counties didn't acknowledged this, and the Secretary of State's office, I don't know!...it should be the simplest of things to look up one's voting history and counties of residence...and once you register to vote, you carry that where ever you go, that isn't something you need to re-new when you move in Califronia, and if you have done everything you can to tell California of your move with in California, you should be re-registered in the new county...one thought I had when talking to Sacremento: 'can I go to Mariposa and vote?'...this before calling Mariposa...'no, that would be illegal, you are not living in that county'...'so you know I'm in Orange County, why haven't they registered me?'...'you can fill out a complaint form....'....and that is the crux of the matter, why didn't Orange County know I live now in Orange County?...both the Post Office notification, and the DMV, said to them as much...I cant fathom that both these sources were 'lost'...sunny clear warm...I find, that I can do like one thing a day...this is my one thing today!...and like Curly said...'just one thing...' now....I should add, the quote above is about 'in county' moves...but if one reads the DMV form it tells of between county moves...in county, between county, is a quibble...I'm a US Citizen!

Laundry Day

"Hello Pooch..." I said, side stepping through the open glass window door...Pooch had the disposition of a front porch pooch, sprawled across the laundry's linoleum tile floor, and wasn't inclined to lift an eyebrow at my managing my laundry baskets...not many launderers about, could have my pick of wash machines...more often moms have taken all of them, and I'm left with the choice of the over size more expensive ones...quarters dropped, buttons pushed, I took a seat in Silver to wait, and listen to sports talk radio...oh, it's a yawn how they go on and on, and I daydream a call in to the show, berating them for the ragging on the Lakers all the time--you all are like republicans ragging on democrats!...one of the talkative admitted as much--being republican...they've become negative adjectives, the words, republican...democrat...radio clock indicated 27 minutes had passed...Pooch hadn't moved, and is a big dog...trying to think of adjective for Pooch's looks, I think up "beautiful-ugly"...should be a word that is a combination of beautiful and ugly!...clothes in the dryer, quarters dropped, buttons pushed...time for 36 minutes of pool...just the propieter and friend about in the pool hall, watching the giant tv...same brand as mine, Toshiba, but like three times bigger, and mine is big!...pool hall is about three fourths billiard tables, which I've never played, and it's unusual when three ball billiards is being played around town...but Mexico must play it...hall is a Mexican haunt...one reads a pool hall like a quarterback reads the defense, or a poker player looking for tells in their opponents...a sleepy hall on a laundry day afternoon...I usually just poke the balls about without much intent...overhead lights were out...saving electricity...and I took a pocket pool table near the open entry glass door and windows for light, but the proprietor came over and turned the table lights on...poke poke poke...a ragamuffin comes through the door while I'm sighting..."How much?" he asks...I consider...a wager?...or a table price?...thinking the latter, I point to the proprietor with friend over by the tv...but the ragamuffin pauses to watch my shot...the eight ball is in the middle of the table, about a foot from the bottom rail...the cue is near the side pocket, a foot off the rail...other balls block out, and all I've got is a straight bank off the far rail...if it works, the cue will bounce off the rail, come back, and hit the eight in the center, and the eight will go into the corner to my left...wth...I poke, and it works..."Nice shot..." the ragamuffin says..."Pure luck..." I say...and he goes over to the tv to be with his friends...the old guy may have lifted an eyebrow at the shot...I've yet to see any players of the sort I've seen else ware hereabout...afternoon workaday players for the most part...36 minutes up...I fold the clothes, discover a hole torn in one of my hiking pants...while playing pool, I bumped my iphone and the itune player started up...Dolly Parton and Linda Rondstadt and Emmylou Harris singing...'there were trumpets playing, and the archer split the tree..."...don't know how that could happen, and it took a bit to turn it off...'stick to fauna and flora' the thought, pool cue in my hands...clothes all folded and stacked in the baskets in my arms...going out the door opposite Pooch, I see Pooch's owner finishing up a conversation with a policeman with a billy club...having learned Pooch's disposition, policeman returned to his patrol car, and Pooch's owner sat patient at  one of the little blue picnic-like tables for seating, waiting for his laundry...sunny scattered high clouds warm...oh!...I forgot the girl in black felt ankle high low heel boots, black short shorts, sleeveless t-shirt. flipping a coin outside the laundry door while on her cell phone!...coin got away over the parking lot asphalt, and she had to chase it down...

Beach Combing

I finished rehabing the utility room, for now...be a long time before I get washer and dryer as they're a bit expensive!...but in the meantime, utility room is perfect for a little painting studio, watercolor and acrylic...I could even do an old time photo darkroom...utility sink is like the key to everything!...place to clean up while I rehab the house...utility room floor needs new lineoleum tiles, but that'll get done when I do the kithchen's...and that after all the painting...so awhile!...cleaning the living room walls now...took down my photo wall, and moved the little bookshelves into my bunkroom...glad to have the books where I can glance over and see them!...and while moving the books, I found Power of Limits, and the pic I referenced in the Scalloped Seashore post...drawing is of Point Reyes...and under book Power of Limits when I picked it up, was the old auto club Via issue...oh, I thought, that's Point Reyes too!...and I have that pic from my first visit to Point Reyes, but it's on the mac...but in an old post is a bit of the Beach...
...Elephant Seals thereabout...some morning clouds clearing sunny warm light breeze...didn't get out, nor yesterday...last visit to Beach, I thought about Beachcombing, even thought to make blog called: Beach Combing Orange County's Coast With A Camera...it was the camera part I was thinking of...appropriate pursuit for a beach bum would of course be beachcombing!...brb...

quote

The first appearance of the word "beachcombers" in print was in Herman Melville's Omoo (1847).[1] It described a population of Europeans who lived in South Pacific islands, "combing" the beach and nearby water for flotsam, jetsam, or anything else they could use or trade.

from wiki

unquote

... thought to search 'beachcombing'...and this bit of jetsam at wiki's take too!

quote

Whippy deserted his ship in 1820 and lived among the cannibal Fijis for the rest of his life.[4] The Fijis would sometimes capture the crew of a stranded ship for ransom, and eat them if they resisted. Whippy would try to rescue them but sometimes found only roasted bones. Ultimately he became American Consul to Fiji, and left many descendants among the islands.[5]

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

unquote

...not sure which is the best curio...'roasted bones' or 'many descendants'!!

...Oh!...and from the Via article (took magazine along to Mickey Dee's for reading while snacking) a link to Beach Combers Alert ...and a book:
http://www.amazon.com/Flotsametrics-Floating-World-byEbbesmeyer-Ebbesmeyer/dp/B006NNKR42/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413698042&sr=8-1&keywords=ebbesmeyer

:)

Fish Bowl

"Van Su Nhu Y"

Scalloped Seashore

Well, I wish I could have given the surfer the pic, as he looked to be just starting, and stood upright for a moment!...rolled out to Crystal Cove, gathered the gear, but only got as far as the Bluff Bench...it was cool enough for a walk down to the Beach, but the sign on entry said 'sunset at 6:29', and Crystal Cove closes at sunset, signs say!, so I didn't want to get caught behind a gate (this can happen at the Merced Wildlife Refuge, I think--it was always a concern thereabout anyway), and so I sat on Bluff Bench to be near the parking lot, and dutifully left at 6, and took note for next evening visit that the entry side has a gate, but the exit side just the tire strip barring entry, so one can always exit...which means I can linger to actually see the Sun go below the Horizon next time!...anyway, on the return, I looked South towards the Cottages, and the lighting highlighted the Beach Scalloping from the Waves...and I had been thinking about how the Orange County Coast from Big Corona to Doheney is scalloped with coves...see bluffs pic...a self similarity in scale!...that's what comes to mind when I see something on a small scale that looks like something on a large scale!...in fact, there are some pics illustrating this in the book Power of Limits, a book I often reference...in the book there are pics of water waves, ripples on the sand of the seafloor, herringbone clouds in the sky, and, I think, a scalloped beach like I was looking at...I kinda know how this happens, and looking for something to link by way of explanation, "Bascom: Waves and Beaches" popped into my head like I read it yesterday, rather than forty some years ago!...it's still in print...it was one of the texts when I took my marine science classes at Orange Coast...a thin paperback I'm sure the other students gave thin attention too!...I liked it, probably because it wasn't as thick as Light's Manual!...but anyway, on the ride home I got to wondering about Scallop Shells, where the term scalloped comes from, and if the ribs on  Scallop Shells are formed on a very small scale like ripples on sand dunes and ocean bays and sandy bottom streams, and leaf windrows---the windrows self similarity I just found, trying to  sort out things with the searches!...very cool...but I can't find a good explanation of Scallop Shell ribbing, or how it happens...seems Shells from rough water intertidal zones often have more ribs than shells from quiet bays or sandy beach bottoms...but in search I went to wiki's Scallop Shell take, and it has some curios from the lore of Scallop Shells!

quotes

When referring to St James, a scallop shell valve is displayed with its convex or outer surface showing. In contrast, when a scallop valve refers to the goddess Venus (see below) the scallop valve is displayed with its concave interior surface showing.

...

Alternatively, the scallop resembles the setting sun, which was the focus of the pre-Christian Celtic rituals of the area. To wit, the pre-Christian roots of the Way of St. James was a Celtic death journey westwards towards the setting sun, terminating at the End of the World (Finisterra) on the "Coast of Death" (Costa da Morte) and the "Sea of Darkness" (i.e., the Abyss of Death, the Mare Tenebrosum, Latin for the Atlantic Ocean, itself named after the Dying Civilization of Atlantis).^[14] The reference to St. James rescuing a "knight covered in scallops" is therefore a reference to St. James healing, or resurrecting, a dying (setting sun) knight.

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

end quotes

insomuch as I have been going on about sunsets, sunrays, and questing knights, I thought the wikis as pretty cool...self-similarities!

quote

Many objects in the real world, such as coastlines, are statistically self-similar: parts of them show the same statistical properties at many scales.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-similarity

well...wiki thinks coastlines a good example too!

and this...

quote

Among the minor forms of the shore zone none has proved more puzzling than the cuspate deposits of beach material built by wave action along the foreshore. Sand, gravel, or coarse cobblestones are heaped together in rather uniformly shaped ridges which trend at right angles to the sea margin, tapering out to a point near the water's edge. (Johnson, 1919, p. 457)
They are usually ephemeral features with a lifetime on the order of hours and seem to occur on beaches all over the world (in fact, the source above mentions an early description from Lake Huron). They tend to occur on steep berms or beach faces when waves are striking the shore head-on. (Ibid.)

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2005-07/1122039055.Es.r.html

Perched on the Bluff Bench, I thought to take out my iphone compass...I knew I was facing South, but looking out, I could see the Waves were coming straight in, and was curious just exactly what direction they hailed from...and have learned now they're  straight in direction was responsible for the Beach scalloping!

clear warm a few clouds...the Buddha Shrine in the living room corner is gone...I looked dismayed when I asked the kid why, while his mom was boxing things up...I think I am more attached to it than she is...I said it could stay, but kid said it was okay...I offered the kitchen with its shelves for a replacement place after I've painted and cleaned...living room all empty, 'cept for my pics on wall, so ready for cleaning and painting...kid and mom only have one another in this big world to care for one another...and peripherally me with the roof...oh, but in that assessment is left out their White Dog--the pishan...and Buddah of course...anyway, I got the utility sink drain to stop leaking, after four back and forth to the hardware stores to repair the drain pipes...and left off cleaning, prepping for painting, for the evening rollabout...I cant work but an hour or so without getting antsy to gear up and roll out!...speaking of Ants, while hosing off the window blinds on the front lawn, I watered the Ficus Tree, and  Ants scrambled and grabbed Ant Eggs--The Ants of the Front Step and me go way back!

Spinoza's Cat

quote

One can think of substance as an infinite space. Some regions of this one space are hard and brown (rocks), other regions of space are green, juicy, and soft (plants), while still other regions are furry, orange, and soft (cats), etc. As a cat walks across the room all that happens in Spinoza’s view is that different regions of space become successively furry, orange, and soft (See Bennett 1984: 88-92 for more on space and the extended substance in Spinoza).
http://www.iep.utm.edu/spinoz-m/

unquote

That's an exact depiction of what a computer generated toon is, and what it does!  I made another new toon today, and took all of today!, and named him Pspinoza...I wanted to write that P.Spinoza (and have italics, but game wont take that, and periods for names), as it's the species name of a very hard wood shrub/tree with a lot of thorns called Ironwood, or Blackthorn...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosaI wanted to use the name Blackthorn for my new warlock dwarf, and customized him with dark skin and hair and black beard, and Blackthorn, if I remember right, is one of the wow story characters, so I couldn't have it, that name, so I settled on Pspinoza, harking to the species name--wow players are astute, and may see this...names in wow are like racing horse names--they can be anything...but I like making them up, and each of my toons has one that has some lore to it...anyway, I got to looking at it, and remembered Spinoza was somebody in history, and searched, and oh yeah, I'd read about him, a 17th century lens maker and philosopher--died young from inhaling glass...so, I thought, that's cool, plant species and a philosopher in my toon's name,  and took note that my warlock has a minion, and on thinking of a name for the minion (as it turns out, one cant do this, minion names are chosen at random by the computer), 'Cat' came to mind, as in Spinoza's Cat...now, I've heard of Schrodinger's Cat, cant understand the thought experiment, but got to thinking maybe Spinoza had a thought-experiment-cat too, and indeed he did!... see link above...and how I got to Blackthorn was by looking up what weapon clubs are made of...in searching for a Chumash animal name, and then just an Indian name, I happened on a maker of Indian throwing clubs, taking note Indian clubs were made from Blackthorn...and got to looking at weapon clubs in general, and what wood they are made of, having settled on calling my warlock after a wood used to make clubs--one has to have some kinda menace in a wow toon's name!...so that's, well, that...but I've been thinking my ownself about how the toons in the game move....it's kinda like a wave in the ocean...the water molecules go up and down, disturbed by the wave, and themselves giving shape to the wave one knows...but the molecules don't travel....so too the toon disturbs the pixels as it moves across the screen, or whatever it's doing, and the pixels give the image of the toon in action, but the pixels themselves are rooted in place...there must be a better analogy to help one picture this!...and it may be one has to just play these games on the computer, and so experience it...Cat pic from old GG post...same Cat out along the back cinder block wall this morning...he's Spinoza now!...clear hot warm...inland Desert dwellers are noting it has been over a 100 days of 100 degree plus weather...one forgets, what with irrigation, even along the Coast socal is Desert!

and, and, of course I had to do a Muir Spinoza search...probably a lot out there...but here's one, making a long post longer!

quote
The next hero of Pantheism was Baruch Spinoza in the 17^th Century. He was excommunicated by the Jewish establishment as well as rejected by both Protestants and Catholics. Spinoza attended Quaker meetings, corresponded with Margaret Fell, incorporated many Quaker perspectives in his work, and his writings had some influence on Quakerism. But Spinoza was even more blunt and plain-spoken than the Quakers and their ideas were not nearly radical enough for Spinoza.

Next in the Pantheist history were the Romantic poets, Goethe, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, and others. Then came the Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, the poet Walt Whitman, and the naturalist John Muir. More controversially, she suggests that D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf were also Pantheists.

Her history of Pantheism ends with a quote from poet Robinson Jeffers, a summary of contemporary Pantheism:

“I believe that the universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. … The whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine.”

Standing in the light: my life as a pantheist by Sharman Apt Russell. New York: Basic Books, 2008.

http://ecouke.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/quaker-pantheism/

unquote

quote is from the book, and it was being quoted and reviewed at the site linked...I eschew 'isms my own self!

Terns

Went to Target to get a couple big car wash sponges to wash the walls with, this after fish sandwich meal at Mickey Dees, that after a couple hours of wow--Picketpin now level 50, this after laundry and a half hour of pool while waiting for the dryer, and that after I woke up and just daydreamed awhile...I do that a lot, the daydream part!...anyway, Terns pic from yesterday evening at Magnolia's Beach...after the Dolphins Walkalong, I've concluded the only somewhat nearby place to go for long walks, is the Beach...and the most economical way to get there, is the Bus, so maybe tomorrowmorrow I'll get another 30 day pass...clear warm hot...it's cool at Night, so I stay up most of the Night...picked up The Hobbit on dvd at Target too...dropped the canon powershot in the sand, forgot it was on the tripod, and now must brush, I have brushes!, all the sand off carefully before daring to turn it on--the lens pops out a bit when turned on...one sand grain could hamper that...

Blood Moon

Well, I made a post, this post being a copy from memory, and it just disappeared in front of me (here's link to google talk about this, which I cant follow--trouble I think is I linked to my old eclipse post, or the link to wiki goat head, which I didn't do this time...another thing to be wary of!...)...don't know what google is up to...or if even google knows...some glich...I linked it to facebook, but now that link comes back to jibberish text, and post is just gone from my list...did get message, very formal looking in the web blog view, that the post doesn't exist, but no recourse given...I dunno...but from memory: Update of previous post, see below: oh...it was tightly written, and I cant get it started again...this is real problem with writing poems if one doesn't capture...anyway....d ddd dd...I went out to the back step to have a snack in the middle of the night, as I often do, and feel the cooler night air, and looked up, and the eclipse was in progress--first third...I thought it was Wednesday Night, not....oh, after midnight Tuesday night, it is Wednesday night, sorta...so, I was a font of misinformation on the Pier...see below...as I often am, I'm afraid...anyway, I got all the cameras, and when the eclipse became full, I was having no luck hand holding the cameras, so got the spindly tripod, and not much better, and while adjusting and fiddling and being barefoot, I stepped on a goat head!...so intent I was, I ignored it, didn't even pull it out...but, but I was bleeding all over the place...blood for the Blood Moon!...somehow, I don't think the universe of stars and moons and planets winces over goat heads!... left off from the camera, sat in the tub with a wet towel, and fixed the puncture...returned and tried for more pics, but no luck...wounds, even small ones, are a concern when one ages as they heal slower and slower...anyway, while hopping about, adjusting and fiddling, a shooting star passed over, this at city sea level...maybe the universe does wince!...pic up is from previous eclipse...

Moon Over Balboa

Update:  Before logging off, and calling it a night, which can be a morning sometimes, I check the news, which is always grim, somewhere, but of late, the Valley has often been in the news with the forest fires, and now there's a new one called Dog Rock...Dog Rock is a granite outcrop that protrudes over 140 (looks like a dog), just as one goes up from El Portal, and along with the fire there, one of the fire fighting tanker planes crashed shortly after the fire started Tuesday afternoon, just across from the little market store thereabout.   This is like my favorite part of the Merced Canyon--giant boulders, giant trees, a wild defile with waterfalls and a roaring Merced River in the Spring.   The Valley has had some rain, so maybe fire control will get a handle on this.  It's grim.

Tomorrow Night the Eclipse, which will be at 12 0'clock high, and maybe around about midnight too, 'don't know for sure' I said when giving a headsup to a couple with their infant kid. We had been watching an ocean rescue, I think...one fellow was in trouble, and two of his friends swam out to be near him, and then the lifeguards came, vehicles flashing lights on the beach, and they swam out, and towed in the distressed swimmer--all this after the sun went down.   I say I think it was a rescue, as the swimmer had fins on, and had been beside the Pier on the South Side a long time, not taking waves, but bobbing about, and looking to...and his two friends, with their flippers, were on the Pier, thinking to jump in, I thought, while  I was ready to take another Pier Leap clip...but for some reason the swimmer swam through the Pier, and to the North a long ways, and while I was trying to take clip of the Moon, looking South, the couple asked if my phone worked, they were having trouble with theirs, and a 911 call was needed...I couldn't see problem, and said I think he's on a board, as there had been a surfer out there too earlier, but then I saw the swimmer make the diver distress sign...hands over head and waving...I got my phone out, along with several others...and we all learned the lifeguards had been alerted...I went and got my camera, and set up, and zoomed out, and saw the two friends swim out...they must have run back on the Pier and along the Beach...and when they reached their friend, they all stayed close...and they all had fins, and, I don't know, I wonder if it was a drill of some kind...anyway, the distressed couple were relieved, as I gave narration of seeing things on the zoomed out screen...on review of the clip, the thought came again how useful these powershot long zoom cameras can be in a rescue or emergency...I could zoom right in on the face of the swimmer, even in the dim light, and as far away as he was...that over, I went back to the Moon, and moonlight on the waves...lots of clips, and pics too...I took note that the Moon reflected on a curling wave right at the wave shoulder, same place a surfer rides, and it was like the moonlight was riding the waves like a surfer...wish the cameras could have captured this...tried them all!...clear warm hardly any breeze...the tenants clearing out things has progressed...I finally gave the kid the sixty day notice, and the family has gotten after him, I'm guessing...the living room is empty, 'cept for the small shrine in the corner, and it's just a really welcome relief...roommates are a misery...time is close now that I can make a concerted effort to rehab the old house!...wash the walls, spackle, paint...sand the roughed parts of the hardwood floor, re stain...build a pine shadowbox bookshelf like I did once...oh, and once the rehab begins, I'll not be out and about much, I imagine!...tenants' dishevelment has been a good excuse to lollygag! ...Giants win and advance...Angels, and Dodgers too, dogged it!

Clip: Wild December

I have two email boxes, and one I don't check very often, but when I do, sometimes my hiking friend has sent along pics or clips from the web--I'm on their list.  I don't have a list, I'm on a couple, maybe a lot if one considers spam!  Anyway, it's so hot, I've retreated to my bunk, and likely an afternoon ahead playing wow, so clip may be it for today!   I've taken note that the newer dslr cameras with video have a slow motion feature that works really well, and used to good effect in the clip...a must have for sometime!...oh, forgot blog trims embedded clips...here's link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdSVp9GFeS4

Fish Bowl

"Oh, he's dead!"...the flash feature on the powershot camera sends out a beam of light when one half presses the shutter, and it had revealed in its light that the Mackerel in the Fish Bowl, which had been alive for the too dark pic (pic up) on the way to Pier's End, was now very much belly up--the common fate of Fish Bowl Fish, I'd say!..."He didn't make it." the fisherman said with sardonic humor, and I answered, dead serious as it were..."none of us do..."...and moved off feeling gloomy, and thinking I settled some unwelcomed gloom on the fisherman, and his brood with fishbowls instead of buckets!...Pier much crowded, Saturday night, and the one cool place to go for inlanders!...and not much cooler than inland, just a lightlight breeze--warmest evening I think of the whole Summer...Ruby's too crowded for a snack, and sat hungry awhile thereabout watching the sunset...Sun Rays were trying to form...a rare sight to see sun rays at sunrise or sunset ...once I saw a rayed sunrise, and it looked like the Japanese Rising Sun Flag, and the thought came, 'oh, that's where they got their flag...'...and as it happened, while watching the sunset, I was thinking on the reading I did yesterday night...I did a search of that Japanese term for questing knights, Musha shugyō, and happened on a very cool sumi-e brush painting... 

quote

Musha shugyō, or "training in warriorship", was inspired by Zen monks, who would engage in similar ascetic wanderings (which they called angya, "travelling on foot") before attaining enlightenment.^[1] Kamiizumi Ise-no-Kami Nobutsuna, who founded the Shinkage-ryū school of swordsmanship in the mid-sixteenth century, was a shugyōsha

unquote

I searched and found:

Miyamoto Musashi

who painted this ink wash of Japanese Shrike:



and he did this self portrait:



The swords in his hands aren't fanciful, like the ones my wow toons wield!  Musashi was like the samurai's samurai, and this back in the 17th century.  Old masters in the West could do ink wash too, but usually just as a step before doing an oil painting.  Apparently, samurai would do ink wash, and many things seemingly unrelated to swords, to hone their skills.  And there is something of Zen and Buddhism in what they were about that I cant follow.  

And I think I was feeling gloomy on my Pier walk because Musashi does the ink wash so well.  I cant do a painting like that.  I like ink wash, one can fail so completely making an ink wash, that it becomes a challenge.  How did my art teacher put it seeing my efforts?...'why do you keep using those unforgiving media?'

anyway, I paddled back to the Balboa Bakery and got a turkey sandwich, and snacked in the Plaza, and stopped at Target before reaching home to stock up!

quote

In early Japanese history, the Hinomaru motif was used on flags of daimyos and samurai. The ancient history Shoku Nihongi says that Emperor Mommu used a flag representing the sun in his court in 701, and this is the first recorded use of a sun-motif flag in Japan. The oldest existing flag is preserved in Unpō-ji temple, Kōshū, Yamanashi, which is older than the 16th century, and an ancient legend says that the flag was given to the temple by Emperor Go-Reizei in the 11th century.^[

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

unquote

oh...read about St. Frances last night too...today was St. Frances day...

quote

The St. Francis of Assisi statue on the altar at Mission San Miguel was perfectly illuminated by the rising sun Saturday, marking the annual phenomenon on the saint's feast day.

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/10/04/3279646/st-francis-statue-at-san-miguel.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/10/04/3279646/st-francis-statue-at-san-miguel.html

unquote
 

Leaping Dolphin

Rolled out to 39's Beach, paddled to the Surf Line, settled in, and took a pic of a surfer paddling out, thinking he was likely the only subject...and...'did you get the pic??' a smiling passerby was asking...'huh?'...passerby was more animated than a paddling surfer called for...'the Dolphin flipping'...'oh!!!'...he pointed to where Dolphins were in the Surf Line...and I followed all the way past the Power Station...Dolphins were swimming about as fast as I walk, and so I could keep parallel...Dolphins surfaced now and then, and I kept looking for the now and then leaps...missed like three of them...Dolphins are just like surfers, and wait for the bigger wave sets...finally got Dolphin Leaping pic (no somersault though)...bit faraway and blurry...'s okay...I'll make a drawing or painting...I had almost left the 70-300 at home, but went back to check if computer was off, and brought camera and lens along, telling myself to be extra careful of sand and saltwater...and just a few pics after the leaping pic, the card filled up...all the Wedge pics are still on it, and I may retire that sd card, and use it for their storage...anyway, switched to the 50x, but Dolphins moved further out, and Sun was putting on the Sunset Show, so returned... Sanderlings running clip for sometime...sunny hot clear...almost did another book post and stayed home...but like to listen to the ballgame rolling to, and sitting at, the Ocean, so braved the heat...and it's tied again in the ninth as I write, like last night--Angels lost that one in eleven...Pujos needs to do a walkoff...nope..pop out...Kendrik...liner out to left...so on to tenth...

Chanson De Geste

quote

Cooper created Natty Bumppo, a native protagonist  who found purity in the wild, deceit in the City.  With this likable, admirable character, Cooper, according to Nash, "discovered the literary possibilities of the wilderness.  Wild forests and plains, as Cooper both knew and imagined them, dominate the action and determine the plots of these novels..."

No major writer had ever done this, made wild nature itself a character with depth and tone.

p77
John Muir And The Ice That Started The Fire
Kim Heacox

unquote

When I first started re-reading The Deerslayer, I was immediately taken with the description of Glimmer Glass and the Forest, as I was when I was a kid!  And thinking on this, I wondered if Muir read the Deerslayer as a kid.  He was born fifteen years after its publication.   So I did search: John Muir John Fenimore Cooper, and among the first finds, was the quote above.  Searches sometimes do that, pull out a quote from deep in a book.  Very useful when they do! 

I liked the quote, and bought the book, and looked up Nash too, and I haven't gotten around to reading the book (gave up on Nash's work, out of print), until this afternoon, after giving up on going out--just too hot!

Here's another quote:

Alaska would be to John Muir what the Mississippi River was to Mark Twain, or the mountains of Assisi, in central Italy, had been to Saint Frances.

xiv

unquote

On reading that today, I scratched my head, 'isn't that what I just said/posted!?'...hmmph...

Else ware, the author goes on to note that landscape in literature was unused by authors much as it was unrepresented in painting.

I know myself, in painting, landscape became popular with the topographers, and the Hudson River Valley painters, who were contemporaries of Cooper, and likely influenced him. 

One of my thoughthobbies is to note just when landscape became important in art, writing, accounts, anything...like when I was reading George Washington's diaries written during the French Indian War, the time of The Deerslayer, I took note of just how little landscape is mentioned.  It's a wonder if early western culture ever really dwelled on nature say the way early Japanese did.  One wonders what would have happened to Muir if he had gone to Japan!

Much art and literature has been lost, all the Greek encaustic painting gone, so it's an assumption to say landscape was unseen, or un-sensed.  Cleary in the romantic medieval tales of Knights and their achievements, works like the Mabinogion, tales Cooper borrowed from, and Twain, and London, and likely read by Muir, landscape, Nature, is portrayed, and has a role.  So, I don't know.

The question I'm looking at is why some people are sensate to Nature, and others have no regard for Nature at all.  And if one can follow a growth of sensate to Nature down through history.  Don't know if the ancient Egyptians were being silly, stupid, nuts, with their animal headed gods, or wise in some way we nowadays can't fathom! 

Anyway, Muir took upon himself to go on Knight's errands, the first that 1000 mile walk (which Colin Fletcher echoes in his 1000 mile walk!).    Muir wanted to do something 'epic', and would be in sync with bloggers nowadays wanting to make 'epic blogs by doing epic things'

In the book, there's a photo of Muir on the steamer to Ft. Wrangle, and the caption reads:

quote

John Muir on the steamer Cassiar shorty before his first epic canoe journey in the Fall of 1879.

unquote

Well, epic is a literary term for works like the Iliad and Odyssey...brb..."  extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope"....

An observation to make here is that Muir would regard a Glacier as 'epic', and know full well that it was made from very ordinary rain drops.   And clearly he wanted to be 'glacial', and don't know but the author of the book is reaching for that too...'fire and ice' indeed!

But what I'm reaching for here is Muir's questing.  The old romantic Knights' tales have a name for it...which I haven't searched up yet, it's a French term...but found this, which is evidence for the 'forest' in early literature!

quote:
 This story cycle recounts multiple quests, in multiple variants, telling stories both of the heroes who succeed, like Percival (in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival) or Sir Galahad (in the Queste del Saint Graal), and also the heroes who fail, like Sir Lancelot. This often sent them into a bewildering forest. Despite many references to its pathlessness, the forest repeatedly confronts knights with forks and crossroads, of a labyrinthine complexity.^[8] The significiance of their encounters is often explained to the knights—particularly those searching for the Holy Grail -- by hermits acting as wise old men -- or women.^[9] Still, despite their perils and chances of error, such forests, being the location where the knight can obtain the end of his quest, are places where the knights may become worthy; one romance has a maiden urging Sir Lancelot on his quest for the Holy Grail, "which quickens with life and greenness like the forest."^[10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest#Literary_analysis

now, lemesse if I can find that French term, which I want for the post's title...and I'll have it!..brb...oh...found a Japanese version "Musha shugyō"....brb...found it:

chanson de geste

went through a lot of Knights, but Song of Roland, being a French tale, had it!

quote

The chanson de geste, Old French for "song of heroic deeds" (from gesta: Latin: "deeds, actions accomplished"^[1]), is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature.^[2]

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

unquote

:)

Fire and Ice

 

By Robert Frost 1874–1963      

 

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Wedge Evening

Rolled out to the Wedge...and sighted parking spot right there, and just as I did, Giants hit a grand slam...game over for the Pirates...season too...I have no idea what merit was seen in a one game playoff!...anyway, got the gear out of Silver, put the transistor radio in my shirt pocket, and paddled out to the Breakwater Boulders...had the tripod with, and took a lot of clips of Sanderlings and Bodyboarders, not epics, but I wanted to see something...I tried to explain to one of the youtube posted clips of the Wedge surfers in the comments box how I use the canon powershot 50x and the slik tripod with the circular removable camera attachement, and I wanted to see if I knew what the heck I was talking about...I haven't given much thought to how I do my clips, they've always been a kinda make the best of it with gear I have...this to say I don't have a video  fluid head tripod, which is expensive...but the slik tripod I use has a kinda flaw, the circular attachement sits in the socket kinda loose...one can rotate the camera with just light push with a finger...actually, I use my whole head, which is already against the camera looking through the view finder...lemesse if I can describe how I hold and move the camera...the tripod has two short handles to pan horizontally and vertically(see correcting end comment!)...the vertical is on the left, and I hold this with palm up...my nose is against the left side of the camera, my right eye over the viewfinder, and the horizontal handle, I don't use!...that's the important part...I hold the camera in my right hand as I normally would, and can rotate the camera, and tilt it too, so both hands can do tilt and rotate...I have the tighten down knob loose, so the camera rotates freely on the center pole, so it is actually rotatable at two points, the pole, and the circular connector...when I rotate the circular connector, my nose against the camera dampens and smooths the motion...that's really important!...the horizontal handle is backed off and loose...I have to hold the camera up, or it will flop down to the right...while I'm doing clips like of surfers, I watch the horizon, and keep it level...with my peripheral vison in the viewfinder, I watch the subject, tracking, zooming in and out, and, if I can remember to do it, as I often forget, I keep my left eye open, and use that peripheral scene it sees to anticipate what's going on...it's like I'm using three eyes!...and I listen too...sometimes an overheard something will lead me to look here or there with the camera...you know, no one taught me to do this, and I likely cant teach someone to do this...but for what it's worth, that's how I go about making clips!!...clear warm hardly any breeze...picked up from the Boulders, kinda reluctantly as a very pretty surfer girl perched on one nearby to watch her surfer boy, and returned to sit on one of the Harbor View Benches...and took some more Night pics...this time with tripod...on looking closely at the pic of homes, one can see little light specs--a greenish one is right in the middle...those are artifacts, flaws in the sensor that the camera 'sees' with...it's kinda like when a couple rods or cones go south in one's eyeball...they can be corrected in a photo editing program...sometime just with one click...sorta like the click that corrects redeye in flash pics...anyway, tomorrowmorrow, I'll try to upload the clips I made, as I took them with the thought to demonstrate...I messed up one of the sun setting and dissolving, which would have been knockdown...for tomorrow!...oh...to really know how I do the clips one must do the Netherwing Quest Line!:)...oh, in my mind's eye I'm trying to see what the handles can do...if one just uses the handles, as most would, one controls tilt up and down forward and back with the left one, and the right controls tilt up and down side to side--both can rotate the camera if the center pole knob isn't tightened...usually for still pics, everything is tightened down and leveled...one just uses the handles to tilt and center things...and then tightens them, locking everything in place for the shutter release...I think that's how it is...hmmph....and one can use both handles for video, but the horizon is impossible to keep level tracking a fast moving bird or animal, and the fine touch of my technique when zoomed way out is lost...