Lakeshore

Dear diary —

Today I walked outside. I took my own picture there.



Love,

Jay

This morning, six days after being admitted to my hospital room, I happened to be in the bathroom and looking at ( the nurse's call there. )

Somehow I read "PULL FOR HELP" as "PULL FOR HEEP", and was promptly very impressed that OHSU had an emergency supply of Uriah Heep.

As my dad pointed out, this train of thought was not the least bit out of the ordinary for me.

( This is what a cancer patient looks like at the beach )

As usual, more at the Flickr set

'Cause I'm me...

( Weird cars at the Oregon coast )

Remember: life is never too crazy to stop and look at a weird automobile.

( My sister took some photos of me in the hospital, at my request. )

( A few more, from lasirenadolce )

Thank you so much to lillypond and lasirenadolce.

The scene:

Your humble narrator, comfortably ensconced on the settee in the spacious living room at Nuevo Rancho Lake. He reads a legal thriller by Scott Turow. The grandfather clock marks the lugubrious moments of its second century of service at the altar of the hours. The ancestral piano sits, the memory of generations smudged into its keys.

In bursts the_child, triumphant glee writ large upon her face and a white plastic bag spinning in her hand. In an exultant tone, she bellows, "Hey dad, want to do something exciting on Saturday night with your daughter!?"

"Um, sure," your humble narrator replies. These questions are like frat boys on Friday night — always loaded.

"Let's dissect a fish head!!!"

the_child has a salmon head the size of a small chicken with her, wrapped in a garbage bag. A donation from the father of her friend D—, for which your humble narrator will seek suitable revenge later. We then spend about 45 minutes cutting into the head, examining gill structures, the muscles at the root of the pectoral fins, the spine, the eyes and so forth.

The denouement:

( A fish head is boiling in a pot on the stove,  )being rendered down so we may later examine the skull. A bag of fish parts is rotting in trash. Various knives and miscellanea are in the dishwasher, which is on the "recycle nuclear waste" setting of most extreme cleansing.

All in all, another Saturday night at Nuevo Rancho Lake in the glamorous life of a working writer.

It's not often I see a car I don't recognize. Especially a recent make.

Yesterday in Omaha I spotted a car badged as a Salon. It looks like a Japanese sedan, though I can't twig the make from the body lines. (And just try Googling "salon" — that term is damned near Googleproof.) ( Thoughts from you motorheads? )

Sorry for the crummy photos, but all I had was the phone cam.

APOD on bacteriophages

Hiawatha Noir — Shorpy with a deeply awesome train photo.

Algae-Bot Scouts for Toxic Blooms — This be some cool tech.

Record Heat for Land Surfaces in March — The weather has clearly been conspiring with the Antarctic ice sheet.

The Return of Big Government — US News & World Report with a stunning story about how the limited government and conservative spending policies of the Bush administration are going to be overthrown in the next election.

McCain: A Question of Temperament — I realize McCain's allegedly violent temper isn't nearly on a par with Obama ordering orange juice, but it might be important should he win the election. Or maybe not. After all, Bush has shown us that a president with poor personal qualities in no wise leads a damaging administration.

Secretary Rice announces Second Amendment is incompatible with democracy — "...the prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any functioning democratic state would insist upon, having to do with, you know, arms belonging to the state, not to -- not in private hands." Imagine the reaction if Hillary had said those exact words.

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4/21/08
Time in saddle: 0 minutes (airport)
Last night's weigh-out: n/a
This morning's weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry [ Powell's | Amazon ]

DC-3 conversion van — Ok, I want this. Real bad. Real, real bad.

The Kentucky Space Program

APOD with another lovely and thought-proving image

Texas polygamist sect is accused of indoctrinating girls — "Girls in the west Texas polygamous sect enter into underage marriages without resistance because they are ruthlessly indoctrinated from birth to believe disobedience will lead to their damnation" How is this different from any other religion? That's a serious question, not snark. The followers of virtually all religions raise their children within their religious framework, and impose the moral and behavioral rules of their faith on their children. Why is this different? If you're going to give social approval to religious upbringing, where does the line fall in picking-and-choosing? From my atheistic point of view, it's all indoctrination, after all.

Pentagon institute calls Iraq war 'a major debacle' with outcome 'in doubt' — Damned liberal traitors have infested the Pentagon now. Where's Joe McCarthy when we really need him?

John McCain's tax returns — Note his wife's were withheld. I wonder how Your Liberal Media and conservative America would feel about Hillary withholding Bill's tax info.

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4/19/08
Time in saddle: 20 minutes
Last night's weigh-out: n/a
This morning's weigh-in: 271.8
Currently reading: The Cater Street Hangman by Anne Perry [ Powell's | Amazon ]

Don't forget yesterday's open questions thread

Wuxiapedia — Translated Chinese epic fiction. Interesting stuff. (Thanks to Jacques B.)

Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals — An historian looks at AH. Sort of.

Review of Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind — "When enough people share a delusion, it loses its status as a psychosis and gets a religious tax exemption instead." Hahahahahaha.

Retropolis — I am there. T-shirts for yesterday's tomorrows, baby!

io9 on galactic habitable zones — Some very cool stuff here.

APOD with a stunning shot of the night sky over Flagstaff, AZ

Should We Shout Into the Darkness? — The (supposed) perils of METI.

German schoolboy, 13, corrects NASA's asteroid figures — Must have forgotten to convert English to metric again...

Red Baron tribute car — I remember the original of this thing.

The Official Village Voice Election-Season Guide to the Right-Wing Blogosphere —

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4/16/08
Time in saddle: 18 minutes
Last night's weigh-out: n/a
This morning's weigh-in: 272.2
Currently reading: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon [ Powell's | Amazon ]

APOD with a photo of Stickney Crater on Phobos

willyumtx sends along these amusing photo links here and here

Portable Rotary Phone — Very Get Smart, somehow. :: wants :: (Thanks to willyumtx.)

Invention of the safety pin — Where have you gone, Walter Hunt? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

The different epistemologies of science and religion — A much more concise explanation than I've been able to articulate of why religion and science are not equivalent. (Thanks to kadath.)

Occupying Iraq Is Just Like Occupying ... Alabama? — Sometimes conservatives really are too stupid to remember to keep breathing.

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4/10/08
Time in saddle: 17 minutes
Last night's weigh-out: n/a
This morning's weigh-in: 274.6
Currently reading: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon [ Powell's | Amazon ]

charlesatan reviews Greetings From Lake Wu [ Powells | Amazon | Traife Buffet ] — Interesting perspective on my earlier work.

From this weekend, me on faith, RSI and literary style — As usual, the real action is in the comments.

garyomaha suggests this virtual keyboard as the solution to my woes — Actually, I think this is pretty cool, but it's a little too spendy for me to buy just for the hell of it.

Mysterious white rock fingers on Mars — Another fascinating APOD.

Shorpy with an awesome photo of a 1920s flying boat — If I was stupid rich (like, Paul Allen rich) I'd collect pre-modern flying boats.

Overheard in the Office — Some very funny stuff here. (Thanks to willyumtx.)

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4/7/08
Time in saddle: 15 minutes
Last night's weigh-out: n/a
This morning's weigh-in: 275.8
Currently reading: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon [ Powell's | Amazon ]

lillypond with some stunning photos of sunrise in Portland

Ironclad deck — Shorpy with a Civil War era photograph of the U.S.S. Monitor, for all your steampunky needs.

Cat Found — Hahahahahah.

Comparing communication efficiency across languages — Language Log with some pretty interesting geekery.

Shape weapon — A cool, and very logical concept, I ran across as I'm reading The Emperor of Scent. The linked blog exceprts the relevant part of the book, but you'll need to scan (or search) down a little to find the term.

Taking to the dead via SMS — Edison's dream finally come true!

prof_brotherton with a roundup of cool astronomy links

Scientists Find Another, More Reasonable Universe — Wired makes a funny.

HNN Poll: 61% of Historians Rate the Bush Presidency Worst — For all that it plays to both my politics and my prejudices, even I can readily see the liberal bias in this piece. (Hint: it's an "informal poll".) Nonetheless, it's funny as hell to read, and the first graphic is priceless.

In related news, more than 80% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Man, that liberal bias in reality just doesn't give it a rest.

Voodoo Health Economics — Paul Krugman on McCain's healthcare plan. Silly liberal, of course market forces optimize to your benefit. If you happen to be an investment dollar... If you happen to be a sick person, you are what the industry calls a "healthcare loss", and you are treated like the market treats all losses — as something to be eliminated or fobbed off on the otherwise-despised government.

I saw the most amazing booth at CTIA Wireless 2008 here in Las Vegas. SpinVox, a company doing voice-to-SMS, has a booth composed of the headless corpses of thousands of dead salarymen. I mean, there's no other way ( to describe this. )

They also had a bitching funny marketing campaign. Now let us all bow our heads in memory of the fallen Saunders.