Liberal: "the ability to feel that all humanity is repairable and that positive forward-thinking solutions can be obtained despite the competitive environment which inherently besets the species. In the past, liberal actually meant to continue the status quo, or be persistent with the mainstream opinion, but nowadays, liberal means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The Liberal Democrats of the 1880's are nothing at all when compared to the self same words used for the 1980's and the 2010's."

Conservative : "the notion that nothing matters except the self and the belief that all things encountered really matter only insofar as they affect the paradigm that one has decided to be called Conservatism. In the past, conservative meant to be desiring or maintaining the consistency of traditions or laws of the past; but in the modern era, this term has been perverted and now is used to defend actions and beliefs that are exceptionally revolutionary and incendiary in rhetoric as well as philosophical origin."

Look at what's coming this weekend. Hurray.

I recall that one Christmas break it rained every single day. The weather pattern was similar to what I'm seeing now. This looks like it is going to be a wet winter with half an inch a day rainfall for 2 to 3 weeks straight.

Hopefully a lot of it will become snowfall.

Thing is, once the Earth gets to the Winter Solstice (December 21) the Earth will begin to tilt back towards the sun, and the weather patterns will start to change. The picking up of the moisture from the ocean is dependent upon the temperature gradient, and right now the upper hemisphere is colder, so it picks up the warmer precipitation from the water and throws it up onto the West Coast. Once the upper hemisphere begins to tilt back towards the sun (after December 21st) this gradient diminishes and begins to increase in the Southern hemisphere.

What also happens is the storms go more Northward, into Oregon, Washington, Canada and Alaska.

If you have never heard it before click here.

This is one of my favorite old compositions from 2001. I can't remember how to play it now, but if I bothered to sit down and figure it out again I probably could. Anyway, I listen to it every now and then. Hope you enjoy it.

I created it over the summer of 2001. While the Cheney commission was busy working with Oil executives over the carving of the oil fields of Iraq. How innocent we were back then. The big issue of the day was a spif in Asia over China getting upset with our military planes flying over their airspace. Who woulda thunk that 5 months later airplanes would be a so much bigger and transformative issue.

Wow, yea, we really were naive that summer of 2001.

The song is named "Wonderall".

Winter Strom #3 is packing some rain, but it drizzles and stops for 15 minutes and then picks up tempo and rains for 15 minutes, repeat. Notice the long North-South cloud tail.

This is typical winter storm formation on the west coast. A weather system "Low" spins counter clockwise and what happens is one of the tails of the "spin" winds up going South to North into the California coastline. West coast weather is a series of spinning bands of water, unlike the East coast. The North-South tail brings the rain and dumps it all over California while it moves Northward into the coast. Then it spreads out a little bit over the valley and slams snow into the Sierra Nevada mountain range. That snow is the water supply of the entire California population (much like Lebanon -- another arid environment that depends on winter storms bringing snow to the mountains just off the coastline.)

Right now (according to the California Department of Water Resources ) the snow pack is about 50% of normal for this time of year, but still only about 12% of the April 1st average. Rain disappears in California after April until November, with rare exception. So these last 3 winter storms are a big help in easing the drought, but California is far from out of danger. We need about 3 or 4 more winter storms to get even close to 75% of the April 1st average.

Let's cross our fingers. We were dangerously close this last summer from water rationing.

This says it all -- despite not mentioning Native American Indians.

This is the second winter storm actually. Here is a picture at 6:25 pacific time.

It's been raining steadily all day since 6 am. It's now 6 pm. It is still raining. The wind is not as bad as it has been in past winter storms, but the rain is intense and steady. I cannot recall a winter storm that had so much rain as this one. We probably got 6 inches or more in a 12 hour time frame.

It's your bad attitude

You have to find a way you have to be the one that says the right things you have to listen when the time comes you have be the one that steps aside lets people go down their path and then be there without judgement if per chance people ask you for advice. Don't tell them what they want to hear although that's really what most people want when they ask for advice they want you to reinforce their concrete mind with soft words that massage the cracks and the imperfections the insecurities the uncertainties the ambivalence about the great unknown.

But ... You should however do just the opposite. You should just tell it like it is state the facts explain your point of view and let the words fall where they may pull apart the crevaces in the paradigm throw the crystal mirage on the floor and let the pieces shatter because there is no sanctuary in a fragile ghost of larceny in which the theft is of the true self the potential in all humanity the possibility of something better something more sustainable and long lasting than the temporary soothing of an irrational artifice.

So step aside while the fools trip over themselves in utter stupidity. Don't laugh have empathy with your fellow humans because after all other people are just like you. They do stupid things sometimes. They make mistakes. Sometimes they got a lot on their mind and yea well sorry shit just happens.

Don't go looking for blame because the constellation of reasons for why things happened is beyond your mortal capacity to fathom in the moment. Maybe one day in the future. Maybe. Maybe you might understand how things just turned into crap but right now right now you are filled with emotion and your mind can't make sense of all the things you think are evidence because actually you are just focusing on whatever invigorates your emotion and you can't see anything else. You are in no shape to be an imperfect observer of all events and details. So calm down. Take a deep breath. Step back and see the bigger picture.

The time has come for me to brag about my fantasy baseball prowess. A small consolation for my tiny little ego. (Yea, right.)

The second league was much more difficult. Only in September did I begin to separate from the pack -- thanks to Jacob DeGrom, Drew Storen, Carl Crawford, Starling Marte, Jorge Soler, and Wilmer Flores.

Let league number one be a testiment to the insignificance of batting average in the modern era. I was last in batting average but still beat the living crap pants off of everyone in the league. Honestly, I'm a little surprised myself, but that's what happened.

And please take notice, you win with pitching.

Greed always undermines the essence or means of existence that enabled wealth in the first place. The studios of Hollywood are filled with dramas and plots involving the self-destructive paths of greedy selfish fools who couldn't see past the inner spirals ending in their demise. People lose millions of dollars trying to gamble at twice the odds, just to make more money; or they spread their investments too thin because they want more and don't have the capacity to stop while they are ahead. Relationships often fall apart because one of the two people wants too much of the other person to the point where that other person feels that they are being taken for granted, or that their love is not being being reciprocated. Greed is the entropy that disrupts a normally smooth functioning system -- because some people want more than others, or have to go faster than others, or have to be the first to get attention, etc. , which tilts the dynamics of the system out of balance.

As such, our modern aristocrats can't see past their own small pecuniary interests and narrow circles of influential patrons. The vast majority aren't interested in developing and investing in a nation, but in making more profits, paying less taxes, and getting some sort of recognition. At least this is the net result of their actual aggragate actions, regardless of the convoluted and lexical political language that is often spoken as cosmetics over the actual intention. They assume themselves to be the pillars of the human race, worthy of privileges by their extreme wealth and self-inflated rank. The foundations and non-profits that they fund are really just organizations that pursue their own agendas. They are not really an investment in society but an extension of their ideology which captures more of the social order within its grasping fingers. Basically, they want to buy a moral statement. It's not charity, but an extension of their pride and authority, a moral authority through which they establish a connection in a paternal sense, another branch of the empire beneath their feet.

Taxing societies members and then paying for certain social opportunities (like college, health care, or police ) out of the collected tax dollars is ALWAYS more effective and efficient than out sourcing this collection of money to various wealthy philanthropists. So when the mega-wealthy and their hired spokespersons always praise charities as the antidote to big bad government, they reveal themselves for what they actually mean.