Wednesday, 31 December 2014 at 23h 11m 29s |
A Windy City Today |
Damn it's windy today. The temperature is 52 in the sun, but the wind makes it feel 10 degrees
cooler. It's gonna drop into the 30's tonight, and maybe into the upper 20's.
How fast is the wind?
Damn. 43 kilometers per hour (26 mph) !!!!!
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Monday, 29 December 2014 at 4h 23m 52s |
My definitions |
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."
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Friday, 19 December 2014 at 23h 45m 45s |
Winter Storm #4 |
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.
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Thursday, 18 December 2014 at 23h 49m 6s |
More Rain is coming |
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.
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Wednesday, 17 December 2014 at 2h 4m 7s |
Wonderall |
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".
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Wednesday, 17 December 2014 at 0h 52m 24s |
Winter Storm #3 |
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.
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Wednesday, 17 December 2014 at 0h 37m 53s |
Immigrants next door you say ? Really? |
This says it all -- despite not mentioning Native American Indians.
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Friday, 12 December 2014 at 2h 51m 24s |
The current weather |
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.
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Thursday, 11 December 2014 at 23h 52m 24s |
Poem |
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.
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Tuesday, 30 September 2014 at 1h 50m 8s |
Nawlins Napsters Wins --- 8 years in a row. |
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.
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