Picture of the Day - Fiery Ominous Omen

This was the apocalyptic scene a couple of nights ago in Ruidoso, New Mexico. The structures at left are part of the high school there as yet another unseasonably early raging wildfire scorches yet another part of the United States this March. The Moon Mountain Fire has scorched 125 acres and is 60% contained. The multi-decadal drought in the Southwest continues to bring early fire to New Mexico in what is now becoming a new normal. Elsewhere, a 367,620 acre wildfire has recently burned in both Kansas and Oklahoma with the Kansas part being the largest wildfire ever recorded in that state. Given the area of fire danger is moving north and it is still only March, this portends a terrible fire season across North America in 2016. Photo courtesy of John Daniel (all rights reserved).

Pillar of Light's Pattern of Darkness

A friend of mine cued me into this rather haunting Star Wars video tribute to Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and its tragic path of destruction wending through the lives of so many people over the course of three generations and several wars.

Picture of the Day - Pavlofian Behavior

The brightest light in this image is actually volcanic lightning generated from an erupting Pavolof Volcano in Alaska a couple of nights ago as seen from satellite. Note the ash cloud drift towards the upper right from the illuminated erupting mountain. Image courtesy of CIMSS, SSEC, University of Wisconsin-Madison (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - The Long Goodbye

The cat on the left is my old friend Willie. I rescued him from premature parental abandonment from the front yard of my mom's neighbor's yard 17 years ago this May. Ever since I nursed him back to health his first spring, he has worshiped and adored me with an intermission in our friendship only after I moved out of mom's house. During those days of my darkest nights, he was one of the original best cat friends of my life. All the rest are gone now and now he is dying of old age, his body shutting down following his mind's long march into twilight. To the right is my dog Tequila whom I took under my wing 12 years ago this August. My original intent was only keeping her long enough to find her owner after she mysteriously appeared in mom's neighborhood, going from house to house searching for help and home. Over the past year or two I have noticed her decline in both body and mind. She trips on stairs now or wanders not far when she gets loose or wants to turn back on long walks or gets hot much easier on warm days in which she used to thrive,  she can't hear my voice as sharply, her eyes have a little cloudiness in them now, and often she does not seem to understand what I am trying to get her to do when in the past we were a sharp team. I thank God for my being privileged to meet these creatures of His and be their protectors and friends. I hope I have more years left with my dog but my cat is near the end. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Anal-ysis of My Weekend

This is the death toll my derriere inflicted upon my household toilet paper stores over the weekend and perhaps including Friday. Apparently, I have been afflicted with food poisoning the past few days, especially severely so today and yesterday. At first I feared I was going to die and later I feared I would not. I was already falling under the power of this food-borne pathogen late last Wednesday or definitely by the day following. However, I was wholly unaware of what joys awaited me in the days to come. TRIGGER WARNING for TMI on my GIT: if you have delicate sensitivities about things scatological then read no further! In all my life I have never come close to Number One-ing out of my Number Two port with such energy and voluminousness. Had my intestinal storms been any worse I would have needed to be strapped to my toilet seat. My abdominal utterances appeared to have been conversing as one region seemed to respond to those of another in an unknown, but vile, tongue. Quite fortunately, early on in the assault I cleverly extinguished the ring of fire by means of transforming my shower into a bidet. Good day! Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Alien Apocalypse

Day before yesterday this was the ominous scene at Champion Stadium in Walt Disney World in Florida as a massive storm front approached a spring training game pitting the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros. Some on social media likened the scene to an alien invasion with the shelf cloud and associated storm structure reminding them of a mother ship or base ship launching an attack on the area. For some people, this scene reminded them of the 1996 movie Independence Day. It reminds me of  2005 cinematic remake of War of the Worlds. Also, the stadium lights remind me of the communication light panel in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The storm forced the game to be ended early. For more read HERE. Photo by Jennifer Alderman (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - U.K. Devotion

I found this fascinating graphic tonight on Twitter. It is rather striking in showing a sampling of merely one European nation as an insightful sample of the broader trend of the de-christianization of Europe as it becomes both more secular and more muslim. Image courtesy of The Economist (all rights reserved).

Scripture of the Day - David (Ps.46:10)

A friend and former high school classmate of mine mentioned this passage of scripture (Psalm 46:10) on her Facebook wall yesterday and I posted in response to it my own rendering of it in the current common vernacular.

"Be quiet and fully grasp that I am God. I will reveal myself Lord over the nations. My sovereignty will be displayed throughout the earth." ~ Kimicus ad Absurdum translation

Scripture of the Day - Paul (ICor.13:1-8)

A friend of mine in Chicago posted a graphic on her Facebook wall tonight featuring a quote by a minor pop cultural figure in defense of love. It brought to my mind this passage of Scripture, to wit, I Corinthians 13:1-8, all of which and more was memorably read by then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the funeral of Princess Diana which can be viewed HERE. Below is my rendering of this beautiful passage which I shared on her wall in response.

"Though I speak in the languages of Mankind and Angels, and have not love, I am essentially a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And were I to possess the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries and all wisdom; and though I have complete faith, so that I could move mountains, and yet have not love, I am nothing. And though I give away all my possessions to feed the poor, and though I sacrifice my body, and yet have not love, it is worthless to me. Love is patient, and is kind. Love is not envious; love boasts not, is not proudful, does not act unseemly, is not selfish, is not short-tempered, is not distrustful, takes not pleasure in sin, but rather in truth, bears all things, is open-minded, is endlessly hopeful, endures all things. Love never fails; prophecies shall eventually expire; tongues shall eventually all silent; knowledge shall eventually fade away." (Kimicus ad Absurdum translation)

Picture of the Day - Not Quite Millennial Kingdom

This was the scene today at the back of my car as my increasingly deaf and situationally-unaware dog Tequila was probably unaware her nemesis cat Rocki (who adores her but whom Tequila feels perpetually threatened by for ownership of my heart) was laying behind her in the shade under my car's trunk. Although not as remarkable as the predator-prey relationship described in Isaiah 11:6, this is nonetheless an eye-catching scene knowing these two animals the way I do.

Graphic of the Day - Climate Changed WX Map

I grabbed this off of the NOAA-NWS main webpage tonight because it so struck me in both its oddness and how often this oddness happens nowadays that used not to not that very long ago. This is a few days into an El Niño Spring and look how weird is this weather pattern! For weeks there has been late winter wildfire problem in the middle part of the nation which is Red Flag Warned (high fire danger) in darker pink. Facing it is a line of duller-pink-marked Winter Storm Warnings (snow and wind, etc.) approaching from the north which is more seasonable weather but it is not seasonable for these two very different types of weather to be so near to one another and especially this early in the year. A new normal appears to be establishing itself year to year now. Image courtesy of NOAA/NWS (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Equinox 2016 From Space

Enhanced false-color image of yesterday's spring equinox 2016 as viewed from Meteosat-5 in geostationary orbit above Africa and the South Atlantic Ocean. Note equal sun exposure at both poles. For more images of this equinox and one from last December's solstice go HERE. Image courtesy of EUMETSAT (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Dana & Ish

The wedding I worked tonight at Meadowbrook Church in San Luis Obispo was my favorite event worked thus far in my nearly three-year career in the event industry. I sat much of the time at the DJ's table with DJ Dana McGregor and his brother by another mother, Ish, who assisted him with sound and collaborated with him on his new book (for that check the website linked below). Anywho, both men are amazing people and I was blessed to be pulled into their safe and sane insanity and zanity. The image above shows the climax of the evening with the wedding Dana at riding a shoulder at left faced off against Ish riding a shoulder at right. Interestingly, Dana is the surfing goat guy who recently appeared on NatGeo. His website is SurfingGoats.com at which you can see his videos including the NatGeo piece. I highly recommend Dana as a DJ, but be warned: he won't be DJ-ing your party; he will BE your party! Photo courtesy of Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Tonight I Have A Sunahama Outlook

Some time ago I bookmarked this beautiful progressive house track and proceeded to forget about it. This original 2009 mix of "Sunahama" by Mango (Russian prog house and trance artist) & Kazusa (Japanese prog and deep house artist).

We Are All Socialists

A short time ago I saw an earnest discussion on Facebook about socialism, entitlements, subsidies, and the myth of the free lunch. Some people seemed to get it while others did not. I chimed in with this lengthy input:

"Nothing is free. Each society must prioritize how it utilizes scarce resources. Socialism is everywhere and is simply a sign of modernity. It merely suggests that government can play a positive role in people's lives and should play a prominent role in people's lives. The only ideological difference between various people is the degree to which they believe in socialism and where they want to see it manifested in public and private life. Liberals want certain types of socialism while Conservatives want other types of socialism. Both believe in many of the same types of socialism. We hear all the time how much Liberals are Socialists, and they are... and so are Conservatives. However, if you are a Conservative who supports the Drug War, you are a Socialist. If you are a Conservative who supported Bush's reorganization of the Federal government after 9/11 as well as the Patriot Act, you were a Socialist. If you are a Conservative who supports Trump's Mexican Wall, you are a Socialist because the U.S. government will pay for that, not Mexico. If you are a Conservative who supports farm subsidies, you are a Socialist. If you are anybody of any political stripe who believes in public schools and libraries and parks and publicly maintained transportation systems and public fire departments and police departments and so on, you are a Socialist. If you believe in the militarization of U.S. law enforcement agencies and their possessing commando-like units and armored personnel carriers, then you are a Socialist. If you believe in our large standing military which is contrary to the Founding Father's vision of our nation, then you are a Socialist. If you believe NSA should eavesdrop on Americans, you are a Socialist. If you believe in publicly funded health care, you are a Socialist. If you believe in privately-funded health care but with government oversight to make sure medicine is conducted safely and to ensure the private sector is not ripping you off in any way then you believe in socialism. Socialism is neither good nor bad, it merely is what it is. However, many people don't seem to understand what it is and confuse Socialism with Communism which is an economic model whereas socialism is a political ideology every single modern nation adheres to. Where there is no socialism, there is no modernity. Nations arguably more democratic than the U.S. which is now a de facto corporate oligarchy, thrive in their blend of democracy and socialism. We generally seem to be doing fine likewise apart from our divided house and incompetent leadership and gridlocked government."

Ocean of Emotion

This track "The Ocean" by German trance producer Paul Van Dyk featuring Russian trance DJ Arty was on a Youtube mix I used to listen to a lot that no longer exists. Thus I lost track of it, but found it just now on Youtube and must share it with you before I forget it. This is haunting and atmospheric progressive trance.... I found one person even referring to it as "deep cycle" progressive trance. I am unfamiliar with "deep cycle" which might be a bit nit-picky and pretentious designation (official or not) or perhaps this track is that and from the name I do get the idea of what it implies. Crank up your speakers and listen remembering this is best as nocturnal music.

Aced The 115

Today I learned that when I took the CSET Social Studies Subtest II (Test 115) at Cal Poly a month ago and took it cold (no studying for it) I passed it. I did the same previously on the Subtest I (Test 114). Yesterday I took Subtest III (Test 116) and must wait a month to find out the results. Next Wednesday I'm scheduled to take all three CBEST tests at Hancock College in Santa Maria.

Graphic of the Day - Trump's World

I forget where I found this but given how much this person is now dominating the airwaves and Republican primaries, it seems appropriate to share it here now despite my recent and ongoing stepping back from political discourse on social networks.
Image provenance unknown (all rights reserved).

Meme of the Week - Kim Jong-un-Connected

Earlier this evening I noticed a tweet on Twitter which reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had just announced that his crazy little kingdom had succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear weapons (makes them small enough to place in missile warheads). That immediately brought to mind this meme which I tweeted in response. To my surprise, there has been a flurry of Twitter-verse positive responses to it this evening which continues into this hour.

Pitchforks & Torches Came Out In Michigan

I'm taking a chill pill on politics for the time being, but I will say this much: tonight in Michigan the two-party political duopoly got beat up as both insurgent candidates, driven to victory by voter disaffection with Party Establishments, won an important Rust Belt state.

I'm Not Shy About This

I found this lush gem of contemporary progressive house ("Don't Be Shy" by LTN & Kokai) a week or two ago and bookmarked it. I then proceeded to forget about it until this weekend when I viewed it again and even shared it with mom since she grew up in Los Angeles. I figured she would enjoy the video aspect of the track as it is a visually-stunning time-lapse montage of footage of a nocturnal City of Angels. Crank up your speakers and full-screen the player.

Scripture/Quote of the Day - Isaiah

Tonight I watched the movie Fury and in it one of the soldiers (Boyd "Bible" Swan played by Shia LeBeouf) refers to Isaiah 6:8 to which another soldier (Don "Wardaddy" Collier played by Brad Pitt) proceeds unexpectedly to identify it book and chapter. That caught my attention, both because a passage of Scripture was quoted in a mainstream Hollywood film, but also the passage itself grabbed me. It goes:

I heard the voice of the Lord say, 'Who shall I send and who will go for Us?' Then I said, 'I'm here, send me.'" ~ Isaiah 6:8 (Kimicus ad Absurdum translation)

When God Says Zip It

God revealed to me just now during my morning devotional time that I need to calm the fuck down and stop arguing with everybody about politics as that is not reflecting God through me.... not that a little discussion and even debate is bad but my FB political feuds with some people have been crossing the line with God and are ended, effective immediately.

Graphic of the Day - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

In my education theory class today we once again discussed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which takes the conceptual form of a pyramid. I accept that it is mostly valid for most people in most instances, but not all. It also reinforces my observation that human beings are driven to attempt to explain everything and do so in as narrow constraints as can be achieved. Image courtesy of Edraw Visualization Solutions (all rights reserved).

Fourteen Political Points

Here are some of my thoughts this morning while pondering the latest developments on the Republican side of the current presidential campaign season.

1. Trump is NOT a Republican. 
2. Trump has hijacked the Republican Party to feed his own narcissism and attention whoring addiction.
3. Trump is NOT a Conservative as Conservatives have been pointing out all along..... a certain non-Conservative New Jersey governor just endorsed Trump.... case closed. 
4. The Republican Party is the conservative party in modern American politics. 
5. Trump attracts the sort of people who are de facto anti-Republicans and non-Conservatives (arch-Conservatives support Cruz whereas Trump conservatives are the lower-case "c" variety). 
6. The Republican Party has both the right and the duty to purge its Presidential campaign of interloping parasitic posers. 
7. The Republican Party wants to defeat Hillary and that is its duty. 
8. Donald Trump has even higher negative numbers than Hillary which is remarkable and while her's remain the same, Trump's negative numbers continue to grow.... his candidacy in the general election would hand the White House to Hillary. 
9. In a nationwide election, Trump would lose to either Hillary or Bernie. 
10. Trump is the zombie apocalypse of the Republican Party. 
11. Romney is more presidential and electable (he barely lost to Obama in 2012 when I voted for him). 
12.  Trump will probably come to the convention in the delegate lead but not by much, the other candidates will pool their delegates with Romney and the super-delegates will put Romney over the top. 
13. Romney can beat Hillary unlike Trump. 
14. Trump will return to reality TV, professional wrestling. and his ongoing feud with Rosie O'Donnell.

Hearing Daylight

I had listened to this some time ago, bookmarked it, and proceeded to forget all about it.... until a little bit ago when I saw it in my bookmarks and on a lark elected to click on it and see what it was.... I'm so glad I did. This is the English trance artist Andy Tau (a.k.a. Trilucid) remixed version (from 2012) of  the progressive trance gem "Daylight" by Ukrainian trance artist miHiLove which was released in 2011. 

Picture of the Day - Dog Poop Apocalypse

Whoever actually believes what this idiotic sign states really ought to have their head examined. I spotted it today while hiking on Pine Mountain in Atascadero, CA. Every other type animal that traipses over Pine Mountain (and they are both more numerous and walk on ALL parts of it, not merely the trails, and include both wild animals and domestic) such as deer, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, domestic cats, et al, all poop in Pine Mountain. There have been no children sickened by such poops since records were first kept. The poop from those animals hasn't degraded Atascadero which needs no help from poop in order to be degraded. Successive sucktaceous city councils are more potent than poop at degrading a place. One can only imagine the poops on Pine Mountain when Pleistocene megafauna were traipsing over Pine Mountain right up into the early part of the Holocene about 10,000 years ago. Worry-warts, pollyannas, and hypochondriacs should not be tasked with composing city signage. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Quote of the Day - Jefferson

Today I encountered this wonderful quote from former President Thomas Jefferson in regards to the importance of knowledge and education within the functional framework of the United States system and indeed to any non-authoritarian system. This was part of a letter from Jefferson to James Madison in 1787. Aside from being generally relevant, I find it particularly interesting now given my current career path.

"And say, finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving energy to the government, or information to the people. This last is the most certain, and the most legitimate engine of government. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them…. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."