Picture of the Day - Salinas Valley Sunset

Sunset over the Santa Lucia Mountains as viewed from the Salinas Valley in Monterey County, CA. Taken 12/13/2000.  Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Brown Tide

This image was taken from Highway 1 while riding southbound towards Bodega Bay, CA. It was taken near Goat Rock Beach just south of Jenner, CA. I took this image back in Winter 2001 while on a trip to Northern California. The brown region seen in the ocean here is where a surge of flood waters coming down the Russian River had just emerged into Pacific Ocean and had not yet mixed with the ocean water.

Just south of Goat Rock State Beach, Sonoma Coast, CA.

Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

San Andreas Fault by Natalie Merchant

It might surprise some of you that singer Natalie Merchant wrote and performed a song entitled "San Andreas Fault" that appeared on her 1995 album Tigerlilly. I have included the lyrics to the song below the music video. 

Go west
Paradise is there
You'll have all that you can eat
Of milk & honey over there

You'll be the brightest star
The world has ever seen
Sun-baked slender heroine
Of film & magazine

Go west
Paradise is there
You'll have all that you can eat
Of milk & honey over there

You'll be the brightest light
The world has ever seen
The dizzy height of a jet-set life
You could never dream

Your pale blue eyes
Strawberry hair
Lips so sweet
Skin so fair

Your future bright
Beyond compare
It's rags to riches
Over there

San Andreas Fault
Moved its fingers
Through the ground
Earth divided
Plates collided
Such an awful sound

San Andreas Fault
Moved its fingers
Through the ground
Terra cotta shattered
And the walls came
Tumbling down

O, promised land
O, wicked ground
Build a dream
Tear it down

O, promised land
What a wicked ground
Build a dream
Watch it all fall down

Lyrics courtesy of azlyrics.com

Random Musings of a Ramblin' Fool XXXVIII

This blog continues to catch fire. Ad revenue is picking up rather dramatically over the past week. It appears this thing continues to gather steam as it has been doing all year since April, but particularly the past several weeks. I shall strive to ride the crest of the wave for as long as I am able.

What's On Tap This Week

Today (Monday) I took a big, scary History 207A class taught by Dennis Judd at Cuesta College. I feel like I triumphed over it but I don't wish to jinx myself by doing any premature touchdown dances over it. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I plan to stay home all day and work hard on my K&K Earthwerks Store really hard by adding hoards of new items given that all day long Ebay has a promotion wherein there is no fee for adding new items all day. I also need to make some calls to various "cash-for-clunkers" outfits to find myself the best deal for getting rid of my old car which is cluttering up my life. I also need to make inquiry regarding the shipment of some specialized minerals to Europe that might experience problems in customs at the European end if not in transit on the American side first. I'd hate to end up on a No-Fly List over a couple of uranium ore minerals. Tomorrow night I have my weekly 3-hour/3-unit Economics 201A class. Wednesday is another school day like today (a 3-unit and a 4-unit class). Wednesday night is a bible study as is Thursday and Friday nights with church Saturday night and Sunday morning. Thursday through Saturday should be full work days for various clients. At some point this week I need to go in and see a counselor about my placement exams and signing up for classes next semester which is now open for class sign-ups. I also need to go down to my high school (Atascadero High School) and see if I can get them to help me acquire my Advanced Placement PIN or whatever it is I need to have in order for them to transfer my AP records to Cuesta so I can get 3 units of college English coursework awarded me for passing that test over two decades ago. I intend to make enough money this week to get a couple of new tires for my Volvo as the front tires are nearly bald and rainy season is upon us.

What Was Accomplished Last Week

I made enough money to cover this months' rent, house-sat for my friend who is fighting pancreatic cancer,  got into my storage unit and did some work for the first time in months and actually cleared a small measure of the clutter, turned in a missive for my History 207A class, missed my Econ 201A class Tuesday night only to find out later it had been cancelled anyway, took a test in my Spanish 201 for which I earned 92% which isn't as great as it sounds given a third of the class earned that or better and the instructor grades entirely on the curve. I also managed to reconnect with most of my clients after being unable to work for most of them during the past several weeks while my transportation problems festered. Speaking of transportation, I also replaced the battery on my newly-acquired 1994 Volvo which died while I was in Santa Rosa weekend before last. I also got new windshield wipers and replaced a burned out break light. Last but not least I attended two new Bible studies (one I had attended once before last Spring or Summer but it was held in another location then and had a different feel). I also attended church at Harvest Bible Church last Saturday night en lieu of attending services Sunday morning at North County Christian Fellowship so I could help an acquaintance for several hours pack for moving this month.

Amateur Geology Events On Tap This Month

Coming up in two weekends is the 42nd Annual "Galaxy of Gems Expo" highlighting petrified wood hosted by the Oxnard Gem & Mineral Society. I shall be in attendance at the show helping my friend Dave Richter of Rocks & Relics operate his booth in the show. That same weekend I shall miss Santa Lucia Rockhound member Cliff Brewen's "rockhound's yardsale" at his place at 6384 Monterey Road, Paso Robles, CA. Historically, I have attended that event selling my own stuff and have done well. However, given the schedule conflict there is no way whatsoever for me to be there this year.

Speaking of Things Geologic

Two interesting geologic events occurred this past week, to wit, El Hierro volcano has been acting up of late as we all know but now it has transitioned into a Surtseyan eruption phase with columns of steam and ash over 300 feet high being ejected out of the ocean. The other notable geologic event was a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in Central Oklahoma that caused widespread minor damage and shook up a lot of people not accustomed to earthquakes. In this seismic sequence which has extended into this week there have been 19 events in magnitude 3 range and 3 events in the magnitude 4 range including two M4.7's, one of which was a foreshock to the larger event with some of the M3's being aftershocks to that foreshock and additional foreshocks to the main shock Follow the sequence HERE.

I Have Not Gained Weight... The World Has Shrunk!

I'm feeling bloated while by pure coincidence my scale is blatantly lying when it says I've gained nearly ten pounds since bottoming out at about 230 lbs. earlier this year. In order to get the world to expand back to its original size so I stop looking and feeling like I've gained weight I need to start walking everyday whenever possible. I was doing that consistently earlier in the year when the world was obviously larger. I also need to shrink my stomach back down and temper my sweet tooth. Too bad I don't have a hot wife to offer me sweet incentives to lose weight right away.

 Of Occupations and Tea Parties

Is it just me or does it feel like the Occupy Wall Street movement jumped the shark over the weekend? It's odd has fast it happened and how soon it happened. The Tea Party movement has stronger legs (because it does not center around trespassing on public property and inconveniencing people). However, it, too, seems to have peaked in its pique. Nonetheless, expect it to disproportionately influence the Republican primaries and cause whatever candidate emerges to be less palatable to the great political middle than would otherwise be the case.  President Obama is hoping for as radical a Republican opponent as fate will hand him and the Tea Party seems interested in indulging him. If the Tea Party inadvertently reelects Obama to a second term it is my intense desire that the American People turn against that movement and utterly repudiate it and its adherents and organizers and leaders and relegate them to pariah status.

Fini

Quote of the Day - John Adams

I just found this quote while attempting to ascertain who is the author of the famous quip "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for lunch." It seems that quote is apocryphally attributed variously to famous folks from Ben Franklin to Winston Churchill but there seems to be no confirmable origin. In any case the much less famous gem of wisdom below is equally enlightening and disturbing and comes from no less a man than one of our more famous Founding Fathers and the second President of the United States, to wit, John Adams.

"I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never."

~~ John Adams in a personal letter to John Taylor dated April 15, 1814 (courtesy of Wikiquote)

Ohne Dich by Rammstein (Schiller Remix)

I have loved the German industrial metal band Rammstein since I heard my first song by them which happened to be "Amerika" which despite it's anti-American cultural and commercial bent makes some valid and  rather insightful observations. Since that time I have listened to and enjoyed many of their songs. Below is the music video for their more power ballad-like song "Ohne Dich" (translated: "without you") which both song and music video are their crowning achievement both musically as well as in the elevated quality of the music video which is saying a lot considering that all their music videos are clever and intelligent. In the video you see the members of the band playing the parts of a group of rock climbers whom experience tragedy. Group frontman Till Lindemann plays the fallen comrade. The obvious theme of this song is loss and given the degree to which loss has cast a pervasive shadow over my own life this song and its video strongly resonate with me.

Quote of the Day - Churchill

 I have long loved the second sentence of this quote but never knew the whole quote until I found it yesterday and share it with you now: 

"Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."  ~ Sir Winston Churchill on November 11, 1947 in an address to the House of Commons (courtesy of Wikiquote)