Arthur once again tried to catch a halibut. He actually caught one! It was very, very small: a “baby halibut.” Not much bigger than the bait we were using. We threw it back. Sadness ensued.
I took this picture of the hillside at Caldera Bay reflected in the calm, smooth sea. You can see some leaves and other things floating… Pick a tree, any tree. That’s your daily tree.
[daily log: walking, 1km; shoveling, 2 hours]
Month: September 2019
Caveat: Poem #1156 “The infilling”
and the hole was filled quite gradually with stones and with dirt and clay
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #270
Another day working hard moving dirt around, burying the pipes around the well-head.
A tree seen from the boat, from the last time we went out in the boat.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km; shoveling, a lot]
Caveat: On choices
When Christopher Hitchens was asked if he believed in free will, his response was “I have no choice.”
Caveat: Poem #1155 “As trucks will do”
a truck rumbled by the sounds of metal scraping the thunk-thunk of tires
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #269
I spent the day working very hard, putting insulation in the “dog house” at the well-head, and burying some pipe that I placed.
Here is a tree from my archives. It is a tree inside Bukhansan Park in Seoul, beside a stairway up to a Buddha in a cliff-face. I took this picture in October, 2013.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km; digging, alot]
Caveat: Poem #1154 “The waiting earth”
the earth and stones heaped the sun drew tendrils of steam they rolled and waited
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree 268
With the rain in remission, I undertook a mission to work on project to winterize the well. That went well, but I lost momentum in the afternoon. I’ll resume tomorrow. Meanwhile I studied some, in my CLEP book.
This tree was along the road.
[daily log: walking, 4km]
Caveat: climb higher on the chain link fence
At Karma Academy in Korea I often used to teach a class to students (upper elementary and middle school levels) which involved repeatedly listening to and learning the lyrics for English language pop songs. The kids enjoyed it, and it was fun for me too.
As a result, I developed a habit of surfing the internet to find appropriate music to use for these classes. There were some criteria to be met: a catchy tune, not too old, inoffensive lyrics, an engaging video.
Sometimes, even though I no longer need to, I still find myself doing this, as a kind of lingering habit. I found a song earlier that is absolutely perfect for this type of class, and the video is ideal.
What I’m listening to right now.
Mates of State, “Staring Contest.”
Lyrics
Hey, I like it like this
I can’t tell if it’s early in the night
I left my phone on a step all night
I reach for the light, but I don’t turn on
Spend my day running on your lawn
I’m wild
Like I once was (I once was wild)
Heart stop, take me to the blacktop
Fear where I can find a place to stay
(Where I once was wild)
Climb higher on the chain link fence
It’s all about you, I’m wild about you
Eye to eye, it’s a game, it’s a contest
’94 I kissed you in the train park
I really needed you girl
I drive real slow past your house at night
You’re gonna be mine if you don’t hold tight
Like I once was (I once was wild)
Heart stop, take me to the blacktop
Fear where I can find a place to stay
(Where I once was wild)
Climb higher on the chain link fence
It’s all about you, I’m wild about you
Eye to eye, it’s a game, it’s a contest
Are you staring at me, ’cause we’re having a contest
You’re making my heart stop
And I ran (I once was wild)
Heart stop, take me to the blacktop
Fear where I can find a place to stay
(Where I once was wild)
Climb higher on the chain link fence
It’s all about you, I’m wild about you
Eye to eye, it’s a game, it’s a contest
Heart stop, take me to the blacktop
Fear where I can find a place to stay
(Where I once was wild)
Climb higher on the chain link fence
It’s all about you, I’m wild about you
Eye to eye, it’s a game, it’s a contest
Caveat: Poem #1153 “A possible failure to live up to the cliché”
the bones bode winter if they live up to cliche but they don't - just bones
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #267
I got my CLEP textbook yesterday. Now I can take my studying to a new level. CLEP is a formalized “exams for college credit” system. Since UAS is requiring me to fill in some holes in my undergraduate transcript of 30 years ago, taking a few CLEP exams seems the most efficient approach. We’ll see how it goes.
Here is a tree.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Poem #1152 “Inscriptions”
with optimism and bold copper traceries the symbols spilled out
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #266
A tree was sighted during a pause in the rain.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Evidence of Our Life in the Future
I have been reading some, online, these days, about quantum computers. I don’t understand them at all, but I was made curious by the recent news about Google’s new, supposed “quantum supremacy.”
This led me down a garden path of blogs and articles, and one thing that I ran across was this picture, from a 2017 article about an IBM quantum computer.
What happened is I became sidetracked by the aesthetics of the picture, which seemed more within my grasp than the nature of the machine.
The picture looks like illustration from the cover of a science fiction magazine. It does not seem to, in any way, resemble what we think of as a “computer” as they currently exist. It is mysterious and beautiful and abstractly futuristic.
Caveat: Poem #1151 “Inertia as a kind of superpower”
With my inertia, which is a superpower, I can stop moving
– some a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #265
Work proceeded apace on my effort to complete my application to UAS. I have just two remaining things to complete – one more essay and an old college transcript request.
Meanwhile, outdoors, the rain proceeded apace.
Arthur is doing his annual “re-paint the boat rails” project. These are the rails that sit down in the water, that underlie the trolley that pulls the boat out of the water and into the boatshed. This project fills the house with petrochemical fumes. I have a theory that Arthur either cannot smell petrochemical fumes, or actively enjoys them – every time he fills his kerosene heater that lies in the boatshed, the house also fills with a similar smell. Today he did that, too. So I sit in the attic on my computer bundled up with both windows wide open, to get a cross breeze and ventilate the space.
Here is a picture of a tree from the archives. The picture was taken in August, 2007, in Mexico City. There are actually two trees, I admit. But the building (although there are two facades, in fact it is a single building inside) is notable: that is the building I lived in, in 1986. The second floor window near the center is onto the hallway in front of my bedroom.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Poem #1150 “We counsel patience”
while the trampling clouds declare their allegiances we can only wait
– a pseudo-haiku
Caveat: Tree #264
I went into town today and took a “proctored impromptu writing sample” test, with the help of a person at the Craig School District who was kind enough to help. This is part of my application for the Teacher Certification program at University of Alaska Southeast. Normally this type of “proctored writing sample” would be done by going into the appropriate college office, sitting down and taking the test. But because this program is an “All Online” type of program, that doesn’t really work. But they occasionally want you to prove who you are, and the way to do that is to get you to find a proctor that they approve of in your local community, and work with that person to proctor your test. I’m not sure how frequent this type of thing will be. I’m only in the application process.
Since I was busy with that (and preoccupied by the surrounding anxiety), I failed to take a picture of a tree. Here is a tree from my archives. This picture was taken in November, 2012, looking out from a window at my workplace in South Korea.
[daily log: walking, 2km]
Caveat: Poem #1149 “A one-sided but earnest conversation”
Rain! You, me... we should talk. I'm just trying to get something done out here under the clouds but you keep interrupting forcing your damp fingers at me full of naturalistic hubris.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Tree #263
With a supposed break in the rain, Arthur and I attempted to go out and put heat tape around the water pipes that run out of the new well-head “doghouse” (where the pump controller, etc., are).
But every time we started working, it rained. If we stopped working, it stopped raining.
After a while, we gave up that project. Typical Southeast Alaska.
I put some time in on my computer instead.
Here is a tree.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]
Caveat: Poem #1148 “An effort to structure time”
So... Sunday. The thing is... the days, they blur... a string of mornings, awoken out of dreams, undifferentiated. Then the calendar lays guidelines, steers thoughts away from simple being.
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Sitting in an 1880’s Ohunkagan brownstone, dreaming of an imaginary world named Arhet
[This is a cross-post from my other blog.]
I have utterly neglected this blog [meaning that other blog].
I offer no excuses. Just didn’t cross my mind. I had other things going on. I have other blogs and other, non-geofictional projects that occupy me.
In fact, I have been quite busy with geofiction, too. Over the last 6 months since my last blog post here, I have been developing my “Ohunkagan 1880” snapshot, at OpenGeofiction. This is my city in my fictional state of Makaska, in the parallel-universe US called FSA. Here is a screenshot of the city, in its 1880 incarnation. I intend to then roll the historical window forward, mapping in changes and additions, over the coming decades, until it catches up to the present.
[Technical note: screenshot taken at this URL (for future screenshots to match).]
But I have also been working on my own, long-neglected map server. I have named my planet: Arhet.
It’s just a name. But one thing that always annoyed me about OGF was that the planet not only lacks a name, but there has always been strong community resistance to finding a consensus name for it. Someone is always bound to object to any proposal, and thus, “OGF world” remains unnamed. For my planet, I decided to just put a name on it from the start, so no one would end up grappling with the dilemma later.
Arhet is tentatively open to interested mappers. I’ve written up my current thinking on how this will work, here:
http://wiki.geofictician.net/wiki/index.php/Arhet
Music to make worlds by: The Youngsters, “Smile (Sasha Remix)”.
Caveat: Tree #262
Because of the raininess outside, I have been less inclined to pursue any of the outdoor projects I have in progress. I have been working more on computer-based projects, including messing with my programming environment (my largely unfulfilled fantasy of learning to program using Ruby/Rails), and adding some bells and whistles to a few of my server projects.
Meanwhile, on the equinox, I find attention-seeking behavior among trees. Hey! Quit goofing around!
[daily log: walking, 3km]
Caveat: Poem #1147 “Extinction”
I'm wide awake, middle of the night. With an aggressive staccato, the rain perforates the air while I watch the darkness. I consider shapes. The night crawls by. It dissolves into dreams.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Tree #261
The tree cannot flee the fast-approaching Fall.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]
Caveat: Interbirthday
My birthday was last Sunday. Arthur’s is this coming Monday. Halfway between, last night, is our “interbirthday.” Being economical sorts, we celebrated once for both of us. He got me a cake. I got him a cake. It was the same cake.
Caveat: Poem #1146 “A poem hostile to the reader”
lines displace surfaces manifesting into abstractions and hypotheticals painting obscure paradigms which distort representations and make you want to stop reading this
– a reverse nonnet
Caveat: Tree #260
I had what felt like a somewhat productive day – though in fact it was mostly recuperating ground lost on prior days. I got my map server back working the way it should be. It turned out there was a minor syntax incompatibility between different versions of the database utility that’s used, so the script I was running wasn’t working as expected after a routine upgrade. Software is fun!
I took some steps on my application to UAS. I feel like the end is in sight. And then I can begin.
I failed to photograph a tree. I’m neglecting my blogular obligations…
Here is a tree from archives. It’s not a photograph, but rather a scan of an ink drawing. I made the ink drawing in 1992. It shows the front of the old “San Marino House” – the one where my grandfather grew up on California Boulevard in Pasadena. There are in fact at least two large trees and many shrubs in the picture – the house was quite overgrown with vegetation. So let’s select the tree in darker ink lines on the right, to be tree #260.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]
Caveat: Poem #1145 “A typical day in nether Commonia”
I saw there were strange things on the map: mysterious towns and highways, inconsistent land-uses, geographic glitches, unknowable lakes, hazy outlines, lost cities, portals, holes.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Tree #259
I had a frustrating day, trying to repair my map server. I’m not sure if I’ve repaired it, now, but I got into one of those obsessive mindsets that made me recall that in fact, Arthur and I behave quite similarly around computers. Although I think I don’t cuss quite as much as he does. It seems to kind of work. Something amiss with the database.
In darkness, in rain, trees still lurk.
[daily log: walking, 1km]
Caveat: Poem #1144 “Luna’s dissolute moods”
Just at dawn the moon gazes downward. She turns her bright eye to the trees. The clouds thin and part for her. The rocks reveal their dreams. The sea is bashful. She watches birds. She tastes air. She slumps. Pale.
– a nonnet
Caveat: Tree #258
I spend part of the day outside working on some more aspects of the well-head “doghouse” – specifically, the outgoing pipes/conduit to connect to what I’m calling the “greenhouse” – I want to build a small greenhouse on the new upper parking pad, hopefully to be able to use next Spring.
I spent another part of the day trying to build a Ruby on Rails development environment on my server. It’s slow going, but I feel I’m making progress. So far the vscode IDE is working much better than all those times I tried to use Eclipse, so the switch over was a smart move.
Lastly, I have been writing an essay for my UAS application for the teaching certification program. I’m sure what I have already is fine, but I’m being perfectionistic. So there’s that.
I failed to take a picture of a tree today. So here is a tree from my archives. This is Gobong Hill with its distinctive radio tower, in Ilsan, Korea, as seen from near the top of Jeongbal Hill, a few blocks from my apartment there. I took it in October, 2015 – just short of 4 years ago.
[daily log: walking, 2.5km]
Caveat: Poem #1143 “Unperceived”
outside the rain fell inside I installed software and time passed like stones
– a pseudo-haiku