Pima Point

Looking west towards Hermits Rest and the end of the route.

As Scottland pointed out, after a while the overlooks start to all look the same. I think that's what was great about hiking the rim trail and seeing the other two points later in the day. The experiences were all really different.

Views From The Abyss

I guess it's called the abyss because the angle between the viewer and the colorado river is much steeper, on account of the river bending towards the south rim at this point. These pictures don't really do it justice.

Powell Point

The cliff/shelf/cliff nature of the walls of the Grand Canyon is a result of layers of easily eroded shale between more resistant layers of sandstone and limestone.

Looking west towards Hermits Rest. Visibility in the Grand Canyon (particularly during the winter) can easily exceed 100 miles. It was 93 miles the day we visited.

Trail Overlook and Maricopa Point

A view of the bright angel fault and the trail down to the bottom of the canyon. Hikers are endlessly warned never to try to hike to the bottom of the canyon and back in a single day. The trail is 12 miles long one way

Views from Maricopa Point. There was a ranger here with telescopes set up to allow visitors to view a cave entrance in the canyon wall where a pair of California Condors were known to be nesting. We saw them flying over head, as well as one of their offsrping. One of them flew close enough for us to see the tracking number painted on it's belly.

The Hermits Rest Route

Riding the "tram" and stopping at the various view points along the Hermit's Rest Route was the first thing we did when we reached the grand canyon. We skipped Mojave and Hopi point and walked from Maricopa to Powell Point. Between Maricopa and Powell is an abandoned Uranium mine that's been fenced off due to high radiation levels around the mine entrance.

Grand Canyon

On Tuesday during our excursion to Phoenix, we drove north to the largest hole in the world, or at least North America. Perhaps the Marianas Trench is a bigger hole. I last visited the park in 2001 but Scottland hadn't been there since he was a very small child.

As usual, the place was just amazing. Before we got there, I told Scottland about my theory that it's the giant auditory nothing in one half of the world that makes the Grand Canyon so spectacular. It's not enough to see the giant hole, it's that you can really FEEL that it's there because sounds just go out and never come back.

Since we were coming up from Phoenix, our visit was limited to the south rim which is where I visited the last time. On that visit I did two thing. (1) I rode this tour bus thing between eight different lookouts over the canyon and (2) got horribly sunburned.

I managed to avoid getting sunburned by slathering myself with SPF 50 (this was a strategy I employed throughout the Phoenix trip to avoid getting burned) and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could spend 10 hours in the sun of the high Colorado Plateau within getting even a little pink.

The vehicle tour was as cool as I remember, though Scottland was correct in his observation that after a while all the points start to look the same. After the vehicular tour we took a different bus to the east end of the south village and walked the rim trail (about 2.5 miles) to where we had parked our car. I didn't do that the last time and it was a cool experience. Very different from riding from lookout to lookout.

By the time we got back to the car is was maybe an hour and a half until sunset. We had gotten lunch at the Bright Angel Lodge (and discovered that you could rent rooms and cabins at the South Village), hit the gift shop and the ice-cream shop, which helped eat up a lot of time. I wanted to drive back to Flagstaff via the east entrance of the park so we hit a couple of the lookouts you can drive to on your way out of the park.

In particular we hit Indian Watchtower, which has this replica of an old Navajo (I think) watchtower that used to be there. The view from the watchtower is really different from the rest of the south rim, in that it's right at the point where the Canyon curves north. So, in addition to being able to see up the axis of the canyon rather than across, you can also see a long way across the painted desert and can see the canyon of the Little Colorado.

After we left the Indian Watchtower we exited the park and drove through the reservation that abuts it. As usual there were lots of weird little shacks on the side of the road selling trinkets. Scottland particularly liked the one that said "Nice Indians Ahead."

The drive back to Flagstaff was really cool, as we were driving across a relatively flat expanse of grass covered land as the sun was setting was setting behind a big clumping of cinder cones (We were in the area where you'd go to see Sunset Crater), with clouds covering the sky except in the west. The grass had already dried out and gone dormant, so it was brighter in color than the clouds or the mountains and more reflective. All of these things together had the effect of making it feel like we were driving through some enormous miles high cave. It was really cool.

The rest of the drive back was relatively uneventful, though Scottland was really freaked out by the multi-thousand foot descent off the Colorado Plateau on an unlit interstate where the maximum speed is 75 mph. We pulled off the interstate at one point to look at the desert night sky. It was amazing. I've seen the Milky Way before but never as an enormous, solid belt of milky white across the sky. Very cool.

Flight To Phoenix

While flying to Phoenix we passed right over the top of Mt. Rainier, which was pretty much covered in clouds. Except for a little nub at the top. I took a cool picture of the phenomena. It looks a bit like an island in the clouds.

Phoenix Fest 2007

For the last week of his six week sabbatical, Scottland and I flew to Phoenix. Why Phoenix? Well, mostly because we wanted to go somewhere warm and unfamiliar to either of us. We managed to visit the Grand Canyon, Taliesin West and the Phoenix Botanical Garden. Other than that, we mostly spent time in the pool reading and drinking. I also managed to do some research my book.

The picture is an interesting image of Phoenix and the area to the north of it. It was generated by combining a linear data set from the USGS and an elevation data set generated by some space shuttle mission, whatever that means.

Moses Lake Triathlon

I managed to achieve one of my major goals for the year today when I completed the Moses Lake Triathlon. Your basic olympic triathlon consists of a one mile swim, a twentyfour mile bike and a 10 K run. A sprint triathlon halves all those distances. The particular event that I participated in was a "family" triathlon, which is a sprint triathlon where the swim distance has been halved again to a quarter of a mile.



Swim Time : 9:28
Transition 1 : 5:32
Bike Time : 55:23
Transition 2 : 0:58
Run Time : 34:33
Total Time : 1:45:56

To be frank, the race was really freaking hard. I managed to complete it and my times weren't abysmal, but the start of the 3K run after the 12 mile bike ride was pretty difficult. Still, I enjoyed myself and I'm planning on doing another one in Mid-September. It's funny how competative stuff like this can make a person. Though my only stated goal was to complete the triathlon, I'm already plotting ways to improve my race time.

Cardboard Cut-Outs or the Real Thing?

My mother was in DC last week as part of the activities related to her winning the state of Oregon's teacher of the year award for 2006. One of those activities was having her photo taken with the President and Laura Bush.

Aquarium Setup - Steps One and Two

I'm putting together a 55 gallon freshwater tropical community aquarium.

Step One :

1. Assemble aquarium stand


2. Place aquarium


3. Wash 60 lbs. of gravel and put gravel in tank


4. Add water


5. Assemble and install filter


6. Assemble and install lights


7. Place aquarium decorations

Step Two :

1. Calculate tank's watts to gallon ratio for lighting. (1.45)


2. Generate a list of desired plants based on light ratio and placement in tank.


3. Generate sketch of plant placement and determine number of plants needed.


4. Order plants from online distributor of aquarium gear.


5. Have plants shipped overnight.


6. Add chlorine and chloramine removing chemical.


7. Put plants in tank.


8. Add water to the lip of the tank.


9. Add fertilizer to water.

Biodiesel Production Facility of the Future

I finished my research for the Biodiesel Production Facility Of The Future (BPFOTF) and was able to generate the attached map. I'll be using it to sketch out the bits of action that take place at this particular locale.

This chunk of research ended up being a very useful thought exercise for me as a whole. It serendipitously enabled me to sort out some related bits of setting material that I hadn't even thought to put effort into developing.

I'll definitely be applying this technique to other parts of the outline that are causing me trouble.

Syndicate

Since December of 2005 I've been working on a card game that I have high hopes of being able to sell as an actual product one day. The game started off as a business based RPG, but I quickly realized that an RPG rule-set that simulated running a business would be about as fun as doing your taxes. It then occured to me that a card game might be a lot more fun, and I began putting said game together.

I've gone through about five iterations so far and have actually gotten to the point where I have a prototype deck I'm in the middle of playtesting. Iteration six will probably get printed and cut sometime next month, but so far things are looking really good.

The picture I've attached to this post shows the current prototype deck on the left with the three prior iterations on the right. The 1st iteration consisted of about 1,000 index cards and sadly, I didn't keep them.

Making a game is a lot more work than I thought it was when I started out.

King Canola's Coming to Kill You

This post is part one in a series of posts that will fully cover my "down the rabbit hole experience" I had when I attempted to use the internet to do research for my sci-fi novel.

My daughter and her girls were telling jokes. Stephanie hit her mom's arm with the back of a butter knife in a gesture, "Oh mom", not hard enough to hurt. My daughters arm split open like it was rotten. She called me to ask what could have caused it. I said, "I'll bet anything that you are using Canola oil". Sure enough, there was a big gallon jug in the pantry.

Part One : A Writer's Toil

This whole thing started yesterday as I was toiling away on the outline for my sci-fi novel. I’m currently working on the part of the narrative that takes place in a bio-diesel facility south of Sacramento. Sketching out this particular set of scenes has been much more difficult than the rest of the outline so far.

After ruminating for a while on what the source of the problem might be, it occurred to me that I should engage in a creative exercise and see if that helped to knock some ideas loose. Sometimes, a bit of “world-building” helps me to really get into the center of what I’m trying to write about. So, I set out to do some research on the internets about how one goes about making bio-diesel.

This portion of the research went easily enough. Not surprisingly, most of the “civilian” websites on bio-diesel production weren’t very informative. What else would you expect from a bunch of hippies but poorly organized information? Eventually though, I ran across a number of academic sites that had plenty of relatively well-detailed information. From that information I was able to develope a generalized process schematic, and from that start generating an actual map of the facility.

In my head and on paper, the bio-diesel production facility of the future was taking shape.

***

In the next installment of the series, the author will blog about his efforts to select the ideal oil seed crop of the future.

Dungeon & Dragon Cancelled

Yes. The news went out today. Finally. September will be the last month that the magazines of Dungeon and Dragon will publish issues.

I can't say that I'm surprised. In fact I'm not. Those of you that know me should know why.

I can't really comment on Dragon, as I've never read it, but I can tell you that the quality of Dungeon's material has lagged pretty badly for quite a while. Paizo had the the rights to use WOTC's entire catalog of D&D IP and yet all they did was continue to publish adventures that were nothing more than a rehash of 1st edition adventures.

I can't imagine that WOTC was ever pleased that Paizo wasn't supporting the new products they were putting out by publishing material that completely ignored its existence. Hello, Eberon?

I can say that I'm glad I decided to cancel my year-goal of submitting ten articles to Dungeon. It was a smart move on my part.

I can say that I'm excited to find out how this new online thing is going to work. From what I can tell, WOTC is going to be looking for contributors, and I plan to contribute.

Transitional Terrarium

I originally put together my carnivorous terrarium in October of 2004. It's never done poorly, but when I finally managed to get rid of a scale infection it developed two years ago it really took off.

It looks quite cool now as the plants have grown around the objects I added to it early on and some unexpected specimens came in with the original sundews, venus fly-traps and pitcher plants.

I think I'm going to need to feed it again in the very near future. My hunch is I can buy fruit flys off the internet and just dump them in the tank.

Spring 2005










Summer 2005










March 2006










April 2007

Seattle Snowmageddon 2007 Part Deux : The Re-Freezening

It snowed yet again in the wee hours of the morning. That's the third time this winter. Scottland is working from home again and we look forward to tales of 8 hour commutes to work from our friends.

West Seattle Winter Wonderland

Complete with cars spinning their tires as they attempt to climb the supremely icey road immediately south of our house. Not as many people are trying it this time around, so I'm guessing a lot of people have learned their lesson from the storm in late November. Apparently west seattle got the brunt of the "Great Blizzard of 2007", as they're predictably calling it on the evening news.

Caught Comet McNaught

As promised, I have managed to take a picture of the comet this evening as the weather was cooperating quite nicely. Nothing like a nice mass of freezing cold arctic air to suck the clouds from the sky. It's amazing what you can do with just a digital camera and a railing to set it on while you take a longer exposure.

Comet McNaught!!!

You'll have to take my word for it, but the very faint smudge just a little below the center is my very own photo of Comet McNaught. This morning while perusing APOD I learned that this comet (which I'd read a bit about on APOD at an earlier date) had brightened significantly in the last few days and was now visible to the naked eye. I ran over to a good vantage point this morning to try and see it, but couldn't. Later that day I used "Your Sky" to figure out where and when I'd have to look to see the comet. I figured I would have to wait until Thursday (When a mass of bitterly cold polar air is forecast to rid the sky of clouds for two days) to get another chance. I was wrong. The sky miraculously cleared about half an our before sunset this evening (Jan 10th) and stayed clear long enough for me to watch the comet for about 20 minutes. It was awesome. I haven't seen a comet with my own two eyes since Hale-Bopp in 1997.