"All these things I should keep to myself
But I feel somehow strangely compelled...."

- Neil Finn, Sinner

Sitting here sort of spacing out - about to go home as I did docks this morning - and then I heard panting and someone saying "hey, hey, settle down. Want your ball?" Peaked aroung my cube wall and there's a female warden in the hallway with a German shepard. He just barked and startled me; getting a little antsy from being indoors and behaving himself, I suppose. Seems like he's an official dog; I believe I just heard her call him "Reno," although I'm not sure why a dog working for the State of California is named after a city in Nevada... ;)

Yikes, it's 100°F here, and smoky. Thought it would cool down as it gets later and it's just getting hotter. I seldom see three digits on that little widget on my desktop...

This place is less than mile from my home, and I actually worked for about three years at the fast-food place visible in the background more than two decades ago. But in all the time I've lived in the neighborhood, I've never ventured inside, despite my father making use of the services there for my grandmother. Specifically, for my grandmother's beloved Boo-Boo.

Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
14 August 2009

( +4 )

Another Waymark; I noticed there was a category for "Lion statues" so I thought I'd enter the one at the top of the auditorium of my old high school, since he's a bit high up and I'm not sure anyone notices him all that much. The buildings were just recently renovated; although, apparently, he was in fine shape and didn't need anything. These buildings are about 84 years old.

Darryl Stilwagon Auditorium and Tower
Huntington Beach High School
Canon EOS 1000D
22 July 2009

( entire building, which I've probably posted before... )

Woke up a little before 5 am to get runsamuck some coffee - he woke up having trouble breathing and that always helps - and Gareth also got up, saying he couldn't sleep. He spent the day at a friends and they both got sunburned - I did n't think to send sunscreen with him, and his arms and the tops of his feet just got fried. I got him settled in the living room and John his coffee, and was trying to figure out whether I should go back to bed or just stay up, when Gareth came in and said he heard noises on the patio.

The last couple of days we've found the cat food box - a sturdy plywood thing with a snap lock on a chain that my dad made, decades ago - dragged clear across the patio into the fountain (which does not contain any water at present), and the corners of the lid shredded as if something had been chewing on them. We told Gareth to turn on the light, and saw movement on the rock fountain. I looked closer and saw not one, but about five masked furry shapes, one large and four small. One by one they clambered back up the rocks and along the fence to the hawthorne hedge.



Raccoon damage
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
16 July 2009

Well. We'd suspected a raccoon, but not an entire family of them! I know they live around here but this is the first time I've actually seen any. I guess we'll have to bring the box inside.

Tried for another geocache at the bluffs on the south end of Bolsa Chica Ecological preserve - however, it was a little too close to dark. We got to the coordinates but were supposed to spy the cache area a hundred fet away. We decided to finish another day, but we did see some wildlife while there.

Bosco's Bluff
Bolsa Chica
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 100D
20 June 2009

( Wildlife... )

After finding an Earthcache up in Spokane, I was pleased to see one (of several)a little closer to home. This one is in a neighborhood in San Pedro, only a few blocks up the street from the harbor, where I occasionally go to sample fish. Not a real wonderful neighborhood, but a rarity in that the geology is exposed to view; normally placed like this would be covered up by iceplant or a retaining wall or something. In this case, one layer of ancient seabottom cuts across another, older and tilted at an angle. There are all kinds of fossils here; part of getting credit for this one was emailing in what made the holes in the sediments at the contact. Hint: there were fossils of them spread throughout these sediments.

Urban Unconformity
San Pedro CA
Canon EOS 1000D
18 June 2009

( Ancient Diggers... )

I am so far behind on these - good thing I'm not doing it every day right now...from back in June...



Had the day off since I worked over the weekend, so went to the Aquarium on a Monday! Found another couple of geocaches and took this pic from one of them; messed about in Picnik with it a bit.

Queen Mary
Long Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
15 June 2009

( here be dragons... )

We found out this week that Gareth's mission model had been entered by the school in the county Youth Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds. That's his, closest to the hay bale on the lowest level. The one just behind him is a classmate's; she decided to make hers out of gingerbread, with red licorice for the roof tiles - pretty creative, but it was looking a bit tired and crumbly after all the travel. I brought along the Big Camera, but unfortunately forgot the spare battery; after a few rabbit and chicken pics in the 4-H section, it died, so had to rely on my phone.

OC Youth Expo
Costa Mesa CA
Kyocera Switchbach phone camera
18 April 2009

By the way - the Fairgrounds really needs to label their entrances for events a little better. There was a Pet Expo going on at the same time, which took up most of the grounds and for which there was a $12 admission. There were signs on the main street for the Youth Expo (which was free), but no other direction. We parked at OCC, the community college across the street, and walked to what we thought would be the entrance, but both the main fairground entrances were to the Pet Expo. By the time we figured out the entrance was in the back, near the Equestrian Center, we had had to walk all the way around the Swap Meet (also going on, and charging admission so we couldn't take a short cut through it), and up Newport Blvd., nearly a complete circuit of the entire Fairgrounds. Which I wouldn't have minded so much, but it was HOT!!! and I hadn't brought any water with me. Plus three kids who weren't necessarily wearing walking shoes. Also, when we finally found the correct entrance, there was no sidewalk and very little allowance for pedestrians; I did not feel real comfortable with three kids, dodging cars to walk in the driveway.

( other youth crafts, animals and balloons! )

Heading up to Monterey for a staff meeting. Driving because of the budget, and about 44 miles from Salinas. A few minutes ago, south of King City, we passed half a dozen deer in a dormant walnut orchard; it seemed strange to see them in such an open space, right next to the highway, dark gray-brown antlers among white walnut branches. For that matter, I could've sworn I saw a doe between the bushes below the Getty Center while we were still in LA. And coworker B has been making a game of counting redtailed hawks along the highway. It'll be dark soon. Glad to not be driving. He was just remarking how the last 50 miles seem to be the longest. (sent while heading up the 101...)

On the door of the public entrance to my work building. Yes, you see strange things around my office sometimes.

Office Sign
Los Alamitos CA
Sharp VE-CG30
19 November 2008

My SF/Fantasy book group decided to have a video night instead of meeting at the bookstore like we usually do. Our hostess lives in Leisure World, and her small home is nearly overtaken by her lion collection.

We watched a bootleg of Tales of Earthsea; I didn't realize Miyazaki had done a version of Ursula LeGuin's books.

Leisure World
Seal Beach CA
Kyocera Switchback phone camera
11 September 2008

( ...and her carousel horse collection... )

The Aquarium of the Pacifc is having a photo contest; any photo taken there over the last 10 years can be entered. I was thinking of these two:

Weedy Scorpionfish

Weedy Scorpionfish by *senoritafish on deviantART

or

Anemones



I've got a squillion of 'em, but I think I like those the best. Which one do you like better?

Squeeee!

Lampwork Nudibranchs.

I think they're even pendants...

A sea cucumber puckers up. Well, I did it again. It was a special kid's morning in early February at the AOP, and as per usual I took 119 photos that I have trouble deciding on. Ooh, 7 am is way too early to be at the Aquarium!

( more critters )

The church a block from my house puts on a Drive-Thru Nativity every year; they have since I was a kid. They set up all these little scenes in the parking lot and you drive your car from one to the next. Kind of corny, but I like how they use the parking lot plantings as part of the scenery. We're pretty agnostic, but I figure the kids should at least know the stories.

( Angels, asses, and sheep. And sheep's asses... )

My boss turned me on to this - Divebums.com is a website dedicated to the San Diego area, but most of what you see there is representative of my area, too. They have a Photos of the Week page featuring local underwater photography, although quite often people submit photos of where they went on vacation. You can sign up for an email reminder and they'll send you a link to the week's page. This week I received:

http://week.divebums.com/2007/Apr09-2007/

It's that nudibranch time of year...

Enjoy,

John
Divebums

A few of my favorites, Spanish shawl nudibranchs, in this one...

You may even see me there occasionally (waves fins).

Hmm, just got notice a few minutes ago that a story about CA Department of Fish and Game wardens making a bust on illegally caught spiny lobster will be featured on "All Things Considered" this afternoon (Listening to it now). Don't know if it was recreational or commercially caught.

That took place in my office yesterday. My friend IT asked us to borrow a uniform shirt, because we have a drawer full of them, and his was at home. He was volunteered in case anyone had questions on lobster biology and said today he thought he was going to get out of it without saying anything, then at the last minute they wanted an entire formal presentation on the lobster fishery and lobster biology. The office was full of wardens and as I walked by the conference room, I could see one entire table covered with spiny lobsters - many still alive, I could see their antennae moving. The local NBC and ABC news affilliates were here as well, although I guess it wasn't a slow enough news day for it to appear last night.

The sad thing is, all those lobsters will have to be killed (probably frozen), because they are evidence for a court case, although later they will probably be donated to a shelter.

(Ah, here it is - they were fishing in protected areas, caught in a sting operation using marked lobsters. Interesting how enforcement refers to perpetrators as "gentlemen.")

Has Neil Finn ever used any kind of nature sounds in his work? I seem to remember weird bird-like noises (gulls maybe? possibly backwards?) at the end of "Kill Eye"...any others?

This occurred to me after I recently purchased One All from iTunes after becoming a reluctant iPod owner (yes, I'm a bad Finn fan - but I did manage to get 7 Worlds and Everyone is Here first). After listening to Into the Sunset several times, I realized something sounded familiar - the bell-like noise in the chorus. I used to have quite a few Paul Winter albums (mostly on tape, never repurchased as CDs, so I haven't heard them in a long time), and a couple of Bernie Krause CDs - both artists use animal sounds in their work, and one of those albums is where I heard a very similar sound.

It's a male walrus, declaring his territory. You can hear it here:

http://whyfiles.org/114music/3.html -
(click the walrus button)

They make the sounds underwater, by vibrating air sacs in their necks.

Now I'm sure the bell in Neil's is just that - it sounds a bit muffled and off-kilter, but the sound is consistent. The walrus's vary in tone and pitch. However, I'm sure I must be the only person who hears "Into the Sunset" and is reminded of Arctic pinnipeds. Well, there is some marine imagery in this song, so perhaps it's not too out of place.

( Lyrics... )