The Aerie
Whoo, boy, that was a bit of a mistake.
One of the reasons (among many excuses) I haven't posted anything here
for a couple weeks has been to NOT ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO VISIT! See, I
didn't anticipate my slideshow viewer would be such a success! I
posted a few pictures, sent the links to a very limited set of people
(well, and the world at large), and the next thing I knew, I was 'way
over my ISP's miserly bandwidth allocations!
That ends tonight, however, with the arbitrary passage of midnight of
the 31st of July, it's tabula rasa for the monthly bandwidth
limitation. And I'm taking some steps on my end to make my own
utilization more efficient.
Meanwhile it has been a zoo around here. We busted our butts trying to
get a proposal accepted at a large local manufacturer, but the fix was
in all along and we got turned down. Mind you, we under-bid the other
guys by 40%, so I'm pretty confident that the fix was in. But I'll
never know.
On the upside, we didn't get it, so I get my August back. Granted, I'm
broke, but at least I'm broke at my leisure. Got a million
business-related things I need to do, but hopefully I can take some
time off in there for a little relaxation.
Had a nice time last night. The writing group was over, and afterwards
Terry suggested we go get a beer at Molly Quinn's. A capital idea if
ever there was one, despite the fact that I had an 8:30 a.m. meeting
half an hour away. I ended up meeting Tam's beau, the elusive
rock-and-roll star Paul, and we had a great chat about adoption (we're
both adopted: I've searched and found, he hasn't). Closed the place
down at 1:30, but not till Paul showed off some of his acoustic guitar
licks on a borrowed instrument. And apparently he's entirely
self-taught.
I should do that more often, and it's a shame and a pity that I don't.
But then, the same could be said about getting to the gym, too.
[1]Last
[Andy Rooney] Didja ever wonder why some lakes are "Lake So-and-so",
while others are "Such-and-such Lake"? I mean, we have our own example
right here: Como Lake in St. Paul has a namesake in Italy's famous
Lake Como.[/Andy Rooney]
I was thinking of this as I got ready for our family camping weekend
at Lake Maria State Park (pronounced, by the way, like the wind:
Mar-EYE-a). Looking at the map of the area, I noticed something odd:
there in the state park was Lake Maria... and just to the northwest,
outside the park... was...
Maria Lake?
WTF? That's gotta get confusing!
So we packed and we left, fulfilling an odd synchronicity of minor
events.
I'm a self-described "camping bigot": when I camp, I like to camp.
Parking in a flat field with 200 other people and pitching a tent next
to the minivan is to camping what Twinkies are to actual food. My
spouse, bless her heart, can't figure me out in this regard. And the
closer she comes to my actual vision of camping, the crankier I get
(mainly because real camping is a pain in the ass, even if I prefer it
over the non-real kind).
Well, last October we took a little bed-and-breakfast excursion in
Monticello, to bask in the romantic glow of the nuclear plant. On our
way home we were in no hurry, and so I meandered out of town in the
wrong direction, just to delay the inevitable return to
kids-and-house. We drove along and the next thing we knew, there was a
sign for Lake Maria State Park. Never heard of it.
So we drove in and looked around. It was very nice! Thick woods, lots
of ponds, and secluded, distant campsites. One thing that looked
interesting were the "camper cabins": hardly more than bunk-booths
with a woodburning stove and a table, they still would have had any
voyageur weeping at the luxury. But they looked like fun, especially
with kids, where keeping the tent zipped is only slightly more
difficult than making sure the zipper actually stays working.
So from this little drive-by discovery, we went this weekend for our
first camping at LMSP.
Now, LMSP was still lovely. The campsites were still in deep,
beautiful forest, and it was still a very nice, almost-really-like
camping experience. However, one thing had been added to the mix since
last October, brought on by our absurd mount of local rainfall...
BUGS
Not just Minnesota-mosquito-weather bugs. Not just "wow-it's-buggy"
bugs. No, these were "Holy Christ what the $^@%! AAAAAAAAGGH!" bugs.
These bugs had me thinking of the troops who served in Viet Nam. They
probably had it worse. They were the only ones I could think of who
did.
The first 3/4-mile hike from the car to the campsite was the worst: I
was under- dressed and under-sprayed for the task. Add to the delight
that I took a wrong turn along the way (because I had bugs in my face
so bad I couldn't see where I was going), and I was about ready to go
home as soon as we arrived. Honest to god, if going home hadn't
involved walking back through the bugs, I'd've left right then. More
than once over our weekend I was strongly tempted to drive the family
car into the virgin campsite in order to avoid that walk.
There were three types of bugs, of increasingly difficulty of
detection. First there were the deerflies: easy to detect. I knew I
was up sh&@ creek when a cloud of them paced the car as we drove into
the parking lot. This is like pulling up to a bar and having a bunch
of guys in leather jackets surround your vehicle smacking blackjacks
in their palms. I stepped from the car, and the buzzing sound didn't
leave my ears for three days.
Next were the mosquitoes. They could have been worse: they could have
been LARGER. They could have been wearing leather jackets and smacking
blackjacks. They could hardly have been more plentiful. While the
deeflies took the hair, neck and ears, the mosquitoes took the limbs
and torso, and they teamed up on the face. As we slogged our
ridiculous supplies deep through the woods, we were followed by a
cloud of insects. This is not hyperbole, exaggeration or illustration:
there was literally a cloud of insects behind each of us as we walked.
Finally, of course, the tics. Indetectable by normal means, they have
to be rooted out with ultrasounds, MRI's, and cat-scans.... or by
waiting until you feel something like an extra toe growing out of the
back of your ear! Oddly although we feared them all weekend, we only
actually met two, neither of which managed to get a grip on anybody.
As a result of oall this our perception of the campsite went through
some changes. The scenic pond surrounded by raspberry bushes
transformed before our eyes into into BIG MOSQUITO FACTORY and BIG
MOSQUITO TRACT HOUSING as soon as we arrived, with us becoming the BIG
MOSQUITO TREAT.
But we adapted. The kids learned to close the screen door behind them
(even if they never did learn to simply stop going in-and-out so
much). We learned the value of covering every inch of flesh with 9.5%
DEET. And we all enjoyed standing in the smoke from the wood fire,
even if we couldn't breathe or see.
My big discovery, however, was the towel-over-the-head. Where I had
walked bareheaded, in shorts and a tank top down the path the first
night, by the time we left I was wearing sweatpants, sweatshirt, and a
beach towel over my head. If somebody told me that the hijab had been
invented, not to oppress women and treat them like property, but to
free them from incessant clouds of stinging insects, I'd happly buy
two just for myself. Was I sweating in all these clothes? Was I
uncomfortable under a beachtowel? Did I look like an idiot? I didn't
care. By the time we left I could walk with impugnity through the
thickest cloud of deerflies...
Saturday we abandoned the campsite for as long as we could, heading
out to blessedly-insect-free Pleasant Lake for an absolutely beautiful
day of doing nothing. The weather couldn't have been better. The
eye-candy was plentiful as Pleasant Lake is apparently the in-thing to
do for large numbers of corn-fed rural farm girls. The air was cool
and dry. And no bugs.
However, it was a learning experience. I learned, much to my chagrin,
that the leaves of a small tree are insufficient defense against
ultraviolet radiation. The UV rays had come ninety-three million miles
to meet me, and by god they weren't about to let a few meagre leaves
stop them only a few feet from their goal. Nosiree Bob!
The result is, I'm baked. Whoa am I baked. I haven't lobstered like
this in years. Usually (well, sometimes) I have the sense to put on
sunblock. A couple weeks ago my wife said "Put on some sunblock", but
did I? No.
Apparently (and quite rightly) she's given up on trying to save me
from my own foolishness. So sunblock never even crossed my mind on
Saturday. I never thought of it once. I placed our blankets in the
shade of a small tree, and I moved them around to stay in the shade as
the afternoon progressed. And it never occurred to me that days and
days of working at a keyboard in the basement of my house probably
hadn't prepared me for hard solar radiation, even if it was filtered
by 2 mm of chlorophyll and cellulose.
So not only was sleeping last night quite, um, interesting, but
hoo-boy did I have fun carrying out our camping gear this morning,
with a roasted red sunburn. It's a small mercy that I can't see the
back of my own neck, because if I did I'd probably faint dead away.
So anyway, we did eventually get home, although the drive was brutal.
I couldn't sit back against the seat, and I had to hold the shoulder
strap away from myself with one hand because the chafing was insane.
And I had to drive because the alternative was to sit in the passenger
seat... in the sun and I was having none of that.
We'll go back to Lake Maria sometime, I think. But maybe we'll go
winter camping: stoke up the wood stove, make a few snowmen, and revel
in the beauties of nature... a nature with no bugs...
[1]Last
The Indigo Girls performed last night at the State Theatre in
Minneapolis. It was a good concert and a fun crowd -- I was
unfortunately too upset by unrelated job issues to enjoy it as much as
I should have, but I tried hard to eat the strawberry[1]*.
Lisa Loeb opened for them, and she was certainly entertaining. Getting
LL as an opener for the Girls was a special treat. She was very
personable. When someone requested a song off her new album, (the song
"Kickstart") she warned that she was still a little rough on live
performances of that song and that its performance might constitute a
"very special occasion." But she did it anyway and sounded fine.
After her performance, Lisa Loeb went out into the lobby and signed
CDs during the intermission. She seemed like a very "southern" woman:
both charming and classy, and sometimes playing off that for jokes
(regarding having annoying neighbors for fireworks viewing the night
before in Chicago she stated sweetly, "They were very special
people... it was like... well God damn it!")
Then the houselights dimmed for the Indigo Girls, and it was nonstop
action from the moment they stepped on stage. They played the
following set list in two straight hours of sound:
Bitterroot Faye Tucker Least Complicated
Ozziline Watershed Chickenman
You've Got to Show Moment of Forgiveness Virginia Woolf
Shame on You Closer to Fine[2]** Starkville
Power of Two Yield Galileo
Become You Collecting You Encore: Saving me
Get Out the Map Laramie[3]*** Encore: Go
The highlight of the concert had to be Amy Ray's absolutely intense
energy. She was grinning like a fool almost constantly, and
practically glowing. Emily definitely took a back seat during this
concert, and on the songs featuring her voice she sounded a little
scratchy, so possibly Amy was doing fill-in duty. If so, she did an
exceptional job, really burning a hole in the stage.
As usual their costuming was eclectic: Emily was wearing jeans with a
T-shirt underneath an open denim buttondown. It took about half the
concert before enough of the T-shirt was exposed to read its block-
lettering logo: "Don't Ruin This With Words". Amy was wearing a simple
black tank-top with an odd pair of tartan kilt-pants: regular
tartan-patterned bellbottoms with tartan flaps hanging down in front
and back making a skirt over the pants. Topping off the oddness, a
matching tartan belt was tied like a hobble across her legs, one end
tied just below each knee. I have no idea what any of this meant.
I can't say that I was a fan of the acoustics of this performance. It
was the first time I've seen them in the State Theater, and the sound
was very "messy" to my untrained ear. There were also points during a
couple of songs where I couldn't hear the vocalist's words due to the
sound of the instruments. Additionally it was just damned LOUD. We
were in main floor row O, center, so we weren't right UNDER the
speakers, but it was astonishingly loud. It was so loud in fact that
after the concert ended my wife and I were talking to another couple,
and we all commented that we sounded like the Chipmunks to each other:
we couldn't hear any sounds in the lower register!
The music, as mentioned, was nonstop, with instruments for the next
song arriving as soon as the last song ended. Despite its nonstop
nature, the Girls performed for two solid hours. During one of the
conversational breaks between songs Amy Ray revealed that she'd spent
the afternoon in Minneapolis bicycling along the paths next to the
Mississippi river. This meant that at some point she passed within two
blocks of our house! I can't imagine what my reaction would be if I
were strolling down the River Road and saw Amy Ray ride past me...
Probably something embarassingly fannish, such as attempting to keep
pace with her bicycle while asking for an autograph!
One big upside: at the last TWO concerts we've stood just behind the
same woman. This wouldn't have been such an issue except that she
stands about six-foot-two and enjoys the music by rocking side to side
with such vigor that it was impossible to see the stage from our
vantage point. This time she'd scored third-row tickets somehow and
wasn't blocking our view.
As much as I love the Girls, by the time the concert was over I was
ready for it to be over. My ears were ringing and I was tired from two
hours on my feet (which doesn't begin to compare with the last
concert, their album debut at First Avenue, where we stood for two
hours before the concert even began.) Hopefully their next concert
will have better acoustics!
Unless they make a special promotion for a cause like Honor the Earth
it will probably be a few years till they come back, but when it
happens we'll be waiting!
*My wife reminded me about the Buddhist proverb where snarling tigers
chase a man off a cliff. He falls and grabs a protruding branch that
begins to break. Looking down he sees sharp, deadly rocks below;
looking up are tigers and a breaking branch. Then in front of his nose
he notices a strawberry growing out of the cliff. He eats it and it's
delicious.
**Lisa Loeb joined the Girls on Closer to Fine and sang the third
verse. At times she seemed a little overwhelmed by the energy of both
the audience and the other performers.
***Off Amy Ray's solo album, 'Stag'. While the entire concert was an
Amy performance and therefore almost punk in its intensity, this song
was right over the top and not as well received. A lot of people took
their seats during this one.
[4]Last
It was Writing Group again last night, and that means writing
exercise.
As described [1]previously, the writing exercise involves drawing a
random set of words that describe characters, places, situations and
emotions, and then writing as fast as possible for 20-30 minutes on
our selections.
I was particularly pleased with my effort last night, and so I'll
share it with you...
_________________________________________________________________
"So honored we are to have you with us."
Gloria Viceppi turned away from the windy balcony railing where she'd
been trying to get some fresh air, and quickly adjusted her gaze
downward. Another fan gripped her book, "The Occidental Tourist," in a
sweaty, vicelike grip. Despite two similar receptions she
unconsciously extended her hand to the small, black haired fellow even
as he bowed. He then reached for her hand, whether to kiss it or shake
it she never knew, because she whipped it up to adjust her hair,
ruffled in the wind atop the high tower where the reception for her
book was being held, and then she bowed in return, finding herself
briefly staring at his own extended hand.
"This is how new customs are born," she thought briefly. "A hundred
years from now Americans and Japanese alike will greet each other by
bowing in turn over the other's extended hand, tallest first." She
wondered idly if the European habit of kissing each other's cheeks had
started with a similar set of faux-pas, maybe it was originally one
kiss right on the nose but people missed.
Her attention returned to the Japanese man in front of her, who, she
realized, was nearing the end of an amusing anecdote about how her
book had helped him understand the Western Mind.
"...and so I said to him, "'Hey, bud-dee, it's cool with me!'" he
finished, laughing uproarously. She joined in politely and signaled
over his head for the dour looking caterer to bring by the tray of
drinks. She was getting the idea that he was deliberately avoiding
her.
"Well," she replied in to the awkward silence, trying to remember what
the little man had been saying, "I'm very happy that you enjoyed my
book, and that it helped you in your shituation."
There was a pause, and for a panicked moment she wondered if she had
offended him, "Did I just say 'shituation'? Could he tell? His English
was very good. I'd better layoff the drinks!"
But the man seemed to be momentarily lost in thought and just then the
waiter arrived. She waved him away, wondering if that was a scowl of
irritation masked behind his implacable Japanese countenance. She
wondered what he would be like in bed. At five-foot-eleven she was
tall even for a gaijin, why he would hardly come up to her breasts!
She bet she could make him lose that porcelain expression!
"Miss Viceppi," the little man said, and she suppressed a startled
jump. She'd forgotten he was there. "I should tell you, I am more than
just a fan of your work."
"Oh god," she thought, "here it comes. Now he'll express his undying
love and devotion for me. Really, next time I need to use less
powerful stuff." Much of her book had come from information she found
in the Osaka University archives. In Japan on a grant to the Social
Sciences department, Gloria had stumbled across a treasure trove, a
cache of doctoral and post-doctoral works of Japanese social sciences
students examining Western thought. A little tweak here, a
transcription there, lace it all with classical Japanese and Western
poetry, and Gloria Viceppi's flagging academic career was gilded with
book tours and public appearances. She signaled the caterer for
another drink. She was sure that he was avoiding her.
"I'm sorry, am I disturbing you?" the man in front of her asked. Did
she detect an edge in his voice? Who was he again, another fan?
"Forgive me, I just can't seem to get the waiter over here," she
cooed, soothingly, "please go on with what you were saying?" She tried
to fix her full attention on him, but the dour caterer in his pressed
tuxedo was drawing ever closer. Damn but he looked good in that
austere, mysterious way these Japanese had...
"I was saying that I, too, worked at one time at the Osaka University
myself." The man said. She glanced at him again. Everything about him
was smiling except for his eyes.
"Oh, did you?" she grasped at the thread of conversation, "When was
that?"
"Four years ago. I worked with Doctor Nakimura."
"Ah, I'm sorry, he was a fine man," Gloria murmured politely. She'd
never met the man but had heard he was a boor.
"I left in order to care for my family after my parents died."
Another polite murmur as she snatched a martini and threw a wink at
the caterer. His face remained as impassive as ever.
"Do you know what I was working on before I left?" the little man was
still here.
She sipped her martini while slowly shaking her head no and raising
her eyebrows to encourage him to continue.
"I was working on a comparative study of Western and Japanese thought.
I wanted to examine ways in which we are alike and in which we are
different, your people and mine."
"Oh, really?" she asked, trying as best she could to charm the little
fellow into going away.
"Yes," he replied shortly, "Do you not think that your successful book
and my work bear a striking resemblance to each other?"
For just a moment she caught a thread of his meaning, and she choked
briefly on her drink.
The little man took this as a sign of encouragement and continued,
"Yes, and when I left for home, I stored my work in a little used
portion of the University computer system, under Dr. Nakimura's name."
Gloria remembered now. Remembered being given access to the late Dr.
Nakimura's files and research. The thrill of discovering the cache of
postdoctoral studies... suddenly the man interrupted her again.
"Imagine my surprise to find my research within this very book!" the
man cried, his implacable Japanese face now livid with rage. He raised
her book over his head threateningly... and at just that moment a
fresh martini appeared at the edge of her vision. She turned, feeling
something brush by her, and heard a cry like that of a seagull. She
glanced behind her, but the little man was no longer on the balcony.
It was nice that he'd left, he had seemed to be getting angry about
something...
She turned back to face the caterer, who was gazing at her with his
smoldering Oriental eyes. "Let me give you my room number," she
purred...
_________________________________________________________________
My words were "A therapist", "Japanese", "a cocktail party", "envy and
jealousy", and "a close call with death". 25 minutes writing, no
revisions. I thought it was pretty good!
[2]Last
[1][P6290073.jpg] At last! At last! I got it working!
I've been searching for a slideshow script for forever, so I'm just
thrilled that I've finally found one that suits all my finicky
criteria. It's small, it runs off the server side, meaning that it
doesn't burden my acquaintances on slow dialup modems, and it's
simple. It displays every image in whatever directory I like, all I
have to do is dump the images in the directory and voila, they're on
the web. I did have to fix a bunch of bugs in it to get it working,
but I'm learning the scripting language, so that's a good thing.
[P6290006.jpg] The images in the slideshow were taken last weekend,
during which time the Twin Cities were stalked by an elusive blimp
from, of all places, Saturn. Well, it said "Saturn" on the side at
least.
Anyway I got some shots of it on Saturday night but before the sun set
some rain clouds moved in and it turned tail and fled for the Crystal
airport (I've seen blimps parked (? do blimps park or land?) there
before. So I got a few shots of the river as the rain moved past, and
a few more when the scattered showers cleared (the nice pastel
cloudscapes).
[P6290031.jpg] The next day we went to visit my cousin for her
daughter's graduation party (sheesh, did THAT make me feel old -- I
remember when the girl was born!) Out back of their house they had
something that should stand as a warning to all those who would
indulge in fads. An adult pot-bellied pig.
This thing is practically the dictionary definition of "ugly". And
when my daughter reached in to pet it, it's fur (hair?) came off in
her fingers. NOT impressive.
Of course, I'm the guy who doesn't even want a cat. Not that I mind
pets, but I already have four people to feed on one meager income, I
hardly need a creature whose sole task it is to eat, excrete, and look
condescendingly upon me. It would be like inviting your boss to come
live with you, and there's a reason I'm self-employed...
[P6290066.jpg] On our way home we stopped at the old swimmin' hole I
used to frequent when I was a lad, and then we headedback into the
city. As we were crossing the bridge over the Mississippi on Marshall
Avenue, there was this amazing vista! It's the first sunset pic, taken
out the window of the car as I drove. The blimp is that little dash,
right in the setting sun. Then I selfishly made the family wait as I
snapped the rest of what my camera could hold. Dang I love my camera!
Anyway, I still have to gussie it up with lots of frills, and make it
a little cleaner looking. Then when it's ready I'll insert it into the
overall structure of the site, and soon I'll be able to show off all
my digital pix!
Hopefully that will impress someone! Meanwhile, enjoy!
[2]Last
Okay, okay, that's ENOUGH! It's 9:00 p.m. on Monday, and I've been
working my ass off since, geeze, I dunno, sometime in the middle of
last week. I get to take some time off and work on my online journal!
A real treat today, however... At long last, I think I've found a one
of my holy grails, a server-side slide-show generator. We'll see if
this works. If not, I'll try to get it running in this space
tomorrow...[1]testing (Hee hee!! It works! It works!! Well, it was
working. Now I broke it again. Oh well, time for bed, fix it
tomorrow.)
[2]Last