16 2004-12-25 22:55 cave cont'd
stories
i actually have a couple other somewhat freaky stories from that cave that i didn't even include. well, one isn't really a story, 'cause it happened really fast (at least, the exciting part did).
15 2004-12-25 16:43 gmail invites
gifts
email me if you want a gmail.com email account. i have some invites. merry christmas!
14 2004-12-23 15:17 cave craziness
stories
here's what i did last weekend. actually last summer, but it was interesting to me, being one of the more freaky things i've ever experienced. i blog it now because i just ran across the sheet of paper on which i documented it.
13 2004-12-21 10:52 hukt awn wirdz
words
you found my blog. good job, you succeeded (or "seceded", as some say).
12 2004-12-15 17:04 firefox full
products
everybody's been talking about firefox, now that the full version is out. i tried it a while back while it was in beta (0.9.2), but went back to ie. i think i had some trouble with pages not working right, but my most specific complaint is that it doesn't remember active links.
11 2004-12-15 17:03 or double yew
words
the purpose of this post is just to point out the spelling of the word weird.
10 2004-12-13 19:39 old main at twilight today
pictures
9 2004-12-12 18:07 tolkien quote
quotes
Christmas shopping at Barnes & Noble i just went ahead and bought a paperback of "unfinished tales". it's actually nicer in some ways. it has a couple maps that the library's older hardback didn't have. neither edition had a map of beleriand, though, which is the setting for the first part of the book, so i found one on the web, printed a couple copies, and left one, plus one of númenor (already included in paperback) tucked into the jacket inside the front cover before returning it. anyway, the paperback is also smaller, of course. lighter books are easier to hold while reading. if you're sitting you can rest the book in your lap or on a table, but otherwise (or if your neck dislikes the previous options, you have to hold the weight of the book somehow. (though when lying down i do use a pillow to partially support heavy books, but it's still more effort.)
here's a quote from the first section of the book, when Ulmo, sort of the Poseidon of Middle Earth, is sending a man ("Edain" is the name of a race of men. elves are immortal, and "High Folk of the West" refers to a classification of special elves of whom Turgon is a king.) on an important errand:
8 2004-12-08 11:58 traffic lights
improvements
finally (for now), here's an easy way we could make the world a slightly better place. at night, traffic signals should flash. some here used to, but no more. i suppose it's just easier to have them always function the same way.
i frequently drive at night and find it silly that i'm expected to sit through a traffic signal's cycle that is optimized for rush hour when there is not another car in sight. i sort of think "traffic lights" should only be in force when there is actually traffic. the purpose of traffic lights is twofold: safety and traffic flow. why should it be against the rules to run a red light if neither safety nor traffic flow is compromised? i always try to drive safely, of course. but why waste gas (thus increasing pollution), brake pads, and my time for nothing? i don't necessarily think we need to change the traffic law, but i don't necessarily think it's bad to violate the letter of the law if you maintain the spirit.
anyway, here's my idea: many old signals have sensors under the pavement. most all new signals have optical sensors. why not have the lights go to flashing mode after a given length time in which traffic flow is below a given threshold? it seems like this would be easy and very inexpensive to do at the manufacturing phase at least. i suppose it would be less strategic if the sensors were unreliable, since you wouldn't want flashing lights during rush hour due to a failed sensor.
7 2004-12-08 11:55 anticipating
minutiae
we just had the children's house angel tree party. they made us a sparkly cross, which made jen teary.
today i am looking forward to monte ne, that is, the ConC guys semi-annual dead day dinner at the monte ne inn, an all you can eat family-style fried chicken dinner.
i'm also looking forward to return of the king. 132 hours to go.
i will also mention that "vertigo" is growing on me.
6 2004-12-08 11:51 don't be (a) looser
words
here's another learning experience, folks. i've been seeing this one on the web a lot in the last year: loose used where lose is intended.
loose is pronounced /Looss/ and is usually an adjective, e.g. loose women, but can be used as a verb, e.g. loose the chains of injustice, and seems to be a noun (though perhaps it's really still functioning as adjective) in the phrase "on the loose".
lose is pronounced /Looze/ and is a verb meaning the opposite of to find or to win, e.g. if we lose the game. you never loose a game.
5 2004-12-04 23:59 party
minutiae
4) tonight was the christmas party. i took 165 pictures and got a remote control motorcycle, which is something i was already meaning to buy.
4 2004-12-04 23:58 improvements
improvements
1) i like this year's Christmas light setup better than what i did last time. last time it was a single string of white around the top railing of each deck. it was anemic looking, too spread out. this time it's more concentrated. it's almost a little strange to have only such a small part of such a large house lit, but it is the right part, the front entrance. and it has the advantage that it is plugged into the existing light sensor, so it's automatic. the way i used to have it there were two separate sections each on a timer, and the timers would occasionally require resetting. one advantage of the other way: it was unobtrusive (also relatively inconspicuous except for the extension cords in front), so i left them up for over 2 years (3 christmasses)--more effort-efficient. these will have to come down after christmas. but overall, i like it a lot better.
2) two weeks ago i checked out a book from the (public) library for the first time in a long time. i got unfinished tales of númenor and middle earth (basically more details on the world of lord of the rings, compiled and commented on by j.r.r. tolkien's son). but what's up with having to return it in only 2 weeks. i read a couple hundred pages (pretty good for me for two weeks, a lot was over thanksgiving), but had about 300 to go. i wonder what the fine would have been. anyway, they have the option to extend the due date, but not if someone has it on hold, which they did. no one wanted it before, it was just sitting there on the shelf, but as soon as i'm in the middle of it, someone just has to have it. oh well, at least it's not some suspenseful story, just filling in historical/narrative details etc. anyway, the point is they should let you keep the books longer and the world would be a better place.
3) i have hardly played my guitar all year because a) it's in crappy shape, and b) i've had my dad's guitar which is nice and in good shape. in january i finally got the frets leveled, and it seemed a bit better, but still certainly not good. the first and second strings still buzz a lot at most of the frets, especially badly at a few. also, they replaced the bridge (i'm not sure why, but it seems slightly lower on the treble side than another 1997 410 (same make/model/year). it's clearly a plastic bridge instead of the ivoroid one that i had filed to reduce my string breakage. so yeah, $100 for not so much. they didn't change the nut at all, which is the main thing that needs changed to match the lower frets, and the bridge they made even lower which makes the buzz worse. so today i took my guitar apart for the first time. i had never had all the strings off. pulled the bridge out. there's a little shim already on top of the pickup (or whatever you call piezo-electric film things). maybe jake will instruct me. anyway, in a way i'm glad the guitar is old and worn enough now that i'm not afraid to mess with it.
3 2004-12-04 23:57 easy if you can handle finite
words
the purpose of this post is just to point out the spelling of the word definitely.
but as long as i'm here, i will mention other things.
2 2004-12-04 10:15 lights pic
pictures
last night i put up Christmas lights.
1 2004-12-03 10:31 intro
exposition
This is my blog. The beginning of it, in fact, and an inauspicious one, perhaps. It's not blasting off; more like lumbering out of the gate. But that's ok. No one but me even knows it exists, and until i create a link to it (or tell someone about it and they create a link) even the search engines won't know it's here.
I do want people to know it's here eventually. That's the point. Maybe after I post at least one entry I'll consider announcing it. Anyway, it is the point, to share with other people. It's not going to be a diary. As i think on what i might write about, some of what's on my mind now doesn't fall into the ready-for-a-public-forum category. Nor do i intend to record all the minutiae of my daily life, because they're less likely to be of any value or interest to you. (though maybe i should be journalling those non-blog categories items in a separate location. i started that a few times but was never consistent and rarely frequent, if that makes sense. probably doesn't without explanation. whatever.)
so, i've implied that what i do intend to include here will be possibly of "value or interest to you". right. but, yes, relatively speaking, that's the goal. now clearly my opinion of the kind of thing that's worth hearing, knowing or pondering differs from others', but whose problem is that? not mine.
on the other hand, i figure that if i keep the bar low enough, mainly with regard to length--but also quality (which in truth costs more time than does length)--of entries, then i'll increase my chances of posting more frequently (or at all).
what i have in mind, once this thing lumbers a bit, is a list of categories under which the entries will fall. some will be philosophizing. maybe even responses to other blogs and their comments. some will be thoughts on making the world a better place (as opposed to just complaining). i intend to include some product reviews.
sometimes i have little mini-soapbox moments, stuff i want people to hear, maybe even stuff i think they should hear. i recall that when several friends started blogs earlier this year, it was mildly spooky in that i had just been thinking for the previous few weeks that i would start a blog for those moments.
though no guru, i'm more web-savvy than the average person, and i could have done this back then with little trouble in a few minutes (which is what i'm doing now). the main reason i didn't start is because i wanted (and still intend) to do it myself from scratch, including some computer programming for automation of various features, and that will take a little bit more time to develop. we'll see how and how much (and when/if) that happens. anyway, i'm already planning ahead for that, in that i've named this file in a way that will be conducive.
for now, just email any comments. i may include them here.
T-rev
stories
i actually have a couple other somewhat freaky stories from that cave that i didn't even include. well, one isn't really a story, 'cause it happened really fast (at least, the exciting part did).
it was when carl and ian and i did the route, the first time. at the "wetter crawl" place you can optionally go up and over. so i went first and did that, but it was a tough climb down. i got part-way down and then i was just slipping and knew i couldn't hold on. so i jumped, without seeing in advance where i was going to land. i mean, i had already seen how far down it was and roughly the shape, but i wasn't looking (or at least, my light wasn't yet pointed there) when or just before i jumped. and the shape was not a flat, dry floor, it was a round, sloping wet floor. anyway, i sort of knew what direction had looked the flatest, and on the way down i pointed my light and i managed to land without slipping and not damage myself. but i strongly encouraged ian and carl to take the wet way instead. they begrudged me my dryness a bit, but were persuaded to take the safer way.
i have since learned that headlamps are a good way to see without having to hold and point a flashlight.
the other story happened was before i had done the birth canal, the night phil and i were in the cave after dark and had half-eaten acorns thrown at us from the trees (presumably by annoyed squirrels) when we went back out to the truck to get my few scraps of rope, which i then proceeded to patch together and use to lower myself down at the rappelling place. i got to where the wall had fallen away from me, hanging free, but from there i decided the rope wasn't long enough. but although descending was easy, going back up was not, and i was quickly tiring just maintaining altitude. but i didn't know where i would be if i dropped. (plus it was a pretty long drop, though it looked doable, maybe. plus there was a coleman lantern hanging from me.) so i decided i'd better do something quick. the rope was too small to grip (i had fashioned myself a seat-harness and as i recall was lowering myself pulley-style with a mechanical advantage of two, plus friction) so i just started wrapping it around my wrist to ascend. when i put my feet on the wall above/in front of me it caused my back pocket to empty itself of my mag-lite. and after i unwound the rope from my hand at the top, my hand was tingly for a week.
yeah, it was a bit harder to climb that rope than i had thought. and yes, it was a kind of dumb stunt and i'm lucky i didn't get hurt. keep in mind though that it wasn't really very far down. (and i must say i think i could have caught the rope and climbed back up if i had to. it actually would have been easy to reach if not from directly below then at least by jumping from the uphill side of the floor. i just didn't want to have to do that.) i would have felt better about the option of dropping down there if i had known the birth canal route. or--if i had still climbed back--at least i would have known how to retrieve my flashlight, if i thought it was worth an hour or two more and a lot of crawling. (one more narrative note: later that same night we built raccoon booby traps at our campsite.)
the lesson learned: from the fact that you can climb a thick rope without difficulty it doesn't necessarily follow that it'll be easy to climb a thin rope.
anyway, both of those were "hmm, maybe now i should start worrying just a bit" moments. more worrying in fact than the cave-in, if not quite as freaky.
15 2004-12-25 16:43 gmail invites
gifts
email me if you want a gmail.com email account. i have some invites. merry christmas!
14 2004-12-23 15:17 cave craziness
stories
here's what i did last weekend. actually last summer, but it was interesting to me, being one of the more freaky things i've ever experienced. i blog it now because i just ran across the sheet of paper on which i documented it.
first, about bat cave. it's a public access cave in the buffalo national river wilderness management area (national park service), near boxley arkansas (which is a few miles upstream from ponca, the first common starting point for floats). the cave is open from may 15 to august 15 every year. the rest of the time it is closed (by a fence around the entrance) to protect the somewhat endangered grey bats that live there.
as a child, through high school, i would spend a week or two at ponca bible camp each summer. every afternoon we'd swim in the river. on wednesday we'd hike the lost valley (state park between ponca and boxley) trail and picnic. on thursday we'd go to bat cave.
we'd walk in through the large main passage--with very minor clambering in a couple spots but high ceilings everywhere--to the large chamber notable for a little dry (whenever we were there) stream bed running through the middle, and a manmade hole in the the floor about the size and depth of an open grave. after a few minutes of the kids exploring the slopes around the walls, we'd all turn off our flashlights and sing some worship songs before heading back out.
one summer i gained a bit of notoriety for "discovering" (certainly it had been discovered by many before, but none from our group) a tunnel that went up and over the ceiling of the room and opened up at a place above the far wall that would have been very difficult (and dangerous) to climb up to. thus some people, not knowing about the tunnel, were surprised to see me up there.
one year when i was old enough to go to high school week (1990 or thereabouts), somebody decided to take us through the birth canal. off the main passage into the large room there's a side passage, with a steep slope down to the entrance of a crawling size tunnel. this is the beginning of a route of tunnels and passages that eventually re-enters the main passage closer to the large room. the re-entering part is a narrow squeeze, and is therefore referred to as the "birth canal".
also, just inside the entrance to the cave, there is another side passage (which actually goes straight when the main passage turns right) that leads to a drop-off to a lower part of the cave. a couple spikes have been put in the floor near the edge, and people will rappel down. from there, they join the route to the birth canal more than half-way along it.
anyway the adventurous guys were going to do this route while the rest of the group waited for us. someone in the group i think had done it before. we started the first crawl, and just where i was partly submerged in rather chilly water we stopped--with people in front of and behind me--to decide whether we really had time to do the whole thing. we decided not. but i had learned where the beginning of the birth canal route was.
here's how i told the next part of the story in an email:
> From: Trevor Stilwell [mailto:t-rev@ccws.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 1:20 PM
> To: Phil Swope
> Subject: birth canal
>
> well, we did it. we were pretty sure it existed, but we
> didn't know if it could be done without rope, or if we would
> be able to find the way, or if we would know the way out when
> we saw it, or how long it would take, or if we would have to
> go all the way back the way we came, i just knew where the
> start was. but we found it, and we made it, and let me tell
> you, they don't call it "the birth canal" for nothing. the
> last 1 ft took me about 4 minutes. we were in the cave ~3.5
> hours, about 2.5 of which was doing the birth canal journey.
> but now that we know the way, we could do it again faster.
> near the end we didn't know which way to go, but we found it
> eventually. i say it's pretty rad that we did it without
> knowing, without a guide. carl says he has no desire to ever
> do it again. ian says if he does it again, he wants to do the
> short way, which you would do by starting by rappelling down
> at that place where i lost my flashlight. it wouldn't take
> much more than a half hour to go that way, plus you might not
> get so wet. but you'd need a rope.... if you go the long
> way, you get quite wet... oh, and in the foyer to the little
> tunnel over the ceiling of the big room that you can just
> walk straight into (the one with the grave-looking hole in
> the floor and the little streambed flowing out of the wall),
> before we did the birth canal, we found a ziplock bag of
> fresh trail mix, which ian and i ate after we did the birth
> canal. (there was a large group of high school kids, with
> guides, one of whom had a bunch of rope, who had just come
> out of the cave when we arrived. so they must have left the
> trail mix for us...)
that email was written the day after the cave trip. we had gone on the first day the cave was open after the winter, and the trail mix had obviously not been there long, so it must have been dropped just that day. i remember a bit of exhilaration from successfully navigating the unknown. the other two guys hadn't even been in the cave before. see, it is not just a continuous tunnel, several times it opens out into rooms with multiple exits, so we didn't know if we were even going the right way until the very end. at one point, we chose which way to go based on some mud on the floor that looked out of place, presumably tracked there by the group that had just been through. i wanted to do it again soon, so as to remember the way, but that didn't happen.
the next time i did it was this year on my birthday, june 27, over four years after the first expedition. it did take us a while to figure out which was to go a couple times. here's the before picture, esther, me and laura. we didn't get an after picture because the camera stopped working when we got out. (it had taken a hard knock and sustained visible damage when my backpack got dropped, but my theory now is that the reason it stopped was condensation upon leaving the cool cave for the humid outdoors. it now works again. i took it apart and put it back together, but i'm not sure i actually fixed anything other than airing it out.)
anyway, we did it, and a few weeks later i returned with laura and lance and the route fresh in my memory. here's the before picture. this time we left the camera in the car, but i did take a compass and a piece of paper, and here's what i wrote (image. see the muddy messiness):
Aug. 14, 2004
Birth Canal
begin route
slide down slope E.
13:20 begin crawl ~25' S. then climb up
and W. climb down
13:31 SSW boulders then down
note graffiti
crawl SSW gradual curve E.
then sharper rt.
then bigger to E, then wet
then option drop and sitting room
then rt. (S) and down 13:46
wetter crawl
then tricky down then left
14:00
(W) up steep slick
easy big crawl W. then S,
then W and opens up standing
3 choices, turn rt. (N.W.)
up boulders. when opens up big,
option climb up on left to see
rappelling place. 14:16 rest 14:36
continue walk N.W.
crawl (small) NW then NE then U-turn
and other turns, then N. into
standing dome room. 14:53
again crawl very small NW then N into
another standing room then crawl NW
then right turn (CAVED IN)
backward crawl into
standing room 15:14 going back
the way we came in, out of
the last crawl 14:02. Think
the "cave-in" (not cave-in but dirt
and debris washed in, sticks, leaves,
small rocks etc.) was right before
the difficult pull-up (w/ no place
for feet) place, which leads into
a high ceiling room, then brief
crawl to standing slope up to
birth canal exit to main cave
massage (w/ volcano-like marking
on wall)
so we had entered the cave and i showed lance the rappelling spot from above. then i think before starting (certainly later if not then) i showed him the place where the birth canal re-enters the main passage. then we started the first crawl at 1:20pm. we took a break after about an hour when we got to the biggest chamber on the route, and lance and i climbed up to where we could see the rappelling spot (i think lance had left something hanging there). he found a glove and some rope (which stayed in the back of my truck all semester.) we were damp from a couple places where you have to crawl through standing water, by the time we resumed the hike i was getting chilly. (we had waited at the same place in june because we caught up with a larger group of guys in front of us, who were smoking cigarettes by the way.)
so three more crawls, with a couple little closet sized dome shaped rooms in between. the last crawl is the smallest yet, as in can't turn your head from right to left with the helmet on, and pretty slow going, centimeters per squirm. but we're getting close to the end, probably more than 90% through the whole route. and this is where it's about to get a bit freaky.
so we're in this tight tunnel and i turn a corner and the way is blocked. i look around, i must be missing something. but no, it's blocked, and newly so. i am in this little tunnel where i can barely move, and there is a bunch of dirt and little rocks, some of it right over my head. as in it could easily collapse and bury me. so i yell (but quietly...) back to lance and laura that we have to turn around. of course they think i'm kidding at first, but we back on out of there. probably less than 10 minutes before i'm back in the last standing room place, but it seemed longer. anyway, this is freaky not only because i was in this tight tunnel with loose sediment right over me, but also because we had just gone that way a few weeks before.
in retrospect i think that last tight tunnel was tighter in august than in june. the floor there is loose rocks like a stream bed, and maybe more had washed in. and i remember seeing several leaves and twigs on the floor in the little dome closets. of course water is what makes those tunnels. and apparently quite a bit of water had flowed through there quite recently to plug up the tunnel with all that crap. i sort of wish that after getting back to the main passage we had gone to the other end of the route and gone in to see the other side of that pile of stuff. anyway, a bit freaky, but a memorable experience. here's the after picture. and that's what i did last summer.
13 2004-12-21 10:52 hukt awn wirdz
words
you found my blog. good job, you succeeded (or "seceded", as some say).
yes, it seems that the more people misspell "definitely", the more other people learn the misspelling from them. this is turning into my next blog entry.
another interesting (for future reference, unless otherwise noted "interesting" means "interesting to me". of course.), related topic follows. a couple days ago I saw it spelled "definently". this was a perfect example of and brought my conscious attention to a phenomenon that I've long perceived but not stopped (at least, not recently) to consider.
there is a category of people who care at least a little about spelling and therefore are consistent in their spelling, both correct and incorrect. a large sub-set of this group uses the spelling "definately". some may think they are spelling it right (and, yes, I mean "right" to be an adjective); others may not think or care much but are nevertheless consistent.
people in the other category--and perhaps there's overlap between these categories--are phonetic spellers. and there is further sub-category of those who base their phonetic spelling on an incorrect pronunciation. at least "definately" is phonetically justifiable based on one acceptable pronunciation of the word.
now is probably a good time to bring up the fact that I personally prefer to deviate from customary spelling when there is a (to me, of course) logically and aesthetically preferable "alternate". two examples already in my blog: christmasses and journalling. ms word's spellchecker disagreed with both of these, but I disagreed with it; the spellings were intentional on my part. perhaps the more debatable is my pluralization of christmas, but I have two reasons: 1) a non-doubled consonant after a vowel and before the -es, -ed, or -ing endings implies the preceding vowel is long (this reason applies to journalling too.) and 2) the double s is etymologically appropriate since christmas is an abbreviation of Christ's mass or something to that effect.
back to the spellchecker: it also caught valour and marvelling, but those were tolkien's, not mine. which reminds me, tolkien seems to feel the way I do (or vice versa) about spelling, on this point and also on undoubling the double L in the first of two words that are joined, as in fulfill, always, or stilwell.
and again back to phonetic spelling: I surmise that most people do this at least a bit. I know I do sometimes when I get rolling on the keyboard. often I'm watching my words appear on the screen as I type and I'll catch the mistake as soon as I type it. one part of my mind, a part attached to my eyes, knows the correct spelling. and clearly in the process of thoughts being translated into motions of my fingers there is some part that knows the correct spellings. this fact is clear because most of the words I type are not misspelled. but that part apparently sometimes gets bypassed, or at least it doesn't have the level of grammar processing that the part attached to my eyes has. for instance, I'll type their when I mean they're. my dad does this too, in emails, and I know that--as also in my case--it is not because he doesn't know better. anyway, I find these evidences of cognitive/motor infrastructure to be interesting.
I wonder when I will ramble here about something deeper than spelling...
12 2004-12-15 17:04 firefox full
products
everybody's been talking about firefox, now that the full version is out. i tried it a while back while it was in beta (0.9.2), but went back to ie. i think i had some trouble with pages not working right, but my most specific complaint is that it doesn't remember active links.
say webpage A has some links and you click one (or use tab and enter on the keyboard), and then you navigate "back" to webpage A (actually any combination of back and forward without clicking any links). in msie the link which you clicked on webpage A is still selected, i.e. "active". (in fact, on some pages the active link will be a different color from unvisited and visited links.)
the main advantage of this is that using the keyboard you can hit tab or shift-tab to go quickly to the next or previous link. but in firefox, when you navigate back, there is no active link; you just start from scratch. (i also see that firefox ignores active link color, though that doesn't bother me.) forgetting the active link is a short-coming that only comes into play once in a while, and only for people who use the keyboard. but it was one problem that led me to use msie for certain things while i was trying out firefox, and contributed to my eventually dropping firefox altogether.
anyway, i just got the new firefox, full release 1.0, and i see they haven't fixed this. of course, it may well be intentional. they did keep firefox pretty streamlined, and maybe they decided not enough people would care to make the feature worthwhile. i'm sure most people haven't noticed, but surely i'm not the only one who has.
11 2004-12-15 17:03 or double yew
words
the purpose of this post is just to point out the spelling of the word weird.
10 2004-12-13 19:39 old main at twilight today
pictures
9 2004-12-12 18:07 tolkien quote
quotes
Christmas shopping at Barnes & Noble i just went ahead and bought a paperback of "unfinished tales". it's actually nicer in some ways. it has a couple maps that the library's older hardback didn't have. neither edition had a map of beleriand, though, which is the setting for the first part of the book, so i found one on the web, printed a couple copies, and left one, plus one of númenor (already included in paperback) tucked into the jacket inside the front cover before returning it. anyway, the paperback is also smaller, of course. lighter books are easier to hold while reading. if you're sitting you can rest the book in your lap or on a table, but otherwise (or if your neck dislikes the previous options, you have to hold the weight of the book somehow. (though when lying down i do use a pillow to partially support heavy books, but it's still more effort.)
here's a quote from the first section of the book, when Ulmo, sort of the Poseidon of Middle Earth, is sending a man ("Edain" is the name of a race of men. elves are immortal, and "High Folk of the West" refers to a classification of special elves of whom Turgon is a king.) on an important errand:
..."And what wouldst thou of me, Lord, if I come now to Turgon? For though I am indeed willing to do as my father and stand by that king in his need, yet of little avail shall I be, a mortal man alone, among so many and so valiant of the High Folk of the West."
"If I choose to send thee, Tuor son of Huor, then believe not that thy one sword is not worth the sending. For the valour of the Edain the Elves shall ever remember as the ages lengthen, marvelling that they gave life so freely of which they had on earth so little. But it is not for thy valour only that I send thee, but to bring into the world a hope beyond thy sight, and a light that shall pierce the darkness."
8 2004-12-08 11:58 traffic lights
improvements
finally (for now), here's an easy way we could make the world a slightly better place. at night, traffic signals should flash. some here used to, but no more. i suppose it's just easier to have them always function the same way.
i frequently drive at night and find it silly that i'm expected to sit through a traffic signal's cycle that is optimized for rush hour when there is not another car in sight. i sort of think "traffic lights" should only be in force when there is actually traffic. the purpose of traffic lights is twofold: safety and traffic flow. why should it be against the rules to run a red light if neither safety nor traffic flow is compromised? i always try to drive safely, of course. but why waste gas (thus increasing pollution), brake pads, and my time for nothing? i don't necessarily think we need to change the traffic law, but i don't necessarily think it's bad to violate the letter of the law if you maintain the spirit.
anyway, here's my idea: many old signals have sensors under the pavement. most all new signals have optical sensors. why not have the lights go to flashing mode after a given length time in which traffic flow is below a given threshold? it seems like this would be easy and very inexpensive to do at the manufacturing phase at least. i suppose it would be less strategic if the sensors were unreliable, since you wouldn't want flashing lights during rush hour due to a failed sensor.
7 2004-12-08 11:55 anticipating
minutiae
we just had the children's house angel tree party. they made us a sparkly cross, which made jen teary.
today i am looking forward to monte ne, that is, the ConC guys semi-annual dead day dinner at the monte ne inn, an all you can eat family-style fried chicken dinner.
i'm also looking forward to return of the king. 132 hours to go.
i will also mention that "vertigo" is growing on me.
6 2004-12-08 11:51 don't be (a) looser
words
here's another learning experience, folks. i've been seeing this one on the web a lot in the last year: loose used where lose is intended.
loose is pronounced /Looss/ and is usually an adjective, e.g. loose women, but can be used as a verb, e.g. loose the chains of injustice, and seems to be a noun (though perhaps it's really still functioning as adjective) in the phrase "on the loose".
lose is pronounced /Looze/ and is a verb meaning the opposite of to find or to win, e.g. if we lose the game. you never loose a game.
5 2004-12-04 23:59 party
minutiae
4) tonight was the christmas party. i took 165 pictures and got a remote control motorcycle, which is something i was already meaning to buy.
4 2004-12-04 23:58 improvements
improvements
1) i like this year's Christmas light setup better than what i did last time. last time it was a single string of white around the top railing of each deck. it was anemic looking, too spread out. this time it's more concentrated. it's almost a little strange to have only such a small part of such a large house lit, but it is the right part, the front entrance. and it has the advantage that it is plugged into the existing light sensor, so it's automatic. the way i used to have it there were two separate sections each on a timer, and the timers would occasionally require resetting. one advantage of the other way: it was unobtrusive (also relatively inconspicuous except for the extension cords in front), so i left them up for over 2 years (3 christmasses)--more effort-efficient. these will have to come down after christmas. but overall, i like it a lot better.
2) two weeks ago i checked out a book from the (public) library for the first time in a long time. i got unfinished tales of númenor and middle earth (basically more details on the world of lord of the rings, compiled and commented on by j.r.r. tolkien's son). but what's up with having to return it in only 2 weeks. i read a couple hundred pages (pretty good for me for two weeks, a lot was over thanksgiving), but had about 300 to go. i wonder what the fine would have been. anyway, they have the option to extend the due date, but not if someone has it on hold, which they did. no one wanted it before, it was just sitting there on the shelf, but as soon as i'm in the middle of it, someone just has to have it. oh well, at least it's not some suspenseful story, just filling in historical/narrative details etc. anyway, the point is they should let you keep the books longer and the world would be a better place.
3) i have hardly played my guitar all year because a) it's in crappy shape, and b) i've had my dad's guitar which is nice and in good shape. in january i finally got the frets leveled, and it seemed a bit better, but still certainly not good. the first and second strings still buzz a lot at most of the frets, especially badly at a few. also, they replaced the bridge (i'm not sure why, but it seems slightly lower on the treble side than another 1997 410 (same make/model/year). it's clearly a plastic bridge instead of the ivoroid one that i had filed to reduce my string breakage. so yeah, $100 for not so much. they didn't change the nut at all, which is the main thing that needs changed to match the lower frets, and the bridge they made even lower which makes the buzz worse. so today i took my guitar apart for the first time. i had never had all the strings off. pulled the bridge out. there's a little shim already on top of the pickup (or whatever you call piezo-electric film things). maybe jake will instruct me. anyway, in a way i'm glad the guitar is old and worn enough now that i'm not afraid to mess with it.
3 2004-12-04 23:57 easy if you can handle finite
words
the purpose of this post is just to point out the spelling of the word definitely.
but as long as i'm here, i will mention other things.
2 2004-12-04 10:15 lights pic
pictures
last night i put up Christmas lights.
1 2004-12-03 10:31 intro
exposition
This is my blog. The beginning of it, in fact, and an inauspicious one, perhaps. It's not blasting off; more like lumbering out of the gate. But that's ok. No one but me even knows it exists, and until i create a link to it (or tell someone about it and they create a link) even the search engines won't know it's here.
I do want people to know it's here eventually. That's the point. Maybe after I post at least one entry I'll consider announcing it. Anyway, it is the point, to share with other people. It's not going to be a diary. As i think on what i might write about, some of what's on my mind now doesn't fall into the ready-for-a-public-forum category. Nor do i intend to record all the minutiae of my daily life, because they're less likely to be of any value or interest to you. (though maybe i should be journalling those non-blog categories items in a separate location. i started that a few times but was never consistent and rarely frequent, if that makes sense. probably doesn't without explanation. whatever.)
so, i've implied that what i do intend to include here will be possibly of "value or interest to you". right. but, yes, relatively speaking, that's the goal. now clearly my opinion of the kind of thing that's worth hearing, knowing or pondering differs from others', but whose problem is that? not mine.
on the other hand, i figure that if i keep the bar low enough, mainly with regard to length--but also quality (which in truth costs more time than does length)--of entries, then i'll increase my chances of posting more frequently (or at all).
what i have in mind, once this thing lumbers a bit, is a list of categories under which the entries will fall. some will be philosophizing. maybe even responses to other blogs and their comments. some will be thoughts on making the world a better place (as opposed to just complaining). i intend to include some product reviews.
sometimes i have little mini-soapbox moments, stuff i want people to hear, maybe even stuff i think they should hear. i recall that when several friends started blogs earlier this year, it was mildly spooky in that i had just been thinking for the previous few weeks that i would start a blog for those moments.
though no guru, i'm more web-savvy than the average person, and i could have done this back then with little trouble in a few minutes (which is what i'm doing now). the main reason i didn't start is because i wanted (and still intend) to do it myself from scratch, including some computer programming for automation of various features, and that will take a little bit more time to develop. we'll see how and how much (and when/if) that happens. anyway, i'm already planning ahead for that, in that i've named this file in a way that will be conducive.
for now, just email any comments. i may include them here.
T-rev