Ready to Roll

The bike is up. I am ready. It's 27 lbs...too heavy. I think it deserves a Brooks saddle...

Bike Friendly Beautiful Mesa ... Mesa, AZ

Mesa Arizona is a bike friendly place. In addition to being a friendly place -- it is inherently bike positive. City planning is done with input from bikers. Every new project is done with consideration for bikers. Most major streets have bike lanes and there in no onstreet parking. You are probably thinking, "This guy hasn't been on a bike in thirty years, what does he know about planning." I just read the plan. In addition to the bike lanes there are miles of canals with bike trails or paths.

In making my plan to commute to work I found that there are 9.0 miles of bike lanes in my trip, with the only stretch without being the one from my driveway to the pavement. Some areas the bike path is very narrow, but it's still there. In the morning ther are commuters in cars traveling at high speed, in a rush trying to get to work. and they aren't very polite to other motorists. There are a lot of roadside memorials, too. I'll need to be careful because I am thinking they won't be expecting a bicycle.

One particular dick rider that I see on a regular basis on this route frequently deliberately leaves his butt out in the way of cars trying to get around him, and responds to complaints in a very negative way. This kind of militant behavior does nothing to further the cause of safe cycling, or make it easier for those of us that are actually trying to stay out of the way of from under the cars. It alienates even the most patient of drivers, and encourages road rage. Please try to share the road.

Frankly, this is Arizona, the state with the stupid driver law; it might be smarter to try to stay out of the way. "Bicyclist Wilbert Ulmer, 85, of Mesa died Tuesday (Jan. 10, 2006) when a pickup truck struck him as he crossed the street in the 9200 block of East Southern Avenue in Mesa. He was not in a crosswalk." East Valley Tribune Article. That's an 85 year old cyclist. Shame really, there aren't too many of those.

If you don't think this is serious -- try this google search and see just how many news stories there are about cyclists being run down by cars or killed. I89 since Boxing Day. That's a lot.

Bikes belong on the road here in Mesa, so you don't have to be a Dick. We should be trying to enjoy it, because there are a lot more hostile places than this.

I Blog ...

I went over to the Acidman site and looked over Another Internet Quiz -- so I took the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.



I am an old beat up 4WD truck.

I'm a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. I am all about surviving and getting the job done in a memorable way. While I have a practical everyday side, I get wild when anyone pushes my pedals, or yanks my chain. I hate to lose traction (or just track). I have a warm wench warn winch, and a tow strap, some power attachments, and I like to get it on in wet places. I can be started with a crank in the morning if need be, although I'd prefer it if you tried to give me coffee first.

If you are jealous, take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz for yourself and see if you can get the answer I got.

Good luck there.

I unabashedly stole the image of the Dodge Power Wagon from here.

The Rubber Hits the Road -- Literally

After an incredibly long hiatus (I think I last rode a bike for sport in 1976 -- that's thirty years for those of us that are counting), I got on my bike, and rode 6 miles today. That's not bad for a first time out. During that six miles one tire came apart and the shift lever on the bike broke, and the rubber handle on one side of the bars literally fell apart in my hands. You just can't leave these bikes just sitting around for years. I broke a sweat and barely got out of breath. I was thinking I might be able to do that for a while. It was a bit chilly and the cold against my legs encouraged me to work harder -- and I figure -- made me very hungry. I wonder how you could eat enough to stay warm and bike when it is 0 degrees.

I took the bike to the shop to have it fixed. When it comes back -- I think I will just go out and ride 25. After that maybe I will try to ride here from Flagstaff after a snowstorm (I am not really serious folks). That is if it ever snows.

After that I picked up some take out Basil Beef from the Thai Corner in Mesa and devoured it in minutes, so maybe I did manage to burn a few calories. I hear that ordering the food "Thai hot" helps maintain one's intestinal health. It was good -- and the rice helps too after a bit of effort. The satisfaction index for this meal was very high. Shortly after that I also ate a dagwood, which is a bit like dessert only bigger.

You know what they say about riding a bike? It's all true.

Protection for the Roadless Areas.

Picture stolen from here.

Ketchikan, Alaska - Tongass National Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole recently signed the Emerald Bay Record of Decision, approving the harvest of approximately 16 million board feet of timber from 600 acres on the Cleveland Peninsula to provide nearly 90 jobs in Southeast Alaska. The proposed project area is located approximately 40 air miles north of Ketchikan within the Ketchikan-Misty Fiords Ranger District.

The Emerald Bay project includes the construction of approximately 6 miles of new low-impact road within the Cleveland Inventoried Roadless Area.

This, I don't much care for. I am astonished that it is possible for a single person in an un-elected position to have the power to make this sort of decision. How is it possible that a Forest Service Supervisor can single handedly destroy a roadless area, by deciding that it is in the best interest of a balanced forest management plan. Because he never asked me I guess. Once they build the roads -- I guess they can take that area out of the inventoried roadless areas. That should make it a lot easier to run the bulldozers.

The inventoried roadless areas, for those that don't know, represent the areas determined to be wilderness -- meaning free of evidence of human improvements. These are areas that have been set aside during the Clinton presidency with the intent of conservation, and the policies of the Bush administration and the Forest Service intend to undermine that intent of protection (http://www.lcv.org/president-and-congress/issues/page.jsp?itemID=28176181) despite the desire of the American public to the contrary. This q&a page claims that there are over 50 projects pending in roadless areas in the Tongass NF alone.

This appears to be a better less misguided decision -- with the key point being -- no new roads will be required.

This is what looks to be hope for the Cleveland Roadless area.

Whoa ... not.

This crazy young woman is going to ride in the Susitna 100, a 100 mile bicycle race across Alaska in the winter. It's inspiring. I'll be taking a bike ride tomorow -- my first in about a 100 years. I think I'll start out in sunny Arizona.

To Philly, From Alaska, w/love

The desire to write these weekly chirpings is replaced by wanderlust this week.

To Philly, From Alaska, w/love

Images From Zion Canyon National Park

© 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Zion Canyon Light Fall

© 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Virgin River Tree Fall

© 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Are Those Beavers? Virgin River Tree Damage

© 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Two Bucks

© 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Deer Taking a ...

© 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Way Out There on Highway 50, NV

© 2005, 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Bobcat Ranch, NV. Don't Bother Asking

© 2005, 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Middlegate, NV

© 2005, 2006 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Cemetary in Austin Nevada, New Year's Eve

Cemetary in Austin, Nevada. Tombstone of Agnes Wholey. © 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Shoreline Park

© 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

William Skippping Shells. © 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Pumpkin Spring, Grand Canyon

Pumpkin Spring. Photograph © 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Pick of the Week, too.

Mono Lake Winter, Photograph, Silver Gelatin Print, Copyright ©2005 Per Volquartz

It's the Christmas season after all.

Per Volquartz' image of Mono Lake is really nice. Splendid, in fact.

Pick of the Week

Lisa with Scorpion, Photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe. Silver Gelatin Print with graphite. 1981-1983.

Over this past week I have looked at hundreds of Mapplethorpe images. This is a superb, stunning image, unique and interesting, and among my favorites. Lisa Lyon was the first women's body builder champion and one of Mapplethorpe's favorite models.

This is available through: Vered Gallery (631) 324-3303 Janet Lehr Inc., NY.

Elephant Arch

Elephant Arch in the Superstition Wilderness, near Hackberry Springs. © 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Some other elephant arches.

Beep! Beep!

Roadrunner, © 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Hide Your Nuts

Hey. It's Saturday again. I am drinking the Saturday swill. So good morning then; I have been over to the cafe of the beautiful people, where they are still trying to remember my name. Anyway -- after finding the coffee and remembering my name -- I was reading an article in Pravda. Let’s just imagine for a minute that we were expecting it to be a world class newspaper. I started with this article about killer squirrels and continued to look at the links. It occurred to me that the stories linked under words weren't really about the words, as one might expect (my comments are in parenthesis):

The witnesses said the squirrels fiercely eviscerated the dog (One could have seen a top model "eviscerate" a dog, too). When the people rushed to rescue the dog it was too late. The fight between the dog and the squirrels lasted for not longer than a minute. When the triumphant squirrels saw the humans approaching, they scattered carrying pieces of the prey in their mouths.

The incident made locals incredibly cautious and people now prefer to pass the park by and do not let children play there (Be really careful should you decide to put them to sleep instead). People fear that savage squirrels may attack someone again. One of the locals says that if another accident occured there it would make sense to fix traps in the forest to catch squirrels.

Mikhail Tiunov from the Far East Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences says he has never heard about squirrel attacking other animals before. "This sounds nonsensical that squirrels attacked a stray dog and tore it to pieces. If this actually happened, the life of squirrels in the forest seems to be really hard this year. It is typical of squirrels to feed on nuts, seeds and mushrooms. And it is unlikely that squirrels have become so aggressive as a result of some mutation," Newsru quoted the expert as saying (From Pravda.ru).

I have to say at this point -- that the picture I get of carniverous squirrrels feeding on nuts is more than a bit disheartening, but then when I looked at the deadly peanutbutter kiss story linked to that -- it became clear that either someone is a bit nutty, or there is no correlation whatsoever between the words "feed on nuts" and the story linked to it.

After I had followed the links for a while I found myself reading this story about what I would call a disaster:

A top environmental protection official urged residents of Russia's Far East city of Khabarovsk on Tuesday not to panic over a toxic soup headed their way on the Amur River, drinking a glass of water as television cameras rolled to demonstrate uthorities had the situation under control. But a spokesman for the World Wide Fund for Nature said the river faced "ecological catastrophe" as an 80-kilometer (50-mile) long slick of chemicals floated toward the Russian border from China, where a Nov. 13 explosion at a chemical plant spewed it into the Songhua River.

Again -- it is astonishing -- what the links hook to -- And I really thought that this blogperson might want to know that the Pravda story has linked to his article. Let's keep in mind that I don't really agree with any of this -- but just want to point out the sanity of the links in the Pravda Article.

I think I am going to start making links like this -- which I will hereinafter call "Pravda Style" linking. This could be very interesting -- when defined as having anything even vaguely related to the story. It could be much more entertaining than the other options.

Have a great Saturday -- enjoy your coffee and steer clear of the nuts.

I Enjoyed This Site

I found this interesting.

The Wood Shop is Open

The wood shop is up and running!


Japanese style workhorse, which is also good for learning to balance.


The post vise.
© 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Finished Kestral Box

You'll notice I didn't follow the plan, which is not unlike me.

© Shawn Kielty 2005. All rights reserved.

Kestrel Nest Box

I am going to build a kestrel nestbox today. I think it's important to provide the kind of places that encourage birds to thrive. I will leave it here when I go.

It appears that the state of Iowa has an American Kestral Trail along one of it's highway coridors, with a nestbox every mile:

In 1983 Ron Andrews of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources originated the interstate nest box program for American Kestrels. Working in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Transportation, nest boxes were attached to the backs of information signs along the interstate rights-of-way. Twenty nest boxes were placed on signs along I-35 in Northern Iowa that first year as an Eagle Scout project, and eight were used by kestrels. Nest boxes now occur nearly every mile of I-35 from Missouri to Minnesota. This corridor represents the nation's first statewide kestrel trail along an interstate system. These efforts have been coordinated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Nongame Wildlife Program and implemented at the local level by state nongame personnel, county conservation personnel, and a host of volunteers. Hundreds of nest boxes have been attached to highway signs elsewhere in Iowa. Many other states, including Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Idaho, have adopted the kestrel box program.

Information about programs like this can be found here. It says to hang the box from 10-30 feet in height. I prefer personally to stay below 20 ft, and given that the only two things in this desert that are 30 feet tall, saguaros and power poles, I think I'll just put it about ten feet up on a pole near the house.

I found this great plan here.

Camera Toss

A Camera Toss Series
Canon 20D
© Shawn Kielty 2005. All rights reserved.

Zebra Problem -- No one has the Zebra

The Einstien Riddle is actually a variant (presumably) of the Zebra Problem published by Readers Digest circa 1962, see this (Scroll down) nice page by Rick Archer. Several others have attributed this to Lewis Carroll which seems plausible. The amount of chatter about it seems to be recent, however, giving the most plausibility to the readers digest theory (personal testimony does have it's merits).

Statements

1 5 different colored houses on a street, with five men of different nationalities living in them. Each man has a different profession. Each man likes a different drink. Each man has a different pet animal.
2 The Englishman lives in the red house.
3 The Spaniard has a dog.
4 The Japanese is a painter.
5 The Italian drinks tea.
6 The Norwegian lives in the first house on the left.
7 The owner of the green house drinks coffee.
8 The green house is on the right of the white house.
9 The sculptor breeds snails.
10 The diplomat lives in the yellow house.
11 They drink milk in the middle house.
12 The Norwegian lives next door to the blue house.
13 The violinist drinks fruit juice.
14 The fox is in the house next to the doctor's.
15 The horse is in the house next to the diplomat's.

The question? Who has the zebra and who drinks water ?

I believe the solution will be the same as the Einstein Riddle (see this).

Since zebra and the water are in the question only and not in the rules -- it is possible that the 5th animal is cranes -- and the fifth beverage is soda - and therefore no one has any fish, nor drinks any water. This doesn't constitute the answer, but determines that the answer is a set of possible solutions that includes no water drinker and no zebra owner, and no water drinker or no zebra owner.

Hoppy, flappy, squawky bird.

Copyright 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Oh Gosh -- Pop -- Have a look.

I bet it would be hard to solve these with a slide rule. I always read the blogs of note -- and today's was nice. Most Some people should enjoy this. She is pretty smart I guess. This prompted me to think of a good question.

Einstein's Riddle.

1. On a street there are five houses, painted five different colors.
2. In each house lives a person of a different nationality.
3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke a
different brand of cigar and have a different pet.

The question? Who owns the fish?

The Clues

1. The Brit lives in a red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The Green house is on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the centre house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

Please don't tell me the answer -- OK? Yeah right. The real beauty of this is the simple truth of it. If I tell you that I know who is the owner of the fish and who it is, it doesn't really spoil it for you -- because you won't believe me. First -- it requires verification against a complex set of rules, and second -- knowing that won't even come close to helping find the solution. Finding the solution allows for some assumptions, so there are several different matrices that arrive at the conclusion which -- once discovered will just mean you write in the word fish.

What is a more interesting question to me is how to solve it. Any sort of brute force algorithm seems out of the question. Trail and error combined with intuition and and logic was very fruitful. I expected this to be harder to solve. Stochastic hillclimbing could be an interesting way to solve this. I wonder if I can figure out what that means exactly.

What are those

In the upper right hand corner. Those look like ads. Crap -- who put ads on my page.

Lightzone

Camera Toss

Just grab any expensive hunk of gear and throw it around a bit. Despite the apparent crazyness of this -- the images are cute. Have a look. I may try it with my Graflex.

Despite the apparent randomness of the images, author Ryan Gallagher (clickykbd on flickr) clearly proves in these instructions that it is possible to control elements in the image. Go figure -- now it's looking like an art form.

Colusa NWR Winter Waterfowl

Copyright 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

uh -- uhhmm -- Power Poles

© Shawn Kielty 2005. All rights reserved.

Aren't these things just gorgeous.

Sheephole Valley

&Copy; 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.
I was facinated by how straight the road just becomes.

"Do You Want Room?"

"A room? No, just the coffee." In the vernacular of the beautiful people, "Room" is leaving space for cream. It's a good thing we have active minds, otherwise grande and venti would be Italian words and venti^TM would mean nothing rather than being the beginning of an 800 calorie drink order. We really should not go there. It's better to order the tall coffee black with two extra shots (more of that unitelligible lexicon) with room.

All of this is going on in the cafe -- as I reel from the strange dreams I had last night. I was the star of some obscure screen chase scene which involved a sophisticated James Bond style hit, complete with special flying rideable objects, and a chance to meet an tremendously asshole version of Tom Cruise, all backed up with a cowboy junkies soundtrack, all of which I wrote in my sleep. It seems to have taken place in a post Rita New Orleans -- with the final scenes taking place in a newly rebuilt floating city -- perhaps on lake Ponchantrain. Our star screams "I'm free," as he falls over backwards into the abyss.

So I am thinking ... as I grab my coffee, that I want to photograph the Cowboy Junkies when they are here in Phoenix -- and that I want to negotiate their album deal with the beautiful people.

"MURDER, TONIGHT, IN THE TRAILER PARK

(Michael Timmins)

Murder tonight in the trailer park
Mrs. Annabelle Evans found
with her throat cut after dark
Her pockets turned inside out
her dresser drawers turned upside down
Anna's neighbour, Peg, identifies the body
lets out a hollow kind of sound

Homicide is tying yellow ribbons
around her silver Airstream
Red cherries slashing up the night
cutting through that cordoned crime scene
There's been a murder
in the trailer park tonight

Murder tonight in the trailer park
Pack your things Ann Marie,
we're heading west
we're going to make a fresh start
I've been saving pennies,
been looking forward to this day
No time for questions are you coming
or are you going to stay?"
The Cowboy Junkies.

OK, maybe not then.

There is some evidence that the word venti^TM is indeed a registered trade mark of Starbucks.

Cool shots of a hot deal

By my aquaintance Rob Cromar. This is the best of the best, fortunately Rob's home was spared. This was a brush fire in LA county.

I would be sane

Relative to this man. See.

It Sleeps 'til Noon

A bloody stain opens the sky with the wilderness pressed against it, tearing the day into being, It's the hour of the Pearl, the first of the day. The predative feast is ending, the first bird arrives at the feeder. Its a new day; yes, we made it through another night. Lights from the neighbor's truck breech the dawn, ok "everybody up." Grumble. It's chilly this morning and the coffee is good. I went out for coffee this morning, in the before dawn time. Down at the local cafe -- the cafe of the beautiful people -- the sports cars were out. Early morning Thunderbirds and Corvettes lining up to feast on the prey around or of the coffee -- then add me in my beat up truck. Hand me the paper sir. "Thank you." I guess not all of the predators are resting now.

A song about Tuesday morning creaks out of the radio -- "I admit there are times when I miss you, especially right now when I need someone to hold me, ... but there are some things that can never be forgiven." The rabbit and the doves feasting in the predawn light -- just a few feet from me -- I believe the rabbit is in the same pecking order as the doves. They seem to get along pretty well.

I daydream about sleeping till noon. It's hard to sleep till noon in the desert -- the workday is over by then. What I long for I can't describe -- it's not really sleeping till noon -- but rather the lazy morning shared. Alas. there was a girl at the Cafe yesterday -- I didn't actually meet her -- but there was something, a familiarity was there. That thing that promises to deliver emergency late night sex later. Or that lazy morning shared. I think I will make some coffee, and see just what shows up at the feeder.

Free From Impunity

Impunity ...
im·pu·ni·ty ( P ) Pronunciation Key (m-pyn-t)n. pl. im·pu·ni·ties
Exemption from punishment, penalty, or harm.
[Latin impnits, from impne, without punishment : in-, not; see in-1 + poena, penalty (from Greek poin. See kwei-1 in Indo-European Roots).]
from the American Heritage Dictionary -- thanks to http://www.dictionary.com

I have none actually. I want to talk about the people around me today. This morning. I can't actually. I can't mention the woman with tattoos who appears to no longer work here (we could call her "tattoo girl" if we were so inclined). Nor even mention the woman here that I would love to flirt with. I can't mention these people. Other people I work with and know will see this, and there will be consequences. They will know I am talking about them on my blog and I will be punished repeatedly.

The person sitting across from me is Ron Burgundy, Anchorman (you know -- he was also in that movie). I can talk about him, because he's not a real person, he's a Dilbertism. He's a wholly ficticious character (in this context) created by one of my co-workers through the simple act of adding a nameplate to an empty cube. His cube has gotten cleaned up -- his trash gets emptied (more frequently than mine, it seems) -- and an assortment of appropriate desktop items has shown up, including an "easy" button, calculator, glasses, etc. People are starting to ask for him. Apperently he already has some responsibilities.

Yesterday he actually showed up, laptop in hand, and sat down and did some work. We were all pretty surprised.

Moonrise over Siphon Draw

Copyright 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

Superstition Ridgeline

Saturday November 12, 2005, I am standing near the top of Superstition Mountain. Photo © Dale Perry 2005. All rights reserved.

My Life's a Book

I took the book quiz over at Blue Pyramid. To wit:

You're Lolita!

by Vladimir Nabokov

Considered by most to be depraved and immoral, you are obsessed with
sex. What really tantalizes you is that which deviates from societal standards in every
way, though you admit that this probably isn't the best and you're not sure what causes
this desire. Nonetheless, you've done some pretty nefarious things in your life, and
probably gotten caught for them. The names have been changed, but the problems are real.
Please stay away from children.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Co-opted from here

Rose's Blog

No Credentials

In the Translation

I found this article about my friend Josee Kamoun. There's more I could say ...

Basquiat Dismantled, or why I so like

Robert hughes at his best.

It's Wednesday Morning, August 10

In San Francisco -- They never call it "Frisco" -- you must know; it's the local code. Technically it's Saturday morning and I am reading the San Francisco Chronicle, drinking heavy swill from a sandblasted grand canyon discovery coffee cup. This is something I have done most Saturdays for most of my life. Except for the last year and a half. Today though, I am longing for the familiar faces that have fed me for most of my adult life.

The internet changes the way get the world, and I find that I am more in control. I have always enjoyed Adair Lara, so I set out to find what she has written lately. On an earlier day I would have went out and bought a copy of the chronicle and sat in my favorite local cafe, and leafed through it. Since she is not in it on Saturday, I would have been stuck with Jon Carroll, which would have been ok, but not what I wanted.

In looking up Adair Lara I found out that she is 51 and find myself daydreaming about dating her, since I now know what she looks like, and that she is basically my age, and probably helps to explain why her candid prose has resonated with me. Never mind that though, I am sure she is busy. In my search the most recent article I found was August 10, and it's a story about birdnesters (I never knew), and about a guy who got a restraining order for sneaking into his house to make his kids pancakes on a Saturday morning (I should try that). Birdnesters are folks that both move out and leave the kids in the house when they split. Nice idea.

I miss the pink section too. This leads me to take on Kenneth Baker's latest scribbling, which reminds that art is mostly a reference to other art these days. What could we possibly be as artists if not for Jasper Johns and Franz Kline giving us something to talk about. I'd like to hear Robert Hughes take on that, the thought of which leaves me thinking something like this (to quote Orwell): "You have to be an intellectual to believe such nonsense."

Living here in the desert has it's moments -- and Saturday morning is indeed one of them. The rabbits are nourising themselves on the flowers outside and the quail are eating rocks in their morning spot. Maybe I should make some art that isn't about Georgia O'Keefe. I think I will warm up my coffee first.

Move Day

Copyright 2005 Shawn Kielty. All rights reservved.

Tortured Conceptual Postmodernist?

You are a Tortured Conceptual Artist. Your fellow
postmodernists call you an anachronism, but
you've never cared much about the opinions of
others. After all, most of them are far too
simple-minded to appreciate the nuances of your
work. They talk, while you are part of a lived
tradition.


What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla

Stolen from Not Exactly Rocket Science. I did, however, take the quiz to come to this result.

Your Junk

Follow these instructions to send your junk off to snail mail spammers. Freshly stolen from CalTechGirls post on GutRumbles

I QUIT

I quit. July 17 2005. Mesa, AZ. I quit smoking. I have quit before. But this -- is different. I am inspired. And motivated. I quit to live. I quit because my daughter was coming to have a vacation with me. I quit because she hates it -- and she doesn't want to breathe it. I quit because she is right -- and because I care about her, and I care enough to want to live longer to enjoy her. The unprotected truth is that smoking kills people. It's killing my mother. And lung cancer alone will kill 140,000 smokers in America this year, and 3000,00 more from other smoking related illnesses (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/QuitToLive/). I don't have any statistics for throat cancer, nouth cancers, or emphysema. I look at the side of the package -- and it says "smoking *may* cause birth defects" and it signed by the surgeon general of the United States.

I thought the surgeon general was probably a fairly bright person, Guess what -- probably not. Ok -- so you can use nicotine to kll bugs -- aphids for example. Make a solution out of water and a few cigarettes -- spray it on your roses - poooffft -- aphids die. Leave this out for your toddlers to drink -- they could die too. Why? Nicotine is a poison.

Let's go back to the Surgeon General. The cigarette package should say -- "This is a poison, do not drink swallow or eat these, or ingest the contents in any way, including smoking. If ingested seek immediate medical attention. Call 911." Anyone in their right mind knows today that smoking kills people, the people who smoke, and some people who don't. So -- what is the Surgeon General thinking?

Support our Troops

Have a look at this.

Shawn's garlic and hot pepper pasta

Jar of Classico pasta sauce
3 cheese tortellini
6 cloves Garlic
2 hot italian sausage
Bell pepper
1 small jalapeno chopped
parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

Cook the crumbled sausage to brown while starting the water for the pasta. Start the sauce in a seperate sauce pan. Crush and chop the Garlic and chop the peppers and onion and add to the sausage after the sausage is brown. When the onions turn translucent turn the whole mess into the sauce. Add about 2 T of grated Parmesan to the sauce and pepper to taste. Add the pasta to the water after it boils and keep it at a rolling boil until it is al dente.

Combine the pasta and the sauce ont the plate and top with parmesan cheese. Enjoy with french bread.

Unqualified

East of Mesa AZ -- So I hear -- I live too far from the phone company, now that I have finally managaged to escape from suburbia. the price of this escape may be high. I get well water now instead of the colorado river. I am "Unqualified" for the DSL service. The down side is -- My web site will be down for a bit longer. There is no sign of the pearly cat's sister bamboozle -- I fear the worst.

The Cat Owl.

© 2005, Shawn Kielty. All rights reserved.

PearltheCat is mighty upset right now and a bit bemused at the apparent loss of her sister Bamboo -- and her subsequent grounding (No more late nights out for that girl) -- what is a cat if not free? According to this article the horned owl can and will kill domestic cats. It seems that the site is ambiguous about the benefit and value of the domestic cat to humans, but really clear about the value of the wild birds the domestic cats kill. Despite the appearance of a large amount of credibility -- i.e. "The Raptor Center", the quality of the writing seems to defy that. To wit:

"Economic Importance for Humans
Positive
The great horned owl controls harmful rat and mice populations throughout the United States. They kill domestic cats which in turn would have killed wild birds that humans value.
Negative
The great horned owl is capable of destroying game birds and animals. Poultry is also a favorite of the owls because they are easily captured. The occasional domestic cat can also fall victim to the great horned owl."

Get out the shotgun camera comrades. I am sorry -- I fail to see the economic importance of a great horned owl eating my cat -- or what exactly about that is positive. Can we try harder next time?

He (the cat eating owl) is right in the yard -- every night except tonight. Maybe the rock band next door is interfering with his ability to hunt cats . Maybe the cat he ate the other night is keeping him so full he can share with the vultures and doesn't have to hunt. Perhaps he has died from indigestion.

Pearl the Cat was reading over my shoulder and suggested I post her picture on this man's map. I think that she thought that might make me feel better. I think maybe she is bored because I won't let her go out and play tease the coyotes.

Out of touch for a bit

I will -- for the most part -- be off line till Friday -- due to the move. If I ever find my cats -- I will be happy. Email will be sparsely responded to, but for the most part not read and thrown away. See you later in the week.

Coyotes

© Shawn Kielty 2005. All rights reserved.



... my cats are getting nervous. They don't know that they are in danger -- they are just nervous because the normal stuff in their home is leaving. They don't know that they are about to displace a family of coyotes. They don't realize that thier outdoor world is going to include real predators -- like great horned owls, racoons and coyotes. But they are nervous. I fear for them. I know that when they lived in the junkyard in Hayward, CA that they were in danger. Their psycho mother -- the black attack cat bitch -- protected them.

Re-entry

It is hard to summarize a trip like this, twelve days on a raft, the Colorado River, infinite detail. I have returned. Re-entry is a bit confusing and the various parts of my body hurt. It was good. I saw a condor. Everything is dirty and there is sand in every place possible. There are some 700 images and laundry to do ... There will be more later.

Trip Day

© Shawn Kielty, 2005, all rights reserved.

Remember, "Super Glue^TM is good for cracked skin."

Enter the wilderness. Some things, you gotta do alone. Be healthy, keep your wits, be smart, carry a flashlight and use your sense of smell. Protect yourself at all costs. Pay attention, because the pre-game show is over. As I pack the final items, I worry because this is the first guided tour I have ever taken of the wilderness, I might bring the wrong drinks, or the wrong kind of soap. It's a mediated experience of the wilderness, not my first. But my first like this. I usually go into the wilderness alone or with a disciple. It's easier that way. If I screw up, I suffer the consequences (my poor disciple). I hope I'll know what to look at, when to take a picture. I have the perfect luggage and a purple shirt -- so I think I'll be ok.
As my father always said in every case when things were uncomfortable, "It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick." Hopefully, the river gods will be benevolent. Maybe, later I'll have a good story to tell.

I'll see you on the other side.

My Favorite Mile

Photo Chris Raye, © 2005, all rights reserved.

Oh man -- yesterday I made my first ascent of Camelback, via Echo Canyon, 1200 ft verticle over 1.2 miles. A young woman passed me on the way up. She smelled sweet like sweat while I was dying behind her, feeling old. Yep, I hiked that mile. I only had to break a few times. She reminded me of what I once lived for. What I once was.

My favorite mile now isn't that one. It's less seductive. Camelback is filled with gorgeous people. Beautiful people. It has fences and handrails, and Gucci^TM sunglasses, and expansive views -- and is a very serious mile. There is glamour in it. I hear it is the toughest of the seven Phoenix peaks.

The first mile and back of the hike to the wind cave on pass mountain has no glamour; this is my mile or two. What I want is this - a moderate to strenous hike -- on a good trail . I want to go there everyday, before breakfast. Later in my life I can run it.

This hike gets tougher as you go -- 1.6 miles to the wind cave on pass mountain. It is about 10 minutes from my house, and about an hour round trip.