taking pictures

No matter how many times I look at pictures and think to myself how wonderful it is to have those moments captured, I fail to keep in mind that enjoying them later means taking them now.

One of the local area blogs has the occasional entry that features photographs and memories from yesteryear. I enjoy these immensely, thankful that someone took the time to snap the shutter on what my hometown looked like back in the '60s and '70s. For instance, a photo of the Big "C" tower that stood over the local shopping center for years and has since been made over to look more modern, but now has less personality too.

Even as I type this, I'm not making plans to go out and capture what my town looks like, anticipating how wonderful it will be to have such photographs sometime in the future. I should be keeping in mind to take pictures of family, particularly my nieces and nephews, even though as mostly grown-ups now they'll be changing less with time. I'm just thankful that we have so many pictures of them from when they were still growing up.

With the advent of the digital camera, it's not as expensive to take pictures as it once was with film. Just as with much of modern technology, I wonder how it affects the lives of those that are growing up in the digital age. Maybe I'm making the taking of pictures too much of an event or effort, whereas for the younger generation, it's something much more casual. After all, they can take pictures with their cell phones, can't they? On the other hand, discretion is important too (another modern conundrum with the ease of digital convenience) - but overall I'm glad that they are recording so many memories - it's really such a treasure to have.

Purple Haze by the Kronos Quartet

Like most people my age, I grew up on rock and roll. The music can be so powerful, with the sounds of electric guitars screaming through the amplifiers. And with rock to enjoy, I've never gotten into classical music. Although an experience watching a string quartet perform live convinced me of the power of strings.

It was back in college that I used one of my electives to take a music appreciation class. And one of the requirements was to attend a live performance. This was in San Luis Obispo, and I found a concert being given by the Kronos Quartet at a place called The Spirit. That evening, a friend and I watched the Kronos Quartet come out wearing bodysuits, which let us know that it was going to be anything but a stuffy concert. The music they play tends to focus on 20th century compositions (and maybe 21st century now too), and not on the classical music that most of us think of initially when thinking of string quartets.

As I went because I was taking a music appreciation class, I really did appreciate the music! But what really stood out for me was when they performed a medley of rock songs - I loved it. I loved the familiarity. In particular was when they performed their version of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix. That's when it dawned on me the true power of orchestral strings: how the act of drawing a bow across strings resonates. The vibratory effect is so much more powerful than simply striking or plucking the strings of a guitar. It was memorable how they played that song as powerfully as can be imagined - I can hardly capture the experience I had with mere words. I guess you had to be there...

the power of jingles

Curious how things can get stuck in one's head. In particular is a commercial from many years ago for a retailer called Denevi Camera. Although they expanded to more locations, I still remember the four from a very catchy jingle played back in the day: Berkeley, San Lorenzo, Cupertino, San Jose. The names of those cities just roll off the tongue...

space cadet

Although I'm certain that I have the personality for it, I've never gotten hooked on video games. That is, I've never owned a video gaming console or whatever they have nowadays. Many years ago, I did go out to the video arcade with my cousin and his girlfriend for a short while, but never anything that I could hook onto a television.

I'm an avowed Macintosh person, even though the very first computer I ever got for myself was a PC - a tower to be specific, with a 386 chip (that should be a good indication of how long ago it was). I remember the computer salesman at the time telling me that Windows was just as easy to use as the Mac... and this was back then! Well it most certainly wasn't and the only thing I found myself using that computer for was to play games, specifically solitaire, pinball, and inexplicably the diabolical minesweeper. I can't explain how I let myself get hooked on that one.

Fortunately, someone helped me out by offering to buy that PC tower from me, which helped me make up a fraction of what I paid for it, and then some time later I finally got myself a Macintosh. No games though.

Towards the end of the class I took to learn the software programs of MS Office a couple of years ago, a classmate offered to give me an outdated computer running Windows from his wife's workplace and how could I say no? Primarily because I could once again play the one game I couldn't do without: Space Cadet pinball! As far as I know, it's all I need to sate my desire to play games on a computer, or a video game system for that matter. And as far as an electronic pinball game goes, Space Cadet is really very good. Fast and interesting and it even has some quirks that I've learned to adapt to.

For a non-gamer, I think I've gotten pretty good at it too. I couldn't possibly stand toe-to-toe with people that grew up playing video-type games, but gaming-wise, I've devoted myself entirely to playing pinball, so that must count for something. And although I'm sure that my top scores aren't all that great compared to the truly adept players in the Space Cadet universe, I'm happy with them. And wouldn't it be nice to somehow transfer my computer pinball skills to a nice career?

Here are my top five scores:

1. 110,218,750
2. 109,610,000
3. 105,904,500
4. 92,409,000
5. 87,566,000

a good win

The 49ers just defeated the Detroit Lions, which was the expected outcome given the win-loss record of the Lions going into the game. In a way, the 49ers can't win for winning. The same goes for next week's game against the Rams. Given such expectations, even more credit should go to the Niners for buckling down and doing enough. It's not easy at this level, period.

skull cap

Today I was in a store that had a monitor over one of the aisles for customers to be able to view themselves as they shopped. Unlike most of them, this one allowed me to view myself looking down at the back of my head, and was it ever disconcerting. I've watched my hairline receding over the years from the front and never really knew how bad it was looking from the back. It's awful! I've got a shrinking tuft of hair right on the top of my head encircled by a ring of baldness, surrounded by the hair on the sides of my head. It reminded me of some of those extreme hairdos seen in samurai movies. What to do?

It's been years since anyone got a good look at U2 guitarist The Edge's hairline because of the skull cap he wears. Not only do I suppose that he and I share a similar male pattern baldness, but maybe one of my best options is to start wearing a skull cap too. As it is, I've been shaving my head pretty close to the scalp for years to minimize the contrast between (what's left of my) black hair and my skin. Short of shaving my head completely bald, maybe going skull cap is the way!

decorating the tree

Is there anything cuter than seeing how a tree gets decorated by really young (walking but not yet talking) children? The smiles on their faces as they pick up decorations and walk back and forth hanging them on the tree - and before you know it, all the bottom branches are laden with decorations, and the rest of the tree is practically bare because they couldn't reach any higher!

at seventeen

Another artist from the '70s was singer-songwriter Janis Ian. The one song of hers that I recall listening to is At Seventeen: "I learned the truth at seventeen, that love was meant for beauty queens... "

We had a teacher in high school named Mrs. Peterson whom I remember talking about the meaning of this song to the class. As she did, she held up the album cover for all of us to see. This particular album of Ms. Ian's featured a close-up portrait. And I can still hear a student named Keith exclaiming "I don't know what she's talking about - I think she's kind of cute!"

famous brother

When I'm channel surfing, I often like to check what's playing on the Music Choice channels. Among the wide variety of music styles offered are: Jazz, Blues, Solid Gold Oldies, Adult Alternative, and Reggae. The first channel I usually go to is the one devoted to the '70s. I remember back when '70s music was derided, but now for me it's what feels the most comfortable.

I've got the '70s channel on right now, and the act that was just playing is England Dan and John Ford Coley. For those familiar with the country singer Dan Seals, he's the same guy as England Dan. But the first bit of trivia that I think of is that he was the younger brother of Jim Seals of the pop duo Seals and Crofts.

As I was typing this, I made a quick visit to Wikipedia and found out that Dan passed away earlier this year from cancer. There is more interesting information about England Dan and John Ford Coley here. R.I.P. Dan.

what do dreams mean?

There have been books written about dreams, what they mean, their symbology, how to interpret them, etc. I find that they tend to come in cycles for me, at least when it comes to my recalling them the next morning. I'll go several days where they are fresh in my mind, and then longer periods in between when I have no memory of them whatsoever. If I weren't so lazy, it'd probably be worthwhile noting them down every time I can remember them.

I wonder if they have the same significance for everybody, or if their meaning is as individual as the people that have them. Most of mine are so nonsensical, I can't even begin to describe them even to myself. Others I can describe, although I don't understand what or wherefore, so to speak.

One particular dream that stands out in my memory involves a woman (she worked at a music store) I was crazy about years ago. I never wrote it down - until now that is. Unfortunately, waiting so long has cost me some of the details. I never so much as dated this woman, so it never got beyond the stage of an intense infatuation... it's a long, pathetic story. In any case, this dream remains a favorite:

She and I were together as I was driving my brother's old Nissan 260Z through the Sacramento foothills. The road was two-lane, a country feel as opposed to the freeway. We were the only ones riding around the golden hills until the source of conflict in this dream - a villain! I know it sounds a little bit lame to have a villain, especially this villain, but that's what happened. We drove around trying to get away, as we were being chased and harassed by this guy who was driving a semi-trailer. I can't even visualize if he was pulling anything or was just in the cab; all I remember is somehow being able to see who he was. Now this is a dream, so although our car was much, much lower to the ground than him, I was still able to get a good look at him: he was the villain from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, aka the Child Catcher! Don't ask me where I got the idea for this - believe me, I don't think about this guy much at all. Terrifying to be sure, but I don't recall thinking about him much after seeing the movie when I was a child until he appeared in this dream.

There was another part (after the villain had disappeared) where my girlfriend (yup, in this dream, she was my girlfriend) and I were standing in some large wood building observing an enterprise of some sort. It wasn't high industry, but more in keeping with being out in the country. Here's where I wish I had jotted it down sooner; I can't remember anything more than standing there with her and making some sort of comment about how pretty she was as we talked with somebody.

There was another dream that involved this girl and racing around in a car, but this one featured the stock car driver Bobby Labonte. I can't remember any details, but Bobby was not a villain or anything!

As much time as I spent thinking about this girl, there were just a handful of dreams of mine that she was in. I suppose she was such a part of my daydreams, there was no reason for her to be a part of my nighttime dreams too.

my Grinch moment

My eldest niece visited my sister and me yesterday. She's a young adult now, but with the holiday season upon us, I was reminded of a moment from many years ago.

We had all been gathered together as an extended family at my mom's house, watching TV. The oldest of my nieces and nephews were little children at the time, some still toddlers. Things always got a bit complicated with all of them together, having to share or offer something to everyone equally, and in this case having to consider whether or not having sweets so close to a meal was a good idea for the kids or not. Perhaps one mother wouldn't mind whereas the other would. It doesn't sound all that complicated, but it really was!

I was still in my twenties back then. I decided that I was in the mood for a couple of bon bons (the bite-size ice cream treats). I remember thinking that I didn't feel like asking who else wanted one, if it was okay, and if it was, maybe one of the kids would grab two or three and then all the kids would want two or three - like I said, complicated - so I figured that I'd sneak quietly to the refrigerator and eat a couple while I stood at the door.

And that's what I did. I opened up the freezer, opened the bon bon container, grabbed a couple and started eating them. Mmmm! Then as if it had been rehearsed for timing and greatest effect, I heard a little girl's voice asking, "Uncle Arthur, what are you doing?" I peered from behind the open freezer door and saw my eldest niece standing there looking up at me with her curious and innocent eyes. The scene I'm describing here only really makes sense if you are familiar with the scene from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas when the little Who girl wakes up in the middle of the night and finds the Grinch trying to shove the Christmas tree up the chimney. She caught me!

As frozen in my mind as this memory is, I don't recall how I responded to her. Just the moment of being caught. Although it's fun to imagine that I mimicked the Grinch and said: "Why little girl, I'm just checking to see if these bon bons are delicious enough for all of us to eat!"

out of the playoffs

With today's loss, the 49ers are out of the playoffs this season. I agree with the emphasis put on making them this year, adding a sense of expectation from the fan base although it didn't turn out that way. There's no reason not to place such pressure on the team psyche. And although it's not fair to make comparisons to the great Bill Walsh with all the success he had as the team's leader, even he was given two seasons that must have screamed for a change. Maybe times were different then. But in any case, it's important for the team to have continuity in its coaching, including the coordinators. Let's give the staff time to put it all together.

Sweden is beautiful in March

Here's an idea: Why not have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies somewhere else this coming year? Instead of the usual location in the United States, how about outside the U.S.? It could be anywhere, oh, let's just say, off the top of my head, how about... Sweden! Yeah, yeah, just like in today's entry title. Good guess, reader!

And here's why - I'm still worried that Agnetha wouldn't be willing to make the trip from Sweden to New York to be a part of the festivities. So why not bring the festivities to her? After all, ABBA helped break down the barrier that prevented non-American and non-British acts from entering the musical charts. Plus, I don't think the Hollies or Genesis would mind too much if the ceremonies were held in Europe. As for the other inductees, hey, it'd be a good excuse to take off for a vacation over there!

Having the ceremonies take place in Sweden, of course, is no guarantee that all the members of ABBA would make an appearance, but I think that for something like this, it'd be very likely. I can't imagine why Bjorn, Benny, and Frida wouldn't make sure to be there, and with no reason to have to get on a plane, I can't imagine Agnetha not being there too. I just had this stroke of brilliance last night and wanted the thought to get out there as soon as possible. Securing a venue and organizing such an event is a huge undertaking and since it is scheduled to take place on March 15, well, there's not much time - so let's get moving folks and make this happen!

with all the money they make

Professional athletes in the major sports get paid so much money nowadays, it really is mind-boggling. Large amounts are thrown around so casually that people have become desensitized to just how much they make. For example, $3 million per year (a seven-figure income) is still an awful lot of money even though it might pale compared to a less accomplished player making, oh, eight-figures per year. I mean realistically, for most of us, wouldn't earning a relatively meager six-figure income be enough? High five-figures? Doesn't food and shelter cost the same for everyone?

There are so many directions I could go with this subject, but I'll just keep it light today. I think it's fun to see highly paid NBA players when they're ready to check into games, waiting by the scorer's tables: can they look any more uncomfortable? The amount of space is narrow and it looks almost undignified the way they have to contort themselves, sitting there on the floor or balanced on one knee until they are allowed to enter the game. For all the money they make, it's kind of funny.

Another example that comes to mind is the bullpen in baseball. Many, not all, bullpens have the relief pitchers sitting where they are barely covered from the elements and looking mighty uncomfortable for the duration of the games. From all the filth and spitting that takes place in dugouts, I wouldn't say that they are ideal to spend any time in, but they sure look preferable to the bullpens that are placed along the foul lines. With the amounts that modern players are being paid, it's actually quite humorous to see them sitting there, biding their time until they may or may not be called to warm-up and perhaps enter the game. Is that any way to treat rich people?

watching Star Wars in order

As long as I've been wondering about this, I suppose that it's really not that unlikely anymore - there really could be a generation of people that will watch the Star Wars movies in order: Episodes I - VI. Not in the order they were produced and filmed, i.e. Episodes IV - VI followed by Episodes I - III but in the order that the story takes place.

As I recall, George Lucas had nine episodes in mind when he first came up with the saga, and not knowing how incredibly successful the movie(s) would be, chose to begin by filming the original Star Wars film, which ultimately became (I believe) Star Wars - Episode IV - A New Hope. And after the first trilogy was finished and even quite awhile after, the prequel trilogy was filmed. As for the final three installments (Episodes VII - IX), as far as I know, there are no plans to ever make them. Now that I think about it, I'm curious how the story evolves through to the end of the final episode as envisioned by Mr. Lucas.

Anyway, although I am part of the generation that saw the six movies as they were filmed and released, I am curious to find out what the people that see them in the order of episodes think. I wonder how possible it is to see them without so much of a glimpse as to what Anakin Skywalker eventually becomes, for example, until it actually happens. Or to be unaware of the twins Luke and Leia until they're born, whom of course play such pivotal roles in Episodes IV through VI. It's not only this younger generation's following of the storylines that I would find so intriguing, but the advanced technology that is so prevalent in the prequels, both in the story and what was available in making them. I haven't even personally seen Episodes II and III in their entirety, just clips here and there. But what I've seen of the prequels looks so different from the original Star Wars films; I have a hard time envisioning them as taking place chronologically before.

Another thing I wonder is how possible it even is to see Star Wars as it was first released, without the advanced special effects that were applied later. I can appreciate the newer technology being applied to it, but as for what would take me back in time and jar special memories, I think I would actually prefer it in its untouched condition.

Maybe I'm just showing my age by remembering 'the good ol' days.'

Happy Birthday, you're in the Hall of Fame!

Sorry folks, I've been having problems with my telephone and online connection for the past few days. My phone still has static and my Internet access has been intermittent, but I was told by customer service this morning that it will be fixed soon. I'll see how resuming my daily entries goes.

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Where to start? Well, today's entry will be about what I read in the paper this morning: "Mamma mia! ABBA in Rock HOF"

Yup, they're in! along with Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies, and the Stooges. Those of you that have been reading my blog since the beginning know that I like ABBA; one of my earlier entries was about them, particularly the beauty and the cutie. As long as my online connection allows me to scan the Internet, I'm curious to see what people's reactions are to this news. Some will be against it, either on 'rock purist' grounds or because they just don't like ABBA anyway. Others are ABBA fanatics (I guess that would be me) and can't help but imagine that there will finally be an ABBA reunion. I mean, they have to now... don't they?

Tradition has HOF inductees gathering in the U.S. somewhere (New York?) for a performance after an induction speech and however many acceptance speeches. The thing with ABBA is they have stated time and again that they would never get back together. There is the notion that it would only sully the memories, the circumstance that they are two ex-couples now, plus the fear of flying that Agnetha (the blonde) suffers from. As much as I would love to see them on stage together again, let alone performing, I'm concerned about any pressure that would be placed upon Agnetha because of this honor. I've imagined their induction for awhile now and we have a good time - although me getting an invite and sitting at their table and enjoying their reunion performance personally is pretty unlikely.

I'm also excited to see The Hollies inducted. Their greatest hits album is one I grew up listening to and I've also enjoyed viewing some of the wonderful videos I've found of them on YouTube. I wonder how they're doing this many years later? Which members will be able to make it to the ceremonies?

And Genesis too! I only really became aware of them after Peter Gabriel had already left - I hope that he will be there for the induction ceremonies. And now that I think about it, Phil Collins worked very closely with Frida (the brunette in ABBA) on her first post-ABBA solo album. That will be interesting to see them together again.

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Also in the newspaper each day is a listing of the day's birthdays. And by coincidence, two of today's birthdays belong to Tony Hicks of the Hollies and Benny Andersson of ABBA. Acceptance into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - pretty nice present, wouldn't you say?

another pun

this time a bad tag line for the International Seafood and Sushi Buffet Restaurant:

Food so good, it's Todai for.


ugh :-(

beautiful

California native plants are quite beautiful, such as our bulbs and bulblike plants, which often look ethereal. Others exhibit a more subtle beauty as they go through their seasonal cycles, such as our perennial bunchgrasses. They may be dry and dormant as summer extends into fall, but then come back to life when the rains come. They aren't artificially kept lush and green all year long as is typical of most gardens; using native plants reflects the natural cycle of California.

There is more than just the sights of California's natural beauty that you can introduce into your garden. You can introduce the most wonderful of scents too. Scents are probably even more evocative of a walk through nature than what you can see. Some plants permeate the air around them with their unique fragrance, like the Cleveland's sage and coyote mint. Others like to actually have their leaves rubbed before sharing their sweet scent, such as the yerba buena and hummingbird sage. The desert willow and Western azalea have fragrant flowers. There are popular non-native plants that grow very well in water-wise gardens, like the wonderfully fragrant rosemary and lavender shrubs. Imagine planting these alongside a California sagebrush and several native sages. Besides a hummingbird and butterfly garden, you can grow a scent garden at the same time!

What is also satisfying is having the opportunity to do your own little part in preserving nature. Whereas early settlers planted plants that were a reminder of home, small familiar patches amidst a vast and wild California, now the scales have turned the other way where large areas of open space are being replaced by landscaping that has little to do with the natural climate. The least we can do is use native plants in our built environments.

Being that gardening with native plants is a way to help preserve the beauty of California, it is important not to damage any native plant populations by taking them from the wild. Part of the fun and shared experience of gardening with natives is in obtaining your plants. As gardening with natives has grown in popularity, so have sources for obtaining plants become available. There are nurseries that sell natives. You can purchase plants, bulbs, and seeds by mail order. Certain local chapters of the California Native Plant Society hold annual sales of native plants. Native gardening tours often offer plants at selected locations. You can visit local botanical gardens to see native collections and perhaps purchase plants. I have even found many of my plants at the local community college, whose horticulture department holds plant sales in both the spring and the fall.

less work

Most suburban gardens are labor intensive. If you have a lawn, either you or the gardener is maintaining it on a weekly routine of mowing. And that's when everything is going right. Otherwise you have to worry about brown patches developing, keeping it watered, reseeding and aerating and ... the list goes on. And then there is the raking to be done whenever the trees and shrubs decide to drop their leaves. With the native plant garden, leaf litter is part of the natural cycle; you are more than welcome to let the leaves stay right where they are. If they are covering your walkway, then brush them aside, but no need to gather them all up for weekly collection.

Pruning is kept down to a minimum. Your native plants will reach their mature sizes and you may only have to prune a couple of times a year, unlike a lot of the common shrubs that need to be continuously cut back.

As mentioned in a previous entry, you don't have to strain yourself trying to change the composition of the soil to make it just right for some exotic. You will actually want to keep it in as natural state as possible. Even land that has been scraped and compacted can be brought back to a more natural state. Initially, that bane of all gardeners, weeding, is perhaps more labor intensive when first installing a native plant garden; in this case, you are trying to reestablish the proper balance of soil to plant. But once the natural system is working properly, weeds will have a harder time moving back in.

And not only will you have cut down on how much time you will have to work in the garden (and consequently, you'll have more time to spend simply observing and enjoying your garden), you will also save money. No more spending on lawn upkeep, no more trips to the store to pick up fertilizers and insecticides. A reduced water bill. No more worrying about keeping all of the sprinklers working properly, and if you are starting fresh, you won't even have to install an elaborate irrigation system in the first place. According to some experts, drip irrigation is also bad for your plants. When first establishing your native plant garden, supplemental watering is only necessary the first season or two, but after that, the plant communities will take care of themselves.

Don't plant exotic invasives; keeping them in check is also expensive, both in terms of labor as well as cost. The ivy that many people plant out of habit will eventually get out of bounds and run rampant unless strictly cut back. It can ruin fences, walls, and take over other garden beds. Other plants that are beautiful to look at and are planted innocently enough can become nightmares to the gardener. French broom is notorious for taking over not only your own garden, but your neighbor's garden, and also open space. There may be a system of checks and balances for them where they originated, but they can wreak havoc on native plant communities. Of course, not all plants are invasive, but this increased awareness is always helpful, no matter how you garden.

soil and water

Our soil is also teeming with activity, most of it happening at a microscopic level. The critters that we can actually see without magnifying glasses and microscopes are the giants of the underground world. Much of this underground world has yet to be fully understood. But it is an ecosystem unto itself. Not just insects and other invertebrates, but fungi and bacteria exist in our soil, making crucial contributions to our ecology. Healthy soil is the foundation to the health of everything that springs from it.

How many gardeners are frustrated by all the clay (or sand) that makes up the majority of their garden soil? Why not work with it by finding the plants that thrive in such soil? I used to feel limited by what I could plant in the areas of my garden that were covered with a layer of rock. I felt limited by the thought of having to move the rock, mix in bags of soil conditioner to break up the clay, then planting my plant before moving all of the rock back again. Any time I wanted to plant something into the ground, I was always weighed down by the thought of all those bags of soil conditioner and feeling resentful of being stuck with clayey soil. Alternatively, gardening with natives allows you to work with the soil as it exists. And that allows the life processes underground to go about their business with less disturbance.

Native plant gardens need no fertilizer. And it's not that they don't need fertilizer; fertilizer kills native plants. Imagine what it does to the soil and all of its living organisms.

Native plant gardening has become synonymous with drought-tolerant gardening. This gives the image of California as being all chaparral and scrub. Which of course isn't the case. There are native plants for all of the different conditions up and down the state, from the mountainous regions to the north coast to the southern desert. So it is important when gardening with native plants to select according to where they naturally thrive. And if not, can you create a condition where they can thrive? I planted a Western Azalea next to my house in the east Bay Area where I know I'll be able to give it the supplemental water it will need. It is a plant that thrives in the moister conditions of our North Coast and not 'drought-tolerant.' But I wanted it, know I can give it plenty of water, and still, no fertilizer!

What is nice though is for the most part, and particularly where one might otherwise install an irrigation system, is that you can plant natives appropriate to your climate and after it is established, not have to give any supplemental water at all. This is especially appropriate for the areas of your landscape that are farther away from the house. It is an easy matter to water those beautiful baskets of nasturtiums hanging underneath your overhang, the camellias that line against your house, and the beds of annuals you pick up every spring from the local nursery. But the 'bones' and structural elements in the further reaches of your yard would do well to be natives. Trees and large shrubs are especially important to have native as they anchor your habitat garden. The smaller shrubs and perennials will grow alongside these larger natives like they have always done, and you won't have to worry about fertilizing or watering them. Even pruning is minimized.

habitat friendly

Continuing with copying what I wrote for a website I created a few years ago. It was done during the spring of that year, so when I mention that a plant is in bloom, has ladybug eggs, etc. it's not true now in December. On the other hand, my toyon currently has beautiful red berries!

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One of the most satisfying aspects of gardening with native plants is how beneficial it is to wildlife. Gardening with native plants means offering the trees, plants, and flowers that our wild neighbors have evolved with. For example, insects such as our native bees can be highly specialized, depending on particular plants for their survival. Over 1500 species of native bees are found in California. Having a variety of native plants in our gardens means attracting a variety of pollinators.

Butterflies can be particular too. Besides nectar, they depend on finding particular native host plants on which to lay their eggs. In deciding which plants to grow, you can also take into account what you would like to attract with them. For instance, if you would like to attract the pipevine swallowtail, you could plant the California pipevine. This is also a great way to get kids interested in natural science. They just might take an interest in the insects and bugs they see crawling and hovering around the garden. What attracts certain insects and bugs? What are their life cycles?

Being that I am trying not to worry about aphids this season, I am ecstatic to find that ladybird beetles are making a home on my California sagebrush. I am finding lots of their eggs as well, on the dry branches I am so glad I didn't prune back this year. My wild lilac is blooming now and I am looking forward to seeing the little bee that I saw laden with yellow pollen that I saw last year. Maybe it was a fly or some other kind of insect. Hopefully I'll get more butterflies this year as my garden matures. It's a lot more relaxing simply letting nature happen in my garden, rather than seeing a few leaves being eaten and reaching for the insect spray.

And then there are the birds. All of the insects that you are allowing in your garden are sure to entice them. Besides the insects, you can plant berry producing plants such as the toyon and the blue elderberry which are important wildlife mainstays in the garden. Nectar producing flowers will attract the hummingbirds. Native sages, currants, and gooseberries have flowers that bear the nectar that hummingbirds love, and when their flowers fade, will either go to seed or produce berries which will attract even more birds. Manzanitas, huckleberries, and native honeysuckles are also examples of plants that serve such double duty.

A great way to see existing native gardens is to attend a native plant garden tour, many of which take place during the spring in different parts of the state. In the southern part of the state, there is the Theodore Payne Native Garden Tour and up in the east Bay Area there is the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour. The south Bay Area and up the peninsula has the Going Native Garden Tour. These tours are self-guided tours in which visitors are welcome at dozens of existing gardens that give ideas as to how to native plants can be used in the landscape. On one of my visits to a particularly beautiful and established garden, I enjoyed the sight of a family of California quail making themselves at home on a hillside, while I also heard the rustling of a lizard in the underbrush. When I managed to find it, I saw that it had a beautiful blue tail. A garden teeming with activity is so much more interesting.

home page

For the next five days, I'm going to copy what I wrote for a website I designed for a class a few years ago. The site was called Native Plants for your California Garden. The only changes I expect to make are to remove any references to the photographs that were on the site.

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How many times have you been out for a walk through nature and said to yourself "How beautiful, I need to get out and appreciate this more often?" Do you realize you can create something like that in your own garden? Although suburban landscaping is seemingly defined as being limited to lawns, shrubs, and ivy, your options reach beyond that. You can remove the ivy, reduce the size of your lawn or even eliminate it altogether, and instead choose native plants that require no fertilizers, no pesticides, little or no supplemental water, and little or no maintenance. In exchange, you'll have a more natural looking outdoor space that can evoke feelings of that last hike you went on.

You can choose how far native you want to go - it's certainly not an all or nothing proposition. Around my house, I will always make space for double impatiens as they were my mother's favorites. Just keep in mind the differing needs of our native plants, and you can start adding an exciting new element to your garden!

There is also flexibility in gardening with natives. Through proper selection, you can have a formal clipped garden using native shrubs instead. Some have a more formal growth habit that is easily maintained. So don't feel that by growing native you are limited to a wild, untamed looking garden. Or you can have both: a formal looking front garden that will please even a homeowners' association, and an informal backyard that looks like a nature walk!

It's great to go green as more and more people are tuning in to preserving our precious ecology. And we can each start in our own gardens. California has been called an 'Island' for its unique geography, settled between various mountain ranges and the ocean, forming a large part of what is known as the California Floristic Province. Yet every region of the United States can benefit by gardening with an eye towards preserving nature. Ideally, every region of the world would garden this way. We can all tread a little more lightly on the earth, and still have beautiful gardens!

With all of the fantastic information about native plants available now, there is no better time to begin your native garden makeover. It's actually fun and satisfying to bring back some of what makes California unique. You'll just be turning over a lot of the work over to nature itself; the native plant garden, once established, requires much less supplemental water (if any), no fertilizer, and lets the birds and beneficial insects take care of the pests. By eliminating the use of pesticides, you'll be giving nature (including us humans!) a break.

Niner loss

A good, hard-fought game against the Seahawks that unfortunately ended in defeat. I'll have to keep in mind that the team is still relatively new under the watch of Coach Singletary and his staff. So I encourage those of you that are 49er fans to focus on the positives: the offense is moving the ball, the defense is solid, the players are in the right mindset... I think they are going in the right direction. Let's look at this as a steady progression that will take some time.

Sonic's got...

burgers and tots!

I recently saw a commercial for Sonic Drive-In and it featured a menu item with 2 burgers, 2 servings of tater tots, and 2 soft drinks. Too bad they don't have any locations near where I live. But it's a nice start - hopefully it (offering tater tots) catches on, and more places will do the same. Personally I like Carl's Jr. and maybe some day they (and all of the chains) will have tots on their menus.

an idea for Ford Motor Company

I've enjoyed reading how Ford Motor Company has been earning better and better reviews for its vehicles. Although it's difficult to ascertain quite what "buying American" is anymore, I am happy to see an American nameplate test so well just the same.

So now I'd like to make a suggestion to Ford: make an adjustment to your Ford nameplate, the one that is seen on your vehicles. Personally, I find the logos for most of your competitors to be much more understated and elegant. I believe that if Ford were to redesign its logo in a similar fashion, it would impress upon the consumer an elevation in class and style.

And I'm not even suggesting that the current script styling of the word "Ford" be changed. My suggestion is to change to a chrome nameplate with the name "Ford" inscribed in it. You see, it's the current blue with white lettering of the current logo that I believe could most use the updating. Personally, I find that having a silver logo better complements whichever color is desired for the vehicle itself, whereas a blue oval with white lettering doesn't.

Maybe it's time to upgrade the image and visual impact of your brand, especially now that your company's products are rating as well as ever.

Joan Baez

Last night, I watched a program about Joan Baez aired by the local PBS station. All that was familiar to me was the picture I had in my mind of her: playing folk music and wearing her hair short. Actually, more than that is her very name, which is more familiar to me than anything else about her... Joan Baez.

The show was fascinating - it had wonderful early footage of her before she was famous. What really caught my eye was how she looked with long hair. If I didn't know it was her, I wouldn't have recognized her. I wouldn't have told myself, "Oh, that's Joan Baez, but with long hair." I really enjoyed the parts that I watched, particularly the early years. Seeing the home movies of her and her sisters running around on their travels when they were young was especially touching; they even had snippets of them being filmed while they sat in their car during these trips. It took away her celebrity and showed a typical American family on vacation.

I learned a lot about her such as her work with Bob Dylan which I hadn't seen before. There was fantastic footage of them with a bunch of people gathered in a room, her playing her guitar and singing, and him sitting in front of his typewriter typing (what might have been) lyrics. That it was shot in black and white only added to the fascination of what I was watching, a time capsule.

Although I was vaguely familiar that she was an activist back in the 1960's, this program showed a lot of that footage as well. There were protests and defining walks with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and sitting next to and participating with him as he gave speeches to congregations. She also protested the Vietnam draft and went to jail for it.

Another snippet that was shown was of her (on black and white film and her with long hair) singing a song that was familiar to me as a song that Nirvana sang during their Unplugged performance: "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" which I looked up is an old folk song that dates back to the 1870's.

truth and food

Years ago, I saw a program on TV about how dozens of frozen food packages will be gone through to find just the right contents to photograph for the box. Something about truth in advertising - even though the majority of these meals won't look like the one on the box, at least what is photographed will have actually been found in one of the packages. Although not ideally representative of the average frozen meal, I think it's fantastic to be held to this standard, so as to prevent any indiscretions or dishonesty - I mean, imagine how elaborate the pictures of the meals would look if there were no such rules in place.

Which brings me to fast-food commercials. Somehow I get the idea that there are no such standards. Really now, when was the last time any of us got a burger or what-not that was fast-food and it looked anything like what we saw in the commercial? I'm not saying that the food doesn't hit the spot or taste good or anything like that, but it hardly ever looks as good as it does in an ad or commercial.

the strongest athletes

According to a woman that worked in the same office as me, the strongest athletes are:

horse jockeys


Not surprisingly, she rode horses herself. I didn't know her well enough to learn whether or not she trained them, rode them competitively, or what her experience with horses or horse racing was. I mostly just remember her saying (essentially) that horse jockeys were the strongest of athletes as they trained to race on 1,000+ lb. animals. She had a point: jockeys aren't so much sitting upon their rides but are in a continuous squatting position around the entirety of the track. And as humans, smaller of stature at that, they are controlling the actions of much bigger creatures. Besides, how can we definitively measure how strong an athlete is anyway?

beautiful, not precious

Last night, I watched a segment on 60 Minutes about how finding gold is used to finance violence in Africa. It reminded me of how the diamond trade there has been historically used for the same thing.

Some years ago, I took a class to learn several graphics and desktop publishing programs; in my class was a woman who wore a very attractive ring on her finger. I asked her about it and she told me it was her wedding ring. But unlike the more typical band of gold with a diamond, hers looked distinctly of a Southwestern design. As I recall, she said the stone was turquoise and the band was a silver color.

Although certain metals and stones are considered to be 'precious,' in a material sense they're really whatever value humankind has placed upon them. Beauty and rarity may play big roles in their ascribed values, but we could just as well place value at a more personal level. If a band with turquoise signifies wedding vows, then that should be enough.

Niner victory

The 49ers won today. And it was a comfortable win where I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat until the very end. It's nice to see everything coming together for a game, and I look forward to continued improvements. One nice thing to see is that the coaching staff is willing to make changes to give the team a better chance to win. After all, the most important stat of all is the win-loss record. It's exciting to think about what the future holds if the team continues to get better...

generation to generation

Today, family members met for lunch at a restaurant, including siblings, nieces, and nephews. The eldest of my nieces and nephews are young adults now, but I can't help but spend some of the time looking at all of them as the young children they once were. We have several of the framed mats that have cutouts filled with photos from when they were toddlers and little kids - it's wonderful to have the perspective of an older generation to see them in this way.

Remembering my nieces and nephews from when they were kids reminds me of the way my mother would look at me as I grew into an adult. It wasn't until I experienced it for myself that I began to understand her perspective. No matter how old I got, a part of her would always remember holding me as a baby, then watching me crawl and learning to walk, and so on, throughout the growing process. I can still hear her calling me her "handsome little boy."

I'm always missing her, but now particularly; she died three years ago today.

depth perception and hearing

I'm still learning the consequences of losing the hearing in my right ear from the brain surgery I had this past summer. I find myself comparing it to losing the sight of a single eye. The most obvious difference that would result from losing the sight in one eye (I imagine) would be losing depth perception.

The other day, I was standing outside my house when I heard a bird singing. Actually, it was the non-melodic sound that a male Anna's hummingbird makes. And unlike before, each time I turned my head, it seemed to be coming from a different direction. That is a difference that I've noticed since the surgery - it is more difficult to determine the direction that sounds are coming from. So it's not quite the depth perception of binocular vision; it's similar but is directional rather than depth-related.

Ironically enough though, the tinnitus I frequently experience now happens more often in my right ear.

no eggshells and rice

Here's today's domestic hint:

If you have a food disposal, one thing I learned from ours backing up (not too long ago) is that you have to be very careful and particular about what goes down it. And before I even get to that, the pipe that runs directly out from the disposal has a diameter that is much narrower than a regular sink pipe. Hence, it can get clogged up much faster.

In any case, a couple of food scraps that should never go through the food disposal are eggshells and rice. I figure that the residue of raw eggs adds a binding material to the ground-up shells, plus the starchy rice builds up over time. I don't really know just how it all works but now we hardly use the food disposal at all. The person who cleared the clog for us told me that his family doesn't even have a food disposal.

Hope this helps, and on that note...

Happy Thanksgiving!

too late to be taking notes

Here's another scene from high school - let me push the 'Play' button:

It wasn't my habit to go to the school library just before a test but this time I did. I don't recall for what class it was, but I saw another student from that class, Rufino, sitting at a table. So I went up to see what he was doing. He was writing class material down on a piece of paper as if he was taking notes. And my first thought was, "Isn't it a bit late to be doing that? What good is it going to do you now?" So I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that writing things down helps him remember them. And I thought, that makes sense... now why didn't I think of that?

what's pastry again?

Before watching cooking shows on TV, I thought I knew what pastry was: baked items usually eaten for breakfast such as bear claws or what you might find in an Entenmann's box at the grocery store. I can't even come up with a definition, but I'm pretty sure I know pastry when I see it. But I've been confused over what the cooking shows are calling pastry and particularly a pastry chef - apparently anyone that works with sweets and desserts is a pastry chef. Which also includes people that make sculptures out of sugar, chocolatiers, anything to do with sweets. And minimally anything to do with what I guess are then called... puff pastries?

So enough with the confusion; yet again I decided to consult with my dictionary (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition) and looked up the word pastry: sweet baked goods made of dough having a high fat content; darn it, that didn't help any... what's pastry again? What about the pastry competitions that encompass all kinds of sweets? Is pastry synonymous with dessert in general? Do chefs and the cooking world in general define pastry differently than the dictionary? Any thoughts?

spelled like it sounds... NOT!

Through watching shows like Top Chef, I've learned about unfamiliar ingredients and cooking methods. I'm still not into cooking however - maybe some day.

A few seasons ago on Top Chef there was mention of what was called a "gooey duck." I mean, that's how it was pronounced - I'd never heard of it. But it sounded like some sort of fowl, most likely having to do with... ducks. Go with the obvious, right? Eventually though, it was mentioned that it was a kind of sea creature, a kind of clam. Okay, I can adjust to that, although it was called a duck.

Now I didn't really think that it was spelled gooey duck; more likely I imagined that the correct spelling would be guiduck or something like that. But when I found out the correct spelling, the thought bubble above my head was simply filled with one big question mark:

Geoduck

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and with gooey duck, er, geoduck, I conclude my 100th blog entry!

a tale of two halves

Another loss... and with today's loss, the 49ers look like they're out of the playoffs again this season. Good thing their performance in the 2nd half was as encouraging as it was - if they had had a repeat of the 1st half, there would have been a lot of hand wringing in Ninerland.

Like I mentioned before, I don't know enough about the game to be able to comment on just what they did differently in the 2nd half: they operated out of the shotgun more, so that's what they should do throughout the whole game, blah, blah, blah - it's more complicated than that. But as positive as it was for me, I'm sure that it gave a lot for the coaching staff to work with too. And it's important to remember that this is Coach Singletary's first full season as head coach, so it will take patience to allow him to fully implement his vision for the team.

But thanks to the 2nd half, I'll sleep better tonight.

Oprah ending her talk show...

in 2011. Not next year, but eighteen months from now.

I can't believe all the tears being shed and all the memories being evoked - save some emotions for when the time comes, folks! It will be a momentous occasion to be sure, but even then Ms. Winfrey will have made progression with her own network and it's hardly the last time we will see of her. She's not retiring from show business or anything like that. It's not like when Johnny Carson retired from doing the Tonight Show. People are babbling like she's disappearing from our view in a couple of months or something. Geez.

wild looking

I was just out looking at my garden (a part of the property facing the street), and for something that was deliberately planted, it's looking pretty wild. Especially compared to the more typical landscape that has a lawn and shrubs that are kept tightly manicured. It's been growing this way for several years and I'm not really sure what it will look like in the years to come. But I like it and it's messier appearance has been an easy adjustment for me.

I have a previous entry about lawns (no grass is greener) so I won't reiterate all that here. However, I do want to say that it is possible to get used to a different look to our yards. Our country is accustomed to seeing lawns as being synonymous with proper and acceptable landscaping, but I think that after awhile of something else, such as landscapes that emphasize habitat instead, people wouldn't even bat an eye. To make an odd comparison, I remember how strange Alex Trebek (host of Jeopardy - I have an old entry about Jeopardy here too) looked after he got rid of his mustache. But then I got used to his new look, and now his old photographs with the mustache look strange to me. It's all a matter of what we become accustomed to and yards without lawns could just as well be the new norm.

My garden looks wild but attractive, and certainly more interesting and lively.

sports wordplay

The first section of the newspaper that I read every day is the sports section. And over the years, it's become apparent that the writers like puns and wordplay, specifically having to do with the captions for their articles. And with names like Best, Anger, and Luck making headlines at the collegiate level of football (for local Bay Area teams at that), I think we can look forward to a plethora of clever captions in the future.

Although unlikely to happen now, there are a couple of past athletes whose names were just asking to be used in wordplay which I have to get off my chest - please indulge me:


************

For former basketball player and Warrior Adonal Foyle, perhaps after making a last second game-winning shot, this is the headline I imagined for the game's article in the next day's sports section:

Foyled again!

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And for former world-class Chilean tennis player Marcelo Rios, after doing something newsworthy (winning a tennis match, breaking an engagement, anything):

Blame it on Rios

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Like I mentioned in a previous entry, I don't like puns (and how many years have I held the two above?) but my mind thinks that way anyway... oh well, better telling them than hearing them!

Allen's and rufous

I've always enjoyed watching birds. Some of my fondest memories are of watching the beautiful and full of personality hummingbirds. In California, we don't get the more familiar (at least in artwork and prose) ruby-throated hummingbird. From my observations, most of the more colorful and popular bird species in general live in other parts of the United States: ruby-throats, blue jays, and black-capped chickadees for example. Here where I am, we have Anna's hummingbirds, scrub jays, and chestnut-backed chickadees instead.

But I've learned to appreciate the birds that are found in my area, including two of the species of hummingbird that I see in Concord: the Allen's hummingbird and the rufous hummingbird. Or used to see anyway. Yes, I still have the pleasure of watching the common Anna's hummingbird year-round, but the Allen's and rufous only seasonally... and now rarely.

In recent years, my sightings of the Allen's and rufous species of hummingbirds have been drastically reduced. Whereas for part of the year, I used to have several of them around the house and neighborhood for at least a few weeks, now I'm lucky to see any once or twice. Literally once or twice, feeding at some flowers for a moment, then gone for the entire year. I miss them. And I wonder why - what happened?

The Allen's hummingbird has a smaller range than most species as it is. It is found in a (relatively) limited part of the California coast. Although it typically has a shiny green back as opposed to the usually rufous colored back of the rufous species, technically I've read that it's more complicated telling them apart than that! So I'm not entirely certain which is which. But they are beautiful in either case and apparently dwindling in numbers. I would like to think that it is just a case of ebb and flow and I'll again start seeing them as much as many years ago, but I'm worried that that is not the case. Perhaps their habitat is shrinking? Climate change? Development? Whereas miners are said to have used canaries to indicate the safety of their caves, I look at the numbers of Allen's and rufous hummingbirds to indicate the health of our environment. One of many indicators I could use.

between classes, along the quad

More memories from high school, I remember them well...

As I mentioned before, there was a girl in my high school in the class behind mine that I thought could have been in the pages of Playboy. Wow. She was so beautiful, I didn't even allow myself to have a crush on her, at least not so much that I went through the emotional pain of wondering how I was ever going to meet her, etc. Like I had a chance. I was, and am, not nearly that confident. But admiring her, what a rush!

I must have been a senior and she a junior when I happened to notice that for one session, she walked a particular path between classes. I decided that I had enough time to wander over to a nice spot for swooning at her, near the top of the quad, next to the benches, each day around the same time. Practically holding my breath, she'd sweep by walking from my right to my left. After my 'fix,' I'd continue on to my own class. Looking back, I wonder if anyone noticed me and how obvious it was. It seems like it must have been pretty obvious. Girls can tell, right?

this was confusing me...

so I looked it up on Wikipedia:

Holland

I thought that it was being used interchangeably to refer to The Netherlands and it often is. Also throwing me off all these years is the word 'Dutch.' Are the Dutch from Holland? From the Netherlands? Let me get this straight then - the Netherlands equals Holland and the people are Dutch, right? Well, the Wikipedia entry sheds some light on this (Holland refers to a region in the western part of the Netherlands, but is also informally used to refer to the entire country; the people of Holland are referred to as Hollanders; there are Dutch provinces called North Holland and South Holland; and so on). At least it's as complicated as I thought it was and my confusion was warranted!

better than fries

With a nod to the movie Napoleon Dynamite (which I haven't seen) I'd like to also express my fondness for tater tots. They're awesome! I like them more than french fries. Whenever a burger gets ordered, wouldn't it be nice to be asked: "Would you like tater tots with that?"

P.S. - I like hash browns too.

Captain Ouch! and Quisp

I love eating breakfast cereal. Unfortunately, I'm also lactose intolerant, a change that happened in my teens. Therefore I went many years not eating cereal, including at the dining hall during college. One workaround I used once I started living off-campus was to stir yogurt into a cereal such as Cheerios - not the same at all. (Fortunately I am still able to consume other dairy products like cheese and ice cream, although I'm wary of yogurt nowadays).

For awhile in my early adulthood, I used a product called Lactaid, in the form of drops which were mixed into regular milk and allowed to do their chemistry for a day or two. Then I had only so much time to use the milk before it got too distasteful to drink anymore. Such a hassle and never quite the same taste-wise.

Then Lactaid came available premixed in milk as a product in itself; unfortunately I have found that it doesn't work that well for me and even at the number "100" I still have indigestion (to put it as politely as possible).

What a tangent! I was going to talk about Captain Crunch and most importantly my favorite childhood cereal, Quisp. One more thought: I worked at the local newspaper about 5 years ago, and perhaps the best thing that came out of my brief employment there was learning of the product Rice Dream. It's not milk, but it does taste good and has allowed me to eat breakfast cereal again. Yippee!

So anyway, I like the taste of Captain Crunch, but am I the only one whose mouth (specifically the roof of my mouth) ends up bloody and torn up after a bowlful of it? There's something about the shape of those barrels that seems to have been intentionally designed to cut and scrape. Which brings me to... Quisp.

Anybody else remember Quisp? It was a similar tasting cereal in a blue box that featured a little space alien character with a whirlygig thingy on its head. It tasted like Captain Crunch but was shaped like gentle little bowls, or flying saucers. It's not easily available now, and I have since moved on to other cereals, but I'll always have the memories...

science I don't understand

Assuming football is a science, that is.

Although the answers look simple enough while I'm sitting at home watching the games on TV, I know that there is so much more to it than simply asking: Why don't the 49ers do this more and do that less? Why isn't so-and-so getting more minutes? It's like being a bunch of backseat drivers, but then again, that's what fans do. There's such a dynamic to sports: a close game against a league leader can be followed by a blowout loss against a struggling team followed by an unexpected upset then who knows what? Points come easy, points come hard.

Sports are complex. After all, they're human.

There have been past seasons when I was truly frustrated and didn't see light at the end of the tunnel, but this season isn't one of them. Like I mentioned before, if I'm going to enjoy football, I've got to remain positive. Leading up to yesterday's game, I watched episodes of past seasons when the 49ers ended up as the Super Bowl champs. Not all of those seasons were smooth sailing either. There were ups and downs and the team seemed anything but destined to win the championship.

I've tried to stay away from weighing in on quarterback Alex Smith. Some have labeled him a bust, others list the obstacles he's faced such as multiple changes in offensive coordinators/schemes. Not to mention the shoulder injury and consequent mishandling of it that he had to endure. One thing I like to keep in mind is what his college coach Urban Meyer said: "Alex is an extremely quick learner. However, he's a guy that, until he understands it, he is nonfunctional. He is a guy that -- I keep hearing how Brett Favre kind of makes something out of nothing and is a person that runs around to make a play -- Alex Smith is not that kind of player. Alex Smith is a person that, once he is taught, has to learn it all. He might struggle early, but once he gets it, he gets it."

Additionally, he said:

"I'm going to be anxious to watch his development with the 49ers. Alex is so careful with the ball. His touchdown-to-interception ratio the last 2 years was phenomenal (47 touchdowns and seven interceptions). That's because, unless he knows exactly what's going on, he won't throw it. He won't just try to guess and take a shot. He has to know.

"That's why, early in his career, and early in our career with him at Utah, he was not an effective passer, because he really didn't understand. Once he understood, there was no one better. He learns quickly, though. But he's not a guy that you throw the ball out there and tell him, 'Go play.' He wants to know what is exactly expected of him and then he becomes a dynamite player."

For the Niners, it seems that wrenches keep getting thrown in to what they are trying to accomplish. Even the multiple changes that happened with the coaching in past years weren't necessarily their fault. Sometimes they chose offensive coordinators that were so good that they were lured away by other teams to be their head coaches. But now is now, and I support the current management and coaching staff. And Alex Smith.

Oh yeah - the 49ers won last night.

time travel writer

Time travel writer - now that sounds like a fun occupation! I suppose it would be no different than writing about history if one goes back in time, albeit in this instance having a first-hand account of events and writing with (more) certainty. As for going into the future, I haven't even thought about that yet...

Supposing it was possible to visit whichever historic events I wanted, where would I go? I might start out wanting to know the answers to the questions that haven't yet been solved: Did Booth act alone? How about Oswald? What happened to Amelia Earhart? What about Lindbergh's baby? Do we know for sure? These are just a bunch off the top of my head.

Then, after I had some of my questions answered, wouldn't it be amazing to go back and be able to witness the brilliant minds and talents as they worked and created? Shakespeare, Mozart, Da Vinci... after awhile though, I'd have to keep myself from spending too much time witnessing the past and not living in the present. Although it just occurred to me that I would treasure more time spent with my late parents.

Since no one knows for certain the meaning of life and what happens after we leave this world, wouldn't it be the most amazing thing to be able to do all of this time traveling in another lifetime?

when Paul met John

Another series of scenarios that I would enjoy if I were able to travel in time is being present when certain people first met each other, and for the subject of today's blog entry, members of my favorite bands.

As I would only like to witness these first meetings, I would simply go back in spirit and observe silently - imagine being able to observe that fateful Saturday performance by the Quarry Men, John Lennon's band at the time, on the day that Paul McCartney was first introduced to him? My spirit would be whisking around the grounds where a series of outdoor performances was taking place beside a churchyard to take in the ambiance first, and then I'd be there to watch as the two future Beatles met. Even though they couldn't have known what a big deal it was when they first said "hi" to each other, I'd know. Cool!

Then I might go to a different point in time to a record store in Athens, Georgia called the Wuxtry. That's where Peter Buck first met Michael Stipe. Peter worked there and Michael was a frequent customer. I wonder what the day was like when Michael first set foot in the store and how long it was before they finally met. Was it that first day? Did it take several visits? What was their first conversation like? Again, such a thing may seem unexciting, but given who they were and what they were to become, I think it'd be fun to see firsthand!

The story goes that U2 first came together because a young Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a flier seeking others interested in forming a band. Among those that met in his kitchen that first meeting were the other members that eventually became U2. I'd be fascinated to be able to watch how it went, what their personalities were like at the time, and if I could tell which ones were destined to form the eventual lineup.

Now that I've become such a fan of ABBA and have even read a biography about them too, I'd love to go back in time to 1968 when Frida participated in a television program which coincidentally also featured Agnetha performing too. They hadn't yet met. I wonder how much interaction they had with each other that night.

These are just snippets of time that it'd be fun to see, just small moments in the careers of these musicians and bands. Once started, I'd want to see more and more: other people and bands, how and when songs were first conceived and written, the times in the studio, the concerts, the list goes on.

time travel

One of the notions that gets my imagination going the most is the idea of having access to a time machine. Where would I go and at what point of time would it be? I actually wouldn't want to be limited by a time machine - I'd want to be able to travel in time just on a whim.

Recently, one of my friends posted a link on Facebook to a website for The Mannahatta Project. Their home page features a picture of what the area that became New York City must have looked like back in the year 1609. It shows a point in time that I wish I could travel back to, perhaps just in spirit, so I could fly and investigate as free as the wind, taking it all in.

I once read a book called The Ohlone Way, by Malcolm Margolin, about the Indian life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. I found the descriptions of what nature once was in this region wondrous, what with the skies filled with birds and herds of animals below. And the danger, such as bears roaming around. But I'm traveling around as a spirit, right? I don't want to interact, I just want to observe the wild beauty that once existed across our planet, and not see the industry and garbage of modern civilization.

Or I'd go even further back in time to when the Earth was even more untouched by mankind, maybe several thousand years ago. I watched a production on PBS not long ago about the San Francisco Bay region, and how the land once stretched further out to sea, encompassing what are now the Farallon Islands. I'd travel around the world and get to see the species that have since become extinct, even the dodo bird! It'd be so much fun.

tough loss

Tough loss yesterday. But a good competitive game nonetheless. Except for the turnovers, I thought the offense played very well. I enjoyed the playcalling and the playbook looked expanded. A link I keep on my toolbar is for a 49ers discussion group and the emotions and opinions there are down and critical this week. Personally, the only way I can truly enjoy football is by keeping a positive outlook.

I watched Coach Singletary's press conference earlier today, and I am going to follow his lead. The wins will come.

The team has to put a complete game together, meaning all facets of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. They are not yet a well-oiled machine that can afford to make mistakes and still win. They are capable of beating most every team in the league as long as they limit mistakes.

The next game for the 49ers is this Thursday, a very short "week." They play the Chicago Bears at Candlestick. At least the Niners don't have to travel, although if they were playing in Chicago, the story line about Coach Singletary would be a lot more interesting, being that he would be coming back to the city in which he made a name for himself as a player. Still, I'm glad that the Niners are playing at home. For them to make the playoffs, they have to take matters into their own hands and start winning games. They have left themselves in the precarious position of having to rely on their divisional competitors to lose, which is leaving too much out of their control.

This season hasn't been a sudden turnaround for the team, but I see the improvements that will hopefully mean long-term success. Let's stay the course.

from the mouths of babes

One of my nieces visited today. She recently graduated from college with her credential and is now teaching a classroom full of third-graders. My niece is a young adult, but she told a story that gives the perspective of her young students. The age of fifty came up when conversing with her class, and one of them asked her, "Are you fifty?"

but I like soup

If they're not rude, it's not authentic.

I can say this about Chinese restaurants because I'm Chinese... or am I?...

Here is my amused way of remembering two or three experiences I've had while eating at different Chinese restaurants. Amused because I like to add a little bit of embellishment:


Waitress: Are you ready to order?

Me: Yes. We'd like to start out with hot and s...

Waitress (while studying me): You Chinese?

Me: Oh, well, yes I am. So we'd like some hot and sour...

Waitress: You speak Chinese?

Me: Um... no, I don't. We'd like an order of hot and sour soup...

Waitress: Then you're not Chinese... no soup for you!


**********

The thing is, I was never really offended by this kind of exchange - the main gist anyway... of course we got what we ordered. But it has made me wonder about the whole American / Chinese inner dialogue that I've sometimes gone through. Or how Asian I really appear, as I've occasionally been told that I look like a mix, perhaps part Spanish. But in my experiences with the waitresses, it's kind of funny.

smart birds

One of my favorite things to do is birdwatching. Besides admiring them in their natural environment, there are several feeders around the house, all hanging from the eaves so that they are sheltered from the elements. It's a great way to bring the birds closer in for viewing.

This morning, I made a new batch of sugar water for the one hummingbird feeder that I keep filled. I used to have many more, but figured that I have plenty of flower options for the hummingbirds now. I believe there are trace elements in blossom nectar that are better for their health. But I like to have the feeder all the same, and the hummers sure use it!

I haven't had some of the experiences that others have had with hummingbirds, like having them flit back and forth through sprays of water from the garden hose, but I do recall an occasion years ago when one of them alerted me to an empty feeder. It flew up to the feeder, acted like it was trying to sip nectar but couldn't, flew towards me and chattered, then flew back to the feeder, going back and forth like this several times. I was so impressed by the communication and felt such a connection to this beautiful creature. And I filled the feeder as soon as possible.

ouch!

Last night, I was reminded of something that I've wondered about: why do ballplayers insist on not rubbing the parts of their bodies that have just been beaned by pitches? I realize that a lot of it has to do with baseball tradition, but wouldn't it be a good idea to massage the area immediately to get some blood movement going? Isn't it crucial to the healing process? I would think that that's more important than showing how tough one is. It's awfully admirable at the same time, which I suppose is the point. After all, pitches average what, 80-90 miles per hour?

Which gets me thinking of how pain is dealt with in other sports, in particular how it relates to rules and infractions. The first one being of course, football. I've never played organized football, and definitely not tackle football - I doubt most people have. Sitting at home and watching it on TV, it's easy to forget the level of pain that players put up with on each and every play, let alone the injuries that are so bad that a player actually lets it show. Note that penalties aren't necessarily called due to injuries.

Basketball. Ah, now we start getting a peek at how players sometimes over-act and over-react in order to 'get the calls' from the referees. Although my natural inclination is to give players the benefit of the doubt, all I have to do is compare the behavior of athletes from other sports in similar situations. It's funny when even basketball commentators use the term 'flopping' to describe how players emphasize being fouled, thereby helping the officials. The term 'Euro-flopper' is especially amusing, applied to basketball players from Europe that use the technique to show they've been fouled. Upsetting really, when it works. A Spurs player flopped on a drive to the basket to avoid an upset against the Warriors last season...

Which brings me to soccer. Just from the highlights, I've never seen so much agony and high drama! Talk about flopping. As much as I'd like to believe that they aren't exaggerating injuries, it's amazing how well they recover as soon as the penalty cards go up. The thing is, it's such a physical sport that injuries must be common - no pads and helmets here - but still, there's something Shakespearean about the way players react to going down. Shouldn't soccer highlights be accompanied by operatic music or something? This futball is nothing like football, although with new rules in place, NFL quarterbacks are beginning to resemble gridiron Lawrence Oliviers because of the ease with which they can now draw penalty flags. Funny how that works.

disco inferno

Here's a most unfortunate circumstance I found myself in that resulted from my high school crush - ah, the memories...

As luck would have it, we found ourselves taking P.E. during the same period and I thought "At last, now I'll get to know her!" At the beginning of that particular class, us students were told to choose between one of two options: soccer or disco dancing (I'm giving away my age now, aren't I?) I remember thinking, well, I'd prefer playing soccer, but I'm willing to bite the bullet and pick dancing if it means being around her. Perhaps I was being sexist in assuming that she'd choose the dancing, and I paid dearly for that. It was also a mistake overlooking that she was already involved in after-school sports, and well, it was what it was. She chose soccer, and there I was learning disco.

I can still picture the class taking place in the multi-use room. It was awful. I was no fan of disco music, and the object of my affection wasn't there to balance the suffering out. It wasn't like ballroom dancing, but more akin to line dancing. I can even remember trying to boogie next to a guy named Dave and a guy named Kevin (I'll spare their embarrassment and withhold their last names) to the disco tunes of the era. And you can see from the title of this blog entry which song signifies this time of my life: Disco Inferno by the Trammps.

my high school crush

Ever since yesterday's entry, I've been reminiscing about years long ago. I even pulled out a few old yearbooks and looked through the pages. In some cases I was looking at kids, and in others, my peers, all at the same time. Some names I knew immediately as soon as I looked at the photos, others I struggled with. One thing I realize now is how helpful it would have been to have gotten both the first and last names of everyone that took the time to leave written messages. Back then of course, I mistakenly thought that I'd be able to remember everyone. And some messages have no names with them at all.

Right next to my yearbooks is a very thin booklet which is a remembrance from my high school graduating class's eleventh-year reunion (why eleven? - because we're special). Which reminds me of being in front of the dreaded video camera, which never fails to put me in an immediate state of panic.

I was seated at a table full of friends and acquaintances when several members of the events production group came to us with their video equipment in hand. Could we all stand up for a group interview? So okay, we all stood up and introduced ourselves. Then came more quick questions, including the one that threw me for a loop: Who was the prettiest girl from our class? Oh no, I thought. What do I do now? As the other guys for the most part all said the same name, I panicked and said that "I couldn't think of any." Isn't that terrible? All because I didn't want to divulge the name of the girl I had had a crush on ever since my freshmen year. I went on to say something to the effect of "I can think of a girl from the next class" - which was true - there was a girl in the year behind ours that was so beautiful she could have been a Playboy Playmate. But if I was going to protect my secret anyway, why not simply agree with the other guys?

Whenever I think of that video, I hope against hope that they edited my part out, but certainly that's not the case. And of course, there were lots of pretty girls in my class!

freaks and geeks on the line

Another memory from going to school: choosing teams and playing football. And the thing is, it makes perfect social sense doing it this way - I mean, the better athletes and/or the more popular kids get to play the skill positions like quarterback and wide receiver, and the leftover kids get stuck playing on the line. As kids start getting involved in organized football this isn't so much the case, as physicality and skill sets are more closely matched to positions, but casually at school, the playgrounds and playing fields are microcosms of, well, society.

Why am I of this opinion? I was stuck playing the line, of course. Short and small me. I didn't have the athletic skills that screamed doing anything else. I didn't have the social status that was able to talk my way to playing the glory positions. Rushing the quarterback wasn't as big a deal, because I could choose how hard I wanted to play (we're talking junior high P.E. class here) but blocking was no fun at all. One play stands out in particular. It was a big game and I was on one side of the offensive line in position to block, when I heard one of my teammates, Ben, exclaiming something like "I'm not blocking Darryl, he's too big!" while walking away from his position on the line, his hands thrown up in the air. And Ben was several inches taller than me. So like a good soldier I moved from my spot to Ben's vacated spot and braced myself to try to block Mt. Muscle, Darryl.

Then our quarterback yelled "Hike!" and I prepared to get run over - which I did. But somehow, Darryl also stumbled over me like I was a loose clump of dirt, and my team completed a long, game-winning touchdown pass. A good and bad memory at the same time.

********

While I'm at it, I have another memory, this one from high school. What should have been my greatest athletic moment was one I managed to screw up anyway. After a little while of playing football, my class period was going to go about choosing teams for football again. But for some reason, I thought we were choosing sides for basketball, which I was especially terrible at. So anyway, the very first person chosen was... me! But my immediate reaction was one of disgust and I turned and said, "I hate basketball!" (playing, not watching, to be specific). And that team captain, who had said my name with a smile, winced at my reaction, since he probably thought he was doing something nice. So, even though he won't see this blog in a million years, I'd like to say "Thanks Brennan! You're a cool dude!"

not a moral victory kind of fan

The 49ers lost to the Colts today. Not to take any kind of moral victory from this loss, but it was a very competitive effort put forth by the Niners. After all, the Colts are undefeated so far this season, which says a lot about San Francisco losing by only four points. I think qualifying for the playoffs this season is still a strong possibility, but now the team needs to go on a winning streak!

tv props

Not that television is supposed to be real or anything but I can't help but notice how light the groceries are. When TV characters buy groceries, they always need paper towels and potato chips and the like, yet never shop for eggs and other things that are fragile and/or heavy. And whenever they are drinking from soda or beer cans, don't the cans look empty? Maybe I need to expand my horizons and watch more television to see if I'm wrong (perhaps I don't watch enough different shows).

spitball

Growing up, I enjoyed watching baseball as much as football. But through the years, I've come to enjoy watching football more. Maybe it has to do with having fewer games and more action. I find myself interested in the off-season and the NFL draft now too.

And perhaps it has to do with all of the spitting in baseball.

Not that there isn't any spitting in other sports too - there is. But for all of the physicality of football, I rarely see it there. Unfortunately, I saw it once while watching an NBA game, upon the hardwood floor no less, but just that one time. But in baseball, they spit so much it's like they're doing it to regulate their body temperature or something. This observation of all of the spitting is nothing new - it was even captured quite nicely in the movie The Naked Gun, where even the fans join in (fortunately, that was an exaggeration). Although I thought I was getting used to it, all of the spitting may finally be getting to me. It's making the game difficult to enjoy.

One lasting image of this year's World Series may well be a particular camera shot of watching Philadelphia Phillie Ryan Howard sitting in the dugout. No, it wasn't him doing the spitting: the shot was of him sitting on the bench in profile and to his left was another player several feet away, but off-camera. He was positioned higher than Howard, perhaps with his feet on the bench and sitting upon the shelf behind the back of the bench. In any case, here's this dramatic close-up shot of Howard, and it's being punctuated with the occasional stream of spit stretching across the length of the television screen as if from a fountain. Disgusting. I've thought for years that one of the most awful jobs has got to be that of dugout cleaner.

I've even lost respect for baseball players as athletes as a result of all of the spitting. I mean, in what sport is it even possible to stand around chewing tobacco anyway? Football? No way! Basketball demands running up and down the court the entire game, so no. Tennis, no. Any sport with a hard, flat surface wouldn't allow it. Like I mentioned earlier, very occasional spitting can happen in any sport, but in baseball, can one look at it being played for even 10 seconds without seeing a player doing it? It's gotten so that it's as natural as breathing. What happens when one of the players hosts an outdoor barbecue at his home: do he and his guests spit as much all over the lawn and patio? I hope not.

If there is anything positive to all of the spitting, I think it's how tobacco appears to be getting used less and less. Now much of what is being used are sunflower seeds and what-not. Which is still unsightly, but not as bad as treating ballparks as giant spittoons. Chewing gum is okay. But in other cases, I don't even know what's in their mouths that they have to spit so much.

a great name for a race horse:

Hoof Hearted


No really... now say it three times fast.

I heard about this name years ago on the radio. It seems that it even had the race announcers cracking up. Imagine how it sounded: "Hoof Hearted along the rail!"

quick. editing.

I just saw a commercial for the new version of Windows, and for all the points that it was trying to make, I couldn't get past how quick the editing was. As in extremely short attention span quick editing. Or for those of you that remember, M-TV quick editing. I've turned away from concert video of my favorite bands because my eyes weren't allowed to relax and choose for themselves what to focus on; it was all decided for me by the editing. It may make sense to chop things up like that and indulge the increasing speed of contemporary life, but I wonder if it is symptomatic of much of what's wrong with today's society. Everything. has. to. happen. right. away. Quicker! Faster! Now!

Perhaps one thing that is needed is to re-align ourselves with the rhythm of nature - it keeps moving along at its own unhurried pace, no matter our efforts to change it. I'm reminded of ecopsychology, which emphasizes the movement out of our built environments and back towards nature. Maybe that explains why I've always been attracted to plants and gardening, and birds and birdwatching. I like the unhurried rhythm and getting attuned to nature's clock.

One of my favorite TV shows to watch as a child was called Thunderbirds. It involved the use of marionette puppets to portray a family cooperating to perform rescue-type missions. Part of the appeal was the drama created by the slow pace of movement of the characters - I wonder how the children of today would respond to such a show?