voyageur blog

St. Michael's Church, Suttons Bay, Michigan

2009-03-06T13:05:00.001-05:00

The steeple of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Suttons Bay, Michigan

Mississippi River Voyageurs

2008-07-10T01:01:00.001-04:00

Big River Magazine, http://www.big-river.com, has a page listing the known current and recent trips down the Mississippi River on foot or small craft. Please check out:

http://www.big-river.com/rivertrips.html

There is someone walking down the river bank, and also someone paddling a houseboat.

Church Steeple

2008-06-21T15:08:00.002-04:00

This blog is still here. However, new posts come very slowly. Like this one I took of a nice old church steeple.

Congregational Fellowship Hall

2007-04-15T12:03:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, my pastor was mentioning that for the most part, churches don't have much in the way of a fellowship hall. When I mentioned this, I recalled the fellowship hall at First Congregational in Winona. It was quite the place: two story, with a huge fireplace, skylights, and a balcony that encircled most of it.

In my current church, what passes for one is the place you pass through to hang your coats, and I've seen this in a lot of places.

So, what does your church now have in the way of a fellowship hall?

Over on another blog

2007-04-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

Nothing really from me this time. Just make sure to check out the real cool thing Balou did with leftover easter egg dye over at Born a Girl.

Comments here about Easter decorating might be nice, but in all fairness they probably belong under her post instead of mine. Just look at those colors!

The Okapi

2007-04-07T10:08:00.000-04:00

Here is an Okapi from the San Diego Wildlife Park. I understand that when the first specimen was brought back by an explorer, it was believed to be a hoax, patched together out of pieces of other animals. (I got the idea from the Born-a-Girl blog and the Okapi poem there).

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Winona

2007-04-04T20:37:00.000-04:00

Here's another one of Winona's many ornate stone/brick churchs: St. Paul's Episcopal. I don't know much about it except that it was built prior to 1900.

First Congregational Church, Winona

2007-03-31T05:06:00.000-04:00

This is the exterior of the church with the ornate interior seen in one of the other blog entries further down. It's just one of Winona's many ornate brick and stone churches.

The house to the right is "The Manse", which is owned by the church and (at least a long time ago) was used for activites such as youth group.

From 1880 to 1882, this church was built of dolomitic limestone quarried from Winona with trimmings of Fond du Lac sandstone, carved capitals at the door-corners from Frontenac and front steps from Kasota. The church congregation started in 185.

TV Still Watched - Update

2007-03-27T03:45:00.000-04:00

This is an update of the 2/25/2007 entry about how few TV shows I watch regularly. The list is smaller now, because two shows just ended their seasons (Battlestar Galactica and Prison Break). The list was at an all-time low before. It is even lower now:

1. Lost
2. Smallville
3. "24"

I'll likely add 2 or so soon. "Stargate: SG1" starts a new season next month, probably in or near the Galactica time slot, so I will watch that.

First Flowers of Spring

2007-03-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

I just snapped this photo a few minutes ago. I just noticed these unbloomed crocuses this morning on the way to church. A sure sign of spring. I hope the sight of these flowers will give some uplift to anyone who is having a bad day today.

The sermon today was inspired by Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me". That is where the pastor got the idea to try to log and figure out where his time went for the past couple of weeks. He was disappointed that prayer and reading the Bible was not among the top 5 or so things he spends his time on.

This Is Holland (2006 Italy Trip Part 2)

2007-03-24T16:33:00.000-04:00

Not really interesting, but yes, this is the only picture of Holland. It's officially called "The Netherlands", but, really, who uses that name? It's kind of hard to see anything coming in and out of the clouds, so this is the only pic I managed.

It is a very long flight to get there, but at least the seat backs have wonderful new devices that enable you to watch any from a fairly decent selection of movies, or even get addicted to "Bejeweled" if you wish. Once you land, you get to experience Amsterdam Schipol Airport, which is unpleasantly smoky but filled with interesting shops,. It is also filled with those cattle-processing-lines to take care of security screening and customs and the like for the travellers passing through.

And yes, in case you were wondering (and who doesn't wonder about Dutch pizza), you can get great pizza at this airport.

-------

In reference specifically to the photograph, it was taken at dawn. The only moderately interesting things are the orange buildings, which are not really orange, but are some sort of really huge translucent structures lit up from the inside.

This isn't Holland (2006 Italy Trip Part 1)

2007-03-24T16:10:00.000-04:00

This is one of a few from a defunct blog that I am going to be "rerunning" here. These are from a series concerning a trip to Italy in June 2006. The previous comments will be summarized in the first comment)

This isn't Holland. Nor it is Italy. However, it is Detroit. Surely both places are not very high on the list of vacation destinations. Downtown is to the left: if you like Gotham City from the first Batman film, you might like it. It's even better than Flint.

The largest, tallest, dark building in the skyscraper cluster is the Renaissance Center. It is a must-see for afficionados of Cardassian architecture. The inside is somewhat like the promenade of "Terok Nor".

The industrylands of the Ford Motor Company are seen on the right. The view is looking east and somewhat southward, which brings up the moderately interesting fact that Canada is south of Detroit. Canada (the much smaller city of Windsor) takes up the upper one-third of the photo.

Click on the image to see a much larger one. You will see Belle Isle (home of free-roaming white deer: perhaps to be seen in future photos) in the river on the left, and you will also see the Ambassador Bridge crossing to Canada.

(In the sequence, the are only 2 or 3 more until Italy).

Have you driven a Ford lately? Has anyone?

Hey Winona Photo Guy

2007-03-24T08:55:00.000-04:00

The guy at the Winona Photos Blog says to "drop him a line" if you want to contact him. I'm kind of curious about the burning house photo: looks just like the house I used to live in. However, I can' t find anything on the blog that directs me to where I can drop him a line. Can any of you experienced blog surfers find something that I am overlooking?

Andrew's Sailing Photos

2007-03-22T15:05:00.000-04:00

Andrew of the Prospect Park Project posted some links to some nice sailing photos in the comments to another one of my blog entries. I figured it would be better, with his permission, to display them in a proper post so you don't have to copy the URL's out into windows just to see the images. To the right: "Here is a picture of us racing at the Blue Chip a couple of years ago. We managed to win this one." - Andrew.

Below:
"I like this one because we are leading" - Andrew

Click here to see a list of several others which can be viewed and purchased

Deer Tracks in Snow (December 2006)

2007-03-21T01:30:00.000-04:00

There aren't too many reruns on TV now, so why not bring the joy of reruns to the blog?

This picture was the only content of my first blog post on December 16. The blog I posted it in now defunct, and I'm stripping it of 4 or 5 posts that will be reused here further on.

This picture was taken not longer after the first big storm of winter, and a lot of the snow had already melted and compacted down.

I figured it would be interesting to run this now that winter is over, and tracks like these are again a common site as the snow melts away.

Thanks to a fellow blogger for early encouragement and participation as I first tried to really figure out blogging, which I started with this photo.

Newspaper Rock

2007-03-20T20:05:00.000-04:00

One of the other blogs I link to at this time is Rob Schmidt's "Newspaper Rock". It differs from all the other blogs I link to at this time because it is extremely active with new posts (several new ones per day, every day), and it has a narrowly defined mission. It bills itself as the place "Where Native America Meets Pop Culture". What does this mean? For the most part, discussion involves Native Americans in comic books, in movies and TV shows, and in the arts; and also the issue of Native American stereotypes (sports mascots, etc.). You'd be surprised at how many recent major films involve Native Americans: including "The Fountain", "Apocalypto", and "Flags of Our Fathers"

I first ran across Rob's pages back around 2004 when I was researching the Sioux Indians for a book I was writing at the time. No, I'm not an Indian. I might possibly have some smidgen of Native blood in my ancestry that might possible qualifiy for membership in some tribe, but I have not yet chosen to research this. I am always and still interested in American history and Native American history in particular.

One of the first things I read about in Rob's pages was the controversy over Indian mascots for sports teams. Up until this point, I had not though about the issue much, and had the opinion many have that if you didn't like it, you should just ignore it since it isn't so bad. After reading what Rob and others wrote, I realized how insulting these often very offensive stereotypes can be and for the most part changed my mind on this issue.

Blog participants to watch for include Carole, who runs a Native Americans in Film web site, and "Writerfella", an actor and Star Trek writer who has been involved in Native American-related science fiction since its beginning.

The photo to the right is not related to "Newspaper Rock". It is a photo I took of a girl at an Ojibwe and Odawa pow-wow in 2004.

Progressive Rock

2007-03-19T09:30:00.000-04:00

I do have to say that this end of the blogosphere has rekindled my interest in progressive rock. I was big into getting and listening to LPs from Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Camel, Gentle Giant, Emerson Lake and Palmer and other such bands from about 1978 through 1985, but interest kind of dropped off after that (except for a few artists including Marillion). Thanks to blogs such as Adding My Views, I'm rediscovering this fine music.

Last year, a friend pointed me toward the Perpetual Timothy blog (as the source of a link to the hilarious Baptismal Cannonball video). This was even before the Voyageur blog was created. I visited it once or twice last year, and decided to return today only to find another discussion of progressive rock, this one involving the band "Yes". I'm looking forward to more of this.

Harry Potter Book Release Night, 7/15/2005

2007-03-18T09:50:00.000-04:00

I had thought that certain photos were deleted or destroyed by a virus, but this morning I found them archived on a DVD. This is from the downtown book-release party for the previous Harry Potter Book. Many of the downtown store windows had elaborate displays, like the one of the wizard (Snape?) seen to the right. There were Harry Potter-related costumes in abundance.

There are a couple of other photos I will post later.

Restaurant in Idaho City

2007-03-15T21:18:00.000-04:00

March 11, 2007. There was a sign somewhere on this pile that said it was a restuarant. I did not pay too much close attention to the idea of eating at this place, even though it was dinner time when I saw it. This building was located on the main street in Idaho City, Idaho. There comes a time in which too much "rusticness" in a restaurant is too much, and this place had rust and rot to spare. Don't forget to click on this to see the march larger image, and you will see the rather baroque Fred G. Sanford exterior decor. It looked like the kind of place where, if you went inside, you might get occasional rust flakes falling into your salad, and depending on where you walk, you might hear the crunch of broken glass on the floor.

As a discussion point for my readers, I'll ask if anyone else has seen a restaurant that looked so bad that they did not want to go in.

More's Creek, Idaho

2007-03-12T20:11:00.000-04:00

My pictures are out of order due to a forgotten camera cable, otherwise the Nashville ones would have come first. I took this one about two hours ago. It is More's Creek near Idaho City, Idaho. It's named after J. Marion More, leader of the miners who founded Idaho City in 1862. It is near the Arrowrock Dam. See the mossy cliff on the right? There were a lot of green mossy cliffs like this.

Got to see some stuff for once, even though it's not much fun without the Mrs.

Am back.

2007-03-10T16:44:00.001-05:00

I'm back now. Starting tomorrow, I'll resume some animal and travel photos (not necessarily "aww, cute! "for all the animal ones this time.

Hope

2007-03-04T12:44:00.000-05:00

Today's church sermon was derived from the book of Romans, Chapter 8. The basic message was that because Christ suffered and died for us, there is hope for us. We all need hope; I'm going through something pretty tough right now and have been much more bleak-minded for the past week or so (more so than usual). Things are only going to get much worse too. I think this is one of those sermons that is coming at the right time.

I wish the sermon was on the church's web site so I could quote it and describe it better and ponder it more (unfortunately I did not take notes), but the web site is a month behind now. I'm sure that the message (once it is clearly recalled and described) can be of help to anyone reading this, so maybe I'll do a further blog entry on it once the church's web site is caught up. Sometimes sermons are hard to remember, but the thought of blogging about them later can be just one of many ways to try to make sure to pay better attention to them.

Spring is Coming

2007-03-03T20:37:00.000-05:00

I just now found this photo. I knew it was somewhere, but had not been able to locate it yet. It was snapped in the back yard a couple of years ago. It's here as a reminder that spring is coming. Yes, it was a dreadful dreary winter day today.

Volcanic Landscape

2007-02-26T22:23:00.003-05:00

This is of a part of the "Craters of the Moon" park in Idaho. The landscape is a vast wasteland of volcanic ash. I took this photo during a visit in 2005. We spent much of day there, and there were even a few caves to explore.

They've Landed

2007-02-26T22:23:00.001-05:00

This photo from 2004 is actually of a church, not a flying saucer. Located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, it is a Greek Orthodox church building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was very cold when I took this photo. Wauwatosa is west

of Milwaukee.

TV Still Watched.

2007-02-25T18:14:00.000-05:00

I used to watch a lot more shows than I do now.

I think I must be at an all-time low. Unlike some things, I can easily rank the shows as to which ones are my favorites. From the top:

1. Lost
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Prison Break
4. Smallville
4. "24"

(Lost is only a little bit ahead of Battlestar). This might be more prime time dramas than I ever watched in the past, if we count the SciFi channel's Galactica show, which is always on during prime time even if it is not a regular network show. However, I used to watch a lot of CNN and Fox News (rarely watch those anymore) and several sitcoms. There are no sitcoms I am interested in right now. I started to watch "The Nine". It did not catch my interest. I started to watch "Daybreak". Same. I intended to watch "The Dresden Files", but still have not seen it. I've always had little interest in doctor or cop shows. However, two favorite shows of the past were "Hooperman" and "The District", both of which were cop shows.

I occasionally catch an "Extreme Home Makover", a random animal show on "Animal Planet", maybe a "House" every once in a while or a "King of the Hill" or "Futurama" too, but I cannot count these as regular shows that I watch.

I've had shows like "Heroes", "Medium", and "Numb3rs" recommended, but have not tried them yet. I'll likely add "Stargate: SG1" when it officially starts for its final season in April, and if I watch one Stargate, I might as well watch them both and start to watch "Stargate: Atlantis" too.

Knowing that not everyone even watches TV, do you watch more or less these days? What are the really great shows I did not list?

An Ornate Church

2007-02-25T12:59:00.000-05:00

Pulpit and organ area at the First Congregational Church, Winona, MN, 2004. This was the church where I went much of my childhood. After I left it, I hardly ever saw any such ornate place. Please click to enlarge the picture and see the woodwork around the pipes and the pulpit and the chairs. This photo was from 2004.

Many such churches, especially old Catholic ones, have had the wonderful ornate woodwork and craftsmanship gutted out. But not this one.

Movie Review: The Prestige

2007-02-25T06:59:00.000-05:00

I had this film recommended to me more than any other movie that I'd not seen last year, other than perhaps "Little Miss Sunshine" (No, I never received any recommendations for "Borat"). Well, it was just a few recommendations, but that was more than I got for other movies, including the Oscar nominees.

This movie was quite good. I went into it with only the bare minimal knowledge: "Victorian-era grudge match between two magicians, played by Hugh Jackman ("Wolverine") and Christian Bale ("Batman"). I'm glad I didn't read any reviews in detail, or the "blank slate" state of mind I went into watching it with would have been spoiled. Counting the "X Men" movie and "Happy Feet", this is the third Hugh Jackman movie from last year that I have seen so far, and I actually plan to see two more with Jackman: "The Fountain", and the toilet rat movie "Flushed Away".

Well, I'm not going to give away anything to spoil it, really. The main thing to say is that this is NOT a formula movie of any sort, and is not like any other movie I've yet seen. There are some nice plot twists and definitely some "wow" moments. It builds a little slowly, but is worth the wait when it really gets rolling.

Just some little things to point out. Things to watch for that won't spoil it, hopefully!

- This is a rather cerebral movie, and if you watch it casually, it will fail you. The film is non-linear, bouncing back and forth a lot between the "present" and the situations in the past that led up to it.
- Michael Caine, who plays Alfred the butler, as assistant to Christian Bale's Batman, is here, playing a somewhat similar role, but he assists the other magician instead of the Christain Bale character. I guess it would have been too much like "Batman Begins" if they had "Alfred" assisting "Batman" again.
- Look for an appearace by Andy Serkis (best known as motion-capture Gollum and in-the-flesh Smeagol from "The Lord of the Rings").
- If Tesla looks familiar, that is because he is played by David Bowie. This is the first thing I have seen him in since "Labyrinth" all those many years ago.

---

It's out on DVD now, so you can see it. The accompanying photo is of the movie playing on the TV. Hard to tell what that is on the screen, isn't it? But that's fine. You'll also see one of those electric flashy Borg regeneration alcove discs that we have that sits above the TV.

Wolf Eyes

2007-02-23T08:37:00.000-05:00

I got this photo at a state park a couple of years ago. Actually, it was in the visitor's center, and it was dead and in a glass case. Even so, there is always something unnerving about wolf eyes.

The Non-Traveller: Louisiana

2007-02-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

Since it is "Fat Tuesday", maybe it is time to ramble a little bit about Louisiana, possibly the next state I might go to that I've never been to. I used to want to go here years ago, just because New Orleans sounded exotic: more different from most any American city (much more though than, say, St. Louis). Also, I wanted to see Houma, which is deep in the delta to the south (Terrabonne Parish) because I read about it so much. Like with many such "go there" interests, this faded over the years. I have not yet been to New Orleans or Houma. I never really had interest in other places in the state such as Shreveport and Baton Rouge, or the northern part of the state that is likely a lot like southern Arkansas... and I've already seen southern Arkansas.

I don't have a lot to say about Louisiana , since I've not been there. No pictures, either, of course. So what's there to say about this state? What to see? What not to see? If you haven't been there, what do you want to see the most?

Even if it is far far from Pierce County, Wisconsin; or Dearborn, Michigan.

Travels in the States

2007-02-19T18:46:00.000-05:00

Time to update the travel map. Before, I'd only seen El Paso in Texas. Now I've seen Dallas (along with suburbs like Irving, Grand Prairie, and Duncanville). I even saw Mesquite, by mistake. I was also in Canton, Henderson, and Tyler in East Texas. Yes, it is a huge state, but I think I've seen enough of it to say that I can count it as a state that I've seen. So now it is "dark blue" with the rest of the states I've been to.

Nothing changed with California. I decided, however, to make it "dark blue" this time because if I've seen Sacramento, San Diego, LA, and Tahoe, I've seen more than just a tiny bit of the state.

What next? Maybe Louisiana. I got close enough to it last week to notice the accents. Maybe later this year.

Little beach at La Jolla Cove

2007-02-19T18:09:00.000-05:00

Part of a little beach at La Jolla Cove is seen here. This is a popular beach, and is not very crowded usually. It's also very small: there's not much of it that is not seen in the photo. You can see the sea caves here. This is also a good place to go snorkeling (to see many fish including the Garibaldi) and to see crabs and other creatures in the tidal pools, which are mostly flooded in this photo and to the right. The picture is from a year ago, but we came back in September and spent quite a bit of time here.

The Nazi Boutique

2007-02-19T18:04:00.000-05:00

I did a double-take when I saw this sign at a shopping place at La Jolla Cove in California a year ago. I eventally saw the actual entrance and sign for the place: it was really the Mazi Boutique, and I think it was some sort of art gallery.

Has anyone seen any real bad business signs during their travels, vandalized or otherwise?

Lifeguard Box

2007-02-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

Back to some randomly chosen photos and comments. This attractive copper lifeguard box is found at the shore in La Jolla, California. I think there is a phone or something inside it. This is one where I recommend clicking to see the large picture for the cool metallic detail. Surf's up!

Hawksbill Sea Turtle

2007-02-18T12:38:00.000-05:00

(Another Texas postscriptum)

One more of the sea turtle (the last remaining good one photo other than the video footage). The Hawksbill is a critically endangered sea turtle. "Hawksbill turtles have a wide range, found predominantly in tropical reefs of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans" - from Wikipedia. In Texas, they are said to be "occasional" visitors on the Gulf of Mexico coast. Shell length can be up to 36 inches. I think this juvenile's shell was more than 1/3 of this length. The Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is another one found in Texas at the Padre Island National Seashore. There was said to be one of these at one of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex's other aquariums. It's supposed to be illegal to disturb them in the wild.

Warm Showers

2007-02-18T09:08:00.000-05:00

(a Texas postscriptum)

(cue "Pina Colada" song for sole reason of "getting caught in the rain" lyric) I was warned of hail right after I went to East Texas. I guess I view dramatic weather with less than the fear I should give it, so I was actually curious to see the first hailstorm I'd seen in ages. Maybe that was dumb: I have no idea how nasty Texas hailstorms can be. I still have no idea. I also have no idea what it's like to drive on hail.

There was no hail, but for a bit when I was outside, I was caught in the rain. The rain was warm, which I'd not experienced for a few months, so it wasn't as unpleasant as it could be. Warm rain showers. After that, it was a cloudburst. The kind that shuts off electric traffic signals. No fun there.

I figured I'd add this item because of another blog where some guy's always leaving comments involving warm showers. Hailstorm wisdom and anecdotes are always welcome, even the ones of the "When I was a kid, we once had hailstones the size of volleyballs" kind. I remember hailstones the size of buckeyes or chestnuts. More about buckeyes later.

No sunset photo

2007-02-15T17:10:00.001-05:00

part 6:
Sorry, no sunset photo this time. I'll have to take it on faith that the sun shines in Texas. I never saw it, and I do remain doubtful.

Dallas Skyline

2007-02-15T15:51:00.000-05:00

part 7:
(cue theme song from Dallas TV show). This photo actually was taken before the aquarium photos, so it is out of order. So be it. The building with the round thing on it toward the right is lit up at night, I believe, making it look even more like a microphone. It's called the Reunion Tower. I've been told that it's kind of scary deep in Dallas, so I didn't want to linger. It was a little cold, and the sky was rather dreary. Overall, however, it was a nice day. This concludes the series of photos. There are some left out, such as some blurry fish pictures (one or two of which might show up later) and one of the Grassy Knoll of "JFK assassination" fame. I have no photos at all from my second day in "the Metroplex".

Sea Turtle

2007-02-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

part 5:
This is the lone resident Hawksbill sea turtle at the Aquarium at Fair Park. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this one was about a foot-and-a-half long. I do not know the sex of this one. I hope I remember this correctly: Male sea turtles need good flippers for mating maneuvers, and female sea turtles need good flippers for digging nests for their eggs. This one had a damaged front flipper and a damaged rear flipper, so I guess it's pretty good that it is in the zoo rather than in the wild. One of the reasons described to me for damaged flippers is that seagulls can peck at juvenile sea turtles.

If you click on the picture, you will see some pretty good detail in the much larger photo. Sorry about the flash glare on the left!

His/her tank was in a corner, and he/she seemed fairly happy and active. Just next to the tank was a shark tank at feeding time, and I think there were only two of us in the crowd who looked at the turtle.

This is my lone experience with any sea turtle (and I'm not sure I've ever been near the natural habitat of sea turtles) , so I don't have much to add in the way of past experiences. There is another photo, a side view, below. Just a couple more photos left in this "travelogue" series.

Texas State Motto

2007-02-15T10:47:00.000-05:00

part 4:
I figured since my recent entries in the blog were about Texas, I'd change the description to the Texas state motto, regardless of what it was. I looked it up and the Texas state motto turned out to be "Friendship". Just one word, a state motto I'd not heard of before, and I've seen worse state mottos. This one seems to fit, as I met friends and friendly people in both of the main places where I spent my time in Texas. This even included a gas station attendant. Friendly people who were able to put up with my disrupted hearing.

Texas seems to have has a good soul, not like some of the dour places I've been to or those places where there seems to be something ugly brewing just below the surface. There's even a certain favorite city of mine where I hear every once in a while that there is something evil brewing there always.

I tried to find a motto for Dallas specifically, but all I could find was this one: I WANT WHAT I WANT AND I WANT IT YESTERDAY.

Comments are welcome as always. Perhaps something about how friendly some places are or aren't, or about state or city mottos.

Fair Park Aquarium

2007-02-12T22:23:00.000-05:00

part 3:
This is the entrance sign for the Dallas Aquarium building at Fair Park. It's not the largest aquarium in the "Metroplex", and it wasn't full of trendy modern chrome and it didn't have a restaurant, but I considered it to be well attended and well stocked. The $4 price was a fair deal, considering aquariums 3 times as large costing at least 3 times more. At my friend's suggestion, I figured it would be a good idea to see a sea turtle, and the Aquarium at Fair Park had one.

Fair Park in Dallas has several attractions. Several other cities have been enhanced by the presence of "leftover" fairgrounds which I have seen in varying degrees in my travels. San Diego features Balboa Park, which was once the Panama-California Exposition (1910-1916). It contains the world reknowned San Diego Zoo. Chicago has museums on the former grounds of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. To find out more about the Columbian Exposition, read "The Devil in the White City". I strongly recommend this book. Fair Park is also the home of the Texas State Fair. It is the only unaltered pre-1950s World's Fair site in the nation.

Shopping center parking lots

2007-02-12T19:26:00.000-05:00

part 2:
A couple of nondescript restaurants in a nondescript strip shopping center development. I still have not eaten at a Quiznos. I was scheduled to eat at this one upon "de-planing", but I received an unexpected huge breakfast on the plane just before the plane landed and decided not to skew what was already an unusual dining schedule for the day.

Next to this Quiznos is a regular restaurant; a nice hospitable place, and I assumed it stays open quite late. Therefore, there's no reason that people who eat there can't stay inside and have coffee or something at a table rather than continue conversations afterwards in the very cold parking lot right in front of the restaurant after their dinner. Especially someone warned us not to stay out there because it was not a safe area.

But no. I stood there talking to my friend, with my back to a busy commercial strip that offered several additonal late-night restaurant/coffee options as well. And we really did start to freeze. Looking back, I think I spent 6 or 7 hours of one day at this nondescript strip shopping center development that I will likely never see again (inside two restaurants and out in the parking lot). But time spent with friends is time well spent, even if it is not in the best places.

A visit with the Romulans

2007-02-12T19:08:00.000-05:00

part 1:
And so the journey begins. As with many such journeys, a stop off at Romulus to see what the Romulans are doing happens early on. The birds-of-prey are run by companies like Northwest, American Airlines, and Continental. I'm talking, of course, about the Detroit Metro Airport, which really is located in Romulus.

In this photo, a Romulan walks past a Quiznos in the food court area. Notice that the Romulan is blurred: I think maybe he was in the middle of engaging a personal cloaking device at the time the photo was taken. Now, I have no idea if he was a real Romulan or not: the tips of his ears were hidden by the baseball cap.

I did make sure to drop by the Quiznos to inspect their menu. Even though the Quiznos was not open. I really had never been to one before, but was scheduled to go to one later that day, and wanted to see what they served, and maybe see if there were any coupons sitting there or something.

Not all was closed: a place next to it was selling big ol regular sloppy pizza slices. For breakfast.

Another sunset

2007-02-10T06:33:00.000-05:00

Found another sunset photo. This was from closer to home, on the eastern shore of Lake Superior in Canada. It was a couple of years ago.

Eagle in Flight

2007-02-09T17:20:00.000-05:00

This picture of an eagle flying was snapped near La Crosse, Wisconsin last year around this time. Around this time of year, many bald eagles (even flocks of them) can be seen around the Mississippi River around La Crosse, Wabasha and other parts of the area. I know I saw scores of bald eagles without even trying very hard.

Church jokes: Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin!

2007-02-09T13:02:00.000-05:00

I happen to be on one joke-forwarding email list, and a lot of what I get on it is pretty good. I figured I'd share this one:

These statements were included in church bulletins or announced in services:

(Thanks again to Nina)

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I upped My Pledge - Up Yours"

-------------------

Sunday is coming soon. This coming Sunday morning I won't even be in church: I'll either be in the air or paying a visit to the Rolumans in between flights. Anyone remember any church bulletin glitches or other church jokes?

Sundog (December 2004)

2007-02-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

Just two days ago, I saw sundogs alongside the sun. I did not have my camera with me, or I would have snapped a photo. Fortunately, I just now found a photo of a sundog from December of 2004. The sun is on the left, and the sundog is on the right. There was, as there usually is, another sundog over on the left (off the edge of the photo). I think I've only ever seen this three times: once back around 1992, once in 2004, and just a few days ago. Each time it was very cold (which I believe is necessary for sundog creation). Has anyone else seen sundogs before, or anything unusual in the sky?

Rhinos (San Diego, September 2006)

2007-02-07T23:07:00.000-05:00

Just a nice picture of a couple of rhinos, as seen from the tram tour at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. That's not armor plating, even though it might look like it. It's just the way the tough skin folds. There was a baby rhino around; I'll have to find the picture.

"Final" Harry Potter day Announced

2007-02-06T16:12:00.000-05:00

The release of the final Harry Potter book has been announced for midnight July 21, 2007. The last release was on July 15, 2005. Downtown went all out for this and had a Potter festival of sorts. They had a scavenger hunt, a sort of Quidditch (?) and other games, many stores renaming themselves and staying open past midnight, lots of great window displays, costumed Potter fans galore, real live owls, and more. If I recall correctly, there was one store that pretty much had a name right out of the Potter books, but it was closed during this for some reason.

I hope to be there for this one, with a better camera this time (I think my hard drive ate the pictures from the last one), and perhaps looking the part a little more than the last one (which was not at all) by wearing something Potter-related. If the trend of the past books continues, this last book will be heavier and drearier than any of the previous ones.

Hawk Attack

2007-02-04T15:04:00.000-05:00

Well, I did end up going out in the snow, only to go next door. I passed this grisly scene near the bird feeder. I'd never seen something like this before. A hawk managed to get a cardinal an hour or two before I took this photo. Feathers and tufts were strewn over a 20 foot wide area.

I guess I'm not going anywhere today

2007-02-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the yard taken from inside looking out through a screen window, about 30 minutes ago. I don't think I'm going out at all today.

We interrupt this prayer to bring you the best ringtones!

2007-02-03T17:21:00.000-05:00

I was going to write this one before the "Time Lady" post, because this is what got me thinking about the times in watches and how the time in nobody's watch matches anyone else's watch or anything else.

This is a little bit of a "rant". Our church service ends around 11 or so minutes after noon. Quite often, noon falls during the middle of a long period of prayer. Typically, starting around 11:55 and ending about 12:05, there are always a few watches beeping hourly alarms. Usually, the person with a watch ends up killing it somehow, or they at least sit on their wrists.

The worst was when a couple of weeks ago, a very loud cell phone started a very long Hip-Hop ring tone during the middle of the prayer section. Everybody sat there for a while and looked around, and finally 20 or 30 seconds later, someone got up to go to the coatroom to find the phone. After she vanished around the corner, the tone could be heard for 30 more seconds. I think she was having trouble finding the coat with the phone in it. I'm not sure what silenced it in the end, but I hope she went and threw it out the door.

I'm guessing that the person who actually owned the phone was too embarassed to get up at all , and the woman who took care of the problem was just someone who got tired of some sort of digitized version of a Jay-Z / whoever rap song taking over the church service. (The woman who silenced the phone would not have taken so long to find it and shut it off if it was her own).

We will likely be snowed in tomorrow, so I won't be experiencing worship enhanced by alarms and ring tones. If anyone has any anecdotes about annoying or amusing church service interruptions, this is the place for them. Any questions, comments, or rants of your own?

I miss her. We had such good times.

2007-02-02T07:04:00.000-05:00

I miss her so much.

We had such good times together. Any time of the day, she was just a phone call away, ready to give me what I needed.

She's been gone a few years now, and she is missed.

I'm referring, of course, to the Time Lady. You know, that voice that would say "At the tone, the time will be...", and was always located at a number ending in 1212. A few years ago, she stopped answering. Now there is no way to find out what time it is without using a short-wave radio. The times showing on clocks in the house are now all over the place. Computer clocks always seem to be off, as do cell phone clocks. Computer network clocks are even worse. Now everywhere I go, there seem to be a variation in what clocks and watches say the time is that varies by as much as 10 or 15 minutes. I just want time to be measured more accurately.

Where did she go? I figured I'd ask Google. Sure enough, there's a nice biographical page:

http://www.etcia.com/barbe/timelady.html

Jane Barbe died in 2003, which is around when the time lady phone number went silent.

2006 Oscar Nominations

2007-02-01T07:46:00.001-05:00

Well, the 2006 Oscar nominations are out. Here are the Best Picture nominees:

Babel
The Departed
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

I've hardly even heard of the first two movies, and I had no real interest in seeing the other three. Once again, there's a big disconnect between the Academy and myself.

It was a lackluster year at the movies: No Star Wars Episode 7, no Titanic II, no Matrix 4, no "Lord of the Rings IV: Gollum Forever". No Harry Potter this year, as the series keeps getting dragged out, raising the prospect of the series becoming a magical "Happy Days" with high school kids played by 30-somethings. Despite the fact that I can pretty much go to the movies for free, I think we went to the theatre less than ever during 2006.

Apocalypto sounded interesting initially, but various factors killed my interest in it so I never saw it and never will. Other movies I wanted to see but never did included The Nativity Story, The Guardian (the Ashton Kutcher Coast Guard flick), The Prestige, Charlotte's Web, The Fountain, and Snakes on a Plane. I did see Dead Man's Chest, Cars, X-Men 3, Casino Royale, Happy Feet, and a few others I can't remember right now.

Has anyone seen all of the Oscar nominees? Or any of them? Are you going to the movies less or more these days?

I take that back.

2007-01-29T19:38:00.000-05:00

I just found this sunset photo I forgot I'd even taken. It was taken a day before the other one. Like the other one, it is totally unaltered. Let's vote: Which one is better?

The 10th commenter wins a new car!

Best sunset ever

2007-01-28T23:58:00.000-05:00

I snapped this early in 2005 during a brief trip to San Diego. It is looking from downtown toward Point Loma. I dont think I'd ever seen a sunset like this before or since. This digital photo is entirely unaltered: the scene just looked this way. Readers, when/where was the best sunset you ever saw?

Spam never sleeps.

2007-01-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

While I wait to come up with idea for a real blog post, I checked the senders and titles of the spam that rolled in during just the last two days:

Donnie says "Thinking about you". (Well, maybe I'd rather have heard from Marie instead)

Hallie B. Herrera asks "For Kidney" (Sorry, I don't have any to spare... and Miss Berry, when did you get married again?)

Edna Gill proclaims "I Imperial" (Well, you may be the empress of something, but it isn't grammar)

Heath Gibbons announces some joyful news in the Addams Family: "It It Twins"

Keva asks "Happy with yourself?"

Yes, I guess so.

You know you're from Michigan when...

2007-01-27T09:59:00.000-05:00

This has been kicking around for years in different forms, before blogging and maybe even before the Web came about.:

You know you're from Michigan when...
.... you define Summer as three months of bad sledding
.... you have ever gotten frostbitten and sunburned in the same week
.... you can identify an Ohio accent
.... you point at the palm of your right hand when telling people where you grew up
.... octopus and hockey go together as naturally as hot dogs and baseball
.... traveling coast to coast means going from Port Huron to Muskegon
.... a Big Mac is something you can drive across
.... you have no problem spelling Mackinac Island
.... you have as many Canadian coins in your pockets as American ones
.... you know that a place called "Kalamazoo" really exists
.... you bake with "soda" and drink "pop"
.... you don't have a coughing fit from one sip of Vernor's
.... you know what a Vernor's is
.... you know WHY Paradise is colder than Hell
.... your car rusts out before the brakes wear out
.... if you think of Indiana as the South
.... half of the change in your pocket is Canadian.
.... you know that Pontiac and Cadillac are cities (and people!) as well as cars
.... you can travel through Detroit and not get mugged
.... your idea of reaching Climax is driving just past Kalamazoo.

Any such lists for other states?

A very nice river photo in Montana

2007-01-25T21:40:00.000-05:00

I took this photo from near the mouth of the Lewis and Clark Cave in Montana a few years ago. I don't think I'd bothered to look at it until yesterday, when I noticed "that is one of the nicest landscape snapshots I've ever taken". I figured I would share it. Just a nice photo, that's all. Make sure to click and blow it up.

Sinclair Sign, Somewhere in Idaho

2007-01-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

I snapped this picture somewhere in Idaho a few years ago. I think it was near the nuclear section of Idaho, but I didn't think to on the look-out for radioactive brontosaurs. I tend to stop at Sinclair stations when I can, because they seem to be so rare, I always liked the dinosaur, and I have memories of my dad getting green plastic dino toys when he'd fill up the car at one.

Here's a rather specific question. Sinclair Gas Stations. Does anyone see them anymore? Does anyone remember them anymore?

Meerkat at San Diego Zoo (2006)

2007-01-24T19:12:00.000-05:00

This is probably the best of the meerkat photos. The bright sun and shade did not make for the best lighting for photography. The San Diego Zoo has several tiny meerkat compounds scattered all over. You can watch them for hours. They look so wise and polite, but I think they are just some kind of weasel.

Another source of news

2007-01-23T10:31:00.000-05:00

I checked my spam box at my email account and realized that I don't have to go to news.google.com or the Drudge report to find out what the current news is. All I need to do is look at spam titles. These are the real examples I have sitting there in the spam box right now:

"Russian missile shot down Chinese satellite."
"Chinese missile shot down Russian satellite."
"Russian missile shot down Chinese aircraft."

Yes, these three different spam titles might lead one to believe that the Bear and the Dragon are completely at each other's throats now. World War III is on and the only people kind enough to tell us are the ones who are trying to sell us bogus v1ARGA and OX1C1tIn via email. Does anyone have a spare bomb shelter for sale?

"My Viewpoint"

Ah. news-by-spam even has an editorial page.

"Illiterate Espionage"

I would suppose that the people of "Hey, I Can't Spell My Own Country Name" (perhaps Uzbekistan or Myanmar?) have launched intelligence operations against their bitter foes at the library and the bookstore.

"My Terrorist"

I'm really not sure what this means. Perhaps someone has claimed ownership of Osama.

"Still down and tired"

This admission came from a spammer named Soledad. This is the only spam in the bunch where the name corresponds to that of a major network news anchor: Soledad O'Brien of CNN. It's nice when a major news anchor is really honest about how they feel. Imagine if Dan Rather signed off from CBS News saying "I've been up since 3 am and have a headache, and reading all this bad news to you has really made me sad, and now I'm going to bed" instead of saying "Courage".

"SNOW ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 12 PM AST SUNDAY."

What good is any well-rounded news report that doesn't include the weather? This weather report came from a spammer in Oregon. I'd better cancel that trip to Portland just to be safe. Or maybe I should cancel any trips to the AST time zone. Or why not both?

---

So what have you learned from spam?

Blurred Sea Horse

2007-01-22T22:22:00.000-05:00

Back to California, to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps in La Jolla.

Too bad this fellow is blurred. There are a couple of reasons: it's kind of hard to get a good focus on an aquarium photo, and the tail and the fin were moving. The fin on the back is always moving very fast: this is the propelling fin. I think this one was just a few inches long. They are always a lot of fun to watch.

Male seahorses experience pregnancy. Female seahorses do not.

Delaware by the Numbers

2007-01-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

I've never been to Delaware, so this is a non-travel travelogue. I really know little about the place, other than that my parents visited it once or twice.

My father liked to play the lottery, and he had a certain set of numbers that he always played. For the sake of the story, I'll say these numbers are 4 8 5 16 23 42 (but I do not recall the actual numbers).

He played these numbers many times, but did not win anything. He played them at home, and he played them when he traveled. When in Delaware, he played the usual 4 8 5 16 23 42 one day, listened for the drawing that night, and found out he did not win (as usual). Then he left Delaware. After he got home, he found out that the Delaware lottery commission drew 4 8 5 16 23 42 the following night for that next day's game. This was the day after he left, and was thus a day he did not play. If only he had scheduled his trip to Delaware to be one day later. It was a multi-million dollar jackpot.

Any interesting lottery tales?

Delaware and lottery comments are welcome, but if you insist on talking about unrelated topics such as tangerines, Buicks, or Zimbabwe, or any other unrelated thing, such comments will also be welcome as well.

Travels in the States

2007-01-21T13:00:00.000-05:00

In making this map, I realize that I have been to a lot of states. I've been to the blueish-purple ones. The ones in pink (including tiny Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware) are the ones I have not been to. The rest of the dark-blue states, I've been to enough to say that I've experienced them.

I've been to the two remaining lighter-colored states, Texas and California, but in the case of Texas, I have really only experienced El Paso, and in the case of California, I have only experienced LA and San Diego (which leaves out all of Northern California and the interior). Hopefully I will rectify this some day. Based on past experience and certain laws of geography, I can imagine that the rest of California might be like a cross between LA and Oregon; and the rest of Texas might be a cross between Oklahoma and New Mexico. I might possibly have been in Kansas, but just do not remember it at all. I always wanted to go to Rhode Island more than most of the other states I have gone to, but I still have not made it there.

I really don't have a burning desire to go to Connecticut and Deleware, however, unless something or someone really sells me on them.

Introduction

2007-01-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

This is an introduction. I figured that it might come after a place holder, but most blogs I've seen don't even have one. For the time being, this will be some sort of photo-travel-blog. The photos will be untouched, with the only alterations being cropping and making them lighter or darker: no fancy photography, and no Photoshop tricks here.

I figured I'd add an introduction when I found a photo I'd taken of an actual (replica) Voyageur canoe resting a riverbank at a pioneer festival from back in 2003. While canoes do tip, for this one only the camera was tipped to make for a better view.

What of the Voyageurs? From L'Histoire des Voyageurs: "The French Voyageurs were an integral part of the fur trade in North America. The early explorers to reach the nouvelle monde (new world) were Jacques Cartier in 1534 and Samuel would later become the city of Québec at the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River (Québec means "narrowing of waters" in a Native American language)."

The use of the name, however, is intended to denote adventure. This blog will have little or nothing to do with the fur trade or even the French. There might be a little concerning Canada, and there will be much concerning the United States and even some coverage of Europe. Along the way, there will be comments that appear without the cruch of a photo. Paddle on...

An interesting tradition

2007-01-19T12:40:00.000-05:00

From the Associated Press:

"For the 58th straight year, a mysterious visitor left birthday cognac and roses Friday at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe, author of the macabre, and was watched by more onlookers than ever, a faithful viewer said."

(read more here)

Unfortunately, it looks like this is turning into a Baltimore's version of Punxatawny's Groundhog Day spectacle. However, it's good that some traditions remain relatively undisturbed in the age of paparazzi and tell-all web sites. Hopefully next year he'll avoid RFID or GPS trackers attached to his shoes during the visit, but it might just be a matter of time. Some mysteries should remain mysteries.

There's some irony here

2007-01-18T19:07:00.000-05:00

This marble statue of the legendary Greek hero Perseus has him displaying his grisly trophy: the head of Medusa Gorgon. Such creatures did not last long in the ancient Greece of legend: they had no endangered species act.

The mere act of looking directly upon Medusa would turn you into stone, so Perseus used a mirror to avoid this as he endeavored to cut her head off. He did avoid being turned into stone, didn't he?.

I broke my blog

2007-01-18T18:58:00.000-05:00

I broke my blog trying to re-arrange thing and remove a spammer. Much was lost. Look for a lot of it to come back tonight, along with new adventurous photos.

Can you find the sea dragon? (September 2006)

2007-01-15T21:17:00.000-05:00

Can you spot the sea-dragon (From the Birch Aquarium near San Diego).

Looking Few Good Blogs

2007-01-15T16:38:00.000-05:00

The 'next blog" button at the top picks some sort of blog at random out of the vast Google Blogspot blogosphere and presents it. I've had trouble finding any fun, interesting and active blogs from doing this. Now I'll try hitting Next Blog on each page in succession until I find one that looks good, or I get to the tenth try, whichever comes first.

Let me see:
1) Junk spam lookup page...a dead end. Start over.
1) Spanish page with lookalike of singer Prince http://aeterni.blogspot.com/ No thank you.
2) An art designer's page http://renataportifolio.blogspot.com/ Looks nice enough, but there are zero comments, and I still do not know Spanish.
3) German game page http://mane83.blogspot.com/ Sorry, I do not know German either.
4) Foodie's Hope http://recipeindex-fh.blogspot.com/ Nice photos of food, but no recipes or discussion. Next...
5) http://gt16teatro.blogspot.com/ I STILL do not know Spanish. Next.
6) http://sisof4.blogspot.com/ Better than the others, but still I will move on.
7) "Adding My Views to the Mix" http://addingmyviews.blogspot.com/ Not bad at all. Not active enough yet, though. I will add a comment and keep an eye on it. However, much of it is political, and I just don't do politics.
8) Another Spanish one. I won't even link this.
9) Pretty good mountain bike/climbing page http://ibanmayoblog.blogspot.com/
10) And a second German one.

Las Vegas Jellyfish (September 2003)

2007-01-13T06:48:00.000-05:00

The mesmerising jellyfish tank at Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay casino.

The Cats of Rome

2007-01-10T20:32:00.000-05:00

This is one of the myriad feral/stray cats of Rome. Large numbers of them inhabit the Coliseum, the Palatine Hill, the Forum and other ruins and places in the city center. We were told that a charity feeds them lots of pasta, which might sound nice, but it does not meet a cat's nutritonal needs. I hope they add vitamins or protein or something similar.

The cats were not friendly. They tended to stay away by themselves. Astonishingly enough, there are estimated to be 300,000 feral cats in Rome living in over 2000 colonies (http://goeurope.about.com/cs/rome/a/rome_cats.htm).

You will see some of the other cats in later entries in this blog, but not all 300,000.

This is a place-holder.

2007-01-05T12:27:00.000-05:00

This is a place-holder. I read on another blog something that made me think that all blogs were supposed to start with a place-holder that had nothing much in it. So here is the place-holder, better late than never.