Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Breakfast of Champions


Let us not speak of its ridiculous sodium content, nor of its possible MSG content. Sometimes you just need a bowl of Saimin. The fork? i was too lazy to get the hashi.

missing: kamaboko, green onion, and some kimchee. This is to be rectified in Saimin V0.2 rev-a

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Signs

Perhaps some of you remember the picture captioned "*mailboxes observing vast roaming herds of hay bales- Yamhill, Oregon"

Recently i have decided to set out and observe the movement of these splendid squares of plant matter. Once i achieved a favorable observation spot, i began to take pictures. Internet readers, we've now gone through the looking glass...


The once free roaming bales of hay have somehow assembled themselves into giant communal structures. Are they observing us, cold and calculating? Or is this a sign, proof of some agricultural benevolence? Perhaps these ominous monoliths are some last vestige of the Aztec culture, awaiting blood tribute so that the sun may rise once more.


Regardless of the conclusions you draw, these phenomena are real and documented...an open secret of mysterious Yamhill, Oregon.

Friday, July 25, 2008

SysAdminDay

*Main lineup and Network core. My old stomping grounds; you know where and you know what..



After you watch the Last Lecture, take the time to thank your SysAdmin for keeping your ass on the Internets. That is all.

The Last Lecture.

If you have about an hour or so, please honor the memory of CMU Professor Randy Pausch by going here

Yamhill Skies

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Summer

          *mailboxes observing vast  roaming herds of hay bales- Yamhill, Oregon

i have been noticing the differences in rural living vs. what i was accustomed to. Note this sentence:

"I found my self behind a hay baler on the highway while making a trip to the General Store
"

While our home in Hawaii was at least two miles from any store (Golden Mart being the closest at about 3 mi) you could be at a movie, chain restaurant or giant big box store in about 15 minutes. Assuming you don't get a ticket from the 5-Oh.

You will never see a Hay baler, combine, or similar implement of husbandry on the way to Goldenmart or Foodland...not even Chili's.

You will not pass acres of hay fields, horse pastures, cattle ranches, and vineyards on the way to Mililani town center.

You cannot , and i cannot repeat this often enough, get a styrofoam box filled with Korean food and 4 sides of your choice. Kim chee, taegu, mac salad and watercress please...at the general store in Yamhill.

You will not at any time worry about pasture irrigation issues or compost pile management at your condo in Mililani or Mililani Mauka. If you do, please stop smoking the meth.

On your return trip from Mililani town center, you will not pass bales of hay ,the size of little british sports cars, lying in the fields.

Please note that the closest town is about 11 miles away. In the other direction, 17 miles away.

Like i've mentioned before, the process of adapting to change is a slow one.  However, when you do stop by the T&E General store in Yamhill, Oregon- try the jalapeno poppers, they have two types. The cream cheese filled pepper comes highly recommended. Fried capsaicin delivery vectors ease homesickness, if only for a little bit.

 



Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Extreme Unction

The Guitarist: Muhammed Suicmez

The Band: Necrophagist



Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Distance

Luckily, thanks to mother Internet, i'm am reminded of the vast amount of water that separates me from my previous home.

16, 270,8480 inches of pacific ocean water and some of the mainland (for good measure) are between me and the archipelago of Hawaii.  Two thousand, Five hundred and sixty eight miles as reckoned by cellphone GPS/tower triangulation. If you mentioned to me a year ago that i would be wondering about the most efficient way to irrigate a farm... well, how much acid have you dropped?

Would i have even considered  the idea of 100°F weather? Farm Work? Uncertain futures? Implements of Husbandry? The lack of rice everywhere? 

You know, i used to think Waianae was very far away.

In the midst of all this, we adapt. My little farm out in the middle of nowhere is pretty neat. 

 Let's check back in a year. I have turned off the cabin indicators, you are now free to roam about the Internet. Wear sunscreen and a hat. 





Sunday, July 20, 2008

Small Fish, Big Fish

*picture by you know who, of you know what, from you know where..

i've always found the idiom "Big fish in a small pond" to be problematic, as if you would not want that. Big fish implies that you have control (or can control) your sphere of influence, i.e. your small pond. Consider the alternatives:

  • Small fish- small pond: Watch out for the big fish, or anything with baleen. Ok NOT OCEAN!
  • Medium fish- small pond: Ok, now you've stepped up ichthyological chain of command. Congratulations! Welcome to ineffectual middle management, bitches.
  • Algae-small pond: Well you just suck, pond scum...
  • Yellow Fin Tuna- small pond: That's not going to  work, i said POND, not OCEAN. Get thee home, Thunnus albacares!
The point of all of this ? Is there a point? a lesson? an allegorical treasure you can take home and place next to your bowling trophy...looking at it from time to time and enjoying its shiny patina? 

You tell me. i'm just sending bits out to the ether, maaaaaan.



Friday, July 18, 2008

Fast Finger Friday

In keeping with the hidden theme for today, behold! The Metalocalypse has begun!


The iPhone

Against:


5 Reasons to Avoid iPhone 3G (via the FSF)


For:

How Did I Miss This Tripe (via The Angry Drunk)

Disclosure: i have a cell phone of some sort..thpppppppppppppht!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Guitar.

... and so Vincent proceeded to destroy the entire audience with his guitar playing...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

So I don't forget

This is purely for my own entertainment.

Brutally Brutal Brutality manifest as Radio

Living out here, i forget that we get XM as part of the SAT tv package. Imagine my delight when i found this:


THIS



How many fingers am i holding up now? More importantly, which ones?

Speaking of brutal

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

What the Wife Said...

"Nobody likes Meshuggah except for you and your weird friends"

-M

Monday, July 7, 2008

Consider the Alternative


Spotted at the General Store in Yamhill, Oregon. Flowers?

Friday, July 4, 2008

Respect The Classics, Man



July 4th, 2008

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Trask Mountain Outpost

To escape the heat, we visited the local Bar/Restaurant in Yamhill proper. (or is that restaurant/bar? bar and grill? booze and food?)

M was hesitant to enter at first. Being new to the area, what greeting could we expect? Cold stares from the dead eyes of the zombie bar patrons? A rural stereotype(s) manifest in a bar in deepest darkest Yamhill? The complete cast of the Magnificent Seven as bar patrons and Walter Brennan as bartender ? The MIND REELS!

Ok. None of the above happened.

Our Bartender? Came back home to Oregon from, wait for it, Kailua. The correct pronunciation of Kama'aina was a dead giveaway. What are the odds? Is Yamhill secretly becoming a magnet for locals? Maybe...

Here are some pictures for you:



More of the Bar:


i think i will name the two heads on the bar wall Walter and Perry....



Pictured above, a glass of Dee Rail Pale Ale. Note the ash trays. I think the place will hold 100 people, tops.


Service and Atmosphere? Winnaz!
Food and Booze? Outstanding! Disclosure: If you drink wine, i think they just have wine in a box... just to let you know.
Will we go again? Yes, of course! So, when you come out this way... I'll take you for a beer.

Laters. Remember your sunblock kids...

Umm, about that fire code.

I've noticed a few common threads in the tapestry that is rural mainland America:

  • Wooden Decks around the first floor of the house.
  • People love the manly art of BBQ.
  • People Drink Beer outside.

Wooden Decks attached to main housing structure + metal (usually) container filled with FIRE located on aforementioned flammable wooden deck + beer or other wonderfully refreshing drink that contains alcohol=

recipe for disaster?

a tangy yet smokey recipe for disaster ?


cue music from safety films in high school.

Grill (bbq) safe on our Nations' upcoming birthday, internet peoples. i'm just saying....