Photograph: Door To The Past

"Door To The Past"
by Bruce H.

Geopicting Contest - Second Quarter

Nebraska has updated their Geopicting contest page.  I submitted four pictures during the first quarter contest (only two made in before the deadline).  All four pictures have carried over to the second quarter contest.  Please take the time to vote for my pictures.  Vote as many times as you can..  To make it easy to vote, I have added my picture to the sidebar on the right and I linked the picture to the voting page.  Thank you for your votes!

Summer Preview

Nice preview of summer we're having here. It's been in the upper 80's for the past couple days. I turned off the furnace and turned on the air conditioner. Even watered the lawn a bit.

Yesterday I managed to get out of the house and went downtown for lunch and some ice cream (Maggie Moo's Better Batter ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough). I did a circuit around the mall area. Half the trees (mostly the Oaks) were still looking pretty dead looking but the others were in full bloom and parts of this downtown park really felt like spring. Just look at this picture. Leafless on the left, flowers on the right - gorgeous.

The water, the centerpiece of the mall area, needs some serious work. The water is this pea green color and there is scum and trash floating along the edges and in the corners - Gagh! Hopefully Omaha will use some of it's stimulus money to spruce up the place. I was surprised to find that there are fish in the soup. A lot of fish actually. The fish seem to be afraid of the light as they were clustered in the shadow of a bridge.

In the evening the Wife and I went to see a Quasi-Live performance of the This American Life radio program. The show was recorded live and the performances were beamed to some 430 movie theaters around the country. It was pretty good. Funny stories told by familiar voices. There was even live music performed by Joss Whedon (He sang some of his singing commentary from his Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog DVD).

I was impressed by the crowd - our theater was about two thirds full - about the same amount as a regular movie. The crowd was a mix of hip youngster and hip oldster. I wore the shirt I bought at the live performance we attended a couple years ago. I kind of felt like a Trekkie wearing a Star trek uniform. Since nobody seemed to recognize it, I didn't feel too geeky.

Today, part two of the summer preview, I took my Mom out for lunch at Goldbergs known for their "Burgers, Beer, & Bloody Marys." It was good enough. Neither of us had the burgers, beer, or bloody marys.

It all comes to an end tonight with some thunderstorms and a 30°F drop in the temperature. Preview Over.

Book: Iain M. Banks' "The Player Of Games"

Iain M. Banks' "The Player of Games" is my second Culture novel and I am in a confusing place - I like the world Banks has created but the story he tells is rather bland. What's a guy to do?

The Culture is a post-human, post-singularity technological utopia. Technology is ubiquitous and invisible. As a matter of fact, Banks' seldom discusses the Culture's technology. Thing's that seem impossible simply work somehow. Reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This technology underpins a decentralised, almost anarchic governance. Everyone is free to do what they wish and there is abundance of everything.

"The Player of Games" follows Gurgeh, a game player (duh). Game playing appears to be an important thing for Banks as he uses it as a subplot/backdrop in "Consider Phlebas". The nature of the Culture diminishes the stakes of game playing. There is no money. Everything is abundant. Everyone can have anything anytime they want it. How do you wager in such a world? This inevitably leads Gurgeh, the best human game player in the Culture, to become bored. Gurgeh, through a rather complicated plot device, decides to join with the Culture organization known as Contact, to travel to a non-Culture empire to play, what is described as, the ultimate game.

The game of Apex is a game that governs a brutal empire. Periodic tournaments choose whole will be emperor. The Culture is invited to play in the games as a good will gesture between the two galactic powers. The complexity of Apex is supposed to be unprecedented. I found this hard to swallow. The Culture is led by incredibly advanced artificial intelligences known as Minds. They are orders of magnitude superior to humans and have access to nearly unlimited knowledge. It seems to me that the Culture could come up with more complex and more challenging games.

The novel follows Gurgeh's progress in the game and, through his innocent Culture point of view, his discovery of the empire's barbarism and decadence. I think this is Bank's attempt to show the problems with our culture through the eyes of his fictitious Culture but I think he is a little heavy handed and he falls flat. In the end there is a twist that, unfortunately, is telegraphed light years ahead. There is little real surprise or new perspective in this story.

So what's a guy to do? I like the Culture. I want to learn more about it. But the creator of this wonderful universe, the author, is a rather blah story teller. His style is readable but the characters lack some depth and the action, what little there is, is ordinary and predictable. I intend to read the third book but my hopes are not very high that it will be any better.

Hiking Nebraska: Hayworth Park And The Bellevue Nature And History Trail

Yesterday turned out to be too nice to stay inside. Unfortunately I didn't have any hikes planned. What I did have was a list of ten geocaches that I had compiled a while back. The caches were located in, or north of, Hayworth Park in nearby Bellevue, NE. My cache hunt turned into a short but pleasant hike.

Hayworth park is a fairly large park bordering the Missouri River. The park offers camping and boat launching facilities. I parked near the southern end of the park near the start of a Lewis & Clarke historic walk - something I will have to visit in the future. My GPS took me north on a paved path along the river.

The first three caches ("Amish Country", "Watchful", and "OBEY the LAW") were in the developed part of the park and were small micro-caches. I'd expected my cache searching ability, my geosense, would be rusty as I'd not search for caches since last August but I found these three with very little effort. I liked "Watchful" the most, a small container hidden behind a reflector. I'd seen similar caches before which made it easier.

The trail ended as I crossed under the Bellevue Bridge and found an unpaved trail entering a wooded, undeveloped area. The trail was easy to follow but it needed a little maintenance. The trail followed the river closely. Unlike other river trails, there were several places where you could actually get to the water's edge. I didn't see too much wildlife but there was evidence of beaver activity and some busy bees. Along this trail I found three more caches: "Fallen Giant", "Alea Iacta Est - The Hides of March", and "Kramer Vs. Kramer".

The trail ends at a mysterious structure. It looks like it was involved with either barges or a ferry. The windows were covered in chain link and the doors were welded shut cutting off easy access to the river. It was obviously a teen hang out and everything was covered in graffiti. The Best Man mentioned something this last weekend about taking pictures of old decaying buildings. There is something about the juxtaposition of urban decay and wild nature that fascinates me. I can be hiking in some of the most beautiful nature, but when I come upon something remotely man-made, the remains of a wall or an old homestead, I just have to take pictures.

Past the mystery building the trail follows a grass field before coming to an end at a fence. From here you can see the trailhead for the Bellevue Nature and History trail. While most of the signs say this, one refers to the trail as the Eagle Point Trail. The signs also give different trail lengths, 1.3 and 1.5 miles round trip. The trails consists of two, long and thin, connected loops. Along the trails there are three "plazas". Each plaza has descriptive plaques placed around a mosaic platform. The plazas describe the River History, Birding, and Trade Post of the area. I learned that the the Carolina Parakeet was once common in the area until hunters and farmers forced them into extinction. When I think Nebraska, I don't think parakeet. I can thank hunters and farmers for that.

After passing the plazas the trail curves back to the south and, along a short boardwalk, passes a marshy wetland. For some reason I always find marshes to be an unexpected surprise. I really shouldn't since where there is a river there is surely to be a wetland nearby but I'm still always caught by surprise. I like the vibrant greens of Nebraska wetlands. Most of the wetlands I saw in California were ... dry.

Along this this trail I found three more caches: "Balance Beam", "Tuning Fork", and "Gator Bait".

After arriving back to the trailhead, I followed the Hayworth trail back to the car. I drove the car to another cache, "WHEELS", located near a bicycle monument near the end of the Keystone/Bellevue Loop bicycle trail. Unfortunately I could not find the cache. I will have to try again sometime.

The total distance for this hike was 3.5 miles. I want to thank GeekHiker for reminding me that short hikes can be fun and interesting too and the cache hiders for introducing me to these trails. Some pictures can be found here.

Oh yeah, Almost forgot.

Happy Earth Day!

Haverhill Debate Society

This weekend we went to the Haverhill Social Club for a get together of the Wife's family.  This is the second time we've met up there and I think it will become a new family tradition s everyone there had a great time.  Unlike out last time, since the social club now serves food, we decided to not bring Homer with us.  My Mom house/Homer sat for us.  THANKS MOM!

The five or so hours that we spent there was filled with drink, food, drink, discussion, drink, cigars, and more drink.  The GodSon brought his girlfriend  and she was introduced to the others in the extended family.  Very nice young lady - that makes me sound old but she's too old to be a 'girl' and too young to be just a 'lady'.  Anyway, we all like her and she seemed to fit right in.

The highlight of the visit, second only to the people, was getting to visit the basement of the bar.  This place is pretty old and the basement is full of cool old bar stuff.  The basement is accessed through a door in the floor.  I don't think the owners liked us going down there but we weren't listening and just open it up and streamed down the stairs.  Spooky, dusty, dank, and awesome! That's what it was.

After we left the social club we went to the hotel in nearby Marsalltown where the party continued in the pool and hot tub.  The hot tub, where I spent all my time, was a little too hot.  I felt like I was being boiled like a lobster so I ended up sitting on the side and boiled just my feet.  The highlight here was trying to figure out the tactful way to tell someone that their junk was out of their trunks.  The answer turned out to be by cell phone.

After the pool came the gathering in the hotel's breakfast area.  The main topics here, as they always seem to be, were controversial political and social questions - the Iowa same sex marriage thing being the newest addition to our lively and thoroughly entertaining discussions.  I've concluded that the items we talk about have no solutions being, as they are, antithetical to compromise.  All this means is we will never run out of things to talk about and thank God for that.  Our discussion with these people is what I enjoy the most.

With all the fun that was had, I have to say that a lot happened that probably shouldn't have.  Things lubricated by the liberal flow of alcohol.  Things forgotten because of the alcohol.  It is also fair to say that no real harm was done and it will all be a great story to tell the next time we get together.

Photograph: Red Light Awnings

"Red Light Awnings"
by Bruce H.

Photograph: Colored Herd

My head feels like they've been running through my head most of this afternoon.

"Colored Herd"
by Bruce H.

Photograph: Backyard Flowers_018

"Backyard Flowers_018"
by Bruce H.

SoFoBoMo Ideas Or Lack Of Ideas

May is approaching rapidly and I still haven't decided what theme I should use for my SoFoBoMo project.  I've been debating several ideas in my head but haven't made a firm decision yet.  The themes I am considering are:

• Old Neon Signs or Old Signs in general.  While Omaha has a bunch, I am concerned there may not be enough to meet the 35 pictures minimum.  I've counted around 14 neon signs so far and finding another 21 may be a challenge.  Of course, some signs would need more than one picture to capture adequately and, assuming two pictures per sign, I would need to find four more signs.
• The Color Spectrum.  Take six pictures each predominately of one of six colors (red, orange, yellow, blue, and violet/purple).  I thought this might be a good theme but finding six interesting pictures of some of the colors (orange and purple especially) may be difficult.  I've walked around the downtown area looking at the colors, or lack of colors.  I never realized just how much red  and how little orange there is in this world of ours.  
• Monuments, Statues, and Public Art.  This would be the easiest as Omaha is statue and public art happy and, to capture some statues/monuments adequately, you have to have multiple pictures of each piece of art.  The only problem is that I like color and most statues/monuments are monotone.
• Shapes.  This would be fairly easy as well.  Take pictures of circles, triangles, and squares.  The architecture of Omaha would supply ample examples.
• Architecture.  Omaha buildings are many, interesting, and varied.  I would like this theme better if I knew something about architecture.
• Sun Up to Sun Down.  Open the book with a sunrise, finish it with a sunset, and fill it with 32 pictures taken during the 12+ hours in between.  The challenge here would be to take 32 interesting pictures.  My good to bad picture ratio sucks so I would have to take a ton of pictures to get what I need.  As the Wife says, it would involve a lot of running around.  This could be the most interesting theme - sort of a themeless theme actually- but also the most difficult.

Do any of these themes sound interesting?  More importantly, do any sound doable? So, what do you think?