Where was this Fred Thompson when he was running for president?
That’s the problem with actor/politicians. You never know when it was just the script they were reading.
A tale of two species
I’ve been thinking all week about that poor guy who was trampled to death by WalMartians last Friday. A Black Friday to mark in our memory. Stomped to death by his fellow man, in a hurry to get some cheap Chinese shit; what have we become? Contrast that act of humanity to this recent video of a dog risking it’s life to save its friend on a busy freeway.
Dog Risks Life To Save Injured Friend – Watch more Entertainment
Planetary conjunction
Okay this might not look like much here, but it was visually stunning yesterday evening just after sunset. The crescent Moon, lined up near Venus and Jupiter. I got out my camera and tried to capture the majesty, without much success.
Here’s the moon using the 200mm lens on my real estate camera. The conjunction was pretty spectacular in real life, but if you missed it, you’ll just have to use your imagination, perhaps. Using my telescope, you could plainly see several moons of Jupiter lined up in the same plane as the Earth’s Moon. And Luna herself was amazing with the light giving sharp detail to the massive craters. It was a nice evening for stargazing. I bought this 4″ Meade Newtonian reflecting telescope from an unemployed mortgage broker for $50 (no joke). Too bad I can’t hook the camera up to it (yet).
Appropriate to the setting, we have a rare live recording from the Schreder Planetarium of Craig Padilla’s Night Rain, originally from the album Eye of the Storm. This was recorded under the stars, under the dome a few years back. This 7 minute piece features a pyrotechnic guitar solo by Al Mires, now proprietor of Palo Cedro’s Music Max music store (Remember to shop locally folks). And Craig plays acoustic electric guitar here, no less. I think this recording was released only as a cassette prior to this, so I hope you enjoy it.
Looks like we’re having ham…
Happy Thanksgiving! Plus, link to a good post for today
I have so much to be grateful about, it wouldn’t even fit into a day. Nevertheless we are celebrating at home with friends and family, and Karry’s usual “Martha Stewart on steroids” dinner. Love it all.
If you make the rounds of local blogs, you’ve probably seen this recent post. But if not, I will bring this to your attention for today, as it follows the spirit. My friend and fellow Realtor Lara Wells Osborn wrote a thought-provoking post over at Food For Thought. It’s one of those rare pieces that stays with you long after reading. Lara is one of my favorite fellow agents. She and her husband have several cute kids too, which added poignancy to her excellent prose. That, along with the fact that she has established herself as a marketer of luxury homes, and has done very well with that high-end market segment. She’s just a good person to be around, and people sense that sort of thing. You should read her post if you didn’t already, and the link is HERE.
Thanks for writing, Lara. And a Happy and thoughtful Thanksgiving to all!
Diestlehorst bones by Skip
Redneck fire detector
Solar Fields
This video showed up in my e-mail the other day. I don’t know if it’s authorized, but it’s nice. It says the music was recorded Freitag (German for Friday) Nov 14. Solar Fields is a European music artist with whom I have a slender connection. Craig Padilla and I were invited to appear on a compilation CD from 2002 called the Fahrenheit Project on the French label Ultimae. Craig and I submitted a track from Beyond Beta, and Solar Fields contributed a track called Outlined surfaces. Since then I have followed the music vicariously, and find that we are very much in the same vibe. I see that the Fahrenheit Project #1 is now out of print, and that’s a shame. It was a very tasty compilation. The Ultimae label is run by Vince and Sunshine from Lyons, France, self described “panoramic people” in their newsletters. I hope we meet someday. Terrific people, great music, all across the sea. It’s always surprising to me that we seem to have a fan base in Europe.
I see their website has a review among several of the Fahrenheit compilation, in which our ambient beatless track is described as “not dreadful.” Ouch! Hee hee. I guess it could be worse.
Welcome to deflation
The other day I wrote about gasoline prices falling twice in one day. It’s fallen again. Before you rejoice too much about the sudden cheap gas, you may want to consider it as a leading indicator of a deflationary economy. They didn’t just find more gas on Gas Point Road or anything. There was no increase in supply. Prices are falling with demand. What’s that mean for us? Well I don’t exactly know, but you might want to read what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said about this possibility 6 years ago today. Take a few minutes and read through his thoughts about the subject HERE. Definitely worth your time. Somewhat frightening, actually. (I got a couple of offline comments about my post scaring people. that wasn’t the intent. If you read the Bernanke piece, it looks like his main weapon of choice to fight deflation will be a printing press, to print a bunch of money to spread around “willy nilly” ((his words)) That’s a prospect you may want to plan for.)
Greeters
We’ve been members of the Redding Chamber of Commerce since 2005. I never thought of myself as a “chamber” type person, but it’s actually a pretty good thing, and I’ve learned a lot. Once a week, many members meet for what’s called Greeters. It’s always on Thursday mornings at 8:00 am, and always at a different local business. This week it was at Need2Speed.
At Greeters we showcase the host business for a few minutes, and then pass the microphone around and greet one another. Just say who you are and a few words and pass the mic. Sounds goofier than it really is. Although it is certainly goofy too… Continue reading “Greeters”
Buy American?
I love the colors of the Fall. This Liquidamber seems to be growing out of the top of my car here. I took this a few days ago. I was thinking about my Cadillac today after watching GM CEO Rick Wagoner… Continue reading “Buy American?”