Yet More Photos

I know, I know. I've been back for a week. So why am I still posting vacation photos? Well, it's just taken me this long to sort through them all. We'll just have to live with it.

Okay, so where was I? Oh yes. Yosemite.


Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park

This is where I turned around. You can see a bit of the handrail lower down in the bottom right:

Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park


Vikingsholm, Emerald Bay


Truckee River, Tahoe City


Bidwell Inn, Chester


West Sulphur Creek, Lassen Volcanic National Park


Pilot Pinnacle, Lassen Volcanic National Park


Sulphur Works, Lassen Volcanic National Park


Manzanita Lake, Lassen Volcanic National Park


Sundial Bridge, Redding


Sundial Bridge, Redding


Sundial Bridge, Redding


Castle Crags, Castle Crags State Park


Hillsboro, Oregon

And the rest. . .

So Let's Carve up California

Driving around the Golden State, I found myself oft asking, "Am I really still in California?" From rugged coasts to soaring skyscrapers, from dead-flat farmlands to snow-covered mountains, California is certainly one of the most diverse states in terms of geography.

But it's also diverse in terms of the "feel" of a region. Crescent City seemed like part of the Northwest. Mendocino to Monterey seemed like an endless string of B&Bs pierced by the swanky Bay Area. South of Big Sur, I felt the pull of Los Angeles (and desparately fought it). Go over the mountains down into the Central Valley and it's a whole other world (with lots of country and Christian radio stations). The east side of the Sierra Nevada had a similar ethos to the Central Valley. Tahoe was its own creature, with the B&Bs of the San Francisco coast thrown in with the pulse of the Nevada casinos across the border, all on top of the rural culture. And then back into the giant valley. Redding felt more like Barstow than Crescent City or San Francisco, despite the disparate distances involved.

So I propose four states: the far north (southern Jefferson), the Bay Area and coast, the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada, and southern California. In the early 1990s, a state legislator tried to get the state divided into two, and then three. He was trying to separate the northern portion (Chico (his hometown) and northward), but then cut off SoCal, too, to get more support. But that still left San Francisco in the same state as Fresno, and I just don't see that as a winning solution. There's a definite dividing line somewhere between San Jose and Modesto.

To find the exact borders, I'd suggest a (non-binding) vote where the voters can rank the areas they most associate with. It would probably be simplist to separate along county lines, but maybe some (San Bernadino County, for instance) really want to be split.

I wonder where San Luis Obispo would end up.

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How I spend my freetime

This evening, between laundry and dishes, I created the religious pantheon of the empire of Nyıkãgo, the land northeast of the kingdom of Naraka.

You see, it was important because I needed to create the profanity, "plague of Kínıtíní!" to go along with the other "plagues!" from the Narakan gods Ríhíví, Néhété, Rívorí, and Rékaré. Because, of course, the Narakan and Nyıkãgolese (well, actually, the Míníkese) pantheons were merged at the creation of the empire of Narakamíníkı. Thus the combined pantheon is used in Sarıma, the setting of Green Desert.

I've read chapters 1.1 through 2.1 to my critique group and one of their recent comments was that my curses were too familiar. So I decided it would be fun to figure out the entire pantheon of the Narakamíníkı-Sarıman gods.

Oh, and by the way, henceforth the powerful wargod Bènñèn shall be known as Pèngrkunãh, the love goddess Kanrítío shall be known as Auhèkmwèní, and the god of death Thèjí shall be known as Pèjísh. Okay?

Even More Photos

You didn't think I was done, did you?

Here are some more photos from my trip.


Cottonwood Lake 5


Horseshoe Meadow Road


Mammoth Mountain


Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park


Tioga Lake


Clouds Rest, Yosemite National Park


marmot, Clouds Rest, Yosemite National Park


Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park


that darn keyboard I tried to use, Yosemite Village, Yosemite National Park

And, of course, many more at Flickr.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

Actually, being here in the office is all too familiar.

It's nothing like waking up the first couple nights back, looking around the room and out the window, and wondering what city I was in. . . . I'm a bit out of it upon waking, sometimes.

More Photos

I must be getting faster at this photo uploading. Since the previous photo post, I've only finished Ferris Bueller, Red vs Blue season 4, and almost all of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (Frown, Yoda, frown!).

Actually, I had sorted through Day 7 yesterday, so I'm probably not any faster.

Without further of that glorious ado, here are some photos from Days 5-8:


Bird Rock, Pebble Beach


Bush Monkeyflower, Big Sur


Pfieiffer Rock, Big Sur


my own grocery store, Cambria


Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, San Luis Obispo


Santa Barbara County Courthouse, Santa Barbara


quarry, Monolith


windmills, Tehachapi Pass


Calico ghost town


Artists Drive, Death Valley


Zabriskie Point, Death Valley


Lone Pine


Peak 12369 (no name), Cottonwood Lakes


Cottonwood Lakes 4 & 5


bugs, Cottonwood Lakes

Once again, I've posted many more photos on Flickr.

And now Attack of the Clones has finished. So I've started Red Dwarf series 1. I have quite a high proportion of scifi dvds, it seems.

Media Sensationalism

What's the difference between National Geographic and the National Enquirer?

Don't know? Well, me neither. Nat'l Geo's cover has a superheadline: "Killer Hurricanes," and I can't but wonder how they managed to not use exclamation marks.

Observation

I need to wash my car.

It's filthy.

Photos

I've started sorting through the 1,700+ photos I took on my California trip.

I'm posting my favorites to my flickr site. It's taking awhile. But maybe that's because I'm watching dvds at the same time. So far I've watched the Red Dwarf episode Quarantine, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie twice, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Red vs Blue season 2, Independence Day, and now I'm starting Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

I've posted photos from the first four days of my trip. Here are some of my favorites of my favorites:


Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City


Mouth of the Klamath River


Fern Canyon, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park


Greenwood Pier Inn, Elk


Point Arena


Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco


Letterman Digital Arts Center, Presidio, San Francisco


Union Square, San Francisco


Lombard Street, San Francisco


Winchester House, San Jose


Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey


Point Pinos, Pacific Grove