THE WEEKENDER :) ANIMAL HIJINX & THE MOB GETS SERENADED

ECLECTIC TREATS

    It's a real mixed bag THE WEEKENDER :) brings you this June weekend.

BETTER THAN PET TRICKS

     Thanks to Brian and a couple of other friends for alerting me to some incredible video. These are lots of fun.

        This piece from Brazil is fascinating and speaks volumes about species interaction.  What an uplift! The video was shot and is copyrighted by Gerd Traue.

THEN THERE IS THE EXERCISING SEA LION

No explanations needed-

but who came up with the training idea?

     Neither of these pieces are earth shaking, but they are evidence of how the world can share and enjoy, thanks to YouTube. And after all it is the weekend and THE WEEKENDER :) is about enjoyment and maybe a nap.

DAY BOOK

CAT TIMES

     Nap time comes easily to Hemingway and Luke.

    Daughter Kristin was working on a shot of the buck when

out of no where up pops "stealth kitty" Hemingway.  

    Then there was the time when Hemingway encountered

a new gate for the first time.

FRIDAY LUNCH FLASH MOB GETS SERENADED

    Have a great weekend.  See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) NAP TIME FUNNIES & SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY

THIS IS GOOD FOR YOU

     Those naps we took as kids were good for us then, and so they are now.  So are smiles. And we know that new thoughts  cause our brains to continue their elasticity. So we've wrapped them all up for you in this WEEKENDER :)

        My friends Beverly and Brian were the first to send

our first video.  You don't need to speak German to enjoy.

Here's a shot for the Luddites against our amazing technology and in an amusing 30 seconds.

Coming up below a mind blowing video

but first, a little Nap Time humor.

DAY BOOK

NAP TIME AT LOW TIDE

A lazy Central California day-ideal for napping.

WHILE THE BIG GUYS DO IT, HERE'S A LITTLE CAT NAPPING

The Further Adventures of Luke and Hemingway

Any Where, Any Time is Nap Time

      "What do you think Hemingway, time for a nap?"

      "My eyes are so heavy.  I just want lay here. What about you?"

     "Think I'll doze just standing here pal. Zzzz"

      "Zzzzzzzzz, um yea. Zzzzzzzzz"

    An old friend, a former network newsman and later college professor said at his retirement he read that napping was good for you.  So he said he thought he'd experiment with it and told his friends not to call him for a couple of hours after lunch because he would be in the laboratory, doing research.

    UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THIS VIDEO, YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS

I suggest you watch this on full YouTube at the

largest screen size you can.

Wow!!

     Have great weekend.  See you down the trail.

MODERN AMERICA & ANCIENT ROME

THE SUPER GAMES

     As one of the tens of millions who communed yesterday

by watching Giants beat Patriots, did you for a moment wonder if history will see us as we view the ancient Romans.

     There's a story about a festival in 160 BC that was to honor a famous playwright. Mid way in the performance about a mother in law some one announces the Gladiator Games were about to begin. The audience for the play, vanished.

     It seems the Romans also loved their super games, but

we've added the ironic wrinkle of watching commercials as a kind of sport.  Who gets credit for this clever advent?  There are contests, evaluation web sites and news stories about

which commercial we liked the most. It blows my mind. During the rest of the year commercials are considered an annoyance, something to endure or speed through with our DVRs, but not on Super Sunday.

     Chariot racing was a big sport with the Romans, the source of heavy wagering.  Chariot drivers were early superstars.  Then came the Gladiator Games.

      Some have compared the NFL to modern Gladiator Games, but we need to be careful here.  First those Ancient Romans staged games that were to the death.  Thousands watched and cheered as the combatants played a real blood bath and death match.

      Then, another kind of insidious and sinister spin on the game set the Romans apart from us.  Toward the end of the Republic Gladiator Games were sponsored by politicians.  It is true.  Roman pols sponsored the games to boost their standing.  In a tribute to the idea "things never change" the Roman Senate tried unsuccessfully to curb political sponsorship.

      So on balance, we must be a tad bit more evolved.

When the Boston fans talk about sacking Belichick, it is only a figure of speech, a non lethal deposing of which they foment. And mercifully it was Madonna who provided our half time enjoyment. Were we truly like the Romans, it could have been Newt Gingerich prancing in high boots and short shorts, or Mitt Romney being carried in by legions of the 99%.

      How would historians have regarded that?

      DAY BOOK

THE CATS HAVE THEIR GAME

Luke has recently shown his love for climbing on the car.

Now little brother Hemingway is following suit.

Yes, you rascal!

See you down the trail.

MONTEBELLO UPDATE, SUNNY NEWS & FELINE YIN AND YANG

COASTAL RELIEF

It has been a couple of weeks since scientists delivered 
good news, and the real sense of relief has just
kicked in. The Montebello poses no environmental
threat to the central coast. As I noted in the post
linked above, extensive deep water diving determined
the tanker, sunk by a Japanese U-boat in December 1941,
no longer contains any of the 3 million gallons of crude oil that was aboard when the tanker went down 6 miles off shore of Cambria.
Just the thought that a potential environmental 
catastrophe could occur, worked like a low grade
fever in the back of your mind. Getting
the news that it won't happen is a powerful relief.
Those of us who can find things to worry or fret about,
have only now allowed this one to sink in, so to speak,
and it is like a weight being removed. There was always
a "what if" in play and in the last couple of weeks
we've been able to put it out of mind.


SUNNY BITS

SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY  
NOVEMBER 3 FLARE
Did you see the recent buzz about the cost of solar power?
Scientists say they are seeing evidence of Gordon Moore's law of computing beginning to happen in solar applications.
Moore's law postulated  the number of transistors on a circuit board doubles every two years and thus lowers
the cost of computing.  It's been true for 50 years
and now solar technology is experiencing increased
efficiency at lower production costs.

YIN AND YANG

Little brother Hemingway shares basket

with big brother Luke

Peace!

See you down the trail.

THE NEW KID & THE NEW RAIN SEASON

HELLO HEMINGWAY

 The family has grown by one.  Our new rescue adoptee

has joined us.  Hemingway is a polydactyly-a six toed cat.

When you visit the Ernest Hemingway home in Key West

you'll likely see several six toed cats. I'd never seen

a polydactyly until we were there.  Cindy at the HART rescue center named this little cutie after his "cousins" in Key West.

 So now we have a socialization process to observe

as this rambunctious and high energy little guy

gets to know his older brother Luke and Nesta the 

old gal and reigning fussy Queen.
Here he makes his first journey outside. 
Look at those paws.

"Big" brother Luke naps as he watches over the little guy.

Dinner hour has gotten more complicated.

 Luke still maintains proprietary rights to making sure

the food tin is clean to his inspection standards.

THIS WILL LEAD TO GREENING

Almost a half an inch of rain over night, accompanied by  thunder which most people noticed, though some of us
snored through it.  We had a splash in October, but 
now we may get a couple of rains in the next week and
ranchers, farmers and gardeners are ready.

It cleared as the Friday Lunch Flash Mob assembled
below the castle, joined today by nearby steers.
The post rain views were pristine.

The old William Randolph Hearst storage buildings
played in the sun as well.

See you down the trail.

CYBER vs. REAL-BEWARE

WHEN DOES ONE CROSS A LINE

THE AGE OF INFO WARS

***A RECENT SLATE FRONT PAGE***

Second "Lesbian" Blogger Turns Out To Be a Man Editor of Lez Get Real outs himself as a retired military man from Ohio. READ FULL STORY

Cyber Vandals Breach Senate Website Same group that hacked PBS claiming Tupac is alive takes on the government. READ FULL STORY This front page from SLATE struck me as a reminder of the precarious nature of our communication and information systems. Even the CIA's web site has been hacked. Credibility and security are at risk.  They will continue to be so, it seems, for as long as we build our social structure around cyber communication. There are no safeguards.  As we do with blogs, I followed a link from the  SLATE piece to a well articulated set of thoughts from Brian Spears. THIS POST-A NOTE TO MY FELLOW WHITE MALES MAKES SOME OUTSTANDING POINTS. LINK HERE What Brian wrote prompted me to write a response.   "Fiction is just that.  Journalism is an approximation of truth  build on a foundation of facts. The blogsophere is  full of both and hybrids. Credibility remains the currency of journalism.  Notice or self expression may well be the fuel of bloggers.  These are mostly divergent cultures, but they aggregate n this cyber gumbo that we inhabit. Years ago I posed a question to a network executive for  whom I was developing a project:  at what point do the ethics of the cyber world begin to alter our sense of justice in the "real world?"  Random mayhem in gaming, serial  killing, explicit violence, explicit sexuality and false persona in the cyber world are permitted.  At what point does a social tolerance of such a recreational behavior begin to sew genuine social consequences?  It was an odd question to post to a network executive who went on to preside over what we call "reality" television. The post points the effect.  Anthony Wiener is living through another repercussion.  One may feel a cloak of protection or privacy while feeding the blogosphere with any manner of fantasy, lunacy or "creativity."  It is not illegal to do so, yet. Whether it is right or wrong is for someone else to reason.  It does however have consequence and indeed could be more serious or even lethal than a lone writer, wrapped in their own reality may have the intelligence or common sense to realize."  The old adage is true-Buyer beware, especially in this age of  information wars. We would add to that the modern admonition-   Read with care. "You should read only what is truly good or what is frankly bad." Gertrude Stein-quoted by Hemingway in A MOVEABLE FEAST There are efforts underway on the security front. LINK HERE TO READ OF A NOVEL APPROACH TO NET SECURITY BEING DEVELOPED BY A GROUP OF NEW YORK STUDENTS. DAY BOOK ARCHIVE SHOTS See you down the trail.

THE CUBA FILE-- THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

HEMINGWAY'S FIRST MATE

        The young man is the old man.  He is Gregorio Fuentes, Ernest Hemingway's first mate, bar tender, confidant and life long friend. Some think he was the model for the old man in THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.

       "The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the

back of his neck," 

Hemingway described his central figure.

"The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had 

the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none 

of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless 

desert.

``Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same 

color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated."

Gregorio was 101 when we met.  It was 3 years before he died in his home in Cojimar, a fishing village east of Havana.

     He lived modestly, but comfortably.  He was hailed as a man who had mastered the sea and who "was a symbol of Cuban fishing and of human brotherhood, thanks to all of his 
years of friendship with Hemingway,'' Reuters quoted Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich, who runs 
Havana's Hemingway International Nautical Club. 

     A school of Hemingway scholars discount the idea that Fuentes was the model for the 

old fisherman in the 1952 Nobel Prize winning novel. He was only 55 the year the book was published. There are those who say, however, that Hemingway used Fuentes' hands as the inspiration for his character.

      Fuentes became Captain of the Pilar, in 1939 when Hemingway began his life in Cuba living in the Hotel Ambos Mundos. They fished the Gulf Stream together.  During World War II Hemingway outfitted the Pilar with special gear so he and Fuentes could hunt German U-boats in the Caribbean.

When not patrolling the Caribbean, Hemingway covered the war. He accompanied Martha Gellhorn, a photo journalist and his love at the time, to China.  He returned to the Pilar and Cuba but later went to Europe to work as a war correspondent.  

After the war the writer and his captain spent extensive time in the Caribbean waters where Hemingway was said to have a special sense or enhanced vision that enabled him to spot deep Marlin which he battled from this chair.

The pier in Cojimar where the Pilar was docked was all but abandoned. 

The La Terazza was a favorite Hemingway hang out.  It was still a vibrant tavern and favorite of the locals. Many of them had Hemingway stories.

Cojimar has memorialized the famous American, not far from where he and the Captain launched their many adventures.

Gregorio Fuentes had a unique knowledge and relationship with one of the 20th Century's most influential writers.  He outlived his old friend and fishing mate by many decades.
He was there, in the moments, when Ernest Hemingway drew from life, from practical experiences to create literary images that live on, as Gregorio did for 104 years.
An old man of the sea.
See you down the trail.