What can one say about Memorial Day.. other than it is more than flag-printed wrappers on ice cream cones?

In this video it looks like they are in the dungeon, forging Iron Cages to imprison Jews and Protestants... a former Catholic Church activity.

Or perhaps something for branding those who do not follow a particular Cardinal...

It ends with a Pope's decree being held as if it were canon truth.

http://youtu.be/D9vQt6IXXaM

Do you think this will rally the faithful?

That silly light on the dash, you know, the one that says I need to change the oil.
It had been on for about 1000 miles...  but my driving has not been rough... the biggest hill has been the bridge to Ocean City, or maybe the "twin spans" to Delaware... so it was ok.

But let's face it, cars know when they are being neglected.  They tend to hide things on you, or the rear view mirror doesn't stay put.

So I had wanted to take it to GreaseMonkey, but they went out of business here! dang... I liked them.  Then last week I stopped in a place advertising "Oil Change $19.95" but they turned out to be not a drive-in-get-oil-change place instead they wanted to make an appointment for 5 days later.

So today my car found a new best friend.  Wham Bam Thank You Valvoline! 
And then because it was so good, I took the car to the car wash. 


As I was cleaning it out, I found a camera that had been missing since early December... so I took some photos!

After a trip to Best Buy (for a phone card) and Charley's Bar (for hot wings), I went to the nature preserve in Ocean City to see what was happening with the bird migration.  Our area is a stop-off point for birds coming north, so this time of year we get unusual species stopping by.




Someday someone will tell me that they are... for now, they are just boids.

Ok, Science Class... go ahead, load the flash application:

  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html

Pretty darn nifty!

No one worships moonsets
Save the lone night lover
Nursing iceless Bourbon
Staving off the dawn

but still

Craving the light of timeless stars
At home in the noiseless whirl
Content without a struggle
Informing the silence

please stay

Put off the sunshine
Still the calming wind
And let me breathe
One colorless final ray

Memory

UGH... I decided on Verizon DSL (slow cheap speed) for my apartment, and it took them a LOOONG time to install the thing.

But now the Model 7500 DSL modem keeps losing Internet connection (but not, it seems, the DSL link to the central office.)

So I have to reset the box... sometimes once a day, sometimes hourly-- today would be one of those days-- and then wait to see if it reconnects.

There's a nice set of comments in forums about the problem(s)... mine is one of the "6 echo-requests" failing modems.

It saddens me when firmware is designed so shoddily. I'm convinced it is something messed up in the central office software or modem's firmware... not 'interference on the line' as the technician told me.. and even if there were interference, the modem should reestablish Internet connection using the working PPP connection (it does when I turn it off and on.)

These days companies don't trust their own software folks, so they hire out developers, who work from specifications. If the specifications are met, the software is good, and they are paid. But what if the specifications are inadequate?

Engineers who were able to care used to be the big advantage of USA engineering.

ugh.

Up at five thirty this morning, just felt like heading down to the beach. I was hoping it would be clear, and that the moon would have set.

I am much more used to seeing the moon in the evening, where each day it rises an hour later, and an hour fuller. Here at the shore I've only been looking for it during my early morning walks, so the rules are flipped. One morning the moon is full, and on the horizon, and the next it is almost full and higher in the sky. A few days ago it was dancing with a bright planet over the marshes. I assumed it was Venus, though I'd never seen a full moon and Venus together... I am normally not an early riser.

Today I know that it was Jupiter, since Venus can't be close to the full moon. And the marshes are west... Venus would be in the east, a morning star.

So this morning it was not clear at all. There were high, broken clouds. And the moon was almost overhead. It seemed higher in the sky than the sun had ever been here in NJ. Last night we had quite a bit of wind, and the fine-grained sand seems to have been blown into ripples by the dunes. In days past the sand was always churned by the beach cleaning machine, or divoted by other beach visitors. But today it was rippled, and all human contact forgotten. The moonlight emphasized the ripples, it seemed, in light too dim for any camera I have.

The sea was far away. Earlier in the week an east wind had brought the water far up the beach. One day it even backed into the storm drains in a low spot. But last night's wind was westerly, and so now the sea was far away, across a wide expanse of sand. And near the surf, which provided a steady soundtrack, there was a black lump.

Now I've seen enough horror movies to know not to go near black lumps only vaguely seen. So I began walking along the beach going away from it. But then I remembered other movies where unsuspecting joggers were simply overtaken and consumed by black lumps, so I turned to investigate.

It was too dark to figure out what the lump was...perhaps it was a meteorite... it was about as big as a well fed crouching lion... even as I got close, I could not see the surface. So, time to take out the cell phone and look. They make good flashlights in a pinch. I still couldn't see what was at the center, but the surface looked like a marine tumbleweed. A tangle of seaweed and beach reeds were the outside layer. That was enough. I walked on.

Even without the sand machine, the beach was very clean. Almost no shell fragments, no seaweed. I walked by the moon's light, which grew and faded with the clouds. At one point I thought I perceived a hint of a shadow before my feet, but then it was gone, only to reappear a minute later. Being followed by a moon shadow might be one thing, but today I was Peter Pan, searching for my shadow, and glimpsing it for a moment, there before me. Clouds even parted for a moment to reveal Jupiter, back by the horizon, left behind by the moon.

As I turned to return home I paused to feel the cool soft sand. The horizon began with the casinos on the left, then a couple of lighthouse beacons, a few ships, perhaps night fishing, and then the lights of Sea Isle City. No sign of the sunrise. I turned and headed up to the road. Morning will come, observed or not.

Hey everybody!

YES follow this link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G6L5THyBpo

Oh my... oh my!

I saw them in New Orleans... now they will be invading New York City???

As I walked to the beach before dawn, a woman and a dog were coming the other way.

"There is a school of dolphins to your left" she said.

The dog said nothing.

Indeed, there was a pod playing, or eating bluefish, a few blocks north.

good morning