Strolling through the park this morning (4th of July), we encountered this mixed-up pumpkin sitting on a rock.

Uhm?!? Cool!

I was just emailed this picture, along with this description:

"Thought you might like to see one guy's solution to limited roof space. It is from a poorly scanned photo ... but you'll get the gist of it. Those are the old Siemens 55 watt panels times about 34 = 1870 watts plus two 300 (or 400) watt wind machines. Makes you wonder just what he is doing inside???"


Now THAT is an impressive mobile solar setup!!!

Often people are amazed that serolynne and I can manage to live so well together in a 16' long trailer.

It really isn't that hard.

These folks on the otherhand - egads!

Imagine having and raising NINE kids while traveling (and surfing) full time in a 24' motorhome. Talk about a lack of space!

This documentary (entitled Surfwise) about the life and adventures of the disturbingly unconventional Paskowitz family looks absolutely fascinating. I can't wait to see it.

This one is a bit bigger than the Oliver, but it does have a few nice perks. The marble floors and hideaway plasma TV are just the start.

Be sure to watch until the end, and check out what is stored in the basement.

Now that would be handy! :-)

A few weeks ago, while helping serolynne out with a Purge Genie client, the little girl at the house let me play with her small snake that she had caught in the back yard.

When we got home, I asked our cat Alma to bring us a pet snake.

Two days later, to my utter disbelief, she did.

She brought home a gorgeous two foot long Everglades Black Racer, totally unharmed.

Cherie and I were amazed, and we went out and bought a small bedside tank for the snake so that Cherie could have company while recovering from her surgery. Cherie named the snake Snoopy.


In the first photo you can see Snoopy ignoring a cricket. In the next, she is ignoring a feeder fish. What a picky eater!

On the recommendation of the pet store, we brought Snoopy both crickets and feeder fish. She ignored them. After a week with no results, I then tried digging all around the yard until I found some earthworms and various bugs. Snoopy continued to have no interest, and she was seeming less active every day.

The last alternative would be to try frozen and/or live pinky mice. We were contemplating needing to go to a speciality pet store today to get some. If the mice didn't work, we would have to let Snoopy go.

Yesterday - I asked Alma to bring us some food for her pet snake. I told her that lizards might work, but that they would have to be smaller than the usual size she brings home.

This morning - she brought me an unhurt, perfectly sized lizard.

I took it and dropped it in Snoopy's tank.

Five minutes later, Alma returned with another perfect lizard.

Amazing!

Fifteen minutes later, Cherie calls me in to the room to catch the last moments of Snoopy swallowing the first lizard!


In this picture, you can see the last of the first lizard's tail hanging out of Snoopy's mouth. The second lizard can be seen in the back corner, looking rather scared.

I just checked again, and the second lizard seems to be missing too. Snoopy is now a very happy snake.

And Alma - wow, what an incredible cat. She not only brought us a pet snake when asked, but also the perfect food for it. I am totally amazed!

On occasion I give the iPod a break, and we listen to FM radio. And when we are in the boonies, that often means country music.

The past month - I seem to keep stumbling across this one particular very catchy, exceedingly romantic song...

Who wouldn't be in the mood for romance after a pickup line like this:

'Cause I'd like to see you out in the moonlight
I'd like to kiss you way back in the sticks
I'd like to walk you through a field of wildflowers
And I'd like to check you for ticks
Oooh, you never know where one might be
And oooh, there's lots of places that are hard to reach

( Full Lyrics to Brad Paisley's Ticks: )

Gads, this is just pitiful:

"Enough dawdling! Grab hold of yourself! This is not good! You're at the edge ... dangling precariously ... just inches (or millimeters if you've gone metric) from disaster ... about to freefall headlong into the cold, dark, and tragically lonely world of the friendless wanderers. Yikes!"

And this is supposed to convince me to renew my membership to the Good Sam Club??? As if!

No matter what the benefits of membership are, no value could make this much annoying junk mail worthwhile. The Good Spam Club sends out more crap in the mail than any other company I've ever come across.

Enough already!

UPDATE: The $19/year Good Sam Club membership turns out to be worth well over $100/year in savings on my car insurance. So I guess I am stuck with the "Good Spam Club" for now. *groan*

I've been getting an unusual number of anonymous comments to my LJ posts lately. Mostly these comments are made to old posts.

Almost none of them make any sense.

In particular, this post about Windows Vista seems to be a magnet for nonsense. Consider these subject lines, all with a null message body:

"Lorazepam and friends"
"Aciphex oxycontin magic"
"All sportsmen use drugs."
"Where'd you gone, I missed you so..."
"Infrormation about diet pills"
"Tablets for menshealth"

Huh?!??

And in response to my post about a Conexus fundraiser party last October, I just got this:

"I had a chance to see live the cast of Harry Potter in Hollywood! Great guys! Good luck to then! Will go watch a movie!"

????

I am having a hard time imagining what these comments could possibly be for. My only guess is that they are tests to see if they end up deleted (they have been now, btw) - and if they are not, then the evil spammers know they have an open place to post links for farming.

Speaking of link farming... Next up is the mysterious Cara Fletcher. She's posted lame / generic responses to a few old posts of mine - always linking back to one of her collection of sites. Checking them out, her sites are just trolled together articles with Creative Commons content stolen from other sites, surrounded by google advertising. Here is one of her comments:

I waitedfor the release of the new iPhone too.I think this is one of the greatest phones ever made and it has so many extras. :)
Cara Fletcher

and...

You can save money in your trip if you use some tips for it.Like taking a cooler with you and filling it with some refreshments and some food.This way you'll save some money from eating in fast food restaurants.
Cara Fletcher

Her posts (and links back to her sites) have been now deleted.

If this trend continues, I am thinking of turning off anonymous commenting. Weird stuff.

Has anyone else ever seen comments like this popping up lately?

Lorazepam???

As I posted about recently, I had a Twilight Zone moment surrounding a mysteriously lost half of my favorite pair of socks in the rush to leave FL. Google was somehow involved - though I have yet to guess at a motive.

With us heading out the door and no hope of recovery of the lost sock, I threw away the partnerless remainder in the last load of trash as we departed serolynne's place.

Catching up on laundry at my parent's place today in Illinois, the lost sock has returned.

This is all but impossible. How could a sock lost in Cherie's dryer in FL have magically appeared in the laundry bag in Tab that was EMPTY when we left FL?!??

This to me conclusively proves the existence of dryer-induced wormholes. I imagine Google must be harnessing this oft-rumored mysterious force - that explains the Google connection.

But - harnessing for good, or for evil???

I use Gmail fairly regularly, and I've gotten used to seeing advertising pop up that seems to have an uncanny relevance to things I've searched for or surfed to. Google is everywhere online - I almost expect it to be omniscient.

But...

Last night (uhm, a few hours ago...) one of the last things I fretted about was having lost one half of my favorite pair of socks in my rush to pack up my universe. I made NO mention of this online in any fashion whatsoever.

This morning, I sit down to Gmail and see the featured advertisement sitting above my inbox:

"No more lost socks - www.thesocksack.com - We promote safe socks!"

Woah! Uhm. Queue up Twilight Zone music...

Egads. I just stumbled across LifeGem.

The LifeGem® is a certified, high-quality diamond created from the carbon of your loved one...

Uhm, yeah. Ok.

Your LifeGem memorial will offer comfort and support when and where you need it, and provide a lasting memory that endures just as a diamond does. Forever.

The website provides detailed instructions on how you can package up and send them cremation ashes, or locks of hair. As a promotion they are advertising how they have created diamonds out of Beethoven. I am NOT making this up:

"These will be the only three diamonds ever created from Beethoven’s carbon and could be considered the three most rare and valuable diamonds in the world."

It gets even weirder. They also have "LifeGem for Pets"...

Because I’ll always remember...
how you preferred a milk jug to an expensive toy.
how you ate everything I couldn't stand.
how you protected me with your life, but secretly hid when I was gone.
how you helped “break in” all of the new furniture.
how you were always there for a hug when I needed it most.
how you gave me a reason to come home.
how I loved you with all my heart, but you always loved me more.

If you are reading this, you are going through one of life's toughest times right now. I know because I've been there. I've even questioned whether the love was worth this pain… but it was. She added more to my life than words could ever say.

Sometimes I miss my girl so much it hurts to breathe, but our memories will never fade. Even through the tears, she finds a way to bring a smile to my face every day. Nothing will ever replace our special bond, and the LifeGem is certainly not meant to, but it does provide comfort through an everlasting connection and closeness to the one I have lost.

I hope it will do the same for you and your wonderful pet.

All for just $3,000 to $25,000.
A customer testimonial:

I wanted to let you know that 'Ma' has arrived here safe and sound! You were right.....she IS a beauty!! Today is her 1 year anniversary and it has given me an untold sense of peace to have her home and in such sparkely condition!

My mind boggles...

Checking a few stock quotes using Google just now, I burst out laughing when my search for "GOOG resulted in the following targeted "sponsored link"...

Filthy rich? We'll help.
Throw away your newfound cash
at Woot. You're welcome.
woot.com

Well, Google stock is flirting with $500/share again...

*laughing*

After being impressed by a demo from serolynne of how she uses it, a few days ago I set up free account on www.statcounter.com to monitor the traffic going to www.radven.net.

One of the many cool things StatCounter lets you do is see what pages and search terms people have used to find your web site.

Checking the log this morning, I burst out laughing to see that somebody on Google Australia searched for "first erection pictures" and found a link to my Burning Man photography on the first page of results.

Peter will be so amused....

*laugh*

Yesterday was a marathon drive across Colorado and Kansas.

I rendezvoused this afternoon with my dad in the now nearly ghost town of West Mineral, KS. One hundred years ago 15,000 miners and their families lived in this area - including my great grandparents. We tracked down the relevant church records and grave sites, and drove around the now mostly desolate region all afternoon. It was very special to find where my dad's mother was born - especially since I never had a chance to meet her.

West Mineral once had 42 saloons. Now all that is left is a single dinky local's bar. We ventured in, and soon my dad had some old-timers sharing stories and pictures of the glory days when the area was booming. We even saw pictures of the electric street car line that used to stretch all the way up to Pittsburg. Now there are barely even streets left in the town!

The drive across Kansas yesterday was long and uneventful. Kansas sure is BIG! Not nearly as flat as rumored, but the terrain just does not compare with Utah or the Rockies...

But speaking of big - right now we are camped next to "Big Brutus" - the second largest electric shovel IN THE WORLD!

It is also "the biggest attraction in Southeastern Kansas". Not that it has much competition...


The brochure is full of masterful hype:
"BIG BRUTUS put the oooohs and aaahs in the backyard of the Heartlands!!! ... Standing beside it makes one aware of how fragile he or she is."
"For years after Brutus was silenced, it continued to compel people to get closer to this 160 foot giant - to touch it - to climb it."

The coming of strip mining and giant electric shovels during the great depression put the armies of miners tunneling under the region out of work. And though the coal was far from exhausted, stricter environmental standards in the 70's left the high-sulfur Kansas coal unmarketable and shuttered even the strip mines. After eleven years of dominating the plains digging 24/7 - Brutus fell silent in April 1974.

Tomorrow morning we will be taking the guided tour and checking out the museum.

After that, a bit more tracking down ancestors - and then we will be caravanning towards St. Louis. It will be nice to have a break from driving for a while!


I did have a new friend adopt me for a while this evening... This little kitty has me contemplating perhaps taking on a permanent stowaway...

I love playing social dominoes.

A week ago while I was at Disneyland, I got a random IM from james_the_evil1, a friend of serolynne in FL. We talked about meeting and sharing some good port when I pass through FL in December, and then he asked me if I ever planned to pass through Salt Lake City during my travels. When I told him I was headed there next, he immediately put me in touch with his dear friend bulletslc.

And now I have a friend of my own in Salt Lake City! I've been staying at Bullet's (aka Amy's) place the past few days - using her living room as a base camp to get caught up on some paperwork and chores, and enjoying her great company. She has introduced me to the joys of Firefly and the new Battlestar Galactica, and this weekend we might go exploring some of the cooler sites around town and along the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

Nomadic serendipity at work. I love it!


Global warming? Shrinking glaciers? Not in Utah!
This emergent glacier threatens to spill out of Bullet's freezer and overwhelm the entire Salt Lake City region.
There is more frost lurking in there than open space!
Though to Bullet's defense, she claims that the vintage freezer is not even able to make ice cubes if she were to ever defrost it...

Ever since I accidentally dunked my Treo 650 into a cup of Monster Kaos, the keyboard on it has been flakey. In particular, the backspace key hardly ever works, and the space bar often wouldn't register either. Typing messages often involved bringing up the on-screen keyboard, a tedious process.

(RANT: Palm - WHY not leave in Graffiti on the Treo as an option for non-keyboard input? I'd rather not be forced into using the keyboard...)

Anyway - last night at Disneyland I took a ride on SplashMountain, and got seated in the front seat.

Worried about potential splash damage, I made sure my camera and phone were tucked away in my fanny pack, and for good measure I tucked my fanny pack under my shirt.

I did NOT expect to be SOAKED head-to-toe by a tidal wave as we came crashing down the 50 foot drop. Egads!

Everything on my body except for my shoes and socks were drenched. Opening my fanny pack in a panic, I saw my Treo's screen flashing white, on and off like a strobe. Egads!

Quickly I got the battery out, and started the air drying process. When I got back to the hotel last night I tried the battery again, and the Treo would try but not finish booting. Ick!

But today I try again, and all seem to be fine. And I mean ALL seems fine. The backspace button is backspacing for the first time in months. The space bar spaces. The keyboard seems fully healed!

Magic Kingdom indeed! I think the water at Disneyland may indeed have some magical healing properties. Wow!


Fortunately my camera survived the dunking just fine, and I was even able to snap this picture off the screen at the end of the ride. Sure beats paying $17! But despite the dunking, Lindsay and I had a great time spending the day at Disneyland. Best ride? Space Mountain, of course!

Right now I am headed south towards a Disneyland rendezvous with Lindsay tomorrow.

Presently stopping for lunch at the always amazing Casa de Fruta on the Pacheco Pass between Gilroy and Los Banos.

Casa de Fruta is a surreal fantasy-land always worth stopping for. What started out as a roadside fruit stand nearly 100 years ago on a small two lane highway in the middle of nowhere has grown out of control.

Now the fruit stand is bigger than many grocery stores. Next to the fruit stand is the Casa de Gifts gift-shop (souvenirs of your visit to a fruit stand?). Next to that is the 24hr Casa de Restaurant diner (where I am now). Behind that is the huge Case de Wine store (and they make their own wine too!), and inside that is the Casa de Deli.

Behind that - there is the Casa de Sweets serving ice cream and candy and more. Inside Casa de Sweets you can buy tickets to ride the Casa de Carousel (imported from Italy), or the miniature Casa de Choo-Choo, which circles the property - passing through the playground and the park (Casa de Park?). It also takes you through the buffalo paddock, and past various other animals.

Also present in the Casa de Complex is the Casa de Diesel 24/hr gas station, as well as the Casa de Inn hotel, and of course - the Casa de RV Park and Festival Grounds.

There is also a big giant teepee and a pumpkin patch, of course.

(I didn't look too hard, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a sign calling it Casa de TeePee or Casa de Pumpkin....)

Weird, and wonderful. I imagine the fruit must be pretty good too.

Rating: 4+ stars! (would be five if they had "Casa de WiFi")

This has been amusing me all day: Darth Vader's Blog

...You try to be an effective manager, you weed out the bad apples like the late Admiral Ozzel -- only to find that an insidious culture of incompetence has somehow transformed your deadly pan-galactic armada into a fleet of spaceballs.

Who would have guessed Darth could be so snarky!

I am sitting her eating lunch at a FatBurger in Issaquah Washington, and looking up I notice a sign for the "Triple King Challenge". Eat a Triple King burger as fast as you can - they time you and take a polaroid to stick on the wall.

The top four times from each FatBurger location will compete in January 2007 to crown the 2006 champion. The 2005 champion set a record - two minutes, six seconds.

Looking at the wall of photos, I notice that there is not a single woman up there.

Is there really any question as to which is the smarter sex?

I spent Sunday May 29th checking out BayCon, my first ever sci-fi / fantasy convention. If I had known how much fun it was going to be, I would have gone for more than just the last night of parties. In particular, I was kicking myself when I learned that the formal party on Saturday night was themed as "The Babylon 5 Ambassadors' Ball" with Stephen Furst (Vir on B5!) as the guest of honor! Special thanks to my friend butterfly_smile for being my guide and hanging out with me, even though it was her first BayCon too. And super-double-special thanks to her partner Ted for loaning me a stunning coat with tails so that I too could feel pretty as I roamed the halls.

The parties were fun, the art was a mix of extremely good and extremely bad, and the people were... Well, freaks of all types. I found myself noticing that BayCon was filled with both some of the most "one dimensional" and some of the most interesting people you might ever meet.

It was a great time - and if I ever get to go to another similar con, I will certainly plan on checking it out for a much longer span of time.


You never know what you might find roaming the halls at BayCon...


There were lots of nefarious characters to deal with, ranging from a lego Darth Maul to a scottish Darth Ted.


This was the most amazing costume I have ever seen. It was gorgeous, and made with real feathers!


She could actually control each wing independently - fully extending them, or cocking one or the other back.