Pax Nortona – A Blog by Joel Sax
From the Land of the Lost Blunderbuss
Month: November 2007
Unburned 2
Posted on November 23, 2007 in Biomes Hiking Photos
Because my favorite trails have been burned over and closed, I have been pressed to find other places to press the impressions of my soles. Last Sunday, I went with Lynn and three friends to Caspers Wilderness near San Juan Capistrano.
Yellow grasses were in plentitude and the sycamores bright.
When I turned to capture the silhouette of the distant ridges, I found myself in a landscape like those painted by [[Henri_Rousseau|Rousseau]]. Remember that the word “jungle” means “uncleared land”. And by that definition, there was plenty of jungle here.
This land will also have its day of ravenous orange and terrifying black, but today, under the oaks, the world was dryly moist and dusty green.
Friday Xenartha Blogging – Anteaters at Play
Posted on November 23, 2007 in Xenartha
Check out this pair of Tamandua’s playing beneath the table:
Ranks of Red Lights
Posted on November 22, 2007 in Festivals
Thankgiving is a holiday for the gods of crushed steel. Twice we were held up in traffic by cars that had spun and ended up pointed almost against traffic. Firemen and police waved the rest of us through. Slow ranks of red lights edged towards feasts and back home again.
Fog at 9:30 p.m.
Posted on November 20, 2007 in Encounters
Outside: fog. The thick kind that when you shine a light through it makes you think that the aliens have landed and are about to begin inserting probes in your nether regions. A lone drive in a white pickup truck goes from building to building, looking at the signs and the numbers. He finally makes a left onto my street as I am heading towards the truck to find my cel phone.
“Hello, can I help you?”
He’s Middle-Eastern or Italian, thickly gaunt, wearing a baseball cap of a color and a letter that I don’t recognize. He tells me a number. I point to it on the building next to him.
I go out to my truck, fail to find my phone, and retrace my steps. The stranger has parked his vehicle with the motor running and gone upstairs to knock on the door. I look in the back and see a trail bike, laying on its side like a lion in the sun.
Closed
Posted on November 19, 2007 in Disasters Santiago Fire
My favorite place to hike — which is just around the corner from me — has been closed thanks to the ravages of the Santiago Fire. Trails upon which I have placed my feet stand out in sharp contrast to the once verdant fields around them. Bridges have vanished. Orange County Parks doesn’t know when the wilderness will reopen, but it is accepting volunteers.
Check out this page for information about what happened in Whiting. You can also review the photos from my album dedicated to the park. Most of these show the park as it was before the fire.
[tags]Santiago Fire, disasters, Whiting Ranch Wilderness, Whiting Wilderness, wildfire, wildfire aftermath, chaparral, southern California, California, California fires[/tags]
Red State Education Product
Posted on November 17, 2007 in Strange
Look what got taken along in the No Child Left Behind program:
It’s like she so worked herself up to answer the “World Peace” question that she couldn’t think of anything else.
One thing I liked: her reference to “U.S. Americans”. That will go over well with other Americans such as the ones from Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia, etc.
War on Terrier: Cat on LSD
Posted on November 16, 2007 in War on Terrier
Captured video showing a feline POW being tortured(?) by terrier agents employing LSD:
Surfing Mice
Posted on November 16, 2007 in Humor? Video
Yes, I’ve been ~absent~ in your presence, but you folks haven’t exactly been knocking at my blog or my Twitter saying “Hey Joel, what’s happening? Did you die?” The answer, of course, is no. I’ve just had no life and when you have no life, there’s not much to write about. The good stuff is all covered by confidentiality agreements and the rest — if you’re not Raine (poor thing!) — is boring. So I am providing the preceding video. Maybe I’ll think of something later.
Mouse vs. Cat Mouse wins
How to catch a mouse (humanely)
Unburned
Posted on November 11, 2007 in Hiking Nature Photos
On a cool, overcast day the living chaparral of Chiquita Ridge almost looked as if it had been swept by a fire.
As a season, fall appears only in the creek bottoms where the sycamores and the alders exalt the universe. Life abandons land: a wildfire sweeps through a cemetery, a place where nearly every plant and every relic has passed on.
Only the cactus offer a harvest.
I’ll look for brighter afternoons.
Ideal Star Trek Crew
Posted on November 10, 2007 in Culture
Revised
We’ve been making our way through old Star Trek episodes thanks to the miracle of DVDs. (We haven’t been keeping up because we don’t have cable.) Having finished Enterprise (great series — loved the take on Vulcans and how the machinery was never quite up to snuff) we’ve begun on Voyager. And having done so (without having seen Deep Space Nine) I’d like to propose an ideal crew:
- Captain: Janeway. Kirk is too full of himself as is Picard. Archer is a nice guy but has a tendency to go off. Janeway pulls the crew together, gives credit where credit is due.
- First Officer/Science Officer: Spock. To suggest anyone else is heresy, though T’Pol comes in a close second.
- Doctor: Phlox. The kindest and most curious of the doctors. Isn’t thrown for a loop by new diseases. Has a holistic view and a cool menagerie. I would actually choose him for a GP.
- Engineer: This was hard. Purists will insist on Scotty and I am somewhat partial to Tripp. Torres is fun running the Voyager on a shoestring, but it’s LaForge for best all around.
- Communications: Uhura is the sexiest, but when you need someone to get the message across to strange gelatinous life forms using the most primitive translation technology, there’s no one like Hoshi Sato.
- Helm: A tough choice. I like Travis Meriweather and Tom Paris. But Sulu defined this role for all time.
- Security: Tuvok. Has the best brains of the lot. Worf looks too much like a cross-eyed warthog and Malcolm Reed looks like he is still modeling for Vidal Sassoon.
- Miscellaneous Alien: Shran. Loved how the Andorrians could move their antennae around and how they abused Archer as “pinkskin”. And some of those Andorrian females — pant pant.
- Best Opening: The original.
- Best Music: Voyager.
- Mirror Universe: Definitely the Empress Sato.
- Best Ship: Voyager***
This list is, of course, open to debate.
Feel free to add your own list.***
Saddleback Church
Posted on November 10, 2007 in Martyrdom Series The Orange
Which part of the service was like being in heaven?
A vocal duet with the band/orchestra accompanying.And which part was like being in… er… the other place?
Finding a parking place.
I get in trouble when I write about Saddleback Church, so here’s the mystery worshipper’s report from Ship of Fools.
