Well, Fall isn't in the air

...but that's not going to stop College Football from revving up this weekend! (Nice form, notice the horizontal path of the ball; did I get ANY life on the thing?)

That means, I once again have to make these colors somehow fit into my fashion palette. I usually fail miserably. Speaking of failing miserably here are my top 5 favorite College Football teams this year.

#1 - LSU Tigers (of course)
#2 - Texas (of course)
#3 - Anyone playing Ohio State
#4 - Any SEC team playing Auburn
#5 - Cal-Berkeley (oh why not?)

Top 10 Maddux

Greg Maddux just moved into 10th place all-time in Major League Baseball Wins!! He passed Phillies and Cardinal great Steve Carlton ... that's pretty darn impressive. Given the modern game, he could be there for a very, very long time.

However, he is only 12 wins away from tying Tim Keefe. It's players like Tim Keefe that make baseball so darn lovable. He started his career with the Troy Trojans in 1880, by 1881 it appears he was one of two pitchers on the team ... Keefe pitched in 45 games and had 45 complete games. By 1883 playing for the NY Metropolitans (apparently NY took all the greats back then also), 26-year-old Keefe pitched in 68 games (once again getting 68 complete games). He went 41-27 that year. On July 4th, he felt especially patriotic and pitched both games in a double-header ... giving up only 3 hits in all 18 innings!

Geesh Maddux, that is some pretty impressive company you keep. Of course he has a bit of OLD SCHOOL playing to his own credit, playing the all-around game last night to get into the Top 10. From MLB.com:

Without breaking 86 mph on the radar gun, the 40-year-old went seven innings with an efficient 77 pitches, easing the strain on a bullpen beleaguered from two marathons within five days, coming up with a clutch performance as might be expected from a four-time Cy Young Award winner.

He showed how he won 15 Gold Glove awards, starting two double plays and racing to take a desperate flip from Nomar Garciaparra while beating pinch-hitter Javier Valentin to first base, earning one in a series of standing ovations ...

Maddux also was a magician with the bat, singling in the first run and hustling to second on the throw home, then perfectly squeezing home the fourth run.

Not getting above 86 mph. Squeeze plays. Turning two-twice. 11 pitches an inning. I think the Cleveland Spiders may look his way soon.

THE SQUEEZE.
(AP Photo/Francis Specker)

4 o'clock chair

I can set my watch to the time to start reading outside with this constant afternoon sun.

The "really hot Louisiana" weather always got below freezing in the winter and the "really frigid Chicago" weather always got to the high 90s in the summer. I really don't know how my internal clock is going to adjust.

Apparently, the rain is how. No winter, just rainy season... I look forward to seeing the rain again... it will be on the way soon.

Spell with Flickr

Just trying out Spell with Flickr




nar‧cis‧sism  [nahr-suh-siz-em] noun
1. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.

Huh.

Brought to you by Dictionary.com

What the hell is this??

Seriously, this thing was a good 3 inches long, at least. California, I tell you. Louisiana has some immensely diverse wildlife and then moving to Texas and Illinois I had to learn new plants and animals. But you know how you learn like your standard 10 trees and 10 birds and 10 flowers and the mishmash of other creatures, and that will get you through most extended periods in a region? Not California.

Here you will just be casually walking around and suddenly BAM! - a new species forms before your eyes ... only to progress through thriving life, endangerment and extinction within 2-3 months.

This crickantcrawfishwasp seemed trapped in a planter and heading towards extinction, having not mastered the important wall-climbing/flying transportation so necessary in bug-life.

Geesh, it looks like a Clash of the Titans monster, right? I mean, Eric and I joke about growing up in SW Louisiana, we assumed everyone lived with mondo-cockroaches like we did. You know the ones that hold rodeos with fieldmice? That is what we grew-up with in our home. And in Austin, I once woke-up with a cricket crawling into my gaping mouth. That summer they were falling from the Capitol crunching under the tourists' feet. Bugs aren't typically a problem with me. But this unknown monster! Exactly how is it going to hurt me? Bite? Sting? Poison-barbed legs? Projectile venom? Is that little hutch behind its head going to open up an shoot me with razor-missiles?

OK ... I'm done. If anyone knows what this is or wants to research it for me, much obliged.

A trip to Tennessee

Back to the beach again. We are finding it difficult to make it a full week without a beach visit. This was another very close one (perhaps a 7-minute drive to the parking) called Tennessee Beach (which is in Tennessee Cove, part of the Tennessee Valley, where the S.S. Tennessee crashed ... small world). We were invited by Stephanie, one of the 3rd grade teachers Mary works with at Bel Aire, and her family. The hike was about 2 miles from the parking lot along a beautiful hilly valley with a fresh water stream/river running along the path.
This particular beach is noteworthy for its cliffs and geology, as you can see in some of the pics below.



Once we arrived at the beach, you had to cross where the freshwater fed towards the ocean, fortunately a bridge was already made by previous visitors. However, Sam said the water was quite warm and we would have been fine.
Of course the day wasn't quite as warm... Stephanie, John and I do what you do when you first get to a beach ... stare at the ocean (of course they probably didn't have images of seaweed encrusted kracken climbing from out the deep like I did. Freakin' Normals...)Because it was lowtide, we were allowed a passage from the main beach to a smaller one which had crashing waves and great climbing rocks. Here is a picture taken from the vantage of the minor beach, the waves still made the path impassable at times.

When the waves crashed into this one seacave, it made a tremendous THUMP!

I just returned from a 3-hour Ring Mountain hike today, so I don't really have the bloggin' energy. However, I anticipate that both Mary and Sam will blog more about our lovely afternoon with a nice family and a new beach.

Steampunk, take 2

Yesterday, I wrote an extensive entry about my recent fascination with "steampunk" entertainment. Then while inserting my last links, my browser crashed on a video I was checking out. Post lost ... Cameron's patience lost.

However, I have decided to approach the subject again, because ... well, I am that much of a dork. I will be saving drafts every three words.

Steampunk. Defined by Word Spy as:

A literary genre that applies science fiction or fantasy elements to historical settings and that features steam-powered, mechanical machines rather than electronic devices.

Steam-powered machinery is really fun-looking stuff. However, the "steam age" was too short. It is more interesting to apply steam-aged gadgets to a whole bunch of time periods. And once you have crossed the anachronistic line, why not make the technology advanced and throw in fun new history, fantasy and horror elements?! Yee-haw! (That reminds me, Western themes work as well...)

Real quick shout out to Boing Boing, who as usual, made me aware of a cool thing first. Many of these things I found from their site (they appear to be big fans of the genre as well)

OK, so how about some examples? sure thing.

1) League of Extraordinary Gentleman Vol 1 and Vol 2- The horrifically tantalizing graphic novels from Alan Moore (of recent V for Vendetta writing fame). This is an ultimate prize in the genre mixing steam-powered super-technology with major Victorian literary heroes and villains ... with some frightening sequences thrown in.

2) The Amazing Screw-On Head- While originally a graphic novel, the animated story has me wholly entertained. Sci-Fi's site describes it best:

In this hilarious send-up of Lovecraftian horror and steampunk adventure, President Abraham Lincoln's top spy is a bodyless head known only as Screw-On Head.

If you have any interest in the genre how can you not be excited about a story like that? And then it is voiced by Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce and Molly Shannon. Follow the link to watch the suburb pilot online. (No really, watch it.)

3) Atlantis - yes, Disney makes the list. A great introduction into the genre for kids (the "steampunk adventure" without the age-appropriate "Lovecraftian horror"). Interestingly, both #2 and #3 feature the voice of Corey Burton. Look at this guy's voice accomplishments: Brainiac, Zeus, Abe Lincoln (from #2 above), Count Dooku, Captain Hook, a Transformer! Moving on ...

4) These Rayguns.

5) These Transformers.

6) Young Sherlock Holmes - I don't remember too much about this movie, but that Young Sherlock Holmes was more a young Da Vinci in his steam-inventions.

7) Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura- I have not played this game, but I have it under wonderful authority that I should. Half-Ogres wondering around steamworks ... I don't know if the game can live up to my expectations.

8) And of course ... ANYTHING written by Jules Verne. Because let's face it, he put the adventure in steampunk ...

OK, I had to get that geekyness out of my system, thanks.

By the way, Iron Giant is not steampunk ... but I am voting we change it out with Wild, Wild West. Let's say we play like Iron Giant was steampowered and the entire Wild, Wild West thing be forgotten? fair?

Science 1 - USA 0

I am quite excited about this whole Pluto thing. I don't know why this has been a big deal for me. I guess when I started investigating on extending my pedestrian understanding of astronomy, I learned that Pluto wasn't really a planet. (My understanding is now pedestrian+1, somewhere between a 2nd grader and someone who has those glow-in-the-dark posters of the constellations.)

However, it continued to be classified as a planet. Once I learned that Pluto was not the boundary of our solar system, but actually like 1/10,000th of the way to the edge ... I suddenly becoming very curious about why Pluto kept its planetary distinction when it wasn't even really a distinguishing border from us and everything else.

However, then I learned that Pluto is (was) the only American discovered planet. (By the way, I learned most of this from book #3 in this post.) And it all came together ... Pluto must have an incredible PR team! Do you know you can use pennies at Illinois toll-booths? That's right, anything with Abraham Lincoln's face on it is treasured in Illinois. "The claim to fame" is very important in geographic distinctions.

Anyway, three cheers for science winning over P.R.

Commute

I find commuting fascinating. It is such a shared experience; so everyday but yet unique every day? I would commonly document the Chicago commute, now here is current one...