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December 31 KNOW THYSELF
The following is a meditation that anyone can use because every person has these qualities. You have these qualities. Whether you think of these as “fruits of the Holy Spirit,” innate Buddha qualities, or something else, it is worthwhile to get acquainted with yourself, and ponder your purpose. Read the following list as a meditation about yourself. Ask yourself what you would add to this list.
I have opportunities and abundance so I can be expressing me. I have many gifts so I can be becoming.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
Spirit of Wisdom, Peace, and Renewal, enlighten us and bring harmony to our lives, and make the whole world holy.
October 20 SIGNS OF THE TIMES
“Is there anyone at your house over 65 who could get a senior discount?” she asked slyly looking at my gray hair.
Over 65! I thought the senior discount was for anyone 55 and older. That was at the medical supplies store where I was buying a hot water bottle to keep my toes warm this winter, when I plan to have the heat turned down to save energy. Is this store pinching pennies? Well, most of their customers would be seniors and they can’t be expected to give a discount to all of them. (By the way, if you use a hot water bottle, you learn very soon to wrap it securely in a plastic bag in case it leaks, and to not let the water be too hot.)
Then at the grocery store I noticed that the produce department had shrunk. Well, harvest time is over isn’t it? Taking the place of produce was a huge display of carbonated beverages. But I noticed that the baked goods section had also shrunk. (This grocery store has its own bakery – very nice.) Actually, I’d noticed that before – the baked goods area has been steadily shrinking for several months as they remove sales tables and counters. The case of the shrinking grocery store (hmmm).
No problem finding everything I wanted in the grocery store this time, unlike previous visits over the past few months when some things were out of stock. I kept asking myself how this store could be having a problem staying stocked just a mile or two from one of the biggest interstates in the nation, if not the biggest. Producers are faltering? And now there is more to buy, because others are buying less? I don’t know what’s going on. This store carries some organic products, so I go there for the organic. I need this store.
And what’s happening with the salad bar? Seems like the new policy is to make sure each and every bin is nearly empty before they toss what’s left and replenish. I got a well-picked over salad. Oh well, maybe the salad bar was just unattended for some reason?
There was something else new – two huge tables filled with assorted items, all sale-priced 99 cents or less; all discontinued brands I suppose. Not great on a day when the papers were screaming “global meltdown” or some such.
Another thing I like about my grocery store is that they take the groceries to the car and load them. What do you say to a man pushing your groceries? I asked this man “What do think about the ‘crisis.’ Is it real or are they just trying to sell newspapers?” He had plenty to say on that – he is retired he says, in his seventies, like his wife. (Some retirement where he has to keep working!) He said, “I don’t trust the banks; I don’t trust Washington.” He’s worried about his very small retirement savings. He didn’t say he’s angry and scared, but he is.
I am worried that in these hard times this grocery store could be losing customers. It’s such a great store, I hope it can stay open.
Earlier that day I noticed the gas station had changed, too, and I don’t mean the sky-high prices for gasoline. For some months now, the new rule has been cash customers pay inside first unless they are at the nearest pump where they can be observed by the checker. Dishonesty, or rather desperation, has been growing along with the prices. Now I noticed a new sign – “For these credit cards, pay inside” (they named two card companies). So they don’t trust those cards anymore.
Another sign of the times – almost no traffic! I was thinking maybe I was the last person on Earth. People are finally learning how to conserve gasoline and to do more than one errand at a time?
Many houses for sale on my street. Where will the people go?
Later that week the local paper announced some teachers might be fired – not as many children had signed up as anticipated. Where are the children? Another article mentioned 500 homes on the market locally that were foreclosed (banks took over). Could the lack of children have something to do with that? People are moving to less expensive areas? Nobody knows what’s happening with the schools.
Several weeks ago the clerk at the drug store said that more and more people are asking for rain checks (to get the current price at a later date). Meaning more things are out of stock? Or just more people are asking? Or both? I don’t know.
When I went to the bank in early August, the desk clerk there said, “Watch out for that other bank,” and he named a bank. “It will fail.” He said he was sure. He said it’s easy to find out how sound a bank is by going online. At the time I thought he was just trying to steer me away from his competition and shrugged it off. Now if he knew two months ago what was going to happen to that particular bank, and obviously the bank’s officials must have had a pretty clear idea of what could happen, why didn’t the government know AND do something well in advance of this crisis to head it off?
Why hasn’t the government done something about health care, immigration, global warming, etc? This Congress was elected to stop the war. They didn’t. Did they do anything? Oh well, they kept the government running. That’s good.
The bank clerk said, “If you want to be secure, buy a cow.” Now I’m thinking maybe this guy knew what he was talking about. Now I’m thinking a cow would be a good idea, except that a cow would be too big. Maybe I need a few sheep instead. They would take care of cutting the grass and that way I wouldn’t have to pay for lawn care. Sheep milk tastes OK, doesn’t it?
My view – when people’s lifetime savings can vaporize overnight or in a week, just because other people are gambling, and that’s what it is, gambling in the stock market with nearly real-time online trading, and gambling by making bad bank loans, then this gambling has got to stop. We have an economic system that is badly in need of radical reform. Forget about just rearranging the deck chairs.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
X Keywords: Financial MSN Windows Live Spaces X
October 06 THE BIRD FEEDER TEST
In fairy tales, the young man trying to win the hand of the king’s daughter must perform some difficult feat, like killing a fire-breathing dragon, before he can marry the princess and become the heir to the throne.
Shouldn’t we ask our political candidates to show us what they can do; shouldn’t they have to pass some test before they are allowed to run for office? After all, being able to spend campaign money handed over by corporate donors hardly demonstrates one’s proficiency at governing, nor does being part of the government a specified number of years. Well, of course I know that no test would give us the answers we need and besides, testing wouldn’t be democratic, but what if >>>
What if each candidate was required to perform some simple task, like putting up a bird feeder, keeping it filled with seed, and doing it all so the squirrels did not get the seed? We’d watch them at their tasks like we watch the characters on reality TV. We’d watch them go the big box store, and see what type of bird feeder equipment they select, or we’d watch as they made a homemade bird feeder. We’d learn whether they are dedicated enough and patient enough to feed the birds every day, whether they are smart enough to be able to outwit the squirrels. We’d give them only so much money and see if they could live within a budget.
We’d take off points if a candidate buys a plastic bird feeder and the squirrels gnaw big holes in the feeder. We’d take off points if the squirrels are able to climb onto the feeder and empty it more than once a day. Extra points off if he allows the seeds that tumble down onto the ground to stay there and attract mice. Extra points off if the mice population starts to attract snakes. He’s out of the running if any snakes or mice come into the house. If the raccoons knock down the bird feeder and start batting it around the yard to get out the seed, it’s an automatic F. He’s disqualified if deer come and nibble at the seed and leave deer ticks all over the yard.
If the candidate starts shooting at the squirrels with a gun to kill them, he’s not the right kind of candidate for us. We need someone who can manage to accomplish things without resorting to violence.
What if the candidate decides he needs more bird seed and decides to “liberate” some seed from the neighbor’s bird feeder? What if he goes over to the neighbor’s yard and starts shooting the neighbor’s squirrels, shooting the birds, mice, raccoons, and deer and anything else that is trying to get at the neighbor’s bird seed? What if he wrecks the neighbor’s yard? What if he then insists he will not leave the neighbor’s yard until he has gathered up every last bit of bird seed over there? Maybe some imperialist tendencies?
Now I’ve been saying, “he” throughout my musings here, but of course, a candidate could be “she” just as well.
I think I’d be impressed by a candidate who could figure out a way to thwart the squirrels, maybe by putting the bird feeder up on a squirrel-proof metal pole. He’d get points for having it close enough to trees so the birds could fly there to rest and feel secure, and yet far enough from trees so the squirrels couldn’t jump from the trees to the feeder. High enough so passing deer couldn’t get seed and passing cats couldn’t get at the birds. With a base that could be swept with a broom.
He’d get even more points by doing it all in an ecologically sound way (with organic bird seed, for example), with calm, thoughtful planning. I’d be even more impressed if he also found a way for all the wild creatures to share the yard and live together in peaceful harmony.
Life hands us plenty of unanticipated happenings, consequences, and surprises each time we start a project, each time we try to accomplish anything. Somehow we need to know not just if a candidate can accomplish a particular task such as installing a bird feeder – that part is relatively easy; we also need to know how he will handle all the unanticipated happenings (like mice and snakes materializing under the bird feeder), and if he is smart, analytical, flexible, carefully deliberative, and capable of crafting a strategy that is responsive, fits the moment, and will work in the long-term.
It would be fun to watch the squirrelly misadventures of the candidates on reality TV. Better there than on the nightly news after they get elected.
Look before you leap.
I’d like to get the current candidates into some sort of Survivor setting where we’d quickly learn if they could in fact work cooperatively together to accomplish some positive result. What little I saw of Survivor was a disappointment (before I stopped watching programmed TV many years ago). None of the show’s contestants moved beyond the boundaries inherent in the show and they did little but form “alliances” and generate sound bites. We need to know if our candidates could do better than that, taking initiative, moving beyond boundaries, demonstrating an ability to overcome gridlock in DC.
In Survivor, the outcome is never in question – one person is left. A real surprise ending would be if the contestants banded together, refused to compete, and persuaded the show’s executives to distribute the prize money equally among all the contestants. (Do we ever step outside the script for our own lives?)
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
X Keywords: candidates for election MSN Windows Live Spaces X
September 22 IT'S ALL HAPPENING IN MY GARDEN
IT’S ALL HAPPENING IN MY GARDEN
My garden is starting to look like a September garden.
Many of the marigolds have started going to seed. I’ve started collecting the seed. I’ll likely get enough to fill a bucket.
Did you know you’re not supposed to plant small marigold plants (several inches high with small crimson and orangey-yellow flowers) in the same yard with large marigold plants (much taller with large lemon-yellow flowers). You’ll get a hybrid that is a large woody plant with small crimson and orangey-yellow flowers. Well, I did that. I didn’t suspect anything would happen. Now I have almost none of the regular large marigold plants left. What I have are maybe fifty or a hundred of the hybrids, some of which are very tall. Mostly more than knee high. A few chest high!!! The tallest are growing where I have compost. The hybrids tend to be very bushy in shape.
I do think that the hybrid is an improvement over either of its predecessors. There are far more flowers per plant. And while I guess I prefer lemon-yellow, I don’t really care which. After years of planting this hybrid I guess I have a plant that is very well adapted to the hard clay in my yard (heh, heh).
Let me add here that I have the marigolds planted partway along two sides of the house so you don’t start visualizing whole fields of them.
I’m glad things turned out the way they did. I guess the moral of the story is this – things could turn out better than you could ever imagine.
Or not? Well, here I am disturbing the balance of nature big time in my garden. The tall hybrids are ideal habitat for praying mantises who like: (1) to be a few feet up off the ground, and (2) to be able to snap at any flying insects coming to the flowers. Which means that my lovely garden is not so butterfly-friendly.
I’ve been conserving mantis egg cases when I find them. Of course they are beneficial insects, keeping the garden free of pests. But I think that this year I will be moving all the egg cases out of the marigold area into some other area of the yard that has no flowers blooming later in the season when the mantises are big enough to prey on the butterflies.
Whether that will work or not I don’t know. Mantises can fly. For sure many will still find their way to the marigolds. Which is good because I need a few? But not too many.
I wish the praying mantises could kill the Japanese beetles which are voracious pests. I found out why they can’t. I watched a standoff between a Japanese beetle and a praying mantis many weeks ago. The mantis moved very, very slowly in the direction of the beetle that just sat facing the mantis. This inching forward took perhaps a minute or two. Time stood still. Then faster than the eye can see, the mantis struck. Thud! Then – nothing. The beetle’s hard shell was impenetrable? The mantis wandered off. The beetle, realizing the coast was clear, stretched out its many legs (that had been curled under it for protection?), and started to wander off, too. Interesting that the beetle could sense the mantis, curl up, and protect itself. Interesting that the beetle could not defend itself against me.
I should add that the hybrid marigold is fairly resistant to the Japanese beetles, unlike its large marigold predecessor which would get demolished. The beetles like to sit on top of the hybrids, but don’t seem to damage them. And when they’re all congregated like that, makes it easy to spot ’em.
I’ve been trying to change the balance of nature by weeding out the trumpet vine (with small trumpet-shaped vermillion flowers) that grows everywhere and makes a tangled mess. But this year I planted morning glories, and somehow ended up with more trumpet vine in that area than morning glories. I think because the leaves are so similar, I left the trumpet vine thinking it was morning glory.
But that turned out alright anyway. The hummingbird likes the trumpet vine flowers – a lot. I can look out my window over that bit of garden. Once in a while the hummingbird will come zooming in, then dart at the flowers for nectar. One time I was watching, I saw it perch a couple of times on plants to rest – I never saw that before. (The hummingbird does not perch while feeding.) I wondered if the hummingbird knew pure happiness, perched there in quiet sunshine surrounded by flowers. What is even better is to be out in the garden and have a hummingbird come by close enough so I can hear its wings humming.
I very much like to see the goldfinch perched on the tall coneflowers, busily pecking out the seeds. The goldfinch is not really gold, but lemon-yellow with black trim. That’s the male. The female has a greenish cast to her back and so is closer to gold. I had almost weeded the coneflower thinking it was a weed. Well, it is a weed but I’d intentionally put the coneflower seed there, seed I’d gathered from my drain field meadow. Just didn’t recognize it at first. That turned out well.
When I saw my second katydid (strange insect that looks like a leaf), I wondered at the marvelous balance of nature that allows the katydid chorus to play in the evenings. The katydids are mostly unseen up in the trees, playing their tune. It is such a soothing cadence. And they do it without any help from me.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
X Keywords: Garden MSN Windows Live Spaces X
September 08 ONCE UPON A TIME
“It is the Earth Goddess for all to see” – that’s what Silbury Hill is according to the narrator on the DVD, “Goddess Remembered.” It is “the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the world's largest,” according to the Stone Pages site on antiquities. It looks like a gigantic pile of dirt. It is more than four thousand years old.
I couldn’t recall Silbury Hill. I looked it up in my book, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders; The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America, by Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D. with Robert Aquinas McNally. The book says, “Whiteness is a key characteristic of another pyramid candidate: Silbury Hill, which is located just south of the village of Avebury in England’s Wiltshire. A massive artificial mound with a flat top, Silbury Hill stands approximately 130 feet high, with a base circumference of 1,640 feet that covers more than five acres. The hill contains over 12 million cubic feet of earth and chalk, the latter originally coloring it white. This monument was built in three stages, the first beginning in about 2660 BC. Various legends and stories attach to Silbury Hill, but the monument’s purpose remains unknown.”
If Silbury Hill is a mound of the Great Goddess, does it signify her breast or her womb? The DVD would seem to favor the idea of a breast because it launches into some sort of paean to her breast. However, a BBC article says “Earth worshippers believe that Silbury is, in fact, the swollen womb of the Earth Goddess and provides a symbol linking the harvest with the pregnant earth.”
Silbury Hill is flat on top, but that flat area is atop some sort of round crown, a circle within the much larger circle of the base circumference. And the round crown – is it a nipple or just some erosion? This tourism page says, “Each of the six steps was concealed within the overall profile of the mound, except the last one at the top which was left as a terrace or ledge about 17 feet (5 m.) below the summit. This terrace is clearly visible on the eastern side of the mound, but less distinct from the west.” Yes, it is clearly visible and apparently intended – so the breast idea seems plausible. I’ll add here what the UK’s English Heritage says about Silbury Hill, “Its purpose and significance remain enigmatic,” just so you know what the official position is.
According to the DVD, people dug into Silbury Hill in order to search for ancient treasure, but apparently, there was no treasure (at least no known report of it). The top of Silbury Hill collapsed in 2000 and this was a delayed result of destructive excavations in 1776. And other excavations at Silbury Hill have caused similar problems. (What barbarians would dig destructive tunnels into an ancient artifact!!! What a shame!!!) And now as part of an effort to analyze and remedy the problem tunnels, “investigators” have drilled seven boreholes deep into the mound. No doubt adding to the destruction.
The DVD shows Silbury Hill covered by sheep. The hill is brown compared to the surrounding countryside and I had to ask myself if the brownness is grass or some other plant that is seasonally brown, or if the hill is nearly denuded by the sheep (that tend to nibble down to the roots and kill the grass). Without sufficient grass, this ancient monument will just wash away in the rain. The photo in the book shows erosion gullies cascading down the sides of the mound. (Maybe something has already been done to protect the mound from the sheep by now? We can only hope so. And perhaps the sheep are allowed there only briefly to provide some sort of ecological “mowing” function to keep tree saplings from taking over?) Seems to me their sharp little hooves could dislodge bits of surface material.
An aerial view of a different pre-historic site in the DVD astonished me. Some bureaucrat had put a paved road right across the Stonehenge site. The circle of prehistoric stones there is just a small circle inside a much larger circle, which has a road across it. Is nothing sacred? Didn’t building the road disturb the archeological record? I can’t imagine how a road could be built there without disturbing at least the top layers. I was just aghast to see that road! In their hubris they thought no doubt that they could find and knowledgeably analyze everything there was to find of any archeological significance before they sent in the bulldozers. What a shame!!! And the road had no purpose other than to get the tourists within closer walking distance of the stones.
There is also a major highway that misses the Stonehenge outer circle by mere meters – what artifacts were lost putting in that highway? Not much thought went into that either!
There’s a major highway going right past Silbury Hill, too. Not much thought went into that either!
I wonder what motivated the ancient people to keep on building Silbury Hill generation after generation for 400 years. What was its purpose? Did they climb it to make harvest offerings to fruitful Earth at the top of the hill? Did they dance on it to celebrate the rising of the full moon? Did they sing hymns to the nourishing Great Mother? Sounds like more fun than sitting in front of a screen clicking on a mouse.
Sometimes a circle is just a circle.
It is interesting that the Silbury and Stonehenge design of a circle within a much larger circle is also found in the huge “rose windows” of many Christian cathedrals; for example, the beautiful rose window at the Cathedral of Notre Dame (for many more, search Google images for “rose window”). Could it be we remember her still in a way, even after centuries of having spiritual traditions subverted to fit a male mold?
And sometimes a circle is an octagon??? According to the UK’s English Heritage, their recent survey using satellite mapping “suggests . . . that the mound is not in fact truly circular: on the summit it appears to be more angular than circular, while at the base it is almost octagonal in form.” That page also says that the steps may in fact be a spiraling ledge. I went back and viewed the DVD again to see if the periphery looks octagonal. Nope. The aerial view in the DVD shows nearly the whole circumference. Sure looks like it was intended to be a circle to me as the whole mound is rounded except for the top and crown. I couldn’t find the particulars on their “suggestion of an octagon,” but I expect the edge is wobbly after 4,000 years of weathering and that’s all it is.
Of course there’s no way to prove (yet) what the Goddess Remembered DVD implies, that Silbury and Stonehenge were used for worship, let alone a particular kind of worship, but it’s a good bet, because worship of the Goddess was prevalent at that time.
Our legacy will not be an enigmatic pile of dirt, or the temples, art, and statues of the ancient Goddess worshippers. Rather it will be gigantic piles of rusting containers oozing radioactive waste and hazardous chemicals, thousands of landfills overflowing with garbage, it will be a gazillion tons of crumbling asphalt and concrete, it will be a toxified and desertified landscape, polluted air and water, biological warfare germs, etc., the legacy of ripping-off the Earth. We’d do better to get re-acquainted with our connection to the Earth. A consumerist, hierarchical way of life is not the only way – there are alternatives that revere the Earth. We hope.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
X Keywords: Silbury Hill MSN Windows Live Spaces X
August 25 TRANSLATE THIS POST
Interesting that MSN Windows Live Spaces has so many users. One of their posts said, “115 million monthly Spaces users worldwide,” whatever that is. And that was months ago – I don’t know how many now.
But think of that – so many people and so much potential for communication, potential for genuine, productive communication. Think of the great possibilities for world peace. Possibilities for any great thing that could evolve from this. I am thrilled to have a global network and to be making Friends with people all over the world. I have Friends now in many different countries. I suspect that most of the MSN Spaces have only photos, no blog, but just the same, the potential is there.
Did you know you can translate the posts and comments that are written in something other than English? Google provides a free translator for many languages. To find it, go to http://www.Google.com, then click on “Language Tools.” Paste the text to be translated in the “Translate Text” window, select the languages under that (the down arrows give you menus of language choices), and click on “Translate.” Voilà! By the way, this is how to paste: first highlight the text by left clicking and dragging your cursor at the same time, then copy the highlighted text (press ctrl+c), then click where you want to paste, and then paste (press ctrl+v).
The translator will sort of translate. Don’t expect to get much more than a general idea of what the topic is and maybe an outline of the text. Language is so complex. So much depends on how a word is used in a sentence. So many words have a variety of meanings. Translators can sometimes be inaccurate or fail to capture an essential idea. So don’t expect too much.
The translator will help you read, but don’t expect that you will be able to start writing in a foreign language using a translator. (In this post I am talking about online electronic translators, not the human variety.)
What if you don’t know what the language is? In that case what I’ve done is copied a few of the foreign words and pasted them into Google and searched on them. Then on the results pages, I look for clues like the name of a country, the name of a capital city or major city, a type of money or music or cooking, or words that might be similar in both English and the other language. I look especially at the Web addresses as these are often in English. When I click on results I look for national flags – many flags are identified near the end of the Google translator page.
Some languages look very similar to me, for example, Portuguese and Italian. If you can narrow down the possibilities; for example, say it looks like a romance language, run the translator first for one, then another and see which gives mainly English as a result.
You can always leave a message at an MSN Space you are trying to translate and ask, “What language are you writing in?” See if they can give you the answer. The Profile for the Space may give a location or other clues.
Of course if the original text is misspelled, the translator will choke on it.
And of course, if your text is private or confidential, don’t put it into the translator (unless you don’t mind sharing it with the owner of the translator).
What could be more intricate and complex than a language?
With Chinese, keep in mind that “simplified” characters are used in mainland China, and “traditional” characters are still used in some other places, like Taiwan. It’s not easy to know which characters are which, but generally, the simplified look more simple. That’s what I’ve been told.
If you want to test a translator, first translate from English to whatever language you are testing, let’s say Spanish. Then copy and paste the resultant Spanish text into the translator and make it translate that into English. See how closely it matches the English you started with.
I tried this with Google and a couple of other translator Web sites (all free), and here are the results:
“I welcome you to my Web site and wish you a pleasant day.” “Le doy la bienvenida a mi sitio Web y le deseamos un agradable día.” “I welcome you to my Web site and wish you a pleasant day.”
“I welcome you to my Web site and wish you a pleasant day.” “Doy la bienvenida a usted a mi Sitio Web y le deseo un día agradable.” “I give the welcome to you to my Web site and wish him an agreeable day.”
“I welcome you to my Web site and wish you a pleasant day.” “Yo le doy la bienvenida a mi sitio web y le deseo un día agradable.” “I welcome to my website and him desire a pleasant day.”
To find another translator online, type into Google “translate French” or whatever language you need translated. Of course not all the results Google provides will be translators that actually work, and not all the results will be translators, so it takes a bit of patience. When I did this, one supposed “translator” was some sort of threat that my virus protection software warned me not to open.
Once you find a good translator, bookmark it in your Favorites, so you can quickly refer to it when visiting Friends in foreign places. I’m not endorsing the translators on this page – you may be able to find a better one.
Some people write in English, even though it is not their first language, because they are practicing their English, or they want more visibility on the Web. Since many languages are disappearing, I’d really prefer that people practice their own languages, and promote their own languages. Sustain your own language!
Can you really practice your own language? I’m still practicing at writing American English and it is my first language (and the only language I feel comfortable speaking or writing in). I am still learning its complexities. I think that written English is continually evolving, changing its form to more closely mimic spoken English which is also constantly evolving, but likely at a faster pace. Think how much English has changed from the days of Shakespeare, hundreds of years ago – I’ll admit I can’t understand Shakespeare in the original. When I hear teens talking, I just hope English doesn’t evolve so fast I can’t keep on learning it.
While the warmongers are bellowing at each other, thumping their chests, and circling each other over some oil field or gas pipeline or their “territory,” and ready to bomb, kill thousands, tens of thousands or more, and empty whole countries into refugee camps, the rest of us, who are not so impaired in our thinking, can devote our energies to improving communications, building communities (even online communities), enhancing cooperation, making the Earth greener and more child-friendly, engaging in civilized pursuits, learning what makes for a truly satisfying and fulfilling life, and making friends in foreign places.
I’ll guess MSN Windows Live Spaces supports at least 16 languages, looking at my “MSN help menu” when I search it for “language.” Think how great that is, that a community is being supported and nourished here, despite language differences. Each one can view the menus and module headings in MSN Spaces in their own language, even though the content written by the Space owner does not change. For people from China visiting my Space, all my modules appear to have headings in Chinese (unless a visitor has selected English, etc. or unless I’ve changed the default heading). Isn’t that wonderful!!! By the way, the MSN ads are also language specific in case you wanted to know.
I know that because one day I inadvertently changed my Space so it appeared to me to be in Danish. A link can contain a language command and if you click on a “Referring address” link on your Statistics page, you could suddenly be taking on the lingual preference of your visitor, unless MSN has made changes since I got in trouble that way. Suddenly the ads, menus, and module headings in all of MSN Space were appearing to me in Danish! Oh help!
I got curious as to how many people are actually blogging in English on MSN Windows Live Spaces. I searched on the word “the” in their search engine (at the top of this page) and got about 1.64 million people, but only 403,000 blog entries – which means how many people blogging in English? Maybe “only” 5,000 or so (??) if each has about as many blog entries as I have. Will I ever get to visit them all? I doubt it.
Dear visitor, welcome! I hope we can be Friends.
Dear Friends, thank you for being my Friend.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
X Keywords: how to translate MSN Windows Live Spaces X
August 11 FREE TIBET
This week we remember the victims of the Chinese government: the people of China denied democratic systems of government, and denied their human rights.
We remember especially the people of Tibet. Until the communist takeover that began in 1949, Tibet had been politically independent for more than 1,400 years. More than one million Tibetans died and 150,000 fled into exile, crossing the Himalaya to escape.
Today, Tibetans in Tibet are second-class citizens in their own homeland. Now the culture and language of Tibet are being deliberately destroyed by the Chinese government – monasteries infiltrated and strictly controlled, the people of Tibet denied access to their Teachers in exile, the countryside being overrun, via the new rail line, with transplanted Han Chinese gobbling up the land and resources of Tibet. The capital, Lhasa, is now more than half Han Chinese.
In regard to its treatment of native people, the government of China is no more enlightened than the US government of past centuries which killed and persecuted Native Americans. While history tells us that China was victimized by Western colonial powers, apparently that holds no lesson for the government of China, now emulating its former oppressors and now colonizing Tibet. Is there some reason to treat others ethically and with compassion? Do people have rights as specified in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples?
A concept of ever-living beauty
Why are the Chinese authorities afraid to let Buddhism flourish? The Tibetans cannot even have a photo of their religious leader, the Dalai Lama, in their own homes. To his great credit, the Dalai Lama continues to urge nonviolent conflict resolution. This peaceful and peace-filled man is not a threat to anyone and yet the Chinese authorities are afraid of him, and refuse to cooperate. When will we know the fate of the young Panchen Lama, kidnapped by the Chinese authorities when he was six years old?
As China grows to be a major player in the world of business, maybe the Chinese government needs to re-evaluate the image it is presenting to its customers. As a customer, I would say the image needs a lot of work.
I’ll add that this post is not China-bashing. The Chinese people do not control their own government, despite the fact that the complete name of the country is “The People’s Republic of China.” For the most part, those Chinese with Internet are denied full access, and presumably the vast majority of Chinese know only what their government wants them to know about Tibet. This post focuses on the Chinese government, not China. Governments everywhere need to be held accountable for their actions.
Also, I’m not advocating a return to a medieval system of government in Tibet. I am advocating an end to persecution and a new, more autonomous future for Tibet.
I am informed in this post by Journey into Buddhism, Vajra Sky over Tibet, filmed secretly in Tibet, and 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama, both DVDs exceptional. I’ll guess these DVDs would be illegal in China. Now that I’ve posted on this touchy subject of Tibet and linked to the official Web site of the Dalai Lama, maybe my Space will be off-limits for servers in China, too.
The great jewel of Tibet will be lost unless the Chinese authorities can be persuaded to refrain from crushing it to bits.
Do not forget Tibet.
Do not forsake Tibet.
Let Tibet live.
Free Tibet.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
X Keywords: Free Tibet MSN Windows Live Spaces X
July 28 IF YOU ARE REAL, PRESS ONE
Are there actually people out there who can’t wait until they get home to find out what e-mails they have?
I’m looking at these ads for gadgets. Some little thingies you can hold in your hand or put in your purse to get driving directions, get your e-mail, and take photos when you’re out and about.
Even if I did have a longing for a camera in a thingy, I wouldn’t buy one just because I don’t like to read instruction manuals. I don’t like to have to figure out how to program something.
Pity the parents who have to provide this stuff for their kids who just have to have it because “all the other kids have it.”
And when the gadgets break or don’t work right (and that is inevitable), then you can buy some more, and read some more instruction manuals.
I’d never want a “smart house,” where you have to program this and that. I don’t want to have to read an instruction manual just to get my house to be a house. I don’t want a thermostat with anything but a lever. No little screen or buttons please. Nor do I want a house wired with the latest (soon to be obsolete) technology.
Nor do I want a car with bells and whistles. More bells and whistles just means more to repair. When it comes time for a new car I’ll try to find one without a GPS and without a voice telling me, “You’ve made a wrong turn.” I’ve never experienced that, but I’ve heard about these newfangled things. I know how to use a map. I don’t need a gadget giving me directions. I wouldn’t trust a gadget to get it right.
If I were in charge of a phone company, I wouldn’t add any bells and whistles to the phones until they were actually capable of functioning as phones, that is, someone could actually hear the other party without a lot of static. Why can’t I buy a phone that looks like a phone and actually works?
When I call the bank, I don’t want to hear “press 1 . . . press 2 . . . press 3 . . . press 4, etc.” through a half dozen menus, none of which say, “press zero if you are a real person who would like to talk to a real person.”
Before humanity invents any more gadgets and “conveniences” that are either useless, annoying, or downright inconvenient, maybe we should make the trains run on time. Maybe we should make sure everyone on the Planet has enough to eat.
When something actually works, it can be wonderful.
I don’t want to program anything. Not a phone. Not a car. Not a house. Not a bank phone system. Not a computer. Not a DVD player. Not anything. I don’t like interacting with machines. I don’t want to bond with these things. Software is not something I want to spend time hassling with. And maybe “program” is not the right word. “Use menus”? Whatever. Even the copy machine at the copy machine store has a menu. Even the gas pump has a menu. Even the clock on my stove has a menu. So often menus are not user-friendly.
So far, I’ve managed to avoid using a cell phone even once (I don’t think people should be blasting their brain cells with microwave radiation). How much longer can I hold out?
Now I admit that machines are essential to civilization, and if that’s your job to keep it all running smoothly, that’s a noble job. But do machines have to be intruding into and ruling our everyday lives? Calling the bank to check on some problem they created should not become a job for me. After all, I am the customer. They are supposed to be serving me, not making me work – “press 1, press 2, blah, blah, blah, and if you didn’t catch all that, press 9 to hear the menu again, and press pound to return to the main menu and start all over again.” Shouldn’t the machine be invisible? Or at least unobtrusive and undemanding? Shouldn’t there be a limit on how many phone buttons I have to press?
Why can’t they design a bank phone answering system that has respect for the customer? I just wait for something on the menu that maybe a machine could not deal with like, “If you have lost your card, press 8.” Seriously. That way maybe I can reach a real person.
The worst is the pseudo-human voice at the phone company ordering me to say “yes” or “no,” then I get disconnected five or ten times, because the real person who is being paid to answer the phone doesn’t feel like doing it, and when I call back again and again, I get the pseudo-human voice again and again. I say “yes . . . . ,” “yes . . . . ,” “yes . . . . ,” into its voice recognition ears. The one at the Internet service provider keeps saying something like, “I didn’t quite get that, could you repeat it? Say ‘billing’ or say ‘technical support’.” Just dreadful. I try to keep my voice from sounding irritated. After all, they are recording “for training purposes.”
Has it come to this? That I am now being ordered to speak by a machine? How degrading! Am I now the servant of the machine? Bad enough to be ordered to press buttons. Some people train their dogs to “speak” on cue. Now a machine is training me. For sure, the Queen of England has never experienced this indignity. I suppose you are saying, “It’s alright to talk to an inanimate object, after all, on Star Trek, Captain Kirk talks to his starship’s computer all the time.”
I think that next time I am confronted by a pseudo-human telling me, “say ‘one’ or say ‘two’,” I will say, “fiddlesticks” or “go-fly-a-kite,” or simply “ah-ah-ah-ah.” That will scramble it nicely and get me a real person on the line.
I have yet to find virus protection software that does not give me a conniption. Of course the company doesn’t have technical support except something online, and if I’m having trouble installing their product, then of course I can’t go online while my computer is unprotected. Guess how I spent the better part of Thursday. (And it was only supposed to take five minutes.)
Now I find out that one of the local big box stores that sells electronics will do computer setup and diagnostics. Well, it’s about time. But will they do it right?
If I were in charge of everything, the trains would run on time. There would be no hungry people. There would be no global warming. The phones would work. Computers would work.
And no one but programmers would have to program anything. No one would have to read instruction manuals, install anything, or press any buttons.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page.
X Keywords: technology MSN Windows Live Spaces X
DRAWING THE "JESUS TOMB" SYMBOL, PART 16
DRAWING THE “JESUS TOMB” SYMBOL, PART 16
The tomb symbol angle rotated 90 degrees becomes the red line.
I am continuing here with my series about the large symbol found on the Talpiot tomb in Israel (aka “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”). The symbol is a stone relief sculpture of a small circle within an upside-down Y-shape. (More on the tomb here.)
I have been making designs derived from the tomb symbol. Generally, I am going by what I observe in my drawings; I am not attempting mathematical proofs, except where I am obviously doing math as in this post. As I go along I define whatever terms I need to, but might not repeat definitions in each post. So this post should be read in conjunction with the previous ones. (Index.)
Here I have drawn the tomb symbol in the context of a hexagram (six-pointed star). The tomb symbol angle (lime green) has its apex at the midpoint of the upper horizontal line of the hexagram, and its ends at the lower lateral peripheral points of the hexagram. The tomb symbol circle (black-green) is one-fourth the circle enclosing the hexagram, and its circumference intersects the center of the design and the midpoint of the lower vertical radius. The red line (red) passes through the center of the tomb symbol circle and also intersects the upper lateral peripheral point of the hexagram, and a point where the interlocking equilateral triangles of the hexagram intersect. The image above illustrates how the tomb symbol angle rotated 90 degrees, and re-anchored on the upper lateral peripheral point of the hexagram, becomes the red line.
In the following image, a design based on the hexagram, there are numerous equilateral triangles. Each angle of an equilateral triangle is 60 degrees; half that is 30 degrees. The sine of 30 degrees, very conveniently happens to be 1/2. Thus if I say segment DJ equals 1, then side JO of equilateral triangle JOS equals 2 (sin 30 degrees = opposite / hypotenuse = DJ / JO = 1 / 2).
Using the Pythagorean theorem, the height DO of triangle JOS equals the square root of 3 (written here as √3). (12 + x2 = 22; 1 + x2 = 4; x2 = 3; x = √3.)
For tomb symbol angle CED, find the tan (opposite / adjacent). Tan CED = CD / DE Where CD = 3 x DJ = 3 x 1 = 3 Where DE = 2 x DO = 2 x √3 = 2 √3 CD / DE = 3 / 2 √3= √3 / 2
Show that the red line (segment FG) forms an angle EFG with the same tan ratio: Tan angle EFG = EG / EF Where EG = 3/4 DE = 3/4 x 2 √3 = 1.5 √3 Where EF = CD = 3 EG / EF = 1.5 √3 /3 = √3 / 2
Thus, the tan ratios are the same, both √3 / 2. Hooray!
That the red line does indeed pass through point J and the center of the tomb symbol circle at G, is shown by tan angle DJG = DG / DJ = 1/4 DE / 1 = 1/4 x 2 √3 / 1 = 1/2 √3 / 1= √3 / 2. Again, same ratio. (Parallel lines create equal angles.)
This ratio √3 / 2, happens to also be the ratio of the height to the base in an equilateral triangle. (For example, DO = √3 (height); JO = JS = 2 (base).) Really neat!
Does the fact that the red line, alias the rotated tomb symbol angle, passes through the center of the tomb symbol circle (where I’d placed it based on my observation of the actual sculpture), mean that I’ve anchored the circle in the right place? I don’t know. There could be other relationships that are even more astounding. But maybe I got it right.
I should mention here that some of my images are very wide and when shrunk down to fit in this column, they lose a lot of detail. To view a full-size image in this series, click on “Full-size image” under the image, then click on the image to open or click “open.” Then hover your cursor over the image to get a pop-up button in the lower right corner (or other feature depending on your browser – this will take a few moments), and click on that to get the actual full-size.
-2009-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page. X Keywords: symbol design how to draw math geometry MSN Windows Live Spaces X This post was posted on May 28, 2009.
DRAWING THE "JESUS TOMB" SYMBOL, PART 15
DRAWING THE “JESUS TOMB” SYMBOL, PART 15
The focus of this post is the nine-point star and I eventually get around to the tomb symbol at the end.
I am continuing here with my series about the large symbol found on the Talpiot tomb in Israel (aka “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”). The symbol is a stone relief sculpture of a small circle within an upside-down Y-shape. (More on the tomb here.)
I have been making designs derived from the tomb symbol. Generally, I am going by what I observe in my drawings; I am not attempting mathematical proofs. As I go along I define whatever terms I need to, but might not repeat definitions in each post. So this post should be read in conjunction with the previous ones. (Index.)
In the following image are two nine-point stars. One is made by having the horizontal line link the topmost left and right points (pink star) and rotating in increments of 40 degrees (9 times 40 equals 360 degrees). A more pointy nine-point star (yellow) is made by having the horizontal line link the next lower left and right points. Two additional nine-point stars are formed within the yellow star, and these are shown in turquoise and gold.
In the following image a nine-sided polygon is drawn around the combined nine-point stars. This forms nine equilateral triangles (red) within the arms of the pointy star. Also, there are three equilateral triangles (shown in three shades of green) at the center of the star design.
The following image shows that there are various triangles in the combined nine-point star design that are triangles of 40-100-40 degrees. Just wonderful to see this pattern repeating throughout the design. Each turquoise triangle of 40-100-40 degrees is composed of two pink triangles that are also 40-100-40, plus a center triangle made from a bit of the pointy star (where each tip is 20 degrees). Other 40-100-40 triangles are shown in gold and purple. The lavender inward-pointing corners are 100 degrees.
In the following image I attempt a bit of high school math to define the various angles in the combined nine-point star design. All those angles I have examined so far are multiples of 10! Incredible – multiples of 10!!!
I should mention here that some of my images are very wide and when shrunk down to fit in this column, they lose a lot of detail. To view a full-size image in this series, click on “Full-size image” under the image, then click on the image to open or click “open.” Then hover your cursor over the image to get a pop-up button in the lower right corner (or other feature depending on your browser – this will take a few moments), and click on that to get the actual full-size.
I’ll add here the mathematical explanation of the angles shown in the image above:
Angle ACB = 360° ÷ 9 = 40°. Angle ACD = angle ACB ÷ 2 = 20°. Angle CAD = 70° (sum of angles in right triangle ADC = 180°). Angle CQR = 70° (sum of angles in right triangle CRQ = 180°). Angle DQP = angle CQR = 70° (symmetrical intersecting lines). Angle PQR = 40° (sum of angles on one side of a line = 180°; (180 – (70 + 70) = 40)). Angle QPR = 50° (sum of angles in right triangle PRQ = 180°). Angle APS = angle QPR = 50° (symmetrical intersecting lines). Angle QPS = 80° (sum of angles on one side of a line = 180°; (180 – (50 + 50) = 80)). Angle PSQ = 30° (sum of angles in triangle SPQ = 180°). Angle ASD = angle PSQ = 30° (symmetrical intersecting lines). Therefore, triangle ASB is an equilateral triangle. Angle DAS = 60° (sum of angles in right triangle ADS = 180°). Angle ASP = 120° (sum of angles on one side of a line = 180°; (180 – (30 + 30) = 120)). Angle PAS = angle CAD – angle DAS = 70° – 60° = 10° (also, sum of angles in triangle ASP = 180°). Angle TAU = 50° (line crossing parallel lines makes some equal angles; vertical CU crosses parallel lines AT and BP). Angle CAY = angle TAU = 50° (symmetrical intersecting lines). Angle SAY = angle CAY – angle CAS = 50° – 10° = 40°. Angle DAY = angle CAD – angle CAY = 70° – 50° = 20°. Angle AYD = 70° (sum of angles in right triangle ADY = 180°). Angle CYZ = angle AYD = 70° (symmetrical intersecting lines; also, sum of angles in right triangle CZY = 180°). Angle AYZ = 40° (sum of angles on one side of a line = 180°; (180 – (70 + 70) = 40)). Angle AEY = 100° (sum of angles in triangle AEY = 180°). Therefore, triangle AEY is an isosceles triangle of 40-100-40 degrees. Angle CAH = angle CAD = 70° (symmetrical intersecting lines). Angle HAJ = 40° (sum of angles on one side of a line = 180°; (180 – (70 + 70) = 40)). Angle DAK = angle HAJ = 40° (symmetrical intersecting lines). Therefore, triangle AKB is an isosceles triangle of 40-100-40 degrees.
I’d like to pause for a moment to reflect on the angles present in the nine-point star (multiples of 10), the angles in the 6-point and 12-point stars (multiples of ten, such as angles of 30, 60, 120 and 150 degrees), and the five-point star (all integers), at least that is the case for all those angles I’ve examined so far. Why are there 360 degrees in a circle? I don’t recall reading anything on this, but I suspect it has something to do with these stars. Perhaps the circle was divided into increments of 360 so that the internal angles and external angles of these stars could all be multiples of 10 or integers. It seems to work out if you use a decimal number system (base 10). Let’s assume that the decimal number system is favored by humankind because we have ten fingers and ten toes. Then consider the awesome convergence of biology, number systems, and the fixed angles in stars. Consider the possibility of intelligent design.
What I’ve done in the following drawing is manipulate the combined nine-point star design to give it 36 points (first copy, invert, paste, then copy, rotate 90 degrees, paste). The tomb symbol angle in its original position (see Part 1) intersects its enclosing circle at arcs of 120 degrees (arcs centered on the center of the enclosing circle). The nine-point star has tips that fall out at 120 degrees of arc. With this in mind, I rotated the tomb symbol angle (red) in increments of 10 degrees so that the tips of tomb symbol angles meet the tips of the rotated stars – a pretty design. Then I noticed something unexpected: the crisscrossing lines of rotated stars (indigo) seem to intersect right at the rotated apices of tomb symbol angles. To emphasize this, I added the tomb symbol in pale green under the drawing, showing the outline of the tomb symbol angle in its original position, to highlight how its apex seems to meet star lines.
I feel like my mind is going places it has never gone before. No reruns here. Continued here.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page. X Keywords: symbol design how to draw math geometry MSN Windows Live Spaces X This post was posted on October 16, 2008.
DRAWING THE "JESUS TOMB" SYMBOL, PART 14
DRAWING THE “JESUS TOMB” SYMBOL, PART 14
Q: The diameter of the royal blue circle seems to be one-third the diameter of the standard circle – is it?
I am continuing here with my series about the large symbol found on the Talpiot tomb in Israel (aka “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”). The symbol is a stone relief sculpture of a small circle within an upside-down Y-shape. (More on the tomb here.) I have been making designs derived from the tomb symbol. This post should be read in conjunction with the previous ones. (Index.)
The royal blue line (royal blue in the following image) is by my definition a line through the bottommost point (A) of my standard circle (pink), and tangential to the tomb symbol circle (black-green and one-fourth the diameter of the standard circle), when the tomb symbol circle is in its original position with its center on the lower vertical radius of the standard circle and intersecting its center. The royal blue circle (deep wedgewood) is centered on the center of the standard circle and is tangential to the royal blue line.
The radius of each circle is perpendicular to the tangential royal blue line at the point where it intersects the circle. I drew these perpendiculars for each circle creating right angles. In the royal blue circle there is radius CF, from center C to point of tangentiality F. In the tomb symbol circle there is radius ED, from center E to point of tangentiality D. I then have two right triangles (both “similar”) with point A their common corner.
In the following set of calculations I show that the sine of angle EAD equals the sine of angle CAF, when I assume that the radius of the royal blue circle is one-sixth the diameter of the standard circle.
The diameter of the standard circle is 1. The radius of the standard circle is therefore 1/2. Radius ED is 1/8. Radius CF is assumed to be 1/6.
sin EAD = opposite / hypotenuse = ED / EA = (1/8) / (3/8) = 1/3
sin CAF = opposite / hypotenuse = CF / CA = (1/6) / (1/2) = 1/3
It works! The royal blue circle is tangential to the royal blue line AND its diameter is indeed one-third the diameter of the standard circle! Hooray! (Chortle.)
At first it didn’t work out exactly when I used decimals and an electronic calculator (and got repeating decimals that didn’t quite match) so I am grateful someone suggested I use fractions instead. Continued here.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page. X Keywords: symbol design how to draw math geometry MSN Windows Live Spaces X This post was posted on September 30, 2008.
ROYAL BLUE LINES AND THE SYMBOL
ROYAL BLUE LINES AND THE SYMBOL
I had some drawings that I had made earlier with royal blue lines and decided to continue that train of thought for a while. I got some inspiration from viewing the Buddhist Dharma Wheel, but I actually don’t have a clue as to its geometry.
I am continuing here with my series about the large symbol found on the Talpiot tomb in Israel (aka “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”). The symbol is a stone relief sculpture of a small circle within an upside-down Y-shape. (More on the tomb here.)
I have been making designs derived from the tomb symbol. I am going by what I observe in my drawings; I am not attempting mathematical proofs. As I go along I define whatever terms I need to, but might not repeat definitions in each post. So this post should be read in conjunction with the previous ones. (Index.)
The following image is further development of the last drawing shown in Part 4. I’ve added royal blue lines radiating from the center, mirrored pairs rotated in increments of 45 degrees. The royal blue lines are colored red, so they will be more visible. A royal blue line is by my definition a line through the bottommost point of the standard circle and tangential to the tomb symbol circle in its original position intersecting both the center of the standard circle and the mid-point of the circle’s lower vertical radius. In this drawing, the royal blue line has been moved so it radiates from the center instead. Of course, the tomb symbol circle (pink-filled) hanging from the topmost point of the standard circle (regular blue) is tangential to the royal blue lines radiating from its center, because the tomb symbol circle is still the same distance from the angle apex as before. It was nice to learn that the half tomb symbol circle (pale green-filled) is also tangential to the royal blue lines when end to end with the topmost tomb symbol circle and below it, although this can be ascertained intuitively, once you think about it.
I should mention here that some of my images are very wide and when shrunk down to fit in this column, they lose a lot of detail. To view a full-size image in this series, click on “Full-size image” under the image, then click on the image to open or click “open.” Then hover your cursor over the image to get a pop-up button in the lower right corner (or other feature depending on your browser – this will take a few moments), and click on that to get the actual full-size.
In the following image, several forms are rotated in increments of 45 degrees: a 12-point star (navy) inscribed within the standard circle (regular blue), a half green circle (pale green and half the diameter of the standard circle) hanging from the topmost point of the standard circle, a mirrored pair of royal blue lines (red) radiating from the center of the standard circle, and a tomb symbol angle (dark green) anchored in its original position with apex at the midpoint of a hexagram’s upper horizontal line (also within the 12-point star). I was pleased to see the rotated half green circles intersect other rotated half green circles at points where the horizontal and vertical lines of the 12-point star meet (see pair of red arrows marking this). Red arrows also show where rotated royal blue lines pass through the intersections of rotated tomb symbol angle lines and rotated lines of 12-point stars. Red arrows also show where rotated royal blue lines pass through the intersections of rotated tomb symbol angle lines and rotated half green circles. Tomb symbol angle lines also pass through intersections of vertical/horizontal star lines and other star lines (16 points unmarked).
There are no royal blue lines in the following drawing, but in setting up a design for the next two drawings after that, I decided to tarry a bit and experiment some more with the orange grid I developed in Part 7. In the following drawing, the standard circle is pink-rimmed and pale blue-filled as is the 200 percent circle. An equilateral triangle is inscribed in the standard circle, inscribed in the 200 percent circle, and inscribed in what would be (if shown) a 400 percent circle, all three concentric.
I extended the orange grid (lines 45 degrees off the vertical forming a pattern of diamond shaped squares) so that it would fit the larger size image I am working with here. Then I did a copy/invert/paste. (In this case as in most of my drawings, the center of the design is the exact center of the image and so when I pasted in this instance, the center stayed at the center.) I pasted this “original-orange-grid-with-invert” on the three triangle design, center on center. I pasted it on again, not on the center this time, but with orange lines intersections (those above the smaller interval of orange lines) anchored on the topmost point of the standard circle, the same position the orange lines hold in “circle 2” in Part 7. This created yet a smaller interval of orange lines. Using that smaller distance as a benchmark, I pasted the “original-orange-grid-with-invert” both above and below existing intersections. Again, the orange line intersections above the smaller interval of orange lines are what I anchored at the benchmarked distance.
So what did I get? In this new pattern of orange lines, each corner of each of the three triangles now bears the intersection of orange lines! I don’t know if this could have been anticipated – I certainly didn’t know it would happen, and after just a few manipulations. Wow!
This next drawing is a bit more fun to look at and is derived from my musings about the Buddhist Dharma Wheel, yet maybe totally unrelated to it for all I know.
Again, I have a mirrored pair of royal blue lines (this time in royal blue), rotated at intervals of 45 degrees to make 8 pairs. The center of the design is not at the center of the image any more, but centered in the standard circle (regular blue and pink-filled).
All the circles here are ones I have used before. In their order of ascent from the center, tangentially held within the royal blue lines (opening upward and partly chocolate brown-filled), these circles are:
>>half tomb symbol circle (deep pink and one-eighth the diameter of the standard circle), >>half royal blue circle (deep wedgewood and one-sixth the diameter of the standard circle), >>tomb symbol circle (black-green and one-fourth the diameter of the standard circle), >>royal blue circle (indigo and one-third the diameter of the standard circle), >>half green circle (dark green and one-half the diameter of the standard circle), >>yellow circle (gold and three-fourths the diameter of the standard circle), and >>green circle (regular green and same diameter as the standard circle).
As noted above for the first drawing in this post, the half tomb symbol circle and the tomb symbol circle fit end to end, both tangential to the royal blue lines. It is just intuitive that other circles fit end to end likewise, those circles which are in succession each a factor of 2 larger than the previous, thus the progression: half tomb symbol circle – tomb symbol circle – half green circle – green circle. The royal blue circle and its half also fit end to end. The royal blue circle was developed using the royal blue lines in a previous post and it is just marvelous that this circle is also one-third the diameter of the standard circle. It is positioned here (centered on the topmost point of the standard circle) at a distance from the apex of royal blue lines same as in its development, so its tangentiality at that point is anticipated.
The drawing also shows a variety of these circles tangential within the peaks of the three equilateral triangles (partly marked with red fill).
All the circles are linked one to another somehow, passing through a top, bottom, or center point of another, as best I can recall, and so there are repeating intervals within the column, for instance, that of the tomb symbol circle. Two circles in this design are tangential to different sets of royal blue lines, those rotated by 45 degrees.
The next drawing takes a segment of the previous and builds on it, adding more circles. The royal circles (regular blue-filled) fit tangentially among the half green circles (lavender-filled) and the green circle (partly deep pink-filled). This relationship is not new as it can be seen in my second drawing in Part 5, but has greater emphasis here. It pleases me somehow. And this is not the first time I’ve drawn five half royal circles in a row (yellow-filled) with centers on what would be the horizontal line of a hexagram (if shown). Something interesting in this drawing is that each end half royal blue circle is tangential to three other circles: the green circle, a half green circle, and a royal blue circle.
It is enormously difficult to write the text for these drawing posts, far more difficult than making the actual drawings, but if it helps my readers who take delight in drawing as I do, then it is worth it. Continued here.
-2008-
Slide show, music, and folders on my main page. X Keywords: symbol design how to draw math geometry MSN Windows Live Spaces X This post was posted on September 4, 2008.
July 14 THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN PLATES
THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN PLATES
Where are the golden plates now?
I’ll guess I am one of the few outsiders who have ever read The Book of Mormon; Another Testament of Jesus Christ from cover to cover. Why did I read it? I read it because I was looking for clues as to where Joseph Smith had hidden the golden plates.
Joseph Smith “translated” The Book of Mormon early in the 19th century, from a set of ancient-looking, golden-colored plates with strange inscriptions he found buried in a hillside. Or so he said. Were there really golden-colored plates with inscriptions? I think it is likely. After all, there are the testimonies of 11 people saying they witnessed the golden plates in the introduction to the printed version of The Book of Mormon that I have.
Eight of the witnesses say the plates “have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship. And this we bear record with words of soberness, that the said Smith has shown unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken.” That’s fairly convincing. Three others say, “And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon.” (An angel???).
Could there have been ancient civilizations in the Americas that no one had ever heard of before, whose prophets testified about Jesus Christ, as Joseph Smith claimed? Could he have translated the plates by using their accompanying “sacred stones” as he claimed? Well, I’m trying to keep an open mind.
From reading the book, I’d have to say that I see a man on a journey, a man who fell in love with the artifact he found, and yes, I’d have to say the plates were something he found. One does not fall in love with a fraud one creates. And I’d have to say he fell in love with the story that came to him, that came to his mind, a story about his beloved artifact. And I’d have to say he fell in love with the journey, his journey of discovering the story.
The Book of Mormon is a masterpiece and monumental. Why? Because it is an account of a journey – one man’s spiritual journey, Joseph Smith’s very own journey. A journey he was wedded to for more than 500 printed pages.
Perhaps he questioned the story and the journey at some level: “O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, . . . . ye have only exercised your faith to plant the seed that ye might try the experiment to know if the seed was good.” (Words of a character in The Book of Mormon (Alma, chapter 32)).
A concept of abiding beauty and goodness
I think he saw some enormous benefit coming from his journey: “This is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.” (Words of a character in The Book of Mormon (Alma, chapter 29).
Whenever someone takes such a journey, whether as artist, poet, writer, singer, parent or caregiver, patient or victim, lover or hater, there are many paths but the journey is always the same process. I do believe that the creative journey is available to each and every one of us, although the person who is abnormal in some way (not the norm) will be able to make a more unusual contribution.
To be a “seer,” one who sees, one who hears, one who envisions, like a Van Gogh, a Mary Magdalene, or a Mozart; to see or hear what others cannot and to make it visible or audible to them, to be caught up in mystery, in magic, in-spirited by inspiration, to hear the music of the spheres and bring it into the domain of the everyday – that is the creative process.
As a seer, Joseph Smith opened a new world to millions of believers who became his followers. You can get a taste of his vision of beauty and drama at the annual Mormon pageant at Palmyra, New York, with a costumed cast of over 650 people.
Do I recommend you read The Book of Mormon? No – not unless you are a history major, or thinking of joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon Church that was founded by Joseph Smith. I must say, I didn’t find much spiritually uplifting in the book. I found it tedious. Obviously, it’s not for everyone. And of course, some of the views on race, women, etc. in the book are not commendable.
In my imagination, I see myself finding the golden plates in a newly opened sinkhole in my backyard . I notice that there are many plates, thousands in fact, as fine as sheets of paper, still in mint condition despite their antiquity, covered with a delicate lettering. Could it be something from another planet? Could it be the cure for AIDS? Could it be the cure for aging – the secret of eternal youth? And here are the translator stones. They are shiny, like cell phones. As I touch one, I hear a voice saying in English, “What is your command?” OK enough of that.
I wish that Joseph Smith or at least some of his closest associates had made greater efforts to document the inscriptions on the plates, make accurate drawings of them, and correspond with language experts in the universities or museums in America or Europe at that time who might have been interested in reviewing and commenting on the inscriptions. Then maybe we would have a substantial record today. Now it is all lost – except for a few lines of characters (the “Anthon transcript”) and Joseph Smith’s envisioning.
A passage in the book’s introduction makes it clear Joseph Smith feared that the plates would be stolen. “No sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible.” History makes it clear that his “translation” was not well received (except by his followers); in fact, he was murdered by a mob because of his work, and because of the growing political strength of his movement. So he was right to feel unsafe, to fear for the safety of the plates.
Did Joseph Smith destroy the golden plates? I don’t think so. I think he was too filled with awe. I think he loved those plates.
So where did he hide them (or “deliver them to the messenger”)? I have to believe he hid them where he knew he could find them again, and where others could find them in the fullness of time. “Then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all things unto the children of men.” (God speaks in The Book of Mormon (Nephi, chapter 27)).
I’ll guess Joseph Smith left clues in his book as to where the plates are. It’s interesting that he writes in a sort of rambling, stream-of-consciousness way. He dictated his work, and apparently, there is little or no attempt to wordcraft. Once he finds a word he likes, he uses it over and over, much to the annoyance of the reader I must say. Thus his rambling lays out fairly clearly for the reader, the landscape of his mind.
What I looked for were passages that dealt with that landscape – especially the geographical and geological features of that landscape: mountains, mounts, hills, cavities (caves), rocks, stones, rivers, waters, seas, islands, and place names, and words like hide, hid, hidden. And the book overflows with such references. And references to sealing up and burying records.
Do I know where he hid the golden plates? I’ll guess either in a cave, in a pouch under water, in a well, or deep in a mountainside. No, I don’t know. But I’m thinking now, perhaps there is some sort of code or anagram woven into the book that could reveal the location. Somewhere in 500 plus pages.
I think I’ll take another look at it.
Just forget what you know about the inner landscape of my mind.
Slide show and music on my main page.
-2008-
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July 07 SAN SEBASTIAN
A day of unsurpassed beauty.
In San Sebastian by the sea
The rain came down as hard can be
It made great puddles in the street
And everything looked far from neat
The houses all looked damp and dark
The rain fell faster, quick and sharp
Dark foggy figures ran down the street
With dripping hair and soggy feet
The water splattered in the gutter
And pattered softly on the shutter
What a splashy watery day!
-1964-
Slide show and music on my main page.
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June 23 FEEDING THE SNAKE
Can war be funny?
I’d have to say no. Not ha-ha funny – not usually. But maybe tongue-in-cheek humor. Maybe sarcasm. Maybe irony. Maybe ridicule. Maybe there is dark humor to be found – the macabre.
I usually don’t go for the macabre. But as I wondered what I could feed my blog here, I remembered a cartoon on the editorial page of The Washington Post from more than a year ago, June 5, 2007, by Tom Toles – a cartoon about feeding a snake. It’s more shocking than funny. More ridicule of government policies than amusing. A graphic portrayal of the downside of Empire-building.
The cartoon is unforgettable: It is a drawing of a snake labeled “IRAQ,” with its reptilian tongue licking its reptilian mouth. Its bulging belly is labeled “SURGE.” The tiny artist character in the corner says, “We’re still hoping for a good outcome.”
Cartoon by Tom Toles
It has been more than a year since the cartoon was published, and I don’t think the solution is to keep feeding the snake indefinitely, with more and more soldiers going to Iraq, and continuing involvement year after year (more than five years so far). Rather there has to be some creative problem-solving. And maybe some realistic thinking about what our goals are now.
Is Iraq a snake? No, but the situation there is ever-ravenous for more lives, more fortune.
Can America get out of Iraq? Is the situation hopeless? Not at all! All we need are leaders with ingenuity, with skills in problem-solving, and who know how to work peacefully and cooperatively with other people. America could recover its civil liberties and we could get back to feeling good about ourselves. (Am I being just too, too optimistic?) Whether the Iraqis will be able to recover anytime soon is doubtful; after all, their country has been wrecked. The families of slain and injured American soldiers are not going to recover anytime soon.
Searching for another place, a way out of sorrow
I found some tongue-in-cheek humor in a recent issue of the National Catholic Reporter (May 16, 2008), quoting James Baker, secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, on the PBS program “American Experience,” where Baker said that for years after the first Gulf War, critics asked him why the first Bush Administration didn’t go into Baghdad. He said, “Guess what? Nobody asks me that anymore.”
I’ll bet. Now that tickled my funny bone.
I found some bitter irony in a recent bit of junk mail from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) in a paragraph entitled, “Fighting the Wrong War,” saying that the “disastrous invasion of Iraq has had no effect on Al-Qaeda other than to boost their recruiting efforts – and America is no safer than before.” Of course the terrorists and also, the Iraqi patriots fighting Empire-building, will intensify their efforts for as long as the Empire-building continues. How ironic that the outcome is exactly the opposite of that promised by the politicians.
A sad, sad situation but so loaded with irony for those who could see it coming.
I suppose you noticed I said “patriots,” not “insurgents.” When our press is mostly not free, and when embedded journalists work for news outlets that are in-bed-with the corporate puppeteers who hold the strings in government, then freedom fighters become i-n-s-u-r-g-e-n-t-s. It’s 1984 and language is a tool to obfuscate the obvious. (I don’t recall where I found that delightful play on words – embedded / in-bed-with.)
I always feel a sardonic knowing when I hear war-mongering politicians invoking the Prince of Peace and wrapping themselves in the cloak of religion. I think of the words of Jesus, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” (Matthew, chapter 7 NIV)
I always look to see what kind of fruit they are producing (heh, heh).
It’s a shame so many people had no qualms about trashing another country for no good reason, and did not turn against the war until they realized there might not be a “victory.” I am reminded of an amusing and acerbic comment I read on the BBC’s Have Your Say, something about trying to make a hippopotamus fly by attaching just a few more propellers to it. The powers-that-be would like us to believe it’ll take just a few more propellers, when what we need is more than they can even imagine. Yes, we need to do something about terrorism – but more propellers ain’t it.
A real lasting peace comes from peaceful and just actions.
And while the rest of the world surges ahead – China doing handstands economically, Russia now the world’s top producer of crude oil, India slurping up our jobs; we are left carrying a ton of debt, still feeding the snake.
Now that’s nothing to laugh about.
Slide show and music on my main page.
-2008-
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June 09 THERE IS JUST NO ANSWER
“Help! My predicament is unsolvable.”
It was something like that. Maybe not the exact words, but something like that. That was what the referring address on my statistics page said. It was a query from Google.
People type the most surprising things into Google. In this case, I felt really sorry for the person. I wished I could help. I can think of two posts in my blog that have the word “predicament” in them, The Little Boy Who Got Out and Escaping That Predicament. I hope my visitor found something, even a little something, in one of those posts to help.
It was like finding a corked bottle on the seashore with a note inside. “Help! I am stranded on a deserted island.” But no clue where the island is. No way to respond.
While I’m on the subject of Google queries, it would seem that there are innumerable school children who have been given the assignment to answer the following question:
I’ve put the question as a graphic, so this page won’t come up in response to Google queries with that question. Unfortunately, my post on that subject does not answer the question. It asks a question like that, yes. It does not answer it. I feel sorry for all the school children frantically searching for the answer and getting disappointed by my post. It is a nice post I think. Only it does not answer the question. If you know the answer to that question, and write a post on it, you can get a lot of visitors from Google on that subject; I assure you.
Another popular search item is the following question, and I think someone can figure out the answer from my post on that subject. The question and answer are both shown in the following graphic:
A very popular item is a computer tip of mine, evidently a tip that was not included in the help menus for the application. I think maybe on that one, I’m able to help people with the correct answer.
And of course, if you happen to have certain words like “sex” or “naked” in your post, then you quickly find out there are a lot of people who have nothing better to do than cruise the internet looking for porn. I hope that someday these types will get a life, and get a sense of values.
Ask me a question, any question.
Life seems to give more questions than answers.
What is your most popular page?
Slide show and music on my main page.
-2008-
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May 25 WATER THAT SINK TRAP
This is something you might not have read anywhere else.
If you have a sink in your house that is not used very often, you need to pour water down the drain from time to time to fill the trap under the sink. (The trap is that curved piece of pipe under the sink. Because it is curved, it traps a bit of water in the pipe.)
It is important to keep the trap filled with water. Why? The water acts as a plug to keep sewer gases from coming up from the sewer pipes into your house. The water in the trap will evaporate over time, thus you need to replenish it regularly. You’ll know if you’re overdue for a refill if you notice an odor. Oh, by the way, this also applies to other fixtures in your house such as toilets, showers, or tubs that typically have traps under them. (Some traps may be under the flooring where you can’t see them.)
My house is average-sized, but nevertheless, there are a couple of sinks that get very little use.
Strange that I have to perform this ritual of watering the traps. But nice, too. In a way it’s comforting to do these little tasks. Not much of a bother really. I do it right before I make up a new pitcher of my special lemon-orange drink (two squeezed lemons, three cups of orange juice, three or four cups of water). That way, it always gets done.
Bringing order out of chaos (draw it)
Little chores are much better than having to deal with disasters and emergencies, and the inevitable next problem coming down the line. The 34,000 dead in the China earthquake can no longer water their traps (Sichuan province, May 12, 2008). The 100,000 dead in the Burma cyclone are beyond such cares (Cyclone Nargis, May 3, 2008). Many of the almost 250,000 Chinese injured in the earthquake and their neighbors are stressed beyond belief. And I wrote that before today’s headline: “A powerful aftershock destroyed tens of thousands of homes in central China, causing hundreds of new casualties Sunday and straining recovery efforts from the country's worst earthquake in three decades.”
Yes, I had a stress filled two weeks, but I’ll guess not as bad as someone else’s. So I’ll get back to my routine tasks, like watering the sink traps. It’s soothing.
Writing my little post is soothing.
Slide show and music on my main page.
-2008-
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May 10 THE SEASONS TURN
One season follows another.
The season for weeding and clipping is now in full swing in my yard. Everything needs to be done at once. Done now.
In these perfect days of springtime I try to notice everything. To be in tune with the seasons. To drink it all in.
Why try to be observant and notice everything? Why not? I sure don’t want to miss anything.
I try to notice each and every flower. If I don’t know the name for a flower, I make one up. In recent days I have noticed these flowers:
Bluets, yellow flowers of false strawberry, pink phlox, periwinkle, yellow sheep sorrel, lily-of-the valley, dandelions, strawberry flowers, wild asters, buttercups, dogwoods, six-pointed yellows, barberry, violets, bugle, southern blue flag, rose-of-Sharon, Siberian iris, pea plant flowers, peony, masses of white, pink, and red azaleas, more than a hundred daisies.
What have you noticed lately?
I found the first bit of poison ivy. I’ve found deer ticks on my clothes. (Ticks carry disease.) Sometimes it is critical to be observant.
I remember, vaguely, reading about an exercise in being observant. A teacher gave her students the task of visiting a nearby museum, selecting one display item in the museum, and then spending what, an hour? each week for many weeks, just observing that one item, and recording observations.
Can one sharpen one’s observation skills? I don’t know. One can always observe more.
In these perfect days, I notice how the temperature is perfect. No need to heat or cool the house.
I notice how some plants prefer to grow in my driveway rather than in my garden. Perhaps because of the moisture accumulated under the gravel.
The daisies grow profusely alongside the large stones bordering the front circle garden and near the brick border by the sidewalk, where their roots can be sheltered and moist. They grow so well because I weed around them.
I notice how the plants respond to the rain. How fresh and lush everything looks after a rain.
I notice the pitter-patter sound of rain as it begins. I notice the fluorescent electric green glow of the forest in the cloud-dimmed light.
I notice the lovely shade of green of the moss in springtime.
The season for planting seed has come and gone. One of the most difficult tasks. I remember noticing how the sun lit up the green grass while I planted. Made it look like it was lit from within.
I noticed the wind tossing the leaf covered boughs of the tree in the front center of my yard. When did the tree buds become leaves? It all happened so quickly. I forgot to notice.
How quickly everything grew up this year. Are the seasons turning faster by any chance?
I didn’t notice the clematis until it was knee high. Now it is more than six feet high on its trellis. Seemingly grew overnight.
I notice every glorious, rare and precious moment of complete silence, when there is no distant rumbling of trucks on the highway, no screeching of neighbors’ heat pumps, no dog’s incessant barking, no weird music being broadcast from the next subdivision, no morons setting off firecrackers, no adolescent males roaring up and down the road on their motorized scooters, etc. A silence punctuated only by the welcome calls of birds, the sound of a gentle breeze in the leaves of the trees, and the joyous shouts of children.
I used to try to distinguish the bird calls. But didn’t have much success with that. I could differentiate a few dozen I suppose (mostly I had to make up names for the different birds), but gave that up. The call of the pileated woodpecker is distinctive though and easy to remember. I like to notice that. And the drum-roll of pecking.
I notice the buzzing and twittering of the insect and amphibian chorus – seems to be getting less raucous. Why?
I notice the march of weeds across my lot. New species yet again this year. Why? Climate change? Or just the progression of succession – this lot was cleared only ten years ago.
I’ve noticed how the snow line is moving past us to the north. Easy to notice climate change from this vantage point. I notice that the pea plants can more easily self-seed. The parsley didn’t mind the winter this year at all. In the past couple of years, the season for weeding has lingered on through the season of winter. No rest for the weary now.
I noticed where a deer has nibbled hosta leaves. Strange – usually they only go for the hosta flowers. Are the deer getting hungrier?
I drink in every butterfly. My impression is their numbers are dwindling, and I am just stunned by how few there are now. The garden seems so sterile without lively butterflies flitting about.
Life is a merry-go-round, but the reoccurring event of springtime is one I don’t mind re-living again and again. I’ll notice every little thing.
Slide show and music on my main page.
-2008-
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