Saturday, October 16, 2010

Colombo to Tissamaharama

This is a kind of a journal of my travels thru Sri Lanka..October 2010

This transcript is not edited. You may read thru some spelling an grammatical errors. Please excuse me for this. I don’t particularly like editing. It just takes up so much time and then. I get lost in that process and the whole thing changes> So please bear with with me. I will edit it sometime later..and post some pictures..my connection at this Tissamaharama hotel is quite slow...Oh well at least I am online right? LOL

Colombo to Tissamaharama… the drive was such a visual delight for a person who grew up in Sri Lanka! I usually sleep if someone else is driving. I would not allow myself to fall asleep in case I missed something! We left Malabe at 7:30 am as we just passed Horana, we stopped roadside and had breakfast by paddy fields and rubber plantations. Which is about an hour and half out of the metropolitan Colombo. We had left the traffic, dust and crowds and we were in this to this idyllic place... I immediately fell in love with my surroundings and my particular time and place in the universe.. It only got better..thoroughout the day!…We drove thru Horana along the Kalu Ganga (it just doesn’t sound the same if I said Kalu River) LOL and joined up with Galle Road trafficjust before the Kalutara bridge.It was just as I remembered. It but just a bit more developed.. Went thru Bentota, Hikkaduwa and stopped to take care of some business and had lunch with a family who lost a brother in the Tsunami at Gintota just outside Galle. All along the A2 , there arestill are homes and businesses which look like that they have been in a war zone.. Deserted and in shambles. Side by side with newly built and remodeled houses and business. People are milling about in the towns of Beruwala, Bentota and all along which just goes to show the resilience of regular Sri Lankans. There are more flourishing and more prosperous stores, restaurants and Hotels along this stretch then any other place in I have seen. Its Sri Lanka’s Gold Coast our tourist haven. However the Indian ocean on my right was a bit choppy and angry looking..Not a day for Saturday morning swim for sure..

Went thru Galle town around noon. Stopped briefly to change some USD with a merchant and talked about how his shop was totally destroyed and how he just barely escaped death by running to nearby hillock that fateful day.. Remember the video footage we saw repeatedly on CNN of the Galle Bus Station inundated by the Indian Ocean flooding into the town and virtually washing everything out sea. They say at the 9 am flood came as a total surprise. But the people who returned to survey the damage got caught in 12 noon backwash. People talk about that day. Almost everyone lost someone they knew that day.

Matara town is all modern and looks like any seaside town of any industrialized nation in the world! Galle Road becomes this smooth, modern two lane highway all the way from there on south. Of course its winds along the coast, and you have to share the road with has miscellaneous slow moving bicyclists, pedestrians, three wheelers on coming traffic passing each other stray dogs lounging on the road and crowed small towns along the way. The highway in has a code that is very unique. If you have driven in island before you get the code back after the first week and you are good to go. But you have to have your wits about you at all times. It is much better if you have a driver. It eases the pressure.. Oh there are cops all along the highway, every few kilometers actively looking for traffic infringements. I was wondering why so.. I was advised that it is because the cop who writes a ticket gets 15% of the fine.. If a guy writes 5 tickets a day..That about twice at his salary !!. No wonder they are all gung ho.. Hey don’t speed or drive drunk. You will have a big ass mess on your hands.. Its all good.

Right about Tangalle the ocean started to look bit less angry and sun shone bright and the beach started to look beautiful. White sands and little secluded bays. I saw Kyaks and surf board rental places along the highway.

Hambantota was a hive of construction activity. I thought all the heavy construction equipment in the whole country must be out here! pretty awesome site. It looked like Dubai. The Chinese and Japanese are building roads and a harbor out there. The are some huge wind turbines and if you have not been in Sri Lanka for a while you would hardly recognize the place as being in Sri Lanka. Who ever was the architect of the is development project. My hat is off to those who had the foresight to get this project going..This place is going to be the next hub of development in our part of the world trust me folks. Invest in Hambantota, I can’t see a downside here at all. It is set for unprecedented growth. We went thru the Tissamaharama and on to Kataragama. Now if you have never been to Kataragama, you should go there at least once just because! It is such a interesting mix of Hindu and Buddhist worship. They are feed each other.. We arrived there just outside the temple grounds which is bustling little town. Just like Jerusalem or any other popular pilgrimage site in the world. You cross the Menik Ganga thru a footbridge and enter the grounds of the Hindu Kovil at around 5pm. Walked thru the grounds to the Kiri Verhera. Now here the special brand of Sri Lankan Buddhissm takes effect. There is a chant played on the public address system and most people are dressed in white and they offer flowers and other offerings and are either praying, meditating and milling about in total harmony, very serene…I made a mentioned to my driver/companion that this is the real Sinhalese culture, people are very peaceful until were are upset by fiery politicians and others who s see opportunity to manipulate the ……..of a simple living nation who are generous and hospitable to all.

Made our way back to the Kovil and was in line I saw this amazing scene. I was right in front of the Visnu Kovl when this juvenile elephant was escorted in by his handlers.. the Elephant walked up to foot of the kovil and went down on all fours and paid homage to the temple got up and walked away to the exit... I did not see any sign or gesture from his handlers. Amazing thing it was! I took a picture of this on my blackberry, the elephant looks like a dark blob on the ground as it was just getting dark. We stood in line at under the Bo tree with its special rustling sound in the wind at the main kovil and right at 6pm there was ringing of the temple bells and great anticipation was in the air.. We went thru the motions and prayed homage and made or offerings without the fruit offerings as the delivery guys we had arranged outside were not in sight.. Once we stepped out side the temple they we outside and they advised us they are not allowed to come inside the temple and that we were to meet them outside.. We all talked for sometime and typical Sinhalese fashion came up with a solution as we were not about go stand in line again. However we had the option of offering our fruit baskets at the small Kataragama Kovil to the side of the main kovil and there we would get a special one on one blessing from the abbot. That is what we did. We go back carrying this heavy tray of fruits with more offerings and the abbot takes it and asks me what I am here for. I said it was on behalf of a friend who is losing his sight.. He chants and rubs ash on my forhead and we get back the tray of fruit in which all the fruit we offered is now cut in half.. We exit the temple and eat some of the fruit. The watermelon pieces were delicious. We leave compound and over back over the walkway over Manik Ganga and throw down some pieces of fruit to the fish in the river! Settle our bill the with fruit vendor and head back to Tissamaharama. We check into this small motel and after showering I am sitting here writing this in the lobby sipping a Carlsberg. The time is 10:15pm there is a cool breeze coming off the Tissa Tank and a half moon which is peeking thru the coconut trees ouside. The moonlight reflects off the coconut leaves. Just awesome It does not get any better than this. And that is a fact.

Tomorrow I head to Mahiyangana and then Dambana to see my friends the ancient forest dwellers (Vedda tribes) who are anthropologically closer to the Australian aboriginals than anyone in Sri Lanka. More on than later. Mosquitoes are getting a bit active now…LOL..

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Where is Jeff?


My Chart Room



Grand Universe Horse Head Nebula


Solar Flare
THE SIGNIFICANCE of the WINTER SOLSTICE of 2012
The 2012 Winter Solstice Non-event
"...believed that the cycle will come to an end, amid
global destruction, on [...] 23 December 2012 ..."

This, and similar writings, is possibly one of the triggers for a whole load of ill-considered speculation on the subject. Some people have played with planetarium programs around that date, and noticed that the winter solstice (December 21) Sun of 2012 aligns with part of the Cygnus Rift, a dark part of the Milky Way:
2012 solstice (small)
and have attached some significance to this date as a result.


What these people fail to recognise is that the winter solstice Sun will 'fall into' the Cygnus Rift every year for over a Century:

1955: 1955 small
2100: 2100 small

and (I hesitate to write this, suspecting that it will trigger some related 2030 lunacy) that the winter solstice Sun is more central to the Cygnus Rift in 2030:
2030 small



An alternative bit of related nonsense, e.g. here, states that the winter solstice Sun is in conjunction with the galactic equator in 2012. Not quite. This conjunction has already occurred in 1998 (the blue line is the galactic equator):
1998 small
and precession is now moving the winter solstice Sun further from the galactic equator. The author of this nonsense also seems to find it noteworthy that the Sun is on the ecliptic at this time (!!!), and erroneously gives the time of the solstice as "exactly 11am GMT".

2004 May 09 I have received a couple of emails from a "John Major Jenkins" who asserts that he is the original source of this 2012 stuff, and who alleges that the author of the immediately preceding nonsense has plagiarised him, albeit inaccurately. Jenkins objects that my comments above reflect badly on him. Jenkins (and anyone else) should be aware that (a) I was commenting on what was actually written on the site to which I referred, not to Jenkins' writings (I do not comment on stuff that I have never read) and (b) objections to alleged plagiarism should be addressed to the alleged plagiariser, not to a third party.



Update, 2006 February 14:
(These comments refer to content in Jenkins's web pages as at 2006 February 13.)
Jenkins, in various pages on his web site, has attempted to refute criticism, from here and elsewhere, of his astrocrud. I am not going to attempt to go into detail with respect to all of his attempted refutations. Some are based on Mayan history which I am incompetent to comment upon; there are so many that they almost qualify as a complex question fallacy and, to quote them all would mean quoting such a high proportion of Jenkins's web site that it would be way beyond what is permitted by Fair Use clauses of copyright legislation (which I prefer to abide by, even if Jenkins -- by quoting, in full and without permission, my private correspondence to him -- evidently does not).



This commentary will focus on the least known – but most important – reason for the exaggerated fascination with the Winter Solstice of 2012 (WS2012). But first I want to correct two misconceptions.


Though there is still a smattering of scholarly disagreement over whether the end-date of the Mayan Long Count calendar (LCC) accurately converts to 2011 or 2012 (1) - the majority of experts agrees that it ends on or about WS2012. But - contrary to popular belief - the LCC doesn’t actually end – it simply starts over again from the beginning. In other words, once 13.0.0.0.0 bak’tun is reached - the LCC begins anew at 0.0.0.0.1 bak’tun – repeating once again the celestial-oriented 5125-year cycle.


The second misconception is that WS2012 signals the occurrence of a very unique (once every 26,000 years) galactic alignment. Not to put a damper on future celebrations but this particular galactic alignment occurred during the past 28 WSs and will also occur during the next eight.


According to the many experts in this area - the LCC highlights a rare astronomical alignment determined by precession.(2) The alignment occurs when the Winter Solstice sun conjuncts the crossing point of Milky Way and ecliptic in Sagittarius.


2012 galactic alighnment

As you can see from the above illustration(3), this alignment - involving the Winter Solstice Sun and the center of our galaxy - actually began on WS1980 and will continue each WS until 2016. Interestingly, WS2012 isn't even the center point of the 36-year period - but instead is close to its end.


Assuming once again that the majority of experts are accurate in proclaiming that 13.0.0.0.0 bak’tun accurately converts to December 21, 2012 - why did the Maya select that date and ignore the beginning, center, and end of the alignment? I believe it is because the Maya are not just drawing our attention to the galactic alignment – but are instead asking us to focus in on a specific cosmic event that will be occurring at the exact moment of WS2012. How the Maya knew that several thousand years from then a civilization would be using a Gregorian calendar or that the 2012WS would be at exactly 11:11 is beyond my understanding – but evidently they did.


WS2012 has become part of our consensus reality – and for good reason. In my opinion WS2012 does not directly relate to the entire 36-year period of the 26,000-year galactic alignment but instead refers to a particular point in time and space when a very unusual event will occur. I refer to that point as the “cosmic coordinate.”


Irrespective of whether the Mayan calendar actually ends on WS2012, or whether the date heralds a shift in consciousness, or the end of the world, the incontrovertible fact is that WS2012 - like no other Winter Solstice in recorded history - occurs at exactly 11:11 UT.(4)


There are a growing number of scientists who believe that our holographic reality is actually an intelligently created “simulation” (5) – though I prefer the term: “Cosmic Computer Program (CCP).” I believe our CCP utilizes digital codes for various purposes – several of which I describe below. WS2012 occurs on the 21st day of December at exactly 11:11 Universal Time. The digital equivalent is: 11112112012. Assuming time is an artificial construct in which numbers tell us where we are at any given moment within our program, then it is reasonable to assume that specific numerical combinations and sequences would form genetically encoded digital “time prompts”(6) which assist us along life’s pre-programmed path.


11:11 is considered by many to be such a time prompt (7) – due to the thousands of people experiencing what is referred to as the “11:11 Phenomenon.”(8) 11:11 also symbolizes the various cycles that manifest and re-manifest physical reality as if following a cosmic blueprint.(9) Most synchronistic is the fact that both 2012 and 11:11 are numerical metaphors for the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next. Could 21122012 be cosmic shareware with 11:11 the cosmic equivalent of “exe”?


11:11 also has another symbolic meaning - one involving a “cosmic portal.”(10) I doubt that it is just an insignificant coincidence that during the aforementioned galactic alignment the Maya believed that a portal would materialize within the dark rift at the center of our galaxy.(11)

Two other 11:11–2012 synchronicities involve the Sun’s magnetic field and the galactic center – areas that are also intimately connected to Mayan mythology, its calendar and the galactic alignment. The first involves our Sun. Not only is the Sun the winter solstice centerpiece of the galactic alignment, its magnetic field operates a cycle of polarity reversals averaging 11.11 years in length.(12) The next peak of this cycle happens to be in the year 2012 and has been predicted by some astrophysicists to likely be a very active maximum notwithstanding the Sun’s present catatonic state. The second coincidence is just as revealing: The entire mass of the black hole at the center of our galaxy spins once every 11 minutes.(13)


I don’t know whether gin is as enjoyable without tonic, or whether each Jonas brother could be successful alone, or whether we would have enjoyed James Kirk as much as we did without Spock to interact with – but I am certain that without 11:11 as its digital partner, WS2012 would just be another cold and uneventful day in December – at least in the Northern Hemisphere.


In conclusion I believe that at the cosmic coordinate 111121122012 a cosmic portal will materialize – if only briefly. This is what the Maya are still trying to tell us. To those of you who have actually experienced the 11:11 phenomenon, I believe that the digital codes are also saying something else: “Pay attention!” Our time is drawing close.




Is this guy behind all this 2012 stuff.. 'the general opinion of people were that he was an alien..lol
Balloonists playground

Hayen Island Oregon

Peninsula Park Portland Oregon

Hindenburg

Shock jocks suck! that is my opinion and I am sticking to it.. Howard Stern was cool to a point.. and Rush you could have listened to him in his heyday in the mid 90's. He was entertaining then...he is just boring now..Over the years these clowns have had to, do and say more and more outrages stuff and come up with stupid dribble to keep their ratings up and listener-ship enthralled and growing...Currently we are in the era of Glen Beck ! Gawd..

Recently I came across a guy who listens to Coast to Coast AM Radio.. for entertainment value.. this station is fun. They are the guys who talk about UFO sightings and all kinds of crazy shit...I kid you not...but anyway this dude who calls himself Dr. Leonard Coldwell, a frequent radio show host, had this to say on his web site, and this article is about my I refuting his whole premise.

Why Americans Will Never Revolt Against Government by Dr. Leonard Coldwell http://drleonardcoldwell.com/2010/08/22/why-americans-will-never-revolt-against-government/comment-page-1/#comment-3163| Aug 22, 2010 |

You will not like these facts but if you have been frustrated as to why people don’t get mad as hell and revolt against government, I have written this to explain it. It is so obvious that I will be surprised to receive any intelligent disagreements. Hang on…

50% of adults work for government at a local, county, state or federal level, or for a corporation that has a contract with the federal government. None will bite the hand that feeds them.

10% are unemployed and will not bite the hand that feeds them.

15% are on welfare and will never ever bite the hand that feeds them.

20% are getting or within a few years be getting social security and will never bite the hand that feeds them.

That leaves 5% that are not being fed by government and are used to feed the other 95%. However, due to social norms and media spin along with the fear that it would only get worse if they do rise up against government, they too will never revolt against government. The only chance for these 5% to become unburdened, is for a worldwide economic collapse in which the other 95% die off and loose their ability to control a system that funds their free ride on the back of the few. So, ask yourself—- how bad do you want to be free Jack? I say, absolutely free.

My comment goes like this....

You sir, are dead wrong. You are playing with numbers and words here..and perpetuating a myth. American people are the most , resilient, resourceful and crafty bunch of people who are ready for almost anything…The people of the USA and its Government will endure and will always be ahead of the game. I will tell you why in a minute?….but first let me ask you....

What nation of free thinking individuals who have come from all over the world have to gain by revolting against their government?…What is there to be gained? Replace tyranny with tyranny?

And please don’t insult people with the usual the "founding fathers meant this in the declaration of Independence stuff or Tea Party crap". No one is going unseat the US Government of the day with protests in street, handguns or muskets...Don't kid yourself, at the first site of trouble, your government will clamp down on those who try to sow descent. Remember the G20 Seattle riots in 2001? and what about Kent State in 1970, if you don't, please check this out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

Not a nice thing, but its true.. The Govt. and its will not hesitate to kill its citizens for whatever reason....Don't kid yourself....Its a fact of life...

continuing on..

The 1970 US Census determined there were 203 Million residents in the US. The unofficial figure for the 2010 census is 308 million. Where did you think the increase came from? Most came from failed nation states from all over the world.. These people will never try to revolt against what they consider to be a fair and benevolent US Govt.

So you would be asking a lot from the other 2/3 the population who are caught up in the "system". Mortgages and credit ratings, the justice system and the just the thought of losing their jobs puts them in abject fear of losing it all. Leave alone revolt they will not take a day off work take part in simple protest march. And that is why my dear friend the people will not revolt. And its not because of the reasons outlined by you or any other shock jock of the day.

You mat find a good read about the Population Profile of the United States at this address. http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/natproj.html

Almost all Americans love America. From the Mayflower descendent old money types to native Americans, African, Italians, Tejanos, Mexicans, Phillipinos, Pueto Ricans, Cubans or what have you. That is the crazy thing about this country is, once they come here, with its flaws and all people know America is the best place to stake your claim. They all love this place.

Americans are patriotic to a fault and they will never revolt. Because they know they can weed out some of the bad apples in goverment by using their ballot. We all belive in this crazy notion called Democrazy.

Its got nothing to with any 5% of the population feeding the rest of country. Is preposterous to say such a thing when you know its wrong.

5% that are feeding 95%? Now here are some numbers that were cut and pasted from ‘Daily Paul’, Ron Paul’s web site. http://www.dailypaul.com/node/111232

US wealth distribution: 10% of US citizens own 70.9% of all US assets.

And it gets much uglier as you proceed downward. Bottom 40% of population has 0.2% of all wealth.

And while at this, let me debunk another myth you guys seem to like to talk about a lot..

The whole American – “Our taxpayer dollars” thing…Especially the conservative concept of a "taxpayer" it sounds good but its a fallacy.

There is no such thing as 'taxpayer dollars' well there is, but not in the all encompassing superior, holier than thou way conservative people like to address this topic.…With just taxpayer dollars only the US Govt will not be able to do shit..Its all about balance of payments..Its about power and being able to borrow based on your potential And that hold true for Governments too....Ask any college economics professor and he will put you right… The US govt is the most powerful single entity in the whole wide world.. It does not need taxpayer dollars to function…It lets people think it does.. because its expedient…Its not that the Govt. is trying to get into your pockets, People have to pay for its services. And most of the population are cool with that...We feel we are still getting a good deal, compared to others...

Its got nothing to do with anything other than ‘power’..The permanent power players in the US Govt., have tenure..You can put of a few famous ones into perspective..latest being Dick Cheney…career Govt. power hack who never actually ran for office really except as VP. There are hundreds of people like him who are policy makers in the Govt. …like Kissinger and the likes of McNamara or Bill Bennett for that matter…whom we have heard about..for each of these guysthere are thousands of power player decision makers in the US Govt., we have never heard about..
This whole notion of taxpayers feeding non taxpayers is so ridiculous, people from other affluent nations just wag their heads in wonderment when they hear this crap. It is not that the poor are a burden to the rich but the other way around. The rich ride on backs of he poor…the poor are getting poorer by being taxed more..The poor are spending a mean 70% their income on basic necessities which are heavily taxed at the cash register or town hall or wherever which are controlled by the rich.…While the 5% of the so called who are taxpayers who arecontinually thinking of ways of dodging what little they pay Uncle Sam and trying their damn-est to get rebates and refunds on their investments and the taxes they actually paid, while the poor pump in trillions of dollars out of their disposable income in indirect taxes on everything they use from electricity, gas, property taxes and the like..If you guys who are in the so called 5% who are taxpayers pooled all the taxes you paid each you would not feed a country as small as Switzerland.

And some want you to believe that America is broke..It is not.. Sure there is less to go around right now. But America is rich beyond anyone’s wildest imaginative guess. There are reserves in Oil & Gas, Coal, Iron, Wheat, Corn which the rest of the developing world needs badly and are willing to pay a premium just because its American..

America owns and closely guards most of the world’s advanced technology in terms of Engineering design and fabricating in many important sectors, from farm machinery to microbiology to neuroscience to advanced materials used in specific industries like the military or space travel or medicine..All these technological advances and its applications will always be sought after by other nation states of the world and they usually pay big to get a hold of this stuff.

The Japanese have to sell a whole bunch of Toyotas or Subarus to make up for the cost of one military jet or and Apache Helicopter or a Boeing Dreamliner or an MRI machine...If Boeing were build a couple of thousand Dreamliners, the Chinese, Japanese, the Koreans, Indonesians will be lining up to buy them and the rest of the developing will line up to buy our second hand technology in a heartbeat. So this scare that our deficit is going to enslave our children is another myth propagated by the conservative hacks for more air play and nothing more. Like I said earlier,…Its a game after all. The puppet master is always been in charge of the show really. And don’t kid yourself Mr 5%er! You are not that important.

Welcome to the Punch & Judy Show... 2010 style..






www.whereisjeff.com

Jeff (last name unknown): about 5'5" 160 lbs. white, medium length hair, has arthritis in both hands. Friendly, talkative, just a regular guy has been missing since July 2010.
Last known whereabouts: Longview, WA and Vancouver WA. Moved in with a woman (name maybe Jill).......in the Longview area.. and was making plans to get married and honeymoon along the Oregon Coast in June/July of 2010. He has not been seen or heard of since by his co-workers. He used to drive a late model Black VW Jetta, and has also been seen driving in gold color 2002 model Chrysler LHS. His last known place of work was at ..Auto Warehousing Company at the port of Vancouver WA. If you have seen him.. Please call 503 427 8430. His co-workers are concerned about him...





...by the way in the original proposal made to then President George Bush on the invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the name recommended by the author of the document was Operation Endeavor. Which would have been the perfect name for the Iraq War... However President Bush in his infinite wisdom upon reading the report crossed out Endeavor and penciled in Enduring Freedom, which has been questioned as to wherever it was an appropriate name for obvious reasons. He was the President after the all and if it made him feel good, they just let him he could call it anything he wanted...and that's was one of the few things he was allowed to do in that theater of operations really....Now that is Govt. for you....And most have this notion of Govt. as pure as the driven snow as outlined in the documents drafted by the founding fathers? What a crock!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Portland Oregon....summer of 2010

Portland, Oregon August 28th 2010
Spent the entire day, enjoying the best of Portland..


Before heading out to enjoy the best that Portland has to offer..

The famous Portland landmark sign..in the heart of Old town...
Now this what you see if you look eastward from Portland, Mt. Hood is about 50 miles away...just awesome...Our Kilimanjaro, or Mt. Fuji you might say....
This is a different mountain to the North looking over the Fremont Bridge, This mountain erupted in 1981. Mt. St. Helens which is about 60 miles into Washington State...I may someday hike down into the floor of volcano...


This kayak, canoe dock is on the OMSI (east) of the Willamette River, I flew my Snoopy Kite off the dock. The wind was just right..Met this dude, Maurice I think his name was... from Paris, France who was visiting Portland who was swimming
off the dock! Lest the poor guy did not know that people don't actually swim in the Willamette River because its a bit polluted and the water is just too damn cold even in the middle of summer. I guess you have to be a local to know that stuff...aye.?


Waterfront park, live bands, craftspeople, visitors enjoying a beautiful day..
'All the Apparatus' the coolest Portland Street Band

No explanation is needed.



Italian festival at Pioneer Square...Best Quality, food, music, people...There are these proffesional entertainers brought in for the event...Just the best... Tony Bennet type crooners and lively Italian beauties who can really sing and dance.....Oh what a evening everyone was having!


Summer Fashion Show at the World Trade Center in Portland...awesome stuff... interesting thing happened here....little Gestapo type security guard stepped in my way. The situation was diffused on account of all parties taking a chill approach and it ended all good. The lesson learned by all parties was that not too take ourselves too seriously and laughter breaks the ice and relieves tension.....





Gazeebo at Peninsula Park Rose Garden in the heart of North Porland a chill Drum Circle practicing....

Dragsters at the Portland Speedway
Hobby Shop window of these cute little hot air baloons...vintage Jules Verne

There is a place called the Columbia Slough! (pronouced slew) and this is it!







These days if there is one thing single guys like me will never be short of, is online dating sites! Jeez Luise everyone wants you to join their dating site.., how nice...

While on the subject of pet peeves here are a couple more pertaining to Facebook.

Farmville and Jesus freaks!......you know who you are!...lol

Farmville people, please grow you own or do something with your spare time and try to keep us out it.

Then we have those who have been "saved" and wish to save us all, I am happy for you.. I understand how enraptured you when you come home from Sunday Service each week. Please say a small prayer for me silently, and hold off on proselytizing religious beliefs in this forum...Its annoying to most.

In post modern industrialized world we live in, polite people refain from talking about Religion or Politics in open forums.. Having said that I guess with family members and with some die hards, you have no choice in the matter. ....lol. I may have to concede a bit on this one but the FarmVille crap, has got to go, though...its like a virus...damn...This a case where being un-friend-ed on FB is actually your friend!!!







Kilauea, Hawa'ii, most active volcano in the world at dawn....
At the bottom of the Kilauea Iki volcano floor, most awsome place ever...note I have my hiking boot in my hand and am in flip flops, it is like someone had tossed around these huge concrete/ashpahlt slabs! up against the walls of the crater, randomly. The surface is hot and prickly as there is a substance like glass is mixed in with the concrete....Native Hawaiians believe the volcano Godess Pele's is present at Kilauea, and the green glass like substance found inside the crater are Pele's Tears...they should not be picked up and taken out of the crater....Quite an experience...



Red Lining STI's
Subaru America, Port of Vancouver, Aug., 2010

Patty the Guinness Queen of Hayden Island, Oregon



People sitting outside the Rose Garden Arena waiting for Lady Gaga Concert 8.29.2010 11am
Lady Gaga's Promo Tour Bus...
Gaga fans.....
gagans
gagans

Picture taken right in the middle of Pioneer Square in Portland of the old Courthouse, which now is the offices of 4 judges...
To get to the gold bike on top a youngster would have to go thru all the other bikes before......lol
me with Gaga fans.....Aug 19 2010

My ride....2000 Chrysler LHS, The Mothership...Its the most comfortable ride ever.. a true American Classic... I have had it since 2000. Its made several trips to Vancouver BC, made a trip of six western states, Washington, Oregon, California, Navada, Arizona,(southern most) Utah, Idaho and back over the Cascade range back to Portland spring break of 2005. Amanda, Ashan Korala and I went to have a look at the University of Phoenix as Amanda wanted to transfer there her Sophmore year... eventually she stayed at University of Oregon and graduated in 2009. The car is possibly the largest American production car manufactured that year...its is like travelling in your living room..!! as of today its has about 152,000 miles on it and still feels like a fairly new vehicle....


inside of my ride....2000 Chrysler LHS pic taken after I got off work at the Clark County Fair in Aug 2010
Lady Gaga Pre-concert Party was here!

This is a truck stop Martini....brilliant...

That Old Feeling
is a 1997 romantic comedy starring Bette Midler and Dennis Farina. The film was directed by Carl Reiner.


Molly De Mora (Paula Marshall) invites her divorced parents (Bette Midler and Dennis Farina) to her wedding reception, where they see each other for the first time in 14 years. A shouting match between the two ensues. Following this, their spark is rekindled during the wedding reception. Over the next few days they fall in love again and run off together, thereby upsetting the newlyweds' honeymoon and their respective (current) spouses. If the scandal was made public it would be more controversial than usual, since the bride's husband hopes to stand for election to Congress. After searching for her parents and getting to know Joey Donna (Danny Nucci), her mothers' number one paparazzi nicknamed "The Cockroach", who she hires to help her find them, Molly decides that her parents deserve a chance to be together and gives them her honeymoon to Hawaii. When Keith objects to her decision, it is revealed that he slept with her stepmother. Knowing now that her marriage was a mistake, Molly runs off with Joey as her parents run off to Hawaii. It has since then been Carl Reiner's last film.































Crater Lake Oregon, on the basis of comparing average depths among the world's deepest lakes, Crater Lake becomes the deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere and the third deepest in the world.[10] Comparing average depths among the world's lakes whose basins are entirely above sea level, Crater Lake is the deepest
Christmas lunch with Michael
My trusty mode of transportation around Portland the summer of 2010
Rainbow over Waikiki Beach December 2008
Cape Kiwanda, Oregon summer 2010

Knights of the realm jousting at the Fair
How did this get here?

This is where Capt. Cook the great explorer and navigator got into a dispute with the native Hawaiians and was killed...
Wild Rooster Hawaii Island, another non-native hanger on...
me at work doing what I consider the dumbest job in the world, for eight hours you have to get in and out of cars and stage them up a few yards at a time...
here is another weekend job at the Clark County Fair. Made a lot of Funnel Cakes, Elephant Ears and Corn Dogs... !!

A perfectly poured Guinness by bartender Kiki at Realto in Downtown Portland.