More pics

A couple more pics from my latest hike.

Moon and Venus just after sunset. It turns out Mars and Saturn were also very close to Venus this night, and if it had been darker, I could have gotten all three planets and the Moon in a single shot. I didn't know this until playing with Starry Night Pro a couple of nights later, but by this time the moon had moved quite far from the planet grouping. If I had known I would have hung around to get a shot of it, since it is a very rare opportunity. I didn't have a tripod so I shot this in shutter priority mode at 1/60 s, ISO 320 and F 2.6


One of several tarantulas I found wandering the trail today.

Some hiking pics

Just came back from a local hike I do often, and I brought back some pics. They are in reverse order from when they were taken. Last is first.

Started much too late and got back after dark, but I did get this pic from it.

I had never seen deer on this trail before so it was a surprise to turn a corner and see a group of 5 heading up the trail that I was heading down. 3 scattered into the surrounding bush, but these two stayed on the trail and posed for a shot.


This young buck was one who scattered into the bushes. Unfortunately it looks like I shot too quickly and failed to get the focus right.



There are many caves in the area, and a few plants that look a bit alien.


Some mildly interesting rock formations


More caves in the hillsides.


A wide shot of the surrounding area.

Goodbye Facebook

Ok, I just can't take it any more. Not one more trophy for being the bestest friend ever. Not one more invite to play the mind numbing games of Farmville or Mafia Wars and not one more piece of earth shattering news such as "I'm eating a turkey sandwich, YUM!". If anyone wanted proof of the inanity that now passes for popular human culture, Facebook would be enough. Like a colony of millions of mindless ants building tunnels to nowhere, people make connections to others, not to make any kind of meaningful dialog, but instead, just for the sake of making the connections themselves. simply to increase their number of friends, because this is the only measure of self worth some people have. Like ants briefly pausing to exchange pheromones, before moving on to the next one in line to repeat the same thing.

People might say well it's still good to keep contact with distant family and friends, but it's all an illusion folks. People you didn't contact outside of FB, you still don't talk to on FB, but worse is that people that you used to talk to outside FB, with an email or a phone call from time to time, you might not do so now because, of course, you're already on each other's friends list, and you know what TV show they watched last night. Surely a phone call would be overkill.

Anyway I'm glad I'm gone. I feel clean and free again, but then it always feels good to get some distance on the herd.

Pics from the edge (of my roof)

It was such an incredible day for the end of December I decided to take a few pics, all from the roof.  all were taken a few days ago, except for this first one which I took a few months ago.  

A recent visit to the beach

A few weeks ago, just before the weather started turning cold, I took probably my last trip to the beach until next year and snapped a few pics.  It was just south of Huntington, at a place I used to love going to when I lived nearby in Costa Mesa. I would go down after work in the summer, around 6:30, when all the crowds had gone home for the day, and spend a couple hours until sunset.  I never really fully appreciated just how much of a difference moving just 20 minutes away from the ocean would make, but then we never fully appreciate anything we have until it's gone. 

California Yes on 8 zombies

I drive around this city in fear. The fear of being surrounded by an intersection full of mindless "Yes on 8" zombies waving signs, but then it just gets worse. I begin to hear all the honks of support from all the passers by, and then it hits me. "OH DAMN, I'm surrounded by hundreds of these unconscious creatures from beyond the grave". It is a frightful sight to see so many of the undead who think this is the issue worth getting out and fighting for, when there are so many other critical issues facing the US at the moment. One can't be too surprised however, considering that the infection has been allowed to spread to such a large segment of our population. What infection? I'm sure you have seen the signs. The ability to disregard truth without hesitation. The ability to redefine reality with just a word. The ability to be led by the nose as if a puppet on a string? Yes that's right. It's the members of your local church, all of them having their strings jerked at the same time. I swear if one of them raises their finger and points at me while wailing like a banshee, I'm going to drive a stake through it's heart.