Bezabor: ‘Yes’, ‘Donnie Darko’, and Nixon Park (posted from home)
Wednesday, 3 May-
This morning I put Mocha Joe back in order from the weekend’s trip to pick up the KLR. In order to pick up the motorcycle I have to dis-assemble the bed, bundle up the mattress, arrange tie-downs, and re-arrange everything so I can roll the KLR up a ramp into the back of Mocha Joe and strap it down. Once home, I have to reverse the process to put everything back in place. This also gives me the opportunity to clean and re-stow everything properly (and remind me where I’ve put things) so it works out well.
In the afternoon, I rode the Concours down to Nixon Park below York. I’ve not been down there for quite a while and wanted to see it in its new Spring regalia. Nixon has a great nature center. A local great white hunter contributed his collection of trophy taxidermy mounts to the park and they truly are outstanding. Want to see a polar bear? How about a ten-foot standing grizzly? Antelope? Kangaroo? Elk? Water buffalo? Go to Nixon Park. They also have many bird and smaller mammal mounts as well as butterfly collections from all over the world.
I stopped in at the visitor’s center and chatted briefly with Jere Jones, who I knew to be a long-time York County Parks employee. Jere founded the York County Astronomy Society and I knew he had written a book about gold-panning in southeastern PA. I couldn’t remember his last name so asked him. When he replied, I said “aren’t you the guy who wrote the book about gold-panning in York County? Well, what are you doing working here?” He laughed and said “I guess that tells you how much gold there is to be found”. Jere said he was originally trained as a geologist and that started us on a long conversation about mining in the area. He spoke of iron and manganese mines and clay pits all over the area. When I mentioned I had recently been hiking around the Center Point Knob area, he told me of mines there. I’ve got to go back to see him and learn more—what an interesting guy.
Afterwards, I hiked several of the trails in the park. The park lies in a steep-sided valley so any trail but the one going down the valley will take you up some fairly steep hills. I took the Old Field trail around to the Geology trail to the Hardwood Trail and then branched off to the adjacent Kain Park #4 trail, then back around to my bike at the parking lot. Along the way I found a very pretty little creek that I really, really, really have to go back and fish. Also, the #4 trail out of Kain Park tells me I have to go back for a more extensive visit to that park and all its trails. My afternoon today gave me a good workout of about four miles of hills and Kain Park looks like it would also be nice and hilly too.
That evening we found ourselves between Netflix shipments so we watched one of the NBC Dateline series shows on child-sex predators. This time they were in Darke County, Ohio and over a three-day period had 17 men show up at the door intending to have sex with a 13-year-old girl (or sometimes a boy)! That’s absolutely incredible. One guy was there despite the fact that he had been convicted of a prior offense and was to report to jail the following week. What can be done? I think the pressure has to be ratcheted up. These stings should become more widespread and more publicized. Every local jurisdiction should run stings and publicize the results. It’s also time to take on the Internet chat room providers. They should be posting clear warnings and should be running software which looks for problems.
Tuesday, 2 May-
I worked on the web this morning then rode the Concours down to Rocky Ridge Park for a walk. I decided to try jogging the same loop I had done a week or so ago and see how that goes. Since the start is slightly uphill, I started off in a jog so slow that any ants or spiders or beetles going my way were undoubtedly passing me. Once at the top of the rise I picked it up a little but not much—I was just keeping it comfortable. But that was a good thing. By the time I got around to my previous out-of-breath ending point, I was able to keep going about half-again the distance I had come. At that point I was going uphill again so took a break and walked the road a little, then jogged a downhill path for awhile before climbing one of the steepest paths back to the parking lot.
Back home I recovered from the walk until evening, when I washed Mocha Joe, something that was long-overdue. That evening we watched “Donnie Darko, Directors’ Cut”. We enjoyed it and enjoyed the process of figuring out what it meant. RottenTomatoes gives it a 90 per cent Tomatometer rating and I have to agree—not life changing but well worth seeing.
Monday, 1 May-
I took the Miata to my local garage for its annual inspection and walked home (about a mile) this morning. I worked on the web awhile and then spent most of the afternoon assembling, installing, and adjusting a metal frame with casters for Labashi’s radial arm saw. This frame allows her to step on a pedal to elevate the saw onto its casters. She can then roll it out of its storage barn onto our patio when she wants to cut longer pieces of wood. Pressing another pedal lowers it to the patio and stabilizes the saw for cutting.
That evening Labashi joined me in walking back up to the garage to pick up the Miata, then we watched ‘Yes’, an interesting (but in my opinion, flawed) movie about an unhappily-married woman who has an affair with a Middle-Eastern man. Their prejudices doom the relationship to failure. The interesting thing about this one is that writer-director Sally Potter had the audacity to do a modern movie in which the characters speak in iambic pentameter. Predictably, she gets nailed for it. RottenTomatoes.Com’s critical consensus is this: “Emotional pretensions / Can’t stop the curse / Of ever-present pretensions / Writ in heavy-handed verse”. But it’s actually more interesting than that sounds. Its camera work and interesting and she has the maids address the audience directly while action goes on behind them. But for all its merits it just can’t pull off the verse. Here’s a sample which explains the title of the film: ‘And, in the end, it simply isn't worth / Your while to try and clean your life away. / You can't. For, everything you do or say / Is there, forever. It leaves evidence. / In fact it's really only common sense; / There's no such thing as nothing, not at all. / It may be really very, very small / But it's still there. In fact I think I'd guess / That "no" does not exist. There's only "yes"’.
Wednesday, 3 May-
This morning I put Mocha Joe back in order from the weekend’s trip to pick up the KLR. In order to pick up the motorcycle I have to dis-assemble the bed, bundle up the mattress, arrange tie-downs, and re-arrange everything so I can roll the KLR up a ramp into the back of Mocha Joe and strap it down. Once home, I have to reverse the process to put everything back in place. This also gives me the opportunity to clean and re-stow everything properly (and remind me where I’ve put things) so it works out well.
In the afternoon, I rode the Concours down to Nixon Park below York. I’ve not been down there for quite a while and wanted to see it in its new Spring regalia. Nixon has a great nature center. A local great white hunter contributed his collection of trophy taxidermy mounts to the park and they truly are outstanding. Want to see a polar bear? How about a ten-foot standing grizzly? Antelope? Kangaroo? Elk? Water buffalo? Go to Nixon Park. They also have many bird and smaller mammal mounts as well as butterfly collections from all over the world.
I stopped in at the visitor’s center and chatted briefly with Jere Jones, who I knew to be a long-time York County Parks employee. Jere founded the York County Astronomy Society and I knew he had written a book about gold-panning in southeastern PA. I couldn’t remember his last name so asked him. When he replied, I said “aren’t you the guy who wrote the book about gold-panning in York County? Well, what are you doing working here?” He laughed and said “I guess that tells you how much gold there is to be found”. Jere said he was originally trained as a geologist and that started us on a long conversation about mining in the area. He spoke of iron and manganese mines and clay pits all over the area. When I mentioned I had recently been hiking around the Center Point Knob area, he told me of mines there. I’ve got to go back to see him and learn more—what an interesting guy.
Afterwards, I hiked several of the trails in the park. The park lies in a steep-sided valley so any trail but the one going down the valley will take you up some fairly steep hills. I took the Old Field trail around to the Geology trail to the Hardwood Trail and then branched off to the adjacent Kain Park #4 trail, then back around to my bike at the parking lot. Along the way I found a very pretty little creek that I really, really, really have to go back and fish. Also, the #4 trail out of Kain Park tells me I have to go back for a more extensive visit to that park and all its trails. My afternoon today gave me a good workout of about four miles of hills and Kain Park looks like it would also be nice and hilly too.
That evening we found ourselves between Netflix shipments so we watched one of the NBC Dateline series shows on child-sex predators. This time they were in Darke County, Ohio and over a three-day period had 17 men show up at the door intending to have sex with a 13-year-old girl (or sometimes a boy)! That’s absolutely incredible. One guy was there despite the fact that he had been convicted of a prior offense and was to report to jail the following week. What can be done? I think the pressure has to be ratcheted up. These stings should become more widespread and more publicized. Every local jurisdiction should run stings and publicize the results. It’s also time to take on the Internet chat room providers. They should be posting clear warnings and should be running software which looks for problems.
Tuesday, 2 May-
I worked on the web this morning then rode the Concours down to Rocky Ridge Park for a walk. I decided to try jogging the same loop I had done a week or so ago and see how that goes. Since the start is slightly uphill, I started off in a jog so slow that any ants or spiders or beetles going my way were undoubtedly passing me. Once at the top of the rise I picked it up a little but not much—I was just keeping it comfortable. But that was a good thing. By the time I got around to my previous out-of-breath ending point, I was able to keep going about half-again the distance I had come. At that point I was going uphill again so took a break and walked the road a little, then jogged a downhill path for awhile before climbing one of the steepest paths back to the parking lot.
Back home I recovered from the walk until evening, when I washed Mocha Joe, something that was long-overdue. That evening we watched “Donnie Darko, Directors’ Cut”. We enjoyed it and enjoyed the process of figuring out what it meant. RottenTomatoes gives it a 90 per cent Tomatometer rating and I have to agree—not life changing but well worth seeing.
Monday, 1 May-
I took the Miata to my local garage for its annual inspection and walked home (about a mile) this morning. I worked on the web awhile and then spent most of the afternoon assembling, installing, and adjusting a metal frame with casters for Labashi’s radial arm saw. This frame allows her to step on a pedal to elevate the saw onto its casters. She can then roll it out of its storage barn onto our patio when she wants to cut longer pieces of wood. Pressing another pedal lowers it to the patio and stabilizes the saw for cutting.
That evening Labashi joined me in walking back up to the garage to pick up the Miata, then we watched ‘Yes’, an interesting (but in my opinion, flawed) movie about an unhappily-married woman who has an affair with a Middle-Eastern man. Their prejudices doom the relationship to failure. The interesting thing about this one is that writer-director Sally Potter had the audacity to do a modern movie in which the characters speak in iambic pentameter. Predictably, she gets nailed for it. RottenTomatoes.Com’s critical consensus is this: “Emotional pretensions / Can’t stop the curse / Of ever-present pretensions / Writ in heavy-handed verse”. But it’s actually more interesting than that sounds. Its camera work and interesting and she has the maids address the audience directly while action goes on behind them. But for all its merits it just can’t pull off the verse. Here’s a sample which explains the title of the film: ‘And, in the end, it simply isn't worth / Your while to try and clean your life away. / You can't. For, everything you do or say / Is there, forever. It leaves evidence. / In fact it's really only common sense; / There's no such thing as nothing, not at all. / It may be really very, very small / But it's still there. In fact I think I'd guess / That "no" does not exist. There's only "yes"’.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 12:32
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