Friday, May 29, 2009

I was mentioning to Brett Lyman that THE BIG SLEEP really rocked my world, and he said "... oh man! THE BIG SLEEP! one of my favorites! have you ever seen DARK PASSAGE?!?!"


I just heard the Orchestre d' Poly Rhythmo LP in at Rainy Day! finally!!!! Unfortunately Adam got shorted on Group Doueh records and I don't get one. fuck. I think it might be too late too.... what a bummer. Ah well, THE LONELY GUY at Aaron Larson's house tonight w/ Bacon Blue Cheese Burgers!!!!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

TYVEK s/t

when I was down south Rainy Day sold out of this record in a day... but I finally got to pick up a copy today! Dude, this cover is awesome... I don't care what anyone says.

Last night I watched DONT LOOK BACK again, damn that's an entertaining movie.


this afternoon, I borrowed the lawnmower from Bill & Heather before they away forever... and I got to admit... it's looking prettay... pretty... ... pretty good.

now I got to write my final paper on firefly's! can't wait for this class to be over with.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009



"what is oozing out of our ground, to allow the effect to happen?"

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

THE BIG SLEEP

...is a truly brilliant film! I love how back in the day they used to film extra footage for the trailers, it made it so special.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

MEADOR FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS





Monday, May 18, 2009

dear Bat Hombre,

of course I love DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID! have you ever seen this amazing trailer narrated by Steve Martin? It's one of the best trailers of all times

Sunday, May 17, 2009



is it so wrong to think this video is hilarious? unforgivable?


Sir Formo was telling me about this movie he had just watched called NEAR DARK, and as soon as I found out it had Bill Paxton and was an 80's vampire movie... I knew I must see it!
I was always a big fan of Doris Day's love ballads and the romantic comedies she starred in... but I never realized she was such a strong force for animal rights activists. But I also never knew that she had 39 films to her credit, over 75 hours of television and is one of the most prolific recording artists in history...having recorded over 650 songs! She is currently the top ranking female box-office star of all time according to the annual Quigley Publishing poll's "All-Time Number One Stars".



here Doris is accompanied by Les Brown & his orchestra sometime mid-40's singing the classic Lost Horizon.


so last night I was kickin' it w/ Aaron Larsen and he asked me if I had ever see THE LONELY GUY starring Steve Martin from the late 70's post The Jerk. I had never even heard of this movie and here's the first scene I found of it on the youtube ... I must watch this movie.


Here are a few photos from today's field study. As you can see, it was very boring. We all stayed around our individual group 2 x 2 meter plots that were interspersed w/ sunflowers and grass, awaiting the arrival of the bumblebee. When it flew into our plot we were supposed to track it's course measuring time of pollination per flower, angle it used to get to the next flower, etc. & then we spent 4 hours in the "mac lab".... while it was sunny out! that pissed me off.

Luckily Mykey came over after I got a fresh juice at Kim & Jen's. It was the first day to re-open their juice/popsicle stand and it was delicious. We played frisbee and this crazy boxer dog was so stoked about chasing the frisbee that he ended up knocking out my legs from under me while I was mid jump... similar to a football tackle... and I hit the ground hard! That was really funny.

We headed down to the Northern to see the Old Time Relijun show.... and after a while I went and hung out w/ Aaron "Big Chips" Larsen and we got irie mon. Then I realized I was tired from only 4 hours of sleep due to seeing the band Christmas at Grandma's House and then having to get up a 7 in the a.m.! I found myself not moving at all to the Old Time Relijun grooves and I knew I was too tired to stay. As I was walking home the band Brilliant Colors was just about to start playing at the Pizzeria but the only bus going home was about to leave and I did not want to experience regrets tonight. Damn it! I would have liked to see them though.

Apparently I will be helping Mykey gets some 3 month old chicks for his new coop that he built! That will be pretty wholesome.

I think I should also mention something that just happened. My friend Vince who doesn't live in Olympia just showed up at my door, obviously to my surprise, and said he was just stopping by because he just found a dead cat on the road w/ out a collar and the cat looked just like Melba J. Luckily Melba J. just finished her dinner and is doing better than ever! We were both relieved to know that she is still one of the top felines alive today! Congrats Melbers! Also, it's nice to know that I have a friend who not only looks out for me, but also my cat. thanks Vince.

Saturday, May 16, 2009


Melanie V. reminded me of this great video that Warren Lee showed to me a couple of years ago. So classic. It be interesting to finally see that documentary about these ladies.

Like always, it is so sunny outside and I have to be at Saturday school. I took off of work on my b-day but it was really rainy and gray... but Ness & I had a nice time eating delicious food and takin' it easy.

Ness is already in Oaxaca w/ R.M.Lang and I am leaving Tuesday for West Texas to hang out with my Dad & Grandparents. and possibly Dev Dog?

I am currently struggling with deciding on what class to take for fall quarter. Not a lot is calling my name and I know I need a break from the sciences. Perhaps I can make an action movie! There is actually already a screen play in the works (in our minds) and yea... that could be cool!

Tonight I am gonna go see Old Time Relijun at Northern's first show ever. Congratulations to Mariella, Dirk, Formo, and all those other folks who made it happen!

what a BAD DOG!

this frisbee trick rules


Brilliant Colors are playing at Old School tonight and are recommended highly by B. P. but I would feel really bad if I missed the first show at my boss' new venue. Maybe I'll travel back and forth?

geeeeeze.. I want to go home soooo badly. Too bad Brent couldn't make it up this weekend... I got a feeling I might not see him all summer. bummer summer.

I wish I was in Oaxaca.

I wish this guy was my teacher!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Thanks to a tip from my good old buddy Benny P. I was able to get a copy of this new V.U. bootleg! Today I was slightly worried that it might have those Bob Dylan-esque versions of all the early songs that were in that box set... but I have reason to believe they might be different. Not that there's anything wrong w/ Dylan... I love that guy.

... & then there's this bootleg MORE BERMUDA THAN PIZZA which also features some of Angus MacLise jams aka The Joyous Lake... which I am also a huge fan of! What a great title too.


Walter approves of the
Strawberry-Rhubarb birthday pie!

Salmon Cakes w/ Mashed Potatoes, Kale, & Baked Beans

Mark Malsbury is a good boy






Wednesday, May 06, 2009

hello, these are notes for today's test. sorry if it doesn't make too much sense.

S.I. Units:
- mass - kg
- distance - m(eters)
- velocity - ms-1 or m/s (meters / seconds)
- acceleration - m/s / s = m/s2
- power - J(oules) / S = watt

- Janzen-Connell model
proposes the maintenance of this diversity is the result of two mechanisms: mortality of seeds and seedlings increases as seed/seedling density increases and survival of seeds and seedlings increases as distance from the parent tree increases. The hypothesis suggests that these two mechanisms are chiefly driven by the predation of natural enemies, particularly herbivores, insects, and pathogens, on seeds and seedlings. The Janzen-Connell hypothesis states that density-responsive and distance-responsive predation on seeds and seedlings promotes regular spacing of species and creates opportunity for colonization by other species, thus enhancing forest diversity.

- New Zealand has no native land mammals! they were all drowned before New Zealand rose again out of the water!

- Dispersal
Plants - passive: wind water air
by animals carrying them away
ballistic dispersal expolsions

Animals - active (flying, walking)
passive (wind water)
"phorsey" - hitchhiking e.g. fleas

-
Barriers to Dispersal:
- physical (mountains)
- climate
- ecological

-
Ecological succession, a fundamental concept in ecology, refers to more-or-less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community. Succession may be initiated either by formation of new, unoccupied habitat (e.g., a lava flow or a severe landslide) or by some form of disturbance (e.g. fire, severe windthrow, logging) of an existing community. Succession that begins in areas where no soil is initially present is called primary succession, whereas succession that begins in areas where soil is already present is called secondary succession.

Primary succession is one of two types of ecological succession and biological succession of plant life, and occurs in an environment in which new substrate, devoid of vegetation and usually lacking soil, is deposited (for example a lava flow).

Secondary succession is one of the two types of ecological succession of plant life. As opposed to primary succession, secondary succession is a process started by an event[1] (e.g. forest fire, harvesting, hurricane) that reduces an already established ecosystem (e.g. a forest or a wheat field) to a smaller population of species, and as such secondary succession occurs on preexisting soil where as primary succession usually occurs in a place lacking soil.

the Eastern side of Lake Michigan is covered with sand... including sand dunes that are 200 ft. high!

edaphic refers to plant communities that are distinguished by soil conditions rather than by the climate. Edaphic plant communities include: climatic climax community, is a biological community of plants and animals which, through the process of ecological succession — the development of vegetation in an area over time — has reached a steady state. This equilibrium occurs because the climax community is composed of species best adapted to average conditions in that area. The term is sometimes also applied in soil development.
The Daintree Rainforest in Queensland, Australia is an example of a climax forest ecosystem.

The idea of a single climatic climax, which is defined in relation to regional climate, originated with Frederic Clements in the early 1900s. The first analysis of succession as leading to something like a climax was written by Henry Cowles in 1899, but it was Clements who used the term "climax" to describe the idealized endpoint of succession.

Gleason began to express significant doubts on the usefulness of some of Clements's widely-employed vocabulary, especially the use of the organism metaphor to describe the growth of vegetation, and the treatment of the units of vegetation as including climaxes. (What units should be used in the analysis of vegetation was a widely disputed issue in early twentieth-century ecology.) In 1926, Gleason expressed even stronger objections to Clements's theory. First, he argued that Clements's identification of particular kinds of vegetation assumed too much homogeneity, since areas of vegetation are actually similar to one another only to degrees. Second, he argued that Clements's associating particular vegetation types with particular areas underestimated the real diversity of vegetation. These objections together cast doubt, for Gleason, on the "integrity of the association concept" itself—on identifying any grouping of species as amounting to a nameable association, like "oak-maple association," as botanists and ecologists (including Gleason himself) normally had.

As an alternative to describing vegetation in terms of associations, Gleason offered "the Individualistic concept of ecology," in which "the phenomena of vegetation depend completely upon the phenomena of the individual" species (1917), and plant associations are less structured than he thought Clements's theory maintained. At times, Gleason suggested that the distribution of plants approaches mathematical randomness.

A superorganism is an organism consisting of many organisms. This is usually meant to be a social unit of eusocial animals, where division of labour is highly specialised and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods of time. Ants are the best-known example of such a superorganism, while the naked mole rat is a famous example of the eusocial mammal. The technical definition of a superorganism is "a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective," phenomena being any activity "the hive wants" such as ants collecting food or bees choosing a new nest site.

Saturday, May 02, 2009


In Inuit legend, the narwhal's tusk was created when a woman with a harpoon rope tied around her waist was dragged into the ocean after the harpoon had struck a large narwhal. She was transformed into a narwhal herself, and her hair twisted around in the water until it became the characteristic spiral narwhal tusk.

Some medieval Europeans believed narwhal tusks to be the horns from the legendary unicorn. As these horns were considered to have magic powers, such as the ability to cure poison and melancholia, Vikings and other northern traders were able to sell them for many times their weight in gold. The tusks were used to make cups that were thought to negate any poison that may have been slipped into the drink. During the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth received a carved and bejeweled narwhal tusk for £10,000—the cost of a castle (approximately £1.5—2.5 Million in 2007, using the retail price index). The tusks were staples of the cabinet of curiosities.

The most conspicuous characteristic of the male narwhal is its single 2-3 m (7-10 ft) long tusk. It is an incisor tooth that projects from the left side of the upper jaw and forms a left-handed helix. The tusk can be up to three meters (nearly 10 ft) long (compared with a body length of 4-6 m [13-16 ft]) and weigh up to 10 kg (22 lbs). About one in 500 males has two tusks, which occurs when the right incisor, normally small, also grows out. A female narwhal may also produce a tusk, but this occurs rarely, and there is a single recorded case of a female with dual tusks.

Serotiny is the behaviour of some plant species that retain their non-dormant seeds in a cone or woody fruit for up to several years, but release them after exposure to fire. The cones protect the seeds from granivores and the heat generated by bush fires. However, during a bush fire the heat melts resins in the seed, that once held the cone or fruit tightly shut, which then allows the structures to open and release the seeds. Such survival strategies allow for seeds to be released after fires which signal the clearance of competitor plants from the environment.


THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET
by John Sayles


I am not sure why I never saw this before.... was very suprised at how good the acting was and the cinematography. It was also pretty funny...& John Sayles plays the evil alien dude.

Has anyone seen THE WIRE? the T.V. show? my friend Adam says it's the best show ever... but I don't wanna get stuck watching some bullshit.

check out this good lookin' guy!
the KING CHEETAH!


The king cheetah is a rare mutation of cheetah characterized by a distinct pelt pattern. It was first noted in Zimbabwe in 1926. A recessive gene must be inherited from both parents in order for this pattern to appear- which is one reason why it is so rare.


FIELD OF BEAMS!

"It’s still the subject of (extensive) debate whether the electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) produced by appliances, cell phones and high-voltage wires contribute to human illness and cancer. For an academic overview, check out the Human Radiation Effects Group, by Professor Denis Henshaw of the University of Bristol. For a visual illustration, look no further than FIELD by artist Richard Box. It’s a grid of fluorescent light bulbs planted into the ground beneath a series of power lines. When the bulbs glow, it’s not because of a series of buried wires, or a battery– they light up using the ghost power radiating from the wires overhead." - inhabitat.com

this reminds me of the solar LED lights I bought for the gardens last night from Grocery Outlet!


I started watching De Grassi Junior High Season 1 after Ness got it from the library. Hands down the best kids show about growing up ever.



Wow! My little brothers got out of school for 2 weeks because Fort Worth I.S.D. is the first school district to shut down cause of the Swine. Did you hear that on Wednesday, Egyptians slaughtered 300,000 pigs? I didn't know until yesterday the flu was passed from birds to pigs to humans!

I got these 2 re-issues on VINYL! I am so excited... I have been waiting for the Melody Nelson LP for a couple of years... and Live at the Old Quarter is my favorite Townes recording. I highly recommend renting this old VHS at Rainy Day which is the movie that coincides w/ the story of Histoire de Melody Nelson. It tells the story of this funky concept record that is doesn't have too many twists. Basically Serge hits Jane Birkin on her bike w/ his car... then they fall in love and get it on. But the movie's effects and back drops are hilarious.




WOW! Yesterday I finished cutting the lawn and making it look nice and it looks so nice. Mark built a little roof for his outdoors work area which will look really nice when he gets the gravel out of his dead truck. Once Ness got home from work we got to make the rows for our gardens and plant all the seeds! Beets, Kale, Peas, Greens, Squash etc.

then I got all the makings for some burgers and we grilled 'em up outside. It was amazing! Ness made some really great sweet potato fries and there was an excellent homemade dressing on the salad. Later Mark brought some chicken to throw on the grill and Rachael brought a Beet - Potato salad. We all sat around the campfire... and for me at least... it was a highly successful May Day. What is May Day anyways? We were wondering last night.


a young Susan Boyle. this blew my mind last night after the campfire. I don't really care about who's got talent in Britain.. but I can't believe how epic this song is.



TODAY'S NOTES:
clear cut - pioneer spp.
100 year old - stumps, accumulate spp./retain pioneer
near streams - wet/dry sites
early vs. mid succession
In science and engineering, a log-log graph or log-log plot is a two-dimensional graph of numerical data that uses logarithmic scales on both the horizontal and vertical axes. Because of the nonlinear scaling of the axes, a function of the form y = axb will appear as a straight line on a log-log graph, in which b will be the slope of the line and a will be the y value corresponding to x=1. These graphs are useful when the parameters a and b need to be estimated from numerical data, and can also be used to estimate the fractal dimension of a naturally occurring fractal.

Secondary succession is one of the two types of ecological succession of plant life. As opposed to primary succession, secondary succession is a process started by an event[1] (e.g. forest fire, harvesting, hurricane) that reduces an already established ecosystem (e.g. a forest or a wheat field) to a smaller population of species, and as such secondary succession occurs on preexisting soil where as primary succession usually occurs in a place lacking soil. A harvested forest going back from being a cleared forest to its original state, the "climax community" (a term to use cautiously), is an example of secondary succession. Each stage a community goes through on its way to the climax community in succession can be referred to as a "seral community."

Simply put, secondary succession is the succession that occurs after the initial succession has been disrupted and some plants and animals still exist.

Our Hypotheses:
1) NO Trees VS. Young Trees
2) streams
3) young trees VS. Evergreen