Writer's Strike

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November 10, 2007

Writer's Strike

   This little video here, really explains well what the
Writer's Strike is all about. Look for the same in June from the Screen Actors Guild
(SAG). What happens to the writers is going to set much of the tone with what happens to
the actors in the coming summer.

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Early Morning in Nipomo California

Early Morning, Nipomo California


Some mornings are so spectacular.
On this particular morning, the overcast conditions seemed to bring the blue of the sky through the clouds. It was a bit surreal. Here we see the sun lighting the clear sky behind the hills as the huge blanket of clouds dissipates as it hits the interior.

Cossacks at the Door

Cossacks at the door
In 1667 a Turkish army crossed into southern Russia. The local Cossacks made a victorious battle stand and defeated the Turkish army. After his army's loss, the Turkish leader sent a note to the Zaporozhian Cossacks demanding their surrender. Hah!

Now, I have to tell you that my mother's own family had dealings with both Cossacks and Siberians in previous generations, and both groups of peoples were ruthless folks who lived a hard life on the steppes and icy wastes. Life was cheap to people such as they, and a heady sense of victory must have been flowing through their blood when they responded with their own letter which for the sake of decency I cannot reproduce here. If you wish to read this letter, I suggest you go over to Turban Bomb to read the complete letter replete with expletives from a group of fellows who are luxuriating in the fact of being alive still, when so many had lost theirs.


Ilya Repin made a painting of the jubilant Cossacks writing their letter to the Sultan. I find this painting to be very interesting, and the more I study it the more little details pop out at me. The bandaged heads and bodies are obvious, but later, bandaged fingers emerge, and fellows missing teeth and eyes. The weapons are splendid. And actually what gets me the most, these fellows look so much like some old friends of mine from my motorcycle riding days, except we had more hair on our heads.

Frankenfoods, and a 'high-centered' truck

Frankenfoods, and a 'high-centered' truck
Jeffrey Smith, who wrote 'Seeds of Deception' explains some of the hazards associated with 'Genetically Modified Organisms' (GMO) at the Mercola website. I have a distrust of genetically modified foods. My worries go beyond the possible dangers to the human population, but further to the entire ecosystem, and the potential losses we might face in the not-too-distant future when some characteristics of these foods have spread into nature.
Yet at the same time, I am a supporter of technology and progress. I feel that most of our progress in the technical fields have been with good effect. And I fear appearing a Luddite in my reaction to a new technology. But there is ample reason for me to be cautious in my fear of our rush to these genetically modified foods.
There are some who will say that we've always modified foods, and this is true. From the earliest times, even before agriculture, mankind was able to improve the carrying capacity of a given plot of land by advances in technique, selective breeding, and harvest methods. But there was never a time that one family of plant was crossed with another family, much less to have a gene from an animal spliced into a plant DNA sequence.
I'm all for plant breeding for optimum carrying-capacity and yield, but I am against gene-splicing as a method of food production. You can rest assured that no foods produced by Rivenrock Gardens will ever be genetically modified organisms.


On a different note, I came upon these two trucks along a California Highway, both with parking tickets on their antennae. but one had been pushed or driven a bit too far back and ended up high-centered in the ditch. It is a bit of a difficult position to get out of, and might have caused some damage to the drivetrain.

Writer's Strike

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November 06, 2007

Writer's Strike

Takin' Care of Business

~Bachman Turner Overdrive

People see you having fun

Just a-lying in the sun

Tell them that you like it this a-way

It's the work that we avoid

And we're all self-employed

We love to work at nothing all day



And we be...

Takin' care of business, every day

Takin' care of business, every way

I've been takin' care of business, it's all mine

Takin' care of business and working overtime

Work out!

What'cha gonna do when you're out on strike?

What does a Hollywood writer do?

 

I found this to be a funny little script put together and acted-out by
the writers themselves.

Hollywood surely has a lot of talented people. It's like the little riffles in the stream
beds that catch a lot of stuff. But like the riffles, Hollywood also catches some of the
stuff you don't want.  Hollywood is, in short, a town of contrasts; high and low,
good and bad, beautiful and sadly...unbeautiful.  But it is surely one place everyone
might want to drive into, and spend a few days (and nights especially) walking around, the
sights are phenomenal, and unbeatable.

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Green Days in Morro Bay

~Eagles~
'Learn to be still'

It's just another day in paradise As you stumble to your bed
You'd give anything to silence Those voices ringing in your head

You thought you could find happiness Just over that green hill

You thought you would be satisfied

But you never will- Learn to be still

We're like sheep without a shepherd

We don't know how to be alone

So we wander 'round this desert

And wind up following the wrong gods home

But the flock cries out for another

And they keep answering that bell

And one more starry-eyed messiah

Meets a violent farewell-

Learn to be still

Now the flowers in your garden

They don't smell so sweet

Maybe you've forgotten

The heaven lying at your feet

There are so many contridictions

In all these messages we send

We keep asking:

How do I get out of here

Where do I fit in?

Though the world is torn and shaken

Even if your heart is breakin'

It's waiting for you to awaken

And someday you will-

Learn to be still

Back in March I took a drive up to Morro Bay.The fields were still green from the winter's rain. It's nice to look back at the green. Right now everything is so dry.
History tells us that what usually happens will probably happen again. Therefor I know that the winter rains will come again and green up our hillsides once more. The deer will find plenty to eat and stop trying to find out how to get to our cactus. In wintertime, things will be good again... But come wintertime I'll yearn for the warm sandy beaches of summer, the prolific cactus harvests, and ease of driving on dry roads with no rain reducing visibility. Yes, every season has it's issues, blessings and challenges. It does not matter who or what or where we are, we all have our burdens in life. It's difficult but best to look past the burdens and accept them as man's daily lot...But the blessings are so easy to overlook and pass by in the rush to provide a living. What a shame it is to pass over the small moments one can have of happiness. Accept happiness and blessings when they come your way, we all deserve some decent time of fun and happiness.
This road for example; to be able to drive along a serene country road in the early springtime is a pleasure. And I have the photographs and the memory locked in my head of that day.It was a good day.
San Luis Obispo County is a really great place to live, we've been truly blessed.

Strata

Strata

The world is a pretty amazing place. The forces of nature are just too large to fully comprehend. Through the ages the rivers carry the sands and other materials from the land, and carry it to the sea. There it is laid down as layer after layer of materials like the layers in a cake. Compression, heat and time will often force these layers into a hard material we might call rock. In this case we have layers of clay material compressed into a soft rock called shale. The geologic forces of this area pushed the shale rock high above the sea, and tilted the original layers (the ones to the right in the photo) to a near vertical from their original horizontal. These were then worn down by new erosion and again submerged. During this subsequent submersion new layers were built up onto the older vertical layers of the cake, these are the ones to the left. Again geologic forces raised the rock from the sea, and again lilted it so that neither set of layers is in it's original configuration. This just goes to show that we as a small life form on Earth cannot ever expect to have anything we build truly last forever. Even concrete has an expected life of two hundred years, (although it will last longer if properly mixed and cured). The Incas built some wondrous water systems a thousand years ago. But unfortunately, the same forces that raised the massive mountains that honed their engineering skills, also caused the water systems to have to be revised and re-engineered through the decades and centuries they were in use as the mountains were continually pushed even higher, changing the way the water ran along the aqueducts they constructed.