Oh my God (if you'll pardon the expression in this instance)

New Orleans is under water and more dykes (the earthen, not bulldyke type) are apparently set to fail.

Anarchy is upon the city with widespread looting and shooting.

And the governor's response in the face of her State's signature city's impending destruction?

She declares a day of prayer.

He who is there will be he is who here

A certain someone (see eyes above) is coming to Canada for a whirlwind tour (19 days). Just 12 days from now he arrives. Rumour has it we won't be leaving my apartment.

One note of concern: He who is there but will soon be he who is here told me a story tonight about a woman in Japan who killed her BF, cut him up enough that he would fit in the freezer and then began to eat him -- presumably not finishing her stores of loverboy before her arrest. She told police she loved her boyfriend so much (and remember this he telling me; he who HAS been accused of a touch of SR-threeism) she didn't want to give him up, wanted to have him with her forever, so she ate him... Um , he who is there is a cook, has knives, and being Korean eats everything, so human sushi is likely in his cooking repertoire...

Still, can't wait for the visit -- and an end to a particularly long drought, of sorts.

Whoohoooooo!

Apple. Advertising.

ONE

As a luddite I continue to amaze myself with the fascination I have with the technology that is sucking my brain dry in so many ways. Um, I bought the new Apple Mighty Mouse today. The scroll nub (as I've dubbed it) is simply amazing -- so really much better than the wheels. And the invisible double (left/right) buttons work without a hitch, and the added button features (the nub can be used as a button, and there are two sidebuttons that when squeezed together act as anothe button). And, of course, you can assign all and any function to the buttons as if they were function keys.

TWO

In the comments of my last blog there is SPAM posted as a comment. I in no way endorse the stock promoted in said advertisement. I'm leaving it there until I hear from the good folks at blogger.com as to what the hell is going on...

THREE

I realize I haven't ranted on here for sometime. Forgive my rationality. It shant' last I'm sure.


FOUR

Reef Builder. The attached photos below are of macro shots of coraline algae, a marine plant which builds a calcium "skeleton." This stuff--much coveted for the beauty it gives the rocks as it spreads--breaks like a dry cracker (normally cutting my hands before it breaks). It grows in hues of reds and purples from deep to pastel. The size of the first cluster which is layering quite gorgeously in the shade of a rock is no bigger than my thumnail. The other pic is a closeup of the piece you can see just up in the top left of the first pic.

It looks beautiful here growing on the rocks, but it is a PITA (pain in the ass) to keep it off the viewing sides of the glass, requiring a very sharp edge to scratch the glass clean of the stuff.

St. John's

A couple of photographs from the city of St. John's.

The houses are typical of the city's architecture. There was a lovely row of colourful homes where I took this shot, but a bloody family van automobile and some road construction barricades forced me to compose the photo tightly.

The statue is outside the Basilica, to the right of the main entrance steps. I couldn't find a single Catholic the whole trip in Newfoundland so I don't know who the fellow is.

Steve

Fiction

I actually wrote fiction today. Packed up my laptop and went off to Starbucks to write.

Nothing new, I just hacked about 1,600 words off a story I wrote a few years ago. Peeled off the back story stuff, which I'd clung to so ferociously when in the first drafts. Wonderful what a few years of distance can do. I would have still left some of it in, but I was shortening the story so I could submit it for publication and wanted to get the length down to a more magazine friendly length, so the delete button was smoking.

I don't dare post it here, for fear that constitutes "previously published," ruining my grand chances of it getting published. Ahem.

Besides most who read this have likely heard me read from the damn story anyway -- not like I pump the stuff out in volume.

Anyway, here's how it starts -- with an italicized flashback:

"Leaving a trail of wet footprints on the cement of a pool deck, two boys move toward the change room, yelling and snapping towels. Both will be big men, you can see it already in the broadness of the shoulders and the vascular rivers traced across forearms. The darker of the two boys fiddles with a combination lock as he swings a hip against his fair haired friend who has just pulled a sticking bathing suit to his knees. An arm comes up, grabbing, to avoid a fall and a wrestling match from the pool resumes. A tangle of arms and legs, the boys bang against a locker and then down against the wooden planks of the bench bisecting the corridor of metal lockers. Laughing with false menace the two wrangle onto the damp cement floor, bare skin slapping against the cold surface. The wrestling continues, urgent now, until both gasp at wetness against bellies and thighs.
They shower in silence, a grin rising often on the lips of the fair haired boy. He reaches for the shoulder of his friend as they move back to the locker room – the touch is roughly shrugged off. “Hey man, what’re ya doing? Ya becoming a fag, or what?” the olive skinned boy says. Fighting a curious anger, he laughs weakly as he speaks, avoids the eyes of his fair friend whom he realizes he wants to pummel."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Also, I know I am remiss in not getting my Newfoundland photos resized and put in an online album for all to see. Here's a shot across The Narrows -- the entrance to the St. John's harbour. I was playing with depth of field, hoping to keep foreground and the distance all in focus.

Hiroshima

A description, in the Globe & Mail, of survivors of the Hiroshima bombing 60 years ago:

"Some carried their eyeballs in their hands."

Thar she (didn't) blow

Went whale watching out of St. John's when in Newfoundland. Did so last time too. Two for two -- nada a whale. Although 2 years ago we did see whales from shore. But, as with fishing, put me in a boat and god's creatures of the sea vamoose. I'm amazed my aquarium fish are visible when I'm in the room.

In any event the boat ride was wonderful in the sun of the trip's only really sunny day, and the coast magnificent. The shot is somewhere between Signal Hill and Cape Spear as seen from the Atlantic Ocean.

Steve

Newfoundland

Spent several very relaxing days in the company of friends in Newfoundland. Have much to blog about, and many photos (I hope they ar worthy) to share in the coming days, but for now, a single photo of (appropriate given the crowd I was running with)Ferryland, specifically the rugged shoreline along the point on which sits the Ferryland lighthouse.