Rogerstuff

prisoners

2010-05-27T14:14:00.002+08:00

identifying things - like satellites

2010-05-27T14:14:00.001+08:00

some times I sit in the garden and count the bird species I see. I say
there names as I spot them; ring-neck parrot or 28 ( I don't know how
they get 28 out of its screech - sounds nothing like 28 to me), willy
wag-tail or chitty-chitty (and it does go chitty chitty that one),
silver eye, blue wren etc. If I dont know the name I make one up:
cockle-ockle bird for instance. It must be like what happens with the
satellite spotters; you feel much more comfortable having given them a
name.

peace of mind`

2010-05-26T11:13:00.001+08:00

It must give you great peace of mind to know for sure that a
particular little light is smxr5. Or what-ever.

hmmm

2010-05-26T11:11:00.001+08:00

Theres a world wide community of satellite spotters. They apply naming
attributes to small lights that move across the sky in the early
evening and just before dawn. There is no room for error; each little
light is what it is and you can't be calling an cmbr1 a sfxr5. There
is only a narrow window of opportunity to attach the name to a given
light because they bugger off quite quickly. The best thing is, they
come back an hour or two later so you get to do it again. Its better
than comet spotting because most of them don't come back for, like,
eighty or, maybe, a thousand years and some don't ever come back.

looking up for a dingo's breakfast

2010-05-25T19:29:00.002+08:00

Email to Andrew Williams chief astronomer at Perth observatory:

Hello Andrew,
I think this question may be one of a million you get but I can't see where else to direct it... sorry in advance!
I saw two bright lights travelling in an ENE direction over Busselton at 5:50 am monday 24th may - one trailing the other and moving quite rapidly. Perhaps 30 seconds from over head to 2 o'clock. they were above the clouds, appearing repeatedly in the gaps, too far apart to be a single aircraft and looking more like satelites. I'm wondering if they were the space station and the shuttle lit up bright just before dawn.
Any chance of that?
Best regards
Roger Paine (OWSATSAL)
One Who Stares At The Sky A Lot

Hi Roger, I'd say it probably was the Shuttle and ISS - I had a look on Heavens Above (http://www.heavens-above.com), and it shows the ISS as being visible at around 5:50am on the 24th - entering your exact latitude and longitude would give you a better estimate. The shuttle has just docked with the ISS recently, but seperate shuttle predictions aren't available on Heavens Above until it undocks again.

Andrew

nya nya nya I saw the space shuttle and the ISS in one go. How cool is that.

ay? some more

2010-05-25T18:30:00.000+08:00

Answer to comment left in previous ay? Wouldnt go into the comments box for some googin reason - my bits in italic:

I think the fossil record is best described by cataclysm, moving water building up sedimentary layers and burying animals.

How many cataclysms are you allowing and are they sufficiently far apart to account for the regular switching in the direction of magnetised chrystal stuctures in intermediate volcanic rock layers which is caused by the semi-regular switching of the earths magnetic poles - I think its happens about once every 50k years. It can be verified by sampling the lava flows outward from the mid atlantic fault in the directions of america and africa. These structures also indicate the time that has elapsed since the eurpean/african and american continents separated. Do the cataclysms also allow for the extinction of species that coincide with the spread of man across the globe - ie giant marsupials that had the run of Australia until about 30k years ago just after the first homo-saps turned up. For that matter, does it provide for the genetic evidence avaliable in all humanity that shows clearly the route of the migration out of africa toward the end of the last ice age of homo saps and the points along the route where individuals settled and whos perdecessors still occupy those places. The genetic record of this migration is remarkably complete and any theory of the origin of man must take it in to account. Not-only-but-also, does it allow for the steady development of hominids over the last 7 million years including the various dead end branches such as homo floriensis, neandathalensis and perhaps homo robustus. Does it explain how fossils are found in layers that date back to the precambrian and beyond but rarely if ever include examples of one species unchanged in adjacent or more separated layers? Does it allow cross referencing of estimations of age by several different technologies? And on neanderthals, does it account for the interbreeding of the early european homo sapiens with the then resident neanderthals which is evident in the genetic record. Can it also account for the regular steady mutation of genes that can be compared between related species and provide a good indication of when two species shared a single common ancestor?

Evolution cannot account for the extra genetic information needed to add new advantageous changes, leading to a new type of animal.

the notion that genetic information cannot increase presupposes a value structure that places man at the top of an evolutionary pyramid. It is unfounded and false. Every species is adapted to its environment precisely because if it wasn't it would be eliminated by its competition and/or its environment. adaption to changes in environment is part of this. It doesn't make one species superior to another, it just makes it differently adapted. The process of genetic change is so long and slow that it is impossible to say when australopithecenes became homo erectus became homo habilis etc they blur one into the other and continue to do so all the way back to the beginning. seven million years back to our SINGLE common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos, an ancestor that probably looked as much like a chimpanzee as we do... not a lot.

Mutations are always about a loss of information. Small genetic re-sorting, via breeding and conditions, only lead to small changes that were already available within the gene pool, and not to new information leading to new types of creatures. i.e. A dog is still a dog no matter how many breeds you get.

Mutations are not about a loss of information. Where does that notion come from? Every single generation of every single species possesses (how many s's in that! Not a good scrabble word) mutations in its genome. Most dont do anything, almost all the rest compromise the survival of the individual. A very few enhance the survival of the individual and are passed on to successive generations. Whether this can be counted as a gain or a loss is I suppose evidenced by the number of what-evers that end up with the mutation and whether the mutation becomes the norm. And a dog was a wolf, although they can still breed they are very different creatures.

It seems it would be better to be skeptical about the laryngeal nerves "evidence", as like many other things,we may not know yet - just like many of the claims about vestigial organs which many, have now been proven to have a purpose - besides there are sound arguments shining a light on this - here's one - http://creation.com/is-the-human-pharynx-poorly-designed...

"Dysteleology has become very popular among many Darwinists, not because it is based on scientific evidence or on logic favouring evolutionism, but because it seems to be a useful argument against intelligent design which appeals to popular opinion. A problem with this argument is that Darwinists argue that the body is poorly designed, and conversely they also argue that science cannot make judgments about design because claims in this area are outside of science—judgments that science cannot entertain because it assumes purpose in nature. Either science can make judgments about design, or it cannot. Both cannot be true." (taken from above link)

This argument assumes that there IS design to make judgements about. Science cannot make judgments about design because there is no design to make judgements about. For someone who doesn't accept ID to discuss the physiology of a creature as if it were designed is absurd. Like arguing about whether a random bit of rock is well designed.
"Darwinists" or people who don't accept the ID view and who may or may not be religious or any shade between, do not claim that the body is poorly designed, they claim that if it were designed then is is a shoddy job. Those are two different critters: The former imposes a presupposition on the non ID camp - It says that the Darwinists (is that some kind of id put down?) reckon God did a bad job of design. It takes the whole notion out of context and manipulates it into something that will inflame the ire of the ID camp. It polarises and causes division. The truth is that your Darwinists don't reckon God did anything.
Dysteology, like transpermia, has been manipulated by IDers to suggest that non-IDers are saying something entirely other than what they actually are.

"This design allows speech in humans—the only life form on Earth that has complex language—which is a major reason why Darwinists argue that a descended larynx must have evolved first, and only later was speech able to evolve."

Does this suppose that language suddenly came about? That would be silly. Language is used in limited ways by many animals, not only primates and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the further one receeds into our evolutionary past, the less language adapted we become and the more limited our vocalisations. Better communication back on the savannah would mean better chances of survival. The best grunters prevailed. That easy.
and this: It (choking) is most common in very young children, often caused by swallowing small toys, hard candy or gum—all things that small children should not have.

Should not have? How is that science? Should an evolutionist jump on this and claim that IDers cite the existence of irresponsible parents feeding chewing gum to children as proof of Intellegent Design? It is included in evidence in this article. Clearly not, it would be distorting the intent of the author which is not nice.

The information scientist have great stuff on the intelligence needed to manage the DNA - check out this - http://creation.com/meta-information.

"But this is just evolutionary speculation; it is not experimental evidence."

And saying God done it is experimental evidence?
Para 3&4 of this article give a scientific viewpoint and a metaphysical alternative. The latter has nothing in that raises it above the former, it hinges on the dead end assumption that God did it: It proves nothing, predicts nothing and cannot be tested. You might as well say that the earth is the centre of the universe and that gallileo was wrong and all the evidence to the contrary is a misreading of the actuality because of presuppositions and philosophical meanderings that allow a distorted view of the universe. Flat is the earth and cursed be the naysayers.

I find this stuff far more compelling, than the stuff evolution try's to sell. And that's not to speak about the social and spiritual ramifications of origins belief.

Social and spiritual ramifications of evolutionary theory... is this where we equate Darwin with Hitler? I'm an evolutionists and I also mow my neighbours lawn because she can't.
Social harmony is essential to the survival of the group. The savannah group that did not co-operate did not eat. Social mores are not the hallowed ground of religion, they are like everything else, evolutionary advantages. As for spiritual ramifications, I rather think the spiritual ramifications of religion are more to be concerned about than the spiritual ramifications of evolution. More than half the world is being crushed under the loving hand of religion.

I think the real course of action is to test as many claims as possible in the light of opposing arguments.

absolutely, I'm into that. I think one should also take care not to fall into the trap of always asking someone whom we know will give the answer we desire. And we are all vulnerable to that.

There is so much more to the intelligent design/creation scientists research than comes out in the popular media. And they are real scientists - it's only camouflage and blocking to create a false dichotomy of Science and Religion - it really sheds no light on the real arguments.

What is camouflage and blocking? Are you talking about a conspiracy by some party? Many religious people are not IDers - even the catholics have embraced evolution and it took them 400 years to forgive galilaeo. I know many more evangelical religions claim the pope is of the devil and so doesn't count. Thats like the JW who I chatted with who objected to me refferring to anything by a particular ex-jw on the grounds that he was apostate and therefore could not be listened to. Attack the messenger was his method, it mattered not one iota what the message said, just who said it.
Only 0.025% of scientists accept ID as having plausibility - thats 25/1000. How is it that the 975/1000 are all on the wrong track? You have to invoke so much magic to pull that one off that you may as well go the flat earth.

But like I said it's all about the bias one uses to interpret the evidences, and how much we want to protect that precious position.

I think the first thing is to suspect that nothing is true then start sorting out what you can know for sure from that which is uncertain. I don't hold that the evolutionist position is especially precious, I see it grow and change as more and more discoveries are made that refine it. I don't see that in the ID camp, I see information being manipulated and coerced to fit an ideology. As for bias, I think most bias can be ironed out by the scientific principals of evidence and peer review.
P.S. Francis Crick (DNA) reverted to transpermia and so did Richard Dawkins, which Dawkins can be shown on Ben Steins Expelled Doco.

What is the problem with transpermia? It reads like its paedophilia or something. Why should we seal off the earth and ask how did life begin on earth? Chop off the last bit and ask - how did life begin? Why does it matter where it began? I'm not saying it began out in space and if I was then the question would become "how did life begin out in space". Transpermia is not an alternative of saying God did it. When you say God did it, thats the end of the story - theres no room for discussion there, its absolute. End of story, dont give it another moment's thought.
Transpermia does not do that, conversely, it looks for the place on, or off, the earth where the conditions were right for the first self replicating molecule to occur. That doesn't appear to dodge the question; it just considers it.
And, theres more than meets the eye to Ben Steins doco by all accounts, it should be subjected to critical analysis not just accepted.

tour of california

2010-05-24T19:54:00.000+08:00

Some people say that watching cycling is as exciting as watching paint dry (not a good analogy for me - I love watching paint dry) or grass grow (I feel that I should be more in tune with nature and take time to enjoy watching grass grow but its hard around our house as we are in the process of drought proofing it).
But the last stage of the Tour of California was actually edge of the seat drama: the top three locked together with barely a bee's dick separating them and a bunch off the front getting set to take the stage and the bonus points, the attacks were coming one after the other - Leipheimer blasting off the front only to be reeled in by the rest of the very elite bunch, no sooner back together than Zabriski is off his seat and going the charge. And they went at it again and again, pulling out every trick and ounce of power they had to shake the leader but he didn't falter; Mick Rogers just needed to hang in there, stay with those guys and it was his and he did it with poise and strength. And isn't it good to see an understated salute across the line - just one arm raised in victory, no me me me pointing the fingers or chest pounding. Nicely done Mick.

metal

2010-05-24T12:43:00.000+08:00

I was surprised at the amount of screws and metal they attached to my
clavicle

ay?

2010-05-18T10:54:00.001+08:00

how can there exist an infinite number of stars which, it follows,
must have infinite volume and still have spaces between them? Either
there is not an infinite number of stars or the infinite space which
contains the infinite volume of star stuff is bigger than the infinite
volume of star stuff.
seems to me that star number must be finite.

time on my hands

2010-04-13T15:01:00.001+08:00

arrrrrg

2010-04-12T16:59:00.000+08:00

they have been mucking with the clocks again - each minute an hour and
the Cook-oo in the clock appears to have buggered off. my mind is
turning to jelly - am i going to sit here gathering cobwebs no light,
not even any tunnel. Just a stupid computer screwing my eyes arrrrrg
going nuts in here and theres bars on the window - perhaps I need an
indian to rip them out of the wall - I'll follow him out across the
plains of nevercome
stop fucking with the clocks
where's my indian

Growth

2010-04-09T14:03:00.001+08:00

Growth growth growth is all our politicians are on about; big
Australia, more skilled workers, ageing population and growth; dig it
up quicker, ship it out fast, take short cuts hurry hurry hurry.
Don't they realise that growth is terminal? Everything that grows
dies. Growth is not sustainable, it eats resources, destroys the
environment, and brings with it an ever widening gap between rich and
poor with more poverty and fewer mega-rich.
Stop growing - stabilise

Vasse River

2010-04-07T07:24:00.001+08:00

Cool morning sunlight guilds leaves fallen on still surface a maze of darker trails left by duck wanderings through veridean blue-green algal scum

hmmm

2010-03-31T15:17:00.002+08:00

seems to me that a lot of our politicians, especially the current
gov't and most especially Kev and Julia, talk in newspaper headlines -
three or four word impact phrases that they repeat ad nauseum. GREAT
BIG NEW TAX, WORKING FAMILIES, GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS, the list goes
on... Who are they talking down to with that crap? I find it
condescending and patronising as well as monotonous. It sounds a lot
like it is generated by some PR firm that has tickets on itself. The
other party seems to be getting infected with it as well, although
perhaps, in a more retaliatory and slightly sarcastic manner.
I reckon they should jam all that up their collective jacksy and learn
to talk proper.

entropy 2

2010-03-30T14:53:00.001+08:00

gain of entropy eventually is nothing more nor less than loss of
information. Gilbert Newton Lewis

entropy

2010-03-30T14:45:00.001+08:00

is the origin of the universe implicit in the second law of
thermodynamics? If entropy increases over time, there must have been a
time in the past when there was zero entropy.

ha!

2010-03-24T10:56:00.001+08:00

Abstract Art: A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.
Albert Camus
I've got the first two nailed... just need the utterly bewildered.

Hmmmm

2010-03-24T10:52:00.000+08:00

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.
Jean-Paul Sartre

crows after sunset

2010-03-20T21:46:00.001+08:00

dark dark dark

foreshore

2010-03-20T18:18:00.000+08:00

I saw a couple, a fit looking fellow and a stunning young woman, he's pushing a stroller and a child you can't see, one of those three wheeled funky looking ones and she's walking at his side. He's being strong and gentle with the stroller and she is being adoring, looking at him like he is God incarnate and she's glowing so bright that it lights his face and and his way. They are so much there that the rest of the world barely exists; the very ground they walk on comes into being as the single front wheel of the stoller rolls over it and dissappears as his heel leaves it. They are in a bubble of existance, the three of them; not so much a triangle as a sphere for they are linked in ways more complex than can be obtained in euclidean space: They are entwined like a vine.
When they look out of their sphere of existence it is as if they are looking out from a porthole of a spaceship into a realm with which they share nothing, as if all else passes on a screen and to which they are mainly oblivious. The ground beneath their feet needs no thickness, so light is their touch, they barely cast shadows even in the hard bright sunlight of the foreshore walk.
Together the three of them bask in a light of timeless contentedness, completeness and joy which they, themselves emit and that those few who see it from afar, as all others are, are privilaged to so do.

with birds

2010-03-19T13:00:00.000+08:00

the difference between a diversion and a direction

2010-03-19T09:19:00.000+08:00

4960

2010-03-13T08:06:00.000+08:00

the flash has blown this out a bit... a lot actually. I'll have another go later

4961

2010-03-13T08:04:00.001+08:00

spiral

2010-03-11T15:48:00.001+08:00

This was drawn in Rhino for Mac

On painting

2010-03-10T10:42:00.002+08:00

Abstract painting should exhibit a harmony over the entire surface such that no particular element or area attracts and holds the eye. The painting should allow the eye to flow within it's boarders,
constantly moving from interest to interest, never settling for more than a moment. When a painting does not do these things, when it has an element that catches the eye, it begins to nag like a hook; it becomes a disharmony, blocking the flow. That goes for anything that begins to look like something as well as any ncongruent shape. When I look at my work and find myself drawn over and over to the same element, I know the painting is not finished, even if, the offending element is pleasing in and of itself. The decision has to be made to either change the rest of the painting to accommodate the element or change the element so that it fits harmoniously into the whole work.
This how the painting is generated; first come some random marks, brush strokes, splashes, colours and textures. Next the marks must be aesthetically analysed, not empirically, intuitively. Then the disharmony in the image becomes apparent and may be addressed, the painting is refined somewhat and is again analysed. This becomes a self sustaining cycle that continues until the eye finds no hooks - at that point the painting is finished.

4959

2010-03-03T07:37:00.000+08:00

On time (from a previous post)

2010-03-02T09:49:00.001+08:00

Time travel cannot happen - there is no future to travel to unless the
universe is eternal, which is contrary to current theory. If it is
accepted that time and space began at the big bang, it follows that
the universe did not exist before that and it can only exist, as it
happens, moment by moment, subsequent to that event. To say otherwise
would imply that the universe began before it began so that it could
expand into something that had already happened in its future there-by
requiring that it never began.

Travel into the past is also precluded by the same argument - travel
into our past is, for those in our past, travel from the future. Can't
happen.

The problem with synchronised clocks showing different times is just a
trick of the light. That goes for worm holes & black holes too.

4958

2010-03-02T06:35:00.000+08:00

convenienter , amo nex , penuria motus.

2010-03-01T21:37:00.003+08:00

consistency, like death, lacks motion.

Karri Cup from the side lines

2010-03-01T16:12:00.000+08:00

Sunday saw the running or maybe thats riding of the Karri Cup mountain bike race at Northcliffe WA. There are two distances raced; 100km over 4 stages and 50km over two stages - the two races share the last two stages. Northcliffe, a small community embedded in the Karri forests of the southwest, was very friendly with the town putting on great provisions and hospitality for the competitors and supporters. They clearly love the event. Many competitors took advantage of the opportunity to camp on the town oval right on the start line.
The race attracted around 450 competitors from around the state and ran through forest trails, single track and farmlands. By the end of stage one the riders were looking a bit grubby with dust and sweat - by the end of the race a layer of sweaty mud covered every exposed bit of flesh. There were some good opportunities to see the riders in action to be had if one followed the roads and waited at places where the course crossed - some nice walks in the forest for those who were not riding.
Waiting by the track for the riders was made extra interesting by the number of march flys that were intent on vamping your blood; they were thick and unrelenting. I did find out that when people were not there to eat, they feed off the marri blossom, of which there was an abundance, hence, when slightly squashed, they smell like honey. I mentioned that they would probably be alright to eat and the ranger I was standing near assured me that he had seen it done.
By all reports the ride, whether racing or not, was tough and hot with lots of hills. Careful attention to fluid intake and nutrition was especially important for sustained hard work. The fire trucks parked by the oval after the finish gave welcome hose downs to the exhausted riders.
The Busselton mob put in a good appearence with 100kers Rohan Brown 4th over-all and first in catagory, Rod Brown third in catagory, Wendy Paine first in catagory for the 50k distance & in front of half the rest of the entire 50k field. 100kers Tony Best & Steve Arthur improved their previous times, first timer Joe Reither finished looking way too comfortable and a very dusty looking Susan Arthur happily exceeded her own expectation.
Personally, I was dissappointed to be left out due to a broken clavicle sustained in training even though everyone looked well and truely smashed by the time they finished; they all looked like they had enjoyed themselves immensely.
The attitude of the competiton was nicely stated on the back of the event shirt "If you see me lying by the track, please pick me up, dust me off and put me back on my bike"
Next year I'm on the bike, not on the side

Hmmm

2010-02-24T11:15:00.001+08:00

From a personal perspective, the continuing existence of the universe
depends entirely on my continued lucidity.

4957 (how many crows make a murder?)

2010-02-22T07:43:00.003+08:00

Is time river-like or book-like? Are we carried along in a flow that has a begining and, perhaps, an end or does each moment follow the previous moment in descrete quanta or frames with each frame being built from the present on-the-fly?

The time-like-a-river scenario implies that all time comes into existence at the beginning of time which seems absurd - it would require that time precedes space in the expansion of the universe.
In quantum time, each frame would be a discrete minimum moment acting on a quantum scale determined by the state of the present. Each corpuscle of space-time is determined by the prior seed and the state of its neighbors; much like the simple rules that determine the movement of flocks of birds or shoals of fish. Neither past nor future, in this thinking, exists - there is only now. As in the flock analogy, were you to photograph the flying flock and then look for the arrangement of birds as photographed, you would not find it - it is gone forever, it's flocked off for good.
(( if you tell someone to flock off, what you are suggesting is that she become a member, together with all her constituent parts, of a coherent flock-like entity and by the application of certain basic rules, go away )).
On the surface there seems to be an issue with relativity - that identical clocks show different rates of time in accordance with their relative velocities - but i think that can be thought through and resolved.
So, we see, that the background noise of quantum fluctuations is not only particles popping into, and out of, existence but also the present unfolding.
That's how you do the relativity work around - time happens discretely for every quantum fluctuation - you sail off on a sea of quantum fluctuations, you can hardly expect that the place you left is going to keep in step until you get back. As you accelerate, relative to a stationary observer, you pass from instant to instant more slowly because your position in the sea of quantum fluctuations changes quicker - all matter and all events must, therefore, be waves.
Everything - on the quantum scale is permanently in motion because the universe is expanding - picture space-time as matrix of quantum corpuscles all moving away from each other with the new spaces immediately occupied by a new fluctuation corpuscle - the density remains the same in flat space but is affected by gravity such that the scale decreases as gravitational force increases. An initial frame with a 2x2 matrix becomes a 3x3 matrix in the next frame (instant) - an additional 19 corpuscles in frame 2 (3 cubed - 2 cubed = 19.) Gravity (mass) and the atomic forces have a relationship to the expanding background such that the average value of the local fluctuations - each dependent on it's seed and state of its neighbors - prevents a massive object from expanding with the matrix, hence, we see the universe expanding but not the objects in it - if it were other, we would not notice the expansion because we would be expanding with it.
If all that exists is the present moment determined by the dynamics of the previous moment but all moments are static so how can they also be dynamic? Must be because of the fluctuations... like everything that existed in moment one ceases to exist in moment 2 but for every 4 existing particles in frame one there are 13.5 in frame two and theres the rub - nothing can remain the same from one instant to the next because you cant have half a corpuscle - the matrix can never be balanced.
So, your stock standard crow, flying black on iridescent blue, a croaking
arc across the sky is really a gravitationally coherent, atomically
bounded particle waveform propagating through consecutive frames of unstable
proliferating matrices of quantum uncertainty which, on average, allow
it get where-ever the crow it wants to go.
Unless there's three or more - then they're a murder.
not a flock...
thus it does you no good to tell a tree full of noisy crows to flock off.
They simply won't know what the flock you're on about.

Perhaps it follows that you have free-will by virtue of the
instability of the matrix and the non-expanding property of matter
contained there-in (why the crow gets to where it wants to go and why,
even, it wants to go at all...). predestination is static throughout
space-time and presupposes river like time where-as quantum time is
static only in its local frame yet must evolve into the next frame due
to odd numbers cubed divided by two resulting in impossible half
states - hence time and the physics of the universe that allow
freewill to develop.
Any matter can potentially have free will - even
a rock, it just hasn't got organised (an evolutionary process).

ark ark ark

2010-02-16T12:28:00.002+08:00

I've got lots of nice colour paints in tubes in the drawer and lots of
pastels in boxes - all very nice but I just like umber and black and
white. Sometimes I think its on account of I'm too lazy to squeeze the
tubes; mostly though, I find that when I use colour, I get a peculiar
anxiety come over me, a feeling that something false is happening. I
tend to complicate things with colour, maybe its because I don't use
enough of it and then when I do, I can't deal with it.
On decreasing moral / ethical obligation relative to distance from
ones social sphere (see previous post): This is not to say that you
can be rude to someone you don't know, for any communication with
anyone, no matter if you know them or not, brings them directly into
your own social sphere. It doesn't mean you're going to care
particularly whether they live or die, it simply requires you be civil
and friendly. But if a the earth opens up and swallows a bunch of
villagers in outer Bolivistan it doesn't make you come on all teary.
The Bolivistanians are so far from you socially that the law of
decreasing give-a-shit simply makes them irrelevant.
The law says: moral responsibility decreases by the square of social distance.
- Same as gravity. I think this may be a part of the grand unification
of everything.
There is no such thing as good and evil - "natural evil" is just
earthquakes and bad weather, moral evil is just someone being a prick
- breaking the first law of moral responsibility.
"Natural good" is when your tomatoes don't get bottom rot and the
butterflies leave some cabbage for you. Moral good is when people live
within the scope of the first law.

2010-02-15T07:13:00.000+08:00

sunday14 feb 2209hrs

2010-02-14T22:09:00.003+08:00

the exhibition opened last night. They put together a good show and a great colour catalog. I didn't get a mention in the curators' essay and my painting was upstairs, kind of off to the side, in a smallish room. I feel like it was a scrape in rather than a oh thats good in. I hope it doesn't come home at the end of the show but i expect it will.
hows that for negative ay?
Anyhow, my painting generally tends toward the ugly end of nice - the thing i have on the easel currently is especially horrid - a network of whitish lines on an umber surface that is based on the tracks left through the bush by loggers - tracks that dont go anywhere and end in loops where the log trucks turned around. the bush is a burnt smashed remnant of its former timeless glory, scared by greed's harsh hand. Accidentally, the lines and splashes of paint have become a nightmare death-mask which is appropriate i guess. And, incidentally, the lines and spots of paint have something in common with certain Aboriginal rock art - wandjinas or those map paintings...
most of the southwest is infected with this network of logging trails.

does ethical responsibility decrease by the square of social distance?

mtb

2010-02-01T10:14:00.002+08:00

my painting has been collected for the SW Survey. the opening is 13.02.2010. That will be interesting.
Had a major get off the bike yesterday - over the handlebars and splat busted collarbone. In a detached way, the experience was interesting - I can see that it will become less so over the next few days; its difficult to maintain the detached observer status of your own painful and incapacitated condition.

2010-01-14T19:06:00.001+08:00

the picture in the previous post

2009-12-29T20:48:00.002+08:00

the picture in the previous post is my painting for the Southwest Survey... I got selected. I will upload another image of the probably finished painting tomorrow maybe... It has come along quite nicely. I have called it "untitled".
I have also started a second painting that will hopefully be finished before the pick-up deadline. That way I'll have a choice of paintings for the show and choice is freedom is choice as I like to say. Jolly good stuff.

woteva

2009-12-14T07:50:00.003+08:00

Hmmm

2009-10-03T11:17:00.001+08:00

On receiving a tsunami warning, a significant number of people will head straight for the beach to watch it come in.

art

2009-10-03T11:05:00.002+08:00

My picture got highly condemded and they gave me $100. Nice ay. This must be what it's like to be famous.

my painting...

2009-09-12T20:21:00.002+08:00

the painting that I am currently involved in is nearly finished. It is to go in the local art prize next week. Although I don't think it will win, I am, on the whole, pleased with it.
I asked my wife to come and have a look at it this afternoon. She said it had nothing that she could relate to and was just too much contrast and indecipherable shapes. She asked how long I had until the exhibition and suggested that if I wanted my work to get hung in it, let alone have a chance of selling, that I should paint something that someone may understand, or be able to relate to, at least some aspect of.
She said that she could get no meaning from it and that most people would give it 5 seconds and forget it.
As my main thrust in the work is to paint something meaningless and indecipherable, I think the critique went well.
I have doubts though, about its thorough meaninglessness and indecipherability. After-all, if it's intended meaning is meaninglessness then it is self defeating.

4867

2009-09-09T21:17:00.002+08:00

hmmm pt2

2009-09-05T18:18:00.004+08:00

this morning I did a 120 km bike ride from busso south and through the hills east of Margaret River. It was cold and very windy with squally showers and hail. About as tough as a bike ride gets around here.
I also did some work on my painting - mixed up a container of paper maché stuff (mashed office paper with water acrylic house paint, pva glue and lap adhesive). I used it like filler to smooth off the raggedy edges where I smashed it with the hammer and tore it with the pliers. I had a fair bit left over so I added texture areas which I'll have to paint over. That's not going to happen real soon, as the stuff takes a few days to dry. I might be able to get a bit of colour on it tomorrow with the air brush, but, I want to get it set hard so I can slop some black on it and rub it back to enhance the texture.
Both these things were very satisfying.
I also solved the rubiks cube last night. Phew, that was a mission - I been trying to crack that for 20 years I reckon.

hmmm

2009-09-02T21:04:00.002+08:00

between now and december I can do art or ironman... I'm not sure I can do both. Which is the best use of these three months? Which is the greater waste of time?
I paint pictures.
I do triathlon that I can finish without walking the run.
I am a bit excited by the picture on the easel, but, ain't that always the way
I've finished two Ironman Australia and three halfs...
I've never had a solo exhibition
Perhaps I should do that

4865

2009-09-01T08:01:00.001+08:00

4864

2009-08-29T09:46:00.002+08:00

ahhh, that's better

4863

2009-08-28T21:29:00.002+08:00

the flash has flattened this out - the blueish areas are actually 25mm behind the surface. It will go better when I get a chance to phot it in daylight.

on text

2009-08-28T20:16:00.002+08:00

text limits activity: if a art is begun with a idea it will be limited by it.
It becomes an illustration of the idea, the text.
Art with "no idea" has greater potential than art proceeded by text.

4860

2009-08-27T17:34:00.002+08:00

4862

2009-08-27T17:31:00.001+08:00

4859

2009-08-27T14:54:00.003+08:00

I had a visit from a couple of people who are curating an exhibition of work by south west artists - I saw their publicity and responded - anyway they came and spent an hour looking at my work. They have 150 artists to visit. That will be a mission.
I'll find out in sept sometime if they want to include me in their show.

4858

2009-08-25T07:42:00.002+08:00

4849

2009-05-14T07:54:00.002+08:00

4848

2009-05-13T07:45:00.002+08:00

4846

2009-05-10T21:48:00.002+08:00

4845

2009-05-06T20:59:00.004+08:00

4844

2009-04-30T07:57:00.002+08:00

4841

2009-04-20T07:33:00.002+08:00

Ironman 2009 finish

2009-04-14T07:27:00.005+08:00

12 hours 15 minutes 21 seconds

red crow

2009-04-14T07:24:00.003+08:00

nuffing

2009-03-16T21:16:00.006+09:00

flight of the crow

2009-03-15T18:43:00.004+09:00

I think this painting is finished, nearly. What I mean is, I can't think of anything else to do to it.
Composition check
contrast check
hue check
texture check
history check

stand up and show em what u got

2009-03-13T18:15:00.002+09:00

looking for a more committed brush stroke

2009-03-10T07:54:00.001+09:00

strange tales from the shed

2009-03-09T19:59:00.004+09:00

I think the stick painting has got legs although it also has a lot of severe technical issues. I will need to find a way to stop it falling to bits. That's not all bad though.
The other one is going alright - I'm thinking the fish give it a bit of a foundation. They are kind of still where nothing else is, which has a certain irony.Up close, the texture is quite amazing.
I wonder what makes a painting good.
Probably others have wondered the same thing a number of times since man first started scratching marks on rocks. I'm not sure the question has been answered effectively.

bit fishy

2009-03-02T18:11:00.002+09:00

Bit fishy... I had a nice day - monday public holiday and monday is a no training day so I put in a full day on the canvas. I'm a bit over the fish, they have been slowly fading into the background and the whole thing is becoming more abstract. I think it would look nice in black.
Saturday was a 170km bike with a thumping 30kt breeze and a 7 k run to finish off - pretty hard - then sunday was the big geo bay swim for which I was a volunteer. Had a 21 k run in the arvo; not long after I started the sky, which had been cloudy all day, cleared and it suddenly got really hot. I was pretty smashed at the end of that.

the golden etak

2009-02-26T18:33:00.000+09:00

Some Polynesian navigators once used a way of measuring distance that involved lining up an island with a series of stars as they sailed. The island was called the etak island and the distance travelled between consecutive alignments of the island and the star sequence were called etaks. Often the etak island would be below the horizon, so its position was estimated. Not only, but also, the distance between the etak stars was not regular on top of which the sky itself turns through the night. This means that the etak is a highly variable unit of distance and of very limited real usefulness.
However, I feel that the etak has a natural dynamic quality to it that surely places it amongst the most beautiful units of measurement ever devised. It can mean anything and one etak is never the same as any other etak. How good is that?
I think it should be adopted instead of the kilometer but using middle distant and far distant landscape features instead of stars and islands. Perhaps clouds and distant trees would do the job. The etak tree aligns with the tall cumulous cloud - the etak tree aligns with the small fluffy cloud... distance travelled 1 etak. Nice.
How far is it from home to somewhere you want to be? Maybe 3 and a half etaks. What about how far it is from where you are to somewhere you dont want to be? 40 etaks?
And how long does it take to travel one etak? Obviously it takes one etak. Time and distance can be measured with the same unit - the top limiting velocity in the universe is... one etak and so is snail's pace.
How long does it take to ride your bike from here to there? That really depends on how many etaks it is from here to there.
You could also base a geometry on it - to draw a line one etak long - You have an etak point, say a cake crumb, somewhere on your desk and imagine a line that passes from the tip of your pencil through it and on to an etak terminal object such as a tea cup. You then select terminal object 2 which may be the near end of a banana and commence drawing your line. When your imaginary etak line connects the tip of the banana through the cake crumb to the pencil tip you stop. That line is one etak long. Nice.

f'sh

2009-02-24T21:10:00.002+09:00

f'sh part 1

2009-02-24T21:05:00.000+09:00

F'sh had been studying the rift image for some time; recording the fluctuations in luminescence and hue in an effort to understand the phenomenon. The rift had first appeared in the private garden that fronted F'sh's cavern. Standing perhaps one and a part lengths in height, with some variation, from any angle the rift had a veil-in-motion quality; colour and light without apparent source or substance. Kaleidoscopic - the first description that came to mind was inadequate to describe the random aspect of its changing. It was more like the rapid skin light shows seen in the communications of squid.
F'sh had quickly ruled out refraction and reflection as sources for the thing on account of its persistence though-out the night — best viewed against a dark background at any time; its ghostly coruscating glow came most alive when all else was dark. In fact, on occasion, it substantially lit a considerable portion of the garden.
F'sh's recordings consisted, in the main, of the careful re-arrangement of aspects of her environment; mainly around the perimeter of the garden. The information so recorded could be read back in the manner of an abacus and complex computations could be realised on similar principals. F'sh had determined that substantial periodic fluctuations in brightness that she had observed were much akin to, yet not sychronised with nor of equal duration to, those of world-garden. Further-more, the intensity of the overlying random fluctuations in colour and brightness, she had concluded, were related to the long period changes; that is, the activity during the bright phases of the rift were much more intense than at other times. Yet, as testified to by the developing record of stones, shells and other private garden perimeter defining objects, not in a linear manner: greater randomness being observed through the transitional phases of the sequence than at the most intensely bright or darkest times.
F'sh was basically pleased with her record of the rift; while being an accurate record of her observations and the, she felt, far from complete deduced conclusions, its aesthetic qualities were in harmony with the overall garden and were starting to add a new and exciting quality to the longer story it told of her life in and around the cavern.
Her wakeful thoughts and even her dreaming became increasingly focused on her natural art and propensity to record; something that would normally occupy her on slightly more than an instinctual level. She even thought about it when she was abroad in the great world-garden hunting and gathering. It preoccupied her almost to the point of a dangerous decreased awareness of her immediate surroundings which would leave her vulnerable to ambush. Moments came when she found herself musing on the garden, it vivid in her mind, when survival required total attention on the hunt. She would shake herself out of her reverie, a visible quiver running through her body accompanied by a whirring tirade of self admonishing clicks then she would pause almost still as stone and carefully scan her surroundings for danger before resuming her hunt.
In the familiar environment of her own garden with the cavern at her back, F'sh was safe, secure and free to wonder; not only at the rift itself, but also her own raised consciousness come about due to her study and contemplation of the serendipitous harmonies, contrasts and complements that had transpired within her garden history.
A time came, however, when F'sh noticed an apparent misalignment of several significant stones that had to do with the record of timing and basic spacial aspects of the rift. The misalignment, although slight, had implications that would cascade through the entire garden perimeter and require a complex reassessment of some of her basic ideas about the rift. This puzzled and worried her more than a little for she regarded herself as an infallible keeper of times, her garden being an immaculate and comprehensive history of her occupation of the cavern. It was her personal mark of ownership of the garden and the cavern and a warning to any would-be trespassing hunter to think twice before committing an indiscretion and in which an error, even one so slight, would not only be intolerable, but would cast a shadow on f'sh's priority.
F'sh patiently worked her way back through the garden history, comparing the placement of object with her clear memory of events, searching for something that was out of place. She touched every stone, and shell, feeling and tasting the position of each, checking its alignment with the others in its vicinity, following each branch of logic to its end, retracing again and again her recordings and calculations but never did she find any error, nothing to account for the misalignment in the foundation stones. Retreating to the dark of the cavern, she worried over problem running through all the laws of WHAT-IS that she knew and increasingly it seemed to her that however unlikely, the rift itself must be moving. But how could it move? It wasn't a hunter otherwise it would have attacked her - or she it, yet the laws stated clearly that a mover is a hunter and only hunters move. But then, it wasn't a rock either.

not-so-bad

2009-02-22T19:40:00.002+09:00

Going by the experience of last weekend's training debacle, my hopes for this weekend were not great - somehow I had agreed to ride the long way (160km) to Augusta stay over on saturday night and do a 20km run through hills on sunday morning. I have to say I was less than enthusiastic by the time friday evening arrived. However, Saturday turned out to be the absolute perfect day for riding to Augusta with a sweet tail wind the whole way, no huge pressure etc. At about the 100 k mark Wendy and I took a diversion to Hamelin Bay and stopped for an icecream and watched the giant stingrays almost beaching themselves near the fish cleaning table and then finished off the ride. Wen stopped in Augusta at the 126k mark and I went on out to the lighthouse and back a couple of times to make up the 160. It was nice rolling hills with stunning views of the Southern Ocean and Flinders Bay all turquoise and sparkling in the sun. Then we had a pot of tea before I did the "run off the bike" for 15 minutes. After that we went swimming; just a flop around in the water to cool the legs, then lunch and a nanna-nap, then the pub for dinner and a bottle of cab merlot. Early to bed and a 20 k run out to the lighthouse and back in the morning - nice to run some hills for a change. After that we all went to brekky and had a bit of a relax before heading back to the bay for a 2k swim in quite rough water.
All up it was a bloody brilliant weekend with a great bunch of people.
When I got home, Wendy jumped on-line and paid my Ironman entry fee.
6 weeks to race.
When you decide to do Ironman there will be times when you wish you hadn't but there will be more times you're glad you did.

Training debacle

2009-02-14T12:25:00.002+09:00

I was planning to ride 150km much by myself which I don't really fancy and follow up with a half hour run. But I got swayed and decided to opt for the company and slightly shorter 140 k ride that a small group was doing. The downside being that the group has some fast riders in it and I was likely to get dropped. I was reassured by their plan that the first 50 km would be an easy pace warm up. 5:30 am start; they took off at a quicker than warm-up pace which increased so "this is a warm-up?" pace with the result that by the time we were 5 k out of town I'd decided that there must be something wrong with me, drifted off the back, turned around and went home for a few more hours sleep. Then I read an inspiring book by a solo sailor named David Lewis which relates his journey to Antarctica on ICE BIRD. This left me feeling quite inadequate and rather ordinary.

toilet paper conundrum

2009-02-14T12:15:00.003+09:00

There are two ways to hang a roll of toilet paper: new sheet to wall or new sheet forward. Also, I notice that the print on the paper is such that it favours the latter hanging. I cannot see any advantage in the new sheet to wall hanging scenario however, I've noticed that a lot of people hang it this way. I've wondered if its a female thing (I live in a house of females) and that perhaps the hang to wall scenario makes for an easier grab when seated but I can't see how. In addition, there is a males only toilet at work where-in one often finds the roll sheeted inwards. Is it a psychological thing? An expression of personality? Are inward roll hangers more introspective than outward hangers? Do male inward hangers, by preference, also pee in the end urinal farthest from the door?
Personally, I prefer the outward hanging camp but I'm also fairly introspective.
I dunno.

fish and tea cups

2009-02-02T07:53:00.000+09:00

if

2009-02-01T20:44:00.002+09:00

If god created the universe then he must be outside of the universe and all that is inside the universe including time. So if god is outside time (eternal), he could not have created the universe because the beginning of the universe was the beginning of time and the occurrence of an event ie creation of the universe, presupposes the existence of time which didn't exist before the beginning of the universe and if there was no time before the beginning of the universe then nothing could have happened.
Ah but now we suppose that god runs a time that is outside the universe and that in-time is a subset of god-time which means that god must exist within and be a subset of god-time but that can't be because god is the ultimate alpha and omega. If thats the case then you end up with a god that doesn't have time and is not able to do anything.
Not only but also, if god is perfect, does that mean perfect once, forever & unchanging, or perfect in a temporal sense:- perfect for today, perfect for yesterday, perfect for tomorrow where yesterday's perfect may not be the same as tomorrow's perfect. If we go with the former we have an unchanging god that is timeless and can't do anything, where-as the latter provides a god who changes subject to a temporal criteria which must be derived from within the universe (it is only from within the universe that we can perceive change on account of the afore-mentioned time thing). And if that's the case the criteria for change would seem to be the whim of man - man creating god daily in his own image.
Unless, of course he's running on god-time which implies that he exists in a god-universe that has its own physics including god-time which would have to mean that he's a subset of the over-universe and not ultimate.
There are some difficult time problems with being eternal, perfect and omnipresent.
You have to ask the question though - blind faith is the same as blind ignorance
Flat is the earth bro
And cursed be the nay-sayers.

written in a rush and unreviewed

2009 here it com

2009-01-03T21:14:00.002+09:00

I don't expect that I will black swan the art world this year or win lotto or any of that sort of stuff... there is a possibility that we (when speaking of yachting "we" is the correct way, not "I"; its not a royal "we", just that there is three blokes on the boat) anyway, we might just win a race as in first and fastest rather than on handicap which I call first and lastest. It was looking good today, halfway through the race we were well ahead and sailing our arses off. I said to the boys "now we're in the shit, never led before, where are we supposed to be going hahaha!" But it wasn't actually a joke because a few minutes later we rounded the wrong top mark, chucked the kite up and went fanging off only to realise seconds later that we had missed our mark and sailed ourselves firmly into last place. I was spewing but philosophically so. After that it all went to shit, we corrected our mistake then capsized with the kite up which is never much fun and even less when its blowing 22 knots plus. We went hell quick though. Don't reckon I've ever been so fast on a sharpie. We had a couple more swims on the next two laps which meant in the end we didn't even finish first and lastest. Oh well.
I've started training for Ironman Australia which is in April at Port MacQuarrie NSW. I'm fully expecting that at some point or points between now and then I'll get to thinking that putting my hand up for that was a bad idea. There's such a lot of training to do between now and then. I reckon I'm starting with a good base, probably better than last year.
I expect that between sailing and triathlon I'm going to find it hard to paint much, That could be good because it will give me time to think about the painting I'm doing. How's that for a bit of bullshit?
Fanging, arses and lastest aren't proper words according to this computer - and nor is realise but I know thats just crap american spelling.

wreck of the hesperus

2008-12-31T18:00:00.003+09:00

the FY Hesperus was a freighter that sank in a storm off the coast of Bird Island in the Indian Ocean. All hands were lost because the captain had sold all the life-boats to his mate - not the mate on the boat, his mate back home who owned a second-hand yacht yard. The crew were really pissed off when they found out but by then it was too late because the storm was upon them.
Several of the boys thought they could maybe float a sea container so they opened one up which happened to be full of life jackets packed in un-marked boxes and threw the whole lot overboard. One bloke mentioned that the boxes appeared to be floating pretty good but no-one heard on account of the wind whistling through the hand rails. Once they got it empty the elite bunch of blokes convinced the scumbag mob to lock them in and pitch the sealed container overboard. The scumbags hadn't quite got the full picture of how they were going to be left to fend for themselves while the officers and mess floated off to somewhere nice, Anyway, it didn't happen because the container was leaky and was never going to float to start with. The scumbag boys got some crowbars and shit and leavered the container to the edge of the deck where a sudden extra large wave pitched it into the sea. It sunk like a stone. Right after that the ship sunk like a stone too.
If you look closely you can see the angry scumbags and a pile of crow bars.

branew shadows of my black swan

2008-12-31T16:16:00.003+09:00

I've thought and I've thought and I've thought and I've finally come to the conclusion that I don't know what the fuck to think. (line from some French film about a murder in Africa - not a bad movie)

2008-08-23T18:04:00.002+08:00

this is the finished painting as exhibited at the Signature South West acquisitive art prize... gee, I hope I win. I'm going to buy a new skiff suit and a main sail and a pair of sailing boots and gloves and two titanium bidon cages for Wendy. Yeeeee haa! Come on my picture! Go go go!!!

ned

2008-07-20T19:47:00.004+08:00

why we can't grow things in pots

2008-07-20T19:11:00.002+08:00

4648

2008-07-20T18:03:00.001+08:00

4642

2008-07-16T21:53:00.002+08:00

yes... daughters commenting - I haven't paid them or nothing - just demanded with fatherly authority

4641

2008-07-15T07:53:00.003+08:00

4640

2008-07-13T21:08:00.004+08:00

careful now...

4638

2008-07-10T21:31:00.004+08:00

made some carefully considered compositional changes in the focal area

asdasda

2008-07-10T07:56:00.001+08:00

number 5

2008-07-06T20:47:00.003+08:00

today this painting looks alright.
I was one second slower on the time trial
the curly bits are working and its found a centre
two weeks and I've dropped a second
even the bits of smashed telephone are sitting nice
that puts me 27 seconds down on my first run at it
the marble dust & acrylic mix makes a good toothy surface
I'm supposed to be getting faster
got some cool complimentary colours happening

what you gain on the swings
you loose on the roundabouts

name change

2008-07-02T21:30:00.002+08:00

I'm over schrodinger and his cat, I'm changing the name to "No.5".
Pollock did a "No.5"; it recently sold for 180 million billion trillion dollars.
To a phone bidder.
The bloke hadn't even seen it except maybe in a book or on the net.
yeah, number 5.
I'll have that.

Peddling paintings

2008-06-30T20:27:00.004+08:00

doggedly determinedly dragging
bludgeoned bashed brainwaves
peddling paintings
over old opuses
failed forgotten flames
appear antiquatedly
merge move migrate
shiny steel stained
chiseled chipped chopped
peddle
piddle
peddle
poop
publish
post

schodingers cat

2008-06-25T20:06:00.002+08:00

I've started using oils... think I've got the under painting pretty sussed. Oils are like a point of no return I reckon.

quiche mandala

2008-06-15T14:55:00.003+08:00

the guardian rat

2008-06-05T13:46:00.003+08:00

Did you know that most people are never more than 5 metres from a rat.
Far out ay?

desktop design

2008-05-30T12:07:00.003+08:00

desktop design drives me nuts
like having a shower in a raincoat
a mud-bath in a dry-suit
germ-free sealed and once removed
fingers clack clack keys
feeling texture through two mil glass
smooth cold hard digital light

charcoal paper pencil
glue sticks and string
paint scavenged
smashed up a hard drive
all that digital whatever it was
on mirror bright metal
magnets and alien black chips

couldn't find any pictures in there
behind the two mil glass

thoughts on Schrodinger's cat

2008-05-25T20:26:00.003+08:00

I'm thinking of putting in a small shelf on the painting - it could be carved out of one of those foamed concrete bricks and screwed on from the back or maybe bolted, I aint sure yet. Anyway the drum is not the shelf but what goes on it; there will be room for something small and here's a range of possibles:
- an absurdity like a plastic cow or a plastic flower - it wouldn't do much other than what the rest of the painting is already doing; just a scrap of absurdity in the midst of all the chaos. I would fit in with the probability discussion alright - I mean what is the probability of a plastic cow turning up on a shelf on a painting like this...
- A deity type figure like one of those forty thousand year old venuses something quiet; remote from the chaos, above and beyond.
- a human victory figure; one that stands amid the chaos but prevails like a champion
- a human condition figure, maybe on hands and knees peering over the edge of the shelf. That's a "what-the-fuck-is-going-on" figure.

I'm thinking the last one is the way to go but I could be wrong

schrodingers cat

2008-05-21T18:40:00.014+08:00

In case you don't know

2008-05-21T12:27:00.000+08:00

Let me tell ya, getting your dog put down sucks big time

sunday arvo may the something or other er th

2008-05-18T17:04:00.004+08:00

Went to Bunbury this morning - Wendy did the half marathon - biggest distance she's attempted. She did it well too, probably went out a bit hard because she started to hurt in the last 8ks she reckons and that slowed her up a bit. She finished bang on the time she was expecting so she's sore and happy.I did spectator/supporter - about time we switched, Wendy has helped me heaps especially in the run up to the Ironman - told me what to eat, when to eat it when to sleep, arranged all the accom and travel. Bloody brilliant.
This is the Schrodingers cat painting - I have glued and screwed the bits on and applied some paint and rags. Its taken on quite a bombed architecture feel. It'll be interesting to see what happens next. I found a little dolphin badge on the floor which I have stuck in the middle (see detail) - what does that do to the image?
The other pics are my road bike and my new (to me) time trial bike which is very nice and spick as, and the current state of my studio.
I've changed the set up on the road bike after riding the tt - see if I can get a bit more aero, like the tt, without killing my back - I've lowered the bars and moved the seat forwards 10mm. See how it goes on tuesday morning.
Tomorrow I think I'll have to take my dog to the vet to get him put down - he's in a shocking state - got so old so quick I can hardly believe it - I think he's got cancer. He's about 14 years old. He's getting around with his tail between his legs which is a sign, I believe, that he is in pain. All his hair is falling out and he's chewed himself raw in a couple of spots he stinks something shocking too. His brain seems alright - I mean, he's still alert and keen to wobble after a ball - he can't run. He still likes his tucker. Oh well, so it goes.
Thing is, his eyes haven't changed.

done the Busso Half...

2008-05-14T19:49:00.002+08:00

The Busselton Half Ironman was held on May 5th.It marks the end of the season pretty much. Now we get back to regular riding and swimming with a run once or twice a week.
The swim start was horrendous for me, I entered the water with a mate and never really looked around to see where I was in the bunch. Right after the gun went, I found out... front and centre. The mayhem began. I must have gone out hard, trying to force my way between a couple of swimmers who came together in front of me because my heart rate went totally ballistic. I don't reckon I was more than 200 metres out and I was gasping for air, felt constricted and found it difficult to breath. I got clear of the feet that were kicking me in front and the guy coming in from the side and turned on my back to catch my breath and pull my wetsuit loose around my chest. As I did so, I looked back into a sea of flailing arms and white water all coming at me. I thought "shit-a-brick, I'm gonna get run over big time, can't stop here" so I rolled back over and got on with the job taking care to ease my pace a tad. Soon settled down to a good sustainable effort and finished 2 minutes quicker than last year. I reckon I could have pulled another minute off it if I hadn't taken the top mark so wide. Missed it by 40 metres; there was a stick buoy that marked the outside of the course, I went for it instead of the mark which was an orange ball and not so visible in the crowded water.
The bike leg was steady, a lot of people got binned for drafting, I got a warning but stayed clear and out of trouble as much as possible. My lap times were all within a few seconds of each other - very even for a total time of 2:50 something - thats a 33.3k average which is a tweak quicker than last year. After rushing through transition and forgetting my hat I hit the run... slowly, but it got better as I loosened up a bit. Looking at the lap splits for the leg I see that I must have gone backwards in my category for the first lap, stayed even for the second and gained quite a few spots on the last one - I actually finished higher up the category than I started, so I'm happy with that.
My total time was 5:31 and some seconds... ten minutes quicker than last year and not bad considering I was still really recovering from Ironman Port Macquarrie four weeks earlier. Even so, it wasn't quite where I wanted to be; I was looking for something between 5:30 and 5:20. Five minutes would have been sweet. I know I can make some up on the run and the bike could show some improvement - I'm playing with a time-trial bike and so far it seems to be a pretty fast machine. They reckon the position leaves you in better nick for the run too.
Next event isn't until December... Busselton Ironman. That'll be a big day out.