NatureJunkie's Blog (51)

It’s an odd thing to mourn the passing of a public figure. I’m not referring to the “saddened to learn of their passing” kind of sentiment, but the kicked-in-the-gut misery of grief that’s usually reserved for the loss of those we knew and loved. It seems somehow inappropriate to truly grieve for people we didn’t know—but knew of. There really isn’t a name for this variety of grief nor any social convention for comforting those experiencing it.

I’ve been deeply mourning the…

I live 70 miles south of where the fires are blazing in Sonoma County this week. Today I drove to a hillside a mile away from my house and took pictures of the air. The air quality is rated as dangerous. I will not take Buddy for a walk in it and he has cabin fever. I do too, now that I think of it.…

Completely, utterly, addictively, excruciatingly delicious.

Yeah, that's right. I bought the "share" size and didn't share with anyone. Get your own, people, get your own.

Buddy and I spent some time at the beach today. Cloudy, rainy, glorious. Take no minute for granted.

Dr. Thomas Starzl, the doctor who performed the first liver transplant and made great advancements in the treatment of organ rejection, died this weekend at the age of 90. I admit I had never heard of him before, but now that I have, I offer him a salute of thanks. His family stated that even with his monumental achievements in medicine, he should best be remembered as a teacher and a friend.

So thank you, my friend I never met, for saving my other friend, BlancheNoE. Good…

Several years ago an elderly friend of mine told me that if she were ever to be diagnosed with a terminal illness, she was going to dump every food in her house and stock the freezer with her favorite food, Eskimo Pies.  I promised her that I and her daughters would cooperate. (Fortunately, her final illness was quick, no time to stock the freezer, which she said was okay, she was ready to go.)

About two and a half years ago, one month after I adopted my foster dog Buddy, I…

I didn't expect much when I started watching this. I never heard of this guy before, but I don't pay much attention to this sport anymore. He doesn't even have the physique of today's super cut, gymnastic skaters--kinda spindly and limp looking on top. And the music was way too Liberace for me.

But two minutes in, I was in a stoned trance. This man isn't so much a skater as he is a ballerina with a jetpack, terrain tracking over the ice in magnetic levitation. So swift, so…

That's right. FIVE minutes.

But it takes ten minutes to watch it.

Representatives of a 1960s band called Spirit has sued Led Zeppelin for plagiarism, claiming that "Stairway to Heaven" borrowed its melody from a Spirit song called "Taurus." "Taurus" was written in 1967, "Stairway" in 1972. A Los Angeles district court judge has just decided that the suit deserves a jury trial.

There's no way to deny that…

I can't quit this place. No matter how superficial online relationships can be, at the same time I've established some amazing connections to some amazing people.

As I've vlogged about before, one of my hobbies is finding really old junk and trying to uncover the identity of its previous owner. Last December, I bought an old postcard that was dated 1931, mainly because I was entranced by the photo on the front of it, a sleeping boy surrounded by creepy dolls.…

No, I swear to god, it is NOT an SNL spoof.

Walking my dogs early last evening, I saw what at first looked like a helicopter with a search light, except that it was so very high in the sky its beam was nowhere near touching anything at ground level. The "beam" began to wobble a bit, then it traveled for quite a way in a straight, direct line in a northerly direction. It began to glow whiter and larger and then a cone of light began to trail behind it.

Cool, I thought, a comet! But if it was, this was the largest comet…

What happened to our wonderful wallpaper arty stuff?

No kidding. That was one of those teaser stories that popped up when I closed my Yahoo email tonight. They must use templates for those stories and just plug in the variables:

[Number here] ways you can [insert something desirable here].

[Number here] shocking facts you never knew about [insert name of celebrity, disease, a sexual practice, or your favorite food].

[Number here] things you should NEVER do if [you have a…

In my lifelong effort to try not to be a sucky human being, I do my best not to be judgy, but sometimes I can't escape the prejudice that a lifetime of overwork and doing without has instilled in me.

Such was my internal battle yesterday. I work at a university. Part of my job is determining whether students have met their requirements. A student approached me who wanted me to evaluate some courses he plans to take at a university abroad next year, in either Amsterdam or…

A haiku is a poem consisting of three lines and 17 syllables.

The first line is five syllables.

The second line is seven syllables.

The third line is five syllables.

You can pack a lot of meaning (or a lot of nonsense) into 17 syllables. Haiku is like the Twitter of the poetry world.

You can approach a video haiku at least a couple of different ways. Syd's format is to present her lines as three video clips, the first lasting five…

One of the weirdest acts I've ever seen. Why do I keep expecting Adams and Alex to pop out in the background?.

Mellonheads. To this day, they still roam those woods. It's been four years now. It was the last time I saw my family. Such as they were then.

The Mellonheads from NatureJunkie on Vimeo.