#19 read up on the Electoral College

I've been home sick with a bad cold the last two days. Since misery loves company, I decided to read up on the Electoral College methods of electing our President and Vice President. I've been a critic of the current method as not being representative of me, an individual voter.

Having now read "The Electoral College" on the Federal Election Commission's web site and the Wikipedia page on "Electoral College (United States)", I realize there are more issues in play than just going to a popular vote (sigh). So I won't whine quite as much about it anymore. *smile*

I probably (I hope!) learned how the Electoral College works back in High School and have just forgotten the specifics. A good reminder to myself to spend some time researching things of which I'm critical...

I am still frustrated with how the major parties (and many news outlets) try to polarize everyone into either RED or BLUE categories to help maintain or increase their political party's clout (and ratings). I believe that there are a significant number of issues that most people could reach reasonable consensus on if we weren't all being purposely polarized against each other and the good of the people, the country, and the world.

OK, enough politics. Just posting this since it counts as a new thing on a sneezy day...

#18 submitted a photo of a Tucson mural

Last weekend I submitted a photo I took of a Tucson mural to Randy Garsee's Tucson mural project which was accepted and posted on his blog.

From Randy's blog description: "Tucson has hundreds of murals, yet you will not find a map to a single one. These wall-size works of art would be a great addition to encourage Tucson tourism. You can help. Send us your pictures of your favorite murals. Murals must be accessible to the public. Include the address and artist information, if you have it. The objective is to collect pictures of every mural in Tucson and, eventually, create a map showing their locations."

You can find Randy's growing collection of Tucson mural photos at: tucsonmurals.blogspot.com

The final days of Magic Carpet Golf

This is a closed miniature golf place that wasn't maintained very well the last few years that it was open, but was a Tucson landmark for over 30 years. Even closed, weedy, and with peeling paint, the campy wire and concrete creatures have a certain eye appeal. A car dealership recently purchased the land; people with fond childhood memories have found homes for many of these pieces to find new life elsewhere in town.

I think the monkey's tail used to swing back and forth to interfere with a put...

Spider obstacle?

Another swinging tail, and that ain't no bull!

Like a fish out of water...

hmmm, well the body looks like an ostrich anyway...

I wonder if the ball traveled into the snake's mouth and the exited the tail? I think some of these type of miniature golf obstacles used to have mechanisms to do things like that?

Sign of the times?

I read that the kon-tiki feature is going to a restaurant somewhere down on fourth avenue...

Not sure what else is back in there, these were the only shots I could get from outside the fenced no-trespassing area.

Which brings us to the Pacific Coast...

The beautiful Oregon coast has a history of large Tsunamis. There is a large plate about 75 miles off shore which builds up pressure and has (and will again) produced earthquakes and large tsunamis which can range in height from 35 to 100 feet. Each town has evacuation plans, although the notice from quake to wave can be as little as 5 to 10 minutes, worst case. They tell people that if you feel the ground shake, you should immediately run to high ground (100 feet plus). Depending on where you are at, that can be easier said than done.



"The" tsunami is kind of the unspoken elephant in the room up here... As you drive around, walk the beach, etc. Probably not for one or two hundred years... Could be tomorrow... There are houses that very clearly would be destroyed, others that are quite safe. This doesn't detract at all from the great beauty of the coast, but to visit or live here one is certainly aware of the word tsunami, that's why I'm mentioning it, its a feature here.

My friends LK & BK were excellent hosts (as always) and took me to a number of just outstanding area restaurants. Many with views such as the one above, right out the window (no zoom or cropping).

This is a picture looking up at Cape Foulweather from the Otter Rock area.

Same Otter Rock location, but looking SW toward Gull Rock.

Here I am at Fishing Rock

A short Point & Shoot video to prove the ocean was moving in my other pictures...

And I also have to thank my other two friends who made this trip so enjoyable, Mija and Tiger (Tiger pictured, Mija was sleeping)! This pretty much wraps up pictures suitable for the blog from my Oregon trip. Hope you enjoyed.

More pics of tile mural in Toledo, Oregon

I think my earlier post of the above picture of a tile mural didn't quite do justice to it, so here are a few closer pictures which I hope will capture the feel of it better...

Here you can see the actual tile work making up the train. The horizontal lines are actually big concrete steps rising about 3 feet each and each dropping back about 3 feet from the previous one respectively. Since the panels aren't on a flat wall, the alignment of the pictures changes as people drive or walk past it, with only one viewing position showing that picture aligned "properly".

For example, from where I was standing for the above shot, the yellow center lines are in a single line...

But from this vantage point, they are no longer aligned. You can also see that from this angle the man is not only misaligned left-to-right, but also front-to-back! Pretty neat design concept that someone had, I think.

Oregon Street Art

There is a lot of great street art around Oregon. I'll share a few favorites from my recent trip:

Fauna of a park in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon

A weathered couple wandering the streets of Depoe Bay, Oregon

Flying Whales in Newport, Oregon

Coast Guard Helicopter in Newport, Oregon

Tile mural built on multiple staggered large concrete steps in Toledo, Oregon. It looks two-dimensional, but actually has three dimensions and parts shift perspective as you walk past it (e.g. those road centerline segments aren't necessarily in line, depending on where you are standing). Very cool.

#17 visited Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose

On the way out to the Oregon coast I stopped to see the "Spruce Goose", the largest flying boat ever built -- constructed out of wood due to the shortage of aluminum during World War II.

It is housed at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. It was hard for me to get a picture of the whole plane; that's about 130 feet of wing in the picture to the left (follow above links for photos and more info). For scale, that's an SR-71 parked under the Spruce Goose's starboard wing.

Its a pretty impressive piece of aviation history with a wingspan of 320 feet (more than the full length of a football field).

Overall I thought the museum was a little crowded exhibit-wise, and a bit pricey for what one gets to see... But I'll admit I'm probably spoiled by the Pima Air Museum in Tucson.

#16 shopped at Powell's City of Books

I've been wanting to visit this bookstore for several years now: Powell's City of Books in downtown Portland. They bill themselves as "the largest used and new bookstore in the world", combining used and new books on same shelves. 68,000 sq feet. Clean. Lots of helpful people. Impressive. Only thing lacking was no resident dog or cat, which all bookstores should have...

I had absolutely no problem spending 3 hours browsing shelves, selecting books, and having fun. AND... if you buy over $50 worth of books they will ship them home free! That plus no sales tax made it similar to amazon.com with the positive plus of being able to touch and browse the book. Very nice.


I really liked this picture of coffee drinking animals (click to enlarge) hanging in the World Cup Coffee & Tea cafe located inside Powell's.

#15 rode the Portland Streetcar

I rode the Portland Oregon Electric Streetcar system to get around downtown -- very clean, very convenient, nice to leave the car parked.

A number of southwest cities have had Portland's transit system presented as a positive model by advocates for local light rail systems. I was favorably impressed by what I saw.

Unfortunately the local Portland news was reporting increased crime on the larger MAX Light Rail system and the need to increase police presence on that system.

Over the hill(s) at 50

I flew up to Oregon last week to visit friends and celebrate turning 50 years old this month.

I had a window seat and enjoyed some really nice views of some of the prominent Oregon peaks. The four most noticeable during the flight were (in order of appearance): Crater Lake, Three Sisters, Mt Jefferson, and Mt Hood.

In reverse order, that's 5 peaks and one "O" shaped crater... "50" Thanks Oregon, better than candles!!

1 (Mt Hood) + ...














1 (Mt Jefferson) + ...













3 (Three Sisters) and ...











0 (Crater Lake) = 50!