you think you understand them, then if falls apart

WOMEN!! ;0

well, I have signed off on the second to last person from POF; she is not interested in a friendship or dating at my physical/fiscal limits; so now it is JY and I that are left; and we will see what happens; it is what it is, and why try to understand; well because I am a MAN!! and that is what men do LOL, so after a pit (that was a typing error, but leaving it ;) of pain and wound licking, going to try to sort out what happened and learn from it; won't happen in a blog; that would be tooooooooooo easy; no, for this will get the Cabin set up and furniture built and somewhere inbetween I will think on this corrundum and try to make sense of it; lots to keep me busy, without a woman in my life as help mate or 'SHE' WHO MUST BE OBEYED; will have time to re read Rumple of the Old Bailey ;0 perhaps find some more of his work; listen to my music and cultivate being an eccentric ;-0 started my winter beard, and by Christmas should look a lot like Father Christmas; will get photos and post ;0, no holly or Ivy, but will work out something from the local co-op!! my daughter in England is coming home for Christmas, so will surprise her LOL!!












Projects for Nesting Fall 2009



downsize, Downsize, DOWNSIZE!!


Projects done To work on next In between NEXT and LATER To be do later:Time & $ permits



Bedsitter

1) insulate the NW corner of the bed sitting room
2) move the book shelves from work room into the NW Corner
3) remove Mark’s stuff from under the bed, to Work room
4) rebuilt bed into bed/sofa
5) move the file cabinets into Work room
6) moved extra bookcase next to Gas Meter, moved to kitchen
7) move wash stand into Bed Sitter
8) Black Ink for Printer
9) sorted out books & papers, to keep, only enough to fit in the shelf Dad built
10) set up 1.86ghz computer and stereo equipment as entertainment centre
11) close in door way; do a Dutch door arrangement
12) build low Clothes Rack for Bed Sitter
13) Door Bell for side door
14) Find one place to keep photos, and leave them there to organize / store
15) See if son can take some of his stuff
16) build new Computer/Secretary’s Desk w/ room for dual monitors for 2.2ghz computer
17) pass through; shrink with 2x4” & insert frame for canvas and wall board
18) sort old painting for keeping or letting the kids take
19) Finish Bed/Sofa: mattress and folding back board
20) Modest Wine Cellar; Bought – South African, Chilean, Canadian make list; Home Made brews, Ginger Beer, Apple Cider begin in late October; 1 gallon batches; maximum number of bottles, 24-30
21) investigate more memory & additional video cards; larger LED Screen (36-48”) for Ent. Centre
22) build desk for Entertainment Centre w/imitation Fireplace,
23) set up 20 gallon Aquarium for fish in bed sitter (neon tropical fish)

24) make one sample home made Solar Electric Panel, see if it really will work

Kitchen

1) Moved the storage units Microwave stand, further into the dinning area
2) Put the kitchen back into working order, do dishes
3) Clear the dinning area of extra stuff,
4) Get mop and wash floor in Kitchen/Dining area
5) Sort out the bits and pieces of wood left from projects; do dump run
6) Extend the counter space 28” with a [movable?] counter
7) New taps for sink; Paint the cupboards under the counter
8) Level Thomas’ old wall unit & stove;
9) Light in dinning area
10) Find some place else to hang produce baskets
11) move the exercise equipment out
12) Put legs on table top in closet
13) Paint canvas for closing in closet area; hanging curtain arrangement
14) close in the kitchen cupboards with swing doors
15) new tile for the kitchen floor; re paint the walls

Work room

1) sort tools, computer equipment/extras and crafting equipment; set up work spaces
2) clean up and down size unnecessary clutter, make room to work
3) fix the large Work Mate

Nesting instincts and male / female relationships

I have become aware of a disturbing trend in my thinking lately, and I am not sure if it is good or bad. A few weeks ago, I met a woman on Plenty of Fish, quite by chance; neither of us had any inclination at that time to start a e-mail relationship; she clicked on my photo by accident, and I noticed, and sent her this note:

Hi, is there any reason to believe that you might be waiting for me to contact you first; or am I way out of line and you wish they would put a delete button on visits to other profiles, so you could remove your tracks ;-) Cheers and thanks for visiting;

her reply was:

Hello, I do believe there is a way of having settings cover one's tracks! But, I haven't bothered to figure it out. And why? Saying hello, even if by accident, rather than by design, isn't a bad thing.Some people seem to forget, there are real human beings behind these profiles. ... well ... behind MOST of these profiles. Lol....To honestly answer your question, no, I wasn't waiting to hear from you - as I don't have a problem with initiating the first email. But, it's nice to hear from you - you full of mischief kid, you! (I had posted a picture of myself from first days in Canada) Where did you come from? I came over here from England, but at a later age. All the best to you

Well to say the least we spent the next 11 or so hours chatting back and forth through the night; it was an astounding discovery that we could chat to each other and not want to end it; well, I SURE DIDN'T ;0 and we had 3 more nights over the last couple of weeks similarily getting to know each other; and like the song says, There ain't no sunshine when she's gone!! All from a chance encounter;

But that is not the behaviour that I am concerned about; it is this need to clean up the Hermitage, and RENOVATE!!! details aren't necessary, but I have spent over 100 dollars and expect to spend more in the next week fixing this place up; FOR A WOMAN WHO HAS NOT COMMITTED TO EVEN MEETING ME!!

THAT is the behaviour I am concerned about; I realized it the day after our first night of chat; I began washing down the stairs of cat fur, the kitchen floor and THEN cleaned out the Fridge and started dusting; ALL THE SAME DAY!!! THIS IS NOT NORMAL BACHELOR BEHAVIOUR!!!

What is happening here; I called it, that first day, THE MALE NESTING INSTINCT!!! I now have a list of projects done, and to do that would choke a man half my age, but I am looking forward to tackling them and am gratified at the changes around THE OLD CABIN!! my ultimate concern, is, while all these changes are good, and ones that I SHOULD have made years ago, will a woman start making changes to ME; ie my clothes, my hair, MY BEARD!!! What will she expect!!

Stay tuned for the next terrifying installment, of Schneewolfe & the Sheewolfe!!!

what a difference a day/night makes

more online dating; met a woman online, sweet looking, she dropped by my profile to take a peek; and I dropped her a note asking if she were going to send me a note or not; well, 2 days later we end up spending the night online trading e-mails; and by morning, I am a landed fish, hook firmly set, and ready to reel in, LOL; but by evening, with no further e-mails, puzzled by a short appearance , with no response to an e-mail sent earlier, and that is the last she has been online to date: September 29th, at 1:09am in the night; and I am wriggling free of the hook;

I have noticed that women in my experience, who live close by, say within 20-30 miles are less likely to feel comfortable committing to an online relationship that MIGHT lead to a meeting, than say women who live 75 to 100+ miles away; strange as it seems, distance seems to make a person feel safer; and from my conversations with women, this holds true for men as well; now, my Chemistry Exam sees me as being rather insecure about my social skills, and so I am less likely to feel comfortable in social situations; Insecure and Intimidated by the women with lots of social skills and confidence; but that is where the woman in the above situation seems to be different, while within that 20mile radius, she is being less confident than her Chemistry Exam states she should be, and I am more confident;

this is an equation that does not add up; either the Chemistry Exams are wrong, which I highly doubt, as I know I am no sauve, man about town in an Armani suit, who prefers Harbour Castle to Montannas; just a plain ordinary guy, who detests suits and is comfortable in jeans and leather coat, who you will find at Montannas, Applebees or Jack Astors at best, or over at the MacDonald's playground with my grandson and daughter; or there is something at play here that does not come across in the real world;

my own sense is that there have been so many articles on bad relationships and bad things happening to people who go on line to meet, compared to articles that tout the benefits and successes from going online, that people, whether men or women, run scared at the least sense of things moving beyond their control or safe speed; the old 'Duck, and Cover' reaction to an unknown, but percieved threat, whether real or imagined;

so here I am, just waiting, on the cusp of closing down the profile, realizing that 1) the odds of finding a local woman to meet for friendship, under my present fiscal and physical conditions, is slim to nil, and 2) I have met 3 wonderfully interesting women within 125 miles that are good online friends; and I might meet under better circumstances "when spring breaks through", ala Dr Zhivago ;) and 3) that the woman that ducked, may yet come back online with an explanations, and she may make it 4, but I am doubting now will be anything more than a friend;

such is the online dating world, after just 2 short months;

the Difference a day makes

Aug 19, 2009, I was reading a profile, of a verrrrrrrry interesting lady, who, along with many others, would like a bike riding companion; I HAVE NEVER LEARNED TO RIDE A BIKE; so what did I do, asked my brother if I could borrow his to try out; BIG MISTAKE, VERRRRRRY BIG MISTAKE; within 5 minutes of getting on the bike, several times, I tipped over sideways and did in my bad leg;
oh, did I not tell you; Last February 9th, I was rushing to catch a bus, at 6:34am; it was dark and there were no street lights near to light up the driveway, and I headed, unerringly, without swerving left or right, straight for the only patch of slick ice on the whole BL__DY thing; hit it with my right leg, and twisted, my heavy back pack of books, pulling me down, and I landed on my knee, the patella bone; twisted the lower leg out to the outside of the leg, ripping the Quad muscle and punching the patella into my thigh; I tried to stand, but I was like those dolls with the sewn joints, and went down hard again; my first thought was, 'THIS CAN"T BE HAPPENING!!!' but it was, I worked my way back up the drive way, to where the car was; but that was it; I could see the front door, but not make it the 20-30 feet up the porch; it was then I remembered the cell phone my daughter had given me for my birthday, a month before; I called the house phone and got my brother and his son to help me in; they called 911 and I was soon on my way to the hospital; it took another 42 days before I saw an orthipedic surgeon and 2 days more before I was operated on; then 5 1/2 weeks in hospital, unable to use my leg, no weight must be put on it; then another 2 1/2 weeks at home, with same restrictions, before I was allowed to put weight on it; it was to say the least, STIFF AS A BOARD!!; that was May 6th, it took until Aug 18 before I could get enough strength in the muscles again, to lift myself up with it to mount the stairs even 1/2 normally; that is without shaking and using my arms to leaver myself up; then on the 19th of Aug, all of that progress was undid, for the sake of women I hadn't even met!!!! HOW DUMB IS THAT????
now 3 weeks after the accident, I am thankfully not having surgery again, but my knee is stiff again; like it was on May 6, and I am back to square one; but I KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT, so I am hopeful that in as little as 1 1/2 months I might be back to where I was;
why am I telling you all this; because if I can prevent one person from doing anything so damn fool hardy like this, then it will have been worth the agravation;

Good luck and God bless
Schnee

Online Dating Sites 1

this past week, beginning Aug 8th at sometime after 12, and before sunrise, I got involved in Online Dating Sites;

I've been 'ABSOLUTELY HONEST' and have not hidden behind a pretty picture or well turned profile; yet I was getting quite a few hits; on these sites there are Sharks (men looking for quick fixes) Baraccudas (women looking for quick fixes) and I was getting a few; women who were agressive and wanted to begin dating the day before... it was hard to ignore them, because I have a soft hea(d)rt, and these women were hurting...
then theres the ones who were viewing my profile and not sending anything, but coming back several times; lurking; there were a lot more of these; some very nice ladies;
but then I went on a forum and met a lady in NB, who I began a pen-pal relationship with, no possibility of a relationship, but really nice (Lynn, if your reading this, I hope you believe that)
found one or two other's in searching; that I posted as favourites; one in particular was different; in that she didn't post a normal profile, but a comparison thingy ;)
likes sunrises over sunsets; home cooking over take out; country over city; fresh over frozen; live over online
stuff like that... sent a reply, but got no answer, so now that I am off the site, will not know what her reply would have been...

and yes I have gone off the sites; went for a walk yesterday, hotest day of the year so far (dumb) and did some serious thinking, about my situation, and how it affected my ability to move forward with dating and relationships; and how I was having trouble dealing with the 'needs' of the women who were on line...
I have never dated, even in high school; don't take compliments well and I am shy, so this may not be the place to find a person to form a relationship on, unless I can do something to limit the 'noise' factor...

Yesterday I posted these two poems on the pay site and the responses shot up, even though it was impossible for me to reply as I have not registered for that; there is just my profile, and I can see who have viewed me, but beyond that, only see the number of messages and flirts... in the week I was on that site, I had over 120 views and over 26 messages; so I know how to get the hits, just filtering...

Love in your eyes

Laying on the bed,
I see you walk out of the shower
Drying yourself off

You wander over to the bed
And stretch out, resting your head on my chest
I reach down and stroke your hair

You arch up and nip my chin
Nuzzling against my cheek
As my hand moves down your back

Looking up to me,
With half lidded eyes,
Full of love and adoration,

I look back and think again
With a longing sigh,
Why do you have to be my cat!!

Summer Sunset

The air is hot around me
Sitting on the bench watching
The water ripple on the lake

I hear laughter, and you are there
You snuggle down beside me
Leaning your head on my chest,

My arm reaches out and cups your shoulder
Bring you closer, as my head dips onto yours
The loons on the lake echoing around us

Peace and tranquility fill me as I nuzzle your hair,
With a kiss and sigh of contentment
Your small hand rests on my thigh

Turning to me, our gazes meet,
In a long drawn out sigh, as lips meet
And arms encircle arms

The sun has set, when we part,
And the chill night air invades the space
I wake to empty arms,

a dream of what will be

Lord knows what the response would have been if I had sent 'The Shower 1'; it being more emotional charged (nuclear bomb vs a fire cracker); one lady, posted a picture of herself in a towel, entering the bathroom, with the caption, Shower anyone!! perhaps I should post "the Shower 1" with a picture and similar caption to her, I kept her name and post because it was so unusual... pictures of her feet, captioned 'I'll show you mine, you show me yours'; I am guessing that she will have a relationship going before I get back online with a cheeky profile like that ;0 I'm quiet, but with the right sounding board, watch out *S*

The Advance of Technology in Out of the Way Places

NB wrote this Jan 08, brought over from a blog I'm closing down...

I was going to say the 3rd world, but then realized that it isn't just them that are involved, but areas of the world that are developed, but have large pockets of under developed spaces... the Canadian North is a prime example as is areas of Northern Europe... where the people are sparse on the ground and technology as in telephones and computers are slow to catch up...

a few years back had discussions with my South African friend and my best friend here, who is from Finland, about how cellular phones were going into places where there had never been land line phones, because the infrastructure was so expensive... but with the drop in price of cell phones from 1000's of dollars to under 200 and lower, has led to a boom in the use of them, as the towers went up... and in our Arctic, where satellite TV came on line in the 80's and 90's bringing the south to the north, bringing with it longings for more of the south's comforts and excesses...

Cellular phones and satellite communication connected us all, whether we want to acknowledge it or not... and while expensive, even there the prices are within reach of the ordinary person... learnt last year that some boats that were shipped north, ended up mothballed for the winter, because the cold was too much for their plastics, which would crack in the water, whereas the traditional hide boats were still being made and doing a fine job ;0 without the expensive motors and oils to keep the motors going... relearning what had been learnt during the second world war, but by another generation...

anyway, back to the cell phones and computers... read that the 100 dollar laptop, that is being promoted as a way to get the 3rd world into the net, and children into education on computers, is having problems with gov'ts not wanting to rock the boat of their own control... information being power... well, in the same surfing, I found another article on cell phones in the 3rd world becoming the computer of choice... hmmmmm a cell phone, being a computer... well, when I began to think about it, and how Cell phones have changed over the last decade, I began to realize as the article's writer said, that people were already connected to the Internet, and using cell phones in ways not intended by the original concept, as applications multiply for them... now many of them are micro computers, with more power than the first computer that I had back in 1985... an Atari 400... and with application programs that I couldn't have begun to dream of back then... and yet, there is demand for more apps, that apply to those using these mini-computers, which a South African start up dot.com is working on...

as the writer said, who better to write these apps than someone who is in the network that is using them, rather than someone here in North America, where we are so tied to our desktops and laptop computers... and the market... well, think of all of Africa AND India/Pakistan for a start, and then let your mind wander, and you soon realize you are talking perhaps 2/3 or more of the worlds population...

but this is where I hasten to differ... the 'Market' could be more on the order of 75% or more as my generation, the baby boomers, fade out of the picture... we have "kids" (I categorize anyone under 35 in here) who while they go on line to play games and do social communication on a desktop computer, many are more dependent on their cell phones, blackberries and PDA's, for these day to day dealings... and these little '3rd world apps' could be the building blocks of what I would call potentially the 3rd iteration of the world wide web... where the real descendant of the Star Trek hand set, will become a reality... as in another app that I saw was an attempt to translate dog barks in a way that enabled a person to understand what the dog wanted or was feeling...

now it is a stretch perhaps, but in another generation, how about the translating of voice communications... not just words, but how the person is saying it... on a small little computer that is in ones pocket... we are a long way off from the embedded chip behind the ear, perhaps 75 years or more, hard wiring into our brain, but even that I don't think is as impossible as I would once have...

so while I have leaped from 3rd world advances jumping over developed world infrastructure, into the developed worlds uses of 3rd world advances and onwards and upwards, I believe what we will have in my lifetime (say another 20 years, conservatively, but that is another blog ;-) have outstrip the predication's made by Bill Gates and the head of Intel recently, saying that handheld computers and their capabilities would increase exponentially over the next decade, bringing the WWW closer to our every day lives...

more than just the idea of a computer inside or outside your fridge telling you what is not there, or wall screens which entertain, connect and inform us... they envisage a world of tools that will be as varied as birds in the sky... me, I see less variety in tools and more variety in apps that we will use at our leisure, when at home and while out and about... tying us together in a world of socialized and interrelated people, where a friend and neighbour is no longer only someone we communicate face to face, but someone we interact with through all available channels, almost instantaneously...

Thoreau stated that a neighbour is someone who affects my life, and who in turn is affected by me... that is his statement paraphrased in it's simplest terms... for him the people who came visiting at Waldon Pond, and the train driver who went by like clockwork, were his neighbours... but the people he read about in his newspaper were not neighbours (of course unless it was about people in his town) but shadows, who didn't affect his life or he theirs... now today, our neighbour can be anyone in our Internet social network, from e-mail to voice mail, to text messaging and Lord knows what else, and She is only guessing ;0 so given that we could be connected to the world via these little hand held computers, we will potentially have neighbours from next door, to central India or the Arctic circle... with the help of those little apps doing the translating for us... the question remains, what will that mean for how the world will see itself...

what affect will this have on perceptions and world view... will we open up or will we close down under the noise from so many neighbours... will it be harnessed by the world media to re-interpret for us, as it was in the latest gulf war... or will we be free to make relationships and begin to bring understanding and tolerance to the world, from the variety of ideas and lives being lived, and their view points... only time will tell: who would have thought that cell phones with text messaging would be such a world changer...

but it is happening... just as the computer, the web and e-mail changed how we interact at long distance... (and before that the telephone) and we are still, even now, only at the beginning... the waves will only get higher to use a surfing analogy... as technologies develop and converge to bring about more change (or is it chaos ;)... feel another post developing there :O I enjoy using the web to surf the news about the world... and there are things converging technologically, that would stand your hair on end... but they will happen, and not in a hundred years, but 30 and 40 years... this blog has only been about one strand of the rope that leads into the future...

when I look back from where I began 60 years ago, I have to shake my head, and say we would never have believed it, if someone had come from now and told us... all the social and technological, the religous and political changes that have occured... yet, these changes and more happened, and will be in the pages of history books in only a few years, if they already aren't... supplanted by other and more immediate changes... as the saying goes... "YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET!!" and with that I will end this little blog ;0 hope it has given you something to think about...

an open letter to the Senior Advisor of the President of the United States

sent August 13, 2009 at 7:40pm GMT

David Axelrod
Senior Advisor to the President

Good day David,
Thank you for your update on your Health Reform proposals and the misconceptions (FUD Attacks) that are being spread regarding it... I find it un-nerving that there are people who are willing to see other's suffer, while they go their own greedy ways... during the election, I had an encounter with some ‘conservative’ people on a comment page regarding an ‘honor killing’ in Georgia… I felt I had stepped off a ledge in the water, and went from 3 feet above water to 10 feet under in short order…
But this brings me to my topic today... I felt yesterday, that same feeling watching the Augustine Committee hearing, Aug 12th… I realize they have 18 days before the results of the Augustine Commission on Human Space Flight will be briefed to you and the President.... I have been following the US and world space industry for 50 years now, and more recently the Direct v3.0 development proposals for the past year
There was a decided lack of understanding given to the Direct v3.0 approach to the Vision for Space Exploration… while Direct is supported by the Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicle, Jupiter Class… I felt that the Vision for Exploration expounded by the taking up of that Vehicle, was missed, and the Vehicle (like a picture without a frame) was left dangling with the other SDLV, Not Shuttle C…
I am going to keep this short, but I would ask, that when the time comes for a hearing of the Options from the Committee, that you asked for a more detailed explanation of the Architecture that is Direct v3.0, or get it from Ross Tierny and Chuck Longton, www.directlauncher.com, it is a better way forward, in that it has been both Technically, Fiscally, and Politically vetted by long and broad ranging discussion, by advocates and detractors together…
If the President really wants to get the US and there by the world out of the doldrums of this recession, an affordable, sustainable, safe, way forward is in this Vision… it is the work of 3 years and many thousands of man hours, by the Direct Team, and many others on this forum, http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=18139.810, who some are Engineers (like Steven, Danny and Jim who are not on the Direct Team) and Computer experts, and others like myself who are just interested in Space Flight… we are all interested in the United States having a successful Space Exploration Vision, not one that in 5-6 years is again on the ropes and another Augustine Committee is required to examine why…

what would a Vision for Space Exploration look like

it would have structure, and be full of exciting space craft, infrastructure, and destinations... there would be a sense of going forward, as each step was learned, scientific research was developed and incorporated into the advancement of humanity...

so what of the structure: there would have to be stepping stones, that would tell us the progress we were making... building of Launch Vehicles, and the infruatructure to develop, build, and fly them into space... Space vehicles and satellites would need to be built, and maintained... intermediary goals, that would lead logically to the next and then the next: return to the moon, lunar sorties (stays of 8 to 14 days on the moon at temporary bases); later a habitat for longer stays, with protection from Cosmic Rays (to teach us how to live on another planetary body, testing infrastructure for Mars landings); visit to Near Earth Objects, (for research on the origins of the Solar System, and for learning more about potential deflection to protect Earth from impacts in the future, practice of long duration space flights, prior to going to Mars); building of larger and more permanent Space Stations like the ISS, positioning them in LEO and in the L1 or L2 points as way posts to the Moon and beyond...
but ultimately the structure must be loose or flexible enough that should skipping a step be advisable or possible, then it would not create problems with the other steps or the research that is necessary for safe progress into the Solar System...
I have one caveate here... US space program insists on referring to any space exploration beyong LEO as Deep Space... that is wrong... anything within the Solar System is within the gravitaional effects of the Sun, and is therefore not deep space, but can be divided up into several areas:
LEO,
Inner Planets (Mars, Venus, Mercury) and Near Earth Objects,
Astroid Belt,
Outer Planets (Gas Giants: Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus),
near Planetary bodies (ie Pluto and several recently found bodies),
the Oort Cloud
the edge of Space, where the Sun's Solar Wind ends (I am not sure, but I don't believe the Oort Cloud goes out this far

That makes 7 distinct and separate categories of destinations for exploration, before heading out into DEEP SPACE, akin to the Continental Shelf, before heading out into DEEP OCEAN...

Face To Face?

with Face Book... strange enough name... hear tell, that the originators, some under 25yr old entrepreneurs, turned down an offer of 1 billion US awhile ago... the group is number 2 in the socialization of the net, with MySpace number 1... but not by much... I was introduced to it by my daughter, and she has roped in a few of the family... I'm one of them ;) not terribly active, just keeping in touch with the family, in another medium...

not entirely certain of the value of it all yet... can only compare it to a huge room with a wide variety of people, whom you don't know, and your hanging out with your own chums and making new friends and meeting old friends along the way... searched on one of my old jobs, and found that they have several networks going... for current and past employees and students... when I checked out some of the friends lists I was amazed... instead of 10 or 20 as I had assumed, there were between 75 and 200... how can you possibly keep in touch with that many people from the past and present... the investment in time alone must be enourmous... no wonder some companies are blocking these sites from their servers... just as they did the instant messengers a few years ago...

considering I only have 20 family members on my post, I am still a babe in the woods... I think the thing that keeps me from going into the networks (still haven't signed up for any) or any of those to do with the old job, is the fear that I would be inundated with messages from old friends and acquaintances... for now they don't know I am on there, even though I found my name on a network for past employees that had been invited to join (obviously they hadn't found me, because it had been before I signed up)when I first started out in the Web back 11 years ago, I signed up for a few e-mail lists... fine enough, but my inbox was inundated with 50+ e-mails per day from each list... and these were not big lists, maybe 30-40 people... then I got into virtual worlds, and meeting people via the use of avatars and a program to surf the web that was a plug in to the browser... in the end I was spending from 6 to 8 hours a night on the web, getting to bed at 2-3 in the morning... truly I had been caught in a web...

so my question remains, is this truly useful or is it another source of wasted time... any thoughts or comments gratefully welcome...

A Vision for Space Exploration: To Boldly Go!

I have tried many times to be succinct regarding the Vision, but each time it comes out in reams... so I am going to try a short (HA!!) series of essays on what I believe the VISION should be... and in doing so, try to justify my answer...

Humankind is on the brink of becoming a Space Faring Species... it began centuries ago when the first human looked up at the night sky and wondered what it was... and in the past 200 years has accelerated like an avalanche... to the point that in the past 50 years since the end of WWII we have seen great strides… but at what cost to the Vision…

A Vision should be detailed and yet general enough to accommodate changes as they happen… there should be a progression of hoped for events, and outcomes, milestones that mark the journey; interim goals that are attainable, rewarding and exciting enough to draw the generations into fulfilling those goals…

Sadly the first steps into space were for Geopolitical reasons, and had nothing to do with Vision or sustainable development… we were given a task that went well beyond our true capabilities, and misdirected us from building the infrastructure that would facilitate the attaining the goal of Space Faring Species… in other words, ‘We Got Lucky’… but in the end, it was too expensive, and had no root… the project withered in the sun of financial and political reality…

So I call the VISION, ‘To Boldly Go!’ keeping it short, to the point and familiar… to build on the infrastructure that was developed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and on the ground in the past 50 years… the mile stones I call ‘Space Treks’, and detail the steps that are required to spread humanity through Sol’s System of inner rocky planets and their moons, comets, Near Earth Objects (NEO), asteroid belt, the Gas Giants, their moons, out to the quasi planets like Pluto, and to the Oort Cloud, and the space where Sol’s solar wind merges with the edges of inter stellar space… they start with Space Trek I, and go to Space Trek IX, when we progress to ‘Star Trek I’ and humanities first steps out of the cradle past the edge of inter stellar space…

In fiction it took more than 200 years to get outside our suns system… but I believe we will achieve it in less time, only because we are an impatient species, and have dreamed great dreams, and will push towards the edge of the envelope…

Ground Hog Day, February 2,

well, some think it is Heart Month, and for them it is; and other's Black History Month, and of course they have there parties and exhibitions; but in the old days it was called unofficially Cabin Fever Month... many a family would break up or bad things happened, which I won't go into, in this month... the days are getting longer, but it is the month with the most snow and it is half way through the dregs of Winter and the bad weather, before REAL Spring arrives... it never arrives on March 21st except maybe in Vancouver, BC where the Daffodils will be blooming... here, in mid April we will still have ice on the lakes and rivers, for another 3-4 weeks, and the possibility of snow and temperatures hovering about 3-9 degrees Celsius... 33 to 45 degrees for you Farenheit fans ;) and it is a cold wind off the lakes, so don't get rid of the winter coats yet... and no planting of gardens until after May 24th weekend... FROST is still likely...so to answer the question, What makes February, the Cabin Fever Month... the snow and clouds... especially the lack of sunshine... it has been clinically proven that sunshine is necessary for a well balanced mental attitude, and some places that are extreme like Liverpool and Stockholm, should and do have clinics for people to get under ultra violet lights for just that purpose... not to get tans... but to boost their happiness quotient ;0 sooooooo with no further waiting... the snow storms of early February... we have had 1 foot in 3 snow storms that began in Late January... the snow that came for Michelle was a weak dusting by comparison... the snowmeter shows the last two bouts of snow... this weekend we are due for more... the meter is showing a drop of about 1 1/2 inches due to warm weather yesterday...