Category Archives: PERSONAL

update 11-24-09

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I’ve been busy without being real busy.

You know, busy doing seemingly endless tasks that don’t seem that important, but that take a lot of time to complete.

I recently installed Windows 7, so I’ve gradually been getting it up and going.  It’s still not fully functional, but so far I like it.  It does seem quicker and more efficient than Windows Vista.

I had been using my laptop with pre-loaded Windows Vista as my primary computer because Windows XP on my desktop quit on me a couple of months ago and I couldn’t perform a clean re-install for unknown reasons.  And then Vista started slowing down so I gave in and bought Windows 7. Continue reading →

Baldo plays…

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Baldo and Chica like to chase twigs, leaves, feathers, toy mice; any item I can tie to the end of some string, twine, or, especially, fly line.  I have cut about fifteen feet of weight forward floating fly line–it’s actually easy to manuever, to give movement to whatever I’ve tied to the end of the line for play time–just for this purpose.

The following video shows me playing thusly with Baldo.  I think I have  a 4-5 inch twig attached.  Hopefully, despite the shadows, you’ll see Baldo chase it as I turn in a circle after tempting him by pulling it through the grass.

Actually, it’s a lot like fly fishing.  I’m trolling for the big catch!

[flowplayer src=baldo_playing.flv, splash=baldo_plays.jpg]

fly fishing huntington reservoir

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A couple of weeks ago I drove to Huntington Reservoir about an hour south of Springville to fish.  It’s my favorite reservoir because of the Tiger trout–a hard fighting hybird female Brown and male Brook trout–the fact that there isn’t recreational boating, and some days late in the year I’m the only one on the water.

I used my camera phone to record some of my experience that day–I don’t remember the exact day/date–just to see how it would turn out.  I hope you find it kind of interesting and amusing.

I actually felt comfortable talking and narrating.  I’m kind of used to talking to myself these days anyway.

I eventually ran out of memory so that’s why the videos ended where they did. Continue reading →

My new friends

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Here are my two newest friends.  They live across the street.  Their owners didn’t take much care of them during the first couple of weeks they were in the neighborhood.  They would regularly cross the street and hang out here.

I was worried they weren’t getting fed nor, especially, affection.   Lately, though, they seem to be inside most of the time.  While I miss seeing them, I think they’re safer now.

They’re very cute little gatitos! Continue reading →

update 10-21-09

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Good morning.

I’m just sitting here with Baldo lying on my desk, breathing all stimulated and such.  Maybe he wants to go play or eat or something. I pet him occasionally, which he seems to like.  He feels really good even though he’s a bit chubby.  (More to love, right?)

Anyway, I think we’ll go outside for some fresh air and activity.  We both need it and the weather’s great right now.  Now that autumn is fully  with us–the leaves are starting to assert their independence from the trees–we/I need to change eating and (lack of) exercise routines.

I’m working on a few things that are website-related including learning how to compress and convert video files to better fit into my YouTube and website locations.  I’m also evaluating new web hosts that offer more storage for my website.  This means the site might be unavailable for a couple of days while it repopulates with a new web hoster.

I am upgrading in order to include more video content here.  This will include recent videos of me playing with Baldo and fly fishing at Huntington Reservoir this past Sunday. Continue reading →

Fly Fishing and Defragmentation .

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If there’s one thing that can keep my focus these days, as it has for the last seven or eight years, it is fly fishing.  Whether I catch any fish or not.

It’s probably my favorite meditative activity.

Everything else in my life—trying to figure out how to survive financially, living with my aged father who struggles to be happy, my cats whose primary focus seems to be their next meal, trying to understand my relation to my environment in its many guises—recedes into my subconscious for the time I’m on the water.

Yes, I know there’s plenty of writing out there, including “zen” books on fly fishing, addressing the positive clarifying effects of such re-creating moments.  Those when the spirit, whatever that is, is renewed, invigorated, cleansed. Continue reading →

Order

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This weekend I’ve been busy trying to put some “order” into my life.  I think it’s partly seasonal–locating and unpacking the cold weather gear–but this year my effort is more radical than usual.

Since I decided to leave academia for good after completing a one-year teaching appointment at the University of Minnesota last academic year, I worked at a local golf course in order to pay my bills and play some golf.  But as I tired of the customer service lifestyle there, I realized I could not continue to put off what I have been talking about doing for some time: making a career of writing.

Both academia and any other work were distractions because focus tended to be on matters (including teaching which I have always had a love-hate relationship with) other than writing. So a few weeks ago I finally said, “Enough!” I quit my golf course job and started preparing to write. Continue reading →

Update

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Good morning, friends.

A brief note to inform you that I am in the process of trying to optimize my web site.  One of the first changes I am making is creating a new tagline to something more manageable and interesting, but still connected to Bruce Lee’s “no way, no limitation” mantra that I have adopted for myself.

In fact, it–No Way (Man)–was the title of a Blogger site I never did anything with.  (I never figured out how to cancel the site so it simply floats in virtual reality taking up space.) Continue reading →