50th Post! OR One Year Later (Please Don't Do the Math)

I went to write a post about visiting Turkey Run State Park. But then realized that I'm on the big 5-0 of posts. So I moved that post to next week, and decided to do a bit of a retrospective. Because sometimes perspective is a good thing.

Back in June of 2012, my wife and I sold a bunch of our ungainly things, shipped a lot of smaller things (mostly books), and jammed the rest of our stuff in our car. Then we said goodbye to our old street in Montrose, CA...

Goodbye, Trader Joe's at the end of the street!
I'll miss you most of all!

...and hit the road for Indiana.

Including the long, straight, empty road across Nevada.

Since our two cats were in the backseat (and, it should be noted, freaking out the whole time), we decided to take the trip a little slower and stop several times along the way.

This picture features our packed car (complete with cats),
and the only gas station/anything within 80 miles of the Nevada/Utah border. Seriously

So, we thought, why not take pictures? And what if I put them up on a blog? It would sure beat the hell out of showing everyone a boring slideshow of our road trip.

Our trip took us across Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, and into Indiana. Some roads were more exciting...

The canyons of Utah certainly made for colorful driving.

...while others were "very, very relaxing."

By which I mean, "boring."

At this point, we had vague ideas about me doing a blog. Possibly as a way to keep in touch with those still living in California. Possibly as a place to practice writing. Or, most likely, as a way to spread the random things I tend to see around me. Whether they were picturesque...

Scenic old town Glenwood Springs, Colorado

...or bizarre.

Also Glenwood Springs.
Because who DOESN'T need a random Bavarian restaurant?!?

Then we arrived in Anderson, Indiana, where we still live to this day.

Home of Strange Prehistoric Mounds

Not gonna lie: I wondered how I'd still find things fascinating enough to write about. After all, it's not like I'm constantly driving cross-country. I kind of expected the blog to slowly die away as I got too busy.

But it didn't. Quite the opposite. The blog's regular schedule forced me to constantly keep exploring the world around me. (Don't do the math on my 50 posts and "weekly" schedule. It just makes me look bad.) We officially arrived in Indiana in early July 2012. We've now been here slightly over a year. In that time, I've explored a great deal of my new nearby metropolis...

Turns out Indianapolis is an actually real city with actual neat things to do.
Who knew?!?

...I've re-visted old haunts...

Including landmarks that I totally didn't climb multiple times.
That would have been stupid, and unlike everyone else, I didn't do anything stupid in college.

...and I've explored my new state.

Which, yes, does include tractors in parades.

But you know what? I've learned a lot, and seen a lot of neat places.

And read many informative plaques.

They're just so damn informative! Informative, I say!

In retrospect, this blog has been one of the greatest decisions I've made. And it was almost totally made on a whim.

So for those who have been following the blog this whole time, I hope you've had as much fun as I've had. You all have a standing invitation to join me for coffee.

After all, I know quite a few good coffee shops.
And I'm finding more all the time.

But enough of this think. It's time to get back out there and find more fascinating things.

Possibly involving dinosaurs.

So stay fascinated, people! I know I certainly will.

An Unexpected Delay OR This Post Was Looost! Stolen! Thieves!

Okay faithful and (I hope) forgiving blog readers, confession time:

I usually go on my adventures on the weekend. Yes, I've been known to go during the week, but mostly Saturday or Sunday is when I spread my wings and find something new.

And do you know how I spent last Saturday? With this guy.

Friend of mine shared a random awkward hug with him once.
True story.

So aside from my clever puns in the title, you'll have to suffer through a week with out my wit and clever picture captions. I know it's hard, but you have Christmas to distract you, right?

And for those of you who haven't seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I highly recommend it. I'll admit I had some trepidation when I saw they planned to make it into three movies, but I should have trusted that incredible hobbit.

By which I mean this guy:

"Jackson" is only his middle name.
His real last name is "of Bag End."

And lest Mr. Peter Jackson (of Bag End) be offended and strike me down where I standing with prettiest special effects lightning bolt I've ever seen, know that I admire the hell out of that guy, and thank him for making the incredible films he does.

And also know that he will always be the hippest Hobbit in Hobbiton.

Stay tuned next week for a non-cinematic adventure!

Muddy Bloody Buddy OR Don't Bleed Me, Jive Turkey!

In honor of Thanksgiving, our fascination today takes us to a different sort of place...

...For this week we adventure inside my blood!

No, not like that!

For those who don't know, I am almost half Mexican (like 7/16 or something). And, I'm going to be honest, I'm a bad Mexican.

No, not like that, either!

Actually, in ¡Three Amigos! I'm far, far more likely to be this sort of guy:

Marking the first time I have ever compared myself to Chevy Chase.

Why is that? Because I'm a Bad Mexican as in, "Not very good at being Mexican." I don't speak Spanish, don't really know how to cook any actual Mexican food (filling pre-made taco shells doesn't count), and to me Cinco de Mayo is a day other people get drunk.

But in my defense: Just because Mexican's the most popular blood kind doesn't mean there's no competition.

Here's where I get to tie things into Thanksgiving (topical!):

On my father's side, the line goes back some ways. Which is a ridiculous phrase when I think of it. Of COURSE both lines go back some ways.

But my father's kept better records.

Because after building something this awesome,
the last thing you're gonna do is write down who your father was.

And in these records there are many fascinating familial gems. Such as my great-grandmother (or something like that) claiming we go back directly to King Ethelred the Unready, Last Saxon King of England. Which would make me some sort of deposed, poorer, less dashing, more Mexican version of Prince Harry.

I thought of trying to make a photo for this...
...but everything was so offense I pre-emptively censored it.

But the more interesting (and more readily provable) connection for the family is to various early settlers of Virginia (FFVs, for those in the know).

A lot of that family has various mixes of German, Scottish, Irish, English, etc.

But it also has a large part of Native American.

In particular, the direct descent of my family from Pocahontas.

The one on the right.
...we did not descend from a drawing.

I don't say this to brag (well, not entirely, anyway), but rather to point something out that has always fascinated me about my lineage:

It's so thoroughly muddled I get lost halfway down a census form.

Man... Why do they always ask the tough questions?

I'm not even kidding. While applying for college we had to come up with some concise way to write my race in the tiny affirmative action box without resorting to "Mutt."

But I love my mixed race background. You know why? Because it's up to me. I've got several different cultures from which to take a grab bag of goodies, and they're fun cultures:

Irish, Scottish, English, French, German, Viking, Powhatan, Mexican Indian, Spanish, a couple other random tribes...

...And they all ended up here. In the United States of America.

Cue the music!

I have ancestors who came over in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. And a healthy spattering who were here loooooong before that. (My grandmother actually came to the US in the 1900s, but I don't count that as "coming over" since she was Mexican and therefore already here...)

And I have a confession:

There has been a disturbing trend for a little while to equate the phrase "I'm proud to be American" with all sorts of political, religious, scholarly, and cooking views.

Not sure why being American
means I eat things like this three meals a day...

I don't like this trend. One bit.

Because as I look at Thanksgiving, and the traditional celebration of my people meeting, well, my people, I always think this:

I am proud to be American. And not just "A citizen of the United States" (Cool in it's own right!), but "one who is of the descent of people of the Americas."

Because sometimes, you can look at yourself and say, "Dammit, I'm fascinating enough as it is!"

...Oh, and the music I cued up there? That was totally "Born in the USA."

Autumnal Musings OR Falling for Fall!

I have a confession to make:
I just arrived home after a ten hour drive at the tail end of an incredible trip to Rhinebeck, NY.
I will, of course, blog about the whole experience.

Today, however, I am exhausted, so we'll get an abbreviated post today.

But that does not make it an unimportant one, as I'm sure everyone moving to a place with actual seasons will attest.

Today's post is about Fall.

You see, back in LA, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall were only determined by the clothes people wore.

For example, here is Spring:

At least, I think it's Spring.

And here is Fall:

Okay, it's the exact same picture.
But you get the idea.

But when we moved to Indiana, and then drove across several states to New York, we got to witness the amazing season that most of the country gets called Autumn.

Trees that are ORANGE?!? Madness!

Seriously, some of the vista we got of forests of trees were so beautiful we forgot to take pictures.

This was the best we got: More sky than trees...
...but those hills and mountains? All colorful trees.

But let me tell you: I love autumn for many reasons.

1)Sweaters and heavier clothing. I love the chill surrounding you while you're toasty and stylish.

Especially in the sweater my gorgeous wife
designed and knit just for me!

2)The COLORS! I know it goes without saying, but come on:

Gorgeous!

Still gorgeous!

And what about this, you ask?
Of course it's gorgeous!

3) The word Autumnal. Go ahead. Say it a few times. You won't regret it.

As in: "My, what an Autumnal picture this is!"

There are many more reasons, and I'll show many more pictures from the Rhinebeck show later, but I did want to express my complete love for this season, short as it may be before Winter sets in.

Now: Rich, colorful forests and grass.
In one month: Dead trees and mud.

But it's okay, I still love you, Autumn.

And I'm glad you're here.

Sightly Star Strolls OR Stargazing From the Living Room

To my regular readers (I know you're out there somewhere!):

I'm starting something new. Rather than have this descend into a travel blog, I'm going to vary things up a little. See, not everything fascinating needs to involve travel. Some things are just awesome in and of themselves.

One of those is the app Star Walk.

Icon totally grabbed from the App Store page.

My father-in-law showed this to me when out on a walk one night. My first response?

Awesome.

Now this isn't a tech blog. So I'm not gonna talk about how cool the interface is, or how it uses the technology or other such things like that.

All right, maybe a little, but not because it's a tech blog.

Perhaps it's the child of the 80s in me, but there's always been something about green on black that makes me think, "Technology."

Not just settings. Technology settings

But green is for normal technology. TRUE technology, now that is RED. Like awesome space-age technology from an 80s Sci-Fi movie.

Or Virtual Boy. Which was technically the 90s, but still seemed 80s.

But beyond that is the augmented reality usage by this app.

Allow me to demonstrate:

While on a walk in the neighborhood with my lovely wife, I took a picture of the moon.

Really! That's the moon! And there's clouds and sky and stuff!

Then I took a walk in the stars... (also with my lovely wife):

Told you the moon was there. Also evidently Neptune and Pluto.

And it doesn't just see through clouds. Walls mean nothing to Star Walk.

Ladies and Gentlemen: An ordinary wall...

Voila!

Let's watch that again, adjusting for location...

And yeah, that is compass marks on the image.

This app has been out for awhile, so I know I'm not the first to geek out about it, but I definitely won't be the last.

I've spent way too long staring at this thing inside and outside to be anything but fascinated.

And you know what? I'm going to embrace my geeking out. Witness the spectrum slider:

X-ray! (Located just below the Hulk spectrum.)

Microwave!

The frikkin' International Space Station!

For those of you who are bored, I will cease boring you. Those of you who aren't have probably long since wandered off with this thing.

Where'd they go? No idea. But I have feeling I know what they'll be looking at and when they'll be looking at it.

Probably watching the Draconid Meteor Shower on Oct. 7th and calling in sick on the 8th.

But the best thing about the app is the feeling of belonging I get while looking at it. Things here on Earth still matter, and are still important, but isn't just about Earth.

Moving this app around, I'm reminded that the stars aren't just overhead. They're under our feet, over to the side, behind you right now, and right in front of you.

It's a reminder that the sun keeps moving after it sets, that the planets keep orbiting, and that it's not us vs. the universe. It's us AND the universe.

It also reminds me that we are totally living in the Future.

Introduction OR How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Internet

Well, hello there, internet! I've been wandering around, looking at various things, and generally finding random things interesting.

The thought occurred to me some time ago to share said fascinating things…

...but for a variety of reasons I kept putting it off to another day. Then another month. And another month. I'm sure you see where this goes.

However, I recently embarked on a cross-country move/adventure, which seemed like the perfect time to poke around random places, see random things, and actually keep track of them!

Thus my chronicle begins. Hopefully you find them interesting. I know I did.