Strolling Amok

Pops goes on tour.

Archive for the category “Navel Gazing”

19 Jul 2016
10 Comments

Just Some Common Sense

While waiting impatiently for the medical bureaucracy to do its thing, I recently stumbled over a worthwhile video sponsored by Patagonia, an unusual clothing company. We spend many millions of dollars each year for products, mostly from China, which include hemp, a very useful fiber that needs nothing but decent soil and water to grow. Between its fiber and seed oil, it’s pretty useful. It enriches the soil with each crop too, so fertilizers and pesticides are unnecessary. It used to be a staple crop in the U.S. – the cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined – and production was ramped up further in WWII. Then, since the War on Drugs, the Feds made it illegal to grow or sell, since it could not acknowledge any development in the field and so won’t accept any difference between what is now called Industrial Hemp and Marijuana. Thing is, industrial hemp was specifically developed to make it useless for drug production. You can smoke industrial hemp until you get sick, but that’s all you’ll get out of it. It’s now a staple, profitable crop – elsewhere.

There’s a movement afoot now to change Federal law to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp, because it represents a stable and reliable cash crop that allows small-acreage farmers to raise a crop that is simple and inexpensive to grow. Some 29 states now allow it on an experimental “research” basis, but farmers have had to run through Read more…

Posted in Navel Gazing and tagged , ,
08 Jul 2016
15 Comments

Operation Moto Dog

Image liberated from mallorypaige.com.

Image liberated from mallorypaige.com.

“I believe embracing our crazy keeps us sane,” is one mantra that Mallory Paige follows. A young woman in her early thirties, Mallory has done some world travel and some VW bus vandwelling. While riding in a motorcycle sidecar in Ecuador one day, she got the crazy idea that she could ride from Oregon to Alaska and back on a motorcycle, and with a sidecar attached, haul her labrador Baylor along for the ride. Then near trip’s end, she advanced her internal throttles into full-crazy and decided to tour every state in the country. She’s been doing that for awhile now, proving to herself and anyone who cares to read her writings that both courage and fear are an integral part of us and part of life, and that the decisions we make have a huge impact on our lives.

I don’t advocate her site in the belief that everyone should run around the country with a motorcycle+sidecar combo or anything else. She does not appear to believe that either. I do so because Read more…

Posted in Camper Nirvana, Navel Gazing and tagged
28 Jun 2016
2 Comments

Verse of the Week

I tripped over a song stanza below, written by Bob Dylan in 1980.

Have you got some unfinished business?
Is there something holding you back?
Are you thinking for yourself
Or are you following the pack?

Many people take great comfort in mimicking what others do, even in joining a surge, a movement. It’s the perceived safety of staying within the herd, and then not appearing to be the weakest one in it. Doubt or earnest inquiry might be interpreted as criticism, unbelief, or betrayal. Behave just so, and speak just so. I think that following the pack is often done to feel good without the bother of having to consider anything carefully. One mantra is replaced by another. One formula is replaced by another. We’re often looking for someone to follow, a perceived leader who seems to say what we want to hear.

We think only of politics in this, but it also works on social and personal levels. Seeking leadership is okay, but too frequently, their appeals are emotional and not thought through, and the goal of their call is simply to use us to get what they themselves want: the perks of leadership. Idealism and banner-waving are fine, but if that idealism is not intertwined with Read more…

Posted in Navel Gazing and tagged
18 Jun 2016
7 Comments

It’s People Food!

[This post is a reprint of what was originally created for my “That’s Obsolete” blog, which is inactive and offline now. I thought it notable enough to post here.]

Yes, you can now become a real people-pleaser by serving Soylent Green Crackers at your next get together!

Yes, you can now become a real people-pleaser by serving Soylent Green Crackers at your next get together!

I stumbled over this gag product, a real product, while hunting up info on the old Soylent Green sci-fi movie starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson. As far as I can tell, the company making it is no longer in business. 😦

Posted in Navel Gazing and tagged
17 May 2016
6 Comments

Easy as Falling Off a Log

Walking FR140 toward Dogtown Lake.

Walking FR140 toward Dogtown Lake.

The Williams District of Kaibab National Forest struck me one way and then another over the course of several days. When researching it prior to arrival, there were the usual cautions about “Don’t plan on being able to get out if it’s raining.” And true enough, the ground seems to have a high clay content that wants to goosh and then stick to whatever comes in contact with it when soaking wet. Only after I moved in did I discover that there would be moderate rain in the last three days of my stay here, but I’d assumed the worst and my campsite avoids the low-lying pitfalls that the majority of sites have here. Most drop away from the road, most capture and hold water in troughs, and most show signs of earlier wet weather struggles. Two in particular revealed epic, if unsuccessful, challenges of man and machine against Nature, challenges having no particular point involving necessity or destination. They simply involved manly attitudes and manly calls to action. Man quickly lost both challenges. Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Navel Gazing and tagged , , ,
05 May 2016
10 Comments

Same Situation, New Camp

While I was airing up the tires, I figured this shot might show that this is cattle country. Most stay contained within fences and cattle guards, while a few strays go all over the place.

While I was airing up the tires, I figured this shot might show that this is cattle country. Most stay contained within fences and cattle guards, while a few strays go all over the place.

While heading for town on a supplies/laundry trip, I decided to do two things: try a partially-different trail route back to Perkinsville Road, and scout for a markedly different campsite in Prescott National Forest, north of Paulden, AZ. The return to Perkinsville was via a sort of loop that wandered across State Trust land, and that trail was easier overall than the forest road trail I’d taken in. The drawback was that I’d have to cross the ditch that I’d chickened out and turned back at on FS638, which required putting on my big boy pants and listening for ground contact while crossing it. I had my door open at a couple of points to check how close I was to grounding out the running board on that side. Made it!

I’d left tire pressures down, since although the newish route was less hazardous to tires, it was still rocky enough to need a softened ride. This allowed faster speeds overall, along with less trauma to the camper, but of course the airing up process at the end takes enough time (35 minutes) to cancel out any speed gain. It’s worth it, though, and after my early experiences with Read more…

Posted in Campsites, Daily Life, Navel Gazing, The Intrepid and tagged
11 Apr 2016
4 Comments

New Photographic Capture Medium Announced

[This was originally posted on my now-deceased “That’s Obsolete” blog. Since it’s gone away and I like the post, I’m stickin’ it here. Now it’s your problem!]

New chemically-based image sensor will improve image quality without batteries.

New chemically-based image sensor will improve image quality without batteries.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley today announced their discovery of a new process for the capture of photographic images. Professor Irwin Cory stated that, “This new medium solves some of the problems inherent to traditional digital image capture and storage, and is entirely non-electronic in nature. The medium not only serves as a self-contained light sensor inside the camera, but combines that function with permanent storage which is removable and self-contained. Unlike current technologies, it is unaffected by static charges, power outages, magnetic fields, or any of the degradation or end-of-life problems associated with solid state drives or hard disk drives. Our tests indicate that its images can be safely stored for many decades. Further, there are no obsolescence or compatibility problems as with digital file archiving, since this new medium is purely optical in nature and is entirely free of coding and programs going obsolete.”

Battery-powered prototype is fully automatic in operation.

Battery-powered prototype is fully automatic in operation.

Asked about the physical nature of this discovery, Cory said, “It consists of a thin sheet of plastic which has been coated with chemical layers which permanently change appearance in the presence of light. It is a non-reversible change. Once exposed to light, that sheet is momentarily placed in a chemical bath process to prevent further change, and this allows handling of the medium in any light conditions without further effect.”

This non-electronic photographic medium, dubbed “analog media” and “photographic film” by speakers at the press conference, was claimed to have image quality and operational benefits in addition to its freedom from electrically-based problems. Professor Cory stopped short of calling it Read more…

Posted in Navel Gazing
08 Apr 2016
4 Comments

The One Thing

Sign in a ranch in Wickenburg, Arizona.

Sign in a ranch in Wickenburg, Arizona.

While vacating my campsite and heading for Congress to better deal with incoming storms (and their mud pits), I drove past a series of small ranches along a paved section of Rincon Road. The sign in the photo above caught my attention, and I stopped and backed up to take a better look. It was a simple cattle ranch, but the sign’s ardor seemed to say it all. Someone had found the one way of life that resonated with him/her, and wrote out a phrase from a song lyric for all the world to see, perhaps to declare that this particular venture is not just a way to make do until something better comes along. It’s not about the money, or a quest for “success” or prestige. Nor is it about “living free” of all constraints and responsibilities, approaching the world in a self-absorbed, narcissistic way that contributes nothing of real value back to it. I consider that it’s more about finding that one harness that fits well. It’s about living in such a way that we look forward to each day, with what we do feeding something satisfying into our souls. I can attest to the potential difficulty of finding that one harness (and the inherent difficulties that often go along with living in it), but if we can manage to do that, then there’s little need to bank on a future with no guarantees. Today is enough.

Posted in Navel Gazing and tagged
27 Mar 2016
12 Comments

HUD Proposes That You Can’t Live My Lifestyle

It’s no secret that Federal, State, County and City governments do not like people to live in homes under 1,000 square feet, nor outside of conventional homes or apartments, and that laws are being increasingly passed to “help” those in economic distress by preventing them from taking advantage of unconventional living arrangements. They do this to “protect” their communities, and while they note that large numbers of people in this country are homeless, they act to prohibit what they consider substandard housing, yet at the same time fail to offer alternative housing arrangements or housing programs for the poor. The usual reason cited is lack of funds. The end effect is to hope and say, “be poor somewhere else”.

The same problems and community reactions that served as the inspiration for the classic story The Grapes of Wrath, which was intended to be a snapshot of a past place and era when compassion was at a low ebb, is coming back on us once again. In many towns, if you are found to be sleeping inside your vehicle, you’ll be in violation of local ordinance, and cited. Should that vehicle be disabled and you’re saving up to have it fixed, it will be towed and impounded with daily fees, and you’ll be out on the street with only what you can carry. Given that recent studies have shown that medical treatment costs are the principle driver for personal bankruptcies, this is a message to not get cancer or other costly illnesses, or else.

In fact, I recently read newspaper accounts of one city where a volunteer organization built and provided “tiny homes” to homeless families, only to have the city confiscate and destroy Read more…

Posted in Navel Gazing and tagged ,
12 Feb 2016
10 Comments

Inspiration of a Sort

[Caution: this video is a gutbuster for those pulling their Internet from a cellular data account.]

This is a mountain skiing video from somewhere in northern Europe that I tripped over while researching Vimeo. It is superbly done, and I think I’m even more drawn to it simply because I’m a 4-seasons guy trapped in a high-80s hot spell near Yuma in February. That’s just not right.

Seeking Nirvana Pt. 1: Home from Seeking Nirvana on Vimeo.

Posted in Navel Gazing and tagged ,

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