NaNoWriMo

I just finished my novel's first draft. The books is tentatively called Mr. and Mrs. Gumshoe and the case of A Death in Death Valley.

So now I can get by to my regularly scheduled life.

Made in America

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This year for Thanksgiving we're going to try to serve foods that originally came from the Americas. Not as any kind of political statement, but as a reminder of how many of our foods came from America. For example turkey, that's fine since the wild turkey is a native North American bird. So what else should be include?

Stuck in Lodi

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Being well away of the danger (thanks, Credence Clearwater Revival) I went to Lodi for the Sandhill Crane festival. They have had a festival for the Sandhill Crane for the last 16 years. Their goal is to bring awareness to this large but little known bird.

Death Valley Days

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I've been doing a lot of thinking about Death Valley lately. I've been working on a big writing project dealing with Death Valley in the early 20^th Century. Actually it's a musical (working with Gary Mazzola) which I'm going to be working on for a while yet. And I've got another project I'm getting ready to start which will deal with a fictional event taking place in Death Valley in the 1930s. 

Fair is Fair

This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper.

The Kern County Fair just recently ended where Sharon Wood and I participated in some of the food contests. Now for many of these events (most baking and all preserved foods) you have to be signed up back in August though there are some you can sign up for the day of the event (such as pies and some cakes). But we tried several things, from jams and jellies to breads and pies. And we did OK.

Hidden Causative Agents

  This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

The world is full of causes and effects. The wind blows and the trees sway. The wind blowing causes the tree to sway. The wind is the causative agent. Now biologically there is a strong adaptive reason for being able to recognize causative agents. If you're a monkey and a tree branch moves it is useful to be able to tell if the branch moved due to wind or if the branch moved due to a snake or other predator.

Hologram from Izzy

  This post will also be found in Tehachapi's The Loop Newspaper. 

Izzy Asher recently gave me a gift of a bolo tie. He'd wanted to give me one with stars in it. That sounded cool, and when I saw it, it was indeed pretty cool. And then he explained how it was a one of a kind. He'd made it out of an old TV picture tube and a bag with holograms of stars on it. “Recycled”, he said. Wow.