Apel Mjausson

To Bald Peaks

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:10:54 GMT

I posted a couple of photos from last week's hike on Flickr. Desktop-sized versions are included, as usual. Feel free to use them.

Balcony Flowers

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:27:16 GMT

I put new flowers in some of my pots on Saturday and then I photographed them yesterday. The pansies in the first photo are new. The bougainvillea and cyclamen aren't.

This pot has housed the pelargonium and mandevilla for a couple of months now. They both seem happy, if a little crowded.

Desktop, feel free to use.

The pansies are the same kind as in the pansy-only pot above -- Chianti mixed. I got them at the Sloat Garden Centre in San Bruno on Tuesday. The butterfly lavender and pink primroses are from Lowe's.

Working with the lavender was intoxicating. Such a wonderful scent! Even better than normal lavender.

Autumn Oak Leaves

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:32:50 GMT

Autumn Oak Leaves
Originally uploaded by Mjausson

Photos from Sunday's hike at Rancho Canada del Oro are in my Flickr account. It was a beautiful autumn day.

Not Elvis Costello

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:54:00 GMT

Not Elvis Costello
Originally uploaded by Mjausson

Update on October 5 at 19.00: This shot is slightly better. We were going to watch Elvis Costello at the Hardly, Strictly Bluegrass Festival but couldn't find parking. When we got tired of driving in circles, we headed down to the beach instead. BluesBoy was feeling fragile after yesterday, so we spent most of the time lying there, listening to the waves and dozing. It was very relaxing. The weather was as warm and sunny as it hardly ever is on this side of San Francisco.

BTW, on the way home from the concert yesterday we saw a raccoon. The way they move is sort of midway between a cat and a fox in terms of flexibility but with added scampering. This was only the second time I've seen a wild raccoon so it was big deal for me. Raccoons are cool.

Still haven't seen the skunk family that lives in Howard's garden.

Make-Out Room

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:51:54 GMT

Make-Out Room
Originally uploaded by Mjausson

Update on October 5 at 18.59: I need to stop taking portrait shots with my phone. The person in the middle is Chuck Prophet.

Bookmarks in Songs on iPod Touch

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:28:15 GMT

On my old iPod, I could set bookmarks in songs so I could get back to where I was before. That was incredibly useful, particularly in long dhamma talks and audio books. But I can't figure out how to to that on my iPod Touch. Anybody know?

Sunday in the City

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:33:45 GMT

Sunday in the City
Originally uploaded by Mjausson

At the Conservatory of Flowers

Hiking

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:13:30 GMT

Hiking
Originally uploaded by Mjausson

A small snake on Cloud's Rest Road.

Random Linkage

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:22:52 GMT

Lest you ever call yourself a "nice guy".

Five cat photos taken near you, via laughsquidfeen.

Why the words "President Palin" scare Matt Damon, via mactavish

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show seven years ago.

Abi Sutherland asks for comments about how normal our lives are on this day on Making Light.

simplykimberly went to Oregon to bake a sea-shore themed cake for her "sister's" wedding. With video of American-sign-language wedding vows.

Random Linkage

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:59:24 GMT

Alberich Mathews's under-water photography on Flickr.

Not-a-morning LOLcat

Care and feeding of a red panda on Cute Overload

Like wet cats? Buy the book.

How to use Web-2.0 sites to track your every move. Now with bonus BedPost commentary.

Sarah Palin's LinkedIn profile, typos and all. The fact that they haven't been fixed even though the link has been making the rounds all morning, shows just how switched on her campaign is.

Gardening Notes: Doing Well

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:18:29 GMT

I sat on the balcony for some leisurely deadheading for a while this morning. Most of my plants are doing very well. The mandevilla and pelargoniums are going gangbusters. The vinca are doing very well too. I love the dark pink colour of the vincas.

The busy lizzies are suffering a bit from the sun on hot days. I've moved the pot further back on the balcony. Hopefully that will take care of it. I also rotate it when I remember. When it gets a little bit cooler, I can probably move it further out again. They don't cover the pot yet but with the mulch of pebbles from Michael's it still looks very nice and tidy.

The one pot that has problems is the corner pot with the shepherds hook that the hummingbird feeder hangs from. The bougainvillea lost all its pretty, pink bracts. The shrub itself seems healthy and has new growth. So I'm guessing it was just transplant shock.

On one of the small-flowered petunias, parts had died back. I removed the wilted parts. It wasn't much, so I think it will do fine. The other small-flowered petunia is doing well. The large-flowered, proper petunia is getting old and leggy. I will have to replace it with something else soon. Too bad because I love the large, velvety deep pink flowers. Not sure what to replace it with. It's probably too early for winter flowers like sweet peas or pansies. This pot also needs more mulch.

Keeping Mead?

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:22:22 GMT

I'm enjoying a glass of Morningstar Meadow's Sweet Cherry-ty Mead and wondering how the rest of the bottle will fare. Should I keep it in the fridge? How long will it keep?

San Fransisco Ocean Beach

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 01:58:16 GMT

San Fransisco Ocean Beach
Originally uploaded by Mjausson

At the end of the day

Star Wars Hummingbird Fights II

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:56:27 GMT

Kieron and I revisited the conversation about Star Wars hummingbirds today. He said he had more been thinking about the weapons that they have on fighters and shuttles, so missile weapons for use in atmosphere or outside.

He was making these pew-pew-pew noises, so I think he was mostly thinking about in-atmosphere vessels. Although I would think that even in space, weapons systems would give auditory feedback if none is created by normal means. Just like my digital non-SLR camera has a sampled shutter sound. On that one you can turn it off.

On high-end space weapon systems, I would think that not only can you turn off the auditory feedback. You could also choose which Old Earth weapon sample to use. Probably the sound effect would be different depending on which direction you fire to take into account doppler effects etc. And of course there should be a satisfying boom whenever you actually hit something. At least if you're still within tracking range, even if it's a couple of hours or days after launch.

This is all based on consensus human ergonomics. If it doesn't exist today, it will when we get to that point.

OK, enough geeking for now. :-)

Star Wars Hummingbird Fights

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:15:45 GMT

In my phone conversation with Kieron we talked about how aggressive hummingbirds are. He compared their aerial fights with Star Wars. I think that if somebody made lightsabers for hummers they'd totally be into those. It's a good thing that doesn't exist. I wouldn't want to be responsible for the hummingbird arms race.

Snake Warning

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:57:28 GMT

trolleypup posted photos wildlife from the Central California coast, including sea otters.

Lughnasad Prose Poem

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:20:10 GMT

The instructions for tomorrow's Druid ritual in Menlo Park are to bring a poem or song. So I wrote a prose poem today at work.

Lughnasad: Taking Stock
Hummingbirds feast
On the last agapanthus nectar.
Peach trees, silent,
Have already been harvested.
The fear of forest fires,
And longing for relieving rain.
Planning my winter crops,
Sweet peas and pansies.

GTD for Mac and Touch

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:46:01 GMT

OmniFocus $80 + $20
Pricy but seems very robust. Need to run WebDAV on my Mac or use MobileMe. There are instructions for WebDAV. MobileMe is expensive crap. Very positive reviews from GTD devotees.

Easy Task Manager $20 + Free
Simple and structured. One to try. Syncs via the company's web server. Quite buggy, according to the iTunes reviews. Also the interfaces on the Mac and Touch are very different and it's too hard to capture tasks.

Next Action, Personal Edition Free
Demo was buggy.

Ta Da List requires active web connection.
Tracks needs to run on a web server.
EverNote seems to be more of a note taking service.

iDB Datamaster is a native iPhone application. It runs a web server on the iPhone, so you can browse the data on the phone/PDA. It's a database application with 7 templates, including a to-do template. There can be multiple to-do lists but for it to work with GTD, the user needs to be able to see all to-dos in a given context and/or project. I'm not spending $13 dollar to find out if the app has that ability.

Muir Woods in March

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:32:54 GMT

This photos are from ciaran01's and my hike in Muir Woods in mid-March.

The way this plant grows reminds me rather a lot of a Solomon's Seal, Polygonatum biflorum, but the flowers have the wrong shape. Anybody here know what it is?

Wallpaper, feel free to use

This was the first time that I've seen trilliums in the wild. I can definitely see the fascination people have with them. Here is a white flower of Trillium ovatum. Apparently they turn purple as they age.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Here is one with red petals. Wikipedia informs me that it's probably a maroon form of T. ovatum rather than a separate species.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

The first part of our hike was on a boardwalk among the giant redwoods. There were lots of people around even though this was a weekday. I had to wait for a while and quickly take the opportunity when the boardwalk was empty. Redwoods really have that red bark. Very odd.

I tried taking photos of the redwoods but there really is no way of doing them justice without more time and equipment. They're just too darned big and the forests they create are too dark. I think I'll stick with oaks for now.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

The last three photos are all of wildflowers I found during the hike. The first one has lovely, piercingly blue flowers. It's a Western hound's tongue, Cynoglossum grande. The leaves are rough and hairy, like a tongue, particularly when they're new. If you're into botany, this will make you think "Hm, blue flowers with five petals and different-coloured bumps in the middle plus hairy leaves. I think I have a Boraginaceae on my hands." You'd be right too.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

An iris growing in a sunny spot by the side of the trail. I have no idea what kind it could be. Perhaps somebody here knows? The pencil marks on the parchment-coloured petals are wonderful, regardless.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Finally, a much more colourful customer, the Indian Warrior, Pedicularis densiflora. You really can't miss it. I love its flamboyant colour. Secretly, when you're not looking, I think it dances the flamenco.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Hakone Japanese Gardens

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:52:14 GMT

Hakone is a traditional Japanese garden south of San Jose. It has a pond, waterfalls, fat koi and all the other things you expect in a Japanese garden. And still I didn't come away from the experience feeling that I'd seen anything special. Maybe authentic Japanese gardens aren't all they're cracked up to be. Or it could be that this one just isn't all that good. Other Japanese gardens I've seen have certainly made much more of an impression on me.

Something that Japanese gardens have in common with Capability Brown's gardens is that they control the vistas that the audience sees. They direct the user's experience and emphasise the juicy bits, while skimming over the less interesting bits. Rather like web pages, come to think of it. :-)

At Hakone there was always something in the way, or a void was framed instead of something interesting. The designers failed to exercise their judgement to the degree that is necessary to create something splendid. Instead it's a kind of humdrum garden. If you've never seen a Japanese garden, by all means go but don't expect to be bowled over.

Anyway, there's only one photo that I think is worth sharing from Hakone. It's of one of the turtles sunning on a rock in the pond.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Ur Proyeckt...

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:39:36 GMT

Ur Proyeckt
Originally uploaded by Mjausson

I found the original on icanhascheezburger.com. Then I made it a bit more relevant. Hopefully somebody will find it funny and/or useful.

Feel free to forward, reverse, reverse engineer or do whatever you like with it.

Gardening: Planting my Container Garden

Fri, 02 May 2008 03:39:09 GMT

I got four large galvanised steel planters at Ikea. Today I drilled holes in the bottom and filled each of them with half a bag of red lava rock and potting soil to just below the rim. I've also watered them.

The plants I bought at Annie's Annuals in Richmond are soaking in the bath tub while I decide how to plant them. The colour scheme is pale yellow combined with hot pink and dark purple.

These are the plants I've got:

3 Fragaria vesca 'Golden Alexandria', height 12", yellow foliage, red berries, sun to part shade, average water
3 Fragaria vesca 'White Delight', height 12", green foliage, white berries, sun to part shade, average water

3 Viola 'Etain', height 10", light yellow flowers with lavender edge, sun to part shade, average water

3 Salpiglossis 'Kew Blue', height 2', velvety purple, sun, average water

3 Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Grandiflora', height 12", hot pink, fragrant, sun, average to low water

3 Scabiosa ochroleuca, height 2', light yellow pin cushions, sun, low water

1 Alcea rugosa, height 5', light yellow flowers, sun, average water

1 Lobelia speciosa 'Fan Blue', height 24", blue spikes, sun to part shade, average water

1 Ipomoea tricolor 'Tickle me Pink', height 8', pink morning glory flowers, sun, average water

Now to decide how to combine them. Obviously I want the three specimen plants in separate pots. That leaves me with one pot with no centerpiece. That's OK. I'll go for a sort of meadow effect in that container.

Next I don't want flowers of the same colour combined. So, e.g. the yellow hollyhock will not share a pot with the scabious, because they're yellow too. I'm going for contrast.

This is what I've come up with. Feedback welcome.

Pot A
1 Alcea rugosa, yellow
3 Salpiglossis, purple

Pot B
1 Lobelia speciosa, purple
2 Viola 'Etain', yellow

Pot C
1 Ipomoea tricolor, pink
3 Fragaria vesca 'White Delight'
3 Fragaria vesca 'Golden Alexandria'

Pot D
3 Dianthus gratianopolitanus, pink
3 Scabiosa ochroleuca, yellow

Alas, it's now dark so the actual planting will have to wait until tomorrow.

Trance and Trauma

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:42:26 GMT

I had a conversation about the dangers of trancework to those who have unresolved trauma with dpaxson and lwood a few weeks ago. The context was a book about trancework. Having done trancework while dealing with unresolved trauma, my point of view was different from theirs. They had, on the other hand, taught trancework to people who had unresolved trauma and witnessed the fall-out. An important point they made, was that witnessing the fall-out can be very distressing to the teacher and other group members.

The person with the unresolved trauma may appear strangely untouched by the experience, though. That is because these people are often used to lurching from crisis to crisis and because they are often not really in touch with their feelings. In fact they may feel uneasy if things go too smoothly. People with unresolved trauma are often very bad at accepting happiness and healing.

In some books and other media with guided meditations, pathworkings and material like that, there are warnings to the practitioner. In my experience, those warnings don't work. They scare off those who might benefit from the practices but they rarely stop people who shouldn't dabble with their own psyches.

I'd like to compare these warnings to a software error message. Using that analogy, we can draw on Nielsen's three rules for error messages:
1. Be polite
2. Don't blame the user
3. Tell the user how to resolve the situation

Based on these heuristics, below is a draft of what a set of warnings could look like.

To the student
Trancework can rip away the denial from our lives. This makes it very useful for those of us who have issues, major or minor, we want to work on. To make the most of trancework as a tool for personal transformation, it's important to practice the basics before diving in at the deep end.

Many students have issues resulting from unresolved trauma in their lives and not all of us are aware of it. Trauma can be a result of e.g. childhood abuse and deprivation, living with addicts, repeated violations of one's boundaries, living in a war zone or disaster area etc. We may be in denial about the experiences and the effects they have had on us. If that is the case, trancework may remove our denial.

Getting rid of denial makes it easier to work on issues but if we progress too quickly or without adequate support, we can retraumatise ourselves and end up making our lives harder, rather than easier. Here are some points to consider before taking up trancework:

Make sure you are learning trancework in a safe and supportive environment. For an environment to be safe, you need the informed consent of your teacher and other group members. This means bringing up any issues you are aware of before you set out on your first journey. It is particularly important to mention if you are a survivor of childhood abuse, as it is one of the hardest wounds to heal.

If you have had problems with depression, anxiety or psychosis in the past, make sure you have access to professional mental health practitioners. Ideally these will be sympathetic to your religious exploration and support you in using it to aid your healing. Untrained friends and family will not do.

A good way to get a feel for how you react to trancework is to start with simple, gentle self hypnosis audio, e.g. for helping with insomnia or inner-child work. These are available in any good bookstore. If you enjoy the experience, trancework is likely to be beneficent to you.

To the teacher
When you are teaching trancework to others, you take on some of the responsibility for their experience. Because this can be a heavy burden to carry, you may find it better to steer some potential students to safer waters first. The skill will still be there for them to learn when they have more mastery over their lives.

The Group
The group as a whole needs to be aware that trancework can be very beneficent because it can bring up things we would rather not look at. There is no need to be spooked about this. Mostly it's "just another *&^% growth opportunity."

If a specific student has more problems than others, it's important for the group as a whole that they are not allowed to disrupt the proceedings too much. Unless the group consents, meetings should be about trancework, not about solving one member's personal problems. This needs to be handled delicately, though, because there is a risk of re-traumatising the student. It's a matter of setting boundaries and enforcing them firmly but fairly without judging.

Yourself
As a teacher you need to take responsibility for your own mental health and wellbeing. Be aware that you are modelling these skills for your students. Model healthy skills by ensuring that you are well supported by your peers and elders well before anything blows up. This is particularly important if you are a trauma survivor yourself.

This could obviously be a lot more polished but I think the basic concepts are there. Feedback would be welcome.

Las Trampas with Kieron

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:01:36 GMT

Kieron and I went to Las Trampas Regional Wilderness in early March. This is the view south from the trail not far from the car park at the end of Bollinger Canyon Road. Note the flowering trees on the right.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

It was a bit early for spring flowers but I found a purple nightshade, Solanum xanthi.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

These white flowers with green tendrils belong to the cucumber family, Cucurbitaceae. The genus is Marah, the manroots. Apparently they have an immense, man-like tuber underground. I didn't check. This is probably a Cost manroot, M. oreganus.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

We've seen this before, it's Indian warrior, Pedicularis densiflora. I like the single ray of sunlight on the leaves.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Here's the scat. This, to me, looks more like mountain lion than the other photos I've shown. The reason is that it's large enough and there was only one sample. Note how relatively fresh it looks.

Kieron had a cute city boy moment when we were discussing this sample. He said that it couldn't be mountain lion, because then the hair would have been tawny. You know, like mountain lion fur. I thought that was very cute.

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Sea Otter Nap Time

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:30:18 GMT

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Wallpaper, feel free to use

Wallpaper, feel free to use