Posted inWriting/Weblogs

Blogs: fast, funny and totally biased

I finally got around to checking out the blogs mentioned in TIME magazine’s June 21, 2004 issue, in the “Meet Joe Blog” piece. The sub-headline was: “Why are more and more people getting their news from amateur websites called blogs? Because they’re fast, funny, and totally biased.” Right on! We bloggers also can bask in these words (by Lev Grossman, who wrote the article) about blogs: “They represent—no, they are—the voice of the little guy. And the little guy is a lot smarter than big media might have you think. Blogs showcase some of the smartest, sharpest, writing being published.…
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Posted inPlotinus Writing/Weblogs

Plotinus’s Philosophical Viagra

After plugging my new book about Plotinus yesterday to everybody in my Outlook address book, I got a great idea in a response from one of the recipients. Richard Smith said, “I knew it would happen sooner or later – spiritually oriented junk mail!” “Damn!” I thought, “Why didn’t I think of this myself? Philosophical spam!” Right away I visualized a whole different approach I could have taken in my email message. Have trouble keeping it up? Are you embarrassed when you can’t keep up your side of philosophical conversations? Do you find your arguments getting all limp and soft…
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Posted inPhilosophy Writing/Weblogs

Sadly, ego-loss didn’t arrive in the mail

I had been waiting and waiting for ego-loss to arrive in the mail. When the envelope finally was delivered on Saturday you can imagine how excited I was. I’ve been meditating every day for nigh on thirty-five years, and so far I’ve made scant progress in laying aside that devilishly strong “Me! Me! Me!” part of me that doesn’t want to stop thinking about Me, Me, Me. But I was expecting that one glance at what was inside the envelope was going to produce a short-cut to satori land. For this was a copy of an article that I had…
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Posted inHome life

Weapon of mass field mouse dispersion

I look a lot happier in this photo than I really am. Smiling at a camera is an ingrained reflex, even when I’m tired, dirty, covered with burrs, and wondering “Why the hell did we ever decide to live on five country acres?” Most of the time I love our land. That time excludes the four hours or so a year it takes me to mow down areas of tall grass with my trusty DR Field and Brush Mower, which I like a lot. What I don’t like is wrestling the mower around to miss the umpteen jillion (approximately) small…
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Posted inEntertainment

“House of Sand and Fog”

I loved this movie. And I loved watching the DVD at our Camp Sherman cabin on my almost-new Emachines 6809 laptop. The only drawback to Emachines movie viewing is the tinny built-in speakers. After our first laptop DVD experience I immediately ordered some small battery-powered Creative TravelSound external speakers, which connect to the headphone plug. I can highly recommend these little wonders. Now we enjoy a crystal-clear picture with great sound. Laurel meandered around the cabin much of the time I was watching “House of Sand and Fog” because previews we had seen in a movie theatre caused her to…
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Posted inPlotinus Writing/Weblogs

Top Ten Reasons to buy my book

At long last, my book about Plotinus, a third century mystic Greek philosopher, is available for purchase. At the moment a photo of the “Return to the One” cover is missing from some of the Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and BookSense listings. You can mosey on over to this Unlimited Publishing “Return to the One” page if you want to read more about the book and have a vision of what the book looks like. Why did I write this book? Hard to say. Like life itself, and consciousness itself, what we do in our lives with our consciousnesses is…
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Posted inRecreation

Black Butte Ranch stampede!

Our bike tour of the Black Butte Ranch resort (near Sisters) began with a bite and ended with a stampede. The bite actually wasn’t as dangerous as it sounds, since it was what Laurel and I did repeatedly to the Boca burgers we ordered at the charming poolside café, where we’re pretty sure we saw a bald eagle. Not being grilled, thankfully, but swooping down next to one of the condominiums. We then biked to the Black Butte stables. While Laurel was checking on the status of tomorrow’s trail rides, I made friends with several of the horses in the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Patriots drive Priuses

We aren’t flying an American flag today. We didn’t go to a Fourth of July parade. We won’t be setting off any fireworks. But reading the great article in today’s Oregonian, “Global Oil: The Terminal Decline,” made me realize that we’re true patriots because we drive a Prius. A hybrid. A 45 mpg car (that’s our real everyday mileage, not fake EPA mileage). [Note: I couldn’t find the Oregonian article online, probably because it is syndicated. But here is another recent article by the author, Aaron Naparstek, that covers much of the same ground.] This article should be required reading…
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Posted inRecreation

Adventure on the Metolius

On our evening walk, Laurel and I encounter a savage beast, ready to leap on us from a rock outcropping. Our hearts pound. We wonder if this will be our last walk together, ever. Somehow, the beast is tamed. We marvel at the length of its tongue. Oh, how fortunate we were not to be engulfed by that fearsome maw! Reaching the river, a herd of large creatures that had been browsing in a meadow approach us. Laurel is brave enough to touch one. From their mouths, we surmise they are less carnivorous than our newly befriended beast. Ah, the…
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Posted inDogs Home life

Pampered pet, humbled husband

First, yesterday’s post about our dog’s overheating may have alarmed the many admirers of Serena the Wonder Dog, the Hines Family Animal Companion (we eschew calling her our “pet,” this being terribly Homo sapiens-centric, though the verb form of this word accurately describes how we spend much of every evening). Hopefully this photo that I snapped this morning when I went in to the dog room to wake her up will reassure anyone concerned about her welfare. Serena has an entire futon on which to sleep in her amazingly cute contorted dog postures. This is her famous “straight arm” pose,…
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Posted inDogs Entertainment Home life

“Fahrenheit 9/11” heats up audience (and our dog)

In our never-ending marital “told you so!” competition, my wife beat me two to one last night. We went to see “Fahrenheit 9/11” at Movieland in downtown Salem, and as the 7:45 pm showing time grew near I told Laurel that we should leave earlier than usual, since the movie was proving to be hugely popular among die-hard liberals—who, like almost everyone, love to be exposed to communications that confirm existing strongly held beliefs. Drawing myself up to the full height of my Alpha Male Head of Household Kingly Dominant position in our relationship, about 6:45 I emphatically decreed with…
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Posted inSustainability

275 urban ac.; 700,000 sq. ft.; grt. vu.; Salem; $13 mil/offer

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the Sustainable Fairview development. I decided it’s time to send a classified ad into cyberspace, as above. True, as a mere investor in Sustainable Fairview Associates (SFA), I’m not authorized to represent the property. But I can pretty much assure anyone out there who has both Green leanings and $13 million or so of the green stuff: no reasonable offer will be refused. Yesterday I asked Sam Hall, managing member of SFA, some questions about how things are going. This being a privately held limited liability company, I’m duty bound to keep…
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Posted inRecreation

Images of Salem’s World Beat Festival

The worst-kept secret in Oregon? Salem is a boring town. I like to say that Salem is the amorphous undistinguished center between four interesting one-hour-away compass points. North is Portland. South is Eugene. West is the Pacific Ocean. East is the Cascades. And in between all these wonders? Blahville USA. Except for a few times a year. July's Salem Art Fair & Festival and June's World Beat Festival are exceptions to the boring rule in the town we call, yawn..., Home. Laurel and I went to the World Beat Festival at Riverfront Park last evening, and I returned for another…
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Posted inHome life

Reason #836,492 why Microsoft sucks

Using Microsoft Office reminds me of being married to my ex-wife during our final unhappy years together. It’s all I’ve got for the moment, but I just have to believe that there is something much better which would really meet my needs. Today it was Outlook 2003 that drove me to imagine the hell that rightfully awaits Microsoft programmers (or, more justly, the executives for whom they work). I dutifully have upgraded to Outlook 2003 from 2002, hearing that the integrated spam filter alone is worth the price. Yes, it is a nice spam filter, better than the stand-alone product…
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Posted inWriting/Weblogs

View my blogified photo (quickly)

When Jack Bogdanski emailed me and asked to use my recently-posted photo of the Three Sisters on his way-cool and way-popular Jack Bog’s Blog, I was thrilled. Wow! I never dreamed I’d be almost a professional published photographer, the “almost” a necessary qualifier because (1) naturally I’m not being paid for use of the photo, (2) the heading of a weblog isn’t really a publication, and (3) simply snapping a digital photo when the camera is on automatic barely qualifies as photography (I did, however, press the zoom lens button with my right index finger, which involved some minimal decision-making).…
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Posted inDogs

Oh, great, our dog is fat

While it might seem that a Pet Health Report Card isn’t the most fascinating thing in the world, actually there is a quite a bit of interest here. Laurel handed this to me when she returned from Serena’s semi-annual “wellness exam with preventative care” (it runs two pages, but the “Urogenital” section is on the second page and I wanted to preserve at least a semblance of Serena’s canine confidentiality; the condition of her sex organs is between her, us, and every dog in the world who comes up and sniffs her). First, I was struck by how much more…
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Posted inHome life

We visit an exotic land, the Pearl District

Rural south Salem is just sixty miles or so away from Portland’s Pearl District, but we felt as if we had journeyed to a foreign exotic land, so marvelous were the sights seen there. Not so marvelous, though, was the unfamiliar manner in which we learned Portlanders drive, on Friday afternoons at least. Rather than use their cars to move from one place to another, as is done in Salem, drawing near to Portland we observed thousands of them lined up neatly on the southbound freeway, seemingly motionless. We could not understand why so many Portlanders would choose to assemble…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Neighborhood

On torture and lot line adjustments

Yesterday, once again, we sat for over three hours in the Marion County room where land use appeals are heard. Then I went home, exercised and fed the dog, had some food myself, laid down on the couch, and opened up the Oregonian to a full-page story about the Department of Justice torture memo. By this time, my first thought was: “All lawyers should be ______” (you fill in the blank; just don’t make it anything pleasant) Understand, we know some nice, ethical, good-hearted lawyers. So I really should have made some exceptions for the “All” above. But after listening…
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Posted inRecreation

Three beautiful Sisters

Yesterday it was easy to fall in love with Three Sisters, they looked so beautiful. This photo was taken at the top of a knoll near Black Butte Resort that I’m pretty sure is called Gobblers Knob. Whatever it’s called, this was a great place to be on one those cool, clear June days in central Oregon that makes you feel, “Everything’s all right with the world so long as there are still places like this.” It’s Laurel’s double-nickel birthday next Monday. So we started celebrating early with one of her favorite activities, a two-hour Black Butte Stables trail ride.…
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Posted inRecreation

Great Camp Sherman “mountain” biking trail

We’re pleased to share with the wired world our favorite “mountain” bike trail ride in Camp Sherman, Oregon (it’s almost totally flat, which is the way we like our “mountain” biking, better termed off-road biking)). Since we haven’t seen this ride described elsewhere, this seems to give us the right to name it. I briefly considered something close to my heart, like Brian’s Trail, but I’d rather save my fifteen minutes of naming fame for something more dramatic, like a heretofore undiscovered chemical element (Brianhinesium, I like the sound of it.) So I’m calling this the Camp Sherman Creeks and…
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