Pueblo Blanco 1992 - making notes

Pueblo Blanco 1992 - making notes
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

First of the shots from the 1992 Pueblo Blanco, NM, excavation that I'll post in the days to come.

New Tim Powers interview

I didn't make it to the Horsebrass this morning to watch the England - Ecuador game. I'm getting live updates on the web, though, and England are presently 1-0 up.
Anyway, making up for not seeing the match, there is a new Tim Powers interview up that is a great read. Especially interesting is Powers detailing his methods of plotting his books.

I destroy wishes

When I was at Jungle Gym, the owner's daughter (about nine years old, I guess), came over to show us a ladybug on her arm.
Scott: That's very lucky. You should make a wish.
Little Girl: I don't make wishes. I destroy them.

Best quote ever.

Thelemapedia

I just noticed that I've been awarded a Star of Thelemapedia. Goodo. May it continue to grow and prosper.

Lovely Tim Powers quote

This is from an interview with Tim a few years back that can be found here. In it, Tim talks of himself and Blaylock reading the poetry of their creation William Ashbless at weekly creative writing groups:
And so we began bringing Ashbless' poems in fact to this little writers group that the old Irish lady hosted and we would say "Our friend William Ashbless gave us these to read here and he wants to know what the company thinks of this work." And people would go "Why couldn't he come on his own?" and we'd go, "He's hideously deformed! Terribly crippled!" and everybody would go "Oh, good heavens! That's so sad. Do, do read his poems." And so Blaylock and I would start reading but we couldn't get more than four lines in before we'd start laughing real hard. And everybody thought we were just totally insensitive to be laughing this way at the work, no doubt painstaking, laboured work of this tortured cripple. Ha! And some of these people, of course, would claim to see huge significance in Ashbless's work. Just vast, you know, layer on layer of meaning. And Blaylock and I would try subtly to indicate our contempt for the people who thought this, but of course after a few pitchers of beer your estimate of what is subtle diminishes, you know? So by the end of the evening it was usually pretty disgraceful!

Fake Name Generator

For when you do not want to use your identity on online forms and the like. Located here.

My Natal Chart

A permanent link to my natal chart here.

New Googleplex in The Dalles

The International Herald Tribune has a nice short article, tying this in to Google's overall technology. Excerpt:
On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is as big as two football fields, with twin cooling towers protruding four stories into the sky.

Miao Fa Chan visit

On Friday, after coffee and before evening weightlifting, I visited the Miao Fa Chan temple with my friend S-.
The Venerable Fa Thai led us in about thirty minutes of chanting, followed by quiet meditation for about another half hour. Then walking meditation, and finishing up with a talk. He has interesting observations on the impermanance of the world. Perhaps more on that later.
I look forward to returning some time in the medium future.

Wizardmaze

I'm playing in an online RPG for the first time in ages, Wizardmaze's Arthmor Campaign. It's nice and low key.

----

03/14/2010 update:

The campaign is long gone, but: Ara, if you stumble across this post (e.g. through googling Arthmor) shoot me an email.

Christian Anarchist Gathering

From the site Ekklesia comes an announcement about a Christian Anarchist conference in the UK:
The conference at All Hallows Church centre in Leeds brought together a range of thinkers and activists formed in their justice and peace work by their Christian faith, but also appreciative of the non-statist, autonomous progressive viewpoint associated with non-violent anarchism and syndicalism.
One of the many fascinating things about the Christian religion is the diversity of viewpoints within it. They range from the suburban megachurches to the many facets of the Roman Catholic faith to more radical groups such as the ones mentioned in the article.

Pittock Mansion

You know how it is: when you live in a town, you never actually visit the tourist attractions. But living in Portland or not, some of the tourist attractions are really worth it.
So today we went to visit the Pittock Mansion, in the Northwest of the city. It was well worth it, with displays of Maxfield Parrish paintings, lovely furniture, and the house itself is just exquisite. There's no such thing as a bad view in that place.

Santa Fe College - sculpture

Santa Fe College - sculpture
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

One of the sculptures on the grounds of the College of Santa Fe. 1992.

[edit: 7/11/2011 - I was staying at the dorms in the College of Santa Fe while working at the NIU archaeology field school that was excavating at Pueblo Blanco in the Galisteo Basin.]

LA Riots - aftermath

LA Riots - aftermath
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

I was in LA in the 90s just after the riots. Some of the aftermath was quite dramatic.