days of naze

flying
01:32 AM

2009 07 christopher in cessna sky hawk.jpg

If you happened to be soaring at 2500 feet at 11:05 a.m. over Aurora, Oregon on Thursday, then yes, the guy in the brown Cessna Skyhawk was me. No, I wasn't looking out at the lovely Willamette Valley set below me. I was mostly wrestling to keep the nose down and watching the horizon and turn gauge and OBD and...

Eric showed me the trim tab a bit late, but overall, he was calm and answered my questions with aplomb, especially considering that he is 20 years my junior.

Interesting facts: 1) the engine never went above 3700 rpm; 2) the cruising range on the SkyHawk is only about 400 miles (it's meant mostly as a recreational vehicle); 3) it's about 40 years old; 4) Aurora Airport is the third busiest airport in Oregon.

July 18, 2009

guess which democratic senators are against the public health care option?
03:41 PM

Contributions from health and insurance interests:

Sen. Max Baucus $3,973,485
Sen. Evan Bayh $1,565,088
Sen. Kent Conrad $2,154,200
Sen. Dianne Feinstein $1,749,887
Sen. John Kerry $8,994,077
Sen. Mary Landrieu $1,653,943
Sen. Joe Lieberman $3,308,621
Sen. Ben Nelson $2,214,715

It's time to turn up the heat on three of these.

July 14, 2009

11 years and still ticking
11:31 AM

Eleven years ago today, I launched days of naze with a boatload of content on my old Internetcds tilde domain name.

I've seen waves and waves of sites that try to make it easy for people to do the very thing I'm doing here: tell a few stories and connect with people all over. At the time, it was a fairly radical thing to do. "Why do you want to want to tell people your private business?"

I guess the answer can be found in the questions, "Why do you want to get on stage?" or "Why do you hunger for a good story?"

Now there are still some people, but certainly a shrinking percentage that wonders about this type of activity. However, loads of people now get it. That's cool. We should all have a little campfire or soapbox to get out there and speak it.

I'm proud of being a part of this newfangled twist on an ancient tradition. And although I've been doing this for an eternity in Internet years, there were others that came before and inspired me.

July 10, 2009

kharma breeze
09:09 PM

I've been missing teaching. It happens each summer, usually about 4 weeks after school is out.

Don't get me wrong. This summer has been amazing.

But today, while pointing out some of the interesting qualities of the tea house at the Japanese Gardens to a friend, a docent leading a large group of visitors approached and then invited me to give a short talk to the group about the tea ceremony.

Well, my expertise in chanoyu is that of more of a fan than a student. I've read some books, been to several demonstrations, and to Japan. But at the same time, my knowledge is well above that of the casual visitor. With some qualification, I gave a short talk outlining the structure and qualities of the tea ceremony.

My public speaking and teaching skills kicked in immediately. I kept it to the essentials (there are mountains of fact and nuance in chado) and then turned their attention back to the docent. She added some additional information and then led the group on to the next landmark. I had a number of visitors stop to commend me for a job well done.

It was a very odd and lovely moment that I won't soon forget.

July 08, 2009

these are the moments we live for
01:42 AM

later in life, we find that the fool is the speaker of truth.

sometimes the people understand this later, and at other times, the people understand at the time.

al franken ("yes, me, al franken") is the new u.s. senator from the great state of minnesota.