Holding On To Summer

Dear NSA

Is it you causing problems with my blogger account? I keep getting a pop-up box when i click anything from my dashboard , that says i'm logged out on another account, do i want to log in again? If i click, you open the same dashboard in a new tab with the same results. Around and around we go, log out of everything, log in in random order, until finally you randomly open a new post, go to comments, etc. You've probably left so many back doors open that you've befuddled my poor computer's circuits. And, you've successfully cause a kerfuffle in my brain circuits too. I'm the determined sort though. Or is that stubborn? Anyway, please take a hint from John McCain, and just sit around and play online poker, wouldya?


This tickled my sense of humour:

Just Breathe

To be mindful means to dwell deeply in the present moment, to be aware of what is going on within and around us. Practicing mindfulness cultivates understanding, love, compassion, and joy. This practice helps us to take care of and transform suffering in our lives and in our society.


"Allow yourself to relax and release all the tension in your body, and all the worries and the fear in your mind, because these things are preventing you from healing. Let go, release, take full refuge in the Earth and in the sun, and allow yourself to be healed."

c/v: The Mindfulness Bell





“If you focus your tensions on your inner breath, something extraordinary will happen - the clock in your mind will stop.  There will be silence.  So your regret and sorrow will eventually pass and your fear and uncertainty about the future will also stop and in turn you become much freer. That is what we call the practice of mindful breathing – bringing the mind whole through the body and helping you to be fully present in the here and now to get in touch with the wonders of life for your nourishment and well-being.” -- Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh 

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

Yes

Went to the Kazoo River last week. This scene looks so prehistoric, in fact, equisetum  (horsetail or snake grass) is the only living genus in Equiseataceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds, and is a living fossil, the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests. Some Equisetopsida were large trees reaching to 30 meters tall. (h/t Wiki)

Scarlet Lobelia, or Cardinal Flower, Most of these beauties were inaccessible except by sight, found this gem just off the path.

Can't remember the name of this flower (it's listed on an info board at the park) but it was all over. Made for a pretty light and shadow scene.






Goldenrod, framed by a tree, caught my eye while i sat on a bench.

Special Request

Grab your walking stick before you leave home.




We're about to walk through the cornfield across the street.





Ahh, it's windy.





Ready for harvest.





side trip





little bit of sunshine





but the woods are dark and deep





the journey's worth it    *sits and meditates*





Homeward bound, the tree line is filled with these red berry trees, this one caught my eye because autumn lurked in its shadow.

September Sunset

After reading some history of Labor Day, had to get out for a just-out-the-back bike ride. Twilight begins on the ground.






This one hangs onto the light.

Forest-By-The-Water

Eureka! A new place to explore.







I <3 trees







and a red headed woodpecker







and a butterfly on sassafras







but mostly, i luv The Great Lake

Cassini's Views of Saturn

2004 - 2012

aka Fantastic Planet

This is a good movie, imao; that is an understatement. 1973 French movie: Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi.
Found a YouTube Part 1 in English, after an interesting write-up on a feedly reader site. Yes, it's very trippy. The other three parts have English subtitles, or the entire movie can be seen in French at the link. According to IMDB: said to be based on the Soviet Occupation of the Czech Republic. 




Watched the movie on Thor'sDay, Saturn's Day random art work from the movie popped up on feedly several times, like little gifts.

v. NS(first letter of the alphabet)

Jewel v. 2008: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewel_v._NS( )

First Unitarian Church v.  today

The EFF (see link on right of my site) has joined in another lawsuit against the NS( ) with a diverse group: the First Unitarian Church of LA, Greenpeace, Calguns, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, Council on American Islamic Relations, the Franklin Armory, Free Press, Tech Freedom, Public Knowledge, the Free Software Foundation, Human Rights Watch, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Open Technology Institute, People for the American Way and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

The lawsuit makes the case that the dragnet surveillance violates the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130716/13285723824/eff-files-massive-lawsuit-over-nsa-surveillance-gun-rights-civil-liberties-groups-religious-groups-team-up.shtml

Hey surveillance people, if you want to see something really good, check out the link on my last post.

Your Moment of Zen

http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls

Are you the Bear, the Salmon, the Water, the Seagull, the Tree, the Air?

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away". 

- Percy Bysshe Shelley

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Hong Kong/China let whistleblower Ed Snowden fly away to a Russian airport, Putin has refused to send him to the USA, so the story goes. Ecuador is rumored to be Ed's destination, and a US senator has said Ecuador risks losing trade status if he is granted asylum there. Government spokesman Fernando Alvarado said at a news conference.today: "Ecuador gives up, unilaterally and irrevocably, the said customs benefits."  Ecuador is said to have offered the USA $23 million (about the same amount as they benefited from the trade agreement) to finance human rights training in the USA. The funding would help "avoid violations of privacy, torture and other actions that are denigrating to humanity," Alvarado said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/27/us-usa-security-ecuador-idUSBRE95Q0L820130627

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/26/us-usa-security-snowden-congress-idUSBRE95P1DR20130626


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Meanwhile, on the home front, the birds are singing, pre-dawn until after sunset. They always sound so gol-darned happy.