Ray's Thought for the Day - bosom asps

Man that hurts. My nose is still swole up and sore. Bosom asp. Let's see here.

Genera of asps include Megalopyge, Norape, Parasa, Phobetron and Sibine. They all have stingin' hairs with which they may inflict a painful sting when they are picked up or annoyed.

Yeah, absolutely right about that. It should also say something here about their apparent ability to leap short distances in a single bound.

I'm not seein' my specimink described here though. Maybe this ones a a new species, unknown to everyone but fer that bunch of savages at the Joke Factory. Maybe Nancy's keepin' it a secret to spring on innocent lambs like myself. Maybe she's goin' to use these bosom asps to bring all the Druidry in these parts under her direct control, a first step to challengin' the Blessed Goddess for control of this Globe and other parts of the known universe, maybe.

Wait a minute! Here's one, a particular type of asp that feeds on mustard or turnip leaves (Norape mammalaria). Feeds on mustard or turnip leaves! That reminds me, Ray of somethin' er other. Dang, I ought to know this here as well as I know my own name.

Let's see. If they et up all the rapes there would be no rapes and no turnips for the pigs neither. Ha! Norape. They et all the turnips. That's a good'un. I got to tell that one to Red. But I'm still missin' somethin' here.

Why'd that Nancy set this here vermin on me, Ray Pistrum, in particular? Well I just caint recollect. One things fer sure though, I got to convince Red to banish Hope. That one can take her dang bosom asps somewheres else.

_____

Those lacking the basics of Druid Training, in the entomological and botanical spheres, may, alas, fail to figure out what Ray is trying so hard to remember.

The Arkdruid

A New Arrival

Ray, you have outdone yerself. Cannibals is it?

No, no, no, Red. Those particular cannibals I was discussing are metaphorical.

Metaphorical cannibals!

Yepper. It's like the gluttons have turned on one another and begun devouring themselves. Hopefully this is just the beginning and soon we'll be shut of them forever.

Dern it Ray. How can they turn on each other and devour theirselves at the same time? Either we're talkin' cannibals here or we aint talkin' cannibals.

No, no, no. It's the same difference. Don't ye see Red. It's wonderful news. They are startin' to eat on each other cause they even eat on theirselves. See? The same difference.

Mebbe Ray. I don't know about that, fer sure, and I don't have no truck with talkin' up cannibals. It aggravates the vegetarians.

Lookee there Red. Here comes a lady.

Huh.

Good evening gentlemen. I know you by reputation only and what I have heard spelled is mixed, the milk of human kindness blended with a black viscous liquor. This I have heard and more, but I am no tale bearer, but a Druidess newly matriculated from the Joke Factory and now sent hither, as if on a mission; veritably I am a spear of righteousness, a glad tear in the eye of the Blessed Goddess, a shining jewel in the firmament, a force to be reckoned with, a green sheath glistening with dew, a shadow on Ogma's face, you may think you know me, but think anon for I will then be something else again.

All righty then. So perhaps ye have the better of me, Ray. And that is no mystery. Easy that to figure, for I, Ray am fairly famous and well-traveled. Also, many have seen me formerly ministering to the swines for their sanitation. I am also purty smart and my sister is real smart, and er......do you have a name?

Dern it Ray yer outa turn. This here must be the one that dern Nancy's sent over to hep Rayetta though why Rayetta needs hep aint apparent, to me.

I am indeed that one sent to provide companionship to the LDR and also to the long suffering Goddess of Reality Checks and to restore a semblance of balance to these parts that have been out of whack, hormonally speaking. My name is Hope and a great many have said of me, there's always Hope, and to thee Ray, I was told by Nancy the Learned to show this especially to thee. Wouldst thou gaze more closely upon my bosoms?

Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

That which is affixed to thy nose Ray, be a bosom asp but the pain should ease anon. And now prithee show me to the lady-like quarters that await for I am much wearied of my travels.

Dad gum it. Ray go get some hep gettin' that vermin off yer nose. Now listen here young lady ye cain't..........

Red, is that Hope? You bring her in here right this minute. The poor little thing must be worn to a frazzle.

Wore to a frazzle! She come in a dern air conditioned taxi.

RED!

All righty then. This way Ms. Hope.

Well hello dear. I know that meeting Ray and Red for the first time can be unsettling. Rayetta and I am so glad you could come. As soon as you can get freshened up we'll sit down together and have some treats and you can meet everyone that's about and visible.

Ray'sThought for the Day

Can you say, Ray?

Can you say Pistrum?

R-A-Y What's that spell?

Ray, Baby, Ray!

And you might not think so, but I, Ray have a thought for today, which is:

Wouldn't it be great if cannibals ate the Bush administration?

Newsflash from the Newsbabe! Goodness sakes! Today in Washington a great many cannibals attacked and ate the Bush administration. Excuse me here comes one of the cannibals now. Sir, Sir whose leg do you have there?


_______

Goddess, I'm old and feeble and wore out in yer service.
Please spare me much more aggravation in this failin' iteration.

Spelled sincerely,

Red Ears

The Old Druids Decide Ray's Fate

I, Badgemagus vote to keep goin'. My reasonin' is that these whipper snappers aint got nothin better to do nowise. Ray especially. This is the first chore I've seen him work on by hisself without someone herdin' 'em along ever' minute and that's through two of his iterations that I know about. And that Rayetta's a way worse smartass than Ray. Always has been. That one's always been a sly boots smarty pants. It just don't always come out as obvious with her as with Ray on account of his bein' such a idiot. And that Crumby Ovate is just plain crazy. Where in the world did you come up with such a phenomena as that one, Red? I can't believe you trained that one. On his best day he's ..........look at 'em foolin around over there. What happened to his hair? That one's a pickle short of a barrel, fer sure. Anyway, I say if ye can stand to ride herd on this bunch keep goin'. I may have some more help, fer ye, on the liturgy, anon.

I, Nancy the Goddess of Practical Jokes, though it misgives me to agree with Badgemagus, him bein' an old fool, especially with regard to the commentary just made about poor little Rayetta, who may be the sweetest, longest sufferin' Druidess in these parts, and who has to put up with that bunch at the Cow Barn non-stop. I say keep goin' too and I'm sendin' one of my girls over, a Tabby Labber just matriculated from the Joke Factory, to assist Rayetta. I trust ye have room fer another one Red? Nice lady-like accommodations, that is?

Whoa! What's all this then. Here I be, old and feeble and ye Badgemagus are editin' the liturgy on me agin, and ye Nancy are foistin' yet another young strumpet off on me. Why not move this evangelical effort over to yer place Badgemagus, er to Nancy's? I need to get back to bucolic pursuits and to watchin' the Christian Demons cavort on the TV.

Red, yer younger than the both us, though I hate to admit that, since I, Nancy the Goddess of Practical Jokes, obviously appear to be much younger than you do. And stop all this whinin'. It's precisely to wean you off watchin' the Christian Demons on TV and give you somethin' useful to do that we sent all these younger Druids over to yer place to he'p out. So that's what they're doin', he'pin out. Goddess knows what you'd be doin' all alone in that big ol' house with just that Crumby Ovate and the Goddess of Reality Checks and that monkey, what do you call it, Lomo, fer company?

Don't I get to vote?

Sure Red, ye can vote, but it's already two to whatever ye vote so ye may as well make it unanimous.

Well dern yer hides.

Alrighty then.

Alrighty then.

Alrighty then.

Rayetta Talks to Red

Red. Can I visit with you a minute?

Why shur Rayetta. Come on in. Whut's on yer mind?

Why do you want to stop the evangelical effort Red? Is it Ray or something else?

Nah it aint Ray. He's been doin' all right, so fer as it goes. What bothers me about it is that we may just be wastin' time on the evangelical part. Here we go to all the work of whittlin' down the liturgy and limitin' sin to jest the two worst ones and the liars and gluttons keep gettin' worse and more intransigent and the effort we are expendin' rebounds on us and satire turns to cynicism. I can see it workin' on the Crumby Ovate and Ray and even you Rayetta. That's why I want to stop it, to keep y'all from becomin' a bunch of no account bitter smart alecks.

I don't know Red. Seems a shame to just quit. We knew this would be hard and seem futile purty much from the get go. And Ray really likes it when he's not wore out and it keeps him out of lots worse mischief than he might be up to otherwise. Remember all the trouble he used to be up to before we started this. As to me and the CO getting too cynical, well, that's something to fret over all right, but we're grown up and we've given this lotsa thought and we have our warding spells, agin it. Red, I don't think we should quit on that account.

Maybe Rayetta. I'll sleep on it and tomorrow I'll visit with Nancy and Badgemagus and see what they think. But I have many doubts. Druid Pat said something the other day that got me thinkin'. What he said was that, lotsa people don't think lyin is bad. In fact, they don't even know the difference between truth and lies, or they know and don't care. In other words, they'll say anythin' and do anythin' that serves their gluttonous behavior and the truth don't even enter into it. That's what we're up against. And where are these devils goin' with it? What kind of planet do they want anyway? And there sure seem to be a bunch of 'em like that too.

Yepper, Red. Yer right, But so long as Ray's up to it, I say we should keep after 'em. The CO and me can watch each either, and Ray too. We'll be OK.

Maybe. We'll see anon.

All righty then.

All righty then.

__________
Later down the hall and around the corner

What'd Red say Rayetta? Is he gonna let me continue performin' for the Goddess' blessed multitudes?

Red says, "Maybe, we'll see anon."

You showed him the download, right?

Yes I did Ray. He's visiting with Nancy and Badgemagus on the topic tomorrow.

He's visitin' with Badgemagus?

Yes Ray, with Badgemagus. Is Badgmagus a hard name for you to understand?

Uh, no. I was just being rhetorical. Why do you think he wants to visit with Badgemagus?

Hold it Ray. Why wouldn't he want to visit with the oldest Druid in these parts on important matters? Is there something you want to tell me about Badgemagus and your actions regarding same old Druid?

No Rayetta. Not really. I was just wonderin'. Also my snufflin' appears to have gone away. Did you notice, no snuffles? They were temporary like my fidgets.

I noticed. Ray, you really need to be on yer best behavior for awhile and don't aggravate Red especially, or anybody else you both know and like for that matter. Do you think you can be on yer best behavior fer the nonce?

Easy that Rayetta. Easy that. Let's go get some coffee. I got to stay up awhile and think.
_____

Bird Activity Awareness

Red is lettin' me put this up for the time bein' here pending a decision on the fate of this topic and Ray's connection with this topic. This subtopic is fairly ecumenical and Red said it would be OK.

The best equipment for Bird Activity Awareness (baa) is your own Goddess given equipment plus glasses if you need those and a hearing aid if you need one of those and maybe a conveyance of some sort if you are incapable of going along under your own head of steam. These basic organs and structures of sensibility and mobility are all you really need, plus whatever. But if you want to see (or hear) what the birds are up to and figure out what kinds they are at great distances, because all the birds are behind a fence that has a NO TRAIPSIN sign on it with NO TRAIPSIN translated into multiple languages including Arabic you need special equipment. If you have this desire, you may become a birder, and thereby you will integrate yourself into the terminal consumerism of optical and auditory detection devices plus the lifestyle changes required to fluff up yer lifelist. Blodyn Bless You, fer yer, baa.

The presumptive birder may, when initially embarking on birding as a hobby, and upon encountering other birders, come to their senses and cry out, Baa humbug. That's OK and perfectly understandable for lotsa reasons. But what if the desire for baa is insatiable despite the lotsa reasons. What happens then? Easy that, the baa interested person proceeds, in private consternation, perhaps guiltily and with much self-justification, in pursuit of personal goals and ambitions regarding baa.

Baa is a good thing. It helps get all humans and naughty proto humans who have waxed too human in touch with the little wonders. But like everything else, it may be corrupted by lyin' and gluttony. No mere mortal, perambulating this plane of this globe knows this truth better than me, the Crumby Ovate. I have thought much, on it.
______

Excuse me CO. I have three questions. How do you know that you know this truth as well as or better than anyone else? Isn't that just yer opinion? Have you actually discussed this subtopic with "everyone" else?

Easy those: 1) old Math ap Mathonwy knew no more than me 2) yes
3) no

Thank you for those questions and anyone still paying attention to this subtopic should consider those questions and answers as much as they want to, maybe. And thanks for the reality check, too.
_____

But to proceed with my subtopic, baa. To the immediate east you will perhaps notice a photograph. (By the way, it is the nature of these photographs that if they are clicked upon, they will enlarge themselves). Included in the photograph are a few of the devices and equipment the CO would evaluate for pedestrian transport applicability for any baa outside the premises of RGVECB. Depicted are a water walking hand cart, optical devices, location devices, self-defense devices (no guns in the photo), essential consumption related items and botanical equipment since the CO always finds it necessary to combine the botanical with the ornithological. This is why the CO has mused much on the potential for acquiring a couple of donkeys and a small wagon, and why the normally placid Ray Pistrum is holding out for an ox cart.

As you can see from this, if you have any sense, baa can become expensive and the peril is, that the accoutrements become more important than the baa. I, the CO don't really need this stuff for baa anymore except the snuff and the canteens. And though I have in the past packed all this much around, packmule like, I would hesitate before doing so again, due to my old and feeble condition. So the point is that a day will come when "You can't take it with you." that is, all yer stuff.

Looking back over just shy of four baa decades and dozens of really cool baa instances, all but a handful were just me and nature, equipmentless except for my glasses. But, without all the equipment, justifying its existence, maybe I wouldn't have been doing the baa at all.

How did baa start, fer me? Easy that, wild canaries. That's what Doc called 'em. Who's Doc? Easy that, a bartender on the east side and groundskeeper on the west side. Wilson's warblers actually, those wild canaries are called by the semi-learned. I saw some of these wild canaries one day and didn't know what the heck they were. So I went down to the University Co-Op that was and looked in the nature books section and Holy Cow, there was lots of shit I didn't know. So I purchased a Golden Field Guide, still my favorite field guides, and later some cheap porro Bushnell bins at KMart and I was all set and away I went. Those dern wild canaries were sent by the WG to give me somethin' to do, maybe, and lotsa fun watchin' 'em too.

Lomo and some of the rest of us have been experimentin' with opitcal equipment recently. Below is some preliminary comment for those that might be interested. This is purty rough and needs work.

Oh, by the way. you may also be interested in a previous subtopic titled "Get Screwed". We have done some research on the particular type of screw mentioned in that subtopic. The research included a phone call to one of the local camera shops to see if they had surplus access to that particular type screw. We were told that "Yes we know that particular type of screw, but we don't have any. Most people who want an extra one of those screws buy another quick release plate to get the extra screw of that particular type."

All righty then.

Mak Cass Scopes in the Day Time

At RGVECB, largely by coincidence we have 3 of these Maksutov Cassegrains (cats). They are a C90, a Lomo Astele 95 and a Lomo 133.5mm. We have the 133.5 mm mounted on a very heavy equatorial mount and have not used it much for terrestrial observation which is the subtopic here, terrestrial observation. We have used the C90 once for some semi-serious birding, at a big sit. At that time it was brand new. The only eyepieces we had then were a Celestron 32 mm generic plossl, 15, 20, 25 and 40 mm GSO plossls and 12.5 and 18 mm Celstron Xcels. The Xcels are way too big for the little C90, aesthethically, and one spends more time trying to figure out where to look in them than looking out of them. The astro boys can tell you all about blackout.

We have continued to fool around with all these eyepieces in all three scopes, and now we have more eyepieces to compare them with, for terrestrial viewing. What other eyepieces do we have now? Easy that: 30 mm Ultima, 25 mm Lomo plossl, 25 mm UO ortho, 20 mm Tele Vue plossl, 16 mm UO Konig, 12.5 UO ortho, 7 mm UO ortho and a 7-22 mm Apogee zoom. All thes eyepieces except the zoom were bought used at Astromart or on EBay. We also have an Atik 0.5 focal reducer which provides some interesting views in association with some of these eyepieces.

First the negatives on cats. All these negatives have been well-documented by other users, so if you know all this, skip ahead.

1) narrow field of view
2) annoying secondary mirror image that varies from slightly troubling to aggravating depending on the light and eyepiece, you nearly always have a shadow in the very center of the field of view
3) fairly heavy for a spotting scope and not as outdoorsy as dedicated spotting scopes
4) images are backwards or backwards and upside down unless one resorts to an erect image prism or a star diagonal and with the latter the image is still backwards
5) can't focus below 30x which makes it tough to find stuff
6) can't compare in brightness contrast to an ED refractor like a Pentax or the German ones

Solution and partial solutions

1) Atik focal reducer widens the field appreciably and reduces magnification. The 16 mm Konig is the only wide field eyepiece we have and it confers a wider field for terestial views. Others we suspect would work to do this too.

2) Th UO orthos and Konig, for some reason deal with this fairly well to the point that you can forget about it. Some of the other eyepieces are OK too under some light conditions. The GSOs, possibly becasue of their overdone green coatings don't handle this well and generally all the plossls do worse than the othos. This makes us wonder if we should get a UO Kellner or two.

3) After luggin that Lomo GEM mount around the little ones on altaz mounts seem feather light. I'd take the C90 anywhere I'd take an 80mm Leica or Swarovski cause I could buy 10 C90s for one of them. The little Lomo is more problematic because it does not pretend to waterproofing and is not armored. However, I suspect it might survive use as an artillery shell.

4) The C90 has a flip mirro which allows use of a prism diagonal with noticeable reduction of image quality, brightness and contrast. We got a deluxe prism from Stellarvue for the Lomo. It is nicely designed and seems to be optically better than C90 prism. Images are better too than in the C90 cause the Lomo is a little bigger scope with slightly better optics. In the Lomo, using a Tele Vue diagonal, and a 12.5 ortho, 96x is no sweat on terrestrial. This indicates why I am interested in these cats as spotters. And even the Lomo is really cheap compared to a decent refractor.

5) The Atik focal reducer (fr) really does work. For example, the 30 mm Ultima with the focal reducer inserted gives 20x and the image quality is pretty good even through a prism.

6) Which brings me to UO orthos and the Konig. These little guys, perfect matches sizewise for little cats are great for long distance spotting if you can find whatever you are trying to look at. The Konig FOV is better. Interesting. I'd like to compare the big ED spotters with the Lomo and UO orthos at 100 + x.

Another intersting eyepiece is the Apogee zoom. It's very handy and seems to be a simple design like an ortho. However at 7.3-22 it's not much count below about 15 (too dark)in the little cats, especially under low light conditions. I wanted to try it with the focal reducer, but of course the lousy zoom barrel, though threaded, is too big for the fr and also for Celestron filters. Go figure. I have contacted Apogee for an explanation. I suspect, however, that this zoom would work very well with the fr and give the cats a nice range of low power magnifications for scanning.

Soooooooo. If you want to do some spotting on a budget, get a Cat, some used UO Konigs or orthos, a focal reducer and maybe a zoom with standard size threads. You'll be set to run with the big dogs for about 400 dollars. Plus you can use yer scope at night for some nice planetary views.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

No. No. No. We don't wannna go back to wranglin shoat skitters full-time. Snuffle. That jobs good for the CO. Snuffle. Keeps his mind off his troubles. I need to be doin' this here, where my talents truly lie. Snuffle. Why'd Red pull the plug on me Rayetta? Snuffle..........Snuffle.

Probably because you are out of control Ray. You lay up in here all the time smartassin' and its gotten on everyone's nerves. Plus, you don't mind Red, or me, the LDR for Goddess Sake, and you are constantly up to some wickedness like with those playing cards. And, remember the RGVECB plant list you were supposed to have finished months ago. Not done yet is it, these many anons past! I swan, you are a disgrace to the Druidry in these parts.

Rayetta...... Guess what I did today all by myself without anyone even asking me to do it? It was a chore that really needed doing Rayetta. I bet you can't guess. Snuffle.

You finished the plant list?

Noooo. Snuffle. And I must admit that progress on that particular list has been intermittent. Snuffle. Guess again.

You ate all the popsickles?

That's not fair Rayetta, not a fair guess. It's somethin' everone would agree is useful. Not gluttony. Jeez Louise sis, cut me some slack. Snuffle....Snuffle. Besides Lomo and Raymone had some too. Guess again.

Hmmmm. You helped Red and the Crumby Ovate dig up bulbs?

Bulbs! What bulbs? No that aint it. Snuffle. I said I did it by myself. Snuffle. Did you listen to any of the clues pertainin' to what yer supposed to be guessin' at, Rayetta? Snuffle........Snuffle..........Snuffle.

Look Ray. There you go again with yer smart mouth. I'm supposed to instantly memorize all the blather you utter. Perhaps you had just better repeat the clues.

All righty then Rayetta.

all by myself without anyone even asking me to do it? It was a chore that really needed doing, Rayetta

Hmmmm. You went to the pharmacy and got the Crumby Ovate a Xantec prescription?

Annnhhhhhhh! OK Rayetta. It's becoming clear to me that you are just teasing me because you think you are so much smarter, than me. Snuffle. Isn't that right?

No Ray. That's not it. Considering your many interests and diversions it's sometimes difficult to guess what you have done. I am much better at foretelling what you will do, than what you have done that may have skipped my mind. Now why don't you just tell me what you did, do.

Snuffle...........Snuffle.

And stop that snuffling! I swan, you are a trial and tribulation. You better spit it out now or else!

All righty then. It was real strenuous, fer me , but what I did do was copy the whole of redsgoodvsevilcowbarn to this very hard drive. Wanna see?

Hmmmm. Okie dokie. That is sort of useful. I've been fixing to do that myself.

Wanna see?

Yepper. But let me look. I don't want you showing me around, so back off. Hmmmmmmmm. All righty then, Ray. You appear to have threaded the needle here.

Uh Rayetta.

Hm.

Do you think you could maybe talk to Red on the subtopic of cancellin' me?

I don't know Ray. He's purty pissed.

Please Rayetta. You can show him this download. You can explain to him how the older Druidry can go through and sanitize it a tad if they need to. Please, please. I don't want to go back to wranglin shoat skitters. I aint got the nose, fer it. It's too hard on my back. Remember when we were shrews and I gave you part of my cricket when you were starving and fixing to have a panic attack. Those were hard times. Snuffle......Snuffle.

Jeez Louise. Stop that Goddess Damned snuffling Ray! Hmmmmmm. All righty then. I'll talk to Red. But there's gonna be some payback fer me from you. Sabe.

Anything Rayetta. Please, please. Just explain everything to Red and get me back on the program. Please, please. Snuffle.

Ray! I said all righty then. But one more snuffle, out of ye, and the deals off.

The End

We are moving on to something else fer awhile as the satire fails and the cynicism grows.

Red Ears

More Druid Gospel Music

Born Agin! (Sung to the tune of Born to Lose)
(Translated from the Welsh by Badgemagus Swineherd, Ph.D.)

Born agin, my past life was in vain
Born agin, I caused me and ever one else pain
So now I’m back to do this plane once more
Born agin I was rotten to the core.

The Goddess asked me why I lied
She saw the evil I tried to hide
So now I’m back upon this plane agin
Born agin fer all my lyin sin

The Goddess White, Pure as the Driven Snow
Showed mercy on my sins I know
For else guess where that I’d be apt to die?
Pinned to the wall of Her castle in the sky

So now I got another chance
From this cruel plane I will advance
A mighty good boy (girl)I will be
Eschewin lyin and gluttony

Much, Much, Much More Shocking Than Shrews

These are representative examples of the playing cards in a deck of cards I found in Ray's office just now. Do you know where these playing cards were manufactured? Easy that, China. It spells MADE IN CHINA right on the box. So Ray is contributing to the trade deficit with China in addition to whatever other wickedness he's up to respecting these cards. No doubt he's gambling with them too.

Hmmmm. I wonder if any of those Chinese dignitaries the Bushnoid met with on his recent trip to foreign parts were packing around a deck of these. The little bastards were probably imaging these cards in their mind's eyes while they were in the very act of discussing important issues with our Bushnoid.

Well. I, the LDR am shocked about these cards for lotsa reasons.

Get Screwed

Are screws just life as Dr. Prissy Pants might say, or are they justification for the extermination of the entire human race down to the last man, woman and child with hideous pain and torture integral to the extermination process and assured for each and every man, woman, child and innocent tiny baby. You can decide!

Immediately below this spell is the header and body of a very nice and polite e-mail Lomo sent to the business that sold him a mount and tripod with the context pertaining primarily to a particular screw.

Screws for the PLTQR release plate

I have been attaching a C90 and Lomo Astele 95 to my tripod with this quick release. Trouble is, with just one screw I get lotsa wobble. Also I have just about reamed out the screw head slot. Is there any way I could buy a few extra screws along with another plate?

So far, of course, we have not received a reply. So Ray and Lomo went down to Home Depot to see if they could purchase a close proximity of the screw in question. Course not to that idea.

So here is the gist of the nub. How the heck would anyone ever think that one little screw would be sufficient to steady the mass of a three pound telescope? They say the product in toto will do that.

Our tripod and mount and quick release system will be just hunky dory for your little telescope.

But where the rubber meets the road so to speak, one little tiny shrew of a screw is the interphase between the telescope and the mount. You have no idea how much this pisses me off. Further more, this particular screw puts me in mind of all the infuriating auto repair sessions I used to be involved with when a mere mortal could fix cars his self, sometimes, maybe. And now I am really getting pissed off even more. Jeez Louise. I got to stop for a minute and take some deep breaths.

All righty then.
All righty then.
All righty then.

All righty then. To the immediate east and southeast are some photographs of this particular screw and below are some measureminks. Also there is a picture of the Goddess forsaken quick release plate. Notice all the holes drilled in the quick release plate. You know how many screws come with it? One Goddess damn screw. Oops. I shouldn’t have spelled that! Too late now. Yikes.! I’ll get some payback for spelling that, fer sure. I better not go anywhere today.

mass = 5g; total length = 12mm; depth of head = 2mm; diameter of head = 12mm; unthreaded shaft length = 5mm; threaded shaft length = 5mm; width of threaded shaft = 6mm or about 1/4 inch

So you decide. Does the human race have any reason to exist, or not?

You see that picture with the balance scale. That depicts a useful item for determining the mass of small objects and drugs, like, for example, salt peter. I am entirely satisfied with the performance of that particular balance scale, but you have no idea how much trouble I went through acquiring it. And I'm not going to spell about that because that spell would only get me riled up again.

Hmmm. That was interesting.

Have you ever done some actvity that seemed fairly interesting while you were doing it, but as soon as you got through with that activity it didn't seem so interesting anymore? Yes. I bet you have. Lotsa times.

So the boys have lost interest in the telescope tests for the day and gone off with the Dolmen keg to celebrate whatever pyric victory they acheived, leaving me, the LDR to sum up. Easy that. The results are inconclusive, but also conclusive. They can see little wonders and the rich and powerful at great distances but possibly not as well as they could if they had other equipment and better environmental conditions. Isn't that always the case. The wheel turns and we all go round and round.

But everyone's full from a delicious meal and entertained and we all have a roof over our heads and nothing much is being required of us out of the ordinary. It's funny. Toikey Day is the only one of the official holidays in these Yorenited States that the Druidry has no problems with. It's ecumenical for the uneaten.

Birthdays are Bad Juju

A faction of the Druidry in these parts, me, the Crumby Ovate (CO) considers the moons around a birthday to be a particularly dangerous time. This mini-doctrine has not been accepted into the Druid liturgy because it may be too subjective and not generally applicable. Nevertheless, are Birthdays Bad Juju is rappin' on the noggin today, fer sure, as a Potential Safety Topic - Envrionmental Hazard.

The subjective evidence for Birthdays Bad Juju is sickness, accidents and noggin turmoil leading to excessive nervousness disproportionately occurring during the moon phases around one's birthday. The CO first noticed this phenomena, scientifically speaking, a good while back, nigh on to 40 years, before present (bp). (Note: The CO read an annoying article on pollen in bogs recently and one of the annoying things about the article was that the author assumed that the CO knew that bp stood for (was an acronym for) before present). Gradually, over many turns of the great circle, more and more evidence for this mini-doctrine has accrued. Accidents occur almost exlusively in the month of the Elder Berry and usually involve lawn mowers or pole saws. So does getting sick. Last year about this time the CO was so afflicted by an unusally embarrassing condition that he is still unable to spell comfortably on that subtopic.

With lotsa evidence accrued for Birthday Bad Juju, the CO, being a man of action, thought,

Somethin's goin' on here. The WG is tryin' to kill me. This is a yearly test of my worthiness to continue on in this plane of existence.

Now there are lotsa ways to placate the WG, principally by eschewing lying and gluttony. Also She likes to be thought of and appreciated and receive little sacrifices. She is much more apt to check up on whether you have lied or been a glutton and whether you have kept up with with your little sacrifices around yer birthday because that is the time She brought you on to this plane. This is Her reasoning.

I, the WG, need to see if this one human or proto human in particular is just wasting resources, so I'll check up on him and send him an affliction or two to see what he'll do. If he don't do right, I, the WG will snuff him out.

Today's test and potential affliction centers upon the objects depicted to the immediate east of this text. What is depicted? Easy that, a mop and bucket. The CO has been tasked to mop the entire Cow Barn human and proto human residence area, an activity frought with potential danger, especially danger due to a floor mopping accident. Just think about all the ways you could hurt yourself mopping. Note all the danger indicators on the mop bucket. A range wand, ruler side facing the camera is included for scale so you can easily see for yourself, the size of these dangerous objects.

We shall soon see if the CO is worthy to continue, anon.

Yippee!

Home for the holidays with interesting and fun stuff to do.

Tomorrow we will have lotsa fun testing out the new erection pwism on the LOMO 95. This will be lotsa fun. Also we will eat a delicious supper. There really is much to be thankful for so long as we don't get carried away with think-fulness. We would have even more to be thankful for if the dang focal reducer had also arrived today. But that's OK. We can save that for Friday or Saturday, maybe.

A preliminary peek out the LOMO with the new erection pwism and using the 7.3-22mm zoom lends hope that we have at last put together a spotting scope that will please everyone, not easy that in these parts. This particular erection pwism is nice looking. The body is spherical and the total appearance is similar to a ball with two small dicks sticking out of the ball if you can imagine that. It also has a compression ring inside the dick where the eyepieces go.

No more watching peeps racing along upside down or backasswards. What would Lot say about the shape of this particular erection pwism? Would it remind Lot of you know what?

This picture (located to the immediate east of this text) indicates the new erection pwism attached to the scope. One dick is in the scope and the other dick isn't. Alas, that silvery cylinder, sometimes called the focus knob, is in front of the erection pwism, partially blocking the view of the erection pwism. The Goddess of Reality Checks kindly consented to hold up a book that symbolizes somewhat of the interesting little wonders the erection pwism will be employed to facilitate the gazng upon or at, once in a while, anon.

If any among the rich and famous would like to pay us a bunch of money to take pictures of them from far away then they should pre-pay a bunch of money to RGVECB because soon the above described skill(taking pictures of the rich and famous from far away) will be available as a service from RGVECB, maybe. Whether it is or is not available anon, send us the money and we will make sure it gets spent somehow.

Some birds don't like to be spied on because it makes them as nervous as shrews. So it's best to gaze upon them from a great distance so they won't know they're being spied on. What they don't know, won't make them nervous, maybe.

Ray's Thought for the Day

One of the goals we have at RGVECB is to remind humans and proto humans of the integration of myth and nature. In this vein, seems like the fewer animals there are for people to see and interact with, the more animals become totems or something similar to totems. To the east and southeast are some examples.

Also, I, Ray have often thought, especially recently, and given that I, Ray must contend with the schizophrenic paranoia of the Crumby Ovate this time of year, that some one in the government of these Yorenited States could be monitoring RGVECB for secret messages. Well, truth to tell, we do use secret messages all the time to deceive liars and gluttons and too further befuddle the ignorant and vulgar. However, you are too stupid to figure out the secret messages. On the other hand, you do have full employment which is a shame if some of the RGVECB tax contribution is going to pay for you.

_____

Stop it Ray. We are not doing this to befuddle the ignorant and vulgar. Befuddling is not part of our mission. Befuddling is the mission of the liars and gluttons, not ours. So you can get off that right now!

Oops! All righty then Rayetta. I am officially off that subtopic. It was an oversight, including that particular subtopic and I won't do that one anymore, ever.

Jeez Louise Ray. Sometimes yer no better than Ralph Reed.

I said all righty then. I just forgot, Rayetta.

All righty then!

All righty then!



Now stop that Ray

Red's Thought for the Day

The Bushnoid crowd has achieved an all time low. Here they go, looting the national treasury and stuffing their sorry lyin' gluttonous maws, but they still have time to blame everyone and everthing else for their own wickedness. Liars and gluttons, everyone of 'em.

Meantime the Bushnoid goes faunching around foreign parts lecturing our Asian manufacturing base about the trade deficit. I wonder exactly what we make in this country anymore that anyone would want, except maybe WMD or other such similar military truck. I'm sure they'd like to get ahold of some of that, just like ol' Saddam did when he was our ally.

Ray's Thought for the Day

This has been a long day of frustration. Hence my tardiness. Plus I, Ray am plumb wore out with fretting. That's why I aint spelled 'til now and also why I caint spell, profoundly.

Lotsa the problems today stemmed from the Crumby Ovate. He is reaching the apex of nervousness which afflicts him this time of year. He is nervous to the point that he infects others, even me, the normally placid Ray. Plus his sense of smell is temporarily working again, which hasn't happened since last spring when he got sprayed in the face with perfume accidentally, maybe. Smelling stuff makes him even more nervous than he would be at this time of year normally. A minute ago he came in here and told me all the smells he has smelled since Saturday when his nostrils perked up. How interesting is that?

So perhaps you can see why I'm wore out.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Oxen

As has been noted previously on one or two occasions, I, Ray am interested in the subtopic, oxen. I have always liked the spell, strong as an ox. Sometimes I use it in reference to myself, but in any context, when I use that phrase, I am exaggerating, maybe.

It is interesting that humans hit upon the idea to defer eating young bulls of the genus Bos for sufficent time to train up the young bulls as beasts of burden. This training takes about four years, but at the end of four years the young ox is able to pull along at a steady pace, in unison with his mates and follow directions, perhaps. This is assuming the humans have not changed their minds and eaten him.

The young bull calfs are usually castrated if they are destined to a life of pulling carts or wagons or whatever. Castration serves to reduce the range of distractions the young ox is tempted to and allows him to focus more of his attention on following directions. In addition to following directions, the oxen must learn not to gallop or frisk about in yoke and to keep pace with the human marching along beside them and keeping them in order. Sometimes the oxen are so well trained that they can pull a cart along without having a human out in front keeping pace with the lead ox. However, in the mythology of the North American west, one does not encounter references to stage coaches pulled by oxen or to the oxen express. This is because the ox, no matter what, can never rival the breakneck pace of a horse or a mule.

Oxen, like donkeys, figure prominently in the human myths. Both, of course, have, abstractly, been worshipped as divinities. In Druidry, prior to a series of reformations, young bulls, if they appeared fractious and uncooperative and apparently unsuited to a life of cart-pulling or were deemed unsuitable as breeding bulls, were sacrificed for the purpose of divination. But more importantly, Druidically spelling, the sexually intact ones, have been used to satirize the king's relationship to the land and the WG, as in Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley, which deals with the king's inability to keep his stock from getting rustled.

One almost universally shared belief is that the ox keeps time.

Ray's Thought for the Day

One of the many varieties of (Bos taurus) which species is included within the group, oxen. There are four subgenera and five species according to a bunch of different ox experts. This one is sometimes called a longhorn. Glen Rose tells the story that he was was once deep in a Juniper thicket so dense that he was reduced to crawling on his hand and knees when he looked up from his botanical labors and bumped noses with one of these particular kind of ox. Despite the horns, and as you can see from the tractable appearance of this one, longhorns are generally easy to get along with.

Ray's Thought for the Day

King Ranch bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum) made it to the the top on the Texas Parks and Wildlife's draft list of invasive plants in Texas. TxDOT has removed KR from it's seeding specs, maybe. Now we are challenged with getting a bunch of people riled up enough about some of the most injurious invasives to do something, about them, the invasives.

RGVECB is going to give this considerable thought, and we urge the Druidry in these parts to do the same. One interesting idea is to have a Smokey the Bear type to advocate for native plants. We have some ideas, of course. How about Boot Curt? A cartoon graminoid who fights for native plants and is always having to rescue his girlfriend, Curly Miss Keet from evil invasives.

While we're at it, how about some really nasty sounding common names for introduced plants? Instead of the benignly inaccurate KR, we could call it Satan's Weiner bunchgrass. Buffelgrass is way too cute. It needs to be Sin-grass or Yo-mama-is-my- ho-grass, maybe. Chinese tallow needs a common name something like slimyboogertree.

Once things progress a little further, perhaps we can name all these invasive plants after the politicians that, through their cynical neglect and profound ignorance of and inattention to the land have allowed these weeds to flourish. How does Bushprivet sound? That one name would cover a multitude of sins and obviate the need for having to identify all the different kinds of privets. Spray the dang thang. It's just one of them Bushprivets.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Nasty News

The preceeding Potential Safety Topic reminds me, Ray of some muckraking journalism one of the local TV stations felt obliged to share with the viewing public a few years back. The muckrakers got hold of some video equipment that could make dried human and proto human body fluids, all of them (dried body fluids), glow in the dark, phosphorescent like. So what did they do with this technology, Ray? Well, they went to recently cleaned motel rooms, turned off the lights and used the equipment to find all the human and proto human body fluids lurking on the bedspreads, bathroom fixtures, curtains, towels, carpets and furniture.

This muckraking was supposed to be an expository series on nastiness in the tourist court industry of those days, but only aired once, or twice maybe. Almost everyone who saw this news item was offended and thought "This is more than I wanted to know." and that's perhaps why the plug was prematurely pulled. Or more likely, the Austin Chamber of Commerce intervened directly and forcefully.

Journalism in general has plummeted from the above described heights to the current altitude of a snake's belly in a wagon rut as exemplified particularly by Judy Miller and Bob Woodward. At least Judy had the decency to go to jail for awhile to partially atone for her wickedness, but all Woodward did was ask forgiveness. Well, Bob, think wicker basket. You don't rate Wicker Man.

At the least, don't buy this liar's books or even book's written about this liar. He is a servant of the Beast.

Potential Safety Topic - Environmental Hazard - Used Optics

Apparently, the lenses and lens coatings on optical gizmos are so delicate that when off-loading used ones onto an eager purchaser, the seller is not supposed to admit to having ever cleaned said gizmo. For example,

This optical device has been used only a few times and has never been cleaned as can be seen from the tiny dust specks on the lens.

Whoa! How many diseases could potentially be transmitted on a dirty, used optical device. Also, wouldn't certain ah, human or proto human skin related substances accrue to the optical device. Jeez Louise!

Noper. After some reflection on this particular subtopic, we at RGVECB have concluded that only factory fresh and sterilized optical devices will be admitted to the Cow Barn premise. Otherwise, somebody, probably Lomo, could infect the cows with pinkeye. This is, unfortunately, a decision late in coming. And we admit our mistake. We are guilty of poor planning and we hope that we have not harmed anyone by our cavalier treatment of this Potential Safety Topic, previous to this alert.

Soooooo. Watch out for these kinds of adds.

Used Nikon 10x42 bins. Never cleaned. The only stuff you might see with yer naked eye in the vicinity of the oculars are dust particles, oily residue, sweat marks, finger prints, snuff grains and hairs, maybe.

Hobbies are another Type of Displacement Behavior - Erect Image Prisms

Remember! Displacement behavior is an entirely inappropriate response to a stimuli, like falling down on yer back and exposing yer throat to an attacking poisonous shrew. Hobbies are like that too in the sense that they substitute one series of behaviors for others that would be more appropriate. For example, I really should be assassinating evil-doers since I know who they are and I know they need killin'. But instead, to keep my mind off assassination, I do hobbies.

Remember too! Repressive desublimation is when you are convinced, often subliminally, by stimuli, that you have desublimated yerself by pursuing a hobby. To use a really crass example, you buy an erect image processor because it was advertised in a magazine and the ad featured a nearly naked human or proto human of the opposite sex, and you think to yerself, I can use this to view naked or nearly naked humans or proto humans of the opposite sex, or even the same sex, maybe, and the image will be right side up and oriented properly left to right. And I will be a better person for doing this.

Which brings up the subtopic of erect image prisms. The end of paragraph two, right above the closing spell, is what these do.

Use yer telescope like a spotting scope! The image will be right side up and oriented left to right just like in a spotting scope that costs thousands more than the thousands yer telescope(s) has already cost.

But, you will learn if you do some research, that what is achieved in left to right imaging is negated by a loss in image quality and that you should never, ever, ever, use your erect image prism to look at the stars. For that (looking at the stars) you need a star diagonal.

But back to the subtopic, erect image prisms, sometimes called image erecting prisms. The spells

erect and erecting

are, of course, aimed at teenage boy astronomers where they undoubtedly produce the desired results. Anyway, I only have one of these erect image prisms, and now I want another one. The one I have only fits one of my telescopes, it is dedicated in that respect, and therefore really annoying. Also, even it did fit my other telescopes, it is, to put things in proper focus, not much count. So that's two reasons (excuses might be the spell the ladies might use)that I want another one.

You see, the RGVECB Lomo 95 catadioptric telescope is, under the proper environmental conditions and with the right eyepieces, capable of producing magnifications in excess of 100x and you can actually see the subject really well if you can get the telescope mount to settle down. But that's another issue. However, the images produced, are upside down and reversed. Note: (Peeps, apparently running around upside down are pretty funny, in fact they are downright hilarious, but you are supposed to be identifying the peeps and not just laughing at their upside down antics. Besides they actually run in the opposite direction you think they will). If you are crazy, and want to keep track of them this way, you can practice moving the alt-az handle in the same direction the upside down and backwards peeps are apparently moving. But if you are like me, this produces affectations of the noggin akin to the delerium trimmins' and you will soon have to go somewhere away from the scope and rest. You may even feel the need to vamoose yer insides out.

So once again we return to the subtopic erection image prisms. The very first ones we know about were those produced in the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah many moons ago. Only one survived the destruction of those evil cities. The one survivor was in the posession of Lot who had it on the very telescope he employed to watch his disobedient wife get turned into a pillar of salt. Later this same one fetched up in Japan, or maybe Italy, and served as the model for all the modern day telescope prisms we have today including the Don Amici prism from Italy, maybe.

Somehow, Badgemagus Swineherd, Phd. acquired some notes Lot wrote up pertaining to his (Lot's) erection image prism, which by the way, Lot spelled as pwism, no doubt giving rise to those wags who still insist to this very day on pronouncing the spell prism, as pwism. Lot, according to Badgemagus' translation, found that his erection pwism did indeed produce correctly oriented images and that his wife appeared as a salt statue, upright and and with her(its) Eastern Star broach pinned over her(its) left bosom just as it always had been pinned over her left bosom in her (its) life. So the things (erection pwisms) worked as they were advertised to work even in those days of evil and wickedness long ago.

But Lot also added, "The further away I got, the more the image degraded, and I got a lot of false color from the burning cities, and when the cities flared up really bright, I saw this goofy horizontal line running across my pwism."

The modern day price range for image erection pwisms (new) is about $20 - $200 dollars. All of them are guaranteed, if properly inserted in the telescope tubes of the proper telescope type, to produce correctly oriented images. However, I would defy anyone to determine from the available information, available anywhere, if there are any differences among any of them in the quality of the images produced.

Soooooooooo, whats' the best one for the Lomo. Well, pony up and take yer chances. It's a hobby.

The Crumby Ovate

Ray's Thought for the Day

"People should stay where they belong" is always good advice, and this is precisely why our nitwit little king is so embarrassing as a world traveler.

Ray's Thought for the Day

I'm a duck.
I'm flat-footed and I don't give a f***.
If it rains, I swim.
If it don't, I walk.

Please don't kill me.
I'm not sick.
Look at me. I'm OK.

I'm not coughin' nor nothin'.
Please! Save me for a holiday.

Please don't bury me with those chickens!

A good while, but not a great while back, the Chinese government, as alleged in the western media, decided to kill all the "sparrows" because the "sparrows" were eating up too much grain. Now you have to decide. Was this story western propaganda, or Asiatic gluttony? Did the story succeed in conflicting the noggins of any Maoist bird lovers?

Good Goddess woman, even our friends, like Daffy, are turning against us.

Rayetta's Thought for the Day

Hmmmm. Polls may say more about the polled that about the polled subtopic. For example, if you are polled on the subtopic "Do you think President Bush is honest and ethical?" and you answer that he is, honest and ethical, then the following might be inferred about you:

1) You share Bush's apparent values as perceived by you through his words and deeds.

2) You are atheistic or agnostic on the subtopic of values like honesty and ethics.

3) You lied.

Sometimes cows get polled too. If a cow answers, the answer is moo.

More Eyepiece Musings

Here's the thing, Lomo has all these telescope eyepieces left over from the panic attack deflector system. So I decided to check some of them out before he sold them. Trouble is, I like all of them in some ways. First off, today I went through the lot of potential for sale ones and compared them to the not for sale ones. I used them in the Lomo Astele 95mm with a Televue enhanced aluminum star diagonal for looking at a playing card of Senator Kerry dressed up like a Navajo at about two hundred feet plus a printout of an RGVECB subtopic.

The ones that worked really well for reading the text, backwards, dumbing down the secondary image mirror on a sunny day, color fidelity and clarity of image were a 16mm UO Konig giving 75x, a 20mm TV plossl at 60x, and amazingly a 12.5 UO ortho at 96x. By golly if you could line up a bird in that ortho you could see its pecker. Of the potential sale ones, a 25mm Lomo plossl giving 48x is no longer for sale. It's almost as sharp as a 25mm UO ortho and has a better FOV.

Another eyepiece that surprised is a 7.3-22 Apogee zoom. It seemed no count the first time in the 133.5 Lomo, but it seemed really good and handy too, in the 95 and in a C90.

The Celestron Xcels also gave good images in the C90 but they are just too big and clunky for terrestrial viewing in little maks. They may still be for sale since those orthos are so much more compact.

The GSOs are Ok, but they overdo the green tint and are just a tiny bit harder to focus than the other brands. I do want to keep the 15mm for sure.

As usual, low power is a problem. The 30mm Ultima is sharp, but that's 40x. Guess I'll have to keep the 40mm GSO too, until somehting better comes along.

The preceeding is yet another example of displacement behavior on steroids.

Ray's Thought for the Day

Viewing the Crumby Ovate's photograph of the drought stricken pus, er, poverty dropseed reminded me, Ray of some early global warming predictions from somwhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 year ago. These foretold that Texas would be afflicted by increasingly high temperatures of longer duration. That is precisely what has happened. Now Texas was purty hot even back then and its been getting hotter all right. This coincides with much of Texas being too droughty to support much agriculture so lots of the land is range for cows and goats or sort of timbered, and since most of the native range was eaten up long ago, much of it now has lotsa of forage plants introduced from foreign parts. Nevertheless, and despite the importation of range plants that can serve for fodder, cows and goats don't, by themselves, generally make their owners millionaires. But the land the cows and goats reside upon does make millionaires if the land is conveniently located within 60-70 miles of a city, which of course, lots of it is. So lotsa land has been sold for development and this coincides with lotsa cheap construction labor and coincides also with cities and what passes for a state government hereabouts handing out tax breaks to industries wishing to locate in Texas.

Upshot, we have hoards of people moving here, apparently from all over the world. This has led many who want to get rich, or richer, to opt for a total infrastructure buildout to support even greater hoards of anticipated immigrants who either don't have to go anywhere regularly, or are willing to spend 2-3 hours a day to drive somewhere regularly.

But then it is getting hotter. Plus we are in a purty bad drought and sometimes these droughts can last awhile. Well, you won't exactly get Iraq here for a short while longer, so long as there's enough water in the Colorado to water the St. Augustine and Zoysia, maybe.

The Crumby Ovates Thought for the Day - Eyepiece Tests, Etc.

If a person has three telescopes and fifteen eyepieces how much time can be burnt up seeing which combination shows a printout of an RGVECB subtopic at 200 feet? Does such an activity have any practical application? What if the results are not shared? What if the results are ignored?

It is a time of great peril for the Crumby Ovate. The Goddess stalks him. Soooooo, eyepiece testing may be a fairly safe activity, maybe.

Some results.

It's hard to read reversed left to right images at 200 feet.
It's hard to look through a telescope when a dog's jumping on you.
Fifteen eyepieces and three telescopes and four diagonals are too many.
Hobbies are inherently gluttonous, maybe.

But then they do give the noggin a break from the Banshees. Maybe the elders won't turn red until Imbolc, maybe. But a shift in the seasons just prolongs the danger, maybe.

Yikes!

A mood picture. This shows a bunch of dried up poverty dropseed on the Edwards Cap. This is how it looks in the shallow clay soil skinning the limestone when it doesn't rain and its unseasonally hot (Banshee weather, maybe). Poverty dropseed may be (Sporobolous vaginaflorus. No doubt, a slang potential common name or two come to mind due to the specific epithet.

Ray's Thought for the Day - Ahmad Chalabi

Remember the old adage "people are the same everywhere"? Did you ever wonder if this old adage was true, and if so, how anyone could know it was true? Perhaps like most old adages, "people are the same everywhere" contains an element of truth, maybe. Perhaps the element of truth is that people can be found everywhere who are close enough to being the same as you, to get along with you. To put it another way, they are the same difference.

Consider Ahmad. He has the same differences as George W., Dick, Scooter, Don and Condy. So they can all work together, happily, toward common goals. Isn't it wonderful that in a far off land filled with people that don't seem the same, a pal can turn up that shares the same differences as you? The Shah of Iran was like that too, a pal with the same differences.

Potential Safety Topic - Environmental Hazard - horseapples

If ye find horseapples on the playground ye should not pick 'em up. Horseapples are not play purtys. If ye do pick 'em up and examine 'em, you should wash yer hands before ye put yer fingers in yer eyes or nostrils or mouth. Ye should not play catch with horseapples or have horseapple fights. Ye should not throw horseapples from speeding cars at mailboxes or other objects. If ye do any of these things, ye should wash yer hands before ye stick yer fingers in yer eyes or bodily orifices like yer ears. If ye do get horseapple juice in yer eyes, or in an orifice, ye did not pay attention and ye'll have to suffer, fer it.

from Red's Potential Safety Topic Handbook fer Tabby Labbers under (Maclura pomifera)

Shocking Facts, Maybe, about Shrews

Shrews are related to moles. The smallest species of shrew is two grams, adult weight. A quarter (the coin) weighs 5 grams. Shrews are nervous by nature. Shrews may die of fright if exposed to loud noises. If a shrew is captured it may die of shock. Shrews eat insects and worms. Shrew families caravan together, the second one in line holding on to its predecessor's tail and so on and so forth until there are no more shrews at the end of the caravan. Shrews are generally solitary and the sexes meet only to fornicate. This would seem to contradict the caravaning, but caravaning is apparently limited to mother shrews and mother shrews young offspring.
A shrew-like animal appeared to the Crumby Ovate in a totem dream a good while back. At least one shrew species is a water walker, employing air trapped on the hairs of its hind feet and the surface tension of the water to accomplish this Jesus-like miracle. This same shrew has been held by human researchers underwater for up to 47.7 seconds without drowning. This is surprising, since based on the previous facts presented, and others not presented, the shrew should have died of shock before it survived drowning. Because shrews are so little and nervous they think a lot. In fact, shrews have the highest thought to mass ratio in the animal kingdom. Thinking so much is what makes shrews nervous. When a shrew is deep in thought, it's metabolic rate increases dramatically. At these times the shrew is most vulnerable to death from loud noises and to being captured and dying of shock because the shrew is thinking too much and not paying attention to its immediate environment. To keep from thinking too much all the time, shrews remain active when they are not thinking. Activities, such as running around and fornicating help dissipate nervous energy. Many shrews also swim or climb trees to accomplish nervous energy dissipation. All shrews can tunnel along to some extent. But when the opportunity to use a mouse or mole tunnel arises, a typical shrew will use these without a second thought, the first thought to use the tunnel, sufficing. Some shrews can administer poisonous bites, but because of their small size, shrews are not considered a threat to the national security of the liars and gluttons. Nevertheless, the ignorant and vulgar, lump shrews into the general category of varmints (the tiniest shrews are relagated to the vermin category) and all are coincidentally persecuted on this account.

Walker's Mammals of the World

RGVECB's two-volume set arrived today, 6th ed. It is worth the price of admission. First, the pages glued to the front and back covers on the inside, and the adjacent pages have, inexplicably, comparison scales of metric and U.S. measurements of area, weight, temperature and length plus conversion tables. Both volumes have this feature. Second, the pictures of all the different mammals are just too funny. For example, the only Homo sapiens pictured are all astronauts including one of all of those astronauts that got blown up when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. That picture represents human diversity. This is not funny because the Challenger exploded, but because all the humans have space suits on. Third, the phylogenetic order of the mammals is always hilarious because Primates is sandwiched between Chiroptera and Carnivora. Fourth, the proboscis monkey has an erection all right, but doesn't appear to be in a boat like the Crumby Ovate remembered. Either he saw the proboscis monkey in the boat somewhere else, or they have switched pictures, or the CO dreamed up the boat.

On another, and more nostalgic tack. on p. 243 is the star-nosed mole with an insert picture of its nose. I wept a little at the site of one of my potential former foster parents.

the LDR
_____

Hey Rayetta. What do you think is the etymology of dreamboat?

Hmmmm. Well Ray, I'm not sure about that. Why don't you do some research on the subtopic, dreamboat?

All righty then. Perhaps dreamboat will be my thought for tomorrow.

Ray's Thought for the Day

This is going to be a long day, for tedium. Duty now, to an uncertain future is indicated. Do I, Ray spell like your horoscope?

Rayetta's Thought for the Day

I mean really. Misled?

Hi! I'm Senator Honkinwhacker, and in addition to my salary and benefits I get kickbacks and inside trading tips and I have a book deal going. The book explains how to be a liar and a glutton and still get re-elected forever. Sure I thought Saddam was gonna kill us all (wink, wink) and I made a few speeches on that subtopic. But really, you know, that's not my fault. I was misled.

Hmmmm. How can we get these liars and gluttons under control?

Meanwhile the libs are all excited that the Senate Democrats are making noise about the War on Iraq which all of us, or our descendants maybe, pay taxes to support. Well, the Dems that opposed the war to begin with are the only ones worth listening too. The rest of 'em are just liars and probably getting kickbacks from defense contractors. They are probably using this strategy to extort more money from the defense industry, which would make them gluttons to boot.

Hi! I'm Senator Honkinwhacker and I am certainly against the way we went to war today and we won't do that again without careful scrutiny of the situation unless somebody contributes to my re-election campaign and sends me on a free golf holiday somewhere nice and in that event I may not be around to do much scrutinizing.

Hmmmm. Socialism for the rich plus imperialism served up by the Yorenited States government. And coming soon, maybe, civil liberties for Easy Christians only.

Vote no Tuesday on everything! Why? Easy that. The Texas Constitution is already too long. Also, RGVECB supports moving the state capitol somewhere else, like Waco, maybe. Such a move would help with the traffic and pollution problems in Austin.

Whut the heck?

This is part of a big multi-stemmed shrub/tree or shrubs/trees growing about a mile northeast of the intersection of the Colorado R. and the Gulf of Mexico in Matagorda County, Texas. We do not know what it be. Notice the tight, dark green foilage. Do Tamarix spp. ever look like this when they're stressed or poisoned? This thing, by the way,looked healthy.

Botanizing the Marsh

In the saltmarsh, plant species diversity increases with elevation. So when ye get a foot er two above sea level ye get more plants than Spartina and Batis which is what ye get at sea level. Here's Palafoxia texana var. ambigua which grows on the lower Texas coast and adjacent Mexico. There's some Sida lindheimeri in the picture too and a crab spider, Misumena sp.
All righty then. Here's a skullcap, Scutellaria muriculata. Notice the crenations on the leaves. The truly learned spell the genus name as Scuttlebutteria.

And while I'm at it, here's Lycium carolinianum of the tater family.

Integrity

Ms. Merriam Webster, 2. firm adherenece to a code of of especially moral or artisitic values: incorruptibility

I think perhaps this is the form of the word meant that is showing up in the presidential performance polls one hears about.

What is surprising about these polls, if they accurately reflect the views of the adult population, which they assuredly may not because the sample size is too small, is that so many adults indicate they have about the same quality of integrity as the little king. This is troubling, to me. For the implication is that 371 out of 1006 American adults believe it is OK to go for unbridled economic and environmental exploitation to further enable the already too rich. This also indicates that the moral values of those 371 adults includes exploitation as OK, and that they are probably, personally facilitating the exploitation and sharing in the loot.

To put it another way, if lying and gluttony are a part and parcel of your integrity, then there is nothing wrong, from your perspective, with lying and gluttony. Furthermore, you would not feel the least bit put upon, if you observed similar patterns of integrity in others, especially if such patterns reinforced your integrity and trended to your benefit. In addition, you would mightily resent anyone who questioned your integrity and you would point to the fact that you do have integrity, because your integrity includes lying and gluttony as OK.

In any event, and to re-iterate, if 371 adults out of 1006 share the integrity of the little king and his ministers, that 37% is a very scary number. That high a percentage in the general population is way more than enough to seize state power. What actions might such a state take against those who objected to exploitation of labor or the environment? Yikes! Soon nothing would be left to conserve and all the conservers would be in jail, deported to France, or dead.

I foretell a divided America of gated communities and open spaces where only the rich and powerful dwell, the 37% minus all the dupes that thought they were included. And the rest of the people have no illusions concerning their role in that society. But maybe this is not a foretelling at all, but just sinusitis.

Ray's Thought for the Day

Mosquitoes can be a little aggravation. Actually, mosquitoes can on occasion rise above the little aggravation level to the small annoyance level. This occurs when they jump on a person in such numbers, and are so hungry that they keep a person wholly occupied with self-defense. When you start asking yerself, What do these mosquitoes eat when I'm not here?, it's time to go somewheres else. The same applies to chiggers, only more so. Although, the fire ants seem to have done a number on the chiggers, so much so, that I am waxing somewhat nostagic about chiggers. It's been many moons since 100's of 'em got on me at once.

Reckon what sharp-tailed and seaside sparrows and short-billed marsh wrens do about mosquitoes? Seem like living all yer whole life, 24/7 with mosquitoes would be constantly annoying. So those birds must know something I don't about getting along with mosquitoes.

I have heard the ignorant and vulgar ask the question, If god loves us, why did he make mosquitoes? Well the answer to that is, god loves mosquitoes and he made the ignorant and vulgar to serve as mosquito food. Ask a stupid question, ye get a stupid answer, maybe.

So all this is by way of making amends fer the gcw habitat misspell of before Samuin. But as that turned into a lesson, and all's well as ends better, I Ray, am once more firmly clasped to the bosom of the WG.

Ray, Baby, Ray