I wrote down the following, after waking from a dream. It was something I had been thinking (or maybe telling someone) in the dream. I remember that at the time, after waking up, it only made half-sense, though in the dream it had seemed very significant and true, in a sad way. Now it makes even less sense.

"I feel like I'm living life from the outside in." (like I don't really have a life of my own.. just ~pretending/reacting...

This PBS kid's show is entertaining and quite funny in some parts: Odd Squad

That website is good too; you can watch the episodes there, and it has other special features. Awww man, it even has a downloadable 2017 puppy calendar.

Apparently shelf-stable / tetrapak-style cartons are now recyclable here too.

https://www.recyclecartons.com/center-info/?location=42005

http://columbiasc.net/solid-waste/recycling/waste-wizard

And now even greasy pizza boxes are ok, too! "Greasy boxes are ok. Please no food waste."

And apparently plastic bottle caps should be discarded in the trash. That's what I originally thought, but later on I read conflicting info which made me think it was ok as long as they were screwed onto the bottle.
But ok, I need to remember: no bottle caps, no more.

But... what about wide-mouthed plastic jars with the big plastic caps? I can't find that mentioned in the above waste wizard. Are plastic jars considered plastic bottles? And are plastic jar caps considered the same as plastic bottle caps? Surely not.

For some reason, the Richland County Solid Waste and Recycling page is giving a 404 error at present:
http://www.rcgov.us/Government/Departments/SolidWasteRecycling.aspx

I wish it was working so I could check if all the above is really true for Richland County's recycling program too, and not only the city's.

I woke up, sitting in my chair at work with my head leaning back. I had fallen asleep at work! It was now the middle of the night... when I saw a clock, it showed 4am.

I got up and started walking, to wake myself up. I walked into the next building where I don't normally go, and promptly got lost. I was surprised that there were still a lot of other people around, still working at that hour.

I saw sunlight starting to brighten the curtains on the east side of the building, and walked over there to look at the sunrise. When I looked out the window, I saw the ocean and a beach down below! I exclaimed something in surprise, and another guy nearby said something like yeah, the company put that there for employees. I said I had never seen it before, and looked back outside again. It looked like the real ocean, with waves, but it only extended out for a short distance and ended.

I found my way back to my cube and was preparing to leave, when I heard/saw another co-worker just leaving, locking the door behind them. I worried for a moment that he was locking me in, but then I remembered that I had a key - hopefully it worked from the inside too, to unlock the door.

Rhiannon Giddens - Wayfaring Stranger


The above song sounds VERY familiar to me. It triggered a memory of a different voice singing it, in a slightly different way. But the song title is not present in my music collection, unless I taped it from the radio on one of my as yet uncatalogued audio cassettes.

I checked a list of other artists who have covered the song, and when I saw Dolly Parton's name, I thought "oh YES, that's the voice I was thinking of." But the only solo song I have by Dolly Parton is this one:
Dolly Parton - Little Sparrow


Both of those songs sound very similar to me. So that must be the song I was remembering.

Dolly Parton has sung Wayfaring Stranger, too. The beginning of it has the same sound as the above two, but once past 30 seconds in, it sounds very different. So this is NOT the song I was remembering.
Dolly Parton - Wayfaring Stranger


Audra May has sung a cover of Little Sparrow, which is also very good:
Audra Mae - Little Sparrow

I'll have to try this:

How to stop stumps from growing back, organically! - drill holes in the stump and apply epsom salts, and replenish the salt every week or so.

Another idea - after doing the above, cover the stumps with black plastic / garbage bag and weight it down with bricks, to both block sunlight, and to keep the salts from being washed away by rain.

How To Use Epsom Salt For Stump Removal - this page says to put a little bit of water in the holes with the epsom salt.

How to Mix Epsom Salts to Kill Stumps - this page says to use a one-inch extra long drill bit... Oh, that must be a spade bit.

I know it's not true, but it seems like *everybody* got to see totality except me (and of course my mom and Qiao, who were with me.)

I know I'm lucky to have been able to experience as much of it as I did experience. To not have even had to travel anywhere to experience it. There are surely people who traveled far from home to see it, and had clouds get in the way; that would have been even worse bad luck. And I'm sure there were many people who were in the path, but were unable to watch it for other reasons.

What with the weather forecasts, it's not like I was really *expecting* to be able to see it. I knew it was a long-shot. It seemed, though, that even if I were to drive somewhere else with a better forecast, it would be just as much a matter of luck, along with the risk of being stuck in traffic during the actual event.

But that break in the clouds here as it was getting closer to totality really made it seem like we were going to get to see it after all... and then... that big dark cloud, sob.

I'm glad that on Monday evening, there was one announcer on TV, who when the others were talking about it, said "well actually I didn't get to see it; in my area it was raining". It made me feel less alone in my bad luck. He's one of only two people I've heard on TV who were in the path of totality, who said they didn't get to see it due to clouds or rain.

I wonder, if I had seen it, if it would have seemed really special, or just a neat glowing disk in the sky. I suspect that latter, because nothing feels really special to me. So it's not like I probably even missed a great experience.

Oh, man. There's a pretty good video of it on this page. But apparently, totality was even visible in Charleston and on the coast, though the weather map had been showing the worst cloud cover there. ::sob, I'm cursed::

... oh, wait. Here's some other people who had clouds. See there, self, you're not the only one with disappointment.

..

I saw the crescent moon this evening, around 9pm. Sunset was around 8pm.

This was a very interesting read. Several of the things mentioned in the article made me think of my niece, who was born in 1995; things which I thought were simply traits of hers, but which may be more general traits of her generation.

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

Follow-up to this post.

In the prior post, I pondered about angles. In particular, about the ~13 degrees per day that the moon orbits around the earth, and whether that angle would still look like 13 degrees to me, when measured from the surface of the earth.

The angle would *not* be exactly the same. However, because of how far away the moon is compared to the size of the earth, the difference in angle is very small. That difference can be calculated using trigonometry.

Here's a new diagram. All figures mentioned below are approximations or averages.



The angle measured from the center of the earth is 13 degrees.
"X" is the corresponding angle measured from the surface, which will be calculated.
"D" is the distance from the center of the earth to the moon: 384400 km
"R" is the radius of the earth : 6371 km

I've drawn 2 right triangles such that both have the same "opposite" side, with length "O".
The length of the adjacent side for the X-angled triangle is "A".
The length of the hypotenuse for the X-angled triangle is "B".
The length of the adjacent side for the 13-degree-angled triangle is A + R.
The length of the hypotenuse for the 13-degree angled triangle is D.

sin 13 degrees = O / D
O = D * sin 13 = 384400km * 0.2249511 = 86471 km

cos 13 degrees = (A + R) / D
A = (cos 13) * D - R = (0.9743701 * 384400) - 6371 = 368176.85

tan X = O / A
X = arctan(O / A) = arctan (86471 / 368176.85) = 13.217

So, the corresponding angle from the surface of the earth is ~13.2 degrees.

Three vultures and a crow in a dead tree. The crow seemed to be cawing at the vultures.


Impressive power lines.


I call this the "yellow brick road". Yellow flowers grow in this gravel path, and only in the path, not in the surrounding fields of grass.