A Bloy and his Blog

Today I discovered the local Baskin Robbins ice cream shop (where I had my very first job, way back when I was 16) is no longer there. It made me a little sad to find out a place that I spent a few years at, no longer exists. It also made me wonder a little about my own mortality and what will be left on this planet to show I was here. I suppose I should go out and plant some trees or something. Until then, I guess there’s always the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

I’ve always been fascinated by my dreams and what my unconscious mind comes up with while I’m sleeping. Sometimes I have dreams that are so interesting it’s like watching a really good movie. Then of course, I’m disappointed when the show’s over and I wake up. Last night I had this dream about someone I used to work with, but haven’t seen, spoken to, or even thought of in at least 10 years. Where did that come from? We were in some kind of scavenger hunt and not being very successful. I’ll leave it to you to interpret what that means…

Several years ago I used to keep a dream diary. Maybe it’s time to start that again. Pleasant dreams!

Spring is officially here. Today (about a week after the Spring Equinox) I finally got to experience a full day of sunshine and warm temperatures in the mid 40’s. I know what you’re thinking, but after a week or so of 20 degree, windy weather in Wisconsin, 45 really IS warm. The best sign of Spring I saw today happened when I decided to take the long way home from work and go through the park. As I was driving along I saw this big flock of robins. There must’ve been at least 30 of them. All I could think when I saw this whole flock of robins just hanging out together in the park was, what a great thing to do on such a nice day.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I tend to lean toward the left politically and consider myself a progressive. Those of you who have similar views will enjoy WhiteHouse.org. There you can read why President Bush replaced the traditional Easter Egg Hunt with a scavenger hunt for 10W-40 motor oil, find out how to sponsor a reactionary ideologue for only $20,000 a month, read the Ten Commandments of Patriotism and much more.

And for those of you who lean more toward the conservative side of politics, lighten up and visit the site. It’s April Fool’s Day!

It may not look much different, but this site has now been re-tooled with XHTML. In addition to the changes under the hood, I also took one of the better dynamic javascript menus on the net and modified it for use on this site (look for it in the upper right hand corner of most of the interior pages). Many thanks to Peter-Paul Koch for his excellent web site QwirksMode and his outstanding DHTML menu which he makes available.

And if you’re not interested in web design stuff, take a look at my about me page. There you’ll find some interesting info on the origin of the Bloy name which I posted recently.

I’ve discovered that as I get older I have some seasonal rituals which I always do. Okay, the word ritual might be a little strong, maybe I should call them traditions. Anyway, today I performed one of my Spring rituals. Usually on one of the first warmer, sunny days of spring, I head out the door for a long vigorous walk with my walkman attached to my belt and the headphones in my ears. The CD I always end up listening to on this first walk of Spring is African Shadow Man by Johnny Clegg and Savuuka. It’s a definitely an album to listen to in the springtime with its blending of African and Western pop music styles. In my mind, it’s not Spring until I listen to that as I breathe in the fresh air and walk along the parkway with the sun on my back.

Today’s entry comes to you courtesy of the band Cracker. They’ve always been a band with a great sense of humor and their new CD, Forever has plenty of examples of that. On that disc I heard my favorite lyric of the year so far:

You are so beautiful,
you should be guarded by monkeys.

 

I’ll just let you sit back and contemplate that for a while.

My thought for Earth Day comes from an old proverb:

“We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children.”

The wonders of the universe we live in never cease to amaze me. Today NASA released spectacular pictures taken from a new camera recently installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. Looking at those breathtaking images brings several questions to my mind. Will humans ever see beautiful scenes like this in person? If so, how long until we do? Are there beings out there pointing their telescopes toward our galaxy and pondering these same thoughts?

Bald eagles have got to be one of the most majestic animals on the planet. Through conservation efforts, the endangered bald eagle has been making a comeback, especially in Wisconsin. Recently, my local public television station has been showing live scenes from a bald eagle nest in Northern Wisconsin in between their regular programs. The folks who operate the camera have also set up a web site where you can watch live video from the eagle’s nest. Over the past few days, two eaglets have emerged from their eggs. Activity at the nest should really get interesting now.