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This past weekend we took a drive out to the Antelope Valley to see the Poppies at the Poppy Reserve. Afterwards, we drove a bit further and spent the night at Red Rock Canyon State Park.  We didn’t get there until after dark, then we made some dinner, and I spent the rest of the night taking pictures. I started out with the Joshua Trees in the center of the campground. I think Joshua Trees are freakin’ awesome, so they are the first to get uploaded and this is dedicated to them.

I had a lot of fun, with my speedlight secured on my hip, taking a shot, reviewing, trying again. You couldn’t see much of anything in the viewfinder because it was so dark, so I had to guess and check. Most shots were several minute exposures, during which time I would experiment with manually shooting the flash off from different places. This one is a fairly short exposure (hence the black background) with a combination of two flash firings: one from above the camera, and one well off to the right.

This is from the morning after. I got up before sunrise, hoping to go hike through one of the canyons in the morning light. But the promising glow on the horizon quickly turned to an ugly gray. I had a nice morning walk though, any way.

Of course, we also saw some pretty awesome poppy fields on Saturday. Those will have to wait for another night!

This weekend Mary and I packed up the car before dawn and headed north for Sonora, CA.  We got lunch in Sonora, then saw “Christmas, My Way” — a Frank Sinatra Christmas tribute show — at the Fallon House Theatre in Columbia State Park. Afterwards, we headed off to Yosemite valley to spend the night camping in the snow.  I’ve been to Yosemite twice now. The first time, we camped in Toulumne Meadows, and that area was awesome. But, when we went into the Valley it pretty much sucked. The roads were a traffic jam, and there were people EVERYWHERE. This weekend was so much calmer, and the snow was nice. When we first left camp around sunrise, the valley was nearly deserted. People started emerging from the lodges a bit later, but it was still a pretty quiet place.

Inscriptions on the wall at the Hong Kong Garden Restaurant in Sonora, CA. We figured these to be cattle brands for local ranchers(either past or present). We're not really sure though. FYI, if you are in Sonora and thinking of eating at this restaurant, I definitely do not recommend it, despite the interesting decor.

Just some blocked off stairs on the end of a bridge that caught my eye

Yosemite Creek

More is in this set on Flickr (or view slideshow).

Not a lot of activity here recently. This can be blamed primarily on my lack of free time, which can be blamed, primarily, on the large amount of time I’ve spent at work recently. But, I have managed this weekend to enjoy some relaxing computer time at Panera, and as usual, that means posting here. So, for today’s Panera observation, I have this warning, from a mother to her son:

“You’d better stop that, or I’ll put a chili in your mouth!”

Ouch. I’d stop if I were him.

I filed my taxes today, and it was a distinctly different experience than any other year I’ve filed. Due to the fact that the vast majority of my previous income was “self-employed”, no taxes were withheld throughout the year, and I had to pay the extra 7.5% self-employment (social security) tax in addition to the usual. This meant that every year around tax time I owed a lot of money. This year however, I’m getting a rather large refund! Tack on my $600 stimulus check, and it almost feels like I’m getting a gift from Uncle Sam. Of course, that’s not really the case. I was really giving out an interest free loan…but that doesn’t change the way I FEEL about it!

It got me thinking, so I decided to do a bit of research and came across the “History of the US Tax System”, published by the US Treasury. Tax withholding at the source (the employer) was first enacted during the Civil War, along with a two-tiered income tax and standard deductions, and various other taxes to support the growing war costs. It was soon repealed though, in 1872.

Tax withholding returned during World War II, along with huge increases in taxation levels: federal receipts increased from $8.7B (7.6% of GDP) in 1941 to $45.2B (20.4% of GDP) in 1945. From the US Treasury’s summary:

Another important feature of the income tax that changed was the return to income tax withholding as had been done during the Civil War. This greatly eased the collection of the tax for both the taxpayer and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. However, it also greatly reduced the taxpayer’s awareness of the amount of tax being collected, i.e. it reduced the transparency of the tax, which made it easier to raise taxes in the future.

That seems to hit it right on. Collecting is easy, and I’m feeling right now like I got a tax time bonus! It is worth noting that tax levels (as a percent of GDP) never returned to Pre World War II levels. They dipped briefly to 14.4%, but soon were back up to the postwar (1945 to present) average of 17.9%. This graph from heritage.org shows 1945 to present tax rates.

It is just another example of how the right presentation can effect people’s perceptions. We really don’t always consider things rationally. But, whatever.  When do I get my check???

So I’m here killing time at Panera again; this time waiting for Mom and Dustin’s  delayed flight to get into LAX. Today’s observation involves computer lust. The guy across the room from me is setup with this laptop, which really isn’t a LAPtop at all! But if you are looking for portable screen real estate….wow. At first, I thought he had brought a stand-alone monitor to Panera with him! My laptop feels so small now. Of course, I’m going to walk out of here comfortably with mine in my backpack. I don’t think I’d want to carry his very far!

Engadget review:  http://www.engadget.com/2006/06/01/dell-xps-m2010-reviewed/

I had my first Disney theme park experience recently. Mary finally took me after talking about it forever! All in all, I’d have to say I was pretty impressed. Nothing like the roller coasters of Busch Gardens or Kings Dominions, that’s for sure. In fact, there were only really two rides that qualify as roller-coasters as far as I’m concerned. But they definitely go all out on the immersion factor. Whether it is the stars flying by in the dark and the music of Space Mountain, holographic ghosts on haunted house, or images projected on sheets of dry ice smoke, I spent a lot of time going, “Wow that’s cool! How’d they do that?”.

They also really know how to run a theme park. Compared to others I’ve been to, it is way cleaner, people are nicer, and they amazingly efficient at moving a line through a ride. I mean, they run double loading stations, have non stop loading on conveyor belts, and have a “Fastpass” system, so you can get a certain number of bypass the line passes per hour, and can then come back at a future time (marked on the pass, depending on demand) and bypass most of the line. Also cool: Interactive rides. On Astroblaster, you get to go through the ride shooting targets with a laser, competing for a high score. Nothing like competition to make the ride more fun . The California Tower Hotel (Tower of Terror) was also pretty cool. I can almost see why people would want to travel across the world to visit the place. For a young disney fan at the right age, I think it would seem downright magical. Pictures can be found here. Also, this girl was going crazy on a rope on the Lion King float in the parade!

Figure 1: Standard hair cutting tools

Please note figure 1, where marked B is a standard electric hair clipper. This is an electrical device with small reciprocating blades intended to easily shear off unwanted hair. Importantly, because many people wish to control the amount of hair remaining after shear, and lack the precision of movement required to maintain equal distance between the clippers and scalp while completing the shearing maneuver, another set of tools — available in various sizes — are typically employed. An example of this tool — which we shall call a clipper gaurd — is shown in figure 1, marked A. This particular example is a #4 standard size guard. Typically, the shearer (or barber, if you wish) would attach this guard over the cutting element of the clipper prior to performing the shearing. It is very important to follow this procedure in the proper order. Should one forgot to attach the guard and proceed straight to shearing without realizing it, an undesired result such as that shown in figure 2 may occur.

Figure 2: What can happen to you, if you fail to observe proper electric clipper procedure.

Oops! That’s gonna take a while to grow I think….

It’s time for the second place in the “Places to Go” series: The Bonneville Salt Flats. You may have heard of it before, as it is home to the annual Bonneville Speed Week, and has been the location for many land speed records in the past. It’s about 110 miles west of Salt Lake City, and while visiting a friend there, we decided to make the drive out to see it. We weren’t sure what to expect. Would there be a visitor’s center? Could we even get to it? Could we just go out and drive on it? We certainly hoped so! Turns out we could. More after the jump…

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I finally made it to Disneyland yesterday! I got to help buzz lightyear save the galaxy! Disney was cool…more on that later.

“I’m going back to belly dancing. I need to satisfy my soul. Forget my ass, my soul needs rejuvination.”

Mary and I have a weekend tradition: we go to Panera for lunch, she does her stats homework, I read or work on something else. Sometimes, maybe, I accidentally overhear other conversations going on. Like the quote above. There you have it: Belly dancing is great for the soul (if not for toning your behind).