Hi All,

I'm not dead. I've just been busy on other sites. But I think I will try to do at least a little more posting here. LJ now has the distinction of being the one site not included in my FriendFeed because I want to maintain the illusion that I have a non-work, non-politics corner of the internet to play in.

So I might be using it more. Or not. We'll see. Here's the story behind this picture:

"There are bird and what look to be cat tracks in the snow outside my door this morning. The bird tracks stood alone last night, so I don't think any animals were harmed in taking this photo. "

Hi to all my LJ friends. Especially to libkitty and Sarah Mae!

Yesterday I spent some time on the front porch near sunset. I got some great pictures, including this one.

The other day a blue heron perched on this object that's hung around my back yard for weeks. I only think about it at high tide.

You can see him this well thanks to Flickr's relatively new onboard editing software. Cropping was a breeze.

Today I have many things to be grateful for. Here are three:

1) Warm weather! Must be 70s today.
2) Bright sunshine! More sunshine today than in last week put together!
3) The bright sunshine drew a coworker out of her office at lunch to spend it with my spouse and I. That was really nice.

Tags: grateful
Current Mood: grateful

Today I am grateful for ...

1) Continued warm weather

2) Noon concerts in my building as a result of the Juneau Jazz and Classics festival. It's nice when culture comes to you. Today I heard Mozart & Brahams.

3) Fresh made Pesto sauce being sold by the local deli. Not quite as good from scratch, but makes a good dinner.

Which reminds me I need to put up the rest of the noodlesa. TTFN

Tags: grateful
Current Mood: grateful

I'm writing this from my xo laptop, hence some terseness. I am terse but grateful for ...

1) beautiful warm spring weather, Alaskan style.

2) That mission impossible is out on DVD and available through Netflix.

3) That I have so many friends willing to play mental games on FB.

4) The reflections of mountains in the channel.

Tags: grateful
Current Mood: happy

Hi All, It's been ages since I've dropped by. And it makes sense that my return should be one of gratitude. Nothing special or dire has happened, I just seem be blogging on my professional interests more often. Also, now that my spouse is working the same hours I am, there is understandably less time for online activities. I'm very happy to say that I meet my spouse for most lunches. Which I hate to say is way better than being on the computer -- at least most days.

So what I am grateful for? A lot, but here are three recent things:

1) My workplace now has a cool meeting room. It's dual purpose as a conference and break room. People are using it already. And it's there as a result of ideas I was able to push into practice. It's the work of many people and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

2) Really great coworkers who pulled together to pull off a somewhat difficult reconfiguration that we think will work better for people.

3) Friends who treat me and my spouse like family. It's an honor and really fun!

Bonus - sunshine today after weeks of gloom! Hee! Hee! Hee!

Tags: grateful

At the end of Thane Road in Juneau, a three minute walk takes you to a beautiful waterfall. On April 19, 2008, this waterfall had many interesting icicles. This is a closeup of some of them.

It was sooo nice to get out for a hike yesterday!

Today is March 30th. It is snowing. It started snowing about a half hour ago. I live in Juneau, Alaska. Late March snow is not common but it happens.

When it first started snowing, I was appalled. I was sad that Spring still hasn't won a decisive battle against Winter. I was frustrated that now that I feel healty for the first time in four days, it wasn't sunny anymore.

Somehow, I started thinking that if it were January or February, I'd find watching the snow very soothing. I like to watch it fall and swirl. So I sat by a window for a few minutes and really watched the chaotic play of flakes of various sizes blowing in the light breeze. And it was soothing.

The lesson here? I let myself get angry and sad because of a false sense of context -- snow doesn't belong in Spring. When I take things on their own terms -- snow is pretty whenever it falls, I can enjoy peace.

This realization (or remembering) helped me. Though I'm sure that I didn't fully communicate it here, I hope it helps you.

Tags: life, media, perspective
Current Mood: grateful

I have just finished reading Discovery, the autobiography of arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Steffansson. I found it very engaging. It has an index and Steffansson recounts his failures as well as his successes. The book also has an interesting chapter on the Cold War's negative effects on scientific advancement.

But that's not why I'm writing this morning. I am writing because Mr. Steffansson had total faith in a high-fat meat diet that he came to call the Stone Age Diet. In the last chapter of his book, "My New Stone Age", he credits the diet with helping him to recover from stroke and eliminating his joint stiffness. This was in the early 1960s, prior to the promotion of the Atkins Diet. Although the Atkins Diet was started in the 1960s, Steffansson had lived on and promoted the "stone age diet" off an on since 1906. So he truly was Atkins before Atkins was cool.

Tags: arctic, autyhors, history