Ironic, isn't it?

They went to such lengths to create a woodsy eco-home,
and yet they still had to have a microwave.

Two at 2:27

Designs by David Dessens, via Moon River

The Moon seen in the light cast by the Earth.

"In this picture, the Moon is seen illuminated solely by light reflected from the Earth -- Earthshine! The bright glow on the lunar horizon is caused by light from the solar corona; the Sun is just behind the lunar limb. Also caught in this image is the planet Venus, at the top of the frame."

The night the ionospherethrew on the high beams.

"Shevill Mathers took this beautiful picture of an auroral beam on the 24th of August, 2005, from Tasmania."

Daehanminguk digicam,the sequel

This post was the original and this was the prequel.

First, the tiny silent movies:







And now, the photos:

Seen through the classroom door, while the girls
on both sides got ready to enter and leave.


The youngest elementary students
always have new diversions in hand.


4:08 on a Sunday afternoon


The bus terminal doubles as a wedding hall
(not to mention the club in the basement
and the bowling alley on the top floor).


The one movie theater in town is across the street.


A corner that caught my eye after twilight.


Notice how most of the clocks are out of sync.


Echoes of Paris at the hair ("hae-uh") shop



Ginseng hung to dry and cooking implements
outside of a restaurant in Yeoju County.





The epicurious will enjoy Corean cuisine.



The produce is pampered out here
(but that's to be expected, since
it isn't as full of junk as what one
will tend to find in the States).


Ajumma on the move


Silver and green bikes, just the colors for two people
with Cancer and Gemini on the ascendant.



Views of the rice paddies and farming fields
that we saw after we bought the bikes.


A large stone by a small lake


Gingko leaves in the breeze


Tiny white blossoms [1111 px version]


A staghorn fern at the botanical conservatory
near Jongmyo Palace in Seoul[1111 px version]


Giant spider lily, Crinum asiaticum


Bees goin' about their business [1111 px version]


Rudbeckia by the riverside


Hollyhocks on the edge of a nearby garden


Air traffic


Subdued tones of a sunset


The Full Moon in June

Drawing from memoryin a major way

"In February 1987, the BBC aired a program on savant syndrome entitled The Foolish Wise Ones. One segment featured a then-twelve-year-old autistic boy, Stephen Wiltshire, drawing from memory on camera a remarkably accurate sketch of St. Pancras station, which he had visited for the first time only several hours before. As the camera recorded, he quickly and assuredly drew the elaborate and complicated building exactly as he had seen it with the clock hands set at precisely 11:20, the hour he had viewed them.

"There were hundreds of calls and letters to the BBC following that broadcast seeking a source to purchase originals of Stephen's astonishing work. That initial interest and then a sustained demand for the drawings led to the publication of an entire volume of his works entitled Drawings (J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, London, 1987)."

The page linked above features a video of the now-adult Wiltshire drawing a 5-1/2 meter panorama of Rome over the duration of three days, after one 45-minute helicopter ride above the city.

See also:

"Gilles Trehin is an autistic 28-year-old. Since the age of 12, he has been designing an imaginary city called Urville, named after the Dumont d'Urville, a French scientific base in Antarctica. He has created detailed historical, geographical, cultural and economic descriptions of the city, as well as an absolutely extraordinary set of drawings. His Guidebook to Urville will be published later this year."

Both profiles via Moon River

Remembering the Big Medicinein the Bighorn range

I drove to Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark at the suggestion of a friend in Seattle, the city to which I was headed after I left Columbus OH (again -- the first time had seen me go to Sedona and other points west).

This bit about Medicine Wheel comes from my recounting of the trip to Rain City: "[Medicine Wheel] is a large, circular arrangement of stones and relics that is situated on a mesa at nearly 10,000 feet [near the northern border of Wyoming]. An FAA radar facility is situated on a peak above the site.

"The road up to the mesa was graded gravel and dirt that wound its way up the ridge for a mile or more. I bumped and jostled along at 15 mph and then walked another mile to the site. There was no way to photograph anything other than the offerings and ribbons tied into the fence, and that didn't seem appropriate. I walked around the circle seven times, trying to focus on healing and whatever activity I might be able to undertake in that pursuit. Then I walked back down the path while a thunderstorm rumbled and flashed to the north..."

Ancient Observatories link via RobinEdgar

They're (still) havin' a hot timein the ampitheater of the gods.

I just happened to catch a headline about wildfires in Sedona, AZ, an area around which I lived eight years ago (and which served as the catalyst for my artistic and personal reawakening). The nmazca.com site was developed because of the landscape photo book by that name that I published in 2000.




Fortunately, the fires look more threatening in photos than they appear to be on the ground [perhaps I wrote too soon?*]. The wind is pushing the fire line to the northeast, behind and beyond the buttes seen in the first photo below from 1998:







GOTO nmazca.com/west/ for more photos of the western lands.


* "Firefighters early Wednesday battled a 1,770-acre wildfire that forced hundreds of people to evacuate and threatened a highway and homes at the bottom of Arizona's scenic Oak Creek Canyon.

"Only 5 percent contained, the blaze was within 200 yards of the highway in some stretches along the canyon bottom, authorities said. However, they said no structures were lost and most homes are on the opposite side of the two-lane highway."

Meanwhile, in botany news...

"Cary Fowler is a modern day Noah, but he isn't building an Ark. He's the mastermind behind a 'doomsday vault' being built beneath the Arctic permafrost to safely store the world's crops for thousands of years.

"Construction began on the vault on Monday, to be carved deep in permafrost in the side of a mountain in the Svalbard archipelago, 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from the North Pole.

"Built with top security, the $3 million depository will preserve around three million seeds, representing all known varieties of the world's crops, at sub-zero temperatures... Convincing the world of the problem has not been easy, however.

"'Part of the problem is you can go into a meeting and mention gene banks, and people's eyes glaze over. Maybe they recall a high school biology class they did poorly in,' he says.

"'But people get a perception of the magnitude of the loss when I tell them that at the end of the 1800s, 7,000 named apple varieties were grown in the United States. Now, 6,800 of those are as extinct as the dinosaurs."

Meanwhile, in China:


"For one type of orchid in China, procreating is a lonely affair. Rather than depending on insects or even the wind for pollination, scientists have discovered that the orchid Holcoglossum amesianum actually fertilizes itself, according to a report in this week's Nature.

"The orchid defies gravity to twist the male part of its flower into the necessary shape to fertilize the female one, a team led by LaiQuang Huang of Tsinghua University found.

"The plant does so without the help of sticky fluids or other methods used by self-pollinating plants to ensure that the pollen reaches the egg, LaiQuang reported. This makes it a new method of pollination, he said."

Solar exclamation

Also sized at 1111 pixels

Saturn met Mars at sunset.

Mars and Saturn were conjunct on Sunday, apparently separated by less than one degree in the western twilight. The first photo was taken on the 16th of June in France...


...and here's my poor rendition and a star chart (showing the aforementioned planets and Mercury). Mercury was fairly high in the sky, but it will quickly descend by July. It's the little dust fleck above the rightmost utility pole in the next photo. Saturn and Mars are the duo in the upper-left corner.

Silent film of the silent Moon

Mercury is high;Mercury Retrograde is nigh.

"When the sun goes down [between June 11th and 22nd -- Ed.], step outside and look west into the sunset. That bright pink 'star' shining through the twilight is actually Mercury.

"The planet is emerging from the glare of the Sun for a rare appearance in the evening sky. If you have a backyard telescope, point it at Mercury. Mercury has phases and, at the moment, it looks like a tiny half-Moon.


Now that's the astronomical outlook.
This is from the Astrology Division.

"What is Mercury Retrograde? Three and sometimes four times a year, the planet Mercury appears to be moving backwards in the sky for a period of approximately three weeks [this season, the retrograde period lasts from July 4 until July 28 --Ed.]. 'Appears' is the key word here because, technically speaking, no planet actually moves backwards in its orbit around the Sun. In fact, they don't even slow down.

"Retrograde cycles are essentially illusions that result from our point of view from Earth, simply because the Earth is orbiting the Sun at a different speed than the other planets. Mercury turns retrograde more frequently than any other planet. It can never be more than 28 degrees from the Sun [as seen from Earth], and whenever it reaches its furthest distance from the Sun, it [appears to] change direction.

"As the planet of communication, Mercury's retrograde cycle tends to breed a certain level of confusion. Mercury rules our 'lower' mind -- how we perceive and interpret information that we receive from our environment, and how we relay that information to others. Mercury has rulership over such things as speaking, negotiating, buying and selling, listening, formal contracts, documents, travel, the mail and shipping, and so forth. All of these areas of life are affected when Mercury is functioning in a sluggish state.

"Decision-making is challenged during Mercury retrograde. Needless to say, it is not advised to sign contracts*, engage in important decision-making, or launch a new business. Delays and challenges are more probable with Mercury retrograde. This period is best used for re-organizing and reflecting.
"Not everyone feels the effects of Mercury retrograde. Those born with Mercury retrograde in their natal chart [like me --Ed.] may not notice the effects described above."

See also: "Managing Mercury Retrograde," by Nicoli Ann Bailey.

* My Lady Friend and I left Egypt to teach in Taiwan (after a layover in Thailand) right after the retrograde phase began last November. This was in the back of my mind the whole week, and on the day that we signed our contracts, I picked up a copy of the Taipei Times -- which offers a lunar astrology forecast each day-- and "signing contracts" was listed in the "it's a bad day for..." column. We left for Korea two-and-a-half frustrating months later.

The Moon in Scorpio,after the storm

The sounds and sights of the Sun...

...a source of personal inspiration and fascination for many years now, as some of you know.


Here we have a 21MB video of various solar flares and solar prominences with an audio track supplied by the modulation of the solar emissions (I think). Startling. Entrancing. Brilliant. "Brilliant noise," indeed.

via Moon River: "See you in beautiful hell"

But wait!


"This picture is a false-color image of an X-17 solar flare on October 28, 2003 [22MB video link], made with SOHO's Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT). X-class flares are the most powerful category, capable of releasing the energy of a billion one-megaton nuclear bombs. The flare is the large, white area in the bottom half of the solar disk (the horizontal lines are an effect of the flare's intense light saturating the EIT instrument)."

That excerpt and image came from "Sunscapes," a post on Pruned that led to so much more: like this solar flare film, for example, which is literally one of hundreds of similarly stunning video and photo files on the TRACE website. And you're invited to download and burn all of the TRACE movies to disc. No, really, you are.



This last image is part of some Photoshop freestyling I did in 2000/2001 with solar-satellite imagery: "Solar Symphony in Nine Movements"...

...the source images having come from Solar Data Analysis Center.

Man, I feel a little breathless after all of this.

Daehanminguk digicam,the prequel

These are the most current images.


Watercolor landscape by Kim Seong-Bok
at the Korea International Art Fair


An oil painting by Tomita Yukika from the same event


And one more (a time when the back
of someone's head is the best shot)


Two women sorting beans during
the every-fifth-day street market
here in Yeoju.


A brother and sister (at left, beside me)
who were about to move to South Africa.


One of the monks who takes alms
inside of the express bus terminal
subway station in Seoul.


A view from the bus ride to Seoul


Unfinished apartment buildings outside of Seoul


Another city, another metro
(unfortunately, I have nothing
like this to show from Cairo).


Takin' it to the streets
during the Yeoju mayoral campaign

Daehanminguk digicam

Don't tell anybody
that the camera's
from Japan, though...


A scene from the strongest storm of the season (so far)


Restaurants near the Yeoju bus terminal


World Cinema, showing two Miguk movies
and what appeared to be
a Korean remake of a third.


One of the few World Cup adverts that I've seen w/o Park Ji-Sung.


I love these little minivans.


Anatomy of Mr. Damon


The last class on a Monday night. Note the time.


Hangeul script on the ceiling


A monkey with chopsticks


A small wall of stored wood


Wide-eyed roses


Red-orange roses (under streetlights)


Twin zinnias...


...on top of the marquee for the restaurant that's below the school. It's half a meter by two meters, and I've got 12 pots for sunflowers, mint, thistle, cosmos and rosemary out there.


The continuing story of the neighbor's garden


A former field


An asphalt forest


Ivory orchids


A dusty sunset through a dirty window


And now, on to the Moon...

Eleven seconds of a shrouded Moon

Like the still image and video of the Moon on Monday, these videos were made after I adhered a digicam to a telescope. The focus is noticeably better in the first one. As it's been said before: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."





See also: "The Moon in May" and "Yeoju Moon: Film at 11:11."

A mystical, mythic Moon

The crescent Moon on May 29th, 2006,
as photographed by Peter Rosén
in Stockholm, Sweden.

Cosmic computationsfrom Cook County IL

"Scientists at the University of Chicago have bolstered the case for a popular scenario of the 'big bang' theory that neatly explains the arrangement of galaxies throughout the universe. Their supercomputer simulation shows how dark matter, an invisible material of unknown composition, herded luminous matter in the universe from its initial smooth state into the cosmic web of galaxies and galaxy clusters that populate the universe.



"Previous studies by other researchers had already verified the main features of this scenario, called the cold dark matter model. The Chicago team further extended this work by comparing the results of their supercomputer simulations to the newest, most detailed astronomical observations available today. They found an excellent fit, and they did so without basing their simulations on a lot of complex assumptions...

"The Chicago scientists based their supercomputer simulations on the assumption that galaxies form in the center of dark-matter halos.

"According to this scheme, gravity causes the dark matter in these regions to collapse into halos. These halos provide a central location where normal matter consisting of hydrogen, helium and a small amount of heavier elements would collect in gaseous form. Once this gas had cooled and condensed, it achieved sufficient density for star formation to begin on a galactic scale.

"When the Chicago team compared the distribution of galaxies in its cyber universe to the real one, 'that scheme turned out to work extremely well,' said Andrey Kravtsov, associate professor in astronomy and astrophysics. 'It wasn't guaranteed that it would actually work so well in reproducing the data.'"

via robotwisdom

More hot shots from Saturn

"N00062235.jpg was taken on June 02, 2006, and was received on Earth on June 03, 2006. The camera was pointing toward Titan at approximately 2,338,094 kilometers away."



"This image was taken on April 28, 2006, and it was received on Earth on April 28, 2006. The camera was pointing toward Epimetheus at approximately 667,385 kilometers away."



"Saturn's moons Janus and Prometheus look close enough to touch in this stunningly detailed view... The view takes in the Cassini ring division (4,800 kilometers or 2,980 miles wide) from its outer edge to about halfway across its width.

"The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 29, 2006, at a distance of approximately 218,000 kilometers (135,000 miles) from Janus and 379,000 kilometers (236,000 miles) from Prometheus."

Climbing the Giza pyramids is forbidden,but that only makes some people try harder.

"Pyramid climbing had been permissible up to the 1980s until Egyptian authorities forbade it following the deaths of several climbers. Despite the ban, the Great Pyramid is still climbed periodically as author Graham Hancock had done, generally in the dead of night. Sometimes guards are bribed and guides hired to show intrepid climbers the way up. Other climbers prefer to forgo paying unnecessary bribes and find ways of avoiding opportunistic guards.

"Interestingly enough, the leading nationality of these thrifty nocturnal climbers are the Japanese. Young Japanese travelers in Egypt have made pyramid climbing a virtual profession. They even have a handwritten book about how to do it in one of the hotels in Cairo...

"The Japanese book had listed the southwest corner of the pyramid as the safest place to climb. Here, the pyramid resembles a high-stepped staircase of steady, firm blocks. It makes for easy climbing, but we made the mistake of scaling straight up the middle of the west side rather than the corner... The west side was steep and crumbly. There was nowhere for us to stop and rest. It was tricky business climbing as our feet kept slipping out from underneath us and our hands kept losing their grip from time to time. Our only comfort was that we had promised each another if one of us should fall to our horrible gory demise, we would not scream out during our death plunge so as to give away the other.

"We eventually achieved the summit in about half an hour. At the top of the pyramid was a small flat area the size of a Japanese apartment where several people could sit. It was also large enough for several thousand mosquitoes to gather and dine on weary climbers."

Rainbow arrangements

Seen on the streetside.



Both images have 1111px versions: 1111 and 21111.

The Moon in May

This image shows (from top left to lower right) Saturn, Mars and the Moon around 8:20 p.m. KST on May 30. Just above and to the upper right of the Moon are the main stars in Gemini, Pollux and Castor.

When I acquire some film-scanning technology of my own again, I'll be able to present a proper rendition of this and many other images (starting with the pyramid and eclipse photos from October).

Star charts generated with Hallo Northern Sky

Alleyway flora

Coming soon: Photos of the garden outside
of my school room's second-story window.

Yeoju Moon: Film at 11:11

And here's an eight-second video of an inverted Moon.

I'm just hangin' out on planet Earth.

According to "The Secret Language of Birthdays," my birthdate is associated with The Hanged Man [see the "What tarot card are you?" link at the bottom of the sidebar]

"It is a card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled... It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card a of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty; but we may exhaust all published interpretations and find only vanity. I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe.

"He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection."

More on the 22 June Lunar Standstill...

...an event that I noted in December, after I gazed at the high, bright Moon above Taipei.


"Over the course of an 18.6-to-19-year period, the Full Moons nearest the solstices swing much like a pendulum. In 2005 and 2006, these Full Moons will be at their highest and lowest positions in the sky over this approximately 19 year period, reaching declination 28º +/- (north/south). Also, the First and Last Quarter Moons around the time of the equinoxes can be seen at their highest and lowest declinations.

"In 2015 there will be a minor lunar standstill season, occurring about 9.3 to 10 years after the major lunar standstill season. What occurs now is that the Full Moons nearest the solstices and the First and Last Quarter Moons nearest the equinoxes will reach a minimum declination of approximately 18º+/- (north/south). When this occurs the Full Moon at the winter solstice will be at its lowest in the sky over an approximately 19 year period, while the Full Moon at the summer solstice will be at its highest in the sky over the same period.

"If you observed the Full Moons nearest the June and December solstices during a major lunar standstill season, you would notice that the height and depth between the two become extreme with an arc of 56∞ or so. When observing a series of minor lunar standstills you would notice that the height and depth between the two are not so great and less than most full Moons around the solstices with an arc of roughly 36∞ between the two.

"The following is a diagram showing a major and minor lunar standstill of the Full Moon. It has not been drawn to scale, but is a diagram of the tropical regions of the Earth showing the terrestrial latitudes of where the Full Moon is overhead at the standstills in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, the Full Moon is south of the Tropic of Capricorn at the major lunar standsill, and north of this Tropic at the minor lunar standstill."


"Unlike the cycles of the Sun, which are regular and entirely predictable from year to year, the lunar cycle is seemingly wild and erratic. On any given date, the Sun shows up in the same place relative to the horizon. The Moon, on the other hand, takes a span of 19 years to return to the exact same spot on the same date. [Refer to the post about the Moon's appearance in the same place on the same date that Ansel Adams had photographed it 57 (19x3) years earlier -- Ed.]

"The Moon's orbit is inclined five degrees and eight minutes from the ecliptic. Thus, over a 19-year cycle, the Moon may rise or set as much as five degrees and eight minutes beyond where the Sun is on either side of the ecliptic. The Moon has a slow cycle that oscillates to its maximum and minimum locations every 18.61 years. The great Scottish archeoastronomer Alexander Thom coined the expressions 'major standstill' and 'minor standstill' to mark these stations. These terms are analogous to the commonly understood concept of the solstices, relative to the Sun's cycle that progresses every year...

"The center of the Lunar Standstill season occurs when the Moon's mean (true) north node is located at 0 degrees Aries, or the Vernal Equinox. [The date on which the Moon will reach that location] is June 22, 2006. The next [lunar-standstill centerpoint] occurs on January 11, 2025.

And so perhaps you're asking...

"What does it all mean? This is the closest Lunar Standstill season to the Galactic Alignment [the time when the Sun will be conjunct with the center of the galaxy, which is anticipated to occur around the winter solstice of 2012 --Ed.]. The emerging synthesis of diverse viewpoints coming from the metaphysical, traditional and shamanic communities suggest this to be a SPIRITUAL event with the following implications:

The Lunar Standstill occultations of the galactic center and anti-center, along with Pluto's alignment with the galactic center, suggest an 'underworld' hypothesis for this planetary and cosmological initiation.

Entrance into the underworld is most often directed by physical, psychological, emotional or spiritual events that force the surrender of our egoic personality structures. Who we have taken ourselves to be is not who we really are.

No matter how many years you have been expanding and developing your consciousness or potential, no one is exempt from this requirement for a second birth or a rebirth. This is a shamanic initiation of death and rebirth on the grandest cosmological scale, and the most deeply personal.

"Some may view this as a 'love and light' opportunity for transformation or detached withdrawal. Others may react from fear and regard this as upcoming doom and gloom and planetary destruction. This warning need not cause one to swing into the extremes of grandiosity or deficiency.

"One suggestion is to perceive and experience the melodramatic cosmological scenario as a test of spiritual maturity. This includes the opportunity for letting go and surrendering our egoic defensiveness and a drive for perfection. Rather, as Jung frequently suggested, our quest is for wholeness -- shadow and light; the celestial, middle world and underworld integrated. Let us joyfully celebrate this opportunity!"

"The last major standstill of the Moon was in 1987. The last minor standstill occurred between 1996 and 1997... Ordinarily, the 19-year lunar extremes correspond to times of community renewal when we "dream the dream forward," update the operating manual for society, and bring forward new ways of being and doing in the world. But we are at a unique time in the 26,000-year equinox precessional cycle, when these 'out-of-bounds' Moons align with the galactic center and anti-center.

"All of this infuses the current work of community renewal with an intense underworld dimension [owing in part to Pluto's alignment with the galactic center --Ed.] -- facing the shadow, surrender, annihilation of all that no longer serves, transformation, and empowerment. While the questions around healthy structures for the ongoing survival of humanity have taken on intense and catastrophic overtones, there is also intense reason for hope because the information seeded during these lunar extremes is an answer to the huge challenges we face.

"From the highest perspective, galactic intelligence is giving us the information we need to come into a profound state of harmony as a planet. [On June 11 at 1803 UT], the Full Moon rises farther south than any other Full Moon this year, aligned with galactic center and Pluto. This is an EXTREME FULL MOON, transmitting blessings and solutions to a troubled planet, and catalyzing catharsis and transformation."

The Moon's position at 3:03 a.m. on June 12
in Korea (18:03 p.m. UT on June 11)

Roses like poo-poo-poo-pooreally smell they do.

It's late, and these photos
(and a little silliness)
are all that I can offer.