Cone of Silence » Hobbies & Fun

Three Decades And Something For Today

Dave — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:28:28 +0000

What have I been up to in my spare time for the last 1½? Bonding with my teenage daughter.

Surprisingly she wanted to watch an almost 35 year old classic.

Rocky. You have to understand that when I talk of watching a movie made before the mid-90’s both of my teenage daughters look at me like I’m a dinosaur; as if they are in wonderment about whether filmography could have even existed in such an ancient era.

Of course watching Rocky lead to viewing the entire series of films spanning 30 years. We have both thoroughly enjoyed Rocky thru Rocky V (she learned what Roman numeral IV stands for). We have yet to make it to Rocky Balboa, the 6th in the Rocky franchise. Maybe we’ll squeeze it in this week, maybe not.

Regardless, even with the relative simplicity of the movie as compared to similar in the same genre, it was endearing with more wholesome values than most fare out there.

Rocky (1976)	Rocky II (1979)
Rocky III (1982)	Rocky IV (1985)
Rocky V (1990)	Rocky Balboa (2006)

End of an Era

Dave — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:13:45 +0000

Lost is done. My first impressions after two days of mulling… not sure.

The brilliant writers of an awesome TV show did their best. And they succeeded in a beautiful symmetry in the series. Obviously (based on the series conclusion) the focus of the series was the characters understanding their interdependency. This was handled well. I have no complaints here.

I never watched the show for the characters. The characters moved the story but I watched for the story-telling. The story behind the characters is lukewarm in its conclusion. Lukewarm because it is incomplete. At this point too many “red herrings” were presented and never closed. This is the point in which I am unsure. Due to the brilliance of the writers these story elements could have been addressed and I simply missed them. This is what I hope as I ponder the past 4½ years (I was pulled into the story half way through the 2nd season).

Here is a list of issues that were major enough red herrings as to require an answer:

The “numbers” were significant, at least to Dharma – why would Dharma broadcast via radio transmission
Going back a step – the radio signals were broadcast earlier than Dharma (70’s), again WHY would someone broadcast these numbers
If Jacob did not allow anyone to leave the island – why leave a loophole wherein, Dharma, Michael & Walt or even Ben could leave?
Ben has been to Tunisia and elsewhere by previous turning of the Donkey Wheel, as can be noted by various passports and currencies. 1) How did he get back to the island, 2) why when he turned the wheel did the island not go wonky in time like when John turned the wheel
When the island disappeared where did it go. If it simple went to another time, then theoretically it went to the future in which it was sunk – but then it never sunk.
Why did Dr, Chang keep changing his name?
Did the man in black (MIB) take the form of black horses?
How did the drug running plane get to the island from Africa?
Was Hurley’s friend Dave really in Hurley’s mind?

More to be added to this list as this is a quick recap of 6 years in my head. And please notice I am not asking why Dharma is still dropping shipments years after they have had no contact with the island… and who is Dharma anyway?

Deliberations In Process

Dave — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:54:40 +0000

Last week I speculated that I was generally unhappy with Lost and it’s series wrap-up. With only ONE more episode left (2½ hours!) I may have spoken too soon. We’ll see.

I was pleased with last nights episode. It was what I have come to expect – by giving me something I couldn’t expect; something compelling and interesting.

Four days and counting.

I’m Not Liking Where I’m Being Taken

Dave — Thu, 13 May 2010 22:25:27 +0000

Lost. Deep down I hope I’m not the one that lost something here. I mean there are 3½ hours of air time (including significant commercial interruption) and, until this season, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what comes next. Sure there were up and down episodes over the seasons, but without a doubt, this season is not equal to it’s predecessors. I hope I am wrong.

The following Lost blog, which I have monitored closely over the last several years pretty sums up my feeling about this weeks episode.

I understand why this episode was produced. It’s half origin story and half mythological brain dump. And there were some interesting bits, no doubt there. But let me sum my opinion up this way: If “Lost” had focused on Jacob, MIB and their wacky “Mother” from the very beginning, I never would have watched this show. I just don’t care about these characters and their deep psychological scars. For six years we’ve watched a fantastic ensemble of great actors playing great characters battling with their own Big Problems. The Jacob-MIB-Mother trio felt like window dressing. And is it just me, or was the acting a little meh?

That said, I’ll give the writers credit for revealing Jacob to be the island’s Norman Bates. Discovering that for many years he was a naive and gullible pawn in his crazy adopted mother’s machinations … well, that just wasn’t expected.
Filmfodder.com

Please give me the brilliant writing that I have learned to expect over the past 5 years (I came to the island late). Please do not disappoint with one of those endings that answer your questions but leaves you saying “that was lame.” Please tell me I am wrong.

In the words of Captain John Miller (Saving Private Ryan), “Earn it.”

Swallowed Whole

Dave — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:08:12 +0000

Last night as I watched one of those television shows I’d grown up with I was prompted to jump on the Internet and do a little research. Instant access to information of all kinds is a blessing and a curse. But last night it was a blessing.

In episode 1 of season 2 of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea the diving bell was swallowed whole by a whale. A very fast, very big whale. I for one appreciate the sensational, over the top shows Irwin Allen prolifically produced in the ’60’s. Allen wanted Voyage to be riddled with science and last night was no exception. In the “belly of the whale” dying words discussion between Admiral Nelson and his guest in the diving bell, Nelson mentioned the story of a late 19th century sailor swallowed by a whale.

James Bartley was that man. See a synopsis of the story below:

…A whale was sighted, the harpoon boats were launched, and the whale was successfully speared. In the violence that followed, however, one of the smaller boats capsized, throwing two crew members into the sea. One of them drowned and the other, said to be a man named James Bartley, disappeared.

The whale was eventually subdued and its carcass hoisted onto the ship where the crew started carving it up for blubber. After a couple of days of work, they got down to the stomach, where some workers noticed something large inside, ‘doubled up’, and showing signs of life.

They cut the stomach open and there lay James Bartley, unconscious and somewhat digested, but alive. They doused him with sea water, put him in the captain’s cabin and after a couple of weeks of recovery, he was back on the job.

Truth or Fiction.com

A fantastic story, yes. A bit fanciful, maybe. But don’t you love it when the writers incorporate a bit of mythos in with fact to increase the believability? Where it becomes difficult to separate fact from fiction is where new fiction can begin.

When these story elements I find it easier to ignore fishing line pulling submarines thru their diving maneuvers or fantastic stories of men in scuba gear swimming into the mouth of a whale and journeying to it’s stomach to find their diving bell.

Only 366 Days

Dave — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:20:16 +0000

At best there are 366 days in one year. What are the odds of someone else having the same birthdate as you? Duh 1 in 365¼. Funny thing is that in a high school graduating class of 9 I had one other of the same birthday and if you count my small circle of friends growing up you can add another. What are the odds of that?

So who all shares the day of my birth?

1468 – Charles I, Duke of Savoy

1483 – Raphael, Urbino Italy, painter (School of Athens)

1836 – Frederick Pabst, American brewer (d. 1904)

1899 – August Anheuser Busch, Jr., brewing magnate and American baseball executive (d. 1989)

1905 – Marlin Perkins, Carthage Mo, TV host (Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom)

1955 – Reba McEntire, McAlester Ok, country singer (Can’t Even Get the Blues)

It all fits, royalty, artist, brewer, narrator and singer. Many more yet to be famous people are just waiting in line to call this date the day of their birth.

Lost on Lost

Dave — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:03:03 +0000

It’s time for the self-confidence to come crashing to an end. For 5 seasons I have developed and formulated theories. Most have not panned out but I could at least develop and test my theory each week. This final season I am at a loss to do anything of the kind. I simply cannot postulate a coherent theory about what I am seeing on or off island.

Flashbacks and flashforwards were fine but how in the world do I reconcile flashsideways, in alternate timelines that don’t fit the pieces I know to be true… or do I know that?

In Search of Gold Mines Day 2 (19-Dec-09)

Dave — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:18:11 +0000

After the successes of yesterday there’s not much that can get better. We begin day 2 at a rather leisurely pace at our roadside turnout. With our primary objective conquered, we create a secondary plan consisting of vehicular and pedestrian assault.

Day 2 begins from our base camp in Alleghany as we drive to within ¾ mile of Gold Star Mine.

Time: 9:35am We parked in the downtown Alleghany parking area, nothing more than a wide section of Main Street with a “No Parking For More Than 12 Hours” sign across the street from the post office/museum and a jump from the bar. Oh the sweet memories of a mobile BaseCamp as we head out for the day. Parking here saved us the .6 mile trek through this booming metropolis. Our initial goal was to stop by some of the mines we passed late last night. But after heading slightly more than ½ mile and encountering the snow, remembering the holes in the boots and the dark GPSr nether regions of the previous night our objective changed to another set of mines.
	Gold Star Mine Time: 10:19am elevation: 3,866ft We park the mobile campsite at the nearest widening of the road, nearest the road that leads toward the mine. The uphill trek begins. It sure seems a lot more UP than the previous days traverse on no road at all. Time: 11:03am elevation 4,175ft Hurray, not as exciting or arduous but a definite FIND! No doubts here. But wait, a sign says Exit and the gate is locked from the inside. I wonder…
	Yup, trekking uphill about 50ft yields a dangerous and exciting find. A vertical shaft leading down into the mine. Photograph taken, consider mine exploration completed and one more off the books.
Hub Mine Time: 11:47am One of two cabins visible from the only completely paved road into and out of Alleghany, CA. Mobiling as far off the highway (and I use that term loosely) as we dare, we park and descend to cabin and mine location.
A quick peek inside each of the cabin yields valuable information. The cabin on the left has a bedroom, a bathroom, a living/dining/kitchen room. The cabin on the right has one big room and old box spring coils in the middle of the room. One of these miners must have had the civilization that a woman brings to the mix.
	The Hub Mine! Bill sports the way.
OK, we dared venture in! Deteriorated safety notice dated 1938 was posted some 100 yards in. Who’d have thunk OSHA could reach back in time. Bill carefully inspects piping for unknown purpose – forced air? which was paralleled by electrical wires deeper into the shaft. We dared only traverse as far as an apparent cave-in area. Even with that, safety was paramount, as no two of us ventured past a certain point together, leaving one behind to monitor conditions. We each took turns and were quite satisfied with the discovery. The initial shaft went straight into the hillside about 150yds, then sloped down about 20 degrees for a drop of 30ft over a 25yds distance. It then went about 15yds further back where cave-in (or never cleaned out) rubble was almost blocking any apparent passage. We’d love to find more history on this one.
Time: 1:00pm Lunch in lawn chairs sitting on a barely roadside pullout. Yum, yum. Cans of tuna and pork and beans – doesn’t get better than that! Next destination Kate-Hardy Mine and Omega Mine.	Time: 1:36pm We visit the town of Forest, population: less. A possible entry point for the Omega Mine but too far and too much snow to tromp through in our two hours remaining. So on to plan B.
Plan B Roman Mine and Blue Grouse Mine Time: 1:48pm elevaton: 4,006ft Parked the minivan at entry point and set out on foot for the Roman Mine. Time: 2:23pm elevation: 3,788ft Roman Mine We arrive to within 1/10 mile of the Roman Mine encounter a no trespassing sign. Desiring to honor property rights we collect our “evidence” in the form of digital photography and turn around.
Alas, all good things must come to an end and it is now time to head back to the big city with the little stars in the sky. This was a good trip, an awesome adventure and a must to repeat!

In Search of Gold Mines Day 1 (18-Dec-09)

Dave — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:09:44 +0000

Picture a small mountain community that still makes its living from gold mines and you probably have a good picture of Alleghany, California. Nestled near the Tahoe National Forest in Sierra County, this community is the base camp for our 24 hour adventure.

My first ever search for gold mines began earlier in the day on Friday with preparations for a 2 hour drive, a cold-hamburger+beans-from-a-can dinner, sleeping bags in the back of a mini-van and my trusty GPSr (whose reliability would be questioned only hours later).

Our trek begins a BaseCamp (as labeled above) and proceeds in a counterclockwise direction.

At 3:47pm on Friday December 18, 2009 only a few feet from BaseCamp (a mini-van parked alongside the road) we took our first few excited steps on a journey that would last for the next 7 hours 10 minutes and take us about 10.2 miles through uncharted hillsides and brush.

Primary objective: The Queen of Sheba Mine. Why? We liked the name.

	Time: 3:47pm elevation: 4,403ft Our trek begins with us passing the rescue team. We hope not… We have not yet been into Alleghany proper but we’re hoping for slightly updated services from this town of 121.
Minutes into our hike we come upon our first treasure. An unexpected and undocumented tunnel beside the road we are travelling down. The floor of the tunnel is under about a foot of water but it’s way too cool to look inside and imagine those who dug this out.
	Okay, time for the courtesy pose before we’re worn out, dirty and downright not hospitable to “pose’n.”
	Time: 4:17pm Oriental Mine elevation: 3,716ft Our first “official” mine. This is as close as we got the mine in deference to the owners. During this entire trip we want to be respectful of any trespassing signage. So far no signage, but sometimes it’s kind of obvious when you will not be welcome to proceed further.
Time: 4:24pm From Oriental Mine we proceeded several yards downhill to Kanaka Creek. After searching for a few minutes for a dry crossing and looking at the declining sun we arrive dryly on the other side and our bushwhacking begins.
	Eyeing the ridgeline in the distance as we follow the Kanaka Creek ravine, we come across a “part-timers” cabin. Cabin is all locked up for the season and we are careful to take only memories.
	Time: 5:12pm Kenton Mine elevation: ~3,700ft We arrive in the vicinity but in the twilight of dusk but are unable to find our first “in the wilderness” find. Time: 5:41pm Here is my attempt to capture the sliver of the moon which will soon slip below the ridgeline. We are now definitely headed up. At this time we are about 400ft above the Kenton Mine location headed to 4,300’ before descending the other side of the hill.
For posterities sake I’d like you all to know that going through more than 1,000 ft (.2 mile) of this stuff, downhill, in the dark, when most of the bush is 4ft tall is not the most exciting thing you can ever do. Imagine being netted in a tangled mess with every step as gravity tugs you downward at a higher velocity than you can untangle yourself. But with only 3/10 mile to go to our trips objective we endure.
	Time: 7:28pm The sad, sad reality is that after more than 3½ hours we are unable to spot the Queen of Sheba. So after 2.9 mountainous, bushwhacking miles (or 1.2 miles as the crow flies) I photograph a tree for posterity and “proof” of our feat. Now back to BaseCamp via any way but the nasty-uphill-through-the-bush route.
Queen of Sheba Mine Wait!! The report of mediocre success was too soon! Some 80 ft or so from our tree I spot a dark post sticking out of the ground. SUCCESS! We have found it! Oh how sweet it is!
A few broken pieces are quartz, a sealed tube with the mining claim – most recently filed in 2005 and life is good. We have what we came for. Every rock, every hill, every bloody bush – it’s all worth it!
Time: 8:00pm But WAIT! As we head out, what do you know? A little gulley points the way to the actual mine. SWEET!!! We never expected this kind of success.
	Okay, we were so excited there were several pictures taken down inside the mine that came out perfectly black. But we have to “prove” it so I made sure a wall was close enough for the flash to bounce off. Not too exciting to you, I’m sure. But great for me!
Time: 8:32pm Heading out, we decide to use a road/trail we crossed before the nasty-bushes-that-meant-us-no-good hoping to intersect it on an alternate path. It appears this will double our overland distance BUT it’ll be on an unmaintained road which is a vast improvement. Referring to our track image above you’ll note that we left Queen of Sheba and “guessed” the wrong direction once we arrived at the road. I would assume entire wrong-way-Dave responsibility for this except you will note that at one point we crossed our own path several times. Seeing as how we were on a road it’s kind of hard to imagine how 2 genius’s like us, who go through nasty brush up and down the sides of mountains in the dark to get to a mine that is 1/5 mile off a road/trail, could possibly go in circles. WE DID NOT. The GPSr was major haywire. Trees, mountains and karma were in effect on our tired souls. It was about here that I looked at our track, saw it crossing a section of road that had no crossroads and on which we had never traversed (ok, we did make one more incorrect guess at a Y) and said whoa, wait a second. There’s something fishy here. Satellite tracking was at an in-optimal level the likes of which I had never seen and for durations of time that really made us question which direction we were headed. We discussed sleeping under a tree until morning. It would have been doable but sure did not sound as good as a warm sleeping bag in the back of a mini-van. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that since about 4:45pm our stomachs have been growling non-stop. I do not think I have every been so hungry in my life. Oh the thought of a pre-cooked cold hamburger that was waiting for me sounded blissful! The GPSr became a reference tool from this point on and instincts were forced to surface. Eventually we got two good satellite fixes that confirmed we were approximately on the road we thought we were. Time: 10:56pm Two very tired, hungry, thirsty, aching, cold, wet feet guys arrive at BaseCamp after traversing Alleghany, California from one end to the other. 7.1 miles and 3 hours AFTER the Queen of Sheba Mine we EAT, EAT, EAT. We took the lawn chairs out and sat at our appointed roadside rest, ate our cold burgers and corn from a can as we marveled at the miracle of God’s creation looking down at us from the heavens with such a splendor as is never seen in the city. Then we SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP!

Thar’s Gold In… (well maybe not)

Dave — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:33:45 +0000

I am preparing for a quick overnight trip of exploration next week. Nothing elaborate, just fun. As my son and I were trying to figure out where we’d go and what we’d do – especially after the recent snow – we hit upon the idea of camping in the car and hiking during the day. It’ll just be the two of us – so cans of food over my backpack stove and warm sleeping bags in the van ought be uncomfortable enough.

Well, me being the person that needs a purpose, seized upon the idea of finding gold mines. Below is the area and many, but by no means all, of the mines in the area. This should give us ample opportunity to trek overland with GPSr in hand and take photos.

So off we go to Alleghany, CA as our “base camp.” We see how many of these locations we can conquer in under 24 hours, if we can even get there on ice free roads.

Allegheny, CA is indicated by the yellow circle.
The RED and the BLUE lines are alternate routes to “base camp.”

The piece of real estate depicted is wedged between Highway 49 and Highway 20.

Oh yes, our initial destination – site unseen is…. Queen of Sheba Mine.

The story of Allegheny, CA.

My intent is of create a map and images of each site visited as an ongoing record of the conquest. If I recall there are only 3,000 or so mines scattered within my region of the state. How long can it take to conquer all of them.

You may not want to hold your breath for my journaling of the mines or my visit to each of the 3,000+.