Oregon Farmer

What Apple's next device could be like

2009-08-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all -

I'm sure we are not alone in this vision but I think a lot of these devices (tablets) would sell in 2010.

Basically just make the iphone bigger
Remove the dialer but keep the wireless
Support syncing, like iphone if wanted
Make it notepad size, 8 x 11.5 with a iphone-like multi-touch screen
Portion (or all) of the screen is see-through capable for scanning, camera, identifying things in the environment, etc
No hard keyboard only soft; all screen except simple buttons
Make it a windowed and allow multiple apps to run at once
Have ALL iphone apps be usable - presto 75,000+ apps
Increase processor speed and RAM capacity accordingly
Hit the $1000 price ceiling and drop t0 $800 in 12 months
Include character recognition so you can write on it
Bluetooth with the iphone to provide co-joined devices - one device could leverage the other in functionality including phone, processor, RAM and display. Make the two devices extend each other. Build from iphone, not from Mac.
Include following ports: Ethernet, two USB 3.0, cinema display, headphone
Include camera with two lenses - one front, one back
Include microphone and speakers
Not a PC, not a Mac, not an iphone, not a cheap notebook -> convergence

Just an idea.

And others have also had this idea.

Good quotes on leadership

2009-08-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

"It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." (Douglas Adams)

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." (John Quincy Adams)

"No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it." (Andrew Carnegie)

"Management works in the system. Leadership works on the system." (Stephen R. Covey)

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him….But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did it ourselves." (Lao Tzu)

"I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep." (Talleyrand)

"A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group." (Russell H. Ewing)

"Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult." (Warren Bennis)

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." (John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

'The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." (Theodore Roosevelt)

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." (Peter F. Drucker)

"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." (Thomas Watson)

'Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other 999 follow women." (Groucho Marx)

"You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership." (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

The Eidetic Fugue, part three.

2009-07-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

We stopped twice between Salem and San Francisco. The spirit of young businessmen cloaked beneath our layers of cultural tokens and attitude. We were on a run.
It wasn't like we were running a business yet as the doors to the shop hadn't even opened yet. Since we were building a store, we just knew we needed something to sell if we were going to attract anyone. We kind of knew where we were going in the Bay area, we had some addresses and some company names. We had maps and some place to stay - actually I can't remember who we stayed with that fateful trip - I'm sure it did not involve any payment.

What has puzzled me, and perhaps others, in the 40+ years since the Eidetic Fugue came into existence, are our assumptions about how you stock a store. Family ethics taught me that you didn't buy anything if you didn't have the money, so nothing was bought on credit. This is very weird for a retail store. We also felt we needed a personal relationship with as many sellers as possible, so we visited as many suppliers as we could, to be sure we could work together. And we paid cash and never had a bank account. This was not a common business model, I'm guessing this style of business management is probably even less common now.

We went to some of the largest poster makers in the bay area and purchased band posters, art posters and anything that Bill, Mike and I thought was cool. I wish we had struck up friendships or at least stayed in contact with some of these interesting people. It apparently never crossed my mind - don't know about Mike and Bill. We found a record dealer that would give us 10% discount for volume (like over 20 records! wow!) and we bought several copies of the albums we all wanted and figured would sell. Before we knew it, we had spent most of our funds and were ready to return to Salem. We also must have gone to a concert, played in Golden Gate part, walked the streets of Haight Ashbury and done some other stuff but I can't really recall the details. Funny how that happens sometimes.

Oh yes, we also bought newspapers. "Underground" newspapers, like the Rolling Stone, the Avatar from Boston and several papers from the Bay area. These held the latest news for us about what was going on. These papers did get old quickly, but not for several weeks. The news cycle was a little different then. Aside from word of mouth and rumors, there was no other way of keeping track of events and celebrations. The papers were so young, both in spirit and quality. The newspaper format can be so rich and informing. I'd still rather pick up the printed copy of Salem Monthly and read it than visit the website. There are still a few newspapers in our attic from this trip, getting more faded over time. Maybe alternative newspapers will become a lost tradition, maybe not. I hope not.

And we bought buttons. Buttons were much more popular than any other way of personally stating your point of view. Tattoos were not popular, bumper stickers were stuck in mainline politics and nothing else had the same personal style as a button. A lot of the buttons were about peace, the war, drugs and being different. I suppose we bought a hundred, maybe less. We didn't wear buttons at the time so, using our personal perspective again, we didn't go too deep into buttons.

Back in Salem, we began putting out our newly bought treasures. The records went into a few cardboard boxes and sat on a small table I brought from home. Silly us, we priced them below the local store prices, even thought you couldn't buy the same albums within 50 miles. We put the 'coolest' records on the left side podium by the door to balance out the weird device sitting on the other side. The posters went up on the 30' long, 9' high, south wall and the remaining flat poster stock went into the back room. Some of the posters we had bought were 'black light' posters, so we acquired a cheap light fixture and had it available for viewing the black light posters in the dark back room. The buttons went into the display case. This left the 6'x2' glass and wood display case mostly empty, We decided to open it up to local artists. It seemed fair to give anyone a place to sell their stuff. The store would ask for 10% of the artist's sale price or we would negotiate.

We brought in my Sony reel-to-reel tape deck and put it on the 2nd shelf of the desk. We hooked up a record player and some good sized speakers. Mike opened one of the newly purchased albums, we turned up the volume and all had Pepsi to celebrate. Since there was only one chair, we all sat on the floor and it was good. Surrounding us were posters of places, people and events in a style created by our peers. We had music from our times blasting the walls of this long and narrow downtown business. We were starting a new beginning and lots of things were changing. We were on the cusp of our third decade in life and nothing appeared too hard. We were enveloped by the culture of our emerging generation. We were ready for customers and it was the beginning of Thanksgiving week. Things were about to get busy.

The Eidetic Fugue (pt 2 of ??)

2009-07-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

Note: If you are reading this in Facebook, please go to the bottom and click the "View Original Post" - Facebook just has the words, the blog has pictures and a little pizazz.

Before we went to the Bay area to buy provisions for the shop, we did some local provisioning. Bill M. knew of a device at the local used furniture store that would be great in the window. After he described it, we all had to go see it one sunny afternoon in later October. It was located on Silverton road, somewhere near where Lancaster is today. We entered the establishment. Bill obviously had been here before and led us through a series of rooms to a dark and dingy back corner. Tucked in amongst the lamps, couches and worn out end tables was a 4' tall box on a 3 legged steel stand with lots of fancy writing on it and a power cord coming out the bottom. It was made out of dark metal and pretty heavy. It had pictures of far away places on the sides and had lots of fancy script indicating it had the power to heal. We think it was probably used by traveling eye doctors in some different time and place. When you opened the top of the box (about 2'x2'), you could see a series of colored lens, mounted on a drive and a odd looking light bulb. The funny sized light bulb shined through the lenses as they rotated and the colored light was projected through mirrors and lenses onto the wall. I wish I had a picture of it or at least remembered what it was called. It was way cool though, believe me.

We had to have it.

So we offered half of the marked price, after plugging it in and testing it, carried it out to Mike's VW squareback and hauled it back to the shop. We knew where to put it. On both sides of the shop's front door were raised platforms. The shop opening was in a V shape with glass on all sides. We now had something for the podium on the right side.

We also found a long counter with a small 12"x2" slot in the middle and a wooden front. The back was open and had shelves and a good finish on the top. This ended up being the main desk that held the money, supplies, the stereo and general whatnot. Whoever felt like running the shop would sit behind this counter. In the same used furniture store was a large glass display case. Both pieces were really inexpensive and we bought them. Somehow we got these two pieces back to the shop. We measured the slot and ordered several rolls of paper from a local industrial supply outfit that just fit through the slot. We figured this plain brown paper would be the packaging for any posters, records, buttons, etc that we would eventually get in stock and sell.

We had nothing to sell yet, of course.

Before we opened the store, we needed to advertise. We thought of many ideas - we had lots of thinking capacity - and ended up deciding on a billboard in the freeway. One place for lots of customers. How else to get people to stop in Salem? Bill began drawing designs and was greatly challenged by the scale. How many artists get to put up billboards? We thought it was a gareat idea, but the price was too high for our budget. Maybe TV? No, too high also. How about radio? Sure enough, a repeating 30 second spot could be bought for pretty cheap back then on KBZY. We thought all the kids, especially the girls, listened to KBZY. Bill and Mike went to the studio with some good records and did a great job of recording an ad to introduce the shop. We set the date for the ads to run in late November.

But that was not enough. We needed posters and worked with Panther Press in Salem to print 50 black and white 12x16 posters. They were awesome - I put in image in the previous blog post (pt 1). The only words on the poster were the name of the store and the address - no products, no corporation logo; just the pretty lady, store name and the address. We decided we would put them up at Bob's, in a few downtown windows when the store opened. I remember running around in late November asking confused managers of local drive-ins if we could put this funny looking poster in their window. The ones we asked said "Sure". We ended up giving the rest away, I think. The only remaining Eidetic Fugue poster I know about is in my attic and the words have been cut off. Anyone have one?

And we decided we needed business cards. We had a hundred color ones made and, like the poster, I only know of one copy left. It is a little ragged around the corners. Bill M did the hand lettering and designed it. Notice the hours - noon to 10. This was genius. None of us wanted to get up early and neither did our customers. As we will find out in a later chapter, closing at 10 was not always easy. I had forgotten that we had a payphone installed also, which we used as the official store phone number. Turns out it was free too!

An old cigar box of my grandfathers was chosen to be the cash register and one of us built wooden dividers to separate the bills from the coins. A leather rocking chair was situated next to the stereo, inside the desk and, once we got records in stock, we figured customers would want to sit and listen for a while before buying. We knew we liked listening in the private booths at Meier and Franks to the crappy beach boy and pop music.

We struck a deal with the local beverage company and got them to install a Pepsi machine. We were pretty much hooked on Pepsi and thought it was a coup to have our own machine. And then they gave us the KEY! Can you believe it? I can still feel the excitement in the room when the installation guys laid the keys on the desk and walked out. Even before we opened, people put money in, took out a pepsi. We just opened it and got a cold can. And we got their money too! No one else seemed to understand how incredibly cool this was (especially since everyone seemed to know Pepsi would put a machine anywhere they could sell product).

And we still had nothing to sell, but we had a plan.

Next chapter we hit the road to the bay area in Mike's customized VW squareback to get stock. We knew Mike had connections and we still had some dollars to buy stuff to sell in the store. Besides in early November of 1967, lots was going on in San Fransisco and the rains were starting in Oregon. We needed to get out of town. There weren't any girls hanging around yet but we figured that would all change when the store really opened. We had started with 550$ and even after all of our purchases so far, we still had lots to spend...

The Eidetic Fugue (pt 1 of 3?)

2009-07-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

Long, long ago, in a town called Salem, several young men were longing for female company. Many summer evenings passed as they cogitated over what could be done. Finally an idea took hold - if we build it, they will come kind of thing. We decided that we needed a place, perhaps a store of some kind, downtown would be best, that was attractive for all, threatening only to an older generation and might even make enough money to keep us in pepsi and music.

At that time, (say fall 1967), there was nowhere in this town of many thousands to buy the rock and roll that was being created in San Francisco, Boston, New York and elsewhere. Today it is hard to believe you couldn't buy popular culture items since you can do it so many different ways in 2009, but back 43 years ago, such was the case. And if you couldn't buy 33's from the Cream, Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplan, you certainly couldn't buy posters, stickers, buttons and anything else from the emerging counter-culture. Not in Salem... yet.

I had the money, Bill had the art skills, Mike had the connections and away we went. First to find a location for rent, cheap. We found a store front that was narrow and half a block long and it was on HIGH STREET... what could be better for a place to buy music, posters, incense and other legal items in 1967. The older gentleman that owned the building, met us there and led us through the two rooms. That took about 30 seconds. He showed us the heater, told us he needed two months rent in cash. We all trekked two blocks to the bank and handed him the cash. Now our 500$ booty was down to 400$.

We got brooms, mops, rags and water and cleaned up the place. We didn't bother with paint with one exception - Bill wanted to do a mural on the glass entry door. It looked just like the poster (oops, I got ahead of myself.. how did we get the posters?) So be it we said and proceded to buy dayglow red paints and all cheered Bill on as he worked into the night, painting the lady on the door. We needed a name. I can't remember all the names that were tossed out but I have always had a fondness for the final solution. We wanted a place that you remembered, that put you into a new state of mind and perhaps left a few marks on your mind, too. We wanted to name to be unique and easy to shorten. And we wanted it to be ours.

Eidetic meant, at least to us, was a type of image that left its mark. Today the dictionary says it is "visual imagery vividly experienced and readily reproducible with great accuracy and in great detail". This meant the shop was a poster shop first, and then a bead, music, art, button and whatnot shop second.
Fugue has a musical meaning, referring to a certain type of composition. We meant the psychiatric meaning actually (me being a psychology major) and today's dictionary says it is a state when a "person suffers from loss of memory, often begins a new life, and, upon recovery, remembers nothing of the amnesic phase" .
Put these together and we were trying to create a place where experiencing the images blows you away with their vividness and detail and you are in a new beginning and really can't remember much about the experience except things are different. Everyone called it "the fugue" and basically ignored any intention the name might have had.

Next installment has us off to the Bay area for provisioning and opening the store, a few surprises happen and mostly, things are good.

picnic table finally done

2009-06-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

From a difficult set off online drawings, a batch of cedar boards,
challenges in making 38 degree cuts and fun putting this together ad a
team. we got a picnic table and a set of benches.

It all turned out great!

Finished the kiwi stand/pagola

2009-06-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

After months of discussions and design attempts, we now have a
structure ready for the weight and size of a crop of Kiwis. The
plants, one boy and one girl (for equality of course), go in at the
outside posts. Next August the structure maybe hidden under the vines
and ripening fruit - or not.

Dinner

2009-06-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

Fresh broccolli, fresh spinach, both treated to heat for a few minutes
- yumm

Oregon Capitol & smoke

2009-05-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

On Armed Forces day (5/13/09), the 9 gun salute resulted in a lot of
smoke, just north of the Capitol BLD in Salem.

I took this picture from my desk on the upper floor of a state building.

Waiting for the ferry to come

2009-04-26T09:17:00.001-07:00

On our way to Harstine island and a visit with friends, we are waiting
for the Bremerton Ferry.

Are they really closed?

2009-04-24T14:16:00.001-07:00

This Seattle shop acts like it's customers just don't want to give up.
I especially like the cat update.

This was on 15th in the Capitol Hill area of town. We were in town
for the Leonard Cohen concert. It was very good; he is such a proven
performer and delights in highlighting the talents of his band,
singers and support staff. See it, if it comes near you!

Bakery evil revealed

2009-04-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

This 'cookie' sits silently in the bakery shelves of a prominent
Portland upscale market. What is the sword in his chest for? Perhaps a
zombie or a vampire?

Railroad bridge in Salem now Awesome

2009-04-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

We walked it on Sunday and it was done right! Lots of room, nice
'pullouts' to get out of the way, great guardrails, very solid surface
and very well thought out linkages to other downtown and west Salem
areas of interest. It is now on a lot of peoples commute route. Great
job Salem!

April at Ryans - roundup & spring

2009-04-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

This panorama is brought to us by the ol' trusty iPhone.

Breakfast in cancun

2009-03-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

What to do when - Jan-April in Willamette Valley

2008-12-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

Often we look to our unwritten, unspoken schedule of "what to do when" to decide what can done outside. Sometimes in the winter, I think we should prune the grapes, but that should be done the first two weeks of February. We could cut some black locust for fence posts next fall but we don't have the trees marked yet. We could plant some lettuce for early crop but it is still too cold without a cold frame. Wait a minute, maybe I should write these 'lists' down and see if they make sense to anyone else.

So here are the first four months and what work makes sense to us.

January -

Prune shrubs and pile prunings for burning in April
Order native plants from County for February pickup
Plant year old grapes that were started last February
Renew any grape arbor stakes, wires, posts, hardware that need work
Discourage any gopher activity with propane. They have mated and are staying underground to raise their young
Plan, plan, plan - by drawing pictures, talking about ideas and most of all, walking the ground to see how everything did last growing season. Made something easier to take care of for this coming growing season. Look and think beyond the current landscape and plantings and buildings into the future for 5, 10, 20 and 50 years if not more. Make big and little plans, short range and long range plans and keep notes of the good ideas

February -

Prune grapes and put grape cuttings into pots for next year's planting
Finish pruning all fruit and nut trees and pile brush for burning after it dries out
Plant perennials and trees
Plant native plants in fencerows and on property
Plant first lettuce towards end of month
Mow at least once if dry enough
Use sulphur and propane on any gopher activity. Better to do it now before the March gopher babies are born. Watch for the deep soil "chimneys" that come up above their larders.

March -

Finish planting all trees - next month is too late.
Plant perennials and shrubs; water in the plants
Weed like crazy and mulch beds right behind, prior to April flush of new growth
Mow grass, taking off no more than an inch per mowing if possible
Plant 2nd lettuce and begin planting other cool weather greens

April -

Weed more to try to get ahead of the May rush of growth
Burn fall and winter prunings under blue skies with white clouds going over - do not let pile sit over summer if possible
Finish all perennial plantings and water in each plant as it is planted
Plant more greens - lettuce goes into the ground every four weeks minimum through till October
Mow grass during any dry spell as it will easily get tall now
Test drip irrigation in the grapes and test sprinkler system. Irrigation begins in May.

Next four months coming soon

Kind of hot for Willamette Valley

2008-08-15T19:25:00.000-07:00

Top numbers are outside temp, then inside temp, then Time. Broke 100
today and tomorrow and the house just gets warmer every day. Cats have
turned to silly putty and everything is warm. Relief on Sunday.

Dripping the young table grapes in Rickreall

2008-08-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

Now we are dripping 4 gals per week per plant as we go through the normal late summer drought and the table grape plants want to quit growing. In June and July we were happy with two gallons per plant per week. Some of the plants are over 7 feet tall while others struggle to stay alive at 8".

10 things I want on my iphone & a few I don't care about

2008-08-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

After living for over a year with my first cell phone/pda/mobileWeb/portableGamingDevice/ipod/toy, there are STILL a few things I would like to have changed. Even with all the things this small device can do, I still find time to write about the things it Can't do.
So here goes.

Cut/Copy/Paste - Since there is so many different applications on my phone, a lot of time I want take some info from one thing and put it in another. Like copy a piece of text from a web page and place it in an email or copy something from an email and put it in some notes.
Voice command dialing - This really should be #1 on my list, cause of safety and all. Just say "Iphone Call Karen" and have it respond, even if I have to wake it up first or press a button twice. Even with a microphone, an customizable address book, a fast processor and 1000 apps available for downloading already, no one ..yet.. has a good working voice dialing program. I'm sure it's coming.
Custom icons and Themes - You can get hundreds of themes if you jailbreak your phone and having done that, I miss them in Apple's 2.01 version. Themes is about the only reason I would jailbreak my phone now that the AppStore is available. This feature probably has to come from Apple and I sure hope it comes soon. I miss being able to have different pictures on the icons and different (sometimes WAY different) backgrounds. This stuff is the fun stuff!
Sending appointments between phones - Karen and I both have iphones but for the life of me, we cannot get a reliable way to send the other an appointment. If we bought MobileMe and it worked, then we could (I think). We can't even sync our calendars on our Macs using iCal yet, for some reason, and don't get me started on google calendars or yahoo calendars. The last tools I used to sync them moved everyone's birthday back a day and reproduced appointments up to five times on the wrong day. Sigh.
Searching and/or Syncing notes - I bet someone, somewhere, is probably getting an application ready now to sell in the app store for doing this and I will be glad to buy it. Right now I email my notes to myself to keep them on my computer but there is no way to re-edit them or re-arrange the content for clarity.
Filming Videos - I know software is coming and none too soon. Even with the 2 megapixel lens, we were able to get good videos out of some jailbroken software. Wouldn't it be fun to be able to capture videos and save them/send them ?
View contacts as database - I have entered notes about most of my contacts; things I want to remember about individuals, companies, new friends, sites, forums, etc. Wouldn't it be great to be able to mine that information or at least re-order it. How about an application that at least displays that information on a 'sheet'? Better yet, one that allows me to edit the contact info and re-sync it to the phone.
Camera interface - pressing that tiny little icon to take a picture has caused me lots of heartaches. I love the fact that I have a camera on me all the time and have captured hundreds of shots that would have faded away but that tiny little button has got to be replaced. There is a jailbreak app that used the whole screen as a button and allowed tagging of photos. Now that would be appreciated.
Printing - OK, so it is a phone but with so much content and so much input, is it too much to ask it to send a wifi signal to my printer and put it on paper once in a while?
Info on unlock screen: A jailbreak application showed SMS, emails, RSS feeds, recent calls, etc on the unlock screen. This was awesome and allowed a one-click access to the most dynamic information on the device and I could customize it to what I wanted. It was a little buggy at times but really helped me use the phone.

There are so many truly fine things about my iphone, that I can't begin to list them. Among my favorites are the way the following things work on the phone: maps, texting, music, itunes, app store, photos, podcasts, videos, youtube, web pages as icons, sending calls to vmail, photos for contacts, games, drawing, SHAZAM!, twitter, wifi access, free custom ringtones with GarageBand and using the cell signal to get web content.

Some things I don't care about:

MMS - Never had it, never missed it. If I want to send someone an image or video, I use email. Heck, I can even email to their MMS account if they have one and can afford the message.
Non-removable battery - someday I might care but there will probably be a new 3g in my hands before this battery gives out and needs replacement.
Keyboard -I do fine with the touch keyboard and appreciate the ability to change the keyboard based on the application. If I have a lot of typing to do, I use my computer as it has a nice keyboard.
VOIP client - what the hay? I have spare minutes with all the calling I do, who needs Voice over IP to manage and deal with.
Not be on AT&T - Well, where we live, AT&T is fine. In fact, it beat sprint and a few other providers on previous cell phones. 3g is due here this summer so we might get even faster.
Stereo bluetooth - I haven't gone to bluetooth, much less heard stereo through it. No problem here with a few cables. In fact, I still think people look weird with those things in their ears, especially after decades of the Hearing Aid industry making their devices disappear.
Self facing camera - Huh? Most of the stuff I want pictures of, is in front of me, where I can see them. Why take a picture of behind me? Oh, you mean I want to send a photo of me... don't think so...

That should do it for now.

My Saturday work

2008-08-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

More wood, more work for someone. In this case, I spent a couple hours
cutting 18" oak rounds for a family at work that wanted to buy some
firewood. This is such fine oak firewood - dry, straight, uniform,
cracked, and just right for stoves.

Rev. Melville T Wire - #1

2007-10-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

BORING NOTICE - the following may bore many readers - BEWARE
Today (Oct 5th, 07) begins the first of many blogs on Melville T. Wire. Over the next few months, more postings will appear about this man, his art, his life and why this is important to me. There will be high resolution pictures of the works we have collected and many links to information available online. There will be pictures of Melville and his wife in our home, helping us celebrate family events. There will be references to other people's writings about him. If I am lucky enough, conversations might even begin with others who have even more to contribute.

A quick Google search for Melville T Wire gives only about 130 hits; Yahoo only shows 77 links. The biography at askart.com is quite incomplete, somewhat inaccurate. There is no entry (yet) in Wikipedia. It appears there is a gap. One of the outcomes of this work effort is to improve all sources of information about Melville T Wire.

An article about Melville in the Oregon Historical Society,Winter of 2004, has at least 34 references to other materials about Melville. This excellent article is a great introduction to the life and art of Melville and is one of the best places to begin. The authors, Ginny Allen and Gregory L Nelson, are both engaged in the discovery of Oregon historical art. They were instrumental in ensuring the first major art event honoring Melville Wire was a success. In 2005, the Willamette University Hallie Ford Museum of Art hosted a small exhibition of Melville Wire painting and it gave an excellent presentation of his life. It would be great to have that presentation be available through this blog.

Sometime between 2003 and 2004, Karen and I were browsing through the Portland Museum of Art. As we entered the area reserved for Northwest artists, the very first piece of art we saw- the first thing on the wall as we entered - was an etching by Melville Wire. I was so excited, I couldn't believe it at first. It was so cool! This was the first time I had seen something hung in a museum where I knew the artist and owned some of their works. Also we really value his work, especially the subject matter. It was that event that got us interested in Melville again.

More to come...

Bill's Bee Movie

2007-09-30T20:56:00.001-07:00

The past two summers a neighbor has kept 24 of his hives on our property most of the summer. We have come to enjoy the free honey in the late fall, especially the Meadowfoam honey - that stuff is so good and so different tasting from other honeys we get locally. He comes and goes, checking on the bees each week until one day in the late fall when they leave to go live in California with the Almonds. Too bad Filberts don't need bees.

The bees have water at the hives but apparently not enough. Our large plastic dog bowl is always swarming with thirsty bees, looking for something to drink. They can easily drink a couple gallons a day and luckily for them, the faucet above the drinking bowl leaks. The water causes another problem for the bees though - a lot of them are not good swimmers. So Karen and I carefully place large sticks in the water, strategically so the bees can climb up on the stick from most anywhere in the bowl, dry off and fly away. The sticks kept disappearing though or being found a few feet from the bowl. We kept accusing the other of removing the stick until the night I spied the raccoon drinking from the same bowl. Aha! I'm pretty sure he had to use his paws to drink - they seem to do everything with their paws - and the consensus is that she was the one removing the stick almost every night.

I took a video of the bees and posted it to Google.

iPhone 1.1.1 - seems fine to me

2007-09-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Upgraded to 1.1.1 and all went fine for me - not so much for a lot of others apparently, especially those who customized their phone by jailbreaking it or siming it. I had done neither although I was about to go enjoy some of the 50 3rd party software out there, especially a task minder that sounded good and customizing the GUI by moving and replacing the buttons.

My 8gig works better than ever. The itunes button is awesome (like in Cool To Use, not like Beautiful) as I am so out of touch with newer music and this allows me to sample a whole boatload of different music styles whereever I can get wifi. It is so quick, even with out slow DSL at home. I click on a song and it IMMEDIATELY plays the first 30 seconds. So fast and so easy. I never really used an ipod much and find podcasts so enjoyable. The range of content is, well, global and the ease of listening will only get better when I get my headphones [Update: RIVET makes good headphones just for the iphone - jack plugs right in -10/11] for christmas (hint hint).

So I still love my iphone and still expect it to keep changing my life in subtle ways I did not expect. We now have all of our friends names and addresses and emails in one place instead of five which should help. It's not like we have hundreds of friends, but it is nice to know the number is bigger than 10.

What is my iphone? It is my watch, my camera, my phone, the home phone, my alarm clock, my light, my instant messager, my email box, my photo library, my movie library(I've watched Calum the Enchanter 15 times), my weather station, my maps, my friend finder, my radio, my link to music of all kinds, probably more that I can't think about. With all this, I find that I don't really want to show it off, as it's social patina is still too bright for a lot of people and it is still too much of a symbol of coolness.

45th and stable but the sun's in our eyes

2007-09-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

If we didn't live on the 45th parallel, I swear these things would never happen. Well, especially in the midwest where the roads run on the compass.

We feel like we live on the 45th parallel even though we know it is at least 10 miles north of us per the sign on I-5. However it is so close that we can be fooled on certain days. Take the Monday morning in mid-September as I headed off to work. On that day, it really seemed like it was the 45th parallel here.

You see, the 4 lane road I sometimes use goes directly East - no, really really directly East. And my day got me to the roadway just as the sun had crossed the horizon, directly in my face.There was only about 2 degrees of difference between the sun and road way.

As I got closer to town and the sun got up a little higher, there really wasn't much to see but Mr. Sol. My assumption was the road had not changed and was still straight, so I watched my review mirror to make sure it was right behind me. Sure enough, it stayed there and I ended up in town.

Had we been on the 4oth or even the 42nd, the sun would have been at an angle and all would have been different. And the same thing happens at sunset on the road - sun directly in your eyes on the equinox, assuming the sky is not covered in clouds, like usual.

Oregon on the equinox - I still love it.

September brings new grandson video

2007-09-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here's Calum using his feet as well as his hands - kind of monkey-like.

Click here to see Video on Google

That's it for now.