For the longest time I have been looking for a good woman to help make my life complete, but maybe all I really wanted was a dog.

Let’s face it:

• A dog does not argue.
• A dog greets you when you come in.
• A dog wants to be there for you.
• A dog does not destroy your life, but maybe a shoe or two.
• A dog is low maintenance.
• A dog will listen to you bitch and gripe.
• A dog can get kinky by offer leashes… ooooooo.
• You can tell a dog to shut up without it getting offended.
• A dog doesn’t complain that he has the same dinner night after night.
• You don’t have to take a dog out for dinner.
• A dog will sit in your lap with no expectations.
• A dog is endless entertainment.
• When a dog wants tail all he has to do is chase his own.
• A dog’s toy are cheap, just find a nice stick and you’re done.
• You don’t have to remember their Birthday or Valentines Day.
• A dog is warm at night.
• You can roll over and go to sleep and the dog will not care.
• If you kick the dog at night by accident, you won’t hear about it in the morning.
• And finally, a dog can make you feel good when you’re feeling down.

Think about it, this just might be the greatest realization I have had in many years.

For all my life I had a dog except for the last few years. I grew up with a dog on the end of the bed at night and it was good. There is something very soothing about having them around, scratching them between the eyes or on that spot that makes the rear legs shake.

OK, so there is some shedding, and maybe they pee on the arm of the couch, but I think these are small prices to pay for the love that they return. So maybe, just maybe I so get a dog… in fact, how about two? That way they can keep each other company when I am away.

I don’t normally write about the movies that I see, though on retrospect that may not be a bad set of topics for the blogs, but I had to give my take on “Superman Returns”

First impression of Superman Returns is this… Great movie and I think it will be one of the summers top earners. Bryan Singer does a great job bringing the story to life while holding true to the 1978 version of Superman. The acting is strong for the most part (Spacey could have put a bit more into it) and the story reflects Singers style of emphasizing relationship to sell the story. Needless to say the special effects are top rate and so smooth you hardly notice them and just let them sell you on the comic book style. The only issue left is the message, and to be honest, it was hammered at you with plenty of force.

In the past many critics bashed Superman as an allegory for the Christ Story. Think about it, it fits well. Superman father send him to Earth to save them from themselves. He dies, and is reborn, and so many other little things it is hard to miss. But while Richard Donner (director of the 1978 version) may not have been fully aware of the similes, he certainly was after the release. Now with history behind Superman, there is no way that Bryan Singer did not know about the similes and did not play them to the hilt.

This movie is rife with messianic imagery. Just a few… Superman on the cross to save an airliner. Superman stabbed in the side. Superman dying after saving the planet. Superman falling into water (fall from grace). Superman saving many people from a falling “grace” sign (how alliterative can you get). Superman saving people from the falling “Daily Planet Globe” (literally saving the planet again). Same image could also be interpreted as the cover of “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, or even Hercules bearing the burden of the planet, or that Superman must bare the weight of humanities sins. A sliver of a Kryptonite shard is Supermans downfall (tip of the spear.) Resurrected with a kiss from a male (father/son). And the list can go on. Oh and of course there is his mother, named Martha, who I learned was originally named Mary.

So why do I give a darn about this? Because in this day of ever increasing conservative driven media, seems that the movies are going that way as well. I simply do not like to be preached to. It is movies like this and Passion of the Christ (to name a couple) that espouse a philosophy and promote religious ideology that I am not in favor of. I especially do not like the fact that they are disguising it in an action/adventure flick.

I know that we cannot eliminate all religious iconography from all films, it would be practically impossible, but we can at least be up front about it. If the film makers are intentionally promoting a religious agenda, maybe they should say so up front, sort of like a movie rating. It just ticks me off that I have to sit through a sermon for an action film.

Well, I got to do the day trip that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. Call me a bit of a UFO fanatic, I have always wanted to do Nevada’s Extraterrestrial Highway and see those simple sites for myself. That meant grabbing a shot of the infamous “Drop-box” and of course having breakfast at the Lil A’le Inn (BTW, great spuds.) Along with that were other sites and adventures. Some of the shots worked out and others did not, and I found a great disappointment with my pictures. So, here is Series Four, Highlights of the ET Highway trip.

And I am having trouble seeing,
In my mind and in my heart,
I cannot get a grip on the happenstance.
And the thunder rages all around me,

So many wants and desires,
I long for strength and clarity,
But like so many things,
They are thunder raging all around me.

Comfort in a daily life,
Knowing that there is format to the day,
I am a creature of patterns,
But the thunder rages all around me.

Though a new love is near me,
It does not stop the strikes of lightning,
Dazzling me and blinding,
Still the thunder rages around me.

Just some time is all I need,
To be with my daughter and delight,
But it is taken away and out of reach,
Damn the thunder raging around me.

So I walk the rain soaked path,
Toward the cloud-break just ahead,
Maybe there where the sun streams bright,
The thunder will stop raging around me.

What happens when you have to fight in a system of law and do not know all the players and not enough money? You loose, that’s what.

For the first time my ex wife’s money beat me (she got the cash from her very rich uncle.) The $4000 dollar retainer she paid her lawyers actually bought them something and so now I have to pay even more each month (about $200 over guideline) and STILL cannot see my daughter.

It did not help that we were seeing a judge that previously was not assigned to the case and didn’t knew the background (the presiding judge died and we were assign a new judge pro tem.) It did not help that my lawyer was not motivated (by cash) to get this one right. It did not help that I do not have the funds to match my ex’s bankroll. So many things were against it except one thing, I was in the right, but the minutia carried the day. The judge did not even want to hear argument; he just looked at the decree and said no. Not fair and not what would have happened in with Judge Denner.

Then to top it off, I was expecting to have a particular meeting to be able to see my daughter and that did not come off. I was upset and my ex slammed the door to me seeing my daughter. To say I was heart broke is an understatement. How can you be a Dad when you can’t be with your daughter?

To top it off the ex hits me with “contempt” papers because she can and labels me a dead beat dad even though all the child support is up to date and in order. More money I must put out to fight allegations and wage garnishments. Now funds are running short.

But I do have one surprise up my sleeve… My ex filed for relief from back taxes from the IRS and was granted it. She no longer owes the IRS any funds. I, on the other hand, now owe ALL the funds from those happy years and have to pay the IRS on top of everything else. But now for the surprise… In the divorce agreement it is stated very clearly that she owes for half the taxes during the years in question. Just because the IRS cleared her of the debt does not mean that she does not owe it. Guess who is going to put the squeeze on her?

Hopefully with this leverage I can force a break in the situation and make things happen for me, it is after all a substantial amount of money. I wonder if her “unlimited” funds will like the immense added expense? I think not and thus maybe we can talk as adults and really make some arrangements.

The real problem is I am going against is not even my ex, it is her mother and the fact that her rich uncle is stupid enough to keep giving her money. We are not talking a couple thousand here or there we are talking tens of thousands of dollars. To date I have paid $6500 in attorneys fees. She has paid over $70,000. It is hard to compete when you are being overmatched ten times. But then again she has had some very stupid representation, and yesterdays court date has not been a total waste, but rather pointed to a win when it is re-filed, which will happen today or tomorrow.

To add insult to injury, since I am going against her and her mother (in a round about way) it is now personal. You see she (her mother) hates men because she was in a bad relationship herself. She has convinced my ex that I am just another man to hate and thus become target for her hate. So it is not just the money it is the psychotic hatred for men that I have to go against as well. I can only hope that they are not brainwashing my daughter against me. Hell, with all he man-bashing going on in that house I would not be surprised if my daughter told me she was gay. I would love her all the same, but I would wonder how much the current environment was hurting her.

But for my daughter I have hope, she does want to see me and be part of my life. I had thought maybe that was not the case after these last two years, she rarely calls. But a couple of days ago while I was in LA for the hearing I talked to her and she told my ex to “shut up” when we were trying to make arrangements that would eventually not come off. My ex was on the phone with her and very surprised to hear her talk that way. Yeah Sarah! You go and let your mom know that dad does still count in your life. It was a very happy moment.

So there it is… the next round will be a three pronged attack against the vileness of my ex and her lawyers: 1) Get monthlies in line with guidelines. 2) Force her to allow me to see my daughter (with Sheriffs enforcing if need be.) 3) Make her cough up the funds she owes me for the taxes and then let me take care of them.

The last is the key I think. It is so clearly stated that even this Judge will have to side with me. Once that is paid I can then haggle with the IRS and get everything cleared up and finally be in a place that will allow me to move forward.

You know, I would bend over backwards for my ex if she would only talk reasonably like an adult. If she would act like a mature person and know that she is harming my daughter by keeping me away. We had 19 years together and I guess none of that counts for anything anymore, there is just hatred and denial in her heart and head and it has blinded her to everything else.

And she thinks I am the one that needs therapy.

To my daughter I offer this Lullaby:

Lullaby (Good Night My Angel)
By Billy Joel

Good night my angel time to close you eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you’ve been asking me
I think you know what I’ve been trying to say

Someday we’ll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die that’s how you and I will be

OK, I have a 2000 Toyota Camry that has admittedly been beat up, abused, and neglected for the last year and I am sick of looking at it as it is. So, being proactive I took it in to several body shops to see what it would cost to fix it up.

The first told me it would not be worth fixing because its’ Blue book is too low. (I checked the Kelly Blue Book, trade in is about $3500, private sale is about $5500, and retail is about $8500, and that is listing it in its’ current condition of fair.) I really do not think that the repairs are more than $3500.

The next guy said to would take him a week to source the parts and then would call me with an estimate. OK, but a week to source out the parts? Let’s see, it took me about 15 minutes to look up all the part I would need on the car (assuming replacing parts as opposed it fixing) and with that I had compared three different vendors. Why the excuse? Did he not want to bother with my repair job?

The last guy was just plain to busy to be bothered. I don’t get it, maybe he looked at my job and immediately decided there was not enough money to be made. But to simply turn away business, that is beyond me.

So that leaves me with two interesting options, find another mechanic willing to do the job or to do it myself. That latter option is really starting to appeal to me.

Before I started the quest for an auto body shop I had a good idea of how much the repair should run because I talk to an insurance adjuster and he gave me a quick ballpark. Knowing that the repair should come in between $2500 and $3000 did not phase me. Now all I needed was a mechanic to do it hence the search. Then my eyes opened.

Remember the guy who would not give a quote because he wanted to source the parts? Well I know how long it takes to source the parts because I just did it. In the process I learned something… Auto part are not as expensive as you may think.

Two companies want about $1100 for all the parts I needed and a third wanted about $900 (all with truck shipping). Now these are all the parts for replacement and not repairing the old ones. That is a hell of a lot less than I expected. It is so much less that I am considering doing the repairs myself and saving about $1500 or more. With the extra cash I could even pay off the car completely. Now that is a deal.

But it has been a long time since I undertook to do any body work on a car. In fact it has been 25 years and the cars were simpler than. But I suspect that if I purchase a good Chiltons or Hayes I could pull it off. I may have to rent some tools and a couple of jacks, but how hard can it really be?

Still, it could be a lot harder than I remember because there was always Mr. Gilbert in shop class to help out and check everything over. I would be willing to pay to have it done, but man, good help is so hard to find.

Filtered light of orange and gold,

Evening takes the day.

Since we are talking about kids and computers, I think that we should take the discussion a little further.

The current generations of kids are fairly computer savvy. We all know if you can’t figure out something on the computer ask a kid, they usually know the answer. The reason why is simple, they have grown up with computers and never known a world with them. This being the case the knowledge on how to use them is absorbed through their skin. Just as my generation did not have to be shown how to tune a television or a radio or even to play pinball, today’s kids monkey see, monkey do computers with ease. But there is a gap.

Certainly kids do know how to operate a computer at a basic level, start programs and use them to some extent, but they do not get the more advanced functions that are available in the programs simply because they are not formally exposed to them. So, asking a kid to help program a macro in Word is fairly useless, they have never seen it done and do not know how to drill down to get the answers or read the help to find out about the function. In many cases they do not even know the terminology for advanced functions.

Another problem kids have with computers is the object oriented nature of how the programs work in the first place. In many cases they may be shown how to do something but they do not know WHY they are doing it. They learn the procedure by rote and continue on. This is not just a problem for kids, it is an issue for adults using the programs as well. Not understanding the basis for what we are doing with computers limits us all to the extent of what we can do with computers.

So, here is a radical idea… “No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks…” By this I mean that the technology exists today that every child from kindergarten on up to have a laptop computer. At the schools each room is equipped with a wireless network that the instructor can download programs and lessons to each students computer. In kindergarten the kids learn simple mouse and touch pad use, say playing with a paint program. First graders are exposed to keyboard use and basic Word. Second graders learn a program like PowerPoint. Third and fourth graders being to master the programs already listed, and are initially exposed to Excel. Fifth graders get a much more formal education in Excel and basic networking. By sixth grade we should be training out children to use a database like Access or something. This is rather important for the future because learning how to write a formal query will be everything in a world of wired databases. From there it just gets advanced and may cover topics like scripting and coding. (Why coding and scripting? I do not know about you, but there are many times when I want to do something and there is no program for it, so I write a PERL script and viola, instant program. It is too useful a skill for everyone not to have.)

Along the way the kids learn about file and directory structures, how a computer operates on a basic level, how to get under the skin of an operating system and fix things. They learn what to do and how to maintain computers. They learn good user techniques, how to avoid viruses and such. They learn early on about the importance of information and privacy. Manners and Internet Etiquette are taught so they do not create enmity on the Internet and draw too much attention. There are so many things to learn, and learning them at a young age like this assures that the new generation is more than just computer savvy, but computer proficient.

This is not to say that the pencils have to go away completely, there is still room in this world for all the traditional teaching. After all, penmanship is still important in everyday life (for now), but books could easily be replaced. And there is still a need for crafts and other manual dexterity activities for proper development and the artistically inclined among us. But over all I feel that computer need to be a larger and more formal part of our children curriculum.

Postscript:
I used to say that people who did not know how to use a DOS prompt should never be let onto a computer. I mean if you don’t know how to run a computer on the command line (I know, some of you are saying “What the heck is a command line?”) you simply did not know even the basics on how a computer operates. There is something to be said for having a basic understanding on how a computer process, runs and stores data. But in todays world where the command line is all but gone I have to give in to the fact that most people do not know the basic operation of a computer. This is one of the reasons that I mentioned coding and scripting. Coding and scripting forces habits of learning basic computer operation and in many cases what a command line really is. So, let’s just say I have higher hopes that the newer generation will not be ignorant about the marvel they are using.

Post Postscript:
One of the cool things this may bring about is the understanding that a computer is not a toy meant solely for game playing. A computer is a tool and when properly used a very powerful tool at that.  Personally I do not play too many games on my computer, it is too much like a tool and it is hard for me to think about it like a game box. Hopefully we can raise a generation of artisans that use this powerful tool in ways we may never have dreamt of.

Like many entries, this one was sparked by a question someone asked me. They asked me, “So, how do you see the world?” Simple question, complex answer.

Many people see the world in black and white, or as a set of grays, or even in chromatic brilliance. Some will say they see it as paths and options, everyone carving out their route in the day to day grind. For me the view of the world is a lot more complex. I see it as a group of interlocking soap bubbles, all affecting each other. Think about it like a 3D Venn Diagram, only more so.

When I think about things I try not to let preconceived notions mix into the patterns. I try not to set my rules in any one place and let the ideas and thought lead where they will regardless of the final thought or conclusion. Sometimes the lines of reasoning are clear and satisfying, other times the conclusions are dark and foreboding. As I add more information to the thought line, more bubble crop up and lead to different ideas, they split off like three bubbles whose surface have crossed and I am reading the intersection. Sometimes a bubble breaks of and creates more and new thought processes. This is as clear as I can describe it but to add it does not all happen in three dimensions.

It is hard to describe what happens when I do get into conversations. I tend to move down lines of argument that are sometimes tangent to the topic at hand only to tie it in later, to make a point. I look at things through devils advocate point of view with equal ease as my more firm beliefs. I try to break my own view points as strongly as make them to put stronger weight on correct assumptions and wipe away erroneous lines as soon as possible.

I look around and I see patterns in everything. The lines of a building will extend and correlate (or not) and form more complex patterns. Objects in motion will acquire trailing and leading lines, predictor of future motions. Shapes sometimes twist as I grasp their topography and morph them in and through other objects as thought games. Sometimes it makes for interesting times when I am tired and things really slow. It is like the effects in “A Beautiful Mind”, “Little Man Tate” or even “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, I see them overlaid in my minds eye.

In terms of interpersonal relationship, friends and lovers, there are many times I put myself in anothers place and empathize with what they are feeling. I try to imagine what it is like for them, how they would react and give them an experience or at least make it as good for them as for me.

There is so much I see, feel, hear, imagine and know that to describe it all in words can not me done effectively at all. To describe some of what I am feeling and experiencing I would have to make up new words and then define them in painstaking detail and hope that you understand it. I have searched for the words in the past and given up. I would like to show you, but a 2D drawing would not do.

Forgive me, but this is the best I can answer this question.

Does it really surprise anyone that the web has become a place for social networking? I mean really, could we as a people not have seen that we as adaptable humans would make use of our new toy called the Internet as a social tool? The clues were all there, were we that blind that we did not see the exploitation coming?

I am talking about cases of rape and violence against children (and other adults) initiated through the internet via sites like Myspace.com, AdultFriendFinders.com or even Yahoo Personals. The darker side of human nature has found a new way of feeding itself and it is through these social networking sites. Wasn’t this an obvious trend? Let’s look at history which we have apparently forgotten.

Communications in a static state is a way of advertising the “darker” side of our nature. Since the time paper and printing human have used the medium to describe acts some would consider obscene. Drawings and etchings of sexual intercourse cropped up not long after the media became available. It was just us humans expressing ourselves in a more permanent form.

Photography was the next heavily exploited medium to purvey sexual content. In 1829, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a Frenchman, brought us the advance. His first picture was a self portrait, care to take a guess what his second photograph was about?

Move forward a bit. I wonder how long it was after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone that a pair of amorous lovers were talking dirty to each other. There is no recorded date on that one, but I would bet it was not too long before this sexed up couple got off on hearing each other moan in ecstasy via a wired transmission.

Of course out technology was not limited to photos, writing and audio and before long Thomas Edison was bringing us moving pictures. We do know that the first pornographic movie was filmed (recorded) about 14 years later. Why the lag time? It was a very expensive process and there was not call for it just as the new technology was breaking out. But since that first porn movie it has been down hill since.

We move up to the next significant advance in communication, television. I do not have any facts on early television and if lascivious programs were broadcast, but I would suspect that because there was no way to effectively record and distribute the recordings that it was not immediately used in the manner of which we are speaking. But then again, that’s where Sony and Panasonic come in. VHS and BETA hit the market and the mass porno industry was born. If you don’t think this medium was hypnotic and appealing, ask Bob Crane.

Finally we come to our current situation and the common use of the Internet. Arpanet (the original name of the Internet) was used to pass along information for the military and universities, a wonderful advancement. But of course when humans get bored we turn to our favorite subject and that is sex. Before long we were passing along ASCII files that when printed showed lovely nudes or told sex stories. Public Bulletin Board Systems hit the seen and people were socially interacting and meeting even back then (call it late ‘80s and early ‘90s). This worked and there were more than a few marriages brought about by the interactions on the BBS. Today we have the web which is nothing more than a very advanced BBS system (ok, it is more than a BBS, but the same dynamics are in play.) A few years later and scanners brought us full color bitmap swapping. Then we were inundated by email advertising and offers for a hot date via the Internet. Along come dating sites and of course more “all purpose” social sites like Myspace.com.

So here we are in a culture that is inundated by the possibilities of the Internet. Most of us have a computer and if you are reading this you certainly do. We as adults are exposed to the new medium and we go into it with certain awareness that there are all types of people inhabiting the net. The difference we have today is that we are also exposing our children to it. In all the above cases (from print to video) we as adults were able to protect our children because of the static nature of the pornography. If the kids could not physically get their hands on it, they were ok. Today on the web it is all too ease to get a hold of it. Communications in the past were such that adults could control who talked on the phone, what letters we may receive in the mail, not so today. Our children are exposed to a fully adult world and hence the problem.

Let’s put aside the whole issue of privacy for a moment and talk about interaction on the web. The web is such a place that anonymity is everything and as we chat over the web we have absolutely no idea who we are really chatting to. We may even think we are chatting with a friend only to find out later that your friend had his/her password stolen and the person you thought you were chatting with was not your friend at all.

An assumption of trust exists over the web as it does in real life. In life we as adults use our judgment and assign trust where we need to. We do not allow our kids to exert similar measures of trust because they have not had the experience to do it wisely. But over the Internet we should not assign trust as easily because we do not know the person we are chatting with and do not have the advantage of face to face experience to rely on. We are literally assigning trust blindly, but as adults we know the risks. This assignment of trust is a very adult privilege.

But what happens when children are given that same privilege of assigning trust? Well the results are obvious, they get taken advantage of. Be it swindled out of money, information, or something more dangerous, children are not up to making decisions that could potentially harm them permanently and should therefore not be allowed to interact on the Internet in the same manner as adults. Hence we have the problem we are facing today.

There is a basic design flaw in the Internet, it was never meant to establish identity. Yes there are protocols that establish identities of machines on the Internet, this is crucial for the system to operate, but it does not extend to the humans using the machines. This is a huge flaw and thus establishes the basic anonymity of the Internet. But even the identification of the machines on the Internet is not foolproof; this fact has been the hackers’ stock in trade for years. Now we have more flaws.

In real life when you meet someone you identify them. There is a whole set of data that you use to make the identification and thus there is no doubt who they are. The Internet does not have this direct exchange of information so any information you do get is tainted by doubt.

I am going out on a limb here to make the following proclamation: “There can never be a secure Internet because of the nature of the Internet. When identification or data passes beyond one layer of interface is it therefore not possible to trust the information fully because the data could be tainted even through just one layer of interpolation (the interpolation being that of the interface itself).” I could masquerade as you and you as me and who would know the difference because it is machines talking to machines and the human element is obscured.

I was talking to a guy the other day and he was talking about an encryption that was unbreakable and perfect. I told him that there was no such thing as a perfect encryption, if it can be encrypted it can (and must at one point) be decrypted. Otherwise what is the use of encryption if it cannot be decrypted? Logical right? Assuming that it can be decrypted, it therefore follows that someone other than the intended person can decrypt the encrypted message. It may take a while to break the encryption without the key, but given time it will give up its’ secrets. And if we know other facts about the information we could break it even faster.

So where is this all going? Why the tour of human sexuality and media and the flaws of Internet Security and Cryptography? Simple, you can never know who you are talking to on the web and no amount of security can change that, only make it less likely in the long run that you will be fooled, but will never be foolproof. This being the case we can not protect our children on the web by adding more “security” protocols. The more we add the more the people intent on breaking them will break them and it is a never ending cycle of one-upmanship. There is only one way to break the cycle and that is not to play or play with the risks well in mind.

So when I see that Myspace.com is adding more “security” to their site as a response to the predation of minors on the site I have to laugh. Does anyone realistically think this will stop the predators? No, all it will stop are those that are not determined. The predators will don new masks and go about their business and the added security will mean nothing. Even the “Age Verification” method of determining identification is not foolproof. Kids wanting to get on will steal a credit card from the rents and voila, they are on as an older person. Now the problem continues.

Let’s take the next step in security for a moment, and that is a biometric type of identification. So you scan your retina and compare it to a database of other retinas to establish your identification. Wow you exclaim, that is brilliant and should work for we are now verifying identification based on your unique biological information as we may in real life. Sorry… Nope… Not a chance. So we send information over the web based on a scan, where did that information come from? Did it come from the scanner just now or is it from a file? What is it comparing to? Did the information in the database come from the actual person it is describing? Is the matching information about the person correct in the first place? Sorry, again we are working with layers of interface that can always be fooled or hacked. There is no real security on the web, just good enough security.

So we are faced with the age old dilemma, will the parents monitor the actions of the children well enough to protect them. This is the real issue at hand. Before the Internet it was totally up to the parents to protect the children from the social predators, but today we are counting on technology to do the same thing. We are getting lazy as parents and it is taking a toll on the children. Talk about irresponsible, we as parents know there is risk for children on the Internet, yet we are not doing anything about it collectively and individually. We complain that it is the fault of the makers of the Internet or the operators of a particular site. Shame on us, we are just looking for scapegoats for our lack of responsibility to monitor our children.

Maybe there should be an age limit on the Internet. Like alcohol and tobacco, you cannot use the Internet until you are 18 or 21. I would actually not be opposed to that. It may sound extreme, but it would force us back into a role for our children. We would have to help them with their homework, keep an eye on them and not let the idiot box entertain them the whole time. Maybe they would go out and play when not in front of the computer? Maybe they would be more physically fit? Maybe we should do the same thing with their cell phones? There is no age limits on computers and cell phones, but that does not mean that maybe there should be.

Granted, taking away computers and cell phones from our children is harsh, but then again if it is the law so be it. After all, we love it when the government controls our lives, it relieves us of having to think and taking responsibility for the development of our children. Opps, but this would force us to take more responsibility… damn.

This series of photos was shot mainly in Death Valley, California. I started out very early in the morning and shot till about 3 pm, putting about 300 miles on the car in doing so. Like a lot of my pictures, these also feature a very stark light and hopefully a graphic element. In the last picture I have done a little work following in a favored photographers footsteps. So, here it is, Series Three - Death Valley.

The Guard Shack - There is this outcropping between
Parhump and Ashford Mine in Death valley. It looked
interesting in the low light, so thought I would take a
few shots. I liked this one, no real reason other than
it may work with other shots in the future.

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Riddle me this Batman… If Osama bin Laden were
hiding in one of these, you think they could find him?

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Sometimes things grow in the strangest places. The
green against the red rock was an immediate eye
opener, and with the framing it is even more dramatic.

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For me the texture is everything. I love the feel of
the old rust on the bolt. The faded wood helps the
whole thing as well making a simple composition pop.

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Does this remind you of a comic book rendition of
a bolt driven into concrete? Does to me.

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Old structures and isolation draw me in. This door
is a door to nowhere and just about as isolated as it
can get. I wonder what happened here a hundred
years ago. Could people have thought Ashford Mine
was the next mother-lode? Did they expect to survive
long? Guess not, no one is there now.

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The lowest point in the USA is Bad Water Basin in
Death Valley. This shot was taken about 6 inches
above the lowest point. I love th colors and reflections
and the salt crystals.

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If you were in hell and had to play Satan a round of
Links, he would treat you the round on the
Devils Golf Course in Death Valley. I think
I found the last green.

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The salt at the Devils Golf Course forms into
lumpy masses and as the water (yeah, it does
rain there) runs over it, it makes cuts into the
masses like the landscape all around. Odd to
see a mini hillside you can step on.

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There is a one-way drive just off the main road
through Death Valley called the “The Artists Drive”.
If you get a chance to do the run, I highly suggest
it. Even though I am a descent photographer,
there is no way to describe the grandeur. You
drive though the canyon and every few hundred
yards is a whole new natural wonder.

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OK, I have a 17mm wide angle lens for my rig,
and even with the DSLR lens factor it still means
that the lens is 24mm wide and still it cannot
capture it all. So, I took several shots in series
and stitched two together to get this shot. I did a
little work on the sky, but mostly it is unretouched.
Gotta love the colors.

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This is the last of the shots for this series. When we were at Devils Golf Course I saw this rock peeking out of the salt and thought to myself that a face should be there. I shot the rock and when I got it into Photo Paint I superimposed a face on it from my vast library of beauties. In the style of Jerry Uelsmann I put the two together and creep out city followed. I like this photograph and plan to print it when I get the chance.

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Technical Note: I have reduced the compression level on these photo so as to get better color and detail. I am still not happy with some of the results and will from this point forward use the RAW format for captures. Hopefully this will give me even better and cleaner results. 

These Images were captured on June 7, 2006 on Nevada Highway 93 between Boulder and Searchlight. These were spur of the moment type photos with a little more consideration of the capture file format. These photos have very little original compression.

More to come.