Smallest park on Earth and other extremes

I bet you didn't know the smallest park on Earth is located in Portland Oregon. I didn't until I visited Google's Extreme Series page (updated daily). Mill Ends Park was created by a leprechaun by the name of Patrick O'Toole proving, once again, that one must be very specific when asking favors of the wee folk.


Mill Ends Park,
Portland, Oregon :
Smallest Park on the Earth

Mill Ends Park in Portland, Oregon is the smallest park in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The "park" is a 2 foot (610 mm) wide circle which in 1948 was intended to be the site for a light pole. When this failed to appear, Dick Fagan, a journalist for the Oregon Journal, planted flowers in the hole and named it after his column in the paper, "Mill Ends". Fagan told the story of the park's origin as follows: He looked out his office window and spotted a leprechaun digging in the hole. He ran down and grabbed the leprechaun, which meant that he had earned a wish. Fagan said he wished for a park of his own; but since he had not specified the size of the park in his wish, the leprechaun gave him the hole. Over the next two decades, Fagan often featured the park and its head leprechaun, named Patrick O'Toole, in his whimsical column.

Fagan died of cancer in 1969, but the park lives on, cared for by others. It became an official city park in 1976. Mill Ends Park is located at SW Naito Parkway and SW Taylor in downtown Portland.
The park's area is 452 in² (0.29 m²). The small circle has featured many unusual items through the decades, including a swimming pool for butterflies (complete with diving board) and a miniature ferris wheel (which was delivered by a regular-sized crane).

I Ching in a nutshell

(The title is meant to be a joke)

A friend recently posted, "Some time tell me how to learn I Ching? Please."

Naturally I am only too happy to oblige however the best I can do is an introduction.

Roy, I Ching ... I Ching, Roy.

Good luck guys.


But of course .........



I can't help offer an opinion or two. This is a blog after all.

First off, the name of the book translates as Book of Changes; "I" meaning change and "ching" meaning book. Don't ask it "yes or no" questions. You will really short change yourself ... sorry. The way I see it, when you toss the coins, you dip into the synergy of the moment as focused by your question so the more specific, the better. As above, so below. This is not the same as asking to be told what to do. For me, using the I Ching is like looking into the cosmic mirror. If I phrase my question properly, I get a peek at what is influencing a situation/me, and perhaps see more clearly the waters I am in and need to navigate.

Think about your question awhile. Wording is very important. Write it down. For instance, when I did the reading on my birthday recently, I asked "What is the Tao for my coming year?" Or suppose you want to quit the soul crushing corporate job that has you imprisoned in the dead dry center of middle America and go back to Santa Cruz so you can pick up your old life as a surfer dude. Then your question would be something like, "What are the influences surrounding my desire to ......" or perhaps ... "What would be the outcome of quitting my current soul crushing corporate job and ....." Get the idea?

The I Ching often confirms what I already know, which is amazing when you think about it but not particularly mind bending if you prefer carnival raz-ma-taz. My birthday hexagram reflected a condition I have been aware of for a while, Standstill, so I asked a second question in search of more information on a way forward. "How can I correct the mistakes I made that have resulted in stagnation" and got, "Cultivate yourself, await your alloted time, then you will be able to bite through." The changing hexagram, Biting Through, went into some helpful detail.


Be patient. It takes time to get use to the language and metaphors. The I Ching is among the oldest of Chinese classic texts and not dumbed down for the current age or its consumers. On the other hand, it is oddly modern. It shares a common language with computers, zeros and ones. The I Ching arrives at all 64 hexagrams and their changing lines through combining and recombining zeros and ones just as computers use what's called binary code, also made up solely of ever changing combinations of ones and zeros. Everything both systems do is based on zeros and ones. Elegant, yes?

That's it. Try it if you like. I recommend the Wilhelm/Baynes version of the book for your basic text. It's the original. It's easy once you get the idea of how to count each coin toss. If you don't want to buy anything you can find online versions of the method here or here or here or just look around for a site that suits you. On the other hand, if all this bores, mystifies or otherwise offends your religious and/or scientific bias, forget about it. Have some fun. Translate your name into binary code. Otherwise, what are you waiting for?

Step through the door...

~ 01100001011100110110100001100001


Update: Be sure to write your (well thought out, carefully worded) question down before tossing the coins. Being able to refer back to exactly will help you interpret the results.

Wedding photos

I posted a set at Flickr if you'd like to see more photos from the wedding. They are in order just as I took them so you can get a sense of day unfolding. Enjoy.

Wake up and smell the latte

“We the People”. Ha!

The House authorized the government to spy on us and people are blaming the Democrats. Of course, I'm also furious that they caved into the Republican agenda but still it's pathetic scapegoating.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” .

Sadly we, the American people, expect other people to take care of the dirty business for us. If we pay attention to politics all, we prefer to focus on our own pet issues and leave the big picture to "them". Screw us. This is what we get. America is a Corporatocracy now, that is a perfect slave state. Our chains are different but even stronger than the leg irons worn by slaves in days gone by. We are shackled by our addiction to “credit”. It’s the perfection of the slave state. There is no need for the slave master’s whip. Desire is the perfect master and the Corporate media stokes ours day and night. Naturally when the planet's natural resources run low these salad days will end but for now life still seems pretty good in the corporate kingdom, as long as you squint.

"The printing press has done for the mind what gunpowder has done for war." - Wendell Phillips

Dialing it down

I had to dial down the Bird Park this morning. Just too many pigeons, too early. Don't get me wrong. I love them as much as other birds but there is a balance and right now it is out of whack. They are large, communal and very talkative. This morning I removed all but one feeder. However, the pigeons love their afternoon bath and the tubs are full of nice clean water and waiting. They just won't find much seed on the ground. It's kind of sad, but they'll be okay. After all, I am not Mother feckin' Nature.

And this correction is also very much in keeping with the overall current of my life. I have to be still, re-evaluate things, weed out what doesn't work. It's not exactly a choice. The times call for it. Even when I did my annual birthday reading the other day, the I Ching said the same thing. The fundamentals are wrong. Energetically bite through the obstacles. Indeed.

Once again I am impressed with the oracle's accuracy. It reflected exactly what I have been experiencing for a while now. No, I don't feel particularly effusive about it. Sober, yes. Reflective, yes. Perhaps this lingering flu has something to do with my mood but anyone with half a brain knows that transitions, realignments, are not always fun but, from time to time, necessary. But don't let me rain on your day.

Think

Okay, if you've been keeping up here at the border crossing you've already watched the excerpt from Scott Jennings historically pathetic bogus testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning so here's a little fun from Live Earth. It's got a message but don't let that scare you off. At least I found it refreshing and delightful. Give it a chance. Perhaps you will too. As you know, it never hurts to ...

Think


More fun short films from Live Earth here.

Bogus "executive privilege"

BushCo. is defending a house of cards (all Jokers) in this Justice Dept. scandal. Get a load of this "testimony" by Bushman Scott Jennings who was questioned today by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy. The only hope these clown's have left is their bogus claim to "executive privilege". Jennings is a public servant but, in BushCo.'s pathetic attempt to avoid accountability, the White House won't even let him disclose his own job description!

These jokers really have their backs against the wall. They know they are defending a house of cards in a bowl of smoke, remove even one and the whole facade comes tumbling down in a puff.

Bush's house of cards

Babes in Bird Land and old crows too

A young quail couple, barely teenagers themselves, bring their baby over to the Bird Park several times a day. Seems they live at Dwayne's, probably under his giant Indian Willow tree-o-life. I don't know if cats got the rest of their family or they only had the one, but they are very protective of the little guy who, at this point, isn't any bigger than a tennis ball. Generally, one parent hangs back on lookout while the other escorts the baby around but he stays very close anyway. I say "he" because he has a tiny little comb on the top of his head but I don't know. Maybe he's a she. Perhaps time will tell. Anyway, they are very sweet as they work their way along, scratching and dirt bathing and keeping an eye on baby.

I generally watch them while I sit at my computer, which is very convenient for me however, last evening I got trapped when they made an appearance in the front yard. I was sitting on the porch eating dinner when they scooted over from Dwayne's. It is obviously one of the chick's favorite things to do. Before they were half way across the lawn, he made a bee line for the tree with the thistle seed sack and his wary parents obediently followed but they weren't at all comfortable with me sitting so near. First the father, then the mother, took turns keeping me under surveillance while I sat obligingly still as a statue. Talk about time stopping but, most importantly, the baby had a great time, ate his fill of seed, snuggled in the dirt, explored the lavender forest next to the tree, scratched around again, explored the forest again. He even caught and ate an ant.

Since coming back from Portland, I dialed down the feed a bit in an effort to reduce the number of visitors to the park. I was getting a bit obsessive about it all but mornings are still peanut time and some very old crows, Minerva among them, continue to show up for them which pleases me. I've never watched a crow age before. Did you know they get gray like the rest of us?

But before you return to the ongoing reports of mind-blowing human folly, one last bit of news. Yesterday afternoon a sparrow broke all park records for time on a feeder. This fellow stayed on the tube at least an hour, maybe two. Not that he was eating the whole time. He sat for long periods just swinging on the perch, looking around, taking in the day. I like to think he was basking in the peace and quiet.

Price per minute

Here is an interesting tidbit from DailyKos:

Wrap your head around this one. The estimated cost of the war and occupation in Iraq for 2007 is $140,000 per minute. And who do you think is paying the bill?