The Hunt for The Lacamas Lake Monster
I first saw the monster about seven years ago when my Australian Shepherd Kix and I were on the return leg of an evening kayaking trip up Lacamas Creek. It was a very large fish – I don’t know what kind, but it was large enough to swallow a Cormorant whole. I wrote a blog about it, and republished here.
Staging Area
Last Saturday, the first day of Spring 2010, sixteen of us from our DoLife Kayaking group braved an exhausting yet exhilarating kayaking expedition hunting for “Massy”, our legendary Lacamas Lake Monster.
Topics: recreation, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
More Transparency in Science
This is a reprint of my reply to Governor Palin in response to her recent Facebook comment on global warming, and some of the questionable environmental science practices recently exposed by the media. The Global Temperatures plot from Wikipedia speaks 
volumes. Think about it.
Dear Governor Palin,
History shows it can sometimes be impossible to keep politics and bias out of science. Sir Isaac Newton was popular with his contemporaries, yet he once nearly lost his head because his ideas collided with the politics of a few important people. However, that collision sparked the “Scientific Method”, a smart effective tool to promote transparency and honesty.
Given the plethora of media channels we have today, we have an unprecedented opportunity to make “pop” science more transparent and honest. To list just a few: stream real-time data for everyone to see and verify – no lost emails or falsified data. Create “hyper-forums” to scrutinize scientific proposals, grants, findings, etc. We place the burden on the publisher to communicate ideas in compelling ways and empower the tax payer to provide balance, and help separate the sense from the nonsense.
I can provide more detailed examples if you want.
[Sincerely,
Ron Sheely]
Topics: politics, science | No Comments »
2-Million-Year-Old Email
Just out of curiosity, 
I did a little calculation today to see just how long the flash memory contents in an iPhone would last. The iPhone uses an ARM processor, so based on the Philips specifications of 20-years for flash NVRAM data retention, and a maximum of 100,000 erase/write cycles, and assuming the iPhone reflashed itself every twenty years — which is possible through ARM IAP – In Application Programming, your old email and photos will be around for about 2-million years. I’m guessing the iPhone might evaporate before then, but just in case, don’t leave anything lying around that you don’t want read.
Topics: technology | No Comments »
James Cameron and Avatar
Joyce and I saw Avatar today.
Avatar was entertaining, yet disappointing. 
James Cameron spent ten years writing and developing the story. It had the makings of a great novel, on the scale of Lord of The Rings, or perhaps Dune. It was very much like Dances With Wolves — an outsider, against all odds, bonds with an indigenous tribe, and is forced to make loyalty decisions pitted against his conscience and his own people/country. James Cameron ruined the plot with political correctness in not one, but two ways. First, he made the obvious yet banal connection with the “evil” corporation verses the “true” and “pure” Rain Forest and the “noble savage”, making the Rain Forest a living character in the story. Second, he connected the “noble” terrorists with the uncivilized imperialists. Regardless of political leanings, I think any of these themes can make for a good story, but mixing the three in the way he did, while ignoring more important threads running through the story, he made it predictable and banal. In a nutshell, Hollywood ruined what could have been great. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie, yet it was what I expected. I still recommend seeing it, though I will probably not purchase the DVD.
Topics: entertainment | 1 Comment »
What is A Miracle?
I saw my new granddaughter Evelyn tonight for the first time. 
She looks like her sister. I held her for about half an hour, gently bouncing her when she cried, just like I did with her mother thirty years ago. And like her mother, Evelyn was easily comforted. Later, I watched mother and baby together. I glanced over to grandma Joyce, then back to our first born, with her baby girl, and couldn’t help pondering the miracle that occured in all our lives thirty years ago. There was just Joyce and I, and we could not have children, yet there our child was, with her child. I thought of our second and third daughters, and all three wonderful sons-in-law, all created out of nothing.
Thank you Lord Jesus for your loving healing mercy, for being Who You Are, the Father of mercies, the blessed Creator of heaven and earth, the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Guardian of our souls, for knowing us before the foundation of the world.
You … are … Lord.
Topics: family | No Comments »
38 Years
Hi,
Today is Joyce and my 38th wedding anniversary. 
Our wedding was late in the evening. We got into our little ’67′ red Volkswagen ‘Bug’ and drove away to our new home in San Luis Obispo, 500 miles away. We never looked back. I was an engineering student at Cal Poly. Joyce worked long late hours as a gas station attendant. We had each other, a couple hundred dollars, and an uncompromising love for the Lord Jesus. I nearly died that year from an undiagnosed heart condition. See the rest of this entry…
Topics: family | 2 Comments »
Bad Good News
Originally posted February 10th, 2009
Last night I received some distressing news. My 80-year old Dad was riding his trick bike with the teenagers in the bike-skateboard “pit”, something I have been scolding him about for years now. He apparently made a bad turn on his “third” run – he says he can’t remember what happened after that, but vaguely remembers the kind woman who drove (raced) his bleeding body (and his busted bike) to the ER.
He also remembers the surgeons laughing when they found out what had happened. He broke several bones in his face, including his right cheek and orbital (socket) – my dad says helmets are for sissy’s. His broken trifocals had to be “removed” from his face. One eye swollen shut, contusions and road rash everywhere, broken and bruised ribs, busted hand, toe, chin, and basically everything that should have had pads, but didn’t, is pretty bruised. He was such an uncooperative patient, they sent him home after seven hours in the ER. Apparently everyone but my mom, sister Annette, and brother-in-law Kip ,were laughing. I spoke with my dad last night, and prayed for him over the telephone, which he actually sat down for – what a shock. I spoke with him again late this morning. He is doing well. My youngest sister Janet, our irresponsible-yet-lovable United flight attendant (who reminds me of a certain unnamed person in my marketing department) is helping him shop for a new BMX bike. I tried to get him to add a helmet to his shopping list, but apparently his hearing has been affected as well. Oh well.
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A Cormorant Named Jonah
Originally posted August 14th, 2008
When Kix, my Australian Shepherd, was nine weeks old, 
we kayaked together one evening up Lacamas Creek, near Vancouver, Washington. He wore a bright yellow dogie life jacket, a PFD, if you prefer, and despite being the smallest one I could find, it barely left a tiny black nose and gray bobbed tail, fore and aft respectively. The manufacturer had thoughtfully sewn a black web handle on top, so when I carried him, he looked more like a lunch box than a dog. There was also a ‘D’ ring next to the handle where I attached his leash.
This was his fourth trip with me since his first at seven weeks, See the rest of this entry…
Topics: recreation | No Comments »
