Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Heard on the radio this morning that New York City is ordering and installing a bunch of surveillance equipment, to better keep an eye on people in Southern Manhattan.

The Radio People were entirely OK with this.
They said that they didn't mind The Government keeping an eye on us, because after all, if you're not doing anything WRONG, then why should you have anything to worry about? They never ever realized that "wrong" can be entirely subjective when it comes to this sort of thing. WRONG right here right now might be stuff that we can universally agree is WRONG: rape, pillage, murder, theft, etc.

but...

That stuff will still be there for other surveillance. What about if right to Free Speech...or Free Press...or Freedom to Congregate becomes slightly...less...legal - and then downright illegal? I know it's cliche to bring up the Holocaust, but seriously - Jews and Roms (Gypsies) didn't do anything wrong either. Their BIG SCARY CRIME was being born with the "wrong" bloodline.

When Bad (or Very Very Insecure, yet Well-Meaning) Guys are in power, WRONG becomes very very fluid, and more and more RIGHTS are abridged in the name of "safety" and "public welfare". Just because it's done by The Government doesn't mean it's good for us, or even a good idea. Anyone can become corrupt, given enough time, power, and leeway. The checks and balances that are in existence in our governmental charter, known as the Constitution, work because all three branches of the government acknowledge and follow them to make them work. These, in fact, are our best hope for prevention of Governmental Tyranny: the competition and conflict among the 3 branches of the government were put in place to prevent any one branch or person from taking over.

I think that far too many people have forgotten about George Orwell's hideous visions of the future - perhaps because they were "trendy" back in the '70s. It's easy to dismiss things you'd rather not think about, especially if they were popular, once. But Animal Farm and 1984 aren't just trendy books, that were popular once and then relegated to the dustbin of history and literature.

I would much rather not have all these Governmental Eyes poking into my business, watching my every move. I realize that most of my life is already available for Governmental Scrutiny - every time any of us use a credit card, open a checking account - heck, even get a paycheck - the government knows about it and can track us. That's a price of doing business. This post by its very existence is adding to the Documentation about the Inner Workings Of My Brain, such as it is. And heck, we're already visible by satellite & Internet. Google Earth anyone?

I'm not saying that the cameras and the intent behind them is a bad thing. They're not, in and of themselves. Higher camera surveillance in high-crime areas saves money and lives - the citizens aren't dependent upon a patrol driving by at a critical time to prevent a crime. A few people can monitor these cameras, and send help when & where it's needed, rather than having several hundred people physically monitoring those areas. That's a great idea, and a good use of resources.
However, the mindset behind the radio announcers' comments is, I think, a bad thing. Assuming that just because you haven't done anything WRONG means you have no reason to fear is true in and of itself - but who defines "wrong"?

Who watches the watchers? Who guards us from the guardians? Who will protect us from our protectors?

We have to. Free elections, intelligent and informed voters, making the BEST choices they can, rather than the "easy" choices, or the "incumbent" choice because...eh, I can't be bothered to find out anything about the candidates - WE have to make sure by our INTELLIGENT use of due process, that OUR rights are kept safe.

WE watch the watchers.

Ah yes, THE photo

We did have some fun at the Artesian Well. First off, Hoppingcrow decided to get wet at the cache, and stuck her head under the tap. She enjoyed it, though, even though it was probably around 55 degrees. Brr!

Then Totem Clan lined up for his "pic at the well".

(And yes, that IS the Artesian Well water; he's not doing what it looks like he's doing.)

Then one of the more playful members of our group decided that Mouse needed to get wet as well, and poured some cold water over her head. Unfortunately, Mouse was still holding her camera, so she wasn't all that appreciative!
Camera's OK, GPS is OK, Mouse is OK. (And eventually stuck her head under the tap as well!)

A good time was had by all. Really!

The GeoBash - 3 days in a single post

Ah, the GeoBash. We had fun.

Friday we showed up in the afternoon and registered. Encountered some local cachers and chatted for a while, then went in to collect our Stuff.
Signed in and had the whole "getting to know you" thing explained. Apparently each registration bag had 3 identical pins in them, with either ducks, flamingos, or penguins on it (representing each 'Bash mascot: 2005 was the flamingo, 2006 the penguin, and then this year was The Year Of The Duck). We were supposed to trade 2 of our pins for the 2 we didn't have. Well, I checked our bags and one bag had ducks, the other, penguins, so we had 2 of the 3 already. Then, while I was waiting in line to pick up our shirts and coins and stuff, the guy behind me said, "huh. I got flamingos." So I traded him a duck for a flamingo, and then as soon as I got outside and started handing stuff to Kev, someone said, "anyone got a penguin to trade for a flamingo?" So we hadn't even been there 10 minutes and we already had our "complete sets".

We wandered around for a while, just seeing who was there, chatting with campers. Saw a license plate from Alberta, and from the bumperstickers figured the guy was from Calgary. "Huh," sez we, "I wonder who that is?"
He came back to his car while we were chatting with his neighbor, so we all headed over there to talk with him. Turns out it's greyling, who we traded coins with a while back! We had a nice talk, and he and Kev each "forgave" the other for living in the Rival Town (Kev used to live in Edmonton). *laugh*

More wandering led to the Ice Cream shack. Mmm-mmm, ice cream. I got a chocolate for me, chocolate-vanilla "skwirl" for Kai, and I was gonna get swirl for Kev but I saw they had MAPLE ice cream. The guys said they took vanilla and just added fresh, locally-made maple syrup to it "until it tasted right". Sooooo, Kev tasted the Maple, decided THAT was what he wanted, and he got that. Everyone was happy.

Next we started calling people. Uper was almost there when we called her. We strolled by Peachy's trailer and had a nice talk with her and "Dr. Peach", and their youngest son, "the Peachbud". They're nice people, and we walked back to registry with them and had a nice little talk-n-chat.
We met up with Uper shortly thereafter, around the "Ground Zero" campfire. LOTS of people were there when we finally made it over there, including a couple of Groundspeak Lackeys. Uper introduced one of them to us. "Hey, this is Heidi." "Hi, how ya doing? So...what's your caching name?" "It's Heidi." "Yeah, but Heidi *WHAT*?" "Just Hydee." Oooooohhhhh, THAT Hydee!!!! THE Hydee! Oops... (Bryan said he needed a pic of "PAWS with THE Hydee". *snicker*)
And her husband, Bryan Roth, a/k/a Rothstafari. Talked with them (mostly him) for a while about coins, marketing, sales, and all kinds of stuff. Nice guy. We gave him a "set" of our personal coins (the gold from last year and the Black Nickel from this year) and he was nice enough to give us one of THEIR personal coins - an anniversary coin! Awwwww....And the graphics on it are ADORABLE. I asked Kev later, "Didja notice the HUGE smile on the coin-Bryan's face?" He said, "If you were a guy married to Hydee, wouldn't YOU have that huge smile????" Point taken! (She's gorgeous.)
He also gave us a lackey coin. Cool coin. :)
Somewhere in there, we stopped for dinner. Yum, rotisserie chicken. We met up with most of the Usual Suspects of people that we'd wanted to meet, and we all ate dinner together. Sorta. different people, different spots in the dinner-barn...but we all got together, eventually.

At approximately 15 minutes to end-of-dinner, ATMouse, Toolman ("Mr. Mouse") and their friend Barb (Brownout) showed up. They rushed through registration and fortunately got to eat! We all went back to "Ground Zero" afterward and socialized, chatted, and otherwise had a good time. TotemClan, BigBear, their kids and Hoppingcrow arrived, and they unpacked and rapidly set up their tent. THEN they opened up their "Sig Item" - homemade beer. Oh. My. Goodness. They made a Scottish Ale that is unbelievably good. My favorite was the Wheat Beer, and Bob (TC) said he's going to make a Cherry Wheat next time. We talked to him a bit about starting our own homebrewing...maybe someday...*sigh*
Somewhere in there, the people who were supposed to stay at our house decided that since there was MORE than enough camping space available, they'd just stay at the fairgrounds, instead. Makes it easier for them, so everyone set up their tent and we were on our way home. Bedtime beckoned...

Saturday morning we arranged to meet with ATMouse, Toolman, Barb, and Hoppingcrow at Pokagon and find the Earthcaches. They went all the way into Michigan for an EC there...it was a relatively new one, so we hadn't really known where it was (not having been looking for them recently...) and when they said it was "just off US12", I figured it was around Coldwater. Nope...it was around Jackson, another 30 miles or so EAST of Coldwater. They didn't get back to Pokagon until...oh, about 11:15 - 11:30. Oh well, we were having fun! Met with them in Pokagon, along with the entirety of the Totem Clan. We did the 2 "easy" earthcaches (Lake James and the Artesian Well) and went to find Second Nature. We had to stop at the Nature Center first and check out the snakes...and the birds...and the birds...and the chipmunks...and the birds...and the birds....and HEY LOOK AT THE BIRDS!!!
They loved the birdwatching window - especially Hoppingcrow. She said she could've stayed there all day. (For a while I thought she WAS going to!!!) We eventually did tear ourselves away from the birding window, and found the cache. Then...back to the 'Bash grounds! Wait, first we need to go for lunch. We're HUNGRY!!!! So we all went to Fire Mountain for lunch, and a Good Lunch was Had By All. NOW back to the 'Bash grounds, because Totem Clan needs to reconnoiter and figure out what they want to go look for this weekend, and ATMouse needs to catch up with "HogWild Stuff" to pick up some geocoins, and we...just want to wander around. Heh. Well, ATMouse caught up with HWS, and apparently the coins she was going to pick up were still held up in customs, so that was a no-go. We decided to go back to Pokagon and see about visiting the 2 remaining Earthcaches, so Kev opted to stay behind, as he really didn't want to walk that far (and he doubted his ankle would've held up anyway.)
Sooooo, ATMouse, Toolman, Barb, Hoppingcrow and I hopped into the ToolTruck and awaaaaayyyyy we went! We got to Pokagon, started the hike and I realized...."oh no. I have Kev's ticket for dinner." Dinner was served between 5:45 and 6:30. It was about 4:30 at the time. We can make it! A roughly 2-mile hike...an hour...sure, we can do it, right? RIGHT????
Um, sure.
So I called Kev and told him I'm sorry but I had his meal ticket and we were gonna do our best to get back on time. We set a pretty good pace, and did the Lake Lonidaw Kettle Earthcache, and then off to do Hell's Point! Of course I selected the wrong end of the loop to take. Even though both branches of the trail go to Hell's Point, one branch brings you to the BOTTOM of the stairs, and one to the top. The one that brings you to the bottom is a much easier trail, being fairly level. The one to the top of the stairs is an UP and down and UP and UP and down and UP and UPUPUPdownUPUP kind of trail.
Yeah. Guess which way WE went.

Of course I picked the direction that took you to the TOP of the stairs. Anything to make it harder, right? (I never manage to get it right. Kev always picks the bottom-of-the-stairs route, but I can never remember which is which.) Many, many gorgeous pictures were taken...alas, none by ME, since MY camera was in our car, 30 miles south. Yes...I know....but they have promised to send pictures of what they took. Really.
We left Hell's Point, and...
Look at the watch...oh...crud. It's 5:30...ALREADY....and we're not back to the car yet...I'll call Kev and tell him we're getting there. Call Kev (we took the EASY WAY back, by the way), tell him we're on our way back to the car and I'll call him when I get there.
We got back to the car at about 5:45. Called Kev then, and once again as we turned on to US 6. ATMouse made the suggestion that he talk to the dinner-caterer people and tell them that 6 paid-for meal tickets are coming, it's just that they might be a few minutes late and to please not pack up yet. Kev thought that was a great idea, and hung around the dinner area to do so should they start packing up dinner.
Totally unnecessary, as we got there with FIVE MINUTES to spare, and never once broke the speed limit! Besides, they didn't actually stop serving till almost 7, since people were still coming. Pulled pork was on the menu, and we all enjoyed it (including Kai, who got at least 1 and probably closer to 3 sandwiches worth of meat). WascoZooKeeper came in about 5 minutes after we did and sat with us for a while.
Afterward, we pretty much hung out at Ground Zero again, chatting, socializing, having fun, signing T-shirts...
A couple people played in the Euchre Tourney, and that pretty much started the Ground Zero Exodus. A few more went to the Coin Event at the Best Western, and from there went to bed, and some more went caching again. Apparently pretty much anyone who wanted to stay up late wound up at "Area 51". We stopped by the euchre tourney, then went home about 11. It'd been a looooooonnnnnggggg day.
Sunday, the alarm went off about 7. Ugh...argh...snort....
Got up, called Torry (and woke him up), told him where Ground Zero was, picked up some breakfast, and we were off again. Found out we'd missed saying goodbye to ATMouse, Toolman and Brownout. :( There's always next year, right?
Big Bear got pictures of everyone that was left, and people started packing up to leave. Eventually, all that was left was Torry, Uper, MamaUpe, shipwreck1, Kev, Kai and I. We decided to go to Fire Mountain for lunch, and then Kev, Kai and I went home. Torry came by later and we kind of all flaked out (Torry & Kev napped in their respective chairs). Dinner time rolled around, and after dinner we decided to go and try to avenge our DNF on "O2B". We found it this time, and checked on our cache in the area...which went MIA over the weekend. NUTS! We replaced it, with Torry's help, and we'll leave it there for a while. I think it's getting to be about time to pull it and let someone else put in a cache, though.
Torry decided he wanted to use his brand-new tent, so he set it up in the backyard around 10:00. Monday morning rolls around and the alarm goes off (good thing I took 4 hours vacation time Monday. No way was I gonna be able to get up at 4:30 am after this weekend!!!), so I got everything together, ready to leave, and we all went outside to wake Torry up.

All in all, we had a GREAT, if exhausting, weekend, and we're looking forward to next years' Bash.

Stuff I learned at the GeoBash

Kev sounds tall. *snert*

I need new boots that don't give me blisters if I wear them longer than an hour at a time.

Cheese curds squeak when you eat them. And oh, my, goodness are they GOOD. I need to be saved from these things. They're wonderful.

Homemade beer is even better. Especially the Wheat. And that Scottish Ale wasn't anything to sneeze at, either.

There's always room for more people around a campfire, and at the 'Bash.
Followup: Drunken Tent Raising may be amusing, but it also requires approximately 2 dozen people.

Kai doesn't like applesauce, especially if it's had Red Jell-O mixed in.

Neither do I.

Flamingos are really cool, and in high demand.

Sleep may be overrated, but you'll still pay later on.

It's a llama thing. You wouldn't understand.
















Torry does a pretty good, albeit scary, Mary Tyler Moore.

Caching and plants and things!

Went caching last night to find at least one cache in Indianapolis to log poor "Capital Coin's" mileage. I've had that poor thing over a month, and kept forgetting to log it out of the event, then forgetting to take pix of it anywhere (not that we've been caching, really, so...)

That's why I generally don't pick up Caching Travelers anymore - I forget i have them, or I lose them, and they don't get passed on, which is disappointing for the owner. But, since this one wanted to go to the state Capitol, and I just happen to work there...well...

Found the cache at Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Monument Circle. Nice virt-with-a-log, really. I'm sure that's why it's there. But they have the weirdest fountains. Bears, and then under the bears are buffalo heads. That have water dribbling out of the buffalo's mouths. It looks like the 'los are drooling. Yum, yum, a big fountain o' bison spit. Mmmmm-MMMM. That was just funny to see. I mean, look at it. Bison drool. *snert*

Lots of statues all over the monument circle. That thing is huge. Not necessarily "Washington DC Mall" huge or anything, but it's still pretty dang big for a single monument. Here, check it out. That pic is from over 500 feet away, and it still doesn't all fit.



Saw the R2D2 mailbox they have in Indy, too. Some kind soul put a micro right near it. Never did find the cache, but I did find Artoo, so I didn't really care much about the cache. Funny, that...

Then it was on to the Capitol building so the coin could have its picture taken with the Capitol. Had some fun with the coin, making it look like the statue in front of the Capitol was reaching for the coin. :D And bagged a waymark in the process. All in all, it was a good walk, and a lot of fun.

Forgot to mention the plants! They've got some GREAT landscaping around the monument. You can see some of it in the pic above. There's also little "plant groups" in Indy, along the sidewalks. They look like little memorial gardens or something. Lilies, little pink and white flowers, and bees collecting pollen. Pretty nice.

PRODUCT REVIEW

KEN'S STEAKHOUSE LIGHT ASIAN SESAME WITH GINGER AND SOY SALAD DRESSING

Oh. My. Gosh. This stuff is great. The ginger lends a nice heat-zing to the salad, without being overwhelming. The sesame provides a light, nutty flavor, and the soy nicely offsets and highlights both, without being too intrusively salty (a failing I've noticed in some soy-based recipes). I have found I need very little salad dressing when I use this - just enough to moisten the leaves of the salad a little bit. No need to goop a lot on to get flavor, as I find necessary with several other salad dressings. This is my absolutely new favorite. Sweet, nutty, salty, gingery, spicy - all with just a little teeny bit of dressing.

Recommendations: use a flavorful, nutritious mix of greens with this. Iceberg lettuce would be wasted and overwhelmed. A mix of greens that carry their own flavor is essential. I've been using a Mesclun spring-mix, and a lot of fresh baby spinach, and they do very well. Romaine may be able to hold its own, but I certainly wouldn't go any lighter than that.

Ken's Steakhouse Fat-Free Sun Dried Tomato Dressing is another good choice, but it's a little too sweet for my taste and not enough Vinaigrette. I actually prefer Newman's Own Lighten Up! Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette, as it imparts a little more zing. Again, no need to use very much at ALL. Nice tomato-vinegar blend; no one single flavor is overwhelming, and it has just enough sugar to offset the harshness of the vinegar.

Be aware, though, that the Newman's Own is NOT Fat-Free; it's just lower in fat than the "regular" edition of the SunDried Tomato dressing. VERY much worth the money, though.

Summary: Two Forks Up for the Ken's Steakhouse Asian Sesame with Ginger and Soy (although I'd prefer they come up with a shorter name for it! ;) )

One Fork for the Ken's Steakhouse FF SunDried Tomato Dressing.
1.5 Forks for the Newman's Own "Lighten Up" SunDried Tomato Dressing.

And, thanks to my friend who clued me in about the Ken's Steakhouse dressings. MUCHLY appreciated, Kim. <3

Thoughts from the weekend.

Fog! We had fog this morning! Woohoo! I never thought I'd get so excited about FOG. Actually, I'm happy that we have enough humidity to make fog. Another thing I never thought I'd see: Hoosiers spontaneously cheering in WalMart because it started to rain. Seriously. The Official Indiana State Obsession is apparently The Weather, and we loooooovvvveee to complain about it. If it's lovely weather, people gripe about how we'll "pay for it later", or "oh sure, it's doing it while I'm at work", or it's just a tad too warm / too cold / too breezy / not breezy enough / too much sunshine / not enough sunshine / etc. / etc. / etc.
If it's not "exactly perfect" then that's of course prime gripe fodder. But this....this was amazing. People started applauding, and cheering, and trying to pay for their groceries as fast as possible so they could get outside and get rained on before it quit raining. Because it wasn't a very large cloud or anything. But bygolly, it was a rain cloud, so we were bygolly gonna go out and enjoy it. Which I've also never seen here. People try to get under cover as soon as possible so they don't get wet - they don't run out into the rain, as a rule.
This, plus some comments from Pastor's sermon on Sunday, got me thinking - why are people, as a rule, far quicker to complain than we are to express appreciation? We all know it happens - if we do something really nice for someone, but mess up one small detail, what are we going to hear about the most - the 1% we messed up, or the 99% we didn't?
Why do we focus on the 1%? Why do people do that? We've done a lot of volunteering for various organizations, and to be honest, I heard a few "thank yous" while we were doing stuff, but mostly it was things like:
"you didn't do this part right."
"I would've preferred you do it some other way."
"I certainly don't want to criticize, but..."
"The program was too long."
"You should implement MY ideas, they're WAY better than yours."

Not "hey, I've got some great ideas, would you mind if I helped?" Not "Hey, can I do something like that too? Would you mind if I tried it next time?" Not "hey, thanks for helping out - we really appreciate it."

When the appreciation and the "thank yous" do come along, they're very much appreciated. The sad thing is, I can probably count the "appreciators" on one hand.

So, I've made up my mind to try harder to be an "appreciator" instead of a complainer. Sure, there'll be times when I still need to say, "you know, this really isn't going to work," but maybe if I'm more known for expressing appreciation, it won't be taken as criticism so much as an offer to work things out. That's always good.

Do your best, then let it go.

Lesson for today. Do the best you can, but once you've done everything you can, let it go. If circumstances beyond your control make it impossible to finish a task you've set for yourself, don't get all bent out of shape, fussy, cranky, whatever. Let it go.
You did your best. Be happy with that. Control what you can, and leave the rest alone. Trying to control stuff that you absolutely cannot just gets you irritated, and really peeves off the people around you. Anal Retentive Control Freak isn't always bad, but it needs to be tempered with wisdom.
Let it go, and enjoy the rest of your life.

What's this all about, anyway?

Interesting. Something I figured I'd never do : blogging. I'm horrible at correspondence, and I've tried several times throughout my life to keep a journal. It never worked. Oh, sure, I'd stick with it for a week or two, and once for 4 months straight - but that was a class assignment. But I'd always get bored with it, or have "no time" to write (really, no interest.) So when it came to blogging, I thought, "eh, whatever. Besides, who'd want to read mundane, boring stuff about my mundane life?"

Then I realized 2 things.

1. It's not really about "writing for other people." Oh, in a way, I suppose it is - but really...it's still all journaling. I'm just doing it on the Internet, so everydog and their human can read it. It's to organize my thoughts - and if someone is entertained, relieved, energized, encouraged, or - hey, even feels superior because they read my blog - well, great. Welcome, thanks for reading and all of that.
2. I honestly think people like to read about the boring, mundane parts of lives. It'd be seriously depressing to go on to a blogging site, or MySpace or wherever and see nothing but Glamourous! Exciting! Posts! by Glamorous! Exciting! People! Nobody can relate to it. There's nothing there to hang on to. In contrast, it's way more interesting to read and realize that I'm not so different after all. That person has arthritis - so do I. This other person ran out of funds and can't go on the vacation they wanted - boy, can I relate to that. And so on. It's reassuring to be able to read blogs and realize that hey, I'm not so boring, after all. Sure, my life may be "ordinary", but that's really what life is. Ordinary people, doing ordinary things, to make life better for all of us.

So, unite, Ordinary People! We're not so boring as you may think!
And...yeah. Welcome to my blog.